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All of sci-fi fiction can be divided into categories: the “good stuff” and the “bad stuff”. The “good stuff” generally takes the positive spin of looking at the future in glee and excitement at all the mind-blowing possibilities: space travel, time travel, utopian lifestyles and all manner of psychedelic wonders that could possibly await us. The” bad stuff”, usually focused upon dystopian societies, takes the more cynical route of looking at all the problems that the future could bring, often satirising the social problems of today. Of course, one could also add the third potential category of the “ugly stuff”, highlighting gory aliens, zombies, giant robots, mad scientists and all their yucky creations ...you get the idea..., but I’ll just skip all that for now!
Pow!
Paranoia, from my experience, was the first ever dystopian sci-fi rpg, inspired by literary writers such as Huxley, Orwell, Dick and Burgess, and maybe cinematic inspiration from sources such as Metropolis, THX-1138 and Logan’s Run – all celebrated sci-fi exponents of the ‘bad stuff’, most would agree, highlighting all the paranoid aspects of 20th century life we can all relate to (the threat of nuclear holocaust, government misinformation, oppression, the intrusion of privacy, and the debasement of the individual, etc) . The absurdist trick that the creators of Paranoia had was to make all this ‘bad stuff’ feel like the ‘good stuff’ by turning up the humour level by a notch or three. Now, this had been done before (Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange, and Gilliam’s Brazil being obvious examples), but whilst it made for some wildly creative and hilarious moments in the game’s history, it has also, ironically, led to some conflicts of interpretation too.
Blam!
From my early experience with the game, the perception was of a cold, hard (literally) computer controlled society, where the characters where equally cold, hard antiheroes that would backstab each in the back other to get to the top in a fundamentally materialist/nihilistic world. Like a hardcore cyberpunk setting, in other words, but without all that prissy net-running escapism. The chief game designer (Greg Costikyan) later made the satirical, but vile Violence: The Roleplaying Game of Egregious and Repulsive Bloodshed, which largely illustrates where his sensibilities lie. However, as the game developed popularity, under the guidance of Ken Rolsten, it moved into much more into Kafkaesque, even Marx Brothers territory, with scenarios often written as spoofs on various pop culture sources or straight up slapstick. By the time of the fairly disastrous 5th edition (actually a 3rd edition, har-har!), you actually got the impression that the designers were trying so hard to be funny that they didn’t actually know what the original joke was.
Crash!
The latest edition, released by Mongoose Publishing in 2004 and developed by Allen Varney, attempted to address that point, directly. So what is the central joke of Paranoia? The premise is that a group of “Troubleshooters”, bred from a clone vat, are selected by an all powerful Computer to complete missions together that roots out traitors and mutants from a futuristic, Brave New World-like society, called Alpha Complex. The joke is simply that all the characters are, in fact, members of traitorous secret societies and mutants, and probably only got the job on the basis that they had already performed traitorous acts upon their fellow citizens by shipping them to the Computer. As such, the notion of this group of individuals working together to complete anything without backstabbing each other is pretty negligible. That’s it. The central joke. The gameplay, as such, tends to work very much like Big Brother style reality-game shows, where the characters are taken out of their comfort zone, pressure piled upon them, and their character flaws exposed for the amusement of the audience (which in this case is the other players). Rather than admonish different gamers for playing different styles, however, this game highlights all three (Classic , Straight or Dark, and Zap!).
Bang!
The game world is well developed from this premise – not in the sense that it gives you maps and a list of NPCs, but more in the sense that lots of other interesting sci-fi concepts, as well as range of organisations and societies (that are just as viable as any cult, tribe or clan used in other games), are seamlessly woven into it. Social class is graded by colours of the electromagnetic spectrum, with the Troubleshooters just one step up from the bulk of drug-domesticated masses, at Clearance Red, but way below the power of Ultraviolet High Programmers. The Computer, played by the referee, is something of a cross between the voice of the book in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and Caligula from than annuls of Great Roman Bloody Disasters. The presentation of all of this is based upon the style of the original releases (including Jim Holloway artwork), which may not be to everybody’s taste, but is nevertheless quite clearly laid out and edited, in three column spreads for each page. The writing content of the book is very dense, with a wealth of advice that you may or may not want, but is relentlessly amusing regardless.
Wollop!
The latest edition revises the system quite radically, noting of course that the dice mechanics have always been a secondary irritation in a game where the Computer can disintegrate any player on a whim. It utilises a single d20, which needs to be rolled under a target number. This is determined by adding together the value of one of three Action Skills (Management, Stealth, Violence) or three Knowledge Skills (Hardware, Software, Wetware) with an associated Speciality that is listed under each skill (So the Energy Weapons speciality would be listed under the Violence skill). In practice, this is no different to the normal delineation of Attribute + Skills found in other systems, just with different names. Character generation is very swift, using either a points allocation process, randomly rolling, or simply giving each Skill a flat rate, and having a few specialities selected (or players can create their own) with a fixed bonus, along with a speciality weakness, that actually reduces the target number set by the skill. Players will also want to choose a Service Firm, Mutant power and a Secret society, while Referees will keep track of individuals Access and (Mutant) Power points. Each character has six clones (lives) each.
Zoiks!
The only other major rule change is that of Perversity points. These are earned by role-playing selected personality tics (or simply given for amusing the referee), in addition to 25 that are given at the start of each game to each player (which could be represented by poker chips). There use is mainly to adjust target numbers (although they can be stored for character improvement), not just for your own rolls but also for other players rolls too, stacking with other players as wished. In effect, this tends to completely override any skill competences that any character may have, whilst promoting the ‘philosophy’ of backstabbing pretty well. Some may be uncomfortable with this, but really, it’s not all that different to story-altering traits like ‘Inspiration’, or the like, found in other games – just more vicious.
Kipper!
The combat system seems to be overtly complex, and the economics system is literally a joke. To be honest, the system sometimes seems like a simulationist exercise when the game really isn’t. A lot of this is down to the d20 roll-under mechanic, which is often associated in the minds of gamers with this type of approach. It would have possibly been more recognised for the gameplay style it wants, if they had used a modified D6-style dice pool system. But what the hey!
Erm..
Its relevance, in a satirical sense, to the issues of the 21st century is made ever more palpable by The War on Terror, the Credit Crunch, and other such concerns. The game will make the Bad Stuff come oozing out of your brain. But it’ll feel like Good Stuff, if you know what I mean! It’s a classic reborn. Recommended.
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