Ty Arthur
BloodyaugustParanoia
June 12th 2008 05:54
If you can name an obscure or out of print role playing game, I've probably got it on my bookshelf. From the old Lord of the Rings Adventure Game box set to Nephilim, the one and only (despite the outcries from many a concerned religious parent to the contrary) role playing game actually based on occult concepts, I've seen it, played it, or spent way too much for it on EBay. One such relatively obscure gem is the off the wall "Paranoia". The game has seen a bit of resurgence in recent years with the release of the newest edition, Paranoia XP in 2004, but on the whole the game isn't nearly as well known as any of the staples of role playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons or Vampire: The Masquerade.
Paranoia was originally intended as a darkly humorous satire of society. Set in a futuristic post apocalypse similar to "1984" or "Brave New World", it pitted Troubleshooters, newly raised from the base ranks of the proles, on various highly dangerous missions for the all powerful Computer. It didn't take long for the dark and serious aspects of the game to be subverted into a slapstick style of comedy that retained a minor undercurrent of the social commentary that spawned it.
Although some of the specifics change from edition to edition, the core aspects of the game remained the same. Sometime in the past something really bad happened to the world. It could have been World War III, or some kind of super plague, or maybe radiation from space fried the Earth. Whatever it was, mankind built themselves large complexes as shelter from the mostly uninhabitable world. The players live and work in Alpha Complex, run by the wise and benevolent Computer. Originally intended to keep humanity on the proper track to remain alive and propagating until the Earth was inhabitable again, something caused the programming of the Computer to be corrupted. The Computer is now quite insane, believing there to be commie mutant traitors in every shadow and plots to overthrow humanity in every corner. Of course, it doesn't help matters that pretty much everyone in Alpha Complex has in fact become either a Communist (or some other secret society that wants to subvert the Computer), a mutant, or some kind of traitor. In its insanity, the Computer has dictated that happiness is mandatory, and those who violate this mandate will report immediately for summary termination.
The players take the roles of Troubleshooters of the lowest order. Each player has six clones available for when he may (read: will) find himself in a lethal situation. Whether it's the highly experimental test weaponry handed out by Research and Development, conflicting orders given by The Computer, malfunction warbots rampaging through the halls of Alpha Complex, terrible algae based food, or most deadly of all, the machinations of fellow Troubleshooters, the players will find themselves dying, and frequently.
Paranoia has a very tongue in cheek attitude that is incredibly fun for larger gaming groups. With secret societies like The Seal Clubbers (ahhh double entendre!), The Assemblers of God (programmers who worship the Computer), Death Leopard (we just want to party and listen to rock 'n roll!), and the Mystics (free drugs for all!), all of which are working at cross purposes, the players will be falling down laughing as they are trying to figure out new ways to kill their friends or accuse one another of treason to get promoted.
Several months back I ran a game of Paranoia that turned out to become one of my favorite gaming memories. While the Troubleshooters were reporting to the briefing room for their mission, and one Troubleshooter had already gone through no less than three clones before even getting there, a terrible accident occurred in Research and Development. While testing a new weapon system that used experimental space-time technology, a second Computer was pulled from a parallel dimension and drawn into Alpha Complex. At this point one of our frequent players joined me to run a double GM session. At first the two Computers couldn't be happier with the situation, as each agreed with the other in every regard and was happy to have a second pair of eyes to watch out for traitors. As the game progressed however the supremely paranoid Computers began to suspect that the other was part of a plot from one of the many secret societies and began to give the Troubleshooters secret orders to work against the other Computer. Since it's treason to disobey the Computer, and both Computers were ordering the Troubleshooters to disobey the other Computer, intense hilarity and much player death abounded.
The newest version of Paranoia was originally called Paranoia XP, but about a year after its release Mongoose Publishing got a cease and desist from Microsoft because of the "XP". They subsequently removed that portion of the title and went back to just calling it Paranoia. I've heard plenty of gamers complaining that this was way out of line and the XP clearly was not supposed to be a reference in any way to Microsoft or Windows. I think these gamers are supremely naive and failed to think this one through. Come on guys - this game is about a computer system that controls the world and never works the way it's supposed to. If that doesn't sound like Microsoft Windows XP to you...
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