ap!

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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