Paranoia: The Core Book - New Edition

by WJ MacGuffin, Keith Garrett

Many roleplaying games have rules that are applied objectively so players can help each other do heroic things like saving yet another kingdom, fighting more orcs, or something else that has been done repeatedly in other RPGs. That is not this game. This is the Paranoia roleplaying game. This is one of those rulebooks that’s fun to read and even more fun to play. Paranoia does not take itself seriously, so we can find dark humour in bureaucracy, politics, businesses, and a lot more. No sacred cows but one–make sure the GM and players are all having a great time. Is that not refreshing for a roleplaying game? Maybe that is why this science fiction RPG has won lots of awards over the years. In this darkly humorous roleplaying game, The Computer loves you but it is insane happy. You will be sent on impossible glamorous missions filled with Catch-22s fun and satire safety. Your teammates are out to kill support you, and you are out to kill protect them. All in all, your missions will be dangerous entertaining and you will likely die to be promoted. And here it is, a brand-new edition for the modern world. Surely there is nothing happening these days worthy of satire, right?

144 pages, Hardcover

Published June 25, 2024

Reviews

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

This may be the best Paranoia has ever been. The nagging issues of Red Clearance Edition have been resolved and the artwork has been kicked up a huge notch. Hopefully it is a new era in which we can all serve our Friend the Computer together.

First, the onerous cards of RCE are gone. I liked them but they proved generally unpopular. The dice pool system is mostly unchanged with one important distinction: the GM sets your skill+ability score which does make sense and keeps players from trying to bullshit their way into artificially inflated dice pools. Early reports of scrapping the versus-mode character generation have proven false. It looks like it'll run really well and I'm just happy to see Paranoia in print.

The artwork has taken a more realistic interpretation more akin to Paranoia XP which many slobbering grognards want back with near-violent desire. It's definitely easier on the eyes than the lazy Red Clearance Edition-era artwork but there's something about it that just rubs me the wrong way. I don't see any misshapen hands but a lot of the posing seems.. off. I can't prove it but I have some suspicions of AI generation being used in the production of the artwork and if that ever proves to be the case it will be the last Mongoose product I ever buy.

The included mission is a pretty perfect bottle episode of Paranoia with simple goals obfuscated by bureaucracy. Your party simply has to properly sentence a battery of traitors. Their guilt is not in doubt, you just have to send them through one of three doors. Which door is to which punishment? Well, that's above your security clearance, Citizen.

[Warren · Rating 2 out of 5]

A slim rulebook written in a light-hearted tone to fit the game's tone. The rules seem to consist of "just do whatever, ignore the dice, or don't, whatever...." The examples of play are not great and fail to illustrate how the loose rules would actually work in practice. The humour is mostly lame though I did chuckle in a few places.

Overall, very disappointing as I had fond memories of the original from back in the 80s.

[Arthur B · Rating 5 out of 5]

New definitive version of the game. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...