So has anyone tried the new edition yet? Last I heard...

The old editions actually do have rules, you know. You can make the players roll the dice and have it mean something mechanically. They just can't demonstrate that they know what it actually means.

NOPE fuck this

>Oh, and they've changed most references to Communists to Terrorists, but not in MY games.

The original Paranoia was supposed to be a parody and social commentary of things going on during the 80's when it originally came out.

Not accepting the change to calling all bad people "terrorists" is probably a bigger violation of the spirit of Paranoia then dropping "Communists" is.

But the entire fucking joke was WARNING UV CLEARANCE INFORMATION that everybody was commie mutant traitors and that's ruined since not everyone is a terrorist.

Wrong. Not EVERYONE was a Communist.

And besides: I think you're missing the bigger picture of, back then, the joke about being so paranoid about Communist infiltration was an actual thing going on during the 80's. Paranoia was meant to be a parody if that kind of behavior.

Nowadays it's been replaced with paranoia of everybody being a potential terrorist of some kind: Be it Jihadist, Russian hackers, or right-wing racists. This modern Paranoia making the change to calling everyone "terrorists" is just a reflection of our modern times, just like 1st edition Paranoia calling everyone "Communists" was a reflection of those times. THAT'S the spirit of Paranoia I'm talking about. Not the fluff that's been written into the background, but the idea that it's just one big parody of the way things are in real life right now.

Also, level with me please: Did you even exist back in the 80's?

>Nowadays it's been replaced with paranoia of everybody being a potential terrorist of some kind:
I'm not sure if it's that I don't live in the West or that I'm just not in the right social/media circles, but I haven't noticed a "EVERYONE IS TERRORIST" trend in modern times. Sure, 9/11 was a big deal but then things quieted down aside as far as I saw. Maybe that's why I'm not liking the new edition, but the commie->terrorist switch feels utterly and completely wrong to me.

>Also, level with me please: Did you even exist back in the 80's?
's not like I'll be proving it, but yeah.

Actually, come to think of it I never really got the America-style red scare experience either. Maye that's why the transition is falling flat, because I don't have the expected points of cultural reference so I can only judge based on the lost irony?

>Played last Sunday

>Troubleshooter had his head blown off by a rogue Bouncy Bubble Beverage

>All autocars were hacked to crash into Green clearance citizens

>The Local Internal Security was destroyed in a blaze of fire and copy paper

>An entire sector was destroyed by a miniature blackhole

>The Mission was a success

Good times.

I'm gonna be running a game or two for the first time over the summer, would love somebody more experienced to look over my gameplan.

>short setting description, segue into initial pre-briefing
>troubleshooters ordered to head to briefing room AISFA123474991JUIISA-8 in sector RKT
>expectation: nobody will write down the address
>20-30 minutes of travel, troubleshooters get to sector RKT
>expectation: nobody remembers which briefing room to use
>upon being late as a result, the troubleshooters are escorted to the briefing room and the briefing officer informs the team he'll be executing the one responsible for the tardiness
>he'll initially blame the team leader, but give them a chance to blame any team member they want
>expectation: team implodes, somebody gets the blame and marks off a clone
>run the rest of the mission as a fairly straightbackwards "check out this reactor, make sure it's up to standards"
>as the players head to the reactor, hand out secret society missions that instruct them to screw the guy who blamed them or who threw the most blame around
>the reactor meets no standards at all and Power Services will kill to keep that knowledge secret
>bribery, threats, deaths, and scandals ensue as the players learn how fucked up the reactor is and screw their buddies
>expectation: they'll be in the buddy-screwing mode thanks to the blame-briefing
>players check off every box on the reactor report form preliminary report form, return for debriefing
>debriefing, blame, opportunities to report treason for personal gain
>executions and promotions
>the end

Does that seem solid?

Page 10 is treason, citizens.

I am a long-time fan of the original Paranoia and I think this one is just as much fun. The cards and dice do not make it feel more "boardgamey." If anything, giving players a hand of cards that they can hide from one another and bluff with just makes the game more cut-throat. The dice mechanism is fun as well. There is simply a handful of D6s, but one of them is called the Computer Dice (they intentionally call it a dice, not a die.) Players roll the Computer Dice with every action, and if the Computer symbol is rolled, then the computer gets involved in whatever the player is doing, often to disastrous and hilarious results.

Another thing I like is the character building system. You can use a system where the skills you choose to be good at influence the skills another player will be terrible at. It is just another way to make the players resent each other. But you better explain that the stats, rules, and the entire game in general should not be taken too seriously.

Mongoose publishing captured the same flavor and feel of the original Paranoia, but they smoothed out a lot of the crunchiness from the original. Every single mechanism in this new version plays into the theme of Paranoia. When I played the original, my players and I ignored 90% of the rules anyway. So now, instead of ignoring almost 200 pages of rules, we re only ignoring about 100.

Read the book didn't play it. And I'm unlikely to ever will - other than the amazing idea mentioned by where if you make your character good at something at chargen, another character automatcally gets bad at it, we just don't really 'feel' this edition. Dunno, maybe it's good, but my group is going to stick to XP.

An underground bunker complex where all work and all wealth is shared and distributed by the gouverning AI overlord.

Accept it comrade Everyone is a communist communist

No, but everything I've heard about it sounds bad.

They're SUPPOSED to read the rules in secret, they're just not allowed to reveal that they've read them.

...

This kills comedy.

You're one of those people who thinks "niggers!" is a punchline, aren't you?

If you think avoiding offense is more important than being funny, then I'm afraid you're not very good at comedy.

If you think being offensive is more important than being funny, then you aren't either

Ah, so you're illiterate. That explains it.

This is just like those shitty pages that were included in RPGs throughout the 80s and 90s that boiled down to "We use male pronouns throughout this book but girls can still play!" It kind of gets me worked up because it passes off the same culturally relevant rehashing of the Golden Rule with a condescending and aggressive twist but at the same time the message its trying to convey is ultimately, in some sense, not wholly incorrect, even if the book has a very crude and abusive (and totally unwarranted) way of saying it.

Also seriously, is that where we are at? You can, in the space of one sentence, chastise someone for not caring about offending people and immediately turn around and call that person a name? Also, what editor signed off on literally putting "You're a dick", aimed at the reader, in a book they wanted to sell?

Salty little thing aren't ya?

If your group is offended, then clearly your joke isn't funny to them. Telling jokes only you think are funny just means you've failed at comedy.

I'm really interested in Paranoia too, but I'm also a tightwad and I rarely get to play anything other than 5e.

I'd say that additional cards and shit are supposed to go in line with the "Friend Computer gamifes your lives for your FUN" theme.

Still, I do not like it all that much. The mechanics are slightly streamlined and there's that cool idea for character creation that was already mentioned in the thread, but that's all. New themes do not lie good with me (as well as my gaming group and some other anons, from what I see), and it offers little new compared to old editions other than the character creation system you can easily backport and cards that are nothing great by themself.

Also, dev comments cause Veeky Forums to argue. Usually it's one sided bitchfest about treating players like autistic children; in this thread there is also some bitching about bitching about treating players like autistic children. In previous editions such comments were given kind of 'in universe', and no one raised an eyebrow over them. Here they are given straight and cause folks to bitch about them, so it's a step backwards.

Also, am I wrong or have the 'you are what you are supposed to kill' theme kind of evaporated?

Still, if yo want to start playing Paranoia and nobody in your group has any previous experience/ books 8e is as good to start with as any, I guess.

Second edition is best edition. XP is acceptable. It's fun how spoilers on Veeky Forums are infrared-tier

I somehow doubt anyone who'll act like an outright asshole will be dissuaded by a page in the book finger-wagging at them.

If you talk about "offensiveness" in comedy without acknowledging the concept of "punching down," then I'm afraid you're not very good at comedy.

How is that post salty?

But communists are terrorists....

There's no such thing as "punching down". There's just punching. You can't draw arbitrary lines in the sand and say "This is what's acceptably funny and this is what's not". It presupposes some universal concept of what is funny (or worse, insists that someone is in charge of what is funny).

Clearly, what is funny changes based on the audience. A black joke told to a KKK meeting isn't less funny than a joke about rich people made in a poor house. Humor doesn't have "right" reasons or "wrong" reasons to it and that goes both ways. Humor CAN be used to attack the powerful, or challenge people's perceptions, or attack acceptable targets, or reinforce prejudices, or simply for pure inanity. If you personally feel that humor should not be used for all those things then, by all means, don't laugh at things you don't find funny and don't repeat jokes that you find uncomfortable.

It always amazes me that when people are confronted with ideas they don't like their first reaction is to scream "You shouldn't say that!". If everyone isn't going to agree then it's better than no one talk at all. Perhaps instead of demanding trigger warnings and deciding what direction comedy should "punch" you should take things that offend you as an opportunity to engage with people and things that make you uncomfortable.

>There's no such thing as "punching down."
Thanks for letting me know you have no idea what you're talking about, and saving me from reading your stupid post.

>your group is offended
Most of the time it's just one snowflake being offended though.

Yeah, it's not salty. It's snowflake retarded though. It is written by someone who cannot handle being called a dick by a fucking book and spergs about male pronouns in old RPG books ffs.

I think you're alright.

So what is this game about? Seems interesting. Something like 1984 + Reagan + Skavens?

>as the players head to the reactor, hand out secret society missions that instruct them to screw the guy who blamed them or who threw the most blame around
>bribery, threats, deaths, and scandals ensue as the players learn how fucked up the reactor is and screw their buddies

Those are good ones. Just don't forget to have some backup plans for your expectations, because no plan survives contact with the players.

1984+Brave New World + Loony Tunes if you're playing Zap, Three Stooges if you're playing Classic, and any Cohen Brothers' movie if you're playing Straight.

this

Understandable. XP was hard for me to shake as well. But I am glad I gave this one a try. I think this new version is better for introducing new players to RPGs than the previous versions. Everything about it just feels a lot simpler without having been dumbed down at all.

Truth be told, when I play the new version, I am pulling most of the thematic stuff from the old version. They are both great.

I have played older editions of Paranoia as well as this new version and I have not seen many differences regarding the theme. Main difference is that the word "communist" is replaced with "terrorist" and your PDC is now implanted in your brain instead of worn on the wrist or whatever. Additionally, players are still part of secret societies and can still be given mutant powers as well.

Well said. I appreciate the dissection of humour.

I still think the "you're no different from your enemy" effect is still there, just not quite as strong because the computer has a better grasp of what a terrorist is than a communist. Troubleshooters worship an all-seeing being who promises to reward them in the next life, and claims that everything is peaceful while pointing out targets to kill. Troubleshooters come from regular jobs to learn how to fight, sometimes with improvised weapons. They're organised into cells, their leaders changing unpredictably and they don't know their cellmates very well at all. Most importantly, there's always collateral damage wherever they go.

It's a bit of a stretch, but I don't think you can say that Paranoia characters are communists but not terrorists.

It's a fairly strong link between troubleshooters and terrorists, sure.
But what about Robert-Y-JCT down in Form Request Form Authorization Form Stamping? That link's been broken. He's not a terrorist, but he's sure a commie.

if it's your first time, be aware you might not get anywhere near the end of your plan by the end of the session. That's fine, but you'll need to be able

Plan accordingly, but also don't be afraid to let the game breathe a little - have a list of optional mini-encounter things to give excuses for the players to kill each other/be forced into treason.

for example:
>have a grimy red-clearance citizen surreptitiously offer a player some 'surplus' RnD equipment for a suspiciously low amount of credits
>If the game stalls a bit send a high-clearance citizen in to order them to fulfill some other task - one that's mutually exclusive or in complete opposition of their existing mission
>with no warning, one of their RnD devices announces "Self destruct sequence initiated. You have two minutes to reach minimum safe distance"

Honestly, i'd put more thought into the secret society missions, their service firms and the RnD equipment than the main mission - you'll get far more mileage giving your players secret conflicting objectives (secret society and service firm missions) and watching them plot against each other than with the main mission, which in reality only serves an excuse for the players to move through the world and be put in horrible situations anyway.

The mission shouldn't actually be possible to complete, but it needs to appear to be so, so players will inevitably commit treason in trying to complete it or pass the blame on why it was a failure.

What are your plans for the secret societies? Have you considered making one of the players a member of Power Services who knows from the get-go, one who knows exactly what's going on?

What RnD equipment are you planning on handing out?

Oh, and make sure you read the entire gamemaster's section in the XP rulebook. It's full of great info for getting the feel/tone of the game across. In fact, it's probably some of the best GM advice out there, for any system. Plus it's hilarious.

>That's fine, but you'll need to be able

Fuck me, that's what I get for not proof-reading before I post.

Sentence should read
>That's fine, but you'll need to be able to still have a satisfying ending for your players when the time runs out.

Also to keep the thread going, here's some of the RnD items posted in one of the last Paranoia threads.

My personal favorite is a box of 12 experimental grenades, assorted, all requiring a higher clearance rating to know their names or functions. Their casings are early lab prototypes and not meant for the final projects (Which means they're all rusty, bare metal cylinders with many notations scribbled on them in various colors of marker)
The issued user is responsible for their field testing, and must use at least three of them on the course of their mission. All grenades must be returned intact. The issued user is responsible for their return.
The solution to not being punished for their failure to return is to make someone else throw them, and doublespeak your way into taking credit and avoiding blame at the same time.

I did something similar, giving a player a cone rifle launcher with 'variety ammunition funpack'.

The pack contained solid slug, shrapnel, incendiary, stun, explosive, smoke, armor-piercing and TACNUKE.

They weren't labelled and I rolled a d8 every time he fired to work out which one went off.