New (but old) to Paranoia - where to start?

[abrilt]

Hi all-
I had not been gaming in a few years (with career and family) - well more like 10 so now I am back and I was delighted to see that two of my favorite games (from long ago) are back and being published by one company - who would have thought....

Those two games were RuneQuest (now Legend - love the little book!!!) and Paranoia.

As this is the Paranoia forum my question is related to Paranoia.

So here goes - where do I start? I am not sure which books to get first - do I buy all three core rulebooks or are they each completely separate?

Any help would be appreciated.

Todd

 

[The Talking Yogurt]

First of all, welcome back into the fray !


Quoting a High Programmer :

There are now three independent core rulebooks for the 25th Anniversary edition of the PARANOIA line: Troubleshooters, Internal Security, and High Programmers. This July 2009 post by designer Gareth Hanrahan, "A word from The Computer," on the official PARANOIA development blog, explains the idea.

I'll paraphrase quickly and VERY roughly…

— The current « traditional » rulebook is Troubleshooters. Get that if you want Paranoia as you used to know it.

— Internal Security is basically a self-contained HIL sector Blues, in which you play medium-clearance (ie. around Blue) IntSec officers. The ruleset therein is an extension of the one in Troubleshooters.

— High Programmers is a very different game, more about scheming and less about shooting. The PCs get to arbitrarily set the obtuse and confusing rules they were used to deciphering in the lower-clearance settings.


To sum up, in my very humble opinion : all three are self-contained games but only the first two are directly compatible rules-wise. The third one was written from the ground up and — at least in play — has little to do with what people tend to associate with Paranoia (just like the leap from Violet to Ultraviolet — in both power and responsibility — is enormous).

Buy Troubleshooters for now, you won't regret it.



(Or even better, buy the 2004 edition of Paranoia. Which is [treasonously] even better laid out than Troubleshooters.)

(Or even more bestest, get both the Black Missions limited edition of Troubleshooters AND the 2004 edition of Paranoia.)

 

[Allen Varney]

A shiny new commendation point to the articulate Yogurt, whom I hope and presume to be a registered mutant, for his, her, or its fine answer.

Beyond one of the three 25th Anniversary rulebooks, you may well be interested in one of the Flashbacks hardcovers, which collect the best missions from the West End Games days as well as some newer Mongoose missions by Gareth (Mytholder) Hanrahan. With one rulebook and one Flashbacks volume, you're set for quite a while.

You may also wish to join the forums at the Paranoia-Live.net fan site, though the furniture there is somewhat dowdy and neglected nowadays.