Minireview: Extreme Paranoia (Paranoia)
Extreme Paranoia expands the new edition of Paranoia (“Paranoia XP”) to cover higher security clearances. While there is a new(er!) edition out just now which separates the game line into distinct sets (Troubleshooters, Internal Security, High Programmers), this book is for the previous edition and gives you a chapter on each higher security clearance. It’s almost certainly usable with the newest version, too, since (as far as I know) that’s only a slight revision, ruleswise.
Anyway, to this book. It’s good. It’s also a bit of a mishmash, since it contains a huge pile of… well, stuff to help you promote (and then destroy) your PCs. There’s some general discussion first, on how a higher security clearance is no highway to power and happiness (though the PCs may imagine it to be). Each clearance level is given guidelines on what new stuff is now available, what the PCs can (and cannot) now do, and other helpful stuff like that. I found the clarification on the living quarters at various levels especially helpful in giving me a picture of what changes at what level.
Among the bits and pieces given here are some small adventures (suitable for certain clearance levels) and plot seeds, and a few leftover pages and chapters from other books in the game line. There’s also a bit from an older Paranoia edition, adapted for this one: some chapters from the old HIL Sector Blues book. There is no strict structure here, each clearance level gets a different treatment. At one level, you’re finally given the rules for making the PCs… Assistant Retail Managers! And in another, the PCs become stars in a TV video show. Many of these portions feature mini-games, where the PC actions determine various things like show popularity rating, sales quota performance, or whatever.
With a lack of strict internal chapter structure, this book could be a mess… but it isn’t. It’s a huge pile of ideas, guidelines and plot hooks. Some are better than others, but even the not-that-hot ones are either somewhat amusing or at least a bit different.
If you want to push your Paranoia PCs a bit outside the normal Red-clearance Troubleshooter envelope, this is the book to get.
Wed, 31 Mar 2010 07:57 Posted in Books, Games
Tags mongoose publishing, paranoia
