Paranoia
Compendium
Type to search for a spell, item, class — anything!
Paranoia
THE CORE BOOK
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 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?
Of course, the Paranoia Core Book is perfect. Maybe even the perfectest. But you know what would make that even more perfecter? A companion book! But since this is Paranoia, it is called the Accomplice Book.
Inside, you will find a bunch of rules and content for your next Paranoia mission so your players are confused, a bit worried, and having a blast.
Have you got older editions of Paranoia?
You will find instructions for using old rules with the new edition. If you like commendation points, registered mutants, and older secret societies, they are back! That old mission you kept all these years can still be run!
Want to create your own missions but are unsure what to do exactly?
Welcome the return of the Mission Blender: a system that picks out villains, allies, and situations typical of Paranoia.
Want to drop Alpha Complex celebrities into your missions?
Now you have stats for Teela-O-MLY, Captain Alpha, Funbot, and an entire cast more of characters.
Want a more custom experience?
You get a number of optional rules to customise the game: non-competitive character creation (ha!), spending Moxie anonymously, and for those who love their combat a bit crunchy, hit points and stat-based initiative.
How about some brand-new stuff?
More Alpha Complex celebrities, Top 5 lists, gear, prescription meds, advancing in your secret society, linking promotions to XP Points, and slang Troubleshooters use to communicate without getting arrested by IntSec. There is even a Paranoia glossary defining terms like Code 7, Funball, public hating squares, and why we call ourselves Famous Game Designers. (Protip: We are sarcastic.)
BRAVE NEW MISSIONS
You wanna play Paranoia? Congratulations! You are superior to other gamers and have great taste. You even look sharp.
Yet to play Paranoia, you need missions that torture present vibrant challenges so players can kill
cooperate with each other’s Troubleshooters. Oh, and maybe succeed at
the mission. Where can you find several missions gathered together so
you can run Paranoia until people are laughing too hard to breathe?
Yep, that is this book. See? You are superior simply by reading this.
In this hot little book, Paranoia GMs can find five missions, ready to go, including…
- Certifiable: Your Troubleshooters already took and passed the Troubleshooter Certification Exam, right? RIGHT??
- In the Clouds: Virtual Troubleshooters going after decidedly not-virtual treason. Think Tron with a higher body count.
- Meet ‘n’ Greet: People should not fear Troubleshooters, so it is time to force the public into liking them, or else. That will work!
- Stealth Train Redux: One of the best missions of all time is back! How can you protect a train that does not exist? Or maybe it does?
- Viva VEG Sector: Free Enterprise opens a casino with all the tropes and sarcasm you would expect. An albino tiger may or may not be involved.
Five missions. One book. And more catch-22s than you can shake a depleted laser pistol at. Welcome to Brave New Missions: Something Satiric This Way Comes.
Oh, and players can buy this book, but must not read it or you will ruin the fun!
404 COMPENDIUM
Like most RPGs, missions (AKA adventures) are the bread-and-butter of Paranoia. After all, you cannot play without a mission to run through. But what about non-mission ideas? What about GMs who are brave, wise and insane enough to make their own missions or want content to drop into their games?
The 404 Compendium includes:
- Central Casting: A collection of ready-made NPCs to drop into missions to make things even more deranged. Did the players pull a fast one and want to chat to a non-existing NPC? Guess what, they exist now.
- My Metal Chums: 7 most common bots get their own NPC write ups and several variations, as well as more bots than you can shake a 5-prong plug at. Also, joybots scare us a little.
- Not So Simple: Players starting to get a bit cocky? (Keep your head out of the gutter, citizen.) Here are ways to complicate things during missions, specific tasks like bureaucracy, and how service groups can ruin the Troubleshooters’ plans.
- Traitors-A-Poppin’: Top 5 Most Wanted Traitors in Alpha Complex. Each comes with full stats, lackeys, locations and mission prompts. With a bit of work, GMs can have missions involving Major Omega, w00ter and more.
- Keep Traiting On, Traitor: ‘In-character’ flyers for every secret society to hand out to players or mine for ideas. As an added bonus, each group also gets 3 hideouts where they can plan their nefarious plots against all that The Computer says is good and pure.
- Puppet Strings: A character generation mini-game that ups the shenanigans so players have even more reasons to be at each others’ throats at the start of the game.
The 404 Compendium: 6 parts, 1 title, and a metric tonne of treason.
CITIZEN IN NAME ONLY
The Computer rules Alpha Complex. FCCCP is a secret society that worships The Computer as a god. What happens when one of the many FCCCP popes decides she can rule Alpha Complex better than a god? Why, she starts taking over one sector at a time.
Starting in IAD Sector, she will prevent a new Indigo-clearance citizen from taking control of the sector’s government in the Central Processing Building. Then she will whip her followers into a frenzy over Citizens In Name Only, people who look loyal but are really terrorists. All those CINOs will be swept aside by truly loyal citizens (i.e. loyal to her) and she will remain in power. She even organises ‘grassroots’ protests against those damnable CINOs.
Wait, that sounds all too familiar....
Citizen In Name Only (CINO) is a complete mission for the Paranoia roleplaying game. Players will have two Troubleshooter teams: One that is anti-CINOs and one that is... well, not pro-CINOs per se, but at least against the FCCCP pope’s takeover. That’s right, players will literally fight themselves as the narrative flips between rival teams, including a climactic battle where players must plan the attack and the defence.
Stealthily murdering your Team Leader has never been easier!
MANDATORY FUN
You know what pisses off rich people (besides poor people that is)? Not having enough to buy. What is the use of a fat bank account when you cannot buy very expensive items to show your wealth off to others?
That’s why citizen Gene-I-JRD thumbed through some Pre-Whoops economic textbooks and implemented a new product: Financial investments. Now, the obscenely rich can lend their XP Points to others for a project. Too bad that Indigo citizen hired Troubleshooters to serve as middle management in this new company.
Mandatory Fun is a new mission for Paranoia that satirises corporations, including the relentless drive for profits, efficiency, cost-cutting, and mandatory fun like birthday parties. (Decanting Day parties in Alpha Complex.) Players get to run a presentation to people who could easily kill them; translate a memo from corporate buzzwords to plain English; and explain to an Indigo citizen why they lost all their money. Yep, that will go over well.
And in this mission, firing someone is literal.