Ones and Zeros: Paranoia XP

Paranoia XP

September 08, 2004	Gaming
Mongoose Publishing released Paranoia XP at GenCon last month and I picked it up Saturday at The Compleat Strategist. I'm still reading through it (we have guests this weekend), but I'm very pleased with it. I found out about the upcoming new edition of Paranoia by reading about it on Greg Costikyan's blog. First in an on-line chat where he discussed the possibility, then in a full-blown press release. The plan was ambitious and interesting: Greg and Eric Goldberg had re-acquired the rights to the game they'd created in 1983 for West End Games (now under new management thank dawg). Already this was a plan that filled me with glee. Costikyan and Goldberg, with Allan Varney and Aaron Allston involved and published by Mongoose with an aggressive support schedule. Snooty First and Second Edition Purists, all, they declared the hated Paranoia: ~~Third~~Fifth! Edition (which won designer Ed Stark (now creative director at Wizards for Dungeons & Dragons) an RPGA Gamer's Choice Award) to be an unproduct, and no mention could be made of it without risking accusations of insubordiation at best. This is a good thing. The consensus on Fifth Ed. was that they took the funny parts and made them less funny, without adding anything new or worthwhile. The news was even better. Not only would there be a designer's diary, it would be a working design blog. If the designers had questions or needed feedback or wanted to run an idea up a flagpole and see if it survived the laser-blasts, they would look to the blog and the comments thereupon. I liked this. It seemed like a way to both energize the cult fan base of the twenty year old game and also make sure they did not alienate them with surprises. It turned out that I was an intermittent contributor. I made a few suggestions for the cover and commented about mechanics, and made a suggestion for the ad, but I wasn't one of the really zealous contributors. I didn't participate in The Toothpaste Disaster (a Lexicon game) because it started while we were moving. I did throw out a few ideas, and some of them were used. Yay, me! I'll review the book after I've finished it. So far, it looks like it's great. The player rules boil down to "Tell the GM what you want to do and then he'll tell you what happens." The GM rules are basically "Ask the players what they want to do, decide what happens, and tell them. If you're not sure what should happen, these rules may help." That's the core, and that's about how they worded it, too. The rest of the 254 pages are setting, mood, character creation, adventure, and advice, but the yin-yang (or indeed 'hodge-podge') of the rules are those two sentences. It is the epitome of 'rules-light' gaming. But that's not what I came here to talk to you about. I came to talk about the draft. Wait!, that was what Arlo came to talk about. I'm here to mention the ten page-ending snark-quotes I submitted that were printed. I'm pleased as punch to have helped out on this product, and I want to share what I submitted and what The Gamma Class Programmers used to decorate their pages. As a bonus, I'll make the changes they needed to insert in my imperfect work and also list the 3 they didn't use. Have I said I'm as pleased as punch? Ask not for whom the boot smokes... Drink BBB: It's the Mandatory Thing!~~(tm)~~ Certainly you meant to add 'except, of course, my friend The Coumpter'~~, citizen~~? ~~I thought so...~~ If you weren't guilty we wouldn't be interrogating you. It is treason to mention Security Clearance Plaid, Citizen... What, exactly, does the reactor core need shielding from? I regret that I have but six clones to ~~give~~ lose for my complex. Please enter ~~the business~~ justification for requisitioning a 'WARBOT'... Internal Security: Because Every ~~Clone~~ Citizen Likes Feeling Secure... Insert Tongue in Biometric Verification Device. ~~It's regulation size armor, troubleshooter, are you sure you're not treasonously tall?~~ ~~Snake-B-Skn? I heard you were dead!~~ ~~Coincidentally, my Asimov circuits say "General Protection Fault at #DEADBEEF", fleshy one...~~ There you have it! My contribution to Alpha Complex Culture. Page 151-169, if you're interested in reading them in your own copy...
.:Posted by Michael on September 8, 2004 11:16 AM:.