Paranoia

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Paranoia
Created by	West End Games, Mongoose Publishing
Published	1984
Genres	Dystopic science fiction parody; own genre
Dice	d20, d8, d6

Paranoia is a role-playing game and iconic setting originally created in 1984 and republished multiple times with multiple variations on the system. The setting is "Alpha Complex", where citizens are divided into color-based castes according to the UV spectrum and are ruled by an AI known only as "the Computer" who has an anachronistic and irrational fear of "communists" infiltrating the complex. It is the source of multiple somewhat tedious memes, such as "the Computer is your Friend" and "Citizen, are you happy?"

There are five released games:

• The 1st Edition used an evolving skill tree for combat and other actions, with effects in combat determined by rolls on a "damage column" chart which directly specified the consequence of suffering harm of different levels. The original published system represents ironically dystopic sci-fi, but adventures became increasingly comedic as the line developed.
• The 2nd Edition removed the skill tree and simplified the system, but introduced a metaplot which resulted in the eventual destruction of the setting, eventually developing an alternative version in which The Computer was not present which was notoriously unpopular.
• The "5th Edition" (which was actually the third) reverted to a more traditional skill and HP/armor based system and focussed entirely on comedy and pop-culture references.
• Paranoia XP, later renamed just Paranoia or referred to as Mongoose Paranoia after complaints from Microsoft, attempted to accomodate both the parody dystopian tone and the outright comedy version plus an additional entirely non-comedic variant. It re-introduced the damage system but condensed the data that was originally in the column table into a "damage code", and also used the same damage mechanism for accusations and framing others for crimes. It also introduced "perversity points", a meta-currency awarded by the GM as a bonus for playing in tone.
• Paranoia Troubleshooters, also called Paranoia Black or the 25th Anniversary Edition, repeats the rules of Paranoia XP but makes the original tone the default and relegates the remaining two to optional rule sets, and also rolls back the damage mechanism for accusations to restore the original "treason point" mechanic.
• Paranoia Red Clearence, also called White Box Paranoia (although technically the 1st Edition also came in a white box) overhauled the system again to perform character generation via a social game and to introduce card-playing mechanics in combat. It was designed and printed as a boxed set only in an attempt to claim shelf space in stores selling board games rather than the smaller number selling RPGs. Although it attempts to retain the original tone, the altered system creates significant randomness and makes it difficult to retain this.