Publisher Mongoose Publishing is selling all 32 rulebooks, expansions, and mission packs, from the 2005 and 2009 editions of Paranoia, in an $18 Humble Bundle. If you’ve never heard of Paranoia before, you’re in for a treat: it’s one of the funniest RPGs ever written.
The bundle is available from the Humble Store until March 9.
Paranoia is built differently from other tabletop RPGs. The game takes place inside a giant, sealed, nuclear-proof city called Alpha Complex, controlled by the benevolent and infallible Computer. Life in Alpha Complex is fun, because the Computer says so.
The Computer will set the player characters – Troubleshooters – important missions, which will always be entertaining, logically consistent, and very safe. Happiness is mandatory, on pain of death!
You have useful mutant powers, but mutant powers are illegal because there are no mutants in Alpha Complex. You may be offered useful items by your contacts in (illegal) secret societies, but they will expect you to complete other missions for them, likely completely at odds with your initial objectives.
In case we’ve been too subtle about it: the Computer is totally insane, your missions are borderline impossible, the laws that govern Alpha Complex are internally incoherent, and the only way to succeed is through lateral thinking and continuously lying. This classic video of Geek and Sundry playing Paranoia shows you just what it’s like:
Whereas in DnD and just about every other party based RPG the players all work together, picking DnD Classes and DnD Races that complement one another, in Paranoia you will oscillate between desperately collaborating for your survival, and ratting one another out to deflect the anger of your superiors within Alpha Complex.
While that might give you miserable flashbacks to that one player who insists that it’s “in character” for their Rogue 5e character to steal from the rest of the party, Paranoia is so absurd and relentlessly unfair that everyone is in the same boat, laughing at their collective misfortune.
Death doesn’t particularly hurt, either, as each character has five clones in cold storage who will be delivered into the adventure when they die (potentially crushing another party member under their pneumatically launched clone-casket).
It’s a game ahead of its time. The first edition of Paranoia launched in 1984, but the ‘co-operative farce’ theme feels really similar to modern multiplayer PC games like Lethal Company and Helldivers 2.
For more great comedy games, check out our guide to funny board games.