Tabletop Tales: ‘Paranoia Troubleshooters’
When I say “role playing games”, I’m usually talking about games that focus on immersing people in a setting and then allowing them to shape the world cooperatively with the GM into generally a better place, if not just different than how it was before. Dungeons and Dragons casts the players as heroes that go around clearing out pockets of dangerous creatures, Shadowrun has you doing dirty-work, Deadlands pits you against evil itself, all of which changes the game in progress.
Then there’s Paranoia, a game that violently encourages total ignorance of how the games rules work. It takes place in a large subterranean complex run by Friend Computer. His trust in you as a citizen is one of, if not the core requirements of promotion in clearance color. The mnemonic “Roy-G-Biv” lists them left to right in importance, and notes the gaps in social status between RED ORANGE and YELLOW from GREEN, and their difference between the BLUE, INDIGO, and VIOLET. This won’t seem important to you now, but it will.
A word you are going to hear often (and I mean often), is treason, say it with me now. Treaaaaassssooooon. Mmm. It varies in severity but it’s always bad. The GM can and will punish players for committing treason one way or another; though the players themselves have plenty of methods of bothering each other too. For instance the Team Leader is technically higher ranking than his team and his team ONLY, while the Hygiene Officer can order immediate Personal Hygiene Tests. As you begin to realize you are not so much competing against the GM as you are your fellow citizens, you start taking note that anything you say or do has consequences in Alpha Complex.
Most citizens, such as you currently, are of INFRARED clearance. You may think “Wait, that wasn’t part of the mnemonic!” and you would be right. INFRARED citizens along with their opposite ULTRAVIOLET are represented by Black and White and sit as the extremes of the masses and 1%. INFRARED’s crowd the streets, offices, cafeterias, and most everywhere else working loyally and heavily medicated. Failing to take your pill regimen is treason. Many doors, hallways, and essentially everything else is painted to correspond with the clearance level allowed to use it. Trespassing in higher clearance areas is treason. See where I’m going with this?
Paranoia: Troubleshooters is the newest Mongoose Publishing contribution to Paranoia, which has had many editions over many years. Past paranoia game have always focused on Troubleshooters, who are typically in the “Roy” spectrum of Friend Computer’s trust. Two other editions were later released for Internal Security and High Programmers allowing you to experience Alpha Complex as high and highest clearance citizens. Knowledge of the lifestyles of high clearance citizens is treason.
Congratulations RED citizen on your appointment as Troubleshooter! Your job description is to seek out treason, communism, and do whatever Friend Computer tells you to. In short: Find trouble and shoot it. RED citizens still work part time at a service firm, but they make the most credits doing missions. While low ranking, the Troubleshooters perform a very important function in Alpha Complex, doing the dirty work nobody else wants to do but is too sensitive to have INFRARED’s do. Where there is a communist prepping a bomb, a mutant conducting treasonous mutancy, or a High Programmer’s catbot is stuck in a tree, the Troubleshooters shall be there to right all wrongs.
After being summoned to a briefing room Friend Computer will often appoint a citizen mandatory bonus duties, such as a Team Leader or Hygiene Officer. Such Troubleshooters have a set of responsibilities they have to live up to. One duty is even to basically take notes of what he see’s. Once this is done the team is sent to requisitions to get their standard equipment: The reflec armor vest and laser pistol assembly. Your pistol must be fitted with a pistol barrel in order to fire, and is ineffective against reflec armor. Now the trip to R&D.
The great thing about Troubleshooters is they have high clone priority! They get refitted and sent back into action within minutes, which makes them perfect for the testing of experimental equipment. Friend Computer see’s to it that the team has access to a variety of gizmos from battlesuits to drones, to new weapons, etc. This equipment is very expensive and very fragile. Breaking valuable equipment is treason.
During the mission you must be on alert for the presence of mutants, communists, or worst of all mutant communists. Years of unregulated cloning has side effects. Every now and then citizens catch on fire, see dead people, or can talk to fish. These treasonous people are mutants. Being so disenfranchised by society they often turn to the care of a secret society, a underground network with their own brands of politics. You must watch the rest of your team closely for mutants and secret society members, any proof can be cause for promotion! You must also be careful that the team does not discover your own secret society affiliation and mutant power. That’s right both apply to you; probably should’ve mentioned that.
Finally there must be a debriefing where evidence against the rest of your party is used to preferably avoid termination. Lies are told, accusations are made, and the points don’t matter. You don’t so much “Succeed” as you “Avoid absolute failure”. Typically atleast one citizen is branded a traitor and executed violently, provided more than one actually made it to the debriefing. Those that somehow survive can potentially be promoted for their service in the field, in theory.
As you can gather Paranoia is more of a mindset than a game. It trains the players to think hard on their actions, as well as the actions of each other. You will never know how much of anything works besides what you eventually figure out yourself. And even then that may be a false truth. As I mentioned Paranoia encourages complete ignorance of how the rules work by it’s players, yet heavily encourages knowing the setting (within your clearance level). You might imagine this would be difficult, or requires multiple books. Where Deadlands encourages a “one way things work” Paranoia offers you a series of cups to choose from for everything; some of which have marbles, some are empty, and a few are packed with nuclear ordnance.
Which is not to suggest there are no rules, they are just above your clearance level. The GM is encouraged to run his ship as tightly as he wants, and there are several play styles offered from the comical “Zap!” mode, a more traditional Classic mode, and there are even rules for the one or two people on earth that want to play Paranoia as a serious campaign. There are supposed to be differences, but it’s all people in RED jumpsuits shooting at things eventually. The other books Internal Security and High Programmers offer differing play-styles by virtue of higher clearance, for instance High Programmers don’t usually get their own hands dirty while Int Sec is much like a police force.
I have but a one major gripe about P:T and that is the artwork is inconsistent with the rules. The cover shows off Troubleshooters with RED laser rifles, and in general the look of the guns change throughout the book. Another art mistake is the females all have gigantic breasts and some men have facial hair when all citizens are dosed to the eyeballs in hormone suppressants; not that I’m not a fan of gigantic breasts and/or facial hair. Let’s have some consistency people! Now the fair defense is that nothing in Alpha Complex always appears the same and it’s not hard for Friend Computer to have Laser Rifles and Barrels painted RED and assigned; but I really think they didn’t bother proofing or briefing the artists. It won’t ruin anything for new players, but long time Paranoia fans will notice some shenanigans.
All you need is the book and play materials, though it’s advised if you are hosting a game you premake a stack of characters and hand them out. They might ask treasonous questions like “What number is good?” or “What is the best skill” (The answers are “A number between 1-20” and “*point at random skill* is the best skill”) but don’t be discouraged, just make a mental note of their insubordination and hold it against them later. Playing therefore is damned easy as long as you understand the concept that you are not the one actually being crushed by a warbot, even if your snickering girlfriend is the reason it happened.
I give Paranoia: Troubleshooters [This statistic is above your clearance] out of 5 Laser Barrels
