Links
- Mongoose Publishing
- Planet Mongoose blog
- Twitter: Friend_Computer
- Gareth Hanrahan (Twitter)
- Allen Varney (Twitter)
- Jim Holloway
- Greg Costikyan
- WMD free bonus material .PDF
About PARANOIA
- RPG.net Game Index entry
- "Why It's Fun to Get Shot Six Times" (Gamegrene.com)
- Setting intro for convention games
- Character creation example
- Complete product list
- Animalcast interview with Allen Varney
- "Troubleshooter" (PARANOIA fanfic by ReverendSpencer)
Actual PARANOIA play
- Carrying water across the hall
- Mister Bubbles
- Mister Bubbles (another run)
- Trouble With Cockroaches
- Origins 2006
- Kublacon 2009 (Straight style)
- Story Games for Everybody
- Me and My Shadow Mark 4
- Inhuman Treason
- "Exhausting!"
- "Robot Imana-665-C":
Imana part 1,
Imana part 2,
Imana part 3,
Imana part 4
"Sell me on PARANOIA"
- RPG.net forum 01/2006
- RPG.net forum 08/2006
- RPG.net forum 11/2007
- RPG.net forum 11/2008
- RPG.net forum 09/2010
- Paranoia-Live.net 09/2005
- Mongoose forum 09/2005
- Mongoose forum 11/2005
- Mongoose forum 03/2006
"Huh? New PARANOIA rulebooks?"
- A word from The Computer
- "Currently in print?"
- "What changed in the new books?"
- "How does High Programmers play?"
Advice on running PARANOIA
- How to Run (RPG.net Wiki)
- New at GMing...any tips?
- Advice needed
- New to PARANOIA
- I want to GM, but I need some info
- Curious about GMing a game
- First-time PARANOIA GM
- GMing PARANOIA for the first time!
- Handy list of useful links
- RPG.net forum advice
- Running on a moment's notice
- Starting out (EN World forum)
Fan sites
- Paranoia-Live.net
- Omega Complex
- Secret ULTRAVIOLET Diaries
- CPU Central
- "Mutant Maker" character generator (screen)
- Another character generator (.PDF)
- Mission blender
- "Mr. Bubbles" briefing
- ORANGE equipment list
- Handy links for new GMs
- "New player" tournament handout
- Building real laser pistols
- Troubleshooter errata and index
Reviews of the Mongoose Publishing PARANOIA rulebook:
Reviews of Mongoose PARANOIA supplements:
- Traitor's Manual:
Evan Waters, Cedric Chin, JamPaladin, Neil Lennon, Rory Hughes - Crash Priority:
Evan Waters, Cedric Chin, JamPaladin - The Mutant Experience:
Matthew, Neil Lennon - PARANOIA Flashbacks:
Neil Lennon, Matthew - STUFF:
Matthew - WMD:
Seafloorian - Extreme PARANOIA:
David Graffam - Service, Service!:
Matthew, Neil Lennon, Seafloorian - Criminal Histories:
Neil Lennon, Matthew - The Underplex:
Darren MacLennan, Neil Lennon, Petri Wessman - Gamemaster Screen:
Neil Lennon - The Little RED Book:
Neil Lennon - Troubleshooters:
Aratos - Internal Security:
Aratos - High Programmers:
Silent - Practically the entire
PARANOIA support line:
Petri Wessman
25th Anniversary rulebooks:
Archives
- Archives 2004 Feb - 2005 Oct
- 11/01/2005 - 12/01/2005
- 12/01/2005 - 01/01/2006
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- 02/01/2010 - 03/01/2010
- 03/01/2010 - 04/01/2010
Official development blog for the PARANOIA roleplaying game. No description is available at your security clearance. The Computer is your friend.
Sunday, January 01, 2012
PARANOIA: 2011 in review
Chronometric innovations introduced during Year 214 by The Computer's loyal servants in Central Processing have been, through traitorous sabotage, unevenly applied. In particular, the new mandate to report all times to femtosecond precision has met with unexpected resistance, possibly due to consequent variance in reports due to the time elapsed in writing, reading, or speaking said times. CPU has determined a need for additional education. For these and other reasons, our friend The Computer has ordered Year 214 to be repeated, commencing promptly at 214.00.00.00.000000000.
The big news for PARANOIA in 2011 -- at least I hope it will turn out, in retrospect, to be big news -- was the launch of the new line of official novels from Ultraviolet Books. As I mentioned in the original Ultraviolet Books launch post, these books are never-before-published novels written by Famous Game Designers long associated with the roleplaying game. Inexpensive (holiday sale price US$2.99 apiece) and DRM-free (not copy-protected), they feature new covers by The One True PARANOIA Artist, Jim Holloway. Three novels have been posted in Kindle format on Amazon:
- S1 Reality Optional by Gareth Hanrahan
- Y1 Traitor Hangout by WJ MacGuffin
- T1 Stay Alert (Book 1 of the trilogy The Troubleshooter Rules) by me, Allen Varney
There will be more Ultraviolet novels in 2012 and, if all goes well, in the years beyond. In these books we're hoping to continue a tradition of smart science fiction satire in the mode of Philip K. Dick, Robert Sheckley, John Sladek, and Pohl & Kornbluth. In my view that tradition has subsided in recent decades. The audience is relatively small, and for a publishing conglomerate the finances don't make sense. But for a small, scrappy band of High Programmers -- on our own! backs to the wall! fighting The Man! -- the business case is more attractive.
The main obstacle right now is a shortage of reviews on Amazon. If you're inclined to read one of these novels and post a review, contact me at allenvarney (at) Gmail and I'll send you links to free downloads of all three books. If you're not inclined to write a review, you can find the Kindle versions of all three novels in the Ultraviolet Books Amazon store, which is spartan right now but at least includes links to current PARANOIA roleplaying books.
Speaking of which: The roleplaying year for PARANOIA was unremarkable. The only Mongoose Publishing releases were the two hardcover compilations of past missions, Flashbacks Redux and Flashbacks Redux Redux. The latter, through traitorous sabotage, accidentally reproduced the same My First Treason mission already included in Flashbacks Redux. Mongoose Publishing CEO Matthew Sprange has announced a corrective Materials Treasonously Deleted volume that will be issued free to all purchasers of the errant volume.
(The following opinions are mine alone and don't necessarily represent those of Mongoose Publishing or the owners of PARANOIA).
It seems obvious the commercial tabletop roleplaying business -- the traditional three-tier model of publisher-distributor-retailer -- is stagnant and probably moribund. When RPG.net forum members post questions like "Is the hobby doomed?" (as they do with increasing frequency), some naysayers always pipe up with, "People have been saying the hobby is doomed since the 1980s" -- as if that somehow proves the field's vitality. I never understand this; people have been saying "the RPG field is doomed" for 30 years because, hellooo, the commercial field has been visibly, provably dying for 30 years. The two temporary episodes of commercial vitality (White Wolf in the early '90s and the OGL fad) were intermissions, impermanent stalling actions in the long gradual decline of the player base since the D&D fad of 1979-82. The bright spots today, such as Pathfinder, the Old School Renaissance, retro-clones, and the effervescent indie scene -- and some other isolated examples in this cheerleading RPG.net thread, "RPGs are NOT doomed" -- aren't bringing in large numbers of new players and, more to the point, aren't earning much money.
One recent example: The finale of Greg Tito's three-part Escapist article series, "The State of Dungeons & Dragons: The Future," cites the sad condition of the field's flagship game and speculates briefly about a 5th edition rumored to arrive in 2013. Raise your hand if you think a new edition of D&D will bring lots of players back to tabletop roleplaying. Uh-huh.
But for PARANOIA, at least, there has been one hopeful sign. Though the fan site Paranoia-Live.net continued quiet in 2011, the last High Programmer still standing, Phial, has recently acquired root access from longtime P-L.net doyen Andy "Jazzer" Fitzpatrick. Phial is leading an overdue site redesign -- nothing ambitious to start, but well conceived and helpful -- that may restore vigor to PLN Sector. My congratulations and best wishes to Phial and all the loyal PLN citizens. Stay tuned.
Labels: yearinreview
I run an (or rather /the/) rpg site for a country of 1 million. This means that we will never have an industry as there is potential to write one rulebook and an accessory for local mythology based game for a momentary glimpse of hope with flirting the mass media. We have 100 semi active players; around 30 people available for larp games at a given moment and around half of them true activists. In recent years I have seen 2-3 new people join the site and stay. Tabletop is invisible - people who play mostly do it in their established groups...
Of course I would be delighted if the industry was in better shape, but in a way I already know of the merits of the hobby and have a few regular games running. I can continue without the industry. My favourite game system (Window) is a free download; I have all the books on Ravenloft and Paranoia to last me until I can teach my potential grandchildren the way.
I d consider reviewing the books
Copyright © 2004-2013 by Greg Costikyan and Eric Goldberg. All your rights are belong to us. No bloody Creative Commons here! Bwahahaha!
No, seriously. If you make non-commercial use of stuff here, that's fine, but we reserve all commercial rights, and all rights to prepare derivative material on things posted here. In addition, posters of comments must be aware that we reserve the right to use whatever material they post here, and/or derivative works therefrom, in PARANOIA, supplementary products, licensed products, or derivative work, without any compensation whatever, for all time to come and throughout this universe and any alternate universes that may be discovered. At our discretion, and without obligation, we may, if it strikes our fancy, make a good faith effort to credit you for stuff we use, but we can't promise it won't slip our minds, in the hurly-burly of meeting deadlines. (Actually, we intend to do that, but it's possible we'll screw up.) By posting comments, you grant us a non-revocable, perpetual, non-exclusive license to use whatever you post, in whatsoever fashion we deem useful, here or in any other forum, in PARANOIA or in any and all future products, including but not limited to derivative works, and specifically but not exclusively including the microbrewery beer, ale and porter; salty and sugary snack; and tattoo design rights deriving therefrom. Woohoo! Is that enough legalese for you? The Computer is Your Friend.