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88-460: The game was first produced by West End Games in 1989 and republished in a 2nd edition version in 1990. West End Games lost the license to produce any more "Star Wars" games in 1999, and the license was subsequently picked up by Wizards of the Coast the following year. Star Wars Miniatures Battles should not be confused with WOTC's Star Wars Miniatures . Star Wars Miniatures Battles core rulebook

176-463: A 3 out of 5 and stated that "All in all, Miniatures Battles is a useful supplement for Star Wars miniatures collectors and GMs of Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game . However, to get full enjoyment out this product (and tabletop battles in general), a potential buyer should be prepared to invest extra money and time in collecting and painting miniatures." It was winner of the 1991 Origins Award for Best New Miniatures Rules . Imperial Entanglements

264-606: A box of West End Games Star Wars books and directed to utilize the background material presented within. Zahn's trilogy, in turn, renewed interest in the franchise and provided further sales for West End Games, which released sourcebooks for Zahn's three novels from 1992 to 1994. 1990 saw the release of the Torg roleplaying game, followed in 1994 by the Masterbook system, which was mostly used in licensed RPG adaptations: Indiana Jones , Necroscope , Species , Tales from

352-473: A character (of which there are six versions - each person in Alpha Complex has six clones) lives through an entire scenario then they're doing well. Hell, they're doing better than well, they're probably Jesus Christ reborn (er, no offence intended, all ye Christian types). Suffice to say that Paranoia is, and always will be, a complete laugh - it should be played for nothing more than fun". Paranoia

440-645: A lighter and sillier atmosphere and fans and more cartoonish illustrations. In his introduction to Flashbacks , a compilation of Paranoia adventures from the West End Games era, Allen Varney details the management decisions which led, in the eyes of many, to the decline of the Paranoia line, and cites rumours that the line saw a 90% decline in sales before West End Games went into bankruptcy: Art director Larry Catalano left West End in 1986. Catalano’s successor fired (illustrator) Jim Holloway and brought in

528-491: A lot of weight". He further stated that this led him to print more books than he could sell, books which he eventually had to destroy in order to save on storage costs. Gibson planned to release the d6 System under the terms of the Open Gaming License (OGL) to increase sales but also "to protect it from myself", meaning that if the company had to be sold or go out of business, the system would still be available to

616-556: A new West End Games (D6 Legends, Inc.) was formed in partnership with Yeti, a French design house and publisher and subsidiary of Humanoids Publishing, in March 1999. Under court supervision, WEG/Creative Design Group sold off product and assets to pay off debt. WEG/Creative Design Group sold to the new company intellectual property, the Paranoia licensing contracts, and the trademarks. Licensing contracts for Indiana Jones , Star Wars and Xena remained with Creative Design Group, though

704-590: A new edition of the game, which would be released as the "Third Edition". Pages from this planned edition were exhibited at Gen Con in 1997 - two years after the release of the Fifth Edition. Due to West End Games' financial problems this edition was never completed. In an interview in 1999 Scott Palter of West End expressed hopes that the Third Edition would be published that summer; however, he also disclosed that court proceedings had been begun by

792-458: A new science-fiction RPG by Bill Coffin called Septimus , offering preorders, but following delays it was publicly cancelled by Gibson in March 2008. Gibson stated in July 2008 that West End Games could not afford to provide refunds to customers who preordered the cancelled Septimus product, and indeed could not even afford to pay the postage to ship books to individuals who were willing to accept

880-492: A paranoid dystopia are emphasised, and the rules are simplified. Many of the supplements released for the Second edition fall into a story arc set up by new writers and line editors that was intended to freshen up the game and broaden roleplay possibilities. Players could travel in space and time, play in a Computerless Alpha Complex, or an Alpha Complex in which Computer battled for control with other factions. Some fans criticized

968-453: A posting on RPG.net that this decision came about as a result of the XP edition successfully convincing the wider gaming public that "Zap" was not the default playstyle for the game; since it was now generally accepted that Paranoia could have a variety of playstyles and each GM would interpret it somewhat differently, it was considered no longer necessary to emphasise the different playstyles in

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1056-493: A posting on RPG.net he explained that the point of including the three playstyles in Paranoia XP was to counteract the impression that "Zap"-styled play was the default for Paranoia , an impression which had in part been created by the more cartoonish later supplements in the West End Games line (as well as "Fifth Edition"). In order to distance the new edition from the less commercially and critically successful aspects of

1144-470: A prolonged campaign. It's the sort of concept which works well as light relief from a 'serious' RPG campaign, and will definitely appeal to 'hack and slay' merchants. Dedicated rule lawyers and wargamers will hate it. Overall, a lot of fun for a minimum of three or four players." In the April 1988 edition of Dragon (Issue 132), Jim Bambra thought that the second edition had marked improvements compared to

1232-533: A refund in the form of products instead of money. Following the Septimus cancellation and fan backlash, Gibson said that he was planning on selling all of WEG's properties, although this did not occur at that time. WEG eventually released Septimus via PDF and print on demand . Gibson stated in a 2010 podcast interview that he was "perhaps foolishly optimistic" in assuming sales would be higher than they turned out to be because "the name West End Games would carry

1320-403: A satiric masterpiece that should delight any experienced player with a taste for the bizarre." In a 1996 reader poll conducted by Arcane magazine to determine the 50 most popular roleplaying games of all time, Paranoia was ranked 7th. Editor Paul Pettengale commented: "For players of games where character development and campaign continuity are a priority, Paranoia is an absolute no-no. If

1408-489: A secret society member (which are both termination offenses in Alpha Complex), and has a hidden agenda separate from the group's goals, often involving stealing from or killing teammates. Thus, missions often turn into a comedy of errors, as everyone on the team seeks to double-cross everyone else while keeping their own secrets. The game's manual encourages suspicion between players, offering several tips on how to make

1496-499: A succession of increasingly poor cartoonists. (Writer/editor) Ken Rolston left shortly thereafter for unrelated reasons. In Ken’s wake, developers Doug Kaufman and Paul Murphy in turn briefly supervised the Paranoia line. After they too departed, editorial control fell to—how do I put this tactfully?—people with different views of the Paranoia line. Following the unfavorable reception of the Fifth Edition, West End Games began planning

1584-635: Is freeware fan-made software specifically created for playing Paranoia over the Internet. It runs on the Java Virtual Machine and consists of a client and a server with built-in features for character and gameplay management. In September 2004, both attracted some mainstream attention when the UK edition of PC Gamer magazine ran an article about Paranoia as one of their "Extra Life" columns and showcased JParanoia and Paranoia Live; coincidentally

1672-444: Is Infrared, but the lowest playable security clearance is Red; the game usually begins with the characters having just been promoted to Red grade. Interfering with anything which is above that player's clearance carries significant risk. The full order of clearances from lowest to highest is Infrared (visually represented by black), Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, and Ultraviolet (visually represented by white). Within

1760-419: Is a humorous role-playing game set in a dystopian future along the lines of Nineteen Eighty-Four , Brave New World , Logan's Run , and THX 1138 ; however, the tone of the game is rife with black humor , frequently tongue-in-cheek rather than dark and heavy. Most of the game's humor is derived from the players' (usually futile) attempts to complete their assignment while simultaneously adhering to

1848-471: Is a supplement published by West End Games in 1996. It is a collection containing nine adventure scenarios. Andrew Rilstone reviewed Imperial Entanglements for Arcane magazine, rating it a 6 out of 10 overall. Rilstone comments that "There's [...] a tree-top battle between forces that survived the battle of Endor, in which you get to kill large numbers of Ewoks. It must surely be the high-point of this game." West End Games West End Games (WEG)

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1936-512: Is an entirely self-contained and playable game: Paranoia: Troubleshooters , Paranoia: Internal Security , and Paranoia: High Programmers . The Troubleshooters volume presents a slimmed-down version of the XP rules, the most notable difference being the removal of the Service Firms and the advanced economy of the XP edition, with the focus firmly on the game's traditional premise of casting

2024-553: Is an immense, futuristic city called Alpha Complex. Alpha Complex is controlled by the Computer, a civil service AI construct (a literal realization of the " Influencing Machine " that some schizophrenics fear). The Computer serves as the game's principal antagonist , and fears a number of threats to its 'perfect' society, such as the Outdoors, mutants , and secret societies (especially Communists ). To deal with these threats,

2112-546: Is hard to beat." In The Games Machine #3, John Wood enjoyed the "darkly humorous" artwork of the second edition, and complimented the writers for a better-organized set of rules. He concluded, "The new edition is far more suitable for those with little or no RPG experience, and is excellent value for a complete system (just add a 20-sided die)." In his 1990 book The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games , game critic Rick Swan called this game "a brilliant, revolutionary RPG ... that defies categorization and stands as one of

2200-506: Is not related to competence but is instead the result of the Computer's often insane and unjustified calculus of trust concerning a citizen. It is suggested that it may in fact be the High Programmers' meddling with The Computer's programming that resulted in its insanity. In the game, secret societies tend to be based on sketchy and spurious knowledge of historical matters. For example, previous editions included societies such as

2288-610: The Cybiko . Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory is a video game that was released on 5 December 2019 , for PC on the Epic Games Store . It was developed by Cyanide and Black Shamrock studios and is published by Bigben Interactive . It is an isometric view real-time RPG. In mid-January 2020, the game was removed from the Epic Games Store without explanation from Cyanide or BigBen Interactive. Court reports suggest

2376-555: The Lexicon game were written into the rulebook. Later, some of the best players and writers from the game and a few other places were formally integrated as the Traitor Recycling Studio to write official Paranoia material; their first credited work was the mission supplement Crash Priority . In 2006, Varney's fellow Paranoia writer, Mongoose Publishing employee Gareth Hanrahan, took over as primary writer for

2464-668: The Mos Eisley Adventure Set which was targeted primarily to the RPG aspect, included not only some miniatures and maps, but a small supplement with a Miniatures Battles scenario. Also, the short run series of the Star Wars Adventure Journal had a few articles pertaining to the miniatures rules. Chris Hind reviewed Star Wars Miniatures Battles in White Wolf #27 (June/July, 1991), rating it

2552-408: The Paranoia line. During the lifetime of the XP line Mongoose released numerous supplements and adventures for the game. Notable amongst the supplements was Extreme Paranoia , which provided ideas for scenarios based around characters of security clearances Orange to Violet, with premises differing greatly from the standard Red-clearance Troubleshooter concept but remaining thematically appropriate to

2640-470: The Star Wars license was soon lost to Wizards of the Coast , who released their own Star Wars game in 2000. At the 1999 GAMA Trade Show, the new West End Games announced a third edition of Paranoia for late June or early July of that year, followed by a Bug Sector supplement, but these were never released. The DC Universe license was acquired and a new RPG was also announced at that time, which

2728-562: The War on Drugs and the War on Terror . In writing the new edition, Varney, Goldberg and Costikyan reached out to and actively collaborated with the Paranoia online fan community through an official blog and through Paranoia-Live.net. In addition, Varney ran an online game, the Toothpaste Disaster , where players took the role of High Programmers documenting the titular disaster in a Lexicon format. Many ideas established in

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2816-846: The "Seal Club" that idolizes the Outdoors but is unsure what plants and animals actually look like. Other societies include the Knights of the Circular Object (based on the Knights of the Round Table ), the Trekkies, and the First Church of Christ Computer Programmer. In keeping with the theme of paranoia, many secret societies have spies or double agents in each other's organizations. The 1st edition also included secret societies such as Programs Groups (the personal agents and spies of

2904-412: The "Zap" style, and therefore may have given it short shrift in the main rulebook, although later supplements for Paranoia XP did provide more support for Zap play. Long-time Paranoia artist Jim Holloway , called "the master of the fun-filled illustration", drew the cover art and much of the internal art for the game until 1986. His art for the series generally portray comedic scenarios that capture

2992-511: The 1st, 2nd, and "Fifth" Editions - whereas the later three editions ( Paranoia XP , the 25th Anniversary edition and the "Red Clearance" edition) were published by Mongoose Publishing. In addition to these six published editions, it is known that West End Games were working on a "Third Edition" - to replace the poorly received Fifth Edition - in the late 1990s, but their financial issues would prevent this edition from being published, except for being included in one tournament adventure. 1st edition

3080-497: The Computer employs Troubleshooters , whose job is to go out, find trouble, and shoot it. Player characters are usually Troubleshooters, although later game supplements have allowed the players to take on other roles, such as High-Programmers of Alpha Complex. The player characters frequently receive mission instructions from the Computer that are incomprehensible, self-contradictory, or obviously fatal if adhered to, and side-missions (such as Mandatory Bonus Duties) that conflict with

3168-415: The Computer's arbitrary, contradictory and often nonsensical security directives. The Paranoia rulebook is unusual in a number of ways; demonstrating any knowledge of the rules is forbidden, and most of the rulebook is written in an easy, conversational tone that often makes fun of the players and their characters, while occasionally taking digs at other notable role-playing games. The game's main setting

3256-472: The Computer's authority (known as Troubleshooter, mainly for the fact that they shoot trouble), and will be given missions to seek out and eliminate threats to the Computer's control. The player characters are also part of prohibited underground movements (which means that the players' characters are usually included among the aforementioned 'security threats'), and will have secret objectives including theft from and murder of other player characters. Paranoia

3344-518: The Crypt , Tank Girl , and The World of Aden . Another licensed game, the Hercules & Xena Roleplaying Game , was the last title released by the initial version of the company: in July 1998, West End Games went into bankruptcy, following mismanagement between West End Games and its then-parent company, shoe importer Bucci Retail Group. When the parent company filed for bankruptcy, West End Games

3432-576: The D6 System—was purchased in April 2016 by Nocturnal Media, White Wolf Publishing founder Stewart Wieck 's gaming company. Nocturnal intended to keep the West End Games brand alive, and their first project using this branding was a revised edition of Greg Costikyan's 1984 WEG boardgame, Web and Starship . A Kickstarter was launched in April 2016 and was successfully funded, but the death of Nocturnal owner Stewart Wieck in June 2017 ultimately resulted in

3520-455: The D6 products produced since he acquired West End had turned a profit, and West End's other RPG lines were not performing as well as he had expected, leading to losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars. West End also expanded back into board games, beginning with a new edition of Junta , which according to Gibson was one of the few products that did turn a profit. In 2007, the company announced

3608-519: The High Programmers at the apex of Alpha Complex society) and Spy For Another Alpha Complex. The actual societies which would be encountered in a game depends on the play style; some societies are more suited for more light-hearted games (Zap-style, or the lighter end of Classic), whereas others represent a more serious threat to Alpha Complex and are therefore more suitable for Straight or the more dark sort of Classic games. Six editions have been published. Three of these were published by West End Games -

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3696-645: The Jan-Feb 1985 edition of Space Gamer (Issue No. 72), the editorial staff were enthusiastic about the game, commenting "If you're likely to take it personally when your best friend's character plugs your character from behind, stay away from this game . But if you like high-tension suspense along with a slightly bent sense of humor, Paranoia is a unique and highly desirable experience." Marcus L. Rowland reviewed Paranoia for White Dwarf #65, giving it an overall rating of 7 out of 10, and stated that "I like Paranoia, but I'm not sure that I'd want to run it as

3784-481: The Paranoia Sourcebook. It has since been declared an "un-product" by the writers of the current edition, due to its extremely poor commercial and critical reception. Almost none of the original production staff were involved, and the books in this line focused less on the dark humor and oppressive nature of Alpha, and more on cheap pop culture spoofs, such as a Vampire: The Masquerade parody. It had

3872-497: The West End Game line, and to discourage new players from wasting time and money on what he considered to be inferior products, Varney additionally used the designer's notes to declare many West End products, including the "Fifth Edition" and everything published for the 2nd Edition after The People's Glorious Revolutionary Adventure , to be "unproducts" - no longer part of the game's continuity, and not recommended for use with

3960-406: The books in the XP line to clear the way for the 25th Anniversary Edition line - revealing a new edition of the rulebook as well as two new rulebooks, one casting the players as higher-clearance Internal Security investigators and one as Ultraviolet High Programmers. They stated that the XP material would "maintain a 90% compatibility rating with the new Paranoia books". Each of the three books

4048-718: The cancellation of that project. A licensing deal to publish a Second Edition of the D6 System was made with Gallant Knight Games in October 2017. Company founder Scott Palter fell ill and died on February 17, 2020. Game designers previously affiliated with West End Games over its long history include: Historical boardgames. Dan Gelber (game designer) Paranoia is a dystopian science-fiction tabletop role-playing game originally designed and written by Greg Costikyan , Dan Gelber , and Eric Goldberg , and first published in 1984 by West End Games . Since 2004

4136-543: The change to the default narrative. Second edition supplements can generally be divided into four eras: "Fifth Edition" was published in 1995 by West End Games. It was the third edition of the game released; two editions were skipped as a joke, and possibly also as a reference to the two major revisions to the game released during the lifetime of the Second Edition with the Crash Course Manual and

4224-1058: The essential "deathtrap" feeling of Alpha Complex. Paranoia XP marked his return to the line as well; he designed every cover of the XP edition, and many books contain both his classic and new Paranoia art. While Paranoia XP kept Communists as the big bad scapegoat in spite of the Cold War being long over, the updated edition integrates several 21st-century themes into its satire. Troubleshooters carry PDCs (Personal Digital Companion) that are reminiscent of Personal digital assistants (PDAs) and smartphones and can try to acquire gear by bidding on CBay (an obvious pun on eBay ). New threats to Alpha Complex include file sharing , phishing scams, identity theft and weapons of mass destructions . Consumerism in Alpha Complex has been tooled into its economy and has taken on an element of patriotism, echoing sentiments expressed after 9/11 along similar trends. A mission pack released in 2009 titled War On (Insert Noun) lampoons government initiatives like

4312-508: The films had been released some years previously, and there was (at the time) no new media forthcoming, the success of these books came as a surprise. The game established much of the groundwork of what later became the Star Wars expanded universe . Lucasfilm considered their sourcebooks so authoritative that when Timothy Zahn was hired to write what became the Thrawn trilogy , he was sent

4400-421: The first edition: "The first edition of Paranoia promised hilarious fun and a combat system that didn’t get bogged down in tedious mechanics. It soon found a following among gamers looking for something different in their role-playing adventures. Still, a close inspection of the combat system revealed that it was slow moving and cumbersome. The mechanics were hard to grasp in places, making it difficult to get into

4488-409: The freewheeling fun. Now, all that’s changed. The Paranoia game has been treated to a revamp, and this time the rules are slick. All that tricky stuff which made the combat system such a pain to run has been shelved off into optional rules. If you want the extra complications, you’re welcome to them, or you can do what most people did anyway and simply ignore them." Bambra did express reservations about

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4576-436: The freewheeling mix of slapstick, intra-team backstabbing and satire that is classically associated with a game of Paranoia . 2nd edition credited to Costikyan, Gelber, Goldberg, Ken Rolston , and Paul Murphy was published in 1987 by West End Games. This edition can be seen as a response to the natural development of the line towards a rules-light, fast and entertaining play style. Here, the humorous possibilities of life in

4664-472: The game from hobby magazines of the period pegged it as mediocre to poor. A Paranoia mini- gamebook was published in issue #77 of SpaceGamer/FantasyGamer magazine in the late 1980s. Unauthorized automated versions of the story (a Troubleshooter's assignment to undermine the subversive activity known as Christmas) have circulated via machine-independent ports to C , Python , Go and Inform as well as to Adventure Game Toolkit and for Applix , CP/M and

4752-609: The game has been published under license by Mongoose Publishing . The game won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Rules of 1984 and was inducted into the Origins Awards Hall of Fame in 2007. Paranoia is notable among tabletop games for being more competitive than co-operative, with players encouraged to betray one another for their own interests, as well as for keeping a light-hearted, tongue in cheek tone despite its dystopian setting. Several editions of

4840-402: The game have been published since the original version, and the franchise has spawned several spin-offs, novels and comic books based on the game. The game is set in a dystopian future city controlled by the Computer (also known as "Friend Computer"), and where information (including the game rules) are restricted by color-coded "security clearance". Player characters are initially enforcers of

4928-399: The game's setting and atmosphere. (This included an updated reprint of the 1st Edition supplement HIL Sector Blues , which focused on playing Blue-clearance IntSec agents.) The idea of devising new and varied concepts to base Paranoia adventures and campaigns around would be revisited for the next edition of the game. In June 2009, Mongoose Publishing announced that they would be retiring

5016-514: The game, Infrared-clearance citizens live dull lives of mindless drudgery and are heavily medicated, while higher clearance characters may be allowed to demote or even summarily execute those of a lower rank and those with Ultraviolet clearance are almost completely unrestricted and have a great deal of access to the Computer; they are the only citizens that may (legally) access and modify the Computer's programming, and thus Ultraviolet citizens are also referred to as "High Programmers". Security clearance

5104-554: The game. It also included errata and rules revisions, as well as new and optional rules, new equipment, a section detailing unit insignia and organization, and a collection of game scenarios. The Imperial Entanglements book, published in 1996, was primarily a scenario supplement, but also contained updated errata and new squad stats. Both the core rulebook and companion were repackaged in two boxed sets along with some miniatures, The Star Wars Miniatures Battles Starter Set and Star Wars Vehicles Starter Set respectively. A third set,

5192-531: The game. This easy spending of clones tends to lead to frequent firefights, gruesome slapstick, and the horrible yet humorous demise of most if not all of the player character's clone family. Additional clones can be purchased if one gains sufficient favour with the Computer. Paranoia features a security clearance system based on colors of the visible spectrum which heavily restricts what the players can and cannot legally do; everything from corridors to food and equipment have security restrictions. The lowest rating

5280-408: The gameplay as paranoid as possible. Every player's character is assigned six clones, known as a six-pack , which are used to replace the preceding clone upon his or her death. The game lacks a conventional health system; most wounds the player characters can suffer are assumed to be fatal. As a result, Paranoia allows characters to be routinely killed, yet the player can continue instead of leaving

5368-539: The general public. In 2009, West End Games moved forward with these plans, with the resulting license known as OpenD6. Following the Septimus project, Purgatory Publishing sold off most of their properties. In June 2010, Torg was sold to German game company Ulisses Spiele, while in July 2010 the Masterbook system, Shatterzone , and Bloodshadows were sold to Precis Intermedia. West End Games itself and its remaining properties—which by then consisted primarily of

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5456-420: The main mission. Failing a mission generally results in termination of the player character, but succeeding can just as often result in the same fate, after being rewarded for successfully concluding the mission. They are issued equipment that is uniformly dangerous, faulty, or "experimental" (i.e., almost certainly dangerous and faulty). Additionally, each player character is generally an unregistered mutant and

5544-518: The main text. The Internal Security volume includes an appendix listing three new styles tailored for the game - "Heist", "Overkill" and "Horror". High Programmers does not specify playstyles. The Red Clearance edition from Mongoose Publishing was announced through Kickstarter 24 October 2014. In a departure from previous Mongoose editions, RED Clearance Edition utilises a d6-based dice pool system as well as using cards for equipment, mutant powers, secret societies, and combat actions. The base game

5632-417: The most thoroughly enjoyable games of the last ten years." After summarizing the lack of personal freedom under the control of the insane Computer, Swan allowed that "It sound oppressive, but it's all quite hilarious, thanks to the tongue-in-cheek approach permeating every aspect of the game." Swan noted the elaborate rules for character creation and combat resolution, "but they're essentially irrelevant, because

5720-400: The name was shortened to just Paranoia . This edition of the game has received a much warmer critical reception, as well as selling well. This edition also introduced three different styles of play, with some game mechanics differing between the various modes to support the specific tone being sought-after: Primary designer Allen Varney, in the designer's notes, explained that his aim with

5808-458: The new edition was to return to the game's roots whilst updating both the game system and the satirical setting to take account of twenty years of game design progress. In both the core rulebook and the Flashbacks supplement - a reprint of classic adventures originally published by West End Games - Varney was highly critical of West End Games' handling of the product line in its latter days. In

5896-560: The new edition. An upshot of this is that much of the poorly received metaplot established late in the West End Games line, from the Secret Society Wars to the Reboot and beyond, was disposed of. Varney has explained that this is due mainly to his distaste for the direction the metaplot took the game line in, a distaste he asserts is shared by the game's fan community. He has also stated that he personally has little affection for

5984-423: The original designers in order to reclaim the rights to the game. The designers did succeed in purchasing the rights to the game, putting an end to any possibility that the final West End Games edition would be released. A single adventure has surfaced which contained a summary of the third edition rules. Following the bankruptcy of West End Games, the original designers of Paranoia banded together and purchased

6072-517: The player characters as Red-clearance Troubleshooters. The Internal Security volume casts the player characters as Blue-clearance Internal Security agents, a refinement of the premise of the 1st edition supplement HIL Sector Blues (reprinted in the XP line as part of Extreme Paranoia ). The third game, Paranoia: High Programmers , casts the player characters as the Ultraviolet-clearance elite of Alpha Complex society and focuses on

6160-543: The political plotting and infighting that dominates the High Programmers' lives, a premise not dissimilar to the Violet-level campaign ideas presented in Extreme Paranoia . The Troubleshooters volume retains the play styles of the XP rulebook; however, the "Classic" playstyle is assumed by default, with "Zap" and "Straight" relegated to an appendix. Allen Varney, designer of the XP edition, explained in

6248-406: The publicity came right before the site was poised to celebrate the launch of the new Paranoia edition from Mongoose. Paranoia was also made into a video game called The Paranoia Complex released in 1989 by Magic Bytes . It was available for Amiga , Amstrad CPC , Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum . It took the form of a top-down maze shooter dressed in a Paranoia plot and trappings; reviews of

6336-441: The referee is encouraged to make up everything as he goes along." Swan did note that this puts a lot of pressure on the referee. Likewise, he warned that "players used to the rigid structures and cooperative emphasis of traditional RPGs may have trouble with a game this chaotic." Nevertheless, Swan concluded by giving this game his top rating of 4 out of 4, saying, "This is sophisticated, intelligent role-playing at its most subversive,

6424-421: The rights to the game from West End in order to regain control of the line. The designers in turn granted a license to Mongoose Publishing to produce a new version of the game, with the result that Paranoia XP , written by Allen Varney , Aaron Allston , Paul Baldowski, Beth Fischi, Dan Curtis Johnson and Greg Costikyan, was published in 2004. In 2005, Microsoft requested that the 'XP' be removed. As such,

6512-491: The science-fiction and fantasy genres. Then Costikyan and Goldberg brought Palter a manuscript for a role-playing game that originally had been conceived by their friend Dan Gelber . Palter agreed to buy the rights to the game, and after some editing and polishing by Rolston, it was released at Gencon in 1984 as WEG's first role-playing game, Paranoia . In 1985, Paranoia won WEG an Origins Award for "Best Roleplaying Rules of 1984". The high production values demanded by

6600-414: The suitability of the game for an on-going campaign, saying "It doesn't lend itself easily to long-term campaign play. This game is best treated as a succession of short adventure sessions in which players get to enjoy themselves doing all those despicable things that would spoil a more 'serious' game." However Bambra concluded with a recommendation, saying "As a tongue-in-cheek science-fiction game, this one

6688-513: The wargames industry made them one of the few companies who could compete with TSR , and they were able to acquire the license from Columbia Pictures to produce an RPG based on the film Ghostbusters . This game, Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game , formed the basis of the D6 System which was to be heavily used in many of their licensed products. In 1987, the company released their Star Wars role-playing game . Since

6776-600: Was a company that made board , role-playing , and war games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in New York City , but later moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania . Its product lines included Star Wars , Paranoia , Torg , DC Universe , and Junta . Scott Palter received a JD from Stanford in 1972 and joined the New York State Bar before he began work at the family firm, Bucci Imports. Drawing on this financial connection, Palter

6864-510: Was a friend of Greg Costikyan who approached Gelber with Eric Goldberg to get the setting published. Gelber gave Goldberg and Costikyan his notes for the game and they used those ideas to complete a full manuscript for a game. Gelber, Costikyan, and Goldberg licensed this Paranoia game to West End Games, and Ken Rolston helped rewrite the rules before it was published in 1984. Gelber also designed (with Jeffrey Simons and Evan Jones) The Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game . JParanoia

6952-473: Was able to found West End Games, named after the bar in which the meeting that finalized its founding occurred: the West End Bar near Columbia University. Initially a producer of board wargames , In 1983, Palter hired Ken Rolston , Eric Goldberg and Greg Costikyan as game designers, and WEG's focus turned away from traditional wargames. Costikyan's 1983 game Bug-Eyed Monsters brought WEG into

7040-449: Was bought by Eric J. Gibson 's Purgatory Publishing. He moved the company to Downingtown, Pennsylvania, in 2004. Under his tenure, Torg received a revised edition and a generic version of the D6 System was produced, which led to a line of irregularly produced supplements and met with general approval from fans. However, this did not translate into high sales; in a post on the official West End forums in 2008 Gibson announced that none of

7128-499: Was chosen for inclusion in the 2007 book Hobby Games: The 100 Best . Steve Jackson described the game as "the first sophisticated parody of the basic tropes of roleplaying. Paranoia didn't offer dungeons full of monsters with sillier names than those in D&;D . It introduced something scarier... the futuristic tunnels of Alpha Complex, in which all the monsters were human and nobody ever got out. Paranoia held all of roleplaying, as it

7216-401: Was forced to go under as well, despite an attempt by Palter to perform a Chapter 11 reorganization of the company's finances. As a result, former WEG designers Costikyan and Goldberg took Palter to court over ownership of Paranoia , and in 2000, the courts ruled that the license should revert to Costikyan and Goldberg. The bankrupt West End Games became WEG / Creative Design Group while

7304-510: Was launched as a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign on 22 October 2022, and released on 22 September 2023. This edition was written and designed by WJ MacGuffin and Keith Garrett. It uses a heavily revised version of the Red Clearance Edition rules, removing the card based system that was introduced in Red Clearance Edition, maintaining the d6-based dice pool system, and adding more lore and new features such as "favours". In

7392-428: Was primarily designed by James Wallis with co-authors Grant Howitt and Paul Dean, and released in March 2017. Additional writing for the new edition was initially provided by Gareth Hanrahan , while the first major expansion, Acute PARANOIA, was written by various writers and funded through Kickstarter in 2018 for an early 2019 release. Originally known as "Perfect Edition", this edition from Mongoose Publishing

7480-567: Was published in 1999. As Humanoids Publishing was the publisher of the Metabarons graphic novels, they utilized the D6 System to release an RPG based upon that setting. The project was a commercial failure, and Humanoids Publications decided to exit from the role-playing game market and sell off West End Games at the end of 2002. On July 1, 2002, the company made its systems—D6 Classic, D6 Legend, MasterBook, and Torg—available via license to any publisher. In November 2003 West End Games

7568-457: Was then practiced, to a dark and twisted mirror. Then it threw cream pies ." Daniel Seth Gelber designed his own role-playing game about a dystopic world controlled by a computer called "Alpha Complex" and ran adventures using this game for his local group. In this game which Gelber designed, the player characters were called "Plaukers" by the non-player characters , and these player characters often undercut and upstaged each other. Gelber

7656-400: Was written by Greg Costikyan , Dan Gelber, and Eric Goldberg - published in 1984 by West End Games. In 1985, this edition of Paranoia won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Rules of 1984 . This edition, while encouraging dark humour in-game, took a fairly serious dystopian tone; the supplements and adventures released to accompany it emphasised the lighter side, however, establishing

7744-484: Was written by Stephen Crane and Paul Murphy, published by West End Games in January 1989. The rules included are for playing battles using the metal miniatures produced by West End Games . The stats included in the book can be easily converted to use with its Star Wars role-playing game The Star Wars Miniatures Battles Companion , published in 1994, was the first supplement and added vehicle rules and flight rules to

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