Paranoia is a dark-humor dystopian science-fiction tabletop role-playing game made by West End Games. This is a light-hearted, tongue in cheek version of Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World, Logan's Run, and THX 1138. The film Brazil, with the people form planet Spaceballs to full out the city, would be the best comparison. Given the nature of the setting, the game lends itself well to Mutant Future.
This game takes place in the computer-controlled underground mega-city called Alpha Complex. The city is highly bureaucratic and compartmentalized into different Computer Service Groups. The city's master computer, called Computer, manages the lives of it citizens while keeping the city safe from enemy "Commies" -- deviants, traitors and mutants. To keep the city safe from Commie-mutant-traitors, friend Computer appoints random citizens to be Troubleshooter who are tasked with finding and eliminating Commie-mutant-traitors. But there is a twist:
Everyone is a Commie! Even the Troubleshooters!
There are a number of Commie secret societies operating within Alpha Complex, but the Troubleshooters you play have a secret alliance with these Commie groups. Who can you trust? While mutants are required to register with friend Computer (at the cost of a Security Clearance cap), rogue mutants are illegal. But EVERYONE is a mutant in some way! As a Troubleshooter, your life is about keeping secrets, conflicts of interests and choosing agendas.
All citizen have color-coded Security Clearance. The lowest end is Inferred (Black) followed by Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, and finally Ultraviolet (White), AKA "High Programmers." Locations, equipment and system access are all under Security Clearance, painted to the color of its clearance.
Note: The following groups change from edition-by-edition.
Computer Service Groups
- Internal Security
- Technical Services
- Housing Preservation and Development and Mind Control
- Armed Forces
- Production, Logistics and Commissary
- Power Services
- Research and Design
- Central Processioning Unit
Secret Societies
- Anti-Mutant
- Communists
- Computer Phreaks
- Corpore Metal (Corpore Metallica)
- Death Leopard
- First Church of the Christ Computer-Programmer (Assembler of God)
- Frankenstein Destroyers
- Free Enterprise
- Humanists
- Illuminati
- Mystics
- Politiclones
- Pro Tech
- Psion
- PURGE
- Romantics
- Trekkers
- Sierra Club (Seal Club)
- Spy (see below)
Spies
- Spy from another Complex
- Spy from a Computer Service Group
- Spy from Computer