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Two more RPG Bundle offers - Paranoia
Nov. 29th, 2021 09:18 pmTwo revived Bundle of Holding offers for the Paranoia RPG - one is the version published by Mongoose in 2004, the other their 2019 relaunch
( Nothing to see here, citizen, move along... )
I think that Paranoia is possibly the best comedic RPG out there, provided you like dark comedy, and the 2004 Mongoose release was very good, offering three styles of play - the classic "everyone has fun but dies horribly but logically sooner or later" style of the original game, a more anarchic comedic style, and a "let's take this dystopia seriously" style that takes on board some of the nastiness of the culture described. All work well.
This offer was originally posted before I began to see these bundles, so I can't refer back to my previous look - I think I would have been pretty happy with it.
The Red Clearance version is a major rewrite, and I'm not entirely a fan since it isn't fully compatible with older material for the game. Last time I said:
This is an interesting one - some real efforts have been made to make the game accessible to new players. Unfortunately my impression, after a fairly short perusal, is that it is reducing actual content, the "look and feel" of the setting, and putting a lot of weight onto rules changes and the use of a lot of cards for things like "actions", "equipment" and so forth, which reduce compatibility with previous releases of the game. Incidentally, the cards come as a 40-page PDF printing as only three coloured cards per page, which will burn through a lot of ink/toner if you print them full sized!
Having said that, the Bonus Collection includes arguably the best Paranoia adventure ever, John M. Ford's The YELLOW Clearance Black Box Blues, and new material by some very good authors including Britain's James Wallis. I think it's well worth a look, especially if you don't own an earlier version of the system - this is a must-have, one of the classic RPGs, and anyone who tells you otherwise is obviously a mutant Commie traitor who deserves to be [REDACTED]
I don't see any great reason to change that. Of the two I prefer the 2004 version, but both have good points and are well worth a look.
( Nothing to see here, citizen, move along... )
I think that Paranoia is possibly the best comedic RPG out there, provided you like dark comedy, and the 2004 Mongoose release was very good, offering three styles of play - the classic "everyone has fun but dies horribly but logically sooner or later" style of the original game, a more anarchic comedic style, and a "let's take this dystopia seriously" style that takes on board some of the nastiness of the culture described. All work well.
This offer was originally posted before I began to see these bundles, so I can't refer back to my previous look - I think I would have been pretty happy with it.
The Red Clearance version is a major rewrite, and I'm not entirely a fan since it isn't fully compatible with older material for the game. Last time I said:
This is an interesting one - some real efforts have been made to make the game accessible to new players. Unfortunately my impression, after a fairly short perusal, is that it is reducing actual content, the "look and feel" of the setting, and putting a lot of weight onto rules changes and the use of a lot of cards for things like "actions", "equipment" and so forth, which reduce compatibility with previous releases of the game. Incidentally, the cards come as a 40-page PDF printing as only three coloured cards per page, which will burn through a lot of ink/toner if you print them full sized!
Having said that, the Bonus Collection includes arguably the best Paranoia adventure ever, John M. Ford's The YELLOW Clearance Black Box Blues, and new material by some very good authors including Britain's James Wallis. I think it's well worth a look, especially if you don't own an earlier version of the system - this is a must-have, one of the classic RPGs, and anyone who tells you otherwise is obviously a mutant Commie traitor who deserves to be [REDACTED]
I don't see any great reason to change that. Of the two I prefer the 2004 version, but both have good points and are well worth a look.
