Paranoia (role-playing game)

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 the game has been published under licence 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 lighthearted, tongue in cheek tone despite its dystopian setting.The game is set in a dystopian future city which is controlled by an artificial intelligence construct called 'The Computer', and where information (including the game rules) are restricted by color-coded 'security clearance'. Players are initially enforcers of The Computer's authority, and will be given missions to seek out and eliminate threats to The Computer's control. The players are also part of prohibited underground movements, and will have secret objectives including theft from and murder of other players.Several editions of 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.A Kickstarter has successfully been funded for a new edition.