Paranoia Games Masters Screen

I have played every edition of Paranoia, and the recent Kickstarter version is still recognisably the same dear, crooked thing: lighter, more post-millennial, yet perfectly willing to make a table distrust itself. We laughed a great deal, even though I was rusty behind the GM screen and managed to eat eleven characters. A promising start. For me, anyway.

Combat does not settle for the usual RPG business of exchanging dice. It brings a little board-game texture to the table: hand management, small bluffs, and choices about when to hold something back or throw it away. It is not merely a system for resolving a fight quickly; it is another way to be caught out in front of your friends.

And your friends are not spectators. Paranoia asks you to work against each other, conceal your intentions, and exploit every opening, with the sort of polite, entirely dishonest spirit that makes Diplomacy an apt reference point. The players only accounted for four characters between them, but by the end they were starting to understand. Next time, I may be redundant.

If your group can handle that pressure and likes Diplomacy, it is well worth a look. Do not treat it as an introduction to roleplaying, though: this is slightly advanced RPG territory, and it wants players who understand that betraying a friend properly is part of the evening. For the right group, it is quietly lethal and very good.