''Acute Paranoia'', published in 1986 by
West End Games
West End Games (WEG) 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'', ...
, is the first supplement for the light-hearted science fiction role-playing game ''
Paranoia
Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy conce ...
''.
Contents
''Acute Paranoia'' is an anthology of articles mainly for
gamemasters
A gamemaster (GM; also known as game master, game manager, game moderator, referee, or storyteller) is a person who acts as an organizer, officiant for regarding rules, arbitrator, and moderator for a multiplayer role-playing game. They are m ...
designed to give them extra material to add to their ''Paranoia'' campaign. Material includes
*a series of psychological tests that will damage the sanity of the Troubleshooters
*using the Troubleshooters as laboratory mice
*new secret societies
*"Playing Robots", an article for the players on how to create and run robot characters
*ten adventure ideas
*"Me and My Shadow, Mark IV", a full-length adventure
*Four shorter adventures: "Botbusters", "Warriors of the Night Cycle", and "The Harder They Clone"
Publication history
The light-hearted role-playing game ''Paranoia'' was first published by West End Games (WEG) in 1984. ''Acute Paranoia'', published by WEG in 1986, was the first supplement for the role-playing game, an 80-page softcover anthology edited by
Greg Costikyan
Greg Costikyan (born July 22, 1959, in New York City), sometimes known under the pseudonym "Designer X", is an American game designer and science fiction writer.
Costikyan's career spans nearly all extant genres of gaming, including: hex-based ...
and
Ken Rolston
Ken Rolston is an American computer game and role-playing game designer best known for his work with West End Games and on the computer game series ''The Elder Scrolls''. In February 2007, he elected to join the staff of computer games company B ...
, with contributions by
Erick Wujcik, Steve Maurer, Steve Crane, Mike Dawson, Steve Gilbert,
Peter Corless, Dennis Sustare, Kevin Wilkins,
Allen Varney
Allen Varney (born 1958) is an American writer and game designer. Varney has produced numerous books, role-playing game supplements, technical manuals, articles, reviews, columns, and stories, as well as the fantasy novel ''Cast of Fate'' ( TSR, ...
,
Warren Spector
Warren Evan Spector (born October 2, 1955) is an American role-playing and video game designer, director, writer, producer and production designer. He is known for creating immersive sim games, which give players a wide variety of choices in ho ...
,
John M. Ford
John Milo "Mike" Ford (April 10, 1957 – September 25, 2006) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer, game designer, and poet.
A contributor to several online discussions, Ford composed poems, often improvised, in both complicated ...
,
Scott Palter, Curtis Smith, and Doug Kaufman. Interior art was by
Jim Holloway and Russ Steffens, and Holloway also provided the cover art.
In the 2014 book ''Designers & Dragons: The 90s'', game historian Shannon Appelcline noted that Erick Wujcik freelanced for WEG, commenting that "Working with them, Wujcik wrote one of ''Paranoias earliest adventures, ''Clones in Space'' (1986), and also contributed to the ''Acute Paranoia'' (1986) supplement."
Reception
In the July 1986 edition of ''
White Dwarf
A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes ...
'' (Issue #79),
Marcus L. Rowland
Marcus L. Rowland (born 1953) is an English retired laboratory technician and a notable author in the field of role-playing games, particularly games with Victorian era content.
Biography
Marcus Rowland owned a copy of the original boxed set ...
called it "all splendidly silly." However, while Rowland liked most parts of the book, "at least two of the mini-modules were disappointing, and
he short scenario'The Harder They Clone' seems to recycle ideas from earlier modules." He concluded by giving it a qualified recommendation, saying, "Although this supplement isn't perfect, a total of eight or nine disappointing pages out of eighty isn't a bad score, and most ''Paranoia'' referees should find this a worthwhile investment."
Other recognition
A copy of ''Acute Paranoia'' is held in the collection of the
Strong National Museum of Play
The Strong National Museum of Play (known as just The Strong Museum or simply the Strong) is part of The Strong in Rochester, New York, United States. Established in 1969 and based initially on the personal collection of Rochester native Margaret ...
(object 117.821).
Other reviews
*''The V.I.P. of Gaming'' Issue 4 (July/August 1986, p.24)
*''Windgeflüster'' Issue 27 (October 1994, p.44, in German)
*''Casus Belli'' Issue 33 (June 1986, p. 24), and Issue 38 (June 1987, p. 20), both in French
References
{{reflist
Paranoia supplements
Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1986