Editing Paranoia (role-playing game) (section)

===''Paranoia XP''===
[[File:Paranoia XP.png|thumb|right|Cover of XP edition]]
Following the bankruptcy of West End Games, the original designers of ''Paranoia'' banded together and purchased the rights to the game from West End in order to regain control of the line. The designers in turn granted a license to [[Mongoose Publishing]] to produce a new version of the game, with the result that ''Paranoia XP'',{{efn| {{ISBN|978-1-904854-26-5}} }} written by [[Allen Varney]], [[Aaron Allston]], Paul Baldowski, Beth Fischi, [[Dan Curtis Johnson]] and Greg Costikyan, was published in 2004. In 2005, [[Microsoft]] requested that the 'XP' be removed. As such, the name was shortened to just ''Paranoia''. This edition of the game received a much warmer critical reception, and also sold well.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

This edition introduced three different styles of play, with some game mechanics differing between the various modes to support the specific tone being sought after:
* '''Zap''' is anarchic slapstick with no claims to making sense and little effort at satire. Zap represents ''Paranoia'' as popularly understood: Troubleshooters who open fire on each other with little to no provocation. It is often associated with the "Fifth Edition". Best for a one-shot game of Paranoia.
* '''Classic''' is the atmosphere associated with the 2nd edition. Conflict within Troubleshooter teams is less common and less lethal. Good for a one-shot game of Paranoia, but still suitable for an ongoing campaign.
* '''Straight''' represents a relatively new style. This is more serious and focuses more on dark, complex satire. Players are punished for executing other characters without first filing evidence of the other character's treason; this encourages slower, more careful gameplay and discourages random firefights and horseplay. Poor for one-shots, good for an ongoing campaign.

Primary designer Allen Varney, in the designer's notes, explained that his aim with the new edition was to return to the game's roots whilst updating both the game system and the satirical setting to take account of twenty years of game design progress. In both the core rulebook and the ''Flashbacks'' supplement — a reprint of classic adventures originally published by West End Games — Varney was highly critical of West End Games' handling of the product line in its latter days. In a posting on RPG.net he explained that the point of including the three playstyles in ''Paranoia XP'' was to counteract the impression that "Zap"-styled play was the default for ''Paranoia'', an impression which had in part been created by the more cartoonish later supplements in the West End Games line (as well as "Fifth Edition").<ref name="Allen">{{cite web
| url = http://forum.rpg.net/showpost.php?p=5660435&postcount=5
| title = Sell me on Paranoia 5th...
| access-date = 2010-03-31
| author = Allen Varney
| date = 27 April 2006
}}</ref>

In order to distance the new edition from the less commercially and critically successful aspects of the West End Game line, and to discourage new players from wasting time and money on what he considered to be inferior products, Varney additionally used the designer's notes to declare many West End products, including the "Fifth Edition" and everything published for the 2nd Edition after ''The People's Glorious Revolutionary Adventure'', to be "unproducts" — no longer part of the game's continuity, and not recommended for use with the new edition. An upshot of this is that much of the poorly received metaplot established late in the West End Games line, from the Secret Society Wars to the Reboot and beyond, was disposed of. Varney has explained that this is due mainly to his distaste for the direction the metaplot took the game line in, a distaste he asserts is shared by the game's fan community.<ref name="Allen" /> He has also stated that he personally has little affection for the "Zap" style,<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://forum.rpg.net/showpost.php?p=3627058&postcount=4
| title = Sell me on Paranoia 5th...
| access-date = 2010-03-31
| author = Allen Varney |website=forum.rpg.net
| date = 5 March 2005
}}</ref> and therefore may have given it short shrift in the main rulebook, although later supplements for ''Paranoia XP'' did provide more support for Zap play.

Long-time ''Paranoia'' artist [[Jim Holloway (artist)|Jim Holloway]], called "the master of the fun-filled illustration",<ref name="dragon132" /> drew the cover art and much of the internal art for the game until 1986. His art for the series generally portrays comedic scenarios that capture the essential "deathtrap" feeling of Alpha Complex. ''Paranoia XP'' marked his return to the line as well; he designed every cover of the XP edition, and many books contain both his classic and new ''Paranoia'' art.

While ''Paranoia XP'' kept Communists as the big bad scapegoat in spite of the [[Cold War]] being long over, the updated edition integrates several 21st-century themes into its satire. Troubleshooters carry PDCs (Personal Digital Companions) that are reminiscent of [[personal digital assistant]]s (PDAs) and [[smartphone]]s and can try to acquire gear by bidding on CBay (an obvious pun on [[eBay]]). New threats to Alpha Complex include [[file sharing]], [[phishing]] scams, [[identity theft]] and [[weapons of mass destruction]]. [[Consumerism]] in Alpha Complex has been tooled into its economy and has taken on an element of patriotism, echoing sentiments expressed after [[9/11]] along similar trends. A mission pack released in 2009 titled ''War On (Insert Noun)'' lampoons government initiatives like the [[War on Drugs]] and the [[War on Terror]].

In writing the new edition, Varney, Goldberg and Costikyan reached out to and actively collaborated with the ''Paranoia'' online fan community through an official blog<ref>{{cite web |last1=Costikyn |first1=Greg |title=Paranoia Blog |url=http://www.costik.com/paranoia |access-date=28 August 2021 |archive-date=23 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160723020403/http://www.costik.com/paranoia/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> and through Paranoia-Live.net.<ref>{{cite web |title=Paranoia Live |url=http://www.paranoia-live.net:80/news.php |website=paranoia-live.net |access-date=28 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150407035636if_/http://www.paranoia-live.net:80/news.php|archive-date=7 April 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_4/25-Player-Prompted-Paranoia
| title = Player-Prompted Paranoia
| access-date = 2009-06-04
| last = Varney
| first = Allen
| date = 2 August 2005
| publisher = The Escapist magazine
| archive-date = 18 April 2009
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090418180957/http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_4/25-Player-Prompted-Paranoia
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> In addition, Varney ran an online game, the ''Toothpaste Disaster'',<ref>{{cite web |last1=Varney |first1=Allen |title=ParanoiaLexicon |url=http://paranoia.allenvarney.com |website=paranoia.allenvarney.com |access-date=28 August 2021}}</ref> where players took the role of High Programmers documenting the titular disaster in a [[Lexicon (game)|Lexicon]] format. Many ideas established in the ''Lexicon'' game were written into the rulebook. Later, some of the best players and writers from the game and a few other places were formally integrated as the Traitor Recycling Studio to write official ''Paranoia'' material; their first credited work was the mission supplement ''Crash Priority''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.costik.com/paranoia/public_html/paranoia/oldarchives/2004_08_01_blogchive.html
 |title    = Crash Priority (Official PARANOIA Blog)
 |access-date = 2009-06-04
 |last        = Varney
 |first       = Allen
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20120114104732/http://www.costik.com/paranoia/public_html/paranoia/oldarchives/2004_08_01_blogchive.html
 |archive-date = 14 January 2012
}}</ref>

In 2006, Varney's fellow ''Paranoia'' writer, Mongoose Publishing employee Gareth Hanrahan, took over as primary writer for the ''Paranoia'' line. During the lifetime of the XP line Mongoose released numerous supplements and adventures for the game. Notable amongst the supplements was ''Extreme Paranoia'', which provided ideas for scenarios based around characters of security clearances Orange to Violet, with premises differing greatly from the standard Red-clearance Troubleshooter concept but remaining thematically appropriate to the game's setting and atmosphere. (This included an updated reprint of the 1st Edition supplement ''[[HIL Sector Blues]]'', which focused on playing Blue-clearance IntSec agents.) The idea of devising new and varied concepts to base ''Paranoia'' adventures and campaigns around would be revisited for the next edition of the game.