Paranoia Mandatory Bonus Fun Card Game
By Mongoose Publishing

Greetings, citizen. I have a challenging mission for you today. Are you ready? Good! You must find out if any of your fellow troubleshooters are traitors. Can you do this? No! I think we’ve found our first traitor of the day. What? You’ve changed your mind. You will help? That’s a good citizen. You just saved yourself from being incinerated. I’ll still have to make a note of your treasonous behavior in my daily report.

I’ve loved RPGs and games since the early 80s, and among the hundreds of games I’ve played, I never have played the Paranoia RPG. It looked fun and very different, but I never knew what kind of game Paranoia was until I played the card game. When I found out that a card game version of the game had been released, I purchased it immediately and gave it a try.

Complexity (1-5): Easy (2).

Gameplay: This game can get pretty chaotic. Every player has a hand of cards that they can use each turn with a myriad of effects. You and the other players represent futuristic community troubleshooters controlled by an all powerful, futuristic computer. You can’t ever take the computer on, so don’t even think about it. You follow the orders of the computer or you die. You are looking for traitors, but anyone could be a traitor including you or your fellow troubleshooters. Each turn the computer assigns your team a mission. Along the way you can accuse others of being traitors, be killed, fail the mission, or accomplish the mission. The object is to avoid being killed or being labeled a traitor. You have six lives or clones. You lose them all, and you’re game is over. Keep your clones alive, don’t return from a mission being labeled a traitor, get security clearance promotions, and you just might win this wacky game.

Components (1-5): Nothing special here (2). A half page black and white rules booklet (16 pages), a bunch of cardboard colored circle counters, and 150 black and white illustrated cards.

Fun Factor: If everyone is a good sport and doesn’t mind being picked on by other players, I see everyone having a fun time with this game. You win or lose based on what cards you draw but also knowing when and where to play them. It has both luck and strategy elements. I’d play this game with my buddies and have fun but not when the in-laws come over. “Grandpa, I just lasered your troubleshooter. Sorry.”

Pros:
+Very unique theme.
+Fairly easy to get up and running.

Cons:
–You have to pick on and eliminate the other players to win.
–The theme and gameplay has a limited audience.

Game Length: 60 to 90 minutes

Players: You’ll need between three and eight players.

If you’ve never played this game, you can get started in about 20 minutes. Have someone read the rulebook before you start, and you’ll be ready to go. It’s fairly easy.

For the kids?: I probably wouldn’t recommend this game for kids under 12. There is a lot of killing, backstabbing, and unruly behavior warranted by the game. It is very chaotic. Also, a couple of the cards may contain images you don’t want to have to explain to your kids.

Final recommendation (1-5): Overall I give this an average recommendation (3). Should you go out and buy this game to add to your collection? Maybe. If you like relatively easy drinks and snacks card games with a lot of theme and wild and wacky dynamics, you’ll like this game. Be warned though, this game requires beating up on the other players, so if you have friends that don’t like being picked on, don’t invite them the night you play Paranoia. Is it stellar? No. Is it a thrift store special? No. There are better games in this genre. It sits at the middle of the pack. If you like the theme and background of the Paranoia game, then you’ll for sure want to add it to your collection.