A couple of years ago, I made an item and encounter deck for the roleplaying game, Paranoia. In this post, I talk a little about it and share the printable file.
A few years ago, the good people at Acquisitions Incorporated ran a PUBG/Fortnite-esque, Battle Royale style game of Dungeons & Dragons. It was a really good idea and it made for a great video to watch. It’s a full game, so it’s quite long, but you can watch it here:
One of the key features of the game was a random encounter and item deck. It made the game less predictable and, although it wouldn’t be the best addition to a structured campaign, it worked really well in this one-off setting. I liked it a lot.
I felt that the type of chaos that the deck encouraged would be a welcome addition to another of my favourite games, Paranoia. I’ve written about Paranoia before on this blog, with a writeup of a previous one-shot (part 1 and part 2), a review of the old Orcbusters supplement, and in one of my more popular posts, a collation of forms and paperwork for players to complete during the game. I decided that with my interest in these decks and my love of Paranoia, that I had to see what I could put together.
I play both the 2nd edition of Paranoia and the newer Mongoose edition. They’re mechanically quite different and will appeal to different groups. In creating my own content I decided that I’d make it edition-agnostic. Where something offers a bonus, I keep it vague so I can make whatever adjustment I see fit. A bit loose? Sure, but that’s also rather fitting, innit?
In terms of design, I do like making cards. Regular readers will be aware of my love for Triple Triad and the custom decks I’ve put together over the years:
Of course, this was going to be quite different. These were specifically going to be for print, rather than the dinky, little 100 by 127 pixels that Triple Triad demanded.
I needed a template to get me started. I like putting together card templates, and I wanted them to look like trading cards. That’s when I discovered this rather cool-looking Paranoia poster, featuring the benevolent eye of Friend Computer:
Aye, alright. That’ll do nicely.
It actually looks a lot like a trading card. You’ve got a window for the art and some space below for text. You’ve even got the border around the edge. Yeah, this really was a serendipitous find!
With that in mind, I started putting together some cards. There was a particular, simplistic style I wanted, with just a few exceptions sprinkled through the decks. I also stole a few ideas, such as the crazy randos and “Poorly Balanced Warhammer” among others, from Acquisitions inc. This is the design I ended up with:
Red became the standard colour for the deck. In hindsight, I should have thought this through a bit. I had two decks; one set of loot, and one set of encouters, differentiating them with the labels ‘Loot’ or ‘Encounter’ at the top of the cards. The thing is, whilst all of the Encounter cards are red, the loot cards are colour-coded by clearance level:
Note that some cards have durability slots, making some of the equipment have a limited number of uses. You know, just for added dickishness…
Naturally, should a Troubleshooter be found with any items that their clearance level would not allow… well, Friend Computer would expect their fellow Troubleshooters to correct the situation. This would be subject to the filing of the appropriate paperwork, of course.
I had a lot of fun putting these decks together. I then had to get them printed. These are not professionally produced in any sense of the phrase, so I decided to just take a composite approach. I printed them onto some thin cardstock and placed them in sleeves along with a Magic: the Gathering card for support. I also colour-coded the decks. The loot deck went into blue sleeves whilst the encounter cards went into green. This helped with the mistake I made in the design process, of not better differentiating the two decks:
My games with these cards over the past few years have been a lot of fun. Players like the jeopardy of drawing from the encounters and they covet the loot. They’ve worked well with adult groups, and the children in my after-school group during our annual game of Paranoia.
Here are some of my favourite cards from the loot deck, other than those already shown above:
The Shark Gun is particularly fun, given how few sharks one tends to encounter in the corridors of Alpha Complex. I did once allow a player to test it on a loan shark. It did not work.
I think I probably had more fun on the encounters than I did on the items, though both were a hoot. I really enjoyed sneaking in various fun references, and I loved searching for suitable art/icons to illustrate the cards. Here are some of my favourite encounter cards:
I especially like the cards with different variations, like the traps, the various different Mutated Randos, and so on. This applies to the loot deck as well, with various different cuddly toys and different types of commie literature.
If you’re interested in making up your own set of these cards, here’s the PDF from which I printed my set. I’d suggest grabbing a metal ruler and a sharp craft knife and setting about them! They are already formatted for printing and will fit nicely into a standard card sleeve, preferably with an old land card from Magic or something tucked behind for support. Here you go, pals:
One last thing to consider – again, stolen from the Acquisitions Inc. episode – is to spice things up a little with loot boxes. This is a concept from videogames where people blind-buy a pack of items. I took to offering an envelope with a few cards for real cash money. With my adult groups, when we were playing in a local bar, I’d usually put this towards the next round of drinks. I’d not charge a younger group as that seems a bit cruel, but you could always replace the cash aspect with a dare or forfeit of some sort.
If you do make a set, let me know! Leave a comment and let me know how you got on using them. I’d love to hear. If you don’t make a set, I’d still love to hear which cards were your favourites. If there’s anyone else you think would like these, point them in our direction!
I’ve not run a game of Paranoia in some time, so maybe these will soon make their way back to the table. I’ll have to gauge some interest on that one!
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