I don't think Paranoia had any traction.. But it was fun to play and read.
"The Computer is your Friend!" ;-)
Being a unregistered mutant is punishable by death.
Belonging to a secret society is punishable by death.
You are an unregistered mutant and belong to secret society, and your colleagues at work don't know.
As a member of the Computer's TroubleShooter squad, your job is to hunt out unregistered mutants and members of secret societies ... Welcome to Paranoia!
My D&D set was sold off to younger players, as was Traveller, and RuneQuest (anyone remember that one?), but I kept Paranoia.
Never got to play it ... but after the traditional RPGs, it was an irreverent breath-of-fresh-air, and hilarious to read. You'd need a brilliantly-crazy & funny SOB to be the DM in that game. ;-)
Ha!
I wrote a response yesterday and lost it, apparently.
Yes, to find something like Paranoia was precious, because it was easy to miss. Sometimes, the only reason certain items were in stock were completely due to the owners preferences (I am thinking books/music/movies)...
I only found Paranoia in one store...I think the owner was selling his own, unwanted stuff.
Then again, he bought LaserDiscs of anime and made VHS copies and sold them with homemade labels/packaging...
This is how he paid rent, I reckon, since I rarely saw any books being sold.
Anyway, somebody told me that Paranoia didn't die in the 80's, so I have been curious to see what happened to it (I don't have high hopes, but I am curious).
MUTANT!