All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Paranoia, and Spirit of the Century: Are they worth a purchase?

Jay Foxfire

I've been looking at these three games, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Paranoia, and Spirit of the Century, and I'm on the ropes as to decide which one I should invest in. I've only played D&D and Gamma World and I think that these would be a nice change of pace. I like the ideas behind them and their settings. I'd just like to know what you guys like or dislike about them so I can make an informed decision.

PotatoNinja

Haven't played AFMBE, as for the other two...

Paranoia is pretty spectacular if the stars align and you have a good GM and a good party. The game is smart, violent, dark, insane, weird, and generally funny, so it works best if everyone at the table is able to keep up. It isn't really an RPG in the traditional sense. In Paranoia, "long-term character growth" generally refers to parasitic infections making you taller. Paranoia is closest to Gamma World from what you've played, except it holds even less pretense about being a proper RPG. It has the most spectacular mechanic for handling rule disputes in the history of gaming.

Spirit of the Century has some great ideas and is a very abstract but functional game. I recommend it mostly because the book has some very good ideas that you should be exposed to regardless of whether you want to run SotC. It isn't very "crunchy," in that the rules mostly exist for very simplified conflict resolution. Character creation is pretty much the best, and involves a shared creation mechanic that tends to make for great parties.

Both of the above are worth a purchase if you have disposable gaming income, but if you aren't interested in putting down $50+ for a book you might not get much playtime out of, the question is whether your players / you want to experience the games each system can offer.

Do you want an RPG-parody where players die so fast you start with a stack of clones?

Do you want a pulp-novel RPG where the answer do "Can I do this?" is almost always "of course?"

Jay Foxfire

Both sound great. I know that Paranoia has different books. Is there one that I should start with or ones I should avoid?

NotoriusBEN

For paranoia, i purchased the Mongoose Publishing versions.
Paranoia Troubleshooters 25th Anniversary and Paranoia Flashbacks Redux will get you started for what is entailed as a GM and how missions are usually structured.
If you can get a copy of Paranoia XP Stuff, you can give your little playthings toys that are way above their clearance level as well as give you ideas for what you can make for yourself.