PARANOIA

Blog has Moved

2009-08-11T16:55:00.002-04:00

Obviously nothing at all could go wrong by installing pepper spray anti-theft devices on South African cash machines.

The extreme measure is the latest in South Africa's escalating war against armed robbers who target banks and cash delivery vans. The number of cash machines blown up with explosives has risen from 54 in 2006 to 387 in 2007 and nearly 500 last year.

The technology uses cameras to detect people tampering with the card slots. Another machine then ejects pepper spray to stun the culprit while police response teams race to the scene.

But the mechanism backfired in one incident last week when pepper spray was inadvertently inhaled by three technicians who required treatment from paramedics.

Patrick Wadula, spokesman for the Absa bank, which is piloting the scheme, told the Mail & Guardian Online: "During a routine maintenance check at an Absa ATM in Fish Hoek, the pepper spray device was accidentally activated. At the time there were no customers using the ATM. However, the spray spread into the shopping centre where the ATMs are situated."

As the Credit Slips blog presciently comments, "If this idea comes to the United States, I can just see it now on my bank statement: '$20.00 -- Pepper Spray Fee.'"

Sniffer-dog clone family

2009-07-19T16:55:00.002-04:00

A family of six identical clones of a Labrador Retriever dog has taken up drug-sniffing duties at South Korean airports and border crossings, says the BBC:

Six puppies cloned from a Canadian-born sniffer dog in late 2007 have reported for duty after completing a 16-month training programme. The clones are all called Toppy, a combination of "tomorrow" and "puppy."

The customs agency says clones help to lower crime-fighting costs as it is difficult to find good sniffer dogs. Only about 30% of naturally-born sniffer dogs make the grade, but South Korean scientists say that could rise to 90% using the cloning method.

The new recruits are part of a litter of seven puppies who were cloned from a "superb" drug-sniffing Canadian Labrador retriever called Chase in 2007, officials said. One dropped out of the training due to an injury.

"Injury." Yeah, right, good luck with that story at debriefing, Toppy-2.

Your passport needs a tinfoil hat

2009-07-19T15:23:00.002-04:00

A July 12, 2009 Washington Post story by Todd Lewan, "Special alloy sleeves urged to block hackers?", discusses the dangers posed by US passports and driver's licenses tagged with radio frequency identification chips (RFIDs or "arphids"):

To protect against skimming and eavesdropping attacks, federal and state officials recommend that Americans keep their e-passports tightly shut and store their RFID-tagged passport cards and enhanced driver's licenses in "radio-opaque" sleeves. That's because experiments have shown that the e-passport begins transmitting some data when opened even a half inch, and chipped passport cards and EDLs can be read from varying distances depending on reader techonology. [...]

Another test on the enhanced driver's license demonstrated that even when the sleeve was in pristine condition, a clandestine reader could skim data from the license at a distance of a half yard. Will Americans consistently keep their enhanced driver's licenses in the protective sleeves and maintain those sleeves in perfect shape - even as driver's licenses are pulled out for countless tasks, from registering in hotels to buying alcohol? The report's answer: "It is uncertain ... "

And when the sleeves come off, "You're essentially saying to the world, 'Come and read what's in my wallet,'" says Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C. [...]

Some RFID critics wonder: Could government officials read the microchips in an enhanced driver's license or passport card by scanning people via satellite or through a cell phone tower network?

The short answer is no - because the chips in PASS cards and EDLs are "passive," or batteryless, meaning they rely on the energy of readers to power up. Passive tags are designed to beam information out 30 feet. [...]

[A] system called STAR, that adapts deep-space communications technologies to read passive tags from distances greater than 600 feet, was announced last year by a Los Angeles startup called Mojix, Inc. It uses "smart antennas" and "digital beam forming" to process signals in four dimensions - time, space, frequency and polarization. Mojix, founded by a former NASA scientist, promotes the technology for supply chain management and asset tracking.

Science fiction writer and futurist Bruce Sterling blogs about the WaPo story in his July 19, 2009 "Beyond the Beyond" entry "Arphid Watch: Passport Sleeves":

Here’s the Obama State Department shrugging about their RFID train wreck, and hoping nobody notices that the previous Administration installed zillions of terror-friendly radio beacons in the purses and pockets of the American civil population. [...]

Given their mournful fait accompli on the ground, they probably lack any rational alternative, except to INSIST that everybody go buy some tinfoil hat for their passport, in which case the Global War on Terror situation looks even more aggressively crazy than it was before. Not to mention the tremendous publicity boon for RFID hackers seeking employment with terrorist hotel-bomber types, who’d no doubt love to bug any doorway anywhere on Earth, and automatically count the vulnerable foreigners walking through it.

Also, according to the original genius plan, you were supposed to be using these safe-and-secure arphid beacons to merrily zip through airports, en-masse, subway-style, like with [London Underground] Oyster cards. Seen any of that jolly high-tech activity anywhere lately? Me neither. Instead we’ve created a huge, botched superpower effort that is paranoid, semi-secret, global in scale, leaky in security and at best semi-functional. “Gothic High-Tech.”

INTSEC Community Mission: Miranda Warning

2009-07-17T18:03:00.002-04:00

As I come to the end of development on INTSEC, I realise that the book really needs something that Troopers can shout at suspects.

There's the US version: "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney present during questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Do you understand these rights?"

Or the Canadian: "You are under arrest for _________ (charge), do you understand? You have the right to retain and instruct counsel without delay. We will provide you with a toll-free telephone lawyer referral service, if you do not have your own lawyer. Anything you say can be used in court as evidence. Do you understand? Would you like to speak to a lawyer?"

Or in the UK: "You do not have to say anything unless you wish to do so, but I must warn you that if you fail to mention any fact which you rely on in your defence in court, your failure to take this opportunity to mention it may be treated in court as supporting any relevant evidence against you. If you do wish to say anything, what you say may be given in evidence."

What should they say in Alpha Complex?

Fire alarm security device (1938)

2009-07-17T16:07:00.002-04:00

Via loyal citizen George Watson on Twitter, who remarks, "I espy the hand of R&D in this," a Failblog judgment of this helpful fire alarm security device featured in Modern Mechanix magazine, February 1938:

The sending of false fire alarms by mischievous persons may be eliminated through use of a newly developed call box. To use the device, the sender of an alarm must pass a hand through a special compartment to reach the signal dial. Once the dial has been turned, the sender's hand is locked in the compartment until released by a fireman or policeman with a key.

The joke is somewhat quenched when we learn the makers wussed out: The compartment detaches from the alarm box, so the user can escape, albeit with a bulky handcuff.

For a more effective Alpha Complexian implementation that keeps you right where the authorities can conveniently locate you (or your burned corpse), check the Experimental Security Terminal in Episode 1 of John M. Ford's classic 1985 PARANOIA mission The YELLOW Clearance Black Box Blues, reprinted in the Flashbacks hardcover mission collection.

PARANOIA in the Real World: Scientist Calculates Value Of Memories To Sell Blu-Ray

2009-07-17T09:33:00.002-04:00

The story's here. There's also a link to a spreadsheet so you can calculate the cash value of your most cherished memories.

ObAC: Citizens! The Computer has generously allocated a memory budget to all citizens. Memories not covered by your budget will be chemically or mechanically erased from your brains. Please submit a full memory budget by 2400 or face summary full erasure.

A Word From The Computer

2009-07-14T14:02:00.004-04:00

Friend Computer!
At your service, citizen. How may I help you?

I feel uneasy about the rumoured new editions of PARANOIA.
Fear and apprehension are not permitted. Joy is mandatory. If you not experiencing mandatory joy, report for chemical joy enhancement therapy.

Would you mind answering a few questions about the new edition?
Not at all.

I've heard there are going to be three books.
There will now be three core rulebooks in the PARANOIA line. These are the TROUBLESHOOTERS book, the INTSEC book, and the HIGH PROGRAMMER's book. Each of these books is self-contained and focusses on a different way to play PARANOIA.

The 2004 PARANOIA XP rulebo-
ATTENTION! ALL REFERENCES TO A PARANOIA EDITION DENOTED BY A TWO-LETTER CODE ALSO USED BY A CERTAIN WINDOWS-BASED OPERATING SYSTEM ARE TREASON. OR LEGALLY ACTIONABLE, ANYWAY.

Oops, sorry.
A note has been made on your permanent record. Continue with your question.

The, er, 2004 PARANOIA book was all about Troubleshooters. Isn't that the same thing as the new TROUBLESHOOTER book?
The upcoming TROUBLESHOOTER rulebook is indeed a new edition of the basic PARANOIA rules, and so is largely the same as the 2004 rulebook.

What's changed?
The new rulebook is organised to facilitate the core PARANOIA experience of running a mission. Extra support is included for the Gamesmaster. The Treason rules have reverted to the simpler, more direct system used in 2nd edition.

What about the variant playstyles?
The STRAIGHT and ZAP playstyles appear as an appendix in the TROUBLESHOOTER book. HORROR, OVERKILL and HEIST appear in the INTSEC appendix. The contents of the HIGH PROGRAMMER appendix have yet to be determined.

What if I already have the 2004 rulebook. Do I need to purchase the new edition?
No. However, as a long-term PARANOIA fan, you may be interested in the BLACK MISSIONS collector's edition, which includes a CD-ROM of bonus material including interviews with the original designers.

And if I don't have the 2004 edition...
Then the new TROUBLESHOOTERS book is an ideal entry point to PARANOIA!

Let's talk about INTSEC.
Certainly, citizen. In the INTSEC game, you play members of an elite Sector Security Team. Investigate crimes! Interrogate Commie Mutant Traitors! Keep that Happiness Index up! Meet your Termination Quota. INTSEC is designed for longer-term games with more plot development and intrigue.

That sounds suspiciously like the old HIL Sector BLUES supplement.
HIL Sector BLUES was indeed a significant influence on the INTSEC rules, and parts of the text have been repurposed and included in the new book, but there's lots more than just a rehash of Hil Sector+the basic rules. New secret societies! Surveillance rules! New ways to doom other characters!

How about HIGH PROGRAMMER?
In HIGH PROGRAMMER, you play an ULTRAVIOLET High Programmer. You control different factions and power bases in Alpha Complex. The other High Programmers may attempt to subvert your control - you must prevent this and crush their schemes. You crave the awe and fear of your peers, and must impress them with your culture, wit and social graces while plotting their humiliating downfall.

But what could possibly threaten a High Programmer? Surely there won't be any terminations or treasons in this game!
Ah, but you also have a retinue of servants, bodyguards and hangers-on. These characters are played by the other players when the action focusses on your High Programmer. Elements of your retinue may be terminated.

How does HIGH PROGRAMMER play?
The elevator pitch is Yes Minister with ray guns, but you could also say 'Wodehouse meets Illuminati'.

I have further questions about the new edition.
Please post them in the comments.

PARANOIA in the real world: The Wanted

2009-07-14T13:30:00.002-04:00

On the No Fear of the Future blog, writer Chris Nakashima-Brown discusses the new NBC reality-news-adventure-manhunt TV show "The Wanted":

The show teams a 60 Minutes producer (who also worked as a lawyer for the CIA), a former Navy SEAL, a former Green Beret, a reporter and a war crimes prosecutor to hunt terrorists alive and well and living among us.

Like a cross between "To Catch a Predator," the NBC Dateline series that confronted accused sex offenders on live TV, and Jack Bauer's 24, [The Wanted brings] the mainstream media's commercial exploitation of geopolitical fear and internecine xenophobia to entirely new, PKDickian levels. ... Simultaneously so hilarious and so horrifying that I fear my Zeitgeist irony governor may now be permanently damaged. ...

I anxiously await the series finale, in which our heroes travel to Argentina and abduct Dick Cheney while he is off fly-fishing, protected by his coterie of secret service agents chosen for their resemblance to famous action heroes of the 70s and 80s.

"It's not a show. It's a mission."

The Form That Lets You Request Other Forms

2009-07-13T13:09:00.002-04:00

This NY Times article is a CPU Form Management & Processing clerk's dream.

Aaron Allston benefit auction July 19

2009-07-12T17:37:00.000-04:00

You may recall that novelist and game designer Aaron Allston, who contributed to the 2004 PARANOIA rulebook and Gamemaster screen and wrote many classic supplements for Champions, Car Wars, and other games, suffered a serious heart attack in late March 2009 and quadruple-bypass surgery April 2. Now back in his longtime home in Round Rock, Texas, Aaron is recovering reasonably well, as he recounts in his July 11 Livejournal entry:

I've completed about fifteen sessions of cardiac rehabilitation [...] I've had mixed luck. My wind has gotten better and I've experienced general improvement. But my blood pressure is flaky. It's lower in standing position than sitting or lying, and becomes lower still when I exercise, which is not normal. I've come close to graying out on the treadmill. So I get to go through a new series of tests starting Monday — echocardiogram, thyroid, and blood count — as my puzzled cardiologist tries to sort it all out.

Like many freelance writers, Aaron has no health insurance. He faces huge medical bills. The local science fiction fan group, FACT (Fandom Association of Central Texas), is holding an Aaron Allston benefit auction Sunday, July 19, 2009 in Georgetown, Texas, northwest of Austin. Please consider donating an item for the auction or, if you prefer, making a contribution directly to the Aaron Allston Donation Fund via Paypal: gifts (at) aaronallston (dot) info.

Recent PARANOIA RPG links of interest

2009-07-09T15:42:00.003-04:00

I don't usually post linkfests here (though my Twitter feed is almost all links), but many minor developments warrant interest in aggregate:

Duane O'Brien, whose innovative experiments in proppery we have covered before -- see his real laser pistol (March 1, 2009) and real plasticreds (October 14, 2008), as well as "Straight-style PARANOIA can work" (May 28, 2009) -- recently posted two interesting PARANOIA-related entries on his blog ChaoticNeutral.net: "On Writing Up a Module" (June 24, 2009); and an excellent introduction to PARANOIA for convention games (June 22), which includes a dandy two-page .PDF handout summarizing the setting, rules, and appropriately servile attitude. Commendation point, Duane!

Mongoose has announced forthcoming French translations of several roleplaying lines, including PARANOIA. The Mongoose French-language forum thread Paranoia - date probable discusses this, or so I (a non-speaker) assume.

PARANOIA in the real world: Military theorist John Robb (Brave New War) on his must-read Global Guerrillas blog analyzes the simple steps in leveraging information terrain (July 9, 2009) -- in this case, using a few internet rumors and videos (such as "Chinese Commies Massacre Uyghur Innocent Workers") to provoke the bloody Uighur uprising in western China.

Both Duane and loyal citizen Jaagup Irve noticed this Telegraph (UK) story about Japanese railway workers who face enforced daily "smile scans." Also covered on Slashdot, where many commenters instantly noticed the PARANOIA angle.

Jaagup also sent a photo from Ground Zero in Manhattan, showing a Port Authority ad with the civic-minded message, "Now's the time to report something, not when it's on the news. If it looks suspicious, it is suspicious." He asks, "What could one possibly report there? 'Hello, I would like to report suspicious activities near the former World Trade Center. They've been constantly building nothing there for eight years.'"

INTSEC Community Mission - Collateral Damage

2009-06-30T16:51:00.002-04:00

Troopers get much, much bigger guns than Troubleshooters, so we need a much, much bigger Collateral Damage table for those unfortunate occasions when a player rolls really badly with a tacnuke shell. Think of it as a Rolemaster fumble table for cone rifles. Suggestions for horrible collateral damage in the comments, please.

Rob MacD's alternate PARANOIAs

2009-06-29T14:56:00.001-04:00

Loyal citizen Rob MacDougall, who participated bravely in The Toothpaste Disaster PARANOIA Lexicon game in 2004, has posted three inventive PARANOIA variant settings on the gaming blog Claw Claw Peck.

First up is "Slave Complex of the Under There":

Black Tunnels descend from the surface world to the Crimson Caves of Blood. Below lie the Ochre Delves, the Azure Sepulchre, and the Temples of Elemental Indigo. The descending levels of the Under There represent a kind of, let’s say, “security clearance” for the pecking order of the dungeon. Under constant surveillance by unblinking beholders, ogres bully hobgoblins who bully goblins who bully bootlicking kobolds, who get stuck cleaning elf-gunk out of the death traps. It’s like high school with gelatinous cubes.

Then a steampunk PARANOIA, "Alpha | State," that will ring true to fans of the indie RPG a|state:

One hundred years after Babbage, one hundred years after Lord Byron’s coup, the Alphan Empire is a steam-driven superpower stretching from Barbados to Bangalore. At its heart squats perfidious Alpha, the not so Green and Pleasant Isle, and at Alpha’s heart sprawls the Empress, the city-sized analytical engine that rules and mothers the Empire. And oh, does it need mothering. For the paranoid Empress imagines a thousand perils to her binary virtue. Bomb-throwing Luddites! Bearded onanists! Filthy communards! And behind them all, the agents of another analytical AI: the Empress’ libertine continental nemesis, the Turk.

And finally "Alphaville," which, if you haven't already clicked through based on the two summaries above, just read it.

Man, it makes me yearn to return to Brave New Complex, the huge campaign supplement of variant Alpha Complex settings the Traitor Recycling Studio put together a few years ago. Nothing came of that -- no market -- but perhaps somehow, in some alternate timeline, that book actually got published.

Archive links fixed

2009-06-29T02:41:00.003-04:00

Just as certain R&D biolabs fall empty for decades at a time (when a particularly enterprising mutant creation gets loose), so this blog's archives have been partly broken for about 18 months. The archive links in the sidebar, the bottom right, were correct for posts dated 2007 and earlier. But owing to some boring bug in Blogger's archive auto-generation script, posts from 2008 and later had broken links. The only way to access those months was to insert an additional "p" in front of the "public_html" part of the URL -- to wit, "ppublic" -- and I never mentioned the workaround here because it was so stupid. Now -- still with me? -- I've pulled the auto-archive script and manually inserted good links to all the archived months back to late 2005. I'll have to add another line at the end of each month, so be a good citizen and remind me, hmmm?

Speaking of tasks I've let fester for years, I do hope to finally finally finally get to the .PDF of material cut from WMD, and sooner rather than later. The text of WMD (the 2006 collection of Straight-style PARANOIA missions) is included on the 25th Anniversary CD-ROM in the Black Missions limited edition due later this year, so a new cohort of Gamemasters will join the many wondering what happened to the free .PDF download I referenced repeatedly in the text. Okay, okay. Give a guy a few years of slack, okay? I was busy all that time, wondering how to fix the archive links.

PARANOIA on TV Tropes

2009-06-22T23:14:00.002-04:00

I've blogged here before about TVTropes.org, but I hadn't realized there's a TV Tropes PARANOIA page.

As before, fair warning: If you're into the taxonomy of genre elements, TVTropes will consume hours and hours.

Skulduggery

2009-06-20T19:09:00.002-04:00

Soon, perhaps, PARANOIA will gain distinguished company in the realm of RPGs that turn players against one another.

Pelgrane Press recently allowed its license for The Dying Earth RPG to lapse. (I did the layout for the Dying Earth rulebook and the first supplement, Cugel's Compendium.) Though the license to Jack Vance's wonderful fantasy novels currently lingers in abeyance, the fine rules system by Robin D. Laws lends itself well to characteristically Vancian interactions in other settings. Pelgrane publisher Simon Rogers is collecting opinions on new settings using the Dying Earth rules, such as this new proposal, Skulduggery, a game of "verbal fireworks and sudden reversals":

Skulduggery, Pelgrane Press’ hilarious new roleplaying game of doing unto others because they’re sure as heck planning to do unto you. [...] quick, uproarious games of treachery and oneupmanship in any setting. Fine-tuned for one-shot and impromptu sessions, it can be adjusted for longer-running series as players demand.
The tongue is sharper than the sword. Skulduggery makes verbal persuasion as suspenseful and decisive as physical combat.

There’s always another comeback. Don’t like the results when you roll a die? Skulduggery’s reversals-based resolution system lets you roll again -- if you can afford to pay the price. . .

Characters in minutes. The GM hands out stacks of cards. The players trade for a few minutes. Presto: instant characters, ready to play!

Wit wins out. Strategic deployment of dialogue snippets recharges your supply of the points you need to succeed.

Think you’ve got it all under control? Just when they think they’re ahead, characters must face their own worst enemies—the all-consuming temptations driving them to distraction and doom.

From the moment The Dying Earth RPG appeared, gamers have connected it to PARANOIA. (See, for instance, this 2003 RPG.net forum thread on player-vs-player conflict.) Now, depending on the feedback Simon collects from his readers, the connection may become easier than ever. Drop by the Skulduggery post and comment.

Unconcealed secret buildings

2009-06-19T14:21:00.002-04:00

Granted, they're all aboveground, but even so, the forbidding monolithic architecture of these 15 not-so-secret secret-service buildings on oObject should evoke a sense of Alpha Complex.

Modern (?) Russian power plant

2009-06-17T22:38:00.003-04:00

Comrades! All Power Serwices personnel now to be viewink photos from glorious Chernobyl-era Russian nuclear power plant near Smolensk.

Because this powerplant was completed after the Chernobyl, they paid a special attention to secure it from alike accidents. There is even a saying that “The sci-fi writers are on the second place by richness of imagination, the first place is occupied by the nuclear plant security engineers,” meaning that they need to make it safe just for some unimaginable events that not very likely to happen, but still the security system should be ready for them.

The outside structure that secures reactors themselves can stand the blast that exceeds ten times the power of atomic bomb blast, just imagine.

Ha! Glorious comrades, now to be imaginink many unimaginable ewents werry werry likely to happen in similar power plant in capitalist pig-dog (ptui!) Alpha Complex!

PARANOIA INTSEC - Community Mission 2

2009-06-12T07:52:00.002-04:00

The old Hil Sector BLUES supplement gave a list of alert codes for IntSec troopers. Some classic examples:

Code 56 Stray petbot causing disturbance. Catch and return to rightful owner.

Code 59 This code reserved for future use.

Code 61 Berserk bot. Approach with caution.

Code 69 This code left intentionally blank.

Code 70 Reactor meltdown. Seal off sector to ensure radiation containment.

We need more codes! Codes that summarise a complex, dangerous situation in a single number, leaving absolutely no room for confusion.

No room at all.
Not a bit.
Never ever.
When a Trooper squad gets a Code alert, they should under no circumstances be confused, misinformed and/or terrified. Failure to respond promptly to a code is Treason.

Black Missions CD Contents

2009-06-12T06:29:00.002-04:00

The contents of the CD-rom that will accompany the limited edition Black Missions book is revealed here.

War on INSERT NOUN

2009-06-09T11:41:00.003-04:00

My spies inform me that the pdf version of War on INSERT NOUN is available from DriveThruRPG, which implies the print version should also be on the shelves of your Friendly Local Game Store. This 32-page mission, complete with pregenerated Troubleshooters, describes the tumultuous aftermath of the Incident, the rise and fall of the Department of Complex Operational Defence, and the deadly threat of... well, something as yet undetermined!

12 fascinating tunnel networks

2009-06-08T14:35:00.002-04:00

Any blog post titled "12 of the world's most fascinating tunnel networks" threatens to put the reader to sleep in the first paragraph, but this feature from the unusual tech-design blog OObject rewards examination. See, for instance, the 5000-year-old gold treasure tunnels under Los Angeles created by a prehistoric cult of lizard people.

(PARANOIA fans will also enjoy the OObject feature "Futuristic megastructures," including Buckminster Fuller's Manhattan Dome.)

The Perils of Stand-Alone Rulebooks

2009-06-06T10:59:00.002-04:00

Ah, the joys of the stand-alone rulebook. The INTSEC book is designed to stand on its own, without reference to the Troubleshooter book. However, no-one wants to see large chunks of text replicated across the two rulebooks, so I'm busily condensing and rewriting the rules down. The chapter on Mutations, for example, takes up 20 pages of the Troubleshooter book, but less than 8 pages of INTSEC.

It's almost like writing rules in Orwell's Newspeak. 'Pyrokinesis doubleplusgood margin incinerate CommieMutantTraitor, plusgood on fire, ungood selfnosefire, doubleplusungood spontaneous combustion.'

Soviet matchbox labels

2009-06-05T23:26:00.002-04:00

Comrades! Somevere is beink somebody who somehow for some reason is needink to see over 1,000 labels for Soviet-era Russian and Eastern European matchboxes! Is you? Da, good!

Mongoose forum posts of note

2009-06-04T16:14:00.001-04:00

This week Mongoose Publishing posted an announcement that the current range of PARANOIA products will be retired at the end of this month, in advance of this summer's 25th Anniversary line, starting with the PARANOIA: Troubleshooters rulebook and the Black Missions limited edition.

On the Mongoose forum, this announcement prompted a question about compatibility between the forthcoming PARANOIA Anniversary rulebooks and the existing support line. Mongoose staff writer Gareth Hanrahan, designer of the 25th Anniversary rulebooks, replied:

The new rules are 95+% compatible with the previous edition. I can only surmise that most of the older supplements are sold out, and the remaining stock is fast dwindling. I'll attempt to bring Those Who Know into this thread.

Speaking of the Mongoose forum: Saturday, June 20th is Free RPG Day, where participating game stores worldwide distribute free roleplaying material. This year Mongoose has prepared a special 32-page PARANOIA booklet including quick-start rules and a brief introductory mission. On the Mongoose forum, an enterprising citizen who got this booklet in advance of the day itself (treason point!) asked about a loyalty test accidentally omitted from the Free RPG Day booklet (treason point for, uh, somebody else to be named later!). In response, Gareth posted the text of the entertaining form right in the topic. Commendation point, Gareth!