PARANOIA

I may be jumping the laser by a few days here, but I've been bursting to talk about Mongoose Publishing's forthcoming compilation of classic PARANOIA missions. We've been going back and forth on the title, but I'm putting the book together (with help from my wife, Beth Fischi), and in my mind (at least) it's called PARANOIA Flashbacks.

Hitting game store shelves with a satisfying thump in February 2005, the 256-page hardcover PARANOIA Flashbacks reprints and updates a stunning catalog of adventures, the early works that made PARANOIA great. These seminal works -- published by the game's original publisher, West End Games, and masterminded by brilliant line editor Ken Rolston -- remain some of the most highly regarded and fondly remembered scenarios ever published for any game. I'm bringing them into line with the current PARANOIA XP rules, though with a light and respectful touch.

There's actually far too much good material for 256 pages, so I'll first list the book's planned contents, then discuss the omissions. Get ready to cheer, because as of now I expect PARANOIA Flashbacks to include all these classic missions:

• The three RED missions from the original 1985 West End Gamemaster Screen insert booklet: "Robot Imana 665-C," "The Trouble With Cockroaches," and "Das Bot"


• Vapors Don't Shoot Back (1985) by Curtis Smith


• The YELLOW Clearance Black Box Blues (1985) by John M. Ford -- a huge hit in its time, and high on many people's list of the best-written roleplaying adventures ever


• Send in the Clones (1985) by Allen Varney and Warren Spector


• From Acute PARANOIA (1985), "Me and My Shadow Mark IV" by Steve Gilbert and Peter Corless -- the absolute favorite PARANOIA adventure of many longtime fans, who would still buy this book if it had nothing but this one mission and 232 blank pages


• Alpha Complexities (1988) by Edward S. Bolme


• Three "Code 7" mini-missions from Acute PARANOIA: Greg Costikyan's legendary "Whitewash" and my own "An ARD Day's Night" and "Reboot Camp"

Longtime fans are already noting three or four eyebrow-raising omissions, but fear not -- everything you're missing will see print eventually:

• Orcbusters (1986), Ken Rolston's much-loved parody of D&D, will return to print someday (2006?) in a mission collection tentatively titled Collapsatron


• Clones in Space (1986), by Erick Wujcik, will become the linchpin of an eventual big Outdoors Sector collection


• I hope to adapt the best material from HIL Sector Blues, Ken Rolston's 1986 adventure/supplement/oddity, for next Gen Con's big new rules supplement, Extreme PARANOIA; that supplement will also include Greg Costikyan's Acute PARANOIA rules for playing bot characters, as well as Dennis Sustare's all-bot adventure "Botbusters"


• The People's Glorious Revolutionary Adventure (1989) by Edward Bolme will probably also make it into the Outdoors book, or, you know, somewhere like that...


• Some fans remember The DOA Sector Travelogue fondly. That 1989 location supplement had some good bits (I stole its Bureaucracy tables for PARANOIA XP), but I cannot think kindly about it. I myself proposed the original version of that book to West End, but the published supplement bears little resemblance to my idea. I hope to marshall Mongoose's interest for a much better Sectorbook supplement in 2006.

That covers basically all the good stuff in the West End PARANOIA line before it started heading steeply downhill. PARANOIA Flashbacks will introduce a new generation of fans to the adventures that still, after 20 years, make old-time gamers wave their arms in panicky recollection: "We were guarding this big cybertank, and suddenly something fell off...!"

"Hello Allen, Ziv Wities here -- Standback from the Paranoia-Live forums, if you recall. I'm writing because I'm currently in the midst of organizing an Israeli all-PARANOIA convention.

"The convention's on the 12th of December, in Raanana, Israel. We'll be having a wide variety of PARANOIA games, for newbies and beginners, by some excellent GMs (including [PARANOIA XP rulebook contributor Alon Elkin, aka:] El-R-KIN! yay Elkin!). We've got a rather nifty Web site, though its being written entirely in Hebrew may make it of little interest to 99.9% of the blog visitors...

"By sheer coincidence, the highly treasonous Communisticon! is also being held in Raanana, Israel, on December 12th.

"More details as they come, assuming there'll be something particularly
interesting or amusing."

If you followed the online PARANOIA Lexicon game earlier this year, the Toothpaste Disaster, you'll recall that all the players in that game were ULTRAVIOLET-Clearance High Programmers assembling a report for The Computer. In that format this made sense, and the players quickly faced a danger even these illustrious mucky-mucks couldn't overcome: data overload.

I recall that game now because this RPG.net thread, which began with simple questions about PARANOIA XP and its forthcoming support line from Mongoose Publishing, has now drifted to the subject of ULTRAVIOLET play. It happened because I mentioned a supplement currently planned for Gen Con 2005, currently called Extreme PARANOIA.

You know how all beginning Troubleshooter PCs start with RED Clearance? Well, this major must-have supplement will offer rules for creating and playing characters of all clearances from ORANGE through VIOLET -- not necessarily Troubleshooters, but characters from a variety of backgrounds. For instance, I'm provisionally planning to have the GREEN section tell how to play Internal Security GREEN goons, using material adapted from Ken Rolston's classic 1986 West End Games PARANOIA supplement/adventure/thingy HIL Sector Blues. (Of course, those IntSec characters were BLUE. GREEN, BLUE -- whatever.)

I thought about including rules for ULTRAVIOLET Clearance in Extreme PARANOIA, but longtime paranoiac (and Crash Priority contributor) Jeff Groves pointed out that this would empower players far too much. It's hard to picture how to make UVs feel genuinely frightened and powerless. How does the Gamemaster keep them in line, when they have such awesome resources?

Now, in the RPG.net thread, apparently sensible citizens are suggesting ways High Programmer play could actually work. Oh, I'm sooo confused! Help me out! Do you think an ULTRAVIOLET-level tabletop game -- not an online Lexicon game, mind you, but an actual face-to-face around-the-table pencils-and-munchies RPG session -- could work? Post in the comments here or on the RPG.net topic.

Thanks to an anonymous guest on this thread in the Mongoose PARANOIA forum for a pointer to RPGsheets and its excellent repository of PARANOIA forms -- both the current XP edition's character sheet and most of the forms from the West End days. The whole site is worth a lengthy look around.

Disloyal citizens might argue that the presence of these forms online reduces the urgency to buy the PARANOIA XP Gamemaster Screen, which includes an insert booklet reproducing six of these forms. Ah, what shortsighted folly! Said booklet also includes the invaluable "mission blender," which lets you generate a complete PARANOIA mission, from briefing to debriefing and bloody aftermath, with just a few dozen (well, okay, many dozen) 1d20 rolls on its 72 charts. Compared to this fine item, the forms are mere fripperies. So purchase with a clear conscience.

We've talked a lot here about Mongoose Publishing's first PARANOIA XP supplement, The Traitor's Manual by Gareth Hanrahan. Now you can get a taste of it yourself, free.

The Traitor's Manual describes all 16 major secret societies from the XP rulebook. Gar's manuscript also dealt with these societies' prime recruiting ground for new members, The Computer's approved Elective Activity or Pursuit (EAP) clubs. These clubs divert Alpha Complex citizens with harmless and heavily supervised pastimes such as sports, hobbies, and civic support functions such as Spontaneous Loyalty Demonstrations and Volunteer Form Checking.

This five-page chapter, "Alpha Complex Social Clubs," was great. But unfortunately Gar wrote 94 other pages just as great, and so to fit them into a 96-page book (leaving two pages for the title and introduction), I regretfully cut it. However, Mongoose has generously made this chapter, "Alpha Complex Social Clubs", available as a free 732K download from its Web site. This is just one of many free downloads on the Mongoose site, including several (so far) for PARANOIA XP.

The downloads are in .PDF format, so you'll need the free Adobe Reader software to view them.

Gareth Hanrahan, staff writer at Mongoose Publishing and author of the imminent PARANOIA XP supplement The Traitor's Manual, writes a low-key but entertaining blog post of this year's Gen Con UK, held this past weekend in someplace called Butlins.

At the con Gar ran PARANOIA demos, using missions from the upcoming collection Crash Priority. Scroll down about halfway through his account to read brief, enigmatic hints about these missions. I say "enigmatic" because I, who edited this collection, have no idea what is meant by Gar's reference to "Soy Obsessive Syndrome." Maybe I should have read "Stealth Train" a bit more closely....

Mongoose Publishing is nearing the end of its first printing of the PARANOIA XP rulebook. The second printing, called "Service Pack 1," will include some corrections. Before you say anything: Yes, the new printing will have an improved index! I had to throw together the current index right at deadline, and knew at the time it was treasonously inadequate. Sorry.

Mongoose will also correct art errors in the "Welcome Lucky Troubleshooter" intro (pages 9-11) and will properly credit the character sheet to designer Michael Purgar. I hope I'll also get to iron out style inconsistencies and typos I committed throughout the book.

Though nothing is certain yet, PARANOIA co-designers Greg Costikyan and Eric Goldberg, in consultation with Mongoose, may also let me introduce some minor rules tweaks. Before you say anything (still): Owners of the first printing, fear not! If I do get to make these small changes, I'll summarize all revisions here, and also in a handout that Mongoose may make available for free download on its Web site.

The only changes under discussion right now appear in this Paranoia-Live.net forum thread. I welcome all opinions (he said guardedly), either in that forum or in the comments to this post. Mind you, Greg, Eric, and Mongoose may decide against rules changes.

It will be handiest for me if you report all errata in the comments to this selfsame post you're currently reading, even if you've already passed them along to me elsewhere. If this post becomes the one-stop shop for all corrections, it's less likely I'll screw up again. Plus, interested parties can just print out the comments as a handy errata sheet.

Okay, you can say something now.

Paranoiacs in the United Kingdom next August should consider attending Consternation, the 2005 British Roleplaying Society convention. It's held August 12-14 on the Cambridge University campus at New Hall (which was built in 1965 and thus really is "new" by Cambridge standards, though I imagine they'll still be calling it "New Hall" in Year 214 of The Computer). I am flattered and honored to be a guest at Consternation, replacing GURPS god David Pulver who unfortunately had to cancel for personal reasons. I'll stand shoulder to shoulder with my fellow guest, the esteemed Marcus L. Rowland, who has written for PARANOIA as well as (now that I think of it) for every single roleplaying game ever published.

I invite anyone interested in PARANOIA XP to show up at Consternation and talk Alpha Complex with me and several hundred friendly fans.

Inspired by Neel Krishnaswami's Lexicon game, I have drafted rules for a new blog-based roleplaying game called Noteworthy, designed for a referee and 6-24 players.

Each player in a shared setting has a blog, on which he posts entries in the persona of one game character. All blogs are part of the setting, and each character can read all the others' blogs. Each turn (probably weekly) the nonplayer referee describes some notable new event in general terms. Each player posts blog entries, and comments to other players' entries, that elaborate and embroider the general description.

By announcing a challenge in a blog entry, players can challenge one another; other players leave comments in support of or opposition to the challenge, and the majority wins. The winner can propose a way for his character to advance in the setting, and the referee may optionally incorporate the proposal into future events. The challenge's loser can no longer advance in the setting and becomes an "outsider," though he may still post and comment normally. The last active player wins.

I have posted my current draft of the Noteworthy rules on my home page. I have released the game under a Creative Commons license, and I encourage any interested bunch of bloggers to try it. (What is the collective noun for a bunch of bloggers?)

What does this have to do with PARANOIA? Oh, nothing, nothing really... yet....

I risk tedious repetition in reporting another RPG.net review of PARANOIA XP, this one by Evan Waters. But this newest review, aside from its enthused glow (Style and Substance both 5 out of 5), is also the best summary I've seen so far of the new edition's mechanics and changes from previous editions. If you still haven't looked at the new XP version, this review gives a useful overview.

Mongoose Publishing's in-house magazine, Signs & Portents, ran my lengthy PARANOIA XP preview in issue #14. Issue #15, due in the UK next week and the US shortly thereafter, has "Killer Times at TSU," an effective "Pre-PARANOIA" scenario by Jeff Groves that takes newly drafted Troubleshooters through orientation. Issue #16 will feature the good Takyn-U-RUN's account of how he ran four days of XP demos at Gen Con and emerged still able to speak complete sentences.

After that --? I know Paul Baldowski of Omega Complex is working up a nice article about skill improvements, but beyond that, the way lies clear. S&P editor Ian Barstow writes, "I can always use non-scenario stuff for PARANOIA. Everybody wants to write adventures...:<(" The little frowny-face at the end of his sentence bespeaks editorial heartbreak, and therefore a strong opportunity for ambitious freelancers.

The challenge, in writing for S&P, is to entertain experienced PARANOIA players while simultaneously engaging, enticing, and seducing novices who bought the magazine to get a new Conan prestige class or sleepwalking feats cut from The Quintessential Somnambulist. If you think you can meet that challenge, contact editor Ian Barstow at ibarstow (at) mongoosepublishing (dot) com.

Mental Health Matters needs to stop posting every book that includes the word "paranoia."

Another review of PARANOIA XP on RPG.net, this by Matthew Muth -- Style 5 (out of 5), Substance 5 (out of 5).

I sent the mission book Crash Priority to Mongoose late last night. It turned out quite well, I think. It should hit the shelves in November. Thanks to Bob Fleck for suggesting the title I finally went with for Andy "Jazzer" Fitzpatrick's mission: "Random Access Mission." I ran a bunch of other title suggestions as "fortune cookies" in the footers of right-hand pages in the mission, so presumably each reader can select one he or she likes.

No energy to report anything else. A dismal week of astoundingly high ragweed concentrations in the Austin, Texas area weakened me to the point some opportunistic virus decided to move in. Blah.