I daresay this subsidised paradise in the chilly north could easily form the backdrop for some modern day PARANOIA or perhaps some spin on the The Prisoner, with happy workers leading happy family lives amidst a basically fabricated and unsupportable community. Mandatory sports days, social events and art classes anyone?

Perhaps Pyramiden could be that colony set up on the agreement of The Computer, or one of the High Programmers, as a way to understand the way a small, above-ground community might work – or to comprehend the Communist mindset? Could the Troubleshooters wake to find they have led happy, ordinary lives as honourable and loyal Communists with loving families and generous prospects? Take them through the routine of labour in the mines, followed by swimming, song, and sitting around the fire telling stories to the children – but, over time, introduce clear signs of hardship, of a lack in essential maintenance skills and materials (because the central office back home always sends a replacement) and the remoteness of the colony. Then cut the lifeline completely, pull the plug, and leave them with nothing but static. Invariably, panic will grow, desperation follows when bellies grumble, and The Computer will send in ‘support‘, highly likely to be mistaken by the mind-altered inhabitants of the colony as a Capitalist invasion force… What fun!

I read ‘The Defenders‘ by Philip K. Dick. If it hasn’t been mentioned somewhere in a PARANOIA bibliography before, it needs to be appended. I’m sure it has.

Our world has descended into nuclear war. The Cold War went hot, and the Soviet and Allied forces struck fast and hard with weapons that rendered the surface uninhabitable. Mankind found a place to live deep beneath the ground, protected in great bunkers. Civilisation exists within layers of habitation beneath the earth. People live desperate lives, eating synthetic food, existing for their work bathed in artificial light. Stooped, tired and angry, they do what they can for the war effort, manufacturing weapons for transportation to the surface – where the Leady armies of both sides continue to battle. The artificial life-form known as the Leady can exist in the radioactive wasteland of the surface and continue to fight for the just cause of those struggling below. In time, the Leady will triumph and then their task will be to rebuild and cleanse the surface. Until then, the people strive to live from day-to-day, working hard, absorbing daily news reports from the war above like sponges, and hoping one day to see the Sun again.

I can see a touch of PARANOIA, a smattering of Terminator. Dick plays with themes he has used before, but the short tale makes for an enjoyable read – and when you reach the end, you know the conclusion could go no other way. You could have PARANOIA use the Leady concept to mean no one see the Outdoors. The Computer simply can’t risk lives sending anything up there but robots. It isn’t safe, it wouldn’t be right – to risk anyone out there would be to waste precious resource and serve only to create more casualties that benefit the cause of the enemy.

Well, one very frequent error relates to an old PARANOIA XP wallpaper:

My confusion led to some investigation. First, I had to actually work out that this was the image they wanted. I had a reference to their target, but not the target itself. So, I went over to the Wayback Machine on the Internet Archive. I didn’t expect to find a single specific image this way, but the archive had it. I typed in the exact address and image name – en voila! (or something like that). Anyway, I present it above for your viewing and downloading pleasure if you should feel inclined.

However, I couldn’t figure why anyone would be trying to access this image so vigorously (indeed, the vigour means I may well reduce the file size of this wallpaper image to minimise the impact on my bandwidth). I went to the site and having restored my own image, found it half way down the page. Scrolling up a couple of posts, on this French forum, I found the likely reason for all the hits on my image (which got loaded more as a matter of coincidence than interest!) – a World Cup-related image of two ladies with a football (probably NSFW), wearing little more than some artistically applied body paint representing a few patriotic flags.

Vive le foot féminin, indeed!

I have to say, Ian McKellen positively excelled in the role of Number Two. Often when you see an actor, a specific role comes to mind and it can be quite off-putting out of contest. The role you see often represents the one you most keenly associate with them – and in this case Ian’s performance means I can no longer watch ‘Lord of the Rings’ or the ‘X-Men’ movies in quite the same way. The cold menace of a man so committed and invested in his cause and beliefs, Ian gave Number Two considerable presence and gravitas. I seriously would love to meet this great actor of our time, but right now I probably wouldn’t want to be trapped in a lift with him.

The series had faults, but then so did the original, especially after McGoohan buckled under the pressure of Lew Grade to make more episodes than he’d originally intended. The latter half of the series suffered as a result with the sort of bottle episodes we loathe so much these days. Stories that didn’t push the narrative forward but simply told a tale span the series out to 17 episodes, when it could so easily have concluded in half that. The new version ran for six episodes and just about had the story for them all, though a couple ran a little thin on plot.

I’d like to think Number Two represents an interesting role model for the playing of a High Programmer. A man with a purpose that almost certainly seems at odds with his intent. An individual who delivers each word with calculated precision, each sentence representing a possible lie within a deceit wrapped in a falsehood. Number Two espouses a distilled dose of Machiavellian principles driven by a profound need to survive bordering on… well… acute paranoia.

Anyway… I liked it. A diehard fan of the original, I nevertheless have a place for the re-imagining. Be seeing you!

I attach a personal favourite below that fits PARANOIA in an alarming way, with an ULTRAVIOLET Clearance citizen lambasting a RED Clearance woman’s clear fear and confusion over what the green stuff in the foreground is all about. The thing on the wall in the background could easily be a terminal of The All-Seeing Computer, with an obvious eye-like element at the centre of the device.

Recommended reference material – perhaps worth a pop, or at least borrow one from the local library!

At the highest level, intrigue at a macro scale between monarchy and noble houses allowed the very Schism itself to fester and persist. The power at the heart of the Roman Catholic faith split when the unexpected death of the reigning pope led to the necessity of a sudden election in Rome that rankled the French cardinals residing in Avignon, from which the Pope had travelled out of many years of self-imposed exile. Two popes existed at the same time and the division of interests across Europe meant that some countries supported one, while the rest supported the other. Clement VII led from the Papal summer residence in France, while Urban VI led from the traditional seat in Italy.

The Popes relied on the support of the cardinals who elected them and the good will of the monarchs and noble who endorsed their right to rule. The nobles and monarchs bickered and quarrelled, seeking to outdo and outmanoeuvre through guile and diplomatic one-upmanship. Those on the right side of the Pope in ascendence might take to the high ground and claim some measure of morale superiority, as such displays of support brought the ear and forgiveness of the highest representative of God on Earth.

At a more local level, within Avignon itself, the potential for friction and back-stabbing expanded as the population did the same, property grew scarce, and the Papal household made increasing demands for goods and services. The importance of Avignon grew with the presence of the Pope, as did it’s size. The once large village the Pope moved to in the early fourteenth century grew to support a population of some 30,000 by the close of that period, a fifth of whom represented the varied ranks of the Papal household. The tradesmen, landlords, farmers, craftsmen, prostitutes, servants, and varied underclasses jockeyed for favour and good fortune in their attempts to garner some small part of the Papal wealth. Quite often such attempts to advance meant engaging in less than legal activities of over-charging, over-promising, under-supplying and out-right blackmail.

The elite within the community, lives heavy with sin and thoughts firmly set on an everlasting future in Heaven, also looked to impress and compete against their peers. The increasing importance of the town within Europe meant any with the wherewithal could forge a very promising future – though, for certain, not without clambering over the heads of those less able.

Within the walls of the Papal household itself, the ranks of the Curia – the support structure cascading downwards beneath His Holiness, the Pope – manifested like the varied strata of ancient rock, layer upon layer upon layer at once supported by and crushing those below. The household depended on accountants, administrators, quartermasters, archivists, scriveners, lawyers, scholars, guardsmen, gaolers, cooks, cleaners and servants, all vital within their own sphere of influence, and all with good reason to feather their own nests. Specialist contracts, personal favouritism and increasing rights of access within the Papal Court all represented goals of considerable worth to attain – and, ideally, to hold on to.

Beyond the lay-people, the Curia also included the monks, deans, bishops, deacons, and cardinals, all intertwined in varied duties and members of different, and often conflicting, Orders who sought to attain precedence in the eyes of God for the sanctity of their belief and the purity of their souls; not to mention the many worldly treasures, possessions and properties that come with maintaining the expansive Papal influence across all of the Holy Roman Empire and the furthest reaches of Christendom.

At a yet lower level within the swirling pattern of intrigue, Avignon served as the base of one of the many priories of the Knights of St John (otherwise, more commonly, known as the Hospitallers). The Crusades had given form and purpose to the Order, like so many others in the period, but over time the drive of the Hospitallers moved from engaging heathens and seeking divine support to something far less – it would seem – crusading and contemplative. By the time of the Schism, most members of the Order engaged in largely administrative activities managing the Hospitaller’s many holdings and the thankless pursuits of petty bureaucracy. Brothers sought to rise above the rabble given any opportunity, working hard to find their way into the upper echelons of the Brother Knights should the chance arose. Occasionally, a brother might find such actions necessitated treading – ever so lightly and with the greatest of reverence – on the toes, and egos, of those around them. However, even those few who rose to positions of seniority found themselves at odds with others seeking esteem, power and financial reward.

At every level, the Papal Schism provided room for those with a purpose to find their place, preferably as close to God as possible with comfortable furnishings, lavish meal-times, and forgiveness on tap. And, for each individual who found such a desirable position, another dozen or two found good cause to bring them down, to bring their good-nature into question, and to have them sent off for some soul-cleansing pilgrimage in the dominions of the unbelievers.

Belief, of whatever form, can be a great motivator.

Running until 18 April 2010, the galleries features the work of artists from the former Eastern Bloc. The installations range from ‘Star City’ itself – a 4 channel video presentation of a secret location near Moscow, where you witness the ruined remains of the Russian space race, including the practice modules used to train cosmonauts and the tattered, once luxurious accommodations around the facility – to a plentiful supply of propaganda posters of the era. One poster features smiling children, marching for the great cause clutching rabbits, flags and a basket of yellow chicks, proclaiming “Let’s Be Deserving Sputniks of the Seven-Year Plan.” Others proclaim “The Creative Forces of Communism are Endless!” or that a “Soviet Artificial Planet Runs Around the Sun in Honour of the XXI General Meeting of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1959″ – with supporting images of Russian rockets and heroic cosmonauts.

One wall features various proclamations and declarations around the great future that lies ahead under Communism, with an interesting timeline of developments from the end of the 1960s through to 2100 that singularly failed to deliver beyond 1969 – after which there should have been communication with dolphins, creation of artificial lifeforms, perfect weather control, bases on the Moon and Mars, and generational voyages beyond the Solar System (half of those I’ve listed fell in the timeline prior to now).

Some of the more ‘interesting’ installations include electrical appliances running on a variable current staggered by a morse code rendition of a Fidel Castro speech, a modular cinema – including integral seating arrangement – made out of wood and cardboard tubes, and images influenced by Stanislaw Lem’s “Solaris”.

Undoubtedly, the most impressive works for me had an incredible sense of mechanisation in decay. One, an as yet untitled work by Robert Kusmirowski, was a 1:1 scale replica of ‘futuristic’ machinery and control interfaces from facilities long since abandoned, a wall of dark green metal scabbed with rust, with glass-faced dials and great metal switches.

My personal favourite was “Elsewhere” (2008) by Micol Assael, a cabinet of electrical components, the door swung open and the unit leaning forward, sat at the centre of a dark pool of water. Live with electricity, microphones picked up sizzling, crackling and bubbling, as water trickled occasionally from long thin pipes extending from the top of the cabinet. Bizarrely brilliant.

While the whole ‘Star City’ exhibition provides an interesting source of imagery and perceptions for use in PARANOIA, I think “Elsewhere” alone could make for a great encounter. Imagine, the Troubleshooters enter a room to find the middle of the square space dominated by a towering stack of crackling machinery and the recessed floor filled with water. A strong smell of ozone fills the air. Near the stack lies a body, lying on one side in the water, dressed in a full body suit, shining gold in colour. The team have been told to come here, so they believe they have to do something. However, touching the water deliveries a powerful shock… so, what to do? In fact, they’ve been sent to the wrong place and this room contains an artistic installation funded by a slightly ‘touched’ ULTRAVIOLET. The artist is in the suit, but the material protects him from the electricity. A slave to his art, the guy has simply fallen asleep in pose.

“WHAT’S HOLDING UP PROGRESS, CITIZEN?”
“Oh, nothing Friend Computer, just heading into the Briefing Room now…”
SPLASH! CRACKLE! SIZZLE! POP! SPLASH! POP! HISS! BIG SPLASH!
“Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!”

[Installation view: Altrove – Elsewhere, Fundacja Galerii Foksal, Warsaw, 2009]

The mail-tube went ping! and he opened his eyes, swearing. For a moment he was tempted to let the pneumo-roll lie where it fell, but habit was too strong. He grumbled his way over to the basket and took it out.

The stamp across it jerked his mind to wakefulness. OfiSal, sEkret, fOr adresE OnlE – and a Security seal!

Just finished reading Security by Poul William Anderson (1953). Security recounts a simple tale of a distopian regime. Think it works out as a short story – it’s a few thousand words long, and available to download if you have the Stanza app on the iPhone (and, I daresay, available elsewhere).

Allen Lancaster works as a researcher on a state run Project. The world would be at war if not for the superiority of the State WMDs; but, that doesn’t stop rebels and lesser countries constantly plotting against them. Government agencies redefine history and language to wipe out subversion. The major bodies of Control, Efficiency and Security organise and review the life of each individual, while a solid work ethic, regulations and clearances keep everything in it’s rightful and well defined place. State-driven Projects – akin to R&D – push research forward without enthusiasm or freedom to deviate, at once advancing and stifling science. Traitors disappear to camp, never to return, tortured for information about the underground before suffering an inglorious demise. Loyalty yields little comforts and rewards.

Thoroughly recommended read for PARANOIA players and gamemasters alike.

Oddly, time continues to slip away too and I’m getting precious little writing done. I’m envious of Gareth Hanrahan’s Tweeted updates that he’s getting so much writing done. I need to get rigorous, I need to set the pace… The pen needs to spend more quality time with the paper.

Of course, I might have solved this issue with writer’s block earlier today and simply forgotten about it. I pray it was nothing quite so important!