Harry Enfield has done some interesting stereotypes in his comedy sketches in the past (though not without controversy), including Jurgen, the profusely and masochistically apologetic German, and the Dutch policemen, who are attentative gay lovers and have more than a passing interest in pot smoking. Well, I spotted this PARANOIA auction, and I couldn’t help but apply one of Enfield’s Northern European accents to it…
Paranoia 2nd Edition WEG West End Games Traveller Space Opera SciFi Dark Comedy Auction Bid Now Buy
It is forbidden to disobey the Computer. Now as a lowly, Infra-red troubleshooter who is a traitor to Alpha Complex and the Computer; how will you survive?
More books than just the box set…
[snip... snip...]
The Paranoia Sourcebook – The Return of the Computer; its back and badder than ever. Gives subdivisions of Alpha: Alpha Complex, Alpha Base, and Alpha City. Explains Treason, Commies, Mutants, and Clones in Reboot Alpha. New equiptment from R&D (Oh No!)
Too Hilarious! Paranoia is a Dark Comedy set in the futuristic underground complex of Alpha.
Batteries and dice not included. Bid Now and Win!
Possibly it’s just me. In fact, it definitely is just me; but, it amuses me no end, like an R&D experiment gone wrong (Oh No!)
Like translating humour in stand-up comedy, just how easy is it to translate some aspects of a setting like PARANOIA, especially considering so many of the foundations of the back story come from English literature and Western film.
I attended Dragonmeet in London at the weekend. I had intended on meeting up with Graham Bottley of Arion Games – as I recently published ‘The Sward and The Stone‘ for the Maelstrom system, and hoped to promote it with him. However, Graham couldn’t make it in the end – pressures of the real world. So, I went along alone for a wander and a rummage.
Delays getting into London meant I missed the first round of scheduled games, and needing to leave by 5pm at the latest made it impossible for me to join the second wave of games. Annoying. So, instead I wandered around the various trade stands and took a look at what they had to offer. I had a look at Cold City and Hot War from the guys at Contested Ground on the Collective Endeavour stand, and got my copy of ‘Trail of Cthulhu’ signed by Ken Hite and Robin Law. I purchased a Security Clearance range of gem dice from Chessex and purchased an Explorer’s Edition of ‘Savage Worlds’ from Triple Ace Games.
I also had a chat with Matthew Sprange on the Mongoose stand. I glanced over the PARANOIA range available – including the brand new ‘Big Book of Bots‘ and noticed a lack of ‘The Underplex‘. I asked Matthew about it – and was relieved to find that it hadn’t been forgotten… they’d just sold out. I stood over a copy of the new ‘Dragon Warriors’ for a very long time, angonising over whether to pick up a copy… but, in the end I decided my original six book of the game would suffice for the time being! They’re hard to come by these days.
My final find for the day was picking up a game from the Bring and Buy stand. I found a copy of ‘Metamorphosis Alpha‘ – the hardback 4th edition – signed by James Ward and going for a very reasonable price. I had seen a copy at Game 2008, and the book got my attention because Jim Holloway had done all the interior art and the colour cover. I’m a sucker for Jim’s stuff. However, the parallels with PARANOIA don’t end at the artist. A ship in the depths of space runs into a cloaked asteroid filled with alien pirates essentially. The collision fills the ship with lethal radiation, killing the crew outside of stasis and sending a lot of the systems and robots haywire. When the Starship Warden starts to recover from the accident, first robots, then androids, and finally human crew emerge. The ship has been invaded and the effects of the radiation have caused mutations. You can’t tell whether the androids or robots have been effected by the disaster until they turn on you. The systems on the ship have security related to different coloured rings or individual working roles, so the players characters can’t necessarily get to where they need to go without a lot of potential danger. Danger, excitement, radiation, mad robots, infilitration by the enemy, hidden mutations… oh, and did I mention the core AI systems that should be in control of everything, but don’t work quite right anymore…
I’m looking forward to playing this game real soon!
I’m going to be hanging around The Armitage Centre in Fallowfield for most of tomorrow, at Game 2008. I’ll be the one wearing the ‘Fueled by PARANOIA’ t-shirt with Omega Complex advertised on the back (which you won’t see if I’m wearing a coat… but, that depends on the heating system they have running at the Centre). I imagine I’ll spend time wandering around the traders and will be giving the Doctor Who RPG (by Cubicle 7) a go, assuming the organisers haven’t screwed up the booking system!
Perhaps I’ll see you there. Or perhaps I’ll be hiding prepared to ambush you…
Glancing through a copy of ‘The Guardian’, I’ve had since October 9th (I rarely read newspapers the day I buy them… I prefer to relax and absorb the content when it’s convenient to me), I opened the centre spread to find the stunning interior of Torrevaldaliga Nord, a coal-powered energy plant north of Rome. These pictures made me think of ‘Both Sides Now’, my mission in ‘Service, Service!‘ where Troubleshooters get the chance to face off against themselves in the heart of an advanced new Power Services generator. I’m sure the average player couldn’t really comprehend the sheer scale of the character’s environment and just how damned imposing it would be…
I can envisage the core of the generator hanging above the platform in the first picture, while the second image provides a great idea of the immense size of the dome. Indeed, I think it probably isn’t large enough. The third image adds to the range of tunnels and passageways suitable for inclusion in ‘The Underplex‘… a conveyor belt that seems to vanish off into infinity somewhere, it provides a sense of the industrial combined with a notion of the ‘what the heck do all these red things do?’. Well, it does for me.
…because physical components of the machines expand and contract in response to temperature changes, the amount of time a machine has been running, or even the time of day, might affect calibration—which could explain why the problem didn’t show up in later attempts to reproduce the error.
After the last presidential election, you’d have thought the tech firms responsible for touchscreen voting systems would have used the intervening years to make improvements. The iVotronic machines implicated in the voting problems of Florida in 2006 have come under scrutiny again, as people voting Democrat find the selection jumping to the Republicans.
Not only can the environment and time of day impact the performance of the touchscreen calibration, but also the height of the user and how long the device has sat in storage. The opportunities in PARANOIA for confusion and bewilderment seems endless, as R&D constantly mothball and then recycle technologies. That nifty touchscreen control for the ActivePeril Plasma-fusion Multi-load Missile Launcher worked a treat in the lab, delivering multiple ordnance types against a range of test targets… but, out in the field, in a corridor with functionally-challenged air conditioning or traitor-sabotaged strip lighting, will it work with the same streamlined functionality?
What about other control interfaces, from auto-medication dispensers and elevator controls, to vending machines or automatic bank tellers?
CITIZEN NICK-R-LSN – YOU HAVE INPUT A REQUEST TO WITHDRAW 1,000,000 CREDITS. YOU HAVE INSUFFICIENT FUNDS TO MEET THIS REQUEST. DO YOU FEEL YOU ARE UNDERVALUED, CITIZEN NICK-R? I NOTE YOUR EQUIPMENT OFFICER HAS IDENTIFIED SEVERAL ITEMS OF GEAR NOT RETURNED ON MISSION COMPLETION. WOULD YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THAT, CITIZEN NICK-R? IS THAT A NEW JUMPSUIT YOU ARE WEARING?
Uh, no. No, hang on. I input a request for 100 credits. Not a million. I… uh… this jumpsuit isn’t new… I just…
ARE YOU LOGGING A COMPLAINT ABOUT THE INPUT INTERFACE OF THE AUTO-TELLER, CITIZEN NICK-R? ARE YOU (A) QUESTIONING THE EFFICIENCY OF TECH SERVICES MAINTENANCE PROTOCOLS? (B) LOGGING A REPAIR DETAIL INADEQUACY REQUEST AGAINST…
Uh… No. Look, I…
I AM SORRY, CITIZEN NICK-R, YOUR RESPONSE DOES NOT MATCH THE SELECTION OFFERED. I AM DESPATCHING A VULTURE SUPPORT, COUNSELLING AND RIOT SUPPRESSANT SQUAD TO ATTEND TO YOUR REQUEST. PLEASE REMAIN AT THIS LOCATION UNTIL THEY ARRIVE.
Oh, sh…
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