PARANOIA and Netcon 17

I did an interview for Netcon 17, a Spanish virtual convention. For a little while I discuss how I got involved in writing for PARANOIA in the early Noughties. You can still find the official record of The Toothpaste Disaster embedded in Allen Varney‘s web site. A thoroughly entertaining experience… Continue reading PARANOIA and Netcon 17

Don’t Go Outside

In my tenure aboard the Good Complex PARANOIA, I have a vague recollection that the first rule of PARANOIA Club was: Don’t take them Outside In practice, Alpha Complex should – indeed must – be seen to be believed. The Troubleshooters should grasp that Alpha Complex is home and The… Continue reading Don’t Go Outside

OMEGA COMPLEX Rebooted

While it has been a while, never say never. Alpha Complex persists. The Computer remains optimal. All is well and Year 214 looks like a bountiful complex of potential. Expect 100% productivity. Expect 100% efficiency. Expect 100% loyalty. More to follow…

Lone Wolf: Simplicity & Nostalgia

I haven’t finished reading the Lone Wolf Adventure Game yet, but I’m more than halfway through. The game boils down into three books at heart, with various other components like pre-generated characters, tokens, combat tables and a randomiser. I have read the Book of Kai Legends, which contains two adventures.… Continue reading Lone Wolf: Simplicity & Nostalgia

PARANOIA Architecture

The Esther Koplowitz Foundation for children with Cerebral Palsy occupies a 1950s building in south-west Madrid. The architects of Hans Abaton met the challenge of extending the existing building in a particularly colourful way. For the mind tuned to dystopian role-playing, it looks like a thoroughly modern approach to multi-clearance… Continue reading PARANOIA Architecture

Character In Three Acts

I’m not generally one to engage in all-out acts of improvisation and storytelling; however it occurred to me at the weekend that a little bit of freeform play might assist with rounding out characters for our current Call of Cthulhu 7th edition campaign. I had an interesting session in my… Continue reading Character In Three Acts

Embrace the Ignorance

The most interesting (and frustrating) thing I have found about designing adventures for conventions comes down to lack of foresight about your players. You can’t account for the extent of the knowledge. In some games, this might mean that you run a game with which someone has considerable experience. In… Continue reading Embrace the Ignorance

Historical versus Time Travel

I have been preparing for gaming events later this year, which has included effort on both historical games for my own 214 system and consideration of adventures for TimeWatch, a GUMSHOE game. As the name hints, TimeWatch is a game about time travel, as yet unpublished, but due soon following… Continue reading Historical versus Time Travel