Seed Vault

August 21st, 2009 by Paul Baldowski | Posted in Real World, Underplex | No Comments »

Interesting setup at Svalbard – Seed Vault – where the hope of generations to come, post-apocalypse, sit in racks of dark grey boxes. A holy grail for Sierra Club members, and undoubtedly there’ll be a way in via the Underplex. Accessing from underground would obviously be a lot easier than braving the Outdoors and facing off in unarmed combat against armored polar bears…

(If Allen got here before me somewhere in the recent/distant past on the Dev Blog, I can but apologize for the repetition. If not, of course you can post a link, Allen.)

Last Chance to See

June 30th, 2009 by Paul Baldowski | Posted in Books, Writing | No Comments »

If you haven’t made the most the chance to get hold of the current PARANOIA line in PDF format from DriveThru before now, then you have less than a day left to get over there and do something about it.

Right now, I’m struggling to get my head into gear on any kind of writing because of a web-based bugbear hanging over my work schedule. It feels like I’ve been sent on a mission and the briefing officer is hanging off my arm or something. I try to get the job done, but he’s always there, wailing and shouting at me to pay attention to him… and him alone. I have no doubt he’s got something important to say. I just wish he’d say it and get the hell out of here.

I’m current reading Ella Minnow Pea (also available, I note, in a Kindle edition for those lucky citizens with the right kind of mission equipment), which, if nothing else, is a novel crafted with incredible skill.

The people of the island of Nollop hold their language in high regard and use it with supreme skill and affection. Each citizen uses incredibly flowery language, pushing their vocabulary to the limits – as they effectively worship the man Nevin Nollop, the inventor of the pangram ‘The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog’. The author, Mark Dunn, begins with the full alphabet at his command, but as the story proceeds letters disappear – as within the tale tiles on a cenotaph in Nollop’s honour fall off his famed pangram and the island council rule the lost letters prohibited.

At first the loss of Z or Q seems a mere inconvenience, but once you lose D, the past tense slips out of reach and it become fascinating to read. The people of Nollop either accept the decision or struggle against it, facing punishments that range from the stocks, through exile, and on to the death sentence. The council suggest the loss of the letters is a matter of faith, but put new statute in place that places land abandoned by the exiled in their hands, feathering their nests for an uncertain future. A man from the mainland offers science as the cause of the incidents, the matter of 100 year old glue losing all ability to hold the tiles in place any more; but, he can only sway the council to believe the truth if someone can create a pangram of 32 letters or less, which would prove Nollop is not the god-like figure others hold him to be.

Well worth reading…

UK Games Expo

June 5th, 2009 by Paul Baldowski | Posted in Not PARANOIA | No Comments »

Off to the UK Games Expo in Birmingham tomorrow. Should be a quick drive (less than 2 hours traffic permitting) and I can then have a snoop around the game stands to see what’s new.

Last time I was there, they had the new edition of Talisman (before Games Workshop gave it up to Fantasy Flight), my kids played Magic (and I even managed a quick draft), and I pottered around a spot. Played a game of Cthulhu Munchkin with Phil Masters (a very pleasant veteran of the RPG industry who is always very unassuming considering the incredible amount of stuff he has written over the years).

Hoping to see some new board games, check out who is down there representing Mongoose (to pump them for details on the new PARANOIA, maybe), and see what the 2nd hand dealers have to offer. Maybe a demo or two with the likes of Esdevium to pass the time?

Oh… and if you’re there yourself, I’ll be wearing a bright green hand-painted Cthulhu t-shirt – Fhtagn!

Dear Owner

June 3rd, 2009 by Paul Baldowski | Posted in Not PARANOIA | No Comments »

I noticeded that your domain “omegacomplex.com” expires in a few weeks, which means that it is going to be publicly available soon. I’d like to buy this domain name before it expires.

I assume that you are not interested in keeping it for yourself.

Hmm… Does this person know something that I don’t? Very strange mail indeed, especially as they only offered me $60 for the domain name. Really not sure what anyone would want with Omega Complex…

I mean, except for all sorts of medicinal and health concerns, drug firms… Just those few dozen individuals, firms or multi-national consortiums.

Anyway… I have no plans of giving the domain name up. Well, not unless someone plans on making that dollar value more exciting.

Amnesia

June 1st, 2009 by Paul Baldowski | Posted in Inspiration | No Comments »

I’m definitely certain there was something that happened today that made me think of PARANOIA. Now, however, so many hours after whatever it was, I have forgotten. Not a clue. I can’t believe that it has simply slipped away.

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!

Lost – Day #104

May 7th, 2009 by Paul Baldowski | Posted in Writing | No Comments »

I find writing can take on many of the characteristics of a river – sometimes free flowing, other times clogged up with silt. I have spent a good while jammed up behind a big beaver dam knee-deep in silt, but I feel I may be coming up for a change. I have been ruminating over a single project for far too long now… So, with a singularity of purpose, I must get it finished ASAP.

Later is no longer an option. I mean, you can tell The Computer you’ll get around to that briefing later… You get it done now, or face a thorough and rejuvenating brainscrub!

Can’t Tell Stalk from Mutter

April 26th, 2009 by Paul Baldowski | Posted in Books, Mongoose, Traitor Books and Games | No Comments »

I notice that Gareth H. (@mytholder) has been muttering – well, tweeting – about having a problem with the end of a PARANOIA mission. I have been keeping an eye out for his posts and Tweets because I’m interested in how the new edition of the game might be developing. I’m not sure whether this mission has anthing to do with the new rule set, or if this is something completely separate.

Having been quite involved in the game for the last five years, I take an interest in these things. My contributions may have been small… But that doesn’t mean that I stop caring. Indeed, I have been working hard on my own mission this weekend – keen to keep my oar in so as not to forget exactly how it is done. I like the creative process, though I’m not especially quick or decisive about it. I do have my moments, but they’re woefully unpredictable.

I’ll try to lay off taking too much interest in what other people are doing, and concentrate a little harder on my own projects. I’m sure Gareth will get the job finished just fine…

GM's Day

March 3rd, 2009 by Paul Baldowski | Posted in Announcements, Books | No Comments »

For anyone keen to try PARANOIA for the first time or simply fill out their collection in a way that doesn’t impact the world’s trees, you can currently get pretty much the whole range at a discount online.

DriveThruStuff have a celebration of the GM on this week – advertised under the misnomer of GM’s Day. You can get the PDF PARANOIA range for the knockdown price (correct, by my calculations, at time of typing) of £143.91, or $204.75 (or thereabouts… my hand kept cramping on the calculator!). If you have some cash lying around, it seems like a good time.

And you can still pick up copies of the defunct Criminal Histories and The Underplex.

Given A Little Latitude

February 5th, 2009 by Paul Baldowski | Posted in Gadgets and Gear, Real World | No Comments »

With the likes of Google Earth, Google Street View and Google Latitude, you might be thankful that Alpha Complex doesn’t have the same kind of coverage. The average Troubleshooter carries a PDC with all kinds of widgets and doodads built in, but the hotch-potch construction of Alpha Complex combined with freak energy spikes, radiation, experimental shielding, and a lack of 100% efficiency in any surveillance systems means The Computer cannot ever be really certain where you are at any given time.

However, it might be tempting to allow R&D the occasional flash of brilliance, jury-rigging ancient technology and software to restore some level of this location-obsessed madness. Bringing Street View to Alpha Complex might manifest as hovering cambots making kamikaze dashes around fixed corridors, generating a 3-dimensional environmental feed that complicates the lives of an average traitor. How can you make contact with a Secret Society informant when the chosen destination lies at a crossroads monitored by a higher than average number of CompCam hoverbots. When an error in patrol pattern uploads means a technican has set a dozen bots circling the same stretch of corridors at slightly different intervals, how can you make a vital drop without looking incredibly suspicious. On the other hand, Troubleshooters might ponder how they can put the cambot corridor survey to their advantage in framing and screwing over their colleagues…

Latitude could provide an interesting take on Aliens-style motion sensors, allowing you to know the location and movements of almost any citizen – but also allowing them to see where you are. Briefing officers might hack the software to record them as present in the briefing room, despite their staying in bed halfway across the sector, a sub-routine shifting the locator dot every now and again to keep the Troubleshooters guessing before they finally reach an empty room. Records will show the briefing officer was there, while the Troubleshooters face the wrath of IntSec or The Computer because they utterly failed to achieve their objective (due to complete ignorance of whatever they were supposed to be doing!).

Perhaps stealth technology intended to drop Troubleshooters off the network might fail just when they’ve located the Commie Traitors, spoiling the element of surprise and allowing the enemy to make plans for an ambush or a clean getaway. Or, The Computer might send the team in hot pursuit of a rogue group of Troubleshooters across the opposite side of the sector, only for them to discover that the markers on their map are in fact their own – but someone uploaded the sector map upsidedown…

Google grows ever closer, it would seem, to some kind of subliminal Big Brother, mapping our every movement and checking out how well we tend our back gardens under a guise of innocent progress. Seems a shame not to take advantage of the same kind of breakthroughs in Alpha Complex too…

Mini-Review of The Underplex

February 3rd, 2009 by Paul Baldowski | Posted in Books, Underplex | No Comments »

Petri Wessman recently posted a short, but reasonably positive, review of The Underplex. I have no objection to any reviews, but reasonably positive (or better) ones are certainly preferred!