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Minireview: Internal Security (Paranoia)

“To Serve, To Protect, To Vaporize”

The main idea behind the latest edition of Paranoia is to divide the game into three “levels” of play. First off, there’s the classic Troubleshooter-oriented game, now aptly titled “Paranoia Troubleshooters”. Next up there’s this book, Paranoia Internal Security (IntSec), detailing life among the Blue cadres of the Alpha Complex police force, Internal Security. Lastly there’s High Programmers, where you get to play an Ultraviolet, lording over the cattle…. err, the citizens, that is.

While Troubleshooters is “just” a slight revision of the older “Paranoia XP” edition, this book goes into somewhat different territory – while the base mechanics and some of the groups are the same, the focus is slightly different. Having made it to the hallowed ranks of Blue security clearance (or even higher), the PCs have had to also (gasp!) get along with each other (in addition to the normal backstabbing/bootlicking, of course). The ones that automatically shoot everything that moves and frame each other as traitors at the tiniest provocation rarely make it this far.

Of course, this is still Paranoia, so a certain amount of party-internal conflict is still on the menu. This time round, the driving mechanic is “sector indexes”… arbitrary numbers that the team has to keep within Computer-defined limits. Naturally enough, each team member is responsible for a different index, and also naturally enough many of the indexes are mutually contradictory. To raise the Security index, you often need to beat up and imprison citizens… which lowers the Happiness index, and perhaps also the Loyalty index. Of course, the PC in charge of Security doesn’t need to care about all that, after all he has his mandate from the Computer. He only needs to care about possible sabotage from his team members… but would any loyal citizen really sabotage one of the Computer’s valued Internal Security squads? You bet your ass they would.

Oh, and let’s not forget the (possible) cortex bombs installed in team members’ heads (remotely activated by the Security Officer), or the “activate or shut down all guns” main switch controlled by the Team Leader. Isn’t it fun being a Team Leader or Security Officer?

The book consists mostly of rules expansion and extra stuff to cover life in the “police force”, with emphasis on how this game differs from the base-level Troubleshooters play. A fun twist here is the option of bossing Troubleshooter teams around or ordering them on suicide missions. That’s what they’re for, after all. As noted, the emphasis here is more on covert sabotage (of the team goals, to enhance your own goals) than on direct “he’s a Commie traitor, shoot him!” action – though that’s always an option. The main hose job here are, as mention, the sector indexes, which are totally arbitrary and often contradictory. Good luck with trying to fulfill them all… so might as well concentrate on the one you need to keep on solid ground.

It’s a fun expansion of the “base” Paranoia game, and also works are an option in a campaign where the PCs actually get promoted to Blue or higher. That would probably require playing with “Straight” rules, of course. Recommended to anyone who likes the new version of Paranoia; unlike the “Paranoia Troubleshooters” book, this one is much more than a slight revision, it contains tons of new stuff (some influenced by the old “HIL Sector Blues” book, of course).

Minireview: The Resurrected III: Out of the Vault (Call of Cthulhu)

Out of the Vault is a compilation of Call of Cthulhu scenarios from the pages of Pagan Publishing’s “Unspeakable Oath” magazine (issues of which can be hard to get hold of nowadays), with new layout and art. Possibly some tweaks / corrections also, not sure about that; I had read almost all of these previously from the magazines, but it’s been a while so can’t say about possible differences. In any case, it’s generally a very high-class compilation. There are 10 scenarios, mosty from the “classic” 1920s era, and most of them are pretty good. Some few are only so-so, and a few are truly excellent. Many are quite deadly, as is par for the course for Cthulhu one-shots.

Highlights for me were the bizarre and deadly “Within You Without You”, the cinematic “Blood on the Tracks”… and above all, the crazy and brilliant “In Media Res”. That last one is quite unusual for a CoC scenario and is close in theme and feel to the (also brilliant and unusual) Unknown Armies scenario “Jailbreak”. It throws the PCs (and players) into a very scary situation with no warning, and also wraps up before questions are answered. Creepy and very cool, and also very suitable for a short LARP session; in fact some people have apparently run it as such.

Minireview: Blood For Blood (Pathfinder #34)

With Blood For Blood (written by Neil Spicer), the “Kingmaker” adventure path moves on to its second half. As before, the design is a “sandbox”, with the PCs assumed to have created and started to rule their own small kingdom in the (ex)wilderness. To support this, the adventure path present various rule additions and minigames to support kingdom building, simple mass combat. and such. All in all, very good stuff.

Here the PCs are faced with barbarian incursions, with strong suspicion than a nearby rival kingdom may be behind the attacks… but whatever the case may be, the PCs have to face the reality of the actual attacks first before they start to trace background leads. The module presents some very simple mass combat rules so that small-scale battles versus barbarian hordes can be resolved without everything grinding to a halt. After this, there is a vast swamp to explore (with potentially hostile natives), and a rival kingdom to subvert: this also involves a small minigame, having to do with manipulating the town loyalties. The end game involves a small dungeon crawl to face the barbarian leader.

It’s another very good installment in the Kingmaker path. This part involves lots of different types of action, and I really like the small rulesets and minigames that help out in resolving various things; it’s almost “indie” design in places. As before, this is assumed to be played at a certain point in the campaign, but could be shuffled into another “slot” if that seems more workable to the GM.

Minireview: From Shore To Sea (Pathfinder)

From Shore To Sea (written by Brandon Hodge) is a nifty little adventure. Set on the coast (of Cheliax, but could be placed anywhere), it has the PCs investigate strange happenings at a small fishing village. Villagers have been disappearing, and there are rumors of strange “fish-men” stalking about. Yes, Paizo’s love of Lovecraftian stuff is in full swing here.

It doesn’t directly follow an “Innsmouth” plot, though, even though that has obviously been some influence. Events lead the PCs to an extremely strange island some ways offshore, and unless they are careful they might find themselves changed in some ways… permanently. The island is quite inventively designed, and the main plot is decent enough as a driving force. Also, the backstory has some nice “local traditions” that are linked to the happenings, and should cause some headaches for the PCs if they hear about them. The main “bad guy” has a fair chance of escaping and returning in the future as a recurring villain, which is always a nice touch. There are lots of small nifty details in this module, and in general I’d rate it as one of the better Paizo standalone modules.

Minireview: Conspirator, by C.J. Cherryh

The “Foreigner” series is Cherryh’s longest-running series; she’s usually content with stand-alone trilogies, but apparently fell in love with the world she had created (and/or the sales were good :). This tenth book, Conspirator, starts the fourth trilogy in the series (the series is grouped as a sequence of connected trilogies). Normally any series, even an excellent one, would start to run out of steam at this point by latest, but there is no sign of that yet. I should note that Cherryh is among my favorite authors and the Foreigner sequence is possibly my favorite from her work… so I’m biased.

While this book does feel like a bit of ground-setting for upcoming events, it’s great stuff. As fans of the series will know, the Foreigner sequence is (more or less) the story of Bren Cameron, “paidhi” (something between translator and chief diplomat) between humans and the alien Atevi, on remote world long ago cut off from the rest of humanity. While the series does have action and violence at times, a large bulk of the real “action” has to do with diplomacy, social cues and such. Rarely has tea-drinking had the same level of tension as in these books. That might sound disparaging, but it’s meant as anything but: these books really underline the hair-trigger cultural relations between two very different races, and the people trying their best to keep the powder-keg from blowing up. Usually that involves private meetings and public speeches, at other times it involves desperate firefights in the darkness and running full-out, hoping your bodyguards have you covered.

In this book, Bren is forced out of “his” apartment in the capital by political wrangling, and retreats to his country estate; he is a “lord” now, after all. On arrival he discovers that not everything on site is as it should be, and while he is trying to sort things out, he gets word that Cajeiri (the young Atevi leader-to-be) had escaped his parental custody and is heading his way – blissfully unaware of various assassins who would love to remove him from the equation. Enter Ilsidi (and her staff), along with Bren’s brother and his ex-wife, and things really liven up. Where “liven up” means gunfire, assassins and general chaos.

It’s a good book, and I’d venture a guess that this trilogy will center on Cajeiri and his education as a future leader… but I could be wrong. I’m sure it’ll be entertaining, in any case.

Ropecon 2010 VTES results

The tournament report for the Ropecon 2010 VTES tournament is now up.

Minireview: Dead Stars (Dark Heresy)

Dead Stars is the third and final book in the Dark Heresy adventure trilogy “Haarlock’s Legacy”. I’ve written before about how much I liked the first two books; in fact, I’m currently running a small campaign that will lead up to those (assuming we get that far). They are well-written, nicely organized and have an extremely good mix of intrigue, action and horror elements. Despite their somewhat limited page count, they manage to contain a lot of tips on running the campaign, including notes on general theme and mood. As an additional bonus, the adventure in Disciples of the Dark Gods (“The House of Dust and Ash”) is an (optional) initial part of this scenario sequence – I intend to use it as such, myself.

So, now we have the final book. I’m glad to report that it’s quite excellent, but will probably leave some people unsatisfied (I’m not among those people). The book does not contain stats for Haarlock, it does not reveal the secret of the Tyrant Star, and in general some Big Mysteries are left as such. I think that’s fine. Haarlock himself is more a plot device than a real antagonist here, due to certain unfolding plot details I don’t want to spoil – and the writers have always avoided tying themselves into any one explanation for the Tyrant Star.

Despite some “plot device” NPCs, the PCs are in very real control here, and have actual power. In the end, they are forced to make some very difficult decisions, which will have significant effect on the whole Sector. The “how and why” of that is a big part of this module, and I’ll try not to spoil that here.

The initial action centers on the forbidden world of Mara, and an abandoned Ice Station there. It’s a very creepy locale; there is a strong “haunted house” mood. The PCs are far from the only ones gunning for the same target, so this thing could get very deadly, fast. From Mara, the PCs go… somewhere else. Many somewheres. Here is where I’ll use the “no spoilers” card and just shut up on detail… except to say that the endgame takes place on an infamous Death World, where the PCs will have the chance to decide the fate of worlds. Not making a choice is also a choice, in itself.

I really like the organization and production values in these books. There is a lot of GM help provided, information is clearly laid out, and in general this reads like something that should be a lot of fun to run. I’ll see about that in practice myself, later. The level of detail is less than in most D&D -style scenarios; many places aren’t mapped at all, and lots of things are described as loose scenes that the GM knits together. I’m fine with that, I’m used to thinking of games that way, but it might be a bit jarring to someone who is used to having all information pre-digested for him. The GM will need to do some prepwork here, but it’s more along the lines of “add some detail here and there” than any number crunching or creature statting; that stuff is included and nicely organized.

I remain quite impressed with this adventure trilogy.