12

The Computer is Your Friend!

Greetings, citizen! Prepare for immediate entry into the underground city of
Alpha Complex. There you will serve The Computer as a Troubleshooter.
Trust The Computer! The Computer is your friend!
ck, and
a r a n o ia is ba as it
P od
t as go
The Computer has assigned you to root out Communist mutant traitors in your
it’s jus ! In fact, we beloved Alpha Complex. You must apprehend them with the weapons and
as
ever w better than equipment generously provided by The Computer. WARNING: Damaging The
h in k it ’s
t
Computer’s property is treason punishable by execution.
ever.
our
t take
u t d o n’t jus a s k ed You and your fellow Troubleshooters must eliminate traitorous mutants and
B e
or it. W l
word f XP’s principa members of secret societies. If you discover a fellow Troubleshooter to be a
r a n o ia e y, t o
Pa arn traitor, you must apprehend or terminate him. Your fellow Troubleshooters
r it e r, Allen V g u id e
w idiot’s would do the same for you—repeatedly—if they learn you are, yourself, a
u s a n
give
game. mutant and a secret society member.
to the
e
ber, th d.
Remem is your frien
Won’t that be fun? Of course it will. The Computer says it will be lots of fun.
m p u t e r Do you doubt The Computer?
co

If you said ‘yes,’ please report to the termination centre for immediate
recycling. Thank you for your co-operation.

1. At your service! your character belongs to one

of the many secret societies that
common goal and basically
be a good little scout.
PARANOIA, the classic roleplaying
plague Alpha Complex, treasonous
game of a darkly humorous future,
organisations like the Communists, PARANOIA: Trusting other
has returned! The newly updated
Psion, the Illuminati, First Church players will get you killed
PARANOIA XP debuts this month,
of Christ Computer-Programmer six times in six minutes.
brought to you by The Computer’s
and the Sierra Club. You also have a Your secret society gives
loyal Research & Design specialists
hidden mutant power, anything from you covert goals that
in MNG Sector (a.k.a. Mongoose
Pyrokinesis or Electroshock to Matter probably conflict with
Publishing).
Eater or Puppeteer or Bureaucratic The Computer’s assigned
Intuition, or even the incredibly mission and with those of
In PARANOIA you play an elite
treasonous Machine Empathy. your fellow characters; in
Troubleshooter in service to a well
fact, your secret mission
meaning but deranged Computer. On
Your fellow Troubleshooters are also often requires you to bump
missions for The Computer that range
secretly traitors. They all carry lasers. off a fellow character.
throughout Alpha Complex, you and
Do you see where this is going? Frame the others, blackmail
your team of Troubleshooters (the
PARANOIA is like no other RPG them, accuse them of
other players) seek out and eliminate
you’ve ever played.... treason, get them executed—
traitors. Your deepest fear is that your
before they do it to you.
fellow Troubleshooters will realise
• Other (non-fun) games:
you are one of these traitors.
You are constantly urged to • Other (non-fun) games:
co-operate with your fellow You yearn for powerful
That’s right, you’re a traitor from
players, earn their trust, weapons and equipment to
the moment the game begins.
work with them toward a make you ever more capable.
Unbeknownst to the other characters,
PARANOIA: You’re not
 13
cleared to know
what your
equipment does
or how it works.
Rumours that
your weapons
and equipment
are junk,
which will
malfunction
explosively as
soon as you pull
a trigger, are
treason.

• Other (non-
fun) games:
You have
attributes,
skills and
characteristics
that let you
create and
explore a
complex, • Other (non-fun) games: spectrum—even up to the
nuanced personality. The higher your level lofty VIOLETs and the
or ability, the greater mysterious ULTRAVIOLET
PARANOIA: Your your power or authority. High Programmers. You
Troubleshooter’s life span The world’s leaders are hope to survive long enough
is measured in days, if legendary figures of to rise in clearance so
not hours, so don’t get too astounding ability. you can lord it over other
attached to his personality. citizens, such as your fellow
Instead, use the character PARANOIA: The Computer Troubleshooters.
as a vehicle to project runs Alpha Complex using
yourself into the setting, an unbreakable system • Other (non-fun) games:
to experience its fear and of colour-coded security You get comprehensive
hilarity firsthand. clearances. Clearance rules to memorise and
Still, don’t worry about doesn’t measure your innate master. Rules arguments are
stopping play every five ability or accomplishment, common between the Games
minutes to create a new but tells only how much Master and knowledgeable
character. Owing to the The Computer trusts you. A players.
high fatality rate among high-clearance citizen can
Troubleshooters, The command, berate, penalise PARANOIA: As a player,
Computer generously and generally lord it over you aren’t allowed to show
provides you a set of clone anyone of a lower clearance. knowledge of the game
backups. In the event However, said citizen may rules. They’re above your
of your untimely death, well be an ineffectual dweeb. security clearance. Only the
an identical copy of you Your Troubleshooter starts GM knows the rules, and
downloads your recorded play newly promoted if you argue with him, he
memories and springs from from lowly Clearance will quickly and decisively
the clone tanks as a speedy INFRARED to RED. terminate you.
replacement. If you work Making your life hard are
hard, you can die five, six or all the bureaucrats, Vulture You’re thinking, ‘Are you sure this
even more times in a single Warriors and Internal will be fun?’ Of course, citizen. Fun
play session! Security spies of Clearance is mandatory. Read on to see why.
ORANGE, YELLOW,
GREEN and so on up the
14

If Popular Fantasy RPG™ worked Wizard: Wait! Did you almost call us ‘Comrades’?
That’s a Commie word!
like PARANOIA
Priest: Of course he didn’t. I heard nothing of the
Nearly every published roleplaying game starts with an sort.
explanation of how that RPG works. PARANOIA is
different. PARANOIA doesn’t tell you how to play, unless Rogue: Nor I. Are you
you’re cleared for it. The rulebook doesn’t even show you levelling false accusations against our leader? That’s
an example of play for this game. Instead, it gives you an treason.
example from some other game.
Wizard: Don’t anybody move! I’m not only levelling
PARANOIA is set in a high-tech future city of lasers, accusations, I’m levelling my Wand of Fireballs
robots, cloned citizens and an insane Computer. The game against all three of these traitors. By the way, I’m
has no character classes—no warriors, wizards, priests or recording all this with the Gem of Memory.
rogues—no magic and, aside from the occasional giant
radioactive mutant cockroach, no monsters. GM: When you reach for it, you notice the Gem is
Yet, that said, a good way to dramatise the unique nature missing.
of PARANOIA is to imagine another RPG’s familiar
dungeon crawl filtered through the paranoid mindset: Rogue: Uh-oh! You’ve lost a valuable magical item.
That’ll mean a heavy fine at the guildhall.
Games Master: You’re in a long dungeon hallway
with a dirt floor, stone walls and an arching stone Wizard: I’m firing a fireball at all of them!
ceiling. There are burning torches in wall sconces
every ten feet. You see one door. GM [rolls a d20]: I’m sorry, it appears your
experimental Wand of Fireballs has backfired.
Warrior player: What colour is the stone? In a trice you are immolated in a ball of flame.
Fortunately the fire is orange, so at least your charred
GM: Sort of orange. body hasn’t breached its proper security clearance.
Scratch one wizard. Your next simulacrum has been
Rogue player: Aah! I’m only Clearance RED! Get dispatched from the guildhall and should arrive
me out of here! shortly.
Priest player: I’m casting Mass raise security Wizard: You creeps are gonna pay.
clearance to make us all ORANGE. [Passes note to
the GM: ‘I’m also casting Subvert to Communism on GM: No comments from the currently dead, please.
the warrior.’] Suddenly the door opens. A huge hobgoblin in leather
armour stands there with his broadsword drawn. On
Wizard player: I’m using the Gem of Memory to his chest you see the mark of a silver hand.
document the priest’s spellcasting. I, uh, may want to
study his technique later. Rogue: I attack him with—
Warrior: Wait! I wave my fingers at him from under
Priest: Of course, of course. [Looks significantly at my chin.
the rogue, whom he subverted earlier. The rogue nods
and passes a note to the GM. The GM rolls a 20- Priest and rogue: What?
sided die.]
GM: The hobgoblin nods at your recognition signal
GM: All right. You’re all ORANGE for the moment and lowers his sword. He waves you all inside.
and can pass safely down the hallway. Your orders, Who’s going in first?
you recall, were to investigate the door. [Passes note
to warrior: ‘You feel a strange, treasonous impulse to Warrior, priest and rogue [pointing at each other]:
overthrow the existing social order and restore power Him!
to the people.’]
...And so on. To repeat, none of the traditional fantasy
Warrior [gulps]: Come, Comra— fellow heroes, let elements in this example resemble anything in Alpha
us break down the door! Complex, the underground city of PARANOIA. At this
point you know nothing much about Alpha Complex.
Keep it that way. You may live longer.
 15
2. Briefing Greg eventually recaptured rights
to PARANOIA and arranged with
same way PARANOIA had lit up the
world of gaming in 1984, we should
In the early 1980s a New York
Mongoose Publishing to revive it. try to light a bulb or two again.
City Games Master, Dan Gelber,
Because I had co-written an early
conceived the Alpha Complex setting
adventure (Send in the Clones, with
for his roleplaying campaign. Game
designers Eric Goldberg and Greg
Warren Spector), I got the happy 3. The mission
assignment to update and expand PARANOIA’s first edition (1984) and
Costikyan encouraged Dan to detail second edition (1987) were perfect in
Alpha Complex for a new and more
the setting. From Dan’s pages of all respects. The Computer says so.
paranoid time. Famous Game
notes Eric and Greg created a game, This brand new 256-page Mongoose
Designer Aaron Allston (bestselling
and editor and developer Ken Rolston edition is even more perfect.
Star Wars novelist and designer
added a darkly humorous tone. West Like an industrious scrubot,
of many classic supplements for
End Games published PARANOIA in PARANOIA XP cleanses the old
Champions, D&D and Car Wars)
1984 to instant success. game of excruciating pop-culture
agreed to lend a hand. Mongoose
recruited PARANOIA’s supreme wackiness. PARANOIA is not
PARANOIA revolutionised wacky. In appropriately Orwellian
artist—the man himself, Jim
roleplaying. The first really fashion, we have excised all the
Holloway! — to do a new cover and
successful comedic RPG (over wacky West End meta-plot adventures
illustrations. Under Greg Costikyan’s
100,000 copies sold!), it was among from the historical record. They
supervision we resolved that, in the
the earliest games to tailor rules
to achieve a specific emotional
atmosphere—a tensely hilarious
satire in the vein of Aldous Huxley’s Commies
Brave New World, Joseph Heller’s Some gamers, including people who have only heard about the original
Catch-22 and the works of Philip K. 1980s PARANOIA but never got to play, think the new PARANOIA XP
Dick. (Terry Gilliam’s movie Brazil, should replace the old version’s all-purpose enemy, the Communists, with
which appeared later, conjures the some au courant foe. Everyone suggests terrorists.
same mood.) As the support line’s Terrorists have been part of the Alpha Complex setting since the beginning.
inspired line editor, Ken Rolston Many of the secret societies use terrorist methods, as do The Computer’s
guided to publication half a dozen loyal forces. The new edition retains all of this.
brilliant supplements and adventures, That said, PARANOIA XP keeps the Commies. The Computer is still
along with the much-loved second paranoid about Communist infiltration. ‘But that’s crazy,’ you say. Well,
edition (1987), the line’s high-water yes.
mark. In these products, ornamented It was crazy back in 1984, too, when the first edition appeared. Nobody
by the quintessential PARANOIA at that late date was still caught up in Cold War McCarthyist hysteria. In
artist, Jim Holloway, the game’s tone American pop-culture terms, ‘Commies’ were already a joke. They were
moved to slapstick, the fast-moving no threat at all, except in the mind of The Computer. That was the joke—
frenetic play that remains the beloved that in the name of fighting Communism, The Computer had turned Alpha
Classic style. Complex into a totalitarian socialist state. (Not that the ideological details of
Communism entered into the game, of course. Another part of the joke was
When Ken left West End to work in that PARANOIA’s Commies are cartoonish, moustachioed Rrrrooshians in
computer games (he later became bearskin hats—Yosemite Sam with an accent.)
lead designer on Morrowind), the The Computer’s mindset still requires a huge, shadowy, presumably
PARANOIA support line declined omnipotent enemy. ‘Terrorist’ implies a weaker, desperate enemy. Call the
rapidly. It succumbed to a cancerous enemy ‘Islamic terrorist subversives’ and you divert the player’s attention to
meta-plot, the ‘Secret Society Wars,’ a variety of current hot-button issues. Call the enemy ‘Commies’ and the
that culminated in The Computer player laughs—and then starts seeing the real point: why the government
crashing. Oh yeah, that was a smart finds it useful to establish a supposed enemy. (‘We have always been at war
idea. with Oceania.’)
The people who want to update Commies to terrorists are just expressing
For years, with each new, painfully their concern that the game’s satiric edge isn’t blunted. Rest easy. Nearly
unfunny adventure, fans said, ‘Well, everyone has clearly detected the parallels between Cold War anti-
it can’t get any worse than this.’ And Communist McCarthyism and today’s anti-terrorist alarmism. Any newbie
yet— player starting a PARANOIA XP game will perceive the same similarities in
the first five minutes of play.
Finally, like a traitor after an Meanwhile, Internal Security’s Department of Unspecified Threat Assessment
Internal Security brainscrub, the has declared Free-Floating Anxiety Condition THREE. All citizens must
later PARANOIA support line comply immediately!
dwindled and vanished. Eric and
16
never happened. They are now un- even asks, ‘What exactly is the target, -4 for his armour, but
products. References to them are Bouncy Bubble Beverage?’ he doesn’t see you so that’s +3,
treason. and you’re using the targeting
PARANOIA is all about turning scopebot and depleted-uranium
The XP edition explores a players against each other. The XP ammo for +4, so you need to
wider range of play. In fact, the edition adds new ways to backstab. roll ... wait, what was your skill
PARANOIA XP rulebook defines Characters are more broadly again?
three different play styles. Depending skilled and less dependent on one
on the Games Master’s chosen another. They may survive a bit PARANOIA makes this process easy
style, Troubleshooters get different longer (though only at the GM’s by reversing cause and effect. The
numbers of clones, different penalties pleasure). Perhaps most interesting, Games Master rewards entertaining
for treason and varying chances to PARANOIA XP incorporates play by giving out Perversity points.
survive.

• PARANOIA Classic is the

comedic style perfected in
the game’s 1987 second
edition. Though slapstick
didn’t dominate the rulebook
proper, it became the
support line’s watchword.
Troubleshooters run through
a clone or two just getting
their assigned equipment
before the mission even
starts. They may easily
exhaust a six-pack of clone
backups by mission’s end.
Most fans love to play the
game this way.

• PARANOIA Straight,
based on the game’s first
edition, is a darkly satiric
style emphasising fear,
mutual suspicion, spying
and subterfuge, and careful
collection of evidence.
Troubleshooters who play it
smart and low-key can live
long enough to score small
victories, which draws in
players so the GM can scare
them bad.
backstabbing as a game mechanic: Players can spend these points
• PARANOIA Zap is the To aid or undermine other players, to raise skill ratings and buy new
frenzied cartoon style of the you can spend Perversity points on specialties, but they’ll probably spend
latter West End Games era. General Perversity Modifiers. most of their points to influence a
Your first clone probably Other (non-fun) roleplaying games roll’s success chance for better or
dies during character use lots and lots of modifiers. You worse. After all points are spent
generation, and the rest apply them to figure out what number and the final success chance is
follow at maybe 90-second you need to roll: determined, the GM interprets the
intervals. Silly names circumstances of the roll to fit all the
and pop-culture parodies Other Game™ player: I aim my modifiers.
predominate. Firefights rifle and fire it at the lead goon.
erupt if a newbie player GM: Okay, your rifle skill is 10, PARANOIA Player #1: I aim my
+3 for aiming, -2 for the range to cone rifle and fire it at the lead
traitor. I have a Violence skill of
 17
10, so I need a 10 or less to hit. See? Perversity works like ulcers. you never know for sure in Alpha
Player #2: No you don’t. I’m People used to think you got ulcers Complex.
spending 2 points on General from worrying too much. Turns out
Perversity Modifiers to reduce you get ulcers from a bacterium, You also have two attributes: Power
the roll you need to 8. and the stomach pains make you and Access. Power measures the
Player #1: Traitor! worry. In exactly the same way, sort strength of your mutant power, and
Player #3: Three more points to of, PARANOIA takes other games’ Access measures how easily you can
reduce from 8 to 5. I’m phoning complicated combat process (assess get things done in the Alpha Complex
to Internal Security that there’s a circumstances to figure out the bureaucracy. However, you aren’t
firefight brewing. modifiers) and reverses it for smooth cleared to know your ratings in these
Player #1: Betrayer! and easy retrofitting (get the roll and attributes. Only the GM knows.
Player #4: Two more to reduce then figure out the modifiers that That may seem strange, but that’s
the hit roll to 3. caused it). PARANOIA.
Player #1: I’ll get you in the
mess hall! As you’ve probably guessed, the
Player #5: Uh, I’ll pass. new PARANOIA XP doesn’t use 4. Outfitting
Player #6: Well, I support this the familiar d20 system. Wait, don’t The new PARANOIA XP re-
heroic action. [Player #6 secretly leave! We like the d20 system—hey, introduces The Computer to a new
knows Player #1’s target is this is Mongoose, right? — and generation of potential traitors. It
the high secret society official PARANOIA does use a single 20- also offers much for long-time fans,
Player #6 has been ordered to sided die, so you needn’t buy new who have kept the game’s memory
assassinate.] I’ll spend 7 to raise dice. But to produce the peculiar alive on World Wide Web sites like
the hit roll back to 10. mix of hilarity and terror that is Paranoia-Live.net (www.paranoia-
Player #1: Good. I’m spending PARANOIA, we needed a new rules live.net). This huge hardcover book
5 to raise it to 15. set, designed to give the Gamemaster finally gathers in one place a lot of
GM: All right. Plus 5 to hit, maximum flexibility and players important stuff scattered through
let’s see... [Thinks.] Your maximum anxiety. many old, out-of-print supplements:
malfunctioning rifle scopebot sanity tests, new medications,
blinks back on just as the traitor’s Your Troubleshooter, like every Mandatory Bonus Duty and much
foot slips on a stray NiceLife other citizen of Alpha Complex, more.
empty. The scopebot says, ‘Hey, has six skills: Management, Stealth,
what’s up? Did I miss anything?’ Violence, Hardware, Software, But there’s lots of new stuff too. Fans
Player #1: ‘Scopebot, target that Wetware. You can select six common who thought they understood Alpha
traitor!’ specialties in these skills from a Complex will feel off-balance once
GM: The scopebot says, ‘Ready!’ lengthy list—abilities that frequently again, as is entirely appropriate.
Okay, roll. figure in PARANOIA missions, like For starters, you can buy new clone
Player #1: Here goes.... Demolition, Shadowing, Bootlicking, backups (that is, new ‘lives’). Now
Con Games, Bot Programming, you can buy quite a lot of stuff,
If the players’ collective Perversity Hacking and Hygiene. You can also actually, either from newly privatised
point expenditures had instead invent your own narrow specialties, service firms or from the illegal
reduced Player #1’s success roll to with the GM’s approval—things black (INFRARED) market. Today’s
(say) 6 or less, the GM might instead like Annoy My Service Firm Office Alpha Complex operates on a more
retrofit the in-game situation as Mates, Eat Entire Bag of Algae capitalistic footing. You earn a
follows: Chips in Four Seconds, Suck Up monthly salary based on your security
to My Boss, Soothe Autocar SPD- clearance, and you carry a Mercantile
GM: All right, you’re 4 down. 1’s Jangled Brain, or Get Barracks Enterprise Card, a ME Card that
[Thinks.] The cone rifle’s Vending Machine to Stop Making stores your current credit balance,
broken scopebot suddenly yells, That Funny Noise. identifying information and basically
‘Lubricant for the working man!’ everything a thief would need to
The traitor’s head whips around. Then you have Secret skills, taught impersonate you. Not that such a
Even though he couldn’t possibly to you by your secret society. Some thing could ever happen.
have heard you at this range, of them are cool, like Demolition,
he heard you. [The GM has Hacking, Twitchtalk and WMD In the old days eight monolithic
spontaneously decided to give the (making your own nuclear weapons). service groups used to run the Alpha
target the Hypersenses mutation.] Others may be kind of useless Complex bureaucracy. Now The
He dives for the ground. Roll. (Botspotting, anyone?), though Computer has outsourced many
of their functions to gaggles of
competing service firms, for-profit
18
companies run by high-clearance
Wal*Mart with gun emplacements citizens who line up sweetheart
PARANOIA XP gives Troubleshooters a new way to feel pressed and contracts with the service group
anxious, a way you yourself may understand: money. bureaucracies. When not on
Sure, in previous editions you got credit bonuses, so you could buy your a mission, your character still
own grenades and flamethrowers and chapstick. Self-righteous BLUE works part-time for one of these
and GREEN citizens would arbitrarily level 100,000-credit fines. But firms, performing valuable duties
credits didn’t intrinsically cause tense, backbiting rivalry among players. like Slime Identification, Form
What were we thinking? Facilitation, Public Hating Co-
ordination, Pocket Protector
Buying new clone backups; ME Cards; service firms contracts—these Refurbishing, Vehicle Therapy and
are some of the ways credits become important in the new edition. There Termination Centre Janitorial.
are others: salaries, monthly living expenses based on your clearance,
and the ever-receding mirage of social advancement. Also fines, bribes, These firms often persuade The
confidence games, extortion, blackmail, ransoms—you’ll find out. Heh, Computer to assign Troubleshooting
heh. teams to carry out little—favours.
They’re called ‘service services.’
During early development of the new edition, this pecuniary angle The Troubleshooter team’s
bugged some fans, who felt it abandons a central joke of PARANOIA: regular missions, assigned by
that The Computer, in the name of fighting Communism, created a The Computer, take them all over
totalitarian socialist anthill. Did they think a capitalist society can’t be Alpha Complex. ‘As long as
ruthlessly repressive, can’t reduce citizens to mere consumers in a soul- you’re heading to FAR Sector,
crushing police state? Perhaps readers in Shanghai or Singapore might can you also—’ (a firm will say),
comment. Oh, wait—they can’t. ‘—administer these Happiness Tests
Mainly these worried fans feared an Alpha Complex with branded to citizens along the way?’
merchandise and advertising—‘Wal*Mart with gun emplacements’— (Or:) ‘—update the software on this
would feel too different. We finally won over most of them with uplifting particular model of bot?’ (Or:) ‘—
examples like these: Field-test this valuable experimental
• Multi-Clearance Marketing is the new get-rich scheme equipment from an R&D firm?’
spreading wildly among the INFRAREDs. You join at
Clearance ‘RED’ (note the quotation marks), and pay 10 credits Long-time PARANOIA players
to the name at the top of this list. As soon as you recruit ten recognise that last duty. The trip
new members, you’re promoted to (quote-unquote) ‘ORANGE.’ to Research & Design, where
Then they recruit ten new members each, and soon you’re mad scientists would assign
‘YELLOW.’ When you reach ‘ULTRAVIOLET’ you’re rich! Troubleshooters incredibly
What? Treason? Pshaw. dangerous experimental equipment
• Without a credit economy there’s no reason to spam. We can’t for field testing, was a staple of
have that. Alpha Complex spammers take viral marketing every mission. Troubleshooters will
literally. Suck down the wrong tube of Hot Fun and virus still often go to R&D, but now the
SellFast.C quickly occupies your frontal cortex. Against your idea is expanded to cover all service
will, you feel compelled to tell every citizen how he can make groups.
millions through Multi-Clearance Marketing.
• The money in Alpha Complex—which is electronic data, not Along with the economy, the
physical currency—often comes encumbered with particular service firms and service services,
licenses, like software licenses. For instance, someone in the the new aspects of PARANOIA XP
robot-loving secret society Corpore Metal pays you a hundred likeliest to unsettle experienced
credits for illicit Brainade neuropop, but the license on that players are the new gadgets. For
hundred requires you to spend the money only on bots, bot instance, every Troubleshooter
parts, oil, lubricant or a cybernetic replacement for your brain. carries a handy Personal Digital
Accepting the payment and its license can also unwittingly give Companion (PDC), a cellphone-
the payer any number of terrible rights, including surveillance, sized device that permits text
invasion of privacy, etc. Keeping track of the licenses is so messaging (ehh), on-the-spot photos
frustrating, a new profession has arisen: the cash hacker. Cash and video of potentially treasonous
hackers de-license encumbered credits, or even re-license them activity (whoa!) and instant contact
according to your own dictates. with The Computer (yow!).
• ‘Citizen, your assigned equipment costs a total of [beep!] 30,482
credits. To reclaim your deposit, please return your equipment Then there’s MemGo, a suite of
in pristine condition. Have a nice day!’ neurochemicals that can selectively
 19
wipe particular memories and plunge proper, the debriefing and the final This holiday season, good little
you into weird reality shifts. And the fates of the lucky Troubleshooters. citizens should look under their
Computer Phreaks secret society now Plus NPCs, locations, equipment, Mandatory Seasonal Happiness Tree
runs Gray Subnets, isolated networks a hilarious equipment malfunction for The Mutant Experience by new
within The Computer’s own systems, table... Really, it’s a delight. recruit R. Eric Reuss. This 64-page
where low-clearance citizens can sourcebook for all things mutant-
secretly post incriminating blackmail Next month brings the equally y includes new cool powers, new
evidence about their bosses’ delightful, equally useful and utterly useless powers and lots of
misbehaviour. Or their subordinates’. surpassingly treasonous Traitor’s setting information, style tips and
Or yours. Manual. This 96-page player’s tables. Don’t grow a second head
guide to all major secret societies without it!
in Alpha Complex arrives courtesy
5. Forthcoming of Mongoose staff writer Gareth
Hanrahan (OGL Wild West, OGL 6. Debriefing
from R&D Horror, The PSI Corps for Babylon In the coming year Mongoose has
Loyal Mongoose writers continue 5, Classic Play: Book of the Sea, many more supplements and missions
to serve The Computer with Quintessential Paladin II and more). planned. And it all starts this month,
industry and invention. Available Learn the deepest secrets, or at least with the PARANOIA XP hardcover
simultaneously with the PARANOIA a plausible-sounding version of rulebook and Games Master’s Screen.
XP rulebook is the PARANOIA the deepest secrets, of treasonous This is the ideal time to sign your End
Games Master’s Screen. Not only organisations like PURGE and the Citizen License Agreement for Alpha
does the four-panel GM Screen Frankenstein Destroyers. Learn how Complex Usage and join the ranks of
reprint charts and tables from the to recruit new members for your the Troubleshooters. The Commie
game, stand upright in all but the society at the many EAP (Elective mutant traitors—and, even scarier,
highest winds and stay opaque at Activity or Pursuit) clubs that your fellow players—are waiting to
all visible wavelengths, it includes provide education, entertainment and greet you.
a nifty 24-page insert booklet, the approved socialisation to the citizens
Mandatory Fun Enforcement Pack. of Alpha Complex. Learn the rules to Or, as your new friend The Computer
This booklet includes six handy forms FunBall. Traitor’s Manual is due in would put it:
(Mission Report Form, Experimental September.
Equipment Testing Report Form, PARANOIA is fun. Other games
Termination Voucher, etc.) and an In autumn Troubleshooters turn red are not fun. Buy PARANOIA.
ingenious mission blender. and gently fall to the ground
in a full-length mission
The mission blender is a set of 72 by Aaron Allston. Still
charts—yes, seventy-two—that let unnamed, this Straight-style Allen Varney (www.allenvarney.com),
you generate all the elements of a mission assigns the player principal writer of PARANOIA XP,
PARANOIA mission automatically, characters to guard a high- has published three board games, over
just by rolling a 20-sided die clearance news reporter two dozen roleplaying supplements,
repeatedly until your wrist falls off. It under threat from the new 250+ articles, columns and reviews,
follows the mission scheme familiar secret society he exposed, and seven books. Track the progress of
to long-time players: the mission the Powderkeg. Except— future supplements on the PARANOIA
alert, briefing, outfitting, secret wait—didn’t the Powderkeg XP development blog: www.costik.com/
society missions, service services only arise after the reporter’s paranoia.
(the new edition’s expansion of the expose? Who, or what, is
traditional trip to R&D), the mission behind it?

The computer is your friend.