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Omega Complex
A Study in Paranoia
April 8th, 2008 by PaulB | Posted in Real World | No Comments »
It would appear that the extent of real world paranoia varies considerably, as a recent study with a virtual underground ride has shown, and can turn the most benign environment into a harrowing, stress-filled experience. PARANOIA portrays a world where The Computer constantly bumps citizens up to the eyeballs with seditives and suppressants to keep them in order, which should meana perfect world. However, this study would seem to suggest the human mind, in a certain state, can make even the neutral seem outright threatening.
Motivational Timekeeping
March 29th, 2008 by PaulB | Posted in Real World | No Comments »
Seems to me that this would be the perfect timepiece for the average Troubleshooter. No point trying to fool yourself!
Drive Thru Briefing
February 18th, 2008 by PaulB | Posted in Traitor Books | No Comments »
For anyone trying to fill out their collection of PARANOIA who has made the transistion to the 21st century and can tolerate reading on a computer screen (or who has qualms about the destruction of the rain forests), you can get the whole PARANOIA range from DriveThruRPG. If you’ve checked Mongoose recently, the whole PARANOIA range is no longer available in hard copy - most probably due to the change to internal printing operations and the limitation of the machinery. If you have a hankering for ‘Crash Priority‘ or ‘The Traitors Manual‘ you’ll need to look to other sources - and at a fraction of the standard retail price DriveThru seems to offer an ideal place to shop.
I have taken to ordering a lot of books recently through this source, largely because I find reading off my laptop rather comfortable. Open Acrobat, hit Ctrl+Shift+(minus sign) to spin counter clockwise 90 degrees and Ctrl+L to go full screen (I think) - voila! Big screen reading in a format that isn’t a hassle. A lot easier on a laptop than a desktop… but, you could always tip your monitor on it’s side! Having a PDF of the rules or an adventure means I can Search out what I need without flicking through pages or scanning the index - and I can add my own notes to the text onscreen (as I have an old, but serviceable, copy of the full version of Acrobat). I can sit back on a comfy seat, or out in the sun in the backyard, perch the laptop on my legs and read until the battery goes flat without hassle. Highly recommended.
Current Patch Job
February 12th, 2008 by PaulB | Posted in Gadgets and Gear, Real World | No Comments »
I need to get out more… I seem to find far too much mileage returning to the New Scientist home page again and again. This time - current controlled drug delivery from a specially treated patch (got to love the double meaning of that article title!). Current on - material breaksdown and drug enters the body; current off - material stops breaking down. Perfect. Seems like an ideal way to handle baseline hormone suppressent delivery because the patch could be constructed to react to very specific low level current delivered through a chair or the floor or something. Food and water could be laced with top-up medication as appropriate, but sub-dermal patches or slivers (delivered by needle gun or ice splinter projectile) could handle the basic necessities of keeping the population under control. The rate we’re moving Year 214 may not be so far away…
It’s Flexitime
February 11th, 2008 by PaulB | Posted in Real World, Service and Society | No Comments »
The flexible display offers considerable potential in offering continuous output through unusual mediums. While email and news delivered through your coffee mug might be a little off the wall, what could HPD & MC or PLC do with similarly flexible media to engage citizens in the expanding Alpha Complex economy? Having cups flogging Just-Like-Goat flavored algae snacks or boots praising Cool You kelpshakes with added tetraphenylchlorometasilicate could become a might distracting in the middle of a firefight or a tense negotiation with twitchy Commie mutant traitors. You would be hard pressed telling The Computer that you missed a news bulletin about mandatory happiness enhancement sessions down at the local reactor if the damned thing just got broadcast over every standard issue holster or belt in the sector.
Really, Friend Computer, I must have missed that message while we pursued the traitors, undercover,В through the NKD Sector’s officially sanctioned Happy Loyal Naturists Parade…
Mutant Samurai Troubleshooters
February 9th, 2008 by PaulB | Posted in Gadgets and Gear, Real World | No Comments »
Those eggheads in R&D have come up with an innovative new lightweight armor, intended to provide optimum protection with reduced weight. Yes, Armed Forces are sceptical - so R&D want some willing, energetic and enthusiastic Troubleshooters to trial the new armor, along with some other fine innovations, in a simulated battle situation down in IRQ Sector. Recently the site of a pitched battle against Communist infiltrators from Outdoors, it will provide an ideal environment with genuine battle ravaged features and true combat conditions. Armed Forces recon has confirmed an all-clear status for the Sector… so, lets get out there.
Civil engineer Habib Dagher has come up with an original idea on building materials for the battle zone. A combination of balsa wood, fibre glass, thermoplastic resin and kevlar, Habib believes it provides an ideal lightweight material for constructing shelters in combat environments. The material should stand up to blasts and shrapnel impact, while still allowing easy transportation.
I immediately went off on a tangent after reading this, because I had this image of samurai enter my mind. The traditional armor of the samurai, all interlinked and connected blocks… I could envisage R&D using a material like this to create some perverse re-imagining of samurai armor, based on Old Reckoning pictures or movies. I seem to recall Jim Holloway did much - if not all - of the interior artwork for the old AD&D Oriental Adventures book… I shall have to track it down.
Under Decoration
February 7th, 2008 by PaulB | Posted in Real World, Underplex | No Comments »
Art on pavements and in drains… Forget Communist scrawls and rusted biohazard signs - what would Troubleshooters make of this stuff ((This is a Digg mirror server… I’ll change the link when theВ pressure of attentionВ on the real site abates.)) scattered across the surfaces of the Underplex?
New Science Means Stuff
February 4th, 2008 by PaulB | Posted in Gadgets and Gear, Real World | No Comments »
I have found a new home for my inquiring mind when seeking out new Stuff… New Scientist has an excellent series of articles on new inventions, and after only three articles I found myself cackling with glee.
Take the 3rd December 2007 article featuring the DNA syringe, a device that increases the permeability of cells with an electrical charge to allow the injection of drugs, or even DNA. R&D couldn’t resist a gun-based platform for this technical breakthrough - and it would be a matter of but a short space of time for pro-mutant factions to seek it out as a means to spreading the ‘gospel’ of positive genetic difference. Perhaps the Mystics could borrow it afterwards, undermining the local power structure of a sector with sniper-style attacks on key individuals who suddenly find themselves under the influence of powerful hallucinogens.
How about breathable hazard suits that allow your skin to breath freely but can seal against hazards through the application of current, which closes the suits nanopores. Anyone for an entire adventure where you have to wear these suits, but R&D have a problem that the frequency of the controller device disrupts the functionality of the suit - so another team member has the responsibility of activating the current. Oh, and the eggheads have had a few problems modulating the charge in the suit’s capacitor… so sometimes the shock might edge into the realms of the uncomfortable, though at least you’ll be safe from harm!
I’m reasonably certain a handheld food and beverage analyzer would fall into the classification of grey tech within Alpha Complex, where the less you know about the actual composition of your food, the better.
I’ve added a blog feed under Scientist on the righthandside of this site… Good reading, have fun!
Tales of the Unexpected
February 1st, 2008 by PaulB | Posted in Real World | No Comments »
Canadian researchers have been investigating eye-tracking technology that can make advantageous use of knowing where people are more or less likely to look. In the real world, it could ensure that vital information appears in the best possible place in a heads-up display; in games, it would make it possible for enemies to select the best possible spot to take a player completely by surprise.
Could they work on a device that ensures the Commie traitor is the person the players are least likely to suspect?
Doomed
January 8th, 2008 by PaulB | Posted in Notes, Traitor Books | No Comments »
I watched the movie ‘Doom‘ at the weekend. I know - I should save statements like that for the nearest confession booth and expect at least a mild brainscrubbing. I claim no great worth for the movie as anything other than a CGI-daubed, gore-splattered gunfest. I did take great glee in the BFG ((The Big F*cking Gun, basically - though they do suggest a more scientific title.)) and watched the 6-minute long first-person pseudo-single-take section of the film with considerable fan-boy excitement.
I would like to think that the general atmosphere of the end of the film - a claustrophobic trip through a locked down facility full of infected scientists hungry for blood ending with a showdown with the super-powered ex-commander of your team - could be translated over to my first PARANOIA mission, ‘Patch Job’. I would hope that over time my writing has improved - and that I still have a long way to go after PARANOIA: The Underplex - but my ‘Crash Priority‘ mission did leave a lot to be desired. I read the reviews - and, to be honest, when you’re sharing mission book space with the likes of ‘Stealth Train’, then what hope do you have? I would dearly like to try again from scratch and make it more memorable - and could probably take it in different directions.
A riff on the ‘Doom‘ ending would certainly be one direction. The Troubleshooters have been sent to repair the systems in the underground station and find what at first seem to be ordinary citizens and tech crews trapped down there. However, Rex-I’s condition has spread - like the Black Oil from ‘The X-Files‘ or some similar horror film parasitic invader - and the ordinary citizen start turning against - and ultimately attack - the characters. You need to add a few more corridors, ducts and maintenance gantries to offer tantilising options to reaching the goal, and the chance injury of the players to plant the seed of uncertainty about infection within the team… Then, end the whole thing with a Rex-I who fights like The Rock and looks like a metallic Auric Goldfinger.
Well… it works for me.
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