No fancy HTML tricks this time, folks; I'm on an old Macintosh 6100/60, and I don't have a modem that'll be sure to get through an entire download.
In any case, enough about my problems: Acute Paranoia is a darned good product, and contains what I consider one of the best Paranoia adventures ever done - Me and My Shadow Mark IV. Even though it's written in the original percentile-system 1st edition system, and even though it's several years out of date, it's still a worthwhile buy for any Paranoia gamemaster. And if you're even passingly familiar with Paranoia's setting, with a paranoid and insane Computer ruling over a huge warren of clones, then the book will work nicely just as a humor book.
What's in it? It's essentially a clearing house for assorted ideas and adventures, including a pull-out section for playing robots within Alpha Complex, psychological tests, and an adventure involving "guarding" an OGRE-sized tank whose weapon list reads like an armory's manifest. There's also one of the funniest R&D creations I've ever seen, one that will provide sadistic GMs with hours and hours and hours of gleeful fun of turning PCs into pink mist.
In order: The first chapter concerns psychiatry in Alpha Complex, which basically means a barrage of questions you can't answer correctly and drugs that make lysergic acid look like aspirin. Especially amusing are the word association tests, where knowing what some of the words are is treason, and the results, which can vary from getting a clone recycled to getting the stupid thing that you hemmed and hawed out under stress repeated on Alpha Complex's internal speakers for the next few dozen adventures. And, just in case the GM hasn't had enough fun, there's an article about Alpha Complex's pharmaceutical division. The Computer needs to know the side effects of the drugs that it's handing out, even if you have to die finding out. Hey, if you happen to get the shakes, or go into a coma, or melt into a puddle of horrible, gelatinous goo - well, them's the breaks. Unfortunately, the drugs themselves are fairly pedestrian. Combat drugs, tranquilizers, amphetamines and the like can be made very funny in the right situation, but they won't provoke any jokes on their own.
There's some more secret societies here. Some of them are extremely clever, like Sy-B-LING Rivalry, where a person's clones plot to replace him, or the International Workers of the World, where everybody in the group is a spy for the Computer. Some of them are pale reworkings of groups in the original Paranoia, like Moo, or the Eugenecists. There's three different groups that seem to be identical - National Fantasy Fan Foundation, the Knights of the Circular Object, and the Trekkies. (All three are keeping hold of ancient culture without really knowing what it's about.) The one that I would like to use is the Foundation, which is burgling various Alpha Complexes in order to build its own Complex; the rest, you could take or leave. Not terrific work.
Then there's the jewel of the book, Me and My Shadow Mark IV. It's a lengthy adventure, involving the Troubleshooters being dispatched to safeguard a nuclear tank the size of a skyscraper turned on its side. Sure, it sounds simple. Until you throw in the obsessed cleaning bot, who enjoys cleaning Mark IV's brain with a steel-needled brush. And the Communists who are able to recite startled protestations of innocence in unison. And the snotty schoolchildren who swarm all over the Mark IV like termites in a log cabin. And the Ultraviolet joggers who want that thing moved _now._ And the final, catastrophic field test that ends, appropriately, with a reference to the Wile E. Coyote cartoons.
And, in what I consider to be a stroke of genius, there's the crab mines. Which, once activated, grow little legs and scuttle into every cramped, shadowy space in the area. And then come scuttling out when it's the worst possible time. And then explode. Hours and _hours_ of fun, especially with the book's suggestions on what to do with them.
The next adventure deals with a robots-only adventure, where the robots wind up going through the same kind of misadventure that human Troubleshooters go through on a regular basis. The problem is that it's just not that funny. Splattering human Troubleshooters is funny because, well, they're human, and because Paranoia is only a step away from TOON in terms of mood. This adventure just isn't that funny. There is the requisite Catch-22 for players to sort through, but the tone of the adventure just doesn't leave anything memorable for me to take note of.
Warriors of the Nightcycle is funny, but it revolves around a single joke - the idea of ninjas and assorted pseudo-Oriental hoo-ha that'll be familiar to fans of cheesy Eighties flicks. (American Ninja. 'Nuff said.) There's a neat series of scenes where the PCs track down a blood trail by following a kvetching Scrubot, but it shows its age a little too much to be funny.
The Harder They Clone: Again, it shows its age, and shows it _hard._ A spoof of various rock and roll bands, including Billy Idol, Lou Reed, the Talking Heads, Elvis Cosetllo...
Never heard of most of them?
Not surprising, although you're missing some good music. The problem with a scenario like this is that it relies almost exclusively on references to bands that were popular during the early eighties. (Billy Idol stands tall as an act whose time has long since passed.) Those who are pop-culture savvy will understand the references, but most of them are guaranteed to go over the heads of the young.
Christ, I feel old. Fetch me some bourbon and Grandpa MacLennan will continue the review.
The Code 7 adventures round out the book - they're short and mighty tasty, involving the typical bureaucratic snafus that mark the lives of Troubleshooters. One of them, An ARD Day's Night, starts off by shortening the day/night cycle to about twenty minutes, enforced with Sleepy-Time Gas, and proceeds to destroying the Computer's central core - an idea that would appear later, greatly fleshed out, in a series of adventures. There's a mini-list of suggestions for rebooting the Computer, most of which will be pretty funny, but they run the risk of altering the game's setting - the mistake that Paranoia: 5th edition made. (Without the Computer in charge, it isn't Paranoia.) There's also a tight little adventure involving repainting a hallway, which, in classic Paranoia style, won't be settled until clones die like flies trying to figure it out. The rest aren't bad, although - once again - an adventure called Miami Laser winds up dating itself immensely. Ditto OUTLAND-ish.
The rules for making robot characters: I have absolutely no idea how this'll actually break down into game terms. I can say that I really wish that the authors of the book hadn't slapped it square in the middle of the book. They suggest pulling out the staples and removing the pages by hand; I suggest that they figure out that nobody wants to do that and that requiring a book's unbinding isn't a success strategy. Then again, it is the earlier years of role-playing...
The art is especially good, thanks to the talents of Jim Holloway, whose artwork is consistently hilarious; especially of note is his facial work, where you can get the sweaty, on-the-edge-of-panic eagerness to please of the average Troubleshooter. It's a pity that he isn't working in the industry anymore; I still regard his depiction of the GM as an Uncle Fester type, complete with confident stare, tiny smirk, and monk's robes as the standard for how GMs should picture themselves.
Is it worth buying? Yeah, especially if you can get it for under $15 or so. Me and My Shadow Mark IV is funny enough to keep everybody laughing throughout, and the rest is an interesting glance at the early days of role-playing.
-Darren MacLennan
Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 3 (Average)
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