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In Tabloid World, the setting for the game, the “news” that the tabloids cover is all true, even if almost no one believes it. UFOs do land in Times Square, Bigfoot is around, and naturally Elvis is still alive (actually, he’s not just alive, but is regarded as a benign, Buddha-like deity). Almost no one believes these things to be real because they are not Enlightened, that is to say they can’t perceive the paranormal. The PCs (called PIs, or Paranormal Investigators) are of course part of the Enlightened, and so have to deal with a much stranger world than the mundanes do. By default the PIs work as reporters for a tabloid, where they are given leads to investigate by the Editor (GM). This setting works well; not only are the PIs given a reason to seek out tabloid-worthy phenomena by virtue of that being their job, but the fact that there aren’t very many of the Enlightened out there means that it’s a largely normal world with weirdness in it rather than a world that seems like an endless series of paranoid schizophrenic delusions that would be difficult to play in.
Character generation is simple. PIs have a mundane profession (which is their day job when they aren’t out investigating) and hobbies, which have a bonus of up to +3 and three attributes (Body, Mind, Spirit) which can range from 0 to +4 at the time of creation. They also have paranormal talents, such as telepathy, levitation, and automatic writing. Every character has one phobia and one past life that they can call on for abilities related to that past life. Many sample characters are given at the end of the book and it’s suggested that the players play one of them, though rules are given for creating your own. Character generation is an odd combination of point-based and random rolls. You get seven points to put into attributes, but roll for your skill at your mundane profession, hobbies and paranormal talents, along with how many paranormal talents you have. You do get to choose your past life, phobia, and possessions, though. For some reason, the pregenerated characters seem weak compared to what you could generate yourself.
Rules for playing the game are annoyingly split into E-Z and Very Complicated sections. Seeing as all the mechanics are quite simple anyway, this just makes for more hunting about when trying to find something. For most tasks, roll 1d10 and add the appropriate modifier (from your mundane profession, hobby or paranormal talent) and look up the result on the Fate Table; basically, a result of six or more is a success. If you don’t have the relevant skill, substitute the attribute that makes sense. Since attributes typically go up to +4 and skills up to +3, not having a skill can lead to better results than having a skill. The Very Complicated rules introduce the idea of modifiers for rolls when tasks are more or less difficult than typical. Experience is awarded through Instant Karma points, which can be used to either get better rolls during play or increase abilities.
Combat is exceedingly simple, with no fixed effect for variables like range or weapon type, though the Editor can make up modifiers as appropriate. Rules for defensive abilities, initiative and cover are given. The rules are simple enough that the author mocks the concept of different weapons doing different damage, so you’d might as well throw rocks at someone than shoot them. After all, you’ll do the same damage. Obviously, this is not a game for players who insist on detailed and realistic tactical combat. One of the nice parts of combat is that characters can have their mind, body or spirit damaged, depending on the type of attack. With paranormal attacks, any of these attributes can be affected. And even if your character dies, reincarnation is always a possibility, with the old personality becoming another past life.
Over half the book is basically a series of aids and lists. The first of these is the Instant Story Generator, which allows Editors to quickly come up with stories by rolling on four random tables to determine the story to be investigated, such as mass hallucinations in Brazil caused by a top-secret government project gone awry or werewolf sightings in Florida, which turns out to be caused by demonic posession (yes, I did just roll those up). Given the fairly random nature of the stories that an Editor would create for Pandemonium! anyway, the Instant Story Generator is a great idea, though the author points out that the greatest source for stories and inspiration are, of course, the actual tabloids. Bring on Bat Boy!
Other aids include an introductory story is pretty straightforward and is a good, though simple, introduction to the Pandemonium! world. The Encyclopedia Paranormal is just what it seems. It covers everything from animal mutilations to vampires, astral projection to spirit photography, and past lives from Groucho Marx to Stalin. Paranormal talents are useful, though not generally very powerful, which is appropriate; one rarely reads a tabloid story about telekinetics knocking over buildings. The phobia list includes about seventy phobias and I was surprised to find that panflutophobia is the fear of Zamfir recordings. An equipment list has a selection that is appropriate to paranormal investigators, ranging from the utilitarian (flashlights, compass, taser with no rules for how it works) to the esoteric (Shirley MacLaine book, Elvis painting on black velvet, vampire protection kit). The index at the back of the book is both present and useful, which puts it above many other games.
Critique
Now, I like simple systems, but the system for Pandemonium! lacks too much to be useful. It has the spirit of a fun, quick set of mechanics but too much is left out and there’s the feeling of a lack of play testing. Why are untrained people often better at things than those who do them for their careers? Why are there rules for restraining people but not for different damage done by different weapons? It’s as if the author grudgingly agreed that some sort of system was necessary, but didn’t want to put the requisite time and energy into it, which is a pity. Since the system seems as if it can be lifted from the setting without any problems, it would be easy enough to replace it with your favourite simple system. Unknown Armies or Over the Edge’s rules would feel right at home here.
Tabloid World is a fun setting, with enough weirdness to go around but not so much that it’s unplayable. The characters are all ordinary enough that they’ve got to use their heads when things get tricky, but have enough special abilities (past lives, paranormal talents) to be fun and different. A good balance between mundanity and strangeness is struck here. Concepts like reincarnation, past lives and such are clever and perfectly suited to the subject. The Instant Story Generator is the first time I can recall seeing something like this since Villains and Vigilantes, and it fits into the feel of the game perfectly. Although it would be possible to run a campaign of Pandemonium!, it seems better suited to one shots and mini-campaigns.
Pandemonium!’s writing is generally fair but often annoying, mostly due to repeated attempts to cajole the reader into buying additional copies of the book, getting other people to buy copies of the book, buying more copies of the book and making the book out to be the greatest thing in roleplaying. Oh, and getting you to buy another few copies of the book. These are obviously attempts at humour, but they fall flat. In the hands of better writers they might work, but here they begin to grate early on and just keep showing up.
Visually, this is the ugliest role playing book I’ve ever seen. The four-column layout is there to give the book the look of a tabloid, but the text is too large to really give it that feel and too many words become hyphenated. Sometimes the text wanders around the page; the first page of the Manifestations sections is the textual equivalent of a game of Snakes and Ladders. And the art... oh, the art. Much of it is presumably copyright-free images, some cut and pasted onto each other, usually with the quality of second-generation photocopies. Unfortunately, much of the rest looks like someone traced over photos with a thick marker. An illustration of Groucho Marx looks like he’s been carving up his forehead like Charles Manson.
Overall, Pandemonium! is a game with a fun, well thought-out setting. The presentation and system is lacking, but it generally doesn’t matter too much and it’s not integral to the setting, so it’s easily replaced.
Style: 1. No, the game isn’t incomprehensible, but it's got enough smarmy writing, poor art, and needlessly split sections (E-Z vs Extremely Complicated rules) to last you a lifetime. Its look is definitely in the bottom 20% of games I’ve seen, hence the low rating. There’s a fun game to be found here, but if I were to see this on the shelf and flip through it I’d give it a pass.
Substance: 3. The benefits of the setting are balanced by the weakness of the mechanics.
