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As I write this review, the central figure of Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" is staring down at me from her vantage point on the wall. This is, coincidentally, the painting that is parodied by the cover of Flashbacks. Though the inclusion of a golden jet-powered cherub that appears to be...ehm...leaving behind a trail of purple and pink sparks is unique to the book cover. As always in Paranoia XP (by which name I'll know it until IntSec takes me away) the cover and interior art is done by Inimitable Jim Holloway.
The following information is security protected. Possession of this information by anyone of Violet clearance or lower is punishable by execution by airlock failure, execution by brain parasite, and/or execution by sonic diarrhea. So there.
This is a compilation of grand auld missions, slightly tweaked for the new game line. Allen Varney also added an introduction explaining what was included and why some of what was not included was not included. Needless to say, 5th edition is nowhere on either of these lists. There is also a section and sidebar discussing how things have changed since the first two editions and some lessons for game masters - alterations to the PURGE society, the addition of an economy and exhortations in the vein of ENTERTAIN OR DIE, CITIZENS! are just some of these.
One quick sidenote: In order to avoid spoiling the missions and thereby leaking highly classified material, I'll instead give a very general overview of what's going on in each mission and my opinion of it, plus whatever other comments come to mind.
With all of these things in mind, I proceed to the first batch of missions: "Robot Imana-665-C", "Trouble with Cockroaches" and "Das Bot". This is a batch of missions because, to quote from Allen Varney's introduction, they are "Three short missions published in the insert booklet included with the first edition's Gamemaster screen (1985)." These three missions, as they were originally in a GM screen, are not what I'd call the creme de la creme of Paranoia missions - they were meant to be quick and to-the-point, probably so new players could get a handle on the game and the GM could then run whatever sadistic rat-maze of a mission he or she had planned. In "Robot Imana-665-C", the Troubleshooters are commissioned by a Blue Citzen for special duties that might further advance their importance in the eyes of Friend Computer. Or something like that, anyway. Troubleshooters in this mission get to exercise Fear, Ignorance, Dread, and Psychology 101. It has a charmingly insane appeal to it and sets the tone for Paranoia in general by having a nonsensical briefing, dangerous R&D kit, the looming threat of painful death and a midget with compensation issues. It also includes a "Paranoia in the Real World" sidebar in reference to a 2004 airline incident.
The next missionlet is Trouble With Cockroaches, an amusing mix of THX-1138 with apocalyptic insectile hordes and plastic-Christmas-tree-worshipping loonies. The Troubleshooters also have free access to a passel of undamaged and highly interesting heavy weapons in the course of their mission to protect Alpha Complex. There's also an NPC roster that can serve as a suitable NPC chart for just about anything else if you change the names and file the serial numbers off.
The last missionlet and my personal favorite of the three is "Das Bot", a takeoff of the famous movie Das Boot. If you've seen the movie you'll have a leg up on anyone who hasn't. This mission includes underwater psychic mutant throwbacks in a super-secret laboratory - but I don't regard this as a spoiler since I don't think I've ever heard a story where anyone actually got to that stage of the mission. There's a sidebar in the book discussing how certain Famous Game Designers noticed that too. Anyhow, the point of this mission is to put a bunch of incompetent Troubleshooters and an annoying mix of Jacques Costeau and Roberto Benigni on a barely functional submarine that wouldn't be fit to be an extra in Down Periscope.
The first full-fledged mission of the lot is "Vapors Don't Shoot Back", where the Troubleshooters become unwitting pawns in a nonsensical competition between High Programmers. One hitch to this mission is that the Troubleshooters are supposed to be of Orange clearance or higher - but somehow I think throwing a bunch of know-nothing Reds into this would be good for a laugh. This mission also features the General Rumor Table, which isn't capitalized in the book but is here. The table can be easily transferred to just about any other mission. This mission also has several sections - the first involves a firefight with another Troubleshooter team in an underground warehouse and a Food Vat that falls through the ceiling, among other things. In the second section the Troubleshooters take possession of a flybot, have a very good chance of SUPT-C (Sudden Unexpected Paradrop Training - Chuteless) and get to go Outside in a race with death and the Armed Forces. The third and final section involves jetskis, an indoor lake and pirate jokes, plus the potential for extortion on a grand scale.
Next is "The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues", a mission I keep hearing about. This is one of those missions where the secret societies are pulling all the strings - the mission might actually make sense if you don't pay attention to any of the official mission alerts, briefings, messages, memos, warnings, or Important Biochem Broadcoasts or anything else, really. This is also a justifiably famous mission - the premise is screwy, the mission alerts make no sense, and there's the promise of catastrophic mayhem around the next corner. This is also a multipart mission, revolving around a series of loosely connected events and featuring several classic illustrations. It also features the possibility for utter and complete annihilation of everything and an argument over Hot Fun.
"Send in the Clones" is the next mission in the queue, where the Troubleshooters actually get to meet the famous Teela-O-MLY. Then they get to shoot her. Or something along those lines - the mission is a bit ambiguous on the subject, though this is no problem in a Paranoia book. This is another one of those classic missions mentioned by long-bearded Paranoia fans with inch-thick calluses on their trigger fingers. Between sewers, insane bureaucracy, pie fights, heavily armed ten-year-olds and crocbots, SitC has it all. This mission also includes what is Historically Noted as the first appearance of Bouncy Bubble Beverage, originally a one-off throwaway joke that, as these things will, was brought back again and again and again, etc. Send In The Clones also includes the Alpha Complex Songbook, which can provide great deals of fun in the hands of a sadistic Game Master. This is a three-part mission, the second part of which includes several helpful items for GMs with a bureaucratic bent - a chaotic layout of how PLC might function on a good daycycle when all the stars are in alignment and the correct color of ooze is coming out of the seams around the Food Vats.
"Me and My Shadow Mark 4" is similar to the novel "Extreme Paranoia" by Ken Rolston - mostly because a central figure in it is a gargantuan warbot called Mark 4. The point of this mission is for the PCs to protect Mark 4 - personally I like this one, since it has a fairly simple premise, doesn't have many NPCs, and has a section entitled, "Something Falls Off". Anything with that for a section heading immediately wins points so far as I'm concerned. And much as though I don't like Zap! games, I have to admit that the Wile E. Coyote ending has a sort of perverse appeal.
Then there's "Alpha Complexities" which features a vampirebot, Mark 4 again, and lots of NPCs, one of which is a spy from another Alpha Complex. This is a very convoluted mission but which nevertheless includes some classic Paranoia moments, not the least of which is, "RUN AWAY!"
Then there are the three Code Seven missionlets, which are similar to the first batch of missionlets in that they're not fully written-out to the level of, say, "Send in the Clones". The first one, An ARD Day's Night, involves insane forcible sleeping and waking, then catastrophic memory meltdown. The second, Reboot Camp, can be played as a follow-on to An ARD Day's Night. Or it can be played as a follow-on to any of the myriad situations in which Alpha Complex massively explodes or Friend Computer has a terminal RAM fart. The last Code Seven is also very simple, but very complex - it's called "Whitewash" and that's all the information I'm cleared to write in this review about said mission.
The rest of the book contains rosters, forms, how-to advisories for converting various old missions to the new game line, and another Paranoia in the Real World sidebar. Plus all of the original pun names are provided in an index on the last page. I have to say that this is a very hard book to sit down and read - unlike, say, The Mutant Experience or Stuff. The humor is harder to spot here than when running the missions or playing them, much like trying to read a play instead of watching it performed.
Despite that, this is a handy resource for Game Masters. The old missions can be brought back, especially if your players have never played any of the original missions. If that doesn't work, there is more than enough material here to be cannibalized and integrated into other missions or into stuff the GM comes up with. I also give this book a 4/5, due to the format issue. It's still a good supplement, but I can't sit down and read it without my eyes crossing. Despite all this, I'm anxiously waiting for the next book like this where I'll finally get to see the nuts and bolts of "Clones in Space".
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