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Which brings me to the first debatable point: terminology. In Pandemonium!, the game moderator is called the ``Editor'', while player characters are ``Paranormal Investigators'', XP become ``Instant Karma'', an adventure is a ``Story''. This may puzzle the beginner and interrupt your reading process, but I can't really blame the authors, because it's part of the setting and provides a little atmosphere.
What's Tabloid World?
You see, the PCs really are Paranormal Investigators, working for the Editor (an NPC about as all-powerful as the GM) of the entirely fictional tabloid newspaper ``Weekly Weird News'', getting the scoop on Elvis Sightings, sewer alligators, visitors from other planets, and what else goes on in Tabloid World. If you, like me, are unlucky enough to belong to a people as dour and excruciatingly honest (over here, politicians get tossed out of planes just for keeping secret party funds) as the Germans, a newspaper that really is all lies might be novelty. Live and learn. Tabloid World is just like the real world, with the small difference that everything the (real-world) tabloids rave about is real, even if the (Tabloid World) mundanes still think it's not.
The Tabloid World is explained in the ``Encyclopedia Paranormal''. It takes up more than a third of the book and is divided into Manifestations (like crop circles, lake monsters, or UFO sightings), Locations (places like Egypt, Las Vegas, or your neighbour's house), Major and Minor Phenomena (alien con men, secret government experiments, deja-vu, deja-vu, cultists, what-have-you), Paranormal Talents (such as astral projection, dowsing, or pyramid power), Past Lives (have you ever wanted to have been Humphrey Bogart or Jimmy Hoffa?), and Phobias (including dierollophobia (fear of RPGs) and panflutophobia (fear of Zamfir recordings)). A rather short list of equipment (night-vision scopes, Orgone accumulators, etc) rounds off the background coverage.
Instant Story Generator
The first four sections tie-in with the Instant Story Generator, a handy little device for an Editor who is short on time or in dire need of a Story at a con or suchlike. Roll once for manifestation, location, and major phenomenon, and a couple of times (I usually roll thrice) for minor phenomena, let stew for a few minutes and voila!, Instant Story. The random parts are vague enough not to give your Stories the feeling that they come from the same mold, especially if you take a little time to flesh them out. You a sceptic, madam? Have a look at Pandemonium!'s only supplement, Stranger Than Truth. I'll tell you the ISG rolls at the end of the review.
Who Needs Rules?
With Pandemonium!, you get two and a half RPGs for the price of one: After a two-page overview, the game system is spelled out in the ``E-Z Rules'' (it took me a few weeks to figure out the acronym). Here, the players can pick a character from 12 pregenerated ones and there are a few other limitations. The E-Z Rules are mostly used as an intermediate, introductory system to to explain role-playing and the jobs of Editor and players, and to give an overview of possible P.I. (e.g. fighting and cheating death) and Editor (e.g. making judgements and cheating the players) activities.
After 23 pages, there are another 9 expanding the E-Z Rules into the ``Very Complicated Rules'', which don't differ much from the former. Much space is taken up with character generation, for in the VC Rules, players can finally roll up their very own P.I.s.
The System
Pandemonium! uses a simple system of 1d10 plus ability/skill bonus must exceed a given difficulty or another character's roll. Characters sit on a fence between the attribute- and the trait-based. Most of the other characteristics are entirely too ill-defined to be simply labelled ``skills'', and the three attributes (Body, Mind, and Spirit) are almost vague enough to be called honorary traits. I can't tell you how strongly MIB Productions is tied to Atlas Games, but there are a lot of similarites between Pandemonium! and Over the Edge, both of which credit Robin D. Laws for some of the work.
Characters work a trifle differently in Pandemonium! In most other contemporary-mystery/horror-RPGs, players get to have Ordinary Dudes(tm) whose car breaks down in Small Town from Hell(tm), and much of the excitement comes from figuring out What's Really Going On(tm) and Getting Outta There(tm). Not so in Pandemonium! You see, the P.I.s are all Enlightened, meaning they know about the strange things that happen in Tabloid World, even if its entirety is far too vast to grasp.
But they still are Ordinary Dudes(tm), mostly because the meagre pay and bonuses from the Editor don't pay the rent. This means every player character has a Mundane Profession and a Hobby, both of which are mostly irrelevant in game-play (setting aside our trusty cabby, who almost always managed to avoid serious road accidents) but provides a background for the P.I.s.
What really gives them an edge when pitted agains alien mutant vampires are their Paranormal Talents, things like Walk Through Walls and Mind Control (to list two of them that are dangerously powerful and need to be kept on a tight leash by the Editor). And a P.I. can switch into the persona of his or her Past Life, which provide a few other traits that are almost automatically successful (e.g. Houdini breaking out of a prison cell).
A Phobia rounds out the character and gives the Editor a means to twist the arms of cocksure players. In addition, each P.I. can have a few Unusual or Rare Items, like an Elvis Record to raise his or her standing with Venusians (who worship the King), or an Orgone Accumulator for spiritual healing.
Instant Karma's Gonna Get It
Characters develop as they gather experience. A few points are awarded by the Editor after completing an adventure, and the players can spend them to raise any statistic or buy a new Hobby. The experience points are called Instant Karma points, because they double as bonus points that can be traded for a +1 on any roll any time. This is a game mechanic that didn't work with my players, who hoarded their Instant Karma to pump up their P.I.s' statistics and almost never used them to bolster critical die-rolls, but that may be due to my exceeding leniency as Editor.
Elvis is Missing
The rules are followed by a short section on Stories, how to run them, and what happens to them in the context of a tabloid newspaper, plus the Instant Story Generator. With the ISG come three pages of instructions and examples on how to use it, which effectively are a cute little mini-adventure. I've run it, it's good.
But not good enough for the authors, who give us another 23 pages (notice the 23 again? that's synchronicity for you) of an introductory adventure under the heading of ``Elvis is Missing''. It briefly introduces the P.I.s, who are about to join up with the Weekly Weird News, to the staff and its despotic Editor. Then our intrepid investigators head off to a Milwaukee supermarket, the last place Elvis has been Seen, to find out where the King has gone to. I'm especially fond of this adventure, because I ran it at the local shop and most of the players are with me to this day.
What Makes it Different?
Well, of course it's entirely different from your run of the mill fantasy, cyberpunk, modern-day angst, or sci-fi RPGs. Actually, it is the first (it beat TSR's Amazing Engine/Tabloid! by a year) of only two (to my knowledge) RPGs to embrace the tabloid genre. But even in its peer group of modern-day or near-future mystery, mystical, weird, or horror games, it sticks out because of its setting. Of every RPG I know of that is set in an ``alternate'' version of the real world, Pandemonium! is the only one that does not care about internal consistency. In all the other games, a Byzantine conspiracy, incomprehensible space aliens, or some mysical force is at work behind the scenes. The authors take great pains to make it rational and then to hide it from the players or even the GM.
Not so Pandemonium! Tabloid World is a jumble of half-baked theories about UFOs, cryptozoology, parapsychology, new age, and myths. UFOs come from Mars and Venus (11 and 24 microlightyears), from Arcturus (53 ly), from the ``Betelgeuse galaxy'' (a couple of 10,000 ly), or from the dimension next door, and nobody cares. Magic and hypertechnology, which the authors could have used to explain the former, get along happily. Sechi et al. couldn't care less &emdash; and why should they? The real tabloid newspapers certainly don't.
But the big difference between Pandemonium! and traditional role-playing games is, in my opinion, the motivation of the player characters. Playing Pandemonium! is not about killing monsters or solving problems, it's about getting the scoop. If the P.I.s decide that the bad guys are too powerful for them, or that the victims had got it coming, or that there really are no bad guys, they can pack up, and go back to their typewriters &emdash; but not before they've got that exclusive interview with Dr. Frankenstein and a photo of his monster for the swimsuit edition. Well, they are Enlightened, so they are expected to give assistance against demons and evil Martians, and getting the scoop certainly involves a certain amount of investigation, but they earn their money (and most of their Instant Karma) by getting the Story.
Advantages for Inexperienced GMs
Obviusly, experienced Editors shouldn't encounter any difficulties with Pandemonium!, but I think that it is ideally suited to newbies. For one thing, the player character group is tightly connected by their jobs as reporters and solidly embedded in the hierarchy of the Weekly Weird News. They've got a couple of Enlightened colleagues for backup, even if an artillery strike would be an easier way out.
This works both ways: With the advent of cell phones, the Editor can call in any time to harrass the P.I.s about their slow progress and give advice. I agree, this is a tad obvious and should be used sparingly, but at least it gives the GM a chance to steer the players away from dead ends and keep the adventure rolling. Not to mention that the P.I.s are on a deadline, meaning they already know they can't solve their problem by mechanically investigating every alley left to right.
Next, the Editor (NPC) hands out the assignments, which the P.I.s are required to work at. Period. There is no problem getting the player characters involved or motivating them, and no need to feel embarrassed about it. Your dwarves and elves might roll their eyes at yet another pub named ``Next Adventure'', but with the P.I.s, being pushed around by the Editor is their job.
Pandemonium! is about getting the scoop. People who want to play it must be ready to do a little leg work, asking questions, investigating, and thinking, and they know it from the start. There are no long, dull periods of time when your high-INT mage and elf friends figure out What's Going On while you're sharpening that +1 Hammer of Pain itching for the next Big Badass to come along and get some.
Because Pandemonium! is not about combat. Sure, there is the occasional vampire that needs staking, and a showdown fistfight with the bumbling alien infiltrators is a great way to end an adventure. But even laying out the guards at the secret government installation you're investigating might land you in jail, end of character. There are a few cop-outs, like the Psychic or Astral Assault Paranormal Talents, but most adversaries are way to powerful for brute-force methods.
Talking about jail: Remember that Tabloid World is essentially the real world. Most things, like police SOP and due process of the law, don't work differently. Newbie GMs and players know what to expect from this world, and this knowledge helps them find their place in Tabloid World. All right, once in a while the traffic lights change from red to mauve, but they do so for a (Story-related) reason.
Nevertheless, there is plenty of room in Tabloid World for the Editor. Any kind of weird stuff can happen, and since there is absolutely no need for the Stories to be connected into a campaign, the weird stuff need not be consistent between Stories, or even consistent inside a single Story. Your players caught you blundering, buster? Just flash an evil grin and watch Mr. Paranoia at work. I admit, this is not the way to win the Nobel Prize for role-playing, but your job as trainee GM is hard enough as it is.
And if the Editor is out of ideas for a Story, that's what the Instant Story Generator is for. Roll a couple of times, let stew a few minutes and get going. If you have run the introductory adventure successfully, you know the basics, and that's all you need to use the ISG.
Last not least, even with the VC Rules, Pandemonium! is an easy system that doesn't swamp the GM and players in die rolls and table lookups. And it's dead cheap. It's out of print, and nobody noticed it in the first place, so you can pick it up for a dollar or two from the old games bin at the shop, or get it for a buck at some internet auction. Prices will soar after this review, though.
Why I Like It So Much
All the role-playing adventures I ever ran or played in were silly, even the ones intended to be serious. I think this is a problem of role-playing itself, but this is not the right place to discuss it. Let's just say that Pandemonium!'s silliness fits my gaming style like a glove.
And silly it is. It's not only the ``kitsch collages'' spoofing the meaningless (``that's a real UFO, honest!, shame about the overexposure'') photographs of tabloid newspapers, or the tongue-in-cheek writing style, which may get on people's nerves if they think the authors are desperatly trying to be cute. Heck, if a writer directly addresses you, you know there is something fishy.
People might complain about it, but I put it all down to atmosphere. To get the right feeling for Tabloid World, this incredibly idiotic heap of pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo, they had to use silly prose. In fact, part of the book are ``fake'', like this paragraph from the ``Very Complicated Rules'' (p. 41):
Types of Combat and Tactics
This is essentially the same as in the E-Z Rules. Just try to make it sound more complicated when you explain it to your players.
Atmosphere? In Pandemonium! it's thick enough to cut!
What I like best about Pandemonium!, though, is that it's wide open. I'm not the kind of GM who likes being penned in by a circumscribed setting with a rules monstrosity for a sheep dog. But even the VC Rules are easy enough, and the authors make a big point about Editorial License (a.k.a. fudging and cheating) &emdash; something that isn't stressed enough in most other role-playing games. And the setting is so loosely defined and vague, right down to the P.I.s' abilities, that it doesn't interfere with the Editor's views. Anything goes, as long as there is a Story in it for the P.I.s.
On the fun-for-the-buck ratio, Pandemonium! clearly was the best thing that happened to me in almost ten years of role-playing, and not merely because I paid so little for it. I ran it for three and a half years, introductory, at a con, and campaign, and enjoyed every minute of it. And even if I'm suffering from creative burn-out, I'm already looking forward to coming back to it in a couple of months.
A Note About the Ratings
After this glowing review, you might wonder why I don't rate Pandemonium! 5/5. For one thing, I'd like to reserve the 5 (and the 1, for that matter) for the truly great (abysmal) games. I'd love to give a style 5 rating, but, heck, it's just a cheesy little game about the insanity whose name is tabloid. Production quality is solid, but not outstanding &emdash; who today would look twice at an RPG that doesn't even have a colour bestiary? Without National Union of Ophtalmologists-approved background imagry on each page? Sure, the real tabloids (which Pandemonium! tries to mimick) don't have them either, but nobody would give it a second glance these days.
As for substance, can you give a 5 rating to an RPG with such a small system? And with a background you could compile yourself if you picked up a tabloid each time you're at the 7-Eleven? If I didn't happen to like Pandemonium!, I'd probably rate it 2/2. Talk about subjectivity.
Oh, the ISG rolls for Stranger Than Truth: 21, (84), 51, 1, 1, 15, 40, 43; 26, 31, 91, 1, 58, 22; 91, (71), 76, 1, 91, 80; 1, (16), 51, 13, 1, 90; 76, 91, 56, 13, 24, 76, (50); 91, (16), 21, 1, 19, 22.
