PARANOIA

The impressive and timely finish of Year 214 of The Computer has prompted nostalgic recollection across Alpha Complex. Who can forget the many landmark victories of loyal citizens against the retreating Communist threat? Who can fail to shed a tear for the noble spirit of sacrifice and camraderie engendered in loyal citizens by the ever-growing Communist threat? Let us recall and celebrate the signal achievement of [NAME DELETED by order of Internal Security], whose actions against the [DELETED] menace have proven to be [DELETED]! In that spirit of remembrance, of happy optimism and courageous vigilance, The Computer's loyal servants in Technical Services have reported Communist sabotage of certain timekeeping devices that require reset, and therefore Year 214 will be repeated. Give thanks for this exciting opportunity!

In February Mongoose Publishing produced Gareth Hanrahan's High Programmers -- the last of their three 25th Anniversary PARANOIA rulebooks. Using a unique and highly original system unrelated to the other PARANOIA rulebooks, High Programmers revealed how to play the highest of the high, the psychopathiest of the psychos, the ULTRAVIOLETs who rule Alpha Complex.

Soon afterward, Mongoose also published Gareth's collection of High Programmers missions, None of This is My Fault (which, almost in passing, revived and updated Sam Shirley's 1988 West End Games adventure The Iceman Returneth), as well as a new mission collection for Troubleshooters, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Termination Booth.

These fine books proved to be Gareth's grand finale as a Mongoose staff designer. He has embarked on a successful freelance career, with many supplements in the pipeline for Pelgrane Press, Cubicle 7 Entertainment, and others. Cubicle 7 has just published The Laundry RPG; Gareth was a principal designer. And he's still writing freelance for Mongoose. The upcoming issue 88 of Mongoose's free in-house magazine, Signs & Portents, includes Gareth's newest PARANOIA mission, "Security Theatre."

2010 brought some obstacles. When Google's Blogger service treasonously shut down this blog and many others (they say it was for technical reasons), we commenced a rocky transition to Blogspot that is still causing problems. (The last nine months of archive links are, um, broken.) After a four-year delay, I finally managed to produce the WMD bonus material .PDF and posted it as a free download on the leading fan site, Paranoia-Live.net. As though jinxed, Paranoia-Live went down in early May. But the site surged back a couple of weeks later and is still, knock electrons, poking along pleasantly enough. In fact, the future is brightening for JParanoia, the free client/server application for playing PARANOIA online. In November High Programmer NoryB unexpectedly announced he intends to release the JParanoia program as open source.

It's been a tough year and a nightmare decade. The commercial roleplaying market is increasingly challenging, and the delta of the increase will rise in the years ahead. But so long as paranoia remains strong in the world, PARANOIA will remain strong. Stay strong with it, and all will be well.

Labels: yearinreview