PARANOIA

A PARANOIA writer and Traitor Recycling Studio member who writes under the name "WJ Maguffin" (hi, Bill!) runs the fan site FriendComputer.net. There WJ/Bill has undertaken another project, a Lexicon game called "Ruckusball Explained."

Lexicon, designed by Neel Krishnaswami, is a roleplaying game where players use a Wiki to collaboratively create and embroider entries on some fictitious subject. (If you followed the development of the current PARANOIA edition, you'll recall I ran a Lexicon game set in Alpha Complex, the Toothpaste Disaster.) WJ has adapted Neel's Lexicon rules to a competitive version he calls Smacktalk. Each turn, one player gets voted off the island, and the last survivor writes an entry explaining the sad fates that befell all his competitors.

And Ruckusball? "In this game, players take on the role of retired, famous veterans of an imaginary sport called ruckusball," WJ explains. "The rules, history, and traditions of ruckusball have never been written down before, so these ruckusball champions are asked to delve deep into their memories and write down those rules and whatnot.

"The players will be creating the rules, history, and traditions of ruckusball as they go along. Each entry should describe some complicated rule or whatever, including citations to other rules or whatever like the SmackTalk rules state. Everything should be about ruckusball -- whatever the hell that is -- so players should be making stuff up from their fevered imaginations. That's the point of the game!"

Fans of PARANOIA's "FunBall" may look to Ruckusball Explained as a useful source of rules confusion.