Paranoia-Live :: View topic

Aratos · Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2009 6:51 pm Post subject:

So the IntSec rulebook for Paranoia was the one I was most skeptical about and had no real intention of buying - I have HIL Sector BLUEs if I really want to mess about with IntSec, after all, and I don't really see if as a something that interests me. But then I noticed that the Blue Line edition was still up on the Mongoose webstore and I figured seeing as I have Black Missions I might as well go for the full set. Suddenly Paranoia just got a whole lot more interesting.

Rather than just your standard Troubleshooter action, protecting the citizens of Alpha Complex from the constant danger of communism, players now take on the roles of IntSec BLUE agents. And not just any agents: as a Sector Security Team (SST), these elite agents of The Computer are tasked with protecting Alpha Complex from threats from within, investigating allegations of treason against high-clearance citizens who troubleshooters just don't tend to be allowed within any sane distance of. Throw in a requirement to meet arrest and termination quotas, a requirement to ensure the happiness index stays at an acceptable level and more corruption than you can shake a stick at, and technology that ensures working together as a team becomes a very good idea and suddenly you're looking at a very different kettle of fish to standard Paranoia.

One of the most interesting things about IntSec as a service group is that, at heart, fulfilling its stated mandate is in its worst interests - a situation which the famous game designers behind the new rulebook are not afraid of examining. The mere existence of IntSec shows that The Computer has failed in creating a utopia free from treason, but by achieving said utopia IntSec ensures its own destruction: to justify its continued operation it must ensure that it never achieves its goals. To me, this is one of the most interesting angles that Paranoia gameplay can examine, and it warms my heart that this is even more encouraged by the addition of all-new Paranoia playstyles (more on that later).

But what of the actual book? The meat of the player's section is made up of both a standard run-down of life in Alpha Complex and more detail on IntSec than I ever knew I needed: Considering you only have 56 pages including character generation, it really does the job. PCs are either members of IntSec assigned to a particular department, members of other Service groups on temporary assignment to IntSec, or IntSec members working undercover in other service groups. So far so normal: now here's where the changes from Troubleshooters start sneaking in.

First up: you've probably lost some clones on your way to BLUE clearance and you probably won't be on your prime. Gutted. Interestingly, this is somewhat balanced out as The Computer in its wisdom provides a bank of extra clones for those killed in the line of duty: as long as the team leader states you actually did die in the line of duty and the clone bank isn't empty, you can get a free replacement without incrementing your clone number.

Secondly, in a similar manner to the old Criminal histories supplement you're guilty of a couple of past treasons that your superiors are well aware of and are holding over your head as blackmail. You can also optionally take a couple more in order to get back some of those clones you lost pre-BLUE.

Thirdly: IntSec PCs begin with 10 perversity points, rather than the 25 given to troubleshooters, but may choose to have one single tic, netting them 10pp (I'm not quite convinced about this one), and get another 10(!) perversity if they take a goal: escape the complex, kill the rest of your teammates to earn promotion, smash The Computer etc. These are described as existing to add black humour - the PC is doomed to failure and execution for achieving his treasonous goal.

It's nice to note that the mutations from Troubleshooters have all survived. It's also very nice to see new descriptions in the GM section, rather than a lazy rehashing of the Troubleshooters content. The Secret Societies section features not just the standard set of SecSocs we all know and love, but the ever-amusing Wobblies (The SecSoc made entirely of infiltrators from IntSec and other SecSocs), the C.L.A (gun nuts), Movement, Old Guard, and Servants of Cthulhu (Yes, really). Whether some of those SecSocs are really warranted is a highly subjective matter of opinion left to the individual GM.

Ah yes, the GM. The GM section of Internal Security features as ever everything needed to run a game, with all the usual features of transport, security, weapons, treason etc, plus mission design, some pregenerated characters and more forms than you can shake a stick at, all of which is well above your security clearance, citizen!

Finally, a mention must be made of the play-styles appendix: Three all-new playstyles are introduced for IntSec play, throwing a bit of a mix in to the Zap/Classic/Straight mixup. Horror is very straight, very dark, very different to what most of us are used to. Meanwhile, Overkill is to Internal Security What Zap! is to Troubleshooters. Described as being in the style of "dumb cop shows", what you get is a lot of big guns, and a lot of action. Heist is different again, and provides what can only be called one of the most interesting takes on Paranoia gameplay that I've yet seen.

Before I finish, I want to comment on the editing of the book: one of my main criticism in my review of Black Missions was of course what I see as substandard editing and a massacre in terms of artwork. Well the good news is that the artwork's simply amazing. Tony Emson's drawings capture brilliantly the mood of IntSec, and better yet I've only spotted one small Computer-with-moustache, and even that was in the background and not a major feature of the picture - in fact one noticeable point is that "The Big C" doesn't seem to feature much in the interior art. There's a noticeably different feel in comparison to the constant barrage of Computer terminals seen in Troubleshooters. On the editing side of things, aside from a couple of footnotes on different pages to the asterisk (and one footnote which appears to have been accidentally left out entirely), job's a good 'un! Again there's a case of announcing "This book is UV Clearance" right at the beginning followed by declaring a section within to be BLUE, which to me just doesn't sit right, and once more the GM section begins half way down the page that the player section ends, but to make that seem to be a particular major issue would just be silly. A tad more annoying is that the beginning of the mission could be a lot more clearly marked. It just sorta appears after the sample characters, which are placed with no fanfare at the end of the section on mission design.

Over all, Internal Security is a triumphant work of brilliance, bringing to Paranoia a game which is both familiar and yet new enough that it offers a genuine alternative to standard Troubleshooters gameplay. The fact that even when played in a Classic playstyle it tends towards being much darker than Troubleshooters only serves to show just what a stand-alone game it actually is.
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Episode 5 info for Aratos-B-SCO-7
Wearing: Trenchcoat, blue jumpsuit, Esoteric Order of the Needlessly Pretentious Subnet Idiots Pin, Reflec
Carrying: Energy pistol and force sword