Vapors Don't Shoot Back
Paranoia Scenario

Game Review

Review by Mike Dawson


Written by Curtis Smith
West End Games Inc. 251 West 30th St., New York, NY 10001
Released: June, 1985
Catalog No.: 80102
Price: $6.00
Complexity: Intermediate
Solitaire Suitability: None
*****

Vapors Don't Shoot Back is the first stand alone scenario pack for the Paranoia role-playing game. This is an "Orange" level adventure-that is, it is designed for characters who have somehow survived their first missions as the lowest ranking Red Troubleshooters and have been promoted to Orange security clearance. For players who have never been lucky or smart enough to get their characters so far advanced, Vapors Don't Shoot Back supplies a fully outfitted team of six Orange Clearance Troubleshooters who will not "die too soon (or) not soon enough."

One of the more humorous touches in Vapors Don't Shoot Back is that, along with the secret society membership and the unregistered mutant powers, every one of the pregenerated player characters (PCs) has managed to pick up some illegal equipment in his previous experience. just another example of how the characters in Paranoia always begin in more trouble than they can really hope to live through.

This is a 32-page booklet with a detachable color cover. Vapors Don't Shoot Back maintains the high standards of humor set by the original Paranoia rule books, and uses more illustrations by the same artist who did the rules. The tone and humor of the book make it a joy to read, and more computer terminal inserts of the computer's wisdom are included for the Gamemaster's (GM's) education and pleasure. "GO AHEAD. MAKE MY DAY. THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION."

The inside of the cover contains the statistics for all the major nonplayer characters (NPCs) and standard examples of such important NPC types as security robots, tough (and insane) troubleshooters, Alpha Complex Army Death Troopers and officers, as well as some of the first published examples of some really high security clearance NPCs.

The action for the PC Troubleshooters revolves around a contest between various High Programmers for the 11 coveted Hilton Ashtray Trophy, the highest achievement in intra-complex sports competition." High Programmers are, of course, very influential people, and the fact that the entire competition is very illegal cannot keep the PCs from being involved. if The Computer were to have proof that Ultraviolet clearance citizens were doing things like this, it would be unbelievably upset. Unfortunately, the only people likely to get caught by The Computer are the PCs.

There are three missions involved in the contest, and to reveal too many details about them would, of course, be treasonous. However, those of Ultraviolet clearance may be informed that one mission involves scouting an unused factory, another could mean a visit to Outdoors, and the final mission has something to do with a large water tank.

In the general sense, all of the adventures, briefings, and debriefings beautifully maintain the genre that was created by the original rules and the first CBI Sector adventure. There is a wonderful sense of ignorance and fear generated by the situations, and the thought of how characters will react when faced by new challenges and problems is enough to make the GM who is reading the material for the first time break out laughing.

Vapors Don't Shoot Back is not a scenario for complete beginners. The feelings of hopelessness, ignorance, and hostility that will overwhelm even the most callous role- player would probably crush the interest out of a new player. Losing your third character in one night can be daunting, but this is not the fault of the scenario; it is an intrinsic part of the Paranoia game system. To change it would be to lessen the game.

The introduction to the scenarios contains some short suggestions on how the GM can run other adventures surrounding the 84th Annual High Programmers Invitational Tournament. When combined with the suggested tables for outdoor encounters, statistics for specific NPCs who are bound to survive to further influence the game, and generic NPCs who can be encountered again and again with different GM supplied names, there is a fair replay value for this scenario pack. The actual missions are not very reusable, and it will be difficult to get clone replacements involved once the actual missions have begun.

Organization of the missions is linear, and there is little room for PC deviation from the assigned adventure. However, this is quite in keeping with the nature of Paranoia, where the characters' lives are under surveillance by The Computer.

The missions are tough. Very tough. As usual, a careful GM can manage to inflict 50-100% losses on a group of six PCs. This might be thought a bit excessive for another game, but what would all those clones do if no one was getting killed?

This is an excellent job from the author and all The Computer's friends at West End Games Inc. Vapors Don't Shoot Back provides several useful tidbits for expanding the GM's understanding of Alpha Complex, and should provide GM and players with many hours of role-playing in the best traditions of black humor carnage.

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