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The Iceman Returneth
''The Iceman Returneth'' is a humorous adventure written by Sam Shirley for the dystopian science fiction role-playing game ''Paranoia''. Plot summary The Troubleshooters (player characters) are tasked with taking a bag full of Communist propaganda to the trash. While on their way, they hear a loud explosion. Upon investigating, they discover a cryogenic box from which emerges one of the Complex's original programmers, Clem. The Troubleshooters are immediately arrested and charged with causing the explosion and being in possession of Communist propaganda. They are sentenced to be executed live on the ''Alpha Team Show''. They are rescued by Clem, and accompany him to Des Moines to gather the resources needed to reboot the Computer. When the Troubleshooters follow Clem's instructions, The Computer crashes permanently. This programming error was called "The MegaWhoops" in later ''Paranoia'' adventures. Subsequent adventures took place in the era known as "PostMegaWhoops." Publi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West End Games
West End Games (WEG) was a company that made Board game, board, Role-playing game, role-playing, and wargaming, war games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in New York City, but later moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Its product lines included ''Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, Star Wars'', ''Paranoia (game), Paranoia'', ''Torg'', ''DC Universe Roleplaying Game, DC Universe'', and ''Junta (game), Junta''. History Scott Palter received a Juris Doctor, JD from Stanford University, Stanford in 1972 and joined the New York State Bar Association, New York State Bar before he began work at the family firm, Bucci Imports. Drawing on this financial connection, Palter was able to found West End Games, named after the bar in which the meeting that finalized its founding occurred: the West End Bar near Columbia University. Initially a producer of board wargames, In 1983, Palter hired Ken Rolston, Eric Goldberg (game designer), Eric Goldberg and Greg Costikyan as game design ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bret Blevins
Bret Blevins (sometimes spelled Brett Blevins) (born August 13, 1960) is an American comics artist, animation storyboard artist, and painter. He is perhaps best known for his stint as the regular penciler of ''New Mutants'' for Marvel Comics. Career After cartooning for a local newspaper, Blevins became a professional comic book artist in the early 1980s. During that time, Blevins drew Marvel Comics' adaptations of films such as ''The Dark Crystal'', ''Krull'', and ''The Last Starfighter''. Blevins was a guest artist on a number of titles before co-creating ''The Bozz Chronicles'' with writer David Michelinie, which was published under Marvel's creator-owned Epic Comics imprint. Blevins first regular work on a superhero comic was on the 1987 revival of ''Strange Tales'' which was an anthology that featured two ongoing features produced by two different creative teams — Cloak and Dagger drawn by Blevins, and Doctor Strange. That same year, Blevins became the regular artist on ''N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Humor
Humour (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humorism, humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in the human body, known as humours (Latin: ', "body fluid"), controlled human health and emotion. People of all ages and cultures respond to humour. Most people are able to experience humour—be amused, smile or laugh at something funny (such as a pun or joke)—and thus are considered to have a ''sense of humour''. The hypothetical person lacking a sense of humour would likely find the behaviour to be inexplicable, strange, or even irrational. Though ultimately decided by personal taste (aesthetics), taste, the extent to which a person finds something humorous depends on a host of variables, including geographical location, culture, Maturity (psychological), maturity, level of education, inte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, extraterrestrial life, sentient artificial intelligence, cybernetics, certain forms of immortality (like mind uploading), and the singularity. Science fiction predicted several existing inventions, such as the atomic bomb, robots, and borazon, whose names entirely match their fictional predecessors. In addition, science fiction might serve as an outlet to facilitate future scientific and technological innovations. Science fiction can trace its roots to ancient mythology. It is also related to fantasy, horror, and superhero fiction and contains many subgenres. Its exact definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers. Science fiction, in literature, film, television, and other media, has beco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Shirley (author)
Sam, SAM or variants may refer to: Places * Sam, Benin * Sam, Boulkiemdé, Burkina Faso * Sam, Bourzanga, Burkina Faso * Sam, Kongoussi, Burkina Faso * Sam, Iran * Sam, Teton County, Idaho, United States, a populated place People and fictional characters * Sam (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Sam (surname), a list of people with the surname ** Cen (surname) (岑), romanized "Sam" in Cantonese ** Shen (surname) (沈), often romanized "Sam" in Cantonese and other languages Religious or legendary figures * Sam (Book of Mormon), elder brother of Nephi * Sām, a Persian mythical folk hero * Sam Ziwa, an uthra (angel or celestial being) in Mandaeism Animals * Sam (army dog) (died 2000) * Sam (horse) (b 1815), British Thoroughbred * Sam (koala) (died 2009), rescued after 2009 bush fires in Victoria, Australia * Sam (orangutan), in the movie ''Dunston Checks In'' * Sam (ugly dog) (1990–2005), voted the world's ugliest dog i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dystopian
A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). or simply anti-utopia) is a speculated community or society that is undesirable or frightening. It is often treated as an Opposite (semantics), antonym of ''utopia'', a term that was coined by Sir Thomas More and figures as the title of his best known work, published in 1516, which created a blueprint for an ideal society with minimal crime, violence and poverty. The relationship between utopia and dystopia is in actuality not one simple opposition, as many utopian elements and components are found in dystopias as well, and ''vice versa''. Dystopias are often characterized by rampant fear or distress , tyrannical governments, environmental disaster, or other characteristics associated with a cataclysmic decline in society. Distinct the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paranoia (role-playing Game)
''Paranoia'' is a dystopian Science fiction, science-fiction tabletop role-playing game originally designed and written by Greg Costikyan, Dan Gelber (game designer), Dan Gelber, and Eric Goldberg (game designer), Eric Goldberg, and first published in 1984 by West End Games. Since 2004 the game has been published under license by Mongoose Publishing. The game won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Rules of 1984 and was inducted into the Origins Awards Hall of Fame in 2007. ''Paranoia'' is notable among tabletop games for being more competitive than co-operative, with players encouraged to betray one another for their own interests, as well as for keeping a light-hearted, tongue in cheek tone despite its dystopian setting. Several editions of the game have been published since the original version, and the franchise has spawned several spin-offs, novels and comic books based on the game. A crowdfunding at Kickstarter for a new edition was successfully funded. Delivery to b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Player Character
A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not controlled by a player are called non-player characters (NPCs). The actions of non-player characters are typically handled by the game itself in video games, or according to rules followed by a gamemaster refereeing tabletop role-playing games. The player character functions as a fictional, alternate body for the player controlling the character. Video games typically have one player character for each person playing the game. Some games, such as multiplayer online battle arena, hero shooter, and fighting games, offer a group of player characters for the player to choose from, allowing the player to control one of them at a time. Where more than one player character is available, the characters may have distinctive abilities and differing styles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valerie Valusek
Valerie A. Valusek is an artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games. She is the sister of Jay E. Valusek, author of Museum of Voices: An Autobiographical Miscellany, where she is mentioned briefly. Works Valerie Valusek has produced interior illustrations for many ''Dungeons & Dragons'' books and '' Dragon'' magazine since 1985, as well as interior art for several Dragonlance novels, and cover art for the 1992 module '' Rary the Traitor''. Her interior art has been featured in '' Wizards and Rogues of the Realms'' (1995). She has also produced some artwork for other games including ''Paranoia'' (West End Games), ''Torg'' (West End Games), '' Changeling: The Dreaming'' (White Wolf), and ''Legend of the Five Rings'' (Alderac Entertainment Group). Published works *"Lady of the Winds: Pick a Path to Romance and Adventure", (1983) (book) *'' Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition The Complete Fighter's Handbook'', (1989) (source book) *'' Rary the Traitor'', (1992) (sou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allen Varney
Allen Varney (born 1958) is an American writer and game designer. Varney has produced numerous books, role-playing game supplements, technical manuals, articles, reviews, columns, and stories, as well as the fantasy novel ''Cast of Fate'' ( TSR, 1996). Since the 1990s, he has worked primarily in computer games. Early life Varney was born in St. Louis, Missouri and was raised by his mother, Marcelene Varney. He graduated from Reno High School in 1976 and has a dual B.A. in English and history from the University of Nevada, Reno. Gaming career Roleplaying games Varney designed the game ''Necromancer'' (1983), which was published by Steve Jackson Games. Varney wrote ''Son of Toon'' (1986), the third supplement to the '' Toon'' RPG. From 1984 to 1986 he worked as Assistant Editor at Steve Jackson Games (with Warren Spector, then Editor-in-Chief) editing ''Space Gamer'' magazine. Warren Spector and Varney wrote the supplement '' Send in the Clones'' (1985) for the ''Paranoia'' role- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mongoose Publishing
Mongoose Publishing is a British manufacturer of role-playing games, miniatures, and card games, publishing material since 2001. Its licenses include products based on the science fiction properties '' Traveller'', ''Judge Dredd'', and ''Paranoia'', as well as fantasy titles. History Mongoose Publishing was founded in Swindon, England, in 2001 by Matthew Sprange and Alex Fennell. Sprange initially wanted to publish a miniatures game, but he ultimately went with the less expensive alternative of using Wizards of the Coast's d20 System license. It grew out of the '' d20 System'' boom sparked by ''Dungeons & Dragons'' 3rd edition. The first release, the ''Slayer's Guides'', concentrated on different monster types for the ''d20 system'', while the subsequent Quintessential books, detailed specific character classes. The latter was to span three years and thirty-six different titles. In 2003 the company released the magazine ''Signs and Portents'', a house organ aimed at supple ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Space Gamer
''The Space Gamer'' was a magazine dedicated to the subject of science fiction and fantasy board games and tabletop role-playing games. It quickly grew in importance and was an important and influential magazine in its subject matter from the late 1970s through the mid-1980s. The magazine is no longer published, but the rights holders maintain a web presence using its final title ''Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer''. History ''The Space Gamer'' (''TSG'') started out as a digest quarterly publication of the brand new Metagaming Concepts Metagaming Concepts, later known simply as Metagaming, was a company that published board games from 1974 to 1983. It was founded and owned by Howard Thompson, who designed the company's first game, '' Stellar Conquest''. The company also inven ... company in March 1975. Howard M. Thompson, the owner of Metagaming and the first editor of the magazine, stated "The magazine had been planned for after our third or fourth game but circumstances demand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
