''The Iceman Returneth'' is a humorous adventure written by Sam Shirley for the

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). ...

science fiction role-playing game ''

Paranoia Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concer ...

''.

Plot summary

The Troubleshooters (

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 control ...

s) 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."

Publication history

''The Iceman Returneth'' was written by Sam Shirley, with a cover by

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. Ca ...

, and illustrations by

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 i ...

, and was first published by West End Games in 1989 as a 40-page book. In 2010, a sequel to this adventure by Allen Varney, ''The Iceman Returneth Again'', appeared in the three-adventure anthology ''None of This is My Fault'' published by Mongoose Publishing for their reboot of the ''Paranoia'' franchise. In the introduction, Varney calls the "MegaWhoops" plotline of the original adventure "massively controversial", saying that it "heralded the impending wipe-out of ''Paranoia''’s viability as a continuing game line."

Reception

In the March-April 1990 edition of '' Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer'' (No. 88), Leo Eric Shepherd liked this scenario, saying, "The adventure is well-written and quite humorous, and the illustrations, though a departure from the stark ''Paranoia'' norm, are well-done. The players get exposed to a bewildering variety of life-threatening events, sure to confuse even the cleverest player." In a 2010 article about adapting various role-playing adventures to the '' Doctor Who Role-Playing Game'', Nick Seidler suggested ''The Iceman Returneth'' would be a good candidate for this, noting, "Played by itself the game is a bit of a comedy, importing it to ''Doctor Who'', a GM can keep it a comedy or make it high drama."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iceman Returneth Paranoia adventures Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1989