Paranoia will Annoy Ya

Last night we took a trip into the paranoiac and utterly nonsensical world of Corn-22, Easy’s homebrew board game based on (now defunct) West End Games’ “Paranoia” RPG universe.

The Computer is Your Friend. Traitors are Everywhere. The Computer Wants Corn.

As a revamp of Easy’s earlier foray into board game design, Corn-22 featured a much slimmed down game board and a more limited equipment set. The stated object, to collect priceless “Old World” substances like corn, beer, cat food and soup, is paired with the necessity of rooting out traitors (and not being pegged as a traitor yourself). Of course, touching or carrying “Old World” items would acknowledge the very existence of the “Old World” which is, predictably, traitorous.

Assigning a rank, a secret society rank and a fighting skill as well as a “role” (Zoologist, Security, Intelligence Officer, Robotics Engineer or Schmoe) each player is sent into the contained area to root for goodies, avoid being turned into a mushy paste by the various nasty beasties, robots and traps that roam the area. The roles permit certain abilities, such as moving creatures around, getting extra points for catching traitors in the act or, in the case of the schmoe, being able to pass the buck.

The game uses an interestingly different point based movement system which permits players to take a number of moves and then reserve points, letting other players go before they go again. Unfortunately, this can lead to multiple circuits of the table in each turn, as players sit and wait to see what happens. Still, the system is different and has some interesting possibilities.

Also somewhat novel is the fickle nature of the computer’s desire. Although the computer starts off wanting Corn, its preferences can change, modified by the fulfillment of secret society missions, which are doled out based on the character’s secret society rank.

Thankfully, given the many terrors of the contained zone, players have an unlimited number of clones, though death carries a penalty in points and the necessity to drop all carried gear.

The game ends with the return of all the currently desired “Old World” product, or a set number of turns. If the second limit is reached, all players are killed by irradiation, in which case the player with the least number of points wins.

Playtesting proceeded a bit more slowly than Easy had expected, possibly due to unfamiliarity, and possibly due to the way that the movement system worked. Unusual situations like one player being effectively trapped and trying to decide on the most strategic way to kill himself highlighted the unpredictable and funny gameplay atmosphere. Two players quickly worked out the drawbacks of having a lower than average fighting skill. In the end, it became clear that we were all going to be microwaved, and having recently suffered a major loss of goods when Easy sicked a big honking robot on me, I proceeded to off myself twice in consecutive rounds in dramatic ways, divesting myself of all points and obtaining the lowest score.

The playtesting yielded many constructive details which I’m sure Easy will put into Corn-22’s next incarnation.

If not, the Computer will not be Happy.

Warping from a comedic Utopian future into renaissance Italy, we broke out Princes of Florence for the second half of the night. A perennial favourite, the game had a very different feel with only three players in attendance. We quickly learned that with less competition for desired items and improvements, we had to be very cagey about what we bought in order to absolutely maximize our WVs. Gameplay was close and see-saw even until the very last scoring round, with Shemp out in front by 4 PPs ahead of Easy and I, who were tied. Then, we both pulled out prestige cards, one giving me 7 PPs, the other giving Easy 8 PP. We were startled by the fact that had Shemp chosen two larger buildings for his final two builds, he might have denied Easy the 8 extra points, which earned him a one-point margin win. A well played and very close session.