Minireview: Service, Service! (Paranoia)
Service, Service! provides extra material for GMs who wish to use Service Groups more in their game. Admittedly, this is more useful in a “straight” style game, in the more classic game mode service groups will probably be left mostly as background sources of (mis)info and (dangerous) submissions (like secret societies).
The book is logically split into chapters per service group. Each one contains some general info (including stereotyped opinions of the other service groups), some NPCs, some service services and lastly a short mission related to the service group. The missions range from ok-ish to great – one involving lightbulbs is especially inspired, and has vast potential for mayhem and total confusion. Some of the missions are very specific and only useful in some circumstances, while some are quite general and can be plugged in most anywhere. Should be something for everyone in here.
The book introduces a minor new rule addition in the form of Mandates. A Mandate is a personal service service, and it doled out by a service group. Each mandate has a spiffy title and an extra mandatory duty… which, for once in Paranoia, can actually be useful to the PC. To balance this gasp-inducing fact, the GM has total freedom (of course) to revoke Mandates on whim. If a PC starts to get too much mileage out of a Mandate: whoops, it’s gone, replaced by a much nastier one. It’s a fun little rules tweak; not something absolutely necessary in any sense, but potentially very amusing.
As unfortunately is quite typical for a Mongoose book, the layout here is a bit spotty in places. The font scaling is a bit weird here and there, and some of the illustrations were actually left out of this one by accident (replaced by textual art notes!). This was an actual mishap, as confirmed by the Mongoose guys: the final layout (with pics) had been sent out to (some guy) for final approval, but somehow what got sent to the printers was the previous version (without pics). Oh well, it happens (though Mongoose tends to be more problematic than the norm), and the art design notes are actually quite interesting so it’s not a total loss.
In summary: a full pack of info and mini-missions for, most useful for “Straight” games where the bureaucracy of Alpha Complex gets more screen time. Well written, and some of the mini-adventures rock. In addition, the new Mandate concept can add extra flavor to some games. On the flipside, some layout issues detract from the whole.
