Threat Analysis 1: Collateral opens with a chapter on the ‘Dream Entities’. First introduced in the excellent supplement, Cannibal Sector One, these are the by-products of the breakdown in reality that initially take the form of negative energy, but which coalesces into a Dream Sac. This feeds on immediate vicinity’s history of violence, fear, and folklore. The Dream Sac gives birth to a still unreal creature that can evolve into something that not only embodies that history of violence, fear, and folklore, it reinforces it. However, there are numerous paths down which the entity in the Dream Sac can evolve, potentially going through multiple phases, from the initial Embryonic Phase, through the Juvenile Phase, Bloom Phase, and Consolidation Phase, and into the Integration Phase when the Dream Entity becomes organic and part of reality. Thankfully, these creatures are rare, but there are numerous other types of Dream Entities that SLA Operatives might encounter otherwise. These include the Titter which likes to present themselves as lost children, crying out for help, but ready to strike at whomever comes to their aid and then torture and murder with childlike glee; the Green Horror which rose up from the massacre of Shivers in Cannibal Sector One and almost organically replicates and warps the green Body Blocker armour that Shivers are renowned for wearing; and the Rainfolk, which whilst looking like ordinary Downtown citizens, unnerve those around them with unblinking eyes and unsettling mannerisms. Then there is the Dream Master, which leads and ensnares other Dream Entities, aiming to build a Dream Army. Lastly even their presence can have deleterious effect upon the environment, infecting Citizens with a deteriorating effect known as The Grey which appears to spread memetically and can lead to whole neighbourhoods being condemned if not dealt with.
In addition to detailing the various types of Dream Entity and their evolution, the chapter details the abilities they can have. These include Manifestation Abilities like ‘Cannibalistic Regeneration’ and ‘Dread Stench’ and Distortions, the main form of attack for Dream Entities, which affect the reality around their victims, like Mind Control and Time Distortion. There is Dream Hardware too, ranging from weapons such as the Dream Blade and Fear Staff to Dream-interpreted equipment such as the Oinky-Boinky and Oopsie Daisy, the former pig-like toy you do not want to possess and the latter a weaponised balloon from a children’s television series… There is no denying the weirdness of Dream Entities and it was a weirdness that seemed intrusive when they first appeared in Cannibal Sector One. Here though, they are better and more clearly explained, and given a wider range of options which will allow the Game Master to underplay that weirdness or go full blast with it.
The treatment of ‘Mort City Gangs’ is a contrast in the conventional after the Dream Entities. This talks about gang structure, gang values and activities, and roles within a gang along with their stats. This goes from Gang Boss at the top all the way down to Gang Prospects. Notably, gangs are organised, many having signed up to a Gang Charter that regulates their activities and those of their members, primarily as a means to make money, but do so without attracting the undue attention of S.L.A. Industries. Several gangs are described as well, including Krosstown Traffic, which is noted as one of Mort City’s oldest surviving gangs (having been referenced in numerous supplements for the roleplaying game), but not necessarily its largest. There is even a gang of Dream Entities, consisting of Titters, though they are not really a gang in the traditional sense. Instead of making money through robberies or protection rackets, its members are sent out to scavenge for ‘objects of interest’ for their Dream Master. The Gang Code is detailed, as are the weapons sold to them by soft companies and K’Shangs, the civilian powersuits that the gangs like to modify and use. Of course, the gangs are presented as a threat, but out of all the threats presented in Threat Analysis 1: Collateral, this one has the possibility to be basis of a S.L.A. Industries campaign, just from a different angle to that of SLA Ops.
However, the one threat that is presented as a Player Character option are the Manchines. Originally built to quell civil unrest, Digger took control of them and turned them against S.L.A. Industries. Now they form a network of lairs connected by a radio network, monitoring activities across the Cannibal Sectors and into Downtown. They are surprisingly docile, really only active when one is disturbed and attacked, and if destroyed, the others moving to fill the hole in the network. Manchines are scary because they wrap themselves in human flesh, but some do break connect with Digger and they resume their old programming. This opens up the possibility of a Player Character Manchine, even as an unsanctioned SLA Op, and there is a full list of modifications to customise both NPCs and possible Player Characters.
‘Serial Killers’ are given a similar treatment to the earlier Mort City Gangs. It categorises them and gives them stats as well as presenting ‘The Homicidal Pattern’, a list of common factors that seem to drive the creation of Serial Killers in Downtown. Cognates—Serial Killer collectives—are also discussed, along with examples, and so is the current status of Serial Killers in Mort City. Whilst they are often hunted by S.L.A. Industries, the soft company, Realtime Media broadcasts film of their activities, most notably on Channel Slice and Dice with its primetime Blood Soaked Hour which shows a Cognate facing another threat. This is supported by S.L.A. Industries to the point where a Serial Killer is allowed to get a ShowBiz Agent and when he has, he can legally travel to see his agent without the possibility of his being arrested.
Both ‘Scary Monsters’ and ‘Planet Mort Fauna’ details a wide of threats. In the former, this includes numerous types of Ex-War Criminals—War World Veterans currently lured into broadcast combat in Cannibal Sector Three by Realtime Media, the feral descendants of aliens known as Carrien, and numerous types of Cannibals, such as Cannibal Butcher, Cannibal Mastiff, and Cannibal Outcast. In the latter, the most normal creatures are the Carnivorous Pigs and Canines. Add to that Arrowhead Cockroach, which infests Downtown and the Cannibal Sectors and can change its carapace pattern and colour in response to threats, but it also can be turned into a cheesy past; Cannibals and other creatures transformed into Sector Mutants—KZ Mutants, KZ Dogs, and Skulkers—after drinking from heavily polluted pools in the Cannibal Sectors; and Gnaggots, maggot-like creatures capable of flight with a headache-inducing stench and mandibles that can bit through some armour, which can spend years dormant underground before bursting from the ground under the right climatic conditions in their thousands and swarming their targets. In between, ‘The Children of Scarogg’ present the descendants of biogenetic experimentation that S.L.A. Industries kept secret. Known as both Scavs and Vodyanoy, the former because they will attack and scavenge the arms and armour of anyone they attack. The gasmask wearing, towering figures have begun to infiltrate Downtown where they establish bases and outposts where they can begin to observe and experiment on the inhabitants. They have even begun taking over or establishing factories far from the eyes of S.L.A. Industries, where for the most part, they are safe from attack or interference.
The last chapter in Threat Analysis 1: Collateral returns to the subject of the first, ‘Dream Entities’, although from a different angle. ‘Naga 7 Division’ is both a new and a very ancient department within the hierarchy of S.L.A. Industries, dedicated to investigating and cataloguing the nature of reality of the World of Progress and beyond and assessing and dealing with the threats to it. This most obviously includes Dream Entities and Naga 7 Division trains agents who often work alongside SLA Ops to handle BPNs (S.L.A. Industries’ assignments) specific to its remit. As well as a detailed history of Naga 7 Division, which highlights its secretive and often duplicitous nature, the chapter gives three new options for the Player Character. These are Field Agents—Humans who have the ability to ‘Sense Artefact’ and locate the relics and legendary items from the past or beyond reality; Aethernauts—specialists who conduct the field work necessary to understand Dream Entities; and AetherTrackers—Advanced Carrien capable of tracking Dream Entities with ‘Dreamhound’. Operatives from Naga 7 Division are assigned Aether Armour suits, capable of withstanding the effects of the Gray and other esoteric threats, and weapons such as the Fracture Blade or Volt Gun, which are capable damaging Dream Entities. Operatives from Naga 7 Division are expected to undertake standard BPNs like any other SLA Op, but in game terms their role is very specific and the Game Master will want to decide whether she wants to include them and how much, just as she will with the Dream Entities from the start of the book. The obvious option is to run a campaign primarily focused around Naga 7 Division and the Dream Entities, which would explore and push at the nature of the reality of World of Progress and S.L.A. Industries as a setting.
Besides all of the threats and monsters described in the pages of Threat Analysis 1: Collateral, the supplement has another aspect which makes it all the more interesting. This is the amount of colour fiction which permeates the book with commentary on almost every aspect of the threats and other content found within its pages. This is both within the World of Progress and without the World of Progress, developing the secrets revealed and hinted at in S.L.A. Industries, Second Edition. Above all, the colour fiction brings flavour and in-game perspective to the setting.
Physically, Threat Analysis 1: Collateral is a clean, tidy looking book. It needs a slight edit in places, but the artwork is superb, brilliantly depicting the weird and worrisome threats in the supplement in almost too rich a detail, just as in other supplements for S.L.A. Industries.
Threat Analysis 1: Collateral is a supplement that every S.L.A. Industries Game Master is going to want and need. It is no mere collection of stats, but lives up to its title of ‘Threat Analysis’ by examining and assessing each danger to Mort City and the World of Progress in detail that will enable the Game Master to make each and every one interesting, even intriguing, and very likely monstrously repulsive, rather than simply something to just kill.
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