(Note this document is a parody of the original Oubliette 2.

5 Manual from 1983)

Liberal Crime Squad
A Liberal Adventure
To some a dream come true, to others an offensive piece of crap.
Author: Tarn Adams of Bay 12 Games
v3.9 Copyright (c) 2002-4, Tarn Adams
v3.10-4.03 revisions by Jonathan Stickles, Chris Johnson, and other fans of Libe
ral Crime Squad in the Open Source Community. We hope you enjoy our changes.
Visit the Curses forum at the Bay 12 Games website to discuss and contribute to
LCS:
http://www.bay12games.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=3
See also our underutilized sourceforge page:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/lcsgame/
DISCLAIMER
Tarn Adams and Bay 12 Games make no representations or warranties with respect t
o
the contents hereof and disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fi
tness
for any purpose. Tarn Adams and Bay 12 Games reserve the right to make changes
at
any time without prior notification.
www.bay12games.com
If you are missing the curses DLL, get it at www.bay12games.com/curses.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Legend of the Liberal Crime Squad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Loading Liberal Crime Squad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Introduction to Liberal Crime Squad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Character Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Liberal Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Main Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Site Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
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The Legend of the Liberal Crime Squad
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(This section is adapted from the Wikipedia article on the Symbionese Liberation
Army, and serves as background for the 'inspiration' for LCS. If it's too serio
us for you, just skip it -- we don't take the game seriously, either, so no worr
ies.)
On Febuary 4, 1974, the Symbionese Liberation Army, an American self-styled urba
n gurrilla warfare group kidnapped 19-year-old media heiress Patricia Hearst as
she and her 26-year-old boyfriend, Steven Weed, sat relaxing in their Berkeley,
California home.
Their goal was to negotiate the release of two of their members, Joseph Remiro a
nd Russell Little, who were just convicted and given life sentences for assassin
ating a popular school superintendant over his support for what they considered
to be a "facist" plan to introduce identification cards. This proved impossible
to negotiate, and the F.B.I. searched unsuccessfully for the S.L.A. as they took
refuge in "safehouses" and the kidnapping captured regional, then world attenti
on.
What was so spectacular about this kidnapping was not so much the prominence of
the victim, but her response. The S.L.A. released taped recordings of Hearst rea
ding their demands, and with each tape they released, she voiced increasing supp
ort for her captors. Eventually, she firmly renounced her former life and family
, and declared that when the S.L.A. offered her the choice of going free or join
ing them, she chose to join them. She would even take a new name: Tania.
On April 15, 1974, S.L.A. members burst into a branch of The Hibernia Bank at 14
50 Noriega Street in San Francisco. Security camera footage of pictured Patricia
Hearst, Tania, holding a rifle and yelling commands. Two civilians were shot, a
nd the S.L.A. made off with over $10,000.
Unable to recruit any would-be revolutionaries in the Bay Area, the S.L.A. moved
to Los Angeles in hopes of finding more supporters, but the move was sloppy, an
d the group resorted to commandeering housing and supplies from the people of Lo
s Angeles, thus alienating the people they relied upon for secrecy and protectio
n. Imprisoned S.L.A. member Russell Little declared that they had lost sight of
their goals, and were entering a confrontation with the police rather than engag
ing in a dialogue with the people.
On 16 May 1974, S.L.A. codenames Teko and Yolanda entered Mel's Sporting Goods S
tore in Inglewood, California, to shop for supplies for their safehouse. While Y
olanda made the purchases, Teko on a whim tried to shoplift, and was caught by a
security guard. Following a brief confrontation, codename Tania, on lookout fro
m across the street, opened fire on the store's sign, forcing everyone inside to
take cover, and allowing the other members to escape.
Police tracked them to their safehouse, and they were forced to abandon it and c
ommandeer a new one from unwilling occupants in the dead of the night, storming
a home with massive amounts of guns and ammunition in tow. The next day, a woman
called the police to tell them that people with guns were staying at her daught
er's house. That afternoon, more than 400 L.A.P.D. officers, along with the F.B.
I., California Highway Patrol, and Los Angeles Fire Department surrounded the ne
ighborhood. After a two-hour gun battle between S.W.A.T. teams outside and the S
.L.A. inside, the house caught fire and all six S.L.A. members inside were kille
d. Tania, Teko, and Yolanda were in hiding elsewhere, and were not among the dea
d.
The manhunt for Patricia Hearst and the remainder of the S.L.A. continued, and a
fter over a year of continued movement and additional S.L.A. actions, she was ca
ptured. She claimed to have been drugged and brainwashed, and identified the rem
ainder of the S.L.A. members. She was convicted for her part in the bank raid, a
nd the S.L.A. dissolved.
The revolution failed.
But that was then...
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Loading Liberal Crime Squad
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1. Turn on the power to your monitor and IBM-PC.
2. Insert the Liberal Crime Squad disk into Drive A (!!!!!!!!)
3. The disk drive will activate and you will be prompted to enter the date and t
ime, pressing the carriage return after each. Wow, that's some old school shit.
4. At the A> prompt, type LCS and press the carriage return.
5. The game starts with a listing of the current game statistics, unless it is y
our first time. Press the carriage return to begin Liberal Crime Squad.
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Introduction to Liberal Crime Squad
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Welcome to Liberal Crime Squad! The Conservatives have taken the Executive, Leg
islative, and Judicial branches of government. Over time, the Liberal laws of th
is nation will erode and turn the country into a BACKWOODS YET CORPORATE NIGHTMA
RE. To prevent this from happening, the Liberal Crime Squad was established. Th
e mood of the country is shifting, and we need to turn things around. Go out on
the streets and indoctrinate Conservative automatons. That is, let them see thei
r True Liberal Nature. Then arm them and send them forth to Stop Evil. Eventual
ly the public will fall behind us, and we will put more Elite Liberals in govern
ment.
Read below for the technical details. A working knowledge of the game is essent
ial to FURTHER YOUR LIBERAL AGENDA.
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Character Creation
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After the title screen, you will create the founder of the Liberal Crime Squad b
y answering a series of questions. Just be honest, or cynically answer accordin
g to what best suits your style of play. The initial Liberal that you control wi
ll have skills and equipment related to your responses. If you really want to ch
eat, with this or anything else, you can pull up your web browser and search for
the LCS wiki for detailed information about how these choices affect your start
ing character.
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Liberal Information
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Once you've named the founder, you'll notice a short synopsis of the Squad membe
rs' equipment at the top of the screen. The first skill number is the sum of th
e Liberal's skills, and the second number is the Liberal's skill with the curren
t weapon.
***NOTE***: If a gun is loaded, the number in parentheses after it is the number
of rounds left. If it is empty, the number in parentheses is darker, and it co
unts the number of clips remaining.
Press a number to view that Squad member. For instance, if you press '1', you'l
l see that statistics of the first member. Press '0' to view the Squad synopsis
again. If you press the same number twice you'll see a full display of that Squ
ad member's statistics.
Back on the smaller statistics screen, you had a display like:
--Green Warrior--------------------------------Liberal----
Hrt: 1 Agi: 2 Top Skills:
Int: 11 Str: 11 Pistol: 3
Wis: 3 Char: 6 Assault Rifle: 3
Hlth: 8 Trans: On Foot Computers: 3
Weapon: .22 Revolver (5/3) Knife: 1
Armor: Trenchcoat Club: 1
----------------------------------------------------------
This shows your attributes, skills and equipment. If you are wounded, you will a
lso see your wounds. Dead Liberals cannot be "resurrected", as that is a Conser
vative notion.
If you have a gun, the first number is the number of rounds in the gun, and the
second is the number of clips. A squad member may carry up to nine clips for a
single weapon.
We now go over the statistics one by one:
Attributes:
Heart: This is how much feeling you bring to back up your Liberalism.
MAIN USES: Converting people to Liberalism.
SKILLS: Music, art.
Intelligence: This is how smart you are.
MAIN USES: Pick locks, hack computers, science, law, first aid, writing
and winning arguments.
SKILLS: Science, law, survival, first aid, security, interrogation, cook
ing, computers, garment making, writing, street sense.
Wisdom: This is how much you've been polluted by Conservative thinking.
MAIN USES: Determines how easy it is to be converted to conservatism.
SKILLS: Religion, business.
Health: This is how robust your character is.
MAIN USES: Resist Battle Damage.
SKILLS: None.
Agility: This is how quick your character is.
MAIN USES: Influences attack and kidnapping success, as well as driving
.
SKILLS: Knife, sword, pistol, rifle, SMG, shotgun, driving, improvised w
eapons, sleight of hand, stealth.
Strength: This is how muscular your character is.
MAIN USES: Influences melee damage and door bashing.
SKILLS: Hand to hand, club.
Charisma: This is how you look and come across to others.
MAIN USES: Converting people to Liberalism, winning arguments, and disg
uise.
SKILLS: Persuasion, disguise, gangsterism, teaching, seduction.
Each attribute is associated with a number of skills, and determines the maximum
amount of skill that you may develop in that area. Obviously, it is advantageou
s to have high attributes if you wish to have high skills.
Unlike other computer games that say specious statements like "all of the attrib
utes are equally important", you'll find a balance that is right for your Libera
l Agenda. All of the attributes are used throughout the game, even Charisma.
Skills:
Weapon Skills:
Hand to Hand: Unarmed
Knife: Knife, Shank
Sword: Sword, Daisho
Club: Club, Maul, Crowbar, Staff
Improvised: Syringe, Gavel, Empty Guns
Pistol: All Pistols
Rifle: AR-15, AK-47, M16, M4
SMG: MP5
Shotgun: Pump Shotgun
Other Skills:
Persuasion: The ability to convince others that you are right.
Interrogation: The ability to manipulate Conservatives when they are tied up.
Writing: The ability to communicate effectively in writing.
Leadership: The ability to recieve more followers and greater loyalty from o
ther Liberals.
Teaching: The ability to pass skills on to other Liberals.
Art: The ability to create powerful visual art.
Music: The ability to create powerful music.
Garment Making: The ability to make better clothing.
Cooking: The ability to make good food and feed Liberals more cheaply.
First Aid: The ability to effectively tend to Conservative injuries.
Survival: Instinct and ability to survive and cope even in dire situations
.
Street Sense: Instinct and ability to avoid trouble in urban areas.
Seduction: The ability to seduce and keep lovers.
Sleight of Hand:The ability to take and handle objects without being noticed.
Stealth: The ability to move unnoticed while obviously Liberal.
Disguise: The ability to blend in and act like Conservative filth. Dress t
he part.
Security: The ability to pick locks and hotwire cars.
Computers: The ability to use and exploit computer systems effectively.
Driving: The ability to handle a car in dangerous situations.
Law: Knowledge of courtroom procedure and criminal law.
Religion: Knowledge of religious doctrine and advanced theology.
Business: Knowledge of business practices and economic theory.
Science: Knowledge of scientific disciplines and technical matters.
Gangsterism: Knowledge of street gangs and their practices.
Tactics: Knowledge of military squad-based tactics.
Juice:
In the full status screen, you can see how much "juice" a Liberal has. Juice is
Liberal Street Credibility and having higher juice influences your attributes, s
ince that Liberal is inflamed by the powers of Liberal Justice. Most Liberals ar
e unable to get anyone to follow them without gaining a significant amount of ju
ice first. Juice can be made negative by performing non-liberal actions or just
generally messing up.
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Equipment
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Guns. Melee weapons. Clothes. Masks. Sorry, the Oubliette
Manual had this. There isn't much to say yet.
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Main Options
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***NOTE***: You can always press "ENTER" to leave interface
screens.
F - Go forth to stop EVIL
Select this option to take your Squad into battle
against Conservatives in an effort to influence public
opinion, or to change safe houses.
More on this in the next section.
***NOTE***: Once you tell a squad to go somewhere, do
not expect to go there immediately. You must 'W'ait
a day for actions to take place. All "stop EVIL" actions
will occur in succession, though not necessarily in the
order you assigned them.
E - Equipment
Go here to equip your Squad.
***NOTE***: The equipment at your base does not come with
your Squad when it attack conservative sites. Make
sure you have the weapons, armor, and clips with your
Squad members before they leave. On the other hand,
make sure you store objects that you don't want to bring with
you at the base.
V - Vehicles
Assign vehicles to your Liberals. If you do not designate
a driver, then best driver among the passengers will be used.
R - Review and reorganize Liberals
Here you can view all of your Liberals, as well as
form and disband Squads. You can also change where Squadless
Liberals are based at and promote Liberals in you
organization.
***NOTE***: If a Liberal is martyred or arrested, you will
lose the organization under that Liberal. However, if a
Liberal is arrested and rats you out, the rat's contact
will be endanger of a racketeering charge. Liberals with
low juice and heart rat more often, so you won't want them
too high up in the LCS.
A - Activate the Uninvolved
Here you can assign individual Liberals various actions to
further your Liberal agenda.
C - Cancel this Squad's Departure
This cancels a "stop EVIL" action.
X - Live to fight EVIL another day.
Press this key to save and quit.
W - Wait a day
This passes one day, and you will see everything happened,
as well as control your squads at sites.
When you pass time, things can happen. If you have a
newspaper, it will be published at the end of the month.
Congress might vote on a bill, the Supreme Court might hand
down a decision, or there could be elections. Read a book
on the structure of American government if this is confusing:)
The important thing to know is that the government influences
the Laws, and making all of the Laws extremely Liberal is the goal
of the game.
0 - Show the squad's Liberal status
See previous.
# - Check the status of a squad Liberal
See previous.
O - Change the squad's Liberal order
This has no effect on anything. It is simply for Aesthetics
and conformance with the Oubliette model.
TAB - Next Squad
If you have created more than one squad, you can switch between them.
Z - Next Location
Swap between your safe houses. You can view police sieges and
invest in infrastructure.
L - The Status of the Liberal Agenda
Here you will see the state of the government
and the current laws on many important issues. In order for your
Liberal Agenda to triumph, you must make all of the laws Elite
Liberal (Green). However, in order to prevent this state from being
Conservatively ephemeral, both Houses of Congress, the Supreme Court,
and the Executive Branch, must also be Elite Liberal. Once you have
achieved this Purely Elite Liberal state, you will be victorious.
***NOTE***: You can disband the LCS from this screen. If you think you'
ve
gotten the country very close to Elite Liberal status, and you're sick
of waiting, you can disband and wait. This is an irreversible option,
so be careful. It is advisable to have sleepers in place to counteract
any unforeseen events that could occur.
P - PATRIOTISM: Buy a flag ($20)
Show your American Spirit by buying a flag and flying it
atop the selected location.
S - FREE SPEECH: the Liberal Slogan
Note that if you win the game, your slogan will be immortalized.
If you don't pick one, your high score entry will be
"We need a slogan!". That's lame. Choose a slogan.
***NOTE***: Under the 'A'ctivate options, you can go on-line and check
public opinion. Public opinion is the most important factor in elections,
so you'll need to work on Liberalizing the masses if you hope to change
the laws.
***NOTE***: AM Radio and Cable News, being Fundamentally Conservative,
will influence public opinion negatively. If your surveys
tell you that people are tuning into these Conservative Information
Sources, know that over the months public opinion will Degenerate
with respect to your most important Liberal Causes.
***NOTE***: Your newspaper is a great way to influence public opinion.
However, if your Liberal Crime Squad is unpopular (as it is in the
beginning of the game), your Newspaper can have a detrimental effect.
It is therefore important to perform Liberal Acts (with 'A'ctivate)
in the beginning that simply build your appeal to the masses.
***NOTE***: You will encounter certain very salacious items
when your squad is on Site. You can bring these back and
publish them in your Newspaper to greatly influence opinion
and your own credibility. Publication of your paper occurs at
the end of the month. You need to safeguard these items until then.
***NOTE***: You can make purchases by "stopping EVIL" at pawn shops
and other stores. You won't actually attack these locations. Also
note that any gun that you purchase at a pawn shop is a
Liberal means to an end, and are therefore not subject to
the Righteous Premise of Reasonable Gun Control which
governs the Liberal Mind.
***NOTE***: If you feel unsafe committing acts of felony
civil disobedience in the face of Conservative Power, you can
build a compound to stop the police from raiding, leading to
a prolonged siege instead. You may invest in the compound
to make it more effective against Conservative Invaders.
Use the 'Z' option to view and invest in your safe houses.
***Note***: Non-police opponents are not subject to the
same restrictions as the police force and will not siege
the compound, but immediately attack instead. However, fighting off
these Conservative automatons will not escalate the situation
in the same way as fighting off the police does. Eliminating
enough of any attacking group will cause them to flee.
***Note***: If you are under siege, you will have the option
to wait, escape, or give up. Escaping leads you directly to a
confrontation with the police much like the normal raiding screen.
If you give up to the police, your righteous-yet-lawbreaking Liberals
will be hauled off to face Conservative Justice. This can lead to
prison terms or even the Death Penalty. If you give up to any other
group, besides the police, your Squad will be terminated. You can
wait out a siege as long as you have food. The police will attempt
to degrade your capabilities during this time, but there is a chance
for you to get some positive publicity, which could be quite useful.
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Site Options
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By raiding Conservative sites, you can gain Funds and Juice,
as well as influence public opinion.
When you enter a site, you'll see a map of your immediate surroundings
on the lower right. If your Squad exits the site, you'll go
back to your safe house. But you aren't a Conservative Chicken Hawk,
supporting conflict but refusing to serve yourself. So you'll want
to go through the door.
***NOTE***: Once your Squad enters a site, notice that each member's Armor
becomes green, yellow or red. This lets you know if you have an
appropriate disguise.
We'll get to the specific instructions in a moment. First, an overview:
As you move around the site, things will happen. If you find people,
they will be shown on your map as "ENCNTER" (for "Encounter"). The
specific people in the Encounter will be shown at the bottom of the screen.
Red names are Conservatives, white names are moderates, and Green names
are Liberals. Conservatives that see through your disguise will become
suspicious, and eventually raise an alarm. The alarm can also be raised
by performing Liberal activities in front of Conservatives. These
activities might also alienate the masses. Performing blatantly criminal
acts will even alienate the Liberals at a site, as they are not yet
completely in touch with your Grandiose Liberal Plan.
You will also encounter "GOODS" (things to steal), "LOOT!" (things that
people have dropped in combat), "DOOR" (a door to pass through), and "EXIT"
(a way out). There are also other special places that will have various
names (you can see what they are in a caption below the site map when you
are on top of them). These special places depend on the type of site
and can be interacted with using the 'U'se key.
Crimes that you commit at a site will help the media build up a
sensational image around you, and this will help bolster public opinion.
However, if you alienate a site, the spin on the story will be negative,
and opinion will shift against you. You must search online
once you get back to see how the battle for public opinion was affected.
Once the Conservative alarm has been raised, all of the Conservatives
will begin to attack your Squad. You may fight back, but be careful.
Attacking a Conservative in the presence of a moderate will alienate
the masses. You will also sometimes miss when attacking, and hit
a moderate or Liberal by mistake. If the mistaken target survives,
or if there are other moderates or Liberals to see the mistake,
you will alienate even the Liberals at the site.
***NOTE***: Certain Arch-Conservative opponents will not attack in
the traditional sense, but will instead engage your Squad members in
debate. At this point, having a Squad member with a high wisdom
can be fatal.
If your Squad is eliminated, you will be taken back to the main screen,
unless another Squad is also acting that day.
Now on to the specific actions. We will discuss crimes and alienation
when relevant:
***NOTE***: If x's cover a square, it is restricted. Disguise
restrictions are tighter in these areas.
W,A,D,X - Move
Use these keys to move around the site. They cannot be used in combat.
Open doors by moving into them.
G - Get Loot
Use this to pick up "LOOT!" and "GOODS". You can fence these items late
r.
When you take "GOODS", you are stealing. Stealing in the presence
of a moderate or Liberal will alienate everyone.
M - Map
This lets you see a map of the site. It will be uncovered as you discov
er it.
The little Green face is your Squad. $ denote "GOODS". ! denote Specia
l Places.
E - Equip
Go here to equip your squad. You can use "LOOT!" that
has been dropped by Conservative automatons once you 'G'et it.
L - Reload
If you have a firearm and a clip, this will reload it. Loading takes ti
me
in battle, so remember to do this after a fight if your gun is empty.
You can reload a gun that is neither empty nor full, but you will use an
entire clip in doing so.
O - Change the squad's Liberal order
See previous.
U - Use
This allows you to use the Special Places at the sites. If there
are other people around, use your uncommon LIBERAL sense. For instance,
if you destroy machinery in a sweat shop, the workers won't care, since
they are eager to escape bondage. However, if you destroy machinery in
a polluting factory in front of the Union workers, they will be alienate
d,
as it will be difficult for them to reconcile a threat to their liveliho
ods
with your Liberal Agenda even though they might otherwise support you.
If you destroy the machinery when they are not around,
then only the Conservatives at the site will become suspicious.
# - Check the status of a squad Liberal
See previous.
V - Evade
Use this option to move during combat.
0 - Show the squad's Liberal status
See previous.
K - Kidnap
You can try to snatch any person who is not well-armed. Each Squad
member can hold one hostage. Being seen with a hostage will alienate
everyone, so you must be careful. If you escape with a hostage,
you may bring them through Indoctrination procedures. Hostages
also will block half of the Conservative attacks, so snatching a
Conservative worker in combat might prove advantageous. You can only
kidnap Conservatives. Escaping a site with a high-profile Conservative
has a huge impact on public opinion. However, if you alienated the site
during the kidnapping, the impact will be negative.
***NOTE***: Kidnapping a high-profile Conservative and then Indoctrinat
ing it
has massive benefits. Recruiting such Conservatives as Sleepers
can influence public opinion.
***NOTE***: Holding a hostage lowers your attack accuracy.
***NOTE***: Once you bring a hostage back, you must assign Liberals
to watch over it or it might escape. You may also assign Liberals
to Indoctrinate it. You do not have to do both.
F - Fight!
Use this button to attack Conservatives. As previously stated, this
will alienate moderates. There is also a chance that you will hit
the wrong target, in which case you will alienate everyone.
***NOTE***: If you are out of bullets and have a clip, but you are
in combat, just press 'F'. The Squad member will reload automatically.
If you have no clips, you will strike with the weapon.
T - Talk
Violence isn't always the answer. Sometimes seduction and lying
can do the same thing, or even occasionally debating on the issues.
Most people won't be interested in discussion, unless it involves
romance, although certain degenerate and idle types, that is,
those with Unrealized Potential, will listen to your exposition
of the Liberal Agenda.
***NOTE***: You can also use the 'T'alk command to try bluff
your way out of a confrontational situation. This only can be
done if a combat is not underway. It really pays to have a good
disguise at this point.
R - Release oppressed
Certain oppressed classes of people can be released from bondage.
They will immediately join the Squad if there is room.