TEXT: PARANOIA
  Termination Quota 
  Termination Quota 
  Exceeded
  Exceeded
  Original 
  Original PARANOIA
  PARANOIA design
   design
  DAN GELBER
  DAN GELBER
  GREG COSTIKYAN
  GREG COSTIKYAN
  ERIC GOLDBERG
  ERIC GOLDBERG
  New 
  New PARANOIA
  PARANOIA edition
  edition
  ALLEN VARNEY
  ALLEN VARNEY
  GARETH HANRAHAN
  GARETH HANRAHAN
  ™
  
  Introduction  
  2
  Wheres the Beef? 
  3
  The Survivor  
  12
  Termination Quota  Exceeded 
  25
  GARETH HANRAHAN 
  Writer/Scapegoat
  NICK ROBINSON
  Editing /Drillbot
  CHRIS QUILLIAMS
  Cover/Blueprints
  TONY EMSON & LEONEL DOMINGOS DA COSTA
  Interior Illustrations/Treasonous Propaganda
  JOSEPH MCCANCE
  Layout/Infrared drone
  CHARLOTTE LAW 
  Proofreader/Intsec goon
  DAN GELBER
  GREG COSTIKYAN
  ERIC GOLDBERG
  Original game design & development/
  Building committee
  THE COMPUTER
  Looking after your best interests
  TM & Copyright © 1983, 1987, 2009 by Eric Goldberg & Greg Costikyan. All Rights Reserved. Mongoose Publishing Ltd., Authorised User. Based on material published in 
  previous editions of PARANOIA.
  ILLUMINATI is a registered trademark of Steve Jackson Games and is used by permission.
  The reproduction of material from this book for personal or corporate proﬁ t, by photographic, electronic, or other means of storage and retrieval, is prohibited. You may 
  copy character sheets, record sheets, checklists and tables for personal use.
  E-mail questions and comments to Mongoose Publishing at sales@mongoosepublishing.com or write to 52-54 Cricklade Road, Swindon, Wiltshire SN2 8AF, UNITED 
  KINGDOM. 
  On the World Wide Web: www.mongoosepublishing.com.
  Published by Mongoose Publishing, Ltd. Publication MGP 6642. Published August 2009. Printed In USA.
  ™
  Termination Quota Exceeded
  Security Clearance ULTRAVIOLET
  WARNING:
  Knowledge or possession of this information by any citizen 
  of Security Clearance VIOLET or lower is treason punishable by a 
  long spell of Armed Forces latrine scrubot maintenance duty.
  GARETH HANRAHAN, AARON ALLSTON, PAUL BADOWSKI, BETH FISCHI, EDEL RYDER, STEVE 
  GILBERT, KEN ROLSTON, ERICK WUJCIK, R. ERIC REUSS
  Additional Material/Co-Conspirators
  C r e d i t s  &  C o n t e n t s
  
  2
  PARANOIA: Termination Quota Exceeded
  TERMINATION QUOTA EXCEEDED
  1. Introduction
  SECURITY CLEARANCE BLUE 
  – INTERNAL SECURITY ONLY.
  Hello, Trooper.
  Er, hi Friend Computer. What can 
  I do for you?
  I have a mission for you, 
  Trooper. 
  Oh wow. Will be it exciting and 
  challenging?
  Undoubtedly. Also, I estimate 
  a 97% lethality rate, with a 
  margin of error of +/- 3%. 
  That sounds…well, are there any 
  other missions I could go on.
  One moment, please. Scanning 
  mission roster…
  Take your time, I’m quite happy 
  here in Central, being alive. 
  Mission found! Would you 
  like to be assigned to Where’s 
  The Beef?, where you will 
  investigate the theft of certain 
  biological items that may 
  or may not be genetically 
  engineered killing machines 
  like the aliens out of Alien?
  Is there anything else?
  How about The Survivor, 
  where a team of Troopers are 
  hurled down a very, very deep 
  shaft and end up in a bizarre 
  underground town threatened 
  by monsters?
  I was thinking more of something 
  in administration. You know 
  something –
  - Ah! Then you are assigned to 
  Termination Quota Exceeded, a 
  carnage-ﬁ lled romp involving 
  the elimination of dozens of 
  highly dangerous Commie 
  Mutant Traitors. 
  …safer.
  Safety is irrelevant, citizen. You 
  are an elite Internal Security 
  Trooper. You are happy in the 
  face of danger. You are happy 
  in the face of certain death. 
  Law must be maintained. Order 
  must be maintained. 
  I live to serve, O Computer.
  According to my projections, it 
  is far more likely you will die to 
  serve, Trooper. Good luck!
  Welcome to Termination Quota 
  Exceeded, the ﬁ rst set of missions 
  for the INTSEC game. These three 
  missions will be mandatory 
  bonus fun for your players, 
  offering a selection of Commie 
  Mutant Traitors to investigate, 
  interrogate, ventilate and, 
  ultimately, terminate. Enjoy!
  
  3
  In Alpha Complex no one cares if you scream
   
  2. Where’s the Beef?
  Mission Statement
  Code [ 3 ]/Code [13] Location [MCD Supply] 
  Duty Ofﬁ cer: ________-__-_____-____
  Details: Theft of CLASSIFIED material from MCD Supply. Retrieval of stolen material ultra-high priority. Investigate with 
  caution. Further damage to CLASSIFIED material must be avoided at all costs. +++ FURTHER ADVISORY: Hygiene Regulation 
  43/c, Cleanliness Minimums for Type 1-5, 7, 9-13 and 18-22 Footwear is relaxed for the duration of this mission.
  TEAMWORK ENHANCERS
   
   
   
   
  YES 
   
  NO 
   
  CLASSIFIED
  Cortex Bomb(s)  
   
  [ ] 
   
  [ ] 
   
  [X]
  Surveillance Chip(s) 
   
  [ ]  
   
  [ ] 
   
  [X]
  MemoMax Recording(s)  
  [X] 
   
  [ ] 
   
  [ ]
  Directive Chips(s) 
   
  [X] 
   
  [ ] 
   
  [ ]
  SECTOR INDICES
  HAPPINESS  
  [N/A] Minimum [N/A] Current 
  LOYALTY  
  [N/A] Minimum [N/A] Current 
  COMPLIANCE  [N/A] Minimum [N/A] Current 
  SECURITY  
  [N/A] Minimum [N/A] Current 
  PERFORMANCE QUOTAS
  ARRESTS 
   
  [1] Minimum 
  [N/A] Maximum [X] Team [ ] Individual
  TERMINATION  
  [0] Minimum 
  [3] Maximum 
  [X] Team [ ] Individual
  CLONE BUDGET   
  [3] 
   
   
   
  [X] Team  [ ] Individual
  TIME LIMIT 
   
  [0] days  
  [6] hours 
  [37] minutes
  At lower Clearances, ‘food’ comes 
  in quotation marks. It’s an unholy 
  mash of chemically treated yeast 
  products and algae, reprocessed for 
  maximal nutritional value and, again 
  in quotation marks, ‘taste’. It’s ‘yummy’ 
  and ‘edible’.
  Higher-Clearance citizens get real food 
  like hydroponically grown fruit and 
  vegetables… and meat. Chicken ﬁ llets. 
  Pork products. Beefsteak, red and rare 
  and dripping. So, where does this meat 
  come from? Some poor-quality stuff is 
  grown in the same cloning vats used 
  for clones (guaranteed totally safe 
  and no chance of weird hybridisation 
  in the gene pool) and Outdoors 
  expeditions sometimes return with 
  ‘biological samples’ that end up on 
  some INDIGO’s dinner table. 
  Most meat, though, is produced in 
  battery production lines within Alpha 
  Complex. MCD Supply grows cows. The 
  animals are decanted from cloning 
  vats like junior citizens, then placed 
  into goo-stuffed sacs that provide 
  all the nutrients needed. To ensure 
  the meat is nice, tender and not too 
  fatty, the cow is given a virtual reality 
  environment to run around in.
  Look, it’s The Matrix for cows, ok?
  Anyway, up until a few hours ago, MCD 
  Supply Inventory Unit #14-31, aka 
  Bessie the Cow, was roaming the virtual 
  meadows with other virtual cows. She 
  was then liberated by the Sierra Club 
  who intended to return Bessie to the 
  wild. Things get complicated after that 
  for our bovine protagonist.
  Adding to the confusion is the fact that 
  few people in Alpha Complex:
  � Know what a cow is, except in the 
  vaguest terms.
  � Have any idea how a cow behaves. 
  A cow isn’t a hairy bot… 
  Secret Society Missions
  Give out these Secret Society missions 
  at appropriate times, via encrypted 
  electronic communication, mysterious 
  messenger in the corridor, spy in the 
  air vents or furtive twitchtalk.
  MOO, MOO, 
  TERMINATION 
  BOOTH, MOO
  
  4
  PARANOIA: Termination Quota Exceeded
  TERMINATION QUOTA EXCEEDED
  Anti-Mutant: We’ve heard that the 
  Genetic Inspector Matthew-I’s in the 
  area. He’s dreamy – get his autograph.
  C.L.A: There’s a warbot moving through 
  the transtubes nearby. It’s equipped 
  with the new XR-series MegaZap laser 
  cannons. We want one.
  Clone Arrangers: We’re running 
  low on supplies of the chemical 
  Xanilthromaline, try and ﬁ nd some.
  Computer Phreaks: Someone’s 
  running a pretty elaborate virtual-
  reality sim down near your current 
  location. See what you can ﬁ nd out.
  Death Leopard/PURGE/Wobblies: 
  Here’s a bomb. Use it.
  Frankenstein Destroyers: There’s 
  an XR-7 warbot moving through 
  your sector. If you can ‘arrange’ for an 
  accident…
  Free Enterprise: There’s a rumour 
  going around that the Sierra Club have 
  found something really valuable. We’re 
  going to steal it off ‘em; make sure 
  IntSec don’t interfere. 
  Illuminati: Retrieve the documents 
  from courier Herman-Y. Ensure they 
  are not damaged. Ensure they are not 
  delivered. We will ensure you meet 
  Herman-Y.
  Old Guard/Program Group: The 
  High Programmer wants you to secure 
  Supply Inventory Unit #14-31.
  Pro Tech: Here’s an experimental 
  biohazard detector. See if it works. 
  (It doesn’t and reports absolutely 
  everything as a dangerous hazard).
  Psion: We’ve heard that the Genetic 
  Inspector Matthew-I is in the area. 
  Eliminate him.
  Sierra Club: We can’t tell you everything 
  now but we’re about to do something 
  The Scene of the Crime
  Tension 12
  Summary: The Troopers arrive at 
  MCD Supply, to investigate the theft 
  of Supply Inventory Unit #14-31. The 
  staff are all terriﬁ ed of being blamed 
  for the theft and are pre-emptively 
  blaming each other. 
  The Stench of 
  Treachery (Or Cows)
  MCD Supply’s main operations centre 
  is dominated by the Supply Inventory 
  Racks that hang from the ceiling. These 
  three-metre sacs are crammed with 
  cow and goo. They pulse and throb 
  in an eerie, organic way. A muffled 
  moan sometimes emanates from 
  within. Each sac has an INDIGO band 
  around it, showing that the contents 
  are INDIGO Clearance. Huge tanks of 
  chemicals line the walls; the sacs are 
  connected to the chemical tanks by 
  long colour-coded tubes. 
  One of the sacs – #31 – has been 
  lowered to the floor and cut open. 
  A puddle of sticky goo mixed with 
  cowpats is slowly spreading across 
  the ﬂ oor. The cows are fed a chemical 
  sludge that, among other side effects, 
  turns their cowpats a lurid shade of 
  orange. Any Trooper who bothers to 
  stick his hand or another probe into 
  the goo will ﬁ nd a strangely-shaped 
  helmet with Virtual Reality goggles 
  and brain probes (Bessie’s interface 
  with the cow VR environment). 
  There’s also a small ofﬁ ce off to one 
  side, for people who like pawing 
  through documents and accountancy. 
  Do your players want to bother with 
  this? If they do, there’s something 
  wrong with them.
  big. Contact Ruth-O in the TRD Cafeteria 
  if you think you can help out.
  The Directives Chip
  If the Directives Chip is activated, take 
  the Trooper ﬁ tted with the chip aside 
  and read the following:
  Your vision goes black and you can’t 
  hear anything for a few seconds. 
  Then, a message plays inside your 
  head. ‘Good daycycle, trooper. This 
  is a BLUE-Clearance emergency 
  briefing describing the proper use of 
  the MemoMax recording that your 
  team has been issued. The MemoMax 
  Recording contains the personality 
  of a specialist trained in handling the 
  item you have been sent to recover. 
  This specialist is one of the ﬁ rst citizens 
  of Alpha Complex and is not familiar 
  with modern protocols and regulations. 
  Ensure the specialist does not interact 
  unnecessarily with other citizens. 
  Terminate the MemoMax Recording as 
  soon as the item is secure.’
  The MemoMax 
  Recording
  If the MemoMax Recording chip is 
  activated, take the Trooper fitted 
  with the chip aside and read the 
  following:
  Suddenly, you’re taken over by a new 
  personality. Wow! All this sure is weird. 
  You’re Gary Hamilton. You were out 
  working on the ranch when you heard 
  on the tri-vid that there was some 
  emergency or something. The Polity 
  loaded everyone onto hover-trains and 
  brought you to this big underground 
  bunker ‘for the duration of the crisis’. 
  The last thing you remember is this big 
  friendly computer who said it was gonna 
  scan your brain or something… Gee, you 
  do hope nothing bad happened to your 
  cows while you were gone...
  Gary Hamilton has Animal Tending 15 
  as a skill. 
  
  5
  There is an explanation for this, you know.
  2. WHERE'S THE BEEF?
  Y’know, for an INDIGO-level facility, the 
  place really isn’t what you’d expect. It’s 
  all RED-Clearance machinery, dripping 
  goo and stinking chemicals. 
  It’s important that the Troopers don’t 
  work out that MCD Supply Inventory 
  Unit #14-31 is a cow at this stage in 
  the mission (with luck, they’ll wallow 
  in their own ignorance until the very 
  Don’t worry, this sludge is not dangerous.
  end). Therefore, think ‘genetically 
  engineered military experiment gone 
  wrong’ rather than ‘cow farm’ when 
  describing things to the players. 
  The Finger-Pointer Club 
  The Line Manager is Phil-O-FSH, who 
  oversees the two RED technicians. 
  Phil-O’s terrified that he’s going to 
  be blamed for this whole debacle, so 
  he’s eager to pin the blame on either 
  Wendy-R or Burt-R. He’s called his 
  boss, Wally-I, who’ll show up while the 
  Troopers are present. 
  Playing Phil-O: He’s panicking, 
  sweating and stammering in a 
  singularly guilty way. He also can’t keep 
  his story straight as he tries to blame 
  either or both of his subordinates. He’ll 
  seize on anything the Troopers say as 
  the absolute truth. He’s got no idea 
  what’s in the sacs and it’s more than 
  his job’s worth to ask. He won’t let the 
  Troopers tamper with the sacs under 
  any circumstances.
  Phil-O’s story: ‘It must be one of the 
  staff, they’re the only ones with the 
  access codes. This facility is totally secure, 
  oh yes, totally secure. I never trusted 
  them, not even for a moment. I was 
  just about to ﬁ le an ofﬁ cial informant’s 
  report, I’ve just been so busy with the 
  shipments and the problems with the 
  Xanilthromaline tank and you know 
  how it is…’
  Wendy-R-IES is one of the two 
  technicians working in MCD Supply. 
  Her job consists of clambering around 
  the hanging sacs unclogging tubes. 
  She hates her job. Wendy’s also a Free 
  Enterprise member who’s already 
  informed her Secret Society contacts 
  about the theft. They ordered her 
  to throw the Troopers off the trail, 
  if possible, so she’s making up stuff 
  about Commies. She’s hidden her 
  plasticred payment for the information 
  in a pumphead (see page 6).
  Name
  Role
  Group
  Notable Skills
  Mutant Power
  Secret Society
  Phil-O-FSH
  Supervisor
  PLC
  Accusation 10
  Corrosion 12
  FCCCP
  ORANGE laser pistol
  Wendy-R-IES
  Technician
  PLC
  Concealment 12, 
  Energy Weapons 10
  Pyrokinesis 14
  Free Enterprise
  RED laser pistol, illegal slug pistol (W3K, AP)
  Burt-R-KNG
  Technician
  PLC
  Demolition 12
  Hyperspeed 10
  Death Leopard
  RED laser pistol, souvenir frag grenade, Death Leopard Propaganda
  Wally-I-MPY
  Specialist
  PLC
  Intimidation 10
  Telekinesis 8
  Servants of Cthulhu
  Neurowhip, INDIGO laser pistol.
  
  6
  PARANOIA: Termination Quota Exceeded
  TERMINATION QUOTA EXCEEDED
  Playing Wally-I: Play him as an old-
  fashioned Texas rancher who considers 
  the Troopers to be unwanted Federal 
  agents messing in his business. He’ll 
  absolutely refuse to reveal what’s in 
  the sacs, pointing out that it’s classiﬁ ed 
  INDIGO and therefore none of the 
  Trooper’s business. If they try to make 
  trouble for him, he’ll make twice as 
  much for them by threatening to 
  complain to the Commissioner. 
  Wally-I’s Story: ‘What in tarnation’s 
  going on here? Who are you boys? 
  Where’s mah Supply Inventory Unit?’
  None of the staff have any idea what 
  really happened, so they’re all blaming 
  each other. 
  Roll Your Spot Hidden 
  Evidence: Activate the Forensic 
  Scrubbot!: The Forensic Scrubbot 
  runs right into the middle of the pool 
  of chemical sludge by the open sac. 
  It drives around in the slime for a few 
  moments, burbling happily to itself, 
  then shorts out. Before its untimely 
  death, it reports the presence of non-
  human DNA and potentially lethal 
  toxic gases in the sludge.
  Evidence: The Plasticreds: Any 
  Trooper snooping around ﬁ nds a few 
  plasticreds scattered by a throbbing 
  pump connected to one of the 
  chemical tanks. The access lid of the 
  pump is slightly ajar. Imply that there 
  might be more plasticreds inside in 
  the pump. 
  Unfortunately for the Trooper, there’s a 
  knack for opening the pump lid. Does 
  the Trooper have the narrow Hardware 
  Specialty ‘opening the number four 
  pump in MCD Supply without causing 
  a catastrophe’? If not (or if the Trooper 
  fails the roll), he accidentally dislodges 
  the loose tube. There’s a gurgling 
  noise, then a grinding noise, then the 
  pump erupts in a high-pressure spray 
  of toxic goop that covers everyone and 
  everything nearby. 
  The plasticreds are either crammed 
  into the pump or embedded in the 
  wall or some poor clone’s forehead. 
  There are around 500 credits worth. 
  Hey, ﬁ nding cash! It’s like D&D all over 
  again. Someone check for secret doors. 
  I’m a level 14 elf.
  Evidence: Breaking & Entering: The 
  main door to MCD was broken down 
  by some considerable force. (The Sierra 
  Clubbers drove a truckbot through it, 
  then loaded the cow onto the back of 
  the bot). The Supply Inventory Unit 
  was then lowered from the ceiling and 
  cut open with a knife.
  Paranoid players will ask which side the 
  door was broken from. Imply that its 
  possible that something broke out.
  The knife was abandoned at the scene 
  of the crime. It’s stamped PROPERTY 
  OF CAFETERIA TRD/432. This is a clue. 
  See Stabby Stabby, below.
  Evidence: Security Camera Footage: 
  If the Troopers think to check the 
  security tapes, they discover that the 
  only working security camera doesn’t 
  cover the entrance and the lens is 
  filthy. Microphones picked up cries 
  of ‘freedom’ and ‘back to nature’ and 
  ‘for the brotherhood’. They see some 
  fuzzy ﬁ gures come in from off-screen, 
  lower a sac to the ground and cut it 
  open. Something big emerges from 
  the sac, something that doesn’t look 
  like anything the Troopers have seen 
  before but it’s hard to tell with the 
  poor image quality. Then, abruptly, the 
  recording ends, replaced by a warning 
  that the remainder of this data is 
  classiﬁ ed INDIGO. 
  Clue: Stabby Stabby!: Hey, this knife 
  points to a cafeteria! Maybe we should 
  check that out! TRD/432 indicates that 
  it’s from a speciﬁ c cafeteria in nearby 
  TRD Sector.
  Playing Wendy-R: ‘Oh hell, look at this 
  mess. Fluids everywhere and I’ll never 
  get the stench out of my uniform. Why, 
  yes, ofﬁ cer, I’ll be ever so happy to help 
  you with your enquiries, just as soon as 
  I stop the Xanilthromaline tube from 
  spraying us all with toxic chemicals!’
  Wendy-R-IES’s story: ‘I arrived for work 
  this morning and the door was already 
  open. I didn’t see Burt-R when I arrived 
  but I thought I heard his voice saying 
  something like ‘Yes Comrade’. Then I 
  noticed the missing Inventory Unit and 
  informed Phil-O.’ 
  Burt-R-KNG is the other technician; 
  he’s a surly, grumpy, greasy thug who’s 
  been stuck in the same dead-end job 
  for 20 years. He was a Death Leopard 
  member in his younger days and has 
  the scars and tattoos to prove it but 
  these days he just watches videos and 
  dreams of faded glories. 
  Playing Burt-R: Be as difficult as 
  possible. Grunt in response to questions. 
  You had a lot of run-ins with the 
  Troopers when you were a young clone, 
  so the BLUES don’t scare you. You ain’t 
  got nothin’ to live for, anyways. 
  Burt-R’s story: ‘I don’t know nuthin’. I 
  come in dis morningcycle and de door 
  wuz already open. I ain’t seen nothin’, 
  neither.’
  Wally-I-MPY: The final member of 
  staff is MCD’s senior supervisor and 
  Supply Termination Technician, Wally-I. 
  This facility is much too small to justify 
  the full-time services of an INDIGO, so 
  Wally-I splits his time between this 
  and a dozen other similar production 
  facilities. He’s called in when one of 
  the Supply Inventory Units needs to 
  be terminated. 
  Wally-I shows up at exactly the least 
  convenient time for the Troopers, 
  ideally when they’re manhandling his 
  staff or tampering with the cow sacs. 
  
  7
  I will never betray you. That’s a PROMISE!
  2. WHERE'S THE BEEF?
  Clue: Follow That Transbot: 
  Contacting Traffic Control or 
  consulting security camera footage 
  (both requiring an Access roll or 
  Secret Society intercession) shows 
  that a transbot assigned to TRD Sector 
  Catering was spotted near MCD 
  supply. 
  Clue: Trail of Toxic Waste: If all that 
  fails, searching the corridor outside 
  reveals several streaky traces of bright 
  orange toxic waste (cow droppings) 
  that dripped from the ﬂ eeing transbot. 
  The Troopers can follow this trail 
  towards the TRD Sector transtube. 
  Get Those Supply 
  Inventory Unit Rustlers!
  As the Troopers are leaving MCD 
  Supply, they’re contacted by Central, 
  who transfers a call from Monty-I. This 
  INDIGO citizen introduces himself as 
  one of the staff members of a High 
  Programmer and says that the High 
  Programmer wishes to impress on the 
  Troopers the importance of securing 
  Supply Inventory Unit 14-31. As soon 
  as the item is secured, the Troopers are 
  to bring it directly to Monty-I. 
  In fact, Monty-I is the High Programmer’s 
  chef and Bessie is the dish of the day. If 
  the Troopers stall, then have Monty-I 
  contact again and again, sounding 
  increasingly angry each time.
  Food Fight
  Summary: The cafeteria turns out to 
  be the lair of a bunch of Sierra Club 
  traitors. The stolen cow was hidden in 
  a tunnel under the cafeteria – but it’s 
  gone now.
  The Potted 
  Plants of Subversion
  Tension 5
  TRD Sector Cafeteria, #432 is one 
  of the dozens of low-Clearance 
  (ORANGE and below) food courts. It’s 
  packed full of INFRAREDs queuing at 
  the FunFood troughs and vending 
  machines. Monitors and security 
  cameras hang from the ceiling; the 
  monitors cycle through messages 
  like ‘THANK THE COMPUTER FOR 
  YOUR MEAL’ or ‘CONFORMITY IS 
  JOY’ or ‘REPORT ALL SUSPICIOUS 
  BEHAVIOUR IMMEDIATELY’. There’s a 
  din of conversation but it’s the same 
  four or five conversations repeated 
  endlessly, revolving around a few ‘safe’ 
  topics like how much fun work is or the 
  events of last night’s Teela-O show, as 
  discussing something treasonous gets 
  you reported.
  The din of conversation ceases as 
  soon as the Troopers arrive. It’s like 
  walking into a Western saloon, only 
  you’re a tank. 
  The cafeteria is a haunt for the Sierra 
  Club Secret Society. Any character 
  with the Sierra Club Propaganda 
  skill may make a roll to spot hidden 
  symbols of the society, like little tree 
  outlines scratched into the tables or 
  suspicious sprigs of greenery in the 
  corners. There are also a few other 
  bits of treasonous contraband hidden 
  around the cafeteria. We’ll get to those 
  in a second. Be patient.
  The Tunnels Below: The transbot 
  that carried Bessie away from MCD 
  Supply is now in the storage vaults 
  and tunnels underneath the cafeteria. 
  There’s a tunnel that leads to the local 
  transtube, tanks of Hot Fun, saturated 
  yeast and B3 and hundreds of crates 
  of sporks. 
  Bessie’s being kept here, surrounded by 
  half-a-dozen nervous Sierra Clubbers 
  who are trying to commune with the 
  cow. Their attempts at reaching a 
  harmonious understanding with this 
  avatar of the wilderness have, so far, 
  proved less than enlightening. 
  Cafeteria Supervisor Ruth-O-DNR: 
  The Cafeteria’s supervisor is… Ruth-
  O-DNR, as you may have guessed 
  from the bold text at the start of this 
  paragraph. She’s a Sierra Club troop 
  leader and likes nothing more than 
  tramping up mountains and through 
  forests with a pack of young recruits. 
  Some of these recruits never come 
  back; the wilderness is a dangerous 
  place. The other Sierra Clubbers are 
  terriﬁ ed of her either because she’s so 
  enthusiastic about hiking, or because 
  they’re survivors of other DNR party 
  expeditions.
  Anyway, as soon as the Troopers show 
  up, Ruth-O zooms over to intercept 
  them. She’ll try to hustle them out into 
  the corridor, or into her ofﬁ ce, or off on 
  a tour of the bathrooms, or anywhere 
  other than this treasonous cafeteria 
  and the tunnels below. ‘Heeeellooo 
  Troopers. Ja, it is good to see you here in 
  the cafeteria! Very good! Makes happy! 
  How are ve helpink you today? Can ve 
  be gettink you CoffeeLyke and snacks? 
  Yes? I serve you in ofﬁ ce, not with stinky 
  INFRARED proles! Phew!’*
  *: She’s got the Dodgy Germanic Accent mutation.
  IT’S BEHIND 
  YOU...
  
  8
  PARANOIA: Termination Quota Exceeded
  TERMINATION QUOTA EXCEEDED
  My Keen Trooper 
  Senses Are Tingling
  Up until a microsecond after the 
  Troopers walked into the cafeteria, 
  there were potted plants on the tables, 
  scurrilous Sierra Club literature being 
  passed from hand to hand, posters on 
  the walls and lots of other treasonous 
  activity. Now that the Troopers are 
  here, the Sierra Clubbers are hiding all 
  of that stuff. They’re also hiding quite 
  a few guns.
  Imagine the cafeteria as a class of 
  rambunctious kids and the Troopers 
  are the teachers who just walked in 
  unexpectedly. Whenever the Troopers’ 
  backs are turned, the Sierra Clubbers 
  pass their treasonous contraband off 
  to another traitor. Out of the corner of 
  their eyes, the Troopers keep spotting 
  surreptitious movement and sneaking 
  traitors.
  Raise the players’ paranoia as much as 
  possible. Hint that something’s lurking 
  in the cafeteria. Ideally, they’ll begin to 
  realise that everyone in the room is an 
  armed and dangerous traitor.
  Ruth-O will try to distract or explain 
  away any traitorous material that 
  the Troopers uncover. Roll on the 
  Lurking Treason Table if the Troopers 
  investigate.
  Things Blow Up
  Meanwhile, the Free Enterprise goons 
  alerted by Wendy-R-IES arrive in the 
  tunnels under the cafeteria to steal 
  the cow. They’re heavily armed; the 
  Sierra Club cow guards are also heavily 
  armed. They start blasting each other 
  right underneath the Troopers’ feet.
  Ruth-O tries to cover up any suspicious 
  noises from below as best she can but 
  as soon as the ﬁ reﬁ ght breaks out in 
  earnest, then she’ll give up and just 
  start shooting. The most likely outcome 
  of all this is that the Troopers hear the 
  explosions below, draw their cone 
  riﬂ es and start shooting, which means 
  that everyone else starts shooting or 
  running too. Most of the Sierra Club 
  traitors will ﬂ ee the cafeteria with their 
  traitorous contraband but the more 
  blood-thirsty ones will hang around 
  to zap the Troopers. 
  After a round or two of combat, one 
  of the Free Enterprisers down below 
  accidentally hits the big tank of Bouncy 
  Bubble Beverage with a laser riﬂ e blast. 
  The huge tank reacts like, well, 100,000 
  cans of shaken B3. It starts fizzing, 
  then a fountain of violently foaming 
  Bouncy Bubble Beverage surges up, 
  blasting a huge hole in the ﬂ oor of the 
  cafeteria and drenching everyone and 
  everything in churning sticky syrup 
  (S3D Bio damage, by the way). Floor 
  tiles rise like little rafts and sail away on 
  seething B3 rapids, tables slide down 
  the collapsing ﬂ oor and smash into the 
  tunnels below, the Free Enterprisers 
  assume that they’re under attack by 
  the IntSec Troopers and start firing 
  both at the PCs and the Sierra Club 
  defenders. 
  Hurrah for chaos, confusion and 
  crossﬁ re.
  Lurking Treason
  Roll
  Item
  Ruth-O’s Transparently False Explanation
  1–4
  Potted Plant
  Is… dietary supplement. New FunFood. You eat, 
  yumyum.
  5–8
  Cockroach in a 
  matchbox
  Look! Heroic citizen has trapped…strange thing. Vot is it, 
  Mr Trooper?
  9–12
  Sierra Club leaﬂ et Is napkin. Misprinted napkin.
  13–16
  Hiking trail map
  Is map to bathroom. Bathroom is far away, hard to ﬁ nd. 
  17–20
  Laser pistol 
  Is… is… oh, vatslime! GET ZEM!
  Name
  Role
  Group
  Notable Skills
  Mutant Power
  Secret Society
  Ruth-O
  Cafeteria Manager PLC
  Chutzpah 13, Violence 12 Adrenaline Control 15 Sierra Club
  She’s armed with an extensible hiking stick (S3K damage)
  Average Sierra 
  Clubber
  Lunchtime diner/
  nature fan
  Varies
  Concealment 10
  Varies
  Sierra Club
  Improvised weapons or illegal laser pistols
  Cow Liberator
  Sierra Club elite 
  guard
  Varies
  Violence 14
  Infravision 10 or Energy 
  Field 10
  Sierra Club
  They’ve got Kevlar (I3) and slug riﬂ es (W3K, AP, Spray).
  Free Enterprise 
  Goon
  Rustler
  Varies
  Violence 14
  Empathic Liar 10 or 
  Hypersenses 10
  Free Enterprise
  Here to steal the cow. They’ve got laser riﬂ es and pin-stripe Kevlar. 
  
  9
  If that a yay or a nay? I think it was a moo
  2. WHERE'S THE BEEF?
  The Inquisitor Cometh
  Tension 6
  Summary: The escaped cow disrupts 
  the transtube and is mistaken for a 
  mutant. 
  Cow on the Transtube
  In the confusion, Bessie the Cow 
  wanders out the tunnel. Perhaps she’s 
  got some bovine form of the Uncanny 
  Luck mutation, as she glides through 
  the crossﬁ re with nary a scratch. Down 
  the tunnel she goes, then out across 
  the transtube. AutoCars swerve to 
  dodge the rogue cow, resulting in 
  a cataclysmic pile-up. More things 
  explode. The Troopers are probably 
  still shooting traitors back in the 
  cafeteria, so Central Communications 
  get to give them the good news.
  ‘Troopers! Code 15! Code 15! Major 
  traffic incident in progress! Respond 
  immediately to Transtube TRD/32-
  1A!’ The fastest way to get to the 
  transtube is to head into the lower 
  level of the cafeteria and then follow 
  Bessie down the tunnel, dodging the 
  luminous orange cowpats and the 
  Free Enterprise goons. The Troopers 
  arrive at a huge multi-vehicle pile-up.
  More Than A 
  Fender-Bender
  There are dozens of vehicles involved 
  in this particular multi-bot collision but 
  there are four of special importance. By 
  ‘special importance’, we mean ‘likely to 
  explode’. These are the four vehicles 
  who can’t be easily moved and are 
  blocking the transtube.
  Xanilthromaline Delivery: This is a big 
  truckbot hauling canisters of semi-toxic 
  chemicals. The canisters are, of course, 
  cracked and leaking. Xanilthromaline 
  fumes cause hallucinations and 
  hair loss, by the way. The sooner the 
  Xanilthromaline truckbot is hauled out 
  of the way, the better.
  Warbot XR-7: This big warbot was en 
  route to Outdoors when it crashed. 
  XR-7 is absolutely convinced that 
  Alpha Complex is doomed to Commie 
  conquest without its ﬁ repower and 
  that every second it spends trapped 
  in this transtube brings catastrophe 
  closer. Anyone not helping free it 
  from the wreckage must be a Commie 
  saboteur. The bot’s massive armoured 
  treads are clogged with wreckage.
  ZipFast Courier: This is a super-fast 
  little dart-car that’s now embedded 
  nose-first in the wall. The slightly 
  stunned driver, Herman-Y, is shrieking 
  and sobbing – he was bringing an 
  ultra-high-priority VIOLET message 
  that’s so secret it must be hand-
  delivered and ZipFast’s slogan is ‘if your 
  message is late, you get to terminate 
  our courier’. It’s impossible to get the 
  documents (and the courier, for that 
  matter) out of the crashed vehicle.
   
  Terry the Transbot: This transbot 
  is packed with commuter citizens. 
  The transbot’s door was damaged in 
  the crash, trapping everyone inside. 
  There were no serious injuries but the 
  bot’s stunned and confused. All the 
  citizens are jabbering about a ‘mutant 
  monster’ that attacked the transbot. 
  For added fun, there’s a HPD&MC 
  news team on the transbot, who failed 
  to ﬁ lm the ‘mutant monster’ but are 
  getting great shots of the Troopers 
  standing around being indecisive. 
  (Video making the Troopers look bad 
  will never be ofﬁ cially broadcast, of 
  course; it’ll just be used by HPD&MC 
  as leverage over IntSec).
  So, which accident do the Troopers 
  attend to ﬁ rst and how? 
  Make Way Not War
  As they’re picking their way through 
  the wreckage, they get an alert from 
  Central. ‘Attention all Troopers in TRD 
  Sector. Code 37! Code 37! Major Mutant 
  Threat detected! Genetic Inspector 
  Matthew-I now en route. All units are 
  to render all assistance to the Genetic 
  Inspector.’
  The Troopers have heard of the Genetic 
  Inspector before – one of Alpha 
  Complex’s premier mutant hunters. 
  Genetic Inspectors are permitted to 
  take samples of any citizen’s DNA and 
  then incinerate them on the spot with 
  a handy hand ﬂ amer. 
  A moment later, the Troopers get 
  another message. ‘The Genetic Inspector 
  is approaching your location to locate 
  the mutant threat. Ensure that there is 
  a clear path through transtube TRD/32-
  1A.’ Down the tube, the Troopers hear 
  the wail of fast-approaching sirens.
  The Troopers need to either get the 
  warbot moving again, or remove 
  two of the other vehicles from the 
  tube. Unless the players can channel 
  McGuyver on demand, then ‘remove’ 
  is going to be a synonym for ‘blow to 
  pieces’. The warbot will gladly provide 
  ﬁ repower on request.
  
  10
  PARANOIA: Termination Quota Exceeded
  TERMINATION QUOTA EXCEEDED
  If the Troopers manage to get the 
  tube clear, then Matthew-I and his 
  entourage zoom past in lurid INDIGO 
  cars with lots of guns, sirens, ﬂ ashing 
  lights and Chaos Spiky Bits*. 
  If they don’t manage to clear the tube 
  in time, then Matthew-I & co have to 
  stop and get out and walk. 
  Matthew-I doesn’t like to walk. His 
  ceremonial giant pointy hat** tends to 
  fall off when he walks. His ceremonial 
  armoured robes are heavy when he 
  walks. Most of all, his vast array of 
  torture devices, genetic testing pokers 
  and assault weapons get in the way 
  when he walks. Did the Troopers 
  just make him walk? Did they not 
  understand their instructions to clear 
  the tunnel, or are they too mutant to 
  obey? There’s a dangerous mutant 
  monster running around – are they 
  in league with it? Mutants can change 
  their shape – maybe one of them is 
  the mutant...
  Play Matthew-I as exactly what he is 
  – a psychotic witch hunter who likes 
  burning mutants. He’s accompanied 
  by a half-dozen BLUE Troopers who 
  are all fanatically loyal to their crazy 
  overlord. Technically, Matthew-I is an 
  IntSec agent on ‘detached duty’, which 
  translates as ‘he’s such a scary lunatic 
  that we just get out of his way and hope 
  he doesn’t fry too many people.’ 
  Traitor BBQ
  Tension 5
  Summary: The Witch Hun – er, Genetic 
  Inspector Matthew-I has captured 
  Bessie the Cow. The Troopers must 
  either rescue the cow or plead for its 
  innocence.
  ‘Attention all Troopers. The Genetic 
  Inspector has secured the mutant. All 
  Troopers proceed immediately to TRD 
  Sector Corridor 543 to provide crowd 
  control.’
  The scene – at one end of the corridor 
  is a hastily-erected stage made from 
  toppled vending machines. The 
  Genetic Inspector stands atop it, a 
  ﬂ amer in one hand and a gigaphone 
  in the other. ‘PURE CITIZENS’, he roars, 
  ‘I HAVE FOUND THE DEVIANT!!! THE 
  GENETIC TRAITOR!!! THIS MONSTER WILL, 
  IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE COMPUTER’S 
  REGULATIONS, BE GIVEN A FAIR TRIAL... 
  BEFORE ITS EXECUTION!’ 
  The corridor’s thronged with citizens 
  who cheer loudly at the appropriate 
  moments – partly because they’re 
  conditioned to respond but mainly 
  because of Matthew-I’s thugs will punish 
  anyone not sufﬁ ciently enthusiastic.
  ‘BRING OUT THE GENETIC TRAITOR!’ 
  booms Matthew-I. 
  And Bessie the cow is revealed to the 
  crowd – and the Troopers – for the 
  ﬁ rst time. 
  If the players have not worked out that 
  Bessie is Supply Inventory Unit #14-31 
  yet, then she obligingly provides a 
  large, steaming bright orange clue on 
  Mutant !!!!!!
  *: Chaos Spiky Bits are copyright a certain large and scary games company***, who totally didn’t nick them off Moorcock in 
  the ﬁ rst place or anything, noooo….
  **: Ceremonial giant pointy hats are copyright the Catholic Church. 
  ***: We might be making this bit up.
  
  11
  Mission Over Man! Mission Over!
  2. WHERE'S THE BEEF?
  Name
  Role
  Notable Skills
  Mutant Power
  Secret Society
  Matthew-I
  Genetic Inspector
  Interrogation 18, Intimidation 
  18, Violence 15
  Detect Mutant Power 10 Anti-Mutant
  Flamer, Ceremonial Robes (Armour 3)
  Genetic Acolytes
  Wild Eyed Thugs
  Intimidation 15, Violence 13
  Whatever it is, they’re 
  not going to use it
  Anti-Mutant
  BLUE Lasers (W3K), Robes (Armour 3)
  Bessie
  Cow
  Being a Cow 20
  It’s a cow
  Cowmunism
  the Genetic Inspector’s pointy INDIGO 
  boots. 
  Trial of the Century
  The Genetic Inspector proceeds to 
  question Bessie. At the end of his 
  questioning, he’ll blast Bessie with his 
  ﬂ amer unless the Troopers intervene. 
  If the Troopers intend to secure the 
  Supply Inventory Unit before Bessie 
  becomes well-done steak, they’ll 
  need to either defend Bessie against 
  Matthew-I’s accusations or else distract 
  the Genetic Inspector and his cohort.
  The Inspector’s Questions: 
  � ‘Now, mutant freak, you will answer 
  for your genetic crimes! Do you wish 
  to throw yourself on the mercy of Our 
  Friend, The Computer?’
  � ‘Do you admit your membership of 
  the traitorous Psion Secret Society?’
  � ‘You do not speak. Therefore, you 
  must be using psychic powers to 
  communicate with your treasonous 
  conspirators!’
  � ‘You are accused of deliberately 
  sabotaging trafﬁ c on the transtube! 
  How do you plead?’
  � ‘You are accused to attacking and 
  destroying a cafeteria in TRD Sector! 
  How do you plead?’
  � ‘What is this orange foulness that 
  you wilfully secrete? Is it part of some 
  scheme to mutate us all?’
  If you run out of questions, then the 
  Genetic Inspector will haul random 
  volunteers out of the crowd, who will 
  then blame the cow for their ills (‘the 
  mutant made me help the Commies/the 
  mutant put sedition in my brain/the 
  mutant turned me into a newt’).
  Reasoning with Matthew-I: Any 
  attempt to engage the lunatic in 
  reasoned discourse results in 
  accusations that the Trooper is in 
  league with the mutant. If you’re not 
  a slavering fanatic chanting for auto-
  da-fe, then you’re against him. 
  The Guards: are slavering fanatics 
  chanting for auto-da-fe but are also 
  paranoid thugs convinced that mutant 
  assassins are lurking in every corner. 
  They’ll blast any Troopers who act 
  in a threatening fashion towards 
  Matthew-I. 
  Calling Central: Central re-iterates that 
  the Troopers’ assignment is to retrieve 
  the items stolen from MCD Supply as 
  quickly as possible. Stop getting in the 
  way of the Genetic Inspector and do 
  your jobs, vatslimes!
  Wrapping Up
  If they fail to secure the cow, then 
  Monty-I will be extremely displeased 
  and will make his displeasure known 
  to Central in the strongest possible 
  terms (5 Treason Points each).
  If they reveal the origin of the 
  ‘mutant’ to the Genetic Inspector, 
  then Matthew-I still needs a scapegoat 
  – he’s whipped the crowd up into a 
  frenzy and they want to see something 
  burn. If he turns around and says 
  ‘actually, faithful citizens, this thing 
  isn’t a mutant monster at all, it’s what 
  high Clearance citizens eat’ then he’ll 
  get torn apart by his own followers. 
  Matthew-I needs a mutie to torch. Any 
  volunteers?
  If the Troopers manage to secure 
  the cow successfully and deliver it 
  to Monty-I, then they’re rewarded 
  the next weekcycle when a courier 
  delivers a box containing several well-
  cooked steaks to Central…
  
  12
  PARANOIA: Termination Quota Exceeded
  TERMINATION QUOTA EXCEEDED
  3. The Survivor
  Stay Alert!
  Alpha Complex is a state of mind, not 
  a real place. It is as small or large as 
  we need it to be. In this mission, Alpha 
  Complex is vast indeed, a Gormenghast 
  of concrete and steel so huge that 
  whole sections can fall between the 
  cracks and be forgotten. The Survivor 
  drops the Player Characters into an 
  isolated community that’s been lost 
  for centuries below Alpha Complex.
  Trust No-One!
  At least, that’s how it appears? Part of 
  the state of mind that is Alpha Complex 
  is never knowing what’s going on. This 
  lost community is not what it seems. 
  Someone’s always pulling strings, 
  there’s always another trapdoor. 
  
  13
  Welcome to the Village. Er, the Town
  3. THE SURVIVOR
  Keep Your Laser Handy!
  Well, if the worst comes to the worst, 
  you can always shoot people. 
  Note: Resemblances between this 
  mission and a certain wonderful piece 
  of surreal television from the 60s are 
  purely intentional. However, The Town 
  is not The Village and the Survivor isn’t 
  The Prisoner. Don’t consciously play up 
  the similarities and punish any player 
  who assumes that acting like Patrick 
  McGoohan is the best approach to 
  this mission. 
  The Town Guide
  As a courtesy to you, honoured 
  Gamesmaster, we Famous Game 
  Designers will now throw you down 
  the very deep shaft that leads to the 
  Town. With luck, you’ll survive the fall 
  and then you’ll be able to describe 
  the experience to your players with 
  undeniable verisimilitude.
  What? You don’t want to be thrown 
  down a deep shaft? What happened to 
  sacriﬁ ces for your art? Feh. Fine, we’ll 
  just describe it then.
  The Town is located in a huge concrete 
  chamber deep beneath Alpha Complex. 
  The chamber may previously have 
  been used for storing vast amounts 
  of waste water or something; there are 
  all sorts of bafﬂ es, piers and exciting 
  stains on the ﬂ oor and walls. There’s 
  still a lake several dozen metres deep 
  of stagnant water at the bottom of 
  the tank. No-one knows how big the 
  tank is.
  The town itself is a small collection of 
  a few dozen structures on the shore of 
  this lake. The buildings are constructed 
  out of whatever materials could be 
  salvaged from the surrounding tank 
  – concrete blocks, scrap metal, dried 
  fungus and plastics – but they’re all 
  several decades old and moderately 
  well maintained. It’s not exactly luxury 
  accommodation but it’s no worse 
  than an INFRARED barracks. There’s no 
  running water in the buildings; heat 
  and light are provided by guttering 
  gas lamps. The gas comes from a pipe. 
  Don’t ask where the pipe goes – it’s an 
  article of faith that there’ll always be 
  gas coming out of the pipe. There’s no 
  electronics or real industry, so the level 
  of technology is pretty primitive. The 
  best weapon is a pointy stick.
  So, what does a young clone do in 
  The Town on a Fivesday night? The 
  same thing he goes every day – gather 
  semi-edible fungi from the shores of 
  the lake. Be careful not to go too far 
  from the lights of The Town, though. 
  The gas lamps are the only source of 
  illumination in the whole tank. Oh, you 
  can dry out some mushroom stalks 
  and make them into a crude torch 
  and then set off along the lakeshore 
  but your torch will run out and die 
  before you reach a corner and then 
  the Grues will get you. No-one’s really 
  sure what the Grues are but everyone 
  agrees that they’re out there and that 
  they like to eat people. The Grues fear 
  the light, so the wise Council keeps the 
  gas lamps burning all the time to hold 
  the monsters back.
  1. The Lake
  2. Splashdown for the Troopers
  3. The Mushroom Farms
  4. Gas Lamps
  5. Watchtowers
  6. Townsfolk Houses
  7. Nightsoil Pit
  Coin & Commerce
  Bizarrely, the Town mints its own currency despite having only a few hundred inhabitants, no-one to trade with and no real 
  industry other than subsistence mushroom farming, scavenging and running away from Grues. The largest coin minted is 
  the Half-Groat, which is worth six Twelfthgroats, 12 Shillings, 60 Tuppences or 240 Ha’pennies. Mushroom gatherers are paid 
  one ha’penny per day. All coins have the Mayor’s face in proﬁ le on one side (he’s got a pop-up moustache on the Twelftgroat 
  piece) and ‘WATCH OUT FOR GRUES’ on the other. 
  The Law
  The only real law in The Town is the word of the Council. Any crimes (theft, murder, annoying the Council) is punished by exile 
  into the darkness and a swift Grue-some death. The Watchers are expected to enforce the Council’s dictates; if the watchers 
  refused, then the Council would cut off the gas supply.
  8. Gregg’s Mushrooms
  9. Engadine’s Emporium
  10. Town Square
  11. Town Hall
  12. Gas Pumping Station
  1. The Lake. A big, mostly stagnant, 
  cesspool.
  2. Splashdown for the Troopers
  3. The Mushroom Farms. A vast forest 
  of semi-edible mushrooms. It could be 
  an Alpha Complex hydroponics bay 
  gone wild.
  4. Gas Lamps. A ring of iron lamp-
  posts.
  5. Watchtowers. These watchtowers 
  are just wooden platforms on 20-foot 
  stilts. There’s a single ladder going up 
  to the platform.
  6. Townsfolk Houses. The townsfolk 
  live here, normally two or three to a 
  house. The Troopers start off in a large 
  guest-house just off the town square.
  7. Nightsoil Pit. Hey, mushrooms 
  gotta eat too. All the town’s nightsoil 
  is gathered here and spread on the 
  mushrooms.
  8. Gregg’s Mushrooms: The best 
  damn mushroom-related restaurant 
  you’re ever likely to visit. There’s a cult 
  temple round the back.
  9. Engadine’s Emporium: The Town’s 
  general store. The Emporium sells 
  all manner of tools, kitchenware, 
  clothing and other necessities. Most 
  are manufactured by Townsfolk but 
  Madame Engadine does sometimes 
  sell items salvaged from Alpha 
  Complex. 
  
  14
  PARANOIA: Termination Quota Exceeded
  TERMINATION QUOTA EXCEEDED
  10. Town Square: It’s a square and it’s 
  in the Town. There’s a large clock in the 
  centre of the square that’s the only 
  working timepiece in the whole place. 
  There’s no day or night in the Town, so 
  the slowly turning hands of the clock 
  are the only way to track the passage 
  of time. Sometimes, to conserve gas 
  supplies, the Council does declare 
  ‘night’ and turns off all but essential 
  gas lamps for a few hours. During the 
  ‘night’, watchers with lanterns patrol 
  the streets and the Townsfolk huddle 
  around candles and hide indoors.
  11. Town Hall: The most impressive 
  building in Town; home of the Council. 
  It looks vaguely like something 
  Victorian; lots of brickwork and 
  shuttered windows. 
  12. Gas Pumping Station: Located 
  at the back of the Town Hall, this is an 
  incestuous tangle of pipes and pumps 
  that deﬁ es all logic. The gas ultimately 
  comes from a suspiciously modern-
  looking pipe with a Tech Services 
  sticker on it.
  Non-Player Characters
  Almost all the inhabitants of The Town 
  were born here in the disgusting Old-
  Reckoning fashion. A small few are 
  former Alpha Complex citizens who 
  arrived the same way the Troopers did 
  but they’ve all gone native. 
  Townsfolk: Wake up, spend your day 
  hacking at mushrooms or maintaining 
  The Town and worrying about Grues. 
  Serve the Council. Newcomers to The 
  Town join the Townsfolk when they 
  ﬁ rst arrive.
  All the Townsfolk are pale, even 
  by Alpha Complex standards, with 
  bulging eyes. They all smell strongly 
  of ﬁ sh and fungi. 
  � Albert: One of the oldest Townsfolk, 
  Albert’s a crotchety old man who 
  spreads stories about the Grues and 
  how ghastly and awful they are. He’s 
  lived in the Town his whole life. 
  � Gregg: A short balding fellow, 
  Gregg’s life and soul is the mushroom. 
  He’s the best mushroom chef in 
  Town, capable of turning a handful 
  of fungi into a plate of mushrooms 
  garnished with mushrooms in 
  mushroom sauce. Secretly, he 
  worships the mushrooms as tiny 
  white-capped gods.
  � Vance-G: The other survivor. A 
  despicable Commie Mutant Traitor 
  at the top of the shaft but just 
  another Townsfolk by the time he 
  hits the bottom. Vance-G was an 
  R&D technician accused of stealing 
  experimental equipment. He’s also 
  a Pro Tech agent.
  Watchers: Walk around with a lantern 
  keeping the gas lamps burning. (Yes, 
  there are occasional unfortunate gas 
  lamp/burning wick interactions). Keep 
  the Townsfolk in line, watch out for 
  Grues.
  � Nadia: A young Watcher who 
  welcomes newcomers and guides 
  them around the town. Charming 
  and personable despite her slightly 
  Russian accent. 
  � Patrick-Y: This older clone came 
  to The Town from Alpha Complex. 
  He’s dressed in a tattered YELLOW 
  Tech Services jumpsuit but moves 
  with the practised conﬁ dence of 
  a veteran IntSec agent. Anyone 
  who tries to disrupt the peace of 
  the Town will have to answer to 
  Patrick-Y. If questioned, Patrick-Y is 
  unwilling to talk about his life back 
  in Alpha Complex, saying that he’s 
  put it all behind him. He claims to 
  have arrived much the same way 
  the Troopers did – he was working 
  on the tubes in the depths of Alpha 
  Complex when he fell through a 
  hatch and ended up in the Lake.
  The Council: The three elders of the 
  Town. The Council lives in the Town 
  Hall, which just happens to also be 
  the gas pumping station. They’re 
  putatively in charge of the Town. 
  Anyone who breaks the laws of the 
  Town is judged by the Council.
  � Mayor Humphrey: An elderly and 
  eccentric man with an elderly and 
  eccentric moustache, the Mayor 
  wears a ceremonial chain of ofﬁ ce 
  and an ego the size of Jupiter. Mayor 
  Humphrey suffers – or pretends to 
  suffer – from senile dementia and 
  is easily confused.
  � Madame Engadine: The arbiter 
  of fashion and society in The 
  Town. Admittedly, that’s not saying 
  much, given that ‘fashion’ is mostly 
  ‘rags, old boiler suits and tanned 
  mushroom bits’ and ‘society’ is ‘well, 
  maybe you can have a cup of tea 
  before you get eaten by the Grues.’ 
  Play Madame Engadine as a nutty 
  old socialite whose clinging to the 
  wreckage of a vanished society; 
  she’d have been drinking High Tea 
  as the Titanic went down.
  � The Engineer: A never-seen 
  eminence grise within the pipes 
  and dripping oil of the gas pumping 
  house, the Engineer keeps the 
  lights on and the Grues away. The 
  Engineer effectively has veto power 
  over the whole Town. Whenever 
  anything’s proposed that the 
  Council disapproves of, all they 
  need to say is ‘the Engineer wouldn’t 
  like that’ and the matter is dropped 
  lest the Lights Go Out.
  The Truth Behind 
  The Town
  So, what’s really going on in The Town? 
  Either roll on the Awful Truth table, or 
  pick one of the options.
  Hot Pursuit
  Tension 3
  Read the following to the players: ‘It’s 
  a boring day in Transtube 16. You’re all 
  packed into one SecuriCar, checking the 
  Vehicle Operation Permits of passing 
  transbots. Your car smells of spilled 
  CoffeeLyke and armour sweat. Worse, 
  there’s nothing good on tv. Oh, yeah, 
  who’s sitting where?’
  Let the Troopers argue about who’s in 
  the driver’s seat, who’s in the passenger 
  seat and who’s crammed into the back 
  seat. Then:
  ‘Attention, all Troopers. Traitor alert! 
  Suspect VANCE-G-CGL-4 seen operating 
  a GREEN autocar, moving through 
  Transtube 43 approaching junction 
  with Transtube 16. Suspect must be 
  apprehended for further questioning! 
  All vehicles, respond.’
  A GREEN vehicle zooms past the 
  Troopers’ autocar straight down the 
  BLUE lane at speeds in excess of Mach 
  2. It’s Vance-G. Chase scene time!
  
  15
  We’re all pawns
  3. THE SURVIVOR
  Feel free to throw a few obstacles in 
  the Troopers’ path as they give chase. 
  If Troopers want to try rolling down the 
  windows and lobbing a few cone riﬂ e 
  shells, let them but they won’t be able 
  to take out Vance-G’s autocar. (Assume 
  that Vance-G’s a super-skilled driver 
  who can dodge cone riﬂ e shells).
  When you get tired of Dramatic Action, 
  read the following:
  ‘Vance-G’s autocar takes a sudden sharp 
  turn down a narrow service tube. You’ve 
  no choice but to follow him in. The tube 
  twists and turns like an INFRARED’s 
  bowels after eating a double helping of 
  Hot Fun. You catch glimpses of rusting 
  pipes and huge industrial machinery 
  out in the darkness as you speed past. 
  Wheee!
  The suspect’s autocar swerves left, then 
  right, then… vanishes.
  You lose sight of it for a second but there 
  it is again now, just ahead of you. Down 
  the steep shaft. The steep shaft that he 
  is, in fact, falling down. Just like you. 
  Aaaaaaaaagh, you’re falling!’
  The Awful Truth Table
  Roll
  Awful Truth
  Who Knows About It?
  Signs of The Truth The Grues
  What Happens?
  1–4
  Option 1: The Town is an 
  Internal Security loyalty 
  test. The Troopers were 
  brought here to test their 
  commitment to Alpha 
  Complex. 
  Everyone except the 
  Troopers
  It’s all a bit too 
  convenient.
  Killer bots
  The Troopers are 
  encouraged not to try 
  to make contact with 
  Alpha Complex. If they 
  accept the status quo, 
  they’re traitors.
  5–8
  Option 2: The Town is 
  being run as a covert 
  interrogation system. 
  Traitors are permitted to 
  ‘escape’ to The Town, where 
  agents slowly win their 
  trust and convince them 
  to reveal their secrets now 
  that they’re out of Alpha 
  Complex. Once the traitor 
  confesses, he’s taken by the 
  Grues. 
  Everyone except the 
  Troopers 
  Recording devices 
  are hidden 
  everywhere. Some 
  buildings in The 
  Town contain Alpha 
  Complex-style 
  monitoring stations. 
  IntSec goons
  Initially, it’s assumed 
  that the Troopers are 
  Commie spies to be 
  interrogated. When 
  The Town is informed 
  they’re not supposed 
  to be here, the trick 
  is removing them 
  without disrupting the 
  system.
  9–12
  Option 3: The Town is an 
  ongoing psychological 
  experiment. The ‘Grues’ 
  don’t exist – the sole 
  purpose of the community 
  is to test the effects of 
  having an external enemy 
  like the Communists. 
  The Council and Patrick-
  Y
  The whole place 
  is artiﬁ cially 
  maintained by 
  Alpha Complex; 
  there are recording 
  devices everywhere.
  Don’t exist
  Nadia believes the 
  Grues are trying to 
  inﬁ ltrate the town and 
  may have subverted 
  the Council.
  13–16
  Option 4: The Town is 
  being secretly ﬁ lmed by 
  HPD&MC as a reality tv 
  show for high Clearance 
  citizens.
  The Council
  The hidden 
  cameras in the 
  darkness
  Special Effects
  Nadia believes the 
  Grues are trying to 
  inﬁ ltrate the town and 
  may have subverted 
  the Council.
  17–20
  Option 5: The Town is, 
  indeed, a community 
  outside of Alpha Complex. 
  The Council maintain the 
  myth of the grues to keep 
  people from exploring too 
  much. 
  No-one 
  None
  Don’t exist
  The Troopers ruin 
  everything.
  THAT 
  WAS... 
  UNFORTUNATE
  
  16
  PARANOIA: Termination Quota Exceeded
  TERMINATION QUOTA EXCEEDED
  The Troopers’ autocar plummets down 
  the shaft for some time. Long enough 
  for the Troopers to scream and panic 
  and maybe even shoot at each other 
  or try an absurd escape method. Then 
  there’s a titanic SPLOOOOSH as the 
  autocar bellyﬂ ops into the lake.
  That Sinking Feeling
  Read the following to the players:
  ‘Situation update. You stopped falling 
  and are now officially sinking into 
  some dark, dark liquid. Water – or 
  whatever’s out there – just got into the 
  car’s bot brain. ‘Conﬂ ict resolution:’ it 
  shrieks insanely, ‘A Technique in which 
  the mechanisms of play focus on 
  conﬂ icts of interest, rather than on the 
  component tasks within that conﬂ ict. 
  When using this Technique, inanimate 
  Communication
  All the Troopers’ communications devices were destroyed in the autocar crash. If they manage to repair one, then they 
  discover that either radio signals can’t escape the tank or else they manage to pick up on secret transmissions from Alpha 
  Complex agents in The Town.
  Clones
  If a Trooper actually manages to get killed (probably by a Grue), then his replacement clone is delivered to his last known 
  location: the top of the shaft. Read the following to the newly dedeceased:
  Oh boy! You wake up in your new clone body and you feel better than ever. Looking around, you ﬁ nd you’re in the back of a transbot. 
  ‘We’ll have you re-united with the rest of your team in two minutes, trooper! Would you like a happiness pill while you wait?’ says the 
  bot. You hear the transbot rattle down a series of narrow tunnels. ‘Hmm…’ muses the bot, ‘they should be around here somewhere 
  according to this delivery ordAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!’
  Splash.
  ‘Error! Error! Bzzztclunkzeep. Abashed refers to design that must be Drifted in order to play because incompatible priorities are 
  present among different parts of the rules. It’s different from Incoherent design in that such Drift is easy and minor. Technically, an 
  Abashed game is already at least two modes…’ 
  Hey, it looks like this transbot isn’t watertight. What are you doing?
  The Troopers are the only people in Town with clones… at least, as far as they know. Depending on the Awful Truth, some or 
  even everyone else in Town will be replaced by clones in the event of termination.
  Secret Society Missions
  Secret Society Missions don’t play a major part in this mission, as the Troopers are cut off from their societies. That said, there 
  are a few societies who would be very interested to know about The Town, especially the Movement.
  Mutant Powers
  The main problematic powers in this mission are Teleport (‘I just bamf back to Central’) and to a lesser extent, Levitation and 
  Desolidity. You can deal with Teleport easily enough by dropping the Trooper somewhere that’s even more dangerous than 
  The Town until he gets the message. Desolidity won’t really help, as the tank walls are really really thick and hard to climb in 
  intangible form. Finally, levitating up the shaft without a light source means you’re grue chow and with a light means you’re 
  target practise for anyone in The Town with a ranged weapon. 
  objects are conceived to have interests 
  at odds with the character, if necessary. 
  Contrast with Task resolution.’ Murky 
  blackness engulfs the car as you sink. 
  What’re you doing?
  Make it clear that anyone staying in 
  the sinking autocar is going to drown 
  in short order. Present the Troopers 
  with Handout #1, the Equipment list 
  (see page 24). Each Trooper can try to 
  grab as much stuff as they want from 
  that list but every item they choose 
  makes it harder to swim to the surface. 
  Getting to the surface without injury 
  requires a Violence roll (anyone take 
  Swimming as a Specialty? Didn’t think 
  so). Apply a penalty – say, –2 per item, 
  or –4 for really big stuff, including 
  armour – to the roll for equipment 
  carried. Any Troopers who fail the 
  Swimming roll are Snafued at least 
  and may even be Downed for the rest 
  of the scene.
  Swim For It
  You swim blindly up through the pitch-
  black brackish water until you breach 
  the surface. You can see nothing except 
  the ﬂ ickering lights of the autocar six 
  fathoms deep below and some weird 
  lamps off in the distance. Near the 
  lamps, you see smaller bobbing lights 
  which seem to be waving at you. 
  In the absence of any other options and 
  in the deﬁ nite presence of impending 
  hypothermia, you paddle towards the 
  waving lights. As you approach the 
  shore, several figures become visible 
  
  17
  Everybody votes for Friend Computer 
  3. THE SURVIVOR
  in the gloom. They’re carrying burning 
  lanterns and aren’t wearing standard 
  uniforms – that, or they made sort of 
  browny-grey a Clearance without telling 
  you. Whoever they are, they don’t appear 
  immediately hostile, which is good as 
  none of you are in any shape to ﬁ ght.
  As you stumble out of the water onto the 
  concrete shore, one of them reaches out 
  a hand to help you. ‘You can’t rest yet’ 
  she says, ‘our lanterns won’t last long. 
  We’ve got to get back to the Town 
  before the grues get us!’
  The Troopers’ new friend is Nadia, one 
  of the village Watchers. She’ll insist on 
  deferring explanations until they’re 
  back in the safety of the Town. 
  Oh, remember all that gear the 
  Troopers salvaged from the autocar? 
  Well, that nasty brackish water got 
  into everything and ruined anything 
  electronic or fragile. That means that 
  any electronic gizmos like helmet 
  communicators or PDCs are broken 
  as are any weapons more complicated 
  than a truncheon. If you’re feeling 
  remarkably generous, then the 
  Troopers might be able to effect 
  some repairs when they get to The 
  Town (assuming that they retrieved a 
  suitable toolkit from the autocar and 
  the player is in your good books).
  Welcome To The Town
  Tension 0 (unless you’re going with 
  Options 2, 3, or 4 in which case it’s 
  Tension 15)
  The strangers lead you across a concrete 
  ﬂ oor for some time. You’ve no idea how 
  big this place is, or even if you’re Indoors 
  or Outdoors – outside the little puddle of 
  light cast by the guttering lanterns and 
  the lamps up ahead, the whole place is 
  oppressively dark. You keep hearing faint 
  sounds of movement in the darkness, as 
  if you’re being stalked by things. ‘Grues,’ 
  whispers Nadia. ‘They won’t come 
  into the light but if you step into the 
  darkness, they’ll eat you!’
  You pass through a small jungle of giant 
  mushrooms, each one twice the height 
  of something half as tall, before coming 
  to a line of wrought-iron gas lamps. 
  Between every few lamps, there’s a tall 
  if rickety watchtower. You push on – the 
  lights of the Town are within view now.
  The Town looks like something out of 
  Old Reckoning videos – not that any 
  of you have ever seen any of those, of 
  course. Narrow streets lit by gas lamps 
  wind their way between houses and 
  small shops. 
  ‘This is The Town’ says Nadia. ‘Your new 
  home. We welcome you to The Town.’
  The characters are brought to one 
  of the communal guest houses for 
  newcomers and served a meal of 
  mushroom soup with mushroom tea 
  and dried mushroom bread. Everyone 
  they meet greets them with a phrase 
  like ‘light walk with you, townsdweller’ 
  or more prosaically, ‘look out! You might 
  get eaten by a Grue!’ 
  Nadia stays around to answer any 
  questions the Troopers might have. 
  Play her as friendly, warm, caring, 
  slightly sexy but also slightly suspicious 
  as if she’s trying just a bit too hard to 
  put the characters at their ease.
  Where Are We? In the Town. Don’t 
  worry, you’re safe from the Grues here, 
  as long as the lights stay on.
  How Do We Get Back To Alpha 
  Complex? Alpha Complex? What… 
  oh, you mean the Overworld! No, there’s 
  no way back. A few people from the 
  Overworld have arrived in the Town 
  over the years, like Patrick but I’ve never 
  heard of anyone ever going back there. 
  It’s across the darkness. The Grues would 
  get you!
  Who Runs This Place? The Council 
  – Mayor Humphrey, Madame Engadine 
  and the Engineer – are in charge. They 
  keep the gas lights on and the lights 
  keep the Grues at bay. The Council run 
  everything.
  Where Did The Town Come From? I 
  don’t know. It’s always been here, I guess. 
  Albert’s the oldest person I know in the 
  Town – ask him?
  What’s A Grue? A horrible, horrible 
  monster. No-one’s ever seen a Grue, ‘cos 
  they run away from the light – but if you 
  go out without a light, they gobble you 
  up quick as anything.
  What Will Become Of Us? Well, you 
  stay here and rest. Later, when the clock 
  Beware of the Grues !
  
  18
  PARANOIA: Termination Quota Exceeded
  TERMINATION QUOTA EXCEEDED
  strikes 12, you’ll be presented to the 
  Council. After that, you’ll be assigned 
  jobs in Town – everyone has to work, to 
  pay for their share of the gas. If you’re 
  not apprenticed to someone, then you’ll 
  probably end up gathering mushrooms 
  outside.
  The Other Survivor
  When the characters are running 
  out of questions to ask Nadia, the 
  door of the guest house opens and a 
  bedraggled, water-logged and rather 
  confused Vance-G is brought in by the 
  gaunt-faced Patrick-Y. Vance-G sinks 
  shivering into a foetal ball in front of 
  the gas ﬁ re. Patrick-Y explains that he 
  found Vance-G washed up on the lake-
  shore. ‘Lucky the Grues didn’t get him.’
  Vance-G is just as confused as the 
  Troopers about what’s going on. He’s 
  half-convinced that the Troopers have 
  captured and drugged him and that 
  the whole Town is just a hallucination. 
  Hey, he may be right.
  Curse The Darkness
  Tension 0 (unless you’re going with 
  Options 2, 3, or 4 in which case it’s 
  Tension 15)
  If the Troopers go exploring the 
  town before they’re called before the 
  Council, see The Town Guide on page 
  13 for details.
  The clock sounds 12 and all the 
  townsfolk gather in the main square. 
  The gas lamps elsewhere in the town 
  are turned down low, to conserve the 
  precious fuel. There’s a little platform in 
  front of the hall, where two members 
  of the council – Mayor Humphrey and 
  Madame Engadine – stand. Around the 
  square, the Troopers also spot Nadia 
  and Patrick-Y. Vance-G clings to the 
  Troopers if he’s allowed (he may be 
  a wanted traitor and they’re IntSec 
  goons but at least they’re a little island 
  of normality in this crazy Town). 
  Mayor Humphrey speaks: ‘Welcome, 
  welcome good Townsfolk and a very 
  good hello to you all. We have quite 
  an exciting meeting today, so I shall 
  dispense with most of the formalities, 
  ahaha. Madame Engadine, would you 
  care to read the minutes from the last 
  town meeting?’
  The old woman stands up and produces 
  an old leather-bound tome. ‘Item the 
  ﬁ rst; the gas lamps. Still burning. We have 
  not yet been eaten by the Grues. Item the 
  second; Maria Fallows, charged with 
  stealing the Widow Petrue’s mushroom 
  soufflé. Found guilty by the council. 
  Sentence – candled.’
  ‘Thank you, Madame Engadine.’
  ‘You’re welcome, dearie. And I’d also 
  like to say that there’s a 10% off all 
  mushroom-leather goods in Engadine’s 
  Emporium today.’
  ‘Marvellous, marvellous. Now, I 
  understand that we have quite a lot of 
  newcomers here. They’ve just arrived 
  from the Overworld. Please, come up 
  here and introduce yourselves.’
  The Mayor invites the Troopers and 
  Vance-G to make themselves known 
  to the crowd. The assembled townsfolk 
  welcome each character in spooky 
  unison (‘pleased to meet you!’). Once 
  everyone’s said hi, the Mayor impresses 
  on them the rules of the town. You 
  must work and obey the council’s laws. 
  Failure to work or any breaches of the 
  law will result in being cast out into 
  the darkness, where the Grues will eat 
  you. Just keep these simple laws and 
  you’ll have a good if humble life here in 
  the Town. Candling, by the way, means 
  you’re given a single candle and sent 
  out into the dark.
  ‘Now that that’s out of way – all those 
  threats about candling and banishment 
  just depress me – let’s get onto something 
  happier. Jobs! Does anyone need an 
  apprentice. Oh, lots of hands... Madame 
  Engadine, Gregg the Mushroom Chef...
  and Albert, Gatherer of Nightsoil! 
  Excellent. And of course, we could do 
  with another Watcher. Do any of you 
  newcomers want to volunteer for any of 
  these jobs?’
  If two or more Troopers go for the same 
  job, then they’ll have to compete for 
  the assignment. Each job description 
  notes who the Trooper’s new boss is, 
  what sort of work he has to do and the 
  requirements for getting the job if two 
  or more Troopers go for it.
  I Wanna Be A Watcher
  Master: Nadia or Patrick-Y
  Pay: 3 ha’pennies a day.
  Duties: Watchers enforce the Council’s 
  directives and keep the Grues away. 
  Watchers carry a lantern as their badge 
  of ofﬁ ce. When a lamp breaks, they get 
  to ﬁ x it. 
  Competition: Nadia gives each 
  prospective Watcher a lamp and 
  brings them to the watchtowers on 
  the edge of town. ‘He whose lantern 
  is the least used up when I return gets 
  the job – if he’s still alive.’ The Troopers 
  may, if they wish, turn their lanterns 
  down, letting the Grue-ﬁ lled darkness 
  encroach on the little platform. Hint 
  that the Grues are close at hand (and 
  if the Grues exist, then they are...).
  Engadine’s Emporium
  Master: Madame Engadine. This 
  has quite a few beneﬁ ts – Madame 
  Engadine’s on the Town Council and 
  has the ear of the Mayor and you’re 
  not going to get eaten by a Grue while 
  serving customers in the shop. 
  Pay: Tuppence (four ha’pennies) a 
  day.
  Duties: Selling items to the hoi polloi 
  of The Town. Attending to Madame 
  Engadine’s whims (and, if the Trooper’s 
  male and moderately good-looking, her 
  whims). Among these whims is the utter 
  destruction of Gregg the Mushroom 
  
  19
  Troubleshooters always evade questions.
  3. THE SURVIVOR
  Chef, whom Engadine despises. She’ll 
  send the successful apprentice to 
  sabotage the Mushroom Shop.
  Competition: If two Troopers apply 
  for the Emporium job, then Engadine 
  sets them the task of selling as many 
  Old Humphrey mugs as possible. The 
  Old Humphrey is a lovely hand-crafted 
  commemorative mug made by skilled 
  craftsmen. From some angles, it does 
  vaguely resemble the Mayor. From 
  every angle, including the former, it 
  looks ghastly. The mugs cost six pence 
  each, or the best part of two month’s 
  salary.
   
  The Joy of Mushroom 
  Master: Gregg the Mushroom Chef
  Pay: Two ha’pennies a day, plus free 
  food.
  Duties: Preparing mushrooms. Gregg 
  is insanely particular about every 
  aspect of mushroom preparation and 
  the Trooper can do absolutely nothing 
  right. That mushroom is sliced too thin, 
  that one sliced too thick, this water is 
  the wrong temperature, this bowl the 
  wrong concavity… After a few hours, 
  Gregg decides that the Trooper’s 
  good for only one thing. He leads the 
  Trooper down to the hidden temple 
  at the back of the Mushroom Shop, 
  where Gregg worships a fungal idol. 
  He wants the Trooper to bring human 
  sacriﬁ ces to the Mushroom God. If the 
  Trooper refuses, he’s ﬁ red.
  Competition: If two Troopers both 
  apply for the Mushroom Shop, then 
  Gregg puts them both in the kitchen 
  and orders them to chop all the 
  mushrooms. The ﬁ rst to complete the 
  task wins. 
  Nightsoil Collector
  Master: Albert. 
  Pay: Ha’penny a day
  Duties: Collecting nightsoil and 
  listening to Albert’s endless tales 
  about the Grues. 
  Competition: If two Troopers actually 
  apply for the dung collector job, then 
  Albert is very confused and has to sit 
  down with a nice refreshing cup of 
  mushroom tea. Who’d want to be a 
  dung collector? No-one… except a 
  Grue wearing a human mask! Albert 
  takes the ﬁ rst opportunity that comes 
  his way to escape from the ‘Grues’, 
  taking his light with him. 
  Mushroom Patrol
  Pay: Ha’penny a day
  Anyone without a job gets to go on 
  Mushroom Patrol. The mushroom 
  pickers are escorted out of Town by a 
  pair of Watchers and set to chopping 
  mushrooms. If one of the Troopers is 
  a Watcher, then they can easily ‘forget’ 
  to keep someone within the lantern 
  light…
  Vance-G takes the job in the mushroom 
  patrol. 
  Nightsoil Collection... the last word in job satisfaction.
  
  20
  PARANOIA: Termination Quota Exceeded
  TERMINATION QUOTA EXCEEDED
  Town Events
  Throw in these events to spice up life in the Town.
  Body in the lake: A body washes up out of the lake. It’s the body of a Troubleshooter, wearing YELLOW Reﬂ ec. There’s a 
  smoking hole in his back and a YELLOW laser pistol with four shots remaining in his hand. The pistol still works. (If you’re 
  going with Option 2 for the Awful Truth, then the Troubleshooter is a traitor who should have ended up in Town instead of 
  the Characters.
  Gas shortage: There’s a gas shortage, forcing the Council to turn off the lights for a few hours. Grues stalk the streets of the 
  Town, possibly giving the character a clue as to the nature of the Grues – whatever they are.
  Festival: The Council declares a Mushroom Festival! The citizen who brings in the biggest mushroom will win a prize!
  Supply Cache: Madame Engadine’s Emporium gets some new stock which may be of interest to the Troopers:
   �  A radio communicator (needs battery): 50 ha’pennies
   �  A slug pistol: 25 ha’pennies
   �  A torch: 15 ha’pennies
   �  Battery: 30 ha’pennies
   �  Diving helmet and mechanically powered air pump: 30 ha’pennies
  Life in Town
  Tension Absolutely Drained… or 
  is it?
  Days pass slowly in The Town but 
  they do pass. The Troopers are here 
  for a while, so they might as well get 
  comfortable.
  At this point in the mission, your 
  players should be looking at you as 
  though you’re wearing a small cocker 
  spaniel on your head. ‘Yes, Mr. GM, 
  we’ve endured this bizarre detour into 
  mushroom fetishes and Dying Earth-
  meets-The Prisoner  nonsense,’ they say 
  with pleading eyes, ‘surely we should 
  be getting back to Alpha Complex now, 
  before the Hot Fun gets Cold.’ You must 
  be stern. Admit nothing! Give them 
  the impression that they’re stuck here, 
  forever, unless they do something. 
  Suggest (non-verbally, if you have 
  the necessary interpretative dance 
  or mime skills) that you’re planning 
  on running Caste-Ridden Mushroom 
  Gatherers Who Fear The Dark from now 
  until doomsday and that it’s the hot 
  new thing in roleplaying. (Actually, it 
  might be; there are weirder games 
  out there).
  Run a few little scenes with the 
  Troopers in their new jobs. Point 
  out that there aren’t any happiness 
  drugs or mood stabilisers or hormone 
  suppressants in The Town, so they’re 
  probably feeling a bit odd. Also, they’re 
  not under surveillance and can say 
  what they wish. They can even use 
  mutant powers openly. 
  Up until this point in the mission, 
  the Awful Truth has been on the 
  sidelines but now you should start 
  bringing it into the game. Listen to 
  the speculations of the players about 
  what’s ‘really’ going on and adjust 
  the Awful Truth to subvert their 
  expectations. 
  Just Plain Folks
  Both Nadia and Patrick-Y take an 
  active interest in the Troopers and 
  Vance-G. Regardless of the Awful Truth, 
  I AM 
  NUMBER ONE
  these two Non-Player Characters have 
  opposing narrative roles. Nadia is 
  always the instigator who tries to get 
  the Troopers to act against the status 
  quo, while Patrick-Y is the defender 
  of the Town, the obstacle that the 
  Characters must overcome. 
  Nadia will continue to hang around 
  with the Troopers, chatting with them, 
  getting to know them, showing them 
  
  21
  All Hail The Council.
  3. THE SURVIVOR
  The Resonator
  Vance-G stole an experimental gadget from R&D before he ended up in the Town. The Resonator is still safely stowed in the 
  wreckage of Vance-G’s autocar at the bottom of the lake. Ambitious and surprisingly aquatic Troopers could try retrieving it. 
  So, how’s that Swimming skill today?
  If they ﬁ nd it, the Resonator is a heavy grey box with a confusing set of control buttons and dials on top, a big red on/off switch 
  and a microphone. Theoretically, you switch it on, tune it and then speak into the mike. The Resonator transmits vibrations 
  through the ground that become sound waves at a certain point. It’s like super-long-range ventriloquism! 
  The minor downside is that between Point A (the resonator) and Point B (the target, where the operator’s message is audible), 
  you get Effect C, also known as earthquakes and instant structural fatigue. The Troopers might be able to use the Resonator 
  to call home but they’ll probably end up bringing Alpha Complex crashing down on top of them.
  around the Town and helping them 
  when they get into trouble. She’ll 
  position herself as their best friend in 
  Town. Why? Well, that depends on the 
  Awful Truth of the Town. If the Town is 
  an IntSec interrogation scheme, then 
  she’s trying to get them to confess why 
  they betrayed Alpha Complex. She’ll 
  do this by asking questions about life 
  in Alpha Complex and the Troopers’ 
  previous existence, pointing out that 
  there’s no harm in answering – after all, 
  Alpha Complex is behind them. She’s 
  never known anything other than 
  the Town and is fascinated by tales of 
  somewhere else.
  If the Town’s something other than 
  an IntSec scheme, then Nadia’s 
  interested in the Troopers because 
  they’re outsiders and therefore not 
  yet trapped by the Town. She’ll try to 
  convince them to act (if they’re not 
  acting already) in the next scene.
  Patrick-Y also keeps an eye on the 
  Troopers. If they go poking around the 
  Town, or break the law, or otherwise 
  defy the status quo, then Patrick-Y 
  shows up to stop them. He’s the 
  sinister shadowy figure following 
  them down the street, the sinister 
  shadowy ﬁ gure who shows up when 
  they’re contemplating escape, the 
  sinister shadowy ﬁ gure who interrupts 
  them when they’re trying to repair the 
  lasers they salvaged from the lake, the 
  sinister shadowy ﬁ gure having lunch 
  in the Mushroom Shop… he’s got the 
  shadowy and sinister routine down. If 
  Patrick-Y needs more ﬁ repower, he’s 
  got his working BLUE laser pistol. 
  Vance-G adapts quickly to life in 
  Town. He’s fascinated by a life without 
  technology. After years in the R&D 
  labs, it’s a novelty to be somewhere 
  where things don’t explode regularly. 
  He admits to Nadia that he is – or, 
  really, was – a Pro Tech agent. When 
  he fell into the Town, he had a stolen 
  experimental Resonance Transmitter 
  in the back of his autocar. If the 
  Troopers try going after the Resonator, 
  see The Resonator, below. 
  Poking Around Town
  The Troopers probably try to poke 
  holes in the reality of Town. If they do 
  try looking for the Truth, have them 
  followed by Patrick-Y. The Town’s 
  taciturn watcher isn’t above a quick 
  assassination to keep the Awful Truth 
  hidden. If the Troopers manage to get 
  past Patrick-Y, then they may be able to 
  ﬁ nd evidence that something strange 
  is going on. What evidence?
  Option 1 (Loyalty Test): The Town 
  all runs a bit too smoothly. Where 
  does the gas come from? How does 
  Madame Engadine turn up caches of 
  supplies that contain exactly what’s 
  needed? What do the mushrooms feed 
  on – there’s nowhere near enough 
  nightsoil to keep the Town in ecological 
  balance. With a good Concealment or 
  Surveillance roll, Troopers might ﬁ nd 
  hidden cameras or secret passages 
  under The Town.
  Option 2 (Interrogation System): 
  The Troopers find hidden cameras 
  and microphones scattered around 
  the Town. The Troopers might spot 
  someone in the Town vanishing into a 
  hidden door that leads back to Alpha 
  Complex. The mushrooms start to taste 
  like truth serum. At night, one of the 
  Troopers is dragged into a trapdoor 
  and beaten by masked thugs.
  Option 3 (Psychological Experiment): 
  As you get to know them, it becomes 
  clear that everyone in town is freaking 
  nuts. There’s a weird metallic taste to 
  the water and keen-eared Troopers 
  hear subliminal messages saying 
  thegruesarecomingthegruesascoming 
  in the darkness.
  Option 4 (Reality TV): While out 
  gathering mushrooms, the Troopers 
  trip over a TV camera with a light 
  intensifying zoom lens.
  Option 5 (The Town’s Real): Nothing. 
  The Town makes as much sense as 
  Alpha Complex.
  Trying to Escape
  Firstly, consider skipping onto 
  Conspiracy, below, if you’re coming to 
  the end of the mission. The Survivor 
  ends with an escape attempt. However, 
  players being what they are, they’re 
  probably going to try some ill-
  conceived plan to get back to Alpha 
  Complex. 
  The primary problem with escaping 
  is the Grues. Anyone setting off into 
  the darkness is eaten by the Grues 
  (whatever the Grues are; if the Grues 
  don’t exist (as per options 3 or 5), 
  then the characters can wander the 
  tank in relative safely). The tank is a 
  huge circular concrete-walled space, 
  approximately four kilometres in 
  diameter. The wall curves so gently it’s 
  hard to tell it’s curved at all. At a few 
  places along the wall, there are rusted 
  patches that were once access ladders 
  but they’re long gone. 
  If you’re feeling merciful, the Troopers 
  eventually find another tunnel 
  
  22
  PARANOIA: Termination Quota Exceeded
  TERMINATION QUOTA EXCEEDED
  entrance that leads back to Alpha 
  Complex, via more sump tanks, a 
  spider-infested cavern, the Mines of 
  Moria, an abandoned sector and a 
  sewer before ﬁ nally dumping them 
  into a VIOLET-Clearance corridor. 
  Conspiracy
  Tension 10
  Finally, the Troopers get to challenge 
  the status quo in Town. This scene is 
  triggered by Nadia but exactly why 
  and how varies depending on the 
  Awful Truth. Nadia might tell all the 
  Troopers at the same time, or you 
  can reward good roleplaying earlier 
  by having Nadia only conﬁ de in the 
  Troopers she trusts.
  Option 1 (Loyalty Test) or Option 5 
  (It’s All Real): ‘All you’ve told me about 
  Alpha Complex makes it sound really 
  awful. No wonder Patrick-Y escaped! 
  He might tell you that he fell down into 
  the lake, same as you but that’s not true. 
  There’s supposed to be an access shaft 
  in the back of the gas pumping station. 
  If you could break in there and get past 
  all the traps, you could climb right back 
  up to that horrible Complex!’
  Option 2 (Interrogation System): 
  Nadia keeps questioning the Troopers 
  until either (a) their utter cluelessness 
  convinces her that they’re not the 
  traitors she was expecting, (b) they 
  convince her they’re really IntSec or (c) 
  one of the Troopers is a member of the 
  same Secret Society as Nadia and gives 
  the right signals. However it happens… 
  ‘What? You’re not…oh, vatslime. You’re 
  not supposed to be here! I’m Nadia-B-
  CRK-2, IntSec Reality Control. Everyone 
  in Installation 07 – the Town – is IntSec. 
  It’s a covert interrogation project… but 
  something’s gone wrong. I shouldn’t 
  even be telling you any of this, you’re 
  not cleared for it. Agh…ok, listen closely. 
  There’s an emergency exit at the back of 
  the gas pumping station. If you go there 
  right now and get out, they might not 
  terminate you. Move!’
  Option 3 (Psychological Experiment) 
  or Option 4 (Reality TV): ‘Look, I’ve 
  been thinking – the lights are getting 
  dimmer and dimmer and the Council 
  keeps refusing to tell us how much gas 
  is left. They’ve stopped us from doing 
  anything to make the Town safer. What if 
  they’re Grues!? We don’t know anything 
  about the Grues – they could look 
  human! I think the Council are Grues! 
  We’ve got to know for sure!’
  Nadia volunteers to cause a distraction, 
  letting the Troopers break into the 
  Town Hall and then into the Gas 
  Pumping Station. A few minutes later, 
  there’s a loud boom and a strong smell 
  of burning mushroom. The Troopers 
  have their distraction.
  If you want to throw some added 
  obstacles or complications at the 
  Troopers as they run for the exit, see 
  the Complications text box.
  The Town Hall
  In all of our potential alternate realities, 
  the Town Hall is all Old Reckoning art 
  and marble floors and chandeliers 
  that make a very satisfying smash 
  when they hit the floor. Most of its 
  many rooms are crammed with clerks 
  scribbling away on mushroom-bound 
  ledgers in the gaslight. Bureaucracy is 
  a universal constant in PARANOIA. 
  Complications
  If the Troopers aren’t in enough trouble already…
  Patrick-Y, IntSec Assassin: Patrick-Y’s mission is to preserve the Town’s social 
  order. The Troopers are trying to subvert it. Now he must hunt the deadliest 
  game of all… Player Character. He’ll also remind the characters as he stalks them 
  about how ghastly Alpha Complex is – do they really want to go back to a place 
  where they’re drugged and executed all the time? Have they ever even seen a 
  real Commie?
  ‘For The Good Of The Town…’: The Mayor, moustache and chain of ofﬁ ce and all, 
  mounts a spirited defence of Life in Town. Yes, the Council has served the Townsfolk 
  poorly at times but circumstances have been very difﬁ cult, the Engineer extremely 
  unpredictable and the Grues, don’t talk about the Grues. Things will be better, he 
  insists, if only the Troopers turn around and go back to Town.
  ‘…I must shoot you with this shotgun’: If they don’t listen, he whips out a 
  shotgun (M3K) and starts blasting.
  Things Explode: You’ve a bunch of Characters in a gas station. Things are going 
  to go boom.
  
  23
  I’m not a number. I’m a set of letters followed by a number!
  3. THE SURVIVOR
  If the Troopers break into the Mayor’s 
  ofﬁ ce, they ﬁ nd…
  O p t i o n  3  ( P s y c h o l o g i c a l 
  Experiment): A lot of HPD&MC reports 
  on the psychological modelling of 
  the Townsfolk, the amount of drugs 
  in the water supply, suggested ratio 
  of ‘people being eaten by Grues’ to 
  ‘people not being eaten by Grues’ and 
  other incriminating evidence™. 
  Option 4 (Reality TV): A copy of 
  the HPD&MC TV guide for VIOLET 
  Clearance citizens with a picture of the 
  Troopers on it under the caption ‘The 
  New Stars of The Town’. 
  Either way, the Mayor’s not here 
  – he’s popped down to the pumping 
  station.
  The Pumping Station
  The Troopers have come full circle 
  – this weird experience started in a 
  maze of twisty pipes and now they’re 
  back in a maze of twisty pipes. There’s 
  a strong smell of gas, oil drips from the 
  ceiling and the whole place is brutally 
  hot and cramped. CLANKETY-CLANK 
  goes the pump all the time.
  This is the Engineer’s domain. The 
  Engineer is an antique and utterly 
  deranged bot. It’s got a cylindrical body 
  and a dozen ﬂ exible arms tipped with 
  grippers, drills, saws, welders and other 
  tools. Its outer shell is scorched and 
  melted in many places. The Engineer 
  shrieks ‘INTRUDERS! INTRUDERS!’ 
  when it spots the Troopers and rolls 
  towards them. The bot’s too big to ﬁ t 
  between all the pipes, so it initially 
  appears as though the Troopers are 
  safe from its wrath. Then the Engineer 
  saws through the pipes with one set 
  of arms, rolls through the gap and 
  glues the pipes back together with 
  rear-facing manipulators. Hey, those 
  saws look sharp and the smell of gas 
  is getting stronger.
  If the Troopers make it past the 
  Engineer, they find a narrow shaft 
  rising up into the darkness. There’s 
  a ladder which is probably sturdy 
  enough to take the Trooper’s weight. 
  Someone’s tacked a ‘BEWARE OF THE 
  GRUE’ sign at the base of the shaft.
  The Way Out
  At the top of the shaft, the Troopers 
  ﬁ nd…
  Option 1 (Loyalty Test): The 
  Commissioner! He congratulates the 
  Troopers for choosing to return to 
  Alpha Complex. The Town is a test of 
  their loyalty to Alpha Complex. He 
  presses a switch and the lights come 
  on in the tank, illuminating the whole 
  Town. Grue-bots sweep in and grab 
  any Troopers who didn’t try to escape 
  The Town and carry them away for 
  Loyalty Enhancement Therapy.
  Option 2 (Interrogation System): A 
  large room containing dozens of IntSec 
  secretaries, diligently transcribing 
  the testimony of Vance-G and other 
  traitors who’ve confessed in other 
  Towns located elsewhere in this big 
  dark tank. If the Troopers disturb the 
  clerks, they get arrested by IntSec 
  Troopers. If they just keep climbing up 
  the shaft, then they’ll ﬁ nd themselves 
  back in Alpha Complex but they’ll 
  always be under suspicion. Maybe 
  IntSec will dump them back in the Town 
  to get them to confess at some point in 
  the future…
  Option 3 (Psychological Experiment): 
  The Grue green room. It’s packed 
  with Grue costumes and light 
  intensiﬁ er goggles. The Troopers can 
  keep climbing up the shaft to Alpha 
  Complex. Unfortunately, they’re all 
  under the effect of the hallucinogenic 
  drugs that IntSec adds to the water in 
  the Town. When the Troopers reach 
  Alpha Complex, they’ll see Grues 
  everywhere in the shadows…
  Option 4 (Reality TV): The editing 
  suite. There’s a bank of monitors 
  displaying the feed from the cameras 
  hidden throughout the Town. There’s 
  a fat citizen in an INDIGO jumpsuit 
  sitting there; he’s Hershel-I. When 
  the Troopers enter, he spins around, 
  frowns and says ‘oh, you guys. You were 
  all terrible. You never sold me on your 
  characters, so we’re transferring you 
  to something a little less challenging. 
  Report to Studio 54 for the Teela-O 
  Smile-Time Show’. Hershel-I’s mistaken 
  the Troopers for HPD&MC actors…
  Option 5 (It’s All Real): At the top 
  of the narrow shaft, the Troopers 
  come upon a small electrical junction 
  box. There’s a switch inside in the 
  ‘off’ position. Flicking the switch 
  reconnects The Computer with the 
  levels below the switch. 
  It’s a humming noise and then the 
  lights come on in the tank containing 
  The Town. The Computer waits until 
  the Troopers go back down the shaft 
  and then asks them to explain what’s 
  going on. Why are they associating with 
  uncleared individuals? Why are they out 
  of uniform? Why have they neglected 
  to report for several days? Why are they 
  standing around in Emergency Water 
  Reservoir #4?
  
  24
  PARANOIA: Termination Quota Exceeded
  TERMINATION QUOTA EXCEEDED
  Name
  Role
  Notable Skills
  Mutant Power
  Secret Society
  Nadia
  Watcher
  Moxie 14, Suggestion 10
  Hypersenses
  None
  Watcher’s Lantern
  Patrick-Y
  Watcher
  Violence 14, Stealth 12
  Regeneration
  None
  Laser Pistol (W3K), Watcher’s Lantern
  Vance-G
  Traitor
  Vehicle Ops 12
  Uncanny Luck
  Pro Tech
  Basic toolkit
  Albert
  Crank
  Oratory 8
  Annoying
  Anti-Grue
  Nightsoil Brush
  Gregg
  Mushroom Chef
  Cooking 13
  Mushroom Empathy Masterchefs
  Mushrooms
  The Mayor
  Pompous Ass
  Management 9, Projectile Weapons 
  8
  Empathy
  None
  Chain of ofﬁ ce, Shotgun (M3K)
  Madame Engadine
  Crazy Old Cat Lady
  Haggle 13
  Energy Field
  None 
  Stuff from her shop
  The Engineer
  Deranged Bot
  Pipe Repair 12, Dissect Trooper 10 None
  None
  Saws and Welders M2K damage
  Handout #1 – The Equipment List
  Cone Riﬂ e 
  Tire iron
  Frag Grenade
  Trooper Body Armour
  Truncheon
  Stun Grenade
  Helmet
  ME Card Reader
  Gas Mask
  Box of doughnuts
  Multicorder
  Electronics Toolkit
  Cigarette lighter
  Happiness Pills
  Mechanical Toolkit
  Flashlight
  What Laser magazine
  Air Freshener
  Medical kit
  Hand Mirror
  Cone Riﬂ e Shells x 6
  Spanner
  Laser Pistol 
  Emergency Blanket
  Biohazard Suit
  Ration Pack
  Notebook
  Pen
  Rope
  Forensic Scrubbot
  Tube map
  Antacid pills
  Flare gun
  Handcuffs
  Lifejacket
  Screwdriver
  The Townsfolk
  
  25
  Would you like to be deleted for security reasons?
  4. TERMINATION QUOTA EXCEEDED
  Secret Society Missions
  Secret Society Missions
  Anti-Mutant: One of your fellow Troopers is a freakish mutant. It’s [NAME]. Kill ‘em.
  C.L.A: The authorities are cracking down on the free clones of Alpha Complex, ‘cos IntSec’s secretly run by those damn 
  Commies. Eliminate any Troopers who seem Communist to you.
  Clone Arrangers: The word on the street is that there’s a purge coming. A lot of people are going to get terminated and that 
  means business for us. Here’s a bunch of business cards; given ‘em to the victims.
  Communists: Comrade! Eliminate High Programmer Hubert-U-KNO. Ve vill be arranging for you to meet him, da? 
  Computer Phreaks: d00d, i sn1ffz0red a p4ck3t w/ur n4m3 1n 1t. L00k5 l1k3 u may be zeroed. Stay frosty. 
  Corpore Metal: Destroy the experimental bot enslavement device from R&D. 
  Death Leopard: You’ll be visiting Corridor Painting Services, Power Tracking and the Maintenance and Repair Ofﬁ ce. Blow 
  ‘em all up!
  First Church of Christ Computer-Programmer: The other Troopers lack faith. Recruit at least two of your team-mates to 
  the Church.  
  Frankenstein Destroyers: One of our cells in the SteelyWheely factory is under investigation. Protect them. 
  Free Enterprise: Nic-O-DMS is one of our top men. Fake his death so he can escape. 
  Humanists: Eliminate Trooper Linna-B. 
  Illuminati: Everything is falling into place, just as we planned. Retrieve the contents of Bunker 8 in the Strategic Resource 
  Depot.
  The Movement: You’ll be visiting the Compartmentalisation Department and the Power Tracking centre. Insert this computer 
  virus into their systems. 
  Mystics: All these Troopers are waaaay too stressed and it’s jangling up the ether. Here’s a bunch of extra-strength happy 
  pills; make sure they take ‘em.
  Old Guard: Eliminate High Programmer Hubert-U-KNO. Make it look like an accident.
  Pro Tech: Steal the Entropy Projector. Make sure they don’t know who took it.
  Program Group: You’ll be visiting High Programmer Hubert-U-KNO. Ensure your team does not injure or annoy him in any 
  way.
  Psion: One of our agents in the archives department is under suspicion. Her name’s Morag-G-IZA – ensure she survives.
  PURGE: There will be carnage throughout the sector tonight. Use it to our advantage. Terminate as many Troopers as 
  possible.
  Romantics: There’s a rumour that someplace called Bunker 8 contains a wealth of Old Reckoning relics. Find it and secure 
  the relics. 
  Runners: There’s a purge coming, which means a lot of people need our help. There’s a Runner outpost in the Underplex, 
  accessible from the bathroom in Corridor 19. Send as many purge targets there as you can.
  Sierra Club: The Armed Forces must be taught to love nature. Recruit at least one Armed Forces member.
  Servants of Cthulhu: Franklin-I knows too much. Bring us his brain! 
  Spy for Another Complex: Here’s a bag of surveillance gadgets. Plant them in as many sensitive locations as you can, like 
  IntSec Central.  
  Wobblies: Jebidiah-B knows too much. Find him and eliminate him.
  4. Termination Quota Exceeded
  There’s a theory in vogue in certain 
  outré sections in CPU – the stranger 
  offices, where the paperwork is so 
  complex it verges on sentience, a mind 
  whose memories are forms and whose 
  thoughts are paper shuffling – that 
  states that the more forms there are 
  in Alpha Complex, the less scope there 
  is for confusion. They dream of a state 
  where every citizen’s every action is 
  precisely delineated in forms, where 
  there is no more need for an individual’s 
  choice, where every form just has a 
  single checkbox. The cause of suffering 
  is excessive choice. We currently exist in 
  a state referred to as ‘formless chaos’ but 
  every day Alpha Complex gets closer 
  and closer to the bliss of bureaucratic 
  nirvana, a process referred to as the ‘Red 
  Tape Shift’. Until that blessed daycycle, 
  though, bureaucracy is incomplete. 
  There is room for error. The cogs don’t 
  always mesh perfectly.
  When an IntSec Trooper requests a 
  termination voucher, the request is 
  passed up the chain to Central. Central 
  fills out four copies of the voucher 
  request form and dispatches them to 
  other departments in Internal Security, 
  
  26
  PARANOIA: Termination Quota Exceeded
  TERMINATION QUOTA EXCEEDED
  Central Processing and Technical 
  Services, as well as a machine-readable 
  form for The Computer. Each of those 
  four copies gets copied again and again 
  and if any of the copies of the copies of 
  the copies gets rejected, then the whole 
  termination procedure can be stalled. 
  Six months ago, Cedric-B-HRV-6*, the 
  Senior Permanent Undersecretary 
  to the Junior Secretary (2nd Class) in 
  the Department of Administrative 
  Oversight in Central Processing died 
  of a heart attack while in his office. 
  Unfortunately, he had a ‘Do Not Disturb’ 
  sign on the door, so they only found his 
  body this morningcycle, buried under 
  a six-foot-thick pile of unprocessed 
  termination voucher requests. This 
  could be hideously embarrassing 
  for Central Processing – think of all 
  the traitors who went unterminated 
  because Cedric-B failed to review the 
  forms! Then, one bright clerk called 
  Eustace-Y came up with an idea. Just 
  stamp ‘APPROVED’ on all of the forms 
  but also inform IntSec that all vouchers 
  expire at the end of the business 
  day. That way, any traitors who aren’t 
  terminated are IntSec’s failure, not 
  CPU’s. IntSec had the vouchers, it’s 
  not CPU’s fault they didn’t use them 
  in time…
  1. Report to Central
  Tension 15
  Read the following to the players. If 
  you’ve established the personalities 
  of key Non-Player Characters in your 
  game’s Central like the Duty Officer 
  already, adapt the text to suit.
  You’re all off duty, sitting around the 
  Trooper lounge. There’s a FunBall game 
  on the TV, ice-cold B3 in the cooler and 
  you’re all nicely blissed-out on Happiness 
  Drugs. In this most perfect of all perfect 
  Alpha Complexes, life is great and you’re 
  completely happy.
  Suddenly, your calm is shattered by the 
  simultaneous chattering of dozens of 
  printers. You hear shouts of alarm and 
  confusion from down the corridor. Clerks 
  run past carrying armfuls of documents 
  and pursued by billowing printouts. In 
  the distance, someone is screaming, a 
  long soul-rending screech that begins 
  full of terror and rage but continues long 
  after all emotion has departed and the 
  sound now is a desperate afﬁ rmation 
  that the screamer still exists. Through it 
  all, you hear the public address system. 
  ‘ALL TROOPERS, REPORT TO BRIEFING 
  IMMEDIATELY. ALL OFF-DUTY TROOPERS, 
  THIS INCLUDES YOU.’
  Quick! Double-quick time! Down to the 
  brieﬁ ng room!
  Any Troopers who don’t respond 
  immediately get a Treason Point for 
  their tardiness. Any Troopers who 
  respond immediately need a Hygiene/
  Management roll to get their uniforms 
  into a ﬁ t state for inspection as they run 
  down the corridor – failure to maintain 
  proper presentation is treason and 
  worth a Treason Point.
  When the Troopers reach the brieﬁ ng 
  room, they’re among the last to arrive. 
  Every other Trooper in Central is there 
  too. Take it away, Captain Italics.
  The brieﬁ ng room is packed solid. Every 
  Trooper in the sector must be here. It’s not 
  just the ﬁ eld teams here, you see ofﬁ cers 
  who haven’t been out from behind a 
  desk in 20 years strapping on cone riﬂ es 
  and trying to squeeze into armour that 
  must have shrunk in the laundry. The 
  Duty Officer comes out, wearing the 
  same expression he had when they put 
  FizzWizz in the CoffeeLike.
  ‘Right, listen up. Some jerk in CPU’s missed 
  out on his morning happy pills and so he 
  decided to piss in ours. As of this moment, 
  we’ve got -’ he checks the printout in his 
  hand ‘- 917 newly approved termination 
  vouchers which have to be processed in 
  the next four hours. We applied for some 
  of these vouchers months ago but CPU 
  only approved ‘em now. 
  If we don’t process all these vouchers 
  todaycycle, then our clearance rate 
  is gonna plummet and that’ll make 
  the Commissioner very, very unhappy. 
  Keeping the Commish happy is 
  mandatory, get me? So, we’ve got a lot 
  of clones to terminate today. 
  You’ll be split into hit teams. This is going 
  to play havoc with our termination quotas 
  too – if you run out of terminations when 
  you’ve still got vouchers to process, then 
  make it look like an accident but make 
  sure that the traitor is replaced by a more 
  civic-minded clone. Any questions?’
  The Duty Ofﬁ cer snappishly answers 
  any questions the Troopers are stupid 
  enough to ask. The mission’s simple 
  enough – kill everyone on the hit list. 
  If you exceed your Termination Quota, 
  make it look like an accident but keep 
  going anyway. 
  Armoury
  The longest queue you’ve ever seen 
  stretches out from the Armoury counter. 
  It looks like you’ll be waiting a while to 
  get your guns. A rumour runs up and 
  down the queue – they’re going to run 
  out of cones!
  If the Troopers are going to get their 
  cone shells, they’ll need to queue jump. 
  Directly ahead of them in the queue 
  are:
  � Kevin-G, a clerk from Thought 
  Control who’s been temporarily 
  transferred to Trooper duty. He’s 
  never even ﬁ red a gun before. He’s 
  exceedingly nervous and twitchy.
  � Edna-B and Rose-B, a pair of 
  femclones. They’re secretly members 
  of a branch of the Romantics which 
  tries to bring back Old Reckoning 
  ideal of gender roles but they’re 
  also determined to defy those ideas. 
  They’re out to prove that they can do 
  just as good a job as any male IntSec 
  Trooper, even though no-one ever 
  said they couldn’t.
  � Jebidiah-B, an exceedingly old 
  Trooper who’s on the verge of 
  retirement. He’s also on the verge 
  of blindness, deafness and senility 
  and long since crossed the border 
  *: How did Cedric-B lose six clones in the relative safety of CPU? Erm...paper cuts and the Hemophilia mutation.
  
  27
  I kill you with PHYSICS
  4. TERMINATION QUOTA EXCEEDED
  into narcolepsy. He falls asleep 
  while standing and mutters about 
  Bolsheviks as he snoozes.
  � Ram-B, a gun-crazed lunatic. He 
  works alone. They say he’s a loose 
  cannon. They say anyone assigned as 
  his partner dies. They say Ram-B’s too 
  dangerous to live, too tough to die. 
  What they should say is that he’s got 
  both the Uncanny Luck and Doom 
  Magnet mutations. 
  � Any other Non-Player Characters 
  from your Central that you want to 
  throw in.
  Keep track of how the Troopers interact 
  with the others in the queue – all that’s 
  going to come back to haunt them in 
  Scene 4.
  If the Troopers don’t skip any places in 
  the queue, then only one of them gets 
  to request cone riﬂ e shells. For every 
  place they skip, another Trooper gets 
  an allotment of shells.
  For any Troopers who don’t get shells, 
  read the following:
  As you reach the counter, the clerk slams 
  the shutters down in your face. ‘Sorry, 
  Trooper. We’re out of conventional 
  weapons. Report to R&D if you need lethal 
  weaponry.’
  Who Doesn’t Love 
  Experimental 
  Equipment?
  As you approach the R&D lab, you feel 
  the hairs on the backs of your hand stand 
  up. There’s a smell of ozone mixed with 
  melted caramel and for some reason, the 
  lights in the corridor ﬂ icker a sickening 
  shade of puce every few seconds. Inside 
  in the R&D lab, wild-eyed hunchbacks in 
  lab coats proffer a selection of strange 
  gizmos. Do you want the ‘Entropy Field 
  Projector’, the ‘Magrail Riﬂ e’, the ‘Nuclear 
  Flamethrower’ or the ‘Target Pointer’?
  If there are more than four troopers 
  who need a weapon, then there 
  are extra Magrails Rifles. Each 
  of these experimental weapons 
  remains property of R&D; Troopers 
  are responsible for their care and 
  maintenance and should fill out a 
  review form at the end of the mission.
  Entropy Field Projector (Field 
  Weapons): When activated, this bulky 
  riﬂ e apparatus ﬁ res a beam of green 
  energy. Anyone hit by the beam glows 
  green for several seconds afterwards, 
  as does anything the victim touches. 
  Anything affected by the beam takes 
  one ‘step’ of damage, ignoring armour, 
  per round and the effect lasts for a 
  number of rounds equal to the Margin 
  of Success divided by 2. Affected 
  targets rot and decay as if decades of 
  time had passed in the blink of an eye. 
  Each time it’s ﬁ red, though, it takes one 
  step of damage itself as the projecting 
  mechanism decays. It can be repaired, 
  maybe.
  Malfunction: The Field isn’t Projected, 
  it’s centred on the weapon and hits 
  the user.
  Remedy: Botox and monkey gland 
  injections.
  Magrail Riﬂ e (Projectile Weapons): 
  Uses powerful electromagnets along 
  the barrel to shoot steel darts at high 
  speeds towards the target. The gun’s 
  battery runs down quickly – it does O1K 
  damage the ﬁ rst time it’s ﬁ red, then O2K 
  damage, then O3K and so on, until it’s 
  pretty harmless. It can be recharged by 
  plugging it in to a power outlet.
  Malfunc tion: Th e  m a g n e t i c 
  containment doesn’t, flinging any 
  metallic objects nearby towards the 
  target.
  Remedy: Praying your dentist didn’t 
  use metal ﬁ llings.
  Nuclear Flamethrower (Field 
  Weapons): Works just like a regular 
  ﬂ amethrower, only with more radiation 
  and green ﬂ ames. Comes with a stylish 
  biohazard suit.
  Malfunction: Thick black smoke pours 
  from the weapon and it begins to 
  shake violently. Sometime after that, 
  it explodes.
  Remedy: Running Away.
  Target Pointer (Energy Weapons): It 
  looks like a remote control but there’s 
  only one button. It’s small enough to ﬁ t 
  into a pocket. To use it, you aim it at the 
  target and press the button. The target 
  pointer then sends an override signal to 
  all bots in the area, commanding them 
  to attack the target. If you use it in, say, 
  a warbot factory, then your target is 
  deader than the deadest thing that ever 
  died. If you zap him when the only bot 
  around is a scrubbot, then he’s violated 
  with cleaning products at best.
  Malfunction: The pointer points to 
  itself.
  Remedy: Dropping it and running 
  away.
  Once everyone’s armed, off you go to 
  the next scene.
  The Book of Dead Names
  Tension Varies by Location
  As the team set off from Central, they get 
  the ﬁ rst of many periodic updates from 
  IntSec, listing their targets. Everyone’s 
  allowed three terminations before 
  reaching their termination quota but 
  the Troopers are likely to run out of 
  terminations long before they run out 
  of targets.
  Rather than go through every 
  termination in gory detail, we Famous 
  Game Designers are giving you, O 
  Gamesmaster, the chance to join us in 
  a fabulous exercise of improv comedy 
  Weapon
  Wpn type
  Dmg type
  Min-Boost-Max
  Shots
  Range
  Malfunction
  Entropy Field Projector Field
  Time
  Special
  Varies
  50
  18–20
  Magrail Riﬂ e
  Projectile
  Impact
  O1K
  6
  50
  19–20
  Nuclear Flamethrower
  Field 
  Energy/Bio
  S2K
  10
  20
  18–20
  Target Pointer
  Energy
  Special
  Special
  25
  100
  18–20
  
  28
  PARANOIA: Termination Quota Exceeded
  TERMINATION QUOTA EXCEEDED
  carnage. We’ll list the name of the 
  target, the location and some potential 
  amusing complications – you do the 
  rest! You don’t have to bother with all 
  these encounters but keep track of how 
  many legal terminations each Trooper 
  has left.
  Emphasise the impersonal bureaucracy 
  of the whole experience. The Troopers 
  don’t have any idea why these citizens 
  are being terminated. Lives are being 
  snuffed out because of a computer 
  printout.
  Mission Statement
  Code [ 007 ]/Code [ ] Location [ All Sector ] 
  Duty Ofﬁ cer: ________-__-_____-____
  Details: TERMINATE ALL TARGETS. TARGET NAMES AND LOCATIONS WILL BE UPDATED THROUGHOUT THE DAYCYCLE.
  TEAMWORK ENHANCERS
   
   
   
   
  YES 
   
  NO 
   
  CLASSIFIED
  Cortex Bomb(s)  
   
  [ ] 
   
  [ ] 
   
  [X]
  Surveillance Chip(s) 
   
  [ ]  
   
  [ ] 
   
  [X]
  MemoMax Recording(s)  
  [ ] 
   
  [ ] 
   
  [X]
  Directive Chips(s) 
   
  [ ] 
   
  [ ] 
   
  [X]
  SECTOR INDICES
  HAPPINESS  
  [10] Minimum 
   
  [10] Current 
  LOYALTY  
  [8] Minimum 
   
  [12] Current 
  COMPLIANCE  [10] Minimum 
   
  [10] Current 
  SECURITY  
  [12] Minimum 
   
  [6] Current 
  PERFORMANCE QUOTAS
  ARRESTS 
   
  [0] Minimum 
  [0] Maximum 
  [X] Team  
  [ ] Individual
  TERMINATION  
  [0] Minimum 
  [2] Maximum 
  [ ] Team                  [X] Individual
  CLONE BUDGET  
  [0] 
   
   
   
  [X] Team  
  [ ] Individual
  TIME LIMIT 
   
  [0] days [8] hours 
  [0] minutes
  Steely Wheely Ball Bearings: It’s 
  a ball bearing factory. Any firefight 
  in here means millions of ball 
  bearings underfood. The two targets 
  are Frankenstein Destroyers, who 
  sabotaged bots by making ball bearings 
  that weren’t quite perfectly spherical, 
  the bastards.
  Lawrence-R is lurking near the entrance 
  of the factory with a laser pistol. The 
  pistol’s no threat to the Troopers 
  – when Lawrence-R realises this, he runs 
  towards the conveniently placed blast 
  furnace. Any Troopers making a foot 
  pursuit quickly ﬁ nd themselves rolling 
  towards the inferno. 
  Meanwhile, Camille-Y is in the restricted 
  section of the factory, where she is busy 
  sabotaging the Jumbo Sized Depleted 
  Uranium Ballbearings for the new 
  Mark V warbots. These ballbearings 
  are two metres in diameter and weigh 
  100 tons each. As soon as the Troopers 
  burst in, she releases the Jumbo Sized 
  Ballbearings. Regrettably, the factory 
  We’re All In This Together
  At some point during this whole kill-fest, the Troopers run into another IntSec Trooper team. This team consists of four 
  Troopers:
   �  Lead Trooper Darla-B, a by-the-book IntSec Trooper who never questions regulations.
   � Security Ofﬁ cer Karl-B, a thuggish goon who delights in carnage and who talks to his pet Cone Riﬂ e, Sylvia.
   �  Forensics Ofﬁ cer Linna-B, a science geek transferred from R&D. She loves tracking people with her array of scanners,       
    sniffers and trackers. 
   �  Designated Driver Larry-B, a veteran Trooper whose main aim in life is to do as little work as possible and is always 
            skiving off for a can of B3.
  Darla-B’s team’s death list has a few names in common with the players’ list. How do they resolve this bureaucratic snafu?
  
  29
  It would be faster to tell you who NOT to kill
  4. TERMINATION QUOTA EXCEEDED
  slopes downhill towards the PCs… ever 
  felt like a pinball?
  Food Vat 32: It’s like Willie Wonka’s 
  factory, if Wonka made semi-edible 
  goo. The three suspects are Pro Tech 
  agents and they’ve got a semi-working 
  spaceship hidden inside the huge food 
  vat (hey, where else are you going to 
  hide a spaceship? Have you got any 
  better ideas?). The ship’s powered by 
  mutant yeast fuel, by the way. 
  Jody-O (or Space Captain Jody-O, as 
  we really should refer to this would-be 
  brave pioneer of the stars) leaps into 
  the food vat as soon as the Troopers 
  arrive, to complete the pre-launch 
  checklist while Engineering Officer 
  Maggie-SMP and First Officer With 
  Special Responsibility For Shooting 
  Aliens Colin-R hold the Troopers off 
  with phasers (treat ‘em as energy 
  pistols). The two traitors know the food 
  vat complex well, using the various 
  vats of goo as cover and/or improvised 
  explosives.
  If the Team fails to terminate Maggie 
  and Colin-R promptly, then the main 
  vat begins to bubble as the Grand 
  Explorer’s main engines ignite. A 
  few moments later, the starship rises 
  majestically out of the vat before – in 
  a tragic accident that can only be the 
  result of a miscalculation of the relative 
  heights of the main food vat and 
  the ceiling overhead – crashing and 
  exploding in a singularly impressive 
  catastrophe that brings to mind both 
  the Hindenberg and a large pot of jam 
  boiling over.
  Power Tracking Registry: Power 
  Tracking Registry is a Death Star-style 
  shaft, where every wall is covered with 
  uncountable numbers of thick power 
  cables. Every major power consumer’s 
  electricity feed goes through this room. 
  The staff here track power consumption 
  by plugging readers into the cables. A 
  stray shot here cuts off power to a large 
  chunk of the sector. Worse, the arch-
  villain Nico-O-DMS (a Free Enterpriser) 
  has the Telekinesis mutation and isn’t 
  Troopers are trespassing in a higher 
  Clearance corridor. ‘Passer-bys’ is 
  a handy catch-all term for Vulture 
  Warriors, guardbots, militant Armed 
  Forces goons, Troubleshooters, citizens 
  taking the law into their own hands, or 
  even The Computer on a bad daycycle 
  (‘I don’t remember classifying that 
  patch of corridor as UV but it’s white 
  and you’re standing in it. Explain 
  yourself, Trooper.’)
  R&D Lab: Zot-O has a buddy in CPU 
  who tipped him off about his name 
  being on an IntSec hit list. He’s ready 
  and waiting with an experimental suit 
  of battle armour. The battle armour in 
  question is equipped with a built-in 
  plasma generator and magnets in 
  the gloves. Basically, Zot-O can throw 
  ﬁ reballs like hadoken*. Damaging the 
  suit degrades its ability to contain the 
  plasma. This is bad, for values of bad 
  ranging from ‘hey, we just disintegrated 
  Zot-O! Score!’ to ‘my, that expanding 
  shockwave sure is pretty hot’.
  Archives Department: Rows and rows 
  and rows (and rows) of ﬁ ling cabinets. 
  The whole place is like a library, or maybe 
  a morgue. Anyone making a loud noise 
  (like talking above a whisper, or letting 
  off a nuke) gets sternly shushed by the 
  guardbots. Morag-G-IZA is a Registered 
  Mutant with the Polymorph mutation 
  and isn’t above turning herself into a 
  ﬁ ling cabinet to hide.
  Oh, while most of the archives in 
  here are of no interest whatsoever to 
  anyone, some of the IntSec archives 
  are backed up here. The Troopers 
  come across this set of ﬁ ling cabinets 
  when they’re chasing Morag-G. Do 
  the Troopers stop to peek at their own 
  ﬁ les (possibly uncovering information 
  about their Treacherous Deeds to 
  their team-mates) or keep chasing 
  the mutant?
  Compartmentalisation Department: 
  A warehouse-sized ofﬁ ce packed with 
  cubicles, where eager citizens meet to 
  synergise and brainstorm new ways to 
  organise Alpha Complex’s sprawling 
  bureaucracy. Troopers may be called to 
  above dumping the Troopers down 
  the shaft.
  The shaft is effectively bottomless, as 
  anyone who falls in will be incinerated 
  after a brief time by the very impressive 
  arcs of lightning that leap from one 
  side of the pit to the other. There are 
  lots of hanging cables and wires that 
  a falling Trooper could grab onto and 
  arrest his fall but doing so would pull 
  the cable out of the wall and cut off 
  power. Helpfully, the cables in the shaft 
  are labelled.
  Troopers Falling Down The Power 
  Tracking Registry Shaft: A Typical 
  Conversation
  GM: So, you’re falling to your death.
  Player: Agh! Is there anything I can 
  grab onto?
  GM: There’s a cable. You could grab 
  that – you’d pull one end out of the 
  wall but it should bear your weight. It’s 
  labelled ‘Property of IntSec’ and there’s 
  something about disconnecting being 
  punished by termination. There are 
  more cables lower down if you prefer 
  to fall to one of those.
  Player: Okay.
  GM: Right, you fall to your death a bit 
  more and the next cable within reach is 
  powering some warbot programming 
  factory place. If you pull that one out, 
  there’s a very small chance that the 
  resulting power cut would corrupt 
  the programming of a warbot and the 
  bot would go nuts and blow up half of 
  Alpha Complex and they’d blame you.
  Player: A very small chance?
  GM: Yeah. Deﬁ nitely less than 90%.
  Player: I fall more.
  Corridor Painting Services: There 
  was a horrible accident with a bucket 
  of white paint that got out of control. 
  Both targets proclaim their innocence 
  loudly while defending themselves 
  with high-pressure paint sprayers.
  Remember, white paint is ULTRAVIOLET 
  Clearance. Objects sprayed with 
  the paint don’t magically have 
  their Clearance level raised – but 
  any passers-by will assume that the 
  *: Semi-circle forward, medium punch + heavy punch + pray the plasma ball doesn’t burst in your face.
  
  30
  PARANOIA: Termination Quota Exceeded
  TERMINATION QUOTA EXCEEDED
  participate in focus groups on abtruse 
  organisational questions (‘would you 
  feel happier if the Bureau of Wiring (Other 
  than Lighting) Quantitative Assessment 
  implemented directive 45-a or 45-c? 
  Explain your answer’).
  Una-B-GUD is a Humanist agent and 
  is currently in a meeting with Very 
  Important People including Cedric-V, 
  a senior co-ordinator who’s rumoured 
  to be on the verge of promotion to 
  High Programmer. When she realises 
  the Troopers are here to terminate her, 
  Una-B’s tactic is to stay in the meeting 
  for as long as possible, gambling that 
  no IntSec Trooper is going to dare 
  disturb Cedric-V by barging in. The 
  Troopers must either incur the wrath 
  of Cedric-V, or ﬁ nd a way to eliminate 
  Una-B quietly.
  Maintenance & Repair Co-Ordination 
  Ofﬁ ce: This dingy Tech Services ofﬁ ce 
  is surrounded by a queue of hundreds 
  of citizens; the queue snakes out the 
  door and runs around the ofﬁ ce twice. 
  Any housing maintenance – fixing 
  a leaky shower-head or getting a 
  replacement mattress – must be 
  requested through this ofﬁ ce. Some 
  of the clones in the queues have 
  waited months for someone to stop 
  the incessant clanking noise from the 
  pipes and have gone quite mad. If the 
  Troopers delay repairs still further by 
  blowing away one of the clerks, they’ll 
  have a riot on their hands.
  Project SHIFT: Another R&D lab, 
  this one centring on opening rifts 
  in space-time using an artificially 
  generated naked singularity, a small 
  amount of anti-matter and a very long 
  spoon. The two targets here are both 
  suspected of spying for Creatures from 
  Beyond Space and Time. Bizarrely, this 
  is true in one case – Terry-Y-ITH is a 
  brain-swapped victim of things from 
  beyond. Gordon-O-FRM is the project’s 
  sacriﬁ cial lamb; his job is to walk up to 
  the naked singularity with the anti-
  matter on the magnetic levitation 
  spoon. Unfortunately, the Troopers 
  show up just as he’s about to head into 
  the portal chamber. 
  Unless the Troopers act very quickly, 
  Gordon-O vanishes into the wibbly-
  wobbly dimensional portal. He’s still 
  alive on the other side, wherever that is. 
  If you’ve got a copy of Human Occupied 
  Landfill or Tales from the Floating 
  Vagabond lying around, then maybe 
  it’s time for a crossover. Or maybe 
  Gordon-O ends up in the Dimension 
  X of Orcbusters. Or, failing all that, 
  somewhere distinctly unpleasant with 
  a lot more angles than a sane place 
  should have. He’s still alive over there, 
  though, so some brave Trooper is going 
  to have to go in after him. 
  Terry-Y-ITH is armed with a bizarre 
  cobbled-together weapon that looks 
  a little like a camera. It shoots blasts 
  of lightning (W2V, AP). He’s also got 
  a unique mutant power that allows 
  him to transfer his mind into the body 
  of anyone nearby. This body swap 
  lasts only a few rounds – unless his 
  original body is destroyed, in which 
  case his mind takes up permanent 
  residence in the new host. The victim 
  of his Body Swap power instinctively 
  knows that he’ll be returned to his real 
  body in a few rounds – all he has to do 
  is survive.
  Strategic Resource Depot: The 
  strategic resource in question is 
  nuclear waste. There are dozens of 
  time-locked bunkers here. As soon as 
  the Troopers turn up, Mungo-R-ANT 
  emerges with his hands up. ‘I knew 
  you’d get me one day’, he says, ‘but if 
  you’re here for me, you must be after 
  Antaeus too. If you let me go, I’ll tell you 
  how you can get him safely.’
  Mungo-R-ANT and Antaeus-R-ANT 
  were on the same Troubleshooter 
  team a few yearcycles ago. Their team 
  discovered that Bunker 8 isn’t ﬁ lled with 
  nuclear waste; it’s actually packed with 
  the treasures accumulated by a High 
  Programmer. Rather than report this, 
  they faked their mission report and 
  arranged for Mungo-R to get assigned 
  to the depot. When the time-lock on 
  the High Programmer’s bunker comes 
  close to opening, Mungo-R’s supposed 
  to tell the others and Antaeus-G is the 
  only other survivor of the team.
  So, if the Troopers let Mungo-R go, he’ll 
  call Antaeus-G before skedaddling. 
  Antaeus-G will show up, the Troopers 
  get to terminate their man and, if 
  they want, loot the contents of a High 
  Programmer’s secret vault. At least, 
  that’s the theory. If they try this, then 
  Antaeus-G shows up in a tank and the 
  vault turns out to contain two empty 
  beer bottles and a skeleton with a 
  fossilised moustache. 
  Armed Forces Fort: The Armed Forces 
  have their own Political Ofﬁ ce who deal 
  with dissent and treason in the ranks. 
  Internal Security Troopers are about 
  as popular in an Armed Forces base as 
  a two-headed clone at an Anti-Mutant 
  rally. Put every possible bureaucratic 
  barrier in the Troopers’ way and have 
  everyone they meet make it clear that 
  a) the Troopers aren’t welcome, b) 
  they’re being told this by people who 
  are really heavily armed and c) did they 
  know they’re not welcome here. Once 
  you get tired of redirecting them onto 
  ﬁ ring ranges, Antaeus-G shows up in a 
  tankbot screaming ‘you’ll never take me 
  alive!’ and other clichés. 
  Antaeus-G isn’t the most subtle of 
  foes – he’s got a tankbot, after all. After 
  blasting the Troopers for a while, he 
  heads to the exit to Outdoors to start 
  his new life (unless the Troopers haven’t 
  dealt with Mungo-R and the Strategic 
  Resource Depot yet, in which case he 
  heads there ﬁ rst). 
  [[[ CLASSIFIED ]]]: Whatever the 
  cryptic purpose of this ofﬁ ce is, the 
  Troopers will never know. The ofﬁ ce is 
  crammed with hundreds of thousands 
  of test-tubes, each of which contains 
  a very small cubical segment of 
  human brain. They’re all labelled with 
  the names of citizens (including the 
  Troopers). If threatened, Franklin-I tries 
  to bluff his way out using voodoo.
  Hubert-U-KNO’s Mansion: The target, 
  Peter-V-HRD, is the High Programmer’s 
  
  31
  I’m Late! I’m Late! For a Very Important Termination Date!
  6. MANDATORY BONUS DUTY
  Termination Deadline.
  butler. How do the Troopers terminate 
  him without annoying Hubert-U? 
  The High Programmer isn’t especially 
  fond of Peter-V – in fact, after Peter-V 
  spilled the wine last night, the High 
  Programmer signed the termination 
  order – but Hubert-U certainly does 
  not want a bunch of clod-footed 
  Troopers stamping around his palatial 
  mansion. Peter-V communicates with 
  the Troopers via the doorbot and 
  never shows his face to them if he can 
  avoid it.
  Hubert-U-KNO’s doorbot: A Typical 
  Conversation
  Trooper: Let me in.
  Doorbot: Frightfully sorry, sir but 
  Hubert-U-KNO is not receiving visitors 
  at this point. Would you like to make an 
  appointment? 
  Trooper: I’ve got a termination voucher 
  here for Peter-V! Let me in, in the name 
  of The Computer! 
  Doorbot: One moment, sir. I shall see if 
  Peter-V is available…
  Trooper: Well? Open up.
  Doorbot: A moment, please, sir. Could 
  I serve you some refreshments while 
  you wait?
  Trooper: Just let us in.
  Doorbot: Mr. Peter-V-HRD regrets that 
  he is busy serving High Programmer 
  Hubert-U-KNO and will be unable to 
  attend you. Would you like to make an 
  appointment?
  Uh-oh
  Tension 12
  Once you tire of the Troopers picking 
  on unfortunate citizens, it’s time to give 
  them a taste of their own cone riﬂ es.
  Beep beep beep. Another list of targets is 
  downloaded to your helmets. The names 
  on this list are... oh dear. 
  The names on the list are those of the 
  Troopers. Let them speculate about 
  why they’re being terminated – maybe 
  the list was hacked, or there’s a Secret 
  Society assassin in CPU, or maybe their 
  past treasons were noticed but not 
  
  32
  PARANOIA: Termination Quota Exceeded
  TERMINATION QUOTA EXCEEDED
  +++TERMIINATION TARGETS +++
  Lawrence-R-UDC 
  Steely Wheely Ball Bearings
  Camille-Y-ACK  
  Steely Wheely Ball Bearings
  Jody-O-FCK 
   
  Food Vat 32
  Maggie-SMP 
   
  Food Vat 32
  Colin-R-ASP 
   
  Food Vat 32
  Nic-O-DMS 
   
  Power Tracking Registry  
  Fred-R-ICK 
   
  Power Tracking Registry
  Olive-G-SNS 
   
  Corridor Painting Services 
  Ted-Y-RVS 
   
  Corridor Painting Services
  Zot-O-ZOT 
   
  R&D ‘Eugune-V-ARP Memorial Lab’
  +++TERMIINATION TARGETS +++
  Morag-G-IZA 
   
  Archives Department, CPU
  Una-B-GUD 
   
  Compartmentalisation Department
  Ben-B-AGH 
   
  Maintenance & Repair Co-Ordination Ofﬁ ce
  Sam-G-ORE 
   
  Maintenance & Repair Co-Ordination Ofﬁ ce
  Gordon-O-FRM  
  R&D Project SHIFT
  Terry-Y-ITH 
   
  R&D Project SHIFT
  Mungo-R-ANT  
  Strategic Resource Depot 19-A
  Antaeus-G-ANT  
  Armed Forces ‘Fort Vigiliance’
  Franklin-I-RKD  
  [[[CLASSIFIED]]] (Room 82, Corridor 642, Level 8)
  Peter-V-HRD 
   
  Domicile of Hubert-U-KNO
  punished. Maybe one of them arranged 
  for all this. Maybe it’s a glitch and 
  they can sort it all out if they contact 
  Central.
  If they try calling Central, then the 
  dispatcher tries to keep them on the 
  line for as long as possible so she 
  can trace their location. She’ll insist 
  that this minor bureaucratic snafu 
  will be cleared up very quickly, that 
  they should just stay there and… has 
  anyone shot them yet? No. Well, keep 
  staying there…
  There are two possibilities from this 
  point.
  Possibility 1: The Troopers run and 
  hide until the end of the daycycle, when 
  all the warrants expire. They’re pursued 
  by other IntSec goons. 
  Possibility 2: The Troopers start trying 
  to kill each other. To be honest, this is 
  the most likely result but for the sake 
  of completeness, we’ll cover the other 
  option too.
  Run Away!
  Remember all those Troopers in the 
  queue back at the Armoury? Or Darla-
  B and her team? Or all the Troopers 
  and other IntSec personnel in Central? 
  They’re all trying to kill the PCs.
  Reward clever plans to dissuade or 
  avoid pursuit; punish boring solutions 
  like ‘we hide in the sewers’. The pursuers 
  have all sorts of handy forensic gadgets 
  to track down the Troopers, so staying 
  still is a suicidal tactic. 
  Use the Tension of a location as a 
  guide for how long it takes IntSec to 
  track down the PCs. The lower the 
  Tension, the longer it takes. Throw a 
  heavily armed bunch of thugs at them 
  whenever they get caught. Use the 
  same nasty tricks and sadism that the 
  players no doubt employed against the 
  Non-Player Characters on the ﬁ rst two 
  termination lists.
  Likely hiding places or tactics: 
  Er, a Corridor or something (Tension 
  10): A brilliant tactic, worthy of 
  Napoleon. Right up there with ‘milling 
  around in confusion’ or ‘sitting down 
  and having a sandwich’ as a tactical 
  option. 
  In The Sewers (Tension 5): Welcome 
  to the sewers of Alpha Complex! Enjoy 
  your stay. There are many things here 
  that want to eat you, along with rogue 
  bots, mutants, traitors and sundry 
  deathtraps and hazards. Have you 
  packed a 10-foot pole and a lantern, 
  dungeoneer?
  Our Quarters At Central (Tension 3): 
  Actually, this isn’t a half bad plan. No-
  one’s going to look for a traitor on the 
  run at his own quarters. 
  Wait, no. That’s actually a terrible plan. 
  The quarters themselves are ﬁ ne but 
  getting there means going through 
  IntSec Central. Do the players have a 
  plan for breaking into Central?
  Outdoors! (Tension 0): One of the 
  best places to hide, really. However, 
  once the characters go outside, the 
  responsibility for terminating them is 
  transferred from Internal Security to the 
  Armed Forces, which means it’ll soon 
  start raining nukes.
  With Our Secret Society Pals (Varies): 
  Excellent! Another ﬁ ne plan. Do you 
  have any IOUs to call in? No? Then what 
  can you do for us, ﬁ rst?
  At The Tone, You Will Be...
  Alive
  To survive, the Troopers need to stall 
  until the termination warrants expire. 
  If they reach that blessed state, then 
  they get to go back to Central and work 
  alongside all the people who were 
  trying to kill them a few minutes ago. 
  It’s not their fault – the paperwork told 
  them to do it.
  The First List of Terminations
  The Second List of Terminations
  
  TRUST THE COMPUTER! THE COMPUTER IS YOUR FRIEND!
  Your termination quota’s exceeded, but your happiness index is still way down in 
  the doldrums of despair, and your loyalty index ain’t looking too good. Total Security 
  means that everything’s tracked and monitored, including your own dwindling chances 
  of survival. There’s a whole sector of traitors out there, and your gun won’t fire until 
  the next business day. You’ve got the BLUE clearance blues. 
  A 32-page mission for IntSec Agents. 
  PARANOIA: A light-hearted game of backstabbing, treachery and guile, where trusting 
  other players is a sure route to the termination centre.
  PARANOIA IS FUN. OTHER GAMES ARE NOT FUN. BUY PARANOIA.
  Termination Quota Exceeded and PARANOIA Copyright © 1983, 1987, 2009 by Eric Goldberg & Greg Costikyan. PARANOIA 
  is a trademark of Eric Goldberg and Greg Costikyan. All rights reserved. Mongoose Publishing Ltd., Authorized User.
  ISBN 
  ISBN 978-1-906
  978-1-906508-71-5
  508-71-5 $9.95
  $9.95 
  MONGOOSE PUBLISHING—SWINDON, U
  MONGOOSE PUBLISHING—SWINDON, UK 
  MGP 
  MGP 66
  6670
  70
  For use with 
  Internal Security
  For Gamemasters, 
  not players!
  PARANOIA
  A world ﬁ t for Kafka, Orwell 
  and the Marx Brothers
  PARANOIA is a satirical roleplaying game set in a darkly humorous future. A well-meaning 
  but deranged Computer desperately protects the citizens of an underground city from secret 
  societies, mutants and all sorts of real and imagined enemies. You play a Troubleshooter, one 
  of The Computer’s elite agents. You track and destroy enemies of The Computer. You hope The 
  Computer and your fellow Troubleshooters won’t ﬁ nd out you are one of these enemies.
  PARANOIA: a lighthearted game of terror, death,  bureaucracies, mad scientists, mutants, 
  dangerous weapons and insane robots, which encourages players to lie, to cheat and to backstab 
  each other at every turn.
  Originally published in 1984, PARANOIA sold over 150,000 copies. The Mongoose edition 
  updates PARANOIA for this new and more paranoid time.
  Termination Quota Exceeded
  Termination Quota Exceeded
  ™
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Paranoia [multi]/25th Anniversary/Paranoia 25th - Termination Quota Exceeded.pdf