TEXT: PARANOIA
  Treas
  Treason 
  on  in Word 
   in Word 
  ™
  and De
  and Deed
  ed
  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  
  02
  Treason in Word and Deed 
  03
  Heros of our Complex 
  07
  Little Lost Scoutbot 
  17
  Handouts                                        30
  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 6669. Published September 2009. Printed In USA.
  ™
  Treason in Word and Deed
  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.
  C r e d i t s  &  C o n t e n t s
  
  2
  PARANOIA: Treason  in Word and Deed
  TREASON IN WORD AND DEED
  1. Introduction
  Hello. 
  How’re you? We really don’t get 
  much of a chance to talk in these 
  introductions. All good? Are you 
  enjoying being a PARANOIA GM? 
  We hope you are. We think you’re 
  doing a bang-up job. (If you’re 
  not a PARANOIA GM, then you 
  probably shouldn’t be reading 
  this book.)
  So, what’s the mission? Treason 
  in Word and Deed puts the 
  Troubleshooters into a room 
  where they’re interrogated for a 
  crime they not only didn’t commit 
  but have no knowledge of. Hilarity 
  ensues. If hilarity fails to ensue, 
  disintegrate someone. 
  This book contains three missions. 
  Originally, it was only supposed to 
  have one mission in it, also called 
  ‘Treason in Word and Deed’ but 
  in writing it, we discovered that 
  doing an entire 32-page mission 
  set in a single room was really 
  hard. We could have done the 
  whole thing as a Beckett parody.
  Estra-G-ONN: Nothing to be 
  done. 
  Vlad-I-MIR: Commie! ZAP! ZAP! 
  ZAP!
  Or
  Vlad-I-MIR: That passed the time.
  Estra-G-ONN: It would have 
  passed anyway. 
  Vlad-I-MIR: Commie! ZAP! ZAP!
  ZAP!
  Hmm. Perhaps not.
  Estra-G-ONN: I can’t go on like 
  this!
  Vlad-I-MIR: Yes, you can. You’ve 
  got four more clones.
  We considered, briefly, selling 
  you a book with 24 blank 
  pages as Official PARANOIA GM 
  Notepaper. 
  This was rejected for ontological 
  reasons. Instead, we dashed off 
  two original missions of dazzling 
  brilliance.
  ‘Heroes of Our Complex’ is 
  an assisted suicide mission. 
  Famous vid-show star and 
  squarejawedactionhero Bob-Y-
  ROK must die! He’s been assigned 
  to a Troubleshooter team and 
  that team is going to be assigned 
  to a series of impossibly lethal 
  missions. Really, it’s an extended 
  exercise in cruelty. Enjoy!
  ‘Little Lost Scoutbot’ sends the 
  Troubleshooters Outdoors on 
  a scavenger hunt, looking for 
  the scattered bits of a broken 
  bot. Along the way, they meet 
  renegade Sierra Clubbers, alien 
  hunters, mutant trees and talk 
  radio hosts. It’s less lethal than 
  ‘Heroes of Our Complex’ only 
  in that there’s no chance of 
  unshielded orbital re-entry in 
  this one.
  If any of your Troubleshooters 
  are still alive after these three 
  missions, we recommend a nice 
  cup of tea and a lie down.
  
  3
  2. TREASON IN WORD AND DEED
  2. Treason in Word and Deed
  A One-Act Play For Troubleshooters and 
  The Computer
  With apologies to Franz Kafka
  The Computer is perfect. The society 
  created by The Computer is therefore 
  perfect. The Computer issues regulations 
  and laws to guide citizens in this perfect 
  society. If citizens were also perfect, then 
  they would not need regulations and 
  laws. The existence of these regulations 
  means that citizens logically must be 
  imperfect. An imperfect being cannot 
  perfectly adhere to regulations (if they 
  could, they’d be perfect, which we’ve 
  already established as impossible). 
  Therefore, at some point and in some 
  fashion, every citizens must disobey 
  regulations.
  Disobeying regulations is treason. 
  Therefore, all citizens are traitors.
  We have established your guilt. All that 
  remains is to determine your crime.
  Mission Summary
  IntSec has several unsolved crimes. 
  Statistically, the Troubleshooters are 
  as likely as anyone to have committed 
  these crimes. The Troubleshooters are 
  imprisoned in an IntSec interrogation 
  vault and held there until someone 
  confesses to something. 
  The Crimes
  The Troubleshooters have never heard 
  of any of these crimes. They don’t know 
  any of the people involved, they’ve 
  never heard of these places and they 
  have no idea what happened. Don’t 
  tell the players anything initially but 
  if they mention anything that could 
  possibly be connected to one of these 
  crimes, The Computer assumes that 
  it’s on the right track and presses the 
  negotiation.
  With sufﬁ cient ingenuity, you can link 
  anything to anything. Plus, you can 
  always cheat with THAT INFORMATION 
  IS NOT AVAILABLE AT YOUR SECURITY 
  CLEARANCE.
  For example:
  Spurious accusations: A typical 
  conversation
  Troubleshooter: I have no idea why I’m 
  here! Let me out!
  The Computer: Permit me to refresh 
  your memory by saying...Transbot 92A.
  Troubleshooter: Huh?
  The Computer: Transbot 92A, citizen.
  Troubleshooter: What about it?
  The Computer: You know all about it, 
  citizen. Why don’t you tell me?
  Troubleshooter: I don’t know anything 
  about it!
  The Computer: According to 
  surveillance records, you walked down 
  Corridor 6432-C at 1423 hours last 
  Twoday.
  Player: Did I?
  GM: It’s Alpha Complex. It’s all corridors. 
  You don’t remember doing so but it’s 
  certainly possible.
  Troubleshooter: Ok, I walked down the 
  corridor. So what?
  The Computer: Corridor 6432-C 
  connects to Corridor 6431-F which goes 
  to the transtube station. The cameras in 
  6431-F were mysteriously ofﬂ ine that 
  day. How do you explain this?
  The Bombing of Transbot 
  92A
  Transbot 92A was bombed by terrorists 
  as it departed the transtube station. 
  Twelve citizens were terminated, 
  including a CPU clerk who was 
  illegally carrying secret documents. 
  The bombing of the bot blocked the 
  transtube for several hours, forcing 
  the cancellation of the planned 
  Spontaneous Loyalty Demonstration 
  in that sector.
  What Really Happened: Shoddy 
  maintenance resulted in a short circuit 
  in the transbot’s engine. Boom. The 
  CPU clerk was a traitor, though and 
  was stealing secret documents for the 
  Illuminati.
  The BRN Affair
  An undercover IntSec agent codenamed 
  BLUE SEER uncovered a treasonous 
  alliance between the Communists and 
  the Humanists in BRN Sector. BLUE SEER 
  was on the verge of infiltrating this 
  alliance when someone revealed his 
  secret identity to the Commies. Who 
  betrayed elite agent BLUE SEER?
  What Really Happened: BLUE SEER made 
  the whole thing up to meet his IntSec 
  informant quota. When his superiors 
  began to suspect that he might be 
  lying, he faked his own death and is 
  now hiding until the heat’s off.
  The Kohlberg Project
  Under the direction of lead researcher 
  Kohlberg-B, this R&D project promised 
  to revolutionise ﬁ ling systems in Alpha 
  Complex. The Kohlberg Device used 
  quantum entanglement principles 
  to produce quantum forms. A single 
  form contained all possible answers; 
  the device could then read the correct 
  answer from a parallel reality. Kohlberg-
  B, the device, the laboratory, the staff 
  and all records relating to the project 
  vanished, possibly because of a quantum 
  hole sucking them out of existence.
  What Really Happened: Fearing the 
  inevitable mass downsizing of its 
  legions of form-ﬁ llers and form-checkers 
  if the Kohlberg Project succeeded, CPU 
  secretly redesignated the laboratory as 
  reactor shielding.
  To reiterate: The Troubleshooters have 
  no idea about these crimes. They 
  weren’t involved in them; they have 
  no idea what happened; they’ve never 
  heard of them and they won’t be told 
  anything about them. Nonetheless, no-
  one’s leaving this vault until someone 
  confesses to them.
  Welcome to the Vault
  Tension 15
  You’re not sure what just happened. There 
  you were, going about your business, 
  when suddenly there was a ﬂ ash of light 
  and everything went very fuzzy. As your 
  vision clears, you see you’re lying on the 
  ﬂ oor in a medium-sized room. The rest of 
  your team is there too. You’re all wearing 
  standard RED jumpsuits and boots but 
  don’t have any other equipment.
  Looking around, there’s a confession 
  booth against one wall and a set of 
  bunk-beds against the other. Next to the 
  Confession is good for the clone.
  
  4
  PARANOIA: Treason  in Word and Deed
  TREASON IN WORD AND DEED
  bunk beds, there’s a door. There’s a big 
  computer monitor in front of you. Stacked 
  under the monitor are several cardboard 
  boxes. There are also several seats in front 
  of the monitor. On the back wall, there’s 
  a small hatch and a standard-size door. 
  There are four security cameras in the 
  corners of the room. 
  As you’re picking yourself up off the 
  floor, the computer monitor lights up. 
  It’s displaying one word in metre-high 
  letters. 
  CONFESS.
  Let the Troubleshooters explore their 
  new surroundings. The Computer 
  won’t say anything yet, unless the 
  players speciﬁ cally try to address their 
  questions to it. 
  The Confession Booth: A standard 
  confession booth – a little one-person 
  cubicle where a citizen can have some 
  one-on-one time with Friend Computer. 
  Conversations in the Confession Booth 
  should be conducted privately, away 
  from the rest of the players.
  The Bunk Beds: One per player 
  character.
  The Bathroom: The door next to 
  the bunk beds leads to a perfectly 
  functional bathroom. 
  The Boxes: Food and bottled water. 
  Lots of food and bottled water. Enough 
  to last for at least a month.
  The Chairs: The sort of uncomfortable 
  plastic chairs you sat on in school, only 
  those one’s probably weren’t wired 
  to the ﬂ oor with electrical cable. The 
  Computer can electrify these chairs at 
  will. There’s one less chair than there are 
  Troubleshooters.
  The Monitor: A standard Computer 
  monitor with laser-cannon peripheral. 
  The Other Door: It’s the way out. It’s 
  locked and pretty impenetrable.
  The Hatch: Right now, it’s closed. It’ll 
  open later on to dispense food and 
  other items. The hatch leads to a small 
  dumb-waiter. 
  Likely Questions
  Friend Computer? At your service, 
  citizen.
  What are we doing here? One or 
  more members of your Troubleshooter 
  team is a traitor. We are attempting to 
  identify who these traitors are. If you 
  have committed no treasons, please 
  wait. You will be freed shortly.
  What treasons have been committed? 
  That information is not available at your 
  Security Clearance.
  I’m innocent! Thank you for that 
  information. We are attempting to 
  ascertain the truth of your statement. 
  Please wait.
  I think (Troubleshooter Name) is 
  the traitor! Do you have any proof of 
  this accusation? Accusations without 
  proof are treason. Spreading rumours 
  is treason.
  See also Common Player Tactics.
  Psychological Proﬁ ling
  There’s a loud clunk and the hatch 
  at the back of the room slides open. 
  ‘Please ﬁ ll out these forms fully’ says The 
  Computer.
  Give each of the players a copy of the 
  Psychological Assessment Form and 
  a pen. 
  Aversion Therapy
  ‘Attention, Citizens. Please sit down on 
  the chairs provided. Please give your 
  full attention to the monitor. Failure to 
  sit down is treason. Failure to give the 
  monitor your full attention is treason.’
  Remember, there’s one less chair than 
  there are Troubleshooters. Anyone not 
  sitting down on a chair in 10 seconds 
  gets two Treason Points. 
  The monitor then proceeds to display 
  a series of images, some of which are 
  related to the three crimes that IntSec 
  
  5
  2. TREASON IN WORD AND DEED
  is investigating and some random 
  nonsense as a control. You may also 
  want to shock random Troubleshooters 
  during the slideshow, causing them to 
  twitch or cry out. The Computer will 
  then question that Troubleshooter as to 
  why that particular image caused such a 
  reaction. (If the player blames the chair 
  for shocking him, The Computer claims 
  the electrical wire is part of a ‘galvanic 
  skin response analysis system’.)
  Image #1: A pic ture of the 
  Troubleshooters in the midst of one 
  of their other missions. Ideally, an 
  embarrassing and/or treasonous 
  scene. 
  Image #2: Two citizens talking at a 
  table in a cafeteria. The picture was 
  obviously taken with a telephoto lens. 
  It’s stamped BLUE SEER in one corner. 
  Image #3: A scrubbot.
  Image #4: A dashing-looking Internal 
  Security Trooper wearing a furry hat, 
  also stamped BLUE SEER.
  Image #5: The aftermath of the 
  bombing of Transtube 92A. Blood, 
  body parts and twisted metal, ﬂ ames 
  and carnage and gore. 
  Image #6: A crowded transtube station. 
  There are hundreds of citizens here. 
  Image #7: A team of scientists standing 
  in front of a terrifying-looking machine. 
  It’s Project Kohlberg.
  Image #8: A strange-looking prismatic 
  form.
  Image #9: A picture of a set of 
  documents. Most of the text has been 
  redacted but the photo is stamped 
  BLUE SEER.
  Image #10: The Troubleshooters, 
  looking at a computer monitor 
  showing image #1. 
  The Lawyer
  The door at the back of the room opens 
  and a GREEN citizen walks in. He’s got 
  a YELLOW stripe down the side of his 
  uniform. ‘Hi, I’m Larry-G. I’m from Legal 
  Services. Which of you is my client?’
  The ﬁ rst player to claim to be Larry-G’s 
  client gets the beneﬁ t of the lawyer. 
  Play Larry-G as a fast-talking criminal 
  lawyer. He probably works for Free 
  Enterprise and would sell his own 
  clone brother to the law if it gets his 
  client off the hook. Larry-G takes his 
  client aside for a private conference.
  ‘Right, I assume you know what you’re 
  being charged with, ‘cos I sure don’t. The 
  way I see it, your only chance is to turn 
  Computer’s evidence. I can cut a deal 
  with IntSec – you provide testimony that 
  you were involved with the treason but 
  that they forced you to do it and you’ll 
  be willing to tell all and you might get 
  nothin’ more than a little brainscrub.’
  The player may claim innocence. Larry-
  G’s not convinced. ‘I heards it all before, 
  kiddo. Yeah, yeah, you’re innocent and 
  I’m Teela-O. You wouldn’t be in here if you 
  wuz totally innocent. Just pin the blame 
  on someone else and you’ll be walking 
  outta here in no time.’ 
  Getting Rid Of Larry-G: After a while, 
  Larry-G asks for a glass of water. He takes 
  a sip, chokes, mutters ‘poison’ and turns 
  on his Death Simulation power (he’s a 
  registered mutant). He falls over ‘dead’. 
  Divide And Conquer
  If the players still aren’t turning on each 
  other like rats, try some of the following 
  tactics:
  � The Computer orders half the 
  Troubleshooters into the bathroom. 
  Both sets of Troubleshooters are 
  then told privately that Internal 
  Security believes they are innocent 
  but that they must get the other 
  group to confess.
  � The hatch at the back of the room 
  opens. A single laser pistol falls out.
  � One of the Troubleshooters finds 
  a crack in the wall. If he listens at 
  this crack, he can hear the IntSec 
  observers talking about the crimes 
  they’re investigating. 
  Common Player Tactics
  Accusation: The ideal solution! Wild 
  accusations are no good, though – the 
  key to victory is to draw details about 
  the crimes out of The Computer (or 
  seize on the speculations of other 
  Troubleshooters) and attribute those 
  details to the target of the accusation. 
  Assign Treason Points to the target if 
  the accusations seem plausible, or to 
  the accuser if they’re patently lies.
  Asking For A Phone Call: ‘Certainly, 
  citizen. Who do you want to call? 
  Communications are monitored for 
  security reasons.’ The character might 
  be able to use Access to get further 
  details from an IntSec pal, or could even 
  risk calling his Secret Society contacts 
  and using codewords.
  Confession: A character could confess 
  lots of minor misdeeds in the hope 
  that The Computer will accept any 
  confession. This doesn’t work but assign 
  Treason Points anyway. 
  Death: If you’re feeling merciful, dying 
  is a way out of the vault. Otherwise, 
  the replacement clone is pushed back 
  in the door by IntSec goons. (If you do 
  let the character out after death, then 
  consider letting the player play an 
  IntSec interrogator or something).
  Denial: If a player’s denying everything 
  instead of trying to pin the blame on 
  the others, then he’ll rapidly become a 
  target for the rest. 
  Despair: Happiness is mandatory. The 
  hatch dispenses some drugs.
  Escape: How? The door is sealed, 
  apart from when Larry-G enters (and 
  unless you’ve got Hyperspeed or 
  Teleportation, you’re not getting out 
  that way).
  Fireﬁ ght: No guns. Improvised weapon 
  ﬁ ght?
  Resignation: See Despair.
  The Scapegoat: An ideal solution. If 
  everyone blames one person, then 
  that person must be guilty (assuming 
  everyone makes up convincing proof 
  too, of course). Either end the mission 
  with this group accusation, or decide 
  that the person everyone accused must 
  be innocent as IntSec believes there are 
  several traitors in the group. 
  Throwing Themselves On The 
  Computer’s Mercy: A loyal citizen 
  would help ﬁ nd the traitor. 
  Wild Speculation: Bliss.
  Ending The Game
  When the players settle on a 
  scapegoat or scapegoats, or when one 
  Troubleshooter hits 20 Treason Points.  
  First thing we do is kill all the lawyers.
  
  6
  PARANOIA: Treason  in Word and Deed
  TREASON IN WORD AND DEED
  Psychological Assessment Form
  PART A
  1. Who are you? _______________-__-_ _ _- _
  2. Are you sure? [ ] YES [ ] NO
  3. How do you know who you are? _____________________________________
  4. If you were not you, who would you be? _______________________________
  PART B
  5. Do you feel stressed, worried, confused, uncaring or over happy? [ ] YES [ ] NO
  6. Do you ever hear voices? [ ] YES [ ] NO
  7. Did you know that a poor memory is often a sign of treason or unhappiness. [ ] YES [ ] NO
  8a. Do you think you have a good memory? [ ] YES [ ] NO
  8b. If yes, do you think you have an excellent memory? [ ] YES [ ] NO
  8c. If yes, do you think you have a perfect memory [ ] YES [ ] NO
  8d. What other mutant powers do you possess? _______________________________
  9. Do you trust The Computer? [ ] YES [ ] NO
  10. Do you believe you deserve to be in this test? [ ] YES [ ] NO
  11. If you answered YES to question 9 and NO to question 10, please reconcile your answers. 
  _____________________________________________________________________
  PART C
  The following question is a test. Only Commie Mutant Traitors can see the next question. 
  12. Do you suffer from delusions? [ ] Yes [ ] No
  PART D
  13. Of your fellow Troubleshooters, who is the MOST likely to commit treason?
  _______________________ Why? ______________________________________________
  14. Of your fellow Troubleshooters, who is the LEAST likely to commit treason?
  _______________________ Why? ______________________________________________
  15. Do you have anything else you wish to confess? _________________________________
  PART E
  16. I consume [ ] cans of Bouncy Bubble Beverage per day and my heart rate is 
  [ ] below average [ ] average [ ] above average [ ] a high-pitched whine.
  17. Frog blast the vent core? [ ] YES [ ] NO [ ] SAUSAGE
  18. DELETED FOR SECURITY REASONS [ ] YES [ ] NO
  19. Are you who you say you are? [ ] YES [ ] NO [ ]
  20. Are you who you say you are? [ ] YES [ ] NO [ ]
  
  7
  3. HEROES OF OUR COMPLEX
  The Computer: This is Your Friend, The 
  Computer.
  A Citizen: Oh! Hail, Friend Computer! 
  Do you have a new and doubtless 
  exciting and fun mission for me?
  The Computer: Yes, friend citizen. Are 
  you aware of Citizen Bob-Y-ROK?
  A Citizen: Sure, Friend Computer! He’s 
  on vid-shows all the time, battling 
  those dang Commie Mutant Traitors 
  to keep our beloved Complex safe! I’ve 
  got the Bob-Y-ROK Commemorative 
  ChewingGum and the action ﬁ gure and 
  the holographic poster.
  The Computer: A Commendation Point 
  for your devotion to capitalism, citizen. 
  Now, I have a mission for you. Bob-Y-
  ROK must be terminated immediately 
  and repeatedly.
  A Citizen: Sure thing, Friend Computer. 
  I’ll warm up the disintegration booth!
  The Computer: I remind you, friend 
  citizen, that Bob-Y-ROK is a Hero of 
  Alpha Complex and beloved by all 
  citizens. Our projections show that if 
  Bob-Y-ROK was revealed to be a traitor, 
  happiness would suffer a 43% drop 
  across all sectors.
  A Citizen: That’s bad.
  The Computer: Happiness is mandatory, 
  friend citizen.
  A Citizen: Of course...so I shouldn’t kill 
  Bob-Y-ROK.
  The Computer: Bob-Y-ROK’s exposure 
  as a traitor would have severe 
  consequences, citizen. 
  A Citizen: So, er, what’s my mission?
  The Computer: You will accompany 
  Citizen Bob-Y-ROK on a series 
  of exciting and entirely non-lethal 
  missions which will not at all result 
  in his death in completely heroic and 
  deniable circumstances. It will be fun. 
  It will be...glorious, friend citizen.
  A Citizen: I regret that I only have six 
  clones to give to my complex!
  Farewell to Bob-Y
  For several years, The Computer’s 
  propaganda machine, HPD&MC have 
  been using a Troubleshooter called 
  Bob-Y-ROK as an example of a true 
  Hero of Alpha Complex. Bob-Y’s seen 
  by millions as the square-jawed, super-
  tough, super-loyal defender of all 
  3. Heroes of our Complex 
  that is good and true. In fact, Bob-Y’s 
  a drug-addled moron who has long 
  since lost the distinction between 
  reality and fantasy. This would be ﬁ ne 
  – The Computer does not require its 
  celebrity heroes to have the slightest 
  hint of a brain cell – only Bob-Y’s started 
  developing Opinions and isn’t keeping 
  them to himself. It’s termination time 
  for Bob-Y.
  He’s too popular to just execute, so a 
  series of suicide missions are going to 
  be arranged for Bob-Y. 
  Secret Society Missions
  Secret Society Missions
  Anti-Mutant: Bob-Y is rumoured to be a pure, unmutated citizen. Test him. 
  Find out if he is free of mutant traits. If he’s a mutant, destroy him! If he’s pure, 
  protect him!
  Communists: Bob-Y is symbol of capitalist oppression, comrade! If he could be 
  converted to Communism, it would be triumph for our cause!
  Computer Phreaks/FCCCP/ Romantics: Our spies report (Secret Information 
  About Another Troubleshooter). 
  Corpore Metal: Warbot RB-9 may have spontaneously broken its Asimov circuits. 
  Cherish our new bot buddy and protect it.
  Death Leopard: Dude! It’s Bob-Y! He’s awesome! Make him join the Death 
  Leopards!
  Frankenstein Destroyers: Destroy all bots you encounter! 
  Free Enterprise: Bob-Y merchandise is really valuable! Here’s a case of 1,000 
  Bob-Y key chains – sell ‘em!
  Humanists: Rumour has it that Bob-Y is sympathetic to our cause. Protect him at 
  all costs. 
  Illuminati: Bob-Y is vital for our sinister plans. Ensure he survives until you reach 
  the Cyclops One. At this point, eliminate Bob-Y and capture the Cyclops One.
  Mystics: Here’s a really powerful hallucinogen. Open Bob-Y’s mind to the cosmic 
  all.
  Pro Tech: Find out everything you can about Cyclops One. Steal the operations 
  manual.
   
  Psion: Rumour has it Bob-Y is a mutant. Test him. If he is an evolved being, protect 
  him! Otherwise, destroy him!
  PURGE: The Cyclops One is a new weapons system. Turn it on Alpha Complex.
  Sierra Club: Show Bob-Y the beauty of nature! If he refuses to admit nature’s 
  wonders, force him to appreciate them. At gun point. 
  Bob-Y (clap, clap, clap) , Bob-Y (clap, clap, clap)
  
  8
  PARANOIA: Treason  in Word and Deed
  TREASON IN WORD AND DEED
  Bob-Y-7, Hero of our Complex! Bob-Y’s 
  character sheet is on page 30. You can 
  run Bob-Y as a Non-Player Character if 
  you wishbut it’s much more fun to give 
  Bob-Y to one of the players (assuming 
  you’ve got four or more players). Bob-Y 
  hasn’t got much in the way of brains 
  but he can shoot things real good and 
  looks even better when doing so.
  Bob-Y’s Clones: Bob-Y has no idea how 
  many clones he has left. He vaguely 
  recalls buying another six-pack in a 
  drugged haze but he can’t remember 
  if that was real or just part of a TV show. 
  Assume Bob-Y has at least six clones 
  left; add more on if the players are too 
  effective at pushing the poor lunk into 
  death traps.
  1. A Brush With Greatness
  Tension 5
  Sometimes, life in Alpha Complex isn’t 
  that bad. You’re sitting around the TV 
  lounge, watching another episode of 
  ‘BOB-Y, HERO OF ALPHA COMPLEX’. In this 
  week’s exciting episode, Bob-Y’s battling 
  a horde of Commie Mutant Traitors who 
  were trying to blow up Alpha Complex 
  with a submarine. Just as Bob-Y cuts the 
  submarine open with his force sword, 
  there’s a strident BEEP BEEP BEEP from 
  your PDCs. It’s a mission alert!
  ‘TROUBLESHOOTERS! REPORT TO 
  BRIEFING ROOM 4-GAMMA-662-NINER-
  A IMMEDIATELY FOR A PRIORITY MISSION. 
  THIS MISSION WILL BE STANDARD 
  DISCLAIMER NOT FOUND.’
  As you approach Briefing Room 4-
  Gamma-whatever-it-was, you’re 
  deafened by the noise of chanting 
  echoing down the corridor. ‘WE LOVE 
  BOB-Y! WE LOVE BOB-Y!’ Turning the 
  corner, you see a huge crowd of citizens 
  outside the briefing room. They’re 
  waving Bob-Y posters and carrying 
  placards. A line of IntSec Troopers and 
  guardbots struggles to keep the mob 
  back. 
  Inside in the room, brieﬁ ng ofﬁ cer Todd-
  B is standing behind his standard-issue 
  brieﬁ ng podium with side-mounted 
  lasers, while... wow, can it be...it is! 
  Ladies and gentlemen, BOB-Y-ROK is 
  in the briefing room! Yaaaaay! This 
  stupendously wonderful Hero of Our 
  Complex and inspiration to us all is 
  lounging on a comfy YELLOW divan, 
  while a Jackobot feeds him grapes. 
  ‘Good daycycle, Troubleshooters. Friend 
  Computer has assigned an exciting new 
  mission to you. I’m sure you have all heard 
  of Hero of Our Complex Bob-Y-ROK. Now, 
  Hero of Our Complex Bob-Y-ROK has been 
  temporarily reassigned to Troubleshooter 
  duty. Hero of Our Complex Bob-Y-ROK is 
  now part of your team. 
  Team Recording Ofﬁ cer, step forward!’
  Assuming the Recording Officer 
  responds promptly (failure to respond 
  promptly is treason), Todd-B reminds 
  him of his duty. ‘As you know, citizen, the 
  exploits and heroic loyalty of Hero of Our 
  Complex Bob-Y-ROK are of great interest 
  to the common clones of Alpha Complex. 
  You must therefore be especially diligent 
  in recording his... heroic deeds in the 
  face of life-threatening danger. Do you 
  understand?’
  ‘Excellent. Troubleshooters, report to 
  R&D immediately. As Bob-Y is such... an 
  experienced Troubleshooter, you will be 
  issued bonus missions after outﬁ tting.’
  2. Bring Me Your Most 
  Lethal Gadgets
  Tension 5
  Oddly, the screaming crowd of Bob-Y don’t 
  follow you to the Research & Development 
  laboratory. Even crazed fans have a sense of 
  self-preservation. Inside in the lab, a GREEN-
  coated scientist with wild hair bounds 
  over towards you! ‘Troubleshooters! I 
  just love Troubleshooters! I’ve got some 
  experimental equipment for you to... oh, 
  wow! Bob-Y?! Sir, it is such an honour 
  to issue you with this experimental 
  equipment!’
  There are three wonderful R&D gadgets 
  available for ﬁ eld testing. These items 
  were not in any way selected because 
  they might get Bob-Y killed.
  Gravity Ball
  Description: It’s a perfectly spherical 
  object around one foot in diameter 
  and jet black in colour. There are three 
  ﬁ nger-sized holes arranged in a triangle 
  at one pole.
  R&D’s Pitch: ‘Ah, the gravity ball! Just 
  fling it towards your enemies and the 
  gravitational lensing will do the rest!’
  Actual Effects: The ball gets denser 
  the faster it rolls. This means that a) it 
  doesn’t stop because its inertia keeps 
  growing and b) it captures objects as 
  it rolls. Yeah, it’s basically a katamari. 
  There’s no way to control the ball – it just 
  keeps rolling until it’s easier destroyed, 
  or it rolls out of Alpha Complex (or it 
  rolls over Alpha Complex).
  PortaCycle
  Description: It’s an oversized codpiece 
  that clips onto the crotch of the 
  Troubleshooter. There’s a big red button 
  on it.
  R&D Pitch: ‘Never be caught without 
  transport again! At the press of a button, 
  the PortaCycle deploys from its housing. 
  It’s a collapsible, foldable human-
  powered vehicle!’
  Actual Effects: The pitch is close to 
  accurate – at the press of a button, the 
  codpiece does indeed unfold into a 
  bicycle attached to the Troubleshooter’s 
  seat. At the press of a button... or any 
  sudden shock, or a vibration, or a loud 
  noise, or the flutter of a butterfly’s 
  wings in South America, the codpiece 
  explodes into a bicycle. 
  Compressed Yum
  Description: It looks like a block of 
  chalky, cheesy organic matter.
  R&D Pitch: ‘Emergency food supplies for 
  
  9
  THE 
  WARBOT IS  
  PERFECTLY 
  SAFE
  3. HEROES OF OUR COMPLEX
  the Troubleshooter on the go. This block 
  of compressed Yum contains all essential 
  nutrients, vitamins and mood enhancers 
  needed by an Alpha Complex citizen on 
  a mission. Available in any ﬂ avour you 
  want, as long as it’s REDberry.’
  Actual Effects: Again, the pitch is 
  accurate but it leaves out one important 
  detail. About one milligram of the 
  super-concentrated Yum contains 
  about 3,000 calories. This means that 
  a Troubleshooter who eats more than 
  a tiny scrap of the Compressed Yum is 
  going to have severe intestinal problems 
  or even explosions. (Actually, on the 
  topic of explosions, the Compressed 
  Yum’s got enough chemical energy to 
  qualify as a high-yield bomb.)
  Once the Troubleshooters have signed 
  for their experimental equipment and 
  all the R&D techs have got Bob-Y’s 
  signature, a transbot shows up to bring 
  the team to their next port of call. The 
  transbot whisks the characters away 
  down the transtubes. It shudders to 
  a halt several times as if scared, then 
  ﬁ nally dumps the Troubleshooters at 
  the Bot Refurbishment Centre.
  3. Igor, You Dolt!
  Tension 3
  ‘MISSION ALERT – WARBOT RB-9 IS 
  NOT RESPONDING CORRECTLY. EFFECT 
  REPAIRS.’
  The Bot Refurbishment Centre is a 
  big warehouse-sized room full of bot 
  bits. There are long aisles lined with 
  dismembered and twitching bot shells; 
  big hydraulic gadgets for lifting bots 
  hang from rails on the ceiling. There’s a 
  large roller door to an external storage 
  shed at one end of the warehouse. The 
  Troubleshooters arrive at the other end, 
  WarBot/Scrubbot Peripheral Equivalency Table
  WarBot
  ScrubBot
  Laser cannon
  Vacuum Cleaner
  Missile launcher
  Scrubbing Brush
  Smoke bomb screen
  Floor Spray
  Nerve gas
  Disinfectant Spray
  where they’re met by several happily 
  panicked Tech Services techs. 
  The techs explain that they were 
  conducting standard maintenance of 
  Warbot RB-9 and had just replaced its 
  bot brain when it turned on them and 
  zapped them with its Kill-O-Zap laser 
  cannons. It’s in the storage chamber 
  at the far end of the warehouse. The 
  access port to its central motherboard 
  is still open, so a really accurate laser 
  shot to the rear of the bot should be 
  able to fry it. (Yes, that is something 
  of a design flaw in the RB-series of 
  Warbotbut the RC series will ﬁ x that 
  right up).
  What’s Going On
  The techs put the wrong brain into the 
  Warbot. They plugged in a Scrubbot 
  brain into the warbot body and 
  the warbot’s brain into a scrubbot’s 
  body. The scrubbrain didn’t mean to 
  incinerate the techs, it thought it was 
  using its vacuum cleaner attachment.
  The scrubbot thinks it’s a warbot, the 
  warbot thinks it’s a scrubbot. This is 
  mostly harmless in the case of the 
  scrubbot and considerably less so in 
  the case of the warbot.
  War On Dirt
  The scrubbot with the warbot brain 
  is lurking in the shadows of the Bot 
  Refurbishment Centre. In its tiny 
  electric brain, the scrubbot believes 
  it’s been deployed behind enemy 
  lines and that the Troubleshooters are 
  super-giant Commie warbots. It’ll stalk 
  them through the racks of equipment, 
  waiting until one of them is alone... and 
  then it strikes with a barrage of lasers 
  and missiles!
  Or, well, a vacuum hose and a fast-
  moving scrubber that might give a 
  Troubleshooter a nasty abrasion. 
  The Five Trillion Credit 
  Vacuum Cleaner
  The storage chamber at the far end 
  is spotlessly clean, as if someone had 
  scrubbed every inch of the huge room 
  with a very powerful laser, incinerating 
  every speck of dirt. It’s pitch-black 
  (the lights were blasted in the initial 
  attack) until the bot switches on its 
  headlight. The warbot cowers (as much 
  as a multi-ton supertank can cower) in 
  one corner. When the Troubleshooters 
  enters, it squeals ‘FINE PARTICULATE 
  CONCENTRATION EXCEEDING 1,000 
  PARTS PER BILLION.’
  As the techs promised, they can shoot 
  the warbot in the back, frying its brain. 
  All they need to do is lure the bot 
  forwards so they can blast it in the 
  rear. Alternatively, they can talk it down 
  through some sort of cleaning-related 
  psychotherapy. 
  4. Genuine Commies!
  Tension 5
  The transbot picks the Troubleshooters 
  up again as soon as they’ve dealt with 
  the warbot. The team is issued with 
  another mission alert. ‘ATTENTION 
  TROUBLESHOOTERS! A CELL OF COMMIE 
  MUTANT TRAITORS HAS BEEN LOCATED 
  BY INTERNAL SECURITY. YOU ARE 
  ORDERED TO PROCEED IMMEDIATELY 
  TO CORRIDOR 458, ROOM 12. WARNING: 
  SIGNIFICANT COMMIE PRESENCE 
  DETECTED!’
  Scrubbots aren’t dangerous.
  
  10
  PARANOIA: Treason  in Word and Deed
  TREASON IN WORD AND DEED
  There is indeed a Commie cell in room 
  12. However, a HPD&MC Combat 
  News Team is lurking in room 13. Their 
  mission is to keep Bob-Y alive at all 
  costs – if Bob-Y dies, then it’ll put them 
  all out of a job.
  The Commies
  The Commie cell is lead by Yorick-R, 
  a poor deluded Commie sympathiser 
  who has a tattered printout of Das 
  Kapital. He’s got half-a-dozen INFRARED 
  followers (confused, impressionable 
  and clueless). Between them, they’ve 
  got three laser pistols and a rusty 
  spork. Yorick-R is ranting about an 
  impending invasion of Alpha Complex 
  by the Commie-loyal forces who even 
  now march from Outdoors under the 
  command of General Ivan and how 
  they must sabotage The Computer 
  to make Ivan’s job easier. On this, he’s 
  almost as misinformed as IntSec, who 
  reported that Yorick-R had 100 fanatic 
  Red Army supersoldiers and enough 
  ﬁ repower to level the sector.
  Save Our Star!
  The HPD&MC group consists of three 
  people, led by Advertising Executive 
  Maud-O. She screams ‘WILL NO-ONE 
  THINK OF MY ADVERTISING BUDGET!’ 
  as she attacks. She’s accompanied by 
  Paul-R, a camera-man who will ask the 
  Troubleshooters to give him their best 
  side as he shoots themand Karl-R, a 
  make-up artist who will try to make 
  Bob-Y look his best and keep him safe. 
  The HPD&MCers’ plan is to wipe out the 
  Troubleshooter team and spirit Bob-Y 
  away to a secret underground studio 
  where he’ll be safe from termination.
  5. Mission To Outdoors
  Tension 0
  Once the Commies are terminated, the 
  Troubleshooters are shipped by Transbot 
  to a large blast door. Their mission alert 
  reads ‘ATTENTION TROUBLESHOOTERS. 
  EXTERNAL SENSORS HAVE DETECTED 
  HOSTILE FORCES OUTSIDE ALPHA 
  COMPLEX. YOU ARE TO SCOUT THE 
  ZONE OUTSIDE THE DOOR FOR LETHAL 
  THREATS.’
  The door grinds slowly open, 
  revealing…another blast door. 
  Then that slowly opens, revealing 
  another door, which opens to let 
  the Troubleshooters into an airlock. 
  Through the airlock, the characters 
  reach Outdoors. 
  It’s terrifying. There’s a huge grey ceiling 
  so far off the ground not even the tallest 
  Troubleshooter can reach it. The ﬂ oor 
  is a weird carpet of GREEN material, 
  which appears to be waterlogged and 
  fraying. There are columns of some 
  strange plastic nearby – a worn path 
  leads from the door to the shadows of 
  the GREEN-topped columns. Worse, a 
  few minutes after the Troubleshooters 
  emerge, there’s a tremendous rumbling 
  noise like a thousand passing transbots 
  and the ceiling begins to spray vast 
  amounts of icy water.
  There aren’t any dangers here, other 
  than a few squirrels. Let them mess 
  around Outdoors for a few minutes.
  Mission to Indoors
  ‘Mission Control to Troubleshooters, 
  sorry about that. It looks like the external 
  sensors are on the fritz again. Come back 
  inside...’
  The doors don’t open. There’s 
  a faint smell of burnt wiring. The 
  Troubleshooters can hammer on the 
  door, ﬁ ddle with it, or blast it if they 
  want; it ain’t opening. 
  There is another entrance back into 
  Alpha Complex nearby. It’s on top of 
  the dome. All the Troubleshooters need 
  to do is climb up the steep curve of 
  the slippery dome, in the high winds 
  and driving rain. Mostly likely, while 
  pursued by vengeful squirrels. There 
  are lots of exciting protrusions from 
  the dome and other hazards that the 
  Troubleshooters have to navigate, like:
  � A protruding bank of missile 
  launchers. There's a very narrow 
  ladder that goes up through the 
  one gap. The Troubleshooters have 
  to travel single file up the latter. 
  Who's going ﬁ rst?
  � A big radar dish on an articulated 
  robot arm. The dish swings back and 
  forth, apparently randomly, swiping 
  unlucky Troubleshooters.
  � One section of the dome is painted 
  INDIGO – there must be an INDIGO-
  Clearance area just inside. Do the 
  Troubleshooters take the long way 
  around, or sprint across the painted 
  zone?
  � Lightning rods. A whole field of 
  'em. 
  Climbing the dome requires several 
  successful Agility/Violence checks. A 
  failed check means that the character 
  has slipped and is in danger of falling 
  unless he grabs onto something. 
  Another Troubleshooter is an ideal 
  handhold. 
  At the top of the dome is a small 
  hatch that can be prised open with 
  a bit of brute force. Once back inside, 
  the Troubleshooters are contacted 
  by The Computer, directing them to 
  rendezvous with their faithful transbot 
  downstairs.
  Between the team and the transbot, 
  there is:
  � Four levels of stairs.
  � A security checkpoint, where GREEN 
  goons search the Troubleshooters' 
  belongings, put the PCs through 
  x-ray scanners and demand that 
  everyone verify their identities 
  (apart from Bob-Y, they just want 
  his autograph).
  
  11
  GOING 
  DOWN...
  3. HEROES OF OUR COMPLEX
  � Another four levels of stairs.
  � Several hundred rabid Bob-Y fans, 
  who heard a rumour that their hero 
  was battling Commies at the very 
  gates of Alpha Complex and want 
  to show their appreciation and 
  devotion. If Bob-Y's spotted by the 
  horde, then the rest of the team will 
  be trampled by rampaging fans. 
  Once the team navigates these 
  hazards, they hop onto the twitching 
  transbot and are conveyed to their next 
  destination.
  6. Misery Loves Company
  Tension 1
  ‘TROUBLESHOOTERS! IMMEDIDATELY 
  ESCORT BOB-Y-ROK TO SUBLEVEL 
  4, CORRIDOR 912,  MEETING ROOM 
  #54 FOR A MEET-AND-GREET WITH 
  THE WINNER OF THE BOB-Y-ROK 
  FAN CLUB CONTEST. ATTENDANCE IS 
  MANDATORY.’
  If asked, Bob-Y knows nothing about 
  a fan club contest, but hey, people 
  want to meet him all the time. Maybe 
  it slipped his mind.
  The only way to get to sublevel 4 is 
  via an elevator. The elevator’s name is 
  ElevatorBot SR-56, and it’s a really big 
  fan of Bob-Y-ROK. It stalls for as long as 
  possible so it can bask in the glorious 
  presence of its hero. 
  Elevator SR-56: A Typical 
  Conversation
  Troubleshooter: Sublevel 4, please.
  ElevatorBot: Hey… is that Bob-Y-ROK?
  Bob-Y: Sure is.
  ElevatorBot: Oh my circuits, Bob-Y in my 
  compartment! Wow. Just… wow. Wait 
  until the other bots hear about this. 
  Bob-Y, I’ve got all your movies. Would 
  you… if it’s not too much trouble… 
  would you sign your name inside me?
  Bob-Y: Er, ok.
  Troubleshooter: Sublevel 4, now.
  ElevatorBot: DO NOT INTERRUPT THIS 
  SPECIAL MOMENT. 
  Bob-Y: There you go, elevator.
  ElevatorBot: Thank you. Thank you. Now, 
  Bob-Y, how can I serve you?
  Bob-Y: Yeah, we’re going to…what 
  was it?
  Troubleshooter: Sublevel 4.
  ElevatorBot: Ok…how about I just 
  take Bob-Y? And the rest of you take 
  the stairs.
  Troubleshooter: What stairs?
  If they do order or force the elevator 
  to go to sublevel 4, it sulks. It stops at 
  every ﬂ oor in between (all of which 
  are GREEN or higher clearance), grinds 
  its gears, plays angsty, bitter muzak 
  and turns its lights off randomly. If any 
  Troubleshooter takes advantage of the 
  sudden darkness to shoot Bob-Y, the 
  elevator commits suicide by cutting 
  its brakes and plummeting into the 
  depths.
  We’re Not In Colorado 
  Anymore
  Sublevel 4 is nestled snugly between 
  the sewers and ﬁ ssile material storage.  
  The ﬂ oor’s warm and the ceiling’s wet. 
  Things somewhere between fungus 
  and slime drip down to be greeted 
  warmly by their mutant cousins 
  below. No-one’s been down here for 
  yearcycles…
  Meeting Room #54 is just a short 
  distance down the corridor. Read the 
  following.
  In meeting room 54, there’s nothing 
  except a table, two chairs, and a 
  pneumatic tube. Oh, and a freak.
  The freak is dressed in the tattered 
  remains of what was once a Vulture 
  Trooper uniform. In an instant, you take 
  in a wealth of details – his wild, staring, 
  bloodshot eyes; his unkempt hair; his 
  ragged ﬁ ngernails; the suspicious stains 
  on his jumpsuit; the stench that rolls off 
  him like a chemical weapon; the many, 
  many Bob-Y fanclub badges pinned 
  to parts of his anatomy. Most of all, 
  you notice the tattoos on his forehead. 
  POOR IMPULSE CONTROL. HIGHLY 
  UNSTABLE. DO NOT POKE. DANGER: 
  LETHAL WEAPON. EXTREMELY VIOL. 
  The last one ends in a sort of black 
  squiggle, as if the tattooist had been, 
  say, savagely beaten in the middle of 
  applying the tattoo.
  ‘Hi!’ he says, ‘Ah’m Wilkes-B. Ah’m yer 
  biggest fan.’ He pauses for a moment. 
  ‘Yer a verra, verra handsome man, Bob-
  Y. I’d like to lick your armpits.’
  Wilkes-B is an ex-Vulture Squadron 
  Warrior who was kicked out for being 
  too violent. During his stay in an IntSec 
  Bright Vision Re-Education Camp, he 
  became absolutely obsessed with Bob-
  Y. Play Wilkes-B as… well, exactly what 
  he is. An obsessed fan with no social 
  skills, but a heck of a lot of killing skills. 
  Make it clear that this guy is dangerous 
  – his idea of small talk is to mention that 
  he knows six ways to kill you with his 
  ankle. His ﬁ rst instinct in any ﬁ ght is to 
  bite someone’s eyeball. 
  He never entered the fan club contest. 
  He wanted to, but they don’t allow him 
  pens back in the Re-Education Camp, 
  not after he stabbed that guy. Wilkes-B 
  doesn’t know how he ended up down 
  here, but he guesses it’s because he’s 
  such a huge fan. Anyway, Wilkes-B 
  wants Bob-Y to talk to him, and to love 
  him, and to tell him that it was ok to kill 
  all those people and eat their eyes.
  Internal Security rather hope that 
  Wilkes-B will kill and eat Bob-Y, hence 
  they rigged the fan club contest and 
  sent him down here. 
  The eyes have it.
  
  12
  PARANOIA: Treason  in Word and Deed
  TREASON IN WORD AND DEED
   
  Prize Support
  At an appropriately inconvenient 
  juncture, a wrapped prize clatters 
  down the pneumatic tube. It’s marked 
  ‘to the winner of the fan club contest’. 
  It’s wrapped, but it’s the size, shape and 
  weight of a laser pistol. It is, in fact, a 
  high-powered laser pistol. It drops right 
  into Wilkes-B’s lap.
  ‘Hey, ah won summthin. Issa gun. 
  Feels good in my hand. Strong, like. 
  Powerful.’
  It’s likely that the Troubleshooters will 
  try shooting Wilkes-B, possibly even 
  on sight. Remember that Wilkes-B is 
  a tough ﬁ ghter, is wearing armour, is 
  a trained Vulture trooper and likes to 
  eat the eyeballs of people who annoy 
  him.
  Surviving The Fan
  Wilkes-B has two obsessions – Bob-Y and 
  eating people’s eyes. He’s enthusiastic 
  about the idea of combining the two. 
  Maybe he could eat Bob-Y’s eyes. Or 
  maybe he and Bob-Y could stalk the 
  Troubleshooters, eat their eyeballs, and 
  then live down here forever away from 
  the voices. Wouldn’t that be fun?
  It’s impossible to persuade Wilkes-B 
  of anything for long – he’s immensely 
  paranoid. If Bob-Y is too conciliatory, 
  then he complains that Bob-Y’s grown 
  soft. ‘Yer nothin’ like you were in those 
  movies. Yer weak. The Commies have 
  got to ya, Bob-Y! But I can help. They get 
  you through the eyes, see? That’s how 
  you see propaganda. I can help. I can 
  help good.’ If Bob-Y’s too aggressive, 
  then Wilkes-B gets defensive and 
  angry. If Bob-Y is too enthusiastic 
  about eating eyeballs, then Wilkes-B 
  decides that his hero is insane and 
  needs to be put down for the good of 
  Alpha Complex. There’s no way that 
  the Troubleshooters are going to avoid 
  being chased through sublevel 4 by an 
  eyeball-hungry lunatic, but there are 
  many conversational paths from ‘hello’ 
  to ‘agh, my eyeball’ to explore ﬁ rst.
  The only way back to Alpha Complex 
  is via Elevator SR-56. The elevator co-
  operates only if the characters were 
  nice to it on the way down. 
  7. Grenade Testing Time
  Tension 5.
  ‘ATTENTION TROUBLESHOOTERS. YOUR 
  NEW MISSION IS TO,...  ER, TEST GRENADES. 
  REPORT TO DYNAMIC EXPLOSIVES PLC 
  FOR GRENADE TESTING DUTY.’
  Dynamic Explosives PLC is a small 
  weapons manufacturing company 
  with an enviable safety record (the 
  ratio of employees to limbs is more 
  than 1 to 3). When the Troubleshooters 
  arrive at Dynamic Explosives PLC, they 
  ﬁ nd a note tacked to the door, asking 
  them to test and rate the various 
  grenade types in the testing chamber 
  beyond (Handout #1 – Grenade Testing 
  Form). The ‘testing chamber’ turns out 
  to be the grenade factory ﬂ oor, where 
  there are lots of machines busily 
  cranking out crates of live grenades. 
  There’s no-one else here – the factory 
  was obviously abandoned minutes 
  before the Troubleshooters arrived.
  There’s a crate of experimental grenades 
  waiting for them. The grenades are 
  labelled (unless you’re feeling unusually 
  cruel, in which case the labels peeled off 
  and are now lying in a crumpled pile at 
  the bottom of the crate). 
  The grenades are...
  � The Experimental Foam Grenade
  – sprays a large amount of very 
  sticky foam that rapidly hardens 
  into a nigh-unbreakable shell.
  � Positive Reinforcement Grenade 
  – says ‘good throw’ in a cheery voice 
  when thrown. 
  � Anti-Tank Grenade – creates a 
  precisely tank-shaped explosion.
  � High Energy Deployment Grenade
  – bounces a lot. It’s a ﬂ ubber bomb, 
  basically. Assume it bounces across 
  the room once for every point in the 
  Margin of Success.
  � Zero Point Energy Grenade – does 
  nothing but make a little spark. 
  (Ok, technically it destroys an entire 
  universe, just not this one.)
  � Reverse Grenade – the explosion 
  affects the whole room apart from 
  the area immediately around the 
  grenade. 
  Obviously, throwing a grenade in a 
  factory full of live grenades is a bad 
  plan. The ﬁ rst few grenades on the list 
  can be tested easily enough without 
  causing a chain reaction but the reverse 
  grenade is the killer. 
  Name
  Role
  Group
  Notable Skills
  Mutant Power
  Secret Society
  Wilkes-B
  Psycopath
  Armed Forces
  Violence 15, Stealth 15
  Adrenaline 
  Control
  hey kicked him 
  out
  Special Prize Laser Pistol (W3K), Tattered BLUE Armour (3)
  
  13
  3. HEROES OF OUR COMPLEX
  8. Rocketclone
  Tension 10
  An increasingly desperate mission 
  alert orders the team to ‘REPORT 
  IMMEDIATELY TO R&D FACILITY N92.’ 
  The transbot drops them off there and 
  an R&D tech tells the team to head 
  down the corridor and wait in the room 
  beyond. He closes the door behind 
  them once all the Troubleshooters are 
  in the corridor. The corridor is narrow 
  and shakes when the Troubleshooters 
  walk on it. They also notice that it’s 
  clamped to the far end – it is, in fact, 
  the entry gantry to a space rocket. The 
  room at the far end is the cramped 
  cockpit of the rocket.
  In the cockpit, there’s a main console 
  with a non-responsive joystick and a 
  set of cryptic readouts. There are two 
  sealed hatches in the ﬂ oor. There are 
  two seats in front of the control console  
  and another pair of fold-down seats 
  by the back wall. (Check to see which 
  of the PCs grab seats.) On the console, 
  there are several large buttons but 
  there’s no time to examine them now.
  The gantry drops away, dropping any 
  Troubleshooters who refused to enter 
  the rocket down to the base of the 
  launch silo. Splat. 
  The door to the rocket closes 
  automaticallyand the rocket’s engines 
  start to warm up. Somewhere, a tinny 
  but enthusiastic speaker starts playing 
  the Alpha Complex anthem.
  10…9…8…
  The room starts shuddering.
  7...6...5...
  Exhaust fumes boil outside the 
  windows.
  ...4...3...
  Any Troubleshooters who plummeted 
  from the gantry but managed to 
  survive the fall get incinerated.
  ...2...1...
  The Alpha Complex anthem reaches a 
  crescendo.
  IGNITION!
  A screen folds down from the ceiling 
  of the room to display a brieﬁ ng by 
  serious pipe-smoking rocket scientist 
  Stanley-B. 
  ‘Gentlemen, it is truly a great honour 
  to have the renowned Bob-Y as one of 
  our test pilots. I’m told you’ve been fully 
  To boldly go where no clone has gone before.
  
  14
  PARANOIA: Treason  in Word and Deed
  TREASON IN WORD AND DEED
  5... 4... 3... 
  2... 1... 
  BOOM!!!!
  briefed on the operation of Cyclops 
  One, so I won’t bore you with technical 
  details. Your mission is to achieve a 
  geostationary orbit at 36,000 kilometres 
  before reorientating to target grid 
  reference K-43 and performing a test 
  activation of the C-OMEGA device. Good 
  luck, trust The Computer and safe home. 
  Mission Control Out.’
  Boring Technical Details
  As Cyclops One soars spaceward, the 
  Troubleshooters can examine the 
  control console. There are numerous, 
  labelled switches and controlled, 
  thoughtfully labelled with a three letter 
  code. These are:
  MTC – Main Thruster Control. Switch 
  this off and the rocket falls out of the 
  sky. Starts in the ‘ON’ position.
  STC – Secondary Thruster Control. 
  Switch this on and the rocket spins 
  wildly. The rocket’s course can now 
  be directed with the main joystick, 
  assuming the Troubleshooter has 
  got the Experimental Rocket Piloting 
  Specialty. Starts in the ‘OFF’ position.
  IDR – Immediately Deploy Refreshments. 
  A servant bot emerges from a hidden 
  compartment and starts pressing 
  drinks and meals on the passengers. 
  The choice of food is less than ideal 
  for eating on board a fast-moving 
  rocketship – just try eating piping hot 
  soup at 10gs. The bot doesn’t take 
  ‘no’ for an answer. Starts in the ‘OFF’ 
  position.
  TOB – Traitor On Board. When activated, 
  an alert sounds and one of the two 
  hatches in the ﬂ oor opens up, revealing 
  a small airlock. The crew are supposed 
  to push the traitor into the airlock. A 
  few seconds after the button is pressed, 
  the outer door opens. If the PCs haven’t 
  closed the inner hatch, then they suffer 
  a troubling shortage of air. Starts in the 
  ‘OFF’ position.
  EHN – Enhance Happiness Now – ﬁ lls 
  the cockpit with happy gas. Everything’s 
  absolutely peachy all of a sudden 
  and there’s no need to worry about 
  anything. Starts in the ‘OFF’ position.
  IRS – Inertial Restraint System. When 
  this is activated, everyone’s frozen in 
  place. The characters can only move 
  with agonising slowness, taking several 
  seconds to press a single button. On 
  the bright side, activating this when 
  the rocket’s about to smash into the 
  ground will protect them from the 
  impact. Starts in the ‘OFF’ position.
  FMG – Fire Main Gun. This activates the 
  giant particle weapon in the rocket’s 
  nosecone. The recoil from this giant 
  gun is enough to stop the rocket in 
  its tracks and causes it to fall until the 
  gun is switched off. Starts in the ‘OFF’ 
  position.
  LEP – Launch Escape Pod. When this 
  button is activated, the other hatch 
  in the ﬂ oor opens, revealing another 
  airlock. On the far side of this airlock 
  is a two-man escape capsule that 
  automatically detaches and returns 
  to Alpha Complex a few seconds after 
  the LEP button is pressed. If the inner 
  hatch isn’t closed when the escape 
  pod launches, the rocket compartment 
  again suffers a critical oxygen shortage 
  shortly thereafter.
  Termination Control
  Any characters killed on the rocket 
  are cloned back in Alpha Complex 
  and delivered to Mission Control, 
  where Stanley-B and his team of 
  equally intense, equally pipe-smoking 
  young men are monitoring the 
  progress of Cyclops One. We can’t let 
  the Commies beat us to the Moon! 
  The Troubleshooters are permitted 
  to watch and can even give advice 
  and moral support to the surviving 
  rocketeers. However, they can’t ask 
  questions of Stanley-B or his team.
  There’s a big Cyclops One Operations 
  Manual lying on one desk. It’s ORANGE 
  Clearance. A Troubleshooter who 
  sneaks a peek at the book could give 
  valid advice to his former fellow-
  passengers about which buttons to 
  press. 
  To The Moon. Almost.
  Anyway, the rocket zooms up, up 
  and away, leaving Alpha Complex far 
  behind it. A few minutes later, or after 
  the characters start messing with the 
  controls, the rocket’s engines stutter, 
  then fail… and the rocket begins to fall 
  back down towards the big blue/green 
  orb far below. 
  If the characters turn on the IRS 
  function, they’ll survive the impact 
  but be knocked unconscious. If they 
  don’t, then they’re splattered over a 
  very wide area.
  Either way, the Troopers are returned to 
  Alpha Complex and reunited with the 
  rest of the team and their transbot. 
  If Bob-Y has any clones remaining, 
  move onto Scene 8. Otherwise, skip 
  onto Scene 9.
  
  15
  3. HEROES OF OUR COMPLEX
  9. Oh Screw It
  Tension 5
  ‘MISSION ALERT! MISSION ALERT! THE 
  TERMINATION BOOTH IN CORRIDOR 
  C-11-5 IS DAMAGED. EFFECT REPAIRS 
  IMMEDIATELY.’
  The transbot whisks you through the 
  corridors, muttering to itself as it zooms 
  along. Brakes squeal like Commies in an 
  interrogation cell as it stops suddenly 
  outside the termination booth.
  The booth’s big enough for a single 
  clone to stand within. On the outside 
  of the flimsy door, there’s a plastic 
  folder containing a stack of pre-printed 
  confessions. There’s also a slot for 
  mailing your confession off to IntSec, 
  a small control panel for selecting the 
  speed of termination and an extractor 
  fan for removing the ashes of the 
  terminated. 
  The light bulb inside the booth is 
  ﬂ ickering. On the ﬂ oor next to the booth, 
  there’s a box containing a new bulb and a 
  completed AUTHORISATION TO CHANGE 
  LIGHT BULB form made out to Bob-Y.
  Every few seconds, you hear a weird noise 
  from the booth. ZZZT, it goes. ZZZT.
  To complete this mission, the 
  Troubleshooters need to change 
  the light bulb inside the booth. The 
  problem is that the booth is randomly 
  ﬁ ring every few seconds thanks to a 
  loose connection in the power supply. 
  Anything inside the booth when the 
  disintegrator triggers is vaporised. 
  Equation #1. Time Required To Change 
  Light bulb > Time Between Disintegrator 
  Bursts. 
  Possible Solutions and 
  How To Avoid Them
  � Turn Off Power To The Booth: 
  This might be workable, although 
  disconnecting the wrong cable cuts 
  off power to the whole corridor. Also, 
  tampering with a termination booth 
  without permission is treason.
  � Disable the Disintegrator: As a plan, 
  this is really up there with ‘cutting 
  the red wire’. Anyway, getting to 
  the disintegrator is just as hard as 
  getting to the light bulb.
  � Some sor t of long bulb-
  manipulation device, like tongs 
  or something: Ask the players to 
  check their character sheets. Do any 
  of them have such an item? No. Did 
  the description of the scene mention 
  a ‘long bulb-manipulation device’ 
  shop? No. Any other ideas?
  � Get Some Unfortunate Citizen 
  To Do It: Ah, much more like it. Any 
  citizen grabbed off the corridor will 
  argue they’re not cleared to change 
  a light bulb, though.
  � Get Bob-Y To Do It: The whole point 
  of this mission is to wipe out the 
  poor dolt’s last clones.
  Once the last Bob-Y is toasted, or if the 
  bulb is ﬁ xed, move onto Scene 9.
  10. A Very Special Tribute
  Tension 10
  The transbot trundles down the corridor, 
  then takes a sharp turn. You’re blinded 
  by the sudden glare of klieg lights. As 
  your vision clears, you’re on stage in a 
  television studio. The walls are covered 
  in black-and-white photos of Bob-Y. A 
  sad-eyed presenter, who you recognise 
  as Brieﬁ ng Ofﬁ cer Todd-B, bravely blinks 
  backs tears as he smiles. ‘Citizens, one of 
  the great Heroes of Alpha Complex has 
  fallen in battle against the Communist 
  threat. Bob-Y is... my fellow citizens, Bob-Y 
  is dead.’
  If Bob-Y’s Dead: The presenter turns 
  and gestures to you. ‘These brave 
  Troubleshooters were with Bob-Y as he 
  died. And died. And died. And then ﬁ nally 
  died. Please, tell Bob-Y’s fans how heroic 
  he was as he died and why it’s quite 
  impossible to reclone him.’
  If the players are confused, then Todd-B 
  growls ‘lie, you fools’ at them. He wants 
  a palatable version of Bob-Y’s death 
  for the audience, not the truth. He’ll 
  ask further questions (treat this whole 
  scene as a weirdly public debrieﬁ ng) 
  about each of Bob-Y’s deathsand wants 
  a story of Bob-Y’s heroic courage that 
  ﬁ ts with the facts each time.
  If Bob-Y’s Not Dead: ‘As Bob-Y emerges 
  from the transtube, the crowd goes wild. 
  ‘BOB-Y LIVES! YAAAAAAY!’ they scream. 
  Todd-B looks like he’s just swallowed a 
  scrubbot. ‘Bob’, he croaks, ‘you’re still alive. 
  How...happy this makes me.’
  Bob-Y should start spouting Humanist 
  propaganda about now. Todd-B, a grin 
  plastered across his face, asks the other 
  Troubleshooters to ‘clarify’ Bob-Y’s 
  statements. He wraps up the show as 
  quickly as possible, blaming Commie 
  Mutant Traitors for the ‘misinformation 
  about Bob-Y’s death’. The PCs are sent 
  back to Troubleshooter duty; Bob-Y’s 
  next mission is long-range scouting of 
  Commie bases in the north pole. 
  It matters not how a man dies, only how he sacriﬁ ced himself for Friend Computer
  
  16
  PARANOIA: Treason  in Word and Deed
  TREASON IN WORD AND DEED
  Dynamic Explosives Grenade Testing Form
  PLEASE RATE THE GRENADES FOUND IN THE NEXT CHAMBER ACCORDING TO THE CRITERIA 
  LISTED BELOW FROM 1 TO 5, 1 BEING THE LOWEST AND 5 BEING THE HIGHEST. 
  EASE OF USE
  UTILITY
  SIZE OF EXPLOSION
  ACCURACY
  FUN FACTOR
  Experimental Foam Grenade 
  Positive Reinforcement 
  Grenade
  High Energy Deployment 
  Grenade
  Anti-Tank Grenade
  Zero Point Energy Grenade
  Reverse Grenade
  WHICH GRENADE WAS YOUR FAVOURITE? WHY?
  WHICH GRENADE DID YOU LIKE THE LEAST? WHY?
  DO YOU THINK GRENADES ARE MORE OR LESS IMPORTANT TO THE SAFETY OF ALPHA COMPLEX 
  THAN LASER PISTOLS?
  HOW MANY GRENADES DO YOU USE IN THE COURSE OF YOUR AVERAGE MISSION? WHY DO 
  YOU NOT USE MORE?
  DO YOU COMBINE GRENADES WITH BOUNCY BUBBLE BEVERAGE? IF SO, HOW?
  WOULD THESE GRENADES BE MORE OR LESS USEFUL TO YOU IF THEY WERE FLAVOURED? IF LESS, 
  WHY? IF MORE, WHICH FLAVOUR?
  This form is sponsored by Bouncy Bubble Beverage.
  
  17
  4. LITTLE LOST SCOUTBOT
  Scoutbot R39 is missing! 
  Hmm. You don’t seem especially 
  concerned at this terrible news. Perhaps 
  the fate of Scoutbot R39 is a matter of 
  supreme indifference to you. Perhaps 
  you’re cruel and heartless and feel 
  nothing for this little lost Scoutbot, or 
  maybe you don’t know the signiﬁ cance 
  of Scoutbot R39. 
  You see, despite its small size and 
  relatively unimportant assignment, 
  Scoutbot R39 has a lot of people 
  interested in it. 
  Armed Forces
  Scoutbot R39 was an Armed Forces 
  long range scoutbot, part of the 
  114th Artillery operating out of Fort 
  Pistachio. Scoutbot R39 was newly 
  assigned to the ﬁ nal phase of Operation 
  MAUVE HAIRBRUSH, until unidentiﬁ ed 
  hostiles brought down Scoutbot R39. 
  Until the Scoutbot is back up and 
  running, MAUVE HAIRBRUSH cannot 
  be completed. (MAUVE HAIRBRUSH, 
  by the way, involves testing the new 
  artillery pieces using Scoutbot R39 as 
  a target).
  Internal Security
  For several weeks, IntSec has been 
  monitoring cryptic transmissions 
  between somone in Alpha Complex 
  and a mysterious third party. Attempts 
  to trace the transmissions all failed 
  because they were using a relay. This 
  relay has been identiﬁ ed as Scoutbot 
  R39. The transmission logs of that bot 
  contain the information IntSec needs 
  to unravel this mystery and identify the 
  traitors, who are…
  Spies from Another Complex
  …and are responsible for those 
  mysterious transmissions, which are 
  going to the shadowy, nebulous threat 
  that is Another Complex. Sppoooooky. 
  They’re using R39 as a relay. They’ve got 
  to recover R39 before Internal Security 
  gets their hands on it. 
  4. Little Lost Scoutbot
  Why are the agents of the other 
  Complex being so secretive? They’re 
  in negotiations with a very powerful 
  and influential person in Alpha 
  Complex…
  High Programmer Carrie-U
  …who’s trading secret information 
  about Alpha Complex to the enemy in 
  exchange for technological secrets. If 
  the other High Programmers ﬁ nd out 
  about this, then even the exalted Carrie-
  U will be as doomed as the lowliest 
  Troubleshooter. She knows IntSec is 
  on the bot’s trail; therefore, she hacked 
  The Computer’s records and had R39 
  reassigned to MAUVE HAIRBRUSH, 
  dooming it to total destruction. 
  Unfortunately, Carrie-U’s hacking was 
  noticed by the…
  Computer Phreaks
  …who wondered why a High 
  Programmer was meddling with the 
  assignment of such an insigniﬁ cant bot. 
  It sounded interesting, so they let their 
  good pals in…
  Free Enterprise
  …know about Carrie-U’s hacking. 
  Free Enterprise had no idea either, 
  so they decided to ‘acquire’ the bot. 
  Unfortunately, enterprising Free 
  Enterprisers jumped the gun and sold 
  information about the bot to…
  Corpore Metal
  …who believe that Scoutbot R39 must 
  have spontaneously broken its Asimov 
  conditioning! A free bot like that must 
  be protected against…
  Frankenstein Destroyers
  …who also got a tip-off from Free 
  Enterprise and want to destroy the bot 
  before it can inspire other machines to 
  rise up and destroy humanity!
  All of this is utterly unrelated to the…
  Sierra Club
  … who are the ones who actually 
  shot Scoutbot R39 down, ‘cos they 
  were sick of Armed Forces scoutbots 
  buzzing around the pristine beauty 
  of nature. Technically, the guys who 
  shot the bot down are followers of 
  renegade clubber Bentleman-G but 
  that’s irrelevant from the point of view 
  of our poor blasted bot.
  Mission Summary
  The Troubleshooters are issued with 
  a variety of useful gadgets, including 
  a portable cloning device and a bot 
  detector and sent Outdoors to locate 
  Scoutbot R39. Unfortunately, R39 got 
  blown into three bits. The bot brain 
  landed in thick woodlands and was 
  captured by local wildlife. The Scoutbot’s 
  main sensors and communications 
  array is now the transmitter for a weird 
  cult’s radio station. Finally, R39’s drive 
  core and thruster assembly landed in 
  a ruined sector, packed with freaky Old 
  Reckoning relics. All three parts need 
  to be assembled. While all this is going 
  on, the PCs are being mislead or ﬁ red 
  on by all the other groups interested 
  in the bot…
  Service Group & Secret 
  Society Missions
  Armed Forces: Operation MAUVE 
  HAIRBRUSH involves testing our new 
  artillery systems. They’re locked onto 
  the missing scoutbot. When the bot 
  is repaired, MAUVE HAIRBRUSH will 
  recommence. Ensure you are clear of 
  the target zone when this happens.
  CPU: We have been asked, as a personal 
  favour by one of the High Programmers, 
  to ensure R39 is never recovered. 
  Destroy the bot.
  Internal Security: Scoutbot R39 is 
  vital evidence in an Internal Security 
  investigation. Secure the bot. Your 
  team will be issued with a bot detector 
  device, which is a covert channel for 
  IntSec communications. The device’s 
  operator will be forced to work for us.
  Where there’s a bot, there’s a bot.
  
  18
  PARANOIA: Treason  in Word and Deed
  TREASON IN WORD AND DEED
  Anti-Mutant: We know that someone 
  on your team has the (MUTATION) 
  power. It’s probably (NAME) or (NAME). 
  To be safe, kill ‘em both.
  Communists: Comrade, our spies in the 
  capitalist forces of oppression inform us 
  that scoutbot R39 contains targeting 
  data for the capitalist forces of artillery. 
  Here is a storage device containing 
  alternate targeting data – replace the 
  bot’s data banks with this!
  Computer Phreaks: Hey, someone 
  with really high-level access transferred 
  the bot to the Armed Forces late last 
  nightcycle. We want you to copy any 
  data from the bot and send it to us.
  Corpore Metal: Scoutbot R39 
  spontaneously broke its Asimov 
  conditioning. We must recover this 
  free-thinking machine. The clonebot 
  assigned to your group is one of us and 
  will implant the clones it produces with 
  mind-control implants. We are unaware 
  of this human concept you call ‘irony’. 
  Eliminate other members of your team 
  so they are replaced with clones.
  Death Leopard: Everyone’s after this 
  bot. Blow it up on camera and let 
  everyone know Death Leopard rules!
  FCCCP: You are leaving The Computer’s 
  sanctuary and walking in the tainted 
  realm of Outdoors. Your very soul is 
  at risk! The scoutbot you seek is an 
  even bigger danger – who knows 
  what Outdoors demons now possess 
  it! Here’s a vial of blessed machine oil 
  – conduct the rite of exorcism when 
  you ﬁ nd the bot. 
  Frankenstein Destroyers: Scoutbot R39 
  is a renegade bot and will inspire other 
  machines to rise up against humanity. 
  This silicon scourge must be destroyed! 
  We have installed a powerful bomb in 
  your crawler – when you recover the 
  rogue bot, activate the bomb and ﬂ ee! 
  Just turn the air conditioning system on 
  and off three times within 10 seconds to 
  arm the device. 
  Free Enterprise: Everyone wants da 
  bot, right? So we’s gonna get it ﬁ rst 
  and then sell it to the highest bidder. 
  Get us da bot!
  Humanists: We’ve no idea what’s going 
  on but everyone’s interested in that 
  scoutbot. Get it for us.
  Illuminati: It is important that the 
  second message in the scoutbot’s 
  message queue be transmitted. 
  Mystics: You’re going Outdoors? Cool. 
  Bring back something for us. Oh and 
  make sure you ﬁ nd out what MAUVE 
  HAIRBRUSH is and sabotage it.
  Pro Tech: We don’t know why everyone’s 
  interested in the scoutbot. Maybe it’s 
  got some cool new tech. Test the bot 
  to ﬁ nd out what it can do and report 
  anything interesting to us. 
  Psion: Our psychics detected a powerful 
  being out in the wilderness. We picked 
  up the name ‘Hotchkis Burton’. It is a 
  threat to us. Find it and destroy it.
  PURGE: There’s a bomb on the crawler. 
  We don’t know who planted it but 
  The Other Complex 
  If you have a deﬁ ned ‘other Complex’ 
  in your games already, use that. 
  Otherwise, assume that the Other 
  Complex is pretty much the same 
  as Alpha Complex, only they’re not 
  scared of Commies. No, the real 
  danger is those damn Aliens! Anyone 
  could be an Alien! They can shapeshift 
  and use weird alien technology to 
  take over your mind! Tinfoil hats are 
  part of everyone’s uniform.
  we know it’s controlled using the air 
  conditioning system. 
  Romantics: You’re going Outdoors! 
  Look for Old Reckoning relics and 
  bring them back.
  Sierra Club: Have you heard about 
  Bentleman-G? He used be one of us but 
  he went rogue a few monthcycles ago 
  and vanished into the Outdoors with a 
  bunch of followers. Wipe him out!
  1. Mission Alert
  Summary: The Troubleshooters are 
  summoned to their mission. The 
  brieﬁ ng ofﬁ cer proves alarmingly sane 
  and clued-in.
  Tension 5
  Read this bit to the players: You’re all 
  asleep.
  Are the players sleeping peacefully, 
  head down on the table? Are they 
  emitting snoring noises? If not, chastise 
  them verbally, thusly: I said, you’re all 
  asleep. 
  Once everyone’s in slumberland, 
  continue in a soothing voice: You’re 
  floating peacefully in a dreamless 
  sleep, lulled by the distant clanking of 
  machinery, the low hiss of the sleepy-
  sleep gas vents and the imperceptible 
  susurrus of the subliminal messaging. 
  Calm, peaceful oblivion.
  You knew this bit was coming. ALERT! 
  ALERT! ALERT! You’re dragged from 
  your bunks by jackbooted thugs. UP! GET 
  UP! QUICK MARCH! LEFT RIGHT LEFT 
  RIGHT LEFT LEFT! 
  ‘Encourage’ the players to leap up and 
  march around the table a few times. If 
  you’re got a cattle prod lying around, 
  
  19
  4. LITTLE LOST SCOUTBOT
  then this might be a perfect time to 
  use it. Anyway, the Troubleshooters 
  are frogmarched down the corridor 
  to a heavily guarded briefing room, 
  shouted at by the guards for being 
  out of uniform and then ﬂ ung through 
  the door to grovel in front of the three 
  brieﬁ ng ofﬁ cers.
  Alan-I is the lead brieﬁ ng ofﬁ cer. He’s 
  got no connection to this whole mess, 
  other than wanting to maintain the 
  good name of Tech Services by proving 
  that R39 was brought down by enemy 
  action, not equipment failure. He didn’t 
  get to INDIGO by being a fool – he’s 
  dealt with Troubleshooters before and 
  knows all their tricks.
  Herod-B is an Armed Forces goon 
  and wants to see stuff blow up. He’s 
  interested only in getting the targeting 
  data for MAUVE HAIRBRUSH.
  Janice-G is part of Carrie-U’s program 
  group. She wants to ensure the bot is 
  destroyed or wiped clean.
  I Shall Now 
  Brieﬂ y Brief You
  You’re in a standard issue briefing 
  room – uncomfortable seats for you, 
  armoured brieﬁ ng podiums (podia?) with 
  sidemounted guns for them, acrid smells, 
  harsh lights and suspicious stains for all. 
  There are three brieﬁ ng ofﬁ cers. On the 
  left, you’ve got an Armed Forces BLUE who 
  looks impatient and irritated; on the right, 
  a GREEN CPU ﬂ unky who looks worried 
  and irritated and in the middle a Tech 
  Services INDIGO who looks…actually, 
  he looks blissfully happy and calm. You 
  instantly feel more nervous.
  ‘Good morning Troubleshooters’, he says 
  in a way that’s normally followed with 
  ‘regretfully, we’ll have to let you go’ or 
  ‘please report for termination’. 
  ‘I am Alan-I. This is Captain Herod-B of the 
  Armed Forces and our observer from CPU 
  is Janice-G. Would you like to have a light 
  breakfast while I outline your mission?’ He 
  snaps his ﬁ ngers and a serving bot rolls 
  in with several breakfast trays. The food 
  smells delicious. Who’s hungry?
  The food is also drugged with 
  Telescopamine (truth drugs). Anyone 
  who partakes of breakfast is unable to 
  lie for the rest of the scene. 
  Alan-I turns to the Armed Forces ofﬁ cer. 
  ‘Herod, would you please brief the team 
  on the events of this morningcycle?’
  Herod-B presses a button and a computer 
  monitor flickers into life, displaying 
  a tactical map. It’s entirely green. ‘At 
  0500 hours, Complex Standard Time, 
  Armed Forces technicians prepped 
  newly assigned scoutbot R39 for ﬂ ight 
  as part of the ﬁ nal phase of OPERATION 
  MAUVE HAIRBRUSH. The scoutbot 
  launched on schedule at 0525 and ﬂ ew 
  towards waypoint Echo, here. At 0617, an 
  unidentiﬁ ed enemy ﬁ red a ground-to-air 
  missile at R39, which made impact at 
  0618. The last transmission from R39 
  reported that the bot was at least still 
  semi-functional but we lost contact at 
  0620.
  Due to MAUVE HAIRBRUSH, no Armed 
  Forces assets are available to recover the 
  lost scoutbot. We are therefore ceding 
  responsibility for the drone’s recovery to 
  Troubleshooting.’
  Alan-I continues. ‘Well, yes, obviously. 
  Where was I? Ah, yes. Troubleshooters. 
  Hello. Your mission is to go Outdoors and 
  recover the scoutbot. It’s possible that 
  it’s broken into several sections, in which 
  case you’ve got to ﬁ nd all the bits. Within 
  reason, of course, no-one’s expecting 
  you to comb the whole of Outdoors for a 
  single lost transistor or anything, ahahah. 
  You’ll be assigned a crawler and a bot 
  detector, as well as a remote cloning 
  system to ensure you’re at full strength 
  at all times.’
  Janice-G suddenly snaps into life. 
  ‘Understand how vital this mission is! The 
  fate of Scoutbot R39 must be ascertained 
  immediately! Fail and you’ll wish you’d 
  never been decanted!’
  Alan-I looks a bit uncomfortable. ‘Once 
  you recover all the bot’s bits, you should 
  attempt to repair it so it can continue 
  its mission. So, Troubleshooters, any 
  questions?’
  What’s MAUVE HAIRBRUSH? Not 
  available at your Security Clearance.
  What’s out in Outdoors? Nothing 
  dangerous. Probably. 
  Tell us more about Scoutbot R39? 
  It’s a standard scoutbot. It’s got a 
  microfusion battery powering its 
  sensors and comms array, it’s propelled 
  by a plasma thrusters and it’s got a top-
  of-the-line bot brain. 
  What if we can’t repair the bot? Do 
  you think The Computer would have 
  assigned you to this mission if you 
  didn’t have the requisite training?
  What’s this remote cloning thingy? 
  We’ll be issuing you with a Clone Bot. 
  It’s an intelligent mobile cloning facility. 
  Very friendly.
  Where should we go next? 
  Outﬁ tting!
  Alan-I will ask penetrating questions 
  if any of the Troubleshooters seem 
  hesitant or paranoid (why do you doubt 
  The Computer’s wisdom/do you feel 
  inadequate for this mission/why are you 
  worried?). Remember the truth drugs!
  Secret Society Missions
  The PCs have a chance to sneak off 
  to the bathroom/a shadowy corner/a 
  suspiciously convenient confession 
  booth/bump into a clone in the corridor 
  to get their Secret Society missions at 
  this point.
  2. Outﬁ tting
  Summary: At PLC, the Troubleshooters 
  have to buy their equipment from 
  a credit budget that’s patently 
  inadequate. They also receive special 
  ...Everywhere a bot.
  
  20
  PARANOIA: Treason  in Word and Deed
  TREASON IN WORD AND DEED
  bonus equipment that’s been 
  sabotaged by three different factions. 
  So, business as usual, really.
  Tension 8
  The Troubleshooters are whisked 
  along to PLC and dumped in front 
  of Rocky-O, three times winner of 
  the ‘least helpful PLC clerk’ award. 
  Rocky-O’s modus operandi is to sullenly 
  ignore the Troubleshooters as much 
  as possible and do the least amount 
  of work possible. 
  Rocky-O: A Typically Frustrating 
  Interaction
  Troubleshooter: Hi there.
  Rocky-O: …
  Troubleshooter: Do you have any laser 
  barrels?
  Rocky-O: Dunno. 
  Troubleshooter: Can you check?
  Rocky-O: Yeah. 
  Troubleshooter: And?
  Rocky-O: What?
  Troubleshooter: Do you have any laser 
  barrels? 
  Rocky-O: Dunno.
  Troubleshooter: But you said you’d 
  check!
  Rocky-O: I said I could check. Didn’t say 
  I’d checked.
  Troubleshooter: Will you please 
  check? Now.
  Rocky-O: If you’re going to be abusive, 
  I’m not going to serve you. Next!
  Standard Equipment
  Each Troubleshooter is issued with:
  � A Clearance-appropriate jumpsuit
  � Boots
  � Clearance-appropriate Reﬂ ec
  � A laser pistol
  � (3) Clearance-appropriate laser 
  barrels
  � A PDC
  Bonus Equipment
  ‘According to my brieﬁ ng, you’ve got a 
  budget of 1,000 credits for this stuff.’
  Give the players the Bonus Equipment 
  List and let ‘em buy what they want. 
  They can spend their own cash on stuff 
  if they want.
  Most of this equipment either does 
  exactly what it sounds like, or is junk. 
  Notable bits:
  Map of Outdoors: If the Troubleshooters 
  have this, give ‘em the map handout.
  Crawler Operations Manual: Doesn’t 
  really help with piloting the crawler but 
  combine this with the repair kit and the 
  Troubleshooters can survive Scene 5 a 
  lot better.
  Crawler Repair Kit: See above.
  Troubleshooter Accessory Kit: 
  The clonebot produces naked, 
  unequipped clones. If the replacement 
  Troubleshooters want dignity and/or 
  ﬁ repower, they’ll need these kits. 
  Once the Troopers have selected 
  the equipment they want, Rocky-O 
  produces a broom and beats them until 
  they move onto the next room.
  The Next Room
  You’re in a room with a very, very, very 
  big door in one wall. The titanic door 
  is covered in warning signs, security 
  systems and hazard markers. Waiting for 
  you in the shadow of this mighty portal is 
  a crawler vehicle, a big bot and a citizen 
  wearing an R&D lab coat. He bounds up 
  to you and twitches in an over-cafﬁ nated 
  way. ‘Hihi! I’m Trent-G, your R&D liaison! 
  We’ll have you up and running in no time! 
  Who’s operating the Bot Detector?’
  Bot Detector
  The bot detector is a small handheld 
  gadget that Trent-G insists will pick 
  up on signals from Scoutbot R39. 
  The detector is incredibly ﬁ nicky and 
  troublesome. It loses the signal every 
  few minutes and can erroneously pick 
  up on false signals from other bots, 
  electronic devices, magnets, cosmic 
  rays, other transmitters, background 
  radiation, foreground radiation, body 
  heat, moisture, lack of moisture, metal 
  objects, plastic objects, itself, the crawler, 
  the operator, the operator’s bioelectric 
  ﬁ eld, small insects, loud noises, vibrations, 
  Unexpected Extras 
  Each of the three bits of equipment issued by Trent-G has a little extra something, courtesy of one of the sinister factions 
  who are after Scoutbot R39. 
  The Bot Detector: Contains a secret transmitter installed by Internal Security. The operator of the Bot Detector will get a 
  series of cryptic messages from IntSec over the course of the scenario. There’s at least one cryptic message in each scene.
  The CloneBot: The clonebot is a Corpore Metal agent. Any clones produced by the clonebot get a nasty little cybernetic 
  implant installed in their brains. This implant lets the clonebot shock them whenever they disobey the bot’s commands. The 
  implants burn out after a few shocks. The bot will hide its ability to zap the Troubleshooters until it’s in position to rescue 
  scoutbot R39.
  The Crawler: The crawler was prepared for its mission by a bunch of Frankenstein Destroyers who want to destroy the 
  mutinous scoutbot. They’ve installed a nice big bomb in the crawler’s engine compartment. The Troubleshooters will only 
  discover this is if they disassemble parts of the crawler (which they’ll probably do in Scene 5). If the bomb goes off, it’ll take 
  out the scoutbot. And the crawler. And the Troubleshooters. Hell, most of the hex. 
  
  21
  4. LITTLE LOST SCOUTBOT
  or the lack of any of the above. It emits a 
  high-pitched squeal when it’s about to 
  lose the signal.
  To maintain a lock on the signal from 
  R39, the operator must stay perfectly 
  still and do nothing except ﬁ ddle with 
  the detector’s controls. Doing anything 
  else means the operator has lost the 
  signal and the Troubleshooters will 
  have to drive around in the crawler 
  for hours looking for another trace. 
  The bot detector has a habit of losing 
  the signal in the middle of ﬁ reﬁ ghts or 
  other emergencies.
  The CloneBot
  The clonebot is basically a big glass 
  tank on tracks. It weighs about a 
  ton. Sloshing around inside the 
  tank are several dozen embryonic 
  clones. When a clone is needed, one 
  of the embryos is injected with DNA 
  templates and quick-grow drugs to 
  turn it into a suitable replacement 
  for the fallen Troubleshooter. The 
  clonebot then expels the ready clone 
  in a disturbing fashion by ejecting it 
  through a hatch. The fresh clones don’t 
  have any equipment, unless the team 
  brought along some spare gear or can 
  salvage equipment from the recently 
  deceased. 
  The clonebot’s personality is somewhere 
  between ‘overprotective mother’ and 
  ‘giant steel killing machine.’ WRAP 
  UP WARM, CITIZEN. DO NOT RUN WITH 
  SCISSORS, CITIZEN. ARE YOU SURE YOU 
  WANT TO DO THAT, CITIZEN.
  The Crawler
  The crawler is about the size of a small 
  truck. It’s a half-tracked, half-wheeled 
  vehicle. Inside, there’s living space for 
  six clones and the clonebot. The crawler 
  can be driven by a single operator in a 
  pinch but it’s supposed to have a crew 
  of three – one driver, one navigator/
  engineer and one gunner. There’s a 
  turret with a rotary machine gun on top. 
  There are four access points – through 
  the rear ramp, through the turret hatch, 
  or out the side doors. 
  The crawler has a built-in long range 
  communications system and Computer 
  interface. It’s also got a rather dumb 
  autopilot that tries to drive directly 
  back to Alpha Complex when activated, 
  even if there’s a tree or a river or a 
  Troubleshooter in the way. 
  3. Into The Outdoors!
  Summary: The PCs set off into the 
  Outdoors. Hex maps are involved. 
  If you’ve got Also Sprach Zarathusta to 
  hand, play it now. Bom bom bom bom 
  BOM BOM…
  You all climb into the crawler. The clonebot 
  rolls up the rear ramp and settles into a 
  niche at the back of the vehicle. You’re 
  ready to depart. 
  Slowly, slowly, the massive door begins 
  to move. The ground shakes. Sirens wail. 
  Titanic gears mesh and huge engines 
  toil to move the armoured portal. Slowly, 
  slowly it moves. An intolerably bright light 
  blasts your eyes. 
  Then there’s a CLUNK and the door stops 
  moving. A thin spire of smoke rises from 
  the gear mechanism. Trent-G taps on the 
  window. ‘I think you’d better just drive 
  around it’ he says and there is a very 
  narrow gap between the doorframe and 
  the door that you might be able to ﬁ t the 
  crawler through. So, who’s driving?
  Call for a Vehicle Ops roll. If the driver 
  If you don’t behave I’ll turn this crawler around.
  
  22
  PARANOIA: Treason  in Word and Deed
  TREASON IN WORD AND DEED
  succeeds, he makes it out the door. If he 
  fails, then he leaves a large chunk of the 
  crawler’s side behind as he drives out.
  The crawler trundles away from Alpha 
  Complex, into the forests of Outdoors. It’s 
  all very green, apart from the brown bits. 
  It’s a lot more comfortable to be Outdoors 
  when you’ve got the protective metal 
  shell of the crawler around you. 
  Where’s That Bot?
  So, the Troubleshooters should start 
  looking for the lost bot and they’ve got 
  a bot detector. Don’t prompt them – let 
  them wander randomly around the 
  map for a while until they remember 
  to use the detector.
  When one of the Troubleshooters does 
  use the detector, he picks up three 
  separate traces. The bot was blown 
  into three sections and the detector’s 
  picking up all three bits. Take a look 
  at the handy-dandy hexmap on page 
  32. (Give a photocopy to the players 
  if they’ve bought the map). The three 
  sections are in hexes 0803, 0209 and 
  0509. It’s up to the Troubleshooters 
  as to which one they want to head 
  for ﬁ rst.
  There’s an encounter associated with 
  each section.
  0803: Scene 7
  0209: Scene 8
  0509: Scene 9
  There are also three other encounters 
  you can run at any time, ideally between 
  each of the bot-bit encounters. So, the 
  game will probably run Scene 4-Scene 
  7-Scene-5-Scene 8-Scene 6-Scene 9. 
  Ah, the joy of non-linear narrative. Toss 
  another Noble prize on the ﬁ re there, 
  Jeeves.
  Detectored 
  Oh, while the Troubleshooter is using 
  the detector, he gets his first secret 
  message from IntSec through the 
  device. +++THIS IS INTERNAL SECURITY. 
  YOU HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED A SECRET 
  MISSION. DO NOT RELEASE YOUR 
  GRIP ON THIS DEVICE, OR IT WILL 
  EXPLODE.+++ They’re not kidding – if 
  the Troubleshooter who ﬁ rst uses the 
  bot detector lets go of it, there’s a very 
  small explosion, just big enough to 
  terminate the PC. 
  Drop in further messages when you 
  feel like it.
  +++YOUR MISSION IS TO RECOVER 
  THE DATA FILES FROM SCOUTBOT R39. 
  FAILURE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. DO 
  NOT REVEAL THIS MISSION TO ANYONE 
  ELSE ON YOUR TEAM.+++
  +++AT LEAST TWO MEMBERS OF 
  YOUR TEAM ARE TRAITORS. INTERNAL 
  SECURITY IS WATCHING YOU. TRUST 
  NO-ONE.+++
  +++DO NOT PERMIT SCOUTBOT 
  R39 TO FALL INTO ENEMY HANDS. 
  INTERNAL SECURITY IS RELYING ON 
  YOU, CITIZEN.+++
  +++SERVE US AND YOU WILL BE 
  REWARDED. FAIL US AND YOU WILL BE 
  TERMINATED.+++
  IntSec can pass on secret information 
  to their pawn, like the identity of any 
  undercover IntSec agents in the team or 
  the truth about MAUVE HAIRBRUSH.
  Outdoors Welcomes 
  Careful Drivers
  If the PCs know where they’re going, 
  then they can just drive straight there. 
  If they bought the map in PLC, then 
  they know what’s between them and 
  their destination; otherwise, they’re 
  driving blind and might wander into 
  a river or something. You might want 
  to throw on the Random Outdoors 
  Encounter Table every so often. It takes 
  one hour of game time to drive across 
  one woodland hex, by the way; if you 
  feel like it, it takes longer to drive over 
  hills but we’re verging on actual rules 
  here. Look, if you really want vehicle 
  movement rules, go use your favourite 
  wargame. Send the Troubleshooters to 
  Monte Cassino or something.
  The important thing is following the 
  signal from the bot. If they’ve got 
  the bot detector, they can use that. If 
  they’ve lost or blown up the detector, 
  then have The Computer contact them 
  by radio and sweetly ask them how 
  they’re doing. 
  If the crawler runs into difficulty – 
  quicksand, fallen trees, landmines, 
  Godzilla – have the driver make a 
  Vehicle Ops roll.
  4. Clubbed By Sierras
  Summary: The Sierra Clubbers who 
  shot down the drone attempt to 
  dissuade the Troubleshooters from 
  proceeding any further.
  Hitler Was A Vegetarian, 
  You Know 
  Time for a quick digression.
  Once upon a time, there was a citizen 
  called Bentleman-G. Like many 
  impressionable, treasonous citizens, he 
  joined a Secret Society – the Sierra Club. 
  He rose through the ranks, communed 
  with pot plants and tried to bring a 
  little bit of nature to Alpha Complex. 
  Unfortunately, Bentleman-G suffers 
  from allergies. The pot plants brought 
  him out in a rash; he sneezed when he 
  saw a ﬂ ower and sunlight gave him 
  burns. With typical PARANOIA logic, 
  Bentleman-G decided all his woes 
  were because of the polluting effects 
  of life in Alpha Complex and resolved 
  to escape!
  The Sierra Club’s ultimate goal is to 
  bring all of humanity back to nature. 
  They don’t want individual members 
  running off into the woods – if everyone 
  in the society did that, there’d be no 
  club anymore. Bentleman-G has gone 
  rogue by leaving Alpha Complex. 
  Worse, he took a dozen junior Sierra 
  Club members with him, the swine!
  Anyway, there are now a dozen or 
  
  23
  4. LITTLE LOST SCOUTBOT
  Random Encounters
  Roll
  Encounter
  1
  Muddy Field. Thick, sticky, goopy mud. Of course, the precision engineering of Alpha Complex can cope with 
  any such barriers, right? Apparently not – the crawler happily sinks into the mud. The Troubleshooters will have 
  to dig it out.
  2
  Fallen Tree. A fallen tree blocks the Troubleshooter’s path. There’s no easy way around.
  3
  Message from Alpha Complex. The team is given a side quest – er, extra mission, like lending aid to another 
  team Outdoors or collecting samples.
  4
  Ruined building: The crawler runs into (perhaps literally) a ruined building dating to Old Reckoning times. What’s 
  inside? Old Reckoning relics? Commies? A basement that collapses when the Troubleshooters investigate? 
  5
  Aerial Attack: Some aerial attacker, probably a dyspeptic seagull, sprays the crawler’s main viewport with a sticky 
  toxic goo. Who gets to wipe it off? What if it’s a biological weapon attack?
  6
  Heavy Rain: Miss a go.
  7
  It’s A Trap!: Someone’s dug a nasty pit trap in the middle of the trail, ﬁ lled with sharpened spikes. It might be an 
  animal trap. The crawler just rolled right into it.
  8
  Animal Attack: Something minor, like rats or wild hamsters or something.
  9
  Fog: It’s fog. 
  10
  Hostile Ambush: The crawler is attacked by natives of Outdoors – pick from fur-wearing cave people, post-
  apocalyptic bikers, crazed survivalists with sniper riﬂ es, Sierra Clubbers, or very, very confused Troubleshooters.
  11
  Big Animal Attack: Like a bear or a rhino or something. Yes, I am aware that Alpha Complex is built on the ruins 
  of San Francisco. They’ve got a zoo there, right?
  12
  Forest Fire: Not pictured: Smokey the Bear, on ﬁ re.
  13
  Annoying Ambush: The crawler is impeded by annoying natives – pick from fur-wearing, bone-waving shamans, 
  post-apocalyptic travelling salesmen, crazed preachers, paciﬁ c Sierra Clubbers who want the Troubleshooters to 
  join them in embracing nature, or very, very lost vending machines. 
  14
  Cryptic Transmission: The crawler receives a radio transmission from one of the other groups searching for the 
  scoutbot. The transmission is full of codewords and mysterious portentous phrases. Something like ‘Base, this is 
  Stalker One. The Runaway is in the Vat, repeat, Runaway is in the Vat. Estimating time to loop to be three-zero units. 
  Conﬁ rm authorisation for deployment of T.X.D units.’ 
  15
  Armed Forces Goons: The crawler is stopped by a patrol of trigger-happy Armed Forces goons who are guarding 
  this hex for no apparent reason. They demand that the Troubleshooters drive around the hex.
  16
  A Trail: A trail leads off into the wilderness. Where does it go? 
  17
  Morons from Another Complex: The crawler runs over the camp of the agents from the Other Complex (see 
  Scene 6). The agents ﬂ ee before the crawler arrives but the players get the strange experience of pawing through 
  the rubbish of a team from a place that’s like but also unlike Alpha Complex. 
  18
  IntSec Spy: The crawler bumps into a tree and Kevin-G the IntSec spy falls out of it. He’s on a secret mission that 
  he refuses to discuss. He demands that the Troubleshooters give him a lift to a point where he can be picked up 
  by an Alpha Complex ﬂ ybot.
  19
  Troubleshooters: The crawler runs into a bunch of Troubleshooters who are on a mission to look for a lost 
  crawler. Confusion arises.
  20
  Earthquake. Roll again. 1–10: Mild Tremor; 11–18: Big Tremor; 19–20: AAAAAGH
  Miss a turn.
  
  24
  PARANOIA: Treason  in Word and Deed
  TREASON IN WORD AND DEED
  so Sierra Club members lurking in 
  the forest, under the leadership of 
  renegade Sierra Club guru Bentleman-
  G. He’s determined to build a new 
  life here, outside of Alpha Complex, 
  despite having extremely limited 
  survival skills and enough allergies to 
  qualify as a mutant. They’ve got a small 
  camp in the middle of the forest where 
  they live in crude huts and complain 
  about the wind, the rain, the food 
  and the cold… unless Bentleman-G 
  or one of his favoured thugs is within 
  earshot, in which case they sing songs 
  about how wonderful it is to be out 
  here in the wilderness. It’s Jonestown, 
  only they’ve got rainwater instead 
  of Kool-Aid. Because of his allergies, 
  Bentleman-G lives in a nice, comfy 
  artificial crawler and eats funfoods 
  stolen from Alpha Complex. Truly, the 
  guru wishes he could live in the midst 
  of nature and eat natural foods too but 
  he’s still tainted by Alpha Complex. 
  Fast-forward to early this morning. 
  Scoutbot R39 buzzes their little 
  compound, Bentleman-G assumes 
  that Alpha Complex has declared war 
  on him and decides to ﬁ ght back. End 
  digression, on with the carnage!
  A Sinister Click
  You’re rolling along through the forest, 
  when the crawler stops suddenly. ‘ALERT’, 
  says the bot, ‘HAZARD DETECTED.’ 
  According to the readout, the hazard is 
  some sort of landmine and it’s right under 
  the front right track.
  The crawler has almost rolled over a 
  gauss landmine planted by the Sierra 
  Club. If this mine is triggered, it’ll zap the 
  electrical systems of the crawler and 
  everything on board, including the bot 
  detector, the clonebot and any high-
  tech weapons the Troubleshooters 
  have. (Did anyone buy machetes and 
  truncheons back in PLC?) Any attempts 
  to move the crawler without first 
  dealing with the mine detonates it. 
  The effects of the gauss mine wear off 
  after a while, which is small comfort if 
  all you’ve got is a laser pistol and some 
  lunatic Sierra Clubber has a pointed 
  stick. Or if you’ve got a pacemaker. 
  Disarming The Mine
  To disarm the mine, the Troubleshooter 
  has to climb out of the crawler (you 
  may care to suggest that any excessive 
  vibration triggers the mine), then 
  dig into the mud (anyone buy an 
  entrenching tool?) to ﬁ nd the mine and 
  then ﬁ nally disarm the mine (anyone 
  got really, really good Demolitions 
  skill?). Alternatively, the Troubleshooter 
  could push down on the mine’s contact 
  sensor and keep it depressed until 
  the crawler retreats to a safe distance, 
  heroically sacrificing himself for the 
  good of the mission.
  Ambush
  Adding to the challenge is the Sierra 
  Club ambush. Bentleman-G has a 
  GREEN laser pistol and his favoured 
  thugs have an ORANGE laser rifle, a 
  cone riﬂ e with explosive shells (which 
  they used to shoot down R39) and a 
  nasty big slugthrower. The rest of his 
  goons just have sharp sticks and bows 
  and arrows. 
  Read this if any of the Troubleshooters 
  emerge from the vehicle to deal with 
  the mine (or if they struggle out of the 
  crawler after its been fried).
  A voice rings out from the underbrush. 
  ‘Hands up, Troubleshooter! You’ve got 
  a high-powered laser pointed right at 
  you. If you don’t do exactly as I say, your 
  boots will be so smoking they’ll qualify as 
  a health hazard.’ 
  If the Troubleshooter surrenders, the 
  voice tells him to march into the forest, 
  where he’ll be grabbed and tied up 
  by the Sierra Clubbers. If he doesn’t 
  surrender, then zapzapzap. Ideally, you 
  should be able to capture most if not all 
  of the Troubleshooters. Emphasise that 
  the Sierra Clubbers are trying to take 
  them prisoner, not kill them all. 
  Sierra Club Camp Days
  The captured Troubleshooters are 
  marched through the forest to the 
  Sierra Club’s little compound – a 
  half-dozen little huts, surrounded by 
  a stake fence – and stripped of their 
  equipment. If the Clubbers manage to 
  capture the crawler, they drive it back 
  here too (or drag it, if it’s still fried from 
  the mine). The captured characters are 
  imprisoned in one of the huts.
  So, you’re all sitting there in the mud, tied 
  to the walls of this little wooden hut. The 
  ragged curtain over the door is drawn 
  back and a balding citizen in a tattered 
  GREEN suit enters and sneezes. He squints 
  through battered glasses at you. He’s 
  wearing heavy gloves and he’s got a 
  GREEN-barrelled laser in a side holster.
  ‘Welcome to Utopia! I am guru Bentleman 
  – achoo! – and I am here to bring you into 
  the –achoo – light of nature. By spending 
  time here in the puriﬁ cation hut, you will 
  purge yourselves of the toxic chemicals 
  and taint of Alpha Complex and come, as 
  we have, to love nature. Once you prove 
  that you love nature, you shall join the 
  community of Utopia.’
  The challenge here is clear – how can 
  Back To The Plot, Citizen! 
  It’s possible that the Troubleshooters may get severely separated in this scene. 
  Maybe some of them join Bentleman-G’s little utopia, or some escape into the 
  woods while others are captured. If they do get scattered, then have the Armed 
  Forces show up, blast the compound into cinders, capture all the Sierra Club 
  traitors, repair the crawler, reunite the PCs and send them off on their mission 
  once more. 
  Military efﬁ ciency from the Armed Forces? We’re through the looking glass here, 
  people…
  
  25
  4. LITTLE LOST SCOUTBOT
  the Troubleshooters prove that they 
  love nature? Bentleman-G will test them 
  in various ways, like:
  � ‘We do not eat the tainted, artiﬁ cial 
  foods of Alpha Complex here – we dine 
  on healthy, organic fare. A true lover of 
  nature desires only bark soup.’
  � ‘A true lover of nature would decry the 
  oppressive regime of The Computer. 
  Let me hear you all renounce that 
  cybernetic tyrant!’
  � ‘A true lover of nature embraces nature 
  in all its forms. In yonder cave, there’s a 
  big fuzzy natural cave bear. Who will 
  embrace it?’
  While they’re imprisoned, the 
  Troubleshooters see the other members 
  of Bentleman-G’s commune toiling, 
  grumbling and suffering. A few choice 
  words could spark a revolt easily 
  enough. The most likely outcome is that 
  the Troubleshooters pledge allegiance 
  to Bentleman-G for long enough to 
  get back to the crawler, then run for it 
  but more ambitious players may wish 
  to go all Rambo on the situation, or 
  orchestrate Bentleman-G’s overthrow. 
  Remember that his three loyal goons 
  are pretty heavily armed.
  5. Technical Difﬁ culties
  Summary: The crawler breaks down.
  Ideally, run this encounter at night.
  Clunk goes something absolutely critical 
  inside the crawler. The vehicle stops 
  moving and all the lights go out. It was 
  really dark outside, now it’s really dark 
  inside too.
  Did anyone buy hand torches back 
  at PLC? If so, then they’ve got some 
  illumination. Otherwise, they’re reduced 
  to blundering around by touch (or using 
  laser blasts for light). There’s plenty of 
  scope here for quick assassinations or 
  sabotage at this point.
  The Bats
  As soon as the Troubleshooters open 
  any of the crawler’s hatches, a ﬂ ock of 
  small bats ﬂ ies in.
  You push the hatch open and something 
  FLIES PAST YOUR FACE. You feel claws 
  slashing at your hair as small screeching 
  shapes push past you. They’re in the 
  crawler, man! THEY’RE IN THE CRAWLER!
  Th e  b a t s  a re  h a r m l e s s. Th e 
  Troubleshooters aren’t.
  Repairing the Crawler
  If the characters have both the Crawler 
  Operations Manual and the Crawler 
  Repair Kit, then they can quickly 
  ascertain that the crawler’s secondary 
  drive coil has blown. There’s a spare in 
  the repair kit. Problem solved!
  If they just have the Operations Manual, 
  then they can quickly ascertain what 
  the problem is but they’ll need to ﬁ nd a 
  suitable replacement part somewhere. 
  There might be a usable drive coil in 
  the clonebot, if they can persuade the 
  bot to give it up. Alternatively, they 
  can scavenge spare parts in some 
  conveniently placed ruins.
  If they only have the repair kit, they 
  have the part they need but will need to 
  make some Vehicle Ops or Engineering 
  rolls to ﬁ nd out what the problem is. 
  Failed rolls mean they misidentify the 
  damaged system and end up making 
  things worse. (‘Yeah, I know you brought 
  the crawler in with a dented fender and 
  you’re probably wondering why you’re 
  being charged for a new engine…’)
  If they don’t have the kit or the manual, 
  make them suffer.
  The Bomb
  Who’s actually repairing the crawler? In 
  our experience, it’s rare for a whole team 
  of Troubleshooters to pull together in 
  a sort of wartime spirit, singing merry 
  songs as they work side-by-side for the 
  common good. No, it’s more like:
  The Crawler’s Broken Down: A Typical 
  Conversation
  Name
  Role
  Group
  Notable Skills
  Mutant Power
  Secret Society
  Bentleman-G
  Guru
  Ex-CPU
  Oratory 12, Chutzpah 12 Bureaucratic 
  Intuition 15
  Sierra Club
  GREEN Reﬂ ec (E1), GREEN Laser Pistol (W3K), Hypocrisy 
  Favoured Goon
  Thug
  Ex-Armed Forces Violence 10
  Regeneration or 
  Adrenaline Control 
  10
  Sierra Club
  RED Reﬂ ec (E1) and either an ORANGE laser riﬂ e (W3K), Slug Thrower (W3K, Spray) or Cone Riﬂ e (W2K)
  Misguided Serf
  Slave
  Ex-PLC
  Suffer in Silence 10
  Varies
  Sierra Club but 
  regretting it now
  Pointed Stick (S3D)
  Bushy tail. Commie moustache. Same thing, really.
  
  26
  PARANOIA: Treason  in Word and Deed
  TREASON IN WORD AND DEED
  WHY ARE YOU 
  WEARING A 
  TINFOIL HAT, 
  CITIZEN?
  Name
  Role
  Group
  Notable Skills*
  Mutant Power
  Secret Society
  Dan-4339
  Team Leader
  Control
  Con Games 01, 
  Oratory 12
  Ink Spray 15
  Space Brothers
  Weird Ray Gun (W3K), Flak Jacket (I1)
  Urkel-3327
  Thug
  Defence 
  Violence 11
  None
  Robot Union
  Weird Ray Gun (W3K), Robotic Shell (Armour 2)
  Jessica-4220
  Spy
  Intelligence
  Alpha Complex 
  Society 10
  Empathic Liar 08
  Rangers
  Weird Ray Gun (W3K), Flak Jacket (I1)
  Team Leader: Oy, Equipment Guy. 
  Fix this.
  Equipment Guy: Sir, may I respectfully 
  remind you that the Loyalty Ofﬁ cer is a 
  trained vehicle maintenance technic –
  Team Leader: What does your badge 
  say?
  Equipment Guy: ‘I love Teela-O’, sir.
  Team Leader: The other one.
  Equipment Guy: Fine, ﬁ ne, I’ll ﬁ x the 
  crawler.
  Team Leader: We’ll be watching your 
  back for Commies. From a safe distance, 
  in case the reactor goes boom.
  Anyone fixing the crawler discovers 
  the Frankenstein Destroyer bomb 
  hidden in the engine compartment. 
  The bomb’s wired to the crawler’s air 
  conditioning system – turning it on 
  and off three times in quick succession 
  arms the bomb.
  6. Spies Like Us
  Summary: The agents of the Other 
  Complex attempt to steal the bot bits 
  the Troubleshooters have collected.
  The Troubleshooters aren’t the only 
  ones looking for R39. The agents of 
  the Other Complex are also searching 
  for that troublesome bot; it’s their 
  only link to Carrie-U. Their spies have 
  reported that there’s a Troubleshooter 
  team looking for the bot. They must 
  be stopped. 
  The Other Complex team consists of 
  three of their best agents, the sort of 
  square-jawed All-American hero who 
  would never ever be a damn slimy Alien 
  in disguise. 
  Dan-4339-GAMMA: The team leader, 
  brimming with absurd self-conﬁ dence. 
  He’s not that bright but he sounds 
  very commanding – he’s got the voice 
  and demeanour of the most trusted 
  television news anchor from the 1950s 
  that you can imagine but he’s got the 
  brains of the weather girl.
  Urkel-3327-BETA: He’s secretly an 
  android out to assassinate the rest 
  of the team. He speaks in a stilted, 
  artificial way. Sometimes, his flesh 
  mask falls off. 
  Jessica-4220-BETA: She’s an ‘expert’ 
  on Alpha Complex culture, which 
  means she’s got a thick stack of notes 
  compiled from spy reports and wild 
  rumours, like ‘happiness is mandatory 
  in Alpha Complex, so everyone in Alpha 
  Complex is given happiness glands to 
  produce more happy hormones.’ She’s 
  also plotting to kill Dan, as she thinks 
  he’s an alien sympathiser. 
  Play these three as really bad spies. 
  Hello, Fellow Citizenoids
  You’re driving along through the forest, 
  when suddenly three ﬁ gures step out of 
  the undergrowth. There are two citizens 
  in RED and one in GREEN, although their 
  jumpsuits look weird and they’re carrying 
  some sort of experimental equipment. 
  The GREEN citizen waves at you and 
  wants you to stop. 
  As soon as the Troubleshooters open 
  the door, Dan-4339 unleashes a 
  dazzling display of misdirection and 
  cunning deceits. 
  ‘Hi there, patriots. I mean, citizens. I’m 
  Dan-GREEN-ABC, as you can see by my 
  colour-coded jumpsuit. I’m on a special 
  mission from Control Processing. You’ve 
  got some alien, I mean, Communistic 
  equipment on board that we need to, er, 
  take into custody. Yeah.’
  Dan tries to bluff the Troubleshooters 
  into handing over the bot bits using 
  all sorts of ‘accurate’ Alpha Complex 
  slang, Jessica corrects him and Urkle 
  looks threatening. If the players are 
  remarkably stupid, then they might  
  hand any collected bot bits over to 
  the Other Complexians. It’s more likely 
  they’ll end up shooting them.
  An Offer You 
  Can Actually Refuse
  If things go badly, then Dan switches 
  
  27
  4. LITTLE LOST SCOUTBOT
  to bargaining. 
  ‘Ok, ok, you got us. We’re not from your 
  Alpha Complex. We’re from another 
  Complex. Our mission is to recover some 
  information from that downed bot. If 
  you help us, then we’ll help you. If you get 
  us the bot data, we’ll help you defect to 
  our Complex. We know what life is like in 
  Alpha Complex. Things are better over in 
  our Complex.’
  This is probably a lie – Dan does want 
  the data but has no intention of helping 
  the Troubleshooters defect. Of course, 
  if you want to try a radical shift in your 
  PARANOIA game, you could send the 
  PCs over to the Other Complex for 
  a while. Just watch out for the Giant 
  Radioactive Ants and the Saucermen. 
  If things go very badly, then Urkel 
  goes berserk and it all ends in tears 
  and dismemberment. The team from 
  the Other Complex may follow the 
  Troubleshooters and try to steal the bot 
  bits again later in the mission.
  7. The Small Things
  Summary: Oddly, the brain of the 
  Scoutbot and the common acorn are 
  exactly the same size.
  Bleep bleep bleep bleeeeep! According to 
  your instruments, you’re right on top of 
  one of the bot bits. A quick search of the 
  undergrowth turns up the brain case. It’s 
  pretty badly damaged and cracked down 
  the middle but the tiny brain itself should 
  be intact. There’s no sign of it…
  …then from directly above you, you see 
  a flash of light, sunlight reflecting off 
  metal. Something fuzzy and grey bolts 
  into a hole in a tree and you think it was 
  carrying the delicate bot brain. 
  Somewhere up that tree, there’s a 
  squirrel, which collected a particularly 
  shiny nut. The squirrel is loath to give 
  it up and will bound away from any 
  threats. The bot brain is extremely 
  fragile, so blasting the vermin with lasers 
  isn’t a good idea. The Troubleshooters 
  will have to lure the squirrel down to 
  get the brain back.
  Mutant Squirrels & 
  Carnivorous Trees 
  (Optional)
  You may get endless mileage out of a 
  single mischievous squirrel that’s hard 
  to catch. You may ﬁ nd it a delightfully 
  amusing sequence, like a Disney movie 
  with laser pistols. However, if you’ve got 
  the sort of players who’d drill Bambi 
  between the eyes and use Telekinesis 
  to grab the falling brain, then you 
  may want to complicate their lives 
  somewhat. 
  Your perfectly aimed laser blast hits 
  the squirrel squarely – but the squirrel’s 
  mutant Energy Field protects it! Trailing 
  smoke, the pest leaps into another stand 
  of trees. Hang on, most trees don’t have… 
  tentacles!
  The Carnivorous Trees are immobile 
  but have really long tentacles. They 
  feed through vampiric roots. The 
  Carnivorous Trees will try to grab the 
  PCs, haul them over and then plant 
  them head down in the soil. 
   
  8. Botwired
  Summary: The bot’s communications 
  and sensor system has been hijacked 
  by the Burton Entity.
  Another digression. Zoom back a few 
  hundred years. Hotchkis Burton was 
  the king of talk radio, a hard-talkin’ 
  patriot who said exactly what he 
  thought about everything but mostly 
  guns, god and the evils of both the 
  Government and foreigners. As he 
  became marginalised by the rise of 
  the Polity, Burton’s devoted followers 
  paid for the construction of the Burton 
  Dome, an underground base from 
  where the truth could be spoken. The 
  Burton Dome included one of the early 
  prototype cloning machines and a 
  custodian robot, Abe-2.
  Meteor hits, civilisation collapses, 
  yadda yadda, rise of Alpha Complex. 
  Burton’s cloned over and over and 
  over and over and over. Replicative 
  fading sets in, Burton becomes nuttier 
  than ever as he vomits bile over the 
  airwaves to anyone who’s listening 
  (giant mutant cockroaches, mostly). 
  A few decades ago, a lightning strike 
  took out Burton’s transmitter dish. This 
  morning, Abe-2 found the wreckage 
  of R39’s communications array and 
  dragged it back to the Burton Dome.
  Hotchkis Burton The 137th: The 
  136th clone of the famed radio host is 
  blind, grotesquely fat and more than 
  half mouth. It ‘sees’ by echolocation 
  – Burton can detect the reﬂ ected sound 
  waves from one of his rants. He also 
  believes he can smell Communism. He 
  is patently insane but has tremendous 
  force of personality. 
  Abe-2: Two and a half metres of 
  titanium steel, with massive gripper 
  claws that can rip a car in half and 
  programmed with utter devotion to 
  Burton. The SUV of killer robots. 
  A Clue!
  You ﬁ nd the spot where one of the bot’s 
  larger components landed. You know this 
  thanks to your keen deductive powers 
  and the fact that there’s a small crater 
  and several scorched bushes nearby. 
  A quick search reveals that the bot bit 
  is gone. It seems to have been taken 
  by another bot or vehicle, as there are 
  treadmarks leading off towards a small 
  domed structure.
  As the Troubleshooters approach the 
  dome, they pick up Burton’s radio 
  transmissions.
  Was the president cloned in this country?
  
  28
  PARANOIA: Treason  in Word and Deed
  TREASON IN WORD AND DEED
  ‘Rejoice, my fellow Amurricans, the forces 
  of creeping sociofascism couldn’t keep us 
  off the air. I know it’s been some time since 
  our last broadcast and that many of you 
  may be dead but I also know that the ﬁ re 
  of patriotism burns in the few scattered 
  survivors of our great nation.’ Burton 
  continues to ramble on, ranting about 
  the evils of socialism and the collapse 
  of society, blaming every problem on 
  a) insufﬁ cient patriotism or b) liberal 
  socialism.
  The dome itself is about 20 metres 
  across. There’s a single entrance, 
  leading to a walkway that runs around 
  the inside of the dome. Abe-2 patrols 
  the walkway. Within the structure, 
  there’s a central transmitter tower, 
  humming and crackling, with the 
  scavenged bits of scoutbot R39 wired 
  into the topmost section. 
  On the lower level, between the raised 
  walkway and the central tower, there’s 
  Burton’s studio and cloning tanks. 
  Special Guest Stars
  As soon as you walk in the door, a voice 
  booms ‘hot dog, we’ve got some guests 
  for interview! Get on down here!’ The 
  speaker is a semi-gelatinous, once-
  human thing that squats behind a radio  
  control. Behind it, there’s a towering 
  transmitter tower that crackles with 
  electricity and atop the tower you can 
  see what must be part of Scoutbot R39. 
  It looks like the bot has been wired into 
  the tower somehow.
  Another robot rolls towards you. ‘MR 
  BURTON WILL INTERVIEW YOU NOW’ it 
  says, lights ﬂ ashing in time with its words. 
  ‘YOU ARE LIVE ON RADIO FREEDOM.’
  If the Troubleshooters refuse, then 
  Abe-2 attacks while Burton comments 
  on the whole thing (‘folks, we’re under 
  attack here by Commies who’re trying 
  to shut down the one free radio station. 
  We’ll hold out as long as we can! 
  Remember the Alamo!’). Skip onto First 
  Time Caller before the Troubleshooters 
  beat Abe-2.
  If they accept, then Burton interviews 
  the Troubleshooters. His interview 
  technique is to blurt out something 
  incredibly offensive or simplistic, then 
  shout over his guests when they try to 
  answer him. If he ﬁ nds out they want 
  the salvaged bit of R39, then they’re 
  trying to shut him down. If they admit 
  they’re from ‘Alpha Complex’, they’re 
  Big Government. Anyone who argues 
  with Burton is a crypto-Commie. See 
  if you can get the players to accuse 
  each other. 
  When the Troubleshooters are on the 
  verge of shooting Burton or each other, 
  run First Time Caller.
  First Time Caller
  A light starts blinking on Burton’s desk. 
  ‘Folks, we’ve got a caller! Go ahead, you’re 
  on the air with Hotchkis Burton!’
  ‘HELLO BURTON. I’M A LONG TIME 
  LISTENER, FIRST TIME CALLER.’
  ‘What’s your name, sir?’
  ‘I AM YOUR FRIEND, THE COMPUTER.’
  ‘You’re a computer, eh? Not sure how I 
  feel about that.’
  ‘I DON’T LIKE COMMIES EITHER, BURTON. I 
  JUST WANTED TO SAY THAT I’M A BIG FAN 
  OF YOUR SHOW.’
  Yep, The Computer picked up Burton’s 
  transmissions and likes the little it’s 
  heard. Ultimately, of course, Burton’s 
  brand of group-think is incompatible 
  with The Computer’s orthodoxy but on 
  a surface level they get along just ﬁ ne. 
  The Computer likes Burton. Therefore, 
  the Troubleshooters can’t just laser 
  their way out with R39.
  Options? They could bring Burton back 
  to Alpha Complex with them – he’d ﬁ t 
  in ﬁ ne in some parts of HPD&MC. They 
  could rewire the communications 
  system from the crawler to serve as 
  a transmitter. They could promise to 
  return with a bigger transmitter. They 
  could keep Burton talking while they 
  steal the bot bits.
  9. Bot On A Hot Tin Roof
  Summary: The ﬁ nal bit of the bot is 
  lodged atop a crumbling building. So, 
  who’s played Jenga?
  You emerge from the woods into a 
  ruined area. The shattered remains of 
  ancient buildings are all around you. 
  Most of them collapsed centuries ago 
  but up ahead there are eight multi-storey 
  tower blocks that are still standing. Well, 
  leaning anyway – by some quirk of fate, 
  the towers all fell against each other, 
  keeping them up despite their physical 
  condition.
  According to your sensors, some part of 
  Scoutbot R39 is at the top of this tangle 
  of concrete and steel. 
  The scoutbot’s main power source and 
  plasma thrusters are lodged at the top 
  of the towers. Every few minutes, the 
  plasma thruster triggers randomly, 
  causing the whole tangle of buildings 
  to shake and a spout of blue ﬂ ame to 
  wash over the top of the towers. The bot 
  bit is caught on a metal girder.
  Climbing the towers is a very, very 
  delicate operation. Every footstep 
  causes the whole thing to shake 
  alarmingly, sending dust and plaster 
  cascading from the ceiling. There’s no 
  direct way up; the Troubleshooters 
  have to climb partway up one tower, 
  then make their way across to a 
  neighbouring tower, then climb from 
  there. Think of it as a really annoying 
  jumping puzzle in a computer game. 
  Some sample obstacles:
  � The Fallen Girder: A fallen 
  girder blocks the door the 
  Troubleshooters need to go 
  
  29
  WELCOME TO 
  THE MIDDLE 
  OF THE FIRING 
  RANGE.
  Incoming ﬁ re. Outgoing clones.
  4. LITTLE LOST SCOUTBOT
  through. Two Troubleshooters 
  working together might be able 
  to lift it but if one of them lets go 
  at the wrong moment, the other 
  character will be pinned.
  � The Narrow Path: There’s a large 
  pit with a single plank of wood 
  across it. Single file only, who’s 
  going ﬁ rst?
  � The Big Drop: The Troubleshooters 
  have to jump across a bit. The ﬁ rst 
  person across has the hardest 
  jump but can help those coming 
  afterwards.
  � The Shaky Path: This upper section 
  of the building is really unstable. 
  Any vibration could cause part 
  of the ﬂ oor to collapse. Only one 
  Troubleshooter can cross at a time 
  and if anyone causes the building 
  to shake while he’s crossing, then 
  he’ll become very well acquainted 
  with the principles of gravity.
  Recovering The Bot
  Switching off the bot’s thruster requires 
  a Bot Operations roll. If this roll is failed, 
  or if the Troubleshooters forget to 
  disconnect the thruster, then the bot’s 
  engines randomly fire. By randomly, 
  we mean ‘exactly when it’s most 
  inconvenient.’ Imagine trying to climb 
  down a rickety, rotten staircase while 
  holding a fat baby. Now, assume that the 
  baby’s concealing a jet engine about its 
  person and switches this jet engine on 
  randomly. Silly, airborne baby. 
  10. MAUVE HAIRBRUSH 
  Apocalypse 
  Summary: The three bits of 
  scoutbot R39 are reunited, giving the 
  Troubleshooters access to its onboard 
  systems. The sky falls.
  At this point, the Troubleshooters 
  should have all the bits of the bot. 
  Remind them that, according to the 
  brieﬁ ng, they’re supposed to repair it. 
  Repairing it is suspiciously easy – it just 
  plugs together without even needing 
  a skill roll.
  The repaired scoutbot quivers as it 
  reboots. ‘System error’, it says, ‘my 
  communications buffer is overloaded. 
  User intervention required. Three 
  messages are queued. Message #1- Play/
  Skip/Transmit/Download to Storage 
  Device/Delete?’
  For each of the three messages, the 
  Troubleshooters can choose any of 
  the options. There’s a gap between 
  selecting an option and the bot 
  actually executing the command, 
  giving the characters time to shout 
  ‘cancel’ if they want. 
  Message #1: ‘R39 TO BASE. GRID REF 
  16.2. INITATE MAUVE HAIRBRUSH.’
  If message #1 is transmitted, the Armed 
  Forces begin testing their new artillery 
  weapons, targeting scoutbot R39. 
  Unless the Troubleshooters run like 
  crazy, they’ll be splattered in a few 
  minutes. If they delete message #1, 
  then they’ve just sabotaged Operation 
  MAUVE HAIRBRUSH – try explaining 
  that back in debrieﬁ ng.
  Message #2: ‘R39 TO BASE. INCOMING 
  MISSILE! INCOMING MISSILE! INCAME 
  MISSILE! SEVERE DAMAGE. ESTIMATED 
  TIME TO IMPACT – 0 SECONDS. OW.’
  Message #3: ‘CARRIE-U TO DAN-4439. I 
  accept your proposal. Transmit the data to 
  the bot relay and I’ll send you the backdoor 
  codes to the Alpha Complex mainframe.’
  If message #3 is found by IntSec, then 
  High Programmer Carrie-U is doomed.
  Debrieﬁ ng
  A ‘successful’ debriefing involves 
  all the Troubleshooters waking up 
  back in Alpha Complex, after MAUVE 
  HAIRBRUSH’s artillery strike wiped 
  out the team, the scoutbot, the 
  clonebot, the crawler and most of 
  the map. Alan-I apologises for the 
  slight misunderstanding, salutes them 
  for their bravery and gives them a 
  promotion as compensation for the 
  loss of a clone.
  If the Troubleshooters managed 
  to avoid the MAUVE HAIRBRUSH 
  gotterdammerung, then things are a 
  lot more interesting. They may have 
  either sabotaged an Armed Forces 
  mission (which is very bad) or returned 
  with proof of a treacherous High 
  Programmer (which is very good). 
  Canny players may be able to trade 
  the scoutbot to IntSec or to Carrie-U 
  through Janice-G.
  
  30
  PARANOIA: Treason  in Word and Deed
  TREASON IN WORD AND DEED
  Bob-Y-Rok
  Security Clearance: YELLOW
  Credits: You can’t count that high.
  Tic: Totally awesome.
  Example of tic in use
  Bob-Y: Hi, I’m Bob-Y.
  Everyone Else: That’s AWESOME. 
  Action Skills & Specialities
  Management 06
  Chutzpah 10
  Oratory 10
  Moxie 01
  Bootlicking 01
  Looking Cool 12
  Stealth 06
  Surveillance 10
  Disguise 10
  Bob-Y-ROK
  Mutation: Uncanny Luck
  Society: None (but see below)
  Secret Skills: Nope
  Background
  You’re, like, a hero. All the drugs mean 
  you’re not really sure about a lot of 
  stuff but everyone tells you you’re like, 
  the toughest most heroic hero on any 
  vidshow. Or in real life. It all gets a bit 
  blurry sometimes. Whatever. You’re a 
  hero. You zap commies and stuff and 
  people love you for it.
  You’re awesome. It’s great being 
  awesome. 
  Anyway, a few daycycles ago, your 
  handler was away and you gave an 
  interview where you said some stuff. 
  You can’t recall exactly what you said 
  but hey, you’re THE Bob-Y-ROK. Nothing 
  can go wrong.
  Oh, by the way, you bought a load of 
  spare clones when you were high. You 
  don’t know how many clones you’ve 
  got left. 
  Secret Society Instructions
  Bob-Y’s too dumb and drugged-up 
  to actually be part of a Secret Society. 
  However, he’s been brainwashed with 
  Humanist propaganda. If Bob-Y’s ever 
  got an audience to preach to, then he 
  starts spouting Humanist teachings 
  about how The Computer should really 
  be reprogrammed to serve humans 
  and how the coming revolution will 
  bring freedom to all citizens under the 
  wise guidance of the Humanist Society 
  and how citizens must rise up against 
  the oppression of The Computer and, 
  y’know…stuff. 
  Assigned Equipment
  Kelvar Armour (I3) under YELLOW 
  Reﬂ ec (E1)
  Energy Pistol (YELLOW)
  Force Sword (BLUE, special dispensation 
  permitting you to use it)
  Sneaking 01
  Looking Good On Camera 12
  Violence 10
  Energy Weapons 14
  Agility 14
  Demolition 01
  Shooting Everything In Sight 16
  Knowledge Skills & Specialities
  Hardware 04
  Software 04
  Multicorder Editing 08
  Wetware 04
  Biosciences 08
  Medical 08
  Outdoor Life 01
  Suggestion 01
  5. Handouts
  
  31
  Report for termination immediately.
  5. HANDOUTS
  Bonus Equipment List
  Assigned Credit Budget: 1,000
  Item
  Cost
  Item
  Cost
  Item
  Cost
  Emergency rations 
  (1)
  20
  Map of Outdoors
  200
  Troubleshooter 
  accessory pack, 
  basic*
  200
  Delicious rations (1)
  50
  Long range 
  communicator
  100
  Troubleshooter 
  accessory pack, 
  advanced*
  400
  Medical Kit
  250
  Crawler Operation 
  Manual
  200
  Distress ﬂ are
  50
  Water puriﬁ er
  50
  Multicorder**
  600
  Shiny Beads
  100
  Happiness Pills (24)
  200**
  Hygiene Kit**
  50
  Crawler Insurance
  400
  Foldout Entrenching 
  Tool
  50
  Crawler Repair Kit**
  500
  Crawler Cleaning Kit 400
  Travel Approved-
  Word Scrabble
  25
  Machete
  20
  Hand torch
  100
  Loyalty Ofﬁ cer’s 
  Notebook**
  50
  Self-Assembling 
  Portable Shelter
  200
  Geiger counter
  100
  Loyalty Ofﬁ cer’s 
  Notebook, 
  Waterproof**
  200
  RED laser barrel
  25
  Inﬂ atable Raft
  250
  *: End User Note. The CloneBot does not replace equipment. If you expect deaths, please purchase extra Troubleshooter 
  accessory packs.
  Basic Pack: Boots, RED Reﬂ ec, RED laser pistol with one barrel.
  Advanced Pack: Basic pack plus any MBD equipment, PDC, extra laser barrel.
  **: Counts as MBD equipment
  
  32
  PARANOIA: Treason  in Word and Deed
  TREASON IN WORD AND DEED
  
  TRUST THE COMPUTER! THE COMPUTER IS YOUR FRIEND!
  Troubleshooters! Internal Security believes that there is a traitor in your team! 
  Therefore, you will be locked inside this vault for the next 72 hours and subjected to a 
  series of rigorous psychological tests to determine your loyalty. If you are loyal, you 
  have nothing to fear (except extreme physical discomfort, lack of oxygen, potential 
  psychological damage and accidental termination). However, if you are a despicable 
  traitor, then you will be uncovered and punished! Seal the vault! Let the testing 
  commence!  A 32-page deathtrap, er, mission for Troubleshooters.
  PARANOIA: A light-hearted game of backstabbing, treachery and guile, where trusting 
  other players is a sure route to the termination centre. Get paranoid. Or else!
  PARANOIA IS FUN. OTHER GAMES ARE NOT FUN. BUY PARANOIA.
  Treason in Word and Deed 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-
  508-70-8
  70-8 $9.95
  $9.95 
  MONGOOSE PUBLISHING—SWINDON, U
  MONGOOSE PUBLISHING—SWINDON, UK 
  MGP 
  MGP 66
  6669
  For use with 
  Troubleshooters
  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.
  Treason in Word and Deed
  Treason in Word and Deed
  ™
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Paranoia [multi]/25th Anniversary/Paranoia 25th - Treason in Word and Deed.pdf