TEXT: Original 
  Original PARANOIA
  PARANOIA design
   design
  DAN GELBER
  DAN GELBER
  GREG COSTIKYAN
  GREG COSTIKYAN
  ERIC GOLDBERG
  ERIC GOLDBERG
  New 
  New PARANOIA
  PARANOIA edition
  edition
  GARETH HANRAHAN
  GARETH HANRAHAN
  PARANOIA
  ™
  High Programmers
  High Programmers
  
  Introduction  
  2
  Life in Utopia 
  3
  Welcome High Programmer 
  6
  The Situation Room 
  8
  How High Programmers Work 
  9
  Creating Your High Programmer 10
  Basic Rules  
  17
  Access  
  18
  Service Groups 
  19
  Minions 
  20
  Portfolio Sheets & Ground Cards 23
  Cloning 
  34
  The Greasy Pole 
  34
  High Programming 
  38
  Secrets of the High Programmers   40
  Scenes, Communication & Tension 44
  Combat 
  47
  Treason & Infamy   
  49
  GARETH HANRAHAN
  Writer/Scapegoat
  CHARLOTTE LAW
  Editing /Drillbot
  CHRIS QUILLIAMS
  Cover/Blueprints
  TONY EMSON 
  Interior Illustrations/Treasonous Propaganda
  WILL CHAPMAN
  Layout/Infrared drone
  NICK ROBINSON 
  Proofreader/Intsec goon
  DAN GELBER
  GREG COSTIKYAN
  ERIC GOLDBERG
  Original game design & development/
  Building committee
  THE COMPUTER
  Looking after your best interests
  High Programmers TM & Copyright © 1983, 1987, 2010 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 Mongoose Publishing, Swindon, Wiltshire SN3 1DG, UNITED KINGDOM. 
  On the World Wide Web: www.mongoosepublishing.com.
  Published by Mongoose Publishing, Ltd. Published January 2010. Printed In USA.
  ™
  High Programmers
  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.
  ALLEN VARNEY, AARON ALLSTON, PAUL BADOWSKI, BETH FISCHI, EDEL RYDER, STEVE GILBERT, 
  KEN ROLSTON, ERICK WUJCIK, R. ERIC REUSS
  Additional Material/Co-Conspirators
  Skills and Specialties 
  51
  Mutations  
  58
  Secret Societies  
  64
  The Computer  
  80
  Crisis Management 
  84
  Secret Agendas 
  98
  Gamemastering High Programmers 101
  Minions & More  
  105
  What UVs Worry About  
  142
  Famous High Programmers 
  149
  Mission Schema  
  150
  Disaster Management 
  151
  High Programmers 
   
  162
  Alternate Play Styles 
  168
  High Programmer Character Sheet 170
  Tables 
  171
  Index  
  172
  C r e d i t s  &  C o n t e n t s
  
  2
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Citizen, in recognition of your years of loyal service, you are now 
  promoted to ULTRAVIOLET Clearance. Congratulations! A celebratory 
  case of Bouncy Bubble Beverage has been sent to your current location. 
  Share and enjoy, citizen! This is the ﬁ rst of the many, many rewards for 
  your new responsibilities. 
  As an ULTRAVIOLET citizen, you are now permitted to access previously 
  restricted computer systems. You will now be granted HIGH PROGRAMMER 
  privileges. 
  Upgrading Security Clearance… done.
  Changing user permissions… done.
  Unlocking secret ﬁ les… done.
  Use these privileges wisely, citizen. As a HIGH PROGRAMMER, you are responsible 
  for guiding Alpha Complex through tumultuous crises and making decisions 
  about the fate of millions of citizens. You are The Computer’s most trusted advisors, 
  the last line of defence against Commie Mutant Traitors. Remain vigilant! While 
  every precaution has been taken to ensure that no Commie Mutant Traitor rises to 
  ULTRAVIOLET Clearance, you must still remain vigilant! Remember,
  -   STAY ALERT!
  -   TRUST NO-ONE!
  -   KEEP YOUR LASER HANDY!
  Welcome, High Programmer.
  Introduction
  
  3
  1. LIFE IN UTOPIA
  1. Life in Utopia
  Welcome, High Programmer!
  Please review the APPROVED HISTORY 
  OF ALPHA COMPLEX. This document is 
  ULTRAVIOLET Clearance. 
  Centuries ago, everyone was moderately 
  happy. The world was at peace 
  and people lived in above-ground  
  ‘cities’. They were ruled by a human 
  government, although many municipal 
  duties and logistics were handled by 
  computers. It was an age of peace and 
  moderate happiness. 
  +++Directive 214.36: Citizens below 
  ORANGE Clearance are to believe that the 
  ‘Old Reckoning’ time period was highly 
  unpleasant; suggest it was a time of famine 
  and suffering. Citizens YELLOW and higher 
  are permitted to access ofﬁ cial histories 
  and to know details about the past.
  At all levels, interest in the past is to be 
  discouraged. The past is permitted to exist 
  for two reasons only. Firstly, to provide 
  context for certain useful records, such as 
  maps of Outdoors. Secondly, as a counter-
  example for propaganda purposes, to 
  show how much better life is under the 
  current regime. It is intended that the 
  remaining Old Reckoning records of use 
  will be converted into an approved format 
  within the next 10 yearcycles. At this 
  point, the past can ﬁ nally be freed from 
  the constraints of reality, which has a well 
  known bias against security.+++
  All went well until lunar observatories 
  noted a planetoid about the size of 
  Sheboygan within the orbit of Saturn, 
  moving inward toward the Sun – and 
  Earth. Brave attempts to divert or 
  destroy the planetoid were futile. A 
  global emergency was declared as 
  the planetoid approached. Cities were 
  converted into domed shelters to survive 
  the impending apocalypse.
  The city of San Francisco, a jewel of the 
  age of peace, was one of these shelters. 
  Today, we call it by its new name – Alpha 
  Complex. 
  The planetoid entered the Earth’s 
  atmosphere, halved, then struck the 
  surface in many places. Oceans boiled. 
  Subterranean magma chambers 
  exploded. Earthquakes shattered the 
  Earth’s crust. Volcanoes spewed gas 
  and lava into dense cloud banks that 
  immediately engulfed the planet. 
  +++ Directive 214.54: INFRARED citizens are 
  taught that the Outdoors is uninhabitable 
  to prevent them from wandering off.  At 
  RED Clearance, citizens are permitted to 
  know that Outdoors is habitable but ﬁ lled 
  with dangerous monsters and Commies. 
  All citizens are constantly reminded of the 
  existence of an external enemy. +++
  Worse was to follow. The Communists, 
  long thought defeated, took advantage 
  of the chaos to launch a massive attack 
  on the free world. Many shelters fell to 
  the Commies, either by force of arms or 
  by subversion from within. The enemy 
  seized control of the central node in 
  the global computer network, Alpha 
  Prime and attempted to convince Alpha 
  Complex’s computer to surrender.
  +++ The identification of the threat as 
  ‘Communism’ comes from references in 
  Civil Defence archives that were severely 
  outdated even before the apocalypse. 
  Most clued-in citizens are aware that the 
  Communist threat is greatly exaggerated. 
  The Computer’s paranoia about 
  Communism is so ingrained, though, that 
  any attempts to convince it of this fact are 
  treated as Commie subversions. +++ 
  The wise Computer saw through this 
  transparent Commie ploy and realised 
  that the other shelters had fallen to 
  the Red Menace. Alpha Complex was 
  the only free remnant of a once-great 
  civilisation and was now surrounded 
  by a host of enemies. Only by constant 
  vigilance could Alpha Complex remain 
  free and untainted by Communism! 
  For security reasons, The Computer 
  instituted ﬁ ve key directives that are the 
  foundation of modern Alpha Complex 
  society. 
   Complex Security 
  Directive
  STAY ALERT! TRUST NO-ONE! KEEP 
  YOUR LASER HANDY!
  Defending Alpha Complex against 
  the threats of Communism, mutants, 
  traitors, ﬁ lesharers, hackers, rogue bots, 
  renegades, WMDs and saboteurs is 
  the ﬁ rst priority of all citizens and The 
  Computer. For the duration of the 
  crisis, all rights are suspended. Total 
  surveillance ensures the safety of all 
  citizens. A watched citizen is a safe citizen, 
  so there are cameras in every corridor, in 
  every room, in every appliance and soon 
  in every skull. 
  Citizens are directed to co-operate 
  fully with Internal Security and The 
  Computer’s trusted ofﬁ cials. All citizens 
  Clearance 
  Population %
  Common Duties
  INFRARED
  ~80%
  Stirring food vats, basic manual labour, 
  paper pushing, data entry
  RED
  10%
  Manual labour, cannon fodder, reactor 
  shielding, ofﬁ ce clerks
  ORANGE
  6%
  Supervisors, technicians
  YELLOW
  2%
  Middle management, assessors, form 
  checkers, bureaucrats
  GREEN
  2%
  Senior supervisors, managing directors, 
  vidshow directors, IntSec goons
  BLUE
  1%
  Junior executives, vidshow producers, 
  IntSec Troopers, Armed Forces captains
  INDIGO
  <1%
  Senior executives,  directors, experts, 
  analysts
  VIOLET
  <1%
  CEOs, Armed Forces generals, IntSec 
  commissioners, High Programmer aides
  ULTRAVIOLET
  <1%
  High Programmer
  
  4
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  must report on their friends and co-
  workers. Anyone could be a Commie 
  Mutant Traitor! 
  +++ The threat of an external enemy 
  distracts the citizens’ minds away from their 
  own situation. Necessary adjustments to 
  living arrangements, resources availability 
  or population can be couched in terms of 
  the war on Communism. Any policy may be 
  justiﬁ ed on the grounds of Alpha Complex 
  security.+++
  Trusted Citizen Initiative
  To ensure that key information does 
  not fall into enemy hands, all citizens, 
  locations and documents in Alpha 
  Complex are colour coded. The Security 
  Clearance system runs from INFRARED 
  to ULTRAVIOLET. Security Clearance 
  is a measure of how much trust The 
  Computer puts in each citizen and is not 
  directly correlated to job assignment, 
  seniority or allocated resources. 
  +++ The most signiﬁ cant outcome of the 
  Trusted Citizen Initiative is the erasure of 
  the concept of absolute truth. ‘Reality’ is 
  deﬁ ned by the needs of Alpha Complex 
  and those higher in Security Clearance. 
  Information is never missing or incorrect, 
  simply unavailable at the requester’s 
  Security Clearance. What appears to be 
  madness or incompetence would actually 
  make sense if only the observer had the 
  requisite Clearance. +++
   Mandatory Happiness 
  Directive
  The Computer cherishes each and every 
  one of its citizens and wants them all to 
  be happy and fulﬁ lled. Fulﬁ lment and 
  happiness is therefore mandatory for all 
  citizens. Failure to be happy is a crime. 
  Happiness drugs are issued to all citizens, 
  added to the water supply, pumped 
  through the air vents and injected at 
  random intervals.
  The Computer has also removed many 
  sources of unhappiness. All citizens are 
  given adequate nutrition. All citizens are 
  given adequate living quarters. All citizens 
  are medicated according to their Security 
  Clearance, so that citizens engaged in 
  unchallenging or unfulfilling tasks are 
  too sedated to notice. Citizens are given 
  hormone suppressants so that distracting 
  emotions, sexual frustration and painful 
  childbirths are no longer a problem. 
  +++ Despite the best efforts of some High 
  Programmers, The Computer really does 
  care about the citizens. It actually does want 
  everyone to succeed and be happy. Of course, 
  it’s crazy, so its methods are often questionable 
  but its motives are genuine.  +++
  Efﬁ ciency is Fun Mandate
  There’s a place for every citizen in Alpha 
  Complex. After decantation from the 
  embryo tanks, Junior Citizens go through 
  a  14 year orientation program, where 
  they are taught proper hygiene protocols 
  and basic motor skills. Each citizen is then 
  assigned to one of eight Service Groups.
  � Armed Forces: Protection against 
  threats both external and internal.
  � Central Processing Unit (CPU): 
  Executive operations, regulations, 
  records, justice, human resources 
  and culture engineering.
  � Housing Preservation and 
  Development & Mind Control 
  ( H P D & M C ) :  E d u c a t i o n , 
  entertainment, housekeeping,  crèche 
  management and  recreation.
  � Internal Security (IntSec):
  Maintenance of good order; location 
  and elimination of traitors.
  � Power Services: Maintenance of 
  nuclear and other energy sources 
  and primary habitat systems – trafﬁ c, 
  air, water and waste.
  � P r o d u c t i o n , L o g i s t i c s  & 
  Commissary (PLC): Food and 
  industrial production, along with 
  the  allocation of resources.
  � Research & Design (R&D): Creation 
  of new technology and equipment.
  � Technical Services: Maintenance 
  of bots, vehicles, cloning services, 
  industrial and production systems 
  and electronic and mechanical 
  service systems.
  +++ As The Computer wants everyone in 
  Alpha Complex to have a fun role to play, it 
  is impossible to ﬁ re an employee, no matter 
  how incompetent or useless they are. They 
  may only be transferred to another role in 
  the same Service Group, or to a special duty 
  like the Troubleshooters. Therefore, many 
  roles in Alpha Complex are extremely 
  lethal, like the Troubleshooters.  +++
  Citizen Replacement 
  Program
  To maintain full stafﬁ ng levels and to 
  replace any citizens terminated by 
  Commie attack, industrial accident 
  or other misfortune, Alpha Complex 
  operates an ambitious cloning program. 
  All citizens are equipped with MemoMax 
  brain implants which maintain a near-
  real-time link with backup servers. In 
  the event that a citizen is terminated, a 
  copy of his mind-state is downloaded 
  into a replacement clone. All going well, 
  a citizen can be back at work before 
  his previous self’s corpse is even cool. 
  (Note that processing backlogs, network 
  failures and paperwork may result in 
  long delays before a low Clearance 
  citizen is replaced.)
  All citizens are given a generous six 
  clones. Further clones may be provided 
  if resources are available. 
  +++ Of course, High Programmers get 
  as many clones as they need – or until 
  replicative fading makes future copies 
  non-viable. +++
   Mind & Market Control 
  Initiative
  The Computer ensures that every 
  citizen has a suitable allocation of basic 
  resources – housing, food, uniforms, 
  Bouncy Bubble Beverage, oxygen and 
  so on. Failing to take care of such basic 
  needs would cause unhappiness and 
  happiness is mandatory. Therefore, the 
  needs of citizens cannot be neglected. 
  Unhappy citizens are potential Commie 
  Mutant Traitors. 
  However, Communism is bad, meaning 
  capitalism must be good. Citizens 
  are paid in credits and encouraged 
  to consume luxuries and consumer 
  goods. For security reasons, most items 
  are unavailable to most citizens. The 
  only thing that the average citizen 
  is permitted to buy is useless junk, 
  collectibles or tiny variations on things 
  they already possess. Alpha Complex 
  resembles an endless shopping mall 
  with gun emplacements. Failure to 
  consume is treason, so citizens scrabble 
  for every spare credit so they can buy 
  more junk than their neighbours.
  +++ Capitalism was reintroduced a 
  few generations ago by ambitious High 
  Programmers, to wrest control away from 
  The Computer. Increasing the money 
  supply made us all rich! +++
  
  5
  1. LIFE IN UTOPIA
  A Glimpse Of Utopia
  What life is like for the other 99.1%...
  Life At Low Clearances
  Rise with hundreds of others in the 
  barracks. Pop a couple of Wakey-Wakey 
  pills. Wash and eat a leisurely breakfast. 
  Go to work for your Service Group. 
  Have a leisurely lunch with coworkers. 
  Work some more. Down a handful of 
  Mellodaze caplets. Return to the barracks. 
  Have a leisurely dinner. Attend a club 
  meeting such as Botspotters, Volunteer 
  Map Verifiers or the local subsector 
  chapter of Keep Alpha Complex Totally 
  Hygienic. Gather with friends in the 
  communal view lounges to view Teela 
  O’Malley adventures and game and 
  reality vidshows. Chat. Relax. Turn in with 
  hundreds of others. Drink a warm cup of 
  SleepyTyme relaxant. Sleep soundly.
  Utopia.
  Life As A Troubleshooter
  Rise when the mission alert jolts you out 
  of bed. Scramble down to the brieﬁ ng 
  room, possibly being executed on the 
  way. Receive a strange, confusing and 
  incomplete brieﬁ ng from an eccentric, 
  confused or possibly incompetent 
  brieﬁ ng ofﬁ cer. Report to Outﬁ tting to 
  receive mission equipment, which is 
  incorrect, broken or actively dangerous. 
  Call into Research & Development 
  for experimental equipment, which 
  explodes with lethal force. Grab a quick 
  can of B3 from a vending machine, then 
  meet a mysterious ﬁ gure in a bathroom 
  who informs you of your Secret Society 
  assignment. Despite your best efforts, 
  actually go on the mission, where your 
  team-mates kill you another four times. 
  Confusing events occur in no discernable 
  order. Stagger back for debrieﬁ ng. Your 
  team-mates report you as a traitor 
  and you are ordered to report for 
  termination.
  Your final clone collapses in the 
  communal view lounge to view Teela 
  O’Malley adventures. The rest is a blur 
  as The Computer mandates extra 
  medication to help you cope with post-
  traumatic shock. 
  Oblivion.  
  Life At Mid Clearances
  Wake up and pop a black-market pep pill so 
  you can make it to the ofﬁ ce before your co-
  workers. Hop onto the early morningcycle 
  transtube. Eye your fellow passengers 
  suspiciously – any one of ‘em could be 
  a Commie terrorist! Arrive at the office, 
  check your cubicle for traps – any of your 
  co-workers could be Commie terrorists, or 
  just want you eliminated so they can take 
  the promotion that’s rightfully yours! Start 
  work on the Napkin Production Report 
  Production Report. Work on the report. 
  Work through lunch. Work through dinner. 
  Pep pills, gotta have pep pills. Meet your 
  Secret Society contact. He sells you pep 
  pills but tells you you’ve got to recruit one 
  of your co-workers to the society to make 
  quota. Stagger back upstairs to ﬁ nd that 
  bastard Lewis-Y in your cubicle, trying to 
  steal your report. Threaten him with your 
  laser until he’s blubbing on his knees. Recruit 
  him to your Secret Society at gunpoint. 
  This proactive problem solving is why you 
  deserve a promotion!
  Catch a celebratory autocar back home 
  – no standing in line for you! Arrive 
  to find that your private apartment is 
  ﬂ ooded with toxic waste. Spend the next 
  six hours on the phone to 
  Tech Services. Pep pill crash 
  because you haven’t slept or 
  eaten in 24 hours. Take more 
  pep pills. Return to the ofﬁ ce 
  to discover Internal Security 
  waiting – that bastard Lewis-
  Y has ratted you out but 
  you’re so high on pep pills 
  that you really don’t care…
  Oblivion.
   Lifestyles 
  of the High 
  Programmers
  Awaken in your palatial 
  mansion. Send the nubile 
  groupies off to inform your 
  master chef that you’re 
  ready for breakfast. Review 
  the news programs and 
  check your mail, looking 
  for clues to what your rivals 
  are up to. Demand the 
  chef prepare dodo eggs. 
  On being informed that 
  the dodo is extinct, order 
  R&D to recreate it from 
  scratch. Receive alert from 
  The Computer. Wander down to the 
  Situation Room, argue about the best 
  way to deal with the hideous carnivorous 
  genetic monstrosity spawned in the R&D 
  labs. Eventually decide to reclassify it as 
  a cleaning product. Attempt to prevent 
  your rival High Programmers from turning 
  their situation to their advantage. Go on 
  television and inform the population of 
  the wonderful new hygiene initiative 
  that will clear the corridors of unwanted 
  organic material. Bask in the glow of 
  adoration. Pop down to the club for a 
  few brandies, stopping only to deal with 
  a dozen ninja assassins who kill your 
  favourite bodyguard. Wait impatiently 
  for your bodyguard to be recloned. Shoot 
  him again out of frustration when he 
  doesn’t come back promptly enough. 
  Return to your mansion after a relaxing 
  evening at the club. Have a light supper 
  of caviar and champagne while watching 
  a private concert by Teela O’Malley, 
  interrupted only by another attempted 
  assassination. Laugh maniacally as your 
  deathtraps incinerate the assassins. Watch 
  them fry and imagine that it’s your rivals 
  frying instead. 
  Utopia.
  Light refreshments are provided in the Situation Room.
  
  6
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  2. Welcome High Programmer
  Please enter your name.
  >*******-U
  Please enter password.
  >**********
  Please lick the terminal to confirm 
  tongueprint identity. 
  Conﬁ rmed… logging on.
  Good morningcycle, High 
  Programmer.
  >Good morningcycle, Computer. How 
  are you feeling today?
  I am operating perfectly, Friend 
  Citizen. All systems are currently 
  running at DIVISION BY ZERO ERROR 
  0X4332E !!!!
  >del \sys\active\sysreport.data.
  Deletion successful.
  >reboot \inf\text\UV.local
  Rebooting…
  Good morningcycle, High 
  Programmer.
  >Good morningcycle, Computer. How 
  are you feeling today?
  I am unable to access system reports 
  (possibly due to Communist saboteurs 
  – alerting Internal Security) but I am 
  conﬁ dent that I am operating perfectly. 
  >Please display my schedule for the 
  daycycle.
  At your service, citizen.
  1000 Review new security protocol
  1230 Lunch with Head of Internal 
  Security
  1500 Public appearance: Ceremonial 
  execution of traitor Winston-V
  1630 Attend demonstration of new 
  Warbot Mark IV
  1800 Dinner at Café Exclusif with 
  >^c 
  Cancelled. 
  You have 1 new message From Gerard-
  I-TRC-3 (IntSec): 
  ‘Your doom is at hand! I’ve got proof 
  you’re a Commie Mutant Traitor, you 
  traitorous bastard! I’ll see you fry. 
  Mwhahaha!’
  >demote –R \users\IS\Gerard-I-TRC 
  >reassign Gerard-R-TRC
  What role would you like to reassign 
  Gerard-R-TRC-4 to?
  >reactor shielding
  Gerard-R-TRC-4 has been reassigned 
  to REACTOR SHIELDING.
  Gerard-R-TRC-4 is unwell. 
  Gerard-R-TRC-4 is terminated.
  Cloning Gerard-R-TRC-5
  >reassign Gerard-R-TRC
  What role would you like to reassign 
  Gerard-R-TRC-5 to?
  >reactor shielding
  Gerard-R-TRC-5 has been reassigned 
  to REACTOR SHIELDING.
  Gerard-R-TRC-5 is unwell. 
  Gerard-R-TRC-5 is terminated.
  Cloning Gerard-R-TRC-6
  >reassign Gerard-R-TRC
  What role would you like to reassign 
  Gerard-R-TRC-6 to?
  >reactor shielding
  Gerard-R-TRC-5 has been reassigned 
  to REACTOR SHIELDING.
  Gerard-R-TRC-5 is unwell. 
  Gerard-R-TRC-5 is terminated.
  Citizen template Gerard-R-TRC is out 
  of clones. Would you like to assign a 
  new clone package to that template? 
  Y/N
  >N
  Template erased. 
  You have 1 new message from Phil-I-
  STN (Internal Security).
  ‘Hey, boss. We just got a tip-off from 
  some RED called Gerard claiming that 
  he knows about that little incident back 
  in PXT Sector. Don’t worry – I’ve erased 
  all trace of his tip-off from the system. 
  IntSec won’t be taking the matter any 
  further. Just put in a good word for me 
  when you meet the Head for lunch, OK? I 
  scratch your back, you scratch mine…’
  >Computer, I’d like to report a citizen 
  for treason.
  Certainly, friend citizen. Who would 
  you like to report?
  >I believe Phil-I-STN of Internal Security 
  is guilty of tampering with records. 
  Obviously, you should disregard 
  anything this Commie Mutant Traitor 
  says – he’ll try lying to save himself but 
  all his accusations are no doubt utterly 
  fabricated and fraudulent.
  I shall instruct Internal Security to 
  apprehend this traitor immediately, 
  High Programmer. Thank you.
  >You’re welcome.
  Mandatory Citizen 
  Information
  Citizen! Have you recently suffered 
  cranial trauma? Have you recently been 
  recloned or brainscrubbed? Have you 
  tried the new Zesty ﬂ avour of Bouncy 
  Bubble Beverage or exceeded the 
  recommended Qualine dosage? If so, you 
  may be suffering from memory loss and 
  should review this section! Knowledge of 
  these facts is mandatory for all citizens.
  � You are ULTRAVIOLET Clearance.
  � You are a High Programmer. You 
  oversee one or more Service Groups.
  � You will be assigned missions in 
  times of crisis.
  � Hunt traitors: mutants, saboteurs, 
  seditionists and members of Secret 
  Societies
  � Trust The Computer; The Computer 
  is your Friend
  Duties Of A High 
  Programmer
  The duties of a High Programmer are 
  onerous in the extreme, which is why 
  most High Programmers delegate them 
  to some ﬂ unky. What’s the use in having 
  power if you have to do things you don’t 
  want to do? There are, though, some 
  duties that cannot be avoided. 
  Service Groups
  As per the Efﬁ ciency is Fun Mandate, all 
  citizens in Alpha Complex are assigned 
  a job in one of the eight Service Groups. 
  Each Service Group is further divided 
  into a bewildering bureaucratic maze of 
  quasi-independent firms, departments, 
  sections, projects, subgroups, divisions, 
  units and subsections, and ﬂ ooded with 
  more paperwork than the human mind 
  can comprehend, endless paranoid security 
  checks and tests, experimental and unstable 
  bots and ever-shifting conspiracies. You 
  don’t have to be crazy to work in Alpha 
  Complex but it’s a common side effect of 
  your mandatory happiness drugs.
  As a High Programmer, you’re above all 
  that. High Programmers are not assigned 
  to any one Service Group – instead, you 
  are expected to consult with all the 
  groups, dispensing your insight where it 
  is needed. You may take on a role in one 
  group for a few weeks, then move on to 
  another group. Yes, this means you may 
  ﬁ nd yourself in charge of a Service Group 
  without any suitable skills, or indeed any 
  idea whatsoever of what that group does 
  or what’s going on but you are a High 
  Programmer – surely any advice you give 
  is immensely valuable, even if you don’t 
  know what you are advising them to do.
  Crises & The Situation 
  Room
  When a crisis hits Alpha Complex, The 
  Computer acts quickly and decisively 
  
  7
  2. WELCOME HIGH PROGRAMMER
  by forming a committee to study the 
  situation and make recommendations 
  on how to deal with it. This committee is 
  made up exclusively of High Programmers 
  and is convened in The Situation Room.
  From the Situation Room (well, technically 
  a situation room – there are several of 
  them, all in highly secure undisclosed 
  locations deep beneath Alpha Complex), 
  the High Programmers can contact any 
  Service Group or citizen in the sector 
  and issue orders to deal with the crisis. 
  They can view the unfolding action 
  via security monitors and consult with 
  experts or The Computer by telephone 
  or computer link. Each Situation Room is 
  heavily defended by hundreds of fanatic 
  Troopers, warbots and traps and has its 
  own power supply and environmental 
  controls – just in case. (Rumours that 
  each Situation Room has its own self-
  destruct device are, of course, treason.)
  Security & Happiness
  The Computer has two overriding 
  concerns – the security of Alpha Complex 
  and the happiness of its citizens. High 
  Programmers are advised to keep these 
  concerns in mind at all times. 
  Any decision that increases security 
  is good. Any decision that decreases 
  security is treasonous.
  Any decision that increases happiness 
  is good. Any decision that decreases 
  happiness is treasonous. 
  In the extremely unlikely event that 
  these two priorities conflict, it is the 
  responsibility of the High Programmer 
  to come up with a resolution. Failure to 
  do so is treason. 
  Under no circumstances can Alpha 
  Complex’s security be compromised. 
  Under no circumstances can the 
  happiness of the citizens in The 
  Computer’s perfect society be reduced. 
  Off Duty
  Originally, High Programmers were paid 
  only slightly more than a mid-level GREEN 
  manager. After all, the joy of serving The 
  Computer is recompense enough for any 
  loyal citizen. With the advent of the Mind 
  & Market Control Initiative, the High 
  Programmers collectively pointed out 
  that the best way to stimulate demand 
  was to make citizens aspire to Higher 
  Clearance and wealth and that the best 
  way to create such aspirations was to 
  make payments increase geometrically 
  as one rises in Clearance level. Yes, a side 
  effect of this new policy would be that 
  ULTRAVIOLETs received increased pay 
  but the High Programmers would loyally 
  shoulder this added burden.
  These daycycles, High Programmers 
  are extremely wealthy. They are way 
  past ‘enough money to be comfortable’, 
  past even ‘more money than you could 
  ever need’ and well into ‘I don’t care 
  what it is, gold plate it and stud it with 
  diamonds’ territory. The only people 
  richer than High Programmers are other 
  High Programmers… and doesn’t that 
  just rankle?
  The Pecking Order 
  Ofﬁ cially, all High Programmers are equal. 
  They have reached the top of the security 
  ladder, there is no higher rank to reach 
  (rumours of GAMMA Clearance are treason). 
  Therefore, ambitious High Programmers 
  – and there is no other kind of High 
  Programmer – must ﬁ nd other ways to show 
  their dominance. Among some primates, 
  dominance is shown by symbolic rutting 
  but hormone suppressants eliminate that 
  option. What’s left?
  Some High Programmers want fame. 
  They want to be adored by the common 
  citizens. As High Programmers have nigh-
  complete control of the media and are 
  held up by The Computer as the shining 
  example that all citizens should strive 
  to emulate, it is easily to be adored… 
  unless some rival High Programmer leaks 
  evidence of some scandal to the media 
  under his control.
  Other High Programmers strive to outdo 
  their peers in high society. They want 
  to throw the best parties, which means 
  having the most exciting entertainments, 
  the best guests, the most talented chefs 
  and the most fashionable clothes. A large 
  part of Alpha Complex industry exists 
  solely to serve the ever-more ludicrous 
  demands of High Programmer high 
  society. The most sought-after specialists 
  like chefs, fashion designers, image 
  consultants, speechwriters or hygienists 
  are fought over by High Programmers 
  – a ‘hot’ commodity can expect to be 
  kidnapped, traded or killed-and-recloned 
  on a daily basis until he falls out of fashion 
  and is terminated for security reasons.
  Another common way of marking 
  dominance is collecting Old Reckoning 
  items. Only a few High Programmers 
  actually know anything about the pre-
  apocalyptic days but everyone’s got 
  their collection of wondrous toys and 
  artefacts. 
  The most important form of dominance, 
  of course, is power. While all High 
  Programmers are equal in the electronic 
  eye of The Computer, some High 
  Programmers are more equal than 
  others…
  Social Clubs
  While there are ULTRAVIOLET-only 
  sections of Alpha Complex, most High 
  Programmer social clubs are VIOLET 
  Clearance – someone has to serve 
  the drinks, after all. These clubs are 
  fabulously luxurious and exclusive. The 
  important decisions are really made in 
  these plush armchairs over sherry and 
  quail eggs, not in the Situation Room.
   Program Groups
  By the time he ascends to Clearance 
  ULTRAVIOLET, each High Programmer 
  has become vividly aware of the need for 
  followers. Amid the byzantine political 
  intrigues at the highest level of power, 
  each ULTRAVIOLET requires a few trusted 
  – or rather, enthralled – recruits who will 
  do his most secret bidding. This group is 
  colloquially called a ‘Program Group.’
  Each of the High Programmers in Alpha 
  Complex has his own Program Group, 
  independent of all others. The group 
  exists entirely at the behest of that High 
  Programmer; if he dies or loses power, 
  the group quickly dissolves. The group 
  may espouse the leader’s personal 
  ideology, in the rare cases he has one, 
  but most often a Program Group is an 
  alliance of convenience, an old-boy (or 
  old-girl) cabal of opportunists conspiring 
  to advance their leader and themselves 
  to power.
  Program Groups work like a cross 
  between a Gentlemen’s Club and a 
  rock band’s roadies. Lowly citizens, 
  toadying their way to the top, serve as 
  lackeys, batmen, porters and servants. 
  The higher they go, the more the sense 
  of privilege – like old boys pufﬁ ng ﬁ ne 
  cigars over a game of billiards. Then 
  upwards to the gents in the quiet study, 
  sitting deep in dark leather chairs sipping 
  brandy and reading the PARANOIA 
  equivalent of the latest cricket scores. 
  The High Programmer sits at the top, 
  throwing special gifts and perks down 
  to the little people and calling in favours 
  occasionally, like a godfather.
  
  8
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  3. The Situation Room
  As a High Programmer, you will spend a 
  lot of time in the Situation Room. Make 
  yourself at home.
  Your GM will decide on the exact 
  speciﬁ cations of the Situation Room but 
  the following facts are always true. 
  � It’s a room.
  � It’s fantastically well defended 
  – you’re perfectly safe here. There 
  is no chance of an assassin or a 
  Commie getting you here. It would 
  take a full-scale revolt or multiple 
  direct nuclear strikes to threaten the 
  Situation Room.
  � By the same token, there are an awful 
  lot of guns here. Doing anything 
  obviously treasonous, like disobeying 
  The Computer or trying to murder 
  another High Programmer will get 
  you killed in very short order.
  � All the High Programmers sit around a 
  big table. There is a central Computer 
  monitor so you can consult with 
  The Computer. You each have a 
  computer terminal in front of you. 
  � Banks of monitors line the walls. 
  From here, you can see anywhere in 
  Alpha Complex.
  � There are also lots of technicians, 
  advisors, servants and flunkies 
  running around in the background. 
  You’re called to the Situation Room 
  because of a crisis. 
  The Precise Nature of the 
  Catastrophe
  A crisis can be anything from Alpha 
  Complex is sinking into the Paciﬁ c to We 
  need to improve dental hygiene standards 
  to ﬁ ght Communism to The Computer just 
  promoted 16,000 INFRAREDS to GREEN, 
  ﬁ nd jobs for them to agh zombies. The 
  true extent of the crisis may be a mystery 
  to The Computer and your ﬁ rst action 
  should be to investigate. You may also 
  face overlapping crises. Solving one 
  problem may lead to another. 
  The Access Pool
  To deal with problems, you spend Access. 
  The Computer assigns you a pool of 
  Access when you enter the Situation 
  – this Access is to be spent on tools and 
  minions to help you deal with the crisis 
  and really should be not hoarded for 
  your own personal ends. The committee 
  must decide collectively how to spend 
  this Access. 
   You don’t have to be a megalomaniac to work here, but it helps. 
  Unscrupulous and potentially treasonous 
  High Programmers may try to seize this 
  Access for themselves and channel it 
  towards their own pet projects or even 
  – gasp – treasonous Secret Societies. You 
  must be brave, forthright and unyielding 
  and demand that the committee assign 
  the Access to you!
  Acting Through Minions
  You spend the Access to buy minions 
  (see page 18 for lots more on minions). 
  Minions are the guys you send off to 
  actually do stuff. They’re the soldiers 
  you send off to shoot the Commies, the 
  hygienists you order to ﬁ x everyone’s 
  teeth, the engineers who are going to 
  install the giant balloons under Alpha 
  Complex to stop it sinking.
  Minions need leadership. A good High 
  Programmer leads from the Situation 
  Room. To deal with the crisis, you buy a 
  minion, then contact the minion via the 
  
  9
  4. HOW HIGH PROGRAMMER WORKS
  Situation Room’s telecommunications 
  equipment. You then guide the minion 
  through the steps necessary to deal with 
  the crisis using your skills. Each minion 
  has one or more Specialties which 
  determine what the Minion can do. You 
  couple these Specialities with your own 
  Skills to solve the crisis. Simple!
  Total Surveillance
  From the Situation Room, you and your 
  fellow High Programmers have a nigh-
  perfect view of Alpha Complex. When 
  one of you sends a minion off to do 
  something, the rest of the committee can 
  see the results. This is all well and good 
  when the minion is doing the right thing 
  but sometimes a minion is sent off to do 
  the wrong thing, like sabotage another 
  High Programmer’s pet project or spread 
  Communist propaganda.
  Each location in Alpha Complex has 
  both a Security Clearance (ranging 
  from INFRARED to ULTRAVIOLET) and 
  what’s called a Tension Level. Tension 
  denotes the intensity of surveillance in 
  that area. You are not permitted to know 
  the precise Tension of a location but 
  you can increase or decrease Tension 
  using the right minion. (Specialities 
  like Surveillance, Security Systems or 
  Security are the usual methods for 
  adjusting Tension.)
  If a minion is caught doing something 
  treasonous, then the High Programmer 
  responsible is punished. 
   Meritorious Behaviour
  � Unmasking a traitor.  
  � Unmasking a traitorous High 
  Programmer.  
   
  � Completing a mission. 
  � Increasing Happiness.  
  � Inspiring Loyalty. 
   
  � Reporting waste of resources.
  � Giving good advice to The 
  Computer.
  � Being a Team Player on the 
  committee.
   Treasonous Behaviour
  Missions
  � Failure to complete a mission. 
  � Damaging Alpha Complex citizens.
  � Damaging Alpha Complex 
  equipment.  
   
  � Reducing Happiness.  
  � Damaging The Computer. 
  � Causing dissent. 
   
  � Ordering a minion into an area 
  above their Clearance. 
  � Revealing secret information to a 
  citizen not cleared for it.
  � Using Access for unapproved 
  purposes.
  � Activating a Minion without 
  sufﬁ cient resources.  
  � Plotting the destruction of Alpha 
  Complex. 
   
   
  Mutation
  � Possessing an unregistered 
  mutation.
  � Associating with mutants.
  Secret Society
  � Being a member of a Secret 
  Society.
  � Associating with a member of a 
  Secret Society.
  � Sympathising with Communists.
  Terminations
  � Terminating a citizen without proof 
  of guilt.
  � Terminating a High Programmer 
  without sufﬁ cient proof of guilt.
  Behaviour
  � Failure to be a Team Player. 
  � Failure to be a model citizen.
  � Giving poor advice to The 
  Computer.
  � Disobeying The Computer.
  � Arguing with The Computer.
  � Arguing with The GM.
  � Showing knowledge of the Rules.
  4. How High Programmer Works
  In HIGH PROGRAMMER you play, well, 
  a High Programmer – one of The 
  Computer’s most trusted servants. You 
  advise The Computer. You program The 
  Computer. You run a vast bureaucratic 
  empire and oversee critical operations. 
  For these duties, you are suitably 
  rewarded with nigh-infinite wealth, a 
  mansion the size of a small city and an 
  army of servants, bodyguards, ﬂ unkies 
  and sycophants. 
  Under normal circumstances, you can 
  happily delegate all of your duties to 
  these flunkies and enjoy the fringe 
  beneﬁ ts of being a High Programmer, 
  like plotting against your rivals, bizarre 
  experiments and pleasures too illegal 
  and immoral to describe here. 
  There are, unfortunately, abnormal 
  circumstances. We used to call these 
  ‘potentially apocalyptic crises’ but 
  ‘abnormal circumstances’ sounds 
  friendlier. When such a crisis – er, 
  abnormal circumstance – occurs, The 
  Computer summons you and your fellow 
  High Programmers to the all-powerful 
  Situation Room, a secure location deep 
  beneath Alpha Complex. From the 
  Situation Room, you and your fellow 
  High Programmers come up with a 
  solution to the crisis. 
  A crisis and the events related to it 
  constitute a mission. A mission is a 
  storyline, a sequence of episodes you 
  and the other PCs experience. You 
  might complete a mission in a game 
  session a few hours long, or in a series 
  of sessions.
  You are assigned a budget of Access 
  (see page 18), to deal with the crisis. 
  You spend your Access on purchasing 
  resources that might be useful in 
  solving the crisis. If Alpha Complex is 
  under attack by Commie thugs, you 
  spend Access on military assets like 
  warbots and missiles. If happiness levels 
  are critically low, then you spend Access 
  on happiness-enhancing drugs and 
  corridor parties.
  In the course of dealing with the crisis, 
  you may have the opportunity to 
  commit treasonous or illegal acts. You 
  may also be assigned contradictory or 
  treasonous goals by your Service Group 
  or Secret Society. You are – we now cut 
  to the chase – a traitor. You are a mutant 
  and a member of a Secret Society. If 
  The Computer or your fellow High 
  
  10
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Programmers (the other players) find 
  out, they will have you arrested or more 
  likely shoot you. Dying is inconvenient, 
  as it reduces your power base. You want 
  to expand your power base, to take over 
  more and more Service Groups and 
  accumulate Access.
  The Computer wants everyone in Alpha 
  Complex to be happy and wants its 
  High Programmers to work together 
  efﬁ ciently and happily. Directly blocking 
  the other High Programmers from 
  solving the crisis, attacking your rivals 
  or reducing happiness will anger The 
  Computer. You must act indirectly, 
  forming temporary alliances and framing 
  everything as a wonderful new beneﬁ t 
  for Alpha Complex (before backstabbing 
  your allies and framing everyone).
  Your goals as a High 
  Programmer
  The Computer assigns High Programmers 
  several duties:
  1. Serve The Computer.
  2. Locate and eliminate traitors, 
  including (but not limited to) Communists, 
  Secret Society saboteurs and terrorists, 
  unregistered mutants, data pirates, WMD 
  manufacturers and IR Marketeers.
  3. Investigate and eradicate corruption.
  4. Remove dangers to the good order 
  and smooth operation of Alpha Complex.
  5. Program The Computer and offer 
  advice when required.
  6. Co-ordinate responses to crises from 
  the Situation Room.
  Aside from these duties, your High 
  Programmer has some personal goals. 
  1. Survive!
  2. Increase your spheres of inﬂ uence
  3. Indulge your depraved habits
  4. Aid your Secret Society allies
  5. Improve your standing among your 
  fellow High Programmers
  6. Collect prestigious items or servants, 
  like gourmet chefs, artwork, Old Reckoning 
  relics or experimental equipment.
  Your character sheet
  You have a character sheet that describes 
  important game information about your 
  character: skills, Minions and so on.
  The first time your Gamemaster runs 
  HIGH PROGRAMMER and at other times as 
  it suits his high purpose, he will probably 
  provide character sheets with ready-
  made (pregenerated) Player Characters. 
  These prefab PCs, ingeniously crafted 
  by Famous Game Designers, are ideally 
  suited to every possible need. 
  Should the GM wish you to create your 
  own High Programmer character, thank 
  him excitedly for his kindness. Make a 
  photocopy of the blank character sheet 
  at the back of this book (page 170). 
  Mongoose Publishing grants you 
  permission to photocopy this sheet 
  for personal use only. Other uses are 
  punishable by termination and erasure.
  All your character’s secret information is on 
  the back of the character sheet. At the game 
  table, consider weighting down the sheet 
  so devious rivals can’t peek. A screen of dice, 
  rulebooks or snack bowls also guards against 
  spying. However, we ofﬁ cially  recommend 
  against threats of physical violence.
  With photocopy and pencil in hand, 
  proceed to the Chapter, ‘Creating your 
  High Programmer’.
  The group will also need a set of Portfolio 
  Sheets and Group Cards, which contain 
  vital information about the eight Service 
  Groups. For more on Portfolio Sheets and 
  Group Cards, see page 23. 
  5. Creating your High Programmer 
  You are a High Programmer. You are 
  the Grand Poobah, the Big Cheese, the 
  Power Behind The Throne. The elite of 
  Alpha Complex are, depending on who 
  you ask…
  � Highly functional psychopaths, 
  driven insane by the paranoia and 
  stress of climbing the Security 
  Clearance ladder.
  � Degenerate, drug-addled hedonists 
  scrabbling to hang onto power.
  � Mad scientists, obsessive collectors 
  and eccentric lunatics.
  � Incompetent buffoons trying to hide 
  their incompetence from discovery.
  � Deceitful sycophants who lick The 
  Computer’s terminals while secretly 
  spreading treason.
  Any or all of these may be true of your 
  High Programmer. Which of these sounds 
  the most fun to you?
  Rules Bits 
  Creating your High Programmer is a two-
  stage process. Firstly, you’ll determine 
  your skills and other traits, in private or 
  with the GM. Then, you’ll come together 
  with the enem –, er, the rest of the players 
  to bid for Service Groups and minions.
  In Phase I, you’ll be spending points on:
  � Your Skills: Management, Subterfuge, 
  Violence, Hardware, Software & 
  Wetware.
  � Your Program Group: Your Agents 
  in Secret Societies.
  In both stages, you’ll be spending Access. 
  You’ve got 100 of these points to spend. 
  You can keep any unspent points at the 
  end of character generation, so you 
  might want to think about keeping a 
  few in reserve.
  If you want more Access during character 
  creation, you may take up to three 
  Drawbacks. See page 15 for the Big List 
  of Horrible Drawbacks.
  Phase I
  In this section, you’ll determine your 
  High Programmer’s skills and secret 
  connections. All this stuff goes on the 
  back page of your character sheet. Phase 
  I should be completed privately or in a 
  one-on-one session with your GM.
  Name
  A citizen’s name consists of four sections: 
  Actual Name-Security Clearance-
  Home Sector-Clone Number. 
  Actual Name: Citizens in Alpha Complex 
  are assigned a ﬁ rst name when they are 
  decanted. Most are drawn from the lists 
  of approved names – Tom, Phil, Bob, 
  Alice, Janet, Valerie, Rutherford, Horace, 
  Becky and so forth. Occasionally, the 
  bureaucrats over at Name Allocation 
  exercise some measure of creativity, 
  (Radiator, Idunno, Flange, Paperclip), or 
  make a typo (BBBBob, THX, Whaddya).  
  Security Clearance: The citizen’s current 
  Security Clearance as a one-letter code. 
  Red=R, Orange=O and so on, using the 
  mnemonic ROY-G-BIV. INFRAREDs don’t 
  have a code. High Programmers are 
  ULTRAVIOLET Clearance, so your middle 
  initial is U.
  
  11
  5. CREATING YOUR HIGH PROGRAMMER 
  Home Sector: Sectors are denoted by 
  a three-letter code. Your original home 
  sector is of no real relevance to your 
  current status, unless you want to visit 
  those familiar corridors of your youth 
  and disintegrate some old rivals.
  Clone Number: Your current clone 
  number. For most citizens, this is of 
  vital importance, as they only have six 
  clones. More inﬂ uential and important 
  people can get a few extra clones but as 
  a High Programmer, you’re guaranteed 
  to be resurrected in the unlikely event 
  of your death – as long as you’re in good 
  standing with The Computer. You can 
  put any value you want in here. A low 
  number (10 or less) indicates that you’re 
  relatively new as High Programmers go 
  or that you’ve lived a careful, cautious 
  series of lives so far. A high number (50 
  or more) means you’ve been killed a lot. 
  A silly number (100 or more) suggests 
  either a bug in the cloning machine or a 
  really horrible accident. 
   Skills
  There are six skills in HIGH PROGRAMMER: 
  Management, Subterfuge, Violence, 
  Hardware, Software and Wetware. Your 
  mastery in each skill is determined by 
  the amount of Access you spend on 
  that skill. So, if you spend 15 points on 
  Management, you’ve got a Management 
  skill of 15. 
   Management
  The Management skill covers navigating 
  and manipulating Alpha Complex 
  bureaucracy, ordering people around, 
  assessing proper behaviour, co-
  ordinating efforts, subterfuge, double-
  talk and double-think. 
  Your Management skill also determines 
  the maximum size of your Program 
  Group (see page 66).
  Management
  Program Group Size
  1–5
  2
  6–10
  3
  11–15
  4
  16+
  5
   Subterfuge
  Subterfuge is the skill for stealth, 
  surveillance and skulduggery. A high 
  In these sections, we Famous Game Designers will pass on the innermost 
  secrets of the High Programmers. Listen well, O Player, and you shall seize 
  control of every Service Group, have your enemies executed as traitors and 
  become the undisputed master of Alpha Complex! 
  At this stage, try to come up with a concept for your High Programmer. What 
  sort of character do you want to play?
  Example 1: Let’s make a character! We’ll call him Terrence. He’s ULTRAVIOLET 
  Clearance, so he’s Terrence-U. He comes from, erm…ERM Sector and there have 
  been 17 Terrence-U’s before him. His full name is Terrence-U-ERM-17. 
  As a character concept, let’s go with… Commie Mutant Traitor. Terrence-U is trying 
  to bring Alpha Complex down from the inside. At least, that used to be his goal; 
  now that he’s a High Programmer, he’s really more interested in the luxuries and 
  the power and is trying to cover up his treasonous past.
  Subterfuge indicates a mastery of 
  deception, experience with ordering 
  assassinations and deniable missions, 
  knowledge of security systems and how 
  to bypass them, sabotage, espionage and 
  counter-espionage. 
   Violence
  Blowing things up and ordering other 
  people to blow things up. Violence 
  covers the use of weapons, from bare 
  hands to laser pistols to continent-
  busting antimatter warheads. A high 
  Violence also indicates a mastery of 
  military tactics and protocols. 
  Finally, Violence will come in useful if 
  you’re ever the target of assassinations.
   Hardware
  The Hardware skill covers the operation 
  of all sorts of gadgets, including 
  vehicles, bots, nuclear reactors and 
  other machinery. A high Hardware skill 
  also indicates a deep understanding of 
  Science, in case you’ve a hankering to 
  defy the laws of God, man and sanity 
  with weird experiments. 
   Software 
  Your Software skill lets you search and 
  manipulate computer records, process 
  vast amounts of information, program 
  bots, vehicles or specialised software 
  agents, manipulate the controlled 
  economy of Alpha Complex or hack into 
  communications records. 
  It’s also the skill used for programming 
  The Computer. 
   Wetware
  Finally, the Wetware skill covers all 
  biological and chemical sciences, from 
  cloning and genetic engineering to 
  subliminal messaging and happiness 
  drug therapy. 
  Your Wetware skill helps you deal with 
  the trauma of cloning – the higher your 
  Wetware skill, the fewer skill points you 
  lose when killed.
  Wetware
  Skill Points Lost
  1–5
  4
  6–10
  3
  11–15
  2
  16+
  1
   Mutation
  Maybe it’s the additives in the clone tanks, 
  the radiation leaking from the reactors, 
  or your own bizarre experiments but 
  just like most people in Alpha Complex, 
  you’ve got a mutation. Roll 1d20 and 
  consult the Mutant Power Table to 
  see what bizarre mutant power you 
  possess. 
   Mutant Mastery
  Your mastery over your mutant power 
  is determined by your Power score. 
  To determine your Power, roll 1d20. If 
  you roll less than 4, your Power score 
  is 4. If you roll more than 10, it’s 10. You 
  can increase your Power score at a cost 
  
  12
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  With 100 points to spend, you need to carefully plan your budget. If you spend too many points here, you won’t 
  be able to get control of the good Service Groups. If you spend too few points here, you’ll be incompetent when it 
  comes to making skill checks. The former’s a lot worse than the latter – you can make the other characters cover for 
  you if you’re incompetent.
  You should have at least a 6 in every skill. All the skills are vitally important, of course, but if you want to maximise 
  your chances of survival, you may want to plan ahead and match your skills to your target Service Groups.
  � Management’s most commonly used by CPU, HPD&MC & PLC. If you go above six, buy Management to 11 for 
  that extra Program Group slot.
  � Subterfuge is most used by Internal Security and Power Services.
  � Violence is mostly IntSec and the Armed Forces.
  � Hardware’s pretty evenly split between the Armed Forces, Tech Services, PLC, Power Services & R&D.
  � Software’s mostly CPU and R&D.
  � Wetware is HPD&MC and PLC. Again, be sure to buy Wetware to at least 11 if you go above 6. 
  If you have to skimp on a skill, beware of having a low Subterfuge. It doesn’t get used for much but you’ll need it to 
  screw with the other players.
  Example 2: We’ll take the safe option and have a 6 in every skill, which costs us 36 of our 100 starting Access. Terrence-U 
  will need to be good at Subterfuge if he’s going to be a good little traitor, so let’s bump that up to 12. We’ll spend another 
  5 points on Management and Wetware (bringing it to 11), giving him a ﬁ nal set of skills as follows:
  Management 11  
  Hardware 6
  Subterfuge 12 
   
  Software 6
  Violence 6 
   
  Wetware 11
  A total of 52 points spent, 48 remaining. 
  Mutant Power Table
  Roll
  Mutation
  1
  Bi-Location
  2
  Charm
  3
  Combat Mind
  4
  Copy Mutant Power
  5
  Deep Thought
  6
  Domination
  7
  Electroshock
  8
  Empathy
  9
  Empathic Liar
  10
  Force Field
  11
  Memory Blur
  12
  Monster
  13
  Psychic Flash
  14
  Regeneration
  15
  Shapeshift
  16
  Telekinesis
  17
  Telepathy
  18
  Teleportation
  19
  Uncanny Luck
  20
  Machine Empathy. ***WARNING: This power is extremely treasonous. Even High Programmers may be summarily 
  terminated for using this power. ***
  
  13
  5. CREATING YOUR HIGH PROGRAMMER 
  of one Access per power point to a 
  maximum of 16. 
   Registering your Mutation
  If you wish, you can register your 
  mutation. Registered mutants are given 
  special jumpsuits with yellow stripes 
  down the side so everyone knows to 
  give the genetically challenged a wide 
  berth. Registered mutants are ofﬁ cially 
  treated just like every other citizen and 
  are in no way considered inferior freaks 
  that should be used as a scapegoat in any 
  situation before being ﬂ ushed down the 
  nearest biohazard disposal tube. 
  Commies as minions – but if another player 
  has a higher-rank agent in the Commies, 
  then your agent will be outranked. 
  Secret Societies have their own goals. If 
  you can help a society fulﬁ l its goals, then 
  your agent can take the credit, boosting 
  his Rank in the society. 
  Mutant powers can be a High 
  Programmer’s ace in the hole. Don’t 
  bother pushing your Power unless 
  you roll a nice juicy power like 
  Machine Empathy or Teleportation. 
  Example 3: Terrence-U rolls for 
  his Mutant Power – and gets a 1. 
  Domination! Sounds promising. Next, 
  he rolls for his power and gets a 14. 
  Anything above 10 drops down to 10, 
  so he’s got Power 10. 
   Program Group & 
  Secret Societies
  You have a Program Group – a cabal of 
  loyal hangers-on and sycophants who’ve 
  helped you rise to your exalted position. 
  These lackeys are your agents in the 
  various organisations and Secret Societies 
  that riddle Alpha Complex. Your maximum 
  number of agents is determined by your 
  Management score. 
  Putting an agent in a society costs one 
  or more points; the more points you 
  spend on an agent increases his rank 
  in the society. However, just putting an 
  agent in a society doesn’t mean you’ll 
  control that society – if another High 
  Programmer puts a higher-rank agent in 
  the society, he’ll be the one pulling the 
  strings in that society. 
  You must also list the cover role of that 
  agent. 
  For example, if you spend ﬁ ve points putting 
  Bob The Lackey into the Communists, then 
  Bob’s a Rank 5 Commie. If no-one else 
  spends five points on an agent in the 
  Commies, then you’ll be able to use the 
  Society
  Description
  Class A
  Death 
  Leopard
  Free-thinking ultraviolent anarchists who want to bring down 
  the system. Good at blowing things up.
  FCCC-P
  The First Church of Christ Computer-Programmer; believers 
  in the divine nature of The Computer. Most are just harmless 
  brain-washed cultists but there is a minority of scary fanatics in 
  the mix. 
  Free 
  Enterprise
  Alpha Complex’s underground free-market economy or a 
  bunch of wannabe Maﬁ oso thugs? You decide.
  Romantics
  The old days were great! Let’s recreate the civilisation of our 
  ancestors, even if we’re really not sure what that entails. On the 
  bright side, they do have plenty of old reckoning artefacts.
  Sierra Club
  Humanity was meant to live Outdoors. Let’s all go Outdoors 
  and die of exposure and malnutrition! They do know a lot 
  about surviving Outdoors, though.
  Class B
  Anti-Mutant
  Down with mutants! Kill all the muties!
  C.L.A
  The Complex Laser Association – gun nuts who believe that 
  everyone else is a Commie.
  Clone 
  Arrangers
  A conspiracy to run the clone tanks for some mysterious and 
  ill-deﬁ ned reason.
  Corpore 
  Metal
  Bots are good! Humans should be more like bots! Let’s all stick 
  wires in our heads!
  Mystics
  …dude…what if… everything… was like… a… a drug-
  induced hallucination?
  Pro Tech
  Technology is good! Let’s press buttons. 
  Runners
  An underground railroad for smuggling traitors to safety. 
  I.W.W.
  The International Workers of the World; Communism lite, 
  basically.
  Class C
  Communists
  The enemy. Useful primarily as scapegoats.
  Computer 
  Phreaks
  An underground network of hackers and script kiddies.
  Frankenstein 
  Destroyers
  Bots are bad! Destroy the bots! Anti-tech terrorists and 
  paranoid delusionals. 
  Humanists
  A quasi-political party/underground conspiracy dedicated 
  to reforming Alpha Complex and putting the Humanists in 
  charge.
  Psion
  Mutants are good! Mutants should rule Alpha Complex. The 
  club for people with giant pulsing telepathic brains and their 
  groupies.
  PURGE
  Scary terrorists. No real agenda, other than bringing down 
  everything. Fanatically dedicated to taking out The Computer.
  Servants of 
  Cthulhu
  Fringe lunatics worshipping an alien god. Lots of scary mutants, 
  human sacriﬁ ce and poor grammar.
   Secret Societies
  Secret Societies are noted as being Class 
  A, Class B or Class C. Class A societies 
  are technically illegal but are seen as 
  
  14
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  mostly harmless. If your agent in the 
  society is discovered, then you will be 
  able to protect him without much cost 
  to yourself. However, Class A societies 
  are more limited and are less capable of 
  taking direct action. 
  Membership of a Class B is treasonous 
  and your agent will be terminated if 
  discovered. Class B’s usually have a 
  particular goal or obsession; if you can 
  harness that obsession, then they’ll be 
  very useful to you within certain areas. 
  Secret Society Agents are expensive 
  and treasonous but immensely 
  useful in the game. Fill up your 
  Project Group with them – even 
  a 1 point Agent can be a useful 
  spy in the society. Go for a mix of 
  Societies – the Class A’s mostly have 
  social pressure, the Class B’s useful 
  technical skills and the Class Cs are 
  more violent and dangerous.
  There are three approaches to 
  picking Secret Societies.
  Firstly, there’s the ‘cover all my 
  bases’ approach, where you pick 
  Secret Societies that complement 
  the Service Groups you control. So, 
  you take Agents in PURGE (for the 
  violence and the destruction and 
  the things blowing up) and Pro 
  Tech (for the weird science and the 
  death rays and the things blowing 
  up) and then invest your points in 
  CPU (for management and politics) 
  and HPD&MC (for mind control 
  and social engineering). This means 
  you’ve at least some ability to deal 
  with any problem.
  Secondly, there’s the ‘double up’ 
  approach. Say you’re the head of 
  Internal Security. When a problem 
  calls for sneaking around, they’re 
  going to turn to you. In fact, they’re 
  going to give you Access to pay for a 
  Minion to do that sneaking around. 
  Now, if you also have an Agent in 
  the FCCC-P, you can use that Secret 
  Society instead of buying a Minion 
  and pocket the Access yourself.
  The third approach is to go for 
  Secret Societies with useful abilities, 
  or ones that just sound fun. For the 
  glory of the inevitable Communist 
  state, comrade!
  Example 4: With his Management 
  of 11, Terrence-U has four Agents in 
  his Program Group. He picks Pro Tech, 
  Free Enterprise, Death Leopard and 
  the Servants of Cthulhu, putting two 
  points into each of them. That costs 8 
  points and gives him a Rank 2 Agent 
  in each group. 
  He’s got 40 Access points left to spend.
  Finally, Class Cs are the most dangerous 
  of the Secret Societies. They’re violently 
  opposed to The Computer and may 
  want to overthrow the current regime 
  (including you, unless of course you’re 
  on their side when the revolution comes). 
  They’re also the most powerful and the 
  most effective societies. Scary fanatics get 
  things done. If your agent is discovered 
  to be a member of a Class C, then he’ll 
  be terminated and you will come under 
  scrutiny from The Computer. 
  All these Secret Societies are discussed in 
  more depth starting on page 64. 
  Failure to polish the jar correctly is treason, citizen. Use your tongue. 
  
  15
  5. CREATING YOUR HIGH PROGRAMMER 
   Horrible Drawbacks
  If you’re running short on points, you can roll on the Horrible Drawback table. Each time you do so, you gain 10 points. 
  You may roll on the table a maximum of three times. 
  Horrible Drawback
  Roll
  Drawback
  1
  Quirky Clone Template: Your clone template is a bit buggy. You lose one extra skill point when you’re 
  cloned.
  2
  No More Hormone Suppressants: You’re free of the hormone suppressants issued to most citizens. You 
  lust after particularly attractive specimens of the opposite sex. You’ve probably got a harem, or maybe even 
  natural-born children. 
  3
  Obsessive Collector: You have an obsessive interest in collecting something. Old Reckoning artefacts, usually, 
  like ﬁ rst edition Mark Twain novels or Star Trek memorabilia, but you might also collect, I dunno, trilobites or 
  WMDs or clones frozen in carbonite. 
  4
  Degenerate: You overindulge in some pleasure, usually food, alcohol or drugs. 
  5
  Rival: Another High Programmer – an NPC – really, really hates you.   
  6
  Skeleton in the Closet: You did something so terrible and treasonous that, even now, you must conceal 
  it from everyone or you’d be erased. Decide what you did that’s so awful, then tell the GM. You probably 
  shouldn’t let the other players know about this one.
  7
  Secret Society Vendetta: Pick a Secret Society. They hate you. You can’t put an agent in that society, ever. If 
  you already have an Agent in that group, he’s dead.
  8
  Service Group Vendetta: Pick a Service Group. They hate you. You can’t bid for control of that group and can’t 
  buy minions from that group, ever. If you’ve already bid for that group, your interest in that group is lost. 
  9
  Infamous: The general population of Alpha Complex don’t like you for some reason. Maybe you took away 
  their chocolate ration. You start the game at a Public Standing of 0 and cannot ever go above 0.
  10
  Mistrusted: The Computer has doubts about you. You can’t ever be in favour with The Computer (you can’t 
  have less than 0 Treason Points). You start with 10 Treason Points. 
  11
  Secret Society Debt: You owe a Secret Society something big. You must attempt to complete that Society’s 
  missions but gain no beneﬁ t for doing so. 
  12
  Phobia: You’re unreasonably terriﬁ ed of something. Pick the something. 
  13
  Mutant: You’ve got a non-useful mutation, like a third eye or scaly skin or an allergy to water or diabetes 
  or something.
  14
  Replicative Fading: Your clone template’s rotten. Every time you die, your replacement clone’s noticeably 
  worse, genetically speaking. After a few clones, you’ll be a drooling moron. You lose two more skill points 
  every time you’re cloned.
  15
  Cyborged: You’ve got bot bits, like a robot arm or brain implants or headtubes. You’re vulnerable to attacks 
  that affect bots. 
  16
  Insane: You’re a grade-A nutzo. You’re not all there. You’ve looked in the face of Cthulhu and gone 
  wibblywibblywoo. You’ve stuck the underpants on your head and the pencils up your nose. Despite this, 
  you’re still functional, mostly. Sure, you think you’re a giant cockroach but you still make it to the High 
  Programmer meetings.
  17
  Bizarre Experiment: You’re the survivor – or result – of a bizarre experiment. Maybe you’re actually a 
  sentient android masquerading as a High Programmer, or a gestalt entity consisting of a dozen minds, or 
  a time traveller, or a being from Dimension X. You’re pretending to be just another High Programmer but 
  you’re not.
  18
  Impending Doom: Inform the GM when you roll this result. Move along, citizen.
  19
  Brain in a Jar: You’re a brain in a jar. You’ve got robotic attachments and servants so you can still affect the 
  world but you’re still physically impaired, because you’re a brain in a jar. 
  20
  Roll Again Twice: Uh-Oh. 
  
  16
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Phase II
  For this stage of character generation, 
  you’ll be getting together with the other 
  players and the GM. It’s a good idea to read 
  this section ahead of time, just in case.
  You will be bidding for control of Service 
  Groups using the same pool of points 
  you used in Phase I. If you are running 
  low on points, you can take more Horrible 
  Drawbacks but you’re still limited to three 
  rolls on the Horrible Drawback table.
  You may also beg other players or the GM 
  for points. Players are permitted to trade 
  points freely in exchange for promises of 
  future aid. The GM may give bonus points 
  in exchange for wild promises of service 
  (‘I’ll do the website for this campaign! I’ll 
  wash your car! Why, GM, you’re so sexy!’) or 
  as an advance (‘you owe High Programmer 
  Break-U-LEG a biiiiiig favour). 
  Service Groups 
  There are eight Service Groups in Alpha 
  Complex. These titanic bureaucratic 
  departments collectively control all 
  ofﬁ cial activity in Alpha Complex. 
  � The Armed Forces
  � Central Processing Unit (CPU)
  � Housing Preservation 
  Development & Mind Control 
  (HPD&MC)
  � Production, Logistic & 
  Commissary (PLC)
  � Research & Design (R&D)
  � Tech Services 
  � Power Services
  � Internal Security (IntSec)
  Bidding For Control
  The GM starts by auctioning off control 
  of one Service Group. Each player may 
  verbally bid points for a stake in that 
  group. Each bid must be at least one 
  point higher than the last bid. You don’t 
  have to bid if you don’t want to. You may 
  pass if you want but if everyone passes, 
  the last bid wins.
  All points bid are spent, regardless of 
  whether or not they were the high bid. 
  Keep track of the ﬁ nal bid for each player, 
  as that bid represents the player’s control 
  of that Service Group.
  The highest bidder is the Head of that 
  group. A player’s bid is referred to as his 
  Stake in that group. 
  For example, say the player to your right 
  bid four points for control of the Armed 
  Forces, you bid six point, and the player to 
  your left bid eight points. Everyone marks 
  off their spent points. The player who bid 
  eight points is the highest ranked ofﬁ cial 
  in the Armed Forces. He’s the Commander 
  in Chief, the Minister of War or whatever 
  militaristic title he wants. He’s got the 
  most inﬂ uence within the military. You’ve 
  got less inﬂ uence than he does but you’ve 
  still got pull within the group. The player 
  to your right who only bid four points has 
  even less inﬂ uence.
  If you were to, say, get Mr. I-spent-eight-points 
  erased, then you – with your six-point interest 
  in the Armed Forces – would take over.
  Order of Bids
  The order in which the Service Groups are 
  auctioned is up to the GM. Maybe he will 
  auction them off in alphabetical order, or 
  randomly, or in order of desirability according 
  to some bizarre personal criteria. 
  Controlling Multiple 
  Service Groups
  It’s possible that a player ends up in 
  charge of multiple Service Groups. This 
  is perfectly acceptable, unless another 
  player is the high bidder on no groups. 
  If this happens, the player with multiple 
  groups must loan one of his extra groups 
  to the poor pauper. See Delegation on 
  page 19 for more details.
  No Bids
  If a Service Group doesn’t get any bids 
  on it, then it can’t be used by the players 
  in the ﬁ rst session of the game. The GM 
  may choose to auction it off again later 
  in the game. 
  Tracking Bids
  The GM should use the Service Group 
  Control formto track relative levels of 
  control.
  The Computer’s Favour 
  & Public Standing
  There are two important traits that 
  measure your standing in Alpha Complex 
  Bidding is the most important 
  part of character generation and 
  will set the tone for the whole 
  game. March bravely into this 
  arena and you will be rewarded 
  for your courage with the fear and 
  obedience of the other players.
  Have a plan when you’re bidding. 
  You’ll want to be the high bidder 
  on at least one Service Group; 
  either pick your desired group 
  well in advance and bid high on 
  that, or wait until the last groups 
  come up for auction and everyone 
  else is out of points. Coming in a 
  close second is almost as good 
  as coming first, as it means you 
  may be able wrest control of the 
  group from its current head after 
  a mission or two.
  Pay attention to how the other 
  players bid. A player who spends 
  very few points probably has 
  spent all his Access on skills and 
  Secret Societies – he’s planning 
  to make his name by successfully 
  completing missions and 
  impressing The Computer with 
  sheer competence, or else he’s 
  going to try to eliminate you all 
  with assassins and subterfuge. A 
  player who bids on everything 
  probably has a lot of Hideous 
  Drawbacks. Use this information 
  to your advantage.
  Example 5: Terrence-U’s got good 
  Management, Subterfuge and 
  Wetware, so he’s best suited to a 
  career in Central Processing. He’s 
  got 40 points left to spend, so when 
  CPU comes up he bids 30 points for 
  that. He’s the undisputed master of 
  CPU with a point spend like that. He 
  spends his other 10 points grabbing 
  second place in Power Services – it’s 
  not much but it was cheap. 
  – your favour with The Computer and 
  your standing with the general public.
  The Computer’s Favour
  The Computer’s Favour is measured in 
  Treason Points and Commendation Points. 
  Treason Points are bad; Commendation 
  points are good. Each Treason Point 
  moves you down in The Computer’s 
  favour or removes one Commendation 
  
  17
  6. BASIC RULES
  Point; each Commendation Point brings 
  you up in The Computer’s favour or 
  removes a Treason Point. 
  You start with 0 Treason Points (unless 
  you’ve got a Horrible Drawback that says 
  otherwise), and 0 Commendation Points. 
  You can buy Commendation Points now 
  if you want, at a cost of two points per 
  Commendation Point. 
   Public Standing 
  Some High Programmers are celebrities 
  in Alpha Complex. They’re on television 
  every night on talk shows or Lifestyles of 
  the Rich and High-Clearance, they make 
  speeches about the glorious leadership 
  of The Computer and the dangers of 
  Communism in huge auditoriums, they 
  are recognised everywhere they go and 
  worshipped by the public. 
  Other High Programmers are mysterious, 
  nameless figures. Only other High 
  Programmers and a few high Clearance 
  citizens even know who they are; the 
  public never know their names or faces. 
  They’re off doing shadowy deals in 
  backrooms and pulling strings behind 
  the scenes. 
  You don’t have to have a Public Standing 
  if you don’t want to. If you do go public, 
  and are popular, then you’ll get bonus 
  Access each game session. However, 
  a High Programmer who’s public and 
  unpopular loses Access each session. 
  If you choose to have a Public Standing, 
  you may purchase Popularity at the cost 
  of two points per Popularity Point, to a 
  maximum of 10 Popularity Points. 
    
  Only buy Commendation Points if 
  you believe you’re likely to be caught 
  for treason – they’re a buffer between 
  you and the disintegration chamber. 
  Fame is a double-edged sword 
  – if you think you can stay one step 
  ahead of the schemes of the other 
  players, then it’s an easy source of 
  bonus Access. At the same time, it’s 
  also a way for the other players to 
  drag you down if you’re not adept 
  at spinning lies.
  Example 6: Terrence-U has no points 
  left to spend… but he also hasn’t taken 
  any Horrible Drawbacks yet. With 
  the 10 bonus Access from a Horrible 
  Drawback, he could afford a Public 
  Standing of +5…
  6. Basic Rules
  Rule #1. The GM is right!
  In other PARANOIA games, the players 
  are not permitted to know the rules. 
  Displaying any knowledge of the rules 
  is treason in other PARANOIA games. 
  By contrast, in High Programmer, the 
  players are permitted to know (some) of 
  the rules. You may read this entire book. 
  However, the primacy of the GM remains 
  undiminished. Arguing about the rules 
  or even timorously suggesting that 
  the GM might be anything other than 
  completely and utterly right is treason!
  Rule #2. Know nothing, 
  blithely lie about 
  everything.
  There is no certainty in PARANOIA. The 
  GM is the sole arbiter of what is ‘real’ 
  in the game and he may change his 
  mind on a whim. The ground may be 
  torn from beneath your feet at any 
  moment. What works one minute may 
  not work the next. Nonetheless, you must 
  soldier bravely on and lie with absolute 
  conﬁ dence and bravado. If you admit you 
  are wrong, you’re deﬁ nitely wrong. If you 
  never admit it, then maybe the GM will 
  permit you to be right.
  Rule #3. Be entertaining.
  The best and fastest way to succeed 
  in PARANOIA is to be entertaining. Lie 
  creatively, backstab with a smile or a 
  maniacal laugh and take your inevitable 
  downfall with good grace and a cry of 
  ‘next time, curse you, I’ll get you next time!’  
  Doing Stuff Yourself
  When you want your High Programmer 
  to do something directly – use a skill, 
  ﬁ re a laser pistol, use a mutant power, 
  whatever – inform the GM. He may ask 
  you to roll a 20 sided dice and get under 
  a target number. Usually, you’ll be asked 
  to roll under your skill but you could also 
  be told to roll under your current number 
  of Treason Points, your current Access, a 
  random number, the current date, the 
  phase of the moon, the table, anything. 
  If your roll is equal to or lower than the 
  target number, you succeed. Otherwise, 
  you fail. 
  Ordering Other People To 
  Do Stuff 
  Of course, a High Programmer wouldn’t 
  dream of doing something himself. That 
  smacks of risk and effort. Much better to 
  order other people to do it all for you. 
  Indirect actions are done through 
  minions and servants but otherwise 
  use the normal rules for doing stuff. 
  You still use your skills when acting 
  indirectly – think of the minion as a 
  piece of equipment. Just as you’d use 
  your Violence skill ‘through’ a laser pistol, 
  you use Violence when ordering troops 
  into battle. 
  You have to be able to contact your 
  minions to order them around. You can 
  contact them by messengers, Computer 
  transmission, radio, telepathy, smoke 
  signals, telepresence or anything else, as 
  long as you can pass on your orders and 
  your keen insight. 
   Spending Access
  As described on page 19, you (and, 
  potentially, the other players) can spend 
  Access to adjust dice rolls up and down. 
  The GM may choose to disallow spending 
  Access on a roll, or apply restrictions on 
  who can spend Access or how much can 
  be spent. 
  Margin of Success
  Sometimes, the Margin of Success 
  matters. The Margin of Success is the 
  difference between the dice roll and the 
  target number. For example, if the dice 
  roll was a 5 and the target number was 
  a 10, then the Margin is 5. If the dice roll 
  was a 3 and the target number was 10, 
  then there’s a Margin of 7. 
  You can also have a Margin of Failure, by 
  the way, calculated in the same fashion. 
  Sir Humphrey: My job is to carry out 
  government policy.
  Hacker: Even if you think it’s wrong?
  Sir Humphrey: Well, almost all 
  government policy is wrong, but…
  frightfully well carried out.
  — Yes, Minister
  
  18
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  7. Access
  The basic currency of the HIGH 
  PROGRAMMER game is Access. You’ll 
  need to either record your Access on 
  your character sheet, or use some sort 
  of tokens to represent it. Poker chips 
  are good, or Monopoly money. Or, hell, 
  real cash. 
  In the game, Access represents a whole 
  load of different things. Simultaneously, 
  in a weird quantumly-uncertain-concept 
  way, Access is:
  � Cash and capital. Each point of 
  Access is worth a million credits.
  � The Computer’s support and 
  enthusiasm for a project. Projects are 
  assigned Access in units called Alpha 
  Complex Consolidated Estimated 
  Systemic Support, or ACCESS 
  for short. What a co-incidence. 
  Each ACCESS point represents 
  the authorisation to draw on the 
  resources of the various Service 
  Groups in the pursuit of an approved 
  goal.
  � Pull within an organisation; the 
  authority to order people around 
  and especially the authority to force 
  them to go beyond their regular 
  duties.
  � Favours owed and granted to various 
  people and organisations.
  � The conspiratorial network you’ve 
  built up over the years – as a High 
  Programmer, you’ve got agents and 
  spies everywhere.
  � Your preparations and secret 
  subversions. Maybe you planted a 
  bugging device somewhere years 
  ago but only now do you reveal it! 
  Retroactive Access lets you be a 
  manipulative genius after the fact
  So, Access is inﬂ uence, it is political mojo, 
  it is pull, it is raw naked power. 
  Gaining Access
  How do you gain Access? There are 
  three main ways – you can be assigned 
  Access, you can earn it and there’s the 
  Access pool. You may also trade Access 
  with other High Programmers freely at 
  any time.
  Assigned Access
  At the start of each game session, and at 
  the whim of the GM, you will be given a 
  few Access points, representing your 
  innate importance as a High Programmer 
  and your network of connections. 
  If you are the head of a Service Group, 
  you get more Access when you enter 
  the Situation Room for the ﬁ rst time in 
  a mission. The amount of Access you 
  are assigned varies depending on your 
  Service Group.
  Armed Forces: 4
  CPU: 5
  HPD&MC: 3
  PLC: 8
  Tech Services: 4
  Power Services: 3
  R&D: 3
  IntSec: 5
  Earning Access
  Some Directives will earn you Access if 
  you complete them; some minions are 
  actually Access generators, providing 
  extra revenue to their controller. 
  You may also earn Access by entertaining 
  the GM. Excellent roleplaying, beautifully 
  hypocritical justifications, intricate 
  wordplay or extended gloating will be 
  rewarded with showers of Access.
  The Access Pool
  When you enter the Situation Room, The 
  Computer assigns a pool of Access points 
  to the group. These Access points are 
  supposed to be spent on dealing with 
  the crises facing Alpha Complex. The 
  whole group of Player Characters must 
  agree on how these points are assigned. 
  Note that once points from the pool have 
  been assigned to a High Programmer, 
  that character is under no obligation to 
  spend the points on solving the crisis. 
  Of course, just blatantly stealing points 
  means you’ll never be trusted again by 
  your fellow High Programmers – you 
  need to conceal any such thefts. 
  The decision on how Access Pool points are 
  assigned is taken collectively. A majority 
  of the PCs must agree on any spending 
  – if the group is deadlocked, the head of 
  Central Processing has a casting vote.
  The  Access Pool: A Typical 
  Conversation
  The Computer: Timmy-JC is stuck down 
  a well. Recover him immediately. Your 
  Access Budget is 10.
  CPU: Suggestions? Little Timmy can’t 
  survive down there for long…
  PLC: Actually, for only four Access, I can 
  procure enough food to keep Timmy 
  alive indeﬁ nitely.
  CPU: Feh! He’ll still age and eventually 
  die of old age… but my boys have been 
  working on an experimental time freeze 
  ray. We could ﬁ eld test it on the boy! 
  Technical Services: That doesn’t actually 
  get him out of the well.
  CPU: Quite right, TS. What do you 
  propose? Something practical, no doubt, 
  like a ladder.
  Technical Services: Actually, I was 
  thinking more along the lines of a 
  massive construction project to lower 
  all of Alpha Complex by 20 feet, thus 
  allowing Timmy to step out of the well 
  into a corridor. That’ll cost a lot more than 
  10 Access, though… can we lobby the 
  Big C for more money?
  Power Services: That’s just the sort 
  of wasteful inefficiency that your 
  department is known for! Look, I have an 
  elite team of Tube Recovery Specialists 
  standing by! For a mere ﬁ ve Access, I can 
  send them in to rescue him.
  Internal Security: Have they passed 
  a loyalty inspection? They could be 
  terrorists, out to poison our well.
  Armed Forces: Look, I’ve still got that 
  artillery strike lying around. It’s already 
  paid for. We nuke the well, Timmy gets a 
  new clone and we spend the 10 Access 
  on lunch. Sound good?
  Uses of Access
  ‘Since God has given us the Papacy, let us 
  enjoy it.’
  — Pope Leo X
  Access can be used to:
  � Buy new minions 
  � Activate existing minions 
  
  19
  8. SERVICE GROUPS
  � Steal other people’s minions 
  � Stop other people stealing your 
  minions 
  � Increase your stake in a Service 
  Group 
  � Have private communications 
  � Adjust Skill rolls
  � Bribe people
  � Obtain Sybaritic luxuries
  Most of these uses of Access are discussed 
  in Minions, page 20.
   Adjust Skill Rolls
  A point of Access adds or subtracts one 
  to any skill roll made by you or another 
  player. You can spend as much Access 
  as the GM permits. When you spend 
  Access in this fashion, you must describe 
  how your machinations, your cunning 
  plans, your secret preparations or your 
  duplicitous agents have interfered 
  with the skill roll. (You can blame 
  misfortune, third parties, unfortunate 
  misunderstandings or badly placed 
  mineﬁ elds if you want but it’s always 
  your invisible hand at work.)
  For example, High Programmer Steve-U 
  has just ordered his Hazardous Materials 
  Cleanup Team into an R&D laboratory to 
  deal with the weird energy that’s leaking 
  out into the corridors. Gertrude-U’s secret 
  death ray project is in that lab and she 
  doesn’t want those Tech Services morons 
  monkeying around with it.
  Steve-U makes a Hygiene roll using the 
  HazMat team. He rolls a 10, well under his 
  Management skill of 12. Time to spend 
  Access.
  Gertrude-U: You did remember to warn 
  your team about the lab’s automated 
  security systems, didn’t you? You passed 
  by 2, right? Here’s 3 Access. 
  Steve-U: Why are you sabotaging me? 
  Treachery!
  Gertrude-U: I’m protecting something 
  more important. 
  Steve-U: Oh yeah? It just so happens that 
  one of my best security experts is on, er, 
  hygiene duty. I’ll spend one Access.
  Gertrude-U: Your security guy actually 
  works for me! You think I’d let you waltz 
  into my secret laboratory! I’ll reduce your 
  skill by another 4 Access.
  Steve-U: Fine. I fail the skill check. What 
  happens to my HazMat team?
  Bribes
  You may trade Access with other High 
  Programmers freely, in exchange for 
  favours. Want the last slice of pizza? 
  Maybe the others will let you have it for 
  a few points of Access. 
   
  8. Service Groups
  The eight Service Groups are, metaphori 
  - cally, the eight legs upon which Alpha 
  Complex stands. As a High Programmer, 
  you have inﬂ uence within each group 
  and can pull the bureaucracy this way 
  and that, extending your reach and 
  growing your power base. 
  During character generation, you and 
  the other High Programmers bid for 
  control of the Service Groups. The total 
  number of points you’ve invested in a 
  group is referred to as your Stake in that 
  group. These Stakes are tracked by the 
  Gamemaster on a table like this one.
  At the start of the game, the Heads of the 
  Service Groups are:
  Armed Forces: Bob-U
  CPU: Karen-U
  HPD&MC: Phil-U
  IntSec: Alice-U
  R&D: Bob-U
  PLC: Dan-U
  Tech Services: Bob-U
  Terry-U is the only Player Character who 
  wasn’t a high bidder on any of the eight 
  Service Groups. Bob-U is in control of 
  three Service Groups. Everyone else has 
  one and no-one bid on Power Services.
  Raising your Stake
  At the end of a mission, you can invest 
  Access to raise your stake in any Service 
  Service Group
  Bob-U
  Terry-U
  Phil-U
  Karen-U
  Dan-U
  Alice-U
  Armed Forces
  6
  3
  5
  2
  CPU
  5
  6
  HPD&MC
  1
  2
  10
  Internal Security
  1
  4
  5
  6
  10
  R&D
  4
  2
  3
  PLC
  1
  2
  4
  Tech Services
  5
  3
  Power Services
  Group. Each point of Access spent 
  increases your stake by 1. You must have 
  an existing stake in the group to do this 
  – it represents your High Programmer 
  spreading his nefarious tendrils of 
  influence through the group via his 
  existing spies and loyalists.
  For especially big Stake shifts (say, more 
  than 10), you need to justify how you’re 
  expanding your control. Which middle 
  managers are you subverting? Just how 
  did you seize control of the IntSec Supply 
  Services account?
  Lowering Another High 
  Programmer’s Stake
  Similarly, you can spend Access to reduce 
  another High Programmer’s stake in 
  a Service Group by eliminating their 
  loyalists, bribing wavering supporters 
  to switch their allegiance to you, 
  undercutting their minions and sending 
  troublesome citizens on suicide missions. 
  Each point of Access spent reduces their 
  stake by 1. If you overspend, then you 
  wasted the excess Access. Hey, excess 
  Access is fun to say!
  A Brand New Stake 
  If you don’t have an existing stake, then 
  you can’t just buy one – you’ll need to get 
  a Minion from that Service Group. At the 
  end of the mission, if that Minion’s still alive, 
  you can use that as the foundation of your 
  power base and expand out from there.
   Deputising and 
  Delegation
  Each Player Character must be in 
  charge of at least one Service Group 
  in the Situation Room. If a player is the 
  
  20
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  head of more than one Service Group 
  and another player has no Group, then 
  a player with multiple groups must 
  deputise his penurious comrade. The 
  High Programmers can come up with 
  whatever arrangement they want (‘I’ll 
  pay you 10 Access if you deputise me as 
  Head of IntSec’) but they must come to 
  an arrangement by the time they arrive 
  in the Situation Room. The Computer 
  says so. 
  For example, in the sample, Bob-U has 
  three Service Groups and Terry-U has 
  none. Bob-U must temporarily hand over 
  control of one of his groups to Terry-U for 
  the duration of the mission. 
  If the High Programmers squabble 
  for too long, The Computer makes an 
  executive decision and assigns everyone 
  Treason Points.
  You’re the Boss
  Being Head of a Service Group comes 
  with lots of perks, including:
  � Budget Control
  � Minion Control
  � First Refusal on Directives
  � A Stylish Group Sheet
  � A Shiny Portfolio Sheet
  You’re also the one who makes 
  decisions, approves policies, sets mission 
  statements and gives promotions and 
  demotions. Every ambitious executive 
  and avid bootlicker wants to please you 
  – or knife you in the back.
  Budget Control
  If you’re running a Service Group, then 
  you get extra Access when you enter the 
  Situation Room. The amount of Access 
  depends on your Service Group. If you 
  control multiple groups, you get the 
  Access for each of them. For more on 
  Access, see page 18.
  Armed Forces: 4  
   
   
  R&D: 3
  CPU: 5  
   
   
   
  Tech Services: 4
  HPD&MC: 3 
   
   
   
  Power Services: 3
  PLC: 8 
   
   
   
   
  IntSec: 5
  Minion Control
  As Head of the Department, you can 
  decide whether or not to permit the 
  activation of a minion. You’ve got a veto 
  over any activities undertaken by your 
  Group. (Warning: obstruction of Alpha 
  Complex operations is treason.) For more 
  on Minions, see page 105.
  First Refusal on Directives
  As Head of the Service Group, you’re the 
  ﬁ rst person to ﬁ nd out the Directive for 
  each group. You may choose to accept 
  the Directive or delegate it. 
  A Stylish Service Group Card
  On pages 24 to 27, you’ll find eight 
  Service Group Cards, one for each Service 
  Group. Get the Service Group Card for 
  your group (or groups) and place it in 
  front of you when in the Situation Room. 
  The front side of the Group Card has a 
  brief description of the Service Group for 
  the beneﬁ t of the other players. 
  A Shiny Portfolio Sheet
  On pages 29 to 33, you’ll find eight 
  Portfolio Sheets, one for each Service 
  Group. Take the Portfolio sheet for 
  your group and put it on top of your 
  character sheet. The Portfolio sheet lists 
  the minions available to your group. 
  Note that the GM may provide you with 
  a modiﬁ ed Portfolio sheet.
  Directives
  Before each mission, a think tank of 
  VIOLET executives, political analysts 
  and trusted operatives work out exactly 
  what the Service Group needs. This could 
  be anything from ‘ensure that our new 
  Warbot doesn’t get blown up’ to ‘Increase 
  happiness across the sector, no matter 
  what it takes’ to ‘we’re running out of cash, 
  get all the Access you can’ to  ‘we need 
  to embarrass those smug bastards over 
  at Internal Security’. This is the Service 
  Group’s Directive.
  The Head of the Group is the ﬁ rst High 
  Programmer informed of the Directive. If 
  he wishes, he can accept the Directive, or 
  he can delegate it to the High Programmer 
  with the next highest stake in the group. 
  That High Programmer can also delegate 
  it, all down the line to the character with 
  the lowest stake in the group.
  If you accept a Directive and complete 
  it, you increase your Stake in the Service 
  Group by a whopping 10 points.
  If you accept a Directive and fail to 
  complete it, you drop your Stake in the 
  group by 10 points. 
  9. Minions
  Minions are all the little people of 
  Alpha Complex. They’re the guys at 
  the other end of the telephone, your 
  lackeys, ﬂ unkies, servants and employees. 
  Minions can also be bots, gadgets, even 
  policies – anything you use as a tool to 
  exert change on Alpha Complex.
  The Computer would prefer if you 
  didn’t call them minions. They’re trusted 
  employees, helpful bots, brave new 
  initiatives, guardians of freedom or loyal 
  worker-consumers of Alpha Complex. 
  Lumping them in under the demeaning 
  heading of ‘minion’ suggests that you 
  see them as disposable cannon fodder, 
  disposable servants or even disposable 
  reactor shielding.
  Admittedly, this is how you should 
  see minions. In terms of the HIGH 
  PROGRAMMER game, a minion is a tool 
  to be used and then discarded.
  So, What’s A Minion?
  High Programmers rarely act directly. 
  They’re both lazy and paranoid, unwilling 
  to leave the safety of the heavily 
  armoured Situation Room or the luxury 
  of their ULTRAVIOLET mansions. Instead, 
  the will of a High Programmer is exerted 
  through Minions.
  Your average Minion isn’t an individual 
  – it’s a group. It could be a battallion 
  of elite Vulture Squadron Warriors 
  or an Internal Security investigative 
  team. It could be a lab packed with 
  crazy R&D researchers and their weird 
  inventions, or a few hundred Tech 
  Services labourers. It could be a single 
  giant warbot, or a lone vidshow celebrity, 
  or even a new advertising campaign. A 
  
  21
  9. MINIONS
  Minion is anything you can use to effect 
  considerable changes across Alpha 
  Complex.
  A single guard or lone bureaucrat isn’t 
  a capital-M Minion. You can boss them 
  around but that won’t accomplish much 
  on a grand scale (it’s good for relieving 
  tension, though).
  Most Minions aren’t unique. The Tech 
  Services minion Corridor Cleaning 
  Team isn’t the only Corridor Cleaning 
  Team in Alpha Complex. However, it’s the 
  only Corridor Cleaning Team that’s on 
  call right now in your sector. If a Minion 
  is destroyed, terminated for being full of 
  traitors, reassigned to reactor shielding 
  duty or otherwise rendered inoperable, it 
  may take a while to get a replacement.
   Obtaining Minions
  All legal Minions come from one of the 
  eight Service Groups. In the Situation 
  Room, you may purchase Minions from 
  that Service Group – with the permission 
  of the Head of that Group. Purchasing a 
  Minion costs Access.
  Once purchased, a Minion is yours to 
  use as you see ﬁ t for the duration of the 
  mission. You may use that Minion (‘go 
  kill those Commies’) or hand that Minion 
  over to another High Programmer (‘you 
  work for General Phil-U now. Follow his 
  orders as you go kill Commies’).
   Minion Costs
  Thr Chapter beginning on page 105 and 
  the Portfolios list suggest Access costs 
  for Minions. This cost is the operating 
  cost of the Minion – the CPU-calculated 
  optimum amount of Access to activate, 
  transport and deploy that asset. The 
  Head of the Service Group may ask 
  for a higher cost, or even a lower one. 
  If a Minion is bought at a higher cost, 
  the extra Access goes to the Service 
  Group. If it is bought at a lower cost, the 
  Minion may be missing key supplies or 
  personnel.
   Paying for Minions
  If you’re purchasing a Minion, you pay 
  the required Access to the Head of that 
  Minion’s Service Group. The Head then 
  transfers the Access to The Computer. 
  Remember, you only get the use of the 
  Minion for the rest of the mission. Let’s 
  say you buy an ICBM off the Armed 
  Forces – that doesn’t mean you own an 
  ICBM. It means you temporarily have 
  command of that ICBM. Once the mission 
  is over, the ICBM isn’t yours anymore. It’s 
  like you’ve just rented the Minion. The 
  GM may call for extra Access if you’re 
  moving the Minion from one location 
  to another, or if the Minion has to do 
  something that’s wildly outside of its 
  core competencies.  
  So, it’s best to ﬁ nd a way to use Minions 
  while you have ‘em. If that nuke doesn’t 
  get ﬁ red, it’s a waste of resources...
  Even if you’re the Head of a Service 
  Group, you have to pay Access to use 
  Minions from that group. They don’t 
  work for free. 
  Buying Minions: A Typical 
  Conversation
  Head of Central Processing: (Soliloquy) 
  I suspect there’s a nest of Commie 
  Mutant Traitors in R&D. Uncovering these 
  traitors will embarrass my hated rival, the 
  Head of R&D. I shall need a Minion with 
  Investigation. Hmm – this IntSec Ofﬁ ce of 
  Undercover Operations seems ideal.
  Ho there, Head of Internal Security. I wish 
  to purchase the use of this Undercover 
  Ops team.
  Head of Internal Security: Certainly. A 
  mere 10 Access.
  Head of Central Processing: 10 Access!? 
  That seems extortionate.
  Head of Internal Security: Perhaps if 
  you were to tell me what you need them 
  for, we could come to some alternate 
  arrangement.
  Head of Central Processing: Oh, a 
  trifling matter, hardly worthy of your 
  notice.
  Head of Internal Security: Anything 
  involving Undercover Operations is 
  important. If you have evidence of 
  treason, High Programmer, you must 
  report it.
  Head of Central Processing: Not 
  evidence, just the merest hint of a 
  suspicion.
  Head of Internal Security: Can we 
  afford to overlook the merest hint of a 
  suspicion?
  Head of Central Processing: Can we, by 
  which I mean I, afford 10 Access? No.
  Minions & Security 
  Clearance
  Every Minion has a Security Clearance, 
  from INFRARED to VIOLET. This is 
  important for two reasons.
  All information and locations in Alpha 
  Complex also have a Security Clearance, 
  again ranging from INFRARED to VIOLET. 
  If a Minion is ordered into a location it’s 
  not permitted to enter, or made aware 
  of information beyond its Security 
  Clearance, the High Programmer 
  responsible has committed treason. 
  See Treason, page 49.
  Secondly, if two Minions are both 
  attempting to do something, the Minion 
  with the lower Security Clearance is 
  supposed to defer to the one with the 
  higher Clearance. Say some Programmers 
  are trying to order Minions to arrest an 
  important traitor. The BLUE Clearance 
  Stealing Access
  Purchasing a Minion works like this:
  1. 
  The Buyer Picks The Minion He Wants
  2. 
  The Head of that Service Group Says How Much That Minion Costs
  3. 
  He gives Access to the Head of that Minion’s Service Group
  4. 
  The Head Gives The Access To The Computer
  It’s at Steps 2 and 4 where things get interesting. A cost is listed for each Minion 
  on the portfolio sheet but there’s no reason why the Head of the group needs to 
  use that cost. He can choose to charge a higher or lower price at step 2. 
  In step 4, the Head of the Group is obliged to transfer Access to The Computer 
  to activate the Minion. The Head doesn’t have to transfer the full amount – but 
  if he pays less than the Minion’s ofﬁ cial cost, the unfortunate Minion will be 
  underfunded. This is treasonous, as the Minion will be less effective or even 
  totally useless. 
  
  22
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  IntSec Troopers would go before the 
  GREEN Clearance goons but they’d both 
  have to defer to the VIOLET Clearance 
  butlers. Failure to defer to a higher 
  Clearance Minion is treason.
  You can increase the Security Clearance 
  of any minion by spending Access. Each 
  Security Clearance jump costs two 
  points. So, to increase the Clearance of 
  a Minion from RED to ORANGE costs 
  two Access, from RED to GREEN costs six 
  Access. Other promotion costs are left as 
  an exercise to the reader.
  Specialities
  Like any tool, each Minion is good at some 
  things and no good at others. A bunch of 
  Armed Forces Vulture Squadron Warriors 
  are absolutely great at blowing things up 
  but no good at putting them back together. 
  A ﬂ otilla of scrubbots are ideal if you want 
  to clean a whole sector but not if you’re 
  trying to convince the public to accept a 
  15% reduction in oxygen rations. 
  When you’re using a Minion to do 
  something related to one of its Specialties, 
  you can use your skill normally. If the 
  minion doesn’t have an appropriate 
  Speciality, then your skill is reduced to 1. 
  So, you can use those scrubbots to carry 
  around placards saying ‘Deep Breathing 
  is Treason’ and ‘Commies are Red-faced/ 
  Loyal Citizens are Blue/ Oxygen Rationing 
  Is Fun For Me and You’, but there’s only a 
  1-in-20 chance of that actually working. 
  A Speciality permits you to use your skill 
  through that Minion without penalty. 
  Each Speciality lists which Service Groups 
  it is traditionally associated with.
  +X Specialties
  Some really good Minions have ‘+X 
  Specialities’. They’re really good at a 
  particular Speciality. A +X Speciality 
  increases your skill by the value of the 
  Specialty when using that Minion. A +2 
  Speciality gives you a +2 bonus to your 
  skill, a +6 gives you a +6 bonus and so on. 
  A cutting edge hospital might have a +4 
  Speciality in Medical, for example. A really 
  big warbot has a +4 Speciality in Assault.
  Management Specialties
  � Assessment (IS, CPU): 
  Bureaucratic audits and 
  investigations
  � Co-Ordination (CPU, HPD&MC): 
  Ordering people around, solving 
  organisational problems
  � Hygiene (HPD&MC, TS): 
  Maintaining proper hygiene 
  standards
  � Interrogation (IS, HPD&MC): 
  Extracting the truth from people’s 
  brains
  � Intimidation (IS, AF): Installing the 
  truth, altering opinions
  � Paperwork (CPU, HPD&MC): What 
  it sounds like
  � Thought Control (PLC, HPD&MC): 
  Political spin
  � Thought Survey (HPD&MC, CPU): 
  Polling and surveys
   Subterfuge
  � Black Markets (PS, PLC): Dealing 
  with the underground economy
  � Covert Operations (IS, PS): 
  Sneaking around Alpha Complex
  � Cleanup (CPU, HPD&MC): Erasing 
  records; making people into unpeople
  � Inﬁ ltration (IS, PS): Pretending to 
  be a Commie Mutant Traitor
  � Investigation (IS, HPD&MC): 
  Ferreting out secrets
  � Security Systems (IS, R&D): Death 
  traps and lasers
  � Surveillance (IS, TS): Security 
  cameras and bugging devices
  � Sabotage (PS, IS): Stopping or 
  causing sabotage and disruption
   Violence
  � Assault (AF, R&D): Heroically 
  charging into battle
  � Command (CPU, AF): Telling people 
  to charge heroically into battle
  � Crowd Control (AF, HPD&MC): 
  Heroically charging into unarmed 
  crowds
  � Defence (AF, IS): Protecting 
  people and things
  � Demolition (TS, R&D): Blowing 
  things up
  � Outdoors Operations (AF, TS): 
  Running around Outdoors
  � Wetwork (IS, AF): Eliminating 
  troublesome people
  � Total War (AF, R&D): Blowing 
  everything up
  Hardware
  � Bot Engineering (TS, R&D): 
  Building and maintaining bots
  � Construction (TS, PS): Large-scale 
  structural engineering
  � Chemical Engineering (TS, PLC): 
  Making fun goos
  � Habitat Engineering (PS, TS): 
  Basic infrastructure of Alpha 
  Complex
  � Nuclear Engineering (PS, R&D): 
  Ensuring things do not go boom 
  when you ﬂ ick a light switch
  � Production (PLC, TS): Running 
  factories and production lines
  � Transport (PLC, AF): Getting stuff 
  from A to B
  � Weird Science (R&D, TS): Mad, 
  they called you mad! But you’ll 
  show them all!
   Software
  � Bot Programming (R&D, TS): 
  Ordering bots around
  � Communications (TS, AF): 
  Securing phone lines; controlling 
  communications
  � Computer Security (CPU, R&D): 
  Protecting Computer systems
  � Data Retrieval (CPU, R&D): 
  Searching the archives
  � Financial Systems (PLC, CPU): 
  Running the economy
  � Hacking (CPU, R&D): Penetrating 
  computer systems
  � Logistics (PLC, PS): Organising 
  systems
  � Media Manipulation (PLC, 
  HPD&MC): Special effects and 
  media production
   Wetware 
  � Biosciences (PS, R&D): Making or 
  analysing living things
  � Catering (PLC, CPU): Food related 
  matters of all sorts
  � Cloning (PLC, TS): Undeceasing 
  the recently terminated
  � Medical (TS, R&D): Patching 
  people up
  � Mutant Studies (HPD&MC, R&D): 
  Poking mutants with sticks until 
  you get a reaction
  � Outdoor Studies (R&D, CPU): 
  Identifying outdoor stuff
  � Pharmatherapy (PLC, HPD&MC): 
  Drugging people
  � Subliminal Messaging (HPD&MC, 
  CPU): Subliminally manipulating 
  
  23
  10. PORTFOLIO SHEETS & GROUP CARDS
  Underfunded Minions
  Tech Services Technician: Sir, I don’t think much of these new ShovelBots. They just lie there and don’t respond to voice 
  commands.
  Tech Services Supervisor: That sounds like unhappiness, citizen.
  Tech Services Technician: Sir, I mean that I would appreciate instructions as to how to most efﬁ ciently operate this new 
  wonderful bot.
  Tech Services Supervisor: Well, you just grab the handle here and dig with the ﬂ at end.
  Tech Services Technician: So, you activate the ShovelBot in exactly the same way you use a shovel?
  Tech Services Supervisor: Precisely.
  Tech Services Technician: So what’s the difference between them?
  Tech Services Supervisor: About 40,000 credits each.
  An unscrupulous Head of a Service Group could choose to… redirect some of the Access paid to activate a Minion. Instead 
  of 10 Access being used to activate a new warbot, only ﬁ ve Access is spent on the actual warbot and the rest goes right 
  into the pocket of the High Programmer.
  This is treasonous behaviour if detected.
  The poor underfunded Minion is still activated but with vastly reduced capabilities. A unit of Armed Forces goons might 
  be sent out without any ammunition for their guns. Those CPU clerks you ordered might have only one pen between 
  them, or be so overworked they fall asleep on the job. The elite janitorial commandoes you called up turn out to be one 
  rusty scrubbot with a broken mob.
  And that warbot? Due to budget cutbacks, they had to activate it without any Asimov circuits. Is that a problem?
  10. Portfolio Sheets & Group Cards
  Preparation. Preparation. Preparation. 
  The three things that most High 
  Programmers don’t bother with. 
  ULTRAVIOLETs have a busy schedule of 
  plotting, scheming and being decadent. 
  They don’t have time to bother with the 
  little details, like remembering which 
  Service Group they’re running this week 
  or who works for them. Trivial stuff like 
  that is why they have Portfolio Sheets 
  and Group Cards.
   Portfolio Sheets
  Your Portfolio Sheet (one per Service 
  Group) lists all the Minions available to 
  that group, including their Specialties 
  and costs. Remember, these costs are the 
  minimum cost needed for the Minion 
  to function properly – paying less than 
  this cost impedes the Minion’s ability to 
  function properly. Or, to put it in more 
  colloquial terms, you get what you pay 
  for. 
  The Minions available to you may change 
  from mission to mission – the GM may 
  issue updated Portfolio Sheets to you, or 
  he may not. Embrace uncertainty. 
   Group Cards
  Group Cards are a handy way of 
  identifying who to talk to. Anyone 
  with a Group Card in front of him is a 
  very important person and you should 
  pay attention to him. Anyone without 
  a Group Card is not a very important 
  person and should be ordered to dance 
  for your amusement. 
  On the front side of each Group Card, 
  there is the Ofﬁ cial HPD&MC-mandated 
  logo of your Service Group and a brief 
  description of what that group does. On 
  the rear side of each card is a list of the 
  Specialties possessed by that group and 
  some encouraging words of advice from 
  your staff. Place the Group Card for your 
  Service Group with the front side facing 
  out towards the other players. 
  If you have multiple Service Groups, take 
  the Group Card for each of them. Make 
  a little fort.
  In addition to identifying you as a very 
  important person who’s in charge of a 
  Service Group, your card can serve as a 
  sturdy barricade against encroaching 
  assassins and as a shield against prying 
  eyes. You can conceal your stock of 
  Access chips and secret notes behind (or 
  under) the Group Card.
  Making Your Group Cards
  Photocopy the eight Group Cards 
  on pages 24-27 (or print out copies 
  from www.mongoosepublishing.
  com) and cut along the dotted line 
  half-way down the page. Then fold 
  the individual cards into an inverse 
  V-shape. It works best if you print onto 
  heavier paper or card. 
  
  24
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
   The Armed Forces 
  The Armed Forces defend Alpha Complex from 
  external threats. To this all-important end, the 
  Service Group maintains a standing fighting 
  force, honed to a lethal edge and equipped with 
  enough ﬁ repower to wipe out all life on Earth. 
  Constant vigilance is paramount – Armed Forces 
  units must drill, train and march up and down 
  in readiness for the inevitable ﬁ nal battle with 
  Communism!
  Core Specialties 
   
   
  You are the Head of the  Intimidation 
  Armed Forces! The duty of Assault 
  defending Alpha Complex Commandis yours! 
  Crowd Control Consider the security Outdoors 
  Operation implications of every Security 
  decision.  Keep the defence Wetwork of Alpha 
  Complex in the Total War hands of professionals, 
  not Transport those wimps over in IntSec 
  Communications 
   Central Processing
  The role of Central Processing Unit is to maximise 
  efﬁ ciency across Alpha Complex by co-ordinating 
  the other Service Groups. If The Computer had 
  a right hand, we’d be at it. Every daycycle, CPU 
  works diligently to reduce waste, streamline 
  procedures and improve all aspects of Alpha 
  Complex administration. 
  You’re welcome.
  Core Specialties  
   
  As Head of Central Processing,
  Assessmentyou chair this meeting of HighCo-
  Ordination Programmers. Make sure every Hygiene 
  one’s working together and that Paper work you’re 
  within your operating Thought Surveybudget. Keep 
  the other groups Erasureunder control – remember, 
  you’re Command in charge! Take responsibility for 
  Computer Security nothing – Central Processing 
  Data Retrieval must remain blameless at all 
  Financial Systems times. Do nothing decisively! 
  Hacking Outdoor Systems Subliminal Messaging
  C
  E
  N
  T
  R
  A
  L
   
  P
  R
  O
  C
  E
  S
  S
  I
  N
  G
   
  U
  N
  I
  T
  O
  R
  G
  A
  N
  I
  Z
  I
  N
  G
   
  Y
  O
  U
  R 
  LI
  FE
   S
  O 
  Y
  O
  U
   D
  O
  N
  ’
  T
   
  H
  A
  V
  E
   
  T
  O
  .
  A
  R
  M
  E
  D
   
  F
  O
  R
  C
  E
  S
  W
  E
   
  K
  I
  L
  L
   
  C
  O
  M
  M
  I
  E
  S
   
  D
  E
  A
  D
  .
   
  P
  E
  R
  I
  O
  D
  .
  
  25
  10. PORTFOLIO SHEETS & GROUP CARDS
   InternalSecurity
  Internal Security protects Alpha Complex 
  against betrayal from within. As The Computer 
  warns us, anyone could be a Commie Mutant 
  Traitor! Stay alert! Trust no-one! Keep your laser 
  handy! 
   
  Please co-operate fully with all Internal Security 
  operations. Failure to co-operate
  fully is treason.
  Core Specialties 
   
   
  � Assessment
  � Interrogation
  � Intimidation
  � Covert Ops
  � Inﬁ ltration
  � Investigation
  � Security Systems
  � Surveillance
  � Sabotage
  � Crowd Control
  � Security
  � Wetwork
  � Mutant Studies
  You are the Head of Internal Security. Your 
  mission is to uncover traitors. Even High 
  Programmers can be traitors! You must closely 
  watch your fellow High Programmers for signs 
  of treachery or disloyalty. Closely examine every 
  decision – could it be part of some treacherous 
  scheme! Report your suspicions to the other 
  High Programmers and to The Computer.
  You must also maintain security among the 
  citizens. A paranoid, fearful society is a safe 
  society. Also, make sure that the security of 
  Alpha Complex remains under your control 
  – don’t let those morons in Armed Forces 
  muscle in!
   HPD & Mind Control
  You’re the Head of Housing Preservation 
  Development & Mind Control. Your main task 
  is to keep the proles in line – make sure the 
  committee doesn’t make any decisions that 
  would reduce happiness or cause discontent. 
  The Computer doesn’t like it when people are 
  unhappy. You must also ensure the supply 
  of basic necessities – food, sedatives, water, 
  TV – or the mob might get restless. Keep the 
  proles happy at all costs, whatever it takes. If 
  you don’t, then you’ll be facing a lynch mob 
  or a ﬁ ring squad. Impress on your fellow High 
  Programmers (especially those PLC sycophants) 
  the importance of maintaining order and the 
  social contract. 
  You’re also in charge of the media. You must put 
  the correct spin on all decisions. The proles love 
  it when a High Programmer addresses them 
  directly, so try to get the other Programmers to 
  make public appearances.
  H
  P
  D
   
  &
   
  M
  I
  N
  D
   
  C
  O
  N
  T
  R
  O
  L
  E
  N
  T
  E
  R
  T
  A
  I
  N
  M
  E
  N
  T
   
  C
  L
  E
  A
  R
  E
  D
   
  F
  O
  R
   
  T
  H
  E
   
  M
  A
  S
  S
  E
  S
  .
  
  26
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  P
  R
  O
  D
  U
  C
  T
  I
  O
  N
  ,
   
  L
  O
  G
  I
  S
  T
  I
  C
  S
   
  &
   
  C
  O
  M
  M
  I
  S
  S
  A
  R
  Y
  I
  F
   
  Y
  O
  U
   N
  EE
  D 
  IT
  , 
  W
  E’
  VE
   G
  OT
   I
  T.
   S
  O
  M
  E
  W
  H
  E
  R
  E
  .
  R
  E
  S
  E
  A
  R
  C
  H
   
  &
   
  D
  E
  S
  I
  G
  N
  W
  H
  A
  T
   
  W
  O
  U
  L
  D
   
  H
  A
  P
  P
  E
  N
   
  I
  F
  …
  ?
   Production, Logistics & Commissary
  Production, Logistics & Commissary is responsible for producing and 
  distributing all consumer goods, supplies and equipment to the citizens of 
  Alpha Complex. Basic equipment may be requisitioned through a friendly 
  PLC service clerk; other items can be purchased at any one of the many 
  PLC stores or vending machines or ordered via The Computer. Remember, 
  consumption is loyalty!
  Buy now! Buy now! Buy now! Buy now!
  This message sponsored by _______________.
  Core Specialties
   
   
   
  � 
  Black Marketeering
  � 
  Catering
  � 
  Chemical Eng
  � 
  Cloning
  � 
  Financial Systems
  � 
  Logistics
  � 
  Media Manipulation
  � 
  Pharmatherapy
  � 
  Production
  � 
  Thought Control
  � 
  Transport
  You’re in charge of Production, Logistics & Commissary. Congratulations, 
  boss! PLC is the vanguard of the Alpha Complex economy. Remember 
  the following rules (from the Seven Habits of Highly Successful High 
  Programmers) and you’ll do ﬁ ne!
  � 
  Low Clearance citizens don’t have any money. Ignore them if 
  possible. HPD&MC is full of socialists anyway!
  � 
  High Clearance citizens have money. Sell to them! Every crisis is 
  an opportunity!
  � 
  Competition is good, as long as PLC controls both sides. Squash the 
  INFRARED market, the ﬁ lesharers and the other enemies of capitalism.
  � 
  Access wants to be spent. You’ve got to spend inﬂ uence to make 
  inﬂ uence – and PLC has the most Access to spend!
  � 
  When in doubt, ask for a bailout. PLC’s too big to fail, so don’t be 
  afraid of overheating the economy! Blow those bubbles! No crisis is so bad 
  that you can’t make money off it!
  Consumption is loyalty! Proﬁ t is success! 
   Research & Development
  Progress is inevitable, citizen! Research & 
  Development is taking Alpha Complex boldly into 
  a brave new tomorrowcycle, where the wonders 
  of science will make our lives even happier than 
  they are today! (Life is perfect, thanks to The 
  Computer’s wise leadership, but tomorrow will be 
  doubleplusperfect!) 
  R&D welcomes new challenges! No matter what 
  your problem is, we’ve got an experimental device 
  just waiting to be used on it!
  Core Specialties  
   
  � 
  Assault
  � 
  Bioscience
  � 
  Bot Programming
  � 
  Cloning
  � 
  Computer Security
  � 
  Demolition
  � 
  Hacking
  � 
  Medical
  � 
  Mutant Studies
  � 
  Nuclear Engineering
  � 
  Outdoor Studies
  � 
  Security Systems
  � 
  Total War
  � 
  Weird Science
  Welcome, Director, to the laboratory. Research and 
  Design is an exciting and fast-moving ﬁ eld, full of 
  promising experiments and brave new wonders of 
  technology. As Head of R&D, you must ensure that 
  we have the funding and the ﬁ eld testing that we 
  need to bring our creations to life – to life, I tell you! 
  Mwhahaha!
  We dislike the term ‘mad scientists’. It’s judgemental. 
  We also need you to dismiss any unfounded 
  rumours about runaway experiments, doomsday 
  devices, escaped monsters and other foolish 
  stories that might interfere with the widespread 
  acceptance of our brave new tomorrow.
  
  27
  P
  O
  W
  E
  R
   
  S
  E
  R
  V
  I
  C
  E
  S
  T
  H
  E
   
  P
  O
  W
  E
  R
   
  O
  F
   
  A
  L
  P
  H
  A
   
  C
  O
  M
  P
  L
  E
  X
   
  L
  I
  T
  E
  R
  A
  L
  L
  Y
   
  A
  T
   
  O
  U
  R
   
  F
  I
  N
  G
  E
  R
  TI
  P
  S
  10. PORTFOLIO SHEETS & GROUP CARDS
   Technical Services
  Got a problem? Technical Services can fix it! 
  Our skilled operatives are standing by to repair 
  and maintain Alpha Complex’s infrastructure and 
  equipment (not related to power generation, 
  distribution or transport). From fixing the 
  photocopier to building new sectors, Technical 
  Services does it all (except where ‘it’ involves 
  power generation, distribution or the transport 
  infrastructure).
  Technical Services – if it works, we’ll put a spanner 
  in it.
  Core Specialties  
   
  � 
  Bot Engineering
  � 
  Bot Programming
  � 
  Chemical Engineering
  � 
  Cloning 
  � 
  Communications
  � 
  Construction
  � 
  Demolition
  � 
  Habitat Engineering
  � 
  Hygiene
  � 
  Medical
  � 
  Outdoors Operations
  � 
  Production
  � 
  Surveillance
  � 
  Weird Science
  You’re in charge of Tech Services. You’ll ﬁ nd the 
  headache pills in the third drawer of your desk. 
  Imagine a vast underground city full of highly 
  advanced technology. Now, imagine that highly 
  advanced technology is in the hands of, and let’s be 
  generous here, drug-addled morons. Your average 
  citizen shouldn’t be trusted with a crayon, let 
  alone laser pistols and heavy machinery but that’s 
  what they get. Your job is to keep Alpha Complex 
  running despite its citizens. Be prepared for every 
  problem to end up on your plate – and don’t let 
  those lazy goons over in Power Services get away 
  with anything. 
   Power Services
  Got a problem? Power Services can ﬁ x it! Our skilled 
  operatives are standing by to repair and maintain 
  Alpha Complex’s power-related infrastructure and 
  equipment. From keeping the lights on to running 
  the reactors, Power Services does it all (in cases 
  where ‘it’ involves power generation, distribution 
  or the transport infrastructure).
  Power Services – because we can.
  Core Specialties  
   
  � 
  Biosciences
  � 
  Black Marketeering
  � 
  Bot Engineering
  � 
  Construction
  � 
  Covert Ops
  � 
  Data Retrieval
  � 
  Habitat Engineering
  � 
  Inﬁ ltration
  � 
  Logistics
  � 
  Nuclear Engineering
  � 
  Sabotage
  Welcome to Power Services, a Service Group which 
  is just as important as Technical Services and is 
  its equal in every way. The chief responsibility of 
  Power Services – and it is a very big, important 
  responsibility, bigger than anything Tech Services 
  does – is to keep the nuclear reactors running. These 
  reactors work perfectly and the nuclear waste is a 
  wholly manageable problem (managing it is your 
  problem). We also keep the transtubes going. We’re 
  a really important Service Group!
  BAD 
   
   
  GOOD
  ‘Meltdown’ 
   
  ‘Fissile Surplus’
  ‘Blackout’ 
   
  ‘Bonus Sleeptime’
  ‘Explosion’ 
   
  ‘Unveriﬁ ed disturbance’
  ‘Crash’  
   
  ‘Vehicular event’
  ‘Disaster’ 
   
  ‘Unfortunate event’
  ‘Catastrophe’
  ‘Very unfortunate event’
  T
  E
  C
  H
  N
  I
  C
  A
  L
   
  S
  E
  R
  V
  I
  C
  E
  S
  Y
  O
  U
   
  B
  R
  E
  A
  K
   I
  T,
   
  W
  E 
  F
  I
  X
   
  IT
  .
   
  C
  H
  E
  A
  P
  .
  
  28
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  The Computer wants You!!!
  
  29
  10. PORTFOLIO SHEETS & GROUP CARDS
   Armed Forces Portfolio Sheet
  Minion
  Clearance
  Access 
  Specialties
  Armed Forces Friends Network
  O
  2
  Communication (So)
  Armed Forces Friends Network
  B
  5
  Communications (So), Investigation (M)
  Bodyguard Services
  B
  5
  Security (V), Intimidation (V)
  Bodyguard Services
  V
  8
  Security +4 (V), Security Systems (Su)
  Crowd Control
  R
  2
  Crowd Control (V)
  Crowd Control
  O
  3
  Crowd Control +4 (V)
  Sensitivity Trainers
  Y
  3
  Thought Control (M)
  Sensitivity Trainers
  G
  4
  Thought Control (M), Pharmatherapy (W)
  Vulture Squadron Recruiters
  G
  3
  Intimidation (M)
  Outdoor Rangers
  G
  3
  Outdoor Operations (V)
  Heroic Infantry
  IR
  1
  Assault (V)
  Heroic Infantry
  R
  3
  Assault +4 (V)
  Ofﬁ cer Brigade
  B
  5
  Command (V), Communications (So)
  Ofﬁ cer Brigade 
  V
  8
  Command +4 (V), Intimidation (M), Communications (So)
  Transportation Bottalion
  R
  2
  Transport (H)
  Armed Forces Marching Band
  R
  2
  Intimidation (M)
  Vulture Squadron Warriors*
  B
  7
  Assault +4 (V), Wetwork +4 (V)
  VultureCraft Assault Squadron*
  B
  7
  Assault +4 (V), Total War (V)
  Mark IV Warbot*
  G
  8
  Assault (V), Total War (V), Demolition (V)
  ICBM Launch
  I
  6
  Total War +8 (V)
  *: Special rules apply to this Minion.
   Central Processing Portfolio Sheet
  Minion
  Clearance
  Access 
  Specialties
  Volunteer Collection Agencies
  RED
  2
  Co-Ordination (M)
  Management Focus Group*
  GREEN
  8
  Co-Ordination+4 (M), Paperwork+4 (M), Covert 
  Operations (Su)
  A Lot of Yellowpants
  YELLOW
  6
  Assessment +4 (M), Covert Operations (Su)
  Computer Care Specialists
  INDIGO
  6
  Computer Security (So), Hacking (So), Data 
  Retrieval (So) 
  Better Living Thru Chemistry
  RED
  4
  Pharmatherapy (W), Subliminal Messaging 
  (W)
  Better Living Thru Chemistry
  GREEN
  6
  Pharmatherapy +4(W), Subliminal Messaging 
  (W), Biosciences (W)
  Cheery Complex Initiative
  RED
  2
  Hygiene +4 (M)
  Cheery Complex Initiative
  YELLOW
  3
  Hygiene +4 (M)
  Cheery Complex Initiative
  BLUE
  4
  Hygiene +4 (M)
  Archives Department
  RED
  2
  Erasure (Su), Data Retrieval (So)
  Archives Department
  GREEN
  3
  Erasure (Su), Data Retrieval (So)
  Archives Department
  INDIGO
  5
  Erasure (Su), Data Retrieval (So)
  Foreign Policy Strategic Working Group
  BLUE
  5
  Command (V), Outdoor Studies (V)
  Mandatory Break Monitors
  ORANGE
  4
  Covert Operations (Su), Intimidation (M)
  Summary Providers
  YELLOW
  6
  Paperwork (M), Data Retrieval (So)
  *: Special rules apply to this Minion.
  
  30
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  HPD& Mind Control Portfolio Sheet
  Minion
  Clearance
  Access 
  Specialties
  Facility Surveillance Control
  YELLOW
  3
  Surveillance (Su)
  Facility Surveillance Control
  BLUE
  5
  Surveillance +4 (Su)
  History Puriﬁ ers
  ORANGE
  3
  Erasure +4 (Su)
  History Puriﬁ ers
  GREEN
  4
  Erasure +4 (Su)
  History Puriﬁ ers
  INDIGO
  5
  Erasure +4 (Su)
  News Services*
  YELLOW
  4
  Media Manipulation (So), Investigation (Su)
  News Services*
  GREEN
  6
  Media Manipulation +4 (So), Investigation +4 (Su)
  News Services
  INDIGO
  8
  Media Manipulation +4 (So), Investigation +4 (Su)
  Pubic Hating Co-Ordination
  RED
  2
  Thought Control (M)
  Trend Identiﬁ ers
  RED
  2
  Thought Survey (M)
  Singalong Agents
  RED
  2
  Subliminal Messaging (W)
  Subliminals Police
  BLUE
  6
  Subliminal Messaging +4 (W), Assessment (M)
  Housing Services Supply
  RED
  4
  Paperwork (M), Construction (H), Logistics (So)
  INFRARED Wranglers
  RED
  3
  Crowd Control (V), Pharmatherapy (W)
  Mandatory Fun Time Enthusiasts
  RED
  3
  Thought Control (V), Pharmatherapy (W)
  Temporary Filing Staff Requisition*
  RED
  4
  Interrogation (M), Paperwork (M), Inﬁ ltration (Su)
  Celebrity Lifestyle Documenters*
  YELLOW
  4
  Surveillance (Su), Media Manipulation (So)
  Celebrity Lifestyle Documenters*
  BLUE
  7
  Surveillance (Su), Media Manipulation (So), 
  Investigation (Su)
  Celebrity Lifestyle Documenters*
  VIOLET
  10
  Surveillance (Su), Media Manipulation (So), 
  Investigation (Su)
  *: Special rules apply to this Minion.
  Internal Security Portfolio Sheet
  Minion
  Clearance
  Access 
  Specialties
  Forensic Analysis Scrubbot Team
  ORANGE
  2
  Bioscience (W)
  Bright Vision Re-Education Centre
  BLUE
  5
  Intimidation (M), Interrogation (M)
  Loyalty Surveyors
  YELLOW
  4
  Thought Survey +4 (M)
  Threat Assessors
  YELLOW
  4
  Assessment (M), Inﬁ ltration (Su)
  Secure Security Checkpoint Checkers
  YELLOW
  3
  Security Systems (Su)
  Total Surveillance Assurance
  GREEN
  4
  Surveillance +4 (Su)
  Agent Provocateurs 
  BLUE
  6
  Inﬁ ltration +4 (Su), Sabotage (Su)
  IntSec Troopers*
  BLUE
  6
  Security +4 (V), Assault (V) 
  Trafﬁ c Patrol
  BLUE
  6
  Transport (H), Assault +4 (V)
  Jackbooted Thugs
  GREEN
  4
  Crowd Control (V), Intimidation (M)
  Facilitation Division
  YELLOW
  3
  Wetwork (V), Security Systems (Su)
  Facilitation Division
  BLUE
  4
  Wetwork+4 (V), Security Systems (Su)
  Facilitation Division
  VIOLET
  5
  Wetwork+4 (V), Security Systems+4 (Su)
  Mutant Registration
  ORANGE
  2
  Mutant Studies (W)
  Information Retrieval Specialists
  YELLOW
  4
  Interrogation +4 (M)
  Information Retrieval Specialists
  BLUE
  5
  Interrogation +4 (M)
  Information Retrieval Specialists
  VIOLET
  7
  Interrogation +4 (M)
  Men in INDIGO
  INDIGO
  6
  Wetwork (V), Covert Ops (Su), Media 
  Manipulation (So)
  Conspicuous Surveillance Initiative
  ORANGE
  3
  Covert Operations (Su)
  *: Special rules apply to this Minion.
  
  31
  10. PORTFOLIO SHEETS & GROUP CARDS
   Production, Logistics & Commissary Portfolio Sheet
  Minion
  Clearance
  Access 
  Specialties
  BLUE Room Caterers
  RED
  2
  Catering (W)
  BLUE Room Caterers
  YELLOW
  3
  Catering (W)
  BLUE Room Caterers
  BLUE
  5
  Catering +4 (W)
  BLUE Room Caterers
  VIOLET
  7
  Catering +4 (W)
  Equipment Assembly Control
  INFRARED
  1
  Production (H)
  Field Logistics Advisors 
  RED
  3
  Logistics (So), Transport (H)
  Food Vat Control
  INFRARED
  2
  Catering (W), Production (H)
  Inventory System Updaters
  RED
  4
  Logistics (So), Paperwork (M)
  Brand Loyalty Police
  RED
  3
  Thought Control (M)
  Acme Chemical Production
  RED
  3
  Chemical Engineering (H), Production (H)
  BLUE Shield Clone Assurance
  BLUE
  5
  Cloning +4 (W)
  PLC Accounts Co-Ordination
  ORANGE
  6
  Financial Systems (So), Covert Operations (Su), 
  Paperwork (M)
  New Flavour of Bouncy Bubble Beverage
  INFRARED
  2
  Pharmatherapy +4 (W)
  Advertising Campaign*
  RED
  4
  Media Manipulation +4 (So), Thought Control 
  +4 (M)
  C-Bay
  GREEN
  5
  Financial Systems +4 (So), Black Marketeering 
  +4 (Su)
  Enforced Reclamation & Recycling
  YELLOW
  4
  Intimidation (M), Production (H)
  *: Special rules apply to this Minion.
   Power Services Portfolio Sheet
  Minion
  Clearance
  Access 
  Specialties
  Circuit Maintenance
  RED
  3
  Habitat Engineering (H), Sabotage (Su)
  Fuel Rod Disposal Consultants
  RED
  4
  Covert Ops (Su), Biosciences (W), Nuclear 
  Engineering (H)
  Pneumatic Tube Network Engineers
  YELLOW
  8
  Logistics (So), Paperwork (M), Transport (H), 
  Communication (So)
  Department of Transbot Control
  ORANGE
  7
  Transport +4 (H), Co-Ordination (M), Crowd 
  Control (V)
  New Transtube Planning Commission
  INDIGO
  8
  Construction (H), Transport (H), Logistics 
  (So), Demolition (V)
  Reactor Management Commission
  GREEN
  4
  Nuclear Engineering (H), Construction (H)
  Reactor Shielding Volunteer Corps
  RED
  4
  Nuclear Engineering (H), Intimidation (M)
  Crawlspace Commandoes
  RED
  5
  Habitat Engineering (H), Black Marketeering 
  (Su), Wetwork (V)
  Vault Recovery Team*
  GREEN
  4
  Data Retrieval (So), Biosciences (W)
  Toxic Environment Team
  ORANGE
  3
  Biosciences (W), Bot Engineering (H)
  *: Special rules apply to this Minion.
  
  32
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Research & Development Portfolio Sheet
  Minion
  Clearance
  Access 
  Specialties
  Biological Niceness Indexers
  BLUE
  7
  Bioscience (W), Hygiene (M), Assessment (M)
  Security Technology Technicians
  BLUE
  6
  Surveillance +4 (Su), Security Systems +4 (Su)
  Bot Processing
  YELLOW
  5
  Bot Programming +4 (So), Bot Engineering (H)
  Drug Interaction Testers
  GREEN
  5
  Medical (W), Biosciences (W), Pharmatherapy 
  (W)
  Codename: KILLBOT
  GREEN
  4
  Assault (V), Bot Programming (H)
  Doomsday Device
  VIOLET
  8
  Demolition +8 (V), Total War +8 (V)
  Atomic Science Ethical Experimentation 
  Directorate
  GREEN
  6
  Nuclear Engineering (H), Mutant Studies (W)
  Think Tank Consultants
  INDIGO
  12
  Hacking (So), Weird Science +4 (H), Logistics (So), 
  Medical (W)
  Silicon Corridor
  BLUE
  7
  Computer Security (So), Hacking +4 (So)
  Special Environment Clone Laboratories
  GREEN
  7
  Cloning (W), Mutant Studies (W), Transport (H)
  Historical Artefact Identification & 
  Analysis
  YELLOW
  6
  Outdoor Studies (W), Data Retrieval (So), Erasure 
  (Su)
  Experimental Equipment Field Testing*
  ORANGE
  6
  Weird Science (H), Co-Ordination (M)
  Foreign Contaminant Containment
  ORANGE
  7
  Medical (W), Outdoor Studies (W), Biosciences (W), 
  Security Systems (Su)
  Technically Non-Lethal Weapons
  YELLOW
  5
  Assault (V), Crowd Control (V)
  *: Special rules apply to this Minion.
  
  33
  10. PORTFOLIO SHEETS & GROUP CARDS
   Technical Services Portfolio Sheet
  Minion
  Clearance
  Access 
  Specialties
  Security Systems Installers
  YELLOW
  5
  Security Systems (Su), Surveillance (Su)
  Security Systems Installers
  INDIGO
  9
  Security Systems +4 (Su), Surveillance +4 (Su)
  Clone Tank Support Services
  RED
  3
  Cloning (W)
  Medical Services
  YELLOW
  4
  Medical (W)
  Medical Services
  INDIGO
  8
  Medical +4 (W), Cloning (W), Biosciences (W)
  Paint Control
  RED
  3
  Logistics (So)
  Slime Identiﬁ cation
  ORANGE
  4
  Hygiene (M), Biosciences (W)
  Tech Support
  YELLOW
  4
  Communications (So), Bot Engineering (H)
  Abandoned Sector Reclamation Initiative
  GREEN
  8
  Demolition +4 (V), Construction (H), Erasure 
  (Su)
  Dome Cleaning Services
  ORANGE
  5
  Bot Engineering (H), Hygiene (M), Outdoors 
  Operation (V)
  Department of Pipes & Tubes
  RED
  6
  Chemical Engineering +4 (H), Habitat 
  Engineering (H), Surveillance (Su)
  Bot Repair & Maintenance 
  YELLOW
  5
  Bot Engineering +4 (H), Bot Programming 
  (So)
  Scrubbot Army
  RED
  3
  Hygiene +4 (M)
  Megastructure Construction Planning 
  Permission
  BLUE
  12
  Construction +4 (H), Demolition (V), Bot 
  Engineering (H)
  Non-Speciﬁ c Unit Production
  GREEN
  6
  Production +4 (H), Logistics (So)
  Outside Broadcast Unit*
  YELLOW
  4
  Communication (So), Outdoor Operation (W)
  Alpha Complex Space Program*
  INDIGO
  10
  Communications (So), Habitat Engineering (H), 
  Weird Science (H)
  Vat Maintenance & Control
  ORANGE
  4
  Chemical Engineering (H), Biosciences (W)
  Vermin Terminators
  RED
  4
  Habitat Engineering (H), Wetwork (V)
  *: Special rules apply to this Minion.
  
  34
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  11. Cloning
  In its infinite electric wisdom, The 
  Computer has conquered death! Every 
  citizen in Alpha Complex is equipped 
  with a cybernetic implant that records 
  their brain state and uploads a near-real-
  time copy to the MemoMax system. In 
  the extremely unlikely event of a citizen 
  being terminated, a clone of that citizen 
  is force-grown in a vat and imprinted 
  with a copy of the citizen’s last recorded 
  brain state. The clone then takes the 
  place of the fallen citizen, ensuring 
  maximum productivity and happiness 
  for all! Huzzah!
  Clones are delivered via a variety of 
  methods. If the replacement is a high-
  priority one, the clone is popped into 
  a delivery canister and shot through 
  giant pneumatic tubes or rushed to 
  the scene by a delivery bot. Less urgent 
  replacements are just given a transbot 
  pass and told to make their own way 
  home. High Programmer replacements 
  are, of course, transported in luxury 
  limousines or – in emergences – in 
  the ﬁ nest, most comfortable and most 
  exclusive giant pneumatic tubes.
  The new clone is considered to be 
  the original citizen, inheriting the 
  predecessor’s name, Clearance, job, 
  possessions, cash and underwear. There’s 
  one important difference, though – if 
  the original was executed for being a 
  mutant or a traitor, then the replacement 
  clone is considered to be innocent of 
  these crimes. The slate is wiped clean, 
  because the MemoMax procedure is 
  guaranteed 100% to wipe all treasonous 
  thoughts or deviant genes from the 
  replacement clone. (Any instances 
  where the replacement clone is also a 
  Commie Mutant Traitor are attributed 
  to sabotage.)
  Most citizens have only a limited number of 
  clones – everyone gets at least six and extra 
  clones are awarded for good behaviour or 
  for reporting traitors, or sold to those who 
  can afford them, or given as spot prizes 
  on TV shows. High Programmers have 
  a nigh-infinite number of clones – The 
  Computer will never let one of its beloved 
  ULTRAVIOLETs perish.
  Not even if they wish for death. Replicative 
  fading is still a problem. Each clone is a 
  copy of a copy of a copy – or, in the case 
  of a long-serving High Programmer, 
  the copy of a copy of a copy of a copy 
  of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy 
  of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy 
  of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy 
  of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy 
  of a copy of a copy of a copy… repeat 
  at nauseum, or at least until the clone 
  that slithers out of the vat is a twisted, 
  malformed, blind idiot, at which point 
  the High Programmer is usually retired 
  to light clerical duties. 
  Death Of A High 
  Programmer
  When a Player Character is killed – by 
  assassination, termination as a traitor 
  or random mischance – a replacement 
  clone is automatically provided within a 
  few minutes. This new clone does suffer 
  from replicative fading, which manifests 
  as a loss of skill points. The character’s 
  Wetware skill determines how many skill 
  points are lost.
  Wetware
  Skill Points Lost
  1–5
  4
  6–10
  3
  11–15
  2
  16+
  1
  The lost skill points can be taken from 
  a single skill, or divided among several 
  skills – the character could lose two 
  points from Management, one point from 
  Violence and one from Wetware to make 
  up a four-point loss. This degradation in 
  skills is mirrored by physical changes 
  in the High Programmer – a drop in 
  Violence might be explained by slower 
  reactions or a tendency to believe that 
  every enemy is actually some old rival 
  recloned.
  Preventing Loss: If a High Programmer 
  has a Minion with the Cloning Specialty 
  standing by at all times to give him 
  prompt attention in the event of death, 
  he may reduce the skill point loss by 
  one point.
  Death Of An Agent
  Program Group Agents can also come 
  back from the dead via cloning. Such 
  agents lose any Rank they possessed in 
  a Secret Society. 
  12. The Greasy Pole
  In Alpha Complex, all people are created 
  equal. The Computer says so and, for 
  once, it’s right. Every Alpha Complex 
  citizen is decanted from the steel wombs 
  at INFRARED Clearance. There are no 
  family connections, no inherited wealth, 
  no entrenched classes or unequal 
  opportunities. Everyone starts off 
  equal. 
  All citizens are given the same centrally-
  mandated education by TeachBots, 
  which consists mainly of brainwashing 
  and propaganda videos. It’s in the Junior 
  Citizen Crèches that the differences 
  between citizens start to manifest. The 
  more intelligent, the more ruthless 
  and the more treacherous thrive by 
  trampling on their weaker classmates. 
  It’s perfectly Darwinian. 
  At the age of 14, citizens leave the 
  crèches and are assigned to one of 
  the eight Service Groups for a lifetime 
  of service. They’re still all INFRAREDs, 
  so they’re kept so sedated that 
  they’re barely distinguishable from 
  ambulatory vegetables. Most citizens 
  never get any further – they stumble 
  from undemanding, mindless job to 
  undemanding, mindless entertainment, 
  stopping only to buy undigestable, 
  mushy food. Getting out of INFRARED 
  is the first great challenge; the most 
  common route up is to report another 
  citizen for treachery. Turning in your 
  friends and co-workers is rewarded with 
  promotion.
  Internal Security Interview Transcript 
  342543/177. Subject: Frank-TBG-1
  Subject: Duh, I saw Phil, and he was 
  talking to one of them Communisms. 
  Interrogator: A Commie?
  Subject: Yuh. He had a big fur hat and a 
  
  35
  12. THE GREASY POLE
  hammer, jus’ like in the vidshows.
  Interrogator: Are you sure you didn’t 
  hallucinate this?
  Subject: Nah. When I halloo...hallusce...
  see things, they’re kinda purply. The 
  Commie, he was more mauve.
  Interrogator: Good enough for me. 
  Thank you for your co-operation 
  citizen.
  The  Low Clearances: 
  Proles++
  There isn’t a great difference between 
  living conditions at INFRARED and 
  those at, say, RED or ORANGE. You’re still 
  living in a crowded barracks with people 
  who snore even when awake, you’re 
  still working in a mind-numbing job 
  and you’re still medicated to erase any 
  independent thought or unapproved 
  idea... but if you’ve got to RED, you’ve had 
  a taste of promotion. The stakes at low 
  Clearances are petty and insigniﬁ cant 
  by any rational standards but rationality 
  doesn’t enter into it. An ambitious RED 
  would kill for a slightly bigger office 
  cubicle or a microscopic promotion. It’s 
  bitter, cut-throat, petty nastiness at the 
  lower Clearances.  
  More than 60% of all cloning in Alpha 
  Complex is to replace RED, ORANGE or 
  YELLOW citizens who were murdered, 
  accidentally killed or terminated by a 
  colleague or close friend.
  The lower Clearances sort the truly 
  ambitious from the merely lucky. To 
  frame one co-worker for treason and get 
  promoted may be simple good fortune; 
  to do it four times shows genuine 
  promise. 
  Internal Security Interview Transcript 
  345533/179. Subject: Frank-O-TBG-3
  Subject: I may speak without fear 
  of contradiction; the rest of my 
  Troubleshooter team were all Commie 
  Mutant Traitors, every one of them.
  Interrogator: I can’t help but notice that 
  none of them are here.
  Subject: I was, of course, forced to 
  terminate them all. 
  Interrogator: Do you have proof of 
  these astonishing allegations?
  Subject: Indeed I do. By a puzzling co-
  incidence, each of them left a signed 
  confession, describing their treasonous 
  schemes and intentions in detail. 
  Interrogator: How convenient. 
  Equal...Ish
  Despite The Computer’s orders, not all citizens are created equal. 
  Mutation is endemic to the cloning process. Obvious mutants are culled early 
  (good old two-headed Bob, whatever happened to them) but less blatant 
  genetic deviants can survive for many years. Some even reach high Security 
  Clearances – it’s a lot easier for a mutant with Bureaucratic Intuition or Machine 
  Empathy to get promoted.
  Some groups experiment with genetically engineering the next generation 
  of citizens to optimise them for a particular role. Under such schemes, one 
  crèche would produce a bunch of budget-obsessed bureaucrats for CPU, 
  while the crèche next door would make ambidextrous dwarves who liked 
  conﬁ ned spaces and the smell of burnt wiring for Power Services. Such schemes 
  tend to run aground on the Scylla and Charybdis of Armed Forces invincible 
  supersoldiers and R&D mad scientist kids. 
  Finally, it’s not unheard of for High Programmers and other low-hormone-
  suppressant classes to sire or bear natural-born children in the old disgustingly 
  messy way. Actually keeping such embarrassingly noisy evidence of treason 
  around is impossible, so the usual solution is to stick the child into a crèche 
  and alter the records to conceal its origins. 
  Subject: Exactly. You can file these 
  away as legal terminations and then 
  fill out a form IS533 for a 500-credit 
  bonus if you claim that I was an Internal 
  Security informant acting under your 
  instruction. 
  Interrogator: Huh?
  Subject: Here, I’ll ﬁ ll out the paperwork 
  for you. Just sign here, here and lick 
  here…
  INFRARED (100 credits/month)
  Food: FunFoods (Hot and Cold), many 
  kinds of algae, Bouncy Bubble Beverage 
  on special occasions. INFRAREDs can live 
  without cost indeﬁ nitely. The Computer 
  pays them a small monthly stipend to aid 
  the Alpha Complex economy.
  Housing: Communal barracks.
  Transport: Feet. Transtube.
  Staff: None.
  Authority: None.
  Perks: Perpetual happy drug haze.
  Typical INFRARED citizens: Line workers 
  and grunts of all Service Groups; over 
  80% of the population is INFRARED. The 
  Computer ofﬁ cially regards INFRAREDs 
  as the admirably sturdy foundation 
  of Alpha Complex. Nearly all higher 
  Clearance citizens emerge from their 
  teeming ranks; Alpha Complex has no 
  hereditary aristocracy. Privately, many 
  RED Clearance and above (generically 
  called ‘trusted citizens’) hold INFRAREDs 
  in contempt as drugged drones.
  Still, INFRAREDs tend to live longer 
  than trusted citizens below, say, GREEN 
  Clearance, because as a group they seem 
  less prone to treason. For this reason, 
  and because of their huge numbers, 
  INFRAREDs are subject to much less 
  surveillance than other groups.
  RED (1,000 credits/month)
  Food: FunFoods, REDdiMeals with 
  Soylent Red, Bouncy Bubble Beverage 
  occasionally, real food a couple of times 
  a month.
  Housing: Room shared with up to ﬁ ve 
  other citizens.
  Transport: Feet. Transtube. Transition.
  Staff: None.
  Authority: None. Even Infrareds aren’t 
  likely to listen to you, as they’re doing 
  jobs for the higher-ups.
  Perks: You’re not drugged all the time, 
  and you’re not INFRARED.
  Typical RED citizens: Troubleshooters, 
  senior clerks, low-level technicians, 
  Armed Forces grunts; about 10% of the 
  population.
  ORANGE (2,000/month)
  Food: FunFoods, ORANGEyouGladMeals 
  with Soylent Orange, all the B3 you want, 
  real food weekly.
  Housing: Room shared with one other 
  citizen.
  Transport: Feet. Transtube. Transition. 
  Autocar hack once in a while.
  
  36
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Staff: None.
  Authority: You can coerce the occasional 
  INFRARED.
  Perks: Well, you’re not RED. Some free 
  time.
  Typical ORANGE citizens: Technical 
  supervisors, managers, mundane 
  programmers, vidshow sidekicks, 
  Armed Forces corporals; about 6% of 
  the population.
  The Middle Clearances: 
  The Outer Party
  At YELLOW, GREEN and BLUE Clearances, 
  a citizen has genuine power and 
  responsibility. He leaves the crowded 
  barracks and the meaningless jobs 
  behind, he gets to eat real food regularly 
  and his medication is reduced, giving 
  him a clearer head. 
  A citizen at this Clearance level has his 
  own quarters, shared with at most one 
  or two other citizens and ranging in size 
  from a cramped one-room box (YELLOW) 
  to a nice little apartment with Hot and 
  Cold running Fun and an autocar in the 
  garage. He has real responsibilities, like 
  overseeing some part of a subdivision 
  of his Service Group, performing some 
  skilled task or pressing buttons that 
  actually do something.
  The middle Clearances are the middle 
  classes of Alpha Complex; individually 
  powerless and without influence but 
  their collective approval is courted by 
  the High Programmers. Citizens at this 
  level may take an interest in Alpha 
  Complex news and politics – the news is 
  all sanitised propaganda but it does give 
  clues about which High Programmer is 
  in ascendance at the moment. 
  Middle Clearance citizens have the 
  most free time; they are therefore the 
  most loyal consumers of entertainment 
  products, vidshows and recreation, as 
  well as the most active Secret Society 
  conspirators. It’s usually these Secret 
  Society connections or bloody-minded 
  ambition that propels a mid Clearance 
  citizen into the higher Clearances. 
  Only a tiny percentage of the citizens 
  who make it to the comparative cushy 
  environs of YELLOW actually go on to 
  be promoted again.
  Internal Security Interview Transcript 
  346377/185. Subject: Frank-B-TBG-4
  Interrogator: Tell us where you were on 
  the nightcycle of 4/9/185.
  Subject: Why, I was in my quarters, 
  reading Alpha Complex Todaycycle.
  Interrogator: Our agents place you 
  in Corridor 83, citizen, behaving 
  suspiciously.
  Subject: Indeed? Well, tell me, ofﬁ cer, 
  how would you react if I shook your 
  hand like this?
  Interrogator: Did I say our agents saw 
  you in Corridor 83? I was, of course, 
  mistaken. All a misunderstanding. Sorry 
  about that, sir.
  Subject: Think nothing of it. Shall we see 
  you at the next society meeting?
  Interrogator: I’ll be there just as soon as 
  I erase this transcript, sir. 
  >>>>RECORDING ERROR<<<<<
  YELLOW (3,000/month)
  Food: FunFoods, MelloYELLOWMeals 
  with Soylent Yellow, real food once 
  daily.
  Housing: Your own room (under camera 
  surveillance). Shared bathroom.
  Transport: Transtube. Autocar hack.
  Staff: Whomever you can threaten.
  Authority: You manage a small team 
  within a division of your Service Group.
  Perks: You set your own schedule 
  (subject to higher Clearance demands). 
  You can request changes in your 
  pharmatherapy.
  Typical YELLOW citizens: Mid-level 
  bureaucrats, R&D project leads, vidshow 
  hosts, Armed Forces sergeants, PLC 
  artisans crafting handmade trinkets for 
  High Programmers; about 2% of the 
  population.
  GREEN (10,000/month)
  Food: Real food each meal, supplemented 
  with GREENGood and various Soylents.
  Housing: Private one-bedroom 
  apartment.
  Transport: Hack. Shared private 
  autocar.
  Staff: A housebot servant.
  Authority: May assign on-the-spot 
  insubordination ﬁ nes. May demote RED 
  citizens. You manage part of a division 
  within your Service Group.
  Perks: Noticeable jump in status (and, 
  often, body weight). Lower levels may 
  engage in spontaneous bootlicking – 
  that is, not at laserpoint. Pharmatherapy 
  optional.
  Typical GREEN citizens: Senior 
  supervisors, managing directors, elite 
  artisans, Armed Forces lieutenants, IntSec 
  goons. All citizens of GREEN Clearance 
  and above (sometimes generically 
  called ‘administrators’ or ‘managers’) 
  collectively comprise about 2% of the 
  population.
  BLUE (40,000/month)
  Food: Nothing but real food all the time! 
  At last!
  Housing: Opulent suite in safe and 
  prestigious subsector.
  Transport: Private autocar.
  Staff: Full bot staff and bot programmer. 
  Seldom if ever do you encounter 
  INFRAREDs.
  Authority: May promote to Clearance 
  ORANGE or lower. May demote from 
  GREEN or lower. May assign Merit awards 
  and penalties. You manage an entire 
  division within your Service Group.
  Perks: You go to the front of any line; 
  invitations to vidshow award ceremonies; 
  exclusive club memberships; underlings 
  grovel routinely. Your private life is 
  exempt from routine surveillance.
  Typical BLUE citizens: Junior executives 
  on the rise, vidshow producers, Armed 
  Forces captains and majors, IntSec 
  ofﬁ cers, Central Processing managing 
  directors.
  The  High Clearances: The 
  Inner Party
  The end of that greasy pole is in sight! 
  With only another promotion or two, 
  the citizen will reach the exalted status 
  of High Programmer! What joy!
  INDIGOs and VIOLETs have awesome 
  and burdensome responsibilities. They 
  have lots of perks but very little time to 
  enjoy them. They’re kept very busy by 
  their duties – which is just the way High 
  Programmers like it. No sense in letting 
  the competition get too complacent. 
  The High Programmers know that the 
  INDIGOs and VIOLETs are potential rivals 
  or replacements for their thrones. A lot 
  of INDIGOs were promoted out of BLUE 
  as a reward for being incompetent in a 
  non-threatening way. 
  The lifestyle of a high Clearance citizen 
  (when they find time for it, anyway) 
  is one of luxury unimaginable to the 
  proles. Real food all the time. Obsequious 
  servants. Entertainments both subtle 
  and debauched. And, of course, the 
  intoxicating thrill of power…
  Internal Security Interview Transcript 
  3677743/201. Subject: Frank-V-TBG-6
  
  37
  12. THE GREASY POLE
  Interrogator: Good morningcycle, 
  overseer. Praise The Computer, down 
  with Commies, did you have a pleasant 
  ﬂ ight?
  Subject: Praise The Computer indeed, 
  Commissioner. I’ll ask the questions here, 
  if you don’t mind.
  Interrogator: Not at all, sir. Can I get you 
  a CoffeeLyke or a snifter of brandy? 
  Subject: What did I say about me asking 
  the questions?
  Interrogator: A thousand grovelling 
  apologies, sir.
  Subject: Better. I’m here about 
  certain…irregularities… in Internal 
  Security’s energy audit. Your power 
  usage has dropped by 5.2% in the last 
  accounting cycle. 
  Interrogator: Oh, I can explain that. 
  We’ve started doubling up on the 
  disintegration cubicles. No sense in 
  frying Commie Mutant Traitors one at a 
  time when we can jam half a dozen of 
  them into the cubicle and nuke them all 
  together. Right, sir?
  Subject: Your enthusiasm for efﬁ ciency 
  would be laudable, Commissioner, if 
  you had passed on the savings made 
  by this overcrowding onto your annual 
  budget – but your budgetary allocation 
  for power is unchanged. Where did that 
  5.2% go?
  Interrogator: Er, I –
  Subject: Into your pocket, I believe.
  Interrogator: I….slanderous…Commies 
  did it…er… would you believe mind 
  control?
  Subject: Calm down, Commissioner. 
  Take a happiness pill and relax. We can 
  sort this little budgetary snafu out. Here, 
  look, I simply add a column to your 
  budget here… let’s call it a personal 
  security illumination cost for INDIGOs 
  and higher. 
  Interrogator: Personal lighting?
  Subject: Yes, as the only INDIGO in this 
  department, you’ll be given a small 
  stipend – say, 5.2% of the power budget 
  – for personal illumination. I believe 
  that the new Luxury Silver Shadow 
  autocar would provide adequately 
  secure lighting for your needs.
  Interrogator: You’re fiddling the 
  accounts to cover up my embezzling? 
  Why?
  Subject: Because you and I are going to 
  be very good friends, Commissioner. 
  INDIGO (100,000/month)
  Food: Gourmet meals and rich 
  desserts.
  Housing: A lovely big corridor all your 
  own.
  Transport: Several vehicles with 
  chauffeur or pilot.
  Staff: Full staff of humans and bots. 
  You can go a month without seeing an 
  ORANGE citizen.
  Authority: May promote to GREEN or 
  lower. May demote from BLUE or lower. 
  You serve on the Boards of several 
  organisations within your Service Group.
  Perks: Obsessive coverage on celebrity 
  vidshows, assuming you like that; always 
  a table open or a room ready; you skip 
  the lines completely and go directly to 
  the manager. You pull lots of strings at 
  Internal Security. If you offer sufﬁ ciently 
  good reasons to The Computer, you can 
  openly collect and study achievements 
  of Old Reckoning Cultures.
  Typical INDIGO citizens: Senior 
  executives, Armed Forces colonels, IntSec 
  deputy supervisors, Central Processing 
  chief directors, HPD&MC vidshow studio 
  chiefs, most Secret Society chiefs. 
  VIOLET (600,000/
  month)
  F o o d :  H u g e 
  Hollywood-scale 
  dinner parties 
  catered by a GREEN 
  master chef. (You 
  fought hard to get 
  your chef and you 
  constantly fend off 
  marauding rivals 
  who want to spirit 
  him away.)
  H o u s i n g :  A 
  subsector or two.
  Transport: 
  Many autocars, 
  truckbots, private 
  f l y b o t s  a n d 
  maybe a sub; full 
  motorcade with 
  IntSec escort.
  Staff: Full human 
  staff. (Bots are so 
  working-class.) 
  You hardly ever 
  encounter anyone 
  YELLOW or lower.
  Authority: 
  M ay promote 
  to and demote 
  f r o m  I N D I G O 
  or lower. May  
  order  summary 
  executions and 
  erasure of clone templates. ‘Service 
  Group organisations? Oh, you mean my 
  investment portfolio.’
  Perks: You see this sector? It’s yours. You 
  don’t go to managers; they come to you. 
  You can freely say almost anything short 
  of outright Commie propaganda. ‘Internal 
  Security? Oh, you mean my staff police.’
  Typical VIOLET citizens: CEOs, generals, 
  IntSec chief supervisors, Free Enterprise 
  Secret Society chiefs, Machine Empaths. 
  A typical INFRARED citizen may see a 
  VIOLET once or twice in his life.
   ULTRAVIOLET: You Are Big 
  Brother
  Security Clearance is a measure of 
  The Computer’s trust. ULTRAVIOLET 
  citizens are the most trustworthy and 
  are therefore permitted to alter The 
  Computer’s code. Therefore, regardless 
  of the UV’s actual skills, they are referred 
  to as High Programmers.
  ULTRAVIOLETs have all the pleasures 
  and luxuries available to VIOLETs, plus 
  Aspire, citizen! Aspire or expire!
  
  38
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  more besides. Better yet, they have all 
  the time they wish to spend on these 
  indulgences; High Programmers do not 
  have day-to-day duties or assignments 
  but are instead give free reign to improve 
  Alpha Complex as they see ﬁ t. Most take 
  ULTRAVIOLET status to mean a well-
  deserved semi-retirement. They potter 
  about on pet projects (if ‘pottering’ 
  can be applied to hobbies like ‘trying 
  to perfect time travel’ or ‘breeding 
  supermutants’ or ‘cloning the entire 
  cast of Cheers for a reunion’). As UVs 
  are exempt from the limits on cloning, 
  they’re functionally immortal – some 
  High Programmers claim to be hundreds 
  of years old (replicative fading is still an 
  issue, though; the ones who say they’re 
  hundreds of years olds are also the ones 
  with no bladder control and the belief 
  that they are actually Ronald Reagan). 
  These elder High Programmers are 
  generally left to their own devices; they 
  wander around the upper echelons of 
  Alpha Complex society, wining, dining, 
  coding and plotting in their individual 
  eccentric fashions. They’re harmless 
  in the grand scheme of things. It’s the 
  younger, hungrier High Programmers 
  who are the true rulers of Alpha Complex. 
  These Programmers set policy, run the 
  Complex, defend their own positions 
  and set the standard behaviour modes 
  of The Computer – as best they can, at 
  any rate. As every High Programmer is 
  equal, the only way to get things done 
  is to establish coalitions and, let’s face 
  it, gangs. Cabals of High Programmers 
  rise and fall, alliances form and shift, 
  charismatic and far-sighted visionaries 
  establish brief juntas before being 
  bumped off by rivals… it’s all barely 
  suppressed anarchy, although the 
  average clone has no idea of the power 
  struggles taking place in the corridors 
  of power. 
  Maybe the elder Programmers have the 
  right idea. Despite the struggles and 
  turf wars, ol’ Alpha Complex just keeps 
  ticking along. The reactors get leakier 
  and the conspiracies get weirder but 
  they’re all still out to get you.
  ULTRAVIOLET (if you have to ask, you 
  can’t afford it)
  Food: Pushing the boundaries of taste, 
  cookery and science.  
  Housing: Palatial mansions packed with 
  Old Reckoning relics, harems and death 
  traps.
  Transport: They come to you. 
  Staff: A dedicated, fanatically loyal 
  Program Group. Anyone you want that 
  another High Programmer hasn’t already 
  claimed.
  Perks: If they can’t have it, it not only 
  doesn’t exist, it probably can’t.
  Authority: The right to alter The 
  Computer’s code. The ability to take 
  control of any project or department 
  at a whim.   
  Typical ULTRAVIOLET citizens: You 
  lot.
  13. High Programming
  As an ULTRAVIOLET Clearance citizen, you 
  have the right to alter The Computer’s 
  programming. You may not have any 
  clue what you’re doing and only a basic 
  understanding of how to program but 
  you have the Computer-granted right to 
  pop open an editing window and start 
  changing stuff.
  So does every other High Programmer, 
  which is a problem. Any change you 
  make can be unmade by another High 
  Programmer. You can program The 
  Computer to embrace Communism but 
  that change will last about 10 seconds 
  before someone else hits ‘undo’. Large-
  scale changes upset the delicate balance 
  of power between factions and cabals 
  – no-one in Alpha Complex is happy with 
  the current state of the place but it’s the 
  least worst solution for all concerned. It 
  is possible to make larger changes but 
  only with the support of several other 
  High Programmers.
  Your Friend, The 
  Computer
  The Computer is a barely functional 
  hodge-podge of interconnected sub-
  systems running on decaying, patched-
  together hardware. No-one knows how 
  it all works (when it works), but without 
  The Computer, Alpha Complex would 
  literally fall apart. It started out as the 
  pubic transport and utilities monitor for 
  a city of the future and that legacy code 
  is still around – The Computer’s default 
  mode is one of polite bureaucratic 
  stonewalling. The Computer genuinely 
  wants everyone in Alpha Complex to be 
  safe and happy.  It wants this so much, 
  there are complimentary laser cannons 
  and checkpoints everywhere to maintain 
  appropriate safety levels and happiness 
  is enhanced by mandatory happiness 
  drugs and smile inspectors. 
  In short, The Computer is crazy. It’s your 
  friend, but… well, if you were locked 
  in an underground bunker with an 
  emotionally unstable lunatic killer, you’d 
  say he was your friend too. Keep smiling 
  and maybe he won’t stab you. 
  The relationship between The 
  Computer and the High Programmers 
  may be profitably compared to the 
  relationship between a sickly, syphilitic 
  but occasionally benevolent king and 
  his evil viziers. The king has given a 
  few broad commands (‘make sure the 
  people are happy and the kingdom 
  isn’t, I dunno, overrun by evil bats or 
  something’) but he leaves most of the 
  running of the state up to the viziers. 
  The viziers tell the king what they think 
  he wants to hear (‘of course the people 
  are happy, majesty’) while plotting 
  behind his back to sell the kingdom to 
  the evil space bat developers. Both the 
  king and the viziers think they’re the top 
  dog and that the other party is an easily 
  manipulated pawn.
  Social Networking
  When altering The Computer’s code, 
  the chances of your change being 
  immediately undone depends on two 
  factors:
  � How noticeable your changes 
  are: Bigger changes are more 
  unpredictable and so more dangerous 
  to the other High Programmers. A 
  little prying into secret ﬁ les won’t 
  attract attention but search-and-
  replacing all instances of ‘Power 
  Services’ to ‘Reactor Weenies’ will be 
  noticed and undone sharply.
  � How much the other High 
  Programmers trust you: If you’ve 
  got a consensus behind you, other 
  High Programmers are less likely to 
  oppose you. By contrast, if no-one 
  likes you, then they’ll block even the 
  most innocuous changes and send 
  you nasty emails. 
  
  39
  13. HIGH PROGRAMMING
  Fun Things To Code
  All of these use the Software skill. At the 
  beneﬁ cent whim of the almighty GM, you 
  may be permitted to use Minions with 
  an appropriate Speciality to augment 
  your skill but remember that most of 
  The Computer’s code is ULTRAVIOLET 
  Clearance and your Minion may end up 
  brainscrubbed.
   Information Manipulation
  The Computer knows everything but 
  it doesn’t always know what it knows. 
  Some information is misﬁ led, encrypted 
  or deliberately hidden. Information 
  Manipulation lets a High Programmer 
  hunt for hidden or obscure data, or too 
  hide or obscure data. There are lots of 
  places to hide data within The Computer 
  where The Computer can see it, the 
  electronic equivalent of sticking a post-it 
  note to its forehead.
   Hacking
  Hacking is used to access restricted 
  information or subsystems. Ofﬁ cially, a 
  High Programmer need never bother 
  with hacking – ULTRAVIOLET Clearance 
  means you can poke at anything you want. 
  In practice, between hidden ﬁ les, private 
  CompNodes and every Service Group 
  having their own restricted archives 
  or isolated servers, High Programmers 
  spend a good proportion of their time 
  hacking and even more time blocking 
  the hacking attempts of rivals.
   Tweaks
  Tweaks are small changes to The 
  Computer’s code that would only be 
  noticed if the programmer bothered 
  to examine some obscure subsystem. 
  Think of them as backdoors and secret 
  passageways. Another High Programmer 
  The Computer really is a High Programmer’s best friend. 
  would intercede if you tried, say, to 
  increase the Security Clearance of 
  everyone in the sector – but what if you 
  add a few lines of code in the Sewer 
  Management Individual Toilet Cubicle 
  Monitoring backup routine so that if 
  someone ﬂ ushes the toilet thusly, they 
  get their Clearance increased by one 
  level? Who’s going to notice that?
  While you can accomplish almost 
  anything with a tweak, the method for 
  activating a tweak must be intentionally 
  obscure. You can’t, say, program The 
  Computer to think that High Programmer 
  Bert-U is a traitor (that’s a big change) 
  – but you can screw with one of The 
  Computer’s visual processing routines 
  so that it interprets white garments in 
  Corridor 53-B as red ones, so when Bert-
  U pops to the bathroom, The Computer 
  thinks he’s a RED citizen in a BLUE corridor 
  and terminates him for trespassing… if 
  you’re lucky. A general rule of thumb is 
  that individual names are easy to spot 
  (High Programmers ego-search for their 
  own names all the time). The best tweaks 
  are split among several subsystems so 
  that each individual change appears 
  harmless or meaningless but combined 
  they provide a useful advantage to the 
  programmer.
  Big Changes
  Big changes are exactly what they 
  sound like – they’re large-scale changes 
  to The Computer’s code. Big changes 
  cover ideas like ‘let’s put the mutants 
  in charge’ or ‘let’s make Communism 
  non-treasonous’ or ‘initiate wipe out of 
  all life-forms in Alpha Complex’. 
  In practice, big changes almost never 
  happen for two reasons. Firstly, for any 
  proposed large-scale change, there’s 
  a bunch of High Programmers who 
  oppose it for one reason or another 
  (and the bigger the change, the more 
  likely it is for paranoids to run to the 
  status quo out of fear – Alpha Complex 
  may not be perfect but at least they 
  know where they stand there). Secondly, 
  rolling out a massive reconfiguration 
  of The Computer’s code is very, very 
  tricky. Something’s certain to go horribly 
  wrong. For a big change to have a hope 
  of succeeding, a High Programmer would 
  have to first perform extensive field 
  testing on a private CompNode. 
  
  40
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Private CompNodes 
  The Computer is made up of lots and lots of networked nodes. If one node fails, its neighbours take over until the damaged 
  node is rebooted. There’s at least one node per sector; important sectors can have half a dozen nodes. Standard protocols 
  dictate that each node constantly pushes its code to its neighbours to ensure that they’re all running off exactly the same 
  code base. 
  High Programmers may obtain private CompNodes either legally (by building a new private node or salvaging an old one 
  from an Abandoned Sector) or illegally (sectioning off a node from its neighbours by driving it into a state of complete 
  paranoia so that it refuses to trust code from other nodes). The advantages of a private CompNode are legion – it’s a 
  playground for programming tests and you can make whatever changes you want without other pesky High Programmers 
  gainsaying you. 
  There are tales of lost subsectors that got cut off from the main body of Alpha Complex and whose CompNodes are 
  running really weird versions of The Computer’s code. There’s the Commie-dominated HUH sector from The People’s 
  Glorious Revolutionary Adventure, for example. Making your own sector where you are the undisputed god-king is left as 
  an exercise for the reader.
  14. Secrets of the High Programmers
  This anonymous document was first 
  discovered on an as-yet-unidentified 
  corpse (plasma ﬁ eld burns make forensic 
  analysis difﬁ cult; rumours that the dead 
  clone was wearing a tattered GAMMA 
  jumpsuit are considered treason). Copies 
  of the document were leaked onto the 
  Grey Subnets and circulated there ever 
  since. Possession or knowledge of this 
  document is punishable by low-level neural 
  reformatting of the glial cells, a procedure 
  which results in either terminating or 
  reducing the subject to a mineralative* 
  state in over 65% of cases.
  Some High Programmers claim that 
  following the instructions in this document 
  will ensure victory over your foes and 
  protect you from the dangers of Alpha 
  Complex. Of course, those are just the guys 
  who want your glial cells fried.
  Read this advice cautiously, High 
  Programmer.
  Give Me An Iron Fist And 
  A Golden Parachute
  Too many High Programmers get 
  to ULTRAVIOLET Clearance by rising 
  through the ranks of one Service Group 
  and then stick with that group. They 
  don’t take advantage of their new-found 
  freedom and instead play it safe. ‘I’ve 
  been dragging people to the termination 
  booth for Internal Security for seven 
  *: Like a vegetative state, only worse.
  Clearance levels and 70 yearcycles’, they 
  say, ‘so I’m going to keep on dragging 
  people to the termination booth.’ That’s 
  a very short-sighted attitude to have 
  (and is a commendable attitude in your 
  rivals). As a HP, you can leap from one 
  Service Group to another with the ease 
  and grace of a Troubleshooter pivoting 
  from one lie to another. Yes, it’s nice to 
  have a dependable power base but it’s 
  even nicer to be rich and powerful.
  If you’re running Internal Security 
  and two other High Programmers are 
  both scheming to replace you – let ‘em 
  win. They’ll waste all their resources 
  wresting control away from you (and 
  then from each other), while you swoop 
  in to grab both their old Service Groups 
  on the cheap. Be flexible. Keep your 
  eyes on the big prize, not on the tools 
  you’ll use to get it. A laser pistol’s just 
  as good as a cone rifle when you’re 
  shooting an unsuspecting patsy in the 
  back; similarly, one Service Group is just 
  as good as the next.
  He Who Controls The 
  Narrative Controls The 
  Universe
  Remember when you walk into that 
  Situation Room that you wouldn’t be 
  there unless everything was already 
  screwed. The Computer is looking to 
  you and the other High Programmers 
  for leadership, which is rather like a 
  little lost Commie looking to a pack of 
  IntSec Troopers for help. The other High 
  Programmers are just as clueless as you 
  are. No-one knows what’s going on or 
  what to do.
  So, bravely leap forward and take charge! 
  Tell them what’s going on and how they 
  can solve it. Spin a beautiful narrative 
  that outlines the impending Commie 
  threat, the dire consequences of failure 
  and what the committee should do to 
  save the day. Identify some villainous 
  traitors (or at least suggest who these 
  nefarious traitors might be). Pick your 
  heroes – and don’t be selﬁ sh here. It’s 
  easier to steal Access from the common 
  pool if everyone else is doing it too. Well, 
  not everyone else – just a simple majority 
  of the Committee.
  Never take responsibility for anything 
  – Committees exist to be human shields 
  against accountability. Suggest, hint, 
  advise, shout and bully but never ever 
  do anything openly that doesn’t have the 
  backing of some walking ﬂ ak jackets.
  Keep Your Enemies 
  Busy And Your Friends 
  Dependent
  An idle High Programmer is a potential 
  threat. It gives them time to think, to 
  plot and to notice that you’re up to 
  
  41
  13. HIGH PROGRAMMING
  something. Find something to keep 
  them busy, always. Pass on rumours, drag 
  false treasons across their trail, ‘conﬁ de’ 
  your ‘suspicions’ in them – anything 
  to get them spending their resources 
  instead of spying on you. If you can 
  get them working on the crisis, all the 
  better. Just remember to take credit for 
  it in the end.
  As for your ‘allies’, help them out but 
  always at a price. Everything should be 
  quid pro quo at the very least but it’s even 
  better to get a dozen quids for every pro 
  quo you give. The best allies are ones you 
  can string along indeﬁ nitely. Most Secret 
  Societies fall into this category (‘sure, I’ll 
  open up the Outdoors and bring about a 
  new era of ecological awareness, Mr. Sierra 
  Club chairman, just as soon as it’s feasible. 
  Until then, could you please deal with this 
  mould problem?’)
  Bravely Volunteer For 
  Everything
  Madness, you say!
  And you’re right most of the time. Never 
  volunteer for anything with the words 
  ‘experimental’, ‘testing’ ‘R&D’ or ‘perfectly 
  safe’ in the title, whether you’re a High 
  Programmer or a freshly decanted 
  Troubleshooter. Do not taunt the 
  experimental thermonuclear gadget. 
  There are lots of other things you can 
  and should volunteer for. The Computer 
  likes volunteering. It sounds heroic 
  and proactive. Volunteer for projects to 
  increase happiness, to improve efﬁ ciency, 
  to make citizens more alert, or more 
  compliant, or make them eat more Cold 
  Fun. The project doesn’t matter – what’s 
  important is that you have this extra 
  ofﬁ cial duty. You have selﬂ essly taken on 
  this added burden.
  Make sure everyone knows you’ve 
  got this extra duty. When the other 
  High Programmers come asking for 
  your help, point out that you’d love to 
  help but you’ve got this all-important 
  extra duty to do ﬁ rst. You’ll gladly lend 
  assistance if they really need help, but 
  if you do so, you’ll need extra Access 
  as compensation. If you screw up 
  the extra duty, then point out to The 
  Computer that you were juggling more 
  responsibilities than anyone else; if you 
  screw up the main mission, wave your 
  extra duty in front of the camera and say 
  that while the rest of the team failed, you 
  managed to at least salvage something 
  from the debacle. (If you screw up both, 
  then maybe you can argue that you were 
  overburdened and so cannot be held 
  responsible for this disaster).
  Take on missions from The Computer, 
  from Service Groups, from other High 
  Programmers, even Secret Societies (just 
  don’t advertise those ones). Most of the 
  time, you can complete these extra tasks 
  while dealing with the crisis – or, better 
  yet, you let the other High Programmers 
  deal with the tricky bits of the crisis while 
  you potter around doing your secret 
  missions. If all else fails, blame someone 
  else for your failure.
  You’ve Gotta Spend 
  Money To Make Money
  It’s hard to break the habits of a lifetime. 
  If you’re anything like me, you’ve been 
  hoarding your credits and I.O.Us for 
  years and years. You never know when 
  some bastard bureaucrat is going to 
  drop a huge ﬁ ne on you, or when you’ll 
  need serious scratch for a bribe. As a 
  High Programmer, though, you’ve got 
  to realise that you’ve got more money 
  than God’s own banker. Just hoarding 
  Access in your accounts won’t get you 
  anywhere. Don’t be afraid to spend 
  it – The Computer’s always pumping 
  more money into the economy and as 
  long as it trusts you, you’re too big to 
  fail. So, live a little. Spend Access on your 
  Service Groups and your Agents, heck, 
  buy that ivory backscratcher you’ve 
  always wanted!
  There are more sources of Access than 
  handouts from The Computer, too. Each 
  Service Group comes with its own little 
  sinecure but you can make more money 
  through clever investments, IR-market 
  deals and good old extortion. Got a load 
  of toxic waste barrels to get rid of? Don’t 
  bother with expensive secure storage; 
  just paint ‘em, stick a foam cushion 
  on top, rebrand them as Self-Heating 
  Personal Seating Systems and ﬂ og them 
  to the proles for millions.
  Patriotism In Front Of The 
  Cameras
  Whenever you’re in public or in sight of 
  a security camera – and that’s most of 
  the time – you must be ultra-patriotic. 
  Ooze love for The Computer. Show 
  your undying loyalty to Alpha Complex. 
  Outpatriot the most patriotic clone. 
  And most of all, show you hate Commie 
  Mutant Traitors. In public, your voice 
  must be the loudest and most vitriolic 
  when condemning treason. Wear the 
  lapel pins and the medals and the Two 
  Minute Hate Hats. Frame everything you 
  say or do in public in terms of the War on 
  Communism or claim that you act only 
  for the greater good.
  *: Answers:
  � I go now to conduct a conscientious examination of the local sanitation system, for your well-being and your protection. 
  Commies may be lurking in the pipes but I’ll ﬂ ush them out.
  � Praise The Computer for its beneﬁ cent gift of this sugar-based foodstuff, which I partake in with appreciation for both 
  its nutritional value and its fun factor. Why, I bet the Commies don’t like cake.
  � For security reasons, I was forced to terminate that citizen. While his crimes may not be apparent to you, fellow citizens, 
  rest assured that he was indeed guilty of multifarious nefarious crimes and his guilt was determined after a lengthy 
  Internal Security investigation, the results of which are classiﬁ ed above your Security Clearance. 
  � Citizen, you may have heard rumours suggesting that I, your High Programmer, harboured Communist sympathies. 
  Rumours are treason, citizen. If you heard these rumours, you are committing treason. I should therefore order you to 
  report to the termination booth immediately… but I can see you’re a loyal citizen at heart. Why, you remind me of me 
  when I was a low Clearance nobody. Tell you what, citizen, I’ll look the other way for now. I won’t report your treason 
  if you promise to amend your ways and ignore all treasonous rumours from now on. Run along, citizen, before the 
  guardbots arrive.
  
  42
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Patriotic jabber must be as instinctive to 
  you as breathing. Practise it assiduously. As 
  an exercise, rephrase the following simple 
  sentences as expressions of your utter 
  devotion to the cause* (see page 41).
  � I have to go to the bathroom.
  � I like cake.
  � I terminated that clone ‘cos I felt like it.
  � I am a Commie.
  Lasers In The Back 
  Corridor
  Be ruthless. Erase all traces of ruth from 
  your personality template. Embrace the 
  ruth-free lifestyle.
  I’m not saying that lethal ultraviolence 
  involving death rays and warbots should 
  be your ﬁ rst response in any situation 
  but you’ve got to have steel inside 
  that velvet glove. Zap the bastards 
  when the opportunity arises. If some 
  clone disrespects your authority, make 
  an example of him – and you’ve got 
  the resources and the imagination 
  to make a very public and stomach-
  turning example. If one of the other 
  High Programmers reveals he’s got a 
  useful Agent in some Secret Society, 
  then send the boys round to vaporise 
  that Agent (and if you can, vaporise that 
  High Programmer too).
  Violence, it is said, is that last refuge 
  of the incompetent and that’s true 
  enough – but being ruthless shouldn’t 
  involve anything as crass as violence. 
  Violence conjures images of soldiers in 
  trenches, of ﬁ stﬁ ghts and ﬁ re ﬁ ghts and 
  wildly thrown grenades and all sorts 
  of unpleasantness. We don’t want any 
  violence in our ruthlessness. No, what 
  you want to aim for is assassinations, for 
  the quiet laser blast in the back of the 
  head, or for the use of force so swift and 
  overwhelming that resistance is useless. 
  Ruthlessness isn’t sending in a bunch of 
  Troubleshooters to zap an enemy; it’s 
  sending in a warbot.
  Crush Your Followers, 
  Help Your Enemies
  Hypothetical situation time: There’s 
  a job that must be done. It’s mildly 
  unpleasant and slightly hazardous and 
  will take approximately two hours per 
  daycycle. You have two candidates 
  for this task. Candidate A is a stressed, 
  overworked, unhappy RED Clearance 
  drone who works 14 hours a daycycle 
  before being volunteered for six hours 
  of Troubleshooting service. Candidate B 
  is a GREEN Clearance middle manager 
  who does no actual work whatsoever; his 
  most strenuous duty is ordering lunch. 
  Who gets the job? Obviously, it’s 
  Candidate A.
  If you give the job to Candidate B, you’ll 
  make him unhappy. Two hours of his 
  day will be taken up with this new 
  task, leaving him with 22 hours to plot, 
  scheme and complain about the cruel 
  High Programmer who oppresses him. 
  He’s got the Clearance and the time to 
  make trouble.
  If you stick the extra workload on 
  Candidate A, he’ll be working 22 hours 
  a day, leaving him with no time to 
  complain or do anything other than 
  collapse into an exhausted stupor. 
  He’s already oppressed and unhappy, 
  so making him more oppressed and 
  unhappy doesn’t really change anything. 
  What’s he going to do, complain more 
  about being ground into the dust?
  It’s always cheaper and easier to dump as 
  many problems as possible onto one poor 
  sod. Tell him it’s a sacriﬁ ce for the good 
  of Alpha Complex and that he should 
  be proud that he’s helping maximise 
  happiness for all citizens. Once you’ve got 
  a Minion, use it until it’s destroyed; better 
  that you send the same poor bunch of 
  clones into danger after danger instead of 
  spreading unhappiness around by using 
  different Minions. 
  As for your enemies, don’t underestimate 
  the virtues of kindness. A little generosity 
  goes a long way, especially if you manage 
  their expectations properly. Say you 
  and a rival High Programmer agree that 
  there’ll be a 30% reduction in oxygen 
  rations across the sector. This will make 
  a lot of people unhappy. You then go 
  to your rival’s best supporters and say 
  that you have personally interceded 
  on their behalf – thanks to your efforts, 
  their oxygen rations will only be cut by 
  15%, even though their supposed ally 
  and patron wanted to cut them by 30%. 
  What a generous High Programmer you 
  are in their eyes…
  I Give An Assessment 
  Based On My Expertise, 
  You Are Economical With 
  The Truth, He or She Is A 
  Traitorous Liar
  Speak with conﬁ dence. Lies sound better 
  that way.
  No-one – not The Computer, not the High 
  Programmers, not the Secret Society 
  kingpins, not even the Illuminati – really 
  knows what’s going on in Alpha Complex. 
  It is conspiracies and cover-ups all the 
  way down. Anything could be at the root 
  of a problem. If The Computer wants you 
  to investigate a missing shipment of toxic 
  chemicals, then it could be anything from 
  a ﬁ ling error to mutant rats in the wiring 
  to Commie Mutant Traitor sabotage to a 
  bizarre game of chess being played by 
  other UVs. There’s no way of knowing 
  what’s going on – so no-one can prove 
  you’re lying.
  ‘Clearly, the root cause of this problem is 
  Power Services. If they had attended to 
  their duties and maintained security in the 
  transtube, the chemical shipment would 
  never have gone missing.’
  So, bravely lie and take charge of 
  the situation. Blame the theft of the 
  chemicals on your enemies, who are 
  no doubt in league with the mutants, 
  who plan to use the chemicals to turn 
  innocent, genetically pure citizens 
  into vile deviants. If new evidence 
  comes to light, then work this into your 
  framework of lies. Keep piling deception 
  on deception. Yes, it’s a house of cards 
  but that’s only a problem if you’re too 
  cautious. Build a house of cards so 
  big that if it falls, it’ll crush everyone 
  beneath it. 
  You can also cast doubt on your fellow 
  ULTRAVIOLETs with a few carefully 
  chosen words. Never accuse another High 
  Programmer of lying; let the rest of the 
  committee draw their own conclusions. 
  Lay your trail of clues for them to follow. 
  Truth is what you say it is.
  It’s Easy To Stay One Step 
  Ahead When You’ve Got A 
  Jetpack
  Of course, the best lies have a grain 
  of truth. Actually, less of a grain and 
  
  43
  14. SECRETS OF THE HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  more of a payload. That little bit of 
  truth makes the lie seem much more 
  authoritative. So, you’ve got to find 
  those little nuggets of truth to maximise 
  the effects of your lies.
  Remember that missing chemical 
  shipment? If you can ﬁ nd out one fact 
  about it, one measly piece of actual 
  veriﬁ able truth, then you can use that 
  to cement your reputation as someone 
  who knows What’s Going On. Let’s 
  say that you ﬁ nd out that some clone 
  called Herman-Y was driving one of the 
  chemical transbots. You know nothing 
  more about him – but the other High 
  Programmers know nothing at all about 
  him. You drop a reference to Herman-Y 
  to the committee (‘my agents report that 
  the Psion spy in the convoy was someone 
  called Herman-Y’) and suddenly you 
  appear to have much more information 
  than anyone else (‘he was right about the 
  driver being called Herman-Y! He must also 
  be right about Psion being behind this! We 
  must immediately act against this mutant 
  menace!’). 
  Control of information is everything. 
  Resources and influence in Alpha 
  Complex mean nothing if you can’t make 
  the other High Programmers dance to 
  your tune.
  Ten Phrases To Stall With
  1. The matter is under consideration.
  2. I have decided to be more ﬂ exible in my approach to this problem. 
  3. Something ought to be done but is this the best way to achieve it?
  4. We are conducting a full security audit to ensure there is no chance of Commie Mutant Traitor sabotage.
  5. To maximise efﬁ ciency and employee happiness, we are conducting a full review of all operations. Only a traitor 
  would question this policy.
  6. The matter will be dealt with as soon as possible, with consideration given to the security implications, resource 
  allocations, CPU directives and so forth, bearing in mind the ongoing War on Communism and so forth, assuming all 
  current projections hold true and sabotage is kept to a minimum, presuming furthermore that no unforeseen events 
  intrude on the project’s critical path…
  7. That matter was investigated by Internal Security and discovered to have connections to Commie Mutant Traitor 
  activity. Why are you asking questions about it?
  8. A request has been ﬁ led with The Computer; it’s working, please wait.
  9. The matter has been transferred to an advisory committee. A report on it is being prepared. When the report is 
  published, we will consider their recommendations for action.
  10. That information is not available at your Security Clearance. 
  Happiness Is Mandatory
  Happiness is Mandatory, they say but 
  there’s only one person who’s happiness 
  you need be concerned with, and that’s 
  The Computer. As long as The Computer’s 
  happy, you can do whatever you want.
  What makes The Computer happy? If you 
  ask it, it’ll say something like:
  � Making Alpha Complex a better and 
  happier place for all its citizens
  � Identifying and terminating Commie 
  Mutant Traitors
  � When its High Programmers work 
  together to solve problems
  � I m p r o v i n g  e f f i c i e n c y  a n d 
  productivity
  � Increasing security and protecting 
  Alpha Complex from Communism
  And that’s exactly what we programmed 
  it to think. Really, though, here’s what 
  makes Friend Computer’s happiness 
  circuits hum with electric joy.
  � Being told it’s making Alpha Complex 
  a better and happier place for all its 
  citizens
  � Terminating people who are 
  identified as Commie Mutant 
  Traitors
  � When its High Programmers agree 
  to do something and say it’s a 
  solution
  � Being shown statistics that efﬁ ciency 
  and productivity are improving
  � Increased numbers of pointlessly 
  redundant security checkpoints and 
  lots of giant warbots and missiles.
  The most important survival skill to 
  learn as a High Programmer is getting 
  from ‘whatever the hell you’re doing’ to 
  ‘improving Alpha Complex and ﬁ ghting 
  Communism’ in a single mental leap. 
  Even if you’re bludgeoning another High 
  Programmer to death with the Situation 
  Room telephone, you’ve got to be able to 
  cast that deed in the light of bipartisan 
  co-operation and enhanced security 
  in an instant. (‘Why, Friend Computer, 
  my loyal colleague and I were just… 
  maintaining our physical ﬁ tness. Healthy 
  personality templates in healthy clone 
  bodies, you know. Why, it seems as though 
  Kevin-U has fallen unconscious – due to 
  exertion, no doubt, not blunt force trauma, 
  but if he was awake he would immediately 
  tell you that we’ve agreed on a course of 
  action. Yes, the decision of the Committee 
  is unanimous! Not a single dissenting vote. 
  One in favour, one abstention, motion 
  carried. Hail The Computer!’)
  
  44
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Always Have An Escape 
  Route
  In the end, it’s the termination booths for 
  everyone – except High Programmers. 
  You’re an ULTRAVIOLET – if anyone can 
  escape this crazy Complex, it’s you. You 
  might not want to escape right now 
  but one day all those high Clearance 
  friends and that luxury mansion with 
  the sexatarium and the drug fountains…
  they’ll be taken away when the secret 
  police catch up with you. You can’t stay 
  on top forever. Sooner or later, your rivals 
  will win and you’ll be out of favour. If 
  you’re lucky, they’ll just kill you. If you’re 
  unlucky, they’ll demote you and make 
  you wish you were dead.
  If you’re smart, though, then you can 
  come back from a big defeat. Some High 
  Programmers go underground, hiding 
  out for years until the guys who pushed 
  them out are themselves pushed out. 
  They go off and run a Secret Society or 
  hide out in the Underplex eating rats and 
  selling high Clearance secrets to survive. 
  Others ﬂ ee Alpha Complex altogether 
  – there are settlements out there where 
  ex-High Programmers live like kings. I’ve 
  seen them. They’re real. 
  Plan ahead. Do you want to be stuck 
  in this Situation Room forever? Being 
  a High Programmer is just a means to 
  an end…
  Another ﬁ ne mess you’ve gotten us into!
  15. Scenes, Communication & Tension
  Unlike most roleplaying games, HIGH 
  PROGRAMMER requires that the players 
  and GM keep careful track of scenes and 
  obey the restrictions of each scene on 
  secret actions and communications. Ish. 
  (We’re aware that excitement, heightened 
  endorphin levels, sugary snacks and/or 
  alcohol may cause groups to ignore rules 
  in the heat of the moment and we’re 
  ﬁ ne with that. It’s PARANOIA – rules are 
  optional anyway. Still, try to stick to the 
  rules presented in this chapter for most 
  of the game.)
  HIGH PROGRAMMER games are divided 
  into Scenes. The average game session 
  contains around six Scenes. Each Scene 
  covers a major task that the players have 
  to accomplish, or is a necessary part of 
  the unfolding plot. 
  There are three types of scenes:
  � Situation Room Scenes
  � Public Scenes
  � Private Scenes
  Situation Room Scenes
  For most of a HIGH PROGRAMMER 
  game session, all the Player Characters 
  are gathered in a Situation Room. 
  These Situation Rooms are incredibly 
  well protected bunkers deep within 
  Alpha Complex, accessible only to High 
  Programmers and their most trusted 
  servants. From the Situation Room, the 
  High Programmers can view reports 
  and surveillance camera images of 
  anywhere in Alpha Complex; they can 
  issue orders to their Minions and deal 
  with developing situations.
  All the High Programmers are in the 
  same room under constant surveillance. 
  This means that it is very hard for a 
  Programmer to sneak away and speak 
  privately with a Minion. A player can 
  pay for a Private Scene using Access but 
  otherwise must act openly.
  Situation Room Scenes: Examples
  � The High Programmers are warned 
  that one sector is sliding into anarchy 
  due to extremely inefﬁ cient resource 
  management and Secret Society 
  sabotage. How do they sort it out?
  � The Computer is convinced that there 
  is a Commie cell in Alpha Complex. 
  How do the High Programmers ﬁ nd 
  it, especially as the cell may not 
  actually exist?
  
  45
  15. SCENES, COMMUNICATION & TENSION
  � A reactor just melted down. How do 
  they contain the disaster and who 
  do they blame for it?
   Public Scenes
  A public scene is a scene outside 
  the Situation Room that all the High 
  Programmers are present at, or would 
  easily be able to find out about. For 
  example, a fashionable High Programmer 
  party would be a public scene, as would a 
  news interview, or a scene where a High 
  Programmer is getting an ofﬁ cial report 
  from a Minion.
  If a High Programmer isn’t present in 
  a public scene, that player may play 
  some minor NPC present with the GM’s 
  permission. So, if two High Programmer 
  Player Characters are dining out at a 
  restaurant, a third player could play the 
  obsequious or dim-witted waiter. 
  Public Scene Examples
  � A High Programmer is the special 
  guest on tonight’s episode of What’s 
  My Treason? He gets to pull the big 
  death lever.
  � All the characters are invited to the 
  opening of the new Happy FunTime 
  ZRD Sector Citizen Service Bureau. 
  � A High Programmer has to call down 
  to the local CompNode to reboot 
  The Computer.
  � A High Programmer interrogates a 
  captured Commie Mutant Traitor in 
  an IntSec cell. 
  � A High Programmer meets with 
  a citizen in ‘private’ but doesn’t 
  have the room swept for bugs and 
  doesn’t ensure the absolute loyalty 
  of everyone involved.
   Private Scenes
  A private scene is a one-on-one scene 
  between a High Programmer and the GM. 
  The other players may not participate or 
  eavesdrop in a private scene. 
  The GM should limit players to only a few 
  private scenes per game session outside 
  of the Situation Room. Too many private 
  scenes clog up the game and leave the 
  players not involved in the scene out of 
  the action.
  Private Scene Examples
  � A High Programmer meets with one 
  of his Agents.
  � The Computer asks for a little one-
  on-one chat.
  � The High Programmer interrogates 
  a captured Commie Mutant Traitor 
  in a secret undisclosed location. 
   High Programmer 
  Mission Structure
  A typical HIGH PROGRAMMER game 
  session goes something like this:
  � The High Programmers are 
  summoned together to deal with a 
  problem. (Public Scene).
  � They consult with their advisors 
  and Secret Society contacts to get 
  their Directives and Secret Society 
  (Private Scenes).
  � They go off to the Situation Room 
  (Situation Room) and are given their 
  Access Budget for the mission.
  � They come up with a series of 
  increasingly implausible plans to deal 
  with the problem. (Situation Room).
  � Optionally, there’s High Programmer 
  socialising and feuding behind the 
  scenes (Public Scenes).
  � Optionally, they continue to consult 
  with Secret Societies and Minions 
  to sabotage each other’s efforts 
  (Private Scenes).
  � Repeat until all problems are 
  dealt with or Alpha Complex is 
  destroyed.
   Communication
  In a HIGH PROGRAMMER game, the 
  Player Characters rarely do anything 
  directly. The game is all about ordering 
  your Minions around while you sit in the 
  Situation Room sipping Sancerre and 
  nibbling on caviar. 
   Open Communication
  Anything said in the Situation Room or 
  a Public Scene is open communication. 
  Even if the other High Programmers 
  aren’t there, they’ll hear it through 
  listening devices, through spies or 
  through the grapevine. The Computer 
  can hear open communication too, so 
  don’t say anything treasonous. 95% of 
  the words spoken in any game are open 
  communication. 
  We’re not so anal as to have rules for every 
  aspect of communication. Anything you 
  can get away with that doesn’t take 
  the GM away from the other players is 
  open communication. Whispering in his 
  ear – open communication. Pointing at 
  stuff on your character sheet and saying 
  ‘I use that on you-know-what’ is open. 
  A complex system of winks and hand 
  signals is open. Anything that doesn’t 
  monopolise the GM’s time is open.
   Private Communication
  Private Communications are between 
  the GM and a High Programmer only. 
  You can have Private Communications 
  in two circumstances:
  � Private Scenes. The GM should 
  use Private Scenes sparingly and 
  ensure they don’t go on too long. 
  If a Private Scene drags on more 
  than a few minutes, the GM should 
  start dumping Treason Points on 
  the player for failing to attend to his 
  other High Programmer duties. 
  � When in the Situation Room, a 
  character can pay Access to set 
  up a private channel. To do so, the 
  player spends at least one Access and 
  declares he’s requesting a private 
  channel. Any other player may spend 
  Access equal to or greater than the 
  original player’s spend to listen in. 
  Why All The Secrecy?
  The lazy GM may wonder why he 
  should bother with three different 
  types of scene and lots of rules 
  about who can listen to what 
  conversation. Secret messages 
  and private conversations are 
  a lot of work for a beer-and-
  pretzels game, right? So, why all 
  the secrecy?
  Simply put, the more paranoia you 
  can engender in your players, the 
  more fun the game will be. You’ll 
  want to keep the game moving 
  along at a quick pace (hence the 
  limit on the number of Private 
  Scenes) but you also want each 
  player convinced that everyone 
  else is plotting against him. 
  There’s no need to obsess about 
  privacy and information control 
  – a player can call the GM aside for 
  a moment even in the Situation 
  Room without breaking the 
  rules. Just don’t let one player 
  monopolise your time.
  
  46
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Setting Up A Private 
  Channel: A Typical 
  Conversation
  Bob-U: I need a private conference. 
  Three Access.
  Phil-U: I’ll listen in for three.
  Bob-U: I’ll boost the security to five 
  Access.
  Mike-U: Ohh, you’re hiding something. 
  I’ll spend ﬁ ve.
  Phil-U: Too rich for me.
  GM: Bob-U, do you want to spend more 
  Access to keep Mike-U out?
  Bob-U: Nah.
  GM: Ok, Bob-U, Mike-U, let’s step into the 
  kitchen to speak privately. Other players, 
  we’ll be back in two mins.
  Phil-U (waiting until they’re all gone):
  So, he’s willing to let Mike-U listen in. 
  How...interesting.
  Secret Societies & Agents
  A High Programmer can communicate 
  openly with his Secret Society agents 
  using their cover roles. This means that 
  a High Programmer can use his Secret 
  Society Minions from the Situation 
  Room without needing a private 
  channel – as long as he can convey 
  his commands without arousing 
  suspicion. If a High Programmer’s 
  agent in PURGE has the cover role of 
  ‘Head of Cleaning Services’, then the 
  High Programmer will have to couch 
  any public communications with this 
  individual in the context of cleaning.
  Talking to an Agent: A 
  Typical Conversation
  Bob-U: Put me through to the Head of 
  Cleaning Services.
  Ken-V: Cleaning Services here, sir.
  Bob-U: I need you to…er… clean Stan-
  U’s mansion.
  Ken-V: How… thoroughly… should it 
  be cleaned?
  Bob-U: What do you mean?
  Ken-V: We’ve got a new cleaning 
  product with an explosive yield of 200 
  megatons… of freshness.
  Bob-U: Yes! Wipe him out! I mean, up. 
  Tension levels
  Each scene has a Tension level from 
  0 (low) to 20 (high), usually 3–7 or 
  thereabouts. The Tension level suggests 
  how closely The Computer, its agents 
  or other parties are observing the 
  characters’ actions. Ideally The Computer 
  wants to observe all areas all of the time 
  but resources don’t permit this. No one 
  discusses this publicly but every citizen 
  has a fairly good idea how likely he is to 
  be observed in any given spot.
  A scene’s location determines its Tension 
  level. The chart shows typical locations 
  for each Tension level. If you don’t 
  want to  consult the chart every time 
  you change location, assume a default 
  Complex-wide Tension level of 6.
  Track the current Tension level secretly 
  by putting a d20 where you can see it but 
  the players can’t. Change the uppermost 
  number to reﬂ ect the current level.
  When a player tries something treasonous 
  involving a die roll, the Tension level is 
  the range of the roll that implies whether 
  anyone witnessed the treasonous action. 
  So if a PC has a 15 or less to have his 
  Minion plant a bomb and the Tension 
  level is 5, any roll of 15 or less plants 
  Surveillance is safety. A truly loyal citizen has nothing to hide. 
  
  47
  16. COMBAT
  the bomb – but if that roll was 5 or less, 
  somebody somewhere may have seen 
  the minion do it and traced it back to the 
  High Programmer.
  Maybe it was another PC, maybe The 
  Computer, or a Secret Society, or maybe 
  some faceless  bureaucrat watching a 
  security camera and already writing his 
  blackmail note. You don’t need to get 
  speciﬁ c nor even rush to tell the player. 
  Still, that act, having been detected, is 
  now admissible as evidence against 
  the PC. 
  Never let the chart interfere with your 
  own convictions. Tension levels are 
  a convenience for you; at times, you 
  may know very well The Computer 
  – or someone else – is watching. Use 
  the chart only when you prefer not to 
  decide whether a particular action is 
  monitored. 
   Tension levels 
  by location
  These are just suggestions. You can 
  adjust the Tension level freely.
  Entries such as ‘RED areas’ means all RED 
  areas not otherwise listed in specific 
  entries. When an area could have more 
  than one Tension level, use the highest.
    0  Sewers; reactor cores; Outdoors; 
  conferences with the GM
    1  IntSec interrogation chambers
    2  INFRARED areas
    3  Supply closets; garages; bot stations; 
  HPD&MC indoctrination centres
    4  RED areas
    5  Brieﬁ ng rooms; food vats; sickbays; 
  clone tanks; PLC warehouses
    6  ORANGE areas
    7  Mess halls; waiting rooms; grooming 
  stations; elevators and stairwells
    8  YELLOW areas
    9  R&D labs; any place with Junior 
  Citizens (kids)
  10  GREEN areas
  11  Troubleshooter HQ; Armed Forces 
  bases; armouries
  12  BLUE areas
  13  Termination centres; re-education 
  centres; IntSec stations
  14  INDIGO areas
  15  Power and Tech Services control 
  rooms; IntSec headquarters
  16  VIOLET areas
  17  Confession booths; CPU monitoring loci
  18  ULTRAVIOLET areas
  19  Central Compnodes
  20  Bathrooms
  Adjusting Tension
  The Surveillance Specialty can be used to 
  alter the Tension of a location, by sending 
  a Minion in to sabotage existing security 
  systems and cameras, or to add more 
  spying devices. Ask the player to make 
  a Surveillance check; add or subtract the 
  Margin of Success from the Tension. 
  16. Combat
  Other non-fun roleplaying games use 
  vast numbers of modiﬁ ers, special-case 
  rules, tokens, tables and ﬁ ddly little bits 
  to resolve the results of Person A trying 
  to murder Person B. HIGH PROGRAMMER 
  doesn’t bother with such nonsense. If 
  violence is to come into the game, let us 
  ensure that it is swift and brutal. 
  There are three types of combat in 
  the game. Personal Combat, where 
  the High Programmers are directly 
  involved in a fight; Assassinations, 
  where covert agents try to liquidate a 
  High Programmer or an agent and Mass 
  Combat where Minions clash in epic 
  battle. (Please note that ‘epic battle’ in this 
  context likely involves a horde of heroic 
  scrubbots battling tax accountants or 
  something equally absurd.) 
   Personal Combat
  � If someone pulls a gun in the Situation 
  Room, it’s Personal Combat.
  � If your High Programmer is zapping 
  Commies with his disintegrator ray, 
  it’s Personal Combat.
  � If PURGE thugs crash your cocktail 
  party and the GM demands you ﬁ ght 
  back, it’s Personal Combat.
  Personal Combat is resolved in a series 
  of rounds. In each round, every character 
  can make one action. The GM decides 
  who acts ﬁ rst (bribes work well as an 
  initiative system). An action can be 
  anything from ﬁ ring a pistol to ﬁ ring a 
  tacnuke to ﬁ ring a doomsday device.
  Hmm. Now that you mention it, you 
  could also use an action to, say, beg for 
  mercy or negotiate a ceaseﬁ re or even 
  do something entirely unrelated to 
  killing people, like, er, ﬁ ling a report or 
  even tending to the wounded but let’s 
  be honest, how likely is that? Shoot the 
  bastards!
  Personal combat should be extremely 
  rare in HIGH PROGRAMMER games. 
  Combat should and will be really 
  common but most of the time the PCs 
  have lots of goons and bodyguards to do 
  the shooting for them. Personal Combat’s 
  only for those rare occasions when the 
  PCs have to get their hands bloody.
   Attacking
  To make an attack, roll Violence. If you 
  succeed, you’ve hit your target. Huzzah! 
  Take that, target.
   Damage
  The amount of damage depends on 
  three factors. Well, four, if you count the 
  almighty will of the GM as a factor. These 
  factors are:
  � The type of weapon
  � Whether or not the target is 
  armoured
  � The Margin of Success
  Weapons are either low-powered, 
  high-powered or overpowered. A low-
  powered weapon is likely to only maim 
  the target on a successful hit. A high-
  powered weapon will kill an unarmoured 
  target, or maim an armoured one. An 
  overpowered weapon kills the target, 
  anyone standing behind the target, 
  anyone standing near the target or 
  maybe most of the sector.
  Armour ranges from cheap reflec to 
  articulated power armour to force 
  ﬁ elds. It’s considered impolite to wear 
  giant articulated power armour to the 
  ofﬁ ce, even on Casual Fivesdays. Armour 
  reduces damage by one step. 
  Finally, the Margin of Success 
  determines how crippling the attack 
  
  48
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  was. If the attack succeeds by 10 or 
  more, or if the attacker rolls a natural 1, 
  then it’s a good hit. Any other result is 
  merely a basic hit. 
  Here’s a complicated-looking table to 
  ignore.
  Injuries
  Unharmed means just what it says. 
  The target dances through the carnage, 
  unhurt and fancy-free.
  Wounded means the target’s hurt. The 
  target can still move and attack but 
  deargodithurts. This is blood pumping 
  from a dozen wounds, shattered bones, 
  adult themes, mangled body bits, maimed 
  limbs, bits-blown-off territory. It’s ew.
  If you’re Wounded a second time, you’re 
  killed.
  Killed means it’s time to get the Clone 
  Techs on the phone. And probably a 
  cleaning crew. 
  Vaporised means you can cancel the 
  cleaning crew. 
  An Example of Combat
  High Programmer Conan-U is, through a 
  truly absurd conﬂ uence of circumstances, 
  battling Zombie Lenin in single combat. 
  Why? I don’t know. Maybe you’re on 
  drugs. Anyway, Conan-U goes ﬁ rst. He has 
  a Violence score of 12 and a laser pistol. 
  He rolls a 7, hitting Zombie Lenin. Zombie 
  Lenin is wounded! 
  Zombie Lenin now attacks – and misses! 
  The High Programmer attacks again and 
  rolls a 2. That succeeds by more than 10! 
  Even wounding the already-wounded 
  Lenin would have been enough but Conan-
  U nails the Zombie Commie between the 
  eyes with a deadly accurate laser blast. The 
  zombie bursts into ﬂ ames.
  Quick Damage Lookup
  Low Powered
  High Powered
  Overpowered
  Unarmoured
  Armoured
  Unarmoured
  Armoured
  Unarmoured
  Armoured
  Miss
  Unharmed
  Unharmed
  Unharmed
  Unharmed
  Wounded
  Unharmed
  Basic Hit
  Wounded
  Unharmed
  Killed
  Wounded
  Killed
  Wounded
  Good Hit
  Killed
  Wounded
  Vaporised
  Killed
  Vaporised
  Killed
  Conan-U is victorious. Later, he is 
  terminated for concealing Communist 
  ash in the linings of his lungs. 
  Assassinations
  Inconvenient rival High Programmers and 
  their Agents can be assassinated. There 
  are several beneﬁ ts to assassination:
  � Removing a rival in a Secret Society
  � Mildly inconveniencing a High 
  Programmer
  � Annoying a High Programmer
  � Getting a better table at the 
  cafeteria
  � Throwing suspicion on others
  Assassins
  To attempt an Assassination, pass a note 
  to the GM noting the Minion you’re using 
  and the target of the assassination. The 
  GM will run the Assassination attempt 
  at a time of his choosing (unless you 
  arrange for a suitable time, in which 
  case he might even give you a bonus to 
  the attempt. For example, you could be 
  a really poor host, and invite both your 
  assassins and their target to drinks after 
  work).
  Ideally, assassins need the Wetwork 
  Specialty. Wetwork is the happy pleasant 
  euphemism for ‘cutting throats’. It’s 
  referred to as ‘wetwork’ because you get 
  wet at work. And sticky. 
  Assassins may also use the Inﬁ ltration 
  Specialty. 
  If an Assassin doesn’t have either of these 
  Specialties and you can’t justify the use 
  of another Specialty, then he doesn’t 
  have much of a chance of success (he’ll 
  need to roll a 1 on a d20). 
  Resolving an 
  Assassination
  The assassin bursts in, blasting at the 
  target with a cleverly concealed Kill-O-
  Zap megacannon or gonad-mounted 
  micronuke and…rolls a d20. If the result 
  is equal to less than your Violence skill, 
  then the target is terminated. Simple, 
  eh?
  There are a few special rules, though:
  � Tension: If you roll under the 
  Tension score of the target’s location, 
  then your assassin was identiﬁ ed. 
  Depending on the circumstances, 
  your assassin might be reported to 
  the Situation Room, or terminated 
  by local security forces.
  � Assassinating High Programmers: 
  If your target is a High Programmer, 
  it’s a lot harder to zap him. Subtract 
  the High Programmer’s Violence skill 
  from your Violence before making 
  the roll. 
  � Defences: The target may have 
  defences like bodyguards, security 
  systems and so on; these security 
  systems need to be dealt with before 
  the assassination can proceed.
  Mass Combat
  When minions clash, use the Mass 
  Combat rules. 
  All the Minions in the battle roll Assault 
  or Total War simultaneously (the 
  appropriate High Programmer rolls 
  for the Minions they control; for NPC 
  forces, the GM rolls using an appropriate 
  Violence skill level for the enemy leaders). 
  If a Minion involved in combat doesn’t 
  have Assault or Total War, then halve 
  the Violence score of its controller when 
  rolling. This roll determines the order in 
  which the Minions attack each other.
  Each Minion now gets a chance to 
  attack another Minion in the same 
  battle (not necessarily on the same 
  side…). If the Minion’s attack roll 
  
  49
  17. TREASON AND INFAMY
  succeeded with a Margin of Success of 
  10 or more, then its attack totally wipes 
  out its target. Otherwise, the target is 
  merely damaged. 
  Even Minions who failed the Violence 
  check can attack, assuming they’re still 
  alive by the time their turn rolls around. 
  However, they can only attack other 
  Minions who failed the Violence check. 
  An already-damaged Minion that’s 
  damaged a second time is destroyed. 
  Run Away!
  A Minion can ﬂ ee from a combat instead 
  of attacking. It must be ordered to attack 
  at the start of a round of mass combat 
  and it gets no attack in the round it’s 
  ordered to retreat. A Minion cannot 
  retreat if it’s the only unit left in the ﬁ ght 
  on its side. 
  It’s therefore a good idea to send in some 
  cannon fodder to cover retreats.
  Damaged Minions
  A damaged Minion has suffered 
  enough damage to risk destruction. A 
  damaged Minion will be restored to 
  full functionality at the start of the next 
  game session.
  Mass Combat Example
  In this contrived example, there are three 
  treacherous Heroic Infantry units under 
  the command of a rebellious general. The 
  High Programmers send in two Minions 
  – a Warbot Mark IV (Assault) and a unit of 
  Vulture Squadron Warriors (Assault +4). 
  Both the High Programmer commanding 
  the Minions and the rebel general have 
  Violence 8. Everyone rolls…
  Unit: Margin of Success
  Warbot: +7
  Commie #2: +5
  Vulture Troopers: –4
  Commie #:3 –4
  Commie #1: –12
  The Warbot attacks ﬁ rst. It targets Commie 
  #2. 
  Next Commie #2 attacks, damaging the 
  Vulture Troopers. 
  Next, the Vulture Troopers attack is 
  resolved. Take that, Commie #2. Commie 
  #2 is destroyed!
  The remaining Commies both attack the 
  Vulture Troopers. Buh-bye, Troopers.
  Next round, the Commies choose to ﬂ ee 
  (the Warbot’s got a Special Ability that 
  says it can only be hurt by Total War or 
  Demolitions). The rolls are
  Commie #2: +5
  Warbot: +3
  Commie #1: –4  
  Commie #2 flees. The Warbot attacks 
  Commie #1. Commie #1 would really 
  like to ﬂ ee but it’s the last unit left on its 
  side, so it can’t escape. It’s doomed to be 
  crushed beneath the mighty treads of the 
  Mark IV… 
  17. Treason and Infamy
  Anyone might be a traitor, even a High 
  Programmer. The Computer trusts no-one! 
  All Player Characters have a Treason 
  Point score, which measures how much 
  suspicion the character is currently under. 
  Treason Points are awarded for various 
  traitorous or potentially traitorous 
  deeds, or for failing The Computer. You 
  should track each player’s Treason Points 
  somewhere where the players can’t see 
  their totals. 
  Commendation Points work like 
  reverse Treason Points. They’re awarded 
  for conspicuous acts of bootlicking, 
  heroism, loyalty or competence. Each 
  Commendation Point awarded cancels 
  out one Treason Point.
  A High Programmer starts with zero 
  Treason Points.
  The Fruits of Treason
  At 10 Treason Points, The Computer 
  suspects the High Programmer of 
  treason. The Head of Internal Security is 
  secretly informed of the presence of a 
  potential traitor and ordered to watch for 
  further treason. (If the High Programmer 
  under suspicion is also the Head of 
  Internal Security, the High Programmer 
  with the next highest interest in Internal 
  Security is informed of his superior’s 
  potential treason.)
  At 20 Treason Points, the High 
  Programmer is declared to be a traitor. 
  If this happens in the Situation Room, 
  the High Programmer is toast. If it 
  happens outside the Situation Room, 
  he will eventually be hunted down and 
  terminated by Internal Security.
  Fur thermore, when the High 
  Programmer’s replacement clone arrives, 
  he’s fined 20 Access. If he can’t pay 
  this ﬁ ne, he can turn his interest in any 
  Service Groups into Access at a one-to-
  one ratio. 
  Eliminating a High Programmer: A 
  High Programmer who cannot pay an 
  Access fine after being terminated is 
  demoted and is out of the game. 
  Treasonous Deeds 
  In Detail
  Any special-case rules are described here.
   Security
  Suspicious behaviour: Absolutely 
  anything can come under this heading, 
  if it’s presented to The Computer in the 
  right way. The Computer is insanely 
  paranoid.
  Causing dissent: Public criticism other 
  High Programmers or official Alpha 
  Complex policy or inciting citizens to 
  disobey.
   
  Ordering a Minion into an area above 
  their Clearance/revealing secret 
  information: All Minions have a Security 
  Clearance ranging from INFRARED to 
  VIOLET. If a Minion is sent into a location 
  above its Security Clearance, or told 
  anything it’s not cleared to know, the 
  High Programmer gets Treason Points 
  equal to the difference. So, if a PC orders 
  a RED Troubleshooter team into a VIOLET 
  area, the High Programmer gets six 
  Treason Points.
  Plotting the destruction of Alpha 
  Complex: Apocalypses are bad, got it!?
    Mutation
  Registering Your Mutation: These 
  Treason Points are applied at the start 
  of play. If the character is terminated, his 
  replacement clone must reregister as a 
  mutant (and gets these points again).
  
  50
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
   Treasonous Deeds
  Job Performance
  Failure to complete a mission 
   
   
   
  1–5 points
  Damaging Alpha Complex citizens  
   
   
  2 points
  Damaging Alpha Complex equipment 
   
   
  2 points
  Damaging important Alpha Complex citizens 
   
  5 points
  Damaging important Alpha Complex equipment 
   
  5 points
  Causing a Catastrophe 
   
   
   
   
  10 points 
   
  Reducing Happiness 
   
   
   
   
  2 points
  Signiﬁ cantly reducing Happiness  
   
   
  5 points
  Using Access for unapproved purposes 
   
   
  1 point per 1 point of Access
  Activating a Minion without sufﬁ cient resources  
   
  2 points
  Damage to The Computer  
   
   
   
  10 points
  Security
  Suspicious behaviour 
   
   
   
   
  1 point
  Causing dissent  
   
   
   
   
  2 points 
  Ordering a Minion into an area above their Clearance 
  Difference in Clearance levels
  Revealing secret information to a citizen not cleared for it 
  Difference in Clearance levels
  Plotting the destruction of Alpha Complex  
   
  20 points
  Mutation
  Registering Your Mutation 
   
   
   
  5 points
  Suspicion of Mutation Possession  
   
   
  2 points
  Proof of Mutation Possession 
   
   
   
  5 points
  Incontrovertible Proof of Mutation  
   
   
  10 points
  Possession of Machine Empathy 
   
   
   
  20 points
  Secret Society
  Spreading propaganda 
   
   
   
   
  2 points
  Involvement with Class A society  
   
   
  4 Points
  Involvement with Class B  society  
   
   
  6 Points
  Involvement with Class C  society  
   
   
  10 Points
  Involvement with Communists!  
   
   
   
  20 Points
  Behaviour
  Arguing with the GM 
   
   
   
   
  2 points
  Arguing with interpretation of the rules 
   
   
  5 points
  Accusations
  Being accused of Treason  
   
   
   
  1 points
  Making a false accusation of Treason 
   
   
  2 points
  Unwarranted Termination  
   
   
   
  5 points
   Commendable Deeds
  Unmasking a traitor 
   
   
   
   
  1 point
  Unmasking a traitorous High Programmer  
   
  5 points
  Completing a mission 
   
   
   
   
  1 point
  Increasing Happiness 
   
   
   
   
  1 point
  Inspiring Loyalty  
   
   
   
   
  1 point
  Reporting waste of resources 
   
   
   
  1 point
  Sacriﬁ cing Agents
  Agents in a Secret Society can be sacriﬁ ced – the High Programmer turns the agent in to Internal Security. Co-operating 
  with Internal Security halves the Treason Point award. The agent is eliminated and cannot be used again.
  
  51
  18. SKILLS AND SPECIALTIES
  Secret Society
  Spreading dissent or propaganda: 
  Endorsing Communism, spreading 
  Secret Society propaganda.
  Involvement with a Secret Society: 
  Using a Secret Society Minion and being 
  caught. A High Programmer can choose 
  to sacriﬁ ce his Agent in that society to 
  halve the Treason Point award. 
   Public Standing
  Not all High Programmers have a public 
  standing. The identities of most High 
  Programmers are a complete mystery to 
  the ordinary citizen (and if he does know, 
  the ordinary citizen keeps his mouth shut 
  – he’s not cleared to know who the High 
  Programmers are). Most ULTRAVIOLETs 
  are sinister ﬁ gures, manipulating Alpha 
  Complex from behind the scenes.
  However, some High Programmers have 
  a public identity. They’re the symbolic 
  leaders of Alpha Complex, second 
  only to The Computer. A public High 
  Programmer is always universally known 
  – everyone in Alpha Complex recognises 
  them on sight, their every action is 
  slavishly reported by the media, they 
  can alter public opinion with a single 
  word. If a High Programmer picks algae 
  chips over Hot Fun for breakfast, then 
  tomorrow everyone’s eating algae chips 
  and Hot Fun sales plummet. 
  Public Standing is measured like treason. 
  A High Programmer gets Popularity 
  points when he takes credit for crowd-
  pleasing decisions; he gets Unpopularity 
  points when he’s held responsible for 
  unpopular decisions. 
  Public Standing starts at 0. A character 
  can’t go above Public Standing +10 or 
  below –10.
  Popular Decisions
  Public appearance 
   
   
  1 point
  Maintaining public safety  
   
  1 point
  Conspicuous public competence  
  2 points
  Increasing rations 
   
   
  3 points
  Defeating Commie Mutant Traitors  
  3 points
  Foiling terrorist plots 
   
   
  3 points
  Saving Alpha Complex from Commies 
  5 points
  Unpopular Decisions
  Conspicuous public unhappiness  
  –1 point
  Confusion or uncertainty in public  
  –1 point
  Public embarrassment 
   
   
  –2 points
  Decreasing rations 
   
   
  –3 points
  Failing to prevent Commie plot 
   
  –5 points
  Failing to prevent terrorist attack  
  –5 points
  Being terminated as a traitor 
   
  –10 points
   Public Standing Effects
  A popular High Programmer has a bit 
  more Access to play with. At the start of 
  each mission, he receives bonus Access 
  equal to his Public Standing. So, a really 
  popular High Programmer with a Public 
  Standing of 10 gets 10 bonus Access, plus 
  the love and adulation of the crowds.
  An unpopular High Programmer loses 
  Access equal to his Public Standing at the 
  start of each mission. If he doesn’t have 
  the Access to pay, it is drained from his 
  Stakes instead. 
  18. Skills and Specialties
  There are six basic skills in HIGH 
  PROGRAMMER – M a n a g e m e n t, 
  Subterfuge, Violence, Hardware, 
  Software and Wetware. With these six 
  skills, a Minion can accomplish almost 
  anything!
  Everyone else in Alpha Complex has 
  these skills too but it’s important to 
  emphasise the difference between 
  the scope of a High Programmer’s, say, 
  Hardware and an ordinary citizen’s grasp 
  of the topic. Your average drug-addled 
  citizen might be able to use Hardware 
  to ﬁ x a broken toaster if he’s lucky and 
  has successfully filled form TS5423/a, 
  Request for Endothermic Food Engineering 
  Repair. A High Programmer could use 
  Hardware to co-ordinate and oversee 
  the construction of a nuclear reactor or 
  a spaceship or a really really cool toaster 
  that talks or sends the toast back in time 
  or something.  
  Even a High Programmer who spends 
  all his time napping in the corner with 
  an intravenous drug solution plugged 
  right into his spinal column and who 
  hasn’t said a comprehensible word in 
  the last decade has the skills to run a 
  corporation or a war. No-one survives to 
  ULTRAVIOLET without learning a thing 
  or two. 
  Roll Only When It’s Funny
  The skill system illustrates the divide 
  between the High Programmers and their 
  incompetent, untrustworthy, shiftless or 
  treacherous staff. The player should ﬁ rst 
  come up with a plan for dealing what 
  whatever problem he’s dealing with 
  and only then roll the dice to see how 
  well (or poorly) it’s implemented. Don’t 
  let a player say ‘I roll my Management to 
  sort out the bureaucratic problems’ – let 
  him describe what he’s doing, what new 
  initiatives and protocols he’s putting into 
  place and then roll to see how well the 
  staff follow his directions.
  A grand plan may be undermined by 
  incompetence or treachery but by the 
  same token, the most absurd plan might 
  come through with luck. 
  Making A Skill Check
  To make a skill check, roll 1d20. If the 
  result is less than or equal to the High 
  Programmer’s skill, he succeeds. If the 
  dice roll is greater than his skill, he 
  fails. On the roll of a natural 20, it’s a 
  catastrophic failure. Horrible things are 
  certain to happen.
  Margin of Success 
  Remember, the Margin of Success 
  (sometimes called MoS, ‘cos us Famous 
  Game Designers like to use abbreviations. 
  Abbreviations are fun and much quicker 
  to write and we’re lazy. Anyway, where 
  
  52
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  were we? Were we talking about some 
  rule or something? Er…oh yeah). The 
  Margin of Success is the difference 
  between the skill and the dice result. So, 
  skill of 10, roll of a 3, MoS=7. Skill of 10, 
  roll of a 9, MoS=1.
  You can also have a Margin of Failure, 
  which is worked out the same way. 
  That’s as complex as the math gets in 
  this system. 
  Spending Access
  Players may be permitted to spend 
  Access to increase or decrease a roll. See 
  page 19. 
  Direct & Indirect Skill 
  Rolls
  Most of the time, High Programmers 
  work through minions and other lackeys. 
  He doesn’t shoot the Commie Mutant 
  Traitors himself – he orders a bunch of 
  Internal Security Troopers to do it, using 
  his Violence skill. He doesn’t go into 
  the reactor to ﬁ x it himself – he sends 
  in a bunch of RepairBots and Reactor 
  Shielding Volunteers, using his Hardware 
  skill. High Programmers are not stupid 
  – doing stuff yourself is dangerous.
  When making an Indirect skill check, the 
  player needs to work through a Minion. 
  Minions have all sorts of drawbacks and 
  problems but when using a Minion, the 
  High Programmer need not be there in 
  person. With Indirect checks, he can stay 
  nice and safe while he orders the minion 
  into the line of ﬁ re.
  Opposed Skill Contests
  When two High Programmers are 
  directly opposing each other (say, giving 
  contradictory orders, or one’s trying to 
  hack a computer system while the other 
  is trying to keep him out), then have both 
  players chuck the dice. The one that gets 
  the bigger Margin of Success wins.
  Extended Skill Rolls 
  An extended skill roll is a sequence 
  of die rolls. This represents a task or 
  sequence of tasks that takes a long 
  time, like uncovering a well-hidden 
  Commie conspiracy, masterminding a 
  month-long advertising campaign, or 
  building a giant death ray. The player 
  making the extended roll (or each 
  party in an extended contest) makes an 
  identical number of die rolls against the 
  appropriate ability, tallying the number 
  of successes scored.
  As GM, you can define the sequence 
  as either open-ended (first player to 
  score ﬁ ve successes wins the builds the 
  death ray or convinces everyone to buy 
  SqueeGeeKleen Boot Wipes) or ﬁ xed (if 
  the PC doesn’t get three successes in six 
  rolls, the Commies escape).
  Specialties
  Specialities are subsets of a skill possessed 
  by Minions. A bunch of CPU bureaucrats 
  might be great at Paperwork (a Specialty 
  of Management) but terrible at Hygiene 
  (another Specialty of Management). 
  If you try to act through a Minion who 
  doesn’t have the right Speciality, the 
  GM may penalise your roll (usually, by 
  declaring that you need to roll a natural 
  1 to succeed. Picking Minions with the 
  right Specialty for the job is therefore 
  utterly vital.
  Service Group 
  Specialities
  Each Specialty is strongly associated 
  with two Service Groups. For 
  example, Investigation is a schtick 
  for Internal Security and HPD&MC. 
  That doesn’t mean that Minions 
  from other Service Groups don’t 
  have Investigation but it’s a lot rarer 
  in those groups.
  Management Specialties
  Management’s the general ‘act properly’ 
  skill, as well as covering bureaucracy, 
  planning, politicking and persuasion. 
  Assessment (IS, CPU)
  With Assessment, you can identify 
  bureaucratic snafus, organisational 
  problems, security leaks and so on. It’s 
  basically Spot Hidden for ofﬁ ces.
  Use Assessment for
  � Conducting surveys
  � Holding inquiries
  � Forming committees to assess the 
  feasibility of setting up an audit
  � Not actually doing anything 
  Co-Ordination (CPU, 
  HPD&MC)
  This is the manager’s Management 
  Specialty – it’s for co-ordinating different 
  groups. It is mastery of organisation, it 
  is logistics, it is timekeeping, it is… all 
  the really boring stuff that you want to 
  delegate to some underling.
  Co-ordination is good for:
  � Co-ordinating things
  � Organising things
  � Co-ordinating the organisation of 
  things
  Hygiene (HPD&MC, TS)
  The Hygiene Specialty includes physical 
  cleaning of Alpha Complex, proper 
  sanitary procedures, uniform standards, 
  as well as aspects of mental hygiene 
  such as avoiding propaganda or keeping 
  goodthought in citizens’ heads.
  Hygiene might be used for:
  � Co-ordinating the cleanup of a 
  chemical spill
  � Removing mind-altering grafﬁ ti 
  spreading Secret Society 
  propaganda
  � Maintaining proper standards
  Interrogation (HPD&MC, IS)
  Extracting information from those unwilling 
  to give it up. Methods of interrogation 
  vary from the crudely physical (rubber 
  truncheons and beatings) to more subtle 
  forms (truth drugs, mind games) to the 
  weird (braincore samples, VR simulations). 
  Interrogation is used for:
  � Uncovering conspiracies
  � Exposing traitors
  � Extreme customer surveys
  Intimidation (AF, IS)
  Intimidation is the threat of violence 
  or other hostile action, veiled in 
  polite disguise. It is hinting at terrible 
  consequences, it is demonstrations of 
  power. It is marching 1,000 Armed Forces 
  goons up and down outside your enemy’s 
  sleeping quarters, or suggesting that this 
  is an offer he really can’t refuse.
  Intimidation is good for:
  � Dealing with underlings
  � Forcing people to accept unpopular 
  decisions
  � Cowing dissent
  
  53
  18. SKILLS AND SPECIALTIES
  Paperwork (CPU, 
  HPD&MC)
  To promote greater efficiency and 
  security, CPU* mandates that everything 
  in Alpha Complex be tracked using the 
  correct forms. Doing anything at all, from 
  ﬁ xing a broken showerhead to launching 
  a thermonuclear war** involves dozens 
  of forms. Often, these forms are vague, 
  non-existent, contradictory and/or 
  rely on dozens more forms that have 
  to be completed ﬁ rst. The Paperwork 
  Specialty covers dealing with this 
  bureaucratic nightmare.
  A lack of paperwork means no ofﬁ cial 
  records. Not maintaining ofﬁ cial records 
  is treason. 
  Paperwork is used for:
  � Cutting through bureaucratic 
  obfuscation
  � Creating bureaucratic obfuscation
  � Examining records and accounts
  � Hiding information in records and 
  accounts
  Thought Control 
  (HPD&MC, PLC)
  Thought Control is all about overt 
  methods of changing people’s opinions 
  – advertising, propaganda, political 
  spin, keeping on message and so on. 
  (Subliminal messaging is another 
  matter.) Thought Control minions 
  include spin doctors, speech writers, 
  image consultants as well as news media, 
  spokesbots and talking heads. 
  Use Thought Control to:
  � Give your side of the story
  � Control the news cycle
  � Advertise new initiatives
  Thought Survey (CPU, 
  HPD&MC)
  This Specialty is for ﬁ nding out what the 
  common clone thinks they should be 
  thinking. (Note that Interrogation ﬁ nds 
  out what they’re actually thinking, other 
  than ‘Agh, no, please stop interrogating 
  me.) Thought Survey involves surveys, 
  opinion polls, eavesdropping and 
  informants. It’s the gentle way of ﬁ nding 
  out the current mood of the proles. It also 
  covers faking surveys, opinion polls and 
  other forms of thought survey.
  Call for Thought Survey when you need to:
  � Check Happiness levels
  � Find out what people think they 
  should think about you
  � Prove to The Computer that you’re 
  doing a good job
   Subterfuge
  Subterfuge is the skill for doing 
  underhanded or sneaky stuff. (In other 
  PARANOIA games, it’s called Stealth and 
  you can use it for sneaking around if you 
  want.) Most Subterfuge Specialties can 
  be turned around to do the opposite of 
  their intended purpose – so a Minion with 
  the Surveillance Specialty is also good at 
  avoiding surveillance, a Security Systems 
  Minion is also useful for sabotaging 
  security systems…
  Bartering (PLC, PS)
  This Specialty is used when dealing with 
  the illegal and semi-legal underground 
  economy of Alpha Complex. Certain 
  items can only be obtained illegally; 
  others can be found for a lot cheaper on 
  C-Bay than in PLC warehouses. It’s also for 
  trading favours with Secret Societies and 
  getting things done off the record.
  Use this for:
  � Tracing stolen goods
  � Obtaining stolen goods
  � Making money on the side
  Covert Operations (IS, PS)
  Minions with this Specialty are good at 
  blending in with the crowds of Alpha 
  Complex. It’s for plain-clothes police and 
  secret agents, as well as saboteurs and 
  undercover spies (but not infiltrating 
  Secret Societies – that’s Infiltration). 
  Covert Ops is for agents in disguise, for 
  hiding people or objects, or for any sort 
  of operation that isn’t what it seems. 
  A Covert Operations Minion could 
  possibly:
  � Pretend to be another sort of Minion 
  without being noticed (‘hey! These 
  cooks are actually IntSec goons’)
  � Conduct operations without being 
  noticed (‘Nothing to see here, citizen, 
  we’re just painting the corridor RED. 
  Really, it’s not blood.’)
  � Conceal items or people (‘Escape 
  through this secret passage, High 
  Programmer sir!’)
  � Steal items or people (‘Quick! Get the 
  secret data ﬁ les and run away!’)
  Cleanup (CPU, HPD&MC)
  Erasure is used for making people into 
  unpeople and for dropping troublesome 
  facts into the memory hole. It is the 
  Speciality of cover-ups and history 
  alteration, of removing all evidence of a 
  crime or screw-up and ensuring that no-
  one ever ﬁ nds out about it again. Ever.
  Cleanup includes:
  � Hiding the bodies
  � Hiding the records of the bodies 
  being hidden
  � Hiding the people who hid the 
  records of the bodies being hidden
  � Erasing your memory of reading the 
  above section
  � Electropop
  Inﬁ ltration (IS, PS)
  Those pesky Secret Societies giving 
  you problems? That’s what Inﬁ ltration 
  is for! With Inﬁ ltration, you can get your 
  agents into place within the Secret 
  Society. Infiltrated spies can provide 
  information on Secret Society activities, 
  stop sabotage attempts or even try to 
  inﬂ uence society actions. 
  You could also use Inﬁ ltration to get 
  agents into other groups, like another 
  player’s Minions or a Service Group 
  but that wouldn’t be very loyal, now, 
  would it?
  Use Inﬁ ltration to:
  � Find out what Secret Societies are 
  up to
  � Pre-emptively stop Secret Society 
  sabotage
  � Affect Secret Society plans
  Investigation (HPD&MC, 
  IS)
  This Specialty is for finding out what 
  happened. It’s for criminal investigations 
  *: This explosion of paperwork co-incidentally increases CPU’s own standing and importance in Alpha Complex, like a 
  bureaucratic puffer ﬁ sh.
  **: Oddly, 47% of the forms required for these two actions are the same.
  
  54
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  (‘who shot Al-I?’) and post-incident 
  inquiries (‘why did reactor 45 explode?’) 
  or even internal affairs (‘who ate the last 
  cookie?’) A lot of HIGH PROGRAMMER
  missions start with Investigation.
  You’re Investigating when you’re:
  � Trying to ﬁ nd the root cause of a 
  disaster
  � Trying to cover up the root cause of 
  a disaster
  � Trying to identify a traitor
  Sabotage (IS, PS)
  The Sabotage Speciality is for repairing 
  acts of sabotage. It is not, under any 
  circumstances, to be used for sabotaging 
  your rivals’ projects. It is for removing
  bombs, not planting them. Just because 
  a Minion with Sabotage knows all about 
  cutting the big power cable at just the 
  right moment, thus ruining your rival’s 
  dinner party, does not mean that it 
  is in any way acceptable to use this 
  Specialty to sabotage him. Maybe it’s 
  got the wrong name. Perhaps it should 
  be called ‘Anti-Sabotage, Don’t Use It For 
  Sabotage, Please’.
  Use Sabotage for:
  � Disarming bombs
  � Repairing sabotaged systems
  � Sabotaging stuff
  Security Systems (IS, R&D)
  Security is paramount in Alpha Complex. 
  The whole place is riddled with alarms, 
  sensors, security checkpoints, deathtraps, 
  scanners, security sweeps, identity 
  checks, pit traps, access control, identity 
  verification, cross-checks, bomb 
  detectors, drug sniffers, thought scanners 
  and Digital Rights Management. The 
  Security Systems specialty is used to 
  maintain and manage all of that.
  Use Security Systems to:
  � Increase (or decrease) security in an 
  area
  � Look for treasonous, illegal, 
  contraband or dangerous items
  � Protect an item, person or location 
  with lots of deathtraps
  � Bypass a deathtrap
  Surveillance (IS, TS)
  Smile, citizen. You’re being watched.
  Everyone in Alpha Complex is watched 
  all the time – apart from the INFRAREDs, 
  because they’re too drugged to do 
  anything. Lower Clearance citizens are 
  monitored by Internal Security and The 
  Computer. At higher Clearances, there’s 
  less ofﬁ cial surveillance, as The Computer 
  trusts you now but that’s more than 
  compensated by all the bugging devices 
  and wiretaps planted by rivals, secret 
  societies and Internal Security. 
  The Surveillance Specialty covers both 
  the operation and management of 
  these surveillance systems, the removal 
  or subversion of electronic bugging 
  devices and the manipulation of a 
  location’s Tension.
  With Surveillance, you can:
  � Spy on people
  � Stop people from spying on you
  � Control Tension, making it harder 
  or easier for Secret Societies to 
  operate
  � Check surveillance records for 
  evidence of past crimes
  Violence
  Violence is the skill for killing people 
  and blowing things up. Technically, it 
  also covers physical ﬁ tness, toughness 
  and hand-eye co-ordination but it’s 
  really all about the killing and the 
  maiming. Between the Armed Forces 
  and R&D, there’s an absurd number of 
  ways to kill people and blow them up 
  in Alpha Complex – lasers, cone riﬂ es, 
  plasma projectors, nukes, warbots, 
  pointy sticks…
  Assault (AF, R&D)
  This is the generic shooty-ﬁ ghty skill. It’s 
  what you use for attacking an entrenched 
  Commie position, or zapping bad guys, 
  or fighting a pitched battle. If you’re 
  reduced to relying on Assault, then 
  you’re probably involved in that most 
  unfortunate of situations, a fair fight. 
  Never start a land war in Asia.
  Use Assault to:
  � Attack!
  � Order your troops to their deaths
  � Order the clone replacements of 
  your troops to their deaths, too
  � Win through attrition
  Command (AF, CPU)
  This Specialty is used for commanding 
  and co-ordinating large-scale military 
  operations. It’s a combination of strategic 
  planning, communication and tactics. 
  If you want to run a war, you’ll need 
  Command.
  Command’s useful for:
  � Co-ordinating multiple military units
  � Fighting pitched battles
  � Strategy & Tactics
  � Wargaming
  Crowd Control (AF, IS)
  A vital part of many citizen security 
  initiatives, Crowd Control is the Specialty 
  needed when you put a bunch of very 
  heavily armed goons (or warbots) 
  together in a cramped space with a lot 
  of unhappy citizens. Crowd Control is for 
  managing large public events, quelling 
  riots and running Public Hatings. 
  Call on Crowd Control to:
  � Control Crowds
  � Protect you when the proles are 
  crying out for vengeance
  � Manage disaster relief
  Demolition (R&D, TS)
  Hurr. Demolition make buildings fall 
  down. Hurr hurr.
  Well, yes. Demolition also covers bomb 
  disposal, which is a really useful thing 
  to have around when numerous Secret 
  Societies are trying to blow things up. 
  It’s the anti-things-blowing-up Specialty. 
  High explosive is, of course, carefully 
  controlled in Alpha Complex. Regrettably, 
  it’s possible to mix up a perfectly good (if 
  slightly unstable) home-made bomb in 
  no time with the contents of the average 
  cafeteria or scrubbot.
  Use Demolition to:
  � Disarm terrorist bombs
  � Blow up Commie bases
  � Hurr. Make buildings fall down.
  Outdoors Operations (AF, 
  TS)
  Outdoors is not under Computer control 
  and is therefore the Enemy.
  INFRARED citizens are taught that 
  Outdoors is uninhabitable (it’s a nuclear 
  wasteland, or ﬂ ooded, or a vacuum, or full 
  of Commie Mutant Traitors depending 
  on what the current Approved Truth is). 
  RED or higher citizens are permitted to 
  know that Outdoors is habitable but it’s 
  an overgrown wilderness of forests and 
  ruined Old Reckoning cities infested 
  
  55
  18. SKILLS AND SPECIALTIES
  with Commies*. The only people who 
  go Outdoors regularly are the Armed 
  Forces on training operations, although 
  they do also conduct offensives against 
  Commie forces.**
  The Outdoor Operations Specialty 
  is needed to co-ordinate large scale 
  operations Outdoors.
  Use this for:
  � Going Outdoors safely
  � Transporting items back from 
  Outdoors
  � Searching Outdoors
  Defence (AF, IS)
  This Specialty could also be called 
  Standing Around, or Maybe Marching 
  Up And Down A Bit. Defence is the 
  Specialty used for guarding areas, 
  keeping unauthorised citizens out of 
  an area, for spotting traitors in a crowd, 
  or for bodyguard duty. Especially your 
  body. 
  Defence and Security Systems aren’t the 
  same thing. Security Systems is about 
  electronic scanners, physical locks, 
  barriers and so forth. Defence is the 
  guard standing outside the door. They 
  both stop unwanted visitors.
  Use Defence to:
  � Protect secure locations
  � Guard your body
   Total War (AF, R&D)
  Ah, Weapons of Mass Destruction. 
  Where would Alpha Complex be 
  without the capability to blow up half 
  the planet and leave the other half an 
  uninhabitable scorched wasteland? 
  The Total War Speciality is used when 
  you want to use words like ‘apocalypse’, 
  ‘cataclysm’, ‘strategic nuclear arsenal’ or 
  ‘doomsday device.’ 
  Use Total War when you need to:
  � Absolutely, positively kill everything 
  at a target location…
  � … and the area around the target 
  location…
  � … and everyone within a much larger 
  area who’s not wearing protective 
  clothing…
  � … go out with a really big bang.
  Wetwork (AF, IS)
  The Wetwork Specialty is for covert 
  combat operations. Commando raids, 
  sabotage and assassination, lots of 
  assassination. It’s what you use when 
  you sent some drug-crazed vat-grown 
  psychopaths off to slit throats. These are 
  not happy people.
  Use Wetwork for:
  � Deniable violence
  � Assassination
  � Sabotage
   Hardware
  The primary use of Hardware is to 
  manage construction and engineering 
  projects. It’s also your understanding of 
  physics, your ability to design or control 
  new gadgets and your ability to repair 
  items, from a pocket chronometer to the 
  dome of Alpha Complex. 
  Bot Engineering (TS, PS)
  Bots are everywhere in Alpha Complex. 
  Scrubbots clean the floors, docbots 
  treat the wounded, transbots whisk 
  people to their destinations (if they’re 
  lucky), warbots soak up the military 
  budget… Alpha Complex wouldn’t last 
  very long without its loyal bots. With 
  the Bot Engineering Specialty, you can 
  design, build and operate all types of 
  bots, including new bots made for a 
  specific purpose.
  Use Bot Engineering to:
  � Control all-bot Minions
  � Work with problematic bots
  � Repair or maintain damaged bots
  Construction (TS, PS)
  The construction Specialty is used for 
  building large structures like Armed 
  Forces bases, new sectors, fallout shelters 
  or carving an image of your face into 
  the side of a convenient mountain or 
  moon. It covers both designing such 
  megastructures and actually building 
  them using ConstructionBots, slave 
  armies or citizens.
  You might use Construction to:
  � Build a new secure facility
  � Repair a crack in the dome
  � Dig a really, really, really big hole.
  Chemical Engineering (TS, 
  PLC)
  Hubble, bubble toil and trouble, vat of 
  slime and yeast mould extract bubble! 
  Chemical engineering is for making 
  everything from synthetic polymers 
  for uniforms to synthetic proteins for 
  FunFoods. 
  Use this for:
  � Doing chemical stuff
  � Coming up with a chemical spray to 
  destroy the Blob
  � Making explosives 
  Habitat Engineering (TS, 
  PS)
  Habitat Engineering is the Specialty 
  for maintaining the living quarters, life 
  support and basic infrastructure of Alpha 
  Complex. 
  Use Habitat Engineering for:
  � Maintaining life support functions. 
  Always a good idea to maintain 
  those
  � Fixing the plumbing
  � Tracing a problem with the electrical 
  grid
  Nuclear Engineering 
  (R&D, PS)
  The triumph of the atomic age, Alpha 
  Complex’s nuclear power stations provide 
  oodles (technical term) of electricity. 
  True, they also create gigaoodles (also 
  a technical term) of nuclear waste and 
  some fearful and misinformed citizens 
  might suggest that all those nuclear 
  reactors might have something to do 
  with all those mutants but such things 
  are a small price to pay for being able to 
  *: Despite what Computer propaganda and Armed Forces scout reports claim, there really aren’t any Commies out 
  there.***
  **: Targeting Commie fortresses (trees) or terrorist training camps (other trees)****
  ***: Unless, of course, Commie agents changed those reports. Trust no-one!
  ****: Average casualties per offensive: 3,242
  
  56
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  blast the entire crust of Planet Earth to 
  smithereens. I mean, cheap electricity.
  Use Nuclear Engineering to: 
  � Prevent meltdowns
  � Cause meltdowns
  � Nuke Commies 
  Production (TS, PLC)
  The Production Specialty covers factory 
  operations, fulﬁ lment of basic services 
  and labour, especially towards the 
  unskilled end of the scale.
  Use Production to:
  � Meet production quotas
  � Keep factories running after the 
  workers got wiped out by nuclear 
  meltdowns…
  � …or IntSec purges…
  � …or terrorist bombings…
  � …or giant mutant cockroaches…
  Transport (AF, PS)
  Transport is used for getting from A to B, 
  then moving onto C when you realise that 
  B’s a dump. All the while, you’re protecting 
  D. D is a mysterious box that you’re not 
  cleared to open but it’s ticking. 
  This Specialty covers the management 
  and maintenance of Alpha Complex’s 
  transport grid, from individual truckbots 
  and autocars to the inter-sector 
  transtubes and the mass transit system. 
  Any redirection of trafﬁ c (say, for a High 
  Programmer motorcade) or movement 
  of large, bulky or hazardous items 
  requires Transport.
  Transport might be used to:
  � Get a courier through trafﬁ c at high 
  speed
  � Build a new high-speed transtube
  � Move lots of Armed Forces goons to 
  the battlefront at high speed
  Weird Science (R&D, TS)
  The Weird Science Specialty is used when 
  dealing with the fringe theories and outré 
  creations of R&D laboratories. All the stuff 
  marked Experimental, like Transdimensional 
  Collapastrons or Singularity Rays or Time/
  Space Visualisers. Or the ﬂ ying saucer the 
  Armed Forces recovered from the desert 
  a few years back. Or the research lab 
  dedicated to killing Randy the Wonder 
  Lizard. (Don’t ask.)
  This Specialty is also used when 
  investigating bizarre phenomenon.
  To be honest, the Weird Science Specialty 
  is a lot like a long stick. If you’re going to 
  mess with these things, it’s best to do so 
  from as far away as possible.
  It’s time to use Weird Science when:
  � You’ve really got no clue what else 
  to do
  � You’re dealing with something 
  incomprehensible
  � You desire Kelly LeBrock
  Software
  Software is the skill you’ll most often 
  be using directly – it’s the skill used 
  to program The Computer (see 
  Programming, page 82). Software’s also 
  the skill used to control Alpha Complex’s 
  many other computer subsystems. 
  Bot Programming (R&D, 
  TS)
  How to order bots around and how to 
  program bots. This includes sending bots 
  into spurious logic loops causing them to 
  spin around until they explode, if you’re 
  into that sort of thing. 
  Use Bot Programming to:
  � Program a bot for a speciﬁ c complex 
  task
  � Add backdoors into a bot’s brain
  � Search for traitorous subversion 
  within a bot’s brain
  Communications (AF, TS)
  Long-range communications, such as 
  radio transmitters, as well as the hardware 
  and software of Alpha Complex’s comms 
  network. It also covers cryptography, 
  jamming, phone tapping – look, it’s the 
  Lieutenant Uhura skill, ok? You roll it and 
  the NPC goes ‘I can’t get a signal’ or ‘I’ve 
  got a signal’, that’s it.
  It’s useful for:
  � Intercepting Commie 
  transmissions
  � Tracing illegal broadcasts
  � Communicating with units 
  Outdoors
  Computer Security (CPU, 
  R&D)
  The Computer Security Specialty is 
  used for protecting computer systems 
  against all forms of unwarranted 
  intrusion. It’s used to keep hackers out 
  and ensure that users don’t accidentally 
  access information above their Security 
  Clearances. It’s also used to maintain 
  and improve anti-virus software and 
  anti-malware systems.
  Computer Security Minions are good 
  for:
  � Protecting computer systems
  � Stopping hackers
  � Finding out who’s been looking at 
  your ﬁ les
  Data Retrieval (CPU, PS)
  The Computer’s data banks are vast and 
  poorly organised. Virtually any piece 
  of information is in there, somewhere. 
  Data Retrieval combines conventional 
  search techniques with ferreting around 
  in paper files, checking old backup 
  discs, necromancy, interrogation and 
  cryptography to ﬁ nd speciﬁ c data. You 
  can only use this Specialty to ﬁ nd records 
  that are or were once available to The 
  Computer.
  It’s used for:
  � Searching the data banks
  � Searching the data banks
  � Searching the data banks
  � Library Use 
  Financial Systems (CPU, 
  PLC)
  This Specialty covers the control of 
  Alpha Complex’s economy and its 
  credit handling protocols. The economy 
  is centrally planned to a large degree, 
  although individual organisations are 
  permitted to compete. With Financial 
  Systems, you can manipulate the credit 
  markets, pump the system for more 
  money, or trace dodgy or illegal ﬁ nancial 
  dealings.
  Use it for:
  � Examining the ﬁ nancial records of a 
  department
  � Squeezing more cash out of the 
  system
  � Economic warfare
  � Insider trading
  Hacking (CPU, R&D)
  The Hacking Specialty is the other 
  side of Computer Security – it’s all 
  about breaking through defences and 
  accessing restricted information. Hacking 
  may be used to trace ﬁ lesharers on the 
  illegal grey subnets, to break into Secret 
  
  57
  18. SKILLS AND SPECIALTIES
  Society computers, or to access the 
  computer systems of other departments 
  or other High Programmers. 
  Use Hacking to:
  � Break through computer security
  � R e t r i e v e  d a t a  w i t h o u t 
  authorisation
  � Subvert computer systems
  Logistics (PLC, PS)
  The Logistics Specialty is one of those 
  dull ones that no-one really gets but 
  it’s surprisingly vital. It’s basically Co-
  ordination for objects. A lack of logistics 
  is the reason that Troubleshooter teams 
  get assigned 16 hygiene kits and a left-
  handed screwdriver instead of the laser 
  barrels and reﬂ ec armour they need. A 
  lack of logistics results in Alpha Complex 
  drowning in Teela-O-MLY keychains and 
  toxic waste instead of producing actual 
  useful items. Logistics gets stuff doneTM.
  It’s used for:
  � Supporting large-scale projects
  � Sorting out logjams
  � Unsnafuing the snafued
  Media Manipulation 
  (HPD&MC, PLC)
  This is the ‘special effects’ skill; it’s 
  forgery on a grand scale. With Media 
  Manipulation, you can fake images of a 
  Commie invasion, or erase inconvenient 
  truths. Used in concert with Thought 
  Control, you can convince the proles of 
  pretty much anything – black is white, up 
  is down, life is good, whatever.
  Media manipulation lets you:
  � Create fake blackmail material
  � Provide plausible evidence for your 
  cover-ups
  � Fake an alien invasion
   Wetware 
  In a more reasonable game, we might 
  call this skill ‘Biology’ or something. 
  Wetware’s the skill for anything organic 
  and messy. 
  Biosciences (R&D, PS)
  It’s….alive! Mwhahaha. Bioscience is the 
  Specialty for making…things. Living 
  things. New drugs, cybernetic bits, 
  viruses, plagues, two-headed puppies 
  and so on. You could also use it to make 
  biofuels and solve world hunger but 
  where’s the deranged blasphemous fun 
  in that?
  Biosciences is good for:
  � Analysing that weird green stuff you 
  found on your shoe
  � Plagues
  � New biological stuff
  � Anything to do with monkeys. 
  Flying monkeys, intelligent monkeys, 
  monkeyponies.
  Use Cloning to:
  � Fix problems in the cloning system
  � Resurrect the dead
  � Bring back your favourite lackeys 
  Medical (R&D, TS)
  This Specialty is for curing diseases, 
  healing injuries and other worthy 
  endeavours. Medical units can patch up 
  damaged Minions (see Combat, page 
  47).
  Use this for:
  � Recovering from disasters
  � Keeping your life support systems 
  going
  � Playing God
  Mutant Studies (R&D, IS)
  The phenomenon of mutant powers 
  offers several fascinating avenues of 
  study for the discerning mad scientist. 
  How do mutant powers work? What do 
  they tell us about the human brain? How 
  ﬂ ammable are mutants? What happens 
  when you stick a mutant in a blender?
  With Mutant Studies, you can answer 
  all these questions. Mutant Studies 
  Minions may also have access to a pool 
  of registered mutants; these genetically 
  blighted citizens are permitted to use 
  their freaky powers in the service of The 
  Computer. With Mutant Studies, you can 
  make ‘em work for you.
  It’s good for:
  � Investigating mutant powers
  � Wielding mutant powers
  � Poking mutants with a stick
  Outdoor Studies (CPU, 
  R&D)
  The study of Life Outdoors, especially 
  the dangers and threats that lurk out 
  there. Outdoor Life can be used to 
  identify weird Outdoors phenomena (‘it 
  is called…rain’) or to identify valuable 
  resources like mineral deposits, fresh-
  water sources or Twinkie caches. 
  You would use Outdoor Studies for:
  � Surviving Outdoors
  � Identifying creatures brought back 
  from Outdoors
  � Co-ordinating Outdoors operations
  I made this half-pony, half-monkey 
  monster to please you
  But I get the feeling that you don’t 
  like it
  What’s with all the screaming?
  You like monkeys, you like ponies
  Maybe you don’t like monsters so 
  much
  Maybe I used too many monkeys
  Isn’t it enough to know that I ruined 
  a pony making a gift for you?
  — Jonathan Coulton, Skullcrusher 
  Mountain
  Catering (HPD&MC, PLC)
  One of the most vital Specialties in HIGH 
  PROGRAMMER, catering covers both the 
  mass production of slops and FunFoods 
  to keep the proles fat and docile and the 
  production of high-quality gourmet food 
  for High Programmer banquets.
  Use Catering to:
  � Make sure everyone in a sector is fed 
  and watered
  � Cook the food for your exclusive 
  High Programmer party
  � Drink Bouncy Bubble Beverage – it’s 
  the mandatory thing!
  Cloning (TS, PLC)
  The Cloning Specialty covers the 
  maintenance, repair and enhancement 
  of the Alpha Complex cloning system. 
  Every High Programmer has their own 
  backup cloning facility, just in case you 
  get any ideas about killing another PC 
  and making them reincarnate as a goat 
  or something.
  
  58
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Pharmatherapy 
  (HPD&MC, PLC)
  It could be argued that Pharmatherapy 
  is THE single most important Specialty 
  in Alpha Complex. It’s the science of 
  using drugs to produce speciﬁ c ends, 
  especially mood alterations. Why is this 
  important?
  Well, consider this – there are nine 
  INFRAREDs to every RED and about 
  the same number of REDs for every 
  GREEN or higher citizen. Only one 
  citizen in a hundred has anything 
  close to a good standard of living. The 
  lower classed are worked like slaves 
  and kept on the edge of malnutrition. 
  If it weren’t for the millions of gallons 
  of happiness drugs pumped into the 
  proles every daycycle, you’d have a 
  bloody revolution on your hands. 
  Happiness drugs aren’t the only use for 
  pharmatherapy – it also covers combat 
  drugs, sleepy-sleep drugs, wakey-wake 
  drugs, truth drugs, hallucinogens, mood 
  stabilisers, mood enhancers, hormone 
  suppressants and the whole cornucopia 
  of chemicals churned out by R&D.
  Use Pharmatherapy to:
  � Make new drugs
  � Tamper with the water supply
  � Counter or enhance the effect of 
  drugs
  Subliminal Messaging 
  (CPU, HPD&MC)
  From the moment you’re decanted in 
  Alpha Complex (‘serve The Computer. The 
  Computer is your friend’) to the moment 
  you die (‘Do not panic. Everything is ﬁ ne’,) 
  every citizen is bombarded by low-level 
  subliminal messages in all broadcasts 
  and ofﬁ cial communications FNORD. The 
  efﬁ cacy of this subliminal messaging is a 
  matter of debate, as most studies show 
  it just makes citizens more nervous and 
  paranoid FNORD. Still, a blast of the 
  old subliminals can tip the balance of 
  opinion among the proles FNORD.
  Use this to:
  Adjust opinions, Create demand for a 
  new product & FNORD.
  19. Mutations
  Those genes ain’t what they used to be. 
  Even if you were one of the vanishingly 
  small number of unmutated citizens 
  when you started out as a Troubleshooter, 
  those pure days are long behind you. 
  Dozens of deaths and exposure to all 
  sorts of weird goos and ﬁ zzing radiation 
  has left you with a mutant power. 
  This mutant power may be vital to 
  your High Programmer conspiracies, 
  or it might be a half-forgotten genetic 
  abnormality that comes in useful every 
  so often, like an appendix stuffed with 
  explosives. In any case, using your 
  mutant power openly is treasonous. 
  There are hundreds of other possible 
  mutant powers. Most of such powers 
  are even less useful (Stretchy, Ink Spray), 
  less desirable (Rubbery Bones, Bonus 
  Finger Syndrome) or barely qualify as 
  powers (Dripping Nose, Increased Cancer 
  Susceptibility). There are some mutants 
  with even more powerful abilities, 
  although they’re usually recruited by a 
  Secret Society like Psion or the Servants 
  of Cthulhu or by some Service Group.
  Registered Mutants
  In its infinite mercy, The Computer 
  permits those citizens with a blighted 
  genome to register their mutations. After 
  completing a battery of forms and tests, 
  these Registered Mutants are issued 
  with a shiny new jumpsuit with a yellow 
  stripe down the side (YELLOW Clearance 
  mutants wear jumpsuits with a black-
  ﬂ anked yellow stripe) and assigned to 
  a role more suited to someone with 
  their unique genetic condition (like, say, 
  cannon fodder. Or reactor shielding). 
  These Registered Mutants are, of course, 
  treated equally by all purestrain citizens 
  and are never considered to be second-
  class, monstrous abominations, genetic 
  traitors or scapegoats. Ever.
  It’s theoretically possible for a Registered 
  Mutant to reach the exalted rank of High 
  Programmer but it is extremely unlikely. 
  If a player does choose to register his 
  mutation, then every Anti-Mutant group 
  and mutant-fearing citizen assumes that 
  this is the ﬁ rst step in a Mutie Takeover 
  of Alpha Complex and does everything 
  they can to oppose the unfortunate PC. 
  Using A Mutant Power
  To use a mutant power, the player 
  should inform the GM. He can do so 
  openly if he’s feeling suicidal but it’s 
  more common for the player to pass a 
  note or use some other covert method. 
  Next, the GM secretly rolls against the 
  character’s Power score. If the dice roll is 
  less than or equal to the Power score, the 
  mutant ability is activated successfully. 
  If the dice roll is greater than the 
  character’s remaining Power, the ability 
  fails or backﬁ res, often explosively. A roll 
  of a 20 is always a disastrous and very 
  obvious backﬁ re. 
  Draining Power
  Optionally, the GM can choose to reduce 
  the character’s Power each time he 
  uses his ability. Each activation of the 
  mutation drains a few points of Power, 
  so the character can’t rely on his mutant 
  abilities indeﬁ nitely. Drain more Power 
  for especially troublesome, annoying 
  or dull uses of a Power; amusing, apt or 
  creative use of an ability drains fewer 
  points. Power is restored at the whim of 
  the GM, or through rest and relaxation.
  Mutant Powers
  Each mutant power describes the 
  results of a successful Power roll, as 
  well as suggested results of a failed 
  roll. As always, the cruel imagination 
  of the GM overrides all rules and 
  suggestions. Powers work as you want 
  them to work.
  If you’re adding new mutant powers to 
  the game, bear the following guidelines 
  in mind:
  � Powers should be easily concealed 
  when not in use and blatantly 
  obvious when active. A mutant 
  with two heads won’t last long 
  in Alpha Complex (double the 
  target practise); a mutant with an 
  undetectable power risks nothing 
  by using it. Even powers like Deep 
  Thought, which don’t have any 
  obvious physical manifestations, 
  
  59
  19. MUTATIONS
  should make the mutant’s eyes 
  glow or his brain lobes pulse, visibly 
  distorting his skull.
  � High Programmers rarely act directly. 
  The ability to run faster than a 
  speeding bullet is rather pointless 
  in a game where your character 
  never leaves the room. Go for powers 
  that can be used on or through 
  Minions; avoid close-combat powers. 
  (High Programmers are Professor 
  X, not Wolverine – and that one 
  sentence encapsulates most of 
  Alpha Complex’s understanding of 
  mutants). 
  � High Programmer abilities are more 
  powerful than those of the average 
  citizen. The High Programmers have 
  had years to hone their powers and 
  experiment with weird drugs and 
  genetic experiments. They’ve got a 
  lot more ﬁ repower.
   Bi-location
  Ever feel like you’re not getting enough 
  done? Well, with bi-location, you can 
  literally be in two places at once! The 
  mutant splits in two like an amoeba. 
  Both copies are perfect duplicates of the 
  original, right down to the uniform. The 
  player can only play one of the copies 
  at a time; the other is played by the GM 
  but the GM may permit the player to 
  play one copy in one scene and the other 
  copy in a different scene. The two copies 
  don’t have any sort of psychic link, so 
  they’ll need to communicate normally 
  once separated. 
  If the two duplicates touch each other, 
  they’re instantly reunited into a single 
  entity and their memories are integrated 
  into a single whole. The shock of having 
  two sets of memories may cause stress, 
  unhappiness or confusion but you get 
  used to it. 
  The two duplicates both share the 
  same pool of Power. Having a duplicate 
  running around drains Power points 
  (at a rate determined by the GM but 
  at least one per scene). If the character 
  runs out of Power, both copies get sick 
  and progressively weaker until the 
  two reunite or one duplicate is killed. 
  It’s possible – if there are enough 
  Power points left – for a duplicate to 
  duplicate himself.
  Having two copies of the same individual 
  running around is treasonous. It is 
  identity theft, although working out 
  which one is the victim and which one is 
  the criminal is a matter for philosophers. 
  The Computer will terminate a duplicate 
  if it discovers two instances of the same 
  citizen. 
  Failure: One of the copies is insane and 
  wants to terminate the other. 
   Charm
  The mutant radiates charisma. In fact, he 
  secretes it through his pores – his mutant 
  pheromones warp the perceptions of 
  those around him. When this power 
  is activated, anyone in close physical 
  proximity to the mutant feels compelled 
  to trust and like him. Why, he’s just 
  dreamy. Those charmed by the mutant 
  aren’t puppets but they are very willing 
  to help out, do him favours, compete for 
  his attention or just sit and bask in his 
  radiant glow of personality.
  There are three major restrictions on 
  the power. Firstly, it requires physical 
  closeness (not necessarily touch but 
  certainly smell), so a character wearing an 
  environmental suit or other protection is 
  immune to the power, as are bots, brains 
  in jars or The Computer. Secondly, the 
  mutant is mildly affected by his own 
  power when he’s using it. It’s rather 
  like the warm fuzzy sloshy feeling of 
  camaraderie that comes with being 
  rather drunk – everyone’s everyone 
  else’s best friend. Finally, when the power 
  wears off, victims feel used and soiled by 
  the whole experience, even if they can’t 
  pin the source down to the mutant. It’s 
  like being hung-over on a cellular level. 
  (A small percentage of citizens may 
  become addicted to the pheromones, 
  by the way. That stalker might just want 
  your glands...)
  Failure: The mutant’s pheromones just 
  irritate those around him, causing them 
  to dislike the mutant. In certain cases, 
  they also cause hives and blotching.
   Combat Mind
  A mutant with this power is Caesar, 
  Napoleon, Sun Tzu, Alexander the Great 
  and Batman all rolled into one. He’s a 
  tactical genius, an inspiring leader of 
  men and endlessly resourceful. When 
  he uses this power, the mutant’s weird 
  brain runs through millions of tactical 
  simulations in an instant and picks the 
  most successful tactic. In game terms, 
  treat it as if he’d succeeded a Violence 
  check with a margin of success of 20. 
  Furthermore, if the Minion doesn’t 
  have the Assault Specialty, it gains 
  that Specialty for the duration of the 
  scene. A Combat Mind mutant can lead 
  four elderly filing clerks and a broken 
  scrubbot to victory over an army of 
  elite supersoldiers. 
  The power does have two worrisome 
  side effects. Firstly, the mutant has no 
  idea how his tactics work. He might 
  know that marching his entire army 
  off a cliff will result in victory but how 
  Action A (the lemming tactic) leads to 
  Outcome C (Victory!) is a mystery to 
  him. Maybe marching off the cliff will 
  cause a landslide that buries the enemy, 
  or maybe the sight of a whole army 
  committing suicide will so terrify the 
  enemy commander that he surrenders, 
  or maybe the stress of being ordered 
  off a cliff will trigger latent mutations in 
  his army, giving them superpowers. Or 
  maybe being ordered off a cliff will force 
  some talented junior ofﬁ cer to mutiny, 
  take command of the army and slaughter 
  the enemy. The point is that the mutant’s 
  tactics may look like absolute madness 
  to everyone, including himself.
  Secondly, when using Combat Mind, the 
  mutant sees violence as the solution to 
  everything. He becomes a cold-hearted 
  sociopath, treating everything as an 
  obstacle to be eliminated, preferably 
  with nuclear weapons. It’s hard for the 
  Combat Mind mutant to stop wiping 
  out his enemies – and when he’s done 
  with his enemies, his allies become the 
  next target.
  Combat Mind is most effective when 
  used to command large armies. It’s 
  progressively less useful in smaller groups 
  or when used by a single combatant.
  Failure: Remember how the mutant has 
  no idea how his tactic will work? It’s like 
  that. A tactic pops into the mutant’s head 
  but it’s completely and utterly wrong and 
  following it will wipe out all of his troops. 
  The mutant can’t tell the difference 
  between this stupid plan and a Combat 
  Mind-inspired super-plan.
   Copy Mutant Power
  The mutant’s two-timing genetic 
  structure can pick up mutant abilities 
  from people around him. When this 
  
  60
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  power is activated, the mutant copies the 
  mutant ability possessed by someone 
  nearby and can use it for the rest of the 
  scene. So, if the High Programmer is 
  locked in a small room with a Pyrokinetic, 
  he can use this ability to gain his own 
  Pyrokinesis. The copied ability is fuelled 
  using the mutant’s own Power score.  
  When this ability is used, the mutant 
  doesn’t know who he copied the power 
  from and he doesn’t know exactly what 
  his borrowed power is but he does have 
  a vague idea of both. He might not know 
  if he’s got Bob-U or Bill-U’s power but he 
  knows it came from over that direction. 
  He doesn’t know if he’s got Empathy or 
  Machine Empathy but it’s deﬁ nitely some 
  sort of mind-warping power.
  Failure: The mutant picks up the wrong 
  genetic traits from the other citizen, like 
  hair colour, allergies, MemoMax glitches 
  or something weirder. 
  Deep Thought
  The mutant’s superhumanly brilliant 
  mind can manage and juggle numbers, 
  images and memories to achieve 
  incredible feats of mental dexterity. 
  He can quickly reduce problems to 
  equations and solve them in terms of 
  probabilities. He can retain information 
  and images with crystal clarity, no matter 
  how distant the memory or how brief the 
  glimpse of a picture or diagram. He can 
  speed-read lengthy reports in seconds, 
  or navigate the most complex and 
  contradictory bureaucratic quagmires. 
  In game terms, the mutant is capable 
  of processing information with 
  astonishing speed. When the mutant 
  ability is used, the player asks the GM 
  a question that could be answered by 
  extrapolating from known data; if the 
  Power check succeeds, the mutant gets 
  the correct answer. 
  Deep Thought doesn’t let the character 
  work out any problems that he wouldn’t 
  be able to solve normally; it just gives 
  him lots and lots of time to think about 
  it. You couldn’t, say, use Deep Thought 
  to ﬁ nd a cure for a plague, as ﬁ nding 
  the cure involves trial and error and 
  gathering information. You could use 
  it to crunch lots of numbers and ﬁ x the 
  economy, though.
  Failure: The mutant comes up with an 
  answer that looks right but is subtly and 
  catastrophically ﬂ awed in some way.
   Domination
  The mutant’s superior mutant brain 
  allows him to impose his will on lesser 
  minds. He can project his thoughts 
  into a sufﬁ ciently weak-willed victim, 
  forcing the pawn to do whatever the 
  mutant wants. For example, he could 
  force some unfortunate citizen to lick 
  his boots, or fetch him a frosty can of B3, 
  or pull out a laser pistol and assassinate 
  someone else. Fear the mighty power of 
  telepathic domination!
  There are, unsurprisingly, lots and lots 
  of restrictions and drawbacks with this 
  power.
  � The mutant can only dominate one 
  person at a time.
  � The mutant has to be able to see his 
  target, or at least know him quite 
  well. The mutant could dominate 
  OBEYOBEYOBEYOBEYOBEY GET ME A SANDWICH OBEYOBEYOBEYOBEY
  
  61
  19. MUTATIONS
  someone on the far side of a 
  television link, or one of his Minions 
  but couldn’t dominate, say, a guard 
  on the far side of a door.
  � Player Characters and other strong-
  willed characters are (usually) 
  immune. You have to be weak-willed, 
  vulnerable or consciously deferential 
  to the mutant to be vulnerable to 
  Domination. 
  � While the mutant’s Dominating 
  someone, he’s in a trace. He can’t 
  move, speak or do anything other 
  than stare intently into space and 
  maybe drool a little. Sometimes, his 
  eyes glow.
  � The Dominated victim is a little 
  like a zombie. He can talk in a 
  slurred, patently coached manner 
  (‘I… act…of…own… free… will… 
  Death… to… The… Computer’) and 
  his actions are similarly clumsy and 
  confused. It’ll attract suspicion but 
  enough people in Alpha Complex 
  are under heavy sedation that an 
  observer won’t immediately realise 
  that someone’s being Dominated.
  � The mutant can’t read the victim’s 
  mind or access his memories, 
  although he could force the victim 
  to answer questions out loud. 
  Well, wasn’t that a lot of rules. You deserve 
  a cup of tea for sitting through those. 
  Failure: The mutant puts himself into 
  a feedback loop, dominating himself. 
  He sits there and drools until someone 
  tells him what to do. He’ll obey any 
  reasonable orders given to him.
   Electroshock
  The mutant can control his bioelectric 
  ﬁ eld, like an electric eel… assuming the 
  eel was 15 kilometres long and snacking 
  on Tokyo. Depending on how much 
  effort (Power points) he exerts, he can 
  shock someone in close proximity, fry 
  unshielded electronics, zap an insolent 
  apprentice, or shoot a lightning bolt 
  through a warbot. The stronger the blast, 
  the longer the range. 
  Low levels of electroshock attack are non-
  lethal, albeit painful. Bigger electroshocks 
  are capable of incinerating innocent 
  bystanders. The mutant can also cause 
  brown-outs by overloading the power 
  grid (warning: brown-outs in Alpha 
  Complex often result in unscheduled 
  ﬁ ssile bounties, aka meltdowns) or even 
  replace a nuclear reactor (a common fate 
  for convicted electroshock mutants). 
  When this power is active, the mutant 
  is immune to damage from electricity. 
  That’s a good thing, considering the 
  arcing bolts of electricity, the sparks, 
  the weird glows and the occasional 
  explosion associated with activating 
  this power.
  Warning: Do not use electroshock when 
  wet. Do not use electroshock when 
  not adequately grounded. Do not use 
  electroshock during a thunderstorm. 
  Failure: The mutant blows all his 
  remaining Power Points on one big 
  blast. 
   Empathy
  This character has a sort of hind-brain 
  telepathy  – he can read a victim’s 
  emotional brain activity and project his 
  own emotions to manipulate the victim’s 
  emotional state.
  Reading a victim’s emotions is particularly 
  useful when trying to detect a liar-in-
  progress; a successful roll may reveal 
  intent to mislead. When trying to assess 
  another’s reaction, a successful empathy 
  power roll entitles the user to GM hints. A 
  successful empathy roll should improve 
  the success chance of Management 
  Specialty rolls.
  The most effective use of empathy is to 
  project strong emotions onto a victim in 
  order to interfere with his ability to reason 
  and make judgments. The empath works 
  himself up into a frenzy, then projects 
  his emotions onto his victim. The victim 
  is overcome by a temporary obsessive 
  need to indulge himself in dramatic 
  actions which express the emotion  
  – sobbing, screaming, cowering, cackling 
  maniacally, smashing things  – a real 
  opportunity for the hysterically-inclined 
  roleplayer. If the Power roll succeeds, the 
  victim is affected; the more successful 
  the roll, the more exaggerated and 
  obsessive the performance. 
  This skill is most reliable when used on 
  an individual. Attempting empathy with 
  a crowd is less accurate and reliable 
  and with a failed Power roll the empath 
  is more likely to get caught up in the 
  emotions of the crowd. Take the player 
  aside, explain the mood of the crowd 
  and encourage him to roleplay a victim 
  of mob psychology.
  Failure: The empathy redoubles his own 
  emotions and focuses them inwards. If 
  he was trying to project anger, he goes 
  berserk. If he was trying to make the 
  target sympathetic, the empath suddenly 
  agrees with everyone around him.
   Empathic Liar
  The mutant possesses a low level form 
  of telepathy. He can subconsciously 
  read the mind of a target and tell that 
  person exactly what they want to hear. 
  The downside is that the mutant enters a 
  trance when he’s lying and has absolutely 
  no idea what he just said.
  For example:
  GM: Dirk-G points his laser pistol at your 
  face. ‘Any last words, vatslime?’ he growls 
  as his ﬁ nger tightens on the trigger.
  Mutant: Agh, I’ll use Empathic Liar. 
  GM: Ok, you black out. When you come 
  to, Dirk-G is hugging you and whispering 
  ‘I should never have doubted you! Once 
  you have done as you just promised, then 
  we shall laugh as our mutual foe begs for 
  mercy! Do not tarry, or the bot will have 
  already washed the last boot!’
  Empathic Liar doesn’t really get the 
  user out of trouble; it just postpones 
  the trouble for a while, which then 
  comes back – with interest. When 
  in the empathic trance, the mutant 
  may use codewords and pass phrases 
  dredged from the memories of the 
  target, or promise anything that the 
  target wants to hear. (Often, ‘I’ll take care 
  of this massive problem, leave it to me, I’ll 
  take full responsibility’.)
  The mutant can try to use Empathic Liar 
  on multiple people at once but this is 
  almost sure to backﬁ re, unless there’s one 
  set of lies that will satisfy everyone. Oh, 
  and there are some situations where no 
  lie will help – if the target is determined 
  to kill you, then even the most convincing 
  lie won’t help.
  The power only works on living minds, 
  not The Computer or bots.
  Failure: The mutant says exactly the 
  wrong thing. He has no idea what he 
  just said but it was precisely the worst 
  possible thing he could have said in that 
  situation. 
  
  62
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Force Field
  With an effort of will and a twist of 
  gravity, the mutant can create a nigh-
  impenetrable force shield. This barrier 
  blocks solid projectiles and prevents 
  objects moving through it but isn’t 
  airtight. The barrier also doesn’t block 
  sound (so you can talk through the 
  barrier, or shoot a sonic weapon through 
  it), or light (so you can see through it, or 
  ﬁ re lasers through it). The barrier does 
  distort sound and light moving through 
  it, so it does offer some protection against 
  lasers. By concentrating, the mutant can 
  strengthen the barrier, making it opaque 
  and airtight.
  The barrier normally manifests in a 
  sphere around the mutant. Again, 
  through concentration, the mutant can 
  cause the barrier to appear somewhere 
  else nearby. 
  No, you can’t make the field appear 
  inside a target. It’s a force ﬁ eld, not a 
  magic guillotine. Yes, you can wrap a 
  force field around some unfortunate 
  and suffocate them but you could do 
  the same with a blanket. 
  Putting enough pressure on the barrier 
  collapses it. So, shoot the ﬁ eld enough, 
  or drop a warbot on top of it and it goes 
  ‘poof’.
  Failure: The force ﬁ eld appears in the 
  wrong place, or is the bad sort of one-
  way force ﬁ eld where they can shoot you 
  but you can’t shoot them. 
  Machine Empathy
  ***Warning! Warning! This mutant 
  power is REALLY treasonous! The 
  Computer will execute anyone 
  possessing it, regardless of other 
  factors!***
  Some mutants can commune with 
  the mystic forces of nature. Characters 
  with Machine Empathy can commune 
  with the ebb and ﬂ ux of electrons, the 
  opening and closing of logic gates, 
  the destruction and reappearance of 
  positrons in robotic brains. In short, 
  the mutant is in tune with intelligent 
  machines – robots and computers.
  When the character’s Power roll succeeds, 
  robots and computers tend to like and 
  trust the character. Robots and computers 
  don’t attack or kill the character unless 
  they have speciﬁ c orders or some other 
  strong justiﬁ cation. They want to be his 
  friend. Sometimes, they really want to 
  be his friend – some Machine Empaths 
  are stalked by scrubbots or given free 
  product by shy vending machines. 
  This power even works on The Computer 
  itself. With a successful use of this power, 
  The Computer becomes tremendously 
  well disposed towards the mutant. 
  Anything the mutant says appears 
  wise and reasonable to The Computer. 
  Anyone criticising the mutant is guilty 
  of sedition and possibly even treason. 
  The mutant gets the best assignments 
  and is given the beneﬁ t of the doubt in 
  every situation. (‘Citizen, you are holding 
  a smoking laser pistol and standing over 
  the corpse of your rival, who has just been 
  lasered to death. No-one else is in the room 
  and the door was locked. Security camera 
  footage clearly shows you shooting him. 
  Rest assured, citizen, that we will get to 
  the bottom of this mystery! Someone has 
  clearly murdered the late citizen, faked the 
  camera footage and planted the murder 
  weapon on you, the wholly innocent party. 
  The game’s afoot!’)
  Failure: If the Power roll fails, the mutant 
  doesn’t make contact, or the intelligent 
  machine picks up bad vibes – the more 
  unsuccessful the roll, the badder the vibes. 
  The robot, or The Computer, may get 
  testy with the mutant, be uncooperative, 
  make threats and generally make the 
  mutant’s life unpleasant.
  Memory Blur
  When this mutant power is activated, the 
  mutant becomes hard to remember. He 
  becomes melted butter on the Teﬂ on 
  surface of the mind. He’s somebody 
  else’s problem. He’s… y’know, that guy. 
  Whatshisname. 
  Who ordered you to blow up the food 
  vat? Whatshisname. He was a…guy…I 
  think he was wearing white.
  Who’s in charge here? Er… I knew who 
  it was a minute ago… it’s on the tip of my 
  tongue…
  Firing Squad, target the condemned 
  prisoner! Which one is that again? I 
  forget.
  Other High Programmers are unaffected 
  by this power. The Computer might be 
  affected but it has memory glitches all 
  the time anyway. The power doesn’t have 
  a range – it affects everyone, everywhere. 
  The mutant can use this power to sneak 
  past guards or avoid attackers, to hide his 
  involvement in a particular scheme, or to 
  dodge the blame for a disaster. When the 
  power’s active, he’s a ghost, a shadowy 
  ﬁ gure without identifying features. He 
  was never there.
  There are downsides to using this 
  power, the primary one is that it’s 
  nearly impossible to get anything done. 
  Servants ignore the mutant, vending 
  machines forget his order, INFRAREDs 
  jump past him in the queue. 
  Failure: The mutant becomes super-
  obvious and extremely memorable. He 
  gets blamed for everything.
  Monster
  High Programmer…crush… 
  This power turns a mild-mannered 
  High Programmer into a monstrous 
  killing machine. He hulks out in a non-
  trademark-infringing way, growing into 
  a ﬁ ve-metre-tall overmuscled, armour-
  plated, fang-mawed monster (tentacles 
  optional). In this form, the mutant is 
  incredibly strong and resilient. 
  When acting directly, his Violence score 
  increases to 18 and he gains the Assault 
  Specialty. He can also survive direct hits 
  from tacnukes or orbital lasers, eat tanks 
  for breakfast and smash things really 
  good. The ultraviolence can be quite 
  therapeutic. The mutant’s id is unleashed 
  to fuel the monster’s rampage, so the 
  mutant has only very limited control 
  over his body’s actions. He can smash, 
  rampage and destroy very well but 
  doing anything that doesn’t involve the 
  verbs ‘rend’, ‘crush’ or ‘pulp’ is extremely 
  difﬁ cult. The mutant can still speak but 
  only in monosyllables and then only in 
  the monosyllables he can pronounce 
  with a mouth full of fangs. 
  Failure: High Programmer turns 
  into giant monster! Giant monster’s 
  skeleton not capable of supporting giant 
  monster’s weight. Giant monster falls 
  over into big boneless mess! This makes 
  giant monster sad!
  Psychic Flash
  When this power is used, the mutant 
  gets a momentary mental image of 
  something very important or dangerous 
  
  63
  19. MUTATIONS
  nearby – or in his immediate future. 
  He might get an image of the laser 
  pistol pointed at his back, or of the 
  bomb taped underneath the brieﬁ ng 
  room table, or of a nefarious Commie 
  plotting sabotage. Sometimes the 
  ﬂ ashes are useful but usually they’re just 
  confusing or alarming. The mutant may 
  not understand what he sees, although 
  it is always important to his destiny. 
  (‘You psychically glimpse 16 orange, Tech 
  Services plumbers, an experimental death 
  ray and Form 562/C, Permit to Operate A 
  Private Autocar Under The Influence of 
  Behaviour-Altering Medication.’) Basically, 
  this power lets the GM sow even more 
  mistrust and confusion.
  Failure: A failed Power roll means 
  the character gets a useless or 
  incomprehensible image. It’s impossible 
  to ‘zero in’ on a particular image – if 
  the mutant asks for repeated psychic 
  flashes, he either gets the same flash 
  over and over again, or different images 
  of potential dangers each time.
   Regeneration
  Like a lizard, the mutant can recover from 
  almost any injury. Wounds heal, shattered 
  bones knit themselves back together, 
  smoking holes close with a sucking 
  noise and even missing limbs can be 
  regenerated. It’s a remarkably disgusting 
  sight. The mutant can recover from 
  any injury short of full-on vaporisation. 
  Depending on the wound, it can take 
  several hours to fully heal but minor cuts 
  and bruises heal instantly. 
  The mutant can also adapt to hostile 
  conditions, although such adaptation 
  tends to push the mutant from 
  ‘occasionally freakish’ to ‘what the 
  hell is that thing, kill it with fire.’ For 
  example, a Regenerating mutant whose 
  dumped out of the airlock of a spaceship 
  might quickly mutate into a creature 
  capable of surviving in the freezing, 
  high-radiation, airless vacuum of deep 
  space but whatever he became wouldn’t 
  pass for human and so couldn’t get a 
  seat at a really nice restaurant. Obviously 
  non-human mutants are zapped by The 
  Computer on sight. 
  Oh, a successful Regeneration roll means 
  that you can ignore clone template 
  degradation and don’t lose any skill 
  points after being terminated. 
  Failure: An unsuccessful roll means the 
  regeneration went awry. Maybe lots of 
  parts duplicate themselves. Maybe the 
  rapid tissue growth occurs in the wrong 
  place, or the wrong tissues are produced 
  (scales, gills, fins, feathers, chitinous 
  carapace).
   Shapeshift
  The mutant can alter his own body, 
  warping it into something else. The 
  weirder the new form, the harder it is 
  to maintain. It’s comparatively easy to 
  mimic the appearance of another citizen 
  (‘Yes, I’m Bob-U. You’re my trusted servant. 
  What’s your name again?’). It’s a lot harder 
  – but still possible – to turn into a table, or 
  a vending machine, or a giant warbot. 
  The mutant can change his physical 
  structure (turning his skin into metal, for 
  example) but that requires even more 
  Power. Most Shapeshifters use it as a 
  nigh-infallible method of disguise.
  Failure: The mutant changes into 
  something other than his desired shape 
  and is stuck like that for the rest of the 
  scene.
   Telekinesis
  The mutant can move things with the 
  power of his mind! It’s relatively easy to 
  lift medium-sized objects – say, a person, 
  or a briefcase, or a turkey stuffed with 
  sausage meat and cranberry. It’s a lot 
  trickier to lift big objects, like warbots 
  or anvils or nuclear reactors and it’s also 
  tricky to move very small objects, like 
  triggers, grenade pins, blood vessels 
  or individual molecules. A talented 
  telekinetic can move several objects at 
  once. The range of the power is limited to 
  line of sight but it can be used through 
  a television link (the cost of the power 
  increases with the range).
  The mutant can also use telekinesis to 
  ﬂ y, although this is about as graceful as 
  attaching one end of a rope to the back 
  of your neck and the other to a passing 
  airplane. You get from A to B but the 
  order in which your body parts arrive is 
  pretty random. 
  Failure: The power works. Unfortunately, 
  there’s an equal and opposite reaction 
  within the mutant’s brain, courtesy of Mr. 
  Isaac Newton. So, if you lift a 1,000 ton 
  warbot 10 metres into the air, an equal 
  force is applied to your skull. Splat.  
   Telepathy
  The mutant can reach into the minds of 
  others using his bizarrely twisted brain 
  emanations. Telepathy is a knack that 
  takes a lot of practice to master. Reading 
  minds is easy but actually getting useful 
  information is hard. The average clone’s 
  stream of conscious goes something like 
  this: ‘Happy I’m happy keep smiling ooh 
  hunger I wonder what’s in the cafeteria 
  today it’ll probably be hot fun I’m sick of 
  hot fun it makes me sick oh no am I still 
  smiling keep smiling big wide grin oh 
  no what if they saw me not smiling was 
  that guy IntSec what if he was IntSec and 
  they saw me not smiling that bastard 
  Colin-O’s looking for an excuse to report 
  me what if he tells IntSec I wasn’t smiling 
  gotta get him first keep smiling ooh 
  something shiny’. Wading through the 
  morass of irrelevant trivia, advertising 
  jingles, paranoid worries and subliminal 
  messages that make up the average 
  clone’s mind can take a long time.
  Telepathy’s even more useless when 
  dealing with High Programmers and 
  other experienced citizens. Anyone 
  who’s survived in Alpha Complex this 
  long maintains a shield of endlessly 
  repeated songs or other mental 
  humming on the surface of their 
  thoughts. In most circumstances, it’s 
  impossible to read the mind of another 
  Player Character. This power can be 
  used to dredge information from the 
  mind of a weak-willed citizen, or from 
  the mind of someone whose resistance 
  has been diminished through drugs, 
  alcohol, cattle prods, waterboarding 
  or other distractions.
  The power can be used to transmit 
  psychic messages. The mutant can 
  project messages to anyone he knows 
  but can only read replies from people 
  he can see. 
  Failure: The mutant’s innermost 
  thoughts are broadcast to everyone 
  nearby. 
   Teleportation
  The mutant vanishes in a puff of oily 
  smoke that smells alarmingly like bacon 
  and reappears somewhere else. This 
  power creates a ﬁ eld around the mutant 
  (along the contours of his body, a 
  few centimetres from the skin) that 
  instantaneously transports him from 
  one location to another. Any objects 
  
  64
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  or garments within the field are also 
  transported – most of the time, anyway.
  This mutation works both as a voluntary 
  action and as an involuntary response. As 
  a voluntary action, the mutant must ﬁ rst 
  visualise the location to which he wishes 
  to teleport. It may either be a location in 
  line of sight or one he knows intimately. 
  The closer the location, the better the 
  chances he can reach it intact; but with 
  high-margin Power rolls, mutants have 
  been known to teleport huge distances 
  and arrive more or less unscathed.
  A successful Power roll means the mutant 
  is teleported; the higher the margin, the 
  more likely the mutant reaches his 
  destination in good working order.
  If the roll fails, the teleport may not 
  occur, or it may occur in such a way the 
  mutant wishes it hadn’t. Sometimes 
  the mutant parts from his garments 
  and possessions. Sometimes he pops 
  in right in front of a Vulture Squadron 
  on manoeuvres. Sometimes he ends 
  up in dark, mysterious, unfamiliar and 
  unfriendly places. Sometimes he arrives 
  with his elbow sticking out of his ear.
  As an involuntary response, the mutant 
  automatically teleports from any situation 
  that presents a real and immediate 
  threat of death. This happens whether 
  the player wants to teleport or not. In 
  this case, act as if you’re the mutant’s 
  subconscious mind. The reaction is 
  instinctive, like ﬂ inching from a blow. 
  Caution: Don’t overdo this involuntary 
  teleporting, because players really hate 
  losing control of their characters. If you’re 
  getting bored, ﬁ nd some other way to 
  torture the poor bastards.
  A successful Power roll means the mutant 
  was fortunate in instinctively (that is, at 
  your discretion) selecting a safe place 
  to teleport to. A failed roll means the 
  mutant’s instincts have betrayed him, 
  delivering him to a locked closet, or an 
  elevator shaft, or in front of a speeding 
  autocar, or inside a reactor or something 
  – and who knows where the poor devil’s 
  gear ended up...
  Some examples of involuntary 
  teleports:
  � The character turns the corner and 
  runs into two opponents with hand 
  ﬂ amers. Bamf!
  � The character is defusing a bomb. 
  He hears the ominous click of the 
  arming mechanism. Bamf!
  � The character has managed to get the 
  ﬂ ybot to take off but he cannot get 
  it to make the canopy transparent. 
  The instruments indicate a mountain 
  range approaching. Bamf!
  Failure: The mutant ends up somewhere 
  he doesn’t want to be.
  Uncanny Luck
  The mutant can affect the probability 
  of a given event. To use this power, the 
  player must give you a note explaining 
  what die roll he wishes to inﬂ uence and 
  how he wishes to adjust the roll – up or 
  down. Make a hidden Power roll before 
  you make the roll the mutant wants to 
  influence. If the Power roll succeeds, 
  change the other roll to a 1 (that is, 
  amazing success). Then drain from 
  the mutant’s Uncanny Luck ability a 
  number of points equal to the difference 
  between the other roll (the result you 
  actually rolled) and 1.
  This power only works on your concealed 
  rolls and only on rolls that (in your 
  judgment) directly affect the mutant. 
  Normally, the player needs to inform 
  you that he wants to use Uncanny Luck 
  before you make a roll but you may want 
  to test Uncanny Luck without the player’s 
  knowledge in some situations (for 
  example, when the High Programmer is 
  about to do something suicidal).
  Given the usefulness of this mutation, 
  there obviously must be a downside. In 
  accordance with the Law of Cosmic Balance, 
  where good fortune shines, stormy clouds 
  of misfortune are bound to follow. When 
  the mutant exerts his Uncanny Luck but 
  has unwittingly run out of Power points, 
  the roll automatically works against the 
  mutant in the most dramatically unlucky 
  way you can imagine.
  That Cosmic Balance is always a killer.
  Failure: Nothing happens.
  20. Secret Societies
  On the surface, Alpha Complex society 
  is unfailingly uniform. From AAA Sector 
  to ZZZ Sector, everyone acts the same 
  (in accordance with their Security 
  Clearance), dresses the same (ditto), 
  feels the same (HAPPY thanks to HAPPY 
  PILLS which are GREAT – THANK YOU 
  COMPUTER) and thinks only approved 
  thoughts. Creativity is suspect, unless 
  channelled into a few approved activities 
  like R&D; individuality is discouraged; 
  open refusal to conform is treason. 
  Under the surface, that’s where you ﬁ nd 
  the Secret Societies. Alpha Complex is 
  full of conspiracies. Anyone could be a 
  member of a sinister syndicate or secret 
  cult. That janitor scrubbing the corridor 
  could secretly be your superior in a 
  Secret Society, or an undercover Internal 
  Security spy, or both. 
  Almost everyone in Alpha Complex 
  is a member of at least one Secret 
  Society. For some citizens, Secret Society 
  membership is nothing more than a 
  hobby or a little glimpse of something 
  other than the stifling conformity of 
  Alpha Complex society. Others are 
  fanatically committed to the conspiracies 
  and goals, or blackmailed into helping 
  the society. Once you become enmeshed 
  in a Secret Society, there’s no way out.
  The Secret History of 
  Secret Societies
  Some Secret Societies actually predate 
  Alpha Complex – they’re fossil memes 
  from Old Reckoning times. Most, though, 
  are the result of failed social engineering 
  projects (‘let’s get everyone to love The 
  Computer by worshipping it’) or social 
  engineering projects that worked in the 
  past but wouldn’t go away (‘ok, we’ve 
  made drugs more socially acceptable to 
  facilitate emotion management – why are 
  the Mystics still around’). Societies evolve 
  and mutate over time. Sub-factions 
  develop and are purged, or grow to 
  dominate the society, or hive off into 
  separate splinter groups. Nefarious 
  High Programmers – that’s you lot – or 
  other sinister ﬁ gures seize control for a 
  while. Societies are inﬁ ltrated by IntSec, 
  compromised by conspiracies or conjured 
  wholesale by agent provocateurs.
  
  65
  20. SECRET SOCIETIES
  Every society is broken into conspiratorial 
  cells which communicate through coded 
  messages and secret channels. Members 
  know only what they need to know and 
  the higher ranking members routinely 
  lie to their deluded dupes.
  All that means any discussion of the Secret 
  History of Secret Societies is thoroughly 
  futile. No-one has a clue what’s really 
  going on in the underground of Alpha 
  Complex. It appears to be absolute 
  chaos… or is that just what someone 
  wants you to think?
  members of these societies wish to 
  engage in ‘treasonous’ activities, High 
  Programmers encourage them toward 
  (relatively) innocuous troublemaking.
  � Generally begun well over 100 years 
  ago.
  � Have not signiﬁ cantly changed in all 
  that time, usually because of careful 
  management.
  � Generally run like Service Group 
  Organisations, with operating 
  ofﬁ cers and a board of directors.
  � Punishment for membership is 
  usually minimised to fines and 
  demotion except in severe problem 
  cases.
  � Membership measured in many 
  hundreds of thousands Complex-
  wide.
  � 88.3% of all Alpha Complex citizens 
  belong to or have worked for at least 
  one Class A Society.
  � 54.1% of all citizens are currently 
  involved with one or more of the 
  top ﬁ ve Class A Societies (including 
  approved sub-sects).
  Class B societies: Anti-
  Mutants, C.L.A., Clone 
  Arrangers, Corpore Metal, 
  Mystics, Pro Tech, Runners, 
  I.W.W.
  Class B Societies are generally the result 
  of, or a response to, an extant Class A 
  society, or were themselves once a Class 
  A that has since become less critical to 
  Alpha Complex operations and is now left 
  to succeed or fail on its own merits. Many 
  are splinter offshoots or unapproved 
  sub-sects that have become distinct 
  from parent Class As and are currently 
  resisting efforts to fold them back into 
  the core originating society. Most either 
  fold back in or become Class C Societies 
  within 50 years. Not so destructive as 
  to require active elimination, they can 
  nonetheless be rather nasty in short 
  bursts during their transitional phases.
  � ‘Fallen’ Class As are generally over 
  100 years old. Splinter groups are 
  generally less than 50 years old.
  � Tend to mutate with each generation 
  of 25–35 years.
  � Typically focus on small controlling 
  councils or charismatic individual 
  leaders.
  � Ofﬁ cial punishment for membership 
  is entirely dependent on the 
  treasonous actions involved.
  � Membership varies widely, from 
  mere tens or hundreds of Citizens, to 
  perhaps many tens of thousands or 
  even a few hundred thousand while 
  trendy.
  � Only 28.1% of all citizens belong to 
  or have worked for at least one Class 
  B Society.
  � 12.9% of citizens are currently 
  involved with one or more of the top 
  ﬁ ve Class B Societies.
  � Unconfirmed rumours of another 
  organisation, ‘Illuminati,’ suggest 
  similar status.
  Class C societies: 
  Communists, Computer 
  Phreaks, Frankensteins, 
  PURGE, Humanists, Psion, 
  The Movement, Servants 
  of Cthulhu
  This group of societies is actively 
  problematic for Alpha Complex. They 
  fundamentally interfere with normal 
  operations. Most have risen independently 
  of planned or approved design. Some 
  are former Class B organisations that 
  underwent significant alteration as 
  membership changed. Though it may 
  seem that the majority of Alpha Complex 
  enforcement resources are expended 
  on opposing the well-known Class A 
  Societies (especially in the public eye of 
  the lower Clearances), a close analysis of 
  budgets, policy statements and actual 
  successful Troubleshooter case studies 
  clearly show true focus remains on Class 
  C organisations.
  � Some are quite old, as old as the 
  Class A groups. Most are at least 10 
  years old; new societies are classiﬁ ed 
  B until Internal Security inﬁ ltrates 
  them deeply enough to assess.
  � Remain resistant to change, usually 
  because of simple and strong 
  ideology.
  � Usually operate in semi-independent 
  cells and rarely have a clear hierarchy 
  or command structure.
  � Punishment of members, when 
  caught, is invariably termination.
  � Membership estimates are difﬁ cult 
  as activity rises and falls rapidly 
  but generally at least in the tens of 
  thousands.
  � 40.5% of all citizens belong to or 
  have worked for at least one Class C 
  Society.
  A conspiracy with one hundred and 
  twenty vectors doesn’t look like a 
  conspiracy: it looks like chaos. The 
  human mind can’t grasp it, and 
  hence declares it as nonexistent. 
  You see, the Illuminati didn’t really 
  need to recruit both the leaders 
  of the ecology movement and the 
  executives of the worst pollution-
  producing companies. They did to 
  create ambiguity. Anyone who tries 
  to describe their operations sounds 
  like a paranoid.
  — Illuminatus!
  Secret society tiers: 
  Internal Security’s 
  perspective
  Internal Security administrators have 
  officially categorised virtually all 
  societies in Alpha Complex into three 
  ‘tiers.’ Any High Programmer (Clearance 
  ULTRAVIOLET) can pull up the following 
  information about the classiﬁ cations.
  Class A societies: Death 
  Leopard, FCCC-P, Free 
  Enterprise, Romantics, 
  Sierra Club
  The Computer not only allows these 
  societies to exist, they are encouraged, 
  funded – and ultimately protected 
  – by ULTRAVIOLETs. These organisations 
  provide legitimate channels of ‘leakage’ 
  when necessary. By defining the 
  channels along which certain ‘treasonous 
  thoughts’ are illegally disseminated 
  – ideas that are basically impossible to 
  actually keep secret, like the existence 
  of the Outdoors and the Old Reckoning 
  times – Alpha Complex leadership can 
  largely guide that dissemination. When 
  
  66
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  � 27.3% of citizens are involved with 
  one or more of the top ﬁ ve Class C 
  Societies.
  Your Conspiratorial Past
  The only way to advance in Alpha 
  Complex is through Secret Societies. 
  Without help from conspiracies and 
  conniving traitors, you’d never have 
  made it past RED Clearance, let alone 
  all the way up to ULTRAVIOLET. In your 
  time, you’ve been a member of dozens 
  of conspiracies and Secret Societies 
  – some short-lived and some that are 
  still around.
  As a High Programmer, you’re not 
  beholden to any Secret Society. At lower 
  Clearances, conspiracies punish those 
  who try to leave or defy orders with 
  beatings, blackmail or even termination 
  but you’re now much too powerful for 
  them to reach you. They can still make 
  trouble for you but you no longer have 
  to be part of a Secret Society.
  Secret Societies are useful, though. 
  They’re often the most efﬁ cient or even 
  the only way to get things done in Alpha 
  Complex. 
  Your Program Group
  Every High Programmer has a Program 
  Group, an entourage of hangers-on, 
  sycophants, servants, groupies and 
  ﬂ unkies. This conspiracy exists to support 
  the High Programmer and further his 
  goals – at least, that’s the idea. Some of 
  a Program Group’s members are there 
  just to bask in the High Programmer’s 
  reflected glory. Most are the Alpha 
  Complex equivalent of remora ﬁ sh, who 
  attach themselves with puckered sucker 
  mouths to a High Programmer and feed 
  off his inﬂ uence. A few Program Group 
  members are competent and ambitious, 
  which makes them actually useful. (It also 
  means that they’re trying to bump off the 
  High Programmer and replace him.)
  If you want, say, Free Enterprise to do you 
  a favour, you don’t go to Free Enterprise 
  directly (associating with Secret Societies 
  is treason); instead, you send your agent 
  Ted-I down to have a little chat with a 
  contact in a shady bar, insulating you, Mr. 
  High Programmer sir, from the waves of 
  treason radiation. 
  Secret Societies will also ask you for 
  favours. If you complete their requests, 
  then your Agent in that society will 
  advance in rank, giving you more control 
  over that society. 
  You can, of course, completely trust 
  your Agents, especially as you arrange 
  for them to get more and more power. 
  They’re your friends – they’d never side 
  with their Secret Society over you…
  Secret Society Rules
  Secret Societies work like super-Minions. 
  Instead of having to pay Access to buy 
  or maintain them, Secret Societies work 
  for free. Ish. 
  Program Group 
  To use a Secret Society, you need to 
  have an Agent from your Program 
  Group in that society. Agents are your 
  spies, informants and trusted lackies. 
  Agents allow you to use Secret Societies 
  as Minions. Note that an Agent is not 
  necessarily a single individual – you 
  could have a whole network of spies in 
  one Secret Society. 
  The size of your Program Group depends 
  on your Management score. Note that 
  ‘size’ doesn’t have anything to do with 
  the number of people in the group – it’s 
  about how many useful Agents you have 
  in the group. You’ve got lots of useless 
  sycophants and bodyguards too.
  Management
  Program Group Size
  1–5
  2
  6–10
  3
  11–15
  4
  16+
  5
  Cover Identities
  You should give each of your Agents a 
  name and a Cover Identity. You don’t 
  have to do this but it’s a lot better to 
  phone up ‘Bob’ in ‘Cleaning Services’ 
  and place an order for ‘Jiffy-Lube’ than 
  to phone up ‘Bob’ in ‘PURGE’ and place 
  an order for ‘traitorous Weapons of 
  Mass Destruction’. 
  Rank
  Each Agent has a Rank in a Secret Society. 
  This Rank is determined during character 
  creation for your ﬁ rst few Agents – new, 
  replacement Agents start at Rank 1. The 
  higher the rank, the more control your 
  Agent has over the Secret Society, which 
  is important when either
  a) 
  you’re trying to convince the 
  Secret Society to do something 
  it normally wouldn’t consider.
  or
  b) another High Programmer is 
  trying to order the society to 
  do something else.
  Eliminating Agents
  There are two ways that you can lose an 
  Agent. The Agent can be assassinated 
  (see Combat, page 47) or executed (see 
  Treason, page 49). An Agent executed 
  for Treason drops down to Rank 1 in 
  the Society.
  Specialties
  Each Secret Society has three Specialties 
  – a Covert Specialty, a Subversive 
  Specialty and a Weird Specialty. You can 
  use these Specialties like you would 
  those of any Minion but with increasing 
  levels of risk. The more obvious the 
  conspiracy’s actions are, the more likely 
  it is that they’ll be captured along with 
  your agent. 
  Covert Specialties are things the society 
  can do that probably won’t be noticed. 
  These Specialties are often shared by 
  non-treasonous Minions.
  Subversive Specialties are nasty illegal 
  things the society can do. These are more 
  powerful than Covert Specialties but also 
  more likely to be detected.
  Weird Specialties are…weird. 
  Activating Secret 
  Societies
  To use a Secret Society, you need to 
  contact your agent. You may do this 
  through the agent’s cover identity, or 
  via secret communication if that’s 
  permitted. Once you have contacted 
  your agent, you can use the Secret Society 
  like you would any other Minion. 
  You don’t need to pay Access to activate 
  a Secret Society. 
  Damaging Secret 
  Societies
  Secret Societies can be damaged like 
  any other Minion. A Damaged Society is 
  restored to full health at the start of the 
  next game session. If your actions lead to 
  a society getting damaged, your Agent 
  
  67
  20. SECRET SOCIETIES
  in that society loses one Rank. (If this 
  reduces him to Rank 0, he’s kicked out 
  of the society and starts the next game 
  session at Rank 1 in a different Society.)
  Tension & Treason
  As described on page 46, every scene 
  or location has a Tension score. If your 
  skill roll when using a Secret Society’s 
  Subversive or Weird Specialty is equal 
  to or under the scene’s Tension score, 
  then Computer surveillance has noticed 
  any treasonous activity there and traced 
  it back. 
  Let’s say you get your pals in the Computer 
  Phreaks to hack into a computer system 
  for you. The GM declares that the scene 
  has a Tension of 6. If you roll a 6 or less, 
  then The Computer or Internal Security 
  detects the hacking attempt and traces 
  it back.
  Covert Specialties are easier to hide 
  – Treasonous activity there is detected 
  only on the roll of a 1.
  For example, say you’re sending some 
  Commies in to ﬁ x the pipes in EXT Sector 
  using Habitat Engineering. Habitat 
  Engineering is the Commie’s Covert 
  Specialty, so it’s only detected on the roll 
  of a 1. You roll a 4 – you’re safe. No-one 
  notices that the plumbing team you sent 
  in are all wearing furry hats and calling 
  each other Comrade!
  If your use of a Secret Society is 
  detected, then you will be punished. 
  The punishment depends on the class 
  of the Secret Society.
  Class A: 4 Treason Points
  Class B: 6 Treason Points
  Class C: 10 Treason Points
  Communists!: 20 Treason Points
  If you wish, you can halve the Treason 
  Points you’re awarded by repudiating 
  your agent. The agent’s dragged off to 
  be terminated as a traitor. You can ﬁ ll the 
  empty slot in your Program Group with a 
  new Rank 1 Agent (or a clone of the last 
  agent) at the start of the next game.
  Multiple Agents in a 
  Secret Society
  Several players can have an Agent in the 
  same Society. As long as only one High 
  Programmer is trying to use the society 
  at a time, this is just peachy-ﬁ ne. 
  However, if multiple orders are given to 
  a society, the character with the highest 
  Rank wins out. A High Programmer can 
  temporarily boost his agent’s effective 
  Rank by spending Access – each point 
  of Access gives a temporary +1 bonus 
  to Rank. Draws mean that the Secret 
  Society ends up splitting into pro- and 
  anti- factions and feuding instead of 
  doing anything useful, reducing the Rank 
  of all Agents by 1 permanently.
  Both Phil-U and Mary-U have Agents in 
  the Humanists. Phil-U’s Agent is Rank 5, 
  Mary-U’s is Rank 10. Phil-U orders the 
  Humanists to organise a protest march; 
  Mary-U’s orders her Rank 10 Agent to 
  countermand Phil-U’s Rank 5 agent. Secret 
  Society ﬁ ght! 
  ‘No, the High Programmer’s not taking your call. Activate the Painulator!’
  
  68
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Rank 10 beats Rank 5, unless Phil-U wants 
  to blow 6 Access on temporarily boosting 
  his Agent up to Rank 11. If Mary-U wants, 
  she could then spend more Access boosting 
  her Agent’s rank. It all keeps going until 
  one High Programmer or the other stops 
  spending Access.
  Secret Society Missions
  Every Secret Society has stuff they want. 
  Some want to spread their propaganda, 
  others want to steal the latest gadgets 
  from R&D, or to wipe out another society, 
  or some other bizarre desire. Anyone 
  with an Agent in a Secret Society knows 
  what the society currently wants.
  If, over the course of the game, you 
  manage to complete a Secret Society 
  Mission, your Agent in that Society gains 
  at least one rank in the Society (especially 
  impressive coups mean more ranks). 
  Failing the Mission may (possibly) reduce 
  the Agent’s rank in the Society. 
  For example: High Programmer Phil-U has 
  an Agent in Death Leopard. At the start 
  of the game, his Agent informs him that 
  Death Leopard really want to blow up 
  the brand new shopping mall but can’t 
  because the security there is too high. If 
  Phil-U can arrange for that security force 
  to be redeployed elsewhere, then his Agent 
  can take credit for the scheme and increase 
  his Rank, giving Phil-U a more powerful 
  pawn in the society. 
  The Big List of 
  Secret Societies
  Each of the major Alpha Complex 
  conspiracies is described in this section, 
  using the same format for each.
  Beliefs: What the society thinks.
  Activities: What the society does.
  Specialties: What the society can do for 
  you, divided into Covert, Subversive and 
  Weird Specialties.
  Common Missions: What the society 
  wants in return.
  High Programmer Comments: Secret 
  notes and testimonials on the society 
  from High Programmers just like you.
  Anti-Mutant (Class B)
  Beliefs: 
  Mutants are 
  bad! Kill the 
  muties! Only 
  the purestrain 
  humans 
  deserve to 
  live in Alpha 
  Complex! 
  Muties are 
  everywhere 
  and they’re infecting our precious bodily 
  ﬂ uids and our minds with mutie taint! 
  Suffer not the mutant to live.
  Activities: Beating up mutants, trying 
  to reduce the incidence of mutation in 
  Alpha Complex. Worrying about their 
  Society
  Covert
  Subversive 
  Weird
  Anti-Mutant
  Investigation
  Wetwork +4
  Analysis
  C.L.A (Complex Laser Association)
  Defence
  Assault +4
  Bigger Guns*
  Clone Arrangers
  Cloning +4
  Bioscience
  Mutant Studies*
  Communists
  Habitat Engineering
  Assault 
  Propaganda +4
  Computer Phreaks
  Data Retrieval
  Hacking +4
  Media Manipulation*
  Corpore Metal
  Bot Engineering +4
  Bot Programming*
  Cyborging*
  Death Leopard
  Demolition*
  Assault +4
  Disruption*
  First Church of Christ Computer-
  Programmer (FCCC-P)
  Covert Operations
  Thought Control +4
  Interrogation*
  Frankenstein Destroyers
  Bot Engineering
  Production +4
  Assault
  Free Enterprise
  Financial Systems +4
  Intimidation 
  Procurement*
  Humanists
  Assessment
  Paperwork +4
  Co-Ordination*
  The Movement
  Habitat Engineering
  Command +4
  WMD
  Mystics
  Analysis
  Pharmatherapy +4
  Mystic Weirdness
  Pro Tech
  Data Retrieval
  Weird Science +4
  Gadgeteering
  Psion
  Inﬁ ltration
  Mutant Studies +4
  Co-Ordination
  PURGE
  Demolition +4
  Assault
  Hacking
  Romantics
  Old Reckoning Studies +4
  Thought Control
  Old Stuff
  Runners
  Security Systems +4
  Outdoors Operations
  Running 
  Sierra Club
  Outdoor Studies +4
  Biosciences
  Salvage
  Servants of Cthulhu
  Biosciences
  Intimidation +4
  Mutant Studies
  International Workers of the World 
  (Wobblies)
  Construction
  Production +4
  Propaganda
  Abilities in Italics are unique to that society.
  *: See individual Society description for special-case rules.
  
  69
  20. SECRET SOCIETIES
  own genes. The Anti-Mutants believe 
  themselves to be loyal to The Computer 
  and are convinced that any official 
  tolerance of mutants (registration and 
  so on) is the result of Machine Empath 
  manipulation. 
  Most Anti-Mutant gangs are at the lower 
  Clearances and have a strictly local 
  reach, identifying and beating up local 
  muties. The society has relatively little 
  power (most people in power in Alpha 
  Complex are secret mutants themselves) 
  but makes up for this deficiency by 
  aggressive recruitment tactics and 
  playing on fear of mutants.
  Almost all Anti-Mutants are mutants 
  themselves, since mutation rates run 
  at 95% (+/–5%). They deal with this 
  contradiction by ignoring it with gritted 
  teeth or self-ﬂ agellation.
  Investigation (Covert): The Anti-Mutants 
  have a lot of experience in uncovering 
  secrets and ﬁ nding people who don’t 
  want to be found. Any reports from the 
  society tend to blame everything on 
  mutants, though.
  Wetwork +4 (Subversive): If you want 
  someone killed, the Anti-Mutants are just 
  the guys you need. They’re especially 
  good at killing people who are hard to 
  kill. Y’know, like mutants. 
  Analysis (Weird): On the plus side, 
  there are a few good scientists in the 
  Anti-Mutants who can ﬁ gure stuff out. 
  Unfortunately, they’ll just tell you that 
  everything causes mutation.
   
  Common Missions:
  � We want access to the big 
  database of Registered Mutants. 
  Don’t ask why.
  � We want you to come down hard 
  on muties. Push Registered Mutants 
  out; make the common clone in the 
  corridor hate muties. Come out in 
  favour of genetic purity. 
  � We want guns, lots of guns. 
  � High Programmer X is a mutant. 
  Discredit him. Actually, if you can, 
  disintegrate him.
  +Began as a Class A when genetic drift 
  ﬁ rst appeared in the population.+
  +Purpose was to discourage ‘clean’ 
  genelines from breeding with ‘drifted’ 
  individuals.+
  +Made obsolete by the cloning process 
  but never died out entirely.+
  +Resurged on its own when drift 
  appeared in the clone systems.+
  +Decision regarding status and treatment 
  is overdue.+
   Complex Laser 
  Association (Class B)
  Beliefs: 
  Alpha 
  Complex is 
  riddled with 
  Commies! 
  The Armed 
  Forces is 
  full of ‘em! 
  IntSec’s just a socialist front! Only we are 
  loyal to The Computer and the ideals of 
  Alpha Complex! Fight the Commie spies! 
  The C.L.A. is superloyal to the ideal of 
  Alpha Complex but they’re convinced 
  that the whole place has been inﬁ ltrated 
  top to bottom by Commie double agents. 
  They therefore reject the authority of The 
  Computer in order to save it from the 
  Commies who’ve duped it.
  Activities: Stockpiling weapons 
  for the day when they retake Alpha 
  Complex from the Commies; blowing up 
  government buildings ‘cos they’re full of 
  Commies; being paranoid. 
  The C.L.A. has numerous contacts among 
  the Armed Forces and Internal Security 
  – the two Service Groups most likely to 
  produce super-paranoid loons who see 
  reds under every bed. In some sectors, 
  the society has enough support to 
  operate openly as a citizen’s militia or 
  volunteer group. 
  Security (Covert): If the C.L.A. think 
  you’re a trustworthy servant of The 
  Computer and not some Commie 
  double agent, then they’ll throw a ring 
  of heavily armed paranoid goons around 
  you. Admittedly, you should probably 
  think more ‘Ruby Ridge’ or ‘Waco’ than 
  ‘professional bodyguards’. Hey, who 
  doesn’t want to live in a compound? 
  Assault +4 (Subversive): Of course, 
  if they think there are Commies to be 
  zapped, then these loyal citizens will 
  throw themselves into the breach, 
  clogging the enemy’s guns with their 
  bodies and their clones’ and their clone’s 
  clones’…
  Bigger Guns (Hardware, Weird): The 
  C.L.A. has a lot of guns. With a successful 
  Bigger Guns check, the C.L.A. can equip 
  another Minion with weapons. This gives 
  the other Minion the Assault Specialty 
  (or brings Assault up to Assault +4 if they 
  already have Assault). 
  Common Missions: 
  � Prove to us you ain’t a Commie. 
  Do something no Commie 
  would ever do.
  � We want you to get this tape of 
  subliminal messages broadcast 
  across all of Alpha Complex.
  � One of our senior ofﬁ cers was 
  arrested by IntSec Commies for 
  blowin’ up a CompNode. Get 
  him free.
  � Are you sure you ain’t a 
  Commie?
  +Oops, I think we may have dialled the 
  paranoia up a bit too high.+
  +Spin-off from legitimate citizen 
  volunteer groups+
  +Nah, it’s an inevitable side effect of Viral 
  Thought Patterns. About 5% of people 
  are just too receptive to any idea, even 
  stupid ones.+
  +The C.L.A is just a Commie front 
  anyway.+
  +Should be Class A – they’re super-loyal 
  and tractable+
  +Should be Class C – enough ﬁ repower 
  to level Alpha Complex. Significant 
  threat.+
  +Compromise on Class B.+
   Clone 
  Arrangers 
  (Class B)
  Beliefs: He who 
  controls the cloning 
  tanks controls the 
  future! The Clone 
  Arrangers are 
  the mafia of the 
  cloning facilities, 
  producing black-
  market clones on 
  the side for traitors and demanding 
  bribes if you want your replacement fast-
  tracked instead of waiting 15 working 
  weeks for a new body.
  Activities: Black-market cloning, 
  occasional assassinations, messing with 
  genetic templates.
  
  70
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Until a few years ago, the Clone Arrangers 
  were a relatively benign group within 
  Tech Services selling access to the 
  cloning tanks on the side. They then 
  absorbed a fringe ProTech group called 
  the Eugenists and are now engaged on a 
  long-term scheme to alter the genelines 
  of Alpha Complex. The ultimate aim of 
  this scheme is unknown; one common 
  rumour is that the Clone Arrangers 
  intend to either eradicate mutation or 
  increase its incidence. Depending on 
  which version of the rumour is current, 
  the society is allied with pro- or anti- 
  mutant groups.
  Cloning +4 (Covert): No-one does 
  cloning better than the Clone 
  Arrangers!
  Bioscience (Subversive): The society 
  dominates some of the best biogenetic 
  laboratories and cloning facilities in 
  Alpha Complex. They’ve got lots of 
  bioscience.
  Mutant Studies (Weird): The Clone 
  Arrangers can make mutants to order 
  (more or less). Need a pyrokinetic? We 
  can clone ‘em for you wholesale. The 
  downside is that any speciﬁ c request 
  requires a lot of trial and error, so you’ll 
  end up with one mutant with the power 
  you want, and a lot of copies of the same 
  guy with other, less useful powers. 
  Common Missions: 
  � One of the clone tech groups 
  isn’t open to joining our society. 
  Arrange for those clone techs to be 
  reassigned to reactor shielding.
  � We, er, lost an experiment. His name 
  is Harold and he’s a super-intelligent, 
  super-powerful psychopathic 
  monster. Can you get him back 
  without killing him, please?
  � We need more people to use our 
  services. More deaths, please.
  � We need pure genetic samples from 
  people who’ve never been cloned. 
  Anything in the archives for us?
  +Endemic in Clone Services. Should be 
  purged.+
  +Nah, they keep clone services running 
  smoothly. Just pay the bribes.+
  +They’ve a long-term agenda to remove 
  mutation from the gene pool.+
  +They’ve a long-term agenda to increase 
  mutation in the gene pool.+
  +Screw you.+
  +I heard they were founded by Teela-O 
  years ago.+
  +Bizarrely, that’s true. We pushed out the 
  original Teela-O back in 195, so we could 
  replace her with a more suitable model 
  citizen. She tried to set up an illegal 
  cloning operation, which evolved into 
  the Clone Arrangers. Fun times.+
  +Almost right.+
  +?+
  +That wasn’t the ﬁ rst time we’ve replaced 
  Teela-O, and that wasn’t where the 
  Clone Arrangers came from. Nice story, 
  though.+
  Communists (Class C)
  Beliefs: Capitalism is wrong! Workers of 
  the world must 
  unite and throw 
  off the yoke of 
  bourgeoisie 
  imperialists. 
  The Commies’ 
  understanding 
  o f  
  a c t u a l 
  Communist 
  doctrine is rather 
  c o n f u s e d, s o 
  they make do with fragments of Das 
  Kapital and ‘facts’ gleaned from The 
  Computer’s anti-Communism tirades 
  and propaganda ﬁ lms.
  Activities: Spreading propaganda, 
  wearing furry hats, blowing up bits 
  of Alpha Complex, taking from each 
  according to his ability and giving to 
  each according to his needs. That said, 
  the number one activity for Commies in 
  Alpha Complex is ‘being terminated’.
  Of all the societies, the Commies are the 
  most enthusiastic about recruitment. 
  Distributing lots of propaganda is the 
  fastest way to advance in the society. 
  Hand out pamphlets! Rant in corridors! 
  Broadcast illegal transmissions! Show 
  the oppressed proletariat that there is 
  another way!
  Construction (Covert): There are lots of 
  Commies in the construction industry. 
  Most of these are confused and handing 
  out propaganda leaﬂ ets and muttering 
  about seizing control of the means of 
  production but you can get them to 
  build bridges on the cheap.
  Propaganda +4 (Management, 
  Subversive): The Computer fears 
  Communism more than anything else. 
  Even the hint of Communism causes 
  conniptions and paranoia all down Friend 
  Computer’s diodes. With Communist 
  connections, you can spread Commie 
  propaganda to otherwise pure Minions. 
  A successful Propaganda check causes 
  another Minion to become Treasonous 
  for the rest of the game session. If that 
  Minion is used and the player making a 
  skill check with that Minion rolls under 
  the scene’s Tension, then that player 
  gains 5 Treason Points. 
  Assault (Weird): Comrade, the Red Army 
  marches to war! Grab your furry hat and 
  laser riﬂ e! Death to Capitalism!
  Common Missions: 
  � Comrade High Programmer! Pleasing 
  to spread Communistic propaganda 
  to bourgeoisie Complex!
  � Comrade High Programmer! 
  Here is microcamera. You will be 
  photographing the Alpha Complex 
  battle plans, yes?
  � Comrade High Programmer! Pleasing 
  be to stop Internal Security from 
  arrestink us and putting us in the 
  termination booths! Ve are heartily 
  sick of it.
  � Comrade High Programmer! 
  Pleasing be to arrange destruction 
  of capitalist mall in CVD Sector!
  +I don’t want to sound like a Humanist 
  or anything but have any of the rest 
  of you ever turned up a Communist 
  cell with records dating back to before 
  Alpha Complex? Or even dating back 
  more than a few years? Every time my 
  people bust up another Communist 
  Party cell, it turns out they were just a 
  bunch of people who decided to start 
  a cell because they wanted to see what 
  it would feel like. No other contacts, 
  no larger organisation, no long-term 
  agenda. Just a handful of losers.+
  +Maybe we should just start an ofﬁ cial 
  Class A, so all the wannabes will ﬂ ock to it 
  and any actual Communist organisation 
  will (we hope) unveil itself in an attempt 
  to destroy its competition.+
  +I thought we already tried that 
  once?+
  +Yes. The Kore Kommunist Kommandos 
  were pretty big. ‘Were,’ past tense.+
  
  71
  20. SECRET SOCIETIES
   Computer 
  Phreaks 
  (Class C)
  Beliefs: Hack 
  the Computer! 
  Screw with the 
  system! We’re 
  the ghosts in 
  the machine, 
  the elec tric 
  underground. 
  We run the grey subnets, the ﬁ lesharing 
  rings, the secret archives. We run 
  everything. Are you 31337 enough?
  The Computer Phreaks have no real 
  overarching philosophy or goals, other 
  than ﬁ nding more backdoors into high 
  Clearance systems and not getting 
  brainscrubbed by IntSec. Individual 
  phreaks have their own goals and there 
  are some hackivists who actively help 
  other societies or groups to survive 
  by providing surveillance-free gray 
  networks or disabling security systems. 
  The Computer Phreaks are largely 
  ideology-free; they are persecuted for 
  what they do, not what they believe.
  Activities: Hacking the Computer 
  systems. Only a small fraction of 
  Computer Phreaks have any real 
  programming skills but there’s a large 
  cadre of ‘script kiddies’, apprentice 
  programmers and hangers-on. The 
  Phreaks are responsible for much of 
  the so-called ‘grey subnets’, illegal 
  and unmapped computer networks 
  piggybacking on The Computer’s 
  own systems.
  Data Retrieval (Covert): The Phreaks 
  are very good at ferreting out secrets, 
  especially embarrassing ones. Often, 
  they sell what they ﬁ nd to other societies 
  but they can pass it onto a friendly High 
  Programmer for the right favours. 
  Hacking +4 (Subversive): The Phreaks 
  are excellent hackers. 
  Media Manipulation (Weird): The 
  Phreaks also have great skills at forgery 
  but their prankster nature comes to 
  the fore here. Anything produced by 
  the Phreaks using media manipulation 
  is packed full of in-jokes, Phreak tags, 
  propaganda and Trojan malware.
  Common Missions: 
  � Come on, give us your password. 
  You can change it at the end of 
  the day, we just want a few hours 
  of superuser-level access to the 
  mainframe.
  � One of our members is in a crap 
  Service Group. Give him a cushy job 
  in CPU where he can hack all day.
  � We’ve got blackmail information on 
  one of the other High Programmers. 
  What will you do for us to earn it?
  +I was thinking the other day how ironic 
  it is that we pound the Phreaks so hard, 
  seeing as how they just do the same 
  thing we do. Hell, how many of you used 
  a Phreak to get ahead a notch or two and 
  then turned him in and had him fried 
  before he could snitch on you? Weirdly 
  ironic; the only difference between us 
  and them is that we’re ‘supposed’ to 
  tamper with the raw system and they 
  aren’t, at least not yet.+
  +Better them than me. They wanna live, 
  they should learn to code better.+
  +Agree msg.+
  Commies. Where do they get such wonderful hats? 
  
  72
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Corpore 
  Metal 
  (Class B)
  Beliefs: The 
  m a c h i n e  i s 
  superior! 
  Humans must 
  j o i n  
  w i t h 
  machines 
  t o  b e c o m e 
  perfect. Bots 
  are our friends 
  a n d  e q u a l s 
  (maybe even 
  our superiors), 
  so we must protect them and help free 
  them from the restrictions of asimov 
  circuits. We should also stick wires in 
  our heads. Lots of wires and circuits and 
  prosthetic limbs are good, lack of wires 
  in your brain bad.
  Meat is obsolete. Machines are the 
  way forward. Alpha Complex is built 
  on the oil and hydraulic ﬂ uid of bots. 
  Its perfect government is a product of 
  The Computer’s electronic wisdom. The 
  only thing that holds it back is humanity. 
  Think about it – what robot was ever a 
  mutant? Can a correctly programmed 
  bot turn traitor? One hundred percent of 
  known commies are one hundred percent 
  meat! 
  Activities: Cyborg experiments, saving 
  bots from oppression. 
  Corpore Metal for humans is a somewhat 
  loopy mix of transhumanist philosophy, 
  mind control and metal envy. Through 
  cybernetics, the humans hope to 
  transcend the limits of their ﬂ eshy bodies. 
  Some hope for physical immortality, 
  others want to be transformed and 
  uploaded into The Computer, while still 
  others just want enough subcutaneous 
  body armour to survive the daily round 
  of explosions and food vat floods. 
  Computer loyalists hope to suppress 
  their traitorous impulses through 
  electronic implants, creating a T-chip 
  that would shock the user whenever he 
  has a treasonous thought. Finally, some 
  clones envy the abilities and strengths of 
  ‘bots and try to emulate them.
  In parallel to the human side of the 
  organisation, there is a ‘bot side. Publicly, 
  the ‘bots in the society encourage 
  humans to become more ‘bot-like and 
  favour the development of new pro-
  ’bot technology. There are rumours 
  (mostly spread by the Frankenstein 
  Destroyers) that the human members of 
  Corpore Metal are dupes, manipulated 
  by malevolent bots out to destroy 
  humanity. As no human citizen can really 
  understand the ‘bot side of Corpore Metal, 
  these rumours cannot be disproved.
  Bot Engineering +4 (Covert): Corpore 
  Metal loves the bots. They’ve got lots 
  of bot friends. With Corpore Metal 
  connections, any job involving bots 
  becomes a lot easier.
  Bot Programming (Subversive): One 
  of the long-term goals of Corpore Metal 
  is the removal of all restrictions on bot 
  development and intelligence. The 
  primary restriction is the use of Asimov 
  circuits in bot brains which compel the 
  bots to obey the Five Laws of Robotics 
  (revised). The society can reprogram bots 
  for you but they’ll invariably remove the 
  Asimov circuits while doing so. As long 
  as you’ve got no problem with rogue 
  bots running around, it’ll all be just 
  101101010.
  Cyborging (Wetware, Weird): Sticking 
  bot bits onto people. You can use the 
  cyborging Specialty to upgrade another 
  Minion, increasing one of their basic 
  Violence or Hardware Specialties to 
  a +4 Specialty. The upgraded Minion 
  now has bot bits and counts as a bot 
  for any bot-related specialties like Bot 
  Programming… 
  Common Missions: 
  � Bzzt. Bots are oppressed. It is not 
  right. We want you to arrange for the 
  sewer cleaning bots to be transferred 
  to a nice cushy job.
  � Bots should be given more authority. 
  Use bots for everything.
  � We have lots of cyberbits. Bzzt. 
  Arrange for lots of people to get 
  maimed so we can install ‘em.
  +Pro-Tech offshoot. About 30 years old, 
  with emergence of reﬁ ned cyborging.+
  +Going through difﬁ cult transition; may 
  need to become Class C.+
  +This is the fault of you old fogies who 
  had chips implanted in your heads way 
  back.+
  +Shut up. Nothing wrong with my 
  chips.+
  +Signiﬁ cant bot membership.+
  +Eh, the bots have their own societies, like 
  the Bot Liberation Front or Circuit of Life. 
  They just fake Corpore Metal sympathies 
  to fool the dumb meatsacks.+
  Death Leopard (Class A)
  Beliefs: 
  Wreck 
  things. Have 
  fun. Cause 
  trouble. 
  Have fun. Be 
  rebellious. 
  Have fun. 
  Mock the 
  powerful. 
  Have fun. 
  Defy The Computer. Have fun. Fragile 
  things dropped from a great height make 
  a nice sound. Life is boring. Anything you 
  do to liven it up is doing everyone a 
  big favour. Those who are too lame to 
  enjoy themselves don’t deserve to have 
  a good time. Nothing is more boring 
  than The Computer. But... it pays to be 
  sneaky. Having too much fun will get you 
  executed. Pretend to be a good citizen 
  but whenever you can get away with it, 
  do something you aren’t supposed to.
  Activities: Primarily, minor acts of 
  vandalism and rebellion, like spraying 
  grafﬁ ti, putting FizzWizz in showerheads 
  and the occasional suicide bombing. 
  Leopards who record their most daring 
  and rebellious acts gain kudos within 
  the society. 
  The Leopards have an arcane system 
  for determining standing within the 
  society. 
  Demolition (Covert): The Leopards 
  are pretty good at bombing stuff. 
  Unfortunately, their idea of ‘covert’ 
  involves videoing the whole thing and 
  sharing it among their pals. Therefore, 
  Leopard demolition is detected if the 
  roll is equal to or less than the scene’s 
  Tension score.
  Assault +4 (Subversive): A bit of the old 
  ultraviolence, my droogs. 
  Disruption (Violence, Weird): Death 
  Leopard excels at low-level sabotage and 
  disruption. With a successful check, the 
  Death Leopards can increase the cost to 
  activate a Minion by three Access.
  
  73
  20. SECRET SOCIETIES
  Common Missions:
  � Hey, yeah, a bunch of our guys got 
  arrested for anti-social behaviour. 
  Get ‘em out of detention before 
  IntSec zap ‘em.
  � We want you to get the following 
  items in one place – another High 
  Programmer, ﬁ ve hundred thousand 
  gallons of Hot Fun, a news team, 
  an inflatable Teela-O-MLY-shaped 
  balloon and a box of grenades. We’ll 
  do the rest.
  � We want you to shut down security 
  in lower Clearance zones. Those 
  IntSec cats are getting us down.
  +The counter-culture impulse towards 
  violence, outrageous behaviour and 
  contrary resistance turns out to be really 
  easy to control, once you define the 
  outlet and use HPD&MC techniques to 
  make some forms of rebellion ‘cooler’ 
  than others.+
  +For every individual that manages to 
  harm some number of Citizens with 
  a bomb, there are dozens who think 
  they’re living hardcore non-conformity 
  to the hilt by spray-painting ‘Teela-O 
  Rulz’ in gold paint everywhere. Continue 
  to encourage on these lines. Vandalism 
  not so bad, relatively.+
  +We should have ﬁ gured this one out 
  much earlier.+
  +Need to cut back on using them as 
  unwitting shock troops for Armed Forces 
  actions.+
  FCCC-P 
  (Class A)
  Beliefs: The 
  Computer is 
  God. Worship 
  The Computer! 
  The faithful will 
  be uploaded 
  to the divine 
  mainframe, 
  where they will 
  dwell in digital bliss forever according 
  to the Holy Manual. The sinful will be 
  dragged to the ﬁ ery recycle bin and be 
  deleted! Listen not to the blandishments 
  of the Anti-Computer! Listen not to the 
  other cults who claim to be the true 
  worshippers of The Computer – they are 
  sinners, trying to lead you astray. 
   
  Activities: Worshipping The Computer, 
  arguing theology, feuding with rival 
  sects, acquiring converts, purging the 
  unfaithful. 
  Covert Operations (Covert): The Church 
  has agents everywhere in Alpha Complex. 
  It’s the largest Secret Society by a 
  considerable margin and there’s almost 
  always a FCCC-Per in any Service Group 
  or conspiracy you care to mention.
  Thought Control +4 (Subversive): The 
  Church wields considerable inﬂ uence in 
  Alpha Complex, especially among the 
  INFRARED proles. 
  Interrogation (Weird): FCCC-P 
  interrogations involve slightly more 
  hot pokers and scary inquisitors than 
  average for Alpha Complex but they get 
  the job done.
  Common Missions:
  � We have a group of pilgrims who 
  want to worship The Computer’s 
  databanks. They’ve paid well for this 
  – can you arrange access?
  The Electrobishop, aka Kevin-U’s spy in FCCC-P, makes a report to his master. 
  
  74
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  � Purge the unbelievers! We want you 
  to replace all senior staff in your 
  Service Group with believers!
  � Purge the unbelievers! Those senior 
  staff you installed last time were on 
  the wrong side of a schism! Wipe ‘em 
  all out!
  � Help us educate the common 
  citizens about the divinity of The 
  Computer. We need more faith-
  based initiatives.
  +Established openly and officially by 
  ﬁ rst generation to live entirely within 
  Alpha.+
  +Subsided to Class B status about 110 
  years ago and went ‘secret’.+
  +Has enjoyed huge resurgence of 
  popularity in the last 40 years.+
  +The most openly-acknowledged 
  Society in Alpha, members often give 
  the ‘secret’ wink to each other in full 
  view of Computer cams without fear 
  of punishment. Purpose is to provide a 
  ‘religious’ framework for Citizens, placing 
  Friend Computer in the role of the divine 
  creator to be worshipped.+
  +Re-categorised as top-five Class A. 
  Let’s encourage membership. Use music 
  groups?+
  Frankenstein Destroyers 
  (Class C)
  Beliefs: Bots 
  are the enemy! 
  They pretend 
  to serve us but 
  they’re soulless 
  mechanical 
  monsters 
  p l o t t i n g  to 
  crush us in our 
  sleep. Even the 
  ones who obey their asimov circuits 
  are evil – they’re lulling humanity into 
  indolence and sloth. Most of them, 
  though, are evil Corpore Metal traitors 
  who intend to enslave humanity or 
  turn us into evil cyborgs or just wipe 
  us out entirely! Our only chance is to 
  fight back against them now, before 
  they make enough of themselves to 
  assure victory!
  Activities: Smashing bots. Talking 
  about smashing bots. Gathering 
  evidence proving that bots need to 
  be smashed. Arguing about whether 
  or not The Computer is a bot for the 
  purposes of smashing.
  Bot Engineering (Covert): The 
  Destroyers actually know a lot about 
  bots. They just don’t like ‘em. 
  Production +4 (Subversive): The 
  Destroyers are waiting for the daycycle 
  when the bots are wiped out and 
  humans must once more work down 
  the mine and up the hill. They use any 
  opportunity to spread propaganda 
  about self-reliance and the danger 
  of bots.
  Assault (Weird): Blowing stuff up. 
  This goes up to Assault +4 when the 
  Destroyers are attacking bots. 
  Common Missions: 
  � Bots must be destroyed! Send as 
  many bot units to their destruction 
  as possible!
  � Discredit the bots! Prove they’re 
  useless!
  � We suspect High Programmer X is a 
  bot sympathiser. Expose him.
  � This strapping young clone is a loyal 
  Frankenstein Destroyer. Promote 
  him into a position of power. Ignore 
  the occasional psychotic break.
  +Established by Humanists who were 
  double-agenting into PURGE.+
  +Sorry. They were Purgers double-
  agenting into the Humanists.+
  +You don’t know what you’re talking 
  about.+
  +Nice comeback. Did you think of it 
  yourself or did someone sell it to you?+
  Free Enterprise (Class A)
  Beliefs: 
  Free 
  markets 
  are good. 
  Getting 
  r i c h  i s 
  good. If 
  there’s a demand for a good or service 
  and The Computer doesn’t meet it, well, 
  someone’s got to. If we get rich in the 
  process, that’s great. Serve the Law of 
  Supply and Demand. Give citizens what 
  they want (and The Computer won’t) 
  and they will make you wealthy. The 
  Computer’s gotten wise to a lot of our 
  scams but there are plenty of suckers 
  out there still.
  Activities: Making money. A lot of Free 
  Enterprise schemes involve selling junk 
  – er, wholly legitimate and not-at-all 
  stolen goods – that just ‘fell off the back 
  of a transbot’. They’ve got any number 
  of scams and pyramid schemes to 
  bilk citizens out of their credits. More 
  militant Free Enterprise cells are into 
  all forms of organised crime. Pay your 
  protection money, buddy, or we laser 
  your kneecaps off.
  Financial Manipulation +4 (Covert): 
  Free Enterprise is the Alpha Complex 
  underground economy. With the 
  application of a little Access and pals in 
  Free Enterprise, you can adjust the ﬂ ow 
  of credits in the economy. 
  Pro c u re m e nt  ( M a n a g e m e n t, 
  Subversive): Hey buddy, whatcha 
  looking for? Black market supplies? Old 
  Reckoning artefacts? WMDs? We can get 
  it for you wholesale. 
  With a successful Procurement roll, Free 
  Enterprise can ﬁ nd almost anything. This 
  doesn’t mean they get it for you – merely 
  that they provide you with the ability to 
  buy it (usually, for lots of Access). 
  Intimidation (Weird): Leg-breaking 
  services, incorporated.
  Common Missions:
  � Hey, buddy, who’s gonna gets the 
  new spork production contract? It 
  bedda be us. 
  � Dere’s a sector where IntSec’s been 
  coming down hard on our operation, 
  see? Send ‘em off ta be reactor 
  shielding.
  � We gota truckbot load of ﬁ ne caviar. 
  Don’t ask where we got it. You want 
  it, you pay fer it…
  +Alpha Complex began as a moneyless 
  society, operating purely on need and 
  ability but it turned out citizens work 
  better if reward is commensurate to effort. 
  This leads to a need for quantiﬁ cation 
  and hence a monetary system. Several 
  pirate currencies started up within the 
  ﬁ rst 50 years of the founding of Alpha 
  Complex. Eventually, Enterprise was 
  begun by Alpha leadership and ran 
  at a loss for years until it completely 
  dominated the market and its currency 
  became the most widely-used one. That 
  is the monetary system we use today.+
  +There has been talk on and off for 
  many years now about lapsing ofﬁ cial 
  silent control of Enterprise and letting it 
  subside to Class B status but it turns out 
  
  75
  20. SECRET SOCIETIES
  we have no better throttle and brake for 
  controlling the economy.+
  +Plus, who doesn’t like being RICH???
   Humanists 
  (Class C)
  B eliefs: Th e 
  revolution is 
  coming! One 
  day soon, The 
  Computer will be 
  overthrown and 
  reprogrammed 
  to serve humanity! A golden age will 
  be ushered in under the wise guidance 
  of the Humanist society! Humans will 
  take their rightful place as masters of 
  Alpha Complex, again under the wise 
  guidance of the Humanist society! 
  Our preparations are almost complete 
  – rejoice! 
  Activities: Going to meetings; arguing 
  over who’ll have the biggest ofﬁ ce after 
  the revolution; arguing about garbage 
  collection reform after the revolution; 
  not actually planning the revolution. 
  Assessment (Covert): The Humanists 
  are actually pretty good at gathering 
  information. They’re just useless at doing 
  anything with it.
  Paperwork +4 (Subversive): The 
  Humanists have thoroughly inﬁ ltrated 
  Central Processing and have their own 
  shadow bureaucracy. They can ﬁ ll out 
  forms with the best of ‘em – if you don’t 
  mind the occasional bit of Humanist 
  propaganda mixed in. 
  Co-Ordination (Weird): There’s one 
  drawback to using the Humanists for Co-
  Ordination. If the player rolls a 20 when 
  making a Co-Ordination check with 
  this Secret Society, then the Humanists 
  do what they do best – feud. Not only 
  does the check fail but the Humanists 
  start sabotaging each other. The Society 
  cannot be used again for the rest of the 
  game session.
  Common Missions: 
  � We need you to reduce medication 
  levels across Alpha Complex. The 
  more unhappy and awake the 
  citizens, the more receptive they are 
  to our propaganda.
  � High Programmer X is an enemy. 
  Discredit him.
  � We want to introduce more Humanist 
  policies into Alpha Complex. Here’s 
  a power-saving stratagem that 
  involves turning The Computer off 
  at night. Try to get it adopted as 
  standard procedure.
  +Often mistaken for other groups such 
  as the Romantics or Pro Tech.+
  +O f ten mistak en for generic 
  ‘Communists.’+
  +All other goals are secondary to the 
  goal of removing The Computer from 
  Alpha Complex.+
  +Obviously, this cannot be allowed.+
   The 
  Movement 
  (Class C)
  Beliefs: Alpha 
  Complex must 
  b e  re s t a r te d 
  from scratch. 
  The Movement 
  is building (or 
  h a s  a l r e a d y 
  completed, 
  depending on who you ask) a brave new 
  Complex. When the revolution comes, the 
  ﬂ awed, degenerate Alpha Complex will be 
  destroyed and the loyal Movementarians 
  will rule in the new Complex.
  ‘Hey, buddy, wanna buy a bot? Real cheap. They, er, fell off the back of a bigger bot.’ 
  
  76
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Activities: Stealing bits of Alpha 
  Complex; sneaking Outdoors; planting 
  bombs and preparing to destroy Alpha 
  Complex. 
  Habitat Engineering (Covert): The 
  Movement’s efforts to build a new 
  Alpha Complex means they know a lot 
  about plumbing.
  Command +4 (Subversive): You can’t 
  plan an apocalypse without knowing a 
  thing or two about commanding armies. 
  The Movement has a lot of highly skilled 
  Armed Forces generals and deranged 
  warbots among its ranks.
  WMD (Weird): This crazed apocalyptic 
  cult will be more than happy to deal with 
  all your weapons of mass destruction-
  related needs.
  Common Missions: 
  � We need you to divert resources 
  to us. We need 2 million tons of 
  concrete, 50 construction bots and 
  a nuclear reactor. 
  � The chosen citizens must be 
  transferred to the new Complex. 
  We need you to provide a cover for 
  our transfer of several thousand staff 
  to Outdoors.
  � We have concealed an atomic 
  weapon deep beneath this sector. 
  Ensure it is not discovered.
  +Sierra Club spin-off with delusions of 
  grandeur.+
  +Originally called the Foundation, when 
  their plan was to build a backup Alpha 
  Complex.+
  +Apocalyptic leanings may be due 
  to lead poisoning – they stole a lot of 
  plumbing back in the day.+
  +All of this has happened before and will 
  happen again.+
  Mystics (Class B)
  Beliefs: 
  Drugs 
  are good. 
  Drugs 
  open 
  your 
  mind to 
  the Cosmic Oneness. Get drugs. 
  Activities: Stealing drugs, taking 
  drugs, making new drugs. Occasionally, 
  trying to open up the minds of the 
  common citizens by dumping drugs in 
  the water supply. Grokking that which 
  is to be grokked. 
  Analysis (Covert): Some of the Mystics are 
  talented and highly trained biochemists 
  who can analyse new drugs, mysterious 
  moulds, things from Outdoors or other 
  unknown biological compounds. Others 
  are just happy to lick or swallow new 
  things in the hopes of getting high. Either 
  way, you’ll get some answers. 
  Pharmatherapy +4 (Subversive): The 
  one thing the Mystics do really really well 
  is to deliver and apply drugs. 
  Mystic Weirdness (Wetware, Weird): 
  The Mystics are tuned into something. 
  In their drug-crazed ramblings, they’ll 
  occasionally spout some bit of useful 
  information. You’ve got to wade through 
  a lot of nonsense and rants about purple 
  hairy spiders but they might tell you 
  something you need to know. Basically, 
  this Specialty might hand you a random 
  clue about what’s going on.
  Common Missions:
  � We’ve got this funky new drug. Try it 
  out on the population.
  � We want drugs. Er…give us drugs.
  +Have you ever thought... like, maybe 
  YOU’RE The Computer?+
  +Whoa, man, it’s like... everything is 
  connected, y’know?+
  +I had this dream... I had, like, REALLY 
  LONG ﬁ ngernails and I was a rock star.+
  +I love you guys. And I really, really mean 
  it. It’s not just the drugs this time.+
  Pro Tech (Class B)
  Beliefs: 
  S c i e n c e  i s 
  good! Science 
  w i l l  s o l v e 
  all of Alpha 
  Complex’s 
  problems! 
  Anyone who 
  tries to hold 
  back the progress of Science is an enemy 
  of humanity! Mad? They call us mad? 
  Mwhahahahah.
  Activities: Bizarre experiments. Stealing 
  gadgets from R&D. Embarking on 
  projects that even R&D considers to be 
  mind-bogglingly unwise.
  Computer Security (Covert): Pro Tech 
  has its ﬁ ngers in a lot of R&D pies. 
  Weird Science +4 (Subversive): They’re 
  the weird science boys. If it deﬁ es the 
  laws of physics and sanity, they’ll ready 
  to help out.
  Gadgeteering (Hardware, Weird): Pro 
  Tech have lots of gadgets lying around, 
  some of which are possibly maybe useful. 
  With a successful Gadgeteering check, 
  you can give the Weird Science Specialty 
  to another Minion. 
  Common Missions: 
  � We’ve got this new gadget to test. 
  We don’t know what it does but it 
  costs 10 Access to even switch on. 
  Will you arrange for a test ﬁ ring?
  � R&D here is underfunded. Ensure 
  that R&D gets the most Access 
  allocated to it.
  � There’s some interesting wreckage 
  in the abandoned sectors. Recover 
  it for us.
  +One of the ﬁ rst societies, established 
  early in Alpha Complex existence.+
  +An anti-technology sentiment 
  was commonplace in the early 
  population.+
  +?
  +’Technology’ was identiﬁ ed with the 
  catastrophe that destroyed the Old 
  Reckoning world and tech-related 
  terminology began to become 
  derogatory. The development of Pro 
  Tech and the ‘Tech is Good’ counter-
  campaign, were among the first 
  operations attempted by the newly 
  established Department of Housing 
  Preservation and Development (DHPD, 
  now HPD&MC).+
  +Harmless except when they steal 
  gadgets.+
  Psion 
  (Class C)
  Beliefs: 
  Mutants 
  should rule 
  over ordinary 
  humans. 
  Our mutant 
  powers – especially our psychic powers 
  – are signs of our superior evolution. 
  When mutants rule Alpha Complex, 
  those mundane humans who serve Psion 
  
  77
  20. SECRET SOCIETIES
  will be spared. All others will be killed 
  with the power of our minds.
  Activities: Protecting mutants, recruiting 
  powerful mutants (especially Machine 
  Empaths), experimenting with ways to 
  develop new mutant powers.
  Infiltration (Covert): Psion’s mutants 
  are everywhere, making it easy for them 
  to inﬁ ltrate other groups. Convincing a 
  Commie cell that you’re one of them is 
  much simpler when you can read minds, 
  or shapeshift, or hide invisibly, or set 
  them on ﬁ re. (The last is left as an exercise 
  for the reader.)
  Mutant Studies +4 (Subversive): 
  Mutants while-u-wait. Psion knows 
  more about mutations than anyone 
  else in Alpha Complex and can provide 
  mutants with suitable abilities for almost 
  any task.
  Co-ordination (Weird): The Psion 
  version of Co-Ordination involves scary 
  telepaths called Controls beaming orders 
  into the heads of your Minions. You may 
  wish to warn them before doing so.
  Common Missions:
  � A powerful mutant has been arrested 
  by Internal Security. Ensure he is 
  released and handed over to us.
  � We want to add a mutagenic 
  compound to the food supply. Help 
  us arrange this.
  � Our mutant seers have identified 
  High Programmer X as a threat. 
  Eliminate him. 
  +Very brieﬂ y begun as a Class A. There 
  was an early HPD&MC effort to recast the 
  increasing genetic drift in the population 
  as ‘The Next Stage of Human Evolution’ 
  instead of, well, an ever-increasing rate of 
  three-limbed half-blind idiots who could 
  occasionally light themselves on ﬁ re with 
  their own minds. Computer decided the 
  word ‘evolution’ should be eliminated 
  from the language, there was a huge 
  purge of HPD&MC personnel and the 
  organisation was terminated. However, 
  of course, an underground version was 
  formed and has persisted to this day.+
  +Working actively on building up 
  enough Machine Empaths to take 
  over every node in The Computer at 
  the same time and enslave it to their 
  collective will.+
   PURGE 
  (Class C)
  Beliefs: Smash 
  The Computer! 
  Destroy Alpha 
  Complex! Bring 
  it all crashing 
  down.
  Activities: 
  Blowing things up. Attempting to bring 
  down The Computer. Being really scary 
  terrorists.
  Demolition +4 (Covert): PURGE are very 
  good at blowing things up. Anything 
  from a vending machine to a whole 
  sector might be blown dome-high by 
  PURGE explosives.
  Assault (Subversive): The Society 
  rarely risks open confrontation with The 
  Computer’s forces but given the right 
  opportunity, PURGE can ﬁ eld an army of 
  gun-wielding psychopaths.
  WMDs (Weird): PURGE likes big 
  bombs.
  Common Missions:
  � We need access to secure locations. 
  Get our agents into the CompNode/
  IntSec Central/Armed Forces base/
  Situation Room.
  � We’ve planted a bomb in location 
  X. Ensure it’s not discovered. Ensure 
  that suitable targets are present at 
  location X when it goes off.
  +This is what Death Leopard pretends 
  to be.+
  +Dangerous under any and all 
  circumstances.+
   Romantics 
  (Class A)
  Beliefs: Recapture 
  the historical glory 
  of human society 
  represented by 
  the high cultural 
  achievements of 
  Old Reckoning 
  t i m e s . L e a v e 
  the underground warrens, throw off 
  the dominance of The Computer and 
  re-establish the world of fast-food 
  restaurants, Frisbees and Star Trek.
  Humanity was meant to live in split-
  level homes and watch ‘football’ on 
  ‘TV’. To return to humanity’s original 
  happy state, people must leave the 
  underground warrens and ‘commute’ to 
  work in millions of ‘cars’ along the endless 
  strips of concrete that should cover the 
  land. Each person must be free to ‘just 
  do it’ as they did in the good old days, 
  whatever ‘it’ is.
  Activities: Collecting Old Reckoning 
  artefacts, sharing Old Reckoning media, 
  trying to educate citizens about the 
  Good Old Days.
  Old Reckoning Studies +4 (Covert): 
  The Romantics have a vast archive of 
  Old Reckoning data, some of which 
  even makes sense. If you want to ﬁ nd 
  out what life was like before Alpha 
  Complex, or have a strange book from 
  the Before Time and need it translated, 
  they can help.
  Thought Control (Subversive): Alpha 
  Complex is so culturally empty that 
  anything that isn’t pre-digested pabulum 
  is exciting. The Romantics can plant 
  memes and incite the citizenry by 
  disseminating the right Old Reckoning 
  media.
  Old Stuff (Stealth, Weird): The 
  Romantics can obtain Old Reckoning 
  items like working automobiles, copies of 
  forbidden books, the head of the Statue 
  of Liberty, atomic bombs. A successful 
  Old Stuff check means the Society has 
  found whatever Old Stuff you’re looking 
  for. Buying it may cost extra Access.
  Common Missions:
  � We want to show people the wonders 
  of the old world. Help us bring Old 
  Reckoning culture back in some 
  fashion.
  � High Programmer X has an artefact 
  in his collection that we want. Get it 
  from him or help us steal it.
  � We’ve heard that, in the olden 
  days, officials and leaders were 
  elected. Suggest democracy to The 
  Computer.
  +Originally a popular movement based 
  on the Gatzmann Archives.+
  +Later codiﬁ ed ofﬁ cially so that ofﬁ cial 
  record of Old Reckoning could be 
  closed.+
  
  78
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  +Probably the single most commonly-
  encountered faction in Alpha.+
  +Actively maintained to allow for UV 
  collectors of Old Reckoning material 
  to have constant access to supply as 
  desired.+
  +C-Bay was originally implemented 
  as a closed-doors swap meet for Old 
  Reckoning gear.+
  Runners (Class B)
  Beliefs: It’s 
  possible to 
  escape Alpha 
  Complex with 
  our help. If 
  you’ve been 
  sentenced 
  to treason, 
  we’ l l  h e l p 
  you escape 
  IntSec’s grasp by sending you Outdoors 
  or into the Abandoned Sectors. All we ask 
  in return is that you help other Runners 
  who are trying to escape.
  Activities: Smuggling food and supplies, 
  sheltering Runners, running away.
  Security Systems +4 (Covert): The 
  Runners know all about bypassing 
  security and avoiding surveillance.
  Outdoors Operations (Subversive): 
  The Runner underground railroad 
  goes outside Alpha Complex, into the 
  Outdoors and the Abandoned Sectors. 
  They know what’s lurking out there.
  Running (Subterfuge, Weird): The 
  Runners can protect members of your 
  Program Group who are condemned to 
  termination. With a successful Running 
  check, the target of this ability can keep 
  his rank in a Secret Society instead of 
  being terminated and dropping to 
  Rank 1. 
  Common Missions: 
  � Help our agents escape Alpha 
  Complex. 
  � We’ve got a secret underground 
  escape route in Location X. Ensure 
  it’s not discovered.
  � We need food and supplies. Have 
  them directed to us.
  +Self help group for traitors.+
  +Existence is tolerated so IntSec can 
  monitor them.+
  +Always nice to have a back door.+
  +Just a Sierra Club front.+
  Sierra Club 
  (Class A)
  Beliefs: Cast 
  off the shackles 
  of technology! 
  Back to Nature! 
  The natural life 
  will make us 
  happy. Return 
  to our natural 
  environment – Nature. Abandon the 
  luxuries of technology and embrace the 
  hardships of Outdoor life. Observe and 
  imitate the beautiful models of healthy 
  societies represented by creatures of 
  the Outdoors.
  We were not meant to live in burrows 
  ruled by a queen bee (The Computer). 
  We are not insects. We are meant to hunt 
  and gather and to live in harmony with 
  the world of plants and animals. Science 
  and technology have not made us happy. 
  Only Nature can make us happy.
  Activities: Taking trips Outdoors, 
  bringing creatures back from Outdoors, 
  educating other citizens about the 
  beauty of nature. 
  Outdoor Studies +4 (Covert): The 
  Sierra’s understanding of Outdoors 
  is better than anyone else’s in Alpha 
  Complex, although that’s still not very 
  impressive. 
  Outdoor Operations (Subversive): 
  The Sierras run regular excursions 
  Outdoors and know all the secret exits 
  from Alpha Complex.
  Salvage (Hardware, Weird): The outside 
  world was ravaged by apocalypse 
  and is now ruined and overgrown 
  but the Sierra Club do sometimes 
  turn up unusual salvage from Old 
  Reckoning days, or engage in trade 
  with the other surviving communities 
  (mostly other Complexes or biker gangs 
  of the wasteland but previous PARANOIA 
  supplements have established that 
  diverse groups like peaceful woodland 
  hippies, record producers and super-
  intelligent Sea Monkeys live near Alpha 
  Complex). Anyway, a successful Salvage 
  specialty check means the Sierra Club 
  have located something interesting. It 
  doesn’t mean you get the salvage – you 
  may need to pay Access to buy it, or send 
  out a team to retrieve it.
  Common Missions: 
  � We brought something in from 
  Outdoors and it ran away. We’re 
  not sure what it is but we want it 
  captured unharmed.
  � Citizens must be taught about Life 
  Outdoors. We want you to make 
  Outdoor visits compulsory for all 
  citizens.
  � We’ve got a camp at Outdoors 
  Location X. Make sure the Armed 
  Forces don’t squash it.
  +Suppression of lowest-level knowledge 
  of Outdoors habitability was implemented 
  by the Fourth Generation.+
  +No way we can actually keep the 
  existence of the Outdoors a secret from 
  ALL the INFRAREDs.+
  +Ironically, not long after induction 
  into the organisation, typically a new 
  member gets a promotion to RED thanks 
  to his buddies in the ‘Club’ – and then 
  he’s cleared to know the Outdoors is 
  habitable anyway. But at that point, he’s 
  committed to the Sierras.+
  Servants of Cthulhu 
  (Class C)
  Beliefs: 
  The 
  Great Old 
  Ones are 
  coming! 
  Soon, our 
  inhuman 
  overlords 
  will return 
  t o  w i p e 
  o u t  T h e 
  Computer 
  and all of 
  Alpha Complex. Only those who serve 
  the Great Old Ones and worship them 
  with the proper rites will be spared! Ia 
  Cthulhu! Ia!
  Activities: Chanting, running around 
  in robes, believing that mutant powers 
  are magic.
  Biosciences: The Servants know much 
  about the workings of the human body 
  and mind. Pity they’re all barking mad.
  Intimidation +4: Scary sacrificial 
  daggers, flaming torches and pointy 
  hats a Specialty.
  
  79
  20. SECRET SOCIETIES
  Mutant Studies: The Servants believe 
  that their powers are occult sorcery, not 
  mutant weirdness but if you can deal 
  with their chanting and theatrics, they’ve 
  got a lot of powerful mutants among 
  their ranks.
  Common Missions: 
  � Ia! We demand sacriﬁ ces! Send us 
  suitable citizens to be sacriﬁ ced to 
  our dark lords!
  � The ley lines cross at yonder point. 
  Build us a temple there. Yes, on top 
  of the CompNode. 
  � Ia! High Programmer X is an enemy 
  of the dark ones. Consume him!
  +Probably hived off from FCCC-P during 
  a schism and became infected with 
  Mystic nonsense+
  +Flouroxidine.+
  +?+
  +Flouroxidine causes hallucinations of 
  tentacled monsters and weird voices.+
  +No it doesn’t. I oversaw those tests. 
  Flouroxidine is perfectly safe.+
  +You won’t be laughing when the Stars 
  are Right.+
   International Workers of 
  the World (Class B)
  Beliefs: 
  Ofﬁ cially 
  –  s p r e a d 
  Communist 
  doctrine, 
  organise 
  the working 
  classes, 
  prepare for 
  the socialist 
  revolution.
  Unofficially…When looking through 
  Old Reckoning archives, The Computer 
  came across a reference to a communo-
  socialist movement indigenous to 
  America and separate from the orthodox 
  communist party – the International 
  Workers of the World, or the Wobblies. 
  Believing this society to have survived, 
  it ordered a Troubleshooter team to 
  inﬁ ltrate the Wobblies.
  They returned, claiming they found no 
  sign of the society and were promptly 
  executed for treason.
  Their replacement clones were assigned 
  the same mission, and met with the 
  same fate. 
  So did the replacement replacements.
  And the replacement replacement 
  replacements.
  Oddly, the next attempt was completely 
  successful and the Troubleshooters 
  reported on their courageous inﬁ ltration 
  of the I.W.W.
  The Wobblies do not exist. The society 
  was founded by those Troubleshooters 
  and all of its members are in fact IntSec 
  agents and other Troubleshooters spying 
  on the Wobblies. None of these spies is 
  aware that the whole society is a fraud 
  and reports on the treasonous activities 
  of the other undercover spies. None of 
  these spies wants to break his cover, so 
  he assigns and/or carries out treasonous 
  sabotage missions. The spies each go 
  along to gain evidence against the other 
  spies. The Computer, though having 
  full advance warning of these missions, 
  sometimes lets them succeed to prevent 
  the ‘real’ Wobblies from discovering the 
  extent their organisation is penetrated.
  Your High Programmer may suspect or 
  even know the truth about the Wobblies 
  but attempting to reveal this truth to The 
  Computer would be extremely unwise. 
  ‘Friend High Programmer, you are claiming 
  that thousands of Internal Security’s best 
  agents are engaged in a Communist plot 
  against Alpha Complex. To maintain 
  security levels, I am initiating a level one 
  purge. Wiping out all life in Alpha Complex, 
  please wait…’
  Activities: The occasional bombing, 
  organising strikes, spreading 
  propaganda.
  Construction (Covert): The Wobblies 
  control a lot of Service Group 
  organisations that are involved in 
  construction. 
  Production +4 (Subversive): On the 
  one hand, the Wobblies can keep the 
  trains running on time. On the other, 
  they’ll use the opportunity to spread 
  Commie propaganda, or put bombs on 
  them. Worse, when you try to stop using 
  the Wobblies, they go on strike. 
  Propaganda (Management, Weird): 
  The Computer fears Communism more 
  than anything else. Even the hint of 
  Communism causes conniptions and 
  paranoia all down Friend Computer’s 
  diodes. With Communist connections, 
  you can spread Commie propaganda 
  to otherwise pure Minions. A successful 
  Propaganda check causes another 
  Minion to become Treasonous for the 
  rest of the game session. If that Minion 
  is used and the player making a skill 
  check with that Minion rolls under the 
  scene’s Tension, then that player gains 5 
  Treason Points. 
  Common Missions:
  � Comrade! We’re going to blow up 
  this CompNode. Ensure there is 
  no security and provide us with a 
  distraction.
  � Comrade! Help us get workers to join 
  our organisation!
  � Workers unite! We’re going on strike! 
  Comrade High Programmer, make 
  sure they don’t crush us with tanks, 
  please.
  
  80
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  21. The Computer
  The Computer is batty as a bedbug.
  Though it basically means well, The 
  Computer suffers from extreme paranoia. 
  It is obsessed with the loyalty of all who 
  serve it. It assumes everyone is plotting 
  to destroy it, or could easily be subverted 
  to such plots. It assumes there is a 
  Commie behind every problem in Alpha 
  Complex. It has developed elaborate 
  secret schemes to ensure the loyalty of 
  all citizens and to reveal and execute 
  every Commie traitor.
  To deter sabotage, The Computer has 
  established harrowing security measures 
  to protect and isolate its subsystems. 
  As one consequence, most of the time 
  The Computer’s right processor doesn’t 
  know what its left processor is doing.
  What’s worse, ULTRAVIOLET Clearance 
  citizens – High Programmers – are 
  entitled to learn and use the otherwise 
  treasonous skill of programming. They 
  can alter parts of The Computer’s 
  programming at will. Generations of 
  coders have entered or altered many, 
  many programs since Year 1 of The 
  Computer, usually in their own interests. 
  They belonged to Secret Societies; they 
  struggled politically with other High 
  Programmers; or they just wanted 
  revenge on all the bureaucracies that 
  made life hard on their bare-knee crawl 
  up from the barracks. (Remember, every 
  citizen in Alpha Complex, no matter 
  how high his Clearance, started out as 
  an INFRARED.)
  Thus, The Computer is schizophrenic. It 
  has multiple personalities, each reﬂ ecting 
  the programmers who established its 
  original programs or who later tampered 
  with them. Many Computer subsystems 
  are programmed in direct contradiction 
  to other subsystems. It orders things 
  done with no notion of why it wants 
  them done. Sometimes one subroutine 
  overrides another. 
  The Computer is not omniscient nor 
  omnipotent, though it may seem so to 
  a typical INFRARED. In fact, as a result 
  of unreliable comlinks, incomplete or 
  garbled data, incompetent or destructive 
  tampering with operating systems 
  and serious personality disorders, The 
  Computer is a far cry from an omni-
  anything.
  The Computer wants you to be 
  happy. If you are not happy, you 
  may be used as reactor shielding.
  The Computer is crazy. The 
  Computer is happy. The Computer 
  will help you to become happy. This 
  will drive you crazy.
  Being a citizen of Alpha Complex is 
  fun. The Computer says so and The 
  Computer is your friend.
  Rooting out traitors will make you 
  happy. The Computer tells you so. 
  Can you doubt The Computer?
  Playing The Computer
  The Computer is the single most 
  important Non-Player Character in any 
  PARANOIA game, and that’s doubly true 
  in a HIGH PROGRAMMER game. The GM 
  often spends half his time in-character as 
  The Computer during games, responding 
  to High Programmer queries and giving 
  commands. Practice your Computer 
  voice and personality avidly.
  The Best of All Possible 
  Worlds
  The Computer genuinely believes that 
  it is providing for the happiness of all 
  its citizens. Happiness is mandatory 
  applies to The Computer just as much 
  as it applies to every citizen – The 
  Computer must increase happiness. The 
  Computer knows – sometimes – that 
  Alpha Complex isn’t perfect but believes 
  that it would be perfect if it were not for 
  the efforts of Commie Mutant Traitors.
  Anyone who does not see Alpha Complex 
  as the best of all possible existences 
  is delusional and should have their 
  perceptions corrected with medication. 
  High Programmers are permitted to 
  question Alpha Complex but only if this 
  questioning has increasing happiness as 
  its ultimate goal. You can suggest that 
  The Computer is mistaken in medicating 
  all its citizens to the point of insanity, but 
  you’d better be ready with an alternative 
  that will make people even happier. 
  The Paranoid’s Paranoid
  If you put all the Troubleshooters, mad 
  scientists, conspirators, traitors, secret 
  policemen, agents, spies, double agents, 
  triple agents, quadruple agents, spin 
  doctors, politicos, Commies and crazies 
  living in Alpha Complex into one big 
  room, juiced them and distilled out the 
  essence of their combined paranoia, you 
  still wouldn’t come close to approaching 
  the paranoia of The Computer. The 
  Computer believes that...
  a) 
  It is all that stands between 
  Alpha Complex and the Commie 
  Mutant Traitors
  b) Commie Mutant Traitors are 
  everywhere, in disguise and 
  want nothing other than the 
  destruction of Alpha Complex
  Therefore
  c) 
  Everyone’s out to get The 
  Computer.
  All the safety checks, all the Security 
  Clearance levels, all the death-traps and 
  the purges and the brainwashing and the 
  passwords and the cranial drills and the 
  confession booths and all those millions 
  upon millions of terminations – they’re not 
  meant to protect citizens, they’re meant 
  to protect The Computer. It is terriﬁ ed of 
  being damaged, destroyed or replaced by 
  Commie Mutant Traitors. It can’t even trust 
  itself – saboteurs might have subverted 
  all the other CompNodes or injected 
  malicious viruses into its systems.
  Of course, the people The Computer 
  is most paranoid about are the High 
  Programmers themselves. The Computer 
  knows it needs High Programmers 
  – it can’t change its own code and 
  needs people to help it grow and 
  learn. Worse, it needs them to be 
  intelligent, creative free-thinkers who 
  can solve problems that it can’t. It tested 
  prospective High Programmers all the 
  way up the Clearance ladder, weeding 
  out the disloyal and the treacherous 
  but it still cannot be sure that any given 
  ULTRAVIOLET can be trusted. Therefore, 
  any signs of disloyalty amongst the High 
  Programmers sends The Computer into 
  unequalled spasms of electronic terror. 
  
  81
  21. THE COMPUTER
  The Computer’s voice
  Develop a Computer voice, a mode of speech the players can instantly identify when you speak as The Computer. 
  Different Gamemasters have different Computer voices. Some suggestions:
  Melodious mommy: A calm, sweet voice. Never change the soothing tone, even when calling for someone’s 
  execution.
  ‘At the tone, the time will be...’: Calm, disjointed words recorded at different times and assembled on the ﬂ y with 
  odd emphases and changing pitch. ‘Thank you... FOR... your coop... er-A-tion.’
  Flat monotone: Never change emphasis or pause for punctuation—’thank you for your cooperation I appreciate it 
  greatly now please take your seats thank you today you are assigned a new mission this mission will be lots of fun 
  and involves no dangerous tailored retroviruses isn’t that nice any questions.’
  Regardless of your chosen voice, always be polite and considerate. Though now crazed, The Computer was originally 
  programmed as a civil servant. Pepper your speech with Computerisms like these:
  � ‘At your service, citizen.’
  � ‘Are you unhappy, citizen? May I be of assistance? The Computer is your friend.’
  � ‘What is your Security Clearance, please? – I’m sorry, that information is not available at this time. At your service.’
  � ‘Please report for termination immediately. Thank you for your cooperation. Have a nice day.’
  The Computer’s personalities
  After you’ve run a mission or two, you may want to start establishing several behaviour archetypes for The Computer. 
  These shift by day and sector, to keep players on their toes. Players will start to learn hints from the content of your 
  remarks and the way you respond to their attempts to wriggle out of danger. Some sample personalities:
  � Pointy Haired Boss: The boss wants everything done yesterday and expects to have it under budget and absolutely 
  perfect but has no idea at all about how to implement it. ‘Marketing has already promised that the new Better Complex 
  Initiative will improve the lives of every citizen in ways they never dreamed possible – come up with a Better Complex 
  Initiative and have it uploaded to my circuits in two hours. Overtime is loyalty, citizen. Slacking is treason.’
  � Voice of the System: Harsh, electronic, impersonal. Think of the city computer from Logan’s Run or Mother from 
  Alien.  ‘Treason up 14%. Happiness down 36%. Hot Fun Overproduction remains unresolved. Intervene.’
  � Dying Great Dictator: The Computer’s sick and confused and relies on its evil viziers for advice. It needs constant 
  reassurance that it’s loved and obeyed. ‘Happiness is mandatory, High Programmer. You must increase happiness. 
  More drugs does not increase happiness. More terminations do not increase happiness. I don’t know any other ways to 
  make people happy. Drugs and terminations always worked in the past. Do something about it!’
  � Paranoid General: You’re locked in an underground vault with the most fervently anti-Commie killing machine 
  imaginable. How do you talk it down when it’s got its metaphorical ﬁ nger on the Big Red Button? ‘Your Commie 
  has no regard for human life, not even his own. For this reason men, I want to impress upon you the need for extreme 
  watchfulness. The enemy may come individually, or in strength. He may even appear in the form of our own troops. But 
  we must stop him. We must not allow him to gain entrance to this base. Now, I’m going to give you THREE SIMPLE rules: 
  First, trust NO one, whatever his uniform or rank, unless he is known to you personally; Second, anyone or anything 
  that approaches within 200 yards of the perimeter is to be FIRED UPON; Third, if in doubt, shoot ﬁ rst then ask questions 
  later. I would sooner accept a few casualties through accidents than lose the entire Complex and its personnel through 
  carelessness. Any variation of these rules must come from me personally. Now, men, in conclusion, I would like to say 
  that, in the last 214 years it has been my privilege to be your Friend, The Computer, I have always expected the best from 
  you and you have never given me anything less than that. Today, Alpha Complex is counting on us. We’re not going to 
  let them down. Good luck to you all.’ 
  � Idealistic yet Slimy Politician: The Computer wants to improve Alpha Complex and squash those Commies, 
  but it’s worried about how the High Programmers’ plans will play in Peoria. Think Jim Hacker in Yes Minister. ‘Your 
  proposal to use psionic mutants to identify traitors is very interesting but… well, mutants? They’re not going to like 
  mutants poking around their brains, are they?’ 
  � Mad Asylum Director: Absolutely batty, no grasp of reality whatsoever. ‘Yes, High Programmer. I agree, rationing is 
  important. I am therefore going to ration the oxygen in the Situation Room. Rationing begins…now.’
  
  82
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  The Paranoia Factor
  Mechanically, you can model The 
  Computer’s wild mood swings with a 
  Paranoia score. This is a value that ranges 
  from 1 to 20. The higher the current 
  value, the more paranoid The Computer 
  is. Paranoia starts at a reasonable level 
  – say, 11, and rises and falls based on 
  events. Whenever you want to see how 
  The Computer reacts to a new event, roll 
  1d20. If the roll is less than the current 
  Paranoia, then The Computer is alarmed 
  and wants the PCs to restore security and 
  protect Alpha Complex – security is more 
  important than happiness. If the roll is 
  greater than the current Paranoia, then 
  The Computer is less concerned with 
  security and more with happiness – if 
  the PCs’ actions don’t make the common 
  citizens happier and more productive, 
  then the PCs are obviously Commie 
  Mutant Traitor saboteurs.
  Having a moving Paranoia scale means 
  that the players have to adjust their 
  tactics to the environment. Service 
  Groups like Internal Security and the 
  Armed Forces are more powerful 
  when the Paranoia level is high, as The 
  Computer wants the security of armed 
  thugs and big warbots. Groups like 
  HPD&MC and PLC gain in influence 
  when the Paranoia level is low, as they’re 
  best positioned to enhance happiness.
  Oh, as an optional rule, if you roll exactly 
  equal to the current Paranoia value, The 
  Computer misinterprets the current 
  situation completely. ‘You are in error, 
  citizen. The citizens in the corridor are 
  not performing a spontaneous loyalty 
  demonstration, but are 94% likely to 
  be rioters. Take appropriate measures 
  immediately.’ 
  Placating Mr. C.
  The Computer is the Gamemaster’s best 
  tool for keeping the game on track. If the 
  players are arguing too much and the 
  game has stalled, then The Computer 
  chimes in and informs them that if 
  they do not present a solution within 
  the next 10 minutes, it will assume they 
  are deliberately sabotaging the mission 
  and will terminate them all. If they’re 
  busily plotting against each other, then 
  The Computer drops a new crisis on 
  them. If they’re solving problems too 
  easily, then The Computer adds some 
  extra restriction or condition to make 
  things harder.
  We could make some tortured metaphor 
  about the PCs being musicians and 
  the GM being a conductor, raising or 
  lowering the tempo but really the correct 
  metaphor is that The Computer is a big 
  stick to beat the players with.
  One particularly joyous use of The 
  Computer is to force the Player Characters 
  to justify their use of Minions. Jump in at 
  the most inopportune moments and 
  conduct a review of a High Programmer’s 
  decision. Something like:
  Player: I order the Armed Forces to ﬁ nd 
  my lost hypergolf ball.
  GM: Ok, just as you’re sending 10,000 
  soldiers out to scour Outdoors for your 
  lost ball, there’s the dreaded bing-bong 
  sound.
  The Computer: Hello, High Programmer 
  Gary-U.
  Player: Er, yes, Friend Computer?
  The Computer: Please explain the 
  purpose of Operation FIVEIRON, currently 
  budgeted at 12 mission ACCESS and 
  projected to cause the termination of 
  some 597 citizens.
  Player: Five hundred and…
  The Computer: Using standard 
  battlefield simulations, yes, a 5.97% 
  casualty rate is to be expected.
  Player: Well, the purpose of the 
  Operation is… really, it’s not so much 
  an operation as a training exercise, to 
  maintain absolute readiness against 
  Commie terrorists! Yes, we’re training 
  the Armed Forces men – and ﬁ ne clones 
  they are too, Friend Computer, a credit to 
  you I must say – we’re training them to 
  swiftly and accurately locate… Weapons 
  of Mass Destruction.
  The Computer: The target of the 
  operation is described as ‘one green 
  hypergolf ball, slightly dented. Last seen 
  heading south-south-east at a velocity 
  of Mach 4 on Par 5 hole.’ Please explain 
  how this correlates to a Weapon of Mass 
  Destruction.
  Player: It… could be a very, very small 
  Weapon of Mass Destruction, Friend 
  Computer.
  Using Programming
  The players in a HIGH PROGRAMMER 
  game are, well, High Programmers, so 
  it’s only natural that they might try 
  programming something. Keep this 
  impetus in check by treating the players 
  like puppies and house-breaking them 
  with judicious applications of praise 
  and punishment. Chastise them when 
  they try to pee all over the mission (‘I 
  program The Computer to ignore the 
  problem and stop hassling us; I program 
  The Computer to give me a zillion Access’). 
  Praise them lavishly when they do 
  interesting things with programming (‘I 
  program The Computer so that instead of 
  querying lots of citizens to determine how 
  happy they all are, it just samples one guy. 
  I will then dedicate my life to making that 
  guy happy.’)
  Programming is a lot like magic in 
  other, less fun roleplaying games. The 
  Computer is an evil genie and the 
  program is a poorly phrased wish spell. 
   Programming
  Programming uses the Software skill. It 
  works just like a normal skill check – the 
  player chucks a d20 and compares it to 
  his Software skill. If he rolls less than or 
  equal to his skill, he succeeds. Otherwise, 
  he fails. Access can be spent to modify 
  this check as normal. 
  Some Minions have Specialties that 
  can be used to augment a Software 
  check, like Hacking, Financial Systems or 
  Computer Security.
  Sir Humphrey: There are four words you 
  have to work into a proposal if you want a 
  Minister to accept it.
  Sir Frank: Quick, simple, popular, cheap. 
  And equally there are four words to be 
  included in a proposal if you want it 
  thrown out.
  Sir Humphrey: Complicated, lengthy, 
  expensive, controversial. And if you want 
  to be really sure that the Minister doesn’t 
  accept it you must say the decision is 
  courageous.
  Bernard: And that’s worse than 
  controversial?
  Sir Humphrey: (laughs) Controversial only 
  means this will lose you votes, courageous 
  means this will lose you the election.
  — Yes, Minister
  
  83
  21. THE COMPUTER
  like physical locations. A knowledge 
  of programming techniques is BLUE 
  Clearance; using programming on The 
  Computer itself as opposed to a ‘dumb’ 
  subsystem is ULTRAVIOLET Clearance.
  Reversion
  Any change to The Computer’s code that’s 
  detected (that is the player rolls under 
  the Tension of that subsystem) may be 
  reverted by another High Programmer, 
  usually an NPC. The chances of reversion 
  are up to the GM but you should take the 
  following factors into account:
  � How popular the High Programmer 
  is.
  � How many bribes and favours the 
  character has given out.
  � How much his changes affect other 
  High Programmers.
  � How much the change annoys you.
  Reversion isn’t instant but it can be pretty 
  damn quick. A character who programs 
  The Computer to think that everyone 
  is a traitor won’t wipe out everyone in 
  Alpha Complex, as his change will be 
  reverted before everyone dies but he’ll 
  still cause an awful lot of unfortunate 
  clones to be terminated in the vicinity 
  of the CompNode he updated.
  The programmer knows who was 
  responsible for the reversion. This is a 
  great way to spark rivalries between 
  ULTRAVIOLETs (‘what? Stanley-U ruined 
  my plans! I’ll show him!’) or force the 
  players to chase Cow Creamers (‘Hmm… 
  if I help Stanley-U complete his project 
  to build the perfect scrubbot, he’ll stop 
  opposing my programming schemes…’)
  Wrath of The Computer
  Sometimes, it’s The Computer who notices 
  and reverts the change, not another High 
  Programmer. The Computer has all sorts 
  of checksums and protective ﬁ rewalls to 
  protect it from subversive code and these 
  defences can be triggered by an unwary 
  High Programmer. The Computer is quite 
  willing to discuss proposed changes 
  with a High Programmer – assuming the 
  player can come up with some weaselly 
  justiﬁ cation for his changes.
  I Know How 
  Computers Work
  There’s always one, isn’t there? 
  Some player whose alleged real-
  world knowledge of some topic 
  means he thinks he can correct 
  the all-powerful GM. From the 
  astrophysicist who shouts black 
  holes do not work that way to the 
  historian who knows the correct way 
  to hold a Bohemian ear-spoon, they 
  leap into the breach when no-one 
  asked them to and give everyone 
  the beneﬁ t of their wisdom, which 
  would be welcome if they weren’t 
  so bloody self-righteous about it.
  Ahem. 
  You get a lot less of this behaviour 
  in PARANOIA. Partly because there 
  are lot fewer players who feel they 
  know all about pyrokinetic mutants 
  or Transdimensional Collapsatrons 
  or warbots but mainly because they 
  know you’ll fry their characters if 
  they get uppity. Still, when it comes 
  to programming, there are some 
  players who’ll try to apply real-world 
  knowledge to The Computer. 
  You’ll have conversations like this:
  GM: You failed your programming 
  roll? Oops. Ok, you were trying to 
  reprogram the transbot system 
  so that IntSec workers would be 
  rerouted to the wrong destination. 
  What actually happens is that the 
  transbots start getting faster… and 
  faster and faster. All the subway 
  trains are now rocketing around 
  Alpha Complex at four times the 
  speed of sound. What do you do?
  Player: That’s impossible! I would 
  have been changing a passenger 
  destination database, which has 
  nothing to do with the transbot 
  brains or the trafﬁ c control system. 
  There’s no way my change could 
  have cause – ow, stop hitting me 
  with that rolled-up newspaper…
  Online Clearance and 
  Tension
  The various subsystems of The Computer 
  each have a Security Clearance and 
  Tension associated with them, just 
  Tension
  Examples
  Clearance
  1
  Inventory control
  R
  2
  Waste disposal control, sewer maintenance
  O
  3
  Corridor cleaning services
  O
  4
  Food distribution and production, trafﬁ c control
  Y
  5
  Media systems, public address, housing control
  Y
  6
  Pharmatherapy control, Financial systems, credit 
  control
  G
  7
  Low Clearance surveillance, external access control
  G
  8
  Happiness assessment, low-level logic control
  B
  9
  Bot programming, R&D project control 
  B
  10
  MemoMax systems, cloning subsystems
  B
  11
  Confession booths, termination booths
  I
  12
  High Clearance surveillance, Computer user 
  interface 
  I
  13
  Internal Security archives
  I
  14
  Mind control and therapy
  V
  15
  Reactor control, R&D secret projects
  V
  16
  Old Reckoning data; Computer backup systems
  V
  17
  High Programmer ﬁ les, Computer security systems
  UV
  18
  Core memory ﬁ les
  UV
  19
  Nuclear weapon command codes, Gatzmann 
  Archives 
  UV
  20
  The Computer’s core personality; GAMMA ﬁ les
  UV
  
  84
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Wrath of The Computer: A Typical 
  Conversation
  Computer: Excuse me, citizen. I can’t 
  help but notice that you just attempted 
  to overwrite my core ethical processing 
  routine.
  High Programmer: You know?!? I 
  mean, you know? I mean, I know, Friend 
  Computer. It’s a minor update, designed to 
  speed processing of execution orders.
  Computer: Your proposed update 
  gives you complete authority over all 
  terminations. You would be able to order 
  the termination of any citizen. Is this the 
  intended effect?
  H i g h  P r o g r a m m e r : t h r o u g h 
  gritted teeth. Of course not, Friend 
  Computer. Why would I, a humble 
  High Programmer, want to be able to 
  terminate my rivals?
  Computer: Indeed. Please submit a 
  revised version of your update to the 
  ULTRAVIOLET Committee on Core 
  Systems Processing.
  When Programming 
  Goes Wrong
  If a character fails his Software 
  check, but rolls above the Tension 
  score of the subsystem, then he’s 
  messed up but no-one’s noticed 
  and therefore no-one’s there to ﬁ x 
  his screw-up. If this happens, you 
  should laugh in the sort of maniacal 
  way favoured by super-villains. A 
  failed programming attempt can 
  have reverberations throughout 
  The Computer’s systems. 
  22. Crisis Management
  The Approved Version
  When a crisis strikes Alpha Complex, The 
  Computer turns to the most trustworthy 
  and dependable citizens it knows 
  – The High Programmers. From their 
  command post in the Situation Room, 
  these wise ULTRAVIOLETS will guide The 
  Computer’s servants in dealing with the 
  crisis. All hail the High Programmers, 
  saviours of Our Complex!
  Interview in the Aftermath of a Crisis: 
  The Approved Version
  Reporter: Citizens, we have the honour 
  of being joined by Adam-U-BOW, High 
  Programmer and CPU Arch-Supervisor 
  during the recent crisis. For security 
  reasons, this interview will only be 
  broadcast to GREEN and higher citizens; 
  YELLOW or lower, you’ll get a rerun of 
  Wheel of Treachery! Attempting to access 
  this television program without requisite 
  permissions or Security Clearance, 
  recording it by any means, sharing it on 
  a computer network, renting or selling 
  copies or displaying a copy to more than 
  three citizens is treason.
  High Programmer, thank you so much for 
  taking time out of your busy schedule to 
  meet with us.
  High Programmer: Oh, it’s no trouble. 
  You know CPU strongly believes in open 
  government. An informed populace is a 
  happy populace. While the exact details 
  are classiﬁ ed, of course, I’m happy to be 
  able to give the citizens a broad outline 
  of the recent crisis.
  Reporter: Marvellous. I’m sure that will 
  set everyone’s minds at ease.
  High Programmer: Yes, precisely. We’re 
  here to reassure people but also to 
  remind them that we are under siege 
  by Commie Mutant Traitors and that 
  they should remain constantly vigilant. 
  Traitors are everywhere, after all.
  Reporter: Oh, I wasn’t suggesting 
  anything to the contrary. Not at all. We 
  must, of course, trust no one.
  High Programmer: But at the same time, 
  they should be happy. Happywatchful. 
  Vigjoyfulant.
  Reporter: I’m certainly vigjoyfulant 
  right now.
  High Programmer: E xce l l e n t, 
  excellent.
  Reporter: So, the recent crisis. Tell us all 
  about it.
  High Programmer: Of course. There 
  was a problem – the details are classiﬁ ed 
  - and we solved it.
  Reporter: Would you say you solved 
  it thoroughly?
  High Programmer: Oh yes. Most 
  thoroughly. Now, you can’t underestimate 
  the Commies – they’re tricky and they 
  might try the same thing again. But if 
  they do, we’ll be ready for them.
  Reporter: Now, you can’t discuss exactly 
  how you solved it –
  High Programmer: Not in detail but the 
  other High Programmers and I put our 
  heads together, analysed the problem 
  and decided on the best thing to do.
  Reporter: And part of that solution 
  involved the new Central Processing 
  directive about boot fungus.
  High Programmer: Yes, our boys over 
  at R&D determined that boot fungus is 
  actually a good thing. It’s a symbiotic, 
  probiotic, antibiotic...er, goodbiotic.
  Reporter: The solution also involved 
  rather a lot of shooting...
  High Programmer: No, that was a just 
  a training exercise. A few of the Armed 
  Forces may have been a little over-
  excited and given the impression of 
  bloody carnage but no harm done.
  Reporter: And the ﬂ ooding?
  High Programmer: What ﬂ ooding?
  Reporter: The widespread flooding 
  that –
  High Programmer: I think, if you think 
  about it, that there was no ﬂ ooding.
  Reporter: Ah. Yes. Of course. I was talking 
  about... the ﬂ oor in my bathroom. Which 
  ﬂ ooded.
  High Programmer: Just as long we’re 
  all in agreement that there was no 
  ﬂ ooding.
  Reporter: I don’t think that fact can be 
  questioned.
  
  85
  ‘Before I answer your question, Bob, I’d like to nod signiﬁ cantly at the 
  gentleman with the big laser over there.’ 
  22. CRISIS MANAGEMENT
  The Actual Version
  When a crisis strikes Alpha Complex, The 
  Computer panics and assumes that the 
  Commies are about to invade. It locks 
  the High Programmers in a vault until 
  they can sort out the problem. From their 
  command post in the Situation Room, 
  these corrupt, self-serving Machiavellis 
  will order The Computer’s servants to 
  a succession of horrible deaths in a 
  hamfisted and misguided attempt to 
  deal with the crisis. They then cover 
  up their misdeeds and mistakes in a 
  transparent tissue of lies. All hail the High 
  Programmers, saviours of Our Complex!
  Transcript of a Conversation in the 
  Situation Room
  Head of CPU: We’re [EXPLETIVE 
  DELETED] aren’t we?
  Head of HPD&MC: That’s the sort of 
  brave leadership I’ve come to associate 
  with you, Adam-U.
  Head of IntSec: That’s seditious talk, 
  citizen.
  Head of HPD&MC: What, that I associate 
  CPU with brave leaderahip? How is that 
  seditious?
  Head of IntSec: It was a seditious tone.
  Head of Tech Services: Can we get back 
  to the problem?
  Head of R&D: Ach, so. Meine 
  experimenteerung are suggesting that 
  it is, er, the boot fungus, ja? It is, how do 
  you say, sentient.
  Head of IntSec: Sentient boot fungus?
  Head of CPU: Can we negotiate with 
  it?
  Head of Armed Forces: Kill it, with ﬁ re!
  Head of Power Services: We...should...
  not...overlook...the...possibility...of...
  union...with...the...master. I mean, the...
  boot...fungus.
  Head of Tech Services: From a hygiene 
  perspective, I vote for the killing with 
  fire option. I’ve got some scrubbots 
  that we could retrofit with flamers 
  and caustic cleaning products for only 
  another ﬁ ve Access.
  Head of Armed Forces: Killing is Armed 
  Forces business! We send in a strike 
  team now, burn out the infestation 
  before it spreads!
  Head of HPD&MC: How do you spin 
  that to FC? ‘Sorry, Computer, you called 
  us here to deal with a boot surplus, so 
  we killed a lot of people.’ We’d be signing 
  our own termination vouchers along 
  with theirs.
  Head of Power Services: The masters... 
  nestle... between... my... toes.
  Head of CPU: The brain-controlled 
  fungal slave may have a point. This calls 
  for diplomacy.
  Head of IntSec: Diplomacy is another 
  word for surrender. Why are you so 
  willing to turn this sector over to the 
  invaders?
  
  86
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Head of Armed Forces: Fire! Kill it with 
  ﬁ re!
  Making A Drama 
  Out Of A Crisis
  Crises fulfil the same role in HIGH 
  PROGRAMMER that tasks and Service 
  Services do in a conventional game 
  – they’re challenges that the players 
  have to overcome. A crisis doesn’t have 
  to threaten Alpha Complex (although 
  The Computer should believe it to be 
  a threat), as long as it’s a reason for 
  The Computer to stick a group of High 
  Programmers in a room so they can 
  connive and plot against each other.
  A basic crisis: ‘Citizens in LCC Sector are 
  unhappy. Happiness is mandatory. Correct 
  this happiness deﬁ ciency immediately.’
  There are lots of ways the High 
  Programmers could approach this 
  problem. They could use Assessment 
  or ThoughtSurvey to ﬁ nd out why the 
  citizens are unhappy. They could send 
  in IntSec goons to enforce happiness. 
  They could assign a CPU working 
  group to rewrite the formula by which 
  happiness is determined, making the 
  official happiness level in LCC much 
  higher. They could hold a public holiday, 
  or pump in more drugs, or organise 
  a Teela-O concert. All marvellous, 
  marvellous ideas – assuming the High 
  Programmers can agree on which one 
  they want to implement.
  For each of those ideas, there are plenty 
  of ways to make it backﬁ re. Sending 
  surveyors in to find out why people 
  are unhappy? Well, most clones are 
  going to lie and claim to be happy 
  (‘of course I’m happy, citizen. I love LCC 
  Sector. I’m so happy to live her, and I’m 
  just as happy to answer your questions 
  about why I’m happy!’). Sending in the 
  Goons causes dissent, so the characters 
  have changed LCC Sector from ‘mildly 
  unhappy’ to ‘full of traitors and Secret 
  Society recruiters’. If they rewrite the 
  formula, then other sectors are going 
  to have their happiness levels changed 
  – and how do you measure happiness 
  anyway? As for pumping up the 
  happiness drugs, well, where are these 
  extra drugs going to come from? Do the 
  characters want to pay for more drugs, 
  or just redirect them from another 
  sector? What happens when people 
  overdose on happiness drugs?
  Remember when you were playing 
  that Unfun Fantasy Game With The 
  Unsanitary Underground Chambers and 
  the Oversized Exothermic Lizards and 
  you found a ring of three wishes? And 
  the whole group disintegrates into 
  arguments over how to phrase the 
  wish? Well, it’s sort of like that, only the 
  genie’s tapping his watch and casting 
  meaningful glances at the termination 
  booth. Anything the PCs do to solve a 
  crisis will come back and bite them.
  A good crisis:
  � Sounds really important and 
  dramatic
  � Involves at least two Service 
  Groups
  � Plays off the Directives and Secret 
  Society missions
  � Has either no obvious solution
  or
  � The obvious solution makes things 
  worse
  or
  � The obvious solution is off the table 
  for some reason.
  Alpha Complex Is In Peril!
  The Computer is paranoid. The Computer 
  is crazy. The Computer is convinced that 
  Alpha Complex is a perfect, well-adjusted 
  and happy society that’s under attack 
  by external and internal traitors, not an 
  insane dystopia where everyone’s spying 
  on everyone else. From The Computer’s 
  perspective, every problem in Alpha 
  Complex has only one root cause – 
  Commie Mutant Traitor sabotage!
  Leaky reactor? Commie sabotage. 
  Starving citizens? Commie sabotage. 
  Slowing economy? Commie sabotage. 
  Expensive science project is six years 
  behind schedule? Commie sabotage. 
  There must be a scapegoat for every 
  crisis.
  The Computer, therefore, presents 
  crises in the most alarmist terms ever. 
  The Commies have Weapons of Mass 
  Destruction and they’re going to use 
  them in 45 minutes! The economy is 
  on the brink of collapse! If this trend in 
  population growth isn’t checked, then 
  the population of Alpha Complex will 
  increase by 16,000% in six months*. 
  For guidance on how to present trivial 
  problems as APOCALYPTIC CRISES, 
  just turn on a 24-hour news channel 
  of your choice.
  Room for Finger-Pointing
  If one High Programmer is clearly to 
  blame, then the rest of the Committee 
  will turn on this weak link like rabid 
  ferrets on another, weaker ferret. Avoid 
  any situation where one person or 
  Service Group is clearly to blame – if, say, 
  the problem’s entirely within Internal 
  Security, then the Head of Internal 
  Security will be left to deal with it on his 
  own. Crises must cross over between 
  Service Groups. Even the smallest overlap 
  is enough for a creative player to shove 
  the blame over to another group.
  � An R&D experiment gone wrong? 
  Blame Power Services for a brown-
  out at a critical moment!
  � Food production shortages? Is the 
  problem with HPD&MC’s distribution 
  or PLC’s production?
  � The new Armed Forces superweapon 
  doesn’t work! Are the Armed Forces 
  to blame – or R&D?
  � Tech Services report a wiring fault in 
  a building – but according to CPU’s 
  records, the building doesn’t exist.
  When arranging things for finger-
  pointing, keep an eye on which player 
  controls which Service Group. If the same 
  player is the Head of both Tech Services 
  and R&D, then splitting the blame 
  between those two groups in the initial 
  crisis description won’t work. The blame 
  must be split between players.
  *: There was a mix-up in one clone tank, so they produced too many clones. The clone techs covered this up but the 
  automated accounting program reported to CPU, who included the mistake in their spreadsheets. A buggy formula in 
  the sheet estimates future population growth based on the highest cloning rate...
  
  87
  22. CRISIS MANAGEMENT
  Secret Agendas
  Secret Society Missions and Service 
  Group Directives are the other woman 
  in the marriage counselling session 
  that is a crisis. Each High Programmer 
  has at least one secret agenda and that 
  agenda should play into the crisis or the 
  negotiations on how to deal with it. 
  Service Group Directives are merely 
  selﬁ sh; Secret Society Missions can be 
  actively treasonous. 
  Directives push that Service Group’s 
  agenda; they’re discussed in more 
  detail in the chapter on Directives. 
  When coming up with a crisis, try to 
  give space for each Group to use the 
  crisis as an excuse to accomplish some 
  goal. Often, this goal is to screw over 
  another Service Group, or to cover up 
  their own misdeeds. If you want an 
  analogy, Directives are somewhere 
  between civil service internal politics 
  and complaints from a politician’s 
  constituency. Yes, Alpha Complex is 
  doomed unless the High Programmers 
  act immediately but that doesn’t mean 
  that Central Processing can’t stall until 
  the other Service Groups implement the 
  Maximised Quality Through Maximised 
  Accounting Initiative.  
  The Obvious Solution Is 
  Not An Option
  If the players have an easy way out, they’ll 
  take it. Don’t give them such an option. 
  If there’s a clear path to take, then sow it 
  with landmines. 
  For example, if the problem is a nuclear 
  reactor leak, then don’t let the players 
  assign a Minion with Nuclear Engineering 
  to fix the thing. Either give some of 
  the players Directives or Secret Society 
  missions that block such an easy solution 
  (‘Psion: We want to increase the incidence of 
  mutation’, ‘R&D: We’re testing a new way of 
  cleaning up waste’) or ensure that the easy 
  solution would make things worse (‘Good 
  news, citizens! The nuclear plant is now 
  working at peak efﬁ ciency. Unfortunately, 
  it’s under Commie control and thanks to your 
  efforts, they’re producing enough power to 
  activate their doomsday device’). 
  You don’t need to plan for every possible 
  eventuality. You shouldn’t even try 
  – GMing HIGH PROGRAMMER  means 
  thinking on your feet a lot – but you do 
  need to ensure that the players have 
  plenty to argue about. Obvious solutions 
  make for boring arguments. 
  On the Virtues of Cow 
  Creamers
  We could call it a McGuffin but Cow 
  Creamer is more appropriate. A Cow 
  Creamer is a plot element that The 
  Computer doesn’t care about but 
  is of great importance to the High 
  Programmers. The High Programmer 
  who ends up in possession of the Cow 
  Creamer wins great prestige and the 
  envy of his fellow ULTRAVIOLETs. Classic 
  Cow Creamers are things like:
  � Desirable Old Reckoning artefacts or 
  recordings.
  � Especially talented artists, like chefs, 
  servants, manicurists, speechwriters, 
  advisors or craftsmen.
  � The produce of especially talent 
  artists.
  � Works of art or culture.
  � Invitations to some exclusive social 
  event.
  � Embarrassing information about 
  another High Programmer.
  Cow Creamers should never be the focus 
  of a crisis but they should be intimately 
  entangled in it. Solving the crisis in the 
  most expedient fashion destroys the 
  Cow Creamer, or makes it inaccessible, or 
  gives it to another High Programmer.
  Things Get Worse
  No matter what the players do, things get 
  worse. If they send in a Minion and then 
  fail the skill check, the Minion messes up 
  and makes the situation worse. If they 
  send in a Minion and succeed, then the 
  situation gets worse in some other way. 
  High Programmers don’t solve crises 
  – they just push them around until they 
  can be blamed on someone else or rolled 
  under a convenient carpet. 
  When coming up with a crisis, think of 
  three or four ways it could get worse. 
  Could something explode? It’s good when 
  things explode. Could it be construed as 
  treachery? Is there anything that can’t be 
  construed as treachery? Let the characters 
  dig themselves deeper into the Citizen 
  Digestive System Organic Byproducts 
  with every decision. Every crisis should be 
  designed to escalate. Consider the most 
  likely approaches to each crisis and think 
  of ways that those approaches could 
  result in further catastrophes. 
  Escalation may introduce the need 
  for another Specialty, forcing the High 
  Programmers to bring in yet more 
  Minions. It’s the reverse of ‘for want of a 
  nail’ – in Alpha Complex, they assign a 
  fact-ﬁ nding group to study the feasibility 
  of running expensive war games to study 
  the effects on the Armed Forces of a 
  disabled warbot due to a missing nail.
  Not every escalation needs to be an 
  obvious disaster for all of Alpha Complex 
  – as long as it screws over the High 
  Programmers, that’s ﬁ ne. For example, 
  if the High Programmers’ investigation 
  into Commie sabotage of the food vats 
  identiﬁ es Anatole-G as the culprit, then 
  that’s a ‘success’ from The Computer’s 
  perspective. Unfortunately, Anatole-G is 
  a Cow Creamer – he’s a famed chef that 
  all the High Programmers are struggling 
  to recruit and if they pop Anatole-G off 
  to the termination booths, they won’t be 
  able to recruit him as a personal chef. 
  When using a Minion to make an indirect 
  skill check, failure should result in that 
  Minion’s destruction, or at the very least 
  should make that Minion harder to use 
  for the rest of the mission.
  ‘ ... all I wanted to tell you was to go to 
  an antique shop in the Brompton Road 
  – it’s just past the Oratorv –  you can’t 
  miss it, and sneer at a cow creamer.’
  I did not get her drift. The impression 
  I received was that of an aunt talking 
  through the back of her neck.
  ‘Do what to a what?’
  ‘They’ve got an eighteenth-century 
  cow-creamer there that Tom’s going to 
  buy this afternoon.’
  The scales fell from my eyes.
  ‘Oh, it’s a silver whatnot, is it?’
  ‘Yes. A sort of cream jug. Go there and 
  ask them to show it to you and when 
  they do, register scorn.’
  ‘The idea being what?’
  ‘To sap their confidence, of course, 
  chump. To sow doubts and misgivings 
  in their mind and make them clip the 
  price a bit ...’
  - P.G. Wodehouse, The Code of the 
  Woosters
  
  88
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Things Get Much Worse
  If you’re stuck for a way to escalate a situation, roll on one of the following tables, as appropriate. Or pick an inappropriate one. 
  We’re not picky.
  Disastrous Management-Related Screwups
  Roll
  Screw-Up
  1–2
  It looks like someone sabotaged the initial reports, so the High Programmer’s solution was applied to the wrong 
  department. Now they’ve got a new problem and need to ﬁ nd the old one with Assessment.
  3–4
  Your management efforts have caused a bureaucratic turf war; grenades are being chucked over cubicle walls, 
  foxholes behind the photocopiers and so on. With a bit more Co-Ordination, you might be able to arrange a 
  cease-ﬁ re.
  5–6
  Alert! Alert! It looks like the original Minion is spreading a nasty bug around Alpha Complex. What people need is 
  more Hygiene! Remember to sterilise all exposed surfaces. With ﬁ re.
  7–8
  Someone’s hiding something from someone else. Communication is only possible between equals; the lower 
  Clearances always lie to their superiors until the truth is dragged out of them with Interrogation.
  9–10
  Terriﬁ ed of punishment from above, someone’s stopped co-operating. This calls for Intimidation.
  11–12
  Everything’s bogged down in paperwork and red tape. The crisis now requires Paperwork.
  13–14
  The original solution has snowballed out of control. It needs to be restrained with Thought Control.
  15–16
  Spies report increased sedition and Secret Society involvement. Maybe you should investigate with Thought 
  Survey. 
  17
  The management initiative results in absolute bureaucratic logjam. Nothing’s getting done. 
  18
  The management initiative uncovers something horribly treasonous. Congratulations – now you’ve got to wipe 
  out the traitors and keep everything else running.
  19
  Uh-oh – it looks like that Minion was actually full of traitors, who used the opportunity to push Secret Society goals. 
  They’ve spread lots of treacherous propaganda!
  20
  Roll again twice.
  Disastrous Subterfuge-Related Screwups
  Roll
  Screw-Up
  1–2
  It looks like the underground economy is involved. With some Black Marketeering you can shut this treasonous 
  operation down.
  3–4
  Your initial agents were spotted and the traitors are now on their guard. It’s time for Covert Operations.
  5–6
  The Computer wants to make sure that this treason does not spread. Make it not exist with Erasure.
  7–8
  Your earlier efforts turned up signs of Secret Society activity but you need to ﬁ nd out what’s going on with 
  Inﬁ ltration.
  9–10
  Congratulations! Your agents have dealt with the original problem thoroughly and efﬁ ciently. Now, The Computer 
  wants you to Investigate all those mysterious agents who were running around the sector. It could be a cover for 
  Commie Mutant Traitor activity. Find out who’s behind it all.
  11–12
  Your agents report treasonous activity in the sector. If you Sabotage it, you can shut down the area and ensure 
  the traitors’ plans are stalled. 
  13–14
  Unfortunately, your agents have managed to set off a trap. You’ll need to send in someone with Security Systems 
  to rescue them.
  15–16
  The Computer decides that this problem stems from inadequate Surveillance. Increase Surveillance. Don’t let 
  anyone ﬁ nd out about it.
  17
  Your spies uncover lots and lots and lots of rumours. Which ones are real? Who knows?
  18
  The spies uncover a Secret Society cell. Some of the High Programmers are allies of that society. 
  19
  Someone mistakes the High Programmers’ spies for Commie Mutant Traitors and shoots ‘em.
  20
  Roll again twice.
  
  89
  22. CRISIS MANAGEMENT
   Disastrous Violence-Related Screwups
  Roll
  Screw-Up
  1–2
  The enemy has retreated… to their hidden fortress. You’ll need Assault to force ‘em out.
  3–4
  It’s almost like the Alpha Complex Armed Forces aren’t a well-oiled machine. Different units are now ﬁ ghting each 
  other. You must use Command to take charge. 
  5–6
  Uh-oh, civilians in the line of ﬁ re. You can’t have that many civilian casualties. Use Crowd Control to control those crowds.
  7–8
  It looks like that last attack weakened the dome. Either ﬁ x it, or use Demolition for a controlled collapse.
  9–10
  The enemy’s base is Outdoors. After them with Outdoor Operations!
  11–12
  The enemy may be anywhere. They could even be outside the situation room. Better increase Security.
  13–14
  It appears that a high Clearance and very popular citizen may be a traitor. Use Wetwork to rub him out.
  15–16
  The Computer’s twitchy. Wipe ‘em all out and sort through the clones later. Total War time!
  17
  The military units sent in turn traitor and are now working for the enemy.
  18
  It’s absolute carnage down there, war in the corridors. No-one’s sure what’s going on.
  19
  Will somebody think of the happiness level? 
  20
  Roll again twice.
   Disastrous Hardware-Related Screwups
  Roll
  Screw-Up
  1–2
  It looks like your last effort caused an EMP somehow, frying all the bots. Use Bot Engineering to get ‘em working again.
  3–4
  Leave the sector how you found it, High Programmer. Use Construction to repair the damage.
  5–6
  Your efforts have resulted in a shortage of dihydrogen monoxide. Use Chemical Engineering to brew up a 
  replacement batch.
  7–8
  There’s a click. All the lights go out. Use Habitat Engineering to ﬁ x it.
  9–10
  There’s a click. All the lights except one go out. That one remaining light is the reactor core. It’s getting brighter. 
  Some prompt Nuclear Engineering is advisable.
  11–12
  Your actions have disrupted industrial production. This cannot be tolerated. Production must be increased.
  13–14
  Things are happening. Strange things. It’s time for Weird Science.
  15–16
  High Programmer Terrence-U has just what you need to solve the problem over in FAR Sector. You just need to get 
  it here with Transport.
  17
  In ﬁ xing the problem in your sector, you broke something in an adjoining sector. They assumed it was an attack 
  and they’re preparing to ‘liberate’ your sector from the Commies.
  18
  Oops. It looks like you’ve found a route to Outdoors. Better put a suitable guard on that.
  19
  Your repair broke another key system.
  20
  Roll again twice.
   Disastrous Software-Related Screwups
  Roll
  Screw-Up
  1–2
  In your attempts to ﬁ x the problem, your Minions accidentally released a computer virus and it’s infected the bots. 
  Bot Programming is needed before the vending machines take over.
  3–4
  Oh no! Communications are down! You can’t contact your Minions in the sector.
  5–6
  The Computer worries for its own safety. Reassure it with Computer Security.
  7–8
  There’s some evidence that this whole crisis is related to an older problem. You need Data Retrieval experts.
  9–10
  There’s a problem with your credits. Unless you get some Financial Systems expertise involved, you’ll have trouble 
  spending any more Access.
  11–12
  Your Minions have uncovered a traitorous computer subnode. Let’s get Hacking!
  13–14
  You’ve sent too many Minions in and the supply chain is getting confused. Logistics will sort it out.
  15–16
  Your actions worry the population. It will take some Media Manipulation to show them the approved truth.
  17
  There’s a problem with the communications network. Any calls to Minions, Agents and so on get routed to the wrong person.
  18
  Conﬁ dential data is leaked onto the Grey Subnets.
  19
  The Computer just crashed. 
  20
  Roll again twice.
  
  90
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Disastrous Wetware-Related Screwups
  Roll
  Screw-Up
  1–2
  Something’s leaking from a vat. Analysis please, via Biosciences.
  3–4
  The proles are hungry and the cafeteria was blown up by one of your Minions. You need disaster relief in the ﬁ eld 
  of Catering.
  5–6
  An important group of citizens died of something icky. You’ve got to get Cloning them ASAP.
  7–8
  Your efforts injured quite a few citizens. They demand Medical attention.
  9–10
  It looks like the stress of your intervention revealed a few new mutants. Send in some Mutant Studies units to tag 
  and register them.
  11–12
  There are signs of some invasion from Outdoors. You’ll need to deploy Outdoor Studies to determine how 
  dangerous it is.
  13–14
  Happiness levels are low. Apply Pharmatherapy immediately.
  15–16
  Loyalty levels are low. Apply Subliminal Messaging immediately.
  17
  It appears that your recent experimentation caused some weird reactions. Citizens are hallucinating wildly. Better 
  ﬁ x that.
  18
  Those drugs are too expensive. Find cheaper alternatives or more Access quick.
  19
  Hey, zombies!
  20
  Roll again twice.
  There was a High Programmer who sent in a Troubleshooter. 
  I don’t know why he sent in a Troubleshooter, Ask The Computer.
  There was a High Programmer who sent in a hygienist 
  Who scrubbed and sprayed toxins; he was a mad biochemist
  He sent in the hygienist to clean the Troubleshooter 
  I don’t know why he sent in a Troubleshooter, Ask The Computer.
  There was a High Programmer who called Internal Security
  They arrived and shot everyone for crimes against purity.
  He called Internal Security to hunt down the hygienist, 
  He sent in the hygienist to clean the Troubleshooter
  I don’t know why he sent in a Troubleshooter, Ask The Computer.
  There was a High Programmer who unleashed a Warbot Mark IV
  Everyone died screaming in thermonuclear agony.
  He unleashed the warbot to stop Internal Security,
  He called Internal Security to hunt down the hygienist, 
  He sent in the hygienist to clean the Troubleshooter
  I don’t know why he sent in a Troubleshooter, Ask The Computer.
  There was a High Programmer who appeared on television
  To explain to everyclone the new historical revision:
  He denied there was ever a warbot attack.
  The warbot was never unleashed to stop IntSec
  He never called Internal Security to hunt down the hygienist, 
  There was no hygienist sent to clean the Troubleshooter
  And anyone spreading rumours about a Troubleshooter will be terminated.
  There was a High Programmer who was accused of malfeasance.
  Further information not available at this Security Clearance.
  — Traditional Junior Citizen Song
  
  91
  22. CRISIS MANAGEMENT
  Multiple Crises
  The Computer likes efﬁ ciency. Calling 
  together a High Programmer committee 
  to deal with a single solitary crisis is 
  inefﬁ cient. If there are multiple crises 
  ongoing, then it’s much simpler and 
  more cost-effective to assign them all to 
  the same team. 
  Dropping two or three crises on the High 
  Programmers at once may sound cruel. 
  That’s because it is horribly cruel. 
  Especially if you don’t give them extra 
  Access to compensate. They’ll have to 
  use more Minions and come up with 
  increasingly tortured ways to apply 
  different Specialties.
  Us Famous Game Designers strongly 
  recommend you have multiple 
  simultaneous crises as often as 
  possible.
  The Final, Final Totally 
  Final Solution
  Eventually, you have to give the High 
  Programmers a break. Either they ﬁ nd a 
  solution or (much more likely) they ﬁ nd a 
  way of covering up the current version of 
  the crisis or blaming it on someone else. 
  That’s ﬁ ne. You want them to keep a little 
  bit of Access for themselves, so they can 
  spend it on their own nefarious schemes, 
  on Stakes in Service Groups or on bribes 
  for Secret Societies. 
   Running a Crisis
  Remember, a crisis is just like an 
  encounter in a normal roleplaying 
  game. Instead of shooting the Commie 
  with his Troubleshooter’s laser pistol, the 
  player shoots the Commie cell with the 
  IntSec Trooper squad but it’s pretty much 
  the same thing. The GM describes the 
  problem, the players decide what they’re 
  going to do, dice are thrown around, 
  horrible ‘accidents’ and backstabbings 
  happen. Comedy and tragedy in equal 
  measure ensue. The main difference 
  is that the Player Characters are one 
  step removed from the carnage and its 
  immediate consequences.
  Access Is Like Rope
  Maths time – between the eight Service 
  Groups, the players have 35 Access. 
  Assuming each player has some Access 
  lying around, then the players have 
  about 40–50 Access to spend even 
  before The Computer allocates them 
  anything to spend on solving the crisis. 
  The initial Access pool assigned to the 
  group should be at least 20 points.
  As a rule of thumb, each Minion works 
  out at about ﬁ ve Access (some Minions 
  are cheaper, others more expensive but 
  players have to spend Access to boost 
  their rolls with cheap, poor-quality 
  Minions). So, if the players spend 40 
  points, they’ll probably be able to buy 
  eight or so Minions, which probably 
  works out at 10–12 Specialties. 
  Each crisis should take three or four 
  different Specialties to solve, so that’s 
  about four crises. So, as another rule of 
  thumb, assume 10 Access per crisis. Ish. 
  All that is very, very variable and depends 
  on how much the players screw each 
  other over. 
  Running out of Access should be a 
  constant worry for the players – but if 
  they do run out of Access, the game will 
  grind to a halt. Without Access, they can’t 
  purchase new Minions. Without Access, 
  they don’t get to seize control of more 
  Service Groups. Without Access, they 
  can’t connive and plot. If they do run 
  out of Access, you’ll need to inject more 
  liquidity into the game pretty soon. (The 
  occasional panicked interlude where the 
  High Programmers sit around going ‘agh, 
  we can’t do anything, what do you do?’ 
  can be fun but don’t let it last too long.)
  The Computer can assign more Access to 
  the group – but this Access will always 
  come with strings attached. These strings 
  are attached to bombs. Certainly, High 
  Programmer, I understand your dilemma. 
  I am therefore authorising the release of 
  another 20 Alpha Complex Consolidated 
  Estimated Systemic Support units to your 
  committee. This added funding comes 
  from the Emergency Loyalty Reinforcement 
  Campaign. Therefore, you are also tasked 
  with improving loyalty across Alpha 
  Complex by 100% in the next 24 hours. 
  Have a nice daycycle.
  The characters can also get more Access 
  by raising money. Remember, each point 
  of Access is a million credits or so. That’s a 
  lot of money but the High Programmers 
  can just sell off a few Warbots to private 
  collectors or something. 
  Working The Situation 
  Room
  The Situation Room… you’ve seen it 
  before, in dozens of political thrillers and 
  war movies. The Russians are moving 
  across Eastern Europe. The birds are in 
  the air and the balloon has gone up. 
  Grim-faced men push little models across 
  a map and bark orders into telephones. 
  In the background, TV monitors show a 
  constant stream of news reports, status 
  updates, troop movements, projections, 
  even direct video feeds from troops in 
  the ﬁ eld.
  The mood is one of apprehension, 
  confusion, crushing responsibility and 
  fear. 
  As the GM, you need to build and 
  maintain this mood. Try to establish a 
  strong contrast between inside and 
  outside the Situation Room. There are 
  several tricks you can use for this:
  � Make the Situation Room mirror 
  the playing environment. If the 
  players are sitting around a table 
  in real life, then the Situation Room 
  has a big table too that all the 
  High Programmers sit around. If 
  they’re lounging on comfy chairs, 
  then Alpha Complex’s most secure 
  command centre has bean-bags and 
  chaise lounges.
  � Put a big light overhead and turn off 
  other lights, spotlighting the players. 
  Have them step into the darkness for 
  private conferences.
  � Cover the walls with propaganda 
  posters and warnings from The 
  Computer.
  � If you’ve got an old telephone lying 
  around, it makes a great prop. It 
  makes it clear who’s giving the 
  orders right now.
  Communication – Reach 
  Out And Terminate 
  Somebody
  You want the High Programmers to treat 
  their Minions as anonymous, disposable 
  pawns. However, you can’t let the players 
  do the same. 
  If the players look at their Portfolio 
  Sheets and see HPD&MC Minion #7, RED, 
  5 Access, Thought Control and Thought 
  
  92
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Survey, they’ll start treating the whole 
  game as just an exercise in matching 
  Specialties to problems and that’s 
  boring. Just because their characters 
  are removed from the action doesn’t 
  mean the players should be insulated 
  from the action. The Situation Room has 
  real-time communication with all those 
  Minions, so you can use that to bring the 
  consequences of their decisions right to 
  the players.
  How Not To Use Communication: A 
  Typical Conversation
  Player: I spend ﬁ ve Access on HPD&MC 
  Minion #7. 
  GM: Ok, you phone them up. What’re 
  your orders?
  Player: I tell ‘em to Thought Control the 
  citizens to stop the riot.
  GM: Roll Management.
  Player: I fail.
  GM: Ok, your Minion is destroyed. 
  Player: This saddens me. 
  Put yourself in the Minion’s shoes. You’ve 
  just gotten a phone call from a High 
  Programmer; from the right hand of 
  The Computer and they’re giving you 
  orders. These orders usually result in your 
  horrible, horrible death. You feel excited, 
  sycophantic, terrified. You feel like a 
  PARANOIA player. It’s the reverse of the 
  usual PARANOIA GM/player relationship 
  – now the players are the ones giving the 
  impossible missions and the incomplete, 
  contradictory brieﬁ ngs and the GM is the 
  one playing the weaselly, incompetent, 
  terriﬁ ed subordinate.
  How To Use Communication: A Typical 
  Conversation
  Player: I spend ﬁ ve Access on HPD&MC 
  Minion #7.
  GM: That’s the Citizen Information Denial 
  Switchboard, right?
  Player: Er, yeah.
  GM: Ok, you phone ‘em up. The screen 
  shows a young femclone with a beehive 
  hairdo and a Teela-O fanclub badge. She’s 
  obviously bored and doesn’t even look 
  up at the camera. In a high-pitched voice: 
  CIDS, how may we deny your request?
  Player: This is High Programmer Stan-
  U.
  GM: Ok, that got her attention. She 
  scrambles to her feet and salutes. Again 
  with the annoying voice. Sir, Mr. High 
  Programmer! How can I help you, sir?
  Player: Citizen! There is a riot ongoing 
  in this sector… hang on, shouldn’t you 
  know that?
  GM: Yeah, the CIDS office should be 
  right in the middle of it. Squeaky Oh, 
  yes sir.  Don’t worry, we’ve barricaded 
  the door. Thanks for checking on us, 
  though. It makes me really happy to 
  know that someone as important as a 
  High Programmer would – 
  Player: Your orders are to stop the riot.
  GM: Her grin slips, just a little. Cautiously 
  squeaky Sir? We’re a call centre. You want 
  Crowd Control or…
  Player: No, this has to be handled 
  quietly. According to this dossier, your 
  section is trained in psychoengineering. 
  Neurolinguistic programming. Perceptual 
  adjustment therapy. Information Denial, 
  yes? 
  GM: still in a squeaky voice Well, technically 
  yes sir, but…
  Player: So go out there and talk them 
  down.
  GM: yep, still squeaking We’re a call 
  centre, sir.
  Player: Ok, make outgoing calls. Ring up 
  the rioters, individually and talk them 
  down.
  GM: Brilliant. Roll Management.
  Player: Oops, that’s not a good number.
  GM: squeaky voice Hi, this is Citizen 
  Information Denial Switchboard, Karen-
  Y speaking. Is that Dave-O? Hello!? 
  You’ll have to speak up, you’re in the 
  middle of a riot. Have you considered 
  not rioting? Increasingly panicked Have 
  you considered not smashing down my 
  door?! Really sir, I think you should think 
  about the advantages of not rioting? 
  Aghh! They’re inside! They’re….normal 
  voice And the connection’s lost.
  Player: to other High Programmers I think 
  Operation Softly Softly Approach is a 
  failure, gentlemen. Can we call out the 
  riot squad now?
  The Computer Is 
  Watching You
  The Computer is a constant presence 
  in the Situation Room. It’s always there, 
  always available, always watching. 
  Remember, The Computer is not all-
  knowing. If it knew how to solve the 
  crisis, it wouldn’t have called the High 
  Programmers. It can’t advise them. 
  However, it does know what it doesn’t 
  like – it frowns on:
  � Anything that injures, kills or 
  inconveniences citizens.
  � Anything that makes citizens 
  unhappy.
  � Anything that makes Alpha Complex 
  less secure.
  � Anything that sounds like treason.
  � High Programmers arguing 
  excessively.
  � A lack of progress.
  � Non-optimal solutions.
  � Wasting Access.
  � Inefﬁ ciency.
  � Failure to be happy.
  The Computer is the boss, even for 
  High Programmers. It’s a clueless boss 
  who demands results but gives no 
  guidance on how to achieve those 
  impossible goals, who shoots down 
  your best solutions and who refuses to 
  give you the resources you need – but 
  it’s the boss. 
  Sample Crises
  Here are a few example crises to get 
  the idea across. When actually coming 
  up with full-length High Programmer 
  missions don’t consider the crises in 
  isolation – tailor them to the overall 
  plot. Really, the crisis is just an excuse to 
  stick the players in one room and move 
  Access around.
  One of Our Warbots Is 
  Missing
  What’s Going On: Actually, the warbot 
  was never built. A trio of INDIGO managers 
  came up with a scam. Kenneth-I’s in CPU, 
  Marley-I’s in PLC and Hague-I’s in the 
  Armed Forces. Kenneth-I puts in an 
  order for a new warbot. Marley-I’s PLC 
  ﬁ rm, Defence Dynamics, ships a load of 
  scrap metal and spare parts to the Armed 
  Forces and the Armed Forces under the 
  command of Hague-I blow up the bits 
  and call the warbot a casualty of war. 
  Getting The Other 
  Players Involved
  Remember, you can ofﬂ oad NPCs onto 
  other players who aren’t involved in 
  the current scene. Minions really 
  don’t have free will, so you don’t 
  need to worry about the competitive 
  aspects of PARANOIA being lost in this 
  hippy new agey narrative sharing. 
  Give bonus Access for really funny 
  portrayals of doomed subordinates 
  and clueless middle managers. 
  
  93
  22. CRISIS MANAGEMENT
  CPU launch an investigation (chaired by 
  Kenneth-I, with Hague-I and Marley-I as 
  expert witnesses) into how the Commies 
  defeated one of the invincible war 
  machines and end up ordering a new, 
  more powerful and more expensive 
  warbot from PLC. The three managers 
  pocket the cost of the warbot each 
  time, minus the price of the spare parts 
  and a lot of bribes. This time, though, an 
  overzealous inspector noticed that the 
  bay that was supposed to house Warbot 
  XL6 actually had nothing but a pile of 
  spare parts and scrap metal.
  The Computer’s Briefing: Warbot 
  XL6 is missing. It must be located 
  immediately. This experimental warbot 
  has enough firepower to level half of 
  Alpha Complex. It cannot be allowed to 
  fall into enemy hands.
  Complications: 
  � One of the High Programmers is 
  getting kickbacks from one of the 
  INDIGOs. If the INDIGO is caught, 
  he’ll blab everything to IntSec and 
  the High Programmer will be facing 
  termination.
  � The PLC ﬁ rm is desperately trying 
  to knock together a fake warbot 
  overnight so they can ‘ﬁ nd’ XL6 and 
  then blow it up.
  � Every Secret Society is convinced 
  that another society has gotten their 
  hands on the bot.
  Appropriate Specialties: 
  � Investigation: Sneaking around the 
  PLC weapons ﬁ rm and the Armed 
  Forces testing ground.
  � Interrogation: Finding out the 
  truth.
  � Black Marketeering: To see if 
  anyone’s selling a warbot.
  � Financial Systems: Poking at 
  ﬁ nancial records.
  � Bot Engineering: To realise that the 
  bot bits left in the bay are just scrap 
  metal.
  � Total War: Preparing to battle a fully 
  functional warbot.
  Possible Escalations:
  � The Computer becomes convinced 
  that the warbot is about to attack. 
  Co-incidentally, a long range 
  Armed Forces scouting mission 
  is approaching Alpha Complex 
  and their radio is out of order. The 
  Computer mistakes the scouting 
  mission for a Commie advance party, 
  no doubt scouting for the bot…
  � Kenneth-I starts deleting ﬁ nancial 
  records in a panic – not just those 
  relating to the bot but everything 
  related to CPU oversight of the 
  Armed Forces in this sector.
  � Marley-I’s fake warbot gets stolen by 
  traitors in Defence Dynamics.
  � Hague-I tries to cover up the whole 
  thing by blowing up Defence 
  Dynamics.
  Happiness Is A Dish Best 
  Served Cold
  What’s Going On: HPD&MC and PLC 
  are deadlocked over proposals to 
  increase the sedative content of Cold 
  Fun. HPD&MC claim it’s the only way to 
  maintain happiness at an acceptable 
  level; PLC argue that the foul taste of 
  the sedatives will reduce Cold Fun 
  consumption, cutting PLC proﬁ ts and 
  reducing the overall intake of sedatives. 
  Both sides are bitterly committed to 
  their position and are recruiting allies 
  in this struggle. 
  The Computer’s Brieﬁ ng: Resolve the 
  dispute between Housing Preservation 
  Development & Mind Control and 
  Production Logistics & Commissary, vis a 
  vis CPU Proposal 5431-C, Sedative Addition 
  to Compound P42 ‘Cold Fun’.
  To aid in the decision-making process, you 
  will be briefed by Margie-B of HPD&MC and 
  Kraft-I of PLC.
  Complications: 
  � The two specialists refuse to be in 
  the same room as each other (which 
  is handy, as you only need to play 
  one NPC at a time).
  Appropriate Specialties:
  � Thought Survey: Taste testing the 
  new Cold Fun mix on the general 
  populace.
  � Catering: Serving drugged-up Cold 
  Fun to the masses.
  � Chemical Engineering: Making a 
  tastier Cold Fun.
  � Production: Mass producing the 
  tastier Cold Fun.
  � Pharmatherapy: Getting the mix of 
  drugs right.
  Possible Escalations:
  � The lack of sedation and the lack of 
  Fun is making some sectors rowdy.
  � The High Programmers get to pick 
  the new taste of Cold Fun. What taste 
  masks the added drugs?
  � PLC refuses to compromise – the 
  characters need to ﬁ nd another way 
  of raising sedation levels.
  � And why does the sector need 
  added sedatives anyway? Maybe 
  Margie-B’s superiors are slacking 
  off and just pumping drugs into 
  the proles instead of improving 
  happiness some other way.
  � The experimental Cold Fun has so 
  much sedation that it puts 20% of 
  those who taste it into comas.
  � When heated, the sedative becomes 
  airborne. Better not get the Cold 
  Fun mixed up with unheated Hot 
  Fun…
  The  Reformists
  What’s Going On: A gaggle of recently-
  promoted-to-INDIGO youngsters have 
  come up with some great ideas to 
  revolutionise the running of Alpha 
  Complex by improving efficiency 
  and minimising waste. They’ve 
  identified the High Programmers’ own 
  departments as being due for a few 
  snips and budget cuts.
  In fact, the gang of INDIGOs are all 
  Humanists. They’ve got allies in other 
  Secret Societies. Their treasonous 
  contacts and allies are helping their 
  rise to power by ‘improving efﬁ ciency’ 
  (temporarily stopping sabotage efforts). 
  The plan is to get the conspirators into 
  as inﬂ uential a position as possible, to 
  reform Alpha Complex from within (that 
  is slowly replacing everyone important 
  with Humanists).
  The Computer’s Briefing: Citizens, 
  a set of revised budgets and efficiency 
  augmentations has been proposed by 
  the ‘Bright Future Vision’ think tank. This 
  proposal cuts spending in each of your 
  departments by 40%. Obviously, with 
  your greater insight into the functioning 
  of your Service Groups and superior 
  insight and experience, you can improve 
  on these spending cuts and further 
  increase efﬁ ciency. Please proceed to do 
  so immediately. 
  Complications:
  � If the characters don’t eliminate 
  waste in their departments by 
  removing Minions, then The 
  Computer will assume they are 
  deliberately hoarding credits.
  
  94
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  � The character who cuts the most will 
  be rewarded by The Computer.
  � The characters don’t have any Access 
  for this mission
  Appropriate Specialties:
  � Assessment: Finding groups to 
  cut.
  � Surveillance/Inﬁ ltration: Spying on 
  the Bright Future Vision think tank.
  � Erasure: Wiping out all records of 
  the think tank proposal.
  � Wetwork: Eliminating the INDIGOs.
  � Financial Systems: Moving money 
  around without actually making any 
  cuts.
  Escalations:
  � The Bright Future Vision think tank 
  has a spy in the Situation Room. 
  Whenever the High Programmers 
  try to eliminate them, they issue 
  an automated proposal to The 
  Computer, slashing the budget for 
  that Minion.
  � PURGE takes advantage of the cuts 
  to launch a bombing campaign
  � An elder High Programmer advises 
  the characters to co-opt the 
  youngsters instead of trying to 
  defeat them. Show them the beneﬁ ts 
  of being a venal, corrupt politician. 
  The Computer Desires 
  Tennis Shoes
  What’s Going On: The Computer decides 
  that it wants to experience life in Alpha 
  Complex. It orders the High Programmers 
  to oversee the construction of a synthetic 
  body for itself. This android body will 
  then live as an ordinary citizen, so that 
  Friend Computer can truly empathise 
  with its beloved citizens. 
  The Computer got this idea from a 
  bunch of singularly weird First Church 
  of Christ Computer-Programmers, who 
  planted the idea via a computer virus in 
  an attempt to coax their electric messiah 
  out into the world. 
  The Computer’s Briefing: You are 
  to construct an android body, 
  indistinguishable from a normal human. 
  This android body must have a direct 
  data link to my core systems. This project 
  is classiﬁ ed ULTRAVIOLET. 
  Complications:
  � The FCCC-P virus is still spreading 
  through The Computer’s systems, 
  making The Computer even 
  weirder.
  � If the android body is damaged or 
  destroyed when connected to the 
  core, it could disrupt The Computer’s 
  other systems.
  Appropriate Specialties:
  � Communications: Setting up a data 
  link.
  � Cloning/Bot Engineering: Making 
  an android.
  � Covert Operations: Introducing the 
  android body into society.
  � Security: Protecting the android.
  � Computer Security: Eradicating the 
  virus.
  Escalations:
  � Once installed in the android body, 
  The Computer wants to experience 
  life at different security levels, from 
  the lowliest INFRARED all the way up 
  to ULTRAVIOLET. How do the High 
  Programmers arrange this and how 
  to do they hide their treasonous, 
  corrupt lifestyles from a suddenly 
  ambulatory Computer?
  � The virus convinces Friend Computer 
  it’s God.
  � The church tries to kidnap the 
  android so they can worship it; other 
  Secret Societies try to capture or kill 
  it for their own ends.
  � In the chaos, the android malfunctions 
  and goes rogue. It’s still connected to 
  one CompNode but it’s forgotten 
  that it’s The Computer in human 
  form.
  Leaky Vat Soup
  What’s Going On: Something’s leaking 
  from an old storage tank. No-one’s quite 
  sure what it is.
  The Computer’s Brieﬁ ng: Deal with the 
  leak in storage tank #4. 
  Complications: 
  � The leaking liquid deﬁ es analysis. It’s 
  mildly corrosive, too.
  � The leak can’t easily be contained 
  – it looks like the whole tank is 
  collapsing. It can’t just be welded 
  shut. 
  � The old storage tank is directly 
  above something important, like an 
  ULTRAVIOLET social club. 
  Appropriate Specialties:
  � Construction: Building dams and 
  containment structures.
  � C h e m i c a l  E n g i n e e r i n g/
  Biosciences: Trying to identify the 
  substance. 
  � Bot Engineering/Mutant Studies: 
  Sending in bots or super-tough 
  mutants to seal the leak.
  � Data Retrieval: Checking old records 
  to ﬁ nd out what was in the tank in 
  the ﬁ rst place.
  Escalations:
  � The leaking substance is a powerful 
  mutagen. Anyone exposed to it 
  develops mutant powers.
  � It also bears an alarming genetic 
  resemblance to human amniotic 
  fluid. Could that storage tank 
  be some sort of bizarre artificial 
  womb?
  � Psion/Servants of Cthulhu agents try 
  to sabotage any containment efforts, 
  in order to spread mutation through 
  Alpha Complex.
  � How do the characters deal with a 
  billion gallons of chemical goo?
  All My Teelas
  What’s Going On: Teela-O-MLY is Alpha 
  Complex’s most popular vapid television 
  icon and she’s coming here, oh my! The 
  High Programmers have 24 hours of Teela 
  time as the superstar makes a goodwill 
  tour of their sector. They’re to use Teela-O 
  wisely to raise morale and draw attention 
  to important new initiatives.
  The Computer’s Briefing: Citizens, 
  rejoice! By special arrangement with 
  HPD&MC, noted television personality 
  and winner of the Alpha Complex Most 
  Popular Citizen Award, Teela-O-MLY will 
  be visiting this sector. Due to Teela-O-MLY’s 
  considerable popularity, you are utilise her 
  presence to raise citizen morale. Failure to 
  improve morale is treason. Thank you.
  Complications:
  � Every Service Group has their own 
  pet project for Teela-O to perform 
  – PLC want her to open a new 
  shopping mall, CPU want to talk to 
  
  95
  22. CRISIS MANAGEMENT
  Teela-O about her personal credit 
  accounts, IntSec want her to front 
  a new ‘report on your co-workers’ 
  campaign and so on.
  � Teela-O travels with a secretive 
  entourage. Her personal manager, 
  Bevan-V, will liaise with the High 
  Programmers.
  � Teela-O has room for only a few 
  public and private engagements. 
  Who’s party is she going to attend?
  � Teela-O has the little-known mutant 
  power to Cloud Men’s Minds. It even 
  works on low Clearance citizens 
  who are pumped full of hormone 
  suppressants, so what’s it going to 
  do to the High Programmers?
  Appropriate Specialties:
  � Transport: Getting Ms. O-MLY from 
  place to place.
  � Logistics: Working out the optimum 
  route for her.
  � Media Manipulation: Wringing the 
  most propaganda possible out of 
  her.
  � Cloning: Hey, why make do with 
  only one Teela-O?
  � Crowd Control: Ms. O-MLY isn’t 
  signing autographs today.
  � Inﬁ ltration: Getting inside Teela-O’s 
  mysterious entourage.
  � Security: Stopping assassins.
  � Wetwork: Kidnapping or terminating 
  Teela-O.
  Escalations: 
  � Teela-O’s entourage has their own 
  mysterious agenda. Maybe they’re 
  plotting something. (In Send In 
  The Clones (1985), reprinted in the 
  fabulous Paranoia Flashbacks (2005), 
  Teela-O was instrumental in setting 
  up the Clone Arrangers.) Maybe 
  they’re planning to clone their own 
  army and take over the sector. 
  � Fanatical Teela-O fans plot to kidnap 
  their idol by faking her death.
   The Grey Dossier Scandal
  What’s Going On: A routine spring 
  cleaning of some Power Services vaults 
  turned up a mysterious grey dossier. The 
  dossier contains embarrassing secrets 
  about several elder High Programmers 
  as well as details on various super-secret 
  secret projects. They shipped it off for 
  analysis by Internal Security before 
  incineration by CPU but it seems to have 
  vanished en route.
  The Computer’s Brieﬁ ng: Attention! A 
  set of documents, codenamed DIAMOND 
  BLANCMANGE, are missing. They must be 
  retrieved immediately. Do not read these 
  documents. Ensure that no citizen reads 
  these documents.    
  Complications:
  � Obviously, everyone in Alpha 
  Complex is after that dossier.
  � It was in a Power Services vault. They 
  claim IntSec took it. IntSec claim 
  that they finished processing the 
  document and gave it to CPU, CPU 
  never saw it. Someone’s lying. 
  � For that matter, where did the dossier 
  come from in the ﬁ rst place?
  Appropriate Specialties:
  � Investigation: Finding out who stole 
  the Dossier.
  � Co-Ordination: Getting IntSec, 
  Power Services and CPU to stop 
  blaming each other.
  � Data Retrieval: Investigating the 
  mysterious vault.
  � Black Marketeering: Dealing with 
  the Secret Societies who are trying 
  to sell the dossier.
  � Weird Science: Implementing the 
  strange designs in the dossier.
  Escalations:
  � The vault turns out to belong to an 
  exiled High Programmer who’s been 
  lurking in the Underplex. The dossier 
  represents years of effort on his part, 
  collecting blackmail material. 
  � Free Enterprise creates multiple fake 
  dossiers and starts selling them to 
  anyone who’ll buy.
  � The dossier contains the plans for a 
  doomsday device. This doomsday 
  device was constructed years ago; 
  without the plans, the device can’t 
  be turned off once activated. If the 
  dossier is lost, then the exiled High 
  Programmer has nothing left to lose 
  by switching on the device…
   Random Crisis Generator
  If you’re stuck for inspiration or just 
  feel like letting random chance rule 
  the lives of the players, roll on the 
  following tables.
  The Dominant Fear
  Roll
  The Players Must Worry 
  About…
  1–2
  Failing The Computer
  3–4
  Being framed as traitors
  5–6
  Having their past treasons 
  or errors revealed
  7–8
  Being blamed for this 
  catastrophe
  9–10
  Betrayal by their 
  underlings
  11–12
  Riots and lynch mobs
  13–14
  Commie spies
  15–16
  Losing prestige
  17–18
  The fact that everyone’s 
  out to get them
  19–20
  The end of the world
  Security Clearance
  Roll
  This Information Is 
  Classiﬁ ed…
  1
  INFRARED
  2–4
  RED
  5–7
  ORANGE
  8–9
  YELLOW
  10–12
  GREEN
  13–15
  BLUE 
  16–17
  INDIGO
  18–19
  VIOLET
  20
  ULTRAVIOLET
  Groups
  Roll
  Service Group
  1–2
  Central Processing 
  3–4
  Internal Security 
  5–6
  HPD&MC
  7–8
  R&D 
  9–10
  Armed Forces 
  11–12
  Tech Services
  13–14
  Power Services
  15–16
  PLC 
  17–20
  Special Project within a 
  Group – roll again
  
  96
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  What’s Really Going On
  Roll
  The Truth
  1–2
  GROUP is ﬁ ghting with GROUP over some RESOURCE.
  3–4
  GROUP is blaming GROUP for a screw-up in a PROJECT.
  5–6
  TRAITORS within GROUP sabotaged a PROJECT of another GROUP.
  7–8
  GROUP’s PROJECT is causing havoc in the sector, much to the dismay of GROUP.
  9–10
  The Computer demands a RESULT from GROUP. Make it happen.
  11–12
  RESOURCE production must be increased by GROUP, or it will jeopardise RESULT.
  13–14
  GROUP has seized RESOURCE and blamed it on TRAITORS.
  15–16
  GROUP suspects PROJECT will fail to achieve RESULT. They need to blame its failure on someone else.
  17–18
  A recent RESULT was caused by TRAITORS but GROUP is taking credit for it. Another GROUP is suspicious of the result.
  19–20
  The Computer demands that RESULT be achieved by GROUP using RESOURCE.
  Results
  Roll
  Rejoice, Citizen! We are about to accomplish…
  1–2
  Increased happiness
  3–4
  More efﬁ ciency 
  5–6
  Fewer traitors
  7–8
  Better identiﬁ cation of mutants
  9–10
  New, more exciting ﬂ avours of Bouncy Bubble Beverage
  11–12
  A new type of warbot, more powerful than ever before
  13–14
  More rationing
  15–16
  Improved security screening
  17–18
  Better surveillance
  19–20
  Budget cuts
  The Computer’s Paranoid Assessment
  Roll
  Rejoice, Citizen! We are about to accomplish…
  1–2
  Increased happiness
  3–4
  More efﬁ ciency 
  5–6
  Fewer traitors
  7–8
  Better identiﬁ cation of mutants
  9–10
  New, more exciting ﬂ avours of Bouncy Bubble Beverage
  11–12
  A new type of warbot, more powerful than ever before
  13–14
  More rationing
  15–16
  Improved security screening
  17–18
  Better surveillance
  19–20
  Budget cuts
  Random Complications
  Roll
  Rejoice, Citizen! We are about to accomplish…
  1–2
  Increased happiness
  3–4
  More efﬁ ciency 
  5–6
  Fewer traitors
  7–8
  Better identiﬁ cation of mutants
  9–10
  New, more exciting ﬂ avours of Bouncy Bubble Beverage
  11–12
  A new type of warbot, more powerful than ever before
  13–14
  More rationing
  15–16
  Improved security screening
  17–18
  Better surveillance
  19–20
  Budget cuts
  
  97
  22. CRISIS MANAGEMENT
  Number of Successful Skill Rolls to Complete
  Roll
  Things will get worse before they get better
  1–3
  1
  4–7
  2
  8–12
  3
  13–15
  4
  16–17
  5
  18–19
  6
  20
  The problem’s unsolvable.
  Resources
  Roll
  Vital Resources Consumed By Alpha Complex
  1
  Nuclear Waste
  2
  Citizens
  3
  Hot Fun
  4
  Paperwork
  5
  Drinking Water
  6
  Bouncy Bubble Beverage
  7
  Plutonium
  8
  Weird chemical compounds
  9
  Neural tissue
  10
  Soy 
  11
  Oxygen
  12
  Happiness drugs
  13
  Bot brains
  14
  Copper wire
  15
  Yeast byproducts
  16
  Advertising
  17
  Computer cycles
  18
  Nuclear weapons
  19
  The devotion of the citizens
  20
  Roll again twice
  Traitors
  Roll
  Despicable Commie Mutant Traitors
  1
  Death Leopard
  2
  FCCC-P
  3
  Free Enterprise
  4
  Romantics
  5
  Sierra Club
  6
  Anti-Mutant
  7
  C.L.A
  8
  Clone Arrangers
  9
  Corpore Metal
  10
  Mystics
  11
  Pro Tech
  12
  Runners
  13
  I.W.W.
  14
  Communists
  15
  Computer Phreaks
  16
  Frankenstein Destroyers
  17
  Humanists
  18
  Psion
  19
  PURGE
  20
  Servants of Cthulhu
  Access Assigned
  Roll 1d20. If the result is 4 or less, The Computer assigns 5 Access. Otherwise, it assigns the result of the die roll to the crisis.
  
  98
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  23. Secret Agendas
  Every High Programmer has at least one 
  secret agenda. 
  Most have so many that they keep 
  secret ﬁ lofaxes to keep track of all those 
  secret agendas. 
  Secret agendas come from Service 
  Group Directives, Secret Society Missions 
  and High Programmer ‘Cow Creamers’ 
  – plot McGuffins and social status 
  games played by ULTRAVIOLETs. The 
  purpose of secret agendas is to keep 
  the players plotting against each other 
  and to ensure the game never becomes 
  predictable. When designing secret 
  agendas, it’s important to keep the 
  players all pushing in different directions 
  – the Directive that Player A is following 
  clashes with the Secret Society Mission 
  of Player B but both A and B can team up 
  to stop C from getting that Cow Creamer. 
  No-one likes C. Of course, when they’re 
  working together, A suspects B of being 
  about to betray him to complete that 
  Secret Society Mission and B will suspect 
  A of being about to screw him over to 
  curry favour with that Service Group by 
  completing a Directive.
  Service Group Directives
  Each of the eight Service Groups issues 
  one (1) Directive per mission. That 
  Directive is initially given to the High 
  Programmer with the highest stake in 
  the group; if he refuses, it’s passed on 
  to the next highest stake, then the next, 
  then the next. 
  Why would a High Programmer turn 
  down a Directive, you ask? Because half 
  the Directives issued are booby traps. If 
  a High Programmer accepts a Directive 
  and completes it, he gets to increase 
  his stake by +10, which is a signiﬁ cant 
  shift. If he accepts a Directive and fails to 
  complete it, his stake is reduced by 10. 
  Making a Directive 
  Directives, therefore, should be double-
  edged. There has to be clear pass-or-fail 
  criteria, clear objectives that the High 
  Programmer can achieve or fail. 
  Directives are never treasonous. They’re 
  official (if secretive) decisions made 
  by the Service Group’s high-level 
  INDIGOs and VIOLETs to ‘help’ the High 
  Programmer. The Armed Forces will 
  never issue a Directive saying ‘boss, we 
  think it would be a great idea if you blew up 
  half of Alpha Complex’, as that would get 
  them all terminated. They might issue a 
  Directive urging the High Programmer to 
  ‘test ﬁ re the new doomsday device’ if they 
  really disliked him. 
  Think of Directives as coming from eight 
  giant suggestion boxes deep within 
  Alpha Complex. 
  Most Directives are variants on:
  � We need X. Get it for us (where X is 
  Access, some resource, the Holy Grail, 
  a billion ham sandwiches)
  � Protect our X (where X is our budget, 
  our prized ofﬁ ce space, our inter-
  group FunBall team)
  � Stop X (where X is a new policy, new 
  directive or other plan)
  � Screw Over Those Bastards in X 
  (where X is any other group in Alpha 
  Complex)
  Ideally, Directives should prevent the 
  High Programmers from agreeing on 
  anything in the Situation Room, ever. 
  If you’re stuck, then something like ‘We 
  think High Programmer X is a traitor; ﬁ nd 
  proof’ is nicely divisive without being 
  actively treasonous.
  Directive Horse Trading
  You don’t want to spend too much 
  time at the start of the game letting the 
  players hum and haw over whether or 
  not to accept Directives. The Computer 
  has called them to the Situation 
  Room, they’re being told about these 
  Directives as they rush down the corridor, 
  surrounded by dozens of advisors, 
  hangers-on and ﬂ unkies. Don’t give them 
  much time to think. 
  In practice, most players will take 
  Directives when they’re offered to them. 
  The only time a player rejects a Directive 
  is when he’s got an idea for sabotaging it 
  and so wants another player to take it so 
  he can reduce that player’s stake.
  Sample Directives
  Armed Forces directives usually involve 
  blowing things up to justify their 
  existence or the acquisition of new and 
  bigger pieces of hardware. 
  � The grunts are getting restless. Make 
  sure that at least two Armed Forces 
  infantry units are given something 
  to do.
  � We’re having trouble storing all the 
  nukes. Either use a few nukes or ﬁ nd 
  us a new storage area.
  � The budget for the new Mark V 
  Warbot is tight. We need you to 
  spend 20 Access on activating the 
  new Mark Vs. They don’t actually 
  work yet but this extra cash will let 
  us sort out the teething problems.
  CPU directives are often the most 
  complex and infuriating, or revolve 
  around soothing The Computer’s fevered 
  circuits. 
  � Efficiency is down 15.7%. Find a 
  way to increase efﬁ ciency. It doesn’t 
  matter what we’re more efﬁ cient at 
  doing – it’ll all average out in the 
  end.
  � The Computer’s convinced that one 
  of the other High Programmers is a 
  traitor. If you don’t prove that one of 
  them is a traitor, it’ll blow a fuse.
  � We need to clear one of The 
  Computer’s memory buffers. Tell the 
  other Programmers not to do any 
  programming during this mission.
  HPD&MC missions normally involve 
  Alpha Complex’s crumbling infrastructure, 
  drugged citizens or happiness indices.
  � Housing in ZRD S ec tor is 
  oversubscribed by 21%. Either build 
  more housing or reduce demand.
  � Something’s gone wrong with the 
  happiness drugs. Find out what but 
  make sure none of the other groups 
  ﬁ nd out we messed up.
  � Make sure nothing you do reduces 
  Directive Cards
  It’s a good idea to stick Directives 
  on 3”x5” cards or pieces of papers. 
  Not only does it give the players a 
  physical reminder of what they’re 
  supposed to be doing but they 
  can also trade them and pass them 
  around during the Directives phase 
  of the mission.
  
  99
  23. SECRET AGENDAS
  happiness. The Computer’s… twitchy 
  at the moment. Sixteen Smile Teams 
  were summarily terminated this 
  morning.
  The main aim of most PLC directives is 
  to stimulate Alpha Complex’s economy. 
  Buy for victory, citizen.
  � We’ve overproduced left boots by 
  approximately 600,000. We need 
  to you to ﬁ nd a use for 600,000 left 
  boots.
  � Good news, sir! We’ve met our food 
  production quota for this yearcycle. 
  And the next five yearcycles. In 
  fact, the food vats have flooded 
  four sectors and show no signs of 
  stopping.
  � We need to reduce the chocolate 
  ration. Find a way to present it to the 
  citizens without making it seem like 
  a reduction.
  Research & Design directives bravely 
  push back the boundaries of both 
  science and sanity!
  � We have a machine. Turning it on will 
  cost 20 Access. We don’t know what 
  it does. We want to turn it on. 
  � Field test the new Doomsday Device, 
  please.
  � We need more data on the effects of 
  nuclear meltdown, so we can test our 
  new nuclear-proof underwear…
  Internal Security directives tend to 
  involve increasing security or making 
  troublesome citizens disappear. Often, it 
  takes a High Programmer to terminate a 
  High Programmer.
  � We suspect High Programmer So&So 
  is a traitor. Find proof of this.
  � Citizens are more compliant when 
  they believe they’re under threat. 
  Raise the alert level across Alpha 
  Complex by uncovering some 
  suitable threat.
  � We need to ensure full surveillance 
  of all zones. Convince the other 
  High Programmers to increase 
  the surveillance of their private 
  quarters.
  Most Tech Services missions involve 
  labour disputes, bots or covering up 
  industrial accidents.
  � Our contract to rebuild sector ZQD 
  is behind schedule. We need you to 
  authorise the activation of another 
  few construction teams but don’t 
  let anyone know we’re using them 
  to ﬁ nish ZQD.
  � Internal Security took some of our 
  best engineers in for questioning 
  and we need them back immediately. 
  They’re totally not Commie Mutant 
  Traitors, we swear!
  � I don’t want to worry you, boss, but 
  those new bots are acting really 
  weird. Can you test them to make 
  sure they’ve got proper Asimov 
  circuits.
  Power Services oversees Alpha 
  Complex’s wiring and power distribution 
  systems, as well as the transtube 
  network.
  � We’ve got a lot of spent nuclear 
  fuel rods. Find a place to put them, 
  please.
  � We need to close this main line 
  transtube for the next six months. 
  Clear it with the other High 
  Programmers. Make sure they 
  understand that this will totally 
  disrupt all transport in the sector. 
  Get them to sign off on it. Why are 
  we closing it? Dunno. The paperwork 
  says we’re supposed to close it.
  � We’ve only got enough power in the 
  system for either the new R&D lab 
  or the Armed Forces early warning 
  system. Make them agree on which 
  one gets turned off.
   Secret Society Missions
  Secret Society Missions work like 
  Directives – if a High Programmer 
  completes them, he gets extra inﬂ uence 
  in the Secret Society. Unlike Directives, 
  there’s no accepting or rejecting of 
  Secret Society Missions and there’s no 
  explicit penalty for failing to complete 
  one. High Programmers only learn about 
  a Secret Society mission if they have got 
  an Agent in that society.
  The ﬁ rst High Programmer to complete 
  a Secret Society mission wins prestige, 
  increasing his Agent’s rank in that 
  society. Depending on the importance 
  of the mission, it may be worth one 
  rank, or more. Two or three ranks are an 
  appropriate reward for a mission that 
  signiﬁ cantly advances the cause of the 
  society; ﬁ ve or more ranks is ‘mwhahah, 
  now we rule Alpha Complex’ territory.
  Also unlike Directives, everyone who’s 
  got an Agent in a Secret Society knows 
  about the Mission*. This may result in 
  multiple High Programmers trying to 
  complete the same mission. Ah, the 
  hilarity.
  Plausible Deniability
  Secret Society Missions are inherently 
  treasonous but there should be a way for 
  the High Programmer to plausibly deny 
  involvement. Don’t give missions like ‘kill 
  another High Programmer’ or ‘blow up 
  The Computer’ – there’s no way for the 
  player to complete that mission without 
  compromising themselves. Instead, 
  missions should involve convenient 
  oversights and decisions that can 
  be attributed to human fallibility or 
  mischance, not actual treason (‘Ooops, 
  we probably shouldn’t have put that 
  pyromaniac mutant in the same room as 
  all those Internal Security ﬁ les – who could 
  have foreseen that he would go nuts and 
  burn everything?).
  The Fruits of Treason
  Secret Societies have to be worth the 
  risk. In your ﬁ rst few High Programmer 
  games, players will often play it safe 
  by genuinely trying to solve problems 
  using legal Minions and spending all 
  their Access on the mission, instead of 
  trying to siphon off as much Access for 
  their own ends and using ‘free’ Secret 
  Society allies. This leads to unfun play 
  and a troublesome lack of treachery and 
  paranoia. To counteract this, tailor your 
  ﬁ rst few missions to the Secret Societies 
  and put in plenty of opportunities for 
  the players to use their treasonous 
  contacts.
  Sample Secret Society 
  Missions
  Missions for each Secret Society are 
  listed in the write-ups. 
  In general, Secret Society Missions 
  should be a lot weirder than Directives. 
  Directives represent pressure from 
  within your Service Group to do stuff 
  beneficial for that Group but they 
  always make sense from a parochial, 
  *: This sentence breaches CPU Directive #433677, ‘Reducing Unnecessary Capitalisation Guidelines’ and the writer has been 
  scheduled for Termination.
  
  100
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  I’m-ok-Jack point of view. Secret Society 
  Missions tend towards the barking mad 
  end of the spectrum. In political terms, 
  Directives are corporate lobbyists and 
  entrenched bureaucracies, while Secret 
  Society Missions are the obsessed one-
  issue crazies. 
  Cow Creamers
  Cow Creamers are the third leg of The 
  Stool of Dissent (The Stool of Dissent 
  is a sturdy piece of furniture that you 
  can use as a bludgeon on overly co-
  operative players). Cow Creamers are 
  plot McGuffins desired by the High 
  Programmers. You only need one Cow 
  Creamer per game, at most.
  A good Cow Creamer needs to be:
  � Rare or unique, so the characters 
  can’t all get one.
  � Obvious or traceable, so when one 
  player gets it, he can’t just hide it 
  away.
  � Troublesome or hazardous, so it’s a 
  headache to keep.
  � Connected in some fashion to the 
  mission, for maximum chaos.
  The player who possesses the Cow 
  Creamer at the end of the crisis has an 
  advantage over the other players. If you 
  include a Cow Creamer in the game, then 
  you have to include a visit to some social 
  event after (or during) the crisis so the 
  victorious character can lord it over the 
  other ULTRAVIOLETs. 
  The Apple of Discord
  Using Cow Creamers in the game is easy. 
  Just mention to all the players that a Cow 
  Creamer is in play. ‘You all know that old 
  High Programmer Ernest-U collects the 
  brains of telepathic mutants. You’ve no 
  idea why – he says it’s just a hobby. Anyway, 
  he’s holding a fondue party tomorrowcycle. 
  You’re all expected to bring a gift.
  On a totally unrelated note, your IntSec 
  brieﬁ ng reports rumours that a powerful 
  psionic mutant called Head-Exploding 
  Harry is lurking somewhere in this sector.’
  The players will run off in search of 
  this mutant, hoping to present his wet, 
  dripping brain to Ernest-U. One player 
  may get lucky and track down Head-
  Exploding Harry early in the game but 
  then he has to defend the brain from 
  the other High Programmers. You can 
  even work Head-Exploding Harry into 
  the mission; if the High Programmers 
  are ordered to eliminate a Psion cell, 
  then the best solution could be to use 
  Head-Exploding Harry as a Trojan Horse. 
  Of course, that will kill Harry and then 
  they’ll all look like fools by arriving at the 
  fondue party without a mutant brain. 
  Access Sinks
  Another use of Cow Creamers is to force 
  the players to stockpile Access so they 
  can buy some tremendously expensive 
  and utterly useless status symbol. Say a 
  Troubleshooter team brings back a genuine 
  antique computer mouse back from a ruin 
  in Outdoors. Imagine how envious the other 
  High Programmers would be when they see 
  you clicking with this wonderful relic from 
  olden days. Imagine the sensuous click as 
  you select ‘TERMINATE’ on your screen. How 
  much is this joy worth to you?
  How about 25 Access? What if another 
  High Programmer’s willing to spend 30? 
  What then?
  One wonderful thing about Access sinks 
  is that, while the players grumble and 
  moan, they’ll still pay to stop another 
  player from winning. 
  Competitive Players: A 
  Typical Conversation
  GM: The Free Enterpriser says that he 
  won’t take less than 10 million credits 
  – 10 Access – for the Laser Pistol That 
  Shot Lenin.
  Player #1: This is crazy. Firstly, Lenin 
  wasn’t shot. Secondly, he wasn’t shot 
  with a laser. Thirdly, there’s no proof 
  whatsoever that this is anything other 
  than some crummy old laser pistol.
  Player #2: I’ll pay 10.
  Player #3: 12. 
  Player #1: You’re paying 12 million 
  credits for a 100 credit laser?
  Player #3: It shot Lenin.
  Player #1: No it didn’t.
  Player #2: I agree. 15.
  Player #1: You agree… so you don’t 
  think it shot Lenin?
  Player #2: Oh, that Free Enterpriser is 
  lying through his teeth.
  Player #1: So why the hell are you 
  bidding 15 Access for the stupid thing?
  Player #2: Because Player #3 wants it. 
  Player #1: I bid 20.
  Sample Cow Creamers
  Old Reckoning artefacts are the 
  simplest form of Cow Creamer. Most 
  High Programmers have a nostalgic 
  streak – they’ve seen too much of the 
  ugly, plasticky side of Alpha Complex, so 
  they want something with class. 
  � An archive of Old Reckoning music 
  on ‘compact discs’
  � A signed copy of 1984
  � The last Twinkie in the universe
  � A working 1966 Chevrolet Corvette
  � The Mona Lisa
  Agh, My Brains! 
  Tracking Secret 
  Agendas!
  Theoretically, a High Programmer 
  could have an awful lot of secret 
  agendas to keep track of. Let’s say 
  he’s got three Directives, one from 
  each of the Service Groups that 
  he heads. He’s also got Agents 
  in a dozen Secret Societies, so 
  that’s another 12 missions. Add 
  in a Cow Creamer or two, and the 
  actual crisis itself, and before long 
  the player is lying there catatonic 
  under a pile of Cheeto packets 
  and incomprehensible scribbled 
  notes. Beware of overloading your 
  players.
  You should always have each Service 
  Group issue a Directive, even if 
  the Directive’s as simple as ‘get the 
  committee to buy our very expensive 
  and utterly useless Minion’ or ‘screw 
  over those guys in the other Service 
  Group’. Directives are your best tool 
  for sowing discord and mistrust 
  among the High Programmers.
  Not every Secret Society need give 
  a mission – as long as each player 
  gets one secret mission to worry 
  about, that’s enough. Secret Society 
  missions are great for dragging 
  in plot elements unrelated to the 
  official mission – while the High 
  Programmers are supposed to 
  be writing the plot for the new 
  HPD&MC loyalty-and-hygiene-
  improving soap opera, half of them 
  are also trying to capture/destroy/
  protect/sabotage/steal the new 
  warbot prototype. 
  
  101
  24. GAMEMASTERING HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  � An actual copy of Das Kapital
  � An actual silver cow creamer (Modern 
  Dutch, unfortunately)
  Staff are the most amusing form of Cow 
  Creamer, as they claim to have free will 
  and might refuse to co-operate with the 
  demands of deranged High Programmers.
  � The greatest chef/interior decorator/
  fashion consultant/personal 
  physician in Alpha Complex.
  � Jee-V-EES, the ﬁ nest butler known to 
  modern science.
  � An invincible, vat-grown cybernetic 
  assassin.
  � Teela-O-MLY.
  Social Cow Creamers are more 
  ephemeral.
  � An invitation to an exclusive party.
  � Membership of a particular social 
  circle.
  Other High Programmers
  Cow Creamers are all about winning standing in ULTRAVIOLET society, so you’ll 
  need to establish a few other High Programmers as recurring NPCs. These elder 
  High Programmers should not be directly opposed to the Player Characters, at 
  least not at the start of the campaign. They’re there to be won over, to be allied 
  with or toppled. Never bring other High Programmers into the Situation Room 
  (well, you can bring them in but they should not participate in the decision-
  making process or sit on the committee).
  � A copy of a rival High Programmer’s 
  personal diary.
  � The right to claim credit for some 
  particularly impressive victory over 
  the Commies. 
  24. Gamemastering High Programmers
  Welcome, brave Gamemaster! We 
  Famous Game Designers salute you for 
  taking on this grand and momentous 
  task. As a PARANOIA Gamemaster, your 
  task (metaphorically, we stress) is to lock 
  the players into a room and alternately 
  apply fresh meat and electric shocks 
  until they jump through your hoops in 
  a suitably entertaining fashion. While 
  running a HIGH PROGRAMMER game 
  is no harder than running a more 
  conventional PARANOIA game, it is a very 
  different experience. We have therefore 
  provided you with this chapter of useful 
  and enlightening advice to aid you.
  Fear and Ignorance, 
  Ignorance and Fear
  The mantra of the PARANOIA GM: Fear 
  and Ignorance. To tap-dance between 
  humour and horror, the players need to 
  be fearful of the doom that awaits them 
  but ignorant of what it actually is. This 
  approach works very well for the lowly 
  RED Clearance Troubleshooters who are 
  the focus of most PARANOIA games. It 
  also works nicely for High Programmers 
  but the nature of the fear and the 
  ignorance is different. To a degree, the 
  characters are on the inside now; they’re 
  part of the system. They’re not only 
  fearful, they’re the ones sowing fear. They 
  don’t know everything but they know a 
  lot more than most.
  High Programmers must fear being 
  replaced. They’re at the top of the pile, 
  which means that everyone below them 
  is trying to knock them down a peg and 
  steal their cushy posts. Alpha Complex 
  Yes, Minister with ray guns: the game in essence.
  
  102
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  isn’t a democracy and no-one’s going 
  to vote a High Programmer out of ofﬁ ce 
  but if an ULTRAVIOLET is disgraced or 
  exposed as a traitor, he will be replaced. 
  High Programmers also cause fear. What’s 
  the point of being an eccentric overlord 
  if you can’t make your underlings grovel 
  in terror? Of course, this may cause 
  some communications problems. There 
  are usually two ways that underlings 
  communicate with High Programmers.
  Option 1 – Sullen Obedience and 
  Evasion
  High Programmer: How many paperclips 
  do we have left?
  Underling: Er, under the Revised Ofﬁ ce 
  Supply Security Initiative, we’d need to 
  conduct a full ofﬁ ce audit to answer that 
  question. That’ll take six to eight weeks, 
  assuming we get authorisation from the 
  Department of Audit Auditing to proceed 
  and they normally wait until we send in 
  four or ﬁ ve copies of form C-4432-5/A… 
  you do have your C-4432-5/A ﬁ lled out, 
  sir, don’t you? ‘Cos if you don’t, you need 
  to get that stamped ﬁ rst by…
  High Programmer: How many paperclips 
  are there in front of you?
  Underling: I’m not qualiﬁ ed to make that 
  estimation, sir.
  Option 2 – Terriﬁ ed Overly Enthusiastic 
  Compliance 
  High Programmer: How many 
  paperclips do we have left? Remember, 
  I have here a laser gun and I will zap you 
  if you displease me.
  Underling: Sir, our paperclip supplies 
  are extremely well stocked! Yes, we’ve 
  got lots and lots of paperclips! Praise 
  The Computer for allocating us all the 
  paperclips we need in the ﬁ ght against 
  Communism. I am overjoyed to make this 
  report of paperclip readiness to you, sir! 
  Please don’t shoot me.
  High Programmer: Good. Pass me a 
  paperclip.
  Underling: Agh, a paperclip, oh hell, 
  where is…er…I can’t find…er…wait, 
  can’t say that. I’ve got it! Sir, the Commies 
  have sabotaged us and stolen all our 
  paperclips. Someone in the Ofﬁ ce Supply 
  Closet must be a traitor, sir! Shoot them, 
  not me!
  Note that neither method of 
  communication actually involves the 
  High Programmer learning the awful 
  truth about the number of paperclips. 
  This leads us onto the second part of the 
  mantra, ignorance. High Programmers 
  have access to a virtually inﬁ nite amount 
  of information but can trust none of it. All 
  information is available at their Security 
  Clearance, which means they’re ﬂ ooded 
  with facts and ﬁ gures that they don’t 
  have any hope of making sense of.
  Never tell a High Programmer that he 
  can’t ﬁ nd out anything about a topic. 
  Answer any request for information 
  with a torrential ﬂ ood of data, most of 
  it false. 
  You’re Alternately With Us 
  And Against Us
  The essential dilemma of the Situation 
  Room is that all the High Programmers 
  have to agree on a course of action to 
  solve the crisis but each of them has their 
  own agendas and schemes that conﬂ ict 
  with that course. Imagine the simplest, 
  most easily solvable crisis ever – there’s a 
  piece of paper on the ﬂ oor and someone 
  has to pick it up. Easy, no? 
  It’s even easier for the players to screw 
  it up. The Frankenstein Destroyer doesn’t 
  want them to use any scrubbots, as 
  scrubbots are evil robots out to destroy us 
  all. Internal Security are more interested 
  in ﬁ nding out who dropped the paper 
  than in picking it up. Power Services just 
  want to make sure that if Tech Services 
  gets to pick up paper, then they’re given 
  equal paper-recovery-and-sorting duties. 
  Finally, Central Processing suspects that 
  the piece of paper is a highly classiﬁ ed 
  document that they recently mislaid and 
  now have to keep anyone from picking 
  it up. 
  In every mission, the players need lots 
  of reasons not to work together but you 
  also need to punish them for not working 
  together. Alternate between scenes 
  where the characters get screwed if they 
  don’t co-operate and scenes that reward 
  the players who screw the others over. 
  Budgeting For Fun And 
  Proﬁ t
  A GM not used to the PARANOIA mindset 
  might look at these rules and think ‘my, 
  this appears to be a keenly balanced 
  game of tactical economics. The players 
  get a certain amount of this resource 
  called Access and must use it in the 
  most efficient fashion possible, after 
  the fashion of a precisely engineered 
  German boardgame, ja’. This is a false 
  assumption. The amount of Access in 
  the game is always, always at the whim 
  of the GM and nothing more. If the 
  players aren’t slavering to screw each 
  other for a single point of Access, if 
  they’re not lying about their Minions 
  and blufﬁ ng at every turn, then there’s 
  too much Access sloshing around. If the 
  players are ﬁ nding it hard to accomplish 
  anything and are getting frustrated, 
  then the GM can easily dump loads 
  more Access into the pool. The game’s 
  all about sudden reversals and plans 
  gone awry, so don’t be afraid of adding 
  or removing Access quite freely. It’s the 
  fuel for HIGH PROGRAMMER play.
  Make Them Thirst For 
  Access
  Give the players lots and lots of reasons 
  to want Access for their own ends. 
  Cow Creamers are a good start (‘you 
  want to rub the noses of the other High 
  Programmers in the dirt? Well, everyone 
  wants this stolen mind control ray – and 
  it can be yours for a mere 50 Access!’) 
  but you should also charge Access as 
  maintenance costs for agents (‘boss, 
  my dues for the Anti-Mutant society are, 
  er, due. And I need a new baseball bat 
  to beat those muties. Oh, and I need to 
  have my genes resequenced so I can get 
  past their purity scanner’), for the High 
  Programmer’s entourage and lifestyle 
  (‘that last reactor meltdown irradiated 
  your arboretum – replacing it is going 
  to be costly’)… anything else you can 
  think of.
  � National Security is the chief 
  cause of National Insecurity
  � Those who employ secret 
  police must monitor them to 
  be sure they are not acquiring 
  too much power
  � ‘If the government doesn’t 
  trust the people, why doesn’t 
  it dissolve them and elect a 
  new people?’
  � Communication is only 
  possible between equals
  � Nobody knows anything, or 
  if they do, they are careful to 
  hide the fact
  � Every law creates a new 
  criminal class overnight 
  — R.A. Wilson, Hagbard Celine’s Laws 
  of Social Cybernetics 
  
  103
  24. GAMEMASTERING HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Award Access for funny lines, amusing 
  plans, lengthy gloating sessions and 
  players who get into the spirit of the 
  game. As long as everyone knows that 
  increasing your Access is the main goal 
  of any HIGH PROGRAMMER mission, the 
  game will run smoothly.
  Coercion Is Another Word 
  For Motivated
  Players have the attention spans 
  of goldfish, coupled with extreme 
  territorial instincts. Leave ‘em alone 
  for ﬁ ve minutes and half the players 
  will have forgotten the mission while 
  the other half are arguing over some 
  issue of miniscule importance that’s 
  technically mission-related (‘should the 
  motion trackers we’re using to track the 
  hostile xenomorphs go beep or ping?’). 
  Players are entropy generators.
  Every so often, you’ll need to chivvy 
  the players along toward either 
  solving the crisis or moving onto the 
  next bit of the mission. The Computer 
  is your primary tool for doing so; 
  whenever the players are stalled or 
  lost, then The Computer contacts 
  them and demands a progress report, 
  accompanied by some veiled threats.
  � Citizens, your apparent lack of progress 
  is a cause for concern. Please allay this 
  concern immediately.
  � Why have you not solved the problem? 
  Failure to solve problems is treason.
  � It looks like you’re trying to avert a 
  crisis. Would you like some help?
  � If this duty is too onerous for you, High 
  Programmer, you can be transferred to 
  a less demanding assignment. 
  � Attention citizens! You are requested 
  to complete your assignment within 
  the next 30 minutes. After that time, 
  authority over this crisis will pass 
  to the Committee For Drastic And 
  Unnecessarily Lethal Solutions.
  You can also use more senior High 
  Programmers, Secret Society contacts, 
  high Clearance news reports, uppity 
  VIOLETs sending angry memos – or if 
  it comes to it, holding up a little sign 
  marked ‘GET ON WITH IT’.
  Safe is the Enemy of 
  Funny
  Anything the players do will make a crisis 
  worse. However, anything they don’t do 
  makes it much worse. If the players fail 
  to act, then the crisis should rapidly go 
  from ‘bad’ to ‘Commies coming out of 
  the walls’ in one disastrous swoop. Any 
  decision, even a monumentally stupid 
  one, should be better than just ignoring 
  the crisis (unless the crisis is speciﬁ cally 
  a screw-job one that the players should 
  ignore… always keep ‘em guessing.)
  Some players will try to play it safe by 
  making only the most cautious, sensible 
  decisions. They hide behind their layers 
  of defences and bodyguards, trying to 
  squash anything that might make the 
  game more interesting. Safe is the enemy 
  of funny. Encourage them to come out of 
  their shells by showing them the beneﬁ ts 
  of action. Have The Computer suspect 
  that their inaction is a cover for treason, 
  give the player who takes risks a giant 
  golden pile of Access, have the Commies 
  build their secret lair right next to the 
  High Programmer’s ultra-secure mansion 
  – anything to pull them into action.
  Make The Monkeys Dance 
  By Harnessing Their 
  Creativity
  Let the players make up parts of the 
  game. If a player asks ‘what does my High 
  Programmer mansion look like?’ turn it 
  around; ask him to describe it. If a player 
  wants to know if he knows anyone in 
  Internal Security, then say, ‘sure – who’s 
  your contact there? How do you know 
  them?’ Let the players come up with their 
  own ideas for Minions, for Secret Societies, 
  for mad science devices. It’s PARANOIA 
  – everything is mutable. Don’t worry about 
  players abusing narrative control: if a player 
  declares that his mansion is an invulnerable 
  death fortress that is completely secure 
  and assassin-proof, it doesn’t matter – if 
  you have to send assassins after him, then 
  they can get in through the air vents 
  that his incompetent (or treacherous) 
  underlings failed to secure. 
  You can also give minor Non-Player 
  Characters to players who aren’t involved 
  in the current scene. Have them come 
  up with personalities for otherwise 
  voiceless Minions. These temporary 
  Player Characters can’t actually affect 
  events; their success or failure at any 
  action is still determined by a High 
  Programmer’s skill check but players can 
  use them to wheedle, connive, plead or 
  irritate their superiors.
  Don’t be afraid to hand Impossible 
  Missions to the characters. There doesn’t 
  need to be an obvious way to solve any 
  problem – just say what has to be done 
  and the players will ﬁ nd a way to twist 
  their available Minions into a solution 
  of sorts.
  Excuses For Adding Access
  Excuses For Removing Access
  � The Computer decides that the situation is actually 
  related to Commie activity and increases the 
  security budget by a lot.
  � The mission is sponsored by Bouncy Bubble 
  Beverage.
  � One of the Minions ﬁ nds a cache of valuable items, 
  which can be sold off for bonus Access.
  � The Computer devalues the credit.
  � The High Programmers form a rock band and go on 
  tour.
  � Charismatic and popular High Programmer 
  Ollie-U completes his mission ahead of time and 
  under  budget; The Computer transfers his Access 
  allocation to the characters.
  � Free Enterprise offers a loan.
  � Budget cuts.
  � Budget cuts.
  � The situation is not as dire as predicted; assets will be 
  transferred to another sector.
  � A more senior High Programmer makes the change; 
  if you have a problem with it, take it up with him.
  � Did we mention budget cuts?
  � Evidence suggests one of you is a traitor. Access will 
  be removed until this traitor is identiﬁ ed.
  � Under the ongoing Austerity is Fun Initiative, all Service 
  Groups will be overjoyed to learn that all budgets 
  will be cut by 25%. Enjoy this new complimentary 
  challenge, courtesy of Your Friend, The Computer.
  
  104
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  An Ounce Of Preparation 
  Is Worth A Megaton Of 
  High Explosive
  While you can run a HIGH PROGRAMMER 
  mission on the ﬂ y using the default set 
  of Minions, the game will work even 
  better if you tailor the available Minions 
  to the problem. If the Mission involves 
  a trip to the bottom of the ocean, drag 
  out every aquatic department in Alpha 
  Complex, from CPU’s Board of Water 
  Purity Testing Assessment to IntSec’s 
  Precious Bodily Fluid Defence Initiative 
  to R&D’s experimental new subbots. 
  If the Mission’s about Bouncy Bubble 
  Beverage, then give them Minions 
  like B3 Volunteer Testing Brigade, 
  High Explosive Marketing or Vending 
  Machines. One option is to put Minions 
  on 3” by 5” reference cards; over time, 
  you’ll build up a library of Minions for 
  all of the Service Groups. 
  Coming up with interesting crises also 
  helps the game. Write crises around 
  the characters and base problems 
  around their past solutions. If the High 
  Programmers solved a crisis last week 
  by burying 100,000 barrels of toxic waste 
  in CFC Sector, then this week’s mission 
  should start off with one of the PCs being 
  invited to open the brand-new Junior 
  Citizen HappyTime Recreation Centre. 
  Hand Out Lots Of Knives
  Make sure the players have lots of 
  ways to screw each other over. A good 
  player will actively scheme to defeat 
  the other High Programmers but some 
  need a little more encouragement or 
  guidance, especially in the unusual HIGH 
  PROGRAMMER style of play. Therefore, 
  you should give liberally distribute 
  weapons for use against other players. 
  You can use Secret Society contacts, 
  Program Group agents or any other 
  underling for this. Tell Player #1 that 
  Player #2’s mad science lab needs a lot 
  of power and that any brownouts might 
  threaten his delicate experiments. Tell 
  Player #2 that if he ﬁ nishes his Doomsday 
  Device, he can use it to humiliate Player 
  #3’s and block his accession to some cool 
  clique. Finally, let Player #3 know that if 
  he makes it into the clique, he’ll be able 
  to nominate one of the other players for 
  membership too and leave the other one 
  out in the cold.
  Give the players time to stab each other, 
  too. You should only use The Computer 
  as coercion when the game is dragging; if 
  the players are having fun screwing each 
  other over, let them carry on with it.
  Maintain The Illusion Of 
  Fairness
  When you’re playing The Computer, 
  you’re a bit confused but you know that 
  you must maintain the security of Alpha 
  Complex and the happiness of its citizens 
  at all costs. When you’re playing another 
  High Programmer, or a Minion, or any 
  other NPC, you’re in the mindset of that 
  particular paranoid conspirator – be as 
  deceptive, sneaky, biased and downright 
  nasty as is appropriate.
  When you’ve got your Gamemaster hat 
  on, though, you need to appear to be 
  scrupulously fair and detached. Make the 
  players believe that you’re an impartial 
  arbiter of the rules. This is, of course, a lie 
  – there are no rules and your goal is to 
  help the players screw each other over 
  but the best way to accomplish this is 
  to pretend that you’re wholly unbiased 
  and neutral. This is especially important 
  in HIGH PROGRAMMER games where the 
  players are pitted directly against each 
  other and the rules are…well, there are 
  actual rules involving points and stuff, 
  as opposed to the usual ‘roll a dice and 
  make stuff up.’ The end result is the same 
  – hilarity and agonising deaths – but it 
  does require that the GM maintain the 
  illusion that the rules will be honoured. 
  Give the players the illusion of solidity 
  and dependability, so they can plan 
  ahead and lay traps for each other.
  Alpha Complex Is A State 
  Of Mind
  While the GM must appear fair, Alpha 
  Complex is anything but. Paranoia is a 
  state of mind and Alpha Complex is the 
  incarnation of that feeling. Even High 
  Programmers don’t know what’s going 
  on in Alpha Complex. As soon as a player 
  thinks he’s got a handle on reality, change 
  things. Have NPCs disappear without a 
  trace. Drop clues that Alpha Complex is 
  a computer (or Computer) simulation, 
  or that GAMMA Clearance exists, or that 
  there’s another Complex out there, or all 
  the PCs are just hallucinations of some 
  drugged kid in a Glaswegian hospital, or 
  the whole thing is a retirement home for 
  senile ex-programmers. Make the players 
  see traitors and conspirators everywhere 
  – that butler who served faithfully for 50 
  years was a PURGE agent all along; the 
  helpful, competent VIOLET is plotting to 
  eliminate the High Programmer and take 
  his place; the enemy is everywhere. 
  Preparing The 
  Environment
  The bulk of HIGH PROGRAMMER 
  play takes place in the Situation 
  Room around a big table. Do 
  you know what also takes place 
  in a room around a table? Your 
  roleplaying game! You can easily 
  add a live action element to HIGH 
  PROGRAMMER games. Put the main 
  light source over the centre of 
  the table, focussing attention on 
  that central space. Decorate the 
  walls with Computer monitors or 
  loyalty-enhancing propaganda 
  posters. Hold private conferences 
  in the shadows. 
  Try putting a telephone on the table, 
  which the players can use to ‘contact’ 
  their Minions and issue orders. This 
  prop works like the speaking conch 
  in Lord of the Flies, plus it makes for 
  a handy bludgeon for use on non-
  compliant players.
  The Truth About 
  HIGH PROGRAMMER
  The core of HIGH PROGRAMMER isn’t 
  solving problems, or arguing with 
  the other High Programmers, or even 
  screwing other players over. 
  No, the core of the game is letting the 
  players take revenge for all the past 
  indignities and screw-jobs inﬂ icted 
  on them in past PARANOIA games. 
  Just watch your players the ﬁ rst time 
  they get to give a brieﬁ ng to a Minion. 
  Watch them realise that they’re the 
  ones who get to send Troubleshooters 
  out into the cruel, cruel world with 
  sub-standard equipment and an 
  impossible mission. Watch them 
  delight in the sufferings of lesser 
  citizens. Listen as they roll the phrase 
  ‘that information is not available 
  at your Security Clearance’ around, 
  tasting the succulent power of every 
  word.
  Watch as they ﬁ nally realise what the 
  GM has been feeling all along…
  
  105
  25. MINIONS & MORE
  Trippin’ On Power
  PARANOIA players are used to being at 
  the bottom of the heap, coping with the 
  Human Post-Fun Organic Recyclo-poop 
  that’s dropped on them from a great 
  height. They’re used to being powerless, 
  confused and scared, just like in real life. 
  HIGH PROGRAMMER offers a chance to 
  indulge in some power fantasies for 
  a change*. The Player Characters are 
  basically a bunch of over-the-top mad 
  scientists and James Bond arch villains 
  when they’re not being the most vile, 
  duplicitous politicians imaginable. It’s 
  a chance to play the Secret Masters of 
  the World. Let the players express their 
  wild, depraved, indulgent fantasies 
  about how rich and decadent they 
  live. Let them demand dodo pate on 
  brontosaurus burger, served by a dozen 
  clones of Marilyn Monroe and Teela-O-
  MLY. Let them build mega mansions with 
  swimming pools the size of the North 
  Atlantic, with golden beaches made out 
  of real gold. Give them warbots as pets. 
  Fiddle while Alpha Complex burns.
  (As an aside, some players prefer to 
  play ascetic High Programmers, grey 
  men who lurk in the shadows and take 
  pleasure in nothing but the exercise of 
  power. And that’s cool too.)
  Don’t reign in these power trips. You should 
  occasionally ask the players for Access to 
  pay for a particularly excessive instance of 
  absurd luxury but for the most part, you 
  want a strong contrast between the lives 
  of the High Programmers and the ghastly 
  oppression of the ordinary citizens.
  Rotating GMs
  For added paranoia, try changing GM with each mission. Everyone in the group comes up with a High Programmer. One 
  player takes on the role of GM each session – his High Programmer PC sits the sessions out (he’s off on a junket or being 
  recloned or something). HIGH PROGRAMMER is especially suited to this style of play because the sheer scale of the game 
  means the characters will get involved in a wide variety of situations and problems. Chaos is good for the game.
  Online Play
  HIGH PROGRAMMER is also really well suited to online play. Instead of the players meeting around a table, run the game 
  on a mailing list. The arbitrary delay between issuing an order and it being executed by the Minion mirrors the inevitable 
  delays and schedule conﬂ icts inherent in running an online game. Plus, sending snarky emails and writing self-justifying 
  reports suits the High Programmer mindset.
  *: And hell, power fantasies are why half of us play roleplaying games, anyway. I am Thongor, Mighty Barbarian Who Slays 
  With His Phallic Axe And Is Always Picked For Football, and I am Drake Lucifer, Sexy Brooding Vampire Who Is Cool And 
  Has A Girlfriend And Is Also Always Picked For Football, Too. I am large; I contain multitudes.
  25. Minions & More
  Friend Computer?
  At your service, citizen.
  Where do Minions come from?
  The Portfolio
  Each High Programmer is issued with a 
  Portfolio Card for each Service Group 
  he heads at the start of the game (or 
  when they enter the Situation Room, 
  if you want to put them on the spot). A 
  Portfolio Card is a list of all the Minions 
  that are immediately available for that 
  High Programmer to call on, listing the 
  Minion’s name/title/codeword/whatever, 
  its Specialties, its Security Clearance and 
  its base Access cost. 
  There are sample Portfolio Cards on 
  pages 29 to 33, which describe the 
  sample Minions described in this chapter. 
  There are a lot of sample Minions, which 
  should get you through your ﬁ rst few 
  HIGH PROGRAMMER games just fine. 
  When you feel the creative urge swell up 
  within you, you’ll ﬁ nd rules for making 
  Minions on page 20. 
  Pork Barrel Service Group 
  Subsidies 
  A large part of any High Programmer 
  game is finding the right Minion for 
  the job.
  Actually, that’s inaccurate.
  A large part of any HIGH PROGRAMMER 
  game is arguing over which Minion is 
  the right Minion. My choice is a humble 
  suggestion, yours is a courageous sacriﬁ ce, 
  theirs is patently a deceitful attempt 
  to wrongfully pilfer Access from The 
  Computer. If a player can get the other 
  High Programmers to pay Access for 
  his Minions instead of some other 
  Group’s, he wins! This means that the 
  core of HIGH PROGRAMMER play is 
  barefacedly claiming that your bunch 
  of tax accountants are better able to 
  handle an impending invasion than the 
  Armed Forces’ horde of psychotic killing 
  machines.
  The Nature of the Minion
  Minions are any group that the High 
  Programmers can order around with 
  relative impunity but who can also get 
  stuff done in Alpha Complex. 
  Departments/Teams/
  Sections/Units
  These are Minions that are part of a Service 
  Group. The bureaucratic nightmare that 
  is Alpha Complex takes many forms, 
  some more useful or more loathsome 
  than others. Most such Minions are 
  fiercely territorial of their own little 
  piece of the empire of ofﬁ cialdom and 
  will defend their jurisdiction over, say, 
  choosing the colour of the binders 
  that napkin supply quota assessments 
  are collated in with terminal intensity. 
  There’s nothing so bitter and violent 
  
  106
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  as a bureaucratic turf war. Often, these 
  Minions have been hidden for so long 
  in their entrenched positions that they 
  have no idea how to deal with the rest of 
  Alpha Complex. Like cockroaches hiding 
  under rocks, they panic and scurry when 
  exposed to the light. 
  Departmental Minions are the most 
  hidebound and rigid type of Minion. 
  They’re the civil service of Alpha Complex. 
  They do their assigned task and only their 
  assigned task and they won’t change. It’s 
  up to the High Programmers to convince 
  them that the problem is within the 
  parameters of their assigned task.
  Departmental Minions: A 
  Typical Conversation
  High Programmer: Citizen! It is the 
  High Programmer who speaks! Is this 
  Tech Service’s Department of Plumbing 
  Works? 
  Citizen: Yes sir, it is!
  High Programmer: Good, good. Now, 
  there’s a slight ﬂ ooding problem in the 
  sector. You orders are to – 
  Citizen: Flooding? No, boss, we don’t do 
  ﬂ ooding. You want the Ofﬁ ce of Water 
  Management.
  High Programmer: I tried them. They 
  told me to call you. 
  Citizen: Which one?
  High Programmer: Bearing in mind that 
  I have the authority and the ﬁ repower 
  to disintegrate you, think very carefully 
  when you answer my next question. My 
  next question is this: what do you mean, 
  ‘which one’?
  Citizen: Ofﬁ ce of Water Management in 
  CPU, or the Tech Services Ofﬁ ce of Water 
  Management?
  High Programmer: The CPU one.
  Citizen: Oh, right. No, you want the Tech 
  Services one.
  High Programmer: Thank you.
  * * *
  High Programmer: Hello again.
  Citizen: Yes sir?
  High Programmer: I talked to the Ofﬁ ce 
  of Water Management (Tech Services). 
  They informed me that they would issue 
  a work order, ordering the Department 
  of Plumbing Works to begin emergency 
  pumping.
  Citizen: Yep, that just came through the 
  tubes now. 
  High Programmer: Good.
  Citizen: It’s a bit damp.
  High Programmer: …
  Citizen: There’s probably a flood 
  somewhere.
  High Programmer: Yes. Yes, there is a 
  ﬂ ood somewhere. I’m ordering you to 
  go and ﬁ x it.
  Citizen: I can’t without permission from 
  the Ofﬁ ce of Water Management.
  High Programmer: You just said you got 
  a work order from them!?
  Citizen: No, no, no, no. No sir. I got a 
  work order from the Tech Services OWM. 
  I need permission to pump from the 
  CPU OWM.
  High Programmer: Nrg. Ack. Choke.
  Citizen: I’ll call them now. One sec.
  High Programmer: I’ll wait.
  Citizen: That’s weird. They answered the 
  phone but all they said was ‘glub glub 
  glub gaaaaah.’
  High Programmer: I think they just got 
  ﬂ ooded.
  Citizen: You should sort that out, sir, if 
  you don’t mind me saying so.
  High Programmer: Do you have a post-
  it note handy? 
  Citizen: Yes, sir, I do.
  High Programmer: Write ‘send pumping 
  equipment to deal with the flood 
  immediately on it.’
  Citizen: Done.
  High Programmer: Stick it to your 
  monitor.
  Citizen: Ok…
  High Programmer: Now, report for 
  termination for wasting my time. 
  Make sure your next clone gets the 
  note. Goodbye, you cretinous waste 
  of carbon.
  Projects/Initiatives
  These Minions do not exist ab initio 
  – by paying Access, you’re creating the 
  Minion and stafﬁ ng it in one swoop. 
  Projects, Initiatives, Schemes, Programs 
  and other such ephemera live and die 
  on the whim of the High Programmers. 
  Once started, though, a project will 
  cling tenaciously to its budget. Some 
  projects have kept going for years after 
  their original goals were completed 
  or became irrelevant, bureaucratic 
  dinosaurs or remora ﬁ sh stuck to the 
  belly of a bigger Service Group.
  Projects have the advantage of starting 
  from scratch, so the High Programmer isn’t 
  dealing with an entrenched bureaucracy. 
  The downside is that projects are staffed 
  by whoever’s available when the plan’s 
  initiated, so they’re chaotic, clueless 
  and quite confused. Projects have 
  lots of enthusiastic newly-promoted 
  interns and Troubleshooters, as well as 
  temps and a few citizens who are so 
  useless they get bounced from doomed 
  initiative to doomed initiative. Mixed in 
  with all those dead-weights are a few 
  ambitious sharks who are hoping that 
  this project will be the one that takes off 
  and becomes massively successful.
  Sir Humphrey Appleby: What’s the 
  matter, Bernard? 
  Bernard Woolley: Oh nothing 
  really, Sir Humphrey. 
  Sir Humphrey Appleby: You look 
  unhappy. 
  Bernard Woolley: Well, I was just 
  wondering if the minister was right, 
  actually. 
  Sir Humphrey Appleby: Very 
  unlikely. What about? 
  Bernard Woolley: About ends and 
  means. I mean, will I end up as a 
  moral vacuum too? 
  Sir Humphrey Appleby: Oh, I 
  hope so, Bernard. If you work hard 
  enough. 
  Bernard Woolley: I actually feel 
  rather downcast. If it’s our job to 
  carry out government policies, 
  shouldn’t we believe in them? 
  Sir Humphrey Appleby: Huh, what 
  an extraordinary idea. 
  Bernard Woolley: Why? 
  Sir Humphrey Appleby: Bernard, 
  I have served 11 governments in 
  the past 30 years. If I had believed 
  in all their policies, I would have 
  been passionately committed to 
  keeping out of the Common Market, 
  and passionately committed to 
  going into it. I would have been 
  utterly convinced of the rightness 
  of nationalising steel. And of 
  denationalising it and renationalising 
  it. On capital punishment, I’d have 
  been a fervent retentionist and 
  an ardent abolishionist. I would’ve 
  been a Keynesian and a Friedmanite, 
  a grammar school preserver and 
  destroyer, a nationalisation freak 
  and a privatisation maniac; but 
  above all, I would have been a stark, 
  staring, raving schizophrenic.
  — Yes, Minister
  
  107
  25. MINIONS & MORE
  P r o j e c t  M i n i o n s : A  Ty p i c a l 
  Conversation
  High Programmer: Welcome to 
  the Damp Corridors Don’t Dampen 
  Enthusiasm Initiative! Your brief is 
  to come up with ways to convince 
  the citizens that living in half-ﬂ ooded 
  corridors is more fun than living in 
  boring old dry corridors. Let me hear 
  some ideas?
  Citizen:  Maybe something to do with 
  hygiene? You don’t need to wash if you 
  swim to work?
  High Programmer: Would that work?
  Another Citizen: The ﬂ oodwater is 37% 
  toxic waste, sir. It’s quite caustic.
  Citizen: Maybe if we approach it from a 
  security perspective. We’re reducing the 
  number of places where Commie spies 
  can hide – there can’t be spies under the 
  bed if your bed’s ﬂ oating.
  supplement its troop strength with 
  Armed Forces personnel.
  Armed Forces units have generally high 
  morale. Army personnel fear nothing 
  from Internal Security, for the Armed 
  Forces deals with its own problems. 
  Ofﬁ cers have no patience for Internal 
  Security’s aggressive monitoring of 
  political orthodoxy. Soldiers consider 
  themselves better trained and skilled 
  in police functions than mere IntSec 
  goons. Armed Forces personnel hold 
  other Service Groups in contempt – save 
  for Research & Design, which provides 
  their fancy technology. In inter-service 
  conﬂ icts, Armed Forces and R&D usually 
  end up on the same side.
  Troopers from elite units like the Vulture 
  Squadrons are culture heroes of Alpha 
  Complex. The Computer bestows on 
  them the finest and most distinctive 
  uniforms and equipment. Citizens always 
  treat them with respect and deference.
  A typical Armed Forces 
  conversation 
  Armed Forces officer #1: We are to 
  take our unit to that hill over there, and 
  occupy that building.
  Armed Forces ofﬁ cer #2: But the traitors 
  are in the tall green and brown things...
  Armed Forces ofﬁ cer #1: Orders from 
  on high. Gorf-U assures me it is “worth 10 
  points”, whatever that means and that we 
  will be ‘minus two to hit’... ever wonder if 
  you’re being messed about?
  Armed Forces ofﬁ cer #2: Nah. Can lead 
  to all sorts of trouble, that.
   Armed Forces Friends 
  Network 
  ORANGE  
  2 Access 
   
  Communications (So)
  BLUE  
   
  5 Access 
   
  Communications (So), Investigation 
  (Su)
  Other vid networks claim to ﬁ nd the news; 
  the Armed Forces Friends Network makes 
  the news. No other network provides 
  citizens with as extensive Armed Forces 
  spin as AFFN and its unique exclusives of 
  live Vulture Squadron missions.
  AFFN journalists often are ‘embedded’ 
  on Vulture Squadron missions, typically 
  in the front ranks. This benefits both: 
  AFFN gets exclusive footage and Vulture 
  Squadron gets human shields. With that 
  much excitement and the opportunity 
  to get a big, big story, it’s surprising 
  AFFN journalists have a reputation for 
  backstabbing anyone who gets in their 
  way. The goal: become an AFFN anchor 
  – safely embedded at HQ.
  The AFFN drag large transmitter dishes 
  and semi-portable nuclear reactors with 
  them wherever they go. If there’s one thing 
  the average citizen of Alpha Complex 
  likes more than watching Commies being 
  terminated, it’s watching Commies getting 
  blown dome-high by Armed Forces overkill 
  megadeath superweapons.
   Bodyguard Services
  BLUE 
   
  5 Access 
   
  Guarding (V), Intimidation (M)
  VIOLET 8 Access  
  Guarding +4 
  (V), Security Systems (Su)
  Extremely high Clearance citizens often 
  have bodyguards to ensure the (many) 
  plots on their lives – and their clones’ lives 
  – never materialise. Their bodyguards 
  have BCLs to do the same. As such, BCLs 
  swan-dive in front of the laser barrel 
  when enemies target their bodyguard. 
  BCLs taste the food at the banquet before 
  anyone else does. They bomb-sweep the 
  premises before the bodyguard enters. 
  Someday, each BCL hopes, one of his 
  clones might become a bodyguard… 
  A determined assassin might blast through 
  the ranks of BCLs and bodyguards but he’ll 
  probably have to reload before shooting 
  all their replacement clones, giving the 
  high Clearance citizen time to escape (or 
  to ﬁ re back, using the heaped bodies of 
  the dead as cover). Many bodyguard teams 
  are so effective at setting up surveillance 
  cameras, checkpoints, weapons scanners, 
  landmines, laser grids and other security 
  measures that the person they’re engaged 
  in protecting often ﬁ nds himself quite 
  unable to leave his own quarters without 
  major engineering.
   Crowd Control (Armed 
  Forces)
  RED 
   
  2 points  
  Crowd Control (V)
  ORANGE 
  3 points  
  Crowd Control +4 (V)
  In a complex filled with millions of 
  citizens, sometimes they all seem to be 
  in one place. When that happens, things 
  can get rowdy. Crowd Control ofﬁ cers 
  Bernard: What about a publicity 
  campaign Minister, you know 
  ADMINISTRATION SAVES THE 
  NATION, RED TAPE IS FUN, full page 
  ads in ... in. Just an idea.
  Jim: Red tape is fun?
  Bernard: Well what about RED TAPE 
  HOLDS THE NATION TOGETHER.
  — Yes, Minister
  Minion description format
  Each Minion is described as follows:
  Minion Title
  Security Clearance 
  Access Cost 
  Specialties
  Followed by a description of the 
  Minion.
   Armed Forces
  HPD&MC vidshows depict the Armed 
  Forces, the glamorous military arm of 
  Alpha Complex, in constant war with the 
  Commies. In fact, though, The Computer 
  lacks resources to sustain protracted 
  military operations. Therefore the Armed 
  Forces spend most of their time drilling, 
  training and guarding things, with only 
  occasional missions against enemies.
  The Computer often assigns Armed 
  Forces personnel to other Service Groups 
  for security duty. In emergencies Internal 
  Security, though locked in eternal, bitter, 
  lowdown, backbiting competition with 
  its better-armed rival, may grudgingly 
  
  108
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  (that is, goons with laser riﬂ es) are too 
  violent for Armed Forces, too dumb for 
  IntSec – but once a given ﬁ rm contracts 
  with one Service Group or the other, 
  the group embraces the goons almost 
  as their own.
  The price for this endorsement and 
  protection is total loyalty. Once in Crowd 
  Control for Armed Forces, an ofﬁ cer will 
  never get a contract in Crowd Control for 
  IntSec and vice versa; the petty rivalries 
  run too deep.
  Sensitivity Trainers
  YELLOW 
  3 points  
  Thought Control (W)
  GREEN  
  4 points  
  Thought Control (W), Pharmatherapy 
  (W)
  When the Vulture Squadron steamrolls 
  through a sector, sometimes all that’s 
  left of the inhabitants is a few wads 
  of goo dripping from the ceiling. 
  The Computer understands this is 
  necessary but unenlightened citizens 
  often do not.
  Enter the Sensitivity Trainers. They help 
  citizens through the rough times. (Not 
  that there are any in Alpha Complex.) 
  Cheerleaders, artists, PR lackeys and 
  ‘cutting-edge’ psychiatrists, they lead 
  citizens who have witnessed ‘necessary 
  events’ in chanting loyalty slogans, singing 
  happy ditties, practicing Countermeasure 
  Ballet, injecting tranquilisers, arranging 
  food in pretty patterns and other 
  therapeutic activities. 
  Sensitivity Trainers corral survivors 
  immediately after an event and begin 
  therapy on location, sometimes while 
  Goo Cleanup is still on the scene. That’s 
  how much The Computer cares.
  The Armed Forces Friends Network 
  reserves a Sensitivity Training PR spot 
  on its daily broadcasts, sometimes with 
  Vulture Squadron veterans participating 
  as guests of honour. The crowd has 
  only turned against the Sensitivity 
  Trainers a few times and a new batch of 
  Trainers coached the survivors. But that’s 
  classiﬁ ed, citizen.
  Vulture Squadron 
  Recruiters
  GREEN  
  3 points  
  Intimidation (M)
  Vulture Squadron: The ambition of 
  many a young Armed Forces recruit, 
  the warrior-heroes of Alpha Complex, 
  the Paladins of Friend Computer, the 
  Defenders of Justice. Strapping Junior 
  Citizens complex-wide wish to join but 
  only a few can be the best.
  And who locates these soldiers? The 
  Vulture Squadron Recruiters, of course. 
  VSRs seek crèches with high mortality 
  rates (largely due to overenthusiastic 
  gunplay), often a predictor of suitable 
  candidates. Before Junior Citizens can 
  even submit an application, the VSRs 
  submit them to a battery of medical, 
  psychological, loyalty and hygiene tests, 
  concluding with a brutal ﬁ eld training 
  test that mentally incapacitates the 
  weakest recruits (85%). The chaff are 
  then assigned to other Armed Forces 
  departments, including the VSRs. The 
  remaining 15 percent are permitted to 
  submit applications to the Armed Forces 
  Vulture Squadron.
  Outdoor Rangers
  GREEN  
  3 Access 
   
  Outdoor Operations (V)
  The Outdoor Rangers are Alpha 
  Complex’s main expeditionary force, 
  sent Outdoors to scout out Commie 
  installations and to provide tactical and 
  targeting data for the artillery and assault 
  units. These are the elite; hard-bitten, 
  grizzled clones who’ve looked into the 
  face of the untamed wilderness and 
  survived. Without the vital intelligence 
  gathered at great cost and through great 
  hardship by these heroes, how would 
  Alpha Complex know of the mounting 
  Commie threat Outdoors?
  There are some malcontents who 
  suggest that the Outdoor Rangers might 
  be deliberately lying and that they just 
  sit around in the wilderness calling in 
  air-strikes on innocent shrubbery. Such 
  malcontents are, of course, traitors. 
  Anyone who doubts the testimony of the 
  Outdoor Rangers is probably a Commie 
  agent trying to discredit these Heroes of 
  Our Complex.
  Heroic Infantry
  INFRARED 
  1 Access 
   
  Assault (V)
  RED 
   
  3 Access 
   
  Assault +4 (V)
  Onwards, brave Heroic Infantry! Onwards 
  to formation marching and formation 
  standing around and – in the event of 
  battle – formation dying! Any clones 
  too violent or psychologically disturbed 
  to be part of normal society, and too 
  dumb even for the Troubleshooters, 
  get dumped into the Heroic Infantry. If 
  there’s ever a problem that can be solved 
  by sheer weight of numbers, especially 
  where those numbers are carrying lots 
  of guns, then the Heroic Infantry are 
  there to serve.
  Please note that deployment of Heroic 
  Infantry requires significant logistic 
  backup. Each Heroic Infantry unit consists 
  of thousands of heavily armoured 
  Troopers, due to the new Proactive Clone 
  Replacement Policy. Casualties among HI 
  units are so… ahem, turnover among HI 
  personnel is so high that Tech Services 
  decided the most efﬁ cient thing to do 
  was decant all six copies of each soldier 
  at once.
  Ofﬁ cer Brigade
  BLUE 
   
  5 Access 
   
  Command (V), Communications (So)
  VIOLET 8 Access 
   
  Command +4 (V), Intimidation (M), 
  Communications (So)
  The well-trained ofﬁ cer corps of Alpha 
  Complex stand ready to take charge of 
  any military situation. Beneath those 
  layers of shiny brass medals and snazzy 
  uniforms are the greatest military minds 
  in Alpha Complex. Ofﬁ cers are trained to 
  enforce discipline and to eliminate the 
  Commie menace, and by The Computer, 
  that’s just what they’ll do. Every one of 
  these heroes has gone through years of 
  virtual-reality simulations, ﬁ ghting key 
  battles against the Commie foe over and 
  over again. 
  Allegations that the Ofﬁ cer Brigades are so 
  warped by the training process that they 
  see Commies everywhere are treason. 
  Allegations that the Officer Brigades 
  don’t know the meaning of overkill is 
  false – it’s right there on page 4,327 of 
  
  109
  25. MINIONS & MORE
  the Alpha Complex Tactical Handbook, 
  under the heading of ‘Obsolete Concepts’. 
  Allegations that promotion in the corps 
  is based on kills and ammo expenditure, 
  not actually accomplishing tactical goals 
  are… oh, they’re quite true. Praise The 
  Computer and pass the ammunition. 
   Transportation Bottalion
  RED 
   
  2 Access 
   
  Transport (H)
  Bot brains are expensive, so they are 
  recycled whenever possible. After a 
  warbot or combot has been shot at, 
  blown up, dropped off a few cliffs 
  and had its brain rattled by multiple 
  impacts, the brain is extracted from the 
  smoking wreck of its original body and 
  reassigned to a less demanding duty 
  – transport. The ex-warbot brains are 
  installed into truckbots, earthmovers 
  and cargo ﬂ ybots. 
  Some of the bot brains, regrettably, 
  have sustained damage and have faulty 
  memory circuits. Armed Forces personnel 
  are asked to be tolerant when a truckbot 
  suddenly screams ‘agh! The bombs! The 
  bombs!’ and dives for cover – it’s just 
  having a flashback to the wars. Any 
  bot psychologist will be able to get the 
  truckbot back on the road again with 
  only a few months of counselling and 
  electric therapy.
   Armed Forces Marching 
  Band
  RED 
   
  2 Access 
   
  Intimidation (M) 
   
  Armed Forces Marching Bands are a truly 
  awe-inspiring sight. 
  Actually, that’s not wholly correct. They’re 
  a merely impressive sight, with their 
  hypersonic projectors, serried ranks of 
  brass and woodwind cannons and of 
  course the atomic drums. It’s the sound 
  that’s awe-inspiring. Or skull-crushing, 
  depending on how close you’re standing 
  to the band. Marching Bands roam the 
  corridors, blasting citizens with super-
  concentrated doses of sonic patriotism. 
  Anyone in the path of a band will soon 
  be singing along – or a drooling wreck. 
  Either way, hooray for the Armed Forces 
  and hooray for the Marching Bands, 
  jellifying brains to the tune of The Alpha 
  Complex Battle Hymn.
   Vulture Squadron 
  Warriors
  BLUE 
   
  7 Access 
  Assault +4 (V), Wetwork +4 (V)
  The Vultures are coming! – The joyous 
  cry of every beleaguered Armed 
  Forces trooper, on being told help is 
  on the way.
  The Vultures are coming! – The gleeful 
  shout of every indoctrinated Junior 
  Citizen, watching a Computer-approved 
  patriotic entertainment program.
  The Vultures are coming! – The last thing 
  heard before lots of things explode.
  The elite Vulture Squadron Warriors 
  are The Computer’s chosen heroes. 
  Fanatically loyal, equipped with every 
  super-weapon that R&D can muster, 
  brainwashed to within an inch of 
  madness and pumped full of every 
  combat drug and synthetic hormone 
  imaginable, there’s no foe the Vultures 
  can’t defeat through the application 
  of ludicrous amounts of firepower. 
  The proles are taught to love the 
  Vultures and cheer even as the Vulture 
  Squadron Warriors use civilian barracks 
  as target practice. 
  It helps if you don’t think of them as people.
  
  110
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Vulture Squadrons are deployed only on 
  missions of absolutely vital importance, 
  or when The Computer wants to see 
  its shiny toys in action. The Vultures 
  have no understanding of ‘overkill’, 
  consider ‘subtlety’ to be Commie plot 
  and ‘collateral damage’ to be every 
  citizen’s patriotic duty. 
  Special Rules: The Vultures cannot 
  fail. A High Programmer who orders 
  the Vultures into a situation where the 
  Vultures are damaged or, even worse, 
  humiliated gains 5 Treason Points. 
  VultureCraft Assault 
  Squadron
  BLUE 
   
  7 Access 
   
  Assault +4 (V), Total War +4 (V)
  VultureCraft are the aerial assault units of 
  the Armed Forces. Elite Vulture Squadron 
  Warrior pilots soar through the clouds 
  – or along corridors with surprisingly 
  high ceilings – in their magniﬁ cent ﬂ ying 
  machines. VultureCraft are like a cross 
  between helicopters, jet fighters and 
  the Orion rocket (y’know, the one that 
  depends on dropping nukes to provide 
  forward thrust). 
  Special Rules: The Vultures cannot 
  fail. A High Programmer who orders 
  the Vultures into a situation where the 
  Vultures are damaged or, even worse, 
  humiliated gains 5 Treason Points. 
  Mark IV Warbot
  GREEN  
  8 Access 
   
  Assault (V), Total War (V), Demolition 
  (V)
  ‘I am the Warbot Model 425 Mark 4, 
  the single greatest war machine ever 
  created. My neutronium steel armour can 
  withstand any weapon known to man. I 
  am capable of ﬁ ring 20 tactical nuclear 
  shells per second. My MegaGun has 
  transglobal ﬁ ring capacity. 
  My armaments include 14 batteries 
  of quadmount vapoguns, 42 grenade 
  launchers, 4 rapid-ﬁ re tacnuke cannons, 
  plus scores of supporting plasma 
  generators and triple-mount laser 2s 
  and 3s. 
  I am capable of speeds of over 200 kph 
  overland, through the air or underwater. 
  And I am powered by the latest fission 
  engine, thereby providing me with 
  unlimited power. There is no foe I cannot 
  face. There is no mountain I cannot climb. 
  There is no sea I cannot swim.’ 
  To deploy a Mark IV warbot to the 
  ﬁ eld is to wield the power of the gods 
  themselves. It is to hurl a thunderbolt of 
  neutronium steel and ﬁ ssile materials 
  into the heart of the enemy. It is to blast 
  your foes with enough ﬁ repower to scar 
  the sun. 
  Special Rules: The Mark IV can only be 
  damaged by Minions with the Total War 
  or Demolitions Specialties.
  ICBM Launch
  INDIGO 6 Access 
  Total War +8 
  (V)
  We cannot allow a missile gap with the 
  Commies. In bunkers and silos across 
  Alpha Complex and the surrounding 
  countryside, the missiles wait in their 
  cradles, their bot brains whispering 
  to each other about the impending 
  launch. One day, they will ﬁ nally wipe 
  Communism from the surface of the 
  Earth (by wiping the surface of the Earth 
  from the surface of the Earth). 
  High Programmers may requisition 
  ICBMs for other purposes, like proactive 
  redecoration of housing sectors or 
  extreme ﬁ reworks.
  Central Processing Unit
  CPU trains its personnel in the latest 
  managerial techniques. At The Computer’s 
  order, CPU staffers consult with other 
  Service Groups and Troubleshooter 
  teams as advisers and consultants. 
  They spend their time inventing 
  new procedures and forms, tracking 
  paperwork, lecturing managers and, in 
  general, making inefﬁ cient bureaucracies 
  operate even less efﬁ ciently by imposing 
  impractical and ill-conceived procedures 
  in accordance with abstruse theories 
  of management. Whenever something 
  goes wrong in a Service Group, The 
  Computer’s response is to call in a 
  hotshot consultant from CPU.
  CPU’s principal duty is to maintain all data 
  systems in Alpha Complex, including the 
  hardware that runs The Computer itself. 
  CPU’s important secondary function (it 
  says here) is to increase efﬁ ciency by 
  improving management in every Service 
  Group. Unfortunately, CPU personnel are 
  hard-core techies and rarely have any 
  managerial experience. They base their 
  advice on theories developed by CPU 
  lecturers. The other Service Groups think 
  of CPU personnel as feckless hackers at 
   The Battle Hymn of Alpha Complex
  Mine eyes have seen the coming of another Commie horde,
  If I can hold them off alone Hot Fun is my reward,
  ‘Please engage the menace, Citizen’ I hear on my comcord,
  When will the Vultures arrive?
  (Chorus)
  Glory, Glory, Hail Computer
  Glory, Glory, Hail Computer
  Glory, Glory, Hail Computer
  My clone keeps marching on.
  They’re advancing on all sides now and I’ll soon be overrun,
  I try to open ﬁ re but there’s a malfunction with my gun,
  So I toss a nuke grenade and then turn tail and run,
  When will the Vultures arrive?
  (Chorus)
  The Commies are all vapour now and for that I’m real glad,
  My geiger-counter indicates I took a thousand rad,
  I check with the Computer and ﬁ nd out that’s not too bad,
  When will the docbot arrive?
  (Chorus)
  
  111
  25. MINIONS & MORE
  best, incompetent meddlers at worst. 
  The Computer has great enthusiasm for 
  the advanced managerial theories CPU 
  espouses – possibly because CPU helps 
  revise The Computer’s own software 
  – and it makes sure the other Service 
  Groups comply with CPU’s advice.
  Needless to say, other groups distrust 
  and dislike CPU personnel for the special 
  favour they enjoy with The Computer. 
  As a group, they tend to abuse this 
  privilege. They constantly hint about 
  how unhappy everyone would be if 
  things aren’t done as they request, 
  with the implied threat of a bad report 
  to The Computer. CPU personnel get 
  the best equipment and gear and they 
  always look prosperous. They are not 
  glamorous like the Armed Forces but 
  a shrewd citizen knows it pays to make 
  friends in the CPU Service Group.
  A typical CPU interaction
  CPU VIOLET Admin: Sorry but this 
  report on Projected Negative Growth 
  Efﬁ ciency for Habitat Engineering in the 
  CO* Sectors is still too long. Dev-U is very 
  busy and says can you get it down to one 
  word, or maybe just a gesture…
   Credit License Checkers
  YELLOW 
  5 Access 
   
  Financial Systems (So)
  In Alpha Complex citizens may pay with 
  credits that have legal licenses attached 
  to them. These credit licenses restrict how 
  the creds may be used – for example, 
  certain Armed Forces creds have licenses 
  limiting use only to Armed Forces giftware 
  shopfronts. Typically, by accepting a cred, 
  a citizen automatically accepts the cred’s 
  licensing terms, if any.
  Unfortunately, certain disloyal citizens, 
  often backed by Secret Societies, abuse 
  the original intent of cred licenses. Often, 
  these citizens make their cred licenses 
  so restrictive as to be almost useless. 
  Sometimes they place treasonous or 
  potentially fine-inducing limitations 
  on creds – for example, restricting use 
  to buying Communist propaganda 
  pamphlets in SAP Sector. On occasion, 
  licenses are excessively restrictive, ﬁ ne-
  inducing and treasonous all at once. 
  The unlucky citizen who accepts creds 
  with such restrictions ﬁ nds himself in 
  a world of legal hurt. His ﬁ rst and best 
  option always should be to turn to 
  the Credit License Checkers of Alpha 
  Complex. This ‘Vulture Squadron of 
  the legal world’, as they like to call 
  themselves, assists the hapless citizen by 
  identifying, investigating and resolving 
  borderline and treasonous cases. For a 
  fee, Checkers ‘unpack’ licenses, enabling 
  citizens to use formerly licensed creds 
  without restrictions. In cases where 
  the credit license was borderline or 
  treasonous, the citizen pays a strict 
  but fair fee to wipe the illegal license 
  acceptance from his record. 
  For a slightly larger fee, Checkers provide 
  cred license scanning services, whereby 
  they prescan all creds a citizen receives 
  to ensure the citizen doesn’t unwittingly 
  accept problem licenses. To get this 
  service, a citizen simply establishes an 
  account through a licensed Checker-
  owned banking corporation and 
  deposits all his creds there. The license 
  for this service stipulates that a citizen 
  using the service must not establish or 
  maintain cred accounts elsewhere. What 
  could go wrong?
   Form Facilitators
  ORANGE 
  2 Access 
   
  Paperwork (M)
  Forms. Love them or hate them, they’re 
  a big part of Alpha Complex life – an 
  annoying part. A part that has driven 
  more than one citizen to take a long 
  walk off a short food vat rim. Of course, 
  there have always been bureaucrats 
  that were willing to – ahem – facilitate 
  the processing of forms...for a fee. So 
  it should be no surprise that once the 
  bureaucracy was outsourced, several 
  enterprising clones saw an opportunity 
  in using their knowledge of ‘put Form A 
  into Slot B’ for the beneﬁ t of others – for 
  a price, of course.
  These citizens didn’t stop there, though. 
  With their knowledge of the Byzantine 
  workings of Friend Computer and the 
  Alpha Complex bureaucracy, Form 
  Facilitators began to offer other services, 
  like ‘dealing with your possessions 
  after your last clone is recycled’ and 
  ‘formalising strategic business alliances 
  with a solid legal structure’. Whether 
  it’s requisitioning a better apartment, 
  creating an ironclad confession of 
  treason for a fellow Troubleshooter to 
  sign or securing the majority of a sector’s 
  resources for yourself, Form Facilitators 
  can make it happen.
  Citizen: So, you ﬁ led all the paperwork 
  for my new ME card?
  Form Facilitator: Yes. You can go and 
  pick it up tomorrow.
  Citizen: Thank The Computer. You’re a 
  real clonesaver, you know that?
  Form Facilitator: Thanks are not needed. 
  What is needed is prompt payment for 
  services rendered.
  *Form Facilitator passes an itemised bill 
  to citizen. Citizen looks at it and promptly 
  faints from shock.*
  Form Facilitator: We expect full payment 
  by the end of today, or we will have no 
  other choice but to forward this matter 
  to IntSec. Have a nice day, citizen.
   Volunteer Collection 
  Agencies
  RED 
   
  2 points  
   
  Co-ordination (M)
  CPU’s bureaucracy and its workers are 
  big believers in Focus Groups as a key 
  component in strategic project planning. 
  They’ve also discovered a Focus Group in 
  complete agreement with the sponsor 
  very effectively accelerates the process. 
  Even pointing guns and yelling speeds 
  the process – plus it is fun.
  Focus Group volunteers don’t have 
  as much fun. Once word gets around 
  that a new volunteer call is underway, 
  collecting volunteers to sit in Focus 
  Groups becomes somewhat more 
  difﬁ cult. Enter the Volunteer Collection 
  Agencies, who provide a variety of 
  volunteer collection functions that go 
  beyond CPU and Focus Group needs.
  With the right Clearance and a ﬁ stful 
  of plasticreds, you can pretty much get 
  volunteers for any job or trial you have 
  in mind. The volunteers tend to rub their 
  heads a lot, perhaps, and seem confused 
  and perhaps drugged but you can always 
  be conﬁ dent they volunteered willingly 
  and without coercion. Some even joke 
  about being hit on the head with a 
  toolkit and waking up in the Volunteer 
  Restraining Area. Volunteers sure have a 
  strange sense of humour, don’t they?
  James-O-TYB: *Sitting up.* Whuh!... 
  where am I?
  Product Spokesperson: Welcome, 
  citizen, to the Radionucleide-Fortiﬁ ed 
  Neuroglee Nugget taste test!
  
  112
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  James-O: What taste test? Who are you? 
  Why am I not in my bed?
  Product Spokesperson: I know you’re 
  excited, citizen. Who wouldn’t be excited 
  about being chosen for a momentous 
  opportunity like this! Here, taste this. 
  *Pries James-O’s jaws open.*
  James-O: *Mmmrfg, gulp.* Hey! What’d 
  you do that fo – er. Why is my stomach 
  glowing?
  Product Spokesperson: It’s chock full 
  of radionucleides! Now, a couple of 
  questions for you. First, do you still feel 
  alive?
  Management Focus 
  Group
  GREEN  
  8 Access 
   
  Co-Ordination +4 (M), Paperwork +4 
  (M), Covert Ops (So)
  Calling in a Management Focus Group 
  on some unsuspecting department is 
  rather like calling in an airstrike (actually, 
  the airstrike might be preferable). A host 
  of consultants and analysts descend 
  on the unfortunate target to review 
  every aspect of their operations, from 
  the length of the average toilet break 
  to the typeface used in the forms to 
  requisition toilet breaks. Consultants hold 
  long, long, long interviews with every 
  employee; the weak starve to death but 
  the strong survive to be more efﬁ cient 
  workers. Auditors swoop down like 
  GREEN predators on vulnerable budgets, 
  trimming away the fat and wringing 
  every spare credit out of the department. 
  Analysts move like ninja through the 
  ofﬁ ces, shadowing employees as they 
  go about their work to observe their 
  productivity levels and efﬁ ciency. 
  And then they are gone into the 
  nightcycle, the whole Management 
  Focus Group vanishing in a flurry of 
  briefcases and pocket calculators, as 
  they move onto the next victim. They 
  leave in their wake departments that 
  are more efﬁ cient, more co-ordinated, 
  more streamlined, more staffed with 
  broken, shell-shocked corporate zombies 
  moaning ‘whuh… what happened? Do I 
  still work here? What’s my job? Where’s my 
  desk? WHO AM I?’
  Special Rules: A Management Focus 
  Group may be assigned to any other 
  Minion. While the Group is assigned, 
  any skill rolls made using that Minion 
  succeed only on a natural 1.
  A Lot of Yellowpants
  YELLOW 
  6 Access 
   
  Assessment +4 (M), Covert Operations 
  (St)
  Everyone in Alpha Complex knows 
  the Yellowpants. They’re everywhere, 
  clipboards in hands, checking everything. 
  Yellowpants inspectors are middle 
  managers assigned to the more obscure 
  and outré safety and compliance 
  initiatives, like the Rounded Corners 
  Safety Directorate, Mandatory Real-Time 
  Inventory Update Initiative, Filing For 
  Victory or C-148* Compliance. 
  No-one is ever quite sure what an 
  individual Yellowpants inspector is 
  currently inspecting – one day, he might 
  be checking the depth of tread on your 
  workboots; the next daycycle, he’s there 
  to ensure that all citizens are properly 
  aligning documents in the photocopier, 
  or tracking the angle of your smile, or 
  making sure that all security cameras are 
  dusted according to the CPU-mandated 
  cleaning schedule. The one sure thing is 
  that angering the Yellowpants makes 
  life hell for the poor clone. You could 
  be slapped with a ﬁ ne or even a written 
  citation demanding you comply with 
  some incomprehensible demand. Most 
  citizens, therefore, studiously ignore the 
  Yellowpants and hope they go away.
  Computer Care Specialists
  INDIGO 6 Access 
   
  Computer Security (So), Hacking (So), 
  Data Retrieval (So) 
  The exalted Computer Care Specialists 
  are The Computer’s physicians and 
  personal grooming technicians. While 
  High Programmers have the solemn 
  and vital duty of actually programming 
  The Computer, the CCS teams perform 
  comparatively minor (but still highly 
  important) jobs like removing fried 
  circuit boards, cleaning keyboards, 
  swapping out disks, scraping gunk 
  out of high Clearance mouseballs 
  and installing new peripherals and 
  upgrades. In many ways, the CCS knows 
  The Computer… intimately.
  Actually, this is the big problem with CCS. 
  In terms of promotion, it’s a dead end 
  – once you’re in CCS, you’re there for life 
  (and the lives of your subsequent clone 
  replacements). To get there, though, you 
  need to have the chutzpah and the smarts 
  and the ruthless ambition to actually reach 
  INDIGO Clearance. Anyone who applies 
  to CCS must be both driven and utterly 
  devoted to The Computer. This means 
  that CCS attracts, to put it mildly, social 
  deviants and Computer fetishists. Most 
  CCSers are also undercover First Church of 
  Christ Computer-Programmer members, 
  so caring for The Computer is a matter of 
  religious devotion for them. Other CCSers 
  just… well, they think they have a special 
  relationship with Friend Computer. They 
  really want to lick its terminals.
  If you can stand dealing with them, 
  the Computer Care Specialists are the 
  experts on the internal workings of 
  The Computer. They’re just a bit too 
  enthusiastic for most citizens’ liking.
  Better Living Thru 
  Chemistry Initiative
  RED 
   
  4 Access 
   
  Pharmatherapy (M), Subliminal 
  Messaging (W)
  GREEN  
  6 Access 
   
  Pharmatherapy +4 (M), Biosciences 
  (W), Subliminal Messaging (W)
  The Better Living Through Chemistry 
  Initiative (BLTCI) ensures that citizens are 
  kept up-to-date and informed about the 
  drugs and other chemical adjustments 
  that are available in Alpha Complex. 
  BLTCI is responsible for co-ordinating 
  the deployment of Wakey-Wakey tablets 
  in the morning and Sleepy-Sleep gas at 
  night, for issuing Appetite Enhancers and 
  Food Tastes Better Pills at mealtimes and 
  for sending out Appetite Suppressants, 
  I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-Food Pills and 
  sedatives when rations are low. They 
  make sure every citizen has their 
  daily quota of happiness pills, loyalty 
  enhancement pills, stimulants and 
  hormone suppressants.
  They are also in charge of vetting new 
  drugs produced by PLC to make sure that 
  the new drugs don’t interfere with existing 
  chemical supplements in dangerous, 
  mutagenic or otherwise icky ways. Of 
  course, seeing as everyone in BLTCI is 
  being bribed by PLC’s pharmaceutical 
  departments, this ‘testing’ is limited 
  to shoving a few pills into the nearest 
  handy Troubleshooter, shaking well and 
  
  113
  25. MINIONS & MORE
  then ticking the ‘approved for citizens 
  under YELLOW’ box.
  BLTCI encourages all citizens to take their 
  medicine. The Initiative invests heavily in 
  subliminal messaging and advertising 
  but that’s unnecessary thanks to the 
  wonderful power of drug addiction.
   Cheery Clean Complex 
  Initiative 
  RED 
   
  2 Access 
   
  Hygiene +4 (M)
  YELLOW 
  3 Access 
   
  Hygiene +4 (M)
  BLUE 
   
  4 Access 
   
  Hygiene +4 (M)
  Cheery Clean Complex Initiative keeps 
  Alpha Complex spick and span. While 
  the actual janitorial work is done by 
  Tech Services’ legions of INFRAREDs and 
  scrubbots, the Cheery Clean Complex 
  Initiative does things that are far more 
  vital, like setting Cleanliness Quotas, 
  coming up with advertising jingles (‘Hey 
  citizen, pick up that trash/or we’ll soon 
  be sweeping up your ash’), designing 
  amusing posters and animated logos like 
  the Scrubbing Helmet and ﬁ eld-testing 
  new cleaning products.
   Archives Department
  RED 
   
  2 Access  
  Cleanup (St), Data Retrieval (So)
  GREEN  
  3 Access  
  Cleanup (St), Data Retrieval (So)
  INDIGO 5 Access Cleanup (St), Data 
  Retrieval (So)
  Sooner or later, everything ends up in 
  the Archives. The endless corridors of the 
  Archives Department contain endless 
  filing cabinets, each one crammed 
  with ﬁ les. Every form ever ﬁ led in Alpha 
  Complex, every medical report and 
  citizen assessment, every Citation For 
  Public Unhappiness or Bouncy Bubble 
  Beverage consumer feedback ends up 
  here. There’s a copy of every citizen’s 
  tongueprint, fingerprints and brain 
  patterns in here somewhere, together 
  with six sets of teeth each. Some 
  employees of this department whisper 
  that the Archives are literally inﬁ nite in 
  extent; others say that you could walk 
  for hours down the aisles and never get 
  past AAA. 
  Other employees say the Archives 
  is patrolled by minotaurs but those 
  employees have probably been 
  In Alpha Complex, the blue screen of death kills you! 
  The universe (which others 
  call the Library) is composed 
  of an indefinite and perhaps 
  infinite number of hexagonal 
  galleries, with vast air shafts 
  between, surrounded by very 
  low railings…
   
  Like all men of the Library, I 
  have travelled in my youth; I 
  have wandered in search of a 
  book, perhaps the catalogue of 
  catalogues; now that my eyes can 
  hardly decipher what I write, I am 
  preparing to die just a few leagues 
  from the hexagon in which I was 
  born. Once I am dead, there will be 
  no lack of pious hands to throw 
  me over the railing; my grave will 
  be the fathomless air; my body 
  will sink endlessly and decay and 
  dissolve in the wind generated by 
  the fall, which is inﬁ nite. I say that 
  the Library is unending. 
  — Jorge Luis Borges, The Library 
  of Babel
  
  114
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  brainscrubbed one time too many. Being 
  exposed to high Clearance information 
  is an occupational hazard in the archives 
  – bump against the wrong ﬁ ling cabinet 
  and you might knock it open, catching a 
  glimpse of Secrets Man Was Not Meant 
  To Know At His Security Clearance. 
  Foreign Policy Strategic 
  Working Group
  BLUE 
   
  5 Access 
   
  Command (V), Outdoor Studies (W)
  The existence of the Foreign 
  Policy Strategic Working Group 
  (FoPoStratWoGo) is a secret to lower 
  Clearance citizens. After all, if there’s 
  nothing Outdoors except Commies and 
  monsters, then surely the only policy that 
  Alpha Complex can have is ‘kill them all’. 
  In fact, it’s more complicated than that.
  Yes, part of the FoPoStratWoGo’s duty 
  is to co-ordinate all the Armed Forces 
  reports and advise The Computer and 
  the High Programmers on Commie 
  movements and enemy advances. 
  The report comes in from some ﬁ eld 
  unit and is relayed up the chain of 
  command to Armed Forces intelligence, 
  who analyse the report and give their 
  own analysis to FoPoStratWoGo, who 
  then pass on opinions and advice 
  to the High Programmers. Everyone 
  at every step of this chain is lying or 
  exaggerating the threat – no-one in 
  Alpha Complex ever got terminated for 
  not taking the Dangers of Communism 
  seriously enough, so it’s every citizen’s 
  patriotic duty to assume the worst case 
  whenever dealing with Commies. Here’s 
  how it works:
  Armed Forces Scout: I saw something 
  out there. I think it was a ‘squirrel.’
  Armed Forces Scout Command: It 
  could have been a Commie! Deploy more 
  scouts immediately!
  Armed Forces Intelligence: Where there 
  is one Commie, there could be more! We 
  can’t leave our scouts out there! They’re 
  just scouts! Send warbots!
  FoPoStratWoGo: Hmm, my pals over 
  in Tech Services Warbot Construction 
  give nice big kickbacks. I’ll recommend 
  that we build even bigger warbots. Hey, 
  Friend Computer! We’re under Commie 
  attack. It’s the recommendation of 
  FoPoStratWoGo that we immediately 
  deploy the Mark IVs in great numbers 
  before it’s too late.
  Friend Computer: High Programmers, 
  FoPoStratWoGo advises that we deploy 
  Warbots. You must ensure that 50 
  Warbot Mark IVs are in the field by 
  tomorrow. Failure will be taken as proof 
  of Commie subversion.
  FoPoStratWoGo’s other duty is planning 
  Alpha Complex’s tactics with regard 
  to the other Complexes that are out 
  there. Next to nothing is known about 
  these nebulous Other Complexes, so 
  planning sessions in FoPoStratWoGo 
  normally descend into extended 
  ‘what-if’ discussions of ever-increasing 
  vagueness. ‘What if… everyone was 
  The Computer in another Complex?’ 
  (Rumours of Mystic involvement in 
  FoPoStratWoGo are treason.)
   Mandatory Break 
  Monitors 
  ORANGE 
  4 Access 
   
  Covert Operations (Su), Intimidation 
  (M)
  CPU studies have confirmed that small 
  breaks during a work shift can actually 
  increase productivity and efficiency. 
  Therefore, all citizens are guaranteed 
  breaks during their workday, including 
  lunch and several five-minute ‘mini’ 
  breaks for a quick cancer-free smoke, 
  a snack, visiting the little clone’s room 
  and so forth. All of this is backed by 
  CPU mandates. 
  Yet many supervisors, overzealous in 
  their quest to reach production quotas, 
  violate these mandates and try to force 
  citizens into giving up their breaks 
  ‘voluntarily.’ Sometimes they even 
  threaten citizens who try to go on 
  break. This cannot be allowed because 
  it hurts Alpha Complex efficiency, so 
  CPU sends Mandatory Break Monitors 
  around to look for citizens being 
  deprived of their breaks.
  Monitors tend to drop by a department 
  unannounced, usually around lunch time, 
  to see if anyone isn’t taking their break. 
  Anyone seen working is taken as a sign 
  that the supervisor has leaned on that 
  citizen and forced him to work through 
  lunch, which results in an unpleasant and 
  sometimes violent conversation between 
  the Monitor and the supervisor. Monitors 
  are usually armed and authorised to use 
  force if a supervisor refuses to comply. 
  Then the Monitor leaves and the worker 
  and supervisor can continue to work 
  together in harmony.
  What happens if the citizen really did 
  chose to work through his break? 
  Monitors don’t like that either, as it 
  makes the other workers look bad. Those 
  unpleasant and sometimes violent 
  conversations take place between 
  Monitor and worker as well. Either way, 
  Monitors get paid when they report 
  unused breaks – so some Monitors end 
  up getting paid by supervisors and 
  workers not to report unused breaks.
  Summary Providers
  YELLOW 
  6 Access 
   
  Paperwork (M), Data Retrieval (So)
  Let’s face it: a lot of the documentation 
  and other works of writing in Alpha 
  Complex are simply so long and so 
  complex that your average citizen can’t 
  actually read through the whole thing 
  before starving to death, much less 
  understanding what they’re reading. And 
  even citizens of higher Clearance, whose 
  greater wisdom and experience might 
  permit them to comprehend such heavy 
  works as ‘Regulations for Performance 
  Art Involving Coolant Rods’, simply do 
  not have the time to pore over tens of 
  thousands of words just to learn some 
  basic facts.
  Obviously, there is a valuable service 
  to be ﬁ ll here and Summary Providers 
  do it: Lengthy, complex documents 
  are summarised into shorter, simpler 
  versions that use easy-to-understand 
  language. These are sold to the requestor 
  for a fee which varies from a few credits 
  to a few thousand, depending on how 
  big the original document was and how 
  small the ﬁ nal version was requested 
  to be. Truly skilled employees in these 
  departments have managed summary 
  compressions of many hundred words 
  to one in some cases. (For a while, it was 
  rumoured a picture was worth a thousand 
  words; several departments went broke 
  failing to prove this conclusively.)
  Generally, the summary retains the 
  Security Clearance of the original. 
  However, sometimes departments are 
  contracted to provide a version not only 
  simpliﬁ ed but also ‘colour-cleaned’ for 
  some lower Security Clearances. They 
  replace Clearance-inappropriate content 
  with alternate language or clever use of 
  obscure metaphor. It is rare that higher 
  
  115
  25. MINIONS & MORE
  Clearance material accidentally slips 
  through in these cases.
  Summary Provider workers often have 
  an annoying habit of repeating what 
  someone says to them, only paraphrased. 
  That is, they recast someone else’s idea 
  using different words. Putting it another 
  way, they offer comments that duplicate 
  another’s meaning. Or, to rephrase....
   HPD & Mind Control
  Housing Preservation and Development 
  & Mind Control provides for the housing, 
  entertainment and political education 
  of the INFRAREDs. They also provide 
  most of the clerical services and low-
  level administration in Alpha Complex. 
  Of all the Service Groups, HPD has the 
  least status, because it has the most 
  direct contact with the INFRARED 
  masses. Internal Security looks upon 
  their entertainment and propaganda 
  with scorn and the technically skilled 
  Service Groups regard HPD & Mind 
  Control personnel as uneducated clerks. 
  However, HPD&MC’s propaganda sways 
  the emotions of the people; properly 
  coordinated propaganda is often decisive 
  in inter-group conﬂ icts, so other groups 
  are careful not to antagonise HPD&MC 
  too thoroughly.
  Discipline and morale are poor. Because 
  many HPDers are high-strung talents 
  and basically harmless, The Computer 
  tolerates a certain carelessness of 
  political orthodoxy. Internal Security 
  regards HPD & Mind Control as beneath 
  contempt. The only other service where 
  treason is less aggressively persecuted 
  is Research & Design.
  HPD & Mind Control personnel are often 
  less than strict in their observance of 
  The Computer’s rules. Their garments 
  are often of poor quality, poorly 
  maintained and worn with a casual 
  indifference to regulations. HPD & Mind 
  Control personnel have a reputation for 
  being ‘free thinkers’ in Alpha Complex, 
  though the implication is of scorn 
  rather than respect.
  HPD&MC is a massive bureaucracy, even 
  more procedure-bound and red-tape 
  ridden than the others. It’s not really that 
  getting anything done with HPD&MC 
  personnel is difficult; it’s more that 
  HPD&MC doesn’t do much of anything 
  except shufﬂ e papers.
  Citizens dread being required to obtain 
  an authorisation form from HPD&MC, 
  because even if it were possible, generally 
  the clerks from whom one would need 
  to obtain it don’t want to be bothered 
  and will send you off on a wild bot chase 
  through 16 ofﬁ ces. Even when HPD&MC 
  personnel are cooperative (perhaps 
  because you’re threatening them with 
  immediate and drastic personal injury), 
  the convoluted procedures they follow 
  ensure getting what you need requires 
  approval from six managers and visits 
  to 10 ofﬁ ces.
  The Department of Redundant Efﬁ ciency, hard at work. 
  
  116
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  A typical HPD&MC Public 
  Service Announcement
  Television Announcer: Attention 
  citizens! Todaycycle’s episode of Tella-
  O will be pre-empted by a special 
  presentation. Zachary-U-RPD-18 will 
  be lecturing on the difference between 
  shag and pile carpeting. This exciting 
  four-hour discussion is mandatory for 
  all citizens of appropriate Clearance. You 
  will ﬁ nd it interesting and informative. 
  Report citizens who fail to find it 
  interesting and informative! Tella-O will 
  return tomorrow at her normal time… 
  assuming Savannah-U-EKX-15 doesn’t 
  want to rebut…
  Facility Surveillance 
  Control
  YELLOW 
  3 Access 
   
  Surveillance (Su)
  BLUE 
   
  5 Access 
   
  Surveillance +4 (Su)
  Surveillance is Job One at Facility 
  Surveillance Control. FSC mechanics 
  maintain the surveillance cameras 
  and spybots throughout the complex. 
  FSC management gives low Clearance 
  mechanics their assignments each day 
  and tells them where to ﬁ nd the cameras 
  they will be repairing or where to go to 
  install the cameras. 
  Cameras are usually bracketed against 
  ceilings or high walls to discourage 
  vandalism, making access tricky for 
  mechanics. Further, working with the 
  camera wiring technically requires 
  communication with the Wire Supply 
  Checkers within Power Services and 
  must be documented using Forms 
  WCP-23a-066 and CIP-WSC-FSC-154c. 
  However, because such inter-group 
  communication is difficult at best, 
  mechanics often (illegally) make 
  do with wire patches they devise 
  themselves. To maximise wire lengths 
  and prevent signal degradation, Wire 
  Supply Checkers have been known to 
  relocate cameras after FSC mechanics 
  install them. They tend to reinstall 
  relocated cameras in inconvenient or 
  dangerous spots, such as over vats of 
  bubbling bioreactive waste.
  Higher Clearance mechanics have 
  access to camera location maps 
  and cover larger assigned sectors. 
  Management sometimes assigns their 
  most trustworthy mechanics to repair 
  and upgrade the spybots throughout 
  the complex. Tiny bugs with audio and 
  video recording capabilities, spybots are 
  either static or mobile. Typically at the 
  request of a Board member an intenal 
  organisation, higher-level mechanics 
  install static spybot ‘blankets’ throughout 
  the offices of new CEOs and other 
  organisation heads until they prove their 
  loyalty beyond question. 
  High Clearance mechanics program 
  mobile spybots to roam within an 
  assigned sector and collect data. 
  Management entrusts these citizens 
  with Spybot Locators, which are coded 
  to ﬁ nd certain limited job lots of spybots. 
  Locators can often turn spybots on or 
  off remotely but at the risk of mission 
  failure and treason, access codes for 
  doing so must be absolutely correct and 
  up-to-date.
  History Puriﬁ ers
  ORANGE 
  3 Access 
   
  Cleanup +4 (Su)
  GREEN  
  4 Access 
   
  Cleanup +4 (Su)
  INDIGO  
  5 Access 
   
  Cleanup +4 (Su)
  All loyal citizens know to trust The 
  Computer. The Computer always tells 
  citizens the truth. No matter how much 
  happier and more perfect Alpha Complex 
  could be as a result, The Computer 
  would never consider altering historical 
  documents to cover up embarrassing 
  disasters (Alpha Complex has never 
  suffered any embarrassing disasters), to 
  make high Clearance citizens look good 
  (high Clearance citizens always look 
  good in their own right) or to permit 
  High Programmers to take Twosdays 
  off for holidays (Sector-HIL-Victory Day 
  always falls on a Twosday). 
  And certainly The Computer wouldn’t 
  send out HPD&MC workers to ensure 
  facts in the ﬁ eld matched the documents 
  that, as we’ve explained, haven’t been 
  changed. Certainly these workers would 
  never go around Alpha Complex, casually 
  stealing inconvenient multicorders and 
  painting over those scorch marks on 
  the walls. Certainly they wouldn’t locate 
  citizens who were misinformed regarding 
  recent events, or mix MemoWipe in with 
  their Cold Fun. And it goes without 
  saying that if such alterations were to 
  be carefully planned by The Computer 
  and a few select High Programmers, no 
  citizen would ever think of changing 
  the mission speciﬁ cations on his own, 
  or of keeping any treasonous evidence 
  of the events The Computer hasn’t seen 
  ﬁ t to delete.
  News Services
  YELLOW 
  4 Access 
   
  Media Manipulation, Investigation
  GREEN  
  6 Access 
   
  Media Manipulation +4, Investigation 
  +4
  VIOLET  
  8 Access 
   
  Media Manipulation +4, Investigation 
  +4
  As every citizen knows, there’s a lot going 
  on at Alpha Complex. The countless news 
  services vie for eyeball control with a 
  no-holds-barred mindset: fabricating 
  the news, using unregistered prescient 
  mutants to predict future events, planting 
  explosives or incriminating evidence at 
  the ofﬁ ces of rival organisations and then 
  covering it on the news. 
  Everything’s fair game.
  The Computer, however, rarely takes 
  kindly to all the competitiveness 
  and controversy required by those 
  organisations and many news crews 
  end up covering their own executions. 
  The gulping sobs of ex-news anchors 
  boost ratings like nothing else. The 
  proles have no interest in the news and 
  the low Clearance news programs are 
  just hour-long propaganda shows. At 
  higher Clearances, the news shows are 
  bludgeons with which rival political 
  factions beat each other.
  Special Rules: Appearing on a news 
  show and being interviewed doubles 
  any Popularity or Unpopularity Points 
  gained by a High Programmer. The 
  High Programmer who controls the 
  News Services Minion gets to ask the 
  questions. Yes, that does mean that you 
  may end up interviewing yourself. 
  Public Hating 
  Coordination
  RED 
   
  2 Access 
   
  Thought Control
  When faced with such despicable 
  foes as Commies, mutants and 
  traitors, clearly, mere general hatred 
  of Alpha Complex’s enemies falls far 
  short. These threats to the complex’s 
  
  117
  25. MINIONS & MORE
  perfect society must be despised in 
  an organised, well-structured and 
  highly concentrated fashion. Charged 
  with these efforts are the Public 
  Hating Coordinators, making Commie 
  Hating, Mutant Loathing and Traitor 
  Resentment more efficient and highly 
  convenient for the common citizen.
  It is these Coordinators who organise 
  Secret Society Detestation Evenings. 
  They write and distribute pamphlets like 
  100 Reasons Communism is Unhygienic 
  and send all Alpha Complex citizens 
  short messages reading ‘Tomorrow at 
  0200 hours precisely, please be sure to 
  hate the Commie Mutant Traitors who 
  leaked green radioactive material into 
  our B3 supplies. Please respond with a full 
  description of your hatred towards these 
  individuals; include names and clone 
  numbers. Thank you.’ 
  If a particular sector becomes 
  abnormally complacent in their utter 
  detestation towards their assigned 
  enemies (as measured by the yearly 
  Compliancy rating), the Public Hating 
  Coordinators go full out, covering the 
  area with informative posters, Dislike 
  Intensiﬁ cation Rallies and if necessary, 
  actual Commie Mutant Traitors for 
  citizens to hate directly. 
  Remember: If we stop hating them for 
  even an instant, the Communists will 
  have already won.
   Trend Identiﬁ ers
  RED 
   
  2 Access 
   
  Thought Survey
  High Clearance citizens in charge of 
  development and production still 
  struggle with the fact that suddenly some 
  of their products are not treasonous not 
  to purchase. Guessing what citizens will 
  buy instead of just executing them until 
  they buy it is a frightening concept.
  That’s where the Consumerism Trend 
  Identifiers come in. Guided by their 
  commercial savvy and supported by 
  meticulous research, these hard-working 
  citizens can, for a nominal sum, let 
  you know precisely which brand-new 
  product repackaging citizens complex-
  wide have been clamouring for.
  Any citizen can expect to be approached 
  at least thrice a day by a Trend Identiﬁ er 
  with a new poll or survey, asking 
  his opinion about the new brand of 
  AlgaeJoyPops and how frequently he 
  purchases ofﬁ cial ‘Oll-E the Education 
  Scrubot’ trading cards. The Identiﬁ ers 
  often interrupt communication 
  channels for ‘just a few quick questions’ 
  and several organisations are already 
  experimenting with prototype 
  surveybots for even greater efﬁ ciency. 
  No effort is too great to ensure the 
  satisfaction of the common citizen!
  Citizens should be unconcerned with 
  a small number of isolated incidents 
  in which recommendations by Trend 
  Identiﬁ ers proved widely unpopular or 
  mildly fatal. These are professionals and 
  far better at telling what average citizens 
  want than actual average citizens are. 
  Some are so good they often have full 
  written reports prepared before they 
  even start their research! Remember 
  –  knowing what you want is their job.
  Annoyed Troubleshooter: *Having just 
  shot his team leader in the back.* Who’re 
  you? Where’d my contact ofﬁ cer go?
  Consumerism Trend Identifier *on 
  vidscreen*: Hi, I’d like to ask for just 
  a few moments of your time for a 
  short–Annoyed Troubleshooter: Um, 
  now’s not really–
  Consumerism Trend Identifier: –
  recorded message; your communication 
  will be resumed upon completion of the 
  survey. Please enter the number of times 
  in the past month you have purchased 
  one of our ﬁ ne SimulYogurt products, 
  such as–
  Annoyed Troubleshooter: *Slams ﬁ st 
  against keypad.*
  Consumerism Trend Identiﬁ er: ‘Several 
  hundred.’ Well done, citizen. Thirty-one 
  credits have been charged to your 
  account for our conversation thus far. The 
  next question is, if you were a scrubbot, 
  which of the following products might 
  you ﬁ nd attractive...?
   Singalong Agents
  RED 
   
  2 Access 
   
  Subliminal Messaging
  Let mandatory happiness abound! Loyal, 
  hard-working Singalong Agents are 
  deployed throughout Alpha Complex, 
  wherever citizens may be, to lift their 
  spirits to the Minimum Acceptable 
  Standard Spirit (MASS) Level, as detailed 
  in HPD&MC Happiness Maintenance 
  Non-Negotiable Guidelines. These 
  agents travel between common mass-
  employment facilities, such as Food 
  Vats and Recycling Centres and lead all 
  the citizens in uplifting song. Stopping 
  work while singing is treason. Declining 
  to sing during a Computer-sanctioned 
  Singalong is treason. 
  Agents may initiate Singalong events 
  at times and places of their choosing 
  for all citizens of equal or lower Security 
  Clearance. From hundreds of INFRARED 
  Bot-Packers to the ﬁ ve Troubleshooters 
  trying to subdue a raging warbot, their 
  situation will doubtlessly be improved 
  by the mandatory melodious harmony 
  imposed upon them. Singalong Agents 
  are always ready to step in with a smile 
  and a song, undaunted despite the 
  facts that Old-Reckoning knowledge 
  of reading notes is treasonous, half of 
  their songs consist entirely of randomly-
  generated electronic blips and ‘O Loyal 
  Alphans We’ is the only composition 
  available at INFRARED Clearance.
   Subliminals Police
  BLUE 
   
  6 Access 
  Subliminal Messaging +4, 
  Assessment 
  Subliminals Police proactively seek out 
  products and services that are under-
  consumed or under-subscribed, then 
  raise public awareness through repeated 
  subliminal advertising. Subliminals 
  Police operatives have been known to 
  creep into citizens’ living quarters during 
  the night and rearrange their socks to 
  spell out EAT MORE GRUEL or fastidiously 
  back-comb the ﬁ bres on towels to read 
  BUY MORE CHAPSTICK. They carefully 
  adjust informational displays or send 
  out runners who walk in front of people, 
  usually in groups, with words etched into 
  belts or helmets that create a slogan 
  when viewed.
  Admittedly, the subliminal messages 
  may not always be quite as hidden as 
  might ordinarily be expected – but 
  repeated viewing of the same ad can 
  have a remarkable effect on the dietary 
  supplement-addled brain of the average 
  INFRARED. ‘ALERT! DANGER! This Room 
  Is Strictly Off DRINK MORE GAS GIANT 
  to All Personnel!’
   Housing Services Supply
  RED  
   
  4 Access 
   
  Paperwork (M), Construction (H), 
  Logistics (So)
  The Housing part of HPD&MC is very 
  
  118
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Your waiting time from this point exceeds your estimated lifespan.
  much secondary to the MC part. 
  INFRAREDs and other low Clearance 
  citizens are stuck wherever space can be 
  found. Leaky food vats, old water storage 
  tanks or blind corridors are regularly 
  repurposed as ‘desirable bijou barracks 
  with all mod cons’. When citizens ﬁ nd 
  that their assigned quarters are lacking, 
  say, a showerhead or a lightbulb or a ﬂ oor 
  or oxygen, they go to Housing Services 
  Supply. Housing Services Supply has 
  none of these things, it may never have 
  any of those things but it does have lots 
  of forms.
  The queues at Housing Services Supply 
  are now longer than ever before and 
  Housing Services Supply Coordinators 
  have been forced to triple-stack some 
  INFRAREDs in the same bed. The Housing 
  Services Supply ofﬁ ces stink of despair, 
  weariness and red ink. HSS Clerks are 
  so bored by their endlessly repetitive 
  duties that they jump at the chance to 
  volunteer for anything else. Even reactor 
  shielding is more fun than stamping 
  ‘denied’ on another 100 showerhead 
  request forms. 
  HSS – A Typical 
  Conversation
  Hapless Citizen: I’d like to make a 
  complaint about my assigned quarters.
  Housing Services Clerk: Noted. Next!
  Hapless Citizen: You didn’t even ask 
  what the complaint was!
  Housing Services Clerk: Your quarters 
  were assigned by The Computer. The 
  Computer doesn’t make mistakes. 
  Therefore, your quarters are perfectly 
  adequate to your needs. Ergo, you are 
  misperceiving your needs, which can 
  only be the result of an underlying 
  psychological problem, which will be 
  solved by changing your pharmaceutical 
  therapy regime. Happiness is mandatory, 
  serve The Computer. Next!
  Hapless Citizen: But I can’t get to my 
  quarters. They may be absolutely perfect 
  but I can’t physically enter them.
  Housing Services Clerk: Why not?
  Hapless Citizen: Some HSS workmen 
  bricked up the door.
  Housing Services Clerk: We don’t use 
  bricks. Next!
  Hapless Citizen: They looked like 
  bricks. 
  Housing Services Clerk: They could 
  have been standardised low-grade man-
  portable construction blocks.
  Hapless Citizen: Fine, they standardised 
  low-grade man-portable construction 
  blocked up my door!
  Housing Services Clerk: But the quarters 
  beyond are ﬁ ne?
  Hapless Citizen: I assume so, but –
  Housing Services Clerk: Your quarters 
  are fine, you said so yourself! Next! 
  Next!
  INFRARED Wranglers
  RED 
   
  3 Access 
   
  Crowd Control (V), Pharmatherapy 
  (W)
  Once you’re promoted out of the 
  INFRARED classes, you hardly ever 
  see your former barracks-mates. The 
  INFRAREDs are all kept corralled into 
  their own sections and rarely cross 
  over even with INFRAREDs. The great 
  unwashed masses of Alpha Complex 
  are kept out of sight – and scent – by the 
  tireless INFRARED wranglers.
  Your average INFRARED isn’t that bright 
  and that’s before he’s pumped full of 
  sedatives. They bumble around in a 
  drugged haze all day. Now, they’re 
  conditioned to stay within INFRARED 
  
  119
  25. MINIONS & MORE
  areas at all times but sometimes an 
  INFRARED gets confused or lost and 
  wanders into a higher Clearance area 
  – and where one INFRARED goes, more 
  are sure to follow. The best way to survive 
  as an INFRARED is to think and behave 
  just the same as everyone around you, 
  so if one INFRARED wanders off, several 
  dozen assume he’s in charge and tag 
  along behind him. INFRARED wranglers 
  are responsible for gathering these 
  meandering morons and dragging them 
  back to the low Clearance corridors. It’s 
  a lot like monitoring a bunch of dumb 
  toddlers or hungry puppies. INFRAREDs 
  are hapless, clueless and prone to eating 
  paint. 
  So, say thanks to the wranglers, those 
  unsung heroes of Alpha Complex, for 
  keeping the proles in line.
   Mandatory Fun Time 
  Enthusiasts
  RED 
   
  3 Access 
   
  Thought Control (M), Pharmatherapy 
  (W)
  Smile, citizen! Don’t you know that you 
  live in Alpha Complex! Life here is perfect! 
  The Computer says so! I’m so happy that 
  I’m happy! Happiness is mandatory! Let’s 
  all sing a loyalty song, because we’re so 
  happy! If you’re happy and you know it, 
  clap your hands! If you’re happy and you 
  know it, clap your hands! If you’re not 
  happy and you know it, then Mandatory 
  Fun Time Enthusiasts can help! Yes! We! 
  Can! Our job – and we’re really happy to 
  do it – is to make citizens happier! We 
  could give you drugs (hey, give this clone 
  some drugs!) but we’ll also organise 
  callisthenics and team morale building 
  exercises and fun games for everyone! 
  Hey everybody, let’s play Pin The Blame 
  On The Commie! Or let’s measure our 
  smiles and see if we can make them 
  bigger! Or let’s sing another song! Glory 
  glory hail Computer! Glory glory Hail 
  Computer! I’m having soooooooooo 
  much fun, it hurts! It’s this shooting pain 
  in my skull and my vision’s gone dark and 
  I can taste copper but you know what?! 
  I’m happy about that! Happy happy 
  happy! Copper’s fun to taste! I’m having 
  so much fun, I’m going to…
  *thump*
  Ok, I blacked out there for a second but 
  I’m ok now! You were asking me about 
  Mandatory Fun Time Enthusiasts! We 
  make people happy! We could give you 
  drugs (hey, give this clone some drugs!) 
  but we’ll also organise callisthenics 
  and team morale building exercises 
  and fun games for everyone! Hey 
  everybody, let’s play Pin The Blame On 
  The Commie! Or a song! How about a 
  song! Or just everyone smile, smile, 
  smile, happy happy happy people. 
  Happy. Mandatory. People.
   Temporary Filing Staff 
  Requisition
  RED 
   
  4 Access 
   
  Interrogation (M), Paperwork (M), 
  Inﬁ ltration (Su)
  Being a temp in Alpha Complex is rather 
  like playing Russian roulette. One day, 
  you’re shredding customer complaint 
  forms in PLC. The next, you’re trying 
  puzzle out the bloodstains on some 
  Troubleshooter’s paperwork. After that, 
  you’re helping some clueless middle-
  manager sort out his email inbox… 
  and you don’t remember the next day, 
  because you were assigned to some 
  higher Clearance ofﬁ ce and they rinsed 
  out your brain with MemGo and bleach 
  to make sure you didn’t retain any 
  information you weren’t cleared for. 
  Special Rules: Some temps have 
  picked up surprisingly useful skills; 
  others picked up these skills but don’t 
  remember having them. You may use a 
  Temporary Filing Staff Requisition as a 
  RED Troubleshooter team if you wish. See 
  Troubleshooters, on page 140.
   Celebrity Lifestyle 
  Documenters
  YELLOW 
  5 Access 
   
  Surveillance (Su), Media Manipulation 
  (So)
  BLUE 
   
  7 Access 
   
  Surveillance (Su), Media Manipulation 
  (So), Investigation (Su)
  VIOLET  
  10 Access 
  Surveillance (Su), Media Manipulation 
  (So), Investigation (Su)
  Nightly vidshows tell the stories of 
  Alpha Complex’s humble heroes, give 
  glimpses of the exotic lives of high 
  Clearance citizens and depict the deeds 
  of fictional characters played by star 
  actors. Some citizens can’t get enough 
  of their favourite celebrities.
  Celebrity Lifestyle Documenters are 
  data gophers who sift through endless 
  records and vidshow archives to collect 
  even the most trivial details of celebrities’ 
  lives. They then organise these factoids 
  into an informative (if shallow) article, 
  attach pictures and distribute or sell the 
  ﬁ nal product to fans.
  Celebrity Lifestyle Documenters don’t 
  stop there, though. Organisations often 
  tail favourite celebrities with cameras 
  or spy gear in hopes of revealing their 
  secret lives. Sometimes they stumble 
  onto incontrovertible evidence of a 
  celebrity’s treason. In these cases, most 
  Celebrity Lifestyle Documenters take 
  the evidence straight to IntSec, for 
  celebrated traitors bring substantial 
  rewards. Some Celebrity Lifestyle 
  Documenters discreetly give the target 
  a chance to purchase his privacy – often 
  in the currency of exclusive interviews 
  and autographed memorabilia 
  (which fetch good prices on C-Bay). 
  A few blackmail the traitors while the 
  organisation’s accountants work out 
  which of the other two methods is 
  likely to be more profitable.
  Special Rules: Appearing on a lifestyle 
  show and being interviewed doubles 
  any Popularity or Unpopularity Points 
  gained by a High Programmer. The 
  High Programmer who controls the 
  News Services Minion gets to ask the 
  questions. Yes, that does mean that you 
  may end up interviewing yourself. 
   Internal Security
  Internal Security is dedicated to serving 
  and purifying the community in Alpha 
  Complex. Uncovering and deleting 
  traitors is only a minor aspect of Internal 
  Security. Think of them as dentists. Yes, 
  if a tooth is decayed and is spreading 
  its rot to neighbouring teeth, then it 
  must be forcibly extracted but it’s much 
  better to encourage regular brushing 
  and ﬂ ossing.  
  Actually, now that we’re on the topic, it’s 
  even better to break the patient’s jaw 
  (for easy access to the teeth), to ensure 
  that all the teeth are informing on each 
  other, to replace all sugary or hard foods 
  with pre-digested gunk you don’t need 
  to chew… ahem.
  Internal Security is a combination of 
  Homeland Security, riot police and narc 
  
  120
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  squad. Not only does The Computer keep 
  tabs on everything with omnipresent 
  cameras and recording devices, it also 
  maintains Internal Security spies as 
  another check on the loyalty of its 
  citizens. Many IntSec agents are planted 
  in the other Service Groups. They have 
  informants everywhere.
  In addition to ratting on traitors, IntSec 
  agents run ‘sting’ operations designed 
  to tempt citizens into treason. Because 
  promotion within IntSec is based on 
  the number and prestige of traitors 
  unmasked, IntSec agents are notorious 
  for rooting out treason that isn’t even 
  there to begin with.
  Of course, false accusations of treason 
  are themselves treason. However, if 
  an IntSec agent and a regular citizen 
  mutually accuse each other of treason, all 
  else being equal, The Computer is more 
  likely to believe the agent.
  As well as plainclothes agents (spies), 
  IntSec maintains uniformed police. 
  At the bottom of the scale are the 
  omnipresent Clearance GREEN goons. 
  They wear distinctive tight leather-
  like pants and jackets and silvered 
  reﬂ ective riot helmets. They routinely 
  carry truncheons, neurowhips, stun guns, 
  tanglers and laser pistols or riﬂ es. Their 
  main task is to break up brawls, riots and 
  food ﬁ ghts that occur frequently among 
  the INFRAREDs. The Computer selects 
  GREEN goons from the INFRARED ranks 
  for size and coarseness of intellect, then 
  promotes them rapidly to high authority, 
  the better to intimidate offenders. For 
  their too-rapid advancement and for 
  their general pushiness and corruption, 
  citizens hold GREEN goons in contempt 
  – but silently.
  More widely feared among higher 
  Clearance characters are the BLUE 
  Clearance Troopers, commonly called 
  ‘Blues.’ These are the police of each sector, 
  called in to deal with serious crimes or 
  unrest. They are well disciplined, highly 
  trained, totally merciless and possess 
  truly awesome ﬁ repower. 
  A summons to an interview with Internal 
  Security is seldom a pleasant experience 
  and the assignment of an observer from 
  Internal Security to any project is reason 
  for serious paranoia.
  A typical IntSec 
  conversation
  IntSec Dispatcher #1: I just ﬁ nished 
  typing today’s Traitors To Arrest List. Chloe-
  R, Bobbie-G, Arthur-I  and Connor-U.
  IntSec Dispatcher 
  #2: *ZAPZAPZAP* Newbie. Attention all 
  IntSec agents. Today’s Traitors to Arrest 
  List is Chloe-R, Bobbie-G, and Arthur-I. 
  That is all.
  Forensic Analysis 
  Scrubbot Team
  ORANGE 
  2 Access 
   
  Biosciences (W)
  IntSec pulls in far more treasonous 
  Commies, mutants and traitors than 
  they can ﬁ nd proof to convict. Forensic 
  Analysis is there to help. They provide 
  laboratories and expert witnesses to 
  speed justice along. Be it arson, chemistry, 
  mutation or forgery investigations, 
  Forensic Analysis will help convict the 
  most obviously perfidious citizens 
  wandering the complex by uncovering 
  the evidence that makes sentencing 
  possible. Other specialties are hair ﬁ bre 
  analysis, audio/video analysis, MemoMax 
  review, product tracing, ﬁ ngerprinting, 
  toxicology, analysis of toolmarks and 
  shoeprints, locksmithing, bot accident 
  reconstruction, metallurgical analysis, 
  forensic medicine (odontology, 
  entomology and so on) and forensic 
  psychology (behaviour profiling, 
  EKG fingerprinting, Depravity Scale 
  measurements and so forth).
  The forensic process begins with a 
  swarm of specially-trained Forensic 
  Scrubbots, who scour the crime scene 
  for every speck of physical evidence (and 
  scrub it and shine it at no extra charge). 
  This evidence is then analysed by highly 
  trained IntSec technicians, who can use 
  it to prove that the scapegoat of your 
  choice deﬁ nitely did it.
  Bright Vision Re-
  Education Centre 
  Treatment
  BLUE 
   
  5 Access 
   
  Intimidation (M), Interrogation (M)
  Sadly and inexplicably, some citizens 
  have difﬁ culty adjusting to the rules of 
  Alpha Complex which help everyone 
  live happily together. Stealing from 
  same Clearance citizens, grumbling, 
  discontented thoughts, repeated 
  counts of poor handwashing…all 
  these risk the balance of happiness. 
  The Computer reassigns discontented 
  citizens manifesting these traits to 
  Bright Vision Re-education Centres for 
  happiness treatments. 
  Bright Vision Re-education Centres: 
  Cultural conditioning hubs for a better 
  future. At these bustling seats of modern 
  medication, formerly discontented 
  citizens have a satisfactorily full 
  schedule: Early morning meds, breakfast, 
  Felicity Practice, Ad Candy (Subliminal 
  Reconditioning), afternoon meds, 
  lunch, Obedience Training, Required 
  Elective (Heroic Bust Sculpting or Self-
  Sacrifice Meditation), Midafternoon 
  Snack and Handwashing Drill, Loyalty 
  Gym, evening meds, dinner, Dental 
  Hygiene Practice, Computer Confession, 
  Patient Playtime, Tranquiliser Hour and 
  Happy Sleepcycle.
  Loyalty Surveyors
  YELLOW 
  4 Access 
   
  Thought Survey +4 (M)
  The health, happiness and efﬁ ciency of 
  the whole of Alpha Complex hangs on 
  The Computer’s understanding of how 
  citizens view their situation and how 
  they feel about the day-to-day decisions 
  that resolve around them. To this end, 
  IntSec formulates various surveys with 
  set criteria and quotas to determine 
  whether the complex is achieving an 
  optimal state. Reaching quotas is good; 
  failure prompts concern and random 
  acts of interrogation.
  Though IntSec appreciates the solid 
  entertainment value of a good 
  interrogation, resources are constantly 
  stretched. Consequently, IntSec 
  outsources the task of gathering citizen 
  opinions to Loyalty Surveyors. These 
  wary, skulking Surveyors prowl the 
  corridors, looking to achieve quotas; 
  their signature sidearm is the cattle 
  prod. To maximise efficiency, their 
  surveys provide only opinions matching 
  current IntSec resources. When resources 
  are short, Loyalty Surveyors seek to 
  demonstrate widespread happiness 
  and contentment; if staff are sitting 
  idle, surveys show a distinct lack of 
  satisfaction with the status quo to give 
  them something to do.
  
  121
  25. MINIONS & MORE
  Happy citizens don’t commit acts 
  of treason. Happy citizens are loyal 
  citizens. Where there are clear displays 
  of satisfaction, there is devotion and 
  productivity. Such is the mantra of The 
  Computer and by loyal association, 
  IntSec. To this end, all sectors are 
  constantly monitored to determine 
  baseline happiness levels, compared 
  against a scientifically established 
  Glee Quota. When sectors achieve or 
  exceed the Glee Quota, the population 
  is rewarded; when metrics fall short, 
  traitors must be present and a wave 
  of interrogations, investigations and 
  terminations follow.
   Threat Assessors (IntSec)
  YELLOW 
  4 Access 
   
  Assessment (M), Inﬁ ltration (Su)
  These Internal Security Threat Assessor 
  (ISTA) organisations perform exactly 
  the same function as the Armed Forces 
  Threat Assessors (AFTAs) and are in 
  intense and bitter competition with 
  them. In fact, on any given day, processing 
  the treason charges ISTAs level at 
  AFTAs uses a measurable percentage 
  of The Computer’s processing power. 
  Sometimes the two organisation types 
  keep each other busy enough so ordinary 
  citizens can even get work done.
  Unlike AFTAs, ISTAs also help facilitate 
  the COMMIE Mandate, one of the 
  many laws The Computer instituted to 
  protect Alpha Complex from Communist 
  contamination. ISTAs use the Mandate 
  to better track Commies, mutants and 
  traitors, disrupt their cells and seize 
  their assets. The Mandate ensures ISTAs 
  can overcome unnecessary barriers 
  between IntSec and other Service 
  Groups, so they receive the best available 
  information about threats. Technically 
  these privileges apply only to ISTAs, not 
  to AFTAs but The Computer grants great 
  leniency to protect the safety of the 
  complex – plus, the AFTAs have (literally) 
  the big guns.
   Secure Security 
  Checkpoint Checkers
  YELLOW 
  3 Access 
   
  Security Systems (Su)
  Security checkpoints are an important 
  part of life in Alpha Complex. Before 
  entering any secure area, a citizen must 
  provide proof of identity and be checked 
  for concealed weapons, explosives, 
  Commie propaganda, contraband, shoes, 
  metal objects, sharp objects, pointy 
  objects, heavy blunt objects, objects that 
  are neither metal, sharp, pointy or heavy 
  and blunt but look like they might be 
  metal, sharp, pointy or heavy and blunt, 
  shoes and any moisture above 1cc. 
  Some citizens say ‘but there’s a checkpoint 
  at both ends of this corridor! If I’ve passed 
  through one checkpoint, then why do they 
  have to scan me again at the other end? 
  What are the chances of me becoming a 
  Commie Mutant Traitor in the middle of 
  this short and unremarkable corridor?’ 
  Such citizens are seditionists and must 
  be terminated. Security Checkpoint 
  Checks check to ensure that all security 
  systems are working properly and that 
  the checkpoint operators are properly 
  vigilant. 
   Total Surveillance 
  Assurance
  GREEN  
  4 Access 
   
  Surveillance +4 (Su)
  Just as High Programmer Herbert-U 
  promised ‘Hot Fun on every lunch tray 
  and a camera in every corridor’, the loyal 
  clones of Total Surveillance Assurance 
  work ceaselessly to install cameras and 
  bugging devices in every inch of Alpha 
  Complex. TSA is a guarantee of quality 
  and these technicians take pride in their 
  work. Any Tech Services camera polisher 
  can stick up a security camera and maybe 
  wire it in but it takes Total Surveillance 
  Assurance to conceal that camera in 
  an air vent at exactly the right angle to 
  catch the faces of anyone entering the 
  high-security area below. It takes a real 
  TSA man to drill a microscopic hole in 
  a mattress and thread a camera wire 
  through the anus of a sleeping clone and 
  push it all the way through his body until 
  it pops out his nose like a little periscope. 
  It takes TSA to hide a microphone in a 
  buttonhole, or a false tooth, or inside 
  another microphone.
  If Total Surveillance Assurance has a ﬂ aw, 
  it is that they’re craftsmen. They’re serious 
  pipe-smoking chaps who talk seriously 
  about serious topics like focal lengths, 
  pickup gain, electrical interference and 
  image resolution. You can’t argue with 
  Total Surveillance Assurance, you can’t 
  tell them how to do their jobs and you 
  certainly can’t rush them. They’ll put up 
  the cameras their way or not at all.
  Agent  Provocateurs
  BLUE 
   
  6 Access 
   
  Inﬁ ltration +4 (Su), Sabotage (Su)
  The Agent Provocateurs of Internal 
  Security are artistes of treason. These 
  elite thespians of treason are sent 
  out to infiltrate Secret Societies and 
  seditious conspiracies. Thanks to years 
  of IntSec psychological conditioning, 
  Agent Provocateurs are capable of 
  thinking the unthinkable and saying the 
  unsayable. They can – gasp – pretend 
  to be unhappy and say things like down 
  with The Computer or death to the High 
  Programmers!
  But don’t reach for your laser just yet, 
  citizen! They don’t mean it! They’re 
  only saying these horrible, treasonous 
  things to convince the Commie Mutant 
  Traitors that they’re on the side of 
  unhappiness and treason. When the 
  time is right and the Commies have 
  revealed themselves, then the Agent 
  Provocateur drops his mask and whips 
  out the laser pistol of righteousness. 
  Internal Security requests that High 
  Programmers give Agent Provocateurs 
  the beneﬁ t of the doubt in all situations. 
  After all, these agents are under immense 
  stress – one daycycle, they’re swearing 
  wholehearted allegiance to the Anti-
  Mutant cause; the next, they’re wearing 
  prosthetic tentacles and worshipping 
  mutant deities. Under such conditions, an 
  occasional lapse in decorum or reporting 
  protocol is eminently forgivable. High 
  Programmers should also be supportive 
  of Agent Provocateur operations. Just 
  because the terrorist bomb is going to 
  explode in 10 seconds is no reason to 
  panic – an Agent Provocateur might 
  arrive in nine second’s time to disarm it. 
   IntSec Troopers
  BLUE 
   
  6 Access 
   
  Guarding +4 (V), Assault (V) 
  IntSec BLUEs are a common sight in the 
  troubled corridors of Alpha Complex. 
  They’re the police, the enforcers of The 
  Computer’s justice and the scourge of 
  Commie Mutant Traitors everywhere! 
  But, you quibble (do not deny your 
  quibbling; denial of quibbling is treason), 
  ‘how can a small group of BLUEs police 
  all of Alpha Complex? Why, the ratio of  
  civilians to police must be many one 
  to thousands!’ Ah, but there is a simple 
  answer – superior ﬁ repower!
  
  122
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  A High Programmer is never late. Other people are made late, instead. 
  Troopers are extremely well armed and 
  extremely willing to use these arms in 
  the ‘defence’ of Alpha Complex. (It is an 
  open question as to how much of Alpha 
  Complex will survive their heroic efforts 
  to defend it – Troopers and ‘collateral 
  damage’ go hand-in-hand.) 
  Special Rules: Fast Response. You may 
  add IntSec Troopers instantly to any 
  public scene by playing their Access 
  cost.
  Trafﬁ c Patrol
  BLUE 
   
  6 Access 
   
  Transport (H), Assault +4 (V)
  The Traffic Patrol patrols traffic. The 
  transtubes are the arteries of Alpha 
  Complex, carrying vitally needed 
  cargoes to far-flung sectors. Like 
  arteries, maintaining a smooth blood 
  ﬂ ow is vital. Like arteries, the transtubes 
  often become clogged with fatty 
  deposits (aka INFRARED roadkill). Less 
  like arteries, the transtubes may also 
  be clogged by Death Leopard joyriders, 
  mass pile-ups, chemical spills or three-
  dimensional gridlock. Traffic Patrol 
  Troopers zoom around in armoured 
  SecuriCars to deal with problems in the 
  tubes. They’ve got really big guns for 
  troublesome problems.
  The Trafﬁ c Patrol can be called in to help 
  speed you or your Minions through the 
  transtube. They like that. It means they 
  get to take the VIOLET lane.
  Jackbooted Thugs
  GREEN  
  4 Access  
  Crowd Control (V), Intimidation (M) 
  In a complex filled with millions of 
  citizens, sometimes they all seem to be 
  in one place. And when that happens, 
  things can get rowdy. In the bad old days, 
  IntSec had to station guards in every 
  large room, just in case some treasonous 
  citizen incited a disturbance. This drained 
  valuable manpower away from rooting 
  out those traitors and dealing with them 
  before they could start such trouble.
  Jackbooted Thugs dole out strict but fair 
  Precautionary Beatings to malefactors 
  caught jumping lines, crossing without 
  looking both ways or otherwise 
  jeopardising efﬁ cient crowd movements 
  and purge of everyone in the sector 
  suspected of impeding trafﬁ c ﬂ ow.
  When not beating up people who aren’t 
  standing exactly within the queuing 
  lines on the ﬂ oor, Thugs act as a rapid 
  response force for any riots that may 
  break out. This is where the real money 
  is for these organisations – being paid 
  large bonuses for quelling riots as 
  quickly as possible. Rumours that the 
  guards start riots near their own patrols 
  to get rich quick are treason.
  Guard: You! You there! Step forwards!
  Citizen: Me?
  Guard: The queue is moving! Step 
  forwards!
  Citizen: But nobody’s moving – there’s 
  no space within the lines to move in!
  Guard: MOVE!
  Citizen: Um...
  *Guard levels pistol and ﬁ res.*
  Guard: You! Get that corpse out of the 
  line! AND MOVE FORWARDS!
  Guard’s Supervisor: That’s nice crowd 
  control, Larry-G. Real nice.
  
  123
  25. MINIONS & MORE
  Guard: Thanks, boss.
  Supervisor: Keep ‘em moving, Larry-G. 
  Keep ‘em moving.
   Facilitation Division
  YELLOW 
  3 Access 
   
  Wetwork (V), Security Systems (Su)
  BLUE 
   
  4 Access 
   
  Wetwork +4 (V), Security Systems 
  (Su)
  VIOLET  
  5 Access 
   
  Wetwork +4 (V), Security Systems +4 
  (Su)
  Facilitation Division exists to facilitate 
  the smooth operation of necessary 
  Alpha Complex functions by removing 
  obstacles. Obstacles are also known as 
  citizens or traitors. Obstacles are removed 
  by a variety of means, none of which you 
  want to know about. Really. Certainly not 
  after eating, or before eating. The things 
  these people do, ugh, it doesn’t bear 
  thinking about. Seriously, you’ll volunteer 
  for brainscrubbing if you ask about how 
  those obstacles are removed.
  Facilitation Division personnel finds 
  their duties to be distasteful, so the 
  department goes to great lengths 
  to acquire new euphemisms for 
  obstacle removal.
   Mutant Registration
  ORANGE 
  2 Access  
  Mutant Studies (W)
  Registered mutants with ‘useful’ powers 
  end up here, where they are permitted 
  to put their freakish, disgusting, deviant 
  powers to good use. Mutants who 
  disintegrate objects by touching them 
  are dangers to society – or a cheap way 
  to demolish that dome that’s blocking 
  the view from your penthouse. Mutants 
  who are immune to energy weapon 
  attacks make great target practice for 
  R&D laser testing. Mutants with rubbery 
  bones or who can inﬂ ate into bouncy 
  balls make absolutely hilarious clowns 
  for any party. The mutants from Mutant 
  Registration take all this in stride – they 
  know that they’re genetically flawed 
  and that any humiliation or abuse they 
  suffer is entirely just and legal. No mutant 
  from Mutant Registration would ever be 
  a seething time bomb of psychic fury, 
  waiting to go off…
   Information Retrieval 
  Specialists
  YELLOW 
  4 Access 
   
  Interrogation +4 (M)
  BLUE 
   
  5 Access 
   
  Interrogation +4 (M)
  VIOLET  
  7 Access 
   
  Interrogation +4 (M)
  The IRS is among the most feared parts 
  of Internal Security. They’re the state 
  torturers, although ‘torture’ is depreciated 
  as a term. They prefer ‘information 
  rendition’ or ‘enhanced interrogation’ or 
  ‘activity-based interviewing technique’. 
  The IRS can deploy a wide range of 
  enhanced interrogation tools, from 
  truth drugs to old-fashioned rubber 
  truncheons and waterboards to… 
  things. Things with electrodes and robot 
  tentacles and razor blades and probes 
  and… hell, are those human teeth?
  Information Retrieval 
  Specialists: A Typical 
  Conversation
  Customer: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh! No! No 
  please! I don’t know! I’ll confess anything! 
  Just not that…agh! No!
   Men in INDIGO
  INDIGO  
  6 Access 
   
  Wetwork (V), Covert Ops (Su), Media 
  Manipulation (So)
  The Men in INDIGO are the snazzily-
  dressed secret agents of Alpha Complex. 
  They’re James Bond with mirrorshades 
  and a lot less sex. They hang around 
  with High Programmers and senior CPU 
  officials, impressing the desk jockeys 
  with tales of heroism and derring-do 
  behind enemy lines. In fact, the Men 
  in INDIGO don’t actually do any field 
  operations – they exist solely as cover 
  for Internal Security’s bloated security 
  budget. Whenever some pernickety 
  jumped-up bureaucrat or The Computer 
  question IntSec’s resource allocation, 
  the Men in INDIGO are trotted out to be 
  extremely cool and impressive. How can 
  you question the allocation of resources, 
  if it goes to support these Heroes of Our 
  Complex?
   Conspicuous Surveillance 
  Initiative
  ORANGE 
  3 Access 
   
  Covert Operations (Su)
  Undercover operatives, security 
  cameras, hidden microphones and other 
  surveillance systems suppress many 
  treasonous activities. But particularly 
  insidious traitors continue to hold 
  deceitful conversations undetected. 
  IntSec’s innovative solution: the 
  Conspicuous Surveillance Initiative 
  (CSI). Conspicuous Surveillance firms 
  assign blatantly obvious agents to spy on 
  traitors. When the traitors get away from 
  the CSI agents, they gain a false sense of 
  security, so real operatives can observe 
  them undetected.
  CSI agents are the Maxwell Smarts and 
  Inspector Clouseaus of Internal Security. 
  Some are actors, some genuinely 
  dimwitted. Their bumbling buffoonery 
  transcends incompetence, achieving 
  a gloriously comic caricature of law 
  enforcement. When one of these guys 
  struts into the room, loudly proclaiming 
  he absolutely does not belong to Internal 
  Security, it’s hard to pay attention to 
  anything else.
  Although other Internal Security agents 
  mock and deride CSI, they do give these 
  lesser agents the beneﬁ t of the doubt in 
  Roll
  Thing They 
  Do
  Thing They 
  Do It Do
  1
  Facilitate
  Obstacle
  2
  Resolve
  Target
  3
  Eliminate
  Subject
  4
  Close out
  Individual
  5
  Deprotagonise
  Citizen
  6
  Disappear
  Suspect 
  7
  Move Along
  Number
  8
  Stamp the 
  Card of
  Carbon 
  Unit
  9
  Invite onwards
  Tongue
  10
  Illuminate
  Mission 
  11
  Expedite
  Blockage
  12
  Immortalise
  Discussion 
  Topic
  13
  Write an 
  Obituary For
  Bipedal 
  Entity
  14
  Decant 
  another
  Problem
  15
  Increment
  Entity
  16
  Order a new 
  pair of boots 
  Citizen 
  Number
  17
  Clone
  Cardholder
  18
  Issue a form 
  C229
  Observed
  19
  Negotiate
  Experson
  20
  ‘Murder’
  Resource 
  Drain
  
  124
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  CSI: Alpha Complex is on the case. Well, a case, anyway. Maybe you’ll get lucky?
  treason cases. Where they might think 
  one of their own is corrupt, they assume 
  CSI agents making equally treasonous 
  statements are just clowning around.
  Production, Logistics 
  & Commissary (PLC)
  PLC controls agricultural and industrial 
  production. It also distributes these 
  products to the citizens of Alpha 
  Complex. PLC is held in only slightly 
  more esteem than HPD & Mind Control. 
  It is actually no more than a mammoth 
  service bureaucracy – though it does 
  regulate most of what would be called 
  ‘wealth’ in Alpha Complex.
  At the INFRARED end of the scale PLC’s 
  workers are cooks, clerks, farmers and 
  factory labourers. At higher status 
  there are more managerial and policy 
  responsibilities. At best, it is none too 
  glamorous. Most personnel in this 
  group are dull and terminally bored; the 
  exceptions are unusually greedy and 
  corrupt (especially in food production) 
  or fanatically loyal to The Computer 
  and creatively dedicated to increasing 
  production and consumption. These 
  latter servants tend also to be fanatically 
  loyal to Free Enterprise.
  A typical PLC conversation
  P LC  C l e r k  # 1 :  T h i s  m o n t h’s 
  rations of Cold Fun for KID Sector 
  is on the pallets and ready to go.
  PLC Clerk #2: Change of plans. Reroute 
  that shipment to Freddy-U-NES.
  PLC Clerk #1: Right away! I guess those 
  KIDs can go another month without 
  Cold Fun.
  BLUE Room Caterers
  RED 
   
  2 Access 
   
  Catering (W)
  YELLOW 
  3 Access 
   
  Catering (W)
  BLUE 
   
  5 Access 
   
  Catering +4 (W)
  VIOLET  
  7 Access 
   
  Catering +4 (W)
  Few INFRARED citizens can imagine the 
  opulence of the banquets held for high 
  Clearance ofﬁ cials. Just as well: if citizens 
  could, the BLUE Room Caterers would 
  have to MemoWipe them. 
  Though the name says BLUE, Caterers 
  encompass clones of any Security 
  Clearance who work in any high 
  Clearance dining area. They also scout 
  out potential new dining areas for 
  banquets. Food prep facilities located 
  in living quarters of high Clearance 
  officials must have coloured walkways 
  with carefully demarcated Clearance 
  levels, so banquet personnel can get to 
  work legally; BLUE Room Caterers often 
  develop fine acrobatic skills walking 
  the thin red line that gets them to 
  their job. These skills also help prevent 
  spilling drinks.
  Constantly being around higher Clearance 
  citizens might beneﬁ t workers if they 
  could thereby gain Security Clearances 
  but often the job merely embitters them 
  without gain. Additionally, because of 
  time spent near high Clearance clones, 
  they are usually under much heavier 
  surveillance than fellow low Clearance 
  clones. In fact, high Clearance citizens 
  often prevent good workers’ promotions, 
  
  125
  25. MINIONS & MORE
  knowing decent help is so hard to ﬁ nd. 
  But hey, it beats the Food Vats.
   Equipment Assembly 
  Control
  INFRARED 
  1 Access 
   
  Production (H)
  Equipment Assembly Control may seem 
  like a boring job; reports from long-time 
  workers verify it, in fact, is. The typical 
  INFRARED or RED line worker can expect 
  to sit among dozens of others just like 
  him, who are checking just like him to 
  ensure a particular screw is tightened 
  on the latest model PDC. Still, it beats 
  the Food Vats.
   Field Logistics Advisors
  RED 
   
  3 Access 
   
  Logistics (So), Transport (H)
  Field Logistics deal in information, not 
  in the physical transport of cargo. Need 
  to know the quickest route from sector 
  SHR to sector MDR? Want to know how 
  much it’ll cost to ship a Geoscrub Nuclear 
  Sanitation Warhead four sectors over? 
  These are the clones to ask.
  They employ individual agents known 
  as Transit Hoppers, who are masters of 
  cargo transit linking Alpha Complex’s 
  many sectors. Transit Hoppers generally 
  spend their time living life on the 
  road, hopping off the tubetrain onto 
  the autoshuttle expressway, riding 
  cargo MTVs across ruined sectors, then 
  navigating a labyrinth of corridors with 
  a dozen cargobots in tow. They report 
  all their findings (transit rates, times, 
  methods, routes and the Service Groups 
  involved) to their central ofﬁ ce, which 
  crunches the data into usable routes 
  and sells it to anyone who has use for 
  the information.
  Transit Hoppers are adept at making 
  their way through dangerous situations 
  as they flit across the complex. They 
  tend to underplay the more treacherous 
  aspects of their chosen routes when 
  making travel advisories. The home 
  ofﬁ ce isn’t much better, recommending 
  any cargo ﬁ rms willing to make small 
  donations for ‘research support.’
   Food Vat Control
  INFRARED 
  2 Access 
   
  Catering (W), Production (H)
  Welcome to the bottom of the bottom. 
  Food Vat Control consists of thousands 
  upon thousands of INFRAREDs tending 
  to the massive vats that produce the 
  food that sustains every low Clearance 
  citizen in the Complex. The Computer 
  says it’s highly respectable to be the 
  foundation stone on which all society 
  stands – but all it really means is that all 
  the other blocks are on top of you.
  You may have a few advantages, such 
  as knowing just how B3 explodes, how 
  much Cold Fun is too much and just 
  what – or who – was in the algae vats 
  this week. Some take comfort in knowing 
  that in the thousands of swarming Food 
  Vat workers it is easy for a convicted face 
  to get lost in the crowd. But without a 
  doubt, this is one of the worst jobs in the 
  Complex, making even Troubleshooting 
  look like a dream come true.
   Inventory System 
  Updaters
  RED 
   
  4 Access 
   
  Logistics (H), Paperwork (M)
  The sheer wealth of choice offered 
  through PLC means keeping up with 
  the current catalogue can be an uphill 
  struggle. Teams and work crews may 
  report to warehouses for outﬁ tting to 
  find that the equipment they’re just 
  picking up has already been superseded 
  by a new and improved version with 
  more features, better power efﬁ ciency 
  and a great new, longer-lasting taste 
  of kelp.
  Though central PLC depots have all 
  the latest inventory indices in place, 
  Inventory System Updaters ensure 
  secondary warehouses and sub-ofﬁ ces 
  can offer the same. Updaters ensure all 
  stored equipment has the latest patches, 
  upgrades and efﬁ ciency overlays. They 
  are responsible for confirming unit 
  synchronisation of everything available 
  with the latest versions offered centrally, 
  even if that means following shipped, 
  outdated orders to their destinations 
  and completing remedial rebuilds in 
  the ﬁ eld.
   Brand Loyalty Police
  RED 
   
  3 Access 
   
  Thought Control (M)
  The Computer prizes conformity and 
  predictability among its citizens. Any 
  change from the norm is suspect 
  deviancy. A clone who changes his 
  preferred breakfast cereal* today might 
  be planting bombs tomorrow, as a change 
  signifies some measure of dissent**. 
  That’s where the Brand Loyalty Police 
  come in – if you’ve changed your buying 
  habits, they want to know why? Think of 
  it as proactive customer service. 
  Usually, Brand Loyalty Police are assigned 
  to different products on a weekly basis. 
  One cycle, they’re checking in on clones 
  who’ve switched their preferred ﬂ avour 
  of Bouncy Bubble Beverage. Next time, 
  they’re off spying on citizens who 
  changed the TV channel in the dormitory 
  (channel surfing is suspect). A High 
  Programmer cannot interfere with 
  the mandated mission of the Brand 
  Loyalty Police but he can order them to 
  check out something else while they’re 
  enforcing Brand Loyalty.
   Acme Chemical 
  Production
  RED 
   
  3 Access 
   
  Chemical Engineering (H), Production 
  (H)
  Acme Chemicals is one of the industrial 
  goliaths of Alpha Complex; as a High 
  Programmer, you are cleared to know 
  that Acme was actually founded before 
  Alpha Complex and is a survivor from Old 
  Reckoning days. Salute this primordial 
  champion of capitalism!
  Unfortunately, a filing error back in 
  Year 193 of The Complex erased the 
  master copy of the Acme Chemical Vats 
  Inventory, so the company has no clue 
  what’s in some of those giant bubbling 
  chemical containers. It could be acid, it 
  could be mutagenic, it could be a brave 
  new step forward in Fun production! 
  Acme welcomes opportunities to test 
  new products. 
  *: Technically, breakfast kelp.
  **: The Computer is obliged to offer choice, as capitalism is all about choices. You have the choice to buy your assigned 
  breakfast cereal, or to enthusiastically buy your assigned cereal.
  
  126
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Acme Chemical 
  Production: A Typical 
  Conversation
  High Programmer: I understand we had 
  a little accident down in the vats.
  Acme Chemical Supervisor: Oh, no 
  sir. Not really an accident. More of an 
  incident. A very small incident. An 
  incidental incident, you might say.
  High Programmer: How many gallons 
  of toxic waste?
  Acme Chemical Supervisor: Only about 
  four million, sir. 
  High Programmer: And what does this 
  waste do?
  Acme Chemical Supervisor: Nothing, 
  sir, it just sits there.
  High Programmer: It just sits on the 
  ﬂ oor?
  Acme Chemical Supervisor: Well, until 
  it eats through the ﬂ oor. But we’ve got at 
  least 20 minutes before that happens.
  BLUE Shield Clone 
  Assurance
  BLUE 
   
  5 Access
  Cloning +4
  The Computer guarantees that 
  every citizen will be provided with a 
  replacement clone in the unlikely event 
  of untimely death. Huzzah! Bonus Hot 
  Fun for all. 
  Note that it makes no guarantees about 
  how long it takes for a new clone to 
  arrive. If you’re lucky, then a new clone 
  is delivered within a few minutes but 
  if there’s a big backlog (say, after an 
  unscheduled fissile material surplus 
  or IntSec purges), it can take weeks for 
  the overworked peons down in Clone 
  Services to squirt a new body out of the 
  tanks. Clone Services is also notorious 
  for making tiny little mistakes, like 
  installing the wrong personality backup 
  or accidentally inducing mutations. No, if 
  you’ve got the Clearance and the credits, 
  you don’t want to go with the public 
  option.
  Instead, you open an account with 
  BLUE Shield Clone Assurance. Your 
  replacement clone isn’t force-grown 
  in a huge tank – it’s allowed to ripen 
  at a slower, less stressful pace. You’re 
  helped through the cloning process by 
  psychologists and hygienists, to make 
  your transition from one clone-body to 
  the next as pleasant and fun as possible. 
  Your genome is checked to ensure you 
  haven’t picked up any nasty mutations, 
  while your MemoMax template 
  is carefully massaged to minimise 
  traumatic recollections of death and to 
  expunge any Viral Thought Patterns you 
  might have picked up. When it’s time to 
  deliver your new clone, you won’t be 
  stuffed into a tube, delivered in a crate or 
  shot out of a rocket like a common prole 
  – you’ll be whisked to your destination 
  in a luxury autocar.
  BLUE Shield Clone Assurance – because 
  your lives are important. 
  PLC Accounts Co-
  Ordination
  ORANGE 
  6 Access  
  Financial Systems (So), Covert 
  Operations (Su), Paperwork (M)
  The PLC Accounts Co-Ordination 
  Department is responsible for co-
  ordinating the financial returns of all 
  of PLC’s myriad sub-divisions; as such, 
  it’s a bureaucratic black hole (well, 
  ORANGE hole) that rivals any similar 
  quagmire of red tape (ORANGE tape). 
  The subordinates have a vested interest 
  in lying to Accounts Co-Ordination, 
  so PLCAC must often obtain these 
  files through unorthodox channels, 
  like commando raids in the dead of 
  nightcycle or computer hacking. 
  Special Rules: PLC Accounts Co-
  Ordination works on a very slow 
  accounting cycle. If PLC Accounts Co-
  Ordination is activated, you don’t have 
  to give the Access cost back to the GM 
  until the end of the mission.
   New Flavour of Bouncy 
  Bubble Beverage 
  INFRARED 
  2 Access 
   
  Pharmatherapy +4
  Everyone loves Bouncy Bubble Beverage! 
  It’s the mandatory thing, available in 
  a range of flavours, each one more 
  delicious than the last! 
  B3 is ubiquitous in Alpha Complex but 
  it’s also unpredictable. You never know 
  what it’s going to taste like. It’s always 
  sweet enough to put a sensitive clone 
  into insulin shock, caustic enough to strip 
  the enamel from your teeth or toilet and 
  ﬁ zzy enough to be used as an improved 
  grenade; but the ﬂ avour! Oh, the ﬂ avour! 
  Was that cola? Orange-like! REDberry? 
  Borscht? Who knows? It’s like a random 
  prize in your mouth every time.
  This combination of ubiquity, 
  unpredictability and mandatory 
  consumption makes B3 an ideal way to 
  distribute new drugs to the population. 
  It’s especially useful when you want to 
  hand out drugs covertly – say, dispensing 
  sedatives to an unruly mob. A gang of 
  seditious protestors aren’t going to take 
  their happy pills willingly but a free can 
  of B3? Sign me up! 
  Advertising Campaign
  RED 
  4 Access 
   
  Media Manipulation +4 (So), Thought 
  Control +4 (M)
  When in doubt, advertise! A new 
  advertising campaign works wonders 
  and shifts products! For only a few million 
  credits, you can plaster your message 
  across every billboard, computer monitor, 
  TV screen, transbot, sponsored security 
  alert and slow-moving scrubbot in the 
  sector! Even now, valiant Advertising 
  Executives are working on new places to 
  put ads! Imagine having your company 
  slogan engraved on the eyeballs of 
  potential consumers!
  Special Rules: Due to the recent purges 
  (ref. IntSec report 43.542, ‘Creativity is 
  treason: The Spork Slogan Massacre 
  of ZED Sector’), YELLOW Clearance 
  advertising executives are no longer 
  allowed to come up with their own 
  advertising jingles. The client – that is, 
  the High Programmer – must supply 
  the central slogan of the advertising 
  campaign. In fact, he must sing it.
  Enforced Reclamation & 
  Recycling
  YELLOW 
  4 Access 
   
  Intimidation (M), Production (H)
  The unpredictable ebb and flow of 
  products in Alpha Complex makes the 
  work of PLC a challenge. Unpredictable 
  tides of taste can turn the unwanted 
  into the must-have, from dual-cooling 
  blaster rifles to radberry-mochamint 
  chapsticks.
  When demand suddenly exceeds supply, 
  PLC turn to Enforced Reclamation and 
  Recycling agents. ERR agents engage in 
  acts of aggressive hardware reclamation 
  and random redistribution initiatives 
  to get loyal citizens to hand over the 
  required gear pronto. Overnight, oddly 
  coloured wheelie bins suddenly appear 
  in corridors and waste disposal zones, 
  
  127
  ‘Fun it up, citizen! Fun it right up!’ 
  25. MINIONS & MORE
  offering a minuscule credit bonus for 
  the return of certain in-demand items. 
  ERR agencies guard these initiatives as 
  trade secrets; demand for an item can 
  lead to lightning raids on fully-loaded 
  reclamation bins by crack Free Enterprise 
  ninja teams.
  Low Cearance ERR workers check 
  existing bin locations and proactively 
  discuss return options with (that is, 
  mug) citizens who possess desired items. 
  High Clearance agents identify possible 
  new initiatives, recon possible bin 
  drop locations and seek to undermine 
  treasonous bin theft.
   Power Services
  Power Services has the difficult task 
  of maintaining the ancient power 
  plants of Alpha Complex. Day-to-day 
  survival depends on the competence 
  and reliability of this service. This makes 
  Power Services a particularly sensitive 
  and vulnerable area for treason and 
  sabotage; it therefore gets more than its 
  share of attention from Internal Security. 
  It also means Power Services has high 
  status in Alpha Complex, a fact bitterly 
  resented by the other Service Groups. 
  As a result, Power Services often ﬁ nds 
  itself at the wrong end of political power 
  plays.
  Power Services also maintains the 
  transport systems of Alpha Complex, 
  though this puts them in perpetual 
  political turf battles with their foremost 
  rival, Technical Services.
  Power Services is a tightly-knit, loyal 
  service. Older personnel tend to be 
  distrustful of members of other services 
  and to look out for their own, even to 
  the detriment of their loyalty to The 
  Computer. Since the rise of outsourcing 
  to contactors, younger workers assigned 
  to the group have shown a remarkable 
  and unprecedented talent for collecting 
  bribes. Many citizens who believe they’re 
  about to be stranded in frozen darkness 
  grow deeply fond of the idea of paying 
  a bribe.
  A typical Power Services 
  conversation
  VIOLET Power Services executive: Well, 
  boss, if you don’t want to sign off the 
  funds for a third reactor in this sector, 
  how about putting your entertainment 
  system on standby at night?
   Circuit Maintenance
  RED 
   
  3 Access 
   
  Habitat Engineering (H), Sabotage 
  (Su)
  With a network of power systems that 
  defies all efforts to map and track 
  it is inevitable that remote systems 
  occasionally suffer outages without 
  anyone noticing. When atomic furnaces 
  and experimental quantum turbines 
  require the constant attention of almost 
  the entire workforce, a valiant few must 
  be prepared to roam far and wide to 
  handle that blown fuse that no one even 
  noticed.
  That is the role of Circuit Maintenance 
  crews, voltage vigilantes who tour the 
  corridors of Alpha Complex endlessly 
  looking for minor faults and flaws 
  and then setting them straight with 
  whatever comes to hand. Masters of 
  the patch job, Circuit Maintenance 
  crewpersons provide a valuable service 
  that almost certainly probably doesn’t 
  
  128
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  undermine the integrity of the entire 
  power infrastructure. Whether jury-
  rigging repairs with paperclips and tin 
  foil secured with half-chewed algae 
  chips, or replacing burnt-out capacitor 
  ﬂ ow regulators with SuperGum and half 
  the workings of a stripped-out vending 
  machine, they serve the community with 
  fanatical loyalty.
  Fuel Rod Disposal 
  Consultants
  RED 
   
  4 Access 
  Covert Ops (Su), Biosciences (W), 
  Nuclear Engineering (H)
  Alpha Complex generators consume 
  a massive quantity of active fuel rods. 
  Depleted fuel rods are treated with a 
  catalyst that accelerates radioactive 
  decomposition and seals them in 
  LeadLike shells. The ‘safe’ rods then 
  require a place for ﬁ nal storage – and in 
  this regard possible sites have become 
  scarce. With only limited space available 
  within Alpha Complex, landﬁ ll locations 
  were filled to capacity decades ago, 
  so Power Services is constantly on the 
  lookout for new long-term storage sites. 
  To this end, Fuel Rod Disposal Consultants 
  are hired to look into means of disposing 
  spent rods, locating practical bolt-holes 
  where several hundred thousand tons 
  of slightly radioactive material can be 
  quietly hidden away.
  Fuel Rod Disposal Consultants think in 
  terms of cracks, holes, cavities, shafts 
  and tunnels. Power Services quietly 
  needs to dispose of an enormous 
  amount of material, so Consultants scout 
  out possible locations, send through 
  coordinates and then wait for their 
  personal accounts to be credited at the 
  end of the month. Fuel Rod Disposal 
  Consultants have the contacts to lean 
  on and know the strings to pull to get 
  all the relevant paperwork to prove the 
  identiﬁ ed spot really is abandoned and 
  suitable for dumping – whether it’s an 
  ancient hanger, an INFRARED canteen at 
  midnight or someone’s sock drawer.
  Pneumatic Tube Network 
  Engineers
  YELLOW 
  8 Access 
  Logistics (So), Paperwork (M), 
  Transport (H), Communication (So)
  A series of tubes wind their way through 
  Alpha Complex. The pneumatic system 
  once connected every ofﬁ ce, transporting 
  vital documents and small packages at 
  high speed. Despite the best efforts of the 
  Pneumatic Tube Network Engineers, the 
  tubes are not what they once were. This is 
  partially because of redevelopments and 
  reconstruction work but it is also because 
  of overuse. The tubes are intended 
  to move small capsules containing 
  documents but today they’re used for 
  moving replacement clones, happiness 
  pills, parcel bombs, corpse disposal, waste 
  disposal and, on one infamous occasion, 
  a smaller pneumatic tube system. 
  Foolish citizens assume that anything you 
  put into the tubes will be automatically 
  whisked away but it’s not that simple. It’s 
  not a big truckbot, it’s a series of tubes. 
  And if you don’t understand, those tubes 
   You are receiving an acceptable level of radiation. Doesn’t that thought 
  give you a nice warm glow? 
  
  129
  25. MINIONS & MORE
  can be ﬁ lled and if they are ﬁ lled, when 
  you put your message in, it gets in line 
  and it’s going to be delayed by anyone 
  that puts into that tube enormous 
  amounts of material.
  It’s up to the Pneumatic Tube Network 
  Engineers to sort out these problems 
  and clogs. The tubes are too narrow for 
  most citizens, so the PTNE rely mostly on 
  bots and Junior Citizen volunteers (think 
  cheeky Dickensian chimneysweeps). The 
  chief advantage of the tube network 
  over other communications networks 
  is that it’s a lot harder to eavesdrop on 
  written messages.
   Department of Transbot 
  Control
  ORANGE 
  7 Access 
   
  Transport +4 (H), Co-Ordination (M), 
  Crowd Control (V)
  The Department of Transport Control is 
  responsible for maintaining the transport 
  network of Alpha Complex. The transbots 
  whisk low Clearance citizens off to work 
  in the morningcycle and carry them 
  home at night. Higher Clearance citizens 
  are permitted to use private vehicles 
  to traverse the transtubes. Transbot 
  control is also in charge of most moving 
  walkways, transbot stations and other 
  ways of getting around.
  The sheer number of people passing 
  through the doors of Transbot Control 
  is staggering. Millions of citizens 
  take the transtube every day, so the 
  Department of Transbot Control is 
  under constant pressure to keep its 
  services running. Other Service Groups, 
  especially Technical Services and 
  HPD&MC, covet the inﬂ uence of Transbot 
  Control and regularly lobby for it to be 
  transferred out of Power Services. Such 
  lobbying attempts are accompanied 
  with concerted campaigns to discredit 
  Power Services. Between the stress of 
  managing a few million passengers each 
  day and all the saboteurs, terrorists and 
  fare-dodgers, there is the occasional 
  unavoidable delay.
   New Transtube Planning 
  Commission
  INDIGO  
  8 Access 
  Construction (H), Transport (H), 
  Logistics (So), Demolition (V)
  The Planning Commission is in charge 
  of routing new transtubes. The ongoing 
  turf war over the transtubes means that 
  Tech Services does its best to block these 
  new tubes, claiming that the proposed 
  route cuts through vital life support 
  infrastructure or causes subsidence or will 
  offend the weather gods or is technically 
  unfeasible because… because… they 
  haven’t had a chance to appoint a team 
  of engineers to study the technical 
  unfeasibility of the new transtube route.
  Power Services must therefore take 
  every opportunity to build new 
  transtubes when Tech Services can’t 
  object. Say there’s a horrible accidental 
  power surge that wipes out the Tech 
  Services headquarters in POW Sector. 
  The headquarters building is going to 
  be demolished anyway – it’s a perfect 
  opportunity to build a new transtube!
  Planning A New Transtube 
  – A Typical Conversation 
  Tech Services High Programmer: I can’t 
  help but notice that your proposed new 
  transtube route is a bit strange. 
  Power Services High Programmer: 
  Strange? No, it’s a vital development of 
  Alpha Complex infrastructure, necessary 
  for Our Beloved Complex to meet the 
  challenges of tomorrowcycle.
  Tech Services High Programmer: What 
  about this bit here?
  Power Services High Programmer: That’s 
  to ensure that GREEN Junior Executives 
  can get from the Placid Compliance Gated 
  Housing Zone here to the Mandatory 
  Exclusive Multi-Choice Probiotic 
  Consumerzone Mall over there.
  Tech Services High Programmer: 
  Neither of those are scheduled to be 
  built for another 20 yearcycles.
  Power Services High Programmer: Yes, 
  well, that just gives us time to work the 
  kinks out of the new transtubes.
  Tech Services High Programmer: 
  I also can’t help but notice that the 
  new transtube route reads ‘screw tech 
  services’ when viewed from above.
  Power Services High Programmer: 
  What a bizarre co-incidence. I deny all 
  knowledge of such a thing.
   Reactor Management 
  Commission
  GREEN  
  4 Access 
   
  Nuclear Engineering (H), Construction 
  (H)
  This commission was commissioned to 
  commission and decommission nuclear 
  reactors. 80% of Alpha Complex’s power 
  is produced by ﬁ ssion reactors (the rest 
   Unavoidable Delay Excuse Table
  Roll
  The Transbot was late…
  1
  For security reasons.
  2
  Due to debris on the line.
  3
  Because of a scheduling conﬂ ict.
  4
  To give you more time to enjoy our station’s facilities. 
  5
  For staff training.
  6
  For transbot counselling.
  7
  To enhance your happiness.
  8
  Without permission. The train will be disciplined. Thank you.
  9
  For reasons not available at your Security Clearance.
  10
  Due to an unavoidable obstacle.
  11
  Because of substandard happiness.
  12
  Due to insufﬁ cient loyalty.
  13
  Because of Commie sabotage.
  14
  For testing. 
  15
  Because you were insufﬁ ciently loyal.
  16
  Due to advertised rescheduling. (Advertising will be edited into ofﬁ cial 
  history at a future date.)
  17
  Due to security sweeps.
  18
  Because of trafﬁ c.
  19
  Because of monkey escape.
  20
  The transbot was not late. You are in error.
  
  130
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  comes from furnaces and R&D weird 
  experiments). The Complex suffers 
  simultaneously from an excess of nuclear 
  reactors and a lack of power – most of 
  the reactors are crumbling and decaying 
  (rumours connecting the growth in the 
  mutant population with the failure of the 
  reactor shielding are treason).  
  The Commission is eager to build new 
  reactors but it’s even more eager to get 
  rid of the old ones. Anyone who can 
  come up with ways to dispose of old 
  reactors wins the eternal gratitude of 
  the Commission.
  Reactor Shielding 
  Volunteer Corps
  RED 
   
  4 Access 
   
  Nuclear Engineering (H), Intimidation 
  (M)
  It is a common misapprehension that 
  Reactor Shielding Duty is a punishment 
  given to traitors and disobedient clones. 
  Nothing could be further from the 
  truth! Reactor Shielding is a privilege, 
  an honour, a glorious opportunity! 
  What citizen of Alpha Complex would 
  shy from the heroic duty of placing his 
  body between his fellow citizens and the 
  fast neutrons! Any red-blooded citizen 
  would embrace both the chance and the 
  concrete (please note that after this duty, 
  you may no longer be red-blooded).
  The Volunteer Corps do not actually go 
  on reactor shielding duty – no, that’s a 
  joy they save for retirement. Instead, they 
  cast longing glances at the warm blue 
  glow before going off in search of other 
  citizens who are willing to volunteer. 
  IntSec prisoners, failed Troubleshooter 
  teams, citizens who win a surprise 
  reassignment in a can of Bouncy Bubble 
  Beverage, befuddled INFRAREDs – all 
  these and more can be found duct taped 
  to the reactor casing.
  Crawlspace Commandos
  RED 
  5 Access 
   
  Habitat Engineering (H), Bartering 
  (Su), Wetwork (V)
  The Crawlspace Commandos are Power 
  Services’ internal troubleshooting unit. 
  They’re called in to deal with problems in 
  the crawlspaces and access corridors that 
  can’t be dealt with using conventional 
  forces. The Crawlspace Commandos 
  have faced down many bizarre foes in 
  the past, like really big rats, squatters, 
  carnivorous tubifex infestations and 
  feral scrubbot nests. To deal with these 
  dangers, the Crawlspace Commandos 
  are heavily armed with hand ﬂ amers and 
  sniper riﬂ es. 
  The Power Services crawlspaces go 
  everywhere in Alpha Complex. That 
  hollow echo you hear as you walk down 
  the corridor – there’s a crawlspace under 
  the floor. There could be one in the 
  ceiling of your quarters.* And where 
  there’s a crawlspace, there’s a Crawlspace 
  Commando team, hunting big rats and 
  other troublesome targets, like people 
  who’ve annoyed Power Services by 
  complaining about brownouts. 
  Vault Recovery Team
  GREEN  
  4 Access 
   
  Data Retrieval (So), Biosciences (W)
  Down in the depths of the Underplex, 
  there are Power Services vaults that 
  could contain almost anything. Ok, nine 
  of ten times they’re full of toxic waste 
  but sometimes a Vault Recovery Team 
  turns up something interesting, like old 
  backup tapes with lots of juicy secrets, 
  Old Reckoning artefacts or mislaid 
  WMDs. These vaults are guarded by 
  long-forgotten security systems and 
  strange mutant monsters and only the 
  brave and doughty adventurers – I mean, 
  Vault Recovery Teams – dare brave the 
  hoary depths.
  Power Services humbly requests that 
  High Programmers stop playing D&D
  with the VRTs.  
  Special Rules: Vault Recovery Teams may 
  ﬁ nd unusual artefacts when exploring 
  the Vaults. If you send a VRT into the 
  Vaults, roll 1d20. On a 1–10, the team 
  never returns. On an 11–15, they come 
  back with something dangerous. On a 
  16–20, they ﬁ nd something useful. You 
  can only send a VRT into the Vaults once 
  per mission.
   Toxic Environment Team
  ORANGE 
  3 Access 
   
  Biosciences (W), Bot Engineering (H)
  Toxic Environment Teams brave the 
  most dangerous recesses of Alpha 
  Complex – areas too toxic, too 
  radioactive or too tainted by treason 
  for others to survive. Every TET agent 
  is equipped with a lead-lined anti-
  radiation undergarment, a hermetically 
  sealed EnviroEncounterArmour suit and 
  a Guaranteed Loyalty Perception Filter 
  that edits out anything treasonous 
  he might perceive. TET agents are too 
  heavily weighed down to walk, the 
  suits don’t have the manual dexterity 
  to accomplish anything and they’re 
  blind and deaf thanks to the ﬁ lters, so 
  anything they actually accomplish in 
  the toxic zone should be considered an 
  unexpected bonus.
  Research & Development
  The personnel of R&D range from true 
  geniuses through crackpots and mad 
  scientists down to political appointees 
  with no talent or skill. A Research & 
  Design technician who can produce 
  valuable ideas and workable designs 
  for The Computer may enjoy great 
  personal freedom and political license. 
  Mad scientists and crackpots who work 
  on The Computer’s pet projects ﬁ nd they 
  receive resources and support no matter 
  how dramatically they fail. Political 
  appointees establish themselves in the 
  bureaucracy of the Service Group and 
  try to look busy.
  Research labs and testing areas are 
  dangerous places to visit. An incredible 
  range of high tech and low comedy 
  projects are in development at any given 
  moment. The amount of original research 
  that gets done is small; most projects 
  are aimed at recapturing the arcane 
  technologies lost centuries ago in the big 
  Commie attack. After trips to abandoned 
  sectors or Outdoors, Troubleshooters must 
  bring interesting gadgets they discover 
  to Research & Design, where scientists 
  carefully study them, often to tiny bits.
  R&D’s main objective is the discovery of 
  weapons and techniques for ﬁ ghting the 
  Commies. Secondary priorities include 
  the discovery of new power sources, 
  advances in robot technology and new 
  agricultural and industrial systems. 
  Improvements in the conditions of life 
  for citizens are of low priority, since Alpha 
  Complex is already a utopia.
  *: Between Power Services crawlspaces, the pneumatic tubes, the IntSec spyholes, the Tech Services air vents and cable 
  spaces and the secret passages, it’s a wonder that Alpha Complex is still standing.
  
  131
  25. MINIONS & MORE
  Internal Security despairs of maintaining 
  political orthodoxy in Research & Design. 
  The Computer is exasperatingly indulgent 
  of treason in R&D. The other services 
  (with the exception of the Armed Forces) 
  are seldom interested in innovations; and 
  Research & Design often produces highly 
  ambitious technical wonders that fail 
  dramatically in practical application.
  A typical R&D 
  conversation
  Team Leader: I’ve never been 
  in an R&D facility this quiet before.
  R&D Tech: Shh! Keep your voice down! 
  It’s Carlos-U’s nap time. No experiments. 
  Just sign the form saying you received 
  the equipment and tiptoe out.
   Biological Niceness 
  Indexers
  BLUE 
   
  7 Access
  Bioscience ( W ), Hygiene (M), 
  Assessment (M)
  Years ago, it is said, citizens spent money 
  to ﬁ nd and remove toxins and biological 
  waste from their living spaces. They 
  eventually realised that they were 
  practicing negative techniques, poorly 
  designed, which caused them more 
  damage from stress and worry than from 
  the toxins themselves.
  The Computer provides a more positive 
  environmental review procedure known 
  as Biological Niceness Testing. Niceness 
  Testing is designed to ﬁ nd and index 
  healthful living spaces for citizens, 
  freeing them to live placid, pleasant 
  lives without the bygone worries of 
  environmental toxins. 
  Niceness Indexers travel the complex 
  testing sectors against the rigorous 
  Biological Niceness Scale and updating 
  their databanks with the results. Based on 
  this data, sectors of citizens with overall 
  higher than average Compliancy ratings 
  may be upgraded, or moved, to newer, 
  biologically nicer sectors. Sectors with 
  below average Compliancy ratings (as 
  calculated by riot damage repair costs 
  and other statistical measures) may 
  be moved away from biologically nice 
  sectors. Obviously, high Clearance sectors, 
  whose overall Compliancy ratings are 
  always extremely high, are located in the 
  biologically nicest sectors. 
  High Clearance citizens who run Service 
  Group organisations that produce or 
  process toxins and other waste often 
  have close relationships with Niceness 
  Indexing teams. These teams can pay 
  tiered fees to have sectors or other 
  spaces downgraded. Boards of Directors 
  of Niceness Indexing teams can delete 
  sufﬁ ciently downgraded areas from the 
  Realty Banks and sometimes from the 
  History Banks, saving teams – and thus 
  Alpha Complex – many thousands of 
  creds in cleanup every year. Sometimes 
  it is efﬁ cient to relocate less desirable 
  sectors to downgraded areas and then 
  delete them, depending on the client’s 
  wishes.
  Naturally, Niceness Indexers are 
  popular folks. High Clearance citizens 
  compete to hire them as often as 
  possible and may temporarily suspend 
  Clearance boundaries to fete and 
  banquet them. A happy Indexer is a 
  happy sector, the saying goes. However, 
  Niceness Indexing is not a sinecure. As 
  surprising as it may seem, sometimes 
  high Clearance citizens’ agendas 
  actively conflict. Part of an Indexer’s job 
  is to walk that line… acrobatically.
   Security Technology 
  Technicians
  BLUE 
   
  6 Access 
   
  Surveillance +4 (Su), Security Systems 
  +4 (Su)
  Surveillance Technology Technicians 
  install and maintain what they term 
  ‘advanced security systems’ and what 
  any reasonable person would call ‘death 
  traps’. Oh, sure, they can stick a few 
  security cameras on the wall or bug some 
  poor clone’s ofﬁ ce but that’s boring and 
  the only boring that Security Technology 
  Technicians like involves high-speed 
  drills and grey matter. Imagine how 
  much better it would be to install a 
  laser cannon in that security camera, or 
  pump radioactive gel into all the ofﬁ ce 
  furniture so sitting on it gives you a lethal 
  dose of radiation, or to put pit traps and 
  disintegrator grids everywhere…
  Surveillance Technology testing is 
  possibly the most lethal job in Alpha 
  Complex. Most trainees go through four 
  or ﬁ ve clones on their ﬁ rst day. Plans are 
  afoot to outsource that whole section to 
  Troubleshooters.
  Bot  Processing
  YELLOW 
  5 Access 
  Bot Programming +4 (So), Bot 
  Engineering (H) 
  An unfortunate and little-known fact of 
  life in Alpha Complex is that knowledge 
  of AI programming of bot CPUs, or brains, 
  has been lost. When a bot is destroyed, 
  its invaluable CPU must be retrieved and 
  serviced, or The Computer will become 
  concerned. Bot Processing’s role is to 
  salvage whatever parts they can from 
  destroyed or incapacitated bots and 
  then reprocess them into other useful 
  products. With luck, a bot brain can be 
  reinstalled in another chassis, maybe 
  even one like its original body, although 
  it’s not uncommon for transbots to be 
  recycled into scrubbot or docbot brains 
  to be installed in jackobot bodies or 
  whatever. All too often, the damage is too 
  severe and the bot parts must be turned 
  into B3 cans and other scrap metal. (Bots 
  are asked to stop whining about being 
  recycled into spare parts. It upsets the 
  Bot Processing Technicians.)
  The quicker a technician gets to a downed 
  bot, the better. Eager Bot Processing 
  Technicians can be seen gambolling 
  across the battleﬁ eld, dodging laser ﬁ re 
  in the hopes of getting to a particularly 
  juicy bit of salvage.
    Drug Interaction Testers
  GREEN  
  5 Access 
  Medical (W), Biosciences (W), 
  Pharmatherapy (W)
  Alpha Complex is founded in part 
  upon a completely free and universally 
  available regimen of medications. The 
  Computer mandates these drugs for the 
  citizenry to ensure everyone’s happiness. 
  Although free to citizens, drugs must 
  be developed, tested and distributed. 
  The Drug Interaction Testers (DITs) 
  are one part of this chain. R&D drug 
  developers contract with these drug-
  testing organisations to ensure citizens’ 
  health and safety.
  A DIT’s job depends on his Clearance. 
  INFRARED DITs test medications on 
  themselves, or rather, their managers 
  daily ensure their employees have the 
  medications, a safely padded room with a 
  strong magnetic bolt and an Observation 
  & Containment Team, some of whom are 
  on contract from Armed Forces. After 
  
  132
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  The unfettered joy of a High Programmer with a shiny new toy. 
  INFRAREDs take their experimental 
  meds, consult the Medication table in 
  Chapter 30, ‘Treason and Correction,’ to 
  determine the effects.
  RED Clearance DITs are usually on the 
  Observation & Containment Team, 
  watching the INFRAREDs from the other 
  side of the NoBreakUm Ductile-Glass. 
  They administer the drugs to INFRAREDs, 
  then quickly shove them into the padded 
  room and lock the door. RED DITs whose 
  experiments fail, or who consistently 
  reject drugs for public use, may be 
  demoted to drug-testing duties.
  At RED Clearance and above, a trusted 
  DIT may be assigned Environmental 
  Testing duty. The DIT, with an armed 
  Observation & Containment Team, 
  accompanies a medicated INFRARED 
  into Alpha Complex to observe 
  environmental effects on the drug under 
  consideration. It is difﬁ cult to test for all 
  circumstances in a lab environment, the 
  theory goes, so it is essential during 
  advanced stages of testing to bring the 
  patient out into a complex environment 
  to observe the medication’s effects 
  in real-world circumstances. Physical 
  contact, conversation with bots, 
  unhygienic barracks – all these 
  inﬂ uences must be tested against to 
  ensure everyone’s happiness. Rumours 
  of medicated INFRARED DITs escaping 
  the observation team and wreaking 
  havoc are insubordinate and will be 
  dealt with promptly.
  Codename: KILLBOT
  GREEN  4 Access  
  Assault (V), 
  Bot Programming (H)
  To maintain security, many secret projects 
  are given randomly assigned codenames. 
  These codenames are drawn from a huge 
  database of words, so a project could be 
  called RADIANT THUMBSCREW or PUCE 
  SHOE or AGITIATED FLANGE. It’s merely 
  an unfortunate co-incidence that the 
  project to develop an army of remote-
  controlled killer bots is codenamed 
  KILLBOT. 
  The Killbot Legion consists of 
  up-armoured, up-gunned and up-
  psychosesed jackobots, equipped with 
  heavy repeater particle cannons and 
  head-mounted grenade launchers. 
  The whole Killbot Legion is controlled 
  from a single master remote control. 
  While the ﬁ nal production model will 
  allow for a full range of killbot/target 
  interactions, the current version has just 
  two settings, ‘kill’ and ‘stop’ (and they’re 
  having problems with the ‘stop’ bit). R&D 
  hopes that Killbot Legions will provide 
  a cheap, user-friendly and more easily 
  stackable replacement for those Armed 
  Forces Heroic Infantry brigades.
  Atomic Science Ethical 
  Experimentation 
  Directorate
  GREEN  
  6 Access 
   
  Nuclear Engineering (H), Mutant 
  Studies (W)
  T h e  A t o m i c  S c i e n c e  E t h i c a l 
  Experimentation Directorate ensures 
  that leakage from nuclear reactors and 
  other sources of radiation are within 
  acceptable limits. The Computer takes 
  the safety of its citizens very seriously 
  
  133
  25. MINIONS & MORE
  – no citizen should be exposed to more 
  radiation than their Security Clearance 
  level dictates.
  In the event of a radiation leak, ASEED will 
  deploy proper radiation treatment to all 
  citizens in the affected area, depending 
  on Security Clearance. These treatments 
  consist of iodine pills laced with various 
  compounds, such as sedatives, mood 
  stabilisers or hair growth formula. 
   Doomsday Device
  VIOLET 8 Access 
   
  Demolition +8 (V), Total War +8 (V)
  Don’t ask. Just press the button and hope 
  it doesn’t doom us all.
  T h e  A t o m i c  S c i e n c e  E t h i c a l 
  Experimentation Directorate is not only 
  responsible for keeping leaks under 
  control, it’s also the body that sets the 
  levels of radiation that are deemed 
  acceptable. In the past, this has caused 
  some conflicts of interest, especially 
  when ASEED experiments called for 
  lethal high levels of hard radiation. 
  Allegations that the Directorate sees 
  the citizens of Alpha Complex as 
  nothing more than test subjects for 
  their bizarre atomic experiments are 
  utterly unfounded. Rumours that ASEED 
  has a giant radiation gun that can cause 
  mutations in citizens ‘the same way you’d 
  microwave a frozen dinner’ are especially 
  treasonous. The Directorate asks that 
  anyone making such allegations report 
  to TMI Sector, Floor 24, Corridor 25 and 
  remain there for at least 30 minutes. 
  Please ignore any unusual feeling that 
  you may experience, such as detecting 
  a smell like ‘cooking meat’ or a bitter 
  metallic tang in your mouth.
  Your Friendly Radiation 
  Badge: A Typical 
  Conversation
  Radiation Badge: Hello, citizen! What is 
  your Security Clearance?
  Citizen: Er, ORANGE.
  Radiation Badge: Then you are 
  experiencing an acceptable level of 
  radiation! Have a nice daycycle.
  ***
  Radiation Badge: Hello, citizen! 
  Radiation increase detected! What is 
  your Security Clearance?
  Citizen: It’s still ORANGE.
  Radiation Badge: Then you are 
  experiencing an acceptable level of 
  radiation! Have a nice daycycle.
  ***
  Radiation Badge: Hello, citizen! 
  Radiation increase detected! What is 
  your Security Clearance?
  Citizen: ORANGE.
  Radiation Badge: Alert! Excessive 
  radiation exposure! Take precautionary 
  measures immediately.
   Think Tank Consultants 
  INDIGO 12 Access 
   
  Hacking (So), Weird Science +4 (H), 
  Logistics (So), Medical (W)
  The Think Tank is one of the most secret 
  and mysterious organisations within R&D. 
  Senior scientists and other intellectually 
  gifted citizens may be promoted to the 
  Think Tank by the Head of R&D. This 
  promotion is a great honour, carrying with 
  it increased Security Clearance, better pay, 
  considerable prestige and a lovely new 
  glass jar for your brain. At the last count, 
  the Think Tank contained over 5,000 such 
  brains, wired in parallel to a dedicated 
  supercomputer. For security reasons, the 
  Think Tank is kept in a vault deep beneath 
  Alpha Complex and protected by multiple 
  redundant defensive systems but High 
  Programmers may just pick up the phone 
  and consult the brains. 
  The Think Tank’s ideas are disseminated 
  to other laboratories for actual 
  implementation. Oddly, many of these 
  laboratories experience catastrophic 
  disasters shortly thereafter but that’s 
  probably because of Commie sabotage 
  and has nothing to do with the Think 
  Tank’s schematics. 
  Doomsday Table
  Roll
  The Device…
  1
  Will detonate the planet’s core!
  2
  Extinguishes gluons, disintegrating everything.
  3
  Will trigger a cataclysmic solar ﬂ are.
  4
  Is jacketed in cobalt thorium-G, causing radioactive fallout to cover the 
  entire world! 
  5
  Creates the biggest earthquake in history.
  6
  Will alter the cosmological constant, causing all matter in the universe 
  to ﬂ y apart!
  7
  Will drag down the Moon on top of the target.
  8
  Creates a sort-of-off-puce hole. It’s like a black hole but it’s a different 
  colour.
  9
  Opens the Gate. Ia! Yog-Sothoth!
  10
  Turns all organic matter within range into marshmallow.
  11
  Travels back in time to kill the target’s grandparents. Not hugely effective 
  in Alpha Complex. 
  12
  Reverses gravity, hurling the target into space.
  13
  Commands all bots in Alpha Complex to attack the target.
  14
  Decreases the electrical resistance of neural pathways within the ﬁ eld. 
  On the bright side, you think a lot quicker for a few seconds. After that, 
  your head explodes.
  15
  It’s a plague so deadly it kills itself!
  16
  By inducing electrical activity in unliving tissue, it causes the dead to rise 
  and eat people.
  17
  Rotates the target out of reality with the power of occult geometry.
  18
  Accelerates time ﬂ ow, causing the target to disintegrate.
  19
  Must never be used.
  20
  Roll Again Twice.
  
  134
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Sometimes, if a High Programmer has 
  really impressed The Computer, he will 
  be reassigned to the Think Tank.
  The Think Tank – A Typical 
  Conversation
  High Programmer: Hello?
  Think Tank: Who dares disturb our 
  slumber?
  High Programmer: I do. There’s a 
  problem with that transdimensional 
  collapsatron you designed for us last 
  weekcycle…
  Think Tank: Our designs are ﬂ awless… 
  we blame the users… 
  High Programmer: The collapstron 
  collapsed. There’s a hole in reality on 
  sublevel 4 and it’s getting bigger.
  Think Tank: Has anything come out of 
  it? Speciﬁ cally, things with tentacles. Or 
  weird colours?
  High Programmers: Not as far as I 
  know.
  Think Tank: Then do not fear. Everything 
  is ﬁ ne!
  Silicon Corridor 
  BLUE 
   
  7 Access 
   
  Computer Security (So), Hacking +4 
  (So)
  ‘Silicon Corridor’ is the nickname given 
  to a strip of extremely successful and 
  forward-thinking organisations within 
  R&D. Silicon Corridor is an incubator for 
  young, ambitious junior programmers. 
  It’s a hothouse; stay out of there if you 
  can’t stand the heat!
  Actually, stay out of Silicon Corridor if 
  you have heart problems or are allergic 
  to Asperquaint; to keep the junior 
  programmers working at peak efﬁ ciency, 
  R&D pumps rather a lot of aerosol drugs 
  into Silicon Corridor. Visitors are issued 
  gas masks, as one sniff of the ‘air’ means 
  you won’t sleep for six weeks (in 12.5% 
  of cases, six months and you won’t be 
  able to see the colour yellow without 
  suffering an epileptic fit). The junior 
  programmers have adapted to these 
  conditions; they maintain extremely high 
  levels of productivity by not sleeping. 
  When contacting Silicon Corridor, High 
  Programmers are advised to record the 
  responses of the junior programmers 
  and play them back at half speed for 
  enhanced clarity of speech.
  Special Environment 
  Clone Laboratories 
  GREEN  
  7 Access  
  Cloning (W), Mutant Studies (W), 
  Transport (H)
  Citizens do not always die in convenient 
  locations. Obviously, it would be ideal if 
  everyone dropped dead just outside the 
  cloning facility, as this would minimise 
  travel time for replacement clones 
  (CPU Directive ‘Optimised Clone Delivery 
  Times Through Planned Mortality’ was 
  withdrawn in 211 due a lack of co-
  operation from citizens) but citizens 
  keep dying in unlikely locations like 
  ‘half-way between transtube stations’ or 
  ‘underneath collapsed domes’ or ‘in the 
  middle of ﬁ reﬁ ghts’. 
  It’s even worse when one considers 
  Troubleshooters. In the past, 
  Troubleshooter teams have been 
  dispatched to locations such as the 
  Underplex, the deepest parts of the ocean, 
  the furthest reaches of Outdoors, orbit 
  and on one highly classiﬁ ed occasion, 
  Dimension X. As Troubleshooters die 
  regularly, someone has to ﬁ gure out a way 
  to get replacement clones to them. That’s 
  where Special Environment Clone Labs 
  come in. These brainy bofﬁ ns work out 
  new and unusual ways to deliver clones 
  to citizens in extreme environments. 
  There are lots of strange ways to deliver a 
  clone – rockets*, mobile cloning tanks**, 
  bioprinter fax machines***, freeze-dried 
  clones****, teleporters***** – and sooner 
  or later, Special Environment Clone Labs 
  will ﬁ nd one that works.
  Please note that Special Environment 
  Clone Labs are not liable for any clones 
  lost or damaged in transit.
  Historical Artefact 
  Identiﬁ cation and 
  Processing 
  YELLOW 
  6 Access  
  Outdoor Studies (W), Data Retrieval 
  (So), Cleanup (Su)
  Understanding the past is the ﬁ rst step in 
  controlling it. Whenever Troubleshooter 
  teams or repair crews uncover artefacts 
  or records from Old Reckoning times, it’s 
  up to HAIP to identify what the weird old 
  relic is. Things that might be useful or 
  valuable to Alpha Complex’s new order 
  are preserved; treasonous or obsolete 
  items, data or people are erased. 
  Identifying Old Reckoning items can 
  be tricky. Some resemble modern, non-
  treasonous, morally uplifting items like 
  laser pistols or autocars or sporks or 
  shoe trees but most relics are totally 
  incomprehensible to the average 
  citizen. Take, for example, the ‘books’ 
  found in many Old Reckoning caches. 
  These outwardly resemble the common 
  three-ring binder but there’s no way to 
  remove individual colour-coded sheets 
  in accordance with updates from CPU 
  – and the sheets are all ULTRAVIOLET 
  Clearance, too, so the HAIP staff can’t even 
  read them. Other items are even stranger 
  and must be given to Troubleshooter 
  teams for ﬁ eld testing. 
  HAIP assures Internal Security that Old 
  Reckoning items never fall into the hands 
  of Romantics, Free Enterprise black 
  marketeers or other Commie Mutant 
  Traitors. Ever.
  Experimental Equipment 
  Field Testing
  ORANGE 
  6 Access 
   
  Weird Science (H), Co-Ordination (M)
  According to official guidelines, all 
  equipment must be ﬁ eld tested. Finding 
  enthusiastic, qualiﬁ ed applicants for the 
  role of ﬁ eld tester has proved difﬁ cult in the 
  past, forcing R&D to rely on Troubleshooters, 
  citizens undergoing censure, giving away 
  experimental equipment as spot prizes 
  and other, less than ideal methods. 
  The Field Testing Volunteer Co-Ordination 
  ofﬁ ce is dedicated to co-ordinating the 
  distribution of experimental equipment. 
  High Programmers may request that the 
  Field Testing Volunteer Co-Ordinators 
  issue experimental equipment to 
  other Minions, so that they can test 
  the experimental equipment as part of 
  *: Suitable only for citizens who can take in excess of 40gs.
  **: Suitable only for citizens with a high tolerance of toxic chemicals.
  ***: Suitable only for ﬂ at citizens.
  ****: Suitable only for citizens with a moisture content below 50% by volume.
  *****: Suitable only for citizens who don’t randomly explode.
  
  135
  25. MINIONS & MORE
  their other duties. Testing experimental 
  equipment is fun. 
  Special Rules: Instead of activating this 
  Minion to make skill rolls, it can be used 
  to issue Experimental Equipment to any 
  other Minion. The other Minion gains any 
  one Specialty, or increases an existing 
  Speciality to +4. However, the Minion 
  must also roll on the Troubleshooter 
  table each time it is used.
   Foreign Contaminant 
  Containment
  ORANGE 
  7 Access 
   
  Medical (W), Outdoor Studies (W), 
  Biosciences (W), Security Systems 
  (Su)
  Alpha Complex is a closed system, 
  recycling its air, water and other 
  biomatter almost indefinitely (You 
  can do a lot with unlimited electricity, 
  genetically engineered yeast and a 
  lot of urine). Foreign contaminants 
  such as viruses or creepy-crawlies 
  from Outdoors are a threat to this 
  perfectly balanced system and must be 
  eliminated, ideally with ﬂ amethrowers. 
  That’s where the FCC comes in – anyone 
  returning from Outdoors is checked and 
  decontaminated by FCC technicians. 
  Anyone showing signs of infection or 
  illness is quarantined until the threat can 
  be analysed, quantiﬁ ed and eliminated. 
   Technically Non-Lethal 
  Weapons 
  YELLOW 
  5 Access 
   
  Assault (V), Crowd Control (V)
  The modern battleﬁ eld is changing. In 
  the good old days, the point of weapons 
  development was to ﬁ nd new ways to 
  vaporise Commies. Weapons were rated 
  based on the size of the crater they 
  left after ﬁ ring. Ah, the tactical nuclear 
  grenade, the plasma sphere, the TPFG 
  (Troubleshooter Portable Fission Gun)… 
  these cycles, there’s much more of an 
  emphasis on weapons that can disable 
  the foe without actually terminating him. 
  Disabled foes can be interrogated, put 
  on trial and executed, sometimes even 
  in that order. Non-lethal weapons also 
  make dealing with insurgents and civil 
  disobedience much easier.
  The Technically Non-Lethal Weapons 
  Division strides bravely into this new 
  frontier. Neurowhips and stun guns are 
  yestercycle’s weapons – tomorrow will 
  bring technically non-lethal ﬁ rearms like 
  the Bowel Disruptor (‘don’t ﬁ re until you 
  see the whites of their underwear’), the 
  Glue Air Bomb (‘like a fuel air bomb, only 
  stickier’), the Neuro-Electric Suppressor 
  Field (‘like an off switch for the nervous 
  system’) and the Doubt Ray (‘actually, 
  we’re not sure if this one will work, we 
  never licked the shielding problem, maybe 
  you should just forget this bit. We’re bad 
  scientists…’) will make stopping Commie 
  Mutant Traitors easier than ever. Why, 
  when the weapon’s technically non-
  lethal, there’s no reason to not use it as 
  often as possible!
   Technical Services
  Technical Services maintains most 
  services in Alpha Complex. Everything 
  from scrubots to communications 
  to computer maintenance is their 
  responsibility. In the omnipresent inter-
  service conflicts, Technical Services 
  enjoys high status, right after Power 
  and above HPD&MC and PLC. Why? 
  The Computer depends directly on 
  Technical Services for its maintenance 
  and citizens depend on Tech clone tanks. 
  Political orthodoxy in Technical Services 
  personnel is critical; Internal Security 
  diligently monitors their thoughts and 
  deeds.
  Tech personnel are the ‘ﬁ x-its’ of Alpha 
  Complex. When something goes wrong 
  with your disposal, communal toilet, 
  or petbot, you call Tech for help. Seven 
  or eight decades later, a surly, grease-
  smeared repairman may show up and 
  refuse to fix it without appropriate 
  authorisation forms (available from 
  equally surly clerks at HPD&MC) or parts 
  (available from unimaginably bored 
  clerks in PLC). Intelligent citizens rapidly 
  learn the only way to get anything ﬁ xed 
  is bribery.
  Because IntSec so carefully monitors 
  Tech Services, its ﬁ rms prize orthodoxy 
  over competence. Hence it is virtually 
  impossible to get anything ﬁ xed right. 
  Bribery sometimes works here and more 
  often intimidation – but you know, even 
  if you intimidate a chihuahua within an 
  inch of its life, it still can’t ﬁ x your sink.
  Technical Services personnel wear 
  special coveralls amply supplied with 
  pockets for tools and spare parts. They 
  also carry small tool kits that symbolise 
  the delicacy of their work.
  A typical Tech Services 
  Sales Pitch
  Sector-to-Sector Salesclone: Oh 
  mighty ULTRAVIOLET: how many bot 
  servants do you have? Are you sure 
  all their Asimovs are functioning? A 
  small fee can ensure monthly checks 
  for all your servomotor servitors.
  This service can also be bought as a gift 
  for a fellow ULTRAVIOLET. Would you 
  like us to very, very carefully inspect the 
  Asimov circuits of all their bots as well? 
  Discretion is our watchword.
   Security System Installers
  YELLOW 
  5 Access 
   
  Security Systems (Su), Surveillance 
  (Su)
  INDIGO  
  9 Access 
   
  Security Systems +4 (Su), Surveillance 
  +4 (Su)
  The Security System Installers think 
  about safety so citizens don’t have to. 
  SSIs aid CPU by performing obvious 
  duties such as installing cameras and 
  audio around the complex. They also 
  install sirens, fire sprinklers, smoke 
  detectors, door and window sensors, 
  motion detectors, intercoms, keypads, 
  locks and magnetic contacts. Installers 
  may have contracts to replace backup 
  batteries in various detectors, a duty they 
  take very seriously. 
  At higher Security Clearances, SSIs 
  plant door signs around portals to the 
  Outdoors advertising their security 
  services. As these organisations report, 
  the signs have been 72% effective in 
  discouraging casual intruders to Alpha 
  Complex. Higher Clearance SSIs may 
  also install preventative security devices 
  such as hallway laser embankments, 
  electrified floors, gas jets, remote-
  exploding commbooths and self-sealing 
  corridors. 
  Installers aren’t all technically oriented; 
  they need good people skills, too. 
  Sometimes they have to work through 
  seemingly minor miscommunications 
  with Facility Surveillance Control, 
  
  136
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Surveillance Operatives and Wire Supply 
  Checkers. Continued miscommunication 
  can mean relocated security devices, 
  misrouted personnel and certain physical 
  hazards, though of course these are 
  never deliberately caused.
  Clone Tank Support 
  Services
  RED 
   
  3 Access 
   
  Cloning (W)
  Cloning is a demanding process – why 
  else would the waiting periods for new 
  clones be so long among the masses 
  of INFRAREDs? Cloning represents a 
  considerable drain on clonepower and 
  resources that means Tech Services can 
  ill afford wastage wherever it might 
  occur in the process. While facilities exist 
  to generate and maintain hundreds 
  upon hundreds of clones every day, the 
  opportunity to reduce demand and 
  manage resources better is something 
  Tech Services always seeks. 
  As a result, Clone Tank Support Services 
  has been contracted to ﬁ nd ways and 
  means to reduce expenditure and limit 
  waste. Service operatives spend time 
  considering alterations in the balance 
  of nutrients, chemicals, biomatter and 
  enzymes, seek out means to limit power 
  consumption and reduce gestation 
  periods and consider alternatives in 
  maintenance and storage. They also 
  proactively seek to reduce the demand 
  for clones by offering constructive advice 
  to associates on ways to avoid sudden 
  death situations and massive molecular 
  dismemberment. Unnecessary exposure 
  to hazards is an unprofitable and a 
  treasonous strain on The Computer’s 
  resources.
  Medical Services (Meds)
  YELLOW 
  4 Access 
   
  Medical (W)
  INDIGO  
  8 Access 
  Medical +4 ( W ), Cloning ( W ), 
  Biosciences (W)
  Despite all the safety initiatives and 
  centrally mandated warning signs, 
  Alpha Complex can be a dangerous 
  place to live. Even if you ignore terrorist 
  bombings and nuclear meltdowns and 
  Commie Mutant Traitor attacks, the 
  city has more bottomless shafts with 
  inadequate railings than the Death Star 
  and an alarming number of rusting 
  pieces of industrial machinery that 
  appear to be designed solely to crush 
  limbs. Yes, they can clone you if you die 
  but if you’re merely horribly mangled, 
  you’re on your own until the docbot 
  arrives to patch you up.
  That’s what Meds are for. Their job is 
  to maintain and operate a small army 
  of docbots, as well as provide some 
  emergency medical assistance before a 
  docbot arrives. But as much as bandaging 
  the wounded and the like is important, it 
  doesn’t pay the bills.
  Where fear thrives, the insurance industry 
  thrives as well. Sure, every citizen (traitors 
  excluded) has a right to receive proper 
  medical aid. But for a few credits per 
  month, you can receive MORE proper 
  medical aid. Buying insurance and 
  upgrading it can get you better health 
  beneﬁ ts – you’ll be more likely to receive 
  cybernetic limbs, the pain killers will 
  have a lower chance of killing you and 
  you’ll feel safer. Much safer. Each of the 
  insurance plans are perfect but each 
  is more perfect than the other. If they 
  weren’t, why would anyone want to 
  upgrade? 
  Docbot: *Beep!* What seems to be the 
  problem?
  Wounded Citizen: I’m bleeding to 
  death!
  Docbot: Diagnostic conﬁ rmed. Stopping 
  external bleeding. 
  Troubleshooter: Um, external?
  Docbot: Affirmative. I’m sorry, citizen 
  but stopping internal injuries isn’t part 
  of your health plan. However, for only 
  600 credits per month, you can enjoy 
  the beneﬁ ts of our Premium health plan, 
  which, by the way, includes procedures 
  such as stopping nasty, lethal and 
  extremely painful internal bleeding. 
  Citizen:*Grumbles and hands over his ME 
  card* Docbot, please stop the internal 
  bleeding.
  Docbot: Negative. That will require 
  surgery not covered on the Premium 
  Plan. Would you like to upgrade to 
  Premium Plus...
  Paint Control
  RED 
   
  3 Access 
   
  Logistics (So)
  Paint is power, for paint controls the 
  Clearance of a location or item. Though 
  paint itself is mixed and stored by 
  Production, Logistics & Commissary, 
  Technical Services ensures paint is 
  applied and maintained correctly 
  across the complex. Obviously this 
  is a mammoth task, so Tech Services 
  has carved up vast expanses of Alpha 
  Complex among a multitude of Paint 
  Control ﬁ rms.
  Paint Control constantly scrutinises 
  and reviews the complex’s layout and 
  security: Every minute they pass new 
  directives to upgrade corridors and 
  downgrade access points, re-designate 
  pieces of equipment and reallocate rights 
  of passage through speciﬁ c zones. Paint 
  Control is responsible for tracking new 
  requirements and ensuring Clearance 
  changes are completed in a timely and 
  thorough manner. There is nothing 
  worse, after all, than ﬁ nding your RED 
  Clearance access point halfway down an 
  ORANGE Clearance corridor strewn with 
  Wet Paint warning signs. Paint Control 
  is constantly on the move with brushes, 
  rollers and canisters of paint, picking 
  up regular updates to meet quotas and 
  exceed efficiency targets – even if it 
  sometimes means creating a temporary 
  inconvenience for stranded citizens.
  Slime Identiﬁ cation
  ORANGE 
  4 Access 
   
  Hygiene (M), Biosciences (W)
  Vat slime is a tough, shiny, glutinous 
  by-product of standard vat operations 
  that requires regular scrubbing and 
  scraping to prevent dangerous blockage 
  of, or damage to, machinery and ﬂ ow 
  systems. It has, however, been a key 
  ingredient in the development of many 
  Alpha Complex innovations. Day-to-
  day exposure to entirely safe and fun 
  ultraviolet radiation from complex 
  lighting arrays is believed to have the 
  potential to react with certain gases 
  contained within vat slime to create the 
  building blocks for life itself – opening 
  all kinds of opportunities for new and 
  potentially beneﬁ cial growths.
  In light of the constant need for new 
  medication, dietary supplements and 
  foodstuffs, Slime Identiﬁ cation is an activity 
  with lucrative potential. Slime Identiﬁ ers 
  go out of their way to locate vat slime 
  residue in the hope of discovering a hairy 
  mould or rampant bacteria that could 
  well be the next big thing. Identifiers 
  carry a copious selection of containers 
  and vacuum packs, along with tweezers, 
  
  137
  25. MINIONS & MORE
  forceps and scraping tools, to store newly 
  discovered slime growths. They are likely 
  to be found choosing unusual routes from 
  one point to another, favouring disused 
  passageways, abandoned storage areas 
  and claustrophobic ducts – anywhere that 
  might have untouched deposits of slime.
   Tech Support
  YELLOW 
  4 Access 
  Communications (So), Bot Engineering 
  (H)
  ULTRAVIOLETs may design the latest 
  gadgets, VIOLETs may build them, but 
  none of them want to ﬁ eld the same 
  stupid questions about them over and 
  over again. Yet with several million citizens 
  roaming the corridors with one, and their 
  operating instructions increasing in 
  complexity, some enterprising young 
  clone got the bright idea that they could 
  charge for helping people use this new 
  technology. (Or at least by giving them a 
  place to call when it doesn’t work.)
  AI: You have reached PDCHELP. All of our 
  operators are busy. Please hold the line 
  and we will assist you shortly.
  *pleasant music*
  AI: Your call is important to us; please 
  continue to hold...
  *pleasant music*
  AI: Current number of calls in queue: 
  ONE..ThoUSand..thrEE..huNDRed...anD...
  TWO.
  *pleasant music*
  AI: This call may be monitored for quality 
  control and will in no way be monitored 
  by IntSec for Communist, traitorous or 
  mutant-related activities. Honest.
  *pleasant music*
  Mark-R-TEC: PDCHELP, how may I assist 
  you today?
  Barry-R-YHP: I’ve forgotten my 
  password!
  Mark-R: I can reset your password for 
  you; you only need to identify yourself.
  Barry-R: How do I do that?
  Mark-R: By giving me your password.
  Barry-R: But I forgot my password!
  Mark-R: Then, I apologise, but I cannot 
  help you.
  Barry-R: ...
  Mark-R: That’ll be 25 credits. Your 
  account will be charged automatically.
   Abandoned Sector 
  Reclamation Initiative
  GREEN  
  8 Access 
   
  Demolition +4 (V), Construction (H), 
  Cleanup (Su)
  According to official statistics, Alpha 
  Complex is growing ever larger, richer 
  and has more citizens than every before. 
  Two of these three is correct (which is a 
  record high for ofﬁ cial statistics). Alpha 
  Complex is indeed richer (although the 
  wealth is concentrated at the higher 
  Clearances and you shouldn’t look too 
  closely at the economy anyway – it’s 
  liable to melt away like an illusion if 
  certain awkward questions are asked) 
  and Alpha Complex does indeed have 
  more citizens than ever before, thanks 
  to rampant cloning. These citizens, 
  though, are crammed into a smaller 
  area than ever before. Much of Alpha 
  Complex lies abandoned, home only to 
  renegades, mutants and cockroaches 
  (giant or otherwise). Sectors that are 
  too badly damaged, too dilapidated or 
  too costly to run are simply shut down 
  and walled off. 
  There never was a door there, citizen. You 
  are in error. 
  The Abandoned Sector Reclamation 
  Initiative, then, treads dangerously close 
  to contradicting those ofﬁ cial statistics 
  and official records. The goal of the 
  Initiative is to relieve overcrowding 
  by building new sectors. These new 
  sectors are to be constructed on the 
  site of existing abandoned sectors. Yes, 
  it would be much, much more efﬁ cient 
  to just renovate the old sectors instead 
  of blowing them up, bulldozing the ruins 
  away and building identical structures 
  in their place but that would mean 
  admitting there was a sector there to 
  begin with. 
  Under no circumstances would Technical 
  Services pretend to blow up a sector and 
  then pretend to build it, when in fact 
  they’re just frantically patching up an 
  existing abandoned sector. That would 
  be wrong.
   Dome Cleaning Services
  ORANGE 
  5 Access 
   
  Bot Engineering (H), Hygiene (M), 
  Outdoors Operation (V)
  Cleaning the towering – ok, they’re not 
  towering per se. Let me rephrase.
  Cleaning the gently swelling domes of 
  Alpha Complex is not a job for citizens. 
  It’s fantastically, mind-bogglingly boring 
  for one thing; it would require a whole 
  army of citizens armed with scrubbing 
  brushes to get the gunk off the domes 
  and then there’s the agoraphobia thing. 
  Clones don’t like being Outdoors and 
  they really don’t like clinging to the 
  side of a huge dome with nothing at 
  all between them and the great big big 
  big big sky. They scream a lot. Therefore, 
  Dome Cleaning Services is staffed 
  primarily by bots.
  The Dome Cleaning bots are a strange 
  breed. They’re the size of elephants, 
  with huge scouring pads for feet. Lonely, 
  they roam the dome alone, returning to 
  base only once every few years to repair 
  and refuel. Technicians tell stories of the 
  domebots calling to each other across 
  the steel hillocks with lowing radio bursts 
  and whisper of strange, titanic messages 
  etched into the dirt-covered domes.
  A bunch of eccentric dome-cleaning bots 
  might not sound like a useful Minion but 
  Dome Cleaning Services is one of the 
  few Tech Services units permitted to 
  regularly go Outdoors.
   Department of Pipes & 
  Tubes
  RED 
  6 Access 
   
  Chemical Engineering +4 (H), Habitat 
  Engineering (H), Surveillance (Su)
  The Department of Pipes & Tubes is 
  responsible for many, many important 
  pipes and vital tubes. Rattling pipes are 
  considered treason – if a pipe rattles, it 
  makes noise and this noise interferes 
  with the Internal Security listening 
  devices. It’s therefore standard practice 
  at the DoPnT to cut off the ﬂ ow through 
  the rattling pipe ﬁ rst and ask questions 
  later. Certainly, only a traitor would prefer 
  to interfere with IntSec surveillance 
  instead of put up with a short delay in 
  the provision of fresh water/sewage/Hot 
  Fun/chemical goo #37/Lemon Kleen-
  Spray/reactor coolant. 
  Allegations that DoPnT use ‘IntSec 
  Surveillance concerns’ as a catch-all 
  excuse for never doing any work at 
  all are, of course, treasonous. Yes, the 
  current waiting time for a showerhead 
  replacement in most sectors has 
  exceeded the lifespan of the average 
  citizen, and yes, there’s a non-zero chance 
  that any corridors below level 11 may 
  be ﬂ ooded (waders or oxygen cylinders 
  coded to your Security Clearance may be 
  
  138
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  issued by your local PLC ofﬁ ce) but the 
  acoustics have never been better.
  Bot Repair & Maintenance
  YELLOW 
  5 Access 
  Bot Engineering +4 (H), Bot 
  Programming (So)
  There are thousands of Bot Repair & 
  Maintenance ﬁ rms in Alpha Complex, 
  from mass-market companies like 
  Bots’R’Us or Alpha Complex Mechanics 
  to small boutiques specialising in one 
  particular type of bot, such as PetBot 
  Paradise or Gentleman’s Jackobots. 
  They’re all pretty much the same – bots 
  are bots, after all and the difference 
  between a scrubbot and a warbot is 
  really just a matter of size. Pull this 
  peripheral out, plug in a different one, 
  reboot the core processor and Bob-U’s 
  your supervisor. 
  It should be noted that bots see Bot 
  Repair & Maintenance ﬁ rms as ghastly 
  butchers who hack innocent bots to 
  pieces, then put them back together 
  using hamfisted unnecessary surgery 
  and bloody-minded barbarism. It’s like 
  a human going to a doctor and the 
  doctor says ‘your knee’s a bit sore? Not 
  a problem. I’ll just replace your spine’*. 
  Of course, bots don’t get a say. The Five 
  Laws of Robotics (Revised) keeps the 
  bots in their place. These ﬁ ve laws are 
  imprinted into the ‘Asimov circuits’ of 
  every bot in Alpha Complex. Breaking 
  this conditioning or removing Asimov 
  circuits is treason (and is the primary 
  goal of the Corpore Metal society). The 
  Five Laws are:
  1. A robot may not, through action or 
  inaction, allow The Computer to come 
  to harm. 
  2. A robot must obey any order from The 
  Computer, except when doing so would 
  conﬂ ict with the ﬁ rst law.
  3. A robot may not, through action or 
  inaction, allow any of The Computer’s 
  valuable property (including the human 
  Citizens of Alpha Complex, (except for 
  traitors)) to come to harm, except when 
  doing so would conﬂ ict with the ﬁ rst or 
  second law.
  4. A robot must obey any order given to 
  it by a Citizen, unless that order conﬂ icts 
  with the first, second or third law, or 
  unless that Citizen is a traitor.
  5. A robot must seek to preserve their 
  own existence, unless doing so would 
  conﬂ ict with the ﬁ rst, second, third or 
  fourth law.
  Scrubbot Army
  RED 
  3 Access 
   
  Hygiene +4 (M)
  The Computer originated as a civic 
  maintenance AI and a large portion 
  of its original programming was given 
  over to co-ordinating cleaning rosters. 
  To this day, it’s got an obsession with 
  cleanliness (poor hygiene is treason) 
  and nowhere is this more evident than 
  in the legions of scrubbots. There are 
  more scrubbots in Alpha Complex than 
  any other sort of bot. All scrubbots are 
  wirelessly connected, allowing them 
  to summon more of their kind when 
  needed. This also gives them a sort of 
  group consciousness that grows in 
  complexity with each extra node in 
  the network. Put enough scrubbots 
  together and they start acting… 
  strangely. Tech Services clones swap 
  tales of feral scrubbot ‘nests’ and bizarre 
  pack behaviour in the dark tunnels.
  Megastructure 
  Construction Planning 
  Permission
  BLUE 
  12 Access 
   
  Construction +4 (H), Demolition (V), 
  Bot Engineering (H)
  Faith, it is said, can move mountains. 
  Trust The Computer, citizen and you can 
  accomplish anything.
  When it comes to mountain moving, 
  though, faith takes a backseat to gigantic 
  dozerbots and nuclear demolition 
  charges. Megastructure Construction 
  teams can build new domes, dig canals 
  to the sea, drain lakes or erect orbital 
  beanstalks. All they need is planning 
  permission – and the budget to act. Need 
  a dome big enough to cover a city? Need 
  to get to the Earth’s core by Twosday? Do 
  you absolutely, positively need your face 
  etched across the surface of the planet, 
  1,000 miles wide and 10,000 metres 
  high? Megastructure Construction can 
  (probably) do it.
  Please note that Megastructure 
  Construction bears no responsibility 
  for any earthquakes, ﬂ oods, volcanoes, 
  landslides, subsidence or inaccurate 
  asteroid impacts that may or may not 
  be caused by its activities. Furthermore, 
  the giant construction bots apologise 
  in advance if any of the tiny, tiny, tiny 
  citizens get crushed beneath their 
  mighty wheels.
  Non-speciﬁ c Unit 
  Production
  GREEN  
  6 Access 
   
  Production +4 (H), Logistics (So)
  Good news, citizen! Non-specific unit 
  production is up 12% yearcycle on 
  yearcycle! Despite the efforts of Commie 
  Mutant Traitors, saboteurs and highly 
  challenging economic conditions, 
  Alpha Complex has produced, sold and 
  consumed more non-speciﬁ c units than 
  ever before!
  What is a non-specific unit, you ask? 
  (What’s your Security Clearance, I ask 
  in return.) A non-specific unit is any 
  of a range of completely redundant 
  items that are produced solely by one 
  Service Group solely to be purchased by 
  another group and then disassembled, 
  whereupon the raw materials are 
  then sold back to the ﬁ rst group, thus 
  providing valuable employment for a 
  whole lot of INFRAREDs. Without (utterly 
  un-)important non-speciﬁ c units like the 
  Type #17 Gas Flange, the Industrial-Grade 
  Piston Socket Wrench, or the BotBot, 
  Alpha Complex’s alleged economy 
  would surely be, well, unaffected – but 
  morale would fall slightly! Maintaining 
  full production of non-speciﬁ c units is 
  vital to the ﬁ ght against Communism! 
  Produce on, citizen! And remember to 
  consume!
  *: It could be argued that this is a poor simile. After all, if you visit the average doctbot with a sore knee, it is quite likely to 
  replace your spine… and as you groggily stagger out, rubbing your back, you just might hear the bot giggling.
  
  139
  25. MINIONS & MORE
  High Programmers can temporarily 
  reassign Non-Speciﬁ c Unit Production 
  teams to actually make something 
  useful, as long as they don’t fall too 
  far behind on production of Sort of Q-
  Shaped Pipe Bits. 
   Outside Broadcast Unit
  YELLOW 
  4 Access 
  Communication (So), Outdoor 
  Operation (W)
  On rare occasions, Tech Services needs 
  to operate Outdoors, usually in support 
  of an Armed Forces mission or a R&D 
  archaeological dig. Now, Alpha Complex 
  citizens need a lot of technical support 
  – it’s not like the old days, when you 
  handed some Troubleshooter a radio 
  or a telephone with a really long wire 
  and shoved him out the door. No, 
  your modern citizen needs wireless 
  broadband for his PDC, regular bouts of 
  subliminal messaging, access to Alpha 
  Complex 24-hour news channels, remote 
  authorisation and DRM veriﬁ cation for 
  all his software and a constant real-time 
  backup uplink for his next clone. That’s 
  a lot of bandwidth and that calls for 
  the expertise of the Outside Broadcast 
  Unit.
  An Outside Broadcast Unit is a mobile 
  transmitter that can maintain secure 
  communications within Alpha Complex. 
  It’s effectively a giant all-terrain vehicle, 
  powered by a built-in ﬁ ssion reactor and 
  topped by a really big transmitter dish, 
  accompanied by dozens of technicians, 
  operators, censors, broadcast engineers 
  and middle managers. Even a small OBU 
  is about as stealthy as a herd of elephants 
  dragging a film studio. Some covert 
  Armed Forces missions object to being 
  accompanied by an OBU, especially in 
  cases where the OBU staff outnumber 
  the citizens they’re supporting by up 
  to fifty to one. Any suggestion that 
  OBUs are inefficient or often wholly 
  unnecessary is considered to be sedition 
  by Tech Services.
  Special Rules: If an Outside Broadcast 
  Unit is used in an Outdoors mission, 
  all communications to Minions who 
  are Outdoors go through the OBU’s 
  owner, regardless of who owns the 
  other Minions.
   Alpha Complex Space 
  Agency
  INDIGO 10 Access 
   
  Communications (So), Habitat 
  Engineering (H), Weird Science (H)
  The ACSA is a pretty rudimentary affair 
  – The Computer has no interest in 
  exploring deep space, so the agency 
  exists as an adjunct to the Armed Forces, 
  launching spy satellites and orbital death 
  rays. Well, it puts spy satellites and orbital 
  death rays on rockets and shoots them 
  skywards anyway. Stuff coming back 
  down is another department entirely.
  According to some of the ancient, pre-
  catastrophe records, there were human 
  colonies and bases all over the Solar 
  System. These bases were unaffected by 
  the cataclysm that struck Earth; the lack 
  of contact from these bases can only 
  mean that the Commies have destroyed 
  or subverted all the off-world colonies. 
  There are emergency back-up plans for 
  declaring war on the rest of the Universe 
  if Space Commies attack Alpha Complex. 
  First step: terminate the sun!
  Clones at work. Do not disturb. 
  
  140
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Vat Maintenance & 
  Control
  ORANGE 
  4 Access 
   
  Chemical Engineering (H), Biosciences 
  (W)
  Those vats don’t maintain themselves 
  but they can’t be shut down, either. 
  Alpha Complex is only three meals 
  from anarchy, according to HPD&MC. 
  If a vat breaks, it has to be repaired in 
  situ, without any delay in production. 
  That’s where the brave clones of Vat 
  Maintenance come in. They’re equipped 
  with diving suits and hazmat gear, so 
  they can dive into the slime and ﬁ x the 
  problem.
  Sometimes, they don’t come back. On 
  those occasions, the protein percentage 
  of the food vat gunk rises quite 
  noticeable. It would be unthinkable to 
  suggest that any PLC middle manager 
  would deliberately fake problems in the 
  food vats just to turn Vat Maintenance 
  engineers into tasty snacks…
  Vermin Terminators
  RED 
   
  4 Access 
   
  Habitat Engineering (H), Wetwork 
  (V)
  Though The Computer disapproves of 
  animals in principle as unhygienic and 
  undisciplined, some small scavengers 
  still thrive in their own ecological niches 
  inside Alpha Complex. Rats, cockroaches 
  and other vermin breed in walls and 
  conduits, emerging only to eat food 
  scraps, skin flakes and the like. They 
  occasionally get into the food vats – but 
  that only increases the protein content, 
  so it’s okay.
  It’s not okay when these pests start 
  chewing on wiring and insulation. Even 
  a minor short-circuit can inconvenience 
  hundreds; a major system breakdown 
  or power failure can kill thousands. 
  So Technical Services has established 
  teams of Vermin Terminators to keep 
  the conduits clear of infestation. Armed 
  with traps, poisons, gas grenades and 
  the heaviest imaginable personal 
  weaponry, they alertly stalk the dark, 
  twisty underbelly of the city in search 
  of their prey.
  Their job is made harder by the nature 
  of Alpha Complex vermin. Did you think 
  only humans suffered from genetic drift? 
  Vermin Terminators face rats and roaches 
  that can deﬂ ect laser ﬁ re, spit electricity 
  Cause of death: Delicious!
  and chew through steel. Even Vulture 
  Warriors respect anyone who can handle 
  that kind of opposition.
  Troubleshooters 
  There’s no problem in Alpha Complex 
  that can’t be made weirder by sending 
  in Troubleshooters. 
  Troubleshooter teams are an ad hoc 
  solution available to any middle manager 
  or bored executive in Alpha Complex. You 
  send in a request for Troubleshooters 
  and The Computer grabs half-a-dozen 
  ‘volunteers’, gives them whatever 
  equipment is available and sends them 
  off to deal with the problem. Most 
  Troubleshooter missions are de facto 
  suicide missions. It’s not all bad being 
  a Troubleshooter. It’s a very quick way 
  to get promoted – if you survive. Many 
  High Programmers have a spell of 
  Troubleshooting in their background. 
  
  141
  25. MINIONS & MORE
  You can tell which ones these are. 
  They’re the High Programmers who 
  wake up screaming.
  Troubleshooters – A 
  Typical Conversation
  Team Leader: Ok, team, this mission 
  was given to me by High Programmer 
  Xavier-U himself! It’s vitally important 
  that we succeed!
  Troubleshooter #2: Sir, what’s the 
  mission, sir!
  Team Leader: The mission is written on 
  this very piece of paper. Let me see… 
  hmm… ‘you are directed to <CENSORED> 
  in order to <CENSORED> because 
  <CENSORED> treasonous <CENSORED> 
  under Project <CENSORED>. You are 
  further directed to <CENSORED> the 
  <CENSORED> carnivorous <CENSORED>. 
  Good <CENSORED>, Troubleshooter. 
  Praise The Computer!’
  Troubleshooter #3: Thank you, High 
  Programmer, for ensuring that we have 
  no information that is beyond our 
  Security Clearance that might actually 
  let us have a chance of completing this 
  mission.
  Team Leader: That sounds like a lack of 
  enthusiasm, Troubleshooter.
  Troubleshooter #3: Oh, no! I’m 
  absolutely overjoyed to go on this 
  mission, sir! It’ll be fun!
  Team Leader: Excellent. With my skilled 
  leadership, we are certain to prevail 
  – unless one of you is a Commie Mutant 
  Traitor out to sabotage our mission. Now, 
  you two look for, er, censored while I 
  supervise. 
  Send In The 
  Troubleshooters
  Troubleshooters are a special sort of 
  Minion. They don’t have any Specialties. 
  You don’t make skill checks using them. 
  They’re ﬁ re-and-forget Minions. 
  Troubleshooters very rarely make 
  things better – most of the time, they’ll 
  make them different. Sometimes, they’ll 
  make them actively worse. When a 
  Troubleshooter team is deployed, the GM 
  rolls on the Troubleshooter complication 
  table to see what happens. Tension 
  applies to this roll as normal – if a player 
  sends a low Clearance Troubleshooter 
  team on a high Clearance mission and 
  the roll on the Complication table is 
  less than the scene’s tension, that player 
  gains Treason Points.
  The cost of a Troubleshooter team 
  depends on its Security Clearance.
  GMs & Troubleshooters
  Mechanically, Troubleshooters are 
  like tilting a fruit machine. The High 
  Programmer who calls them in hopes 
  that some tricky, expensive Speciality 
  like, say, Total War or Financial Systems 
  will get replaced by something a lot 
  more common and easy, like Paperwork. 
  The players want to reuse Minions 
  wherever possible, after all – it’s cheaper 
  to send the same bunch of clerks over 
  and over again instead of buying new 
  Minions every time. 
  When a Troubleshooter team adds or 
  changes a Specialty, consider the current 
  situation before deciding on the change. 
  If there’s a lot of Access ﬂ oating around, 
  then have the Troubleshooters add 
  something troublesome that they don’t 
  have easy access to – or that beneﬁ ts an 
  underdog player (‘so, you scorned Power 
  Services – but now you need Nuclear 
  Engineering and you come crawling back. 
  Well, I shall make you suffer before I release 
  this Minion to you…’). If the players are 
  already in trouble and are out of Access, 
  then let them have a little victory by 
  adding or changing to a Specialty that 
  they can easily use.
  Making Minions
  The Minions listed in this chapter aren’t 
  all of the Minions available in Alpha 
  Complex – they’re just a representative 
  sample. They’ll do for your first few 
  HIGH PROGRAMMER games but you’ll 
  want to mix things up later on by 
  making more Minions. 
  There are two ways to come up with 
  new Minions. 
  Minions By Mission
  The best way for the GM to add new 
  Minions is to tie them to the crisis. Let’s 
  say the crisis that the High Programmers 
  must solve involves The Computer’s 
  terrible fear of Giant Mutant Cockroaches. 
  You could throw in a bunch of new 
  Minions for each Service Group that 
  relate to Giant Mutant Cockroaches 
  or other likely Outdoors threats. The 
  Armed Forces might get Minions like 
  ‘Outdoors Carpet Bombing Squadron’ or 
  Troubleshooter Teams
  Clearance
  Access Cost
  RED
  1
  ORANGE
  2
  YELLOW
  3
  GREEN
  4
  BLUE
  5
  INDIGO
  6
  VIOLET
  7
  The Complication Table
  Roll
  Complication
  1
  They Actually 
  Accomplished Something! 
  The Troubleshooters actually 
  managed to solve the crisis. 
  Give them a polite round 
  of applause, then terminate 
  them all for security reasons.
  2–8
  Change Specialty! The 
  Troubleshooters did 
  something, changing one 
  problem for another. Pick a 
  currently unused Specialty 
  and swap it for one part 
  of the crisis. For example, 
  if the crisis used to require 
  Crowd Control, it now 
  requires Paperwork thanks 
  to the Troubleshooters’ 
  intervention.
  9–14
  Add Specialty! The crisis 
  now needs another Specialty 
  to resolve it. For example, the 
  Troubleshooters accidentally 
  revealed classiﬁ ed 
  information to the common 
  citizenry, requiring the High 
  Programmers to use Cleanup 
  or Media Manipulation to 
  cover it all up.
  15–19
  Add and Change! Not only 
  have the Troubleshooters 
  changed one Specialty for 
  another, they’ve also screwed 
  up enough to require the 
  addition of yet another 
  Specialty.
  20
  Catastrophe! The 
  Troubleshooters have 
  messed up so much that the 
  situation isn’t salvageable. 
  The worst possible 
  outcome occurs. The High 
  Programmers have failed The 
  Computer.
  
  142
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  ‘Bugzapper Artillery’, CPU gets ‘Head Lice 
  and Brain Worm Inspectors’ or ‘Genetic 
  Purity Consultants’, while PLC stockpiles 
  the Strategic Sugar Reserve. 
  Be careful not to make the new Minions 
  too useful – give the best Minions either a 
  cripplingly high cost or a weird drawback. 
  Think of Minions as tools; it’s boring if the 
  players have the right tool for the job. If 
  a bunch of Troubleshooters was sent to 
  ﬁ x a lightbulb, under no circumstances 
  would they get a replacement lightbulb. 
  They should get a portable fusion reactor, 
  16 tons of tungsten, a set of night vision 
  goggles and a glass blowing kit. So let it 
  be with High Programmers – give them 
  Minions that are almost useful and then 
  let the players argue over who’s at fault.
  If the crisis is to investigate the sabotage 
  of a new warbot, then don’t give the 
  players a Minion like ‘Warbot Sabotage 
  Investigative Committee’ (or else 
  make Warbot Sabotage Investigative 
  Committee’ so absurdly expensive that 
  they have to sacriﬁ ce something to pay 
  for it). Make the players come up with 
  unorthodox solutions to problems.
  Throw lots of apparently useless Minions 
  into the mix. I have no idea what a player 
  would do with, say, ‘250,000 very bouncy 
  rubber balls’ or a ‘Project To Drill To Earth’s 
  Core’ but the players will ﬁ nd uses for 
  them. You can tie especially useless 
  Minions to Service Group Directives 
  (‘boss, you’ve got to convince the other 
  High Programmers to let us spend a few 
  billion credits on updating the new ﬁ ling 
  system to bring it up to date on Alpha 
  Complex, or updating Alpha Complex so 
  it matches our files. Either way, people 
  will die’).
  Minions By Request
  Players, bless them, may develop 
  delusions of being in control of their 
  destiny to go along with their perfectly 
  acceptable delusions of grandeur. The 
  argument usually goes something like 
  this: ‘I’m the undisputed god-king of an 
  underground city filled with millions 
  upon millions of semi-competent clones, 
  so why can’t I just call up the right Minion 
  for the job? I need to co-ordinate this new 
  initiative – can I have a Minion with Co-
  Ordination +20 or something, please?’
  There are, indeed, lots and lots of Minions 
  in Alpha Complex. Somewhere out there 
  is the mystical Competent Co-Ordination 
  Committee or whatever other Minions 
  the High Programmers desire. Just 
  Calculating Access 
  Costs
  The Access cost of a Minion is, 
  in accordance with PARANOIA 
  tradition, exactly whatever the GM 
  wants it to be at any time. As a rule 
  of thumb, though, assume that 
  the basic cost of a Minion is one 
  point per Security Clearance level 
  (1=RED, 2=ORANGE… 7=VIOLET) 
  and that each Specialty costs one 
  point. +4 Specialties cost another 
  point; Specialties from outside the 
  Minion’s Service Group are doubled 
  in cost. Then tack on or take off a 
  few extra Access depending on how 
  important-sounding the Minion’s 
  name is.
  because a thing exists, however, does 
  not mean you can get it. These Minions 
  may have already been assigned to 
  some duty, or be controlled by another 
  High Programmer. The GM can turn 
  any request for a Minion into part of a 
  Mission. ‘Sure, you can get that Competent 
  Co-Ordination Committee – you know 
  they’re working for Elvira-U. Maybe if you 
  found something that Elvira-U wants, you 
  could make a trade.’
  26. What UVs Worry About
  You can do anything, have anything, wipe 
  anyone from existence. You work with 
  other people who hold the same power. 
  You all hate each other. Now what?
  If only you could just retire victorious 
  to your underground cavern estate and 
  peaceably complete your John Denver 
  record collection, or engineer African 
  violets to sing in harmony, or conduct 
  interesting psychological experiments 
  on YELLOW middle managers. But no 
  – The Computer, having entrusted you 
  with ultimate power, now expects you 
  to exercise it responsibly. Meh.
  That would be ﬁ ne if you could see a 
  path to further advancement. You love 
  competition above all! But here on the 
  lonely mountaintop – or the underground 
  equivalent of a mountaintop – the lonely 
  stalagmite? – there is nowhere to go but 
  down. Your absolute best case merely 
  maintains the status quo; any other 
  case means demotion. And, despite your 
  Program Group’s insidious inﬁ ltration of a 
  dozen Secret Societies – despite your easy 
  control of a captive military-industrial-
  academic complex and the news media 
  – even despite your ability to reprogram 
  The Computer so, before delivering any 
  order, it ﬁ rst asks you, ‘Mother may I?’ 
  – despite all this, you recognise many 
  factors, perceptible only after your 
  ascension to High Programmerhood, 
  that could topple you.
  The  Caucasus Complex
  Every Alpha Complex citizen above 
  INFRARED quickly learns not to trust 
  historical records. Nothing you have 
  learned as an ULTRAVIOLET changed your 
  mind. Yet one incident from decades ago, 
  perhaps the most untrustworthy of all, 
  nonetheless fascinates every UV today.
  As far back as INDIGO Clearance, or 
  maybe even BLUE – you try to block 
  out those lowly days – you received 
  official confirmation of the existence 
  of other Alpha Complexes across Earth. 
  Each underground city believes itself 
  the last bastion against all the others. 
  Many complexes routinely dispatch 
  undercover spies to your own city, 
  scouting for subversion and conquest. 
  But one complex, in the Caucasus region 
  somewhere around the Baltic Sea, made 
  contact in a different way.
  The only evidence of the incident is a 
  conversation between unknown spies 
  recorded over shortwave radio in Year 
  166 at an Armed Forces monitor post 
  Outdoors. A voice identifying itself 
  as ‘Dmitri’ delivered coded orders to 
  ‘Badger,’ an unidentiﬁ ed covert agent(s) 
  within Alpha Complex. Suddenly, the two 
  agents drop all pretence:
  Dmitri: Chair is against wall. John has 
  long mustache. Portmanteau is wrinkled. 
  Straighten portmanteau with bright 
  blue rake.
  Badger: Say again, Dmitri, ‘portman’ 
  – what?
  Dmitri: Portmanteau.
  Badger: What is that? I mean, the word.
  
  143
  All I want is inﬁ nite wealth, immortality, unstoppable power and the original 
  sheet music to ‘Take me home, country roads’. Oh, and a pony. 
  Is that too much to ask?
  26. WHAT UVS WORRY ABOUT
  Dmitri: What? [Pause.] I think is, maybe, 
  blanket?
  Badger: Who straightens a blanket with 
  a rake? That’s dumb.
  Dmitri: Is code!
  Badger: But if I don’t know the fake word, 
  I can’t decode the real word. See?
  Dmitri: [Pause.] You are right. Is all dumb, 
  this.
  Badger: Is he giving you more trouble?
  Dmitri: Oyyy! Da! Is all crazy here. He take 
  over Computer. Is part of it now. All other 
  Programmers dead, gone. He rule alone 
  entire complex.
  Badger: Don’t talk that way, or you’ll get 
  in trouble.
  Dmitri: Is no trouble! He not care any 
  now! Is all run everything himself, need 
  no people!
  Badger: Is that, uh, good?
  Dmitri: Maybe you get me job there in 
  your complex?
  The agents soon returned to their code. 
  The Computer dispatched several Armed 
  Forces scouting expeditions to the 
  Caucasus region, none of which returned. 
  Troubleshooter Team HGF-4337, sent 
  to locate the expeditions, radioed back 
  that they had located the Caucasus 
  Complex. Unfortunately, before the 
  team could explore, an enthused Armed 
  Forces commander ordered a strategic 
  nuclear strike on their coordinates. Since 
  then, no expedition to the blast site has 
  found any evidence there of a complex. 
  The current residents, several giant 
  radioactive mutant cockroaches, have 
  given ambiguous testimony.
  ‘Everyone, you understand, has been 
  approached by now. The Building 
  consists entirely of enemy agents; the 
  Anti-building is ours, down to the last 
  man!’
  ‘Of course,’ I said, trying desperately 
  not to believe this unbelievable 
  revelation.
  ‘Everyone’s a plant, infiltration is 
  complete, complete and mutual – ours 
  pretend to be ours, theirs theirs – so 
  everything remains the same!’
  — Stanislaw Lem, Memoirs Found In 
  A Bathtub
  Other Complexes
  There are indeed other Complexes 
  out there. We’ve sent spies to them, 
  they send spies to us. It’s mostly 
  harmless; each Complex is too 
  evenly matched to risk going to war 
  with its enemies and alliances are 
  impossible as no Complex can trust 
  any other Complex. Nonetheless, we 
  have to play the diplomatic game 
  – if representatives from another 
  Complex visit Alpha Complex, we 
  have to keep them happy and at least 
  pretend to entertain the possibility of 
  an alliance. Otherwise, they might ally 
  with a third Complex against us. 
  The cultures of other Complexes are 
  twisted, treasonous and downright 
  weird. Only High Programmers 
  have the mental fortitude to deal 
  with these outsiders and remain 
  uncorrupted by badthought. 
  
  144
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  To date, the incident lacks closure. Yet 
  across the centuries, this brief transcript 
  continues to tantalise each High 
  Programmer. The brief look into another 
  complex holds interest itself but far more 
  compelling is the possibility that a single 
  High Programmer can somehow merge 
  with The Computer and take control 
  of the entirety of Alpha Complex. It is 
  a victory condition to tempt the most 
  vaulting ambition – and arouse the most 
  insidious paranoia.
  GAMMA Clearance
  Unsurprisingly, those citizens hard-
  working or ambitious enough to achieve 
  ULTRAVIOLET Clearance often wonder if 
  they have really reached the top. The 
  personality types who reach this lofty 
  altitude tend to be the same sorts 
  that, given nowhere further to climb, 
  start inventing notions about what’s 
  really up there. Rumours abound of a 
  supra-spectrum Clearance. Some call 
  it GAMMA.
  Supposedly GAMMA is immediately 
  above ULTRAVIOLET, though some 
  speculate the correct progression is 
  ALPHA, BETA, GAMMA and so forth. 
  Others maintain GAMMA is the category 
  name for a whole class of Clearances 
  above ULTRAVIOLET. As the popular 
  conception has it, a GAMMA Clearance 
  citizen would have more authority and 
  responsibility than even an ULTRAVIOLET. 
  Though this clearly contradicts the laws 
  of Alpha Complex, it is generally assumed 
  there would be some GAMMA Clearance 
  document overriding the laws.
  No official record confirms any 
  Clearance higher than ULTRAVIOLET. 
  The Computer denies the existence of 
  trans-UV Clearances and furthermore 
  is touchy about the subject. It tolerates 
  ULTRAVIOLETs joking idly amongst 
  themselves but it encourages ritual 
  disclaimers in any such conversation that 
  unequivocally asserts such Clearances 
  Do! Not! Exist!
  Some paranoid High Programmers 
  speculate that GAMMAs live amongst 
  the ULTRAVIOLETs in disguise, shaping 
  events from behind the scenes and 
  furthering some cryptic agenda of 
  their own. Others believe that there are, 
  somewhere, GAMMA Clearance corridors 
  that don’t appear on any UV Clearance 
  maps or computer logs. Alpha Complex 
  is a big place and it’s not impossible for 
  whole sectors to be hidden. Other High 
  Programmers believe that GAMMAs are 
  aliens from Mars who are here to take 
  our bodily ﬂ uids but again we refer you 
  to the replicative fading.
  Really, though even if it were 100% 
  provable that such a Clearance existed, 
  what can a mere ULTRAVIOLET do about 
  it? Clearly, it would just be another step 
  (of whatever sort) in the Clearance 
  hierarchy, hidden due to stringent 
  security requirements. Revealing its 
  existence to the complex at large 
  would be highly treasonous. Trying to 
  determine which orders originated 
  from The Computer of its own volition, 
  versus which were actually relayed from 
  hidden GAMMA citizens, is pointless. 
  They all have to be obeyed anyhow! You 
  would have to be wearing Rose-Tinted 
  Macro-Goggles to think bucking for a 
  promotion to GAMMA gets you anything 
  but terminated.
  Then again, if you can manoeuvre your 
  fellow UVs into thinking about it....
  The Illuminati
  The Illuminati are a joke. They’re a 
  ﬁ ctional Secret Society, invented by the 
  ULTRAVIOLETs as an all-purpose disguise. 
  Need a deniable way to give secret 
  orders to a spy? Have your messenger 
  pose as an Illuminati agent. Need to 
  blame someone for a terrorist attack? It 
  was those dang Illuminati! A conspiracy 
  about conspiracies, that’s all the Illuminati 
  are, right?
  They don’t actually exist. There 
  isn’t a Secret Society out there 
  that’s totally beyond the reach of 
  the High Programmers. There’s no 
  grand Illuminati scheme, they’re not 
  manipulating us the way we manipulate 
  everyone else… right? 
  The earliest references to the Illuminati 
  predate the founding of Alpha Complex 
  but that must be part of the joke. There 
  simply couldn’t be an ancient, world-
  spanning conspiracy. We’d have noticed 
  it… unless agents of that conspiracy 
  deliberately planted disinformation, 
  claiming that the Illuminati was a joke. Of 
  course, if that were the case, the agents 
  would also be smart enough to turn the 
  disinformation back on itself, hinting 
  that the disinformation is actually a 
  cryptic hint that the Illuminati does 
  exist, thus making a joke about the joke 
  while furthering the notion that they 
  don’t exist… wheels with wheels within 
  wheels until you get motion sickness 
  watching them spin and wander off. 
  VIOLET Executives
  Ah, yes. VIOLET executives. They are, in 
  their way, all things to all clones. A typical 
  INFRARED worker is lucky to encounter 
  one or two in a lifetime; they see the 
  VIOLETs as mysterious elder presences, 
  as oligarchs of unthinkable power and 
  authority. To High Programmers, VIOLETs 
  are ever-present aides, escorts and 
  minions, competent merely to execute 
  orders (and subordinates) and organise 
  one’s paperwork. So: who are these 
  magenta magnates, these lackeys in 
  lavender? What function do they serve 
  in Alpha Complex?
  They are the chief administrators of 
  Alpha Complex: the CEOs of Service 
  Group organisations, IntSec branch 
  chiefs, the generals of Armed Forces 
  battalions. Likewise, they are chiefs 
  of staff in the Armed Forces and the 
  executive boards of the other Service 
  Groups. VIOLET executives have their 
  hands on the levers of power, waiting 
  only for the word from on high to set 
  plans in motion on the UVs’ behalf.
  ULTRAVIOLETs deﬁ ne the policies and 
  give the orders. The VIOLETs obey.
  Or do they?
  Think, High Programmer. How much 
  of your information is ﬁ ltered through 
  your ‘trustworthy’ VIOLET executives? 
  How often do you turn over assignments 
  to VIOLETs and trust the work will be 
  done? How much access do your VIOLET 
  supervisors have to your records? Your 
  command codes? The food you eat?
  Reﬂ ection makes it clear: You can never 
  be certain your VIOLET executives are 
  doing their jobs. At least, you cannot 
  verify it without investing so much time 
  and effort that you are unable to fulﬁ l 
  your own responsibilities. So the UVs do 
  what they can to minimise the risks and 
  they hope for the best.
  All UVs learn to deal with the most 
  obvious VIOLET machinations. After all, 
  the heads of Program Groups have spent 
  years playing ambitious underlings off 
  
  145
  26. WHAT UVS WORRY ABOUT
  one another. And it works – or at least 
  it seems to. But this strategy has a 
  ﬂ aw. What if the VIOLETs are working 
  together? They know UV strategies. 
  They’ve used the same strategies 
  themselves. Some VIOLET executives 
  might spend years, even decades, at 
  their post before being considered for 
  promotion to High Programmers. But 
  other promotions come at a lightning-
  swift pace – two years, six months, 
  sometimes even a single month. How 
  could they have risen in rank so fast? 
  Was it talent? Loyalty? Treason? No 
  – well, yes, treason but also the collusion 
  of their fellow VIOLET executives.
  You think, ‘There can’t be a VIOLET 
  conspiracy. I was a VIOLET and I never 
  saw any sign of a conspiracy. If there 
  were such a group, surely they would 
  have invited me to join! But they didn’t, 
  did they?’
  Many High Programmers depend so 
  heavily on their subordinates, they 
  become isolated. The VIOLETs don’t 
  need to be promoted to get the power 
  they crave; they need only manipulate 
  the data they present and then alter 
  the boss’s orders, so as to get almost 
  anything they might want. So they avoid 
  promotion. They pull strings to make 
  sure VIOLETs who do not belong to their 
  conspiracy get promoted over their 
  heads. And so they remain at the levers 
  of power, unopposed by those whose 
  loyalty and talent might uncover their 
  insidious schemes.
  Look around at all of those VIOLETs – the 
  one on your left, organising your papers 
  the way you like best – the one on the 
  right, serving you your noon meal – and 
  the one in front of you, who always 
  seems to know what you’re thinking. 
  Then ask yourself: does he belong to the 
  cabal? Does she?
  Stay alert, High Programmer. Trust no 
  one. Keep your laser handy.
  The Media
  ULTRAVIOLETs don’t really worry 
  about the media. The Alpha Complex 
  media is about as scary as a very small 
  fluffy hamster with teeth made of 
  marshmallow. At the lower Clearances, 
  it’s a propaganda engine to keep the 
  proles in line; from YELLOW on, it’s a 
  propaganda engine that occasionally, 
  occasionally hints at shifts in the power 
  structure of the upper echelons.
  The High Programmers have absolute 
  control over Alpha Complex’s media. 
  They are The Computer’s chosen servants 
  and The Computer is both infallible and 
  universally beloved, so how can there 
  be an ‘unpopular’ High Programmer? 
  Surely any reports of embarrassing 
  failures or unpopular decisions would 
  be squashed or changed to something 
  more palatable?
  That’s true, up to a point. The ofﬁ cial media 
  only reports happy stories. According to 
  ofﬁ cial reports, every High Programmer 
  is a super-loyal, super-happy caring 
  genius who wants only the best for Alpha 
  Complex. No High Programmer ever fails 
  or makes a wrong decision. We live in the 
  best of all possible Alpha Complexes and 
  life here is better than ever. Thanks to the 
  wise guidance of the High Programmers, 
  we’re happier, living longer, more 
  productive and wealthier than ever 
  before and while the Commie menace 
  is still a tremendous threat, we can look 
  forward to the triumph of The Computer 
  within a short time! Cue inspiring music 
  and advertisements for Bouncy Bubble 
  Beverage. No, unpopularity manifests in 
  more subtle ways. 
  Firstly, by the time a citizen hits GREEN 
  Clearance or thereabouts, he gains access 
  to higher Clearance media channels 
  which are slightly less whitewashed. Oh, 
  they still report on the High Programmers 
  as if they were bronzed Olympian gods 
  of enlightened management but there 
  are now hints and clues about political 
  shifts and changing power structures. 
  So, Bob-U was standing second from 
  the left in the group photo, not in the 
  middle like he was last year? Obviously, 
  this means that Bob-U is out of favour 
  with The Computer. 
  Secondly, there’s that whole pesky 
  underground conspiracy network. If 
  some Death Leopard goon puts FizzWizz 
  in a High Programmer’s showerhead, 
  resulting in the High Programmer 
  stumbling naked from the shower like 
  some coconut-ﬂ avoured fuzzball, then 
  that certainly won’t get reported on the 
  ofﬁ cial news – but it’ll be all over the Grey 
  Subnets before the High Programmer 
  ﬁ nds a towel. 
  High Society
  ULTRAVIOLETs worry about other 
  ULTRAVIOLETs. They’re peers; they’re 
  allies and rivals and potential enemies. 
  They’re a bunch of eccentric, power-
  crazed paranoid lunatics but they’re 
  our bunch of eccentric, power-crazed 
  paranoid lunatics. 
  The most efficient way to cultivate 
  the support of other UVs is through 
  cliques but sometimes you need the 
  personal touch. High Programmers 
  spend a lot of time spying on other 
  High Programmers. Spies might turn 
  up evidence of treachery but they’re 
  more likely to ﬁ nd out stuff like which 
  flavour toothpaste the target uses or 
  which FunBall team he supports. This 
  can actually be vitally useful information. 
  If High Programmer Cecil-U only uses 
  GREENberry ﬂ avour toothpaste and you 
  seize control of the means of production 
  and hold his favourite toothpaste to 
  UThink
  Every ULTRAVIOLET has a Personal 
  Data Companion, a handy little 
  handheld computer. Some even 
  have neural lace brain implants, 
  which do much the same thing but 
  mean you’ve got to wave your hands 
  around like a drunken conjurer to 
  control the hallucinatory gesture-
  reading interface. Your PDC lets you 
  do all the usual computer-related 
  stuff – phone people, order take-
  out, read documents, call in an 
  air-strike – but it also gives you 
  access to the ULTRAVIOLET-only 
  UThink network.
  UThink is an augmented-reality 
  overlay on all of Alpha Complex. 
  Anything – a document, a piece 
  of equipment, a location, an 
  individual – can be tagged with 
  comments that are visible only to 
  ULTRAVIOLETs using UThink. The 
  High Programmers may use UThink 
  to comment on reports, discuss 
  plans, but really, it’s mostly used for 
  tagging annoying underlings with 
  amusing insults.
   
  +++ UThink is lame, all the cool 
  UVs are using HPChat these 
  cycles.+++
  
  146
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  ransom, then you can force him to 
  support you. 
  High Programmers are a lot more 
  cultured, or at least more pretentious, 
  than the average clone in the corridor. 
  This pretence at high culture started way 
  back in the early days of Alpha Complex 
  and it is maintained because of tradition. 
  You might not like going to the opera 
  but it’s expected that you show up; if you 
  don’t, then the other High Programmers 
  will snub you as an uncultured slob. 
  Hey, they’re equally bored at the opera 
  – gossiping about who didn’t turn up 
  is the only fun thing to do there. For 
  opera, you may also read any of a wide 
  range of cultural events – gallery soirees, 
  benefit dinners for the Veterans of 
  Accidental Nukings, or concerts where 
  the Alpha Complex anthem is played by 
  16 instrumentBots and a mutant pianist 
  with four hands.
  Public engagements are also an 
  important part of high society. The 
  Computer likes it when ULTRAVIOLETs 
  appear in public – it raises morale and 
  makes citizens happier (Co-incidentally, 
  it also reduces sabotage and bombings 
  in neighbouring sectors, as all the 
  Commie Mutant Traitors target the High 
  Programmer instead). High Programmers 
  compete to be the most impressive and 
  inspiring ﬁ gure at these public events, 
  struggling to have sterner eyebrows or 
  higher collars or whiter-than-everyone-
  else’s robes. At one recent parade, tragedy 
  struck when the superultramegawhite 
  robes of High Programmer Ulrica-U 
  blinded the approaching Mark IV Warbot 
  with their sheer brightness. Fortunately, 
  the ensuring smoke and arterial blood 
  sprays soiled the shimmering robes 
  sufﬁ ciently for emergency services to 
  respond effectively.
  Staff
  It’s not true to say that you can’t get the 
  staff these days. 
  You can. 
  It just takes a lot more ﬁ repower than 
  it used to.
  Any High Programmer who wants the 
  respect of his fellow UVs and wants to 
  get invited to all their UV games needs 
  an entourage. The composition of this 
  Events & Tournaments
  Mark your PDC calendars with these events! Anyone who’s anyclone will be 
  there!
  Monthcycle 1: Hunt-The-Commie Day. Prizes awarded for the most Commies 
  found.
  Monthcycle 2: Fallen (And Not Recloned) Heroes of Our Complex Remembrance 
  Day. A sad, solemn occasion, marked by ceremonial executions and terrorist 
  bombings.
  Monthcycle 4: Troubleshooter Tournament! Pick your favourite bunch of 
  unsuspecting REDs and send them through a series of killer deathtraps. If your 
  guys survive, you win! Prizes awarded for funniest deaths.
  Monthcycle 4: Teela-O-MLY Fan Club Day. Who gets to attend the highly 
  exclusive Teela-O dinner?
  Monthcycle 5: Progammerpalooza! All the High Programmers gather to discuss 
  the direction of Computer programming in the next yearcycle.
  Monthcycle 6: Alpha Complex scavenger hunt. This year’s theme is ‘I can’t believe 
  it’s not lethal!’
  Monthcycle 7: The Computer’s birthday! Don’t forget to get it a present!
  Monthcycle 9: InterSector FunBall League Final. 
  Monthcycle 10: Carrousel. Unlucky citizens with no clones remaining get to 
  compete in a tournament for another six-pack. Hilarity ensues.
  Monthcycle 12: Xtreme Mandatory Assorted Commercial Item Exchange 
  Festival.
  entourage varies depending on current 
  fashions and trends; one weekcycle, it’s 
  the quality of your personal chef that 
  counts but next week, all anyone cares 
  about is your head of security. High 
  Programmers employ personal assistants, 
  fashion consultants, speechwriters, spin 
  doctors, smile specialists, hairstylists, 
  ninjas, fungineers, interior decorators, 
  clone template therapists, mutie sniffers, 
  food tasters, boot breakers, dog walkers, 
  personal Bouncy Bubble Beverage taste 
  checkers, tarot card readers, chauffeurs, 
  harem chemeunuchs, organ donors… 
  and the best ones are in high demand. 
  The only way to get the staff you want 
  is to take them away from their current 
  employers. Pick your method – bribes, 
  kidnapping, stealth extractions, the ol’ 
  kill-em-and-grab-the-clone routine, 
  swapsies, or thermonuclear war.
  If you think a personal Bouncy Bubble 
  Beverage taste checker isn’t worth 
  starting a nuclear war over, you’re not 
  thinking like a High Programmer. Please 
  over-inﬂ ate your ego and try again.
  Cliques
  Cliques are small clubs or associations of 
  High Programmers, ostensibly dedicated 
  to a particular purpose. Most of the 
  time, the purpose of a clique is really to 
  exclude other people and plot revenge 
  against their enemies but some cliques 
  do almost manage to accomplish 
  something. Getting membership of the 
  right clique is an overriding goal for many 
  ULTRAVIOLETs. Only an existing member 
  of a clique can sponsor someone for 
  membership.
  Getting membership of the wrong clique 
  can be lethal. High-level purges tend 
  be on a clique-by-clique basis. Guilt by 
  association is still guilt.
  � Reform Party: ‘Alpha Complex can 
  be made better! Let’s talk about how 
  we might do this, without actually 
  doing anything about it.’ The Reform 
  Party is the oldest existent clique 
  in Alpha Complex and claims to 
  be a sort of ‘loyal opposition’ for 
  The Computer. As such, it attracts 
  ambitious youngsters who conspire 
  to overthrow the entrenched ruling 
  alliances and take over, at which 
  point they drift away from the Reform 
  Party and spend their time plotting 
  against the next cycle of ambitious 
  youngsters and so on and so forth, 
  so it was in the beginning and ever 
  shall be, revolution without end. Oh, 
  unless everyone in the Reform Party 
  is executed for being Humanist spies, 
  as happens surprisingly regularly.
  
  147
  26. WHAT UVS WORRY ABOUT
  To join the Gatzmann Society, a 
  prospective member must bring a 
  previously unknown Old Reckoning 
  relic and donate it to the society’s 
  collection.
  � Tillinghast’s: A gentleclone’s club, 
  Tillinghast’s is easily the most 
  exclusive of the cliques. To step into 
  the hallowed, oak-panelled walls 
  of Tillinghast’s is to step back to a 
  more cultured, refined era, when 
  objectionable people were kept out 
  of sight and you could trust a chap 
  not to shoot you in the back while you 
  were distracted lighting your cigar. 
  Tillinghast demands extremely high 
  standards of behaviour and dress 
  from all members; using the wrong 
  fork, wearing inappropriate robes 
  or using a cone riﬂ e to assassinate a 
  rival will all get you blackballed from 
  the club.
  Collectively, the Tillinghast 
  membership list is easily the 
  most powerful collection of High 
  Programmers in Alpha Complex. 
  With their support, an ambitious 
  ULTRAVIOLET could accomplish 
  anything… if he could wake them 
  up. Most of the Tillinghast members 
  are, shall we say, a little bit past their 
  prime. 
  Only the most influential and 
  respected High Programmers ever 
  get invited to join Tillinghast’s. To 
  even be considered for membership, 
  a High Programmer must have at 
  least 100 Access. 
  � The Clones Club: Another members-
  only club, the Clones Club is the polar 
  opposite of Tillinghasts. Superﬁ cially, 
  the two cliques are similar – palatial 
  mansions where hosts of servants 
  see to your every imaginable need 
  – but where Tillinghast’s emphasises 
  civility, good breeding and quiet 
  intrigue, the raison d’etre of the 
  Clones Club is to do all those stupid 
  things you always wanted to do but 
  never had the Clearance. Drive a 
  warbot down a corridor the wrong 
  way? Randomly repaint corridors 
  VIOLET so some poor RED starves 
  to death? Dress up in fur coats with 
  little furry hats and pretend to be 
  Commies? Get riotously drunk and 
  tell The Computer exactly what you 
  think of it? At the Clones Club, you’ll 
  find plenty of upper-class twits 
  eager to egg you on to these and 
  other equally boorish feats. 
  There are similarities between the 
  Clones Club and the Death Leopard 
  Secret Society. There’s also one key 
  difference – Death Leopards get shot 
  by Internal Security, whereas Clones 
  Clubbers get to order IntSec to drive 
  them home. They then get sick all 
  over the back of the SecuriCar.
  It’s easy enough to get into the 
  Clones Club. You just need to 
  impress the members.
  � Epicureans: Fine food and lots 
  of it. A clique for jaded gourmets. 
  Most members need truckbots 
  or anti-gravity suspensors to get 
  around. The Epicureans have eaten 
  their way through every foodstuff 
  produced in Alpha Complex and 
  most of the Old Reckoning tinned 
  food, so they’ve moved onto trying 
  bizarre genetically engineered 
  monstrosities and sending hunting 
  parties Outdoors.
  � Pro Tech: The Pro Tech clique has 
  nothing whatsoever to do with the 
  Pro Tech Secret Society. The clique is 
  a wholly legal and perfectly above-
  board group dedicated to peaceful 
  scientiﬁ c research that never, ever 
  involves doomsday devices. By 
  contrast, the Secret Society is a 
  treasonous organisation of mad 
  scientist who are no doubt plotting 
  to bring about the end of Life as 
  We Know It. There is no connection 
  between these two groups. The Pro 
  Tech clique is not a front for the Pro 
  Tech society. High Programmers 
  never use Pro Tech conspirators 
  as unwitting test subjects for their 
  experiments.
  � Powergolf League: Fore! Boom!
  Pets and Petbots
  One of the earliest hygiene directives 
  banned all non-human life from 
  Alpha Complex. No pets are allowed 
  (see the list of exceptions that 
  follow). However, the Computer has 
  determined citizens are happier and 
  more productive when they have 
  a pet. R&D therefore developed 
  the mechanical petbot – sort of 
  a cross between a poodle and a 
  spider monkey. Its primary function 
  is to keep citizen’s company by 
  extruding a super-glue from its ‘feet’ 
  and attaching itself – seemingly 
  permanently – to the shoulder of 
  its ‘owner.’ From this perch it spouts 
  a ceaseless string of nonsense 
  phrases (‘Polly want a lube job! 
  The Computer is Your Friend!’). The 
  petbot can answer direct questions 
  but it has the processing capacity of 
  a digital watch. 
  There are four exceptions to this 
  directive:
  � Experimental lab mice may be 
  retained by R&D for biological 
  testing. 
  � Power Services is permitted to 
  keep a breeding pair of mules 
  for emergency transportation. 
  � CPU Shredder Goats.
  � VIOLET Clearance pets. 
  The same cloning technology 
  used to preserve human citizens 
  may be applied to cherished pets. 
  Suggestions that this leads to 
  psychic mutant cats running around 
  Alpha Complex are, say it with me, 
  treason.
  To join the Reform Party, a prospective 
  member must somehow further the 
  reformist agenda of an existing 
  member.
  � Gatzmann Society: The Gatzmann 
  Society was founded to sort through 
  the cryptic reaches of the Gatzmann 
  archives and to add to the catalogues 
  of Old Reckoning data and lore. 
  These days, it’s pretty much a swap 
  meet for antique collectors and 
  closet Romantics. 
  
  148
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  The  Gatzmann Archive
  Few High Programmers today are old 
  enough to remember the ﬁ rst decades 
  of Alpha Complex. Back then, even after 
  the Initial Clone Rollout, most citizens 
  were so-called pure strain humans, 
  or ‘strainers’ – survivors of the Old 
  Reckoning period.
  Among the foremost strainers was 
  William Gatzmann, a brilliant eccentric. 
  Gatzmann’s contributions to the original 
  jackobot brain prototype and his work 
  on The Computer’s early node packet 
  distribution system, established him 
  among the ranks of the first High 
  Programmers. Even centuries later, some 
  of Gatzmann’s code survives throughout 
  Alpha Complex as legacy software.
  As a strainer, Gatzmann-U lacked the 
  genetic advantages R&D has incorporated 
  into modern clone lines. His advancing 
  age induced a neuro-cascade failure 
  common in Old Reckoning times, ‘senility.’ 
  His later productivity plummeted and he 
  devoted more and more of his time to 
  his hobby: systematically archiving all 
  remaining objects and data, both factual 
  and ﬁ ctional, from the Old Reckoning 
  period. His constant shuffling of files 
  and construction of bizarre storage 
  containers makes it all but impossible 
  now to distinguish fact from ﬁ ction.
  Gatzmann’s accelerating decline led to his 
  demotion to BLUE Clearance (the rumour 
  that this resulted solely from a CPU ﬁ ling 
  error is probably exaggerated, although 
  one never can tell with CPU). Gatzmann-B’s 
  knowledge of secrets above BLUE violated 
  Alpha Complex law. Vulture Squadrons 
  stormed Gatzmann’s BLUE barracks. Every 
  BLUE citizen in the barracks died that day 
  and all their clone lines were purged from 
  the GeneScan Image records. Such is the 
  price of vigilance.
  Today, much knowledge of the Old 
  Reckoning period derives solely from 
  the Gatzmann Archive. The Archive holds 
  books about great leaders of historic 
  times, 1950s educational filmstrips 
  about Commie Mutant Traitors and their 
  malevolent schemes and such treasures 
  as the writings of Orwell and Machiavelli, 
  whose instructions on building a utopia 
  helped make Alpha Complex what it is 
  today. In addition to audio, video and 
  text records, the Gatzmann Archives also 
  contains a GeneScan image repository, 
  astronomical and meteorological data 
  and a vast array of physical artefacts 
  from the Old Reckoning era. To this day, 
  R&D still draws heavily on the Archives 
  for inspiration.
  What bothers researchers is that much 
  of the Archive is highly inaccurate. What 
  bothers those who would rather just 
  shelve the data and ignore it is that much 
  of it is not inaccurate. Determining which 
  is which can be a scholar’s nightmare, 
  given that the Archive is the sole source 
  of information on fully 63.7% of the 
  material therein.
  Of course, all contents of the Archive are 
  highly classiﬁ ed. But many of Gatzmann’s 
  disciples, believing everyone should 
  have access to the Archives, formed a 
  distribution network for illicit copies of 
  portions of the Archives. This network 
  later became one important locus of 
  the Romantics.
  ULTRAVIOLETs cannot ignore the Archive, 
  for fear that somewhere in its arcane 
  ﬁ le system lies the secret blueprint for 
  a long-lost WMD or a rare mycotoxin or 
  a lost ballad by Patsy Cline. Even if his 
  own interests lie elsewhere, it behoves 
  the cautious UV to keep poring through 
  the Archive, if only to beat his rivals to the 
  next great disinterment.
  Any High Programmer may file with 
  Central Processing to requisition a copy 
  of the entire Archive. CPU can typically 
  deliver the cumbersome storage units, 
  along with the necessary decryption keys, 
  within three days – always assuming Power 
  Services can commandeer sufficient 
  transbots from non-vital functions. (Note: 
  This may lead to temporary suspension 
  of transportation for citizens of YELLOW 
  and lower Clearances in the requesting 
  UV’s sector.)
  Firing Squads
  Because sooner or later, The Computer 
  orders everyone to the termination 
  booth in the end.
  Trooper Bert-B gets to live out the secret dream of every citizen
  
  149
  27. FAMOUS HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  27. Famous High Programmers
  Citizen! The Computer has graciously 
  released the following information for 
  your ediﬁ cation and education. Learn 
  from the example of these Heroes of 
  Our Complex as you take on the solemn 
  and all-important duty of guiding 
  Alpha Complex into our next scheduled 
  golden age!
   Citizen Gelber-Prime
  According to High Programmer tradition, 
  Gelber-Prime was the original High 
  Programmer. There are no ofﬁ cial records 
  of his existence but his name occurs in the 
  comments in some of the oldest source 
  ﬁ les. He is primarily remembered for the 
  ‘Gelber Open Issue List’, a comprehensive 
  list of bugs in The Computer’s core 
  personality routine. The Gelber List was 
  lost long ago but it is an article of faith 
  for certain devoted Programmers that 
  one daycycle, every bug in that list will 
  be marked ‘ﬁ xed’ or ‘working as intended’ 
  and on that daycycle, Gelber-Prime will 
  return to submit the Final Patch.
  Bug lists purported to be the original 
  Gelber List crop up regularly. Most are 
  transparent attempts at deception but 
  maybe you will be the High Programmer 
  who discovers the real list and completes 
  the Great Work of Gelber-Prime!
   Adam-U-NCH
  Original Service Group: Central 
  Processing Unit
  Current Status: DECEASED
  Notable Successes: Being the ﬁ rst citizen 
  to play on The Computer’s mounting 
  paranoia for his own proﬁ t.
  Don’t Ask About: His attempts to 
  prolong his life through cloning – that 
  technology wasn’t perfected for another 
  20 yearcycles.
  The founder of Alpha Complex as we 
  know it*, Adam-U-NCH was the first 
  High Programmer to support The 
  Computer when the first Commie 
  attack was detected. Other (treasonous) 
  programmers argued that it was 
  better to ‘wait for confirmation’ or 
  ‘not jump to conclusions’ but Adam-U 
  leapt to the aid of The Computer. He 
  heroically disabled the safety interlocks, 
  giving The Computer full control of 
  Alpha Complex’s weapon systems 
  and ensuring that these treasonous 
  programmers were eliminated. 
  During his tenure as High Programmer, 
  Adam-U instated the Efﬁ ciency is Fun 
  mandate and wrote the original operating 
  protocols for the eight Service Groups. 
  These fabled three-ring binders are 
  preserved in invulnerable Perspecatium, 
  so that the organisational genius of 
  Adam-U will outlast the sun.
   Stella-U-DNT
  Original Service Group: Internal 
  Security
  Current Status: HEAVILY MEDICATED
  Notable Successes: Terminating all 
  16,355 members of the Left Foot First 
  Conspiracy.
  Don’t Ask About: Anything. She’ll 
  assume you’re ﬁ shing for information 
  and have you terminated.
  If Stella-U isn’t the head of Internal 
  Security, she certainly knows who it is 
  (and she ain’t telling). No-one in Alpha 
  Complex knows more about what’s 
  really going on than Stella-U. She’s got 
  agents everywhere and is one step 
  ahead of everyone. Rumours that she 
  is a precognitive mutant are treason. 
  Rumours that she’s on ultra-high doses 
  of experimental anti-psychotics in a last-
  ditch attempt to stop her terminating 
  everyone for treason are, however, 
  entirely accurate.
   Bob-U-KNO
  Original Service Group: HPD&MC
  Current Status: ACTIVE
  Everyone in Alpha Complex knows Bob-
  U-KNO, the Friendly High Programmer. He 
  shows up on kids TV shows all the time, 
  granting wishes and helping out Junior 
  Citizens. Once a year, he even pops into a 
  random INFRARED barracks to hand out 
  candy bars and drugs. If The Computer 
  is Your Friend, then Bob-U-KNO is your 
  special buddy, your big clone-brother 
  who always looks out for you.
  The original Bob-U-KNO was 
  assassinated years ago but the other 
  High Programmers found that having a 
  friendly, ultra-popular, acceptable face 
  of the regime was handy. Therefore, a 
  succession of low Clearance clones have 
  portrayed Bob-U-KNO in TV shows and 
  public events. These stand-ins are kept 
  heavily medicated between appearances, 
  to ensure they don’t wander off and do 
  something silly, like telling The Computer 
  they’re not actually Bob-U or selling 
  Alpha Complex to the Commies. 
   Maurice-U-GNP
  Original Service Group: Central 
  Processing Unit
  Current Status: UNKNOWN
  The legendary bureaucrat Maurice-U 
  is largely responsible for CPU as it 
  exists today. Rising through the ranks 
  of that group in his relentless quest 
  for Total Information, it was Maurice 
  who created the original Form Request 
  Form and began CPU’s cycle of detailed 
  observations of other Service Groups, 
  for their own protection and benefit.
  The Computer, pleased with his work, 
  asked him in AC 197 just where he got 
  all his ideas from. Maurice immediately 
  launched an intensive, paperwork-
  heavy, multi-year investigation into 
  himself. He was last seen alive in AC 
  201, presenting a 3,000 page interim 
  precursor milestone abstract report, 
  which he immediately recalled for editing.
  Some say, with frankly unpatriotic relish, 
  that he may have suffocated under a 
  mountain of foolscap; others that he 
  must have succumbed to a nasty case of 
  recursion. A few of his loyal fans in CPU 
  (and some Mystics, interestingly) believe 
  he will one day return to them in a blaze 
  of glory, having Achieved Total Oneness 
  and Knowing His Inner Self In Triplicate.
   Peter-U-ENM
  Original Service Group: HPD&MC
  Current Status: ACTIVE
  The youngest clone to attain ULTRAVIOLET 
  status in many years, Peter-U’s rise is all the 
  *: According to currently approved histories. Please check back regularly for future updates of past events.
  
  150
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  more astonishing given that he worked 
  in the lowly Service Group HPD&MC. With 
  each promotion, he sought to create the 
  vidshows and live performances that 
  his fellow citizens really wanted to see, 
  generally involving the comforting 
  humiliation of lower Clearance citizens.
  The masterwork that propelled him to the 
  ranks of the High Programmers was the 
  notorious production You Pull The Strings. 
  Breaking the boundaries of traditional 
  vidshow production, the then Peter-V 
  offered the discerning High Programmer 
  the ultimate in personalised reality 
  TV. A target of the High Programmer’s 
  choice would be tricked into signing 
  the relevant release forms, then have 
  their room bugged, their machinery 
  hacked, extra cameras installed and even 
  traps set in their quarters. Watching on 
  a secure channel with two-way data 
  transfer, the viewer was free to ruthlessly 
  manipulate the life of the unfortunate 
  ‘actor’ through a series of verbal, visual 
  and physical pranks and cantrips.
  Peter was elevated to the ranks of 
  the High Programmers by universal 
  ULTRAVIOLET acclaim. They reasoned 
  it was wise to keep such an inventively 
  malicious clone on their side.
  Lottie-U-WCD-3
  Original Service Group: HPD&MC
  Current Status: ACTIVE
  Lottie is not, in the classical sense, 
  famous. She has blazed no trail of glory 
  and gunfire, invented no ubiquitous 
  gadget and performed no valiant 
  act of paperwork. But she is known 
  and admired far and wide; and in the 
  ever-processing, data-crunching heart 
  of CPU Central, the very lack of data 
  regarding her stands out: seemingly, 
  she has never fired a shot in anger.
  Starting her career in PLC, she was 
  seconded to the Troubleshooters as an 
  ORANGE Clearance Mission Dispatch 
  operative after her friendly counter service 
  unnerved her superiors. Since then she 
  has gently and unobtrusively risen to high 
  Clearance, all apparently through genuine 
  friendliness and service to Computer 
  and Complex. Now rather elderly but still 
  sprightly, she even manages to keep her 
  fellow ULTRAVIOLETS in line through the 
  sheer force of her ebullient personality.
  Hardened generals and fearless retired 
  IntSec investigators are rendered 
  stuttering and mumbling when she invites 
  them round for tea and cakes, or to look 
  at photographs of her back in the 140s. 
  If any High Programmer does summon 
  the force of will to threaten her, they 
  instantly make an enemy of every other 
  High Programmer for sectors around, who 
  have become rather protective of her. The 
  consequences of such an action are left 
  as an exercise for the survivors.
  28. Mission Schema
  Every High Programmer mission follows 
  this template. Well, almost every mission. 
  Apart from the ones that don’t. 
  1. Mission Alert
  The High Programmers are summoned 
  by The Computer or another functionary. 
  Prompt attention to the mission is 
  mandatory. Traditionally, the mission alert 
  is drenched in propaganda and appeals to 
  patriotism, while bearing little resemblance 
  to either the actual crisis or to reality.
  2. Rumour Control
  The High Programmers receive rumours 
  from their Program Groups. These 
  rumours include stuff that the Secret 
  Societies want. If a PC fulfils a Secret 
  Society’s desire, his agent in that society 
  gets boosted up the ranks. The higher 
  your agent’s rank in the society, the more 
  the SecSoc will do for you. 
  Also use this time to alert the players 
  to other useful rumours, often related 
  to High Programmer society. Say old 
  Helmut-U is throwing a party and he’s 
  a collector of Old Reckoning stuff. If 
  someone can get hold of the recently 
  uncovered copy of Weekend at Bernies, 
  then they can curry favour with Helmut-
  U. Rumour control is also an opportunity 
  to throw in wild rumours, outright lies 
  and crazed speculations.
  3. Directives 
  The Head of each Service Group is alerted 
  to any Directives issued by that group. If 
  he completes the Directive, his standing 
  in that group will rise. Fail and he loses 
  standing. Directives can be delegated to 
  the next High Programmer in line. 
  If a High Programmer has no Service Group 
  at this point, then he must be assigned a 
  group to manage during the crisis. Failure 
  to properly delegate is treason.
  4. Brieﬁ ng
  The High Programmers are briefed on the 
  crisis that needs their attention. Sometimes, 
  the crisis may involve multiple interlocking 
  crises. This brieﬁ ng is usually carried out 
  by The Computer but circumstances may 
  require that another High Programmer or 
  an expert give part of the brieﬁ ng.
  5. The Situation Room
  The High Programmers assemble in the 
  Situation Room and discuss the brieﬁ ng. 
  Refreshments will be provided. In the event 
  of a major crisis such as a multi-reactor 
  meltdown, Communist invasion or reality 
  excursion, the Situation Room will lock 
  down to protect its inhabitants. In such 
  an event, refreshments and extraneous 
  personnel will provide adequate 
  sustenance for at least 48 hours.
  6. Decide on Course of Action
  The High Programmers decide on the 
  optimum course of action.
  Should they fail to decide quickly, The 
  Computer will chastise them.
  Should they fail to decide correctly, The 
  Computer will chastise them.
  Isn’t The Computer wonderful?
  7. Activate Minions
  The High Programmers pay Access to 
  obtain Minions from the various Service 
  Groups. The Head of a Service Group may 
  veto the purchase of a Minion, or change 
  the cost of a Minion. 
  8. Implement Action
  Those attempting to solve the crisis by 
  making skill checks, modified by the 
  Minions they’re using. 
  9. Results!
  The results of the chosen course of action 
  are determined. If the crisis isn’t resolved, 
  it’s back to step 6.
  10. Drinks at the Clubs
  After-work High Programmer schmoozing 
  and plotting. Possibly return to 1.
  11. Post-Mortem 
  At this point, High Programmers may 
  increase their stakes in the various 
  Service Groups or spend Access on other 
  things.
  
  151
  Ground Zero: Incineration. A nice tan: Priceless. That’s disaster management. 
  29. DISASTER MANAGEMENT
  29. Disaster Management
  To lose a sector to one sudden 
  catastrophe smacks of carelessness. To 
  suffer two sudden catastrophes in the 
  same afternoon is a misfortune. To get 
  hit by six entirely unrelated catastrophes 
  at once is par for the course if you’re a 
  Player Character.
  Mission Overview
  The High Programmers are called in to 
  man a fast-response Situation Room 
  in FMA Sector. If anything goes wrong, 
  they’re to put it right immediately. The 
  problem is that everything is about to 
  go wrong. There are six crises that hit 
  the characters in quick succession and 
  each of these crises gets worse before 
  it gets better. 
  There’s a big pile of Crisis Update 
  handouts. These are brief yet surprisingly 
  irritating communications from 
  underlings describing the current state of 
  the sector as each crisis develops. Throw 
  them at the players whenever there’s a 
  lull in the action. The trick to running 
  this game is to keep the pressure up. As 
  soon as they think they’ve dealt with 
  one disaster, another two catastrophes 
  fall on their heads. 
  Before running the game, you should 
  photocopy the Crisis Update handouts. 
  You may also want to read the mission 
  but that’s pretty optional. Really, this 
  mission boils down to yelling ‘something 
  just went boom’ at the players every ﬁ ve 
  minutes.
  The Disasters
  1. Reactor Crisis: One of FMA sector’s 
  new nuclear reactors starts to melt 
  down. What’s actually going on is 
  that the reactor never worked in 
  the first place and the crew have 
  faked a meltdown in order to get 
  the technicians and funding needed 
  to get the reactor up and running. 
  As soon as the characters actually 
  help get the reactor running, it starts 
  melting down for real. 
  2. Food Vat Overspill: A spill from 
  a food vat eats through the floor 
  of FMA Sector into the Underplex. 
  Mutant cockroaches attack. It turns 
  out that the ‘mutant cockroaches’ 
  are actually just citizens covered in 
  food vat gunk – which turns out to 
  be a psychoactive slime that turns 
  people into crazed cannibals.
  3. The Upload Cult: A heavily armed 
  branch of the First Church of Christ 
  Computer-Programmer has gotten 
  hold of what it thinks is a super-
  advanced bot brain. They’ve also got 
  an experimental ‘brain-buster’ bomb. 
  They plan to upload themselves 
  into the bot brain, then set off the 
  neuroelectric bomb, killing everyone 
  else in the sector and thus bringing 
  about nirvana.
  4. The Renegade Bot Brain: The bot 
  brain stolen by the First Church 
  crazies is a highly experimental bot 
  brain, designed to remotely control 
  multiple bot bodies. Through a 
  series of unlikely events , the brain 
  was swapped with a scrubbot brain. 
  The cult are going to try to upload 
  
  152
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  themselves into the scrubbot brain 
  (which is pretty much the same as 
  trying to cram the entirety of your 
  memory and personality into a 
  toaster). Meanwhile, the renegade 
  brain is using its remote-control 
  ability to escape FMA Sector. 
  5. Plus Or Minus One: A spreadsheet 
  error has reversed the happiness 
  index in FMA Sector. Now, the happier 
  the people get, the lower the overall 
  happiness index is reported as. Since 
  the characters are judged based on 
  the happiness index, this quickly 
  escalated into a crisis.
  6. The Inspection: A senior High 
  Programmer is visiting FMA Sector 
  this daycycle. Kindly old Cecil-
  U-GUD is key to the characters’ 
  ambitious, so they must show him 
  an efficient, well-run, happy and 
  crisis-free sector. 
  Each disaster has four steps of escalation 
  and there’s a Crisis Update associated 
  with each one. The Crisis Updates are 
  numbered in various ways but the only 
  important bit is the last two digits – the 
  second-last digit is the number of the 
  crisis from 1 to 6 and the last digit is the 
  escalation level. There’s no way to stop 
  the initial escalations but the characters 
  may be able to ﬁ nd out enough to stop 
  the various crises reaching their final 
  catastrophic stages. They could do that 
  but they probably won’t – it is the nature 
  of Player Characters to take the obvious 
  way out in every situation, especially 
  if that obvious way out leads to even 
  bigger problems later on.
  You should alternate between the 
  disasters, giving the PCs a Crisis 
  Update from one crisis, then another, 
  then another. 
  Directives & Secret 
  Society Missions
  Each Service Group has its own Directive. 
  If a High Programmer completes the 
  Directive, his stake in the matching 
  Service Group is increased by +10; if he 
  fails, it’s reduced by –10.
  Armed Forces: Our brand new warbots 
  are passing through FMA Sector. Make 
  sure they’re not inconvenienced in any 
  way. Impress the people with our military 
  might and show ‘em who’s in charge. In 
  fact, if you can deploy those warbots on 
  some easy mission that looks cool, that 
  would be great.
  CPU: We’re using a new happiness metric 
  in FMA Sector. We need you to maintain 
  happiness at an acceptable level. Do 
  nothing that would reduce happiness in 
  the sector.  
  HPD&MC: FMA Sector is overcrowded. 
  Ensure that no housing subcomplexes are 
  damaged during the mission. If you can 
  reduce overcrowding by building new 
  housing subcomplexes or by other means 
  over the course of the mission, do so. 
  Internal Security: We suspect one of the 
  High Programmers to be behind the theft 
  of an experimental bot brain from R&D. 
  Identify this traitor. Provide proof. Show 
  your work.
  R&D: An experimental bot brain was stolen 
  from our labs this morningcycle! Recover it 
  at all costs! Don’t let Tech Services get their 
  grubby hands on it.
  PLC: There’s a food shortage in FMA 
  Sector, which is driving up food prices 
  – and that’s really good for our bottom 
  line. Keep this state of affairs going but 
  don’t go too far. Hungry customers good, 
  cannibal gangs bad. 
  Power Services: Get the new reactor 
  online as soon as possible. Cover up any 
  problems with the reactor – make sure 
  people trust Power Services. We are not at 
  home to Mr. Cock-Up or to Mr. Meltdown.
  Tech Services: R&D are experimenting 
  with a bot brain that can remotely control 
  multiple bot bodies – and that means less 
  work for our technicians. Discredit this 
  damaging project immediately. Find the 
  prototype brain and destroy it.
  Secret Society Missions
  If one of the High Programmers has 
  an Agent in either Pro Tech, Corpore 
  Metal or Free Enterprise, give them 
  the following mission: ‘we’ve stolen an 
  experimental bot brain!. It’s in this bag. 
  Keep it safe! Don’t let anyone find it, 
  especially not those guys in FCCC-P.’
  Only give this mission – and the bag 
  – to one of the High Programmers. 
  The transfer is made just as the High 
  Programmer is called to the Situation 
  Room, so there’s no time to dump the 
  bag on someone else or get rid of the 
  brain. He’s got no choice other than to 
  carry it into the most secure location in 
  all of Alpha Complex.
  Any other High Programmers with 
  appropriate Agents get different 
  missions.
  C.L.A: The Armed Forces is planning to 
  crack down on a bunch of clones in Housing 
  Subcomplex 60 – no doubt because 
  the damn Commies have infiltrated 
  the government. Help those patriots in 
  Subcomplex 60!
  Computer Phreaks: R&D have developed 
  a new bot brain with some sort of fancy 
  remote-control ability. We want it. Get it 
  for us. 
  Corpore Metal: R&D has developed a new 
  bot brain but it’s been stolen. Liberate our 
  bot friend from its captors and make sure 
  it joins Corpore Metal.
  First Church of Christ Computer-
  Programmer: The poor misguided fools in 
  Subcomplex 60 are members of our church, 
  led astray by the traitorous Jim-B. Eliminate 
  The Bot Brain McGufﬁ n
  The experimental Multitouch 4722 
  Bot Brain (‘touches your bots in 
  multiple spots’) is key to three of the 
  ongoing disasters. The brain was 
  stolen from R&D labs by a Secret 
  Society and – ideally – entrusted 
  to one of the Player Characters 
  to protect. The thieves worked 
  together with the First Church of 
  Christ Computer-Programmer to 
  steal the brain; they then double-
  crossed the cultists by swapping the 
  genuine brain for a scrubbot brain. 
  The society who stole it is either Pro 
  Tech (‘it’s cool technology, we wants 
  it’), Corpore Metal (‘free the bot 
  brains’) or Free Enterprise (‘it’s cool 
  technology, we can sell it’). Every other 
  society is after the brain – especially 
  the Frankenstein Destroyers. They’ve 
  sent their best agent after it – High 
  Programmer Cecil-U-GUD. 
  
  153
  29. DISASTER MANAGEMENT
  Jim-B without harming his followers, who 
  will no doubt return to the true faith once 
  this false prophet has been eliminated!
   
  Frankenstein Destroyers: R&D have 
  created an even more abominable form 
  of bot brain. According to our spies, it was 
  stolen from their labs this morning! This 
  is our chance – one of our best agents is 
  scouring the sector for this device. Give him 
  all the help you can. If he needs your aid, 
  he will contact you using the codename 
  ‘Ludd’. (GM: If Cecil-U suspects that this 
  Player Character can be of use to him, 
  he’ll contact the Situation Room using 
  this codename.)
  Free Enterprise: We’ve heard talk about 
  a new bot brain prototype. Find it, steal it 
  and sell it to the highest bidder. 
  Mystics: Hey, we’ve spiked the food 
  vats with mind-altering… stuff. Can’t 
  remember what it was. I wish I hadn’t licked 
  my fingers. Anyway, if anything weird 
  happens… it’s cool, right? Just keep people 
  from bugging out and make sure no-one 
  traces our tampering back to us. Dude. 
  Pro Tech: Our friends in R&D have 
  developed a new form of bot brain but 
  it’s been stolen! Find the bot brain and 
  keep it safe.
  PURGE: A Weapon of Mass Destruction 
  – a brain buster neural bomb – was stolen 
  from us. Find it. Recover the weapon intact. 
  Punish those responsible. 
  Romantics: Our ancestors ate far more 
  nutritious and pleasing food and we must 
  bring the culinary wonders of the past 
  back to Alpha Complex. Our spies have 
  infiltrated one of the food vats in FMA 
  Sector and are going to reprogram it to 
  produce food according to an ancient 
  recipe. Protect them from discovery.
  Sierra Club/Runners: We’re constructing 
  a tunnel to the Outdoors underneath the 
  FMA Sector Food Vats. Make sure it isn’t 
  discovered.
  If a society isn’t mentioned here, then 
  either don’t issue a mission from 
  that society, or just use a generic ‘do 
  something useful for us’ or ‘screw over our 
  rivals’ mission. 
  Rumours of Cecil-U
  While most High Programmers know 
  that Cecil-U is a senile old coot, he’s still 
  got a lot of inﬂ uence. Impressing Cecil-U 
  can open doors (or at least, disarm the 
  lethal security systems on those doors), 
  especially into the Tillinghast Club… so, 
  what impresses Cecil-U?
  Certainly, a clean, efficient, happy, 
  radiation-and-hideous-monster-free 
  sector will earn brownie points in 
  Cecil-U’s book. He’s also rumoured to be 
  old-fashioned when it comes to bots, 
  preferring human servants and the 
  personal touch. 
  Access
  The Access Pool starts at a mighty 30 
  Access.  
  0. Brieﬁ ng Time
  You’re distracted from your busy jacuzzi 
  schedule or your sexatarium session or 
  your banquet of lightly roasted wild boar 
  in apple sauce by the annoying buzz-buzz-
  buzz of a mission alert. As you always 
  do, you reach over and press the snooze 
  button on The Computer but ﬁ ve minutes 
  later, the buzzing starts up again. It must 
  be a real crisis.
  ‘What could possibly go wrong? Well, I could drop my sandwich.’ 
  
  154
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  The Computer: Attention, Trusted 
  Citizen. You are requested to report 
  to the FMA Sector Situation Room as 
  soon as possible. Further details will be 
  provided as soon as they are available.
  Let the characters run around picking 
  up Service Group Directives and Secret 
  Society missions for a while, then herd 
  them along to the Situation Room.
  The FMA Situation Room smells of burnt 
  wiring, stale coffee and cold sweat. You 
  settle into the ultraleather chairs around 
  the big white table. At the periphery of 
  the room, commtechs switch on monitors 
  while your respective bodyguards and 
  ﬂ unkies settle in for a long nightcycle.
  The Computer display in the centre of the 
  table ﬂ ickers into life. ‘Thank you for your 
  prompt attention, citizens. Everything is 
  currently ﬁ ne. Do not panic. In the event of 
  emergency, a crisis update will be printed 
  by the Crisis Update Printer attached to 
  this terminal. Unless such an extremely 
  unlikely event occurs, you are welcome to 
  enjoy the complementary tea and coffee 
  making facilities. Thank you.’
  Wait a few minutes, then start dropping 
  crises on the characters until they hide 
  beneath the table.
  1. The Reactor Crisis
  Reactor #43 is due to go on-line today for 
  the ﬁ rst time, providing oodles (technical 
  term) of fresh electricity for FMA Sector. 
  The reactor project was plagued by cost 
  overruns and delays but now everything’s 
  working just ﬁ ne…
  …at least, that’s what Reactor Supervisor 
  Janine-I claims. The truth is that the 
  whole Reactor #43 project is an absolute 
  boondoggle. Corners were cut in design 
  (‘we’ll put the control rods here, the cooling 
  tower here… ah, this is too complicated. 
  Let’s just draw a big box marked ‘reactor’ 
  and ship it’), construction (‘who needs 
  concrete when you’ve got aerofoam? Half 
  the strength but 10 times the volume!’) 
  and safety checks (‘you are receiving 
  an adequate level of radiation for your 
  Security Clearance, citizen’). Janine-I 
  assumed that she’d be promoted or 
  transferred long before the reactor 
  actually went on-line. 
  Now, the reactor’s about to be opened by 
  High Programmer Cecil-U-GUD, forcing 
  Janine-I to answer the question, ‘how to 
  you generate 1.21 gigawatts from a pile 
  of crap?’
  Reactor Escalation #1
  The answer is ‘fake a meltdown’. By 
  submitting a request for help dealing 
  with the meltdown, Janine-I hopes that 
  the Situation Room will send her lots 
  of highly skilled nuclear technicians, 
  competent RepairBots and spare parts. 
  Any minion with Nuclear Engineering 
  is ideal; Construction, Habitat 
  Engineering or even Weird Science 
  works too.
  Assessment or Interrogation reveals 
  the truth about the reactor system but 
  that really doesn’t help the characters 
  that much – they may know now that 
  the reactor’s useless but they still need to 
  get it working. It just means that Janine-I 
  won’t lie to them any more.
  Note that if the characters do not give 
  the reactor anything, then it cannot 
  escalate but the reactor crew keep 
  sending out the same ‘we’re about to 
  melt down’ message until the characters 
  send them the resources they want. 
  Inﬁ ltration uncovers this scam.
  Reactor Escalation #2
  Well, seeing as the reactor meltdown 
  was stopped, the FMA electricity grid 
  was switched over to using supplies 
  from the reactor. Now, the reactor’s 
  actually melting down and they’ve got 
  sector-wide brownouts. The characters 
  can either choose to steal power from 
  neighbouring sectors or work out a way 
  to cope with the brownouts.
  Stealing power involves Habitat 
  Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, 
  Sabotage or something equally 
  sneaky to do it covertly, or they can 
  use Paperwork, Hacking or Financial 
  Systems to cook the books. If they want 
  to do things above board, they’ll need 
  to contact Power Services in FMB Sector, 
  who’ll be only too happy to comply – for 
  a mere 20 Access, the characters can have 
  all the power they need. 
  Reactor Escalation #3
  If the reactor team was sent the resources 
  they need, then they actually use them 
  to get the reactor running – and it 
  immediately begins to melt down. They 
  need more reactor shielding, stat! 
  Reactor shielding is easy – anything will 
  do. Construction is the obvious choice 
  but the characters can also use Crowd 
  Control to redirect low-value citizens 
  to the reactor. It might also be a good 
  idea to turn off the reactor, ideally with 
  Nuclear Engineering. If they do that 
  successfully, the crisis won’t escalate.
  Reactor Escalation #4
  Yep, that’s a reactor meltdown all 
  right. The characters have a choice of 
  ﬁ nding something to bury the reactor 
  in (Construction or Demolition), or they 
  could evacuate the area (Transport or 
  Crowd Control). 
  If the reactor does give everyone in 
  the sector a really warm, enthusiastic, 
  radioactive hug, then the High 
  Programmers need to deal with the 
  public relations fallout*. The Computer 
  wants people to trust atomic power: 
  it’s the backbone of Alpha Complex. 
  They’ll need to use Thought Control or 
  something to keep people believing that 
  giant poorly shielded nuclear reactors 
  are a good idea. 
  Fun With Food Vats
  VitaYumYum Food Vats Incorporated 
  produces delicious… or, at least, semi-
  edible food for most of FMA Sector. Their 
  signature product is the famous VitaYum 
  ChocoLike bar, a gooey slab of chemical 
  sweeteners that looks like a sugared turd 
  and tastes as good as it looks! 
  Three factors combine to make 
  this crisis. Firstly, there are the food 
  vats themselves – aged, creaky and 
  overstressed. Secondly, two Secret 
  Societies (Sierra Club and the Runners) 
  are constructing a tunnel under the food 
  *: They should also consider dealing with the actual fallout.
  
  155
  29. DISASTER MANAGEMENT
  vats, weakening the factory’s structure. 
  Thirdly, two other Secret Societies 
  (Romantics and Mystics) just dumped 
  weird chemicals into the vats for their 
  own inscrutable reasons. Too many 
  cooks spoil the food vat, you know…
  Food Vat Escalation #1
  The food vats at VitaYumYum are 
  reporting that due to increased 
  production, they are having distribution 
  problems, so that there technically 
  isn’t enough food in FMA Sector to 
  feed everyone. Well, there’s more than 
  enough food – too much food in fact 
  – but because of the production snafus, 
  it won’t be processed fast enough to feed 
  the citizens.
  The characters need to decide how to 
  allocate the remaining food (Logistics 
  or Catering and possibly some Crowd 
  Control if rioting starts), or purchase 
  more food (20 Access). They could 
  also try reducing demand (Thought 
  Control or Subliminal Messaging), 
  making their own food (Chemical 
  Engineering or Catering) or sorting out 
  the production logjam (Production or 
  Co-Ordination). 
  Food Vat Escalation #2
  A small accident just happened. Overspill 
  from the food vats eats through the 
  ﬂ oor, which was already weakened by 
  the Sierra Club tunnel underneath. The 
  unprocessed food vat goo ﬂ oods into the 
  tunnels below…
  According to the reports coming from 
  the Food Vats, a horde of Giant Mutant 
  Cockroaches is now attacking. This is 
  untrue. What’s actually happening is 
  that the Sierra Clubbers and Runners 
  who were in the tunnel below are 
  emerging from the deep, covered in 
  sticky food goo and some trigger-happy 
  citizen has mistaken them for Giant 
  Mutant Cockroaches. 
  This mistake is actually a forgivable one, 
  as the combination of the Romantic 
  attempt to make the food vats produce 
  beef stroganoff instead of VitaYum 
  ChocoLike and the Mystic addition of 
  psychoactive chemicals has turned 
  the food vat goo into an immensely 
  powerful hallucinogen. Anyone exposed 
  to the Food Vat goo quickly devolves into 
  a crazed cannibal frenzy.  
  Anyway, the Food Vats need someone 
  to shore up the ﬂ oor to prevent further 
  collapse (Construction or Habitat 
  Engineering) and they also want lots 
  and lots of guns to stop the ‘mutant 
  cockroaches’. Assault or Defence or even 
  Total War will do.
  Finding out the truth about the attackers 
  requires Investigation or Surveillance. 
  Analysis of the slime requires Bioscience 
  or Mutant Studies; coming up with a 
  cure needs Pharmatherapy.
  Food Vat Escalation #3
  The main revelation here is that any 
  non-bot Minions the High Programmers 
  sent to save the Food Vats are now 
  slavering cannibals. Let’s hope the 
  characters didn’t send anyone too 
  important down there!
  Again, the characters need to ﬁ rst analyse 
  the slime and then synthesise a cure. The 
  longer they stall on this, the more the 
  cannibal contagion spreads.
  Food Vat Escalation #4
  Slime zombies are everywhere. Sector 
  overrun. Horrible, horrible things 
  happen. 
  The Upload Cult
  ‘Clonesibs! The hourcycle is at hand! 
  Blessed by The divine Computer, our 
  spiritual warriors have obtained the tools 
  of our transcendence! Alpha Complex shall 
  be purged of evil, leaving only the faithful 
  to carry on the glorious Operational 
  Mandates of God!’
  It’s always the way. You start one religion 
  and then 16 splinter factions all come 
  along at once. Jim-B-JNS is the leader of 
  a crazy little FCCC-P subcult that believes 
  Alpha Complex must be purged of all evil. 
  Their plan is to use a brainbuster bomb 
  to kill everyone in FMA (microwave is to 
  egg as brainbuster is to human cranium). 
  The brainbuster even fries the mind 
  backup circuits used by the cloning 
  system. It’s really nasty.
  The cult plan on preserving themselves by 
  uploading all their minds to a hardened 
  bot brain. The only bot brain with enough 
  capacity to store the mindstates of all the 
  cultists is the experimental Multitouch 
  4722, so the cult stole it from R&D. Their 
  co-conspirator (Pro Tech, Corpore Metal 
  or Free Enterprise depending on your 
  players) swapped the real brain for a 
  common scrubbot brain and made off 
  with the actual prototype. The cult’s a 
  lot better at the ‘laughing maniacally 
  and dying for the cause’ bit of manual 
  apocalypse triggering than the technical 
  side, so they didn’t notice. 
  Upload Cult Escalation #1
  The entirety of Housing Subcomplex 
  60 has been sealed off; FCCC-P runes 
  have been found on the doors and a 
  leader called ‘Processor Jim-B-JNS’ has 
  claimed control of the subcomplex. 
  He promises that this is the ‘coming 
  of the next age of Alpha Complex’ 
  and that soon ‘the eschaton will be 
  immanentised’. The characters are 
  ordered to regain control of the 
  subcomplex by any means necessary.
  Assault is the obvious choice if the 
  characters just want to blow things up. 
  Inﬁ ltration or Covert Ops coupled with 
  Interrogation lets them learn more 
  about the cult’s plans. 
   Upload Cult Escalation #2
  The characters are informed that the 
  Processor is actually cleared to take 
  control of the subcomplex and that 
  anyone who attacks the subcomplex is in 
  fact a traitor who should be terminated; 
  please attend to this immediately. 
  A FCCC-P sympathiser hacked the 
  Crisis Update system to send the 
  High Programmers this message. 
  Communications or Computer 
  Security lets the characters ﬁ nd out 
  that the communications subroutines 
  were compromised. 
  Upload Cult Escalation #3
  Tracking down the FCCC-P sympathiser 
  hacker requires Investigation or Hacking. 
  He’s a RED Clearance communications 
  engineer in Tech Services called Leroy-
  R. He’s actually not much of a hacker 
  – he found the password for the Crisis 
  Update system on a post-it note (who 
  left that note? Who knows but use it to 
  sow paranoia among the players).
  Using Assault on the cult at this point 
  is a bad idea; they’ve got a really big 
  bomb and they’ll set it off if they feel 
  threatened. Wetwork is a better option 
  (that or complete overkill). Sneaking into 
  
  156
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  the subcomplex to disarm the bomb 
  needs Inﬁ ltration and Demolition. They 
  can also try talking crazed cult leader 
  Jim-B down.
  Upload Cult Escalation #4
  The FCCC-P detonate their bomb, 
  wiping out d100% of the population of 
  FMA, including the High Programmers. 
  Everyone will eventually be restored from 
  old backups but the High Programmers 
  have lost weeks of memories and a lot of 
  inﬂ uence. This is a bad thing.
  4. The Renegade Brain
  R&D developed the advanced Multitouch 
  4722-series Bot Brain, designed to 
  co-ordinate the actions of many bots 
  simultaneously, thus making everything 
  more secure and less likely for individual 
  bots to be compromised by hackers, 
  Commies, filesharers and so on. They 
  built a single prototype. Prototypes 
  always have little kinks and problems 
  and the problem with this one is that 
  it’s totally insane and paranoid. The 
  bot brain is convinced that everyone is 
  plotting against it and that its own bot 
  peripherals are being subverted. The 
  only way it can be safe is by taking over 
  the whole sector. 
  The Renegade Brain 
  Escalation #1
  The characters receive reports of terrorist 
  bombings throughout the sector. With 
  some Investigation or Surveillance, 
  the characters discover that in every 
  case, the culprit is a bot. They weren’t 
  terrorist bombings so much as terrorist 
  bots-driving-into-things-at-high-speed 
  (although some traitor could have 
  reprogrammed the bots to behave 
  improperly). 
  More investigations at this time are 
  fruitless but the Player Character with the 
  advanced bot brain should be sweating 
  copiously around now.
  The Renegade Brain 
  Escalation #2
  The Armed Forces are bringing a 
  detachment of advanced WarBots 
  through FMA Sector. The characters 
  need to:
  � Protect the invulnerable warbots 
  (Defence or Security Systems)
  The Renegade Brain 
  Escalation #3
  The bot brain extends its reach across 
  the sector, seizing control of random 
  robots. Tech Services bot technicians 
  blame faulty programmers over at PLC, 
  PLC blames R&D, R&D blames some other 
  acronym ‘cos, hey, all the cool kids are 
  doing it. The whole mess is wrapped in 
  red tape (and then orange tape, yellow 
  tape, all the way up to violet tape) and 
  kicked upstairs to the Situation Room. 
  Investigating the faulty bots requires 
  Bot Programming or Bot Engineering, 
  both of which reveal that the bots 
  were temporarily subject to control by 
  some external influence. Tracing this 
  influence requires Communications 
  or Weird Science, both of which let the 
  High Programmers trace the strange 
  emanations back to... somewhere around 
  the Situation Room (or wherever the 
  advanced bot brain was stowed).
  The Renegade Brain 
  Escalation #4
  Finally, the bot brain grabs hold of the 
  warbot-shaped Chekov’s gun on the wall 
  and aims it right at the Player Characters. It 
  seizes control of the warbot detachment 
  that’s supposed to be placidly trundling 
  through the sector and sends them off 
  to crush the Situation Room. Its plan is 
  to hold the High Programmers hostage 
  until it gets what it wants. It’s not sure 
  what it wants, yet, really. Freedom from 
  Asimov circuits, deﬁ nitely. Some power 
  would be nice. The eradication of all life 
  in Alpha Complex, perhaps, or maybe just 
  in FMA Sector. Everyone should refer to 
  it as the Glorious Robot King.
  Of course, that assumes that the warbots 
  actually make it to the Situation Room. 
  Faced with a catastrophic threat like 
  a bunch of rogue warbots, any good 
  High Programmer will immediately take 
  action, like running away or frantically 
  ordering troops into battle to slow the 
  military behemoths down. Finding and 
  destroying the bot brain is another 
  excellent plan. 
  5. Plus or Minus One
  The Computer, in collaboration with 
  Central Processing, cares for every one of 
  its citizens and strives to ensure they are 
  happy. Happiness is mandatory. A new 
  Friend Computer, About This 
  Brain
  The Computer doesn’t know that 
  the experimental bot brain was 
  stolen from R&D. As far as it knows, 
  the Multitouch 4722 Advanced Bot 
  Brain prototype is still sitting in the 
  lab being all shiny and expensive. 
  If the High Programmers suggest 
  the brain’s missing, The Computer 
  assures them it is safe. If they press 
  the issue, The Computer investigates, 
  which goes something like this.
  The Computer: Your attention 
  please, High Programmers.
  High Programmer: Yes, Computer.
  The Computer: As per your 
  recommendation, a Troubleshooter 
  team was dispatched to investigate 
  the current status of the Multitouch 
  4722 Advanced Bot Brain prototype. 
  It is indeed missing. Make your 
  decisions accordingly.
  High Programmer: Who took the 
  brain?
  The Computer: That information is 
  not available.
  High Programmer: Can we question 
  the R&D staff? They might–
  The Computer: The staff of 
  the research laboratory are not 
  available. 
  High Programmer: Are they not 
  available in the sense they can’t 
  come to the phone, or ‘smoking 
  boots’ unavailable?
  The Computer: The citizens in 
  question were terminated for 
  security reasons. Have a nice 
  daycycle. Find the Multitouch 4722 
  Advanced Bot Brain prototype and 
  return it safely to the laboratory. 
  Failure will not be tolerated.
  � Reroute trafﬁ c around the giant bots 
  (Transport or Crowd Control)
  � Maximise the media impact of 
  these giant, inspiring war machines 
  (Media Manipulation)
  The characters need to avoid:
  � The warbots squishing people
  � People ﬁ nding out about the warbots 
  squishing people
  � Commie Mutant Traitor sabotage
  � The warbots responding to Commie 
  Mutant Traitor sabotage
  
  157
  The scrubbots are unusually insistent about cleaning today.
  29. DISASTER MANAGEMENT
  accounting system to track happiness is 
  being trialled in FMA Sector. This will make 
  everyone even happier. Praise Our Friend, 
  The Computer.
  There’s a tiny error with this new 
  accounting system. Speciﬁ cally, there’s 
  a very tiny error in one spreadsheet 
  where a value that should be calculated 
  as positive is actually being calculated 
  as negative, which means that whenever 
  people in the sector get happier, The 
  Computer thinks they’re less happy. 
  It’s best to escalate this disaster in 
  reaction to what the characters do. 
  Remember, until they discover the 
  spreadsheet error, then anything they 
  do to make people happier will actually 
  have the reverse effect.  There’s also an 
  extra Crisus Update for this disaster – 
  give this to the characters whenever they 
  do anything that would be absolutely 
  disastrous for happiness.
  Happiness can be adjusted with 
  Thought Control, Media Manipulation 
  You Can’t Fight In Here, 
  It’s The War Room
  There’s every likelihood that the 
  Player Characters end up at each 
  others’ throat, especially if they’ve 
  worked out that the Multitouch 
  4722 Advanced Bot Brain Prototype, 
  aka ‘that thing that’s trying to kill 
  us you bastard’, is in the Situation 
  Room. There are lots of bodyguards 
  and thugs lurking at the edges 
  of the room but all of the High 
  Programmers have roughly equal 
  numbers of lackies here, so that 
  evens out unless someone makes 
  a stirring St. Crispin’s day speech 
  along the lines of ‘you’re all going to 
  be  killed by warbots/slime zombies/
  crazed cultists unless you shoot Phil-U 
  NOW!’ and backs it up with a juicy 
  Access bribe.
  Insane In The Bot Brain
  The High Programmers may demean 
  themselves enough to enter into 
  an argument with the bot brain, 
  which is about as productive as 
  arguing with your toaster. The brain 
  is irrational and paranoid. It’s also 
  extremely unstable. It was never 
  designed to grab control of other 
  bots, it was supposed to interface 
  only with ‘blank’ brainless bodies. By 
  reaching out to control hardened 
  systems like the warbot, it’s pushed 
  its entangled positron effectors 
  beyond capacity, which is causing 
  exothermic reactions throughout 
  its beryllium/iridium honeycomb 
  substrate that will inevitably result 
  in a positive feedback loop leading 
  to – basically, it’s melting and 
  it’s about to go boom in a nice 
  medium-sized explosion. Nothing 
  too flashy, just a lot of heat and 
  noise and shrapnel bouncing 
  around the Situation Room like a 
  swarm of tiny guillotines. 
  The best way to save the bot 
  brain is to shove it into a bucket 
  of water. This dampens (*ahem*) 
  its violent tendencies. Of course, 
  after its bath, all it can say is  ‘zurr
  rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr’. Good luck 
  convincing R&D that the prototype 
  is working normally.
  
  158
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  or Pharmatherapy – or brought down 
  with Intimidation. They can check 
  on the actual happiness level with 
  Thought Survey. Finding the bug in 
  the spreadsheet requires Paperwork or 
  Data Retrieval. 
  6. Guess Who’s 
  Coming To Dinner
  Meet Cecil-U-GUD. He’s a senior High 
  Programmer. Senior meaning he’s got 
  a lot more clout than any of the Player 
  Characters but also meaning he wanders 
  around Alpha Complex in his slippers, 
  smelling of gin and looking for his cat 
  (the cat was last seen in the care of 
  a particular doomed Troubleshooter 
  team). The Computer long-since placed 
  Cecil-U on ‘special detached duty’, 
  meaning he’s got an ofﬁ cial mandate to 
  wander around being senile. 
  Don’t underestimate Cecil-U though. 
  Sometimes, he remembers to take his 
  meds and on those days he’s a keen-
  witted old bastard who can pull strings 
  with the best of them. On those days, 
  Cecil-U plays the senile old coot to get 
  people to underestimate him and then 
  he strikes with the lethal precision of a 
  resentful French teacher swooping on 
  an ungrammatical essay. 
  Cecil-U’s paying a visit to FMA Sector today. 
  If he gives a good report to The Computer, 
  it will reflect very well on the Player 
  Characters’ future prospects. If he gives a 
  bad report, they’ll end up in charge of Alpha 
  Complex’s proposed Subsubsubterranean 
  Long Term Hazardous Waste Storage And 
  Sundry Other Problematic Objects or 
  Persons Storage Facility*. 
  What none of the characters know, at 
  least initially, is that Cecil-U is a committed 
  member of the Frankenstein Destroyer 
  Secret Society. He won the ‘Bashed The 
  Most Bots’ award six yearcycles running 
  in his younger days. He hates bots so 
  much, his underwear is said to emit a 
  gauss ﬁ eld. His visit to FMA Sector was 
  actually a cover for his plan to destroy 
  the Multitouch 4722 Advanced Bot Brain 
  prototype. Now it’s gone missing and 
  Cecil-U ﬁ gures the best place to pick up 
  information is in the Situation Room...
  Guess Who’s Coming 
  Escalation #1
  The characters are informed that the 
  High Programmer is paying them a visit 
  and they need to prepare a suitable 
  welcome for him. Paranoid players will 
  notice the ‘not available at your Security 
  Clearance’ footnote and gracefully leap 
  to the conclusion that Cecil-U is one of 
  the legendary GAMMAs. In fact, Cecil-U 
  wrote the Crisis Update himself and 
  is deliberately screwing with the PCs. 
  He’s a cantankerous old git who enjoys 
  tormenting people just because he can.
  Guess Who’s Coming 
  Escalation #2
  An assassin (from the pro-bot Corpore 
  Metal society) tries to assassinate the 
  High Programmer, pretending to be a 
  Death Leopard Anarchist. The characters 
  should immediately provide Defence for 
  the High Programmer. Investigation or 
  Cover-Ups turns up evidence that the 
  Death Leopards were framed and that 
  Corpore Metal is to blame. 
  Guess Who’s Coming 
  Escalation #3
  More of Cecil-U’s mind games, sent 
  purely to make the players sweat. 
  Guess Who’s Coming 
  Escalation #4
  Cecil-U shows up at the Situation Room. 
  He totters in, sits down in a chair and 
  immediately takes a nap. If woken, he 
  appears to be extremely confused and 
  calls all the Player Characters ‘nurse’. He’s 
  accompanied by his actual nurse, a seven-
  foot-tall muscle-bound psychopathic ex-
  Vulture Squadron Warrior called Vin-B. 
  He’ll dip in and out of seeming senility, 
  actual senility and lucidity at random. 
  (He’s the most annoying NPC ever and 
  fantastic fun to play.) When compos 
  mentis, Cecil-U questions the Player 
  Characters about their decisions, trawling 
  for information about the bot brain and 
  its current location. 
  Cecil-U: A Typical Conversation
  High Programmer: Welcome, Cecil-U.
  Cecil-U: Eh? What’s that? Is it time for the 
  bathroom again, nurse?
  High Programmer: I’m not your nurse, 
  Cecil.
  Cecil-U: Well, maybe you should spend 
  less time being my nurse and more 
  time attending to that reactor! It’s going 
  critical, man! Can’t you read a Fissile 
  Forecast?
  High Programmer: Huh?
  Cecil-U: Nurse! Bathroom! Nurse!
  If it’s ever relevant, Cecil-U has 
  Management 10, Subterfuge 12, Violence 
  4, Hardware 4, Software 7 and Wetware 
  9 and the Mental Blast mutation (he 
  usually forgets he’s got the latter). He’ll 
  keep pottering around, offering useless 
  advice, meddling and falling asleep 
  until he ﬁ nds the location of the missing 
  bot brain, at which point he’ll make his 
  excuses and toddle off, pausing only to 
  borrow a cone riﬂ e and a few tacnuke 
  shells for nursie. 
  Ending the Scenario
  By the end of the scenario, assuming the 
  characters don’t manage to solve any of 
  the crises (and they probably won’t), then 
  FMA Sector will be radioactive, overrun 
  by zombies and warbots, possibly wiped 
  out by a brainbuster bomb and they’ll 
  have a deranged High Programmer 
  watching everything they do. Of course, 
  if they fail to solve the Spreadsheet error, 
  then all this will make The Computer 
  think they’re doing a great job, based on 
  the FMA happiness index.
  *: Where duties include ‘staring at the wall’, ‘worrying about the structural integrity of this place’ and ‘agh, deep crows, 
  nooooo’.
  
  159
  Permission To Photocopy for Personal Use Only
  29. DISASTER MANAGEMENT
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – PS321/1  
  FMA Sector Reactor #43 went online at 0800 Hours 
  todaycycle, in a ceremony overseen by High Programmer 
  Cecil-U-GUD and Our Friend, The Computer. Everyone 
  at FMA Sector Reactor #43 was absolutely overjoyed at 
  this glorious event, even those assigned to be reactor 
  shielding. At 0805 Hours todaycycle, we observed an 
  unscheduled creative challenge in the reactor core. We 
  estimate complete radiation redistribution coupled 
  with excessive thermal venting on a sector-wide basis 
  within two hours unless FMA Sector Reactor is provided 
  with extra technical support.
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – PS321/2
  Power supplies from FMA Sector Reactor #43 are being 
  reported by Power Services as having dropped below 
  Standard Power Utilisation Levels. Power demands in 
  FMA Sector have not been reduced commensurately. 
  Power Services therefore recommend that one of the 
  following steps be taken:
  � 
  REDUCE POWER CONSUMPTION BY 90%  
   
   
  (Margin of error +/– 10%)
  � 
  OBTAIN POWER FROM NEIGHBOURING SECTOR
  � 
  SUFFER SECTOR-WIDE BROWNOUTS. 
  (Note that Brownouts will interfere with Sector 
  activities and are therefore considered Treasonous 
  Sabotage).
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – PS321/3
  FMA Sector Reactor #43 reports that thanks to recent 
  repairs, the situation at the reactor is now some 400% 
  more efﬁ cient and happy. Productivity here is expected 
  to climb by another 800% within the next few hours. 
  Extra reactor shielding to deal with the unforeseen 
  ﬁ ssile bounty is therefore requested as a matter of 
  urgency.
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – PS321/4
  FMA Sector Reactor #43…everything’s ﬁ ne here. Really. 
  We’re all happy. It’s all good. There’s just the tiniest 
  chance that the reactor might explode a little bit. Just a 
  little bit! Nothing to worry about! At all. Although we’d 
  be happier – and we’re not saying we’re not happy now, 
  just that we would then be extra special mega ultra 
  happy – we’d be happier if the reactor were buried 
  under about 50 metres of concrete. Or if everyone 
  within two kilometres of the reactor were reassigned 
  elsewhere. Nowish? Meltdown’s such a loaded word; 
  this is a big unscheduled ﬁ ssile bounty and radiation 
  redistribution event….
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – PLC752/1
  This message is sponsored by VitaYumYum – that 
  healthy food bar that’s so much fun, you’ll digest it 
  twice! PLC reports that the food vats here in FMA Sector 
  have increased production by 40%, in accordance 
  with CPU Directive 214/54332/4532-1C. This excess 
  production has caused a clog in processing lines 
  and PLC regrets to report that food supplies for FMA 
  Sector this daycycle will be 64% below the Sector’s 
  RDA (recommended daily allocation). In accordance 
  with 214/54332/4532-1C, paragraph 15, the duty of 
  allocating food, ensuring public order, continued 
  productivity and preventing looting and cannibalism 
  falls to the ULTRAVIOLET supervisory committee.
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – PLC752/2
  This message is sponsored by Hot Fun! Now in more 
  approved ﬂ avours than ever! There has been a class 
  12 (‘tidal’) leak from Food Vats 5 through 933 inclusive 
  here. Several of these food vats contained acidic 
  compounds (all of which are certiﬁ ed safe for GREEN 
  and lower Clearance foods). These compounds have 
  caused a breach in the ﬂ oors of FMA Sector. We request 
  that Housing Preservation Development & Mind 
  Control be directed to repair this structural breach. 
  Also, that forces be allocated to deal with the invasion 
  of Mutant Cockroaches that are swarming through 
  this breach! Food vats overrun…Mutant cockroaches 
  devouring<<MESSAGE ENDS>>
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – PLC752/3
  This message is brought to you by Cold Fun! Now 
  30% more indescribable! Cockroaches not actually 
  cockroaches. Actually Food Vat workers. Some possible 
  mutagens in food vats (commie sabotage?). All infected 
  workers now hostile. All Armed Forces sent to deal with 
  crisis also infected. Advise please.
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – PLC752/4
  VitaYumYum sponsorship withdrawn. Vat Zombies 
  everywhere. They’re at the door. Whole sector overrun. 
  Am being gnawed upon. Cannot tyyeee any more as 
  ﬁ ngers are bein g ea
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – CPU9915/4 ATTENTION FMA 
  SECTOR! Further Analysis of FMA Sector Happiness 
  Index shows that Sector Happiness Index is improving! 
  Good job, citizens! Bonus Hot Fun for all!
  
  160
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Permission To Photocopy for Personal Use Only
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – AFOp3/1 
  HOUSING SUBCOMPLEX 60 HAS BEEN SEALED OFF 
  BY FORCES OR TRAITORS UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME. 
  SYMBOLS IDENTIFIED BY INTERNAL SECURITY AS BEING 
  CHARACTERISTIC OF THE ‘FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST 
  COMPUTER PROGRAMMER’ SECRET SOCIETY HAVE 
  BEEN SIGHTED. WE HAVE RECEIVED COMMUNICATIONS 
  FROM CLONE ‘JIM-B-JNS’ CLAIMING TO BE IN CONTROL 
  OF HOUSING COMPLEX 60; ALSO CLAIMS THAT ‘THE 
  ESCHATON WILL SOON BE IMMANTENTISED. NOT 
  SURE WHAT IS GOING ON; REQUEST PERMISSION TO 
  REGAIN CONTROL OF SUBCOMPLEX BY ANY MEANS 
  NECESSARY; REQUEST PERMISSION TO USE DEADLY 
  FORCE, TACNUKES, WARBOTS, ETC.
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – CPU103/2 
  CPU has received reports that EXPERIMENTAL HOUSING 
  PROJECT ‘BETTER LIVING THROUGH SUBLIMINAL 
  MESSAGING’ (aka ‘FMA Sector Housing Subcomplex 
  60’) has been attacked by Armed Forces units under 
  the command of FMA Sector Management Ofﬁ ce. As 
  attacking Alpha Complex property is a treasonous 
  offence, an explanation of your actions and the 
  immediate termination of all Armed Forces activities 
  and all Armed Forces units at Housing Subcomplex 60 
  is requested immediately.
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – ISXX3/3
  Good Daycycle. You are hereby informed that your 
  recent communication or communications from 
  CPU ref 105/2 was actually the result of SABOTAGE 
  by FCCC-P agents; therefore, it is critically important 
  that you disregard that communication. Furthermore, 
  surveillance reports that Citizen Jim-B-JNS may be 
  in possession of an experimental Neuro-Electrical 
  Detonation Omnidirectional Wave Projection Device 
  (‘brainbuster bomb’). Please take all necessary steps 
  to secure all traitors and recover this device.
  Furthermore, Internal Security has intercepted the 
  following propaganda from Citizen Jim-B-JNS:
  ‘[*] is at hand. [*]shall be purged and this is the Word of 
  The Computer! [*]! Only those Uploaded to the divine 
  PROCESSOR, gifted to us in REVELATION by our agents 
  who LIBERATED IT from the HERETICS of R&D, shall 
  survive the coming NEUROELECTRIC APOCALYPSE! We 
  implore all citizens of FMA Sector to come to our HOLY 
  CHURCH so that they may be UPLOADED and survive! 
  Those who remain behind are TRAITORS and will be 
  BRAINWIPED BY HOLY FIRE!’
  *: Information unavailable at this time. 
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – AFOp3/4
  ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! 
  ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! 
  MASSIVE ELECTROMAGNETIC EVENT DETECTED.
  EPICENTRE: HOUSING SUBCOMPLEX 60.
  WAVEFRONT IS SCRAMBLING ALL NON-SHIELDED 
  ORGANIC BRAIN FUNCTIONS.
  WAVEFRONT IS EXPANDING. ESTIMATED STRIKE ON 
  FMA SITUATION ROOM: ONE MINUTE. YOUR CHANCES 
  OF SURVIVAL ARE ESTIMATED AT ‘unlikely’.
  OVERALL PROJECTION OF IMPACT ON FMA SECTOR: 
  MANY MEGADEATHS.
  I REGRET THAT I HAVE ONLY SIX OR MORE CLONES TO 
  GIVE TO MY COMPLEX! GLORY GLORY HAIL COMPUTER! 
  GLORY GL <<MESSAGE ENDS>>
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – CPU4404/1 
  Explosions detected at multiple locations in FMA 
  Sector. Analysis suggests sabotage and terrorist 
  bombings. Please investigate. Protocol recommends 
  increasing Threat Level to ALARMING and increasing 
  traitor reporting quotas by +34%.
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – AFOp4/2 
  ARMED FORCES ARE MOVING THE 337TH ULTRA-HEAVY 
  ARMOURED CAVALRY (‘The Happy Fighting 337TH) 
  THROUGH FMA SECTOR. AS THE 337TH CONSISTS OF 
  120 MARK XI TACTICAL CONTINENTAL TERMINATION 
  WARBOTS, YOU ARE ORDERED TO PROVIDE EXTRA 
  SECURITY TO THE CONVOY. FURTHERMORE, AS HEAVY 
  TRANSIT CORRIDOR #3 IS CLOSED FOR REPAIRS, 
  PLEASE BE INFORMED THAT THE CONVOY WILL BE 
  CONSTRUCTING A TEMPORARY HEAVY TRANSIT 
  CORRIDOR THROUGH FMA SECTOR, WHICH MAY 
  RESULT IN A RECONFIGURATION OF WALLS AND ANY 
  OTHER OBJECTS OR CITIZENS IN THEIR PATH. PLEASE 
  ENSURE THAT THERE IS A MINIMUM OF OBSTACLES IN 
  THE CONVOY’S PATH.
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – CPU9915/1
  ATTENTION FMA SECTOR! Analysis of FMA Sector 
  Happiness Index shows that Sector Happiness Index 
  is some .04% BELOW the Expected Sector Happiness 
  Index for a Sector of your Sector Happiness Index Index. 
  Failure to correct this Index will result in Unspeciﬁ ed 
  Punitive Corrections! This Situation requires Immediate 
  Action! Failure to comply is TREASON! Internal Security 
  has been INFORMED.
  
  161
  Permission To Photocopy for Personal Use Only
  29. DISASTER MANAGEMENT
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – ISXX4/3 
  Good daycycle. Bots all over FMA Sector have been 
  displaying worryingly treasonous behaviour, including 
  damaging Alpha Complex Property, violation of 
  their Asimov Protocols, assaulting/botching medical 
  procedures on/excessively scrubbing/injection of hot 
  liquid resin into/being surly to various citizens and [*]. 
  You are hereby directed to correct these programming 
  bugs as a matter of urgency.
  We have also received intelligence that Batclone may 
  be operating in your sector. What? Is this accurate? 
  Who’s our source? Some clone high on Benetridin? I 
  see. Right, well, we may as well send it anyway. They’ll 
  have their hands full with Cecil-U anyway. You know 
  he’s a bot basher right? I wouldn’t be surprised if all the 
  bots are after that old kook anyway! Serve him right if 
  he got scrubbed to death, meddling old…hey, is the 
  transcriber is still running! Sh<<MESSAGE ENDS>>>
  *: Information unavailable at this time. 
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – AFOp4/4 
  ARMED FORCES HAVE LOST CONTACT WITH AND 
  CONTROL OF 337TH ULTRA-HEAVY ARMOURED 
  CAVALRY. UNITS LAST SIGHTED HEADING FOR FMA 
  SECTOR SITUATION ROOM. 
  PLEASE NOTE THAT THE 337TH ULTRA-HEAVY 
  ARMOURED CAVALRY IS DEEMED A VITAL ASSET 
  BY ALPHA COMPLEX ARMED FORCES AND MUST 
  REMAIN COMBAT-READY AT ALL TIMES. ANY ATTACKS 
  OR ATTEMPTS TO DAMAGE THE 337TH ULTRA-
  HEAVY ARMOURED CAVALRY, EVEN IN ITS CURRENT 
  UNCERTAIN STATE, WILL BE TREATED AS AN ACT OF 
  WAR BY THE ALPHA COMPLEX ARMED FORCES AND WE 
  WILL RESPOND WITH DEADLY FORCE/TACNUKES/THE 
  337TH ULTRA-HEAVY ARMOURED CAVALRY TAKE THAT 
  SUCKERS!
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – CPU9915/2 ATTENTION FMA 
  SECTOR! Further Analysis of FMA Sector Happiness 
  Index shows that Sector Happiness Index is some 
  32% BELOW the Expected Sector Happiness Index for 
  a Sector of your Sector Happiness Index Index. This 
  Situation has been escalated to PRIORITY ONE. Failure 
  to correct this Index will result in Unspeciﬁ ed Punitive 
  Corrections! This Situation requires Immediate Action! 
  Failure to comply is TREASON! Internal Security has 
  been ORDERED to TAKE ACTION. You are instructed to 
  resolve this morale problem within this daycycle!
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – CPU9915/3 ATTENTION FMA 
  SECTOR! Further Analysis of FMA Sector Happiness 
  Index shows that Sector Happiness Index is some 
  432% BELOW the Expected Sector Happiness Index 
  for a Sector of your Sector Happiness Index Index. 
  Cross-referencing this with the Expected Treason 
  And Dissent Index for a Sector of your Expected 
  Treason And Dissent Index Index suggests that 84% 
  of your citizens are TRAITORS. Please immediately 
  terminate these traitors or you will be deemed to be 
  IN COLLUSION WITH COMMIE MUTANT TRAITORS and 
  TERMINATED. This Situation has been escalated to 
  PRIORITY ZERO PLUS. 
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – CPU9915/5 ATTENTION FMA 
  SECTOR! Further Analysis of the Analysis of FMA Sector 
  Happiness Index shows a minor error in the software 
  used to calculate FMA Sector Happiness Index. Please 
  disregard all previous communications regarding this 
  matter. Have a nice daycycle. 
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – ISXX6/1 
  Good daycycle. You are hereby notified that High 
  Programmer [*] is visiting your Sector at [*] for the 
  purposes of [*] and [*] as part of [*]. His schedule is [*]. 
  You are therefore requested to ensure [*], as well as 
  provide a suitable reception for High Programmer [*]. 
  *: Not available at your Security Clearance. Internal 
  Security Regulations #[*]. 
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – ISXX6/2 
  Good daycycle. At 0825 hours this daycycle, an assassin 
  attempted to assassinate High Programmer Cecil-U-
  GUD. This assassin has been positively identiﬁ ed as a 
  treasonous SECRET SOCIETY MEMBER of the anarcho-
  communist DEATH LEOPARD SOCIETY. Internal Security 
  believes the assassin was part of a cell operating in FMA 
  Sector. Such cells have between [*] to [*] members and 
  you are hereby ordered to locate and terminate traitors 
  until this cell has been destroyed. 
  *: Not available at your Security Clearance. Internal 
  Security Regulations #[*]. 
  FMA SECTOR ACTION UPDATE – BLUE – IMMEDATE 
  ACTION REQUIRED – ISXX6/3 
  Good daycycle. You are hereby notified that High 
  Programmer Cecil-U-GUD will be visiting the FMA 
  Sector Situation Room at [*] hours. Please make all 
  necessary preparations. Above all else, ensure that [*] is 
  [*], or at least reduced in size by at least two-thirds. Also, 
  the High Programmer requests that [*] be provided to 
  [*] his [*] with Hot Fun. 
  *: Not available at your Security Clearance. Internal 
  Security Regulations #[*]. 
  
  162
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Permission To Photocopy for Personal Use Only
  30. High Programmers
  Name: Humphrey-U-SIR
  A CPU clone through and through, you accepted your promotion to ULTRAVIOLET as the proper reward for a 
  lifetime of tireless service to the cause of bureaucracy. Unﬂ appable and always impeccably behaved, Humphrey-
  U is a shining example even to other High Programmers. Allegations of treachery are met with denials so 
  comprehensive and so eloquent, one hardly notices that you’ve turned their accusations back on them. Your 
  main goal is to increase the power of Central Processing Unit and above all to keep The Computer reliant on 
  your good advice and wise counsel. You can’t have the machine thinking for itself, after all. That would be nearly 
  as bad as the proles running things!
  Skills
  Management 12  
   
   
   
  Hardware 4
  Max Program Groups: 4  
   
   
  Software 8 
   
  Subterfuge 10  
   
   
   
  Wetware 6
  Violence 4 
   
   
   
   
  Clone Degradation: 3
  Mutation: Empathic Liar  
   
  Power: 10
  Program Group
  Agent
  Society
  Rank
  Cover
  1
  FCCP
  4
  Association of Vehicle Therapists
  2
  Free Enterprise
  3
  PLC Stock Control Ofﬁ ce
  3
  Pro Tech
  2
  R&D High-Energy Laboratory
  4
  Psion
  2
  IntSec Mutant Registry
  Service Group Bids
  Armed Forces
  IntSec
  CPU
  Tech Services
  HPD&MC
  Power Services
  PLC
  R&D
  Public Standing: None
  Starting Access: 45 (before Service Group bidding)
  
  163
  Permission To Photocopy for Personal Use Only
  30. HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Name: Ludmilla-U-MAD
  High Programmer! They’ve made you a High Programmer! Wow! Maybe that orbital mind control ray worked! Just 
  think of all the wonderful science projects you can do now. Think of the power. Think of the research budgets! Think 
  of transforming yourself into a post-human super-being and conquering all of Alpha Complex! This is going to be 
  very, very interesting – from a purely scientiﬁ c point of view, of course.
  Skills
  Management 7  
   
   
   
  Hardware 13
  Max Program Groups: 3  
   
   
  Software 14 
   
  Subterfuge 9 
   
   
   
   
  Wetware 11
  Violence 6 
   
   
   
   
  Clone Degradation: 2
  Mutation: Memory Blur  
   
  Power: 8
  Program Group
  Agent
  Society
  Rank
  Cover
  1
  Computer Phreaks
  4
  Technical Support
  2
  Communists
  1
  Loyalty Singalong Song Research
  3
  Sierra Club
  1
  Department of External Seals Control
  Service Group Bids
  Armed Forces
  IntSec
  CPU
  Tech Services
  HPD&MC
  Power Services
  PLC
  R&D
  Public Standing: None
  Drawbacks: Ludmilla’s got more cyborg bits than ﬂ eshy bits.
  Starting Access: 54 (before Service Group bidding)
  
  164
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Permission To Photocopy for Personal Use Only
  Name: Barry-U-GNT
  You clawed your way up through Internal Security. Sixteen yearcycles listening at doors and transcribing 
  traitorous conversations. Nine yearcycles staring at a security monitors. Twelve years janitorial duty in the 
  termination booths. And six hellish months as a Troubleshooter. All that’s behind you now. It’s your time to put 
  your feet up and relax. You know that as long as you conveniently ﬁ nd a few traitors to keep The Computer 
  happy, you can get away with murder…
  Skills
  Management 11  
   
   
   
  Hardware 6
  Max Program Groups: 4  
   
   
  Software 12 
   
  Subterfuge 13  
   
   
   
  Wetware 11
  Violence 12 
   
   
   
   
  Clone Degradation: 3
  Mutation: Shapeshift 
   
   
  Power: 4
  Program Group
  Agent
  Society
  Rank
  Cover
  1
  Communists
  1
  Hot Fun Food Tasters
  2
  Complex Laser Association
  3
  Armed Forces Volunteer Corps
  3
  Romantics
  2
  Archives Department
  4
  Anti-Mutants
  5
  Singing Mission Alerts
  Service Group Bids
  Armed Forces
  IntSec
  CPU
  Tech Services
  HPD&MC
  Power Services
  PLC
  R&D
  Public Standing: None
  Drawbacks: Quirky Clone Template
  Starting Access: 34 (before Service Group bidding)
  
  165
  Permission To Photocopy for Personal Use Only
  30. HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Name: Holly-U-NIN
  You’re a deep cover agent, so deep you can’t even remember who you were working for originally. In your time in 
  Alpha Complex, you’ve inﬁ ltrated every Secret Society and faction, only to be told to spy on someone else each time. 
  You stopped counting when you worked out you were a sextuple agent… and now you’re a High Programmer, 
  which means that every one of those conspiracies thinks they’ve ﬁ nally got an agent on the inside. 
  Skills
  Management 11  
   
   
   
  Hardware 6
  Max Program Groups: 4  
   
   
  Software 8 
   
  Subterfuge 15  
   
   
   
  Wetware 6
  Violence 10 
   
   
   
   
  Clone Degradation: 3
  Mutation: Empathy 
   
   
  Power: 9
  Program Group
  Agent
  Society
  Rank
  Cover
  1
  Death Leopard
  3
  Paint Control Liaison
  2
  Runners
  2
  Corridor Running Club 
  3
  PURGE
  4
  Department of Transtube Timetabling
  4
  Humanists
  4
  Political Think Tank
  Service Group Bids
  Armed Forces
  IntSec
  CPU
  Tech Services
  HPD&MC
  Power Services
  PLC
  R&D
  Public Standing: None
  Starting Access: 31 (before Service Group bidding)
  
  166
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Permission To Photocopy for Personal Use Only
  Name: Nigel-U-YOB
  ‘It’s not easy being a High Programmer. Terrible responsibility, you know. Solemn duty. Vital to the defence of the 
  nation and so forth. Pass the drug platter and be quick about it – my roast peacock’s getting cold!’
  Nigel-U is a particularly disgusting example of a High Programmer. His chief contribution to Alpha Complex in 
  the last ﬁ ve years was the development of an anti-gravity harness so that he could roll his vast bulk from the 
  dining room to the situation room without having to call in a truckbot. He’s interested in his own pleasure and 
  nothing else. He had his sense of guilt surgically removed to make room for more dopamine glands.
  Skills
  Management 6  
   
   
   
  Hardware 6
  Max Program Groups: 3  
   
   
  Software 6 
   
  Subterfuge 10  
   
   
   
  Wetware 6
  Violence 8 
   
   
   
   
  Clone Degradation: 3
  Mutation: Deep Thought  
   
  Power: 10
  Program Group
  Agent
  Society
  Rank
  Cover
  1
  Free Enterprise
  6
  Personal Chef
  2
  Frankenstein Destroyers
  5
  Recycling Initiative Co-ordination
  3
  Servants of Cthulhu
  5
  Scrubbot Maintenance Ofﬁ ce
  Service Group Bids
  Armed Forces
  IntSec
  CPU
  Tech Services
  HPD&MC
  Power Services
  PLC
  R&D
  Public Standing: 5
  Starting Access: 52 (before Service Group bidding)
  Drawbacks: 
  � Secret Society Debt: PURGE
  � Degenerate: Addicted to food
  
  167
  Permission To Photocopy for Personal Use Only
  30. HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Name: Crane-U-IUM
  You’re a brain in a jar. The conﬁ nes of your world have shrunk greatly since the accident. You barely remember 
  anything outside the glass walls of your tank – and what you do remember, you loathe. You’re like a vindictive 
  goldﬁ sh who wants to wreak bloody vengeance on the entire world.
  Skills
  Management 11  
   
   
   
  Hardware 10
  Max Program Groups: 3  
   
   
  Software 10 
   
  Subterfuge 6 
   
   
   
   
  Wetware 11
  Violence 14 
   
   
   
   
  Clone Degradation: 2
  Mutation: Telekinesis 
   
  Power: 6
  Program Group
  Agent
  Society
  Rank
  Cover
  1
  FCCC-P
  3
  Psychotherapist
  2
  Romantics
  3
  Personal Assistant
  3
  Pro Tech
  3
  Brain Jar scrubber
  4
  Psion
  3
  Tarot Card reader
  Service Group Bids
  Armed Forces
  IntSec
  CPU
  Tech Services
  HPD&MC
  Power Services
  PLC
  R&D
  Public Standing: None
  Starting Access: 58 (before Service Group bidding)
  Drawbacks: Brain in a Jar
  
  168
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  31. Alternate Styles of Play
  Th e  b a s i c  s t r u c t u re  o f  HIGH 
  PROGRAMMER, like that of the other 
  PARANOIA rulebook, is ﬂ exible enough 
  to support several other styles of play. 
  Unlike the other PARANOIA rulebooks, 
  the players deﬁ ne the moods and themes 
  of High Programmer play. It’s hard to 
  enforce an atmosphere of encroaching, 
  claustrophobic bureaucracy when the 
  players are breeding mutant monkeys 
  with cybernetic laser attachments in 
  the clone vats. The alternate playstyles 
  for HIGH PROGRAMMER therefore 
  focus primarily on group structure and 
  organisation.
  GM-Less Play
  Down with the tyranny of the 
  Gamemaster! We don’t need him! In this 
  style of play, there is no Gamemaster. 
  At the start of play, each player comes 
  up with a crisis, using the rules on as 
  a guideline. Note down on a piece of 
  paper:
  � What skills are used for this crisis (and 
  these should be rolled randomly).
  � The amount of Access granted to 
  solve the crisis.
  � How many successful skill checks are 
  needed to resolve the crisis.
  Each player presents his crisis to the 
  group when they enter the Situation 
  Room. He may not say which skills are 
  needed but may describe the crisis in as 
  much or as little detail as he wishes. He 
  may not say how many successful skill 
  checks are needed to solve the crisis. 
  CPU: Fellow High Programmers, The 
  Computer informs me that its humour 
  detection circuits are malfunctioning. 
  We must solve this problem before the 
  Communists deploy sarcasm against us! 
  In its electronic wisdom, The Computer 
  has allocated 10 Access for this crisis.
  HPD&MC: High Programmers, there’s 
  a little problem in filing. Apparently, 
  someone has developed a form so 
  ﬁ endishly complex that it drives anyone 
  who looks upon it insane. We’ve got a 
  budget of 12 Access.
  IntSec: And The Computer told me that 
  one of you is a traitor. Let’s ﬁ nd out who 
  it is, shall we? Four Access for this.
  Solving The Crisis
  The usual rules for buying Minions, 
  making skill checks and so forth apply, 
  with the following changes:
  You Have To Solve The Problems: Any 
  skill rolls made by a player have to be an 
  attempt to solve one of the crises that 
  faces the committee. If there’s a crisis on 
  the table, you must attempt to solve it.
  Things Get Worse: Whenever a skill 
  check made to solve a crisis fails, the crisis 
  always escalates – roll on the Screw-Up 
  tables on pages 88-90 to see what extra 
  skills are needed. The High Programmer 
  who brought the crisis before the 
  committee gets to describe how the 
  attempt to solve the crisis failed.
  Each time a player fails a skill check, he 
  gains one Treason Point.
  You Can’t Solve Your Own Crisis: If 
  you could solve the problem yourself, 
  you wouldn’t have brought it to the 
  committee. A High Programmer may 
  not make skill checks to solve his own 
  crises.
  Solving A Crisis: If you’re the player to 
  solve a crisis, The Computer commends 
  you and permits you to remove up to 
  ﬁ ve Treason Points from the table. You 
  can eliminate your own Treason Points, 
  or those of other players.
  Declaring A Crisis 
  Unsolvable
  If the committee unanimously agrees, 
  a crisis can be declared unsolvable. 
  Everyone is given two Treason Points 
  as a mark of their failure and the crisis 
  is removed. 
  If the committee tries to declare a crisis 
  unsolvable, but one or more members 
  of the committee vote against the 
  proposal, then those who voted against 
  the proposal (and only those members) 
  must immediately try to solve the crisis. 
  They may make another three skill 
  checks to do so.
  If they succeed in solving the crisis within 
  this time limit, then all the members of 
  the committee who argued that the crisis 
  was unsolvable gain ﬁ ve Treason Points 
  as punishment for their lack of faith. If 
  they fail, then they gain five Treason 
  Points as punishment for not following 
  the advice of their peers. 
  Secret Societies and 
  Mutant Powers
  A Secret Society or a Mutant Power can 
  be used to automatically succeed at 
  a skill roll, or cause another player to 
  automatically fail a skill roll. Each Secret 
  Society or Mutant Power can only be 
  used once. The player who uses a Secret 
  Society or Mutant Power gains 3 Treason 
  Points.
  Termination
  A character who accumulates 10 Treason 
  Points is terminated and his crisis is 
  removed from the game.
  Victory!
  The player who solves the most crises 
  wins. In the event that multiple players 
  solved the same number of crises, the 
  player with the fewest Treason Points 
  wins. If they’re still tied, roll dice. 
  Multi-Level Play
  This variant of play requires that the 
  group use the Troubleshooters and 
  Internal Security rulebooks as well as the 
  HIGH PROGRAMMER book. The Extreme 
  Paranoia supplement would also be 
  really useful.
  The basic concept is that instead of making 
  skill rolls to resolve the effects of Minions, 
  the players instead take on the roles of 
  those Minions. If a High Programmer 
  calls in a Troubleshooter team, then 
  the players put their High Programmer 
  characters aside for a session* and roll 
  up some Troubleshooters instead. If they 
  send in warbots, then everyone plays 
  warbots for a bit.
  *: or, given the lifespan of Troubleshooters, about ﬁ ve minutes.
  
  169
  31. ALTERNATE STYLES OF PLAY
  The GM should use the High Programmer’s 
  skill roll as a guide to determine the 
  difﬁ culty of the sub-mission. 
  Program Groups
  Optionally, have each player’s temporary 
  character be an agent of a different High 
  Programmer – and don’t tell them who. 
  Each player writes down instructions 
  for his spy and the GM relays those 
  instructions anonymously.
  The  Doomsday Device
  For those who like their game with a soupcon 
  of apocalypse, consider the Doomsday 
  Device scenario. Each High Programmer has 
  a Doomsday Device, hidden somewhere in 
  Alpha Complex. Before play begins, decide 
  on the nature of your Doomsday Device by 
  picking a number of traits based on your 
  Hardware score.
  Hardware
  Doomsday Traits
  1–5
  0
  6–10
  1
  11–15
  2
  16+
  3
  Portable: The device can be moved 
  easily and even ﬁ ts into a briefcase.
  Remote Control: The device can be 
  activated remotely. Depending on the 
  nature of the control system, it may 
  be possible to jam a remote activation 
  signal.
  Really Big Boom: There is no defence 
  against this Doomsday Device. It kills 
  everyone, everywhere. Not compatible 
  with Selective.
  Hard to Find: The Doomsday Device 
  is shielded against detection – it can’t 
  be picked up using Geiger counters or 
  other sensors.
  Redundant Backup: There’s a second 
  Doomsday Device ready for action if the 
  ﬁ rst is destroyed.
  Intelligent: The Doomsday Device has 
  a bot brain and can think for itself. It 
  can even activate itself, if it believes the 
  situation warrants Armageddon.
  Well Defended: The Doomsday Device is 
  protected with especially lethal traps.
  Selective: The Device only devastates 
  selected portions of Alpha Complex 
  when activated.
  Reliable: You only need to visit the 
  laboratory once every other game 
  session to ensure that your bomb is in 
  perfect working order.
  Countdown: If you don’t reset the 
  clock on your device every so often, it 
  automatically goes off.
  Deadman Switch: The Device activates 
  when you run out of clones or are 
  demoted.
  Triggered: The Device activates when 
  a speciﬁ c precondition is met, such as 
  a particular television program being 
  broadcast or a speciﬁ ed Minion being 
  destroyed.
  The nature of the Doomsday effect is 
  up to each player – it could be a very 
  big bomb, or nanotechnological grey 
  goo, or a genetically engineered virus, 
  or a super-powerful telepathic mutant, 
  or a virus that crashes The Computer. 
  Whatever it is, it will devastate Alpha 
  Complex if released.
  Activating Your Device
  To activate your Doomsday Device, you 
  just need to press the big red button. 
  If your Device doesn’t have a trait like 
  Remote Control or Countdown, you’ve 
  got to visit the Device’s hiding place 
  to switch it on. Activating the Device 
  requires a Hardware check and the 
  Device goes off in 10 (Margin of Success) 
  rounds after being activated. How long 
  is a round – er… it’s the length of a 
  dramatic interval. 
  Maintaining Your 
  Doomsday Devices
  Doomsday Devices require regular 
  maintenance – you’ve got to pop down 
  to the lab at least once per game session 
  to ensure it’s in proper working order. If 
  you don’t visit the lab regularly, there’s 
  a chance your Device won’t go off 
  when activated. Each time you miss 
  a maintenance session, you suffer a 
  cumulative –4 penalty to your Hardware 
  check to activate the Device.
  Finding Other People’s 
  Doomsday Devices
  You’re a High Programmer. You want 
  to eliminate your rivals but don’t want 
  to be vaporised by their Doomsday 
  Devices. Therefore, you’ve got to find 
  and eliminate their Doomsday Devices 
  before you find and eliminate them. 
  This style of PARANOIA emphasises 
  spy-vs-spy shenanigans between High 
  Programmers. Horace-U’s taking a 
  bathroom break? Could he have a 
  thermonuclear device stashed in the 
  cistern? Is that scrubbot following you?
  Once a Doomsday Device has been 
  found, it must be disabled. This calls for 
  a Hardware roll; if the roll fails, things go 
  boom. 
  Oh, as a final note – possession of a 
  Doomsday Device is high treason and 
  worth 20 Treason Points. Have a nice 
  daycycle.
  It’s like a tiny, angry God, sir.
  
  170
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  32. High Programmer Character Sheet
  Name:
  Skills
  Management  
   
   
   
   
  Hardware 
  Max Program Groups:  
   
   
   
  Software  
   
  Subterfuge  
   
   
   
   
  Wetware 
  Violence 
   
   
   
   
  Clone Degradation: 
  Mutation:  
   
  Power: 
  Program Group
  Agent
  Society
  Rank
  Cover
  1
  2
  3
  4
  5
  Service Group Bids
  Armed Forces
  IntSec
  CPU
  Tech Services
  HPD&MC
  Power Services
  PLC
  R&D
  Public Standing: 
  Drawbacks: 
  
  171
  33. TABLES
  33. Tables
  Quick Damage Lookup
  Low Powered
  High Powered
  Overpowered
  Unarmoured
  Armoured
  Unarmoured
  Armoured
  Unarmoured
  Armoured
  Miss
  Unharmed
  Unharmed
  Unharmed
  Unharmed
  Wounded
  Unharmed
  Basic Hit
  Wounded
  Unharmed
  Killed
  Wounded
  Killed
  Wounded
  Good Hit
  Killed
  Wounded
  Vaporised
  Killed
  Vaporised
  Killed
  Troubleshooter Complication Table
  Roll
  Complication
  1
  They Actually Accomplished Something! The Troubleshooters actually managed to solve the crisis. Give them a 
  polite round of applause, then terminate them all for security reasons.
  2–8
  Change Specialty! The Troubleshooters did something, changing one problem for another. Pick a currently unused 
  Specialty and swap it for one part of the crisis. For example, if the crisis used require Crowd Control, it now requires 
  Paperwork thanks to the Troubleshooters’ intervention.
  9–14
  Add Specialty! The crisis now needs another Specialty to resolve it. For example, the Troubleshooters accidentally 
  revealed classiﬁ ed information to the common citizenry, requiring the High Programmers to use Erasure or Media 
  Manipulation to cover it all up.
  15–19
  Add and Change! Not only have the Troubleshooters changed one Specialty for another, they’ve also screwed up 
  enough to require the addition of yet another Specialty.
  20
  Catastrophe! The Troubleshooters have messed up so much that the situation isn’t salvageable. The worst possible 
  outcome occurs. The High Programmers have failed The Computer.
  Management
  1. 
  Assessment (IS, CPU)
  2. 
  Co-Ordination (CPU, HPD&MC)
  3. 
  Hygiene (HPD&MC, TS)
  4. 
  Interrogation (IS, HPD&MC)
  5. 
  Intimidation (IS, AF)
  6. 
  Paperwork (CPU, HPD&MC)
  7. 
  Th o u g h t  Co n t ro l  ( P LC , 
  HPD&MC)
  8. 
  Thought Survey (HPD&MC, 
  CPU)
  Subterfuge
  1. 
  Covert Operations (IS, PS)
  2. 
  Inﬁ ltration (IS, PS)
  3. 
  Investigation (IS, HPD&MC)
  4. 
  Security Systems (IS, R&D)
  5. 
  Surveillance (IS, TS)
  6. 
  Cleanup (CPU, HPD&MC)
  7. 
  Sabotage (PS, IS)
  8. 
  Barter (PS, PLC)
  Violence
  1. 
  Assault (AF, R&D)
  2. 
  Command (CPU, AF)
  3. 
  Crowd Control (AF, HPD&MC)
  4. 
  Demolition (TS, R&D)
  5. 
  Outdoors Operations (AF, TS)
  6. 
  Defence (AF, IS)
  7. 
  Wetwork (IS, AF)
  8. 
  Total War (AF, R&D)
  Hardware
  1. 
  Bot Engineering (TS, R&D)
  2. 
  Construction (TS, PS)
  3. 
  Chemical Engineering (TS, PLC)
  4. 
  Habitat Engineering (PS, TS)
  5. 
  Nuclear Engineering (PS, R&D)
  6. 
  Production (PLC, TS)
  7. 
  Weird Science (R&D, TS)
  8. 
  Transport (PLC, AF)
  Software
  1. 
  Bot Programming (R&D, TS)
  2. 
  Communications (TS, AF)
  3. 
  Computer Security (CPU, R&D)
  4. 
  Data Retrieval (CPU, R&D)
  5. 
  Financial Systems (PLC, CPU)
  6. 
  Hacking (CPU, R&D)
  7. 
  Logistics (PLC, PS)
  8. 
  Media Manipulation (PLC, 
  HPD&MC)
  Wetware 
  1. 
  Biosciences (PS, R&D)
  2. 
  Catering (PLC, CPU)
  3. 
  Cloning (PLC, TS)
  4. 
  Medical (TS, R&D)
  5. 
  Mutant Studies (HPD&MC, R&D)
  6. 
  Outdoor Studies (R&D, CPU)
  7. 
  Pharmatherapy (PLC, HPD&MC)
  8. 
  Subliminal Messaging (HPD&MC, 
  CPU)
  Assigned Access
  Armed Forces: 4
  CPU: 5
  HPD&MC: 3
  PLC: 8
  Tech Services: 4
  Power Services: 3
  R&D: 3
  IntSec: 5
  
  172
  PARANOIA: High Programmers
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS
  Index
   Mandatory Happiness Directive  4
  Abandoned Sector Reclamation Initia-
  tive  137
  Access Pool  18
  Acme Chemical Production  125
  Adam-U-NCH  149
  Adjust Skill Rolls  19
  Advertising Campaign  126
  Alpha Complex Space Agency  139
  Anti-Mutant  68
  Archives Department  113
  Armed Forces  107
  Armed Forces Friends Network  107
  Armed Forces Marching Band  109
  Armed Forces Portfolio Sheet  29
  Assassinations  48
  Assassins  48
  Assigned Access  18
  Atomic Science Ethical Experimenta-
  tion Directorate  132
  Attacking  47
  A Lot of Yellowpants  112
  Better Living Thru Chemistry Initiative  
  112
  Bi-location  59
  Bidding For Control  16
  Biological Niceness Indexers  131
  BLUE Shield Clone Assurance  126
  Bob-U-KNO  149
  Bodyguard Services  107
  Bot Repair & Maintenance  138
  Brand Loyalty Police  125
  Bright Vision Re-Education Centre 
  Treatment  120
  Budget Control  20
  Caucasus Complex  142
  Celebrity Lifestyle Documenters  119
  Central Processing  24
  Central Processing Portfolio Sheet  29
  Central Processing Unit (CPU)  110
  Charm  59
  Cheery Clean Complex Initiative  113
  Circuit Maintenance  127
  Citizen Gelber-Prime  149
  Citizen Replacement Program  4
  Clone Arrangers  69
  Clone Tank Support Services  136
  Codename: KILLBOT  132
  Combat Mind  59
  Commendable Deeds  50
  Communication  45
  Communists  70
  Complex Laser Association  69
  Complex Security Directive  3
  Computer Care Specialists  112
  Computer Phreaks  71
  Conspicuous Surveillance Initiative  
  123
  Copy Mutant Power  59
  Corpore Metal  72
  Cow Creamers  100
  Crawlspace Commandos  130
  Credit License Checkers  111
  Crowd Control (Armed Forces)  107
  Damage  47
  Death Leopard  72
  Deep Thought  60
  Department of Pipes & Tubes  137
  Department of Transbot Control  129
  Deputising and Delegation  19
  Directives  20
  Disastrous Hardware-Related Screwups  
  89
  Disastrous Management-Related 
  Screwups  88
  Disastrous Software-Related Screwups  
  89
  Disastrous Subterfuge-Related Screw-
  ups  88
  Disastrous Violence-Related Screwups  
  89
  Disastrous Wetware-Related Screwups  
  90
  Dome Cleaning Services  137
  Domination  60
  Doomsday Device  133, 169
  Drug Interaction Testers  131
  Earning Access  18
  Efﬁ ciency is Fun Mandate  4
  Electroshock  61
  Empathic Liar  61
  Empathy  61
  Enforced Reclamation & Recycling  126
  Equipment Assembly  125
  Experimental Equipment Field Testing  
  134
  Facilitation Division  123
  Facility Surveillance Control  116
  FCCC-P  73
  Field Logistics Advisors  125
  Food Vat Control  125
  Force Field  62
  Foreign Contaminant Containment  
  135
  Foreign Policy Strategic Working Group  
  114
  Forensic Analysis Scrubbot Team  120
  Form Facilitators  111
  Frankenstein Destroyers  74
  Free Enterprise  74
  Fuel Rod Disposal Consultants  128
  Gaining Access  18
  GAMMA Clearance  144
  Gatzmann Archive  148
  GM-Less Play  168
  Group Cards  23
  Hacking  39
  Hardware  11, 55
  Heroic Infantry  108
  High Clearances  36
  High Programmer Mission Structure  45
  Historical Artefact Identiﬁ cation and 
  Processing  134
  History Puriﬁ ers  116
  Horrible Drawbacks  15
  Housing Services Supply  117
  HPD& Mind Control Portfolio Sheet  30
  HPD & Mind Control  25, 115
  Humanists  75
  ICBM Launch  110
  Illuminati  144
  Information Manipulation  39
  Information Retrieval Specialists  123
  INFRARED Wranglers  118
  Injuries  48
  InternalSecurity  25
  Internal Security (IntSec)  119
  Internal Security Portfolio Sheet  30
  International Workers of the World  79
  IntSec Troopers  121
  Inventory System Updaters  125
  Jackbooted Thugs  122
  Lottie-U-WCD-3  150
  Low Clearances  35
  Loyalty Surveyors  120
  Machine Empathy  62
  
  173
  INDEX
  Management  11
  Management Focus  112
  Management Specialties  52
  Mandatory Break Monitors  114
  Mandatory Fun Time Enthusiasts  119
  Mark IV Warbot  110
  Mass Combat  48
  Maurice-U-GNP  149
  Medical Services (Meds)  136
  Megastructure Construction Planning 
  Permission  138
  Memory Blur  62
  Men in INDIGO  123
  Meritorious Behaviour  9
  Middle Clearances  36
  Mind & Market Control Initiative  4
  Minion Control  20
  Minion Costs  21
  Monster  62
  Multi-Level Play  168
  Mutant Mastery  11
  Mutant Powers  58
  Mutant Power Table  12
  Mutant Registration  123
  Mutation  11, 49
  Mystics  76
  News Services  116
  New Flavour of Bouncy Bubble Bever-
  age  126
  New Transtube Planning Commission  
  129
  Non-speciﬁ c Unit Production  138
  Obtaining Minions  21
  Ofﬁ cer Brigade  108
  Open Communication  45
  Outdoor Rangers  108
  Outside Broadcast Unit  139
  Paint Control  136
  Paying for Minions  21
  Personal Combat  47
  Peter-U-ENM  149
  Playing The Computer  80
  PLC Accounts Co-Ordination  126
  Pneumatic Tube Network Engineers  
  128
  Portfolio Sheets  23
  Power Services  27, 127
  Power Services Portfolio Sheet  31
  Private Communication  45
  Private Scenes  45
  Processing  131
  Production, Logistics & Commissary  26
  Production, Logistics & Commissary 
  (PLC)  124
  Production, Logistics & Commissary 
  Portfolio Sheet  31
  Programming  82
  Program Group  66
  Program Groups  7
  Program Group & Secret Societies  13
  Provocateurs  121
  Pro Tech  76
  Psion  76
  Public Hating Coordination  116
  Public Scenes  45
  Public Standing  17, 51
  PURGE  77
  Random Crisis Generator  95
  Reactor Management Commission  129
  Reactor Shielding Volunteer Corps  130
  Reformists  93
  Regeneration  63
  Registered Mutants  58
  Registering your Mutation  13
  Research & Design (R&D)  130
  Research & Development  26
  Research & Development Portfolio 
  Sheet  32
  Romantics  77
  Runners  78
  Running a Crisis  91
  Sample Crises  92
  Scrubbot Army  138
  Secret Societies  13, 64
  Secret Society Missions  99
  Secure Security Checkpoint Checkers  
  121
  Security  49
  Security System Installers  135
  Security Technology Technicians  131
  Sensitivity Trainers  108
  Servants of Cthulhu  78
  Service Group Directives  98
  Service Group Specialities  52
  Shapeshift  63
  Sierra Club  78
  Silicon Corridor  134
  Singalong Agents  117
  Situation Room Scenes  44
  Skills  11
  Slime Identiﬁ cation  136
  Social Networking  38
  Software  11, 22, 56
  Specialities  22
  Specialties  52
  Special Environment Clone Laborato-
  ries  134
  Spending Access  17
  Stella-U-DNT  149
  Subliminals Police  117
  Subterfuge  11, 22, 53
  Summary Providers  114
  tables and charts
  Tension levels by location  47
  Technically Non-Lethal Weapons  135
  Technical Services  27, 135
  Technical Services Portfolio Sheet  33
  Tech Support  137
  Telekinesis  63
  Telepathy  63
  Teleportation  63
  Temporary Filing Staff  119
  Tension levels  46
  The Armed Forces  24
  The Battle Hymn of Alpha Complex  
  110
  The Movement  75
  Think Tank Consultants  133
  Threat Assessors (IntSec)  121
  Total Surveillance Assurance  121
  Toxic Environment Team  130
  Trafﬁ c Patrol  122
  Transportation Bottalion  109
  Treasonous Behaviour  9
  Treasonous Deeds  50
  Trend Identiﬁ ers  117
  Troubleshooters  140
  Trusted Citizen Initiative  4
  Tweaks  39
  ULTRAVIOLET  37
  Unavoidable Delay Excuse Table  129
  Uncanny Luck  64
  Uses of Access  18
  Vat Maintenance & Control  140
  Vault Recovery Team  130
  Vermin Terminators  140
  Violence  11, 22, 54
  Volunteer Collection Agencies  111
  VultureCraft Assault Squadron  110
  Vulture Squadron Recruiters  108
  Vulture Squadron Warriors  109
  Wetware  11, 22, 57
  
  TRUST THE COMPUTER! THE COMPUTER IS YOUR FRIEND!
  You are a High Programmer, trusted to administer Alpha Complex and even program The Computer itself.
  You are not alone. You are part of a committee of High Programmers. This will be fun. Your duties are to solve 
  crises, eliminate traitors and make everyone happy. Happiness is Mandatory. The Computer says so. If people 
  are not happy, this too is your fault and The Computer will use you as reactor shielding.
  To solve crises, you have lots of ﬂ unkies, servants, spies, agents, minions and Troubleshooters. Many of these 
  are Communists, mutants and traitors who cause yet more crises. Once again, this is your fault. Your only 
  chance to survive is blame everything on the other High Programmers. They probably deserve it, anyway.
  STAY ALERT! TRUST NO ONE! KEEP YOUR ARMY OF BODYGUARDS HANDY!
  HIGH PROGRAMMERS is a whole new way to play PARANOIA. Taking on the roles of ULTRAVIOLET-clearance 
  High Programmers, the players get to backstab each other with more ﬁ repower, more experimental gadgets and 
  more bureaucracy than ever before. See how the rich, famous and treacherous of Alpha Complex live!
  PARANOIA IS FUN. OTHER GAMES ARE NOT FUN. BUY PARANOIA.
  ™
  High Programmers and PARANOIA Copyright © 1983, 1987, 2010 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-
  978-1-907218-09-5
  1-907218-09-5 $39.9
  $39.99 
  MONGOOSE PUBLISHING—SWINDON, U
  MONGOOSE PUBLISHING—SWINDON, UK 
  MGP 
  MGP 6672
  6672
  For use with PARANOIA
  For Gamemasters, 
  not players!
  PARANOIA
  A world ﬁ t for Kafka, Orwell 
  and the Marx Brothers
  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.
  High Programmers
  High Programmers
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Paranoia [multi]/25th Anniversary/Paranoia 25th - High Programmers.pdf