Your Mission
The Computer has generated the following mission for your team. It has been carefully designed to ensure the maximum safety and satisfaction for your team.
Paranoia is the Irrational Fear Someone is Out To Get You
(Fear) Dominant type of fear to install in the PCs: Alpha Complex is just a simulation; nothing is physically real.(Irrational) General kind of weirdness or irregularity that prompts The Computer to assign a mission to the Troubleshooters: The Computer has decreed a new holiday with odd customs and practices, and everyone knows about it but the PCs.
(Someone) Person, people, organization or agency responsible for the situation: A High Programmer who mis-programmed a CompNode so badly the entire node must be re-imaged and rebooted (the situation is cover for this.) (The identity of the Someone need not be obvious at the mission's outset, and in fact things may play out more appropriately if the Someone is not discovered until late in the proceedings.)
(Out To Get You) General apparent threat posed by the situation, or the consequences if the situation is left unresolved: A minor malfunction in YELLOW (Tension 9) empty bathroom (change Tension level to 20) may grow into a major problem. The PCs must fix the malfunction and deal with the problems already created. The threat is a lie.
(Out To Get You) General real threat posed by the situation, or the consequences if the situation is left unresolved: The "Someone" believes (accurately?) the PCs are assassins sent to kill him; he tries to kill them first. Meanwhile, the PCs must complete their mission.
Mission Alert: A drugged INFRARED vulture weapon practice assistant acting as a courier delivers alert hardcopy; seeks 10cr 'tip' for the delivery. Briefing location is wrong. The information is obscured by advertising (pop-up ad, jingle, viral marketing, etc.). Sponsoring advertiser may possibly have record of unaltered alert.
Briefing: Briefing is in crowded food production area (IR-Y: Food Vats, G-U: hydroponic gardens). Bureaucratic snafu assigns briefing officer to the room below the PCs; won't join PCs for fear of violating orders; shouts at the top of his voice to be heard, or conveys briefing information by notes, courier, Morse code, etc..
This Mission: Evacuate technicians from the reactor at BLUE (Tension 14) crowded Research & Design waiting room. Of course the radiation levels are safe-but hurry.
Outfitting: C-Bay or other online auction site: Price: 10% over list price. Delivery: drop point 30 minutes away (YELLOW (Tension 10) Humanists meeting room (it's empty)). Computer Phreak prankster breaks in during each bid the PCs make, taunting them and deriding their equipment and mission.
Debriefing: The debriefing officer is dead on arrival, seated at an empty desk in a plain room, and no one arrives to replace him.
Find weird phrasing, clearly erroneous output, or other signs of filthy commie mutant traitor sabotage? Copy the offending passages and email them to the High Programmer for investigation.