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: The PCs' service firms or secret societies are endangered.(Irrational) General kind of weirdness or irregularity that prompts The Computer to assign a mission to the Troubleshooters: Changed perceptions only certain characters (YELLOW sector chemical hazard assayer (physical threat, amicable, self-interested, ordinary)), including one or more PCs. The changed perception is sight.
(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: An exterior force will conquer Alpha Complex. The Computer dispatches the Troubleshooters to intercept the force. 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: Surplus Armed Forces weaponry floods the IR market. Citizens (INFRARED sector roadway maintenance worker (information source, psychotic, kill-crush-smash-destroy); ORANGE troubleshooter veteran (disabled) (indifferent bystander, dreamy, dazed, probably a Mystic); RED autobot recharger (information source, gullible (worryingly lacking in paranoia))) happily demonstrate their new armaments in many locations (INDIGO (Tension 15) crowded hangar (or other large room); RED (Tension 5) refugee traitors making a hardscrabble living in the sewers in the Underplex ; RED (Tension 6) crowded dining area (IR: mess hall; R-Y: cafeteria; G-B: dining room; I-U: dining hall)).
Mission Alert: Text message on PDC. Message is intact and correct.
Briefing: Briefing is in inside Alpha Complex dome . Briefing officer sits with his back to the PCs; he passes notes to a terrified Infrared citizen, who reads them aloud.
This Mission: Irate RED citizens are trying to break into a Central Processing Unit facility in ORANGE (Tension 8) underground lake. Prevent them from entering until reinforcements arrive.
Outfitting: Infrared Market: An R&D-sponsored market. Every item "improved," although not in a way PCs or marketeers suspect. Costs only slightly above normal.
Debriefing: The debriefing officer stands behind a massive, blast-shielded podium flanked by blue Vulture troopers with plasma generators, while the PCs sit in brilliant interrogation spotlights that look disconcertingly like bullseyes.
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.