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: An Old Reckoning atlas dated 2097 the PCs cherish will be destroyed.(Irrational) General kind of weirdness or irregularity that prompts The Computer to assign a mission to the Troubleshooters: Everyone in Alpha Complex behaves in an inexplicably fearful and alarmed way toward all PCs.
(Someone) Person, people, organization or agency responsible for the situation: A lone Communist. (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: The Computer believes something horrible has happened, but gives the PCs no details, and forbids them to tell anyone for fear of starting a panic. The threat is real.
Mission Alert: Relayed through a public confession booth, read in the scrolling "Credit Due" message on a vending machine or overheard in a communal area. Briefing location is wrong. The alert itself is damaging-text message contains software virus that crashes PDC or vidscreen, physical alert has toxins or is radioactive, etc.
Briefing: Briefing is in empty enviro conditioning duct. Officer skims through the entire briefing as if he expects those present to know all details already, then walks out without allowing questions.
This Mission: The termination center system at RED (Tension 5) PURGE meeting room (has meeting in progress, meeting members recognize a PC as one of their own, welcome him) has gone down. Repair it and determine the cause.
Outfitting: PLC: A Monty Python "Cheese Shop" warehouse; nothing is actually in stock. Staffers are proud of their multiple awards for cleanliness and efficiency.
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.