The director uses this feature only for special occasions: unusual brutality, bribe-taking, etc. Waiting room Tension level 10 Imagine an airport passenger lounge for an Aeroot ight delayed three days, or a bus station in the outer vestibule of Dantes Inferno. There it is: the Happy Homecoming waiting room. The ceiling of the waiting room is 35 meters up and partly lost in shadow, giving the impression a lot more security equipment could swing down from the rafters.
Transparent bulletproof plastic covers uorescent lights built into the dented metal walls. The bright lights cast a greenish pallor over everything. Multiply- redundant, shielded camera banks halfway up the wall track every movement. Happy elevator music plays quietly over the loudspeakers.
An ugly smell pervades the air. Yesterday a prisoner tried to escape via the restrooms, located in one corner of the waiting room oor. One of the combots gunned him down, unfortunately destroying the facilities in the process not a great concern for a bot.
The restrooms are now chunky slag. Headsweepers: Gear-l i ke mechani sms attached to articulated metal arms sweep the room just below the ceiling. These jointed metal arms, Headsweepers, are tipped with spinning rotary blades W3K impact, armor-piercing that circle the perimeter of the room on a gear track. The four Headsweepers cast weird, spinning shadows on the oor below, but are completely silent. Theyre IntSecs response to a previous jailbreak during which Commie traitors used Tanglers and Adhesive Skin to drop from the ceiling and liberate prisoners.
The Troubleshooters must maintain and repair these Headsweepers as part of their service service for IntSec, as described under Outtting. Homecoming cells Tension level 10 Five-meter-tall transparent panels divide the far half of the oor into a hundred small holding cells, open at the top.
Passages connect these homecoming cells to the termination booths. The cell panels are made of a material called pyrolex, which is by careful design not a shieldquite the opposite, in fact: If an intense energy- or heat-based attack not something as mild as boiling water, but most any weapon hits pyrolex, it bursts in an explosive pyroclastic spray S3K impact, armor-piercing that releases nasty lung-searing biotoxins O3K bio.
Chances are goodsay, target number 14 maybe? Does 14 sound good, GM? Get a chain reaction going, and youve handily obviated the need for termination booths. Even better, a couple of IntSec service rms with sweetheart contracts will pick up nice prots for replacing the destroyed cells. Pyrolex is quite common in Internal Security centers. Any PC with the Chemical Engineering specialty knows about its deadly effects.
Termination room Tension level 18 The four termination booths are windowless steel cabins like human-sized thermos bottles. Recycling Specialists place a traitor in the booth, close the gasketed door and push a big red button on a simple console. A red Occupied light over the door blinks on. There is a whirring noise for a few seconds, then the fwoosh of water ushing. The sound stops and the green Vacant light blinks on. Inside, the booth is empty and gleaming clean.
The entire procedure takes one minute. Girded in steel on three sides armor value 5 , the termination room has no exits except the holding cell passages, the termination booths themselves and a bolted door at the south end of the room, guarded by a combot sentry.
The door locks automatically during prisoner riots or mayhem. Beyond the door is a tunnel leading to a gangway. At the top of the stairs, a locked steel trapdoor leads to a lunch area with two metal tables bolted to the oor and 12 plastic chairs. For the staffs lunchtime entertainment, a wallscreen shows vid feeds from the IntSec interrogation chambers upstairs. Happy Homecoming staff George-B-RTW-9 Termination center director Description: Medium height, with a bland, round face and remote brown eyes that would not stand out in a crowd.
Ar-tic-u-lates his word-ing ver-y pre-cise-ly and blinks rapidly when speaking at length. Service group: IntSec commander Secret society: Illuminati, 10th degree; cover society: Anti-Mutant, 15th degree Background: IntSec, the service group itself and not a service rm, still runs most termination centers. New Patriot has offered George-B a plum job and promotion if he can quietly show IntSec- run centers are inefcient.
Thus hes happy to keep the line backed up, as long as he himself isnt seen to be responsible. If he has to shift the blame to a few of his own ofcers and have them terminated, well, they knew the job was dangerous when they signed up.
Actually, when they got drafted. Well, to be totally accurate, they didnt know the job was dangerous, inasmuch as they got assigned in infancy a few moments after decanting. But anyway. Her green uniform is impeccable, her speech brusque, often with implied rudeness. Service group: IntSec lieutenant Secret society: Corpore Metal, 5th degree Background: Jessica-Gs severe, no-nonsense attitude drove her up through the ranks, and her resulting position at the termination center made her an ideal agent for Corpore Metal.
She plans for the day when she can upload her personality into a termination booth, perform the deed herself on prisoners and compute pi during downtime. Meanwhile, she wouldnt be averse to seeing George-B demoted, but she doesnt dare do anything overtly against him until he proves himself incompetent or traitorous.
If she catches the PCs planning such an incident, she might look the other way. Always grumpy, as if theyve been sitting in hard, uncomfortable chairs all day. Humphrey-R-BDA-9 Janitor Description: An extremely hygienic middle-aged man of medium height, blond hair and blue eyes, whose teeth sparkle in the termination center lighting.
Smiles and chats easily. Service firm: IntSecTermination Center Janitorial, SecuraClean Secret society: Humanists, 4th degree Background: Sometimes a prisoner doesnt react well to stomach blows, or a little leakage runs out of the termination booths.
Humphrey-Rs there to clean it up and get things working right. Nothing fazes Humphrey-R. A people person, he enjoys chatting with the soon-to-be-terminated, trying to cheer them up. Humphrey-Rs an IntSec veteran but with the attitude of a retiree; his old habits of interrogation die hard, but theyre put to a more pleasant use as a janitor.
He might also know a few old codes that unlock doors around the center. Itd be darn hard to bribe Humphrey-R, though he may take a shine to the Troubleshooters hygiene ofcer.
His current fond wish is to get back to the barracks in time to watch the Vulture Culture Hour. What a genial old guy! A bioweapons accident aged him prematurely and addled his brain, and even now hes sort ofyou knowcontagious. In a termination center he does less harm than elsewhere; his disease takes days or weeks to manifest, by which time the patrons have long since been happily Homecominged.
Troubleshooters, though, may wonder why the termination center staff steers so far clear of good old Humphrey-R. Service group: IntSec Secret societies: Anti-Mutant, 1st; Death Leopard, 1st; Pro Tech, 1st Background: These clowns, though zealous to press the Little Red Button and watch the lights on the termination panel display, are the rst to hide when violence starts.
When confronted with the re in the holding cells, the prisoner riots and the gun-toting fanaticism of the PURGErs see The attack below , they tend to curl up into little balls and scream for their caretaker.
The Troubleshooters nd it difcult to get them to think clearly under pressure Intimidation or Interrogation help. Combots 10 These ten giant, fearsome, faceless bots on halftrack treads disintegrate traitors who step out of line. Each combot has a built-in energy rie and power supply W3V, shots, skill 18 and built-in battle armor 6.
Tech Services constructed these combots here in this room. Theyre too large to leave by the elevator. They have old bot brains formerly housed in jackobots and programmed to serve drinks.
Even now, the combots may take issue with the Troubleshooters methods of drink serving. When a combot offers authoritative and forceful advice on proper pouring techniques, everyone listens. About half sit in the cells of the homecoming chambers and half in the waiting room, jammed together at combot gunpoint. Despite the greenish lighting, its a colorful sight, unique in Alpha Complex: Prisoners of all security clearances almost all RED and above stand or crouch together in their clearance-appropriate jumpsuit hues, variously fearful, desperate, surly or sullen depending on how often their clones have been through this before.
The smell that wafts forth from this lot doubtless alarms the Troubleshooters hygiene ofcer. Of the traitors waiting for their Happy Homecoming, many have an angle to get free. These desperate schemes require an inside accomplice, for denitions of inside that include random Troubleshooter. Each traitor promises a large bribe and other incentives to the individual Troubleshooter who springs him from the termination center.
This section describes eight of these traitors, listed by secret society. Use these as inspiration to develop similar prisoners who belong to your PCs societies. All the societies and most degrees are represented among these traitors. Each one tries subtle recognition signals to connect with the Troubleshooter who shares his society. Though these descriptions suggest society degrees, feel free to raise a traitors degree so he can give orders to the hapless PC.
Enjoy your refreshing beverages, or else! Or you could say theyre all there for the crime of belonging to a secret society. That ought to make the players gulp. Unauthorized cyborging, the implantation of cybernetic machine parts in humans, is illegal. Termination center staff removed a bioplate from the nape of her neck, revealing some circuitry, so she cannot pretend to be human. Her false robotic arm conceals an as-yet undiscovered needle gun. Inga-Y has a weird, dissonant sense of humor and a barking laugh.
Of course, even if Inga-Y is on the level unlikely unless the Troubleshooter shares her secret society , Corpore Metal wont leave bot brains in the hands of a low-clearance Troubleshooter for long. Plus, trying to fence bot brains in Alpha Complex is like crossing a mineeld on a pogostick. With his impending termination, what ordinarily would be a relaxed smile is a tight grin. The pitch: For his get-out-of-jail-free card, Martin-G offers a fortune in hard-currency credits.
He sounds much like a Nigerian banking scam Dear friend, I write to you on a matter of utmost urgency. If the Troubleshooter will just get him out of the termination center, Martin-G will tell him where to nd caches of hard-currency credits earned in the line of duty. Unfortunately, all the credits are bugged, leading IntSec directly to whomever has them.
Shes earnest, friendly, helpful and nave: the perfect fall-gal for the PCs frame-ups. Believe it or not, shes actually innocent; she was framed for bugging, then rumpling the sheets of, the neatly made bed of an ORANGE Clearance citizen. The pitch: Susan weeps easily and sweetly when she thinks of her impending death, and pleads with the Troubleshooter to help her.
She has nothing to offer except deep gratitude, not a popular currency in Alpha Complex. Dont raise her degree; she cant offer anything or command anything. Behind the faade, the Troubleshooter may detect in Mary-O a steely determination to get out of the termination center alive. The pitch: Mary-O si ts back wi th the Troubleshooter and starts a rambling story of her past exploits, particularly how she was recycled in her previous clone forms. Before long, apropos of nothing, Mary-O suddenly tries to secure the Troubleshooters jailbreaking service in return for her cache of Benetridin Videoland and Rolactin Happy Life stashed away in a distant maintenance locker.
His manner is arrogant, threatening and supercilious toward regular mutants. The pi tch: Mart i n-G s uni que power, Heightened State, lets him induce ecstasy or pain in a specied target. He uses these briey on his target Troubleshooter to coerce his cooperation. See the boxed Heightened State description nearby.
Blandly Martin-G offers to use Heightened State once a month for a year on any target the Troubleshooter species. This might be useful, for example, in creating evidence another character has gone off his hormone suppressants ecstatic state , or in threatening an enemy pain state.
Or the Troubleshooter could use it on himself for an unparalleled buzz. If you like, Martin-G may also covertly use his Heightened State power on the euthanasia technicians, to mysteriously delay the termination process. The techs go in to push the big red button; they experience agonizing pain; they soon become convinced theres an equipment malfunction, and they wont terminate anybody until its fixed.
The traitor backup continues, threatening the PCs with the prospect of a severe drink shortage. Supervisor Jessica-G may draft the Troubleshooters to investigate this mysterious malfunction. Hes furious at those Internal Security vatslimes for catching him. When you look in his eyes, you know he could kill you without a second thought. The pitch: Dan-B bargains matter-of-factly for his life, always with a just perceptible edge of threat in his voice. In exchange for help escaping, he offers his weapons and armor cache, consisting of several types of bioweapons, two tanglers, a neurowhip and blue reec armor.
Heightened State Similar to Mental Blast, Heightened State lets the mutant stimulate agonizing or ecstatic brain activity in a single organic being within a ve-meter radius until the end of the next round. Bots are unaffected. The character declares which state he wants the target to experience, and the GM makes a hidden Power roll. Success means the target must make a Violence roll to resist the effect.
You may wish to impose modiers to the Violence roll based on the success margin of the mutants Power roll. If the target fails his Violence roll, he suffers acute mental agony or ecstasy.
If his roll succeeds, he feels a ash of mental discomfort or joy but experiences no effects. If the Power roll fails, the effects of the mental blast are more unpredictable.
Sometimes the mutant himself is stunned or knocked unconscious. Sometimes the victims brain explodes, or he turns into a pleasantly drooling goober. Sometimes it seems as though nothing happens, but citizens in neighboring sectors pass out while operating heavy machinery or nuclear reactors, or they start a Woodstock-sized lovefest. The incidents mentioned here are detailed in the section The attack that starts on the next page.
She is aware of the PCs mission, but asks for details and identication anyway. Shes a stickler for rules, and she wants to give them a hard time. A Corpore Metal member, Jessica-G secretly sees the PCs missionincreasing prisoner happiness through application of beveragesas yet more evidence of pathetic human frailty.
After questioning them, Jessica-G orders the PCs to transport the concession materials to the center of the waiting room oor, where GREEN guards will clear a space for them to serve beverages. Jessica-G hasnt been informed of the Troubleshooters service service duty deodorizing the bathroom and repairing the Headsweeper.
If they ask about it and show her their supplies, she can guess the duty, but shes reluctant to turn them loose on it without authorization from director George-B.
Shell get that while they serve drinks. If a Troubleshooter gives the recognition signal for Corpore Metal, she pulls him aside while the others are setting up the concession stand, and orders him to add sour pseudolactate fungal residue to the PerkyLators.
She not only enjoys seeing the prisoners march into the termination booths, she wants to see them go with sour stomachs. Unfortunately, the pseudolactate fungal residue the PCs received from PLC is goodgood in the sense it doesnt actively cause stomach upset. To follow Jessica-Gs order I do not care how you do it; just do it! Members of their secret societies covertly approach the various PCs, offering recognition signals, seeking escape.
Some prisoners stay away from the beverage cart and may require the PCs to solicit them. Serving an individual prisoner takes 30 seconds, because the regulation requires the Troubleshooters to serve in a gracious and courteous manner. If they fail to be gracious and courteous, the combots graciously and courteously threaten to blow them away. The logistics of sharing cart supplies means three PCs can use one cart. Hey, what could go wrong?
The janitor, Humphrey-R, chats briey with the PCs. If they havent already found out their service service, he correctly surmises theyre supposed to deodorize the destroyed bathroom and repair the Headsweepers.
If the PCs have already started on their duty, Jessica-G berates them loudly for acting without authorization and nes the offenders credits apiece. She then orders them to perform whatever part of the service they havent yet performed.
Skipping recognition signals and secrecy, he openly, brazenly requests their help in escaping. He offers the weapon cache listed in his description under Cast, and says refusing to help him may bring consequences.
Computer Phreak hackers put the Troubleshooters first on the termination manifest. The goons bring the PCs before director George-B, then drag them to the termination booths. Six soldiers open a hole over the waiting room oor, while the other three open a second hole in the lookout platform ceiling. Using cone ries with ECM shells, the soldiers immediately destroy eight of the centers ten combots, the ones stationed on the waiting room oor.
The two remaining combots, in the termination room, are unharmed. A Headsweeper kills a third soldier. On the lookout, two soldiers open the trapdoor, storm down the gangway and blow open the door with a shaped charge.
The remaining soldier heads to di rector George-B s offi ce to assassinate him. George-B waits until the assassin gets into his ofce, blasts him with Mental Blast and calmly shoots him. Then, with the battle raging, George-B closes his door, kicks back and watches a vidshow.
He wants the termination center to appear inefcient, as long as he himself wont get blamed, so he intends to claim the PURGEr held him hostage until the battles end.
The cells start to explode, one by one S3K impact armor-piercing, O3K bio , down the line toward the termination room. The burning homecoming cells sit between the Troubleshooters, their secret society contacts and their refreshment carts. The janitor and euthanasia staff are trapped with them.
Prisoners riot or try to escape. The remai ni ng combots and goons try to stop the uprising. Whether a particular prisoner escapes depends on whether a Troubleshooter helps him. All the soldiers turn to that task, while Dan-B escapes. He bemoans his impending death because hell be missing the monthly Second Twosday Secret Hooping Congress. The pitch: While whispering to the PC about Oola-Hoops, Clarence-Y offers to provide the location of a cache of priceless Old Reckoning artifacts, including a vintage pink Oola-Hoop and a pay phone, if the Troubleshooter can just get him to the Hooping Congress tonight.
Her eyes are wide and panicked, darting about as if shes trying to think of something. Shes brusque in conversation but, as the last clone in her pack, she tries to overlay that tendency with pleasant conversation to convince the Troubleshooter shes worth saving. The technique just results in an offhanded and aloof conversation about the temperature controls.
The pitch: Laura-O knows a way to get Outside, and says she has a base out there. If the Troubleshooter frees her, she can bring him to her base and be free of Alpha Complex. In reality Laura-O is an IntSec plant, and if the Troubleshooter agrees to help, she immediately arrests him and puts him in line for termination center processing.
The attack Here is one way you can stage the missions climactic battle. See the boxed timeline on the previous page for a suggested sequence of events. While the Troubleshooters busily meet their beverage-serving quotasmile cheerily, ll out their quota forms, perform their service services and covertly handle desperate pleas from secret society contactsthe Computer Phreaks are also at work.
Hackers add the Troubleshooters names to the termination centers manifest of traitors. Worse, the PCs are at the front of the line. Why do the Phreaks want to terminate the PCs? Maybe this is part of a shadowy larger scheme by an unseen enemy.
Or maybe you dont care. After all, you dont intend to tell the players anything, right? With the change in the manifest, the hackers also fake an alert to the GREEN goons, who pull the Troubleshooters away from their beverage carts thereby hurting their beverage quota and escort them to director George-B for processing. George-B isnt what youd call sympathetic, but he patiently listens to the problem. He believes the Troubleshooters, and mentions IntSec has had problems with data security one more reason to privatize these centers, I say.
Still, the bureaucracy required to x the manifests the approvals neededGeorge-B shudders demurely. He chooses the path of least resistance: The Troubleshooters will submit to termination and well sort it out with your next clone. The goons grab the Troubleshooters by the ears and attempt to drag them to the termination room.
The goons clap resisters in plastic handcuffs and stun them with electroprods. The prods, newly refurbished with the rubber handles the Troubleshooters just delivered, stun the target for one round; a stunned target is still conscious and can speak weakly but cant do anything physical. Bombs away! After the hackers change the manifest, if things have stalled or gone too fast, stage the climactic attack. They have crawled through a ventilation duct from a long-abandoned section of IntSec headquarters contaminated with radioactivity decades ago in a tacnuke mishap.
The squad has two strike teams. Alpha team, with three soldiers, attacks the lookout platform. Just go with us, and if theres a mistake, well clear it up with your next clone. With expert timing the two teams simultaneously blow holes in the ceiling with cone ries ring HEAP shells. From behind the blast shields, the remaining two soldiers destroy the waiting room combots with high-power ECM equipment. Then they open the trapdoor and move down to the oor, where they blow open the security door using shaped explosive charges.
Bravo team descends to the waiting room on guylines, wielding slugthrowers and other weapons as you choose, mowing down GREEN goons with high-velocity ammo. They have reprogrammed the heavy armament banks above the lights; no heavy weapons are ring.
One Headsweeper takes out one PURGE soldier in a messy spray that sprinkles everyone in the waiting room with ecks of intestine and ruins their beverages. Their shots set off the pyrolex homecoming chambers, causing chain-reactive bursts of slag to advance slowly, suspensefully toward the termination booths.
Or meet the quota? The Troubleshooters see all this from the termination room. Janitor Humphrey-R has the presence of mind to help the PCs, should they manage to ally with him. The termination center euthanasia specialists have more on their minds than helping or hindering Troubleshooters namely, panic. This gives the PCs several escape options that we can think of : Con Humphrey-R into using his codes to open one of the bolted doors around the center. Hide until the action dies down, at the expense of the beverage quota.
Con a combot into escorting them to safe quarters so they can be terminated properly later on. If youre feeling perverse, the combot they try to persuade is a Corpore Metal member. The moredaringPCs might disable the termination booth consoles and then hide in the termination booths themselves.
Sure, no way anything could go wrong with that plan. Try to get a termination booth oor open for flushing and wriggle out that way. No promises where the escapees end upWaste Recycling? The sewers? Once they reach the waiting room oor, try to remove the slag burying the restrooms and descend into the bowels you knew that pun was coming of the waste removal system.
Of course conscientious PCs should still be trying to meet quota by serving beverages to the dead, the dying and the generally panicked. PCs interesting obstacles to springing their secret society contactsand certainly to meeting their beverage quota. Once the chaos starts, the prisoners in the waiting room but not the other trapped in the pyrolex cells suddenly realize this is their chance and they riot or race to the trapdoor below the platform their single route of escape.
If the Troubleshooters have reached the waiting room floor, they may now help their contacts, but keep in mind the remaining two combots and any surviving GREEN goons aim to prevent the prisoners escape. No prisoner important to the storyline can escape without a Troubleshooters direct assistance.
Meanwhile, the holding cells of the homecoming chambers are exploding toxically, torching numerous prisoners who come staggering out of their cells half-alive, gasping and beseeching the Troubleshooters for help. Also, the Troubleshooters refreshment-serving quota is nose-diving, and the equipment is getting dented. If they make it to the lookout platform, the PCs might try to hole up in director George-Bs steel- walled ofce.
Its currently Tension level 0; the director has turned off surveillance so no one will see him casually watching a vidshow. George-B calmly killed the assassin with a laser blast, then closed his door.
He hopes this current debacle will prove the unworthiness of IntSec to run its own termination centers, so the service rm New Patriot Solutions can take over.
This is what unauthorized combat drugs do to you! These Death Leopard traitors amaze me. Luckily the drugs took effect just a moment ago, and I managed to shoot him. If George-B hears them entering, the PCs nd the director panting after an obvious struggle with the traitor.
In any case, the director sends the PCs back out to the waiting room to put down the prisoner revolt in a full frontal assault. If they succeed, hell postpone their termination while he investigates why theyre on the manifest.
They try to pull him from the waiting room oor and escape through the ceiling hole. Hanging above the waiting room on lines, the PURGErs have a clear line of sight anywhere in the center except the directors ofce and the high-security hallways below the platform.
As ruthless amoral terrorists, they are of course happy to comply with Dan-Bs command. Unlike most Paranoia bo [ See All Ratings and Reviews.
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Well, you might create this sheet template yourself easily. However, if you are busy, it is best to download a printable character sheet template on our web. Several character worksheets exist here for different ideas and designs. And Alpha Complex is a utopia. Why is it a utopia? Because Friend Computer says so.
Yes, clones. Friend Computer did away with all that icky biological reproduction stuff made sure to be gone with hormone repressants and implemented a new way to create its citizens: cloning. Each citizen is given six clones; you all are on number one. If you should happen to die, the next fills in. It is possible, if you have enough credits, to buy another six-pack, but you guys will get nowhere near that point today.
And, as Friend Computer wisely decreed, any citizen must obey the orders of a citizen of higher security clearance. Failure to do so is treason. Treason is punishable by summary execution. Trouble 1. There are those who want to destroy Friend Computer's gift to all clones. They are Commie Mutant Traitors, citizens, and if you find one, terminate it. Just make sure you have evidence.
Commie Mutant Traitors are a scourge on Alpha Complex and must be erradicated. Both are treason, punishable by summary execution. And, as you look on the back, secret side of your character sheet that you do NOT want your fellow citizens to see, you will see that, being loyal citizens, obviously none of you has a mutation or is in a secret society, just as the vast majority of clones.
If you wish to have more information about the mutation you don't have or the secret society you're not in, consult the page in front of you. If you wish to use your nonexistant mutation or contact your nonexistant secret society, either use the post-it notes or pull me aside so that the team doesn't shoot you down.
OOC is no more, citizens. Failure to report treason is treason. Gameplay 1. At your clearance, knowledge of most of the rules is treason. But, I will let you know this. Under them you have many specialties. Some of them you are specialized in; others you are weak in.
You will usually want to roll under the displayed number, except for the times that you don't.
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