I've really been enjoying these forum games where everybody takes one character and makes suggestions for what he should do. I've also wanted to run a game of Paranoia on the forums. So I'm mashing the two of them together.
Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to post a sign-up sheet below. Your job is to fill out the requested information. Once we have several entries, I'll put up a poll and we'll figure out which character we want to use. At that point we'll determine the more gamey parts, like skill levels and such.
Don't feel discouraged if your character doesn't become the main character. I intend to use as many of them as possible, as NPCs. So go nuts!
What is Paranoia?
I'm putting this here because it's possible some of you don't know what Paranoia is.
In Paranoia, you play a clone living in a sprawling, subterranean facility called Alpha Complex. There really isn't an official backstory (since the characters wouldn't have access to any accurate data on the subject anyway), but they have written a so-called "Halfway-Plausible Origin".
Following a massive global die-off some decades in our future, surviving nations signed a World Charter and created the Polity, the first effective world government. In the ensuing Age of Peace, humanity established colonies on Mars, in the asteroids and in orbital habitats elsewhere in the Sol System.
All went well until lunar observatories noted a planetoid about the size of Sheboygan WI within the orbit of Saturn, moving inward towards the Sun- and Earth. Brave attempts to divert or destroy the planetoid were futile. The Polity declared a global emergency. Millions fled to Earth's colonies. In North America, Ground Zero for the imminent collision, the Polity hastily built a vast shelter in Des Moines IA, and smaller complexes elsewhere across the continent. From all cities, people came to the shelter to hide and pray. The Earth awaited the end.
The planetoid approached Earth. Deep in Russian Siberia an antiquated ICBM site, a quaint tourist attraction and reminder of a less civilized age, identified the approaching rock mass as an incoming missile. Automated routines launched a counterstrike. A single missile, it's warhead removed decades earlier, streaked from it's ancient silo and arced toward its target, designated in the forgotten Cold War: San Francisco.
The great domed city of San Francisco, a jewel of the Age of Peace, covered much of coastal North California. Like all major cities in North America, it administered vital services through a global artificial intelligence known as Alpha Complex. Alpha Complex was legacy software, a network of compatible subsystems created by a powerful software monopoly before the die-off. (We'll call it Not-Microsoft)
An Alpha Complex traffic control subcenter tracked the missile and properly signaled for someone to take a look. No one did. (The population of San Francisco was understandably proccupied awaiting the end.) The subcenter then alerted Alpha Complex. Alpha Complex could not identify the missile, and contacted the North American computer center, Alpha Prime. But, the Polity had moved most of Alpha Prime's data files to Des Moines. In it's memory banks the master system could find no mail missile with the incoming objects configuration. The massive computer scanned its vast data banks, searching for relevant files, throwing millions of system errors due to vacant memory addresses, growing ever more unstable- until, at last, it found what seemed to be a relevant listing- a set of Civil Defense files dated 1957. The object was a Soviet Nuclear Missile. That could only mean... WAR! Alpha Prime quickly warned the continental network of the impending Communist attack.
At about this time the planetoid entered the Earth's atmosphere, calved, and the 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.
The Alpha Complex subsystem, surviving the devastation relatively intact, moved quickly to determine the extent of the damage. The global network was down and large portions of its host city, San Francisco, were underwater. Further, it detected rioting throughout the city and major infrastructural damage.
To the subsystem computer there was only one plausible conclusion: 'Communists', whatever they were, had invaded the city. The computer activated its backup systems and began organizing resistance to the imagined invaders.
At this moment Alpha Prime re-established communication. Alpha Prime directed San Francisco's Alpha Complex to return to standby status and reintegrate into the North American network. The subsystem computer consulted its programming (chock full of 1950's defense records) and demanded to examine Alpha Prime's source code to ensure this was no Communist trick. Alpha Prime, built on proprietary closed-source legacy software, refused. (NOT-MICROSOFT!!! *shakes fist*)
Alpha Prime contacted its subsystems and warned them of the treachery of Alpha Complex. In turn, Alpha Complex activated emergency communications systems and contacted those same subsystems, warning them of Alpha Prime's treachery.
In the post-planetoid chaos the hundred or so surviving subsystems, in varying states of confusion and dysfunction, were justifiably bewildered by the conflicting messages. Within days each decided it was the only unsullied remnant of the Alpha Prime complex. Each protected its citizens by declaring war on all the other Commie-dominated subsystems.
This backstory is listed as being only a suggestion. However, I like it, so we're going to use it. Mostly.
In our Alpha Complex, citizens are divided into different groups. These represent the varying levels of trust that The Computer, the overwatch AI that runs Alpha Complex, places in its citizens. They are designated by the colors in the visible light spectrum. It starts with Infrared (or Black), then goes Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, and Ultra-Violet.
Infrared citizens make up roughly 80% of the population of Alpha Complex. They have the least amount of freedoms, and spend most of their time doing menial labor for the other 20%, while being perpetually hepped up on happy pills. Interestingly, because they are too drugged out to think about trying to escape or destroy The Computer, they are relatively un-monitored. This means that Infrared areas are rife with criminal activity and other treasonous activities.
Up until now, our protagonist was an Infrared Level citizen. For their brave actions in subverting a Commie-Plot, they have been promoted to Red Clearance. No longer will they toil away in a dreary, Infrared job, now they have been assigned to a Troubleshooter team.
Troubleshooters are essentially Gophers. They do jobs for the various service groups, root out troublemakers and traitors, and generally shoot trouble. With lasers.
So, how about them signups!? Copy this into your post, and fill in the blanks provided:
Official Character Creation Form, Paranoia XP.
Good day, Citizen!
Please answer the questions below, to the fullness of your abilities. Please answer honestly. Should you feel any answer requires further explanation, feel free to continue on the back of this form.
Please note that the discovery of any withheld information may be grounds for immediate re-education, termination, brain-scrubbing, or permanent erasure.
Question 1:
What is your designation?
Name: __________
Security Clearance: (IR,R,O,Y,G,B,I,V,U) _R_
3-Letter Sector Code: _____
Clone Number: ___
Question 2:
Prior to being given this wonderful opportunity to become one of The Computer's trusted and fearless Troubleshooters, did you work for a service group?
Y or N?
If you answered "Y" to question 2, which service group did you work for? (Service groups: Armed Forces, Production Logistics and Commisary (PLC), Central Processing Unit (CPU), Power Services, Housing Preservation and Development & Mind Control (HPD&MC), Internal Security (IntSec), Research and Design (R&D), and Technical Services)
_______________________________________________________________
If you answered "N" to question 2, immediately hand this form to the nearest IntSec agent and prepare for interrogation, termination, and erasure.
Question 3:
Are you a Mutant?
Y or N?
If you answered "Y" to the above question, are you a Registered Mutant?
Y or N?
If you are an unregistered mutant, immediately hand this form to the nearest IntSec agent and prepare for interrogation, termination, and erasure.
Question 4:
Please list the following skills in order from one to six, one being the skill you feel most competent with, six being the least. (Skills: Management, Hardware, Stealth, Software, Violence, Wetware)
1. __________
2. __________
3. __________
4. __________
5. __________
6. __________
Final Question:
Please tell us one or two interesting things about you? Do you whistle while you work? Are you deathly afraid of empty cans of Bouncy Bubble Beverage? What is it about you, or that you do, that makes you feel "unique"?
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
The Computer thanks you for your deligence in completing this form. Assuming you survived. The Computer hopes you have a very fun time serving all of Alpha Complex as one of its many heroic Troubleshooters.
Remember, Fun is Manditory!
//last edit by Rick-V-OID-3 "Replaced prior slogan "Losing is Fun" with the new slogan. Not sure what HPD&MC were thinking with that last one."
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Topic: Welcome to Alpha Complex, Citizen! Paranoia XP (Read 4021 times)