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PARTheAN UnderplexOIA The abandoned tunnel network that interpenetrates Alpha Complex, and all the ways it can kill your PCs PAUL BALDOWSKI, Architect (www.omegacomplex.com) GREG INGBER DAN GELBER CONTENTS KARL LOW GREG COSTIKYAN Introduction 2 ERIC MINTON ERIC GOLDBERG 1. Under construction 4 Additional material and poorfreadnig/ Original game design & development/ 2. Under population 14 Contractors Building committee 3. Hook, line and sinkhole 38 4. Gear 31 BETH FISCHI IAN BELCHER Mission: ‘The One’ 35 ANDY FITZPATRICK Mongoose Publishing RPG manager/ Appendix 1: Random Underplex 46 ALLEN VARNEY Construction supervisor Appendix 2: Overfl ow 47 Editing, layout, graphics/Drillbots ALEXANDER FENNELL

JIM HOLLOWAY Mongoose Publishing production director/ The ‘fortune cookies’ at the lower right of Cover and interior illustrations/Blueprints Struts around wearing fun yellow hardhat each two-page spread come from loyal citizens Paul Baldowski, Karl Low, Saul Resnikoff, Bart Savenije, Silent, and THE COMPUTER Tobias Svalborg, who answered the call on the PARANOIA development blog (www. Orders it built; seals it off; repeat costik.com/paranoia). Commendations!

Security Clearance ULTRAVIOLET WARNING: Knowledge or possession of this information by any citizen of Security Clearance VIOLET or lower is treason, dark nasty skulking subterranean treason of the most deeply entrenched kind

TM & Copyright © 1983, 1987, 2006 by Eric Goldberg & Greg Costikyan. All Rights Reserved. Mongoose Publishing Ltd., Authorized User. Based on material published in previous editions of PARANOIA. ILLUMINATI is a registered trademark of Steve Jackson Games, and is used by permission. The reproduction of material from this book for personal or corporate profi t, by photographic, electronic, or other means of storage and retrieval, is prohibited. You may copy character sheets, record sheets, checklists and tables for personal use. E-mail questions and comments to Mongoose Publishing at [email protected], or write to PO Box 1018, Swindon, Wiltshire SN3 1DG, UNITED KINGDOM. On the World Wide Web: www.mongoosepublishing.com. Published by Mongoose Publishing, Ltd. Publication MGP 6641. Published March 2006. First printing March 2006. UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET Hey! What’s behind this wall? Alpha Complex is a huge, multileveled between the slick rocks, covered with into range of a squad of trigger-happy Vulture underground city, a web of supposedly self- something that looks surprisingly like Warrior scouts, with not a handy INFRARED contained sectors. The Computer administers last night’s algae casserole. Then the in sight. them as a single massive community. To fl oor seems to disappear beneath you. Before we launch you headfirst into the maintain happiness and improve effi ciency, The A layer of rock falls away, and you drop depths, here’s an overview of what you get in Computer not only orders new construction; with it. As luck would have it, the strap The Underplex: it also dictates incessant remodeling and of your uniform snags on a rock jutting repurposing of existing structures. Service out of the pit, leaving you dangling 1: Under construction fi rm contractors also prize effi ciency—that is, precariously. Q the effi cient funneling of credits from padded Frank-R: Phew, that was lucky. Anyone got Like Alpha Complex bureaucracy, the Underplex expense budgets to their secret Gray Subnet a ten-foot pole? Haha! Okay, guys, has depths few would willingly choose to trawl. accounts. They order their engineers and help me up, will ya? [Silence, except This section details the setting’s many levels. bots to build cheap and fast, and if the new for the faint rustles of exchanged The Tranz: A chaos of derelict tunnels, recreation center happens to wall off the only notes.] Guys? What are you doing? tubes and ducts—a dangerous transition access to an entire subsector, well.... Just throw me a line or something; I’m to the environs below. To improve maintenance effi ciency ratings, not sure I can get a handhold down High Programmers delete from The Computer’s here. Guys? The Dungeon: Purposely sealed holding databanks the very existence of blocked GM: The light above you flickers and facilities intended to imprison the worst corridors, defunct barracks and derelict dwindles. You hear footsteps receding. genetic anomalies and bioengineered facilities. Then they ensure citizens rapidly You hear someone say what sounds monsters. forget the old places ever existed; or, if a like ‘mutie traitor’—then you see six The Underplex: Forgotten rooms, lost troublemaker displays an unpleasantly good piercingly bright shots of red laser sectors and Old Reckoning habitats memory, they ensure citizens rapidly forget the fi re hit the ceiling of the cavern. You’re that twist like an Escher illustration old troublemaker ever existed. hanging alone in the dark. You hear a in, around, and among the inhabited These thousands of forgotten rooms, faint rumbling sound overhead. What portions of Alpha Complex. discarded corridors and dusty maintenance do you do? tubes comprise the Underplex. This shadow- The Deeps: Natural caverns, narrow city interpenetrates every inhabited sector, mere The Underplex is a fresh setting for tunnels and water-slick pitches that meters away from subsurface transportation PARANOIA missions, an uncompromising reach far down into the Earth’s crust. tunnels, INFRARED accommodations and environment of trigger-happy troopers, brain- moderately shielded power generation facilities. hungry mutants, and Dark Rooms so dark they Q 2: Under population It is a place of escape, of absence, as close as should have big neon signs fl ashing ‘All-You- the other side of that wall. Over centuries, the Can-Commit Treason! Here! Now!’ Underdwellers—residents of the Underplex— Underplex has become a refuge for the lost and Like Alpha Complex proper, the Underplex is see Alpha Complex as a source of ready-made disappeared, the unwanted and unsightly, the an overwhelming labyrinth fi lled with indifferent goods and raw materials. Alpha Complex illegal and treasonous. neighbors and unforgiving opponents. But our citizens see the Underplex as a menace and If you’ve picked up this book expecting a inspiration was not the dungeon crawls of security breach. This section outlines the status, wizards-and-lizards dungeon crawl, brace other (non-fun) roleplaying games; instead, views and objectives of the Underdwellers, as yourself for something more original and a we looked to the modern ‘urban infi ltration’ well as those of Alpha Complex service groups lot cooler. The Underplex, though fi lled with explorers, the intrepid folks who break into and secret societies. monstrous brain-hungry mutants and Old sewers, abandoned factories and the like just Reckoning relics, is still pure PARANOIA: to see if they can. 3: Hook, line and sinkhole (Not that we have anything against Q GM: You’re standing at the open mouth of a dungeons! We heartily recommend the Tools for handling the Underplex setting dark cavern. Water cascades down the 64-page PARANOIA mission collection using the PARANOIA rules, or what passes walls, gathering in dark pools. In the Collapsatron, which includes an updated for rules. This section includes notes on shadows at the back of the chamber version of Ken Rolston’s brilliant 1987 fantasy- handling Tension in a security-lite environment, you half-glimpse something moving… RPG parody Orcbusters.) recruiting Troubleshooters into UNDER perhaps the very traitors your mission Troubleshooters in the Underplex rapidly (Underplex Navigation, Defense, Exploration requires you locate. discover that escape from The Computer’s and Recon) teams, and survival in a naturally Frank-R: Wow, this rocks! PARANOIA in a crazed oppression can, in certain respects, hazardous environment. dungeon... it’s like the old days. I bet suck. Though the bright and hygienic corridors we meet Randy the Wonder Lizard! of Alpha Complex make covert activity a 4: Gear So, who wants to be the magic-user, headache, at least in an emergency they Q huh? I set out across the cavern with might grab a passerby as a convenient human Items designed to assist those venturing into my laser drawn. shield. In the Underplex, they can fi nd plenty the Underplex. Old Reckoning archaeological GM: [Takes notes, rolls dice.] You step of places to have a private meeting with their fi nds. Stuff! gingerly through the puddles and FCCC-P contacts; but they might as easily walk

2 PARANOIA: The Underplex INTRODUCTION GETTING DOWN Computer been of one alert, focused mind, place, full of tunnels and caves. What do you Q Mission: ‘The One’ it might have remained aware of the world mean, “What’s a cave?”’ The Underplex works well for either an beneath—but it’s The Computer, you know? So If you approach things this way, your NPCs occasional side trip or an extended campaign. when it suddenly detects the Underplex, The assume the PCs know what’s up (or rather, This campaign kickoff mission, ‘The One’, takes Computer reacts with its typical binary-code down). They react uniformly with frustration the Troubleshooters into a few proximate parts equivalents of shock, horror, bewilderment, when the team starts asking questions. of the Underplex. paranoia and complete incomprehension. It Everyone of RED Clearance and higher seems believes the Underplex appeared suddenly to know more about the Underplex than the Appendix: Random tables and spontaneously, as part of a massive secret Troubleshooters. Q invasion. The appendix offers tables in the style of the The Computer’s drive to deal with the Colorful background excellent mission blender (included in the potential threat of the underworld sends Q PARANOIA Gamemaster Screen). You can everyone into a panic, citizens, service groups Don’t want to send your PCs into the Underplex generate areas of the Underplex with a few and secret societies alike. This is the premise of under any circumstances? Fair enough—you die rolls. this supplement’s kickoff mission, ‘The One’. can still mine The Underplex for its plethora of ideas, characters, mission seeds, service Q Old news fi rms and secret society subgroups. Dip in to Using this material amplify a mission or fi nd a catalyst to spark On the other hand, you can assume high- new ideas. When you generate new missions Here we Famous Game Designers suggest a clearance citizens have always known about using the GM Screen mission blender, swap out few different ways to introduce The Underplex the Underplex, and nobody ever told the player a character or location from the random tables into your PARANOIA game: characters about it. The Underplex had nothing with one described here. That ought to keep to do with their menial INFRARED work, your smug know-it-all players on their toes. Breaking new ground and when The Computer recruited them as Q Troubleshooters, their superiors gave them only Assume no one’s ever heard of The Underplex. the barest information they needed to fi nish Going UNDER Your Troubleshooters get to explore virgin each mission. During their latest briefi ng, the territory. As The Computer puts it, ‘What could team learns about the Underplex for the fi rst So what is the pretext you can use to send be more fun?’ time, to the briefi ng offi cer’s utter amazement: Troubleshooters into the Underplex? Actually, various individuals concealed ‘…Then we will drop you into the caverns of the Different groups deal with the discovery of knowledge of the Underplex for decades, Underplex. What do you mean, “What’s that?” the Underplex in different ways. Armed Forces but nothing stays secret forever. Had The It’s all around and among Alpha Complex. Big stereotypically goes in with guns blazing and stereotypically suffers for its gung-ho attitude. Internal Security designates the Underplex ‘an No access external concern’ and chooses to have nothing at all to do with the place. IntSec elevates Alpha Complex construction work has all the a little research, the Troubleshooters can security protocols at all known access points to delicacy and precision of a sledgehammer. reach their original destination by making ensure nothing external has the opportunity to VIOLET executives somewhere demand a convoluted kilometers-long detour. When become internal. Everyone else looks worried, a new autocar showroom or high-class the PCs next pass the location, they see confused or guilty. eatery. BLUE-Clearance think tank members the sparkling displays of an INDIGO- The Computer, assessing this uncoordinated brainstorm detailed and impractical plans. Clearance autocar showroom or a VIOLET action, orders the formation of the Underplex YELLOW-Clearance managers review hair salon. Navigation, Defense, Exploration and Recon the plans and hold damage limitation Whenever the team makes the journey, (UNDER) group. The new UNDER group meetings to fi nd a way to implement the emphasize the inconvenient detour. will explore, not conquer, the underworld. To original request without leveling half the Drive the problem home by forcing a further that objective, The Computer recruits sector. Then low-clearance sub-engineers Troubleshooter to make a return trip for a citizens trained in an appropriately broad skill and unquestioning jackobots complete the form or forgotten piece of gear. Then, just base—namely, Troubleshooters. The UNDER physical construction work. What power they when the Troubleshooters have got used administrators expose draftees to focused command! They can complicate the lives of to it, close down the high-clearance outlet hands-free environmental training: a couple a thousand INFRARED workers when they and board up the front. The team knows a of grainy videos of Old Reckoning Doctor Who brick over a single vital door. route exists beyond the abandoned room, episodes and a tourist guide to Mammoth It’s easy to introduce your players to but they can’t reach it without entering a Cave). They give everyone shiny new team this construction process. Suddenly seal high-clearance area. badges and push them towards the nearest off access to Troubleshooter HQ, the Play with the players’ minds. Build Underplex access point. PLC depot or their communal dorm. The their frustration with seemingly random Envision your Troubleshooters—primed to characters hear work crews behind hastily construction decisions. Troubleshooters expect both hordes of slobbering, fl uorescent- constructed barriers. If they inquire about subjected to this experience might better green maggots and Old Reckoning cavern gift the work, offer standard remarks about the appreciate the origin of the Underplex. shops—as they venture into the darkness, their inadequacy of their security clearance. With lasers ready, trigger fi ngers itchy....

I SEE THE NEED TO GET DOWN, BUT I AM BAFFLED BY THE COMMAND TO ‘GET FUNKY’. 3 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET

1: Under construction

The Underplex has three layers: the Tranz, the or falls into waist-deep water holes. Some of it citizens who successfully sue Power Services Underplex proper (including the Dungeon) and seems quite livable, at least by RED-Clearance or HPD&MC for damages soon mysteriously the Deeps. standards. Lighting varies, but it’s seldom totally suffer repeated shortages of power, food and dark. The Underdwellers have installed pipe oxygen. shunts to siphon off potable water and runoff The Tranz from the food vats—and for dinner, there’s The ducts always rat. Q The jumbled confines of the Transition, or However, the myriad branches and dead- Your average Alpha Complex citizen never Tranz, intermingle with all inhabited parts of ends of the Tranz make it almost impossible once considers the complex machinery Alpha Complex: INFRARED barracks, recycling for a wayward citizen to fi nd a destination grinding away in the background to make his sumps, offi ces, mess halls, vidshow studios, without a guide. In maintenance ducts and life tolerable. However, technical operatives ULTRAVIOLET mansions, reactor cores and waste discharge pipes Tech Services meets and bots work ceaselessly in the background waste dumps—especially waste dumps. an astonishing number of lost citizens, just to maintain minimal services. For them the Passages and crawlways may lie directly malnourished, bewildered and sitting in pools ducts that wind throughout Alpha Complex are behind any arbitrary wall and between any two of their own fi lth. an absolute necessity. bustling corridors. Citizens pass unknowingly Each service group maintains hidden For narrative purposes, standard ductwork within meters of scuttling Underdwellers—lost networks within the Tranz. Citizens seeking to comprises three types—ample, tight and and forgotten citizens, High Programmer use these privately managed tunnels require dead space. Ample ducts allow workers (and offspring, grotesque mutants, autonomous appropriate clearance and permissions, but Troubleshooters) to reach vital machinery, frankenstein bots and rats. Lots of rats. A Underdwellers and secret society members stop valves and safety points comfortably. Troubleshooter could punch a wall in his alike access them illegally. Troubleshooters Tight ducts allow access without immediate own apartment and discover six startled who lack the technical expertise to defeat threat to skeletal structure, but they are Underdwellers. And lots of rats. simple security measures can bribe access claustrophobic. Because the Tranz totally interpenetrates codes from most any ORANGE-clearance Citizens without traitorous mutations can’t Alpha Complex, travellers may pass from one maintenance engineer. access dead space ducts. Only specialized to the other easily, sometimes even without Theoretically, anyone injured in these tunnels bots and fiddly endoscopic tools can get noticing. They can move around the Tranz could file a claim against the responsible in there and move about. Characters using without undue trouble, though they must step service group. However, few could stomach endoscopic tools must roll against either lively to avoid third-degree burns from hot pipes the bureaucratic wrangling involved. Worse still, their relevant Hardware or Fine Manipulation

4 PARANOIA: The Underplex 1: CONSTRUCTION THE TRANZ specialty. A Troubleshooter trying to defuse a Due to the constant unpredictable passage of Q Straight down bomb 20m down a debris-choked duct with a thundering transit cars, few dare to try these couple of temperamental joysticks can expect entrances into the unknown. Secret societies The Underplex works best with a play a nerve-shredding experience. and Underdwellers consider these very style somewhere between Classic and dangers the greatest guarantee of security for Straight. The claustrophobic environment The transtubes their hidden activities below. fosters tension, fear, suspicion and Q resentment.Troubleshooters can die Alpha Complex requires an immense passenger Q The TUBE easily. and freight transportation infrastructure. Like any PARANOIA mission set The parts that figure most prominently in The Trans-Undercomplex Bullet Express outside civilized Alpha Complex, clone Troubleshooter missions are the transtubes. system carries passengers and freight at high replacement can be a problem. With Transtubes vary in form and functionality. speed. Transit cars—fl at-ended, windowless diminished clone replacement, smart Vertical Airflow Integrated Maintenance cylinders with spiraling runners corkscrewing players rapidly favor subterfuge over tubes, for example, use a high-speed air around the exterior—travel at Mach 1 along fi refi ghts. turbine to carry passenger capsules full tight tunnels with electromagnetic transductors Don’t feel restricted, though. Dark of maintenance personnel. Core Access and near-frictionless walls. caves and deep holes provide a Supply Trunk Routes are gaping tunnels The TUBE cars hammer the air. TUBE workable backdrop for a one-shot that magnetically propel gigantic cargo shells, stations reverberate with the automated cry, Zap mission. Add a few mutants who they transport anything from a million crates ‘Mind the blast’. This warns unwary citizens look suspiciously like they’re wearing of radberry chapsticks to whole prefab power to hang onto something or risk serious injury. rubber bodysuits. Solve clone supply stations. In addition to the usual vending machines, problems with an incomprehensible All secret societies know of one or more automated ticket validation stands and massive R&D gadget. Or send along half-a- obscure transtubes that pass into the extractor fans, TUBE station facilities offer dozen replacements for each clone… Underplex. Members may learn of these plentiful handholds. just in case. routes through favors or long service. Societies like Sierra Club and PURGE use these hidden Q Abandoned TUBE station routes to access the Outdoors or gain access to secure facilities. The societies guard this Alpha Complex TUBE Stations offer cheap, out trainloads of food pills, bars and bags. knowledge carefully, and frown on members reliable and fast transportation. However, Then PURGE mounted an all-out assault. who divulge it to others. The Computer’s constant demands on LIF Sector’s manufacturing facilities went up Solitary Troubleshooters who access Tech Services to expand the system poses in fl ames. transtubes without prior authorization considerable dangers to man and machinery, The TUBE station described here was one must deal with fast-moving traffic, flying typifi ed by the fate of one LIF Sector station. of PURGE’s key targets. Their inept demolition debris, wailing emergency vehicles and, LIF Sector once held a stranglehold on attempt caused only a few small fi res. But when most dangerous of all, surly maintenance production of key INFRARED food supplements. an Emergency Disaster Response Team put crews. These crews—workers in service High-speed transportation brought in scientists out the blaze with portable water cannons, firms categorized as Secure Highways, and semi-skilled factory workers, and shipped they unluckily hit a newly exposed layer of Underpasses & Thoroughfare Subcontractors (SHUTS)—maintain transtubes throughout Alpha Complex. Because SHUTS engineers Q Secure Highways, Underpasses & dislike pedestrians in traffi c—and because Thoroughfare Subcontractors (SHUTS) they have The Computer’s permission to shoot jaywalkers on sight—smart Troubleshooters Technical Services service fi rm type prepare hefty bribes. (See the box at right.) Example fi rms: InfraCare, Road Ease, ReTread Autonomous drillbots are always boring new Revenue stream: Tech Services contracts tunnels. Tech Services issues them narrow Secret society taint: Communists (common), Sierra Club (uncommon) directives—a sequence of directions and The transtube network is the lifeblood of Alpha Complex’s economy. All sectors rely on distances, just enough to send them the right a steady fl ow of goods, or risk panic, riots and starvation. SHUTS maintains the roads way. Well, sort of the right way—it’s kind of a and ensures citizen appreciation. INFRARED- or RED-Clearance maintenance teams general advisory based on vague notions of handle signifi cant repair work, ORANGE-Clearance supervisors prioritize work and direction. Wayward bots tend to bore holes YELLOW-Clearance crossing guards oversee proactive security in their designated zone through all kinds of passages, chambers and and manage high-end administration. Higher-clearance workers serve as supervisors, substructures, which surprises INFRARED managers and vital bureaucratic rubber-stampers. citizens at work in the vats or awaiting their When there are no immediate maintenance needs, work crews set to their secondary evening HappiMeal. role of enhancing citizen appreciation of the transtube network. They cone off random The bots’ random passage through lanes and road sections, erect logo-bearing fl ags and then stand back—well back. The subterranean Alpha Complex create new cones immediately reduce citizen complacency. At the end of the day, the work crews entrances into the Underplex. These entries retrieve all the cones with much pomp and ceremony, and thereby markedly improve range from mere cracks to gaping, structurally happiness levels. questionable overlaps with natural caverns.

REJOICE. YOU MAY SCREAM AS LOUD AS YOU WANT. 5 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET volatile Old Reckoning waste. This material, resembles a pink, knobbly lump of sweet- foul. All ‘bidders’ have disguised themselves now known as PopRox (see below), caused smelling beads. When William-I took a as representatives of Technical Service service an explosion that gutted the station. grenade-sized PopRox lode to an R&D lab in fi rms, which further confuses the situation Today the LIF Sector station sits derelict, unlit NEP Sector for examination, he accidentally when the Troubleshooters crash the auction. and unattended (Tension level 0). Walls are dropped it in a pool of industrial runoff and stained and crumbling; rusted girders poke out inadvertently destroyed the adjacent CPU Seed: Gate crashers through cracked masonry. Stylus Acquisition Request Refusal building. Q The platform serves as a drop site for William-I-CHL-2 found the remains of his Someone demolished the GFC Sector TUBE societies like PURGE and Corpore Metal, as Prime in the spitting and hissing remnants of station in the night, killing a dozen citizens. The well as a waypoint for vagrant Underdwellers. a PopRox lode. Troubleshooters get to play clean-up team; they To access the platform, Troubleshooters must Exposed to water, PopRox crackles, pops must gather evidence to help IntSec identify negotiate either the empty shaft of a funicular and fi zzes with ever-increasing violence, and the perpetrators. railway or the melted wreckage of an escalator. it releases great gouts of flammable gas. The Mystics use the TUBE station by night to (For a fuller description of a derelict TUBE Developers in Tech Services, PLC and R&D hold parties. The noise and noxious fumes fi lter station, see the mission ‘Patch Job’ in the remain certain PopRox must have value. down into the Underplex, where Underdwellers PARANOIA supplement Crash Priority.) Their continued prospecting missions have work themselves into a state of frustrated fury. Glyphiti: The damaged platform area is exhausted all known lodes in LIF Sector. During a particularly riotous gathering, The smeared with glyphiti, encoded messages that PLC keeps the unrefi ned material in several Underdwellers fi nally lost their cool and sent look like graffi ti. secure warehouses in case someone devises out heavies to end it. Technical Services and Power Services a safe use. The confrontation might have passed without originally created this tagging system to signal incident had it not been for a case of mistaken problems for system outage auditors and repair Mission seed: Drill bid identity. A gang of Death Leopard gatecrashers crews without causing alarm among the public. Q mistook the Underdwellers for undercover Certain secret societies, notably PURGE and Technical Services has lost a tunnel-drilling IntSec agents. Their explosive clash caused a Death Leopard, have adapted glyphiti as an bot. The Computer assigns the team to head massive cave-in. extension of Twitchtalk. They use it to identify into LIF Sector TUBE station to follow the The Troubleshooters may have difficulty targets for sabotage, demolition or bombing, programmed route of the drill and retrieve identifying the cause of the collapse. In the and disguise the notations as problems with it. Tech Services operatives believe a secret meantime, the Mystics and Death Leopard waste outfl ow pressure or faulty light bulbs. organization must have sabotaged the machine plant evidence to blame other societies and The TUBE station’s glyphiti conceals and taken control of it. remove signs of their own involvement. a multitude of secret society encrypted In fact, the drillbot fell through a weak point messages. Given time, Troubleshooters with between the Tranz and the Underplex. A Twitchtalk or the new Cryptography specialty community of Underdwellers discovered the The heart of the Underplex (see the boxed text below) can uncover all damaged machine. They used it to extend kinds of information, though it’s hard to tell the limits of their small community, but in the From the report of the Preliminary Investigation how current it is. process drew the attention of other groups of Reallocatable Environs team, service using the Underplex. consultants to the UNDER Management, PopRox Now the Underdwellers seek to sell the bot regarding sealed Sector GSN: Q to the highest bidder, in return for supplies PopRox is an artifi cial Old Reckoning mineral and food. Disguised representatives of Free It took three of the team to get the door discovered decades ago by William-I-CHL-1 Enterprise, Corpore Metal, an enemy complex open, and when we did, the whole as he supervised construction of a new and the Mole Men (see Chapter 3) all plan to area reeked. A biocheck indicated sub-conclave in LIF Sector. A PopRox lode acquire the machine through fair means or suspended particles of unidentifi able Cryptography Q New Common Stealth specialty (optional) Simple description: Code-cracking. This specialty represents a character’s ability to read and write codes and ciphers. When the cryptographer creates a coded message, the GM makes a hidden success roll. The margin of success determines the diffi culty someone else faces trying to break it. Anyone attempting to decode the message must roll a successful check with a margin equal to or greater than that of the original coder. For instance, a character whose deciphering check succeeds by a margin of 5 or more can break a code prepared with a success margin of 5. A decoding check that succeeds, but not by the required margin, means the character understands enough of the message to get a clue to the subject matter. A successful roll with a success check 5 higher than the required margin means the cryptographer not only decodes the message, but also understands the entire cipher or code system used. A failed Cryptography check leaves the code unbroken. A signifi cant failure means a complete misreading; the character discerns a message unrelated to the original content. Give the PC just enough information to send him on a wild goose chase around Alpha Complex. (‘No, really, it says here we’re about to be invaded by Ming of Mongo! You must alert your commander!’)

6 PARANOIA: The Underplex 1: CONSTRUCTION THE UNDERPLEX PROPER

origin. The room contained several Down on the farm rows of plastic seats, a long table (both salvageable) and several ceiling- The size and poor maintenance of Core Access Supply Trunk Routes cause moisture suspended strip lights—functional, but problems in the tunnels. Mystics take advantage of this moisture to practice mushroom discontinued under Safety Protocol husbandry. Low-degree Mystics weed diseased fungi, apply foul-smelling fertilizers and 5623/AA/c. Half the seats contained harvest ripe crops. Higher-degree members manage workers and hybridize new fungal skeletal remains, wrapped in clothes growths. The highest degrees just, you know, sample. Dude. that seemed not to have aged a day. Troubleshooters smell these mushroom farms long before they see them. The farms Special commendation to the boys in reek with a stifl ing earthy smell Troubleshooters may associate with a sewage reclamation PLC for those! plant. The fl esh had long since sloughed Some Trunk Routes are so sodden that fungi cultivation becomes impractical. Here away from the bones, replaced by Underdwellers establish algae pits. Small communities gather around, or even fl oat on, thick layers of blue and white mold. fl ooded Trunk Routes growing oceans of thick green algae for harvesting, consumption Inspection of the corpses revealed one and—occasionally—trade. clasping a strip of laminated paper, which read: ‘REPORT IMMEDIATELY TO BRIEFING ROOM 12/AARG/7 AND paper and pencil, roll a 20-sided die until weapons, portable generators, water purifi ers AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS.’ your wrist hurts, and—voila!—a confusing, and other vital stolen equipment. Inform Troubleshooter HQ they need muddled, multileveled monstrosity ready for Underdwellers turn confession booths into to assign a fresh team to the mission your players! impromptu latrines or garbage bins, and daub based out of 12/AARG/7 and reprimand them with ordure and graffi ti. They sometimes the briefi ng offi cer with a tardy note. Eating out make dead terminals into anti-shrines, where Q people come to spit, urinate, lob rotten food or Beneath the Tranz, the Underplex proper In civilized Alpha Complex, PLC service fi rms just hurl abuse. Locals regularly shout ‘Trash extends kilometers deep. Formed from like All-U-Can-Eat and MuckVittles collect his wretched processor’, ‘GOTO heck’ and collapsed buildings and natural passages, the and process almost all biological by-products similar profanities as a ritual of daily life. region comprises a 3D jigsaw puzzle of rooms, and remains, and process them into building On the other hand, Underdwellers show a warehouses and open spaces. materials, fertilizer, medication and snack primitive fear of working terminals. A corridor The Underplex shelters whole Underdweller foods. With suffi cient technology and artifi cial with a flickering monitor inspires ghost communities: feral children, traitors, forgotten flavor, PLC can make anything vaguely stories and superstitious mumbo-jumbo. Even citizens, psychotic mutants. Communities grow appetizing—sort of—and most low-clearance seventh-generation Underdwellers harbor a around functional water pipes or power outlets. citizens expect nothing more. deep-seated fear of the machine that enslaves They fi ght endless battles over environmental Unlike the food in Alpha Complex, the the world, from which the forefathers fl ed so control and functioning lights. Underplex offers nothing remotely processed, they might save humanity. The derelict passages and hallways are reclaimed or even cooked. The upper levels a post-industrial Escher drawing. Shattered offer vermin, plentiful varieties of algae, insects McWellon Missile Base stairs disintegrate completely halfway down. and the occasional unidentified carcass. Q Reinforced supports stick out through crumbling Deeper down, as derelict passages give way Before The Computer made things right, masonry, like a fossilized rib cage. Rooms to rough tunnels and caverns, Underdwellers Communism made them terribly wrong. merge at odd angles, fl oors and walls end dine on richer fare: snakes, worms, leeches, The threat of attack by the Red Socks— in thin air, and rust and rot cover everything. enormous shoals of fungi, lichen, parasitic the official Old Reckoning designation for Think abandoned factories and ill-maintained smuts and edible phosphorescent slimes. Communist forces, according to the Gatzmann subway tunnels, derelict hospitals and ‘urban PLC’s prepackaged supplies notwithstanding, Archives—led those on the side of right to renewal project’ neighborhoods. Walls have Troubleshooters who plan poorly or get into build subterranean defense bases. The Army crumbled, as if something crashed through at accidents can rapidly go hungry. PCs who face fully staffed the bases and packed them with high speed; dust and grit carpet the ground; starvation must rely on their survival skills, legal heavy ordnance, bombs, small arms and siege every footfall echoes. Stains that smell of dried or otherwise. supplies. Ultimately, the defenses failed. The blood lie thick on metal struts. Patterns in the Archives recount how many fi ne men died fi lth reveal tiny footprints. At your service, citizen during a dark time called Red October. Troubleshooters here will parley with Q The McWellon Missile Base stands wrecked Underdwellers ranging from the green The Underplex still holds a few working power and abandoned on the upper edges of the and perishable to umpteenth-generation cables, pressurized message ducts, water Underplex. The base’s foot-thick metal doors descendants of the fi rst visitors below. Most pipes, bundles of wiring, vending machines, once made it a hard target. Today, PCs can Underdwellers are territorial and suspect the confession booths and security stations. Many worm their way in through shattered security PCs’ intentions. Past forays by Armed Forces decommissioned computer terminals are doors and unsecured ventilation shafts. Faded and IntSec have left Underdwellers with frayed disturbingly intact. warning signs threaten trespassers with nerves and rampant paranoia. Underdwellers need power and water armed response. Debris on the fl oor includes To assist you in charting two centuries’ as much as anyone, so they jury-rig taps several dozen spent slugthrower shells, a worth of Underplex strata, this sourcebook’s and shunts. Scavengers rapidly salvage partially melted wrench and the shattered appendix provides many random tables. Grab loose wiring, batteries and tools to maintain remains of an electronic locking device. An

IT IS DARK. YOU ARE LIKELY TO BE EATEN BY A GRUE. 7 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET Vagrants Q Sparkle Ultra (dioxromnurespa- Common mutations: Acidic Spit*, Charm, (alternately) weak and undefended. After Find Location*, Forgettable*, Matter Eater, they cadge a plasticred or a meal, they butinol-3) Stench* move on. —You hope. Clearance: ORANGE Common skills/specialties: Any time the player characters venture Cost: 300cr per gallon drum Management 10, Bootlicking 14, Hygiene into the Tranz, you can use a random Delivery: Aerosol/spray 01, Interrogation 01, Make Embarrassingly vagrant to distract and sow dissension Effects: Depending on the period and Convincing Statements About People among them. The vagrant insists he knows extent of exposure Sparkle Ultra causes You’ve Never Met Before 16, Moxie 14, a particular PC, and is indifferent to denial hallucinations and breathlessness (light Stealth 08, Always Have Another Drop of and counterargument. He persists until exposure); nausea and swelling of the Cleaning Fluid Hidden Somewhere 14, teammates become suspicious. Even if throat (moderate exposure); muscular Concealment 12, Disguise 01, Violence the team leaves the vagrant behind, he convulsions and build-up of fl uid in the 07, Swing Broken Bottle In A Wild And follows at a distance and makes knowing lungs, leading to drowning (lengthy Dangerous Fashion Likely To Get Someone winks, nods and thumbs-up to the selected exposure). Hurt 13, Wetware 07, Cloning 01, Hunting Troubleshooter. Notes: Industrial-strength cleaning 11**, all other skills 06 Heck, you can keep using the same fluid designed for environmentally Weapons: Broken bottle (S7K) vagrant over and over across multiple controlled areas accessed by bots only Armor: None missions. Play the vagrant as a running during period of use. Other gear: Bottle of industrial-strength gag, an ever-present background detail— cleaning fl uid and maybe he follows the PCs back to the civilized world. For example, if you play the another solution. The Computer has retrieved The Underplex is full of beggars, derelicts vagrant with a hacking cough, the next time data indicating an intact copy of comparable and tramps. Whether due to poor hygiene, the PCs call into HQ, they hear that same legacy software—codenamed M155123 an offensive personality or some other cough as background noise over the line. C0MM@ND—at specifi ed coordinates in the antisocial disorder, these vagrants escape During a fi refi ght, the vagrant wanders by Underplex. The Troubleshooters must escort the civilized corridors and pursue (or are or keeps asking his favored PC for spare an INDIGO-Clearance programmer to the pursued into) a nomadic life. They keep credits. Once you’ve seen the Underplex, McWellon Missile Base. The programmer will moving because they keep offending in some sense you can never leave it identify and extract the required data packet. people. They often trail after anyone behind. There are, of course, obstacles. Armed who looks healthy and well-heeled, or Forces goons stalk the team, keen to prevent them snooping around the base. Pro Tech and * Power from The Mutant Experience rules supplement. ** Specialty from Chapter 3 of this book. Computer Phreaks seek access to the isolated mainframe. And of course, the onsite scrubots like to keep everything sparkling clean with Electronic Engineering or Security Systems Alpha Complex. The Sierra Club has gained Sparkle Ultra, a cleaning fl uid that causes check reveals the lock originates from Alpha access to the Outdoors through the launch every ghastly disease you’ve ever seen on a Complex, with components of relatively recent tube. PURGE has scavenged antiquated TV doctor show. design—perhaps from the last ten years. armaments the Armed Forces left behind. The base’s interior shows severe decay, with The Armed Forces also left behind something Q Seed: First refusal heavily corroded metal and fl aking stonework. else—a squad of Mark 2 scrubots, a class Regularly shaped rooms are constructed from now obsolete in Alpha Complex. The Mark 2 An Armed Forces supply squad goes missing prefabricated 10m-square shells connected suffered from inadequate memory capacity in the Underplex. The Troubleshooters must by heavy metal bulkheads. Where doors don’t and a malfunction in a mechanism intended retrieve the soldiers’ ME Cards and complete already lie open, rust makes them easy to to synthesize cleaning supplies from common the squad’s mission: deliver a specialized force. Most of the asbestos ceiling tiles have materials and waste. The manufactured power cell to specifi c coordinates. collapsed, revealing a roof space thick with cleaning fl uid, though effective, also caused The supply squad attacks the PCs in an cobwebs. Each room contains the trappings of nausea, convulsions and asphyxiation. Curious attempt to destroy the team’s recording an Old Reckoning military base, with devices Troubleshooters might wonder whether Armed equipment. They want to hide the truth: They for maintaining weapons, security, surveillance, Forces abandoned the base because it served cut contact with HQ because their assigned utilities and atmospheric controls. no useful function or because of the dangerous, mission was a one-way trip. They describe the Yet in certain areas, closed off from the world, if incredibly clean, environment. second-rate equipment assigned to their team, the air in the base seems remarkably fresh. particularly one wildly unstable combot. The Everything there is spotlessly clean. Q Seed: Last C0MM@ND squad refuses to return to Alpha Complex. Why? Because several decades ago, the Do the Troubleshooters take charge of the Armed Forces rediscovered the base and Computer Phreaks have corrupted the central combot and complete the mission themselves, stripped the interior. Occasionally they used defense system for Alpha Complex, wiping which will take them into McWellon Missile its still functional, if erratic, systems to shoot the software responsible for ground-to-air Base? If they don’t, what happens when the missiles in battle practice. Missiles emerged defenses. High-clearance programmers can’t frankenstein combot threatens to execute them Outdoors, several miles beyond the limits of meet the deadline, so The Computer has for dereliction of duty?

8 PARANOIA: The Underplex 1: CONSTRUCTION THE DUNGEON HPD&MC—no, the other HPD&MC The Homologous Psychic Dissidents & Mutant Citizens (HPD&MC) IntSec GREEN goon: Drop the weapon and place your palms is a Computer-sanctioned support and social realignment club against the wall. for registered mutants. These mutants buddy up to reform their HPD&MC club member: Friend citizen, I’m a representative of wretched lives for the benefi t of Alpha Complex. The Computer HPD&MC! We’re capturing footage of profound importance provides them targeted infoganda pamphlets, special edutainment to the future of Alpha Complex. Just one more shot and we’ll programming with reinforced, maximum-strength subliminal be out of your hair, I promise. probity-enhancing content, and thoroughly researched, hardly- IntSec goon: Okay, make it quick. [Walks away.] ever-experimental dietary supplements. Club member: Thanks for your understanding, citizen. [The club The HPD&MC social club has gained unsuspected freedom and member levels his weapon at an armored autocar as it comes infl uence because of confusion over the groups’ abbreviated title. around the bend, transporting a VIOLET-Clearance executive. Secret societies have transformed the club into a militant group Muttering under breath:] Just one more shot… intent on wanton destruction and sabotage. The HPD&MC club uses the combined talents of PURGE and Psion to cause maximum The HPD&MC club uses a network of bolt holes and tunnels to damage, then lays blame on the homologous service group. Given transport mutants to enclaves in the Underplex. Psion supplies and the penchant of HPD&MC (the service group) for causing chaos funds these communities, and cautiously recruits from the escapees during vid-shoots and marketing campaigns, the HPD&MC club while they weed out IntSec plants. has avoided a lot of undesirable attention.

more social mutants have built makeshift Q Orphic irregulars The Dungeon stockades and jury-rigged defenses. Anti- mutant bigots patrol the perimeters of these The Controls (spooky psychics who run the Even the wretched Underdwellers aren’t the strongholds, effectively turning the fugitive Psion secret society) realize the incredible worst of the Underplex. They have confi ned colonies into prisons. These disparate potential of the Dungeon’s mutant gene pool. the most dangerous among them, the fugitives underworld islands compose The Dungeon. They abhor the waste of gifted mutants dying among fugitives, within isolated spaces known The Dungeon does not have a defi ned shape through random violence, starvation or the collectively as the Dungeon. or boundary. The term encompasses hundreds brutal stupidity of bigots. Mutants seek refuge in the Underplex of sealed enclaves scattered just beyond the Consequently, the Controls enlist Psion to avoid angry mobs, discrimination and Underplex proper. Some enclaves are derelict operatives for temporary exile into the excessive form-fi lling. They are drawn there factory complexes or barracks. Others sprawl dangerous depths of the Dungeon. Named by the promise of communities free from like Alpha Complex subsectors—structures, the Orphic Irregulars, an itinerant subgroup of judgmental attitudes and random victimization. rooms and facilities guarded by a protective Psion, these spies have powers of heightened They experience malnutrition, withdrawal wall. These large communities have strong perception and mutant location. symptoms from dietary supplements and defenses capable of withstanding heavy Many Irregulars die in pursuit of the ultimate territorial violence. assault. However, most outsiders consider new mutant power; others fail miserably and Painfully withdrawn and psychologically the defenses not worth assailing, an ideal vanish out of shame. Sometimes the shame scarred, some mutants live as hermits. Other, barricade to keep the monstrosities inside. is bullet-shaped. However, a few discover new

JUST WHAT IS A GRUE, ANYWAY? 9 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET powers that enhance Psion’s understanding of mutation. When Irregulars Biology: Bottle-green walls, disinfectant-scented humidity and discover Dungeon-dwellers with extreme mutations, they decide whether plastic curtains. The staff wears blood-smeared rubber gloves and to recruit or simply to observe. Irregulars offer gifted individuals comfort, face masks. They stalk the corridors for something new to probe. food and the chance to harness their abilities under the tutelage of the When they don’t have subjects to work on, staffers work on each Psion Controls. Sometimes an Irregular must instead end the tortured other; you can meet some truly grotesque nurses. A researcher life of some monstrosity with debilitating physical or mental mutations, in genetic drift needs a steady stream of Dungeon test subjects; and sample its DNA for cataloguing and experimentation. therefore, he also needs Troubleshooters to get them. Annihilation Through Applied Technology (ATAT): Armed Q Area 31 Forces agents frequently infiltrate this wing, because the researchers here create what nonspecialists might call ‘weapons’. R&D values scientific fervor and irrational passions. Technicians, Carbon stains the pitted concrete walls, and the air is thick with driven by zealous enthusiasm, experiment on themselves with weird a burning smell. Test stations (or fi ring ranges) require targets; chemicals and radiation. Exposure creates new physical and mental researchers need look no further than the Dungeon. conditions, which technicians use to further their study of science. Or rather, Science! Theoretical Science: In these narrow, white, extremely well-lit Faced with stringent health regulations and blanket restrictions on corridors, the eerie silence is occasionally broken by a scream or mutation, senior R&D management set up the hidden Area 31 in the explosion. Researchers stare fervently at metal boxes, beakers Underplex, close to several large enclaves of the Dungeon. of rainbow-colored fl uid or complex networks of cables attached Area 31 is one of the few purpose-built areas of the Dungeon. Sited to little helmets on the heads of rats. Their all-consuming amid a massive cluster of sealed subsectors, it forms a hub with access fanaticism—the researchers’ fanaticism, though probably the into all surrounding areas. ‘Chaotic and life threatening’ best describe its rats are pretty singleminded too—fi lls visitors with a Lovecraftian working conditions. Two hundred technicians, lab-rats and researchers sense of wrongness. The Theoretical Science wing holds the populate Area 31, pursuing pet projects and experimentation unlikely current Area 31 record for the largest number of simultaneous ever to bear fruit. interdimensional rifts. Area 31 consists of fi ve wedge-shaped specialized working zones extending out from a central core, with storage facilities, power generation Unknown: This wing has a single entryway. Citizens enter, but and living quarters. Specialists practice all kinds of experiments, but each no one ever comes out. From within comes incomprehensible wing focuses on one of the following areas: wailing and weird humming. The corridor outside the wing exhibits far too many angles for the human eye to comprehend. Viewers Radioactivity: The radioactive wing contains more LeadLyke experience headaches and nausea, as though they saw too many than any other place on the planet. Geiger counters crackle episodes of Teela O’Malley in a row. constantly. Much research from this area seeps into the others (often literally). Q Seed: Catch ’em During a mission in the Underplex, the Troubleshooter team comes across a horrifi cally burned citizen. He gibbers about needing to ‘catch ’em before it’s too late,’ then expires. Searching the body, they fi nd his ME Card (his name is Brock-O-NYX-6), an R&D pass to Area 31 and a pair of insulated gloves. The team can investigate, ignore or just report the incident. The Radioactivity wing of Area 31, seeking an alternate energy source for handheld equipment, discovered a means to harness electricity from the bodies of vermin. Specifi cally, rats. Big rats. Unfortunately, the electric rats ran rampant, killing a dozen staff and escaping Area 31. During the mission, the team fi rst meets researchers who hunt the rats, and then encounter the vermin themselves. Rats attack with insane fury, delivering bites (S5W impact) and shocks (S3W energy). Area 31 personnel offer 100cr for each rat, dead or alive, as long as the team member completes a questionnaire about his experience.

The Deeps The Underplex lies atop the natural caverns of the Deeps, immense caverns that drive far into the planet’s crust. Caves, gorges, crawls, shafts, lakes, tunnels: All twist and interlink beneath the Underplex. The area lies in utter darkness, except in rare communities that generate their own power. Phosphorescent lichen and lodes of luminescent dorythium provide a dull red glow—a radioactive glow that causes nausea and hair loss.

10 PARANOIA: The Underplex 1: CONSTRUCTION THE DEEPS Phantom sectors At various times and for various reasons, The Computer or Alpha the resources. Few sectors support their own cloning facilities; a Complex bureaucrats have quarantined whole sectors. These ‘phantom clone might die in a lost sector, then decant somewhere outside. sectors’ remain intact and functional, and are often heavily populated. Tech Services has real issues with clone requests from places Engineers and maintenance workers remain assigned there, captives that don’t exist. with the rest of the population. Among citizens outside, these phantom A sector’s disappearance also affects traffi c, utilities and quotas. sectors—places that have vanished without trace—spawn rumors, Tech Services must divert traffi c and utilities because systems speculation and ghost stories. indicate a big gap in the network. Meanwhile, CPU and HPD&MC Rogue High Programmers use phantom sectors as power bases. recalibrate citizen quotas—like happiness, job satisfaction and Secret societies use them as safe houses (large safe houses), training chapstick consumption—to accommodate a sudden disruption in grounds, supply stockpiles, or peculiar socioeconomic experiments. the averages. Phantom sector controllers must resort to subterfuge to acquire Alpha Complex contains many locations in this limbo. The CPU resources they cannot have manufactured onsite. They establish cover Department of Identity Restoration and Endorsement (DIRE) organizations, send out runners to hijack shipments or make deals with handles instances of identity dispossession and applications to Free Enterprise, then transfer the goods in through the Tranz. re-establish personal credentials. DIRE waiting rooms overfl ow with Phantom sectors raise identity issues for residents. If an administrative offi cial nonpersons. Sometimes Tech Services moves in and seals error sealed off the sector, the clones inside may simply disappear; off these waiting areas. No sense wasting valuable power and air CPU lists them as missing. In time, Tech Services may replace them on a room empty of registered citizens! with a fresh clone, but missing-person status doesn’t necessarily justify

Water fl ows fast in streams down to deep, and containers of radioactive waste. Each Such an ULTRAVIOLET could achieve great dark lakes, heavy with silt and trace metals. container is either vitally important, blatantly things, and doubtless would hardly ever sink This far down, wildlife becomes scarce. useless or incredibly deadly. Determine random shamelessly into unbridled greed, hypocrisy Communities survive through careful planning, content using the tables in Section 5 of this and paranoia. fungal agriculture and cannibalism. Travel at book, the back of the core rulebook or the Mezcalinzan: a living tribute to a founder this depth is incredibly diffi cult; there are three Gamemaster Screen mission blender—or, who escapes the clutches of totalitarian utopia times as many dead ends as useful passages. you know, personal preference. After all, you’re to set up an awe-inspiring, concept-shattering However, the Deeps hold Old Reckoning always right. totalitarian utopia. artifacts, concealed here to weather nuclear The near-total seclusion lures fugitives and Walter-U-ZAN-12 made his name in Alpha assaults common in the pre-Computer era. exiles: radical thinkers and extremists, ex-High Complex as head of the HPD&MC Mind In the shattered urban Underplex, Programmers and reviled technoccultists, Enhancement Through Herbal Solutions Troubleshooters might feel vague familiarity, heinous criminals and citizens searching for division. He achieved signifi cant advances what with the occasional light, a battered the CPU Planning Department. The team may in the management of Communism through vending machine or the chance to recharge stumble across these individuals or seek them copious applications of wild parsley. batteries from a sizzling power conduit. The out to fulfi ll some obscure mission objective. Outwardly Walter-U was a Mystic of high Deeps are their nearest approach to another Whatever reason your team might have to degree, but his true loyalties lay with Internal world, a lightless, cold, wet world of tight visit the Deeps, they shouldn’t expect a warm Security (and, indeed, with the Illuminati). spaces and stale air. Teams sent down this far welcome. Walter-U’s multiple layers of deceit, combined must rely on their wits, skills and equipment Actions in darkness = accidental targets. with the stresses of the High Programmer life, for survival. People only survive in the Deeps Troubleshooters might consider the Deeps an led him from sanity straight into self-imposed through determination, indifference, insanity, ideal place to bump off someone and dump the exile in the Deeps. faith—or all of the above. body, then fi nd they nuked the wrong guy. The Underplex was an ideal place to start For the Deeps, imagine a pitch-dark For an authentic re-creation of the Deeps, afresh. But early on, Walter-U discovered, wilderness in the dead of night. Creatures sit your players blindfolded in a damp cellar. to his frustration, that others had beat him in the Deeps possess senses beyond the Occasionally throw rubber bats at them. To to it. Walter-U and his program group fought basic fi ve: blindsight, echo sense, vibration- simulate their sensory deprivation, lower your through a dozen skirmishes and uneasy truces sensitive tentacles or vision outside the human voice; then, when something unexpected with secret societies and mutant rabble. After spectrum. happens, shout at the top of your lungs. Your a bruising encounter with (what? could it Artifacts here date so far back, most players will undoubtedly appreciate your extra be?) another Illuminatus, Walter-U prudently Troubleshooters wouldn’t know they’d found effort to enhance their experience. decided to explore deeper, hoping to fi nd a anything noteworthy, even if it came labeled quiet place to create his new order. in a convenient presentation box: fl int tools, Mezcalinzan Walter-U founded Mezcalinzan in a massive ancient totems, early human skeletons and Q ovoid cavern the size of a sector. Fungal fossils of creatures from the prehistory before Imagine a whole society ruled by one entirely growths fi ll the entire chamber; the thinnest Communism. unmonitored and unchecked High Programmer. strands support enormous puffballs with walls The Deeps also hold remnants from the Old This ULTRAVIOLET holds sway without the a meter thick—ready-made natural barracks. Reckoning—garbage, basically: crates, barrels, constraints exerted by competing UVs and Tubular corridors provide easy access between time capsules, skeletons of Mafi a mobsters the monocular monitoring of The Computer.

STAY VERY STILL... AND I’LL SHOOT IT OFF. 11 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET different rooms and levels, and carry water up Walter-U-ZAN-12 and waste down to the cavern fl oor. The base of the cavern seethes with a fungal Fungus-infested High Programmer; ex-HPD&MC (Internal Security plant), ex-Mystics sea of porridge-ian consistency. Though it (degree 12), ex-Illuminati (degree 8), Toxic Metabolism (12), Regeneration (fungal); sounds unsanitary, this bubbling mass acts Management 12, Bootlicking 01, Intimidation 16, Hygiene 01, Moxie 16, Induce Awe like a kidney, fi ltering vital nutrients, recyclable By Conveying The Frightening Benefi ts and Potentials Of The Common Mushroom 18, materials and pure water from the garbage Violence 06, Projectile Weapon 10, Agility 01, Hardware 09, Bot Ops & Maintenance 01, and, umm, corpses. This fungal growth also Habitat Engineering 13, Wetware 10, Pharmatherapy 16, all other skills 07; spore gun covers the walls of the community and provides (O4D impact; see box nearby); natural armor (I3). a soft glow suffi cient to read by. Walter-U achieved greatness through hard work and a network of contacts throughout By some standards, this way of life might Alpha Complex. He specialized in suppressing free will while enhancing higher brain not seem so bad. The citizens of Mezcalinzan function through herbal remedies. Now, riddled with a fungal parasite, Walter-U expands appear to live in happy co-existence with their his personal empire through deception, kidnapping and graverobbing for raw materials. environment. However, Walter-U’s dream society falls somewhat short of utopia. Mescalinzan’s fungal foundations survive parasitically on its citizens, called myconauts. The fungus doesn’t draw sustenance only from Spore gun the dead, but also from the living. In a way, O4D impact, range 50m. Myconaut spore guns fi re dense puffballs, which cause severe this state of existence fi ts perfectly Walter-U’s blunt trauma on impact and break open to release a cloud of spores. All living targets in combined experience of the Mystics, the a 1m radius must succeed in a Violence check to avoid inhaling the spores. If inhaled, the Illuminati and Internal Security. Myconauts live spores cause three rounds of intense coughing and seizures; all the character’s actions serene and crime-free existences in support incur substantial penalties. A target wearing a dust mask, respirator or fully enclosed of a greater cause than they can possibly armor ignores the spore effects. comprehend. The fungal parasite provides for their every appetite and desire—though it has drugged them so thoroughly they desire about as much as a broken bot. Walter-U has achieved his dream, and the spores have The power of fungus robbed him of ability to dream any more. Mezcalinzan fungus has certain strengths and weaknesses Troubleshooters may discover. Outsiders envy Mezcalinzan’s success, Myconauts, for example, have considerable physical and mental resilience, natural without understanding the price its residents Regeneration and the ability to work without rest, providing they remain reasonably warm pay. Myconauts live long, healthy lives, without and damp. In game terms, Myconauts have these benefi ts: hunger, sadness or overbearing control. Natural I3 armor Their homes have integrated recycling and comfortable furnishings that literally grow out Resist mind control (e.g. Charm, Puppeteer) of the fl oor. Mystics, HPD&MC, Humanists, Regeneration that never drains Power IntSec, the Sierra Club—heck, even The Computer—desire such perfection. What Can exert themselves without fatigue Tech, Power or R&D operative wouldn’t prize these safe and renewable technologies? On the downside, the fungal parasite withers rapidly on exposure to dry conditions, fi re Mezcalinzan is an organic, centralized system or chemical fungicides. For each round of exposure, a Myconaut suffers damage starting that coexists perfectly with the population. If with a Snafu result and increasing by one damage step per round (as per the progression CPU or Pro Tech could duplicate it, they could at the top of the Weapon Chart in the main rulebook) until Killed. compete withThe Computer itself. Myconauts think slowly and are disinclined to break away from their working group. When Mezcalinzan has so much to offer, Nimble Troubleshooters can easily outsmart a gang of Myconauts simply by splitting up. enforced slavery and zombification by a potentially sapient mycological entity seems a small price to pay… right?

The residents, certainly, are not militants and few have a fi xed ideology. But, treating them as a potential battle force, united by means of propaganda and myths that correspond to the misery of the favelados in contrast to the luxury of the city, they may favor communism. —Robert Neuwirth, Shadow Cities [2004]

12 PARANOIA: The Underplex 1: CONSTRUCTION ADDENDA Wyrms Alone in the dark Skills: Management 12, Intimidation 16, Oratory 01, Violence 12, Agility 16, Unarmed In Alpha Complex, citizens rarely fi nd Combat 16, Slice Flimsy Troubleshooter Weapons In Half With Single Chomp 18, other darkness an issue. The Computer Violence specailties 01, all other skills 01 knows bright, well-lit areas promote Mutations: Corrosion, Matter Eater, Toxic Metabolism happiness and productivity. Tests show Weapons: Claws (W5K); Triple ranks of sharp teeth (S3K) citizens locked in pitch-black rooms full Armor: Natural (I3/E1) of tools and devices of entertainment generally experience a 76.3% drop in Wyrms are omnivorous monsters native to the Underplex. They might have arisen happiness, a 71.3% drop in productivity through evolution of a particularly unfortunate clone. Alternately, a High Programmer or and a 67.2% chance of not exiting the crazed scientist in Area 31 might have created the wyrms as bioengineered guardians. If room at all. you believe the propaganda regarding conditions Outdoors, these creatures could herald Because of this, Troubleshooters the return of the dinosaurs, and the possible threat of an enemy-run theme park. entering the Underplex for the fi rst time The fi rst wyrm, recovered from BBY Sector, shocked xenoform experts with its sheer are seriously disoriented by inadequate impossibility. The young adult wyrm weighed more than 18 tons and measured over 13m lighting. They experience a giddy in length. With thick-scaled skin, caustic breath and an appetite for precious metals, the childlike state that often ends in tears, beast seemed to confi rm the accuracy of many Old Reckoning records. Romantics and ear-splitting screams and whimpering Sierra Clubbers went into frenzies of excitement; suddenly the histories of Puff and Pete cries for long-lost soft toys and safety gained new weight. blankets. A xenobiological analysis of the wyrm bio-data identifi ed a possibility that the creature But those who choose to live in had unnatural origins. The scientist suggested intentional bioengineering or, perhaps less darkness consider it a friend and a likely, a cascade mutation of clone DNA. A High Programmer confi scated the wyrm, and tool. Darkness makes it easier to hide, R&D has recovered no further samples, alive or dead. Researchers remain hopeful they to eavesdrop and to shoot, pound or may recover another specimen, given recent reports of savage assaults on Underplex dismember other citizens. In the dark, vagrants. However, no one has expressed eagerness to actually do the recovery himself, anyone might get the blame. inasmuch as wyrms eat rocks, garbage, bots, people, ceiling supports and anything else that happens to step within biting distance. Sounds like a job for Troubleshooters....

Under the sea Not terminated? Maybe you’re one of those iconoclastic GMs who sites Alpha Complex in an unusual Internal Security exiles certain captured location. You might have put it under the sea, inside an enormous asteroid, on the moon mutants to the Dungeon, where they or encircling a massive redwood tree. Well, the world needs mavericks; feel free to adapt roam free and breed. Why does IntSec this material for your needs. To generate an Underplex equivalent, just fl ood or evacuate allow this? Why not just terminate a few locations, or infest them with redwood weevils or something. Make these areas all mutants and erase their genetic marginally livable—almost enough to present an alternative to life in Alpha Complex… templates? Only The Computer seems just not quite. to know why—a consequence of the coagulated protocols of generations of High Programmers, many of whom had strong opinions about mutants. Many of Dungeon mutations these strong opinions were implanted by the Controls of Psion. If you have the excellent PARANOIA supplement The Mutant Experience, you can fi nally R&D knows of the Dungeon. Whole use all those Overkill options and overpowered mutations from Chapter 4, ‘Quick Shots’. categories of service fi rms have sent Abominations roam the Dungeon. Their frightening mutations and terrible genetic drift researchers there for many years to make them things of nightmare. Troubleshooters should genuinely fear for their lives when gather longitudinal data on mutant life. they face a Dungeon mutant. Infl uential researchers may ‘infl uence’ In Alpha Complex, citizens use their mutations in the most subdued way to avoid IntSec to exile certain mutants. unwanted attention. Mutants in the Dungeon use their powers with impunity, unshackled Perhaps the inhabitants of the by guilt or concern for personal safety. When you play a Dungeon-dweller’s mutant power, Dungeon are part of an incredibly think Overkill and don’t hold back. lengthy and badly controlled lab If you don’t have The Mutant Experience, think nasty claws, damaging mind probes, experiment. But a citizen would do spontaneous combustion and the melting of vital body parts. Recall movies like Scanners, well to keep such opinions to himself, Ringu and the whole ‘splatter’ subgenre of horror fi lms. If he happens to disintegrate lest he face the abrasive rotary disk someone or spews great gobs of corrosive sludge, an Underplex mutant has nothing to of a Hi-Speed Anamnestic Neuron hide and no one to punish him. Diversifi er.

CLOSED, HIDDEN AND FORGOTTEN ABOUT FOR SECURITY REASONS. 13 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET 2: Under population The Underplex, a warren of far-reaching and largely inaccessible ducts, shafts and rooms, Random clone creation attracts its denizens for many different reasons. When an Underdweller dies, roll 1d20 to see what happens to his clone backup: Many visitors to the Underplex never realize they are among thousands who use the 1–6 Nothing happens. The Underdweller lacked a remote activation device, or wasn’t a clone to begin with. underground network every day. 7–8 The corpse convulses. A tiny spidery bot pops out of a random orifi ce and heads back in the general direction of This section provides an overview of the Alpha Complex. The spiderbot carries a: 1–8: Clone activation signal; 9–17: MemoMax equivalent backup; 18– natives, visitors, officials and traitors who 20: Corrupted fi le. On its return to Alpha Complex, the fi le infects local Tech Service systems with a virus . frequent the Underplex. It also offers mission 9–10 A microchip under the skin of the corpse’s neck begins to pulse with a visible light. Anyone can extract the chip seeds to throw at your Troubleshooters. with a blade or sharp nails. Roll on the same subtable as the spiderbot entry above. 11–12 An antiquated transponder triggers an automated cloning facility in an abandoned sector. Someone else detects the activation signal, and might investigate, or get another team to investigate it. (Have the Troubleshooters planned for anything after the current mission?) Roll 1d20 again: 1–5: IntSec detects the signal; 6–10: A Cloning, ready or not subnode of The Computer detects the signal; 11–19: A secret society detects the signal (and communicates the Many—most?—Underdwellers once lived fact to a random team member as a secret mission); 20: Another Complex detects the signal, and launches an in Alpha Complex. These ex-citizens often assault on Alpha Complex in the belief the signal comes from a sleeper agent. have one or more clone backups fl oating in 13–14 The dead clone’s transponder malfunctions and emits a signal with the exact disruptive qualities of a gauss gun. a nutrient bath back in their home sector. The transponder disables all bots and electronic devices in a 20m radius for the next 1d20 hours unless Technical Services keeps backups (either disabled with a successful Hardware check. physical bodies or MemoMax tapes) for years 15 The clone’s transponder piggybacks on the signal of a random Troubleshooter’s personal transponder. Technical or decades; even long-term Underdwellers may Services receive a signal requesting the activation of both the dead clone and the Troubleshooter. still have a clone-in-waiting. 16 Technical Services activates a clone backup normally. When a Troubleshooter dies in the Underplex, 17 The incoming signal causes a feedback loop error in a Technical Services cloning facility. The system cannot a transponder in his skull (fi tted to all UNDER reconcile the incoming request, because it has already activated the next clone in the sequence. It queries the agents, and possibly all Troubleshooters if you local subnode, which in turn queries the local sector node; this costs 5,000cr in administrative charges for deep want) sends a signal back to Alpha Complex. archive requests and manual search fees. The system attempts to assign the charges to a responsible party— The signal automatically triggers the clone specifi cally: 1–4: The team’s briefi ng offi cer; 5–8: The team’s debriefi ng offi cer; 9–12: One team member’s replacement system to decant a new backup. secret society contact; 13–16: A Technical Services operative, who traces the activation signal and assigns it to Underdwellers may have similar devices, the nearest team member’s ME Card; 17–18: A High Programmer; 19–20: A random citizen, who is reduced to or antiquated alternatives; over the years, vagrancy and then bitterly follows a random team member during his next mission. R&D and Tech Services have experimented 18 The activation signal matches a deleted template in which Internal Security has a special interest. IntSec with many activation processes. However, an launches an immediate investigation revealing the proximity of the team to the clone’s place of death. On the activation signal from an Underdweller may team’s return, they face hassles, interrogations and random strip searches. have unusual results. A long-term Underdweller 19 The transponder activates an experimental matter transmission device that transports a fully functional, if utterly who dies with an outdated MemoMax record confused, clone to within 1d20m of the signal. suffers a massive memory gap when Technical 20 The Underdweller originally served as a deep cover IntSec offi cer with a dead-man switch that activates an Services activates his clone backup. He may explosive on demise. The device erupts just like a standard grenade (W3K impact, range 3m). have a completely different outlook; a madman may become sane again. His clone might not recall his years of loathsome travail. However, some citizens slip through the The unemployed offer rich pickings for secret When an Underdweller important to the cracks unnoticed. They may fi nd their route to society and Internal Security recruiters. These PCs dies, decide if the Underdweller’s clone work blocked, their service fi rm liquidated or citizens exist in a twilight state, little more than is activated. If it would generate an interesting their offi ce repurposed overnight. Whatever names and security clearances on a mislaid complication for PCs returning from their latest the cause, the suddenly unemployed are CPU/6353.a ‘Missing From Station’ report. mission, the clone might be worth tracking. alone with no place to go. A stonewalling 116 Emergency teams might have a missing bureaucracy can throw even a high-clearance citizen on their list, but they don’t really care citizen into limbo. if they bring back a battered corpse. Where Incidental underdwellers These unfortunates reside in their old do you think PLC gets the raw ingredients for residence until their credits run out, at which Soylent Red? point they must hope there’s a spare bunk in Q Unemployed citizens the INFRARED barracks. If not, they must Undercommuting beg, scrounge or steal to survive. Like ghosts, Q The Computer sustains zero unemployment they may haunt their old workplaces, trying Counterparts of the unemployed are the through a complex set of algorithms that assign to steal food or make a few credits from odd Undercommuters, citizens whose otherwise citizens to roles best suited for their talents. jobs. These refugees look at the Underplex is normal lives compel them to travel through If an ideal position isn’t available, it assigns a viable alternative, where they can scrape by the Tranz each day. Citizens Undercommute citizens based on vacancies. on the detritus of others’ lives. when they cannot fi nd a route of a suffi ciently low security clearance between home and

14 PARANOIA: The Underplex 2: POPULATION FERAL CHILDREN work. They make convoluted journeys through Q Uncontrolled, altered The team struggles back from a tough dangerous passages where sane folk never go. and DELETED Underplex assignment only to find that Committed and enthusiastic, Undercommuters recognition software does not recognize fi nd a way to soldier on, regardless of the Sometimes troubled citizens slip through them, and someone else is spending their obstacles. the grasp of IntSec, CPU, the Bright Vision hard-earned credits. The Troubleshooters face Troubleshooters might first experience Reeducation Centers and the Reeducation persecution from guards, loss of their quarters Undercommuting in any number of ways. Client Procurement agencies. These to strangers and can’t get anyone to provide a They might notice a rattling in ducts near their freethinkers, traitors and fugitives escape the straight answer. Secret society contacts seem quarters, or see citizens mysteriously cross oppression of Alpha Complex and seek a better to acknowledge individual team members, their path and climb from one maintenance life underground. Well, more underground, shall but assign seriously dangerous tasks—as if hatch to another. we say. Conceptually underground, if you get they didn’t care whether the Troubleshooter Knowledgeable Undercommuters can serve what we mean. lived or died. as guides to seemingly hostile locations. Ultimately, the team has a showdown with They provide valuable service for parties Q DELETED citizens an arresting Troubleshooter squad made up both legitimate and treasonous. Groups like entirely of their own clone backups. PURGE, Humanists and maintenance-related Citizens occasionally cease to exist—or rather, service fi rms regularly retain Undercommuters to be recorded. Their data profi les disappear Feral children in this way. from the Department of Information, the Q Technical Services decanting banks, and the Many high-clearance citizens, especially MemoMax backup vaults. The reasons? Just Humanists and High Programmers, cut what you’d expect: error, revenge, system hormone suppressants from their diet and Otto-WYN-1 failure, bureaucratic idiocy, desperation. Some experiment with procreation. Few manage citizens are born into anonymity, some achieve for long to hide the resulting children. IntSec Professional Undercommuter/Duct anonymity and some have anonymity thrust punishes the traitorous breeder and assigns Greaser; freelance Tech Services, upon them. Bereft of identity, these people the child immediate re-education and Sierra Club (3rd degree), Rubbery offi cially stop being. They are DELETED. psychochemical reprogramming. The offspring Bones (14); Stealth 08, Pass Silently This can even happen to Troubleshooters. rarely lives a normal life. He becomes, in Alpha Through Environmental Control Ducts (No! Who would have thought?) Based on Complex slang, a ‘One-Shot’. Many citizens 14, Violence 09, Agility 13, Hardware CPU’s seasonally adjusted averages, teams treat One-Shots with as much contempt as 11, Spontaneously Realize A New heading into the Underplex have only a 5.8% registered mutants or censured traitors. Way To Cross WYN Sector Without chance of coming back in the same number of Few parents raise their secret children Using A Single Corridor 17, Mechanical pieces recorded at outfi tting. Many missions fail to maturity. When authorities start asking Engineering 15, all other skills 07; to report in even once. After a preset period, questions about their sudden need for milk and rubberized overalls, heavy boots, UNDER Command declares them missing in rubber duckies, the panicky parents abandon RigidLyke safety helmet with EverGlo action and deletes them, and Tech Services the kids in the Underplex. Only children with lamp, 10-liter canister of grease with activates fresh clones. luck and smarts survive. hand pump spray attachment For CPU, this maintains productivity, The Underplex can just about satisfy a Otto-WYN has spent the last ten happiness and clean ledgers. However, a child’s meager dietary requirements, if he’s not years working alone amid WYN Sector’s lost Troubleshooter might find someone squeamish. Feral children become predatory maintenance ducts and supply pipes, else wearing his Tella-O-MLY slippers when and territorial. Packs of children hunt and and considers the independence a he returns, simply because an UNDER scavenge over large areas of the Underplex, genuine benefi t of the job. He enjoys administrator thought erasure was the simplest living by a dog-eat-dog code. duct work so much that he sleeps there bookkeeping option. Underplex children face a multitude of terrors and spends spare time familiarizing Without identity records (such as their ME beyond hungry vermin and cave-ins. Corpore himself with new ducts. Really, they’re Card), DELETED citizens draw attention Metal preys on young Underdwellers for fascinating things, ducts. He could go wherever they go. IntSec agents love to experimental subjects; they’re ideal candidates on and on about them. On and on. interrogate non-existent people; it means no for research into cyborg technologies. Simple things delight Otto, so he’s forms to fi ll out afterward. So these ex-folks HPD&MC’s Social Orientation Rehabilitation an easy target for no-questions-asked can only lead a normal life outside Alpha Enforcers (SORE) make child-catching runs in bribery by various secret societies Complex. the Underplex and Outdoors. Operatives track and service fi rms. For as little as a Many of these DELETED citizens fi nd new and recover rogue citizens using stun guns brand-new helmet lamp, Otto will carry lives Outdoors; others seek refuge in the and concussion grenades. Recovered citizens a packet to Point B or will give a guided slightly less inhospitable Underplex. Many who live in capture wagons—motorized cages on tour anywhere within the walls of WYN lose their identities never look back. wheels—until their return to Alpha Complex. Sector. Otto has an unsettling fascination Q Mission seed: PC DELETED Lost bots with lubricants, goo and grease. He Q believes a good lubricant represents The Troubleshooters get DELETED and have to The Underplex shelters many wayward bots. the panacea for most ills. fi ght the system to restore their identity. An overzealous technician might upload a faulty program that sends a bot astray. A bot

I SHOULD HAVE TAKEN MY HORMONE SUPPRESSANTS WHEN I HAD THE CHANCE. 15 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET

might override orders after going frankenstein. to run a series of missions here, consider strategic bombing suffered massive casualties An honest, well-intentioned bot might simply fall assigning characters service fi rms from those from friendly fi re. No one on the battlefront through a weak point in the fl oor or disappear listed. Service fi rms marked with an asterisk could confi rm a single enemy kill. down an unattended maintenance vent. (*) appear in the excellent rules supplement At this point, the Armed Forces might have Whatever the cause, the Underplex serves as Service, Service! opted for a strategic withdrawal. However, a temporary side-trip for many bots, whereas reports from the front suggested the Underplex others simply make it their permanent home. Q Armed Forces was home to unregistered mutants, belligerent Travellers in the Underplex stumble across traitors and Communists. Moreover, the bots in all manner of unexpected predicaments. When the Underplex became a security issue, Geographic Infantry identifi ed hundreds of Troubleshooters can’t identify a bot’s intentions senior Armed Forces offi cers sent in hundreds weak points in Alpha Complex’s defense, on sight, so play any encounter for all the of squads. The offi cers arrogantly believed and suggested another Alpha Complex might discomfort and paranoia you can muster. they could seize and hold the whole area in have constructed the Underplex as part of an Remind the PCs of the value of The Computer’s a matter of days, if not hours. They believed elaborate invasion attempt. property and how they have a mandate to return Armed Forces’ superior numbers, equipment Senior offi cers realized that if the Armed lost bots. Notwithstanding the Underplex’s and tactics would simply overwhelm that ‘rat- Forces withdrew from the Underplex and diffi cult terrain, The Computer won’t accept infested hole in the ground’. then an enemy swept up from below, The inconvenience as good cause to abandon a The Underplex proved the senior offi cers Computer would slash funding and bust them bot. Reinforce the risks of lame excuses: Let gravely incorrect. Soldiers engaged in so-called down to INFRARED. So they arranged regular, the PCs meet a perfectly functional and friendly bot; they weasel out of their duty by providing Geographic Infantry coordinates to a Tech Services recovery team; Q the Tech team reaches those coordinates and Armed Forces service fi rm type fi nds nothing but a gutted shell; the PCs pay excessively for the loss. Then hit them with Example fi rms: UBIQUITOUS, OmniMap another lost bot… but this time its intentions Revenue stream: Providing current and detailed mapping data towards the team may not be so good. Secret society taint: Illuminati, PURGE, Spy from another Complex To introduce bot encounters in the Underplex, glean inspiration from the ‘Random Bot An effective army depends on foreknowledge of not just the enemy, but also the battlefi eld Encounter Table’ on the facing page. terrain. Without detailed geographic data, Armed Forces faces the enemy blind. Now Armed Forces is trying to chart every single centimeter of this potential battlefi eld, right down to the smallest growth of inedible fungus. Service groups in The Geographic Infantry provides detailed mapping and advanced reconnaissance reports. They covertly scope unknown territory, using specialist operatives called Saps. the Underplex Saps are armed with sensor-heavy multicorders and a plentiful supply of CRUMs— Compact Radioactive Utility Markers—which they scatter in their wake. In the derelict and service-deprived corridors of Despite constant danger, GI service fi rms benefi t from munifi cent rewards. They claim the Underplex, the service group bureaucracies a percentage of the value of enemy hardware they confi scate in their initial survey. still fulfi ll specialized functions. Armed Forces and IntSec monitor GIs to detect or forestall their corruption into double This section details each group’s purpose, agents. Particularly capable GI operators, who regularly return detailed reports of intentions, pursuits and possible service enemy territory, face uncomfortable scrutiny. After all, they could be agents for another service missions, as well as a list of service Complex! fi rms best suited to the Underplex. If you intend

16 PARANOIA: The Underplex 2: POPULATION SERVICE GROUPS (1) Random bot encounter table Roll 1d20 twice. Use the fi rst roll to determine which subtable to read: ‘Dangerous’ (if your fi rst roll is 1-10) or ‘Helpless’ (if your fi rst roll is 11-20). Then use the second 1d20 roll to choose a line on the indicated subtable. Or, you know, you could just ignore both rolls and choose a result you like. Your choice will be, by defi nition, correct.

Second Type of Dangerous (1-10 on fi rst roll) Helpless (11-20 on fi rst roll) roll bot 01 Scrubot Persistently polishing a passageway Trying to fashion climbing tools from its cleaning extensions 02 Jackobot Sorting rocks and gravel by color gradient Immobilized by broken caterpillar tracks Sitting under a connecting gangway or bridge; the warbot refers to all 03 Warbot Blocking a whole passageway, unable to go forward or back Troubleshooters as Billy and threatens to ‘gobble them all up’ Repetitively fi ring integrated weapon systems at surrounding barriers, 04 Combot only one in 20 shots actually goes off, because of the bot’s heavily Jammed into the base of a lift shaft depleted power core 05 Go-4 bot Viciously hunting anything the bot’s brain can broadly defi ne as ‘vermin’ Rattling around in maintenance ducts behind the walls, unable to fi nd an exit Creeping around behind the Troubleshooters and barking at truly 06 Petbot Stuck at the bottom of an ancient mine shaft inconvenient moments, then scampering off Armed Forces medical bot gone frankenstein due to a piece of shrapnel Sole survivor of an Armed Forces unit desperately trying to ‘save’ the bodies 07 Docbot jammed in its asimov circuits scattered about the room; unwilling to leave them behind 08 Porterbot Locked autocar with driver and passenger behind tinted glass, both dead Damaged supply tanker carrying fuel to Armed Forces further into the Underplex One-man micro-fl ybot tries dive-bombing anyone crossing an enormous Armed military fl ybot at the base of a pile of rubble that appears to have tumbled 09 Flybot cavern or abandoned warehouse through a hole from the Outdoors Insisting the team can’t enter the next room due to the orders of General Jerome- 10 Guardbot Guarding the only way forward B-TYF, whom a team member might realize died some decades ago 11 Drillbot Following the team Collapsed through a fl oor and unable to restart drill due to damage Left behind by persons unknown in a vital connecting cavern, timer ticking down 12 Bombot Sent to assassinate some meatbag, so one of the Troubleshooters will do from three minutes Wedged in a hole in a fl ooded room; the hole blocks the water’s outfl ow, and the 13 Mousebot Constantly getting under the team’s feet water blocks an exit door that swings inward, so the team can’t get through the room without rescuing the bot and draining the room 14 Camerabot Secret society spy keeping track of the team’s movements Shooting footage for an HPD&MC documentary; almost-dead battery Stalking the team; tries to take genetic samples with stiletto-sharp Damaged archaic model carrying the MemoMax-style memories of a High 15 Spiderbot mandibles Programmer Roll again. The team has discovered a Corpore Metal member of the type of bot rolled. The bot feigns malfunction or disability. It joins the team, then attacks the PCs 16–20 one by one and communicates their presence to nearby Metal members. impressive-looking, carefully staged, totally found some kind of offbeat weapon-looking resource initiatives to deliver high-impact useless sorties into the depths. thingy? That would be worth some credits. traitor-centric management solutions via So far, everything is going fi ne—or can be Keep us in mind.’ site-targeted best practice bureaucracy. Who made to appear fine, which is exactly the Recommended service firm types: wouldn’t? same thing back at HQ. Whenever CPU and Armed Forces Friends Network; Blast Shield CPU maintains superiority through bluff The Computer debrief senior officers, the Maintenance; Fuel & Munitions Transport*; and bureaucratic absurdity. CPU operatives officers use odd maps that scale up local Threat Assessors (AF); Weapon Effectiveness facing the unknown give everything a made- territorial wins, while shrinking the rest of the Assessors* up serial number or believable acronym. By Underplex. After the most enthusiastic offi cers keeping copious notes, they can maintain have delivered half-a-dozen blow-by-blow Q Central Processing Unit the intellectual high ground, even if they don’t descriptions of scouting teams who found have a clue what they’re talking about. CPU as unusual rock formations, everyone else at the The Underplex, with its abhorrent lack of usual, basically. meeting loses interest. They call a premature structure, threatens CPU’s dominion, so Recommended service fi rm types: 116 close to the proceedings rather than hear about management tries to assert appropriate Emergency Services; Environmental Effect another limestone formation that looks a bit like procedures and protocols. If only they could Experimenters*; Facility Surveillance Control; a bowl of Cold Fun or a specimen jar. establish a reliable security network! Regional Liability Limiters*; Mandatory Break Monitors*; Meanwhile, Armed Forces puts out quiet subnodes! An airtight mapping protocol! Pocket Protector Refurbishers; Security feelers to every UNDER team that returns For ultra-comfort, they’d like to establish a System Installers from the Deeps: ‘Any chance you might have Global Procedural System leveraging local

WE’RE ALL THE SAME SECURITY CLEARANCE IN THE DARK. 17 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET

Q HPD&MC The chance to begin again in a golden land of to correct the error (but this wastes HPD&MC has a real problem—too many opportunity and adventure!’ paint, citizen!), or tamper with the citizens and not enough Alpha Complex to Recommended service firm types: mapping software to push the blame go around. Though the service group has Comprssd Housing Recyclers*; Entertainment onto someone else. invested in high-rise accommodation and Scouting Agencies; External Border redevelopment of abandoned industrial zones, Expanders*; News Services; Sector Expansion Some locations prove bigger than the the real problem has come from the exploding Surveyors; Singalong Agents maps suggest. Assigned grenades INFRARED population. Manufacturing’s fail to cover the entire room. The demand for menial workers has resulted in Seed: Ploop! Troubleshooters must fi nd a way to cover increased INFRARED numbers. These menials The power core in FDC Sector overloaded, so unpainted surfaces—or face a reprimand have little prospect of promotion out of the HPD&MC has received an emergency order from HPD&MC for a substandard job. already overcrowded barracks in the sublevels to re-house 2,500 key citizens. As luck would of Alpha Complex. have it, Sector Expansion Surveyors have just HPD&MC assigned the camera so they The proposed solution? The Underplex. Its completed recon of a previously unexplored could quickly identify areas requiring abandoned sectors and habitable zones are area of the Underplex. They identifi ed a string additional repair. As the team runs into primed for redevelopment. HPD&MC can see of lightly damaged barracks with minimal problems, they should fi gure out how to a completely new world down there, entire service issues. Unfortunately, the area lacks use the camera without incriminating cities of forgotten buildings, many only in clearance identifi cation. HPD&MC needs the themselves. need of service reactivation and a lick of paint Troubleshooters to enter the newly classifi ed (neither deemed a top priority for INFRARED UAX subsector with a camera, map software While the Troubleshooters paint and fi lm, accommodation). and several backpacks of specially designed they discover unexpected inhabitants: Loath to depend on anyone, HPD&MC has ploop grenades. The ploop grenades consist Underplex natives or curious Tech or decided to attempt basic repairs and complete of tamped explosive charges surrounded by Power Service workers. You might even local service restarts without consulting Tech a volume of paint. Each grenade has a label introduce another team of starved and Power Services. Undoubtedly, when the denoting its target. Troubleshooters foraging for food. An other groups discover these unauthorized The complications? earlier, less complete version of the repairs, relations between the service groups mapping software has driven them half will worsen. The labels on the grenades don’t exactly mad. Okay, more than half. Meanwhile, Sector Expansion Surveyor match the locations in the map software, operatives work round the clock just to keep so it’s difficult to work out where to up. The marketing engine has kicked into activate them. Q Internal Security overdrive, developing promotional materials for the launch of completely new sectors—‘a new The Troubleshooters, using mislabeled IntSec common sense assumes everyone life awaits you in the under-complex colonies. grenades, accidentally paint rooms outside Alpha Complex is a traitor until proven the wrong color. They can admit their otherwise. (Heck, that philosophy applies within mistake, use another ploop grenade Alpha Complex as well.) Hence the Underplex Q Brand new taste HPD&MC marketing execs see big-big- Q Free Roaming Intersector Extended big potential in the Underplex! Yessir! Securities (FRIES) Untold vistas for fresh market research! Does eating Anchoberry Dream Cold Internal Security service fi rm type Fun in the dark while standing waist- Example fi rms: Transtube Patrol, Buzzers, Autoforce deep in freezing water heighten the Revenue stream: Percentage of fi nes levied consumer experience? Will ratings for Secret society taint: Death Leopard, Free Enterprise the Teela O’Malley Action Hour increase if she spends time in a sinkhole fi ghting To stretch resources in the all-important fi ght against Communism, each sector checks Commies intent on stealing precious to ensure all consumption adheres to strict min-max criteria. Unchecked imbalances can rock salt? lead to general unhappiness. HPD&MC reps may ask the PCs Transport systems are a problem area. Mobile operatives for Free Roaming Intersector to record video footage, take light Extended Securities fi rms scrutinize all intersector routes. The FRIES ride around on readings, test product samples in scooters and conduct stop/search operations on suspicious vehicles and pedestrians. unusual locations or even bring Bouncy They levy on-the-spot cargo manifest differentiation fi nes and enforce intersector traffi c Bubble Beverage to the mutant masses. quotas—that is, they ensure only a fi xed number of vehicles pass between sectors to Just when the team needs to travel light, prevent over-taxing of the municipal infrastructure. HPD&MC assigns them a crate of algae FRIES operatives have considerable fl exibility in their mandates. They can stop anyone chip samples, a video camera with a to ask his business and complete a time-consuming inspection. This procedure not only sledge-mounted power generator, and fulfi lls their intersector balance mandate and roots out potential terrorists, but also lets a Teela O’Malley cardboard standup. operatives effi ciently pad their credit accounts with bribes from travellers in a hurry.

18 PARANOIA: The Underplex 2: POPULATION SERVICE GROUPS (2) is one huge threat, wrapped in a hazard, Secret society orders include several liberally peppered with portents of doom. variations on the theme of tampering Unlike the Armed Forces, IntSec sees with, stealing or destroying the HPD&MC absolutely no value in marching hordes of high-defi nition camera. Pro Tech and the Every once in a while GREEN goons into gaping blackness. They’re Illuminati want the transmitter, Computer there to protect internal security, get it? Instead, Phreaks want to tamper with the camera, IntSec has chosen the softly-softly approach. Sierra Club wants the recording to study You’ll rise and glow. HQ has secretly (of course) dispatched the natural environment, and so on. undercover agents throughout the Underplex But that’s only so to surveil all inhabitants. IntSec intends to keep Underdwellers quiet and content. Over Q Production, Logistics They can let you go time, inhabitants will become just another set & Commissary of citizens in Alpha Complex, defeated by a Down. silent and insidious invasion. Once they’re To the PLC, the Underplex is an inventory assimilated, then they’ll be internal, and until nightmare. Items from missing sectors in the —Malvina Reynolds, that day, IntSec doesn’t want to think about Underplex are AWOL. PLC must account for them. them or be blamed for their disappearance. There’s A Bottom Below IntSec takes a great deal more interest in Over the years, clever accountants have the Tranz. The region’s overlap with Alpha fudged the books to ensure physical PLC stock (1970) Complex makes it a perfect place to hide matched manufacture, storage and distribution threats to The Computer. Offi cers maintain records. These bookkeepers ‘disappeared’ patrol routes—or beats—throughout Alpha millions of items through convenient variations Complex, working lines between well-equipped on treason, terrorism and natural disaster. control centers—or rests. They made Communists, mutants and secret including a couple million kilometers of power Recommended service firm types: societies scapegoats for every missing cables. Electricians and Power Flow Engineers External Security*; Surveillance Operatives; chapstick cap and self-sealing stembolt. stalk the Tranz like forensic experts at a murder Thought Surveyors; Threat Assessors (IS) Unfortunately for PLC, recent UNDER teams scene, locating, assessing and recording the have reported lost stockpiles—entire lost status of every single centimeter of cabling. Mission seed: I am All-Seeing warehouses. PLC worries a CPU audit could Troubleshooters with a Power Services day The Computer sends an UNDER team of uncover the truth. job receive a rolling mandate to catalog the Troubleshooters on a recon mission with a Not coincidentally, PLC has spent a lot of conditions of all Underplex power supplies. small HPD&MC camera crew. The camera time surveying the Underplex, locating missing Power Services suspects traitors have diverted can show the UNDER team operating at its equipment and correcting the core inventory some unacceptable fraction of the energy best, but also has a Computer-controlled database. A remarkable number of apparently supply. However, they have few reports; a transmission ‘switch mode’ that shows the destroyed items have recently reappeared— startling number of survey teams haven’t team’s actions in real time. delayed in transit, mis-shelved or detained (up returned. The team must locate a previous UNDER to 135 years) by supererogatory inter-sector Recommended service fi rm types: Burn team gone AWOL. Based on early evidence, the customs inspection. Troubleshooters will have Radius Assessors; Circuit Maintenance; Fuel Troubleshooters discover that Underdwellers no shortage of service service missions to Cell Replenishment (Power); Fuel Rod Disposal may have eaten the missing team. retrieve hijacked loads of CruncheeTym Yeast Consultants; Latent Power Accumulation and The complications? Twists or Stress-B-Gon Squeeze Balls. Harnessing*; Wire Supply Checkers Recommended service fi rm types: Field The members of the missing team all had Logistics Advisors, Geological Resource Q Research & Design important secret society missions, so Procurement* orders fl y thick and fast to recover either R&D objectives in the Underplex vary little the team members or any evidence they Q Power Services from the Alpha Complex norm. For starters, might have left. researchers expect Troubleshooters to bring Power Services has a twofold agenda in the back interesting Old Reckoning devices for Internal Security has fully infiltrated Underplex. One: They have identifi ed, over study. They expect great fi nds in the Underplex, the camera crew, leaving only one true many years, a steady leak of power they and have only a few concerns about the sort HPD&MC member. However, deep can’t account for. By sending workers into of stuff they’ve been dumping down shafts all cover means individual IntSec agents the Underplex, they hope to fi nd and replace these years. R&D has jettisoned many failed can’t show recognition of each other. malfunctioning equipment. Two: They have experiments there, a few of which might come The Troubleshooters get uncomfortable absolutely no intention of letting Technical back to bite them. Literally. vibes from this crew, not least because Services go anywhere without adequate Area 31 (see page 10) is R&D’s guilty secret. they’re filming everything going on supervision. Power Services has little faith in The R&D science nerds dislike dealing with without the panache and anally retentive the ability of their technical counterparts not to forms, so most Area 31 personnel don’t have attention to light levels of a standard seriously muck something up. up-to-date records. The mutants they study HPD&MC camera crew. The sublevels of Alpha Complex contain aren’t logged on the Mutant Register, either. considerable Power Services real estate, These facts would interest Internal Security.

AT LEAST IT’S CLEANER THAN THE RED BARRACKS. 19 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET

Currently IntSec caves in to The Computer’s work falls to R&D, which always seems to have Recommended service fi rm types: Bot indulgent handling of R&D, but with enough a new angle. Processing (Tech)*; Lighting Maintenance evidence from Area 31, IntSec might fi nally Tech Services executives dislike this Engineers*; Medical Services; Fuel Cell have the ammunition it needs to put the devolution of power. They seek ways to Replenishment (Tech); MemoMax Quality uppity service group permanently under tight improve bot brains by reverse-engineering Old Assurance; Vermin Terminators* supervision—and R&D knows it. Reckoning bots retrieved from the Underplex. The Computer expects UNDER equipment to These brains have older, more durable designs Seed: Pod hunt be cutting-edge. If R&D can’t invent impressive with a simpler, rewritable structure. CPU orders the Troubleshooters to retrieve a new items, it must innovatively adapt existing Tech Services also focuses on reproduction sealed message pod. Unidentifi ed miscreants projects to the Underplex. Resourceful R&D and cloning in the Underplex. The issue of DNA breached a pnneumatic communication tube staffers simply dust off previously cancelled degradation (genetic drift) plagues otherwise that runs through the Tranz, then stole the pod projects and add a fl ashlight. successful research in extending the longevity as it shot down the tube. Recommended service firm types: of clone lines from a single template. So far, If the PCs move fast, they might locate the Bot Processing; Death Ray Mapping Tech Services has failed to resolve this issue, original breach and, with luck, fi nd the pod and Orientation*; Field Data Collectors; and risks another irritating R&D coup. thieves nearby. Locating the breach is easy; Mutation Suppression Research*; Peripheral Tech Services delicately pursues one avenue the conduit contains a self-healing mechanism Optimization Assessors*; Vehicle Therapists; of research to address the reproduction issue. that maintains pressure even after a break. The Weapon Effectiveness Assessors The diverse populations of the Underplex self-healed pipe has a bright green rubbery appear to have reproduced through the illegal substance fi lling the tear. Q Technical Services process of intercitizen invasive contact (IIC). The team receives no special equipment, For all the icky details, the process appears to save for a map and a booster that attaches to Technical Services has a dual agenda in create healthy Junior Citizens without recourse their Com units. The map shows the conduits the Underplex: bots and clones. Both the to technology. This suggests, heretically, and the most probable location where the construction of bots and the decanting of technology might be the real problem. miscreants breached the line. clones have hit a creative dead-end—yet these A very small number of Tech operatives have The complication? two areas represent the principal line items of investigated IIC. With incredible caution, these Tech budget requests. Tech operatives are secretly acquiring genetic No one actually stole the missing Tech Services’ work with bot brains meets samples and scientifi c footage. Humanists have message pod. A secure pneumatic Alpha Complex requirements on a first noticed this interest and furtively support the tube transmitted the pod, which later production basis, but not long-term. The investigation. Troubleshooters may face the burst through a fl awed pipe wall at a artificial diamond matrix of a bot brain top-secret and uncomfortable assignment to remote location in the Tranz. The pod complicates reprogramming, and a lot of the acquire such, uh, samples. Ick. contains sensitive, potentially damaging information about a High Programmer. The team’s nervous CPU briefing offi cer is being blackmailed by one of the High Programmer’s program group members. I’m so happy and you’re so kind Unknown to the PCs, the Com unit You want more money—of course I don’t mind booster masquerades as a transmission booster, but actually blocks attempts to To buy nuclear textbooks for atomic crimes. communicate directly with The Computer or Troubleshooter HQ. The PCs can only contact the briefi ng offi cer. And the public gets what the public wants As it happens, someone has found the But I want nothing this society’s got— pod. We Famous Game Designers are too lazy to decide who and whether they I’m going underground (going underground) realize the value of the fi nd; that’s up Well the brass bands play and feet start to pound to you. The team’s search for evidence of self-healing reveals more than one Going underground (going underground) possible location for the lost pod, but also brings the team close to other Well let the boys all sing and the boys all shout for tomorrow. important locations—a Free Enterprise market, a Corpore Metal chop shop, an — The Jam, ‘Going Underground’, Illuminati fnord, etc. Dig The New Breed [1982]

20 PARANOIA: The Underplex 2: POPULATION COMMIES

Underdweller communities seem divided with running water, hot baths, plenty of food Secret societies down under over the Purifi ers. Some support stamping out and luxury furniture (which is strictly necessary the psychotic mutant hordes. Others think that for the glorious leaders’ unfortunate lower-back Most secret societies have a vested interest if they leave the Purifi ers unchecked, they’ll be conditions). But to maintain morale among in the Underplex. The sections below describe the next target. good Communist laborers who might think their secret society objectives and mission ideas A Frankenstein Destroyer sub-group also leaders have succumbed to capitalist swine you can assign to PC society members. Each uses the same ‘Purifi er’ name, which confuses torpor, the Politburo meets with members in a idea fi rst gives a primary mission (which you everyone. plain, rough-walled ante-cavern, strewn with give to the PC society member himself) and furs, tractor parts and handwritten copies of a rival mission (which you assign to another Infect local water supplies with this the Communist Manifesto. PC on the same team, to promote fi ne team bioengineered antimutagen. Make Loyal Communists have enhanced the interaction). sure you don’t get any on your hands. security of the Chair’s residence with deadfalls, (Rival PC: Test the quality and chemical pressure pads, secret doors and hidden Anti-Mutant composition of local water supplies to cameras (Tension 16). Q determine suitability for Alpha Complex Rabid mutaphobes are disappointed most use.) Q Gremlin guards mutants in Alpha Complex don’t look like mutants. That makes it diffi cult to carry out Communists Common mutations: Mechanical Intuition, senseless random attacks. The Underplex Q Corrosion, Toxic Metabolism provides ready targets by the truckload; Anti- Communists churn out leafl ets and posters Skills/Specialties: Violence 10, Projectile Mutants entering the Underplex have reported that hail the world below and its freedom from Weapons 16, Hardware 11, Chemical head-swimming euphoria. tyranny. A simple life in the Underplex, free Engineering 01, Impair Brakes Of Opulent Bands of Anti-Mutants hunt mutants like from pig-dog proprietorship! A society without Motor Vehicles Of Half-Witted Bourgeoisie angry villagers in a Hammer vampire fi lm. possessions, classes or fi lthy capitalist PLC 17, Mechanical Engineering 15, Nuclear Anti-Mutant leaders have had to restrict access All-Night vendomats that steal your credits and Engineering 01, Tractor Maintenance 16, Root to prevent enemy societies taking advantage give no merchandise, ptui! To pack up from Vegetable Cuisine (Secret skill) 08 of this display. Psion could easily decimate their barracks and ‘go native’ in an Underplex Weapons: Slugrifle (projectile, W3K, 10 Anti-Mutant numbers in the Underplex with a socialist utopia, most Communists would give shots, range 70m, 100cr, GREEN; cudgel as few heavily armed suicide mutants. their entire pickled beetroot collection. truncheon); helmet derringer (M3K impact, 1 Some fanatical Anti-Mutant members (sorry Life in the commune is not all fun and shot, range 10m, 400cr, YELLOW) for the redundancy) become Underdwellers pamphlets.The Communist Chair and his Armor: Multilayered uniform (I2) by choice, full time. The Purifiers, as they strategic policy-setting Politburo rank high on Other gear: Prized set of luxury brand theatrically call themselves, wear heavy black IntSec’s ‘Top 10 Things to Shoot Today’ list. The sneakers or Lee-V-EYE’s Sort-a-Blue coats, broad-brimmed hats and carry lethal highest-ranking members of the Communists PseuDenim Leisure pants; CruncheeTym homemade weapons. These ‘Tools of the can’t risk living a normal life among the masses. Potato-fl avored health bar Just’ consist of several weapons gaffer-taped Instead, the Chair and the Politburo live deep together. The Tools present as much a hazard in the Underplex like hermits in a cave. Honor Vigilant Gremlin guards have protected the to the Purifi er as any mutant would, but they their sacrifi ce, comrade! Okay, it’s a large, Communist Politburo since the Old Reckoning. sure look cool. highly engineered, luxuriously furnished cave, Communists know them for their enormous

The Anti-Mutant’s Tool of the Just Anyone can duct-tape together a couple of weapons, but Anti-Mutant Purifi ers rig up their makeshift Tool as an initiation. A Junior Purifi er gathers weapons during his training missions, then takes them into the Underplex and builds his Tool of the Just in the midst of the enemy. Many Purifi ers die horrible deaths during this pressured initiation, as they struggle to gaffer tape a blaster to a carving knife while under attack from a drooling horde of mutants. Those who survive proudly display their Tool as a symbol of their strength and prowess. They usually name the Tool, and apply special nicks, marks and stickers to commemorate kills. The attacker can attack with both Tool weapons simultaneously, if the GM approves. Use the lower of the PC’s two Violence specialty ratings and the lower weapon range. To combine damage, take the better Minimum and Maximum and the lower Boost, then reduce the Boost value by 1 (to a minimum of 1). For instance, a combined laser pistol and a needle gun would have a damage rating of W2K, a range of 50 and require a successful check against either Energy Weapons or Projectile Weapons, whichever is lower. Combine the malfunction chances of the two weapons. Two weapons that each malfunction on a roll of 20 combine to a malfunction roll of 19 or 20. Or, you know, even worse. If you want. Hint, hint. (We had a bunch of fi ddly rules for which kinds of weapons can combine with which others, until we remembered: This is PARANOIA! You call the shots! If a player character is abusing this system, blow up his weapons—and notify the other PCs he’s unarmed.) Purifi ers favor weapons with large ammunition supplies. Because the whole Tool is duct-taped together, they can’t reload during combat.

FIRST ONE OF YOU TO SING ‘HI-HO, HI-HO’ GETS TERMINATED! 21 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET

coordinates through a landline communications channel. Prevent all unauthorized links to unidentifi ed networks.) Locate datajack 334.22.431.A and upload the 404 virus contained on this PDC to mask the ’jack from the rest of the network. (Rival PC: Reports of sabotage on assigned gear have risen by 68.3%. Complete regular checks of team equipment to ensure no traitorous tampering has occurred.)

Q Corpore Metal In the Underplex, hundreds of Corpore Metal cells coordinate the downfall of meatkind. They rejoice in their undisturbed freedom in the Tranz, where fl awed human engineering has created spaces inaccessible by common meat. The dead space hums and whirrs with the sound of mousebots, camerabots and combots, all going about their business in the dark behind the walls. In the Tranz, Corpore Metal members—both bot and human—staff impressively equipped Surgical Upgrade Centers. Plants in PLC, Tech Services and Power Services supply new materiel. Hence Corpore Metal stores are kitted out with the latest equipment, but also heavily infi ltrated by other societies. visored caps, stonefaced silence and almost magical ability to sabotage In the Deeps, bots enjoy an isolated, meatless world. They roam freely mechanical devices. in lightless and anaerobic environments; they seek enlightenment, peace The Gremlin guards wear a uniform of heavy greenish-gray long coat, or valuable fi ssile materials. They have discovered evidence of a time gray pants and jacket, and knee-high black boots. They carry huge, before The Computer when machines existed as disposable toys and archaic-looking black slugthrower rifl es that double as cudgels. They mindless servants. Bots take these weapons of propaganda with them have one-shot derringer pistols built into their helmets, which they fi re on recruitment drives to prove how wrong meatkind has been and always with a sharp downward nod. will be, until the revolution comes.

Computer Phreaks Engineer a situation to allow you to test this newly designed self- Q sealing cyberhand. (Rival PC: A teammate has a bomb disguised Industrious Computer Phreaks discovered the antiquated computer as something innocuous or unusual. Destroy it.) networks of the Underplex long before any citizen set foot there. Ancient systems were mothballed in military control centers and emergency Recruit any bots you meet during your mission. (Rival PC: Install bunkers. Ultimately, a Phreak plant in the Romantics matched fragments restraining bolts/explosive charges on all bots you meet during of data from these systems with pieces of the Gatzmann Archives. your mission.) The Phreaks became concerned the service groups might destroy precious data accidentally. It wouldn’t be the fi rst time inept non-Phreak data dredging released some ancient viral horror or irrevocably erased a Q Death Leopard priceless Old Reckoning application. Hackers needed to fi nd all the data in the Underplex and create a backup before a bad mistake occurred. Death Leopard has no doctrinal interest in the Underplex. Leopards live While ordinary Phreaks worried about archives, high-ranking hackers to party, to destroy and to do cool things. What could they possibly gain salivated over the prospect of fi nding some ancient piece of programming in some wretched hole in the ground? that held the secret to the very existence of The Computer. Still, Leopards never say ‘never’. (Well, yes they do—‘I’m never goin’ Hackers see the ultimate promise of the Underplex: a system beyond back to that Food Vat Control job, and I’ll blow up the whole joint to make anyone’s control. Records from the Gatzmann Archives suggest Old sure!’—but they don’t say ‘never’ this time.) If nothing else, the cavernous Reckoning facilities buried within the Underplex may contain entirely ruins make a great party site. isolated networks. Some records further suggest these networks may A few Leopards see the Underplex as a blank canvas for a little aerosol house fragments of an Old Reckoning system called the Hinternet. If so, creativity. These graffi ti artists cover vast swaths of territory with murals hackers could create a build of a completely new, open-source version and formless sculptures, and only venture from their underground of The Computer. The Phreaks have code-named it Apricot. lairs to replenish supplies of Near-Beer and CruncheeTym Cheesy With so much at stake, Phreaks now travel in Underplex meatspace Scrapings. to seek isolated archives. Though non-terminal motion does not come The Project Chaos subfaction (detailed in The Traitor’s Manual) is the naturally, adventurous Phreaks understand the potential of ‘fossil only group of Leopards with much purpose in the Underplex. As fanatics code’. intent on chaos on a grand scale, Project Chaos believes, given time and enough explosives, they could rig the whole underground to collapse. We believe an isolated network exists in your destination sector. They’ve already started stockpiling explosives across the Underplex, Access it and retrieve whatever data you can. (Rival PC: We and follow a haphazard plan unlikely to result in anything more than suspect a team member plans an ambush by sending your almighty gouts of fl ame and smoke.

22 PARANOIA: The Underplex 2: POPULATION FCCC-P

We need you to, like, drop off a weapon Restore power to it, so Friend Computer Humanity must destroy all things at the following coordinates. Someone can hear the confessions of the wayward robotic and must never allow, through will pick it up later. (Rival PC: We believe traitor. (Rival PC: Someone delivered the inaction, a bot to persist, lest it turn someone has tainted the water supply in bomb to the wrong place. It’s disguised on those whom rightly seek its Alpha Complex with a muscle relaxant as a confession booth. Whatever you do, destruction. that causes involuntary spasms. Make don’t let anyone touch it.) sure no one drops anything during the Grammarian Troubleshooters who correct mission.) Pass out these pamphlets that preach ‘whom’ to ‘who’ may quickly learn the Purifi ers’ the Good Data of Friend Computer. skill with their metal clubs. Your [random Mandatory Bonus Duty] (Rival PC: Someone hijacked our double-crossed us. Kill him when the printing facility. Not fair. Find someone Free Enterprise lights go out. (Rival PC: We need you else’s pamphlets and burn them. Then Q to test this new phosphorescent paint. burn the person carrying them.) Since The Computer weakened their market Paint whatever you can with it and report share in Alpha Complex when it moved to on its effectiveness.) a sort-of capitalist sort-of economy, Free Q Frankenstein Destroyers Enterprise has searched for other ways to turn FCCC-P a profi t. In the Underplex they found heaven. Q The Underplex is an endless vault of vile Old Undercommunities traditionally survive ‘Though I walk through the sector of the Reckoning fi lth that could easily bring about without luxuries. Before Free Enterprise, shadow of treason, I will fear no Commies, an Age of Bots. Recently, the Destroyers have Underdwellers hunted for food and traded for for The Computer is with me….’ When you intercepted discomfi ting UNDER team reports. depleted power cells or a good sharp knife. hold to the traditional FCCC-P mantra, the Old Reckoning technologies could bring horrifi c A few Undercommunities now have Free Underplex engenders troubling (and likely advances in bot manufacture and threaten the Enterprise-run general stores, gift shops and treasonous) philosophical issues. Despite purity of human existence. The Destroyers want fast-food outlets. It’s like the Old Reckoning FCCC-P members’ belief in The Computer’s to demolish all such devices before Computer Wild West all over again. omnipresence, all evidence from the tunnels loyalists return the items to Alpha Complex for Here old-school Free Enterprise traders below Alpha Complex seems to refute it. technological infection. The Destroyers’ most relive past experiences of a fl edgling economy. The All-Seeing security cameras of Friend fanatical brethren, the Purifi ers, locate and They acquire surplus goods, off-cuts and Computer sit darkened and immobile, their little cleanse caches of Old Reckoning technology. rejects, then barter them for Old Reckoning red activity lights long extinguished. IntSec has (An Anti-Mutant group goes by the same name, trinkets, scavenged technology and fresh food. openly disowned the Underplex, and offers no which confuses everyone.) The traders return to Alpha Complex with an solace there. The Destroyer versions of the Purifi ers dress exclusive new line in ‘ethnic’ products. Free How could The Computer declare Alpha in the simplest robes and carry ceremonial Enterprise organizes impromptu IR Markets Complex the whole world, sufficient unto metal clubs. Focused through meditation, in the Tranz, covertly advertised by word-of- itself… and then let something else turn up? A single-minded hatred and enormous doses mouth. Here they sell reconditioned technology, big something else, too. Perhaps the Underplex of thymoglandin, Purifi ers stride purposefully Old Reckoning novelties and natural skin-care is hell itself, bereft of loyalty, happiness or through the Underplex, oblivious to the alien products. hope—and yet The Computer asks citizens surroundings. They seek out technology and Free Enterprise has also taken over derelict to venture into the depths. Perhaps Friend destroy it without hesitation. They recite this Underplex properties. If you just want to drop in Computer intends it as a spiritual testing mantra: ground. Perhaps it intends to prove the Faithful have not fallen into complacency, to purify and Isak-Y-LNG-7 consolidate the ranks of FCCC-P by consigning the doubtful and damned to a living hell. Conniving Purifi er; ex-Tech Services, Frankenstein Destroyer (degree 10), Energy Field The Council on Whether the Underplex 12; Management 10, Chutzpah 14, Oratory 01, Violence 11, Hand Weapons 15, Hardware Is Hell and Therefore the Rightful Home for 09, Bot Ops & Maintenance 13, Immobilize Bot With Poke From Twisted Coat Hanger 15, All Things Mutated and Sinful is currently Vehicle Ops & Maintenance 01, all other skills 07; big hammer (S4K); no armor; twisted sequestered to discuss the true purpose of coat hanger, small tool kit in waterproof pouch, bottle of triple-strength thymoglandin. the Underplex and how it relates to Friend The team rescues Isak-Y after they disrupt a Corpore Metal meeting, or they fi nd him a Computer’s grand plan. As yet, they haven’t prisoner in some wretched hole. Emaciated and dressed in yellow rags, Isak-Y has been reached a conclusion. a prisoner so long his thymoglandin has worn off, so he is temporarily lucid. Meanwhile, charismatic FCCC-P members Thanking the team profusely, he offers as a reward the location of Old Reckoning try to convert Underdwelling unbelievers. technology sure to please The Computer. Isak-Y tags along with the team; he is erratic Under-communities near active confession and unpredictable, but incredibly useful in a fi ght or two along the way. booths provide ideal fodder for mass conversion Whether Isak-Y leads them somewhere useful or just stumbles on an item by chance, to belief in the salvation of the immortal soul by the team has hardly started to rejoice in their discovery before Isak-Y sets about their the Omnipotent Eye. destruction. He starts giving dubious and even hazardous advice. He steals or borrows a Troubleshooter’s PDC and tries to reach his fellow Frankenstein Destroyers and put an Records indicate the site of an old end to the technology-loving Troubleshooters. confession booth near your destination.

I’M SORRY, CITIZEN, BUT YOUR CURRENT LOCATION DOES NOT EXIST. 23 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET and lay claim to a space, fi ne… but don’t expect restore human dominance. Others chose to to complete it. Plant this computer chip security, convenience or clean running water. hide underground, literally. in the remains of the broken computer Free Enterprise rents out accommodations From those who went into the Underplex, to place blame on an IntSec plant in the secure from surveillance by The Computer… several splinter factions formed. The majority Phreaks. at a price. By the hour or by the week, the use the underworld to meet and to cache society can provide almost all the comforts of dangerous weapons in readiness for the Day Bots have infested Outpost Alpha. Alpha Complex. Salvaged vending machines, of Revolution. Other factions experiment with The subnode denies involvement, siphoned utilities and homegrown security utopian community models. They tap into but something has definitely gone make for the perfect vacation spot. You just vital networks and lay the foundations for wrong. Corpore Metal or FCCC-P need to sign here, here and here, pay your rent revolution. responsibility seems highly likely, and an on time and take out certain insurance policies Many experimental communities live and die unidentifi ed radio signal might locate the to ensure you have a pleasant and hassle-free in a matter of weeks, their objectives achieved perpetrator… if it would stop moving. stay. You got a problem with that? or dismissed. Others communities remain, united by a desire to live together harmoniously A cave-in killed Outpost Alpha’s habitat Q Seed: Boomtown without The Computer. A Humanist committee engineering expert. Find and recruit a is currently debating whether this is a sure sign replacement during your next mission. The Troubleshooters must attack and destroy of humanity’s strength and ultimate victory, If you can’t recruit one, consider a traitorous Underplex enclave. IntSec asks and if so, how best to phrase this good news kidnapping. the team to take prisoners for interrogation. in a righteous yet egalitarian manner that duly PLC assigns the team a new type of timed recognizes the society’s values of equality, Illuminati limpet mine that explodes by radio activation. diversity, and good-feelingness. A decision is Q Infi ltrating the illicit colony, the team encounters expected within the next fi scal biennium. The Illuminati attitude toward the Underplex a disconcerting welcome. is as obscure as all the society’s agendas. The complication? Q Revolutionary communities Presumably the Grand Masters of the Order Free Enterprise has set up all kinds of retail knew about the Underplex before it became outlets, services and support groups. The Outpost Alpha, the largest Humanist community, widely known, and have sent advance agents society has tapped into local power and water subsists on diverted resources, homemade all through it. After all, they’re everywhere! supplies to provide light, entertainment and a hydroponics and water purifi cation. It siphons Illuminati members might discover something workable sewer system. The local population electricity from an abandoned radioactive of value they can use to bribe, extort, interrogate fully supports this economy: Who wouldn’t want power plant in the upper Underplex. Whatever and blackmail their superiors. If anyone the fi nest cuisine, recreational medication and the community cannot grow, fi nd or fabricate, unearths some inkling of the Illuminati agenda nutritional supplements? Consequently, Free Humanists in Alpha Complex steal and for the Underplex, roll 1d20 six times and Enterprise has earned signifi cant profi ts from transport below. consult the ‘Unfragmenting the Illuminati’ Data the venture. More than a hundred Humanists reside Table (see next page) to fi ll in the discovery. The Underplex colony may trigger the PCs’ permanently here. An elected Council of fi ve prejudices—e.g., mutants and nonmutants governs the outpost, and ensures patrols Mystics living peacefully together; bots with possessions secure the area. Q and no assigned work; complete disdain for To recreate the Humanists’ vision of a perfect Mystics share few common beliefs beyond a The Computer. But When Free Enterprise Alpha Complex society, Outpost Alpha uses desire to score a ton of cheap drugs. However, learns the team’s intentions, deep-cover a modifi ed Computer subnode to run basic they do want to achieve a higher understanding traders set about subverting the PCs. Many services, while the Council runs the community. through whatever means comes to hand. Troubleshooters may end up wondering why The society has restricted the subnode’s One faction of the Mystics, the Hedge they couldn’t just stay here. functionality to the most mundane and menial Wizards, believed it could Ascend only if tasks. Members of the community fi ll all other members absorbed the subtle odors of Nature Humanists roles. They espouse complete independence Outdoors. Thing is, the same Mystics knew the Q and a bot-free environment. Outdoors left you vulnerable to ‘Their’ infl uence. The Gatzmann Archives’ fragmentary records So, the Hedge Wizards sought an outside tell of a time when The Computer and a human Q Outpost Alpha seeds ‘inside’. This problem led them into many government controlled Alpha Complex together. late-night discussions fi lled with recreational The government provided a necessary human The interface the Council uses to lightheadedness and a hankering for algae perspective inaccessible to The Computer, but communicate with its subnode blew up. chips. Then someone stumbled upon (or more with it brought greed, corruption and power Find a suitable replacement interface precisely got lost and fell down a disused lust. The most corrupt politicians realized The and requisition it for return to Outpost service duct into) the Underplex. The Hedge Computer threatened progress—and personal Alpha. Ensure another society takes the Wizards had found their Nirvana. Other Mystics gain. blame for the theft. picked their heads off the fl oor and listened. However, IntSec ruthlessly suppressed this The caves and tunnels of the Underplex fi rst human uprising and drove the human Phreaks have hacked into the subnode offer a new experience in lightlessness and government underground. The core of this and taken control, leaving Outpost Alpha deafening silence—like a sensory deprivation fl edgling Humanist movement stayed within without services. Isolate the source of tank, only mustier. Energetic party Mystics the system and worked surreptitiously to the hack and destroy the computer used discovered the big caverns had great acoustics

24 PARANOIA: The Underplex 2: POPULATION PSION for week-long raves. Introspective Mystics beetrrroot. You bring it back for us, interfere with equipment that rightfully belongs found a dead-end somewhere and meditated da?) in the hands of Pro Tech. upon Becoming as One With a Pebble. The rest discovered the awareness-expanding Bring us back something impressive. possibilities of sensory-deadened parties, with Q Pro Tech Keep it hidden, and drop it off before you overwhelming darkness, mind-numbing silence debrief. (Rival PC: Untested technology and a ton of cheap drugs. Pro Tech believes a treasure trove of advanced can potentially infect Alpha Complex Now that everyone else has found the Old Reckoning technology lies in wait for the with terrible forgotten viruses. Don’t let Underplex, ordinary pedestrian traffi c threatens taking, down in the Underplex. Over many anyone bring back anything he didn’t the good caves near the surface. Consequently, decades, the society has found a few choice leave with.) Mystics are always seeking new places to relics. With the Underplex laid open, Pro Tech drop out. They’re intent (in that bleary-eyed fears Old Reckoning devices may fall into Find a bot and reprogram it to do our way only a Mystic can be intent) on keeping others’ hands. They dread senseless waste; bidding. (Rival PC: Find a bot and the unenlightened out of the out-here that isn’t they can’t allow the ignorant to sock away destroy it/recruit it/return it.) Out There. valuable artifacts in some forgotten warehouse. Worse yet, Pro Tech fears an unscrupulous Dark is the new high. Let everyone ULTRAVIOLET or R&D might find these Q Psion experience it. (Rival PC: We want you artifacts and actually know how to use the to try these new adhesive microlamps. technology. Psion equates mutation with power. The truly Test and report on them.) Driven by these worries, Pro Tech has formed evolved represent the pinnacle of evolution— specialized teams of techno-archaeologists—or and the Underplex appears to contain a lot of There are, like, some incredible things Technarchs—to retrieve Old Reckoning relics potential. However, the masters of Psion see that grow out of the ground down there. at any cost. They seek untouched caches, tap these mutants as an uncomfortable unknown, Find some and bring them back for the into UNDER comm signals and generally try and such ignorance breeds anxiety and rest of us. (Rival PC: Comrade! Vee have to frustrate and misdirect anyone who might paranoia. Psion would rather know exactly hidden microfi lm in specially prepared what mutations exist within the Underplex than leave anything to chance. Reports suggest the Underplex contains mutants who ‘Unfragmenting the Illuminati’ Data Table make the Inner Core—the trained mutant foot soldiers of Psion—look like raw recruits. The A B’ed the Underplex to C a D so the A [roll again] could not E it. Orphic Irregulars have sent telepathic reports ABCDEback from Dungeon enclaves that terminated in blood-curdling screams and a sense of 1 Illuminati Created Hide Secret Destroy something sinister and horrible. 2 High Programmer Visualized Maintain Mutant Claim However, Psion is not just concerned about 3 Computer Buried Summon Lost Civilization Use its lack of control of the mutant population in the Underplex. Its enemy, Corpore Metal, seems 4 Aliens Sealed Enclose High Programmer Divert intent on borging the Underdweller population 5 Grand Order of Silvery Night Restricted Enshrine Secret Weapon Master and using the security-free environment below as a base of operations. Corpore Metal’s 6 Elder Gods Dug Confuse Disbanded Secret Society Combat belief in evolutionary transcendence through 7 Previous Illuminati Worshipped Obfuscate Deactivated CompNode Obliterate mechanization runs contrary to Psion doctrine. Psion’s masters insist Corpore Metal not 8 Service groups Opened Fictionalize Dangerous Enemy Unearth interfere with the inevitable rise of mutantkind 9 Mutants Inverted Prevent True Origin of Alpha Complex Prevent by tainting the genetic pool with their lifeless 10 FCCC-P Extended Terrorize Flying Saucer Reveal technology. Wherever possible, Psion members must sabotage Corpore Metal schemes and 11 Communists Inhabited Worship Recipe for B3 Dance with plant evidence to ensure their ultimate failure. 12 Thompsons Populated Invigorate Relic of the Savior Irradiate 13 INFRAREDs Digitized Conceptualize Community of Underdwellers Bury Q Seed: The Matrix 14 Monkeys from the Future Disrupted Subvert Hidden Archive DELETED Operatives in the Underplex have identifi ed 15 Church of Questions Revealed Infect Treacherous Uprising Infi ltrate an experimental Old Reckoning device 16 Committee Celebrated Split Raid from Outdoors Escalate that imprints bots with a neural matrix. The matrix enhances computational speeds and 17 One Opposed Ostracize Horror from Beyond Return efficiency, but also creates a weak signal 18 Other Complex Segregated Triangulate Old Reckoning Artifact Discover similar to the primitive psychic residuals of the 19 Technocracy Entered Unearth Land of Plenty Empower common population. Using the device, Psion 20 Fnord Fnord Fnord Fnord Fnord

NONSENSE, WE’RE NOT LOST! 25 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET could fi nally exert control over bots. Prevent others from taking the device Destroy any evidence of The Computer you find in the and bring it back at all costs. Underplex. (Rival PC: Restore terminals you fi nd the Underplex. If you can’t complete repair there and then, Identify and record Q Seed: Mind control coordinates.) Psion’s masters have detected strong telepathic broadcasts emanating Romantics from the Deeps. They want to rigorously control such potent psychic Q potential—preferably Control with a capital C. The PCs’ job: gather The Romantics have known about the Underplex for a long time. From rumors, data and evidence about the deepest levels of the Underplex. Old Reckoning records they learned you can always fi nd caves near Contact Underdwellers who communicate through nonverbal means. populated areas. These caves hold incredible treasures, unspeakable (Ivestigators end up face-to-face with the Myconauts of Mezcalinzan horrors and the frozen bodies of cavemen. Most cave systems sport or a hideous monstrosity from the Dungeon.) weird rock formations, traps and sloping passages, complex puzzles and forgotten pirate ships. Q PURGE Various Romantics subgroups have formed to study the Underplex. The Roletellers recite epic stories of forgotten heroes, like O’Brien Most idiotic secret societies use the Underplex as a convenient place to the Destroyer and Merlot the Wizard; they re-enact great confl icts and meet or hide pamphlets. PURGE knows its true strategic potential. adventures in full costume. Rockers seek out the friendly Fragments In the past, Alpha Complex has effectively, if bumblingly, resisted who live somewhere in the caves with the Doozies, prolifi c builders PURGE’s attacks despite the secret society’s lengthy planning and pre- rumored to have built the Awful Tower and the Leaning Pylon of Peas mission recon. Now, PURGE can use the Tranz to attack from beneath in the good old days. or between. Members won’t raise the suspicions of the brainwashed Many Romantics delve for Old Reckoning materials, and earn respect masses or draw the attention of IntSec. Finally, PURGE can strike hard if they return with anything of interest. These explorers model themselves at the enemy’s heart. on Old Reckoning adventurers like Idaho Jones and Annabelle Croft. A PURGE values intelligence about new routes through the Underplex. It Romantic likes nothing better than to hunt treasure, trowel and whip in rewards citizens who divulge data about hidden ducts and passageways… hand, fl ip levers, dodge whirling blades and fi nd the next clue. rewards them with the opportunity to volunteer for membership and take on vitally important missions against oppression. Members masquerade Q Seed: Get frosty as Technical and Power Services’ lower management to acquire location information from work crews and technicians. The Gatzmann Archives describe cryogenic storage facilities built underground to preserve citizens from harm during the terrible Eugonic Replace your Happiness Offi cer’s Wakey-Wakey supply with these. Wars against the Vogons. Service groups have discovered single Then enjoy the bloodfest. (Rival PC: Replace your Happiness cryogenic tubes in the past, but never a whole facility. With one of these Offi cer’s Wakey-Wakey supply with these… then chill out/party/ facilities, the Romantics could awaken the inhabitants and harvest their watch their pustules grow.) personal experiences of Old Reckoning culture. Track down one of these facilities and secure precise coordinates for organized retrieval. Ensure no one else locates or gains control of these facilities, whatever the cost. A specialist Romantics team will rendezvous and take control of the facility for a mass defrost.

Q Sierra Club The Computer has created the Underplex to trick common citizens with a false alternative to the antiseptic and artifi cial Alpha Complex. Sierra Clubbers know better than to believe this façade. The Outdoors holds salvation from the poisonous Complex environment. The Outdoors offers freedom to breathe clean air, drink pure water and eat beef patties caught in the wild. The Underplex amounts to nothing more than dank holes of fetid air, polluted by industrial run-off and unnatural waste. Sierra Clubbers who have ventured into the Underplex fi nd it confi ned and oppressive… completely unlike the Outdoors they know and love. Nevertheless, a few determined members have identifi ed several green plants that grow down in the Underplex. These growths deserve rescue. Some of the moss, for instance, might look nice growing on the rockrete walls of the TUBE transit system.

Q The Molemen A Sierra Club subgroup, the Molemen believe they must reclaim their natural birthright by returning underground. They embrace the vitality and hardships of the natural environment. However, because they feel

26 PARANOIA: The Underplex 2: POPULATION SIERRA CLUB uncomfortable about Outdoors conditions, PsionQ Homeopaths, Homeopaths a Psion subgroup they seek to go down instead of out. ‘After all,’ they argue, ‘don’t plants send roots down into Mutants proliferate in the Underplex. You can’t turn a corner without bumping into someone the earth?’ blessed with telepathy, telekinesis or the ability to ‘Become as One with Voles’. The Moleman seek solace in the bountiful A few members of Psion have connected Alpha Complex drugs, dietary supplements world below. They crave a life rough and free, and the advance of genetic drift. However, the Underplex has none of these infl uences. where they can eat natural algae and fungi and So, what causes all these devastatingly fantastic mutations? drink deep of mineral-heavy waters. Nature The Homeopaths believe they can advance understanding of mutation by drinking answers every need, and happiness and everything. Take a few bits of fungus, a few scrapes of lichen or a bit of dirt, shake it contentment blossom. up in a bottle of pure water, and voila: the elixir of hyper-evolution. Okay, Homeopathic In truth, the Molemen love the cool depths research might make you sick sometimes, but the path to greater understanding always of the Underplex because they have terrible comes at a price. allergies. How can humanity live as one with Of course, someone might have found the elixir already. The Homeopaths realize the Nature if they constantly have streaming eyes likes of Corpore Metal and the Anti-Mutants would love to stall natural evolution… but and a runny nose? who would have suspected the Mystics or Sierra Club? They try to smoke or worship all kinds of things that might yet set mutants free to transcend to ultimate dominance. Someone has reset the password on Watch them all. door 6453/A to the Outdoors. Find an IntSec plant on your team and grill him for the new password. (Rival PC: Q Don-B-NEL, Agent of Another Complex Someone else on the team has received Don-B-NEL an electronic override code from his Don-B-NEL comes from an Alpha Complex across the ocean. His complex doesn’t secret society contact. It will open door possess cloning technology, though they have advanced regenerative Wetware and 6453/A. Identify and terminate this medical skills. The leaders of Don-B’s complex believe Pod People in assumed human teammate.) form have invaded and controlled the rest of the world. Don-B has witnessed the cloning process of Alpha Complex and relayed details of the foul alien duplication technology. Bring back samples of moss and The machinery grows and decants tainted perversions of humankind! Don-B believes he lichen from the Underplex, individually can identify Pod People by the funny way they talk and the way they extend their pinkies bagged and labelled. (Rival PC: Prevent when they drink beverages. illegal import of potentially dangerous Q Don-B-NEL-2 foodstuffs from the Outdoors.) Agent of Another Complex, Regeneration (Power 17), Humanists (degree 6); Management 10, Con Games 14, Convince Co-worker You Never Went Into That Restricted Room 16, Q Other secret societies Interrogation 14, Hygiene 1, Stealth 9, Act Like a Pod Person 15, Security Systems 13, Violence 8, Demolitions 12, Energy Weapons 12, Hand Weapons 1, Hardware 8, Software Agents from Other Complexes have the most 4, Data Search 8, Wetware 9, Biosciences 13, Bioweapons 13, Cloning 0, Heal Flesh to gain from the Underplex: alternate access Wounds With Raw Algae 15; energy pistol (W3K), illegal refl ec (E2), knife, Series 1300 to the heartland of the enemy, circumventing PDC, Com 2 (w/ Enhanced Encryption, Holographic Emitter), medpack its considerable surface defenses. Agents from the Outdoors establish footholds here to stockpile supplies, ordnance and stolen data. An apocryphal tale From these boltholes, agents communicate AnQ apocryphal tale with those back home, preparing them for the assault on Alpha Complex. Hanging around the mess halls and barracks, citizens tell tales of the Alpha Complex salt mines. Because the mines contained salt (the story goes), CPU executives initially demanded the INFRARED workforce work in darkness to prevent panic at the sight of white walls. After several horrifi c accidents The Computer intervened. It solved the problem by using ULTRAVIOLET convicts, many of whom work to this day to maintain PLC’s condiment quotas. Obviously, these taletellers should immediately report to the nearest confession booth to discuss the dangers associated with nonsensical rumors. Unrefi ned rock salt is translucent brown. Indeed, low-clearance citizens can expect salt to stay brown all the way to their condiment dispensers. HPD&MC has deemed salt refi ning processes an unnecessary MMM... expense when the average INFRARED can’t distinguish between unrefi ned salt and a crystal of congealed sweat. FUNGUS Gamemasters running Classic or Zap games might choose to make the original story true. Just imagine a team of Troubleshooters assigned to handle a group of ULTRAVIOLET convicts designated for hard labor in the salt mines....

HMMM... IS A GREEN-GLOWING SLUG TREASONOUS? 27 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET 3: Hook, line and sinkhole Troubleshooters in the Underplex may be To propel them, The Computer formed an excruciatingly narrow confines of their job surprised when they can’t fi nd the thermostat. intergroup initiative. Overnight, the service descriptions. Alpha Complex citizens don’t expect rooms groups supported the Underplex Navigation, To defi ne training, The Computer depends on with subzero temperatures and three feet of Defense, Exploration and Recon (UNDER) known quantities. No one knows enough about oily water. Your average INFRARED (is there group. They could endorse an organization that the Underplex to create a comprehensive any other kind?) expects an environment as decentralized blame—far better than taking the training plan, so UNDER training leaves much bland as a bowl of Cold Fun, though perhaps initiative alone. to chance. not as chemically hazardous. The service groups provide UNDER with Complete UNDER team training covers little Because the Underplex has few artifi cial resources drawn from across Alpha Complex. more than 1) a rapid briefi ng, and 2) a rushed lights, Troubleshooters must use portable light They seek to spread blame optimally should trip around warehouses and labs to gather sources or mutations to see. Poor light slows anything go wrong. Individual service groups reams of useless experimental equipment. all activities and reduces the simplicity and retain control over anything their members Contrast this with the typical Troubleshooter accuracy of the most basic actions. fi n d . mission, which also includes—um—well, To set this tone, we suggest you roll all UNDER managers are enthusiastic never mind. skill and specialty checks as hidden rolls. overachievers excited more by paperwork Encourage players to expend Perversity with than adventure. They recruit resources from gusto—they’ll have many opportunities to hurt service groups, very much like Troubleshooters. themselves down in the caves. Weapons have And like the Troubleshooters, UNDER training Q Climate control the same range and power, but after the barrel for new teams is a matter of unenlightened fl ares it’s anyone’s guess what got hit. guesswork. Roll 1d20 to determine a location’s Play up the PCs’ confusion and fear. temperature and humidity, or just choose Troubleshooters should feel like a four-year- UNDER scrutiny the most uncomfortable option. Make old searching for the bathroom at midnight. Q the conditions merely inconvenient, or Aim to make your Troubleshooters scream and Traditionally, the Armed Forces Department apply actual penalties or damage (e.g., weep for home. of Central Instruction (AFDOCI) has dealt acidic water eats into clothes, freezing When PCs enter the next location in a with the esoteric matter of Outdoors training. water threatens hypothermia). mission, use the nearby ‘Climate control’ table Unfortunately, many instructors fi nd training to determine the location’s environmental troublesome when they aren’t cleared to Roll Conditions conditions. Then brace yourself for more tears know their subject matter and their students 1–2 Intensely dry air hurts to breathe; boot and screaming. outrank them. soles go tacky and start to melt Ignorant AFDOCI instructors believed 3 Searing water, billowing clouds of the Underplex was just another part of the scalding steam Tension in the Underplex Outdoors. Given such ineffectual training, few low-clearance teams returned. Their 4 Hot water, knee deep, diffi cult to Internal Security doesn’t control the Underplex. disappearance compounded rumors about breathe The baseline Tension there is low—usually 0, atrocious conditions and mutant monstrosities. 5 Hot water, puddles, clouds of vapor rarely higher than 2. In truth, the teams probably died from thirst 6 Hot water, ankle deep, smells like On the other hand, secret societies closely because they couldn’t fi nd a purity-certifi ed rotten eggs watch Underplex visitors. For each location, water fountain. 7 Warm water, knee deep, oily assess the Treasonous Tension rating. This The instructors came to appreciate the rating measures the secret society surveillance difference between the Outdoors and the 8 Warm water, ankle deep, thick with level; for detailed information, see The Traitor’s Underplex only after The Computer promoted algae Manual. The rating depends on the mission, the them. They became the short-lived vanguard 9–12 Tepid water in small pools and environment and your own whimsy. of the most recent exploratory teams. Recovery puddles If you feel lazy, roll 1d20 to get a rating. teams found instructors huddled in dank caves 13–14 Tepid water, slightly acidic industrial Rolls higher than 5 are Treasonous Tension; muttering autistically about ‘shadowy things’. run-off rolls 5 or lower are standard Alpha Complex The Computer demoted the trainers and 15–16 Cold water, ankle deep Tension—an unexpected security camera, reassigned them to chapstick cap-screw surveillance bot or deep-cover IntSec agent. whittling. Their replacements opted for back- 17 Cold water, knee deep, soak rapidly seat roles in future Underplex explorations. into clothes By default, UNDER missions fell to the 18 Freezing water, knee deep, strong UNDER Troubleshooters. chilling wind 19 Freezing water, waist deep, fi lled with The service groups were loath to lead the way UNDERstanding sharp chunks of ice into the Underplex. Their reluctance stemmed Q 20 Frozen water, 1d20 centimeters deep, partly from lack of imagination and partly from The Computer educates every Alpha extremely slippery self-preservation. Complex citizen. Citizens have the skills to handle anything thrown their way—within the

28 PARANOIA: The Underplex 3: ENVIRONMENT SURVIVAL SKILLS

Q Hunting Q Mining Survival specialties Skill category: Wetware Skill Category: Hardware in the Underplex The character can forage, hunt and create The character understands the basic traps to gather food. concepts of productive mining, characteristics As unprepared as they appear, UNDER Roll 1d20 each half-hour the character hunts of prime sites and the running of an ongoing managers keenly guard their career prospects. and forages. The margin of success indicates mining operation. They know the longer the average UNDER the number of extra people for whom the The character knows the difference between operative survives, the better their own character fi nds food; if you roll the specialty a good and a bad mine on sight, both in terms chances of promotion. Therefore, they ensure rating exactly, the character fi nds only enough of construction and ongoing management. Troubleshooters obtain essential training. food for himself. With a successful check, a character can What can these managers offer A successful check captures one animal determine the safety of a tunnel, identify veins Troubleshooters beyond the grossly inadequate of minimal intelligence (and no, that doesn’t of ore in a rock face or assess the potential of Outdoor Life skill? Each new edition of include other PCs). When the character sets a newly discovered seam. Failure means bad PARANOIA has compressed the wide a trap for intelligent prey, compare the margin estimates, incorrect identifi cations and a real range of fi rst-edition Outdoor skills into one of success of the trapper’s Hunting roll against chance of a cave-in. all-encompassing Survival skill. We Famous the victim’s Stealth rating. If the Hunting margin We include this specialty just for Game Designers did this because in the past is higher, the victim falls into the trap. completeness. It’s really more for nonplayer PCs headed Outdoors only irregularly; having The Hunting skill does not include knowledge characters than PCs—though if your player location-specifi c skills wasn’t crucial. With this of the safety of food gathered nor appropriate wants to sink character points into Mining, hey, supplement, you may want to send your players methods of preparation. let him knock himself out. Maybe sometime into the Underplex for protracted forays. For he’ll need to know about, say, nanostructured that, you might want a broader range of skills Mapping composites for refractory applications in coal to keep your interest up. Q gasifi cation. You never know. Players might ask, ‘Why should I waste points Skill category: Stealth with all these new specialties when Survival The character can accurately represent a Positional Sense does everything already?’ In response, fi rst kill location on hardcopy, can assess distance and Q their characters to show who’s in charge. Then dimensions to create reliable maps, and can Skill category: Stealth use the following rationale: They’ll live slightly read maps accurately. The character instinctively knows which longer than a Boy Scout in a snowstorm. The margin of success determines the map’s way he’s facing. Under most circumstances, The Survival specialty provides just enough accuracy. Make a note of this margin of success he automatically senses magnetic north and information to stay alive Outdoors; the narrow on the map. Anyone who uses the map to fi nd orients himself from there. specialties let characters thrive. a location benefi ts from this number. Apply With a map, the character can use this UNDER provides training in the following the Mapping margin as a positive Perversity specialty to avoid getting lost—but only in specialties. If you choose not to use these modifi er to the user’s own Mapping or Stealth certain conditions. specialties, either use Survival instead, or check. Alternately, note a map as good or bad, First, no matter how strong the magnetic make them Uncommon Secret skills, which and roleplay map-reading attempts. fi eld, a character can still get lost if he has a Troubleshooters can learn from their secret PCs who fail the Mapping roll make an lousy map.To read a complex map accurately, society. inaccurate map or don’t read it correctly. The make a Stealth/Mapping check, and then check map initially makes sense, but ultimately against Positional Sense. If the PC fails one misdirects the user. check, the character gets lost but can retrace his path with a second check. If he fails a

MIND THE ABYSS. 29 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET second check, he gets seriously, hopelessly, Q Tracking Justice roll for the affected Troubleshooter. On dismally lost. Worse, he genuinely believes a failed roll, the victim suffers this injury: he’s gone the right way. (‘Funny, things look Skill category: Wetware different—must be the poor lighting….’) The character can follow trails in the Outdoors Wound for a fall of 1-9m, or a collision Second, Positional Sense gets totally or Underplex. (PCs who try to use Tracking with a slow vehicle. screwed up in the presence of any strong inside Alpha Complex probably fail due to hard magnetic fi eld, such as that generated by a surfaces and regular cleaning.) Down and Wound in a fall of 10-100m, reactor, a large speaker or—oh, what was Weather conditions, loose or wet ground, and or a collision with a fast vehicle. it—we had it a moment ago—oh yeah, a strong the trail’s age modify Tracking rolls. Success magnet! A PC who tries to use the specialty in means the character keeps to the trail. With Vaporize (well, ‘Liquefy’) in a fall of these circumstances faces signifi cant diffi culty: signifi cant success, the Troubleshooter can anything higher or in a collision with a he must obtain a margin of success of 10 or make a Holmesian deduction of the nature vehicle over the speed limit. more just to sense north. and purpose of the quarry. Failure means the character wanders aimlessly for a half-hour On a successful check, reduce the damage Rock Climbing before he realizes the trail has gone cold. step by one. Perversity points, preparation, Q Signifi cant failure (a margin greater than 5) the intervention of higher powers, and GM Skill Category: Violence means the character picks up a different trail or boredom further modify the damage. The character has a detailed understanding mistakes the true trail for something else. of climbing techniques, can identify good Example: David-R, tracking a gang of Exposure handholds and footholds, and can correctly fi t Commies through the wilderness, achieves a Q and use mountaineering equipment. Lengthy success margin of 10. His keen tracking senses Some players ask us, ‘Why are there no or perilous climbs require multiple checks tell him the Commies travel without suspicion exposure rules in—?’ No, wait... actually, no one or negative modifi cations to a single check, of pursuit, and two of them appear to carry has asked that. The situation doesn’t come up whichever suits you. A PC who fails doesn’t something heavy, perhaps the missing warbot that often in PARANOIA. necessarily fall to certain doom. A big failure prototype. Had David-R failed the tracking Troubleshooters who swim in icy pools or margin (10+) means a fall, but lesser failures check, he might have decided the trail belongs wander the depths in wet clothes have ample mean only a delay, poor route choice, twisted to a group of Vulture warriors on parade, two of opportunity to research death by exposure. ankles or the loss of equipment. whom appear to carry big bass drums. Exposure leads to clumsiness, fatigue and a A character with Rock Climbing can assist general sense of impending doom. fellow climbers. With such assistance, they In game terms, exposure means whenever a can make checks against the character’s Rock Falling and freezing character makes a check, roll an extra 1d20 in Climbing specialty rating or their base Violence an Arbitrary Justice roll. If the number rolled is (whichever is higher). 10 or less, the character sits shivering violently Q Sudden impact with his teeth chattering, instead of completing Spelunking the desired action. Q Some players ask us, ‘Why are there no falling Without warmth and dry clothing, a Skill category: Violence rules in the rulebook?’ Previous editions of Troubleshooter suffering from exposure will The character knows how to travel in PARANOIA had a ‘Vehicular Accidents and survive (Violence rating x 10 minutes) before caves, can negotiate diffi cult terrain and tight Falling From Great Heights’ table that was fun drifting into a coma. Or, you know, as long as passages, and knows how to fi t and use caving to read; there were lines for distance fallen, and you want him to survive. Have we mentioned equipment. the last line was ‘Orbital’. you’re always right? When the character tries something diffi cult But we Famous Game Designers blew off or tests equipment to the limit, make a falling rules in the new edition. Why? Because Spelunking check. Success means the whenever one of your PCs falls from any character survives, with a greater margin given height, you, the Gamemaster, instantly required for particularly awkward maneuvers, know what you want to happen, based on like if he traverses a passage so narrow you circumstances and the needs of your storyline. can hear bones cracking. Failure means the Think about it: ‘You fell from fi ve meters onto character becomes stuck, trapped or breaks bare rock? Okay, you’re ———’ (wounded, an important piece of equipment. dead, fi ne). Every GM can fi ll in that blank on MODIFIERS! A character with Spelunking can assist the spot. C’mon, you know it’s true. fellow cavers. With such assistance, they Our rule is, if it feels right, hurt the character THERE MUST can make checks against the character’s bad; otherwise let him walk away with minor Spelunking specialty rating or their base injuries, like a limp. BE MORE Violence (whichever is higher). Still, some Gamemasters like a bit of crunch MODIFIERS! in their rules systems. They paid for this book, so it behooves us to oblige them. Crunch lovers, use the following simple system. Make a Luck check (that is, a Power check) or an Arbitrary

30 PARANOIA: The Underplex 4: EQUIPMENT TREASURE? 4: Gear In the Underplex, Troubleshooters fi nd a new projectiles. R&D has boots with glowing heels, product packing, twisted pieces of metal, landscape of unseen dangers and enemies. grenades with light-assisted targeting and shards of broken glass and semi-melted plastic. PLC and R&D find many opportunities to stealth suits with integral bullseye lanterns. To generate vaguely useful discarded garbage, unload otherwise unshiftable stock and Troubleshooters can disable the lights, but open a home shopping catalog to a random inventions of highly questionable value. need to keep them intact for the time when page. Choose something likely to have survived Here we list PLC and R&D equipment they return the gear. the test of time. available to Troubleshooters assigned UNDER Of course, the Underplex complicates missions. We also note environmental effects the intact return of equipment, especially Lost, but not forgotten on the equipment. delicate bulbs and photon emission systems. Q Finally, we describe Old Reckoning fi nds Whenever a Troubleshooter activates a light Lost property can appear almost anywhere— and provides some specimens with which source, whether carried, integrated or located someone passing through the Underplex to reward enthusiastic treasure-seekers. somewhere in the Underplex, feel free to roll on dropped something, and someone else found The Romantics and other secret societies the ‘Defective light source’ table nearby. it. Lost property comprises items of recent hold Old Reckoning items in high regard. A construction, indeterminate value and variable perspicacious Troubleshooter might turn a tidy clearance. Determine the specific item by profi t on complete rubbish. It works on eBay. Mobile signal choosing something at random from the IR Market tables in the main rulebook, or roll for a Think how hard it is to get a cellphone signal random object on the tables in the GM Screen Go with the glow in an underground garage or a tunnel. Now, mission blender. The person who accidentally can you imagine trying to transmit a strong, dropped the item might have completed a form Service groups know a good thing when reliable signal through a couple of miles of indicating he lost it; citizens with more sense they see it. PLC has a stockpile of unwanted Underplex? register items as stolen. flashlights, lanterns, beacons, flares and Let your Troubleshooters contact Alpha An item’s condition varies depending on similar devices the size of two small mountains. Complex only when it helps you. Kill the signal where a fi nder picks it up. An item without With the current interest in Underplex travel, just when the PCs are most likely to panic. waterproof protection that is found in a fl ooded PLC can offl oad lighting gear whether or not Modulate the signal strength to keep the team room won’t work, or might require corrective the gear has suffi cient batteries. nervous. You can complicate the process maintenance with a Hardware check. Make an In a similar vein, R&D has come to an of calling in reports, requesting backup or Arbitrary Justice roll for items found in better agreement with PLC—for some undisclosed contacting a secret society. payback—to install a light source in everything, When the PCs enter a new location or a sensible or otherwise. It offers experimental scene in the Underplex, if you don’t already Q Signal interference weapons with flashlights slung under the know what signal strength to allow, use the barrel, which drain the battery that powers ‘Signal interference’ table for inspiration. 1–2 Outgoing signal echoes constantly. 3–4 Troubleshooter hears his own voice overlapping any return communication. Q Defective light source Buried treasure 5–6 Troubleshooter hears nothing but static. Old Reckoning gear buried in the Underplex 7–8 Troubleshooter hears static punctuated with 1–2 Bulb broken or battery dead. It won’t turn on. random fragments of a beacon signal or falls into several distinct categories: discarded Morse code. 3–4 Switch breaks. It won’t turn off. garbage, lost property and secret caches. 9–10 Signal comes in interspersed with an 5–6 So dim it scarcely illuminates anything. encoded secret society message. 7–8 So bright it blinds everyone on the team. Q Just rubbish 11–12 Incoming call for help, though the person 9–10 Runs out of power at the worst possible For Alpha Complex residents, discarded Old sending the message does not appear to moment. Reckoning garbage holds great mystique. A hear replies. 11–12 Cheerful bot brain; provides running citizen who wants to discover the purpose of 13–14 The incoming signal has a time delay of about commentary on everything it sees. a device in good repair usually must tinker 10 seconds, leading to a few confusing with it or use a power supply. When someone overlaps with the Troubleshooters’ outgoing 13–14 Fearful bot brain; turns itself off so as not to messages. see ‘scary things’. threw the item in the garbage two centuries ago it didn’t work, and decades of decay rarely 15–16 Mild static punctuates the communication, 15–16 Treasonous bot brain; fl ickers intermittently obscuring occasional words. If you carefully to send messages in Morse code. improve the situation. The item, exposed to dirt, the elements and considerable compression, select the obscured words, the 17–18 Poorly insulated; eventually electrocutes user communication can become confusing, rarely resembles whatever it started out ominous, threatening or otherwise. (S5K energy). as. However, the item has inherent allure 19 Experimental battery eventually explodes that makes technicians and Romantics pay 17–20 Communications work perfectly—perhaps too (W3K energy, 5m radius). perfectly. Suggest the signal almost sounds considerable sums for it. amplifi ed and cleaned up, as if passing Citizens usually find these ‘relics’ in a through some kind of local booster. compressed stratum of waste—discarded

THAT’S THE LAST TIME I BUY A MAP TO THE OUTDOORS AT AN IR MARKET. 31 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET circumstances—read a low roll as fully functional and high as damaged, Underplex gear malfunctioning or unsafe. Item Clrnc Cost (cr) Q It’s not mine! Waterproof notebook B 10 With the infl ux of visitors to the Underplex, secret caches aren’t as secret Waterproof pen Y 25 as they used to be. A secret cache includes items of high clearance or Waterproof ink, blue I 100 illegal designation: prohibited equipment, blackmail materials, banned weapons, scrubbed credits and other valuable items that prompt Measuring tape, retractable, 10m Y 25 summary execution. Flagging tape, black, 10m* IR 5 Troubleshooters who fi nd a secret cache face a dilemma. With such Flagging tape, red, 10m* R 10 a fi nd, they can make a lot of money or please their secret society superiors. On the other hand, they can get into diabolical trouble with Flagging tape, yellow, 10m* Y 25 UNDER management, IntSec and The Computer. Ensure the players Compass Y 25 fully understand the value of each item and what could happen if they return it to Alpha Complex. That should make for an interesting return Inclinometer** G 100 journey. Waterproof bag, zipped Y 35 Waterproof bag, zip locked B 50 Old Reckoning artifacts Hard helmet O 15 Helmet lamp, splash-proof G 50 Q Grip socks Rechargeable lamp with 10m cable*** Y 40 Carbide lamp G 20 10cr, RED A pair of plaid woolen socks with a complex pattern of rubberized Calcium carbide, 2cm cube**** B 40 spots and slashes on the soles. They are neatly sealed in a clear plastic Socks, two, gray IR 2 pocket. Thermal socks, pair, orange O 40 The socks give the wearer warm feet and a +1 bonus to the rating of any climbing check (e.g. Agility, Rock Climbing). The woolen fi bers pick Energy Snack, Almost Mint, gum O 3 up dirt, which makes them highly unhygienic after only brief wear. In Energy Snack, Slighty Orange, bar Y 5 addition, the socks make the wearer susceptible to small electric shocks whenever he touches something metallic. Can of Fun, self-heating O 10 Heavy boots B 75 Q Logan’s Run, Season 1 DVD compilation Climbing boots I 150 500cr, ULTRAVIOLET Waterproof, climbing boots V 250 These silver discs contain a 14-part documentary about a rogue Coverall, red R 5 citizen who escaped into the Outdoors from an unnamed ‘domed city’. Logan, the fi fth clone in his series, discovers various free cultures living Coverall, yellow, splash proof Y 10 in the Outdoors and seeks to understand and assist them. Ultimately, he Coverall, green, waterproof, self-heating G 20 returns to the domed city and liberates his friends from a technological society run by a central overlord computer. * UNDER teams use fl agging tape to mark their route by leaving Citizens might take this material for treacherous propaganda about behind markers on walls or fl oors. Alpha Complex, or for records pertaining to another surviving complex ** Indicates angle of inclination to the planet’s magnetic fi eld. where the central computer lacked the utopian ideals of The Computer. Prone to interference from localized magnetic interference. Secret societies will pay considerable sums for this artifact. *** Rechargeable power unit holds a charge for 10 minutes before requiring a 5-minute recharge. While attached to a power Q M1 Semi-automatic rifl e outlet, battery maintains a full charge. **** Requires a carbide lamp. Cube creates fl ammable gas 950cr, BLUE. Projectile weapon (W3K impact); 20 rounds, range that provides steady light once ignited. Should last for about 4 150m, spray hours. A gas operated, magazine-fed, semiautomatic rifl e from the mid-20th Century. The rifl e fi res a 7.62mm cartridge from a detachable 20-round Given the rifl e’s brittle construction, the chances of weapon malfunction magazine. Though accurate and reliable in its time, this M1 has become match that of an experimental weapon—19 or 20—on the fi rst use. semi-fossilized because of its wood/metal construction. The rifl e also Thereafter, each reload increases the chance of terminal malfunction has the irritating habit of ejecting the empty 20-round magazine casing, by 1. So, if a user reloads three times, the weapon malfunctions on a which clatters to the ground and provides an ideal target, even in pitch roll of 16 to 20. darkness. To complicate matters, the magazine fails to eject at all until after it expends all 20 rounds.

32 PARANOIA: The Underplex 4: EQUIPMENT ASSIGNED EQUIPMENT

Q Random toy table themselves to get away! Unfortunately, human beings fi nd it equally revolting. Whenever it’s Old Reckoning children had lots of used, everyone within 3m (including the user) plastic toys. Encourage your players to must make a Violence roll to avoid retching. roleplay interest in and puzzlement over If a character applies it to his own body, he these unearthed toys. suffers heavy penalties from gagging and nausea until he cleans it off. Do you know how 1 Speaking plastic doll hard it is to fi nd proper sanitary facilities in the 2 Children’s medical set Underplex? 3 Six-pack of colored play clay Q Barrelette fi eld transformer 4 Plastic food and fruit 5 Plastic tool kit 200cr, YELLOW Because standard Alpha Complex batteries 6 Rubber duck won’t power waterproof angle-headed 7 Sealed pack of fantasy trading cards fl ashlights, R&D has developed a laser pistol- 8 Plastic lunchbox and integrated fl ask mounted transformer. The device looks like a standard laser barrel, with a screw thread at 9 Bucket of multicolored construction bricks both ends. One end fi ts a standard laser body; 10 Plastic easel the other screws snugly into the interior of the 11 Plastic musical instrument fl ashlight. The fl ashlight works perfectly, but the nonstandard power supply causes the bulb to 12 Collapsible plastic house short at random intervals of your choice. 13 Power-suited action fi gure Although the transformer fi ts fi ne, it might not 14 Plastic farmyard set release easily because of tight screw threads. Moreover, Troubleshooters can’t grasp the 15 Sachet of sea-monkeys transformer to hold it steady, and contact inside 16 Automatic card shuffl er the fl ashlight rattles loosely. With a successful Fine Manipulation check, PCs can free the 17 Barrel of multicolored marbles laser body from the transformer in about a 18 Pacifi er minute. For faster release, they can smash the 19 Plastic puzzle cube fl ashlight against a hard surface. R&D designed the transformer specifi cally for 20 Electronic speak and spell the fl ashlight. However, a successful Hardware roll converts the transformer to power other devices. Q Waterproof angle- headed fl ashlight Q Cubicle tent 10cr, ORANGE Battery-powered, in a waterproof aluminum/ 100cr, RED nylon-fi ber casing. 25m beam length with a After growing up in the claustrophobic 30-degree angle of dispersal. Angled head environs of Alpha Complex, most citizens is ideal for poking through holes and around fear wide-open spaces. They can nurse their corners. claustrophilia in these tiny box-shaped tents. The fl ashlight uses two ‘D’ cells, which last PLC constructs cubicle tents from opaque, about eight hours. No one has found an Old brightly colored cardboard that shuts out all Reckoning fl ashlight with anything but leaking scary sights from the outside world. No more cells inside. Corroded cells have damaged watching strange shapes move around beyond most fl ashlights irreparably. your tent while you struggle to sleep! The tent folds into a packet small enough to fi t into your backpack. Completely recyclable! Assigned equipment Coated with new LeadLike fi lm to block out low-level radiation! In addition, if things get too cold and dark, you can set it on fi re! Perfect for Q Animal repellent all underground and Outdoors exploration. 40cr per can, RED One spritz of this foul-smelling aerosol drives away all sorts of unhygienic animal life. Spray some on your skin, and beasts will fall all over

COME ON, HOW DANGEROUS CAN A REACTOR FROM THE YEAR 137 BE? 33 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET

Q Glow (erithermaboxadrine) Q Personal Biological Electronic Engineering (Hardware) check. 15cr/dose, YELLOW Recycling Unit On a failure, he fries something—either the Availability: Issued to citizens on extended equipment’s delicate electronics, or his own assignment Outdoors or in the Underplex. 1,250cr, GREEN delicate innards. Effects: Citizens who take Glow experience The PBRU fi ts like a wetsuit. Well, more PCs might not always fi nd it easy to string a rapid increase in body temperature, which like an 18th-Century diving suit. The exterior a fragile wire across kilometers of caverns. staves off the ill effects of exposure. A sports a web of cables, tubes and ugly blister You may call for Fine Manipulation (Violence) Troubleshooter on Glow ignores the negative packs that hang off the back and range from checks to avoid dislodging the Alpha Complex effects he would normally suffer due to the size of a tennis ball to a watermelon. The end of the cable, or snapping it at some point exposure. He also survives three times longer suit functions as a personal reclamation unit, along its length. (Violence x 30 minutes) before he lapses into and ensures adequate sustenance even in the Anyone can splice into the cable to monitor a coma. depths of the Underplex. the team’s communications with Alpha Side-effects: Sweating, headaches. The snug suit absorbs secreted sweat, Complex. They can also follow the cable to Overdose leads to muscle cramps, nausea, urine and fecal matter. Waste courses through fi nd the team. Rumors say packs of cannibal distorted perception. conduits in the suit into the lower back blisters. mutants routinely play follow-the-Pow-Dat- Aftereffects: Flushed skin, powerful thirst. These blisters contain nasty chemicals that cable to fi nd tasty Troubleshooter snacks. Then Method of application: Half a powdered destroy most bacteria. The treated waste fl ows again, rumors are treason. sachet in water (a scene). through several smaller blisters, which fi lter, boil, compress, sterilize and extract it. The fi nal Q QwikFun Enzyme Kit Q Furball (morlox) substance, like a grey-green porridge, passes into the upper back blister, which introduces a 800cr, ORANGE 20cr/dose, YELLOW fi nal wash of chemicals, preservatives, fl avor Why make the choice between eating Availability: Issued to citizens on extended enhancers, colors and biological stabilizers. interesting natural foods or tasty Hot Fun? Now assignment in the Underplex. The wearer can suck on the resultant goo you can do both at the same time! Just put a Effects: Sharpens the senses, improves through a mouthpiece that extends from the cupful of organic foodstuffs (like mushrooms, muscle tone, and promotes a luxuriant growth neck of the suit. The goo has the texture tree bark or cockroaches) into the QwikFun of hair across the entire body. Provides of stewed rhubarb, smells like overcooked Enzyme Kit’s 1-liter hopper, add water and a bonuses to Unarmed Combat (Violence) brussels sprouts and tastes—well, like most well-chosen enzyme cocktail and let it autostir checks, and to checks that involve perception, Alpha Complex food. The reclamation process for a few minutes. Presto! Instant Hot Fun! alertness, concealment and adaptation to low produces a constant low slurping sound and In addition to dissolving organic matter temperatures. emits small bursts of potent gas. into edible gruel, the enzymes destroy all Side-effects: Irritability, hypersensitivity to bacteria, protozoa and other potential sources light and a propensity toward violence and Q Phased piton of infection. cannibalism. However, PCs might fi nd it tricky to select the Aftereffects: Long-term use results in 25cr each, ORANGE proper enzymes. Enzyme selection requires permanent physical transformation, with No more hammering pitons into solid rock. a successful Biosciences (Wetware) roll. a massive increase in muscle mass and a Just set the dial on the back of the piton to On a failed check, the resulting Hot Fun is thickening of bones and cartilage. The user the proper Lithic Crystalline Index, and the tip sickening, indigestible, toxic or so laden with becomes a hunched, bat-eared troglodyte, slides right into the rock and fuses with it! You enzymes it liquefi es the digestive tract of the strong as an ox, comfortable in freezing cold will never have a piton loosen and slip again. ingester. Of course, this can also happen with and near-total darkness. This may result Of course, an incorrect setting of the Lithic regular everyday Hot Fun, so maybe nobody in awkward situations upon the return to Crystalline Index dial causes unfortunate side will notice. civilization. effects, such as piton failure or total matter- Method of application: Tablet (one day). energy conversion. Use as directed. Warranty Q Ultrasonic echomapper does not cover user error. Q MultiRope 800cr, YELLOW Q Pow-Dat cable, ultrafi ne This handheld device emits waves of 400cr, RED ultrasound and measures the echoes This amazingly adaptable cord changes to 500cr per 1km spool, ORANGE to produce a 3-D map of the immediate meet your needs! You can make it longer or This lightweight, fl exible ribbon cable serves environment on a small LCD screen. On a shorter, stretchy or inelastic, fl exible or rigid. as your lifeline to Alpha Complex. It provides successful Data Analysis (Software) check, Even the texture changes at your whim, from much-needed power and data you can’t get by the user generates a useful map of the local ultra-frictionless to a Velcro-like surface that’ll plugging your equipment into an Underplex wall Underplex environment. On a failed check, rip your skin right off if you handle it wrong. socket. You can even splice cables together to something goes wrong; maybe the map All you need to do is fl ip the correct switches keep in touch, no matter how deep you go! doesn’t show a jagged fi ssure in the team’s on the control box located at one end of the Experienced players might wonder about path, or perhaps the ultrasound frequency rope. Troubleshooters who are crossing nigh- the wisdom of running data and raw current matches the mating call of giant subterranean bottomless chasms may have some trust through the same cable—and well they might. carnivorous bats. issues regarding who gets the end of the rope Whenever a character hooks the cable up to a with the control box. piece of equipment, he must make a successful

34 PARANOIA: The Underplex THE All hope abandon, ye who enter here… ONE Canto 26: The fl aming spirits of the evil counsellors. Canto 26: The fl The Divine Comedy: Inferno, 3-6 PLAYERS (4-8 HOURS) 2 SESSIONS PAULEngraving by Gustave Dore (1832-1883) for BALDOWSKI This isn’t a standard Classic PARANOIA mission, but the start of a mission, along with a plethora of notes on kicking off an Underplex series. After the Troubleshooters manage to lose a piece of groundbreaking technology in a scuffl e with a menagerie of secret societies, things get strange. A High Programmer, in a bout of future shock, pronounces Alpha Complex’s impending doom from below—excuse us: DOOOOM! From be-LOOOOOW!—at the hands of ‘the One.’ The Computer assigns the team to accompany the Armed Forces into the Underplex, where the Troubleshooters run into trouble in the dark and a cyborg with a grudge. From there, the PCs bear the brunt of The Computer’s evolving interest in the Underplex. In a sequence of missons, the Troubleshooters pick up clues and red herrings and fi nally confront some awful conclusion… that we Famous Game Designers have chickened out of identifying in exact terms. Instead, we dangle before you a bunch of possible conspiracies. You, showing your characteristic unerring judgment, take them as inspiration to fashion your own excellent explanation. Stop complaining. If you didn’t know by now the incorrigible laziness of Famous Game Designers, you haven’t been paying attention. Say, if you keep nodding off like that, you too could be a Famous Game Designer!

WHAT CIRCLE OF THE INFERNO IS RESERVED FOR COMMIES? 35 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET

he is a prime suspect, Roger-G doesn’t have Scott-B-ADI-3 Background the missing chip. Q Briefi ng Offi cer An R&D team in GVZ Sector has developed 4: Toward the One a new computer chip constructed from a bio- Q Management 08, Moxie 12, Feign silicate diamizanide-foam lattice that could This section outlines how you can take the Interest While Completely Ignoring revolutionize artifi cial intelligence. Executives storyline from here, including retrieving the Anything Irrelevant 14, other skills 07; in Central Research Intelligence Management chip, discovering the identity of ‘the One’ and Deep Thought (Power 16); Tic: Covers Executive immediately passed an enthusiastic concluding the whole shebang. for personal ignorance by blaming report up to The Computer, which requested others for not listening properly. direct access to the technology. Following orders, the GVZ team packed up the chip and Chip and WIN sent it immediately via expedited mail. of a metal desk embedded in the middle of the Unfortunately, someone mixed up the The team engages in a mini-mission to locate room. The briefi ng offi cer, Scott-B-ADI-3, sits package with several other deliveries and the the missing computer chip, and ends up in a behind the desk. He speaks. Read this aloud: box ended up in the central PLC warehouse packing-pellet recycling factory. Waist-deep in WIN Sector. The Computer immediately in polystyrene, the Troubleshooters have a Troubleshooters! Thank you for your cancelled all non-essential Troubleshooter showdown with various stereotypical secret punctuality in attending this very operations and assigned all teams in the area society members, and watch their mission important briefing. The Computer to locate and return the lost package. objective vanish into an underground landfi ll. notes your sterling efforts. Friend Computer has selected you all for a Q All too brief mission of the utmost importance. Summary Loyal citizens in GVZ Sector entrusted The Troubleshooters receive a summons from a package—serial number 6-372/4- The Computer via PDC message: 1411—to Sector Priority Delivery, Q 1: Chip and WIN who reported successful dropoff of ALERT! CODE RED! the package three hours ago, but The Troubleshooters have an unusually hurried ATTENTION TROUBLESHOOTERS! cannot confi rm the fi nal location. Your briefi ng, then pick up mission gear. While the REPORT TO TRANSIT TUBE 667-3/A mission is to locate, seize and return team queues in a PLC warehouse, someone COMM TERMINAL 2214, KZA SECTOR the box, believed waylaid by traitors dumps the packing box containing the computer FOR IMMEDIATE BRIEFING. unknown. chip into the refuse. The PCs head down into TELL NO ONE! STAY ALERT! Do you have any questions? the packing-pellet recycling center and fi nd HASTE PROTOCOLS TO MAXIMUM! representatives from many secret societies, SPEED IS OF THE ESSENCE! Scott-B memorized the entire briefi ng and all fi ghting over the missing chip. The scene YOUR FRIEND, THE COMPUTER. has no additional information. He doesn’t concludes as several opponents, a few tons ALERT! MESSAGE ENDS know what the box contained or who should of packing pellets and the chip vanish down a have received the package. He can tell the landfi ll tube into the Underplex. The rendezvous point (Tension 3) sits Troubleshooters The Computer has assigned midway between all the Troubleshooter’s them the whole of WIN Sector to search. If 2: Seizure moment current working locations. Comm Terminal the Troubleshooters ask too many questions, Q 2214 lies alongside a busy transit tube. It Scott-B responds with a standard, ‘You do At debriefi ng, Adrion-U, The Computer and a consists of a two-way speaker mounted on not possess sufficient clearance for that service group review board severely reprimand a stick. As the Troubleshooters gather, the information.’ the Troubleshooters. Fortune favors the speaker crackles into life: The Troubleshooters can hear muffled Troubleshooter’s hides, however, when Adrion- sounds through the walls. What they hear U suffers a massive seizure and prophesies STAND FORWARD! PREPARE FOR suggests simultaneous and identical briefi ngs doom for Alpha Complex at the hands of EMERGENCY PICKUP PROCEDURES! are occurring in the adjacent cubicles. ‘the One’. Adrion-U’s prophecy opens up the BRACE FOR IMPACT! Underplex as a new threat and sets in motion Bedeviled rejects a panicky, uncoordinated response. Whether the team prepares or not, emergency Q pickup happens moments later. A giant black After fi elding questions from the team, Scott-B 3: One-armed bandit van screams along the transtube, drops a net pulls a large crate from under his desk. The Q mechanism out one side and scoops up the crate has fresh burns along the sides and The Computer drafts the Troubleshooters as whole team. The van loses no speed, though a label obscured by carbon smudges. (A consultants to the Armed Forces for an attack the team might lose their breakfast. The net Concealment check identifi es the label. It reads on the Underplex. The PCs see the dangers pulls them inside and dumps everyone in a ‘REJECTS’.) of the underworld fi rsthand, have fun shooting pile on the fl oor of a narrow, brightly lit room Scott-B randomly doles out the items in things in the dark, try their hand at climbing and (Tension 4). The van contains a dozen similar the crate to the PCs. He shows no interest in fi nally have a showdown with Roger-G-LLE, a offi ces, each 2m deep, 2m tall and 1m wide. questions the Troubleshooters ask about the one-armed Corpore Metal cyborg. Alas, though The team is dumped in one narrow end, in front items. He clearly states PLC will issue standard

36 PARANOIA: The Underplex MISSION: THE ONE OUTFITTING equipment later on, including the team’s bomb-bon of different colors deserves stragglers outside the van. The van disappears allotted laser barrels. To this end, Scott-B hands an uncontrolled and unexpectedly at speed, tires squealing. the team leader (someone volunteered already, large explosion (D3V). The candies The WIN Sector PLC warehouse (Tension right?) a voucher to claim standard equipment taste okay; don’t eat more than one at 5) consists of a massive storage area with a pack 6372-414-11. Don’t make a point of telling a time.... Packet contains 12 candies, collection offi ce at the front. Here PLC clerks the team what the voucher says or the serial six of each color. face a customer lounge packed with lines of number printed on it. desperate citizens, who are in turn packed 100 Maxi-Dooz Party Mix! with grim frustration and flagging resolve. Unmasking Tape Gun The Dooz come in a large pull-string Transparent impact-proof screens protect the A fragile gray plastic gun (an Old bag, the size and shape of a rolled-up PLC clerks; a few screens have bullet holes. Reckoning pricing gun). When the trigger sleeping bag. The bag contains one The PCs must line up and wait. The line holds a is pulled, it spits out 30 small square tabs hundred Dooz—30cm (one-foot) lengths lot of other RED-Clearance citizens who won’t of tape per second, to a range of 20m. of fi ne multi-colored nylon rope. appreciate attempts to barge to the front. The tabs infl ict no damage, but adhere PLC mistakenly manufactured too PCs might take this opportunity to contact stubbornly to any surface. much nylon rope—about six warehouses’ their secret societies or discuss the specifi cs worth. With assistance from HPD&MC, of the mission. After you’ve given everyone Roborobe PLC is offloading it profitably as a a chance to do something, the team fi nally A voluminous silver cloak with infl atable ‘collectible rope series’. Citizens across reaches the front of the line. seams. When someone hits the cloak’s Alpha Complex have fallen foul of the The clerk at the PCs’ window, Arnold-R- exterior activator, a compressed air audacious campaign. They spend every WIN-5, takes the voucher from the team leader, cylinder expands the seams and gives spare credit on Dooz, and turn the ropes types something into his computer and then the garment the appearance of a into accessories, toys and personal heads off into the back of the main offi ce. A common scrubot. Anyone who sees the knickknacks. long conveyor belt brings packages in through roborobe from a distance might fall for The PCs could conceivably use the a curtain on the left side of the room, and the ruse, but closer inspection reveals Dooz for any number of things and takes them out through another on the right it immediately. even combine them to make longer side. Once they remove ordered equipment, The infl atable bot can stand alone, strings—similar in appearance, if not PLC clerks throw empty boxes and packing or a Troubleshooter can fi t inside the strength, to a practical length of rope. pellets into a large hole in the middle of the expanded frame. The wearer is Snafued back wall. on the round after the cloak infl ates, and Dazzler Arnold-R checks the serial number on the thereafter suffers penalties to Violence Energy weapon, blindness, 20 shots, voucher as several packages emerge on the rolls and most Stealth rolls. It takes one 25m, YELLOW. The Dazzler looks like belt. Each box has a serial number printed on round to remove the cloak. a blaster with a fl ashlight welded to the the side in large, bold script—6487-172-12, front in place of a barrel. The user must 6231-646-41, 6372-414-11, and 6-372/4-1411. Sneakers shoot his target in the face to have any Arnold picks up the last one, slices it open, and Cumbersome footwear consisting of a effect. Use the Hit Location table to searches through the contents, then dumps the foam boot attached to a powder puff determine the target area; improve the box into the large hole in the wall. He double- about half a meter in diameter. The puff result by the margin of success to hit checks the voucher, scans the remaining boxes muffl es sounds of movement, improving and any Perversity points spent. If you and picks up the correct one, then returns to Sneaking checks and similar stealthy hold the trigger down, a ‘shot’ lasts about the counter. efforts, but the Troubleshooter walks 10 seconds, and the beam slowly fades Arnold-R mutters, ‘Dumb warehouse ops around like a cowboy with piles. to nothing. sends boxes up with the same numbers… the A Troubleshooter who wears the same numbers! I requested 6372-414-11 not sneakers can use them like snowshoes Cue the queue clue 6-372/4-1411. Ridiculous.’ He slits the box open in the packing pellet-recycling factory. Q and pulls out laser barrels, notepads, styli and The pads distribute the Troubleshooter’s Once Scott-B finishes handing out the pocket protectors. weight, allowing him to precariously walk equipment, he puts his hand to his ear (he’s If the team fails to make the connection on the pellet pool. receiving a message through a concealed between the serial number and the missing earbud) and then firmly grips the table. package, they hear laser fi re from beyond the Bomb-Bons Everyone else has one round to take the hint. hole. The team can enter the back room with Dual-sided packet of red and black candy Five seconds later, anyone not braced fl ies with a powdery outer coating. When the across the narrow offi ce and crashes hard user rolls two ‘bomb-bons’ of differing into the wall. Q Arnold-R-WIN-5 colors together, the material forms an The teams’ transport screeches to a PLC Clerk explosive epoxy. If the Troubleshooter halt outside the door of WIN Sector’s PLC then throws the combined bomb-bon, warehouse. The door at the end of the cubicle Stealth 08, Pass Off Slightly Damaged it explodes on impact (W3K energy, wheezes open and Scott-B motions for Goods 14, other skills 07; X-Ray Vision range 20m, area 5m). If a PC combines everyone to disembark. If anyone pauses too (Power 08); Tic: Can’t start fi lling out a similarly colored bomb-bons, they have long, the net mechanism that originally picked form without a fresh stylus. no effect. Anyone combining multiple up the team snaps out of the fl oor and deposits

DID YOU MAKE SURE TO UPDATE YOUR MEMOMAX FILE? 37 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET a successful Management or Access check. Secret society rumors Or they can break down the screen and vault the counter, but Arnold-R summons Internal Most secret societies have little useful information about the chip, due to the sheer speed Security. That should increase the interest level of events. Societies with nothing useful to offer provide idle gossip, no different from the at the mission debriefi ng. rumors a PC could pick up in a cafeteria or around the offi ce. You can enhance character distrust by dropping a few recurring rumors. Inconsequential Chipping hell non-player characters mention similar comments in passing; weird, anonymous C-mails Q turn up on PDCs that hint at something the Troubleshooters heard earlier. The packing pellet recycling room (Tension 4) The following rumors remain relevant through to the mission’s end. Secret societies is three levels down from the warehouse. The rapidly gather fresh information, and Troubleshooters can get new tidbits whenever they team must take a quick (way quick) slide down make contact. the recycling chute or negotiate six fl ights of Specifi c information stairs. Via the stairs, the team enters the room Q through an airlock that keeps packing pellets Computer Phreaks: The Computer has seized a piece of traitorous technology that could from spilling into the stairwell. Chute-wise, the form the basis for a new computer, if we could get hold of it. Sí plus plus good! GOTO it. team enters the room at high speed, and lands Corpore Metal: Someone in R&D has discovered some sick new computer chip that in a large holding tank of pellets and discarded combines biological and technological elements. Find it and destroy it. cardboard. FCCC-P: R&D has created a heretical new computer chip. We fear it may endanger the The room has three zones—deboxing, Bountiful Computer if the chip falls into the hands of unbelievers. Ensure it doesn’t. separation and dispersal. The team arrives Pro Tech: The Computer has a new computer chip that could revolutionize technology. in—or next to—the deboxing area. Here several Claim it for Pro Tech. Claim it for a better future. large, complex machines extract boxes and Psion: Spies in R&D have fed us information about a computer chip with a biological cardboard from the millions of foam pellets. matrix. Installed in a bot or even The Computer, the chip could allow direct psychic control The machinery feeds the loose pellets into the of lifeless technology. Get the chip. separation area that takes up three-quarters of PURGE: The Computer’s accomplices in R&D have created some kind of foam diamond the room. The separation zone consists of open compound that could create near-impenetrable armor. Our footsoldiers could destroy Alpha fl oor space fi lled to chest height with loose Complex without a scratch. Find and secure the prototype—by any means necessary. packing pellets; several thick support pillars provide cover. Anyone who wades through Q Random rumors the pellets must walk with arms high to keep 1. Creatures from another dimension have invaded Alpha Complex, and seek to enslave equipment clear of potential blockage. The fl oor us all with their terrible mind powers. (False. Some citizen has been watching a few too of the room has several holes covered with many Tella-O-MLY Action Hour reruns.) safety grates; pellets drop through into the main PLC warehouse for reuse. Fans fans release 2. Psion has infi ltrated IntSec. IntSec has sent all recently captured mutants to some mutie a steady fl ow of air that wafts substandard paradise somewhere instead of terminating them. (False. The Computer occasionally pellets down long tubes into a landfi ll beneath transfers certain prisoners to new locations—IntSec doesn’t have a choice in the Alpha Complex. matter.) When the team arrives, representatives from 3. PLC has run out of dynamite, bringing mining operations under Alpha Complex to a halt. the six societies in the ‘Specifi c information’ (False.) section of the sidebar (at right) have broken 4. The Communists have stolen one of the drillbots Tech Services use to make new TUBE in and are now searching for the missing tunnels. They plan to break it up for tractor spares. (False.) computer chip. Each society has sent one member here. (If the players ask you how 5. If you follow the deep service tunnels long enough, you come up inside another Alpha everyone could have got here, point out that Complex. (Citizens have been circulating this rumor for years. True? False? What is truth, ducts lead into the deboxing zone, and several anyway?) of the secret society members look familiar 6. Citizens in HBA Sector have inundated IntSec with complaints. Someone is breaking into from the queue out in the warehouse.) their rooms during working hours, without forced entry, and stealing all their valuables. Everyone here is throwing great clouds of (True. A vagrant with telepathic powers has stolen passwords from travellers on the pellets in the air. They fi ght as necessary, with TUBE. He’s selling their possessions on the IR Market.) weapons or unarmed. Energy weapons that strike the pellets superheat the expanded foam; it explodes into hot sticky goo, which takes two rounds to scrape off. Most secret society members have come prepared for combat with protect from every possible attack. Anyone who celebration or an explosion—that sends the GREEN goons, so they’re armed with illegal fi res into the pellets causes explosions that chip back into the mire of packing pellets. blue laser barrels. knock people back through the air, winding but After several rounds of combat, the PURGEr Play the fi ght for slapstick. The pellets restrict not wounding them. The chip should appear pulls out a grenade and lobs it into the center movement, but provide an ideal place to hide. several times during the battle, but each time of the room. At that moment, someone shouts, The pillars afford excellent cover, but with a someone claims it, something happens to ‘I’ve found it!’ just as an explosion rips through dozen people wandering around, no cover can him—a knock, a shove, an overenthusiastic the room and sets off a shockwave of mini-

38 PARANOIA: The Underplex MISSION: THE ONE SECRET SOCIETIES Society members in the pellets In the battle in the packing-pellet recycling room, the PCs fi ght these * If you have PARANOIA Flashbacks, Molly-G has, instead of six secret society members. Each one has middling degree in his Charm, the Cloud Men’s Minds mutation detailed in the mission secret society; at the end of the battle, they all fall down the landfi ll Send in the Clones. tubes. Thereafter, each makes ongoing trouble for the PCs as they Pike-G-WIN-4 (Pro Tech) travel around the Underplex. Q Power Services; Matter Eater (Power 13); Management 08, Con William-G-WIN-2 (Computer Phreaks) Q Games 12, Cover Ignorance With Convincing Technobabble 14, Tech Services; Mechanical Intuition (Power 14); Violence 05, Stealth 09, Sleight of Hand 13, Software 08, C-Bay 12, other skills Projectile Weapons 09, Hardware 09, Electronic Engineering 13, 07; green refl ec (E2), laser pistol with blue barrel (W3K); Tic: Refer Old Reckoning Computer Repair & Maintenance 15, Software 11, to anything better than average as ‘quite good’ or ‘quite nice’. Hacking 15, Operating Systems 15, other skills 07; heavy long coat Pike-G has built his entire reputation in Pro Tech on the (I1), slugthrower with solid AP rounds (W3K impact AP); Tic: Phrases discoveries of others. He has risen through the ranks by stealing, everything as a question. lying, backstabbing and winning items of obscure technology on William-G’s Phreak codename is ‘Eon’. He plays a vital role in Phreak C-Bay. This chip would ensure further promotion. attempts to program a system to replace The Computer. William-G Charon-G-RRZ-3 (Psion) wears a lot of black and owns an illegal pair of sunglasses. Q IntSec; Detect Mutant Power, Hypersenses, Telepathy (Power 17)*; Roger-G-LLE-3 (Corpore Metal) Q Management 09, Moxie 15, Stealth 07, High Alert (Scam Radar) HPD&MC; Mental Blast (Power 07); Stealth 08, Sneaking 12, Violence 11, Violence 06, Energy Weapons 10, Wetware 09, Suggestion 09, Field Weapons 13, Fine Manipulation 15, Wetware 08, Medical 13, other skills 07; green refl ec (E2), laser pistol with blue barrel 12, other skills 07; Cyborging 15; subdermal impact mesh armor (I2), (W3K); Tic: Grinds his teeth. dermal plating (E1), laser pistol with blue barrel (W3K); Tic: Mutters Blind from decanting, Charon-G possesses incredible powers incomprehensibly between sentences. of psychic perception focused through a single functional—if ‘Jolly’ Roger-G has a cybernetic eye and a single cyberarm (he lost utterly treasonous—eye in his forehead. He hates all those who his arms in an industrial accident) fi tted with three thick manipulators discriminate against mutants. and a mini-fl amer (S3K, 5 shots, 10m). His skin has been armored * If you have The Mutant Experience, Charon-G also possesses both inside and out. Complex Intuition and Psychometry. Q Molly-G-SMS-2 (FCCC-P) Q Kirk-G-GEN-8 (PURGE) CPU; Charm (16)*; Management 09, Chutzpah 15, Intimidation 13, Armed Forces; Energy Field (11); Stealth 08, Violence 10, Energy Preach The Truth About The Silicon Deceiver 15, Violence 07, Energy Weapons 14, Hand Weapons 16, Hardware 7, Weapons and Armor Weapons 11, Software 08, Financial Systems 12, other skills 07; Maintenance 11, other skills 07; Kevlar (I3), two-handed sword skintight refl ective green bodysuit (E3), laser pistol with blue barrel (W4K), laser pistol with blue barrel (W3K), knife (S5K); Tic: Can’t (W3K); Tic: Pouts when not speaking. say anything at a volume less than very loud. A zealous believer in the One Goal of the Brotherhood of the Boot Kirk-G comes across as overbearing, arrogant and antisocial, (see ‘Toward The One’ in this mission), Molly-G uses her natural with delusions of grandeur. He believes he holds a singular role in charm to put opponents off guard. She wears a large red gem the overthrow of The Computer. He has a list of people he plans embedded in her forehead. to kill to pave his way to despotic control.

explosions. The blast sends the secret society team, and, ignoring protests, frog-march the Q Any fi nal words? members through the air into the landfi ll pipes prisoners out of the room. at the back. The debriefing room (Tension 19) is an Who got the chip at the end of the fi refi ght? imposing hall with the atmosphere of a That depends on the role for Adrion-U you Seizure moment courtroom. A massive monitor displays The choose in the fi nal section of this mission. (See Computer’s single eye. Before it, on a raised ‘Toward the One’.) The shadowy conspiracy The Troubleshooters attend a severe debriefi ng, platform, sit representatives from each of the you pick should imply the society that wants which does not bode well for their future. service groups. Cameras dot the walls and the chip most strongly; then you decide whether However, High Programmer Adrion-U has a surround the monitor, feeding the debriefi ng that society has won outright, or remains seizure at the close of the interrogation; he to a wider audience—at least those cleared frustrated. Don’t worry, you don’t have to decide predicts the fall of Alpha Complex to ‘the One’ to see it. Adrion-U-SSB-9, resplendent in yet; you can change the holder during the and the involvement of the Underplex. The his white robes of offi ce, stands in a pulpit to game with fi ckle abandon. (For the record, this Computer assigns the Troubleshooters to the one side with a lectern supporting a pile of mission’s fi nal fi refi ght assumes Corpore Metal Armed Forces’ fi rst wave of troops as they head mission reports. BLUE Troopers frog march member Roger-G-LLE-3 didn’t get the chip.) underground. This offers the PCs a chance to the Troubleshooters into the center of the room At this point, a dozen BLUE Vulture Troopers prove themselves worthy of something other where bright lights shine uncomfortably into arrive. They gather up everyone, including the than termination. their eyes. The fl oor beneath where the team

NOTHING STIRS THE BLOOD LIKE A GOOD SWIM THROUGH THE PELLETS. 39 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET stands shows carbon scouring and smells Q Adrion-U-SSB-9 unpleasantly of cooked meat. Once the team has settled down, Adrion-U Bleeding-edge technocrat; Technical Services; Hemorrhage* (Power 15); Management places his hands fi rmly on the lectern and 10, Intimidation 14, Oratory 14, Stealth 08, Surveillance 12, Hardware 09, Bot Ops starts demeaning the Troubleshooters for & Maintenance 13, Software 09, Hacking 13, Operating Systems 15, Improvise their ineffectual showing in their most recent Countermeasures To Common IntSec AlphaNet Security 15, other skills 07; Ultraviolet mission: FlexiArmor (GM Fiat); Tic: Speaks down to everyone.

‘Troubleshooters! You stand before Adrion-U has an overbearing and intimidating personality. Through raw charisma and me today as a prime example of feigned loyalty, he clambered his way into The Computer’s trust. He enjoys the privileges everything a loyal citizen of Alpha his position brings, but like so many other High Programmers, he still wants more. His Complex shouldn’t be. The Computer thirst for further infl uence and power has led him to become a pawn of a secret society, has honored you with a key role in the though Adrion-U himself long ago left Pro Tech to start his own Program Group. defense of this complex, and yet you * Due to genetic drift, Adrion-U has a useless mutation called Hemorrhage. Adrion-U fail to complete even the simplest task. can bleed, at will, through selected orifi ces or pores. He suffers no physical damage by You stand here now before thousands using the power, but does feel weak and woozy for several minutes. Should Adrion-U fail of your fellow citizens [Adrion-U sweeps his Power check by 5 or more, he suffers an over-bleed that strikes him Down immediately, his hand around to indicate the many and he needs immediate medical attention. cameras] whose very lives depend on your steadfast loyalty and commitment to the security of Alpha Complex. Why One-armed bandit did you show such weakness, such a what is… unspeakable horrors. A pathetic and ineffectual display, such whole world beneath the ground… The Troubleshooters join the vanguard of the a fi ne demonstration of your total lack an invasion… of the mind and soul… Armed Forces assault on the Underplex. The of ability and drive to complete your an enemy within… the Underplex. PCs lose their unit, but discover a derelict assigned mission?’ Perhaps… a time long gone… level of Alpha Complex that used to be living enemies… overrun… No, no, no… Find quarters for BLUE-Clearance citizens. Forced The High Programmer lets the service group the One… no hope… save us all.’ to enter the high-clearance area, the team representatives field their own questions, discovers the hideout of ‘Jolly’ Roger-G-LLE-3. including: Adrion-U collapses in his pulpit. BLUE They can redeem themselves by capturing him Troopers and medical personnel enter. The and the missing computer chip. Where is the missing computer chip? BLUE Troopers surround the Troubleshooters Why didn’t you retrieve the computer and target them with laser rifl es ready to fi re. In the army now chip as ordered? Allow the PCs a few moments to panic or utter Q Which single member of the team their fi nal words. Luckily, The Computer has The BLUE Troopers hustle the Troubleshooters contributed most significantly to the plans for the team that don’t currently include out of the debriefi ng room and down a long failure of your mission? termination: corridor. The team emerges into a bright circular plaza occupied by a squat, bulky Why did you choose to underplay the ‘Cease and desist, Troopers. AlphaNet Armored Personnel Carrier (armor value 6). value of [piece of assigned equipment] updating. Underplex identified The Troopers guide the team onboard and then in favor of [a different piece of assigned and prioritized. Attention loyal depart without a word. equipment]? Troubleshooters! Based on your The rear of the APC (Tension 7) holds a recent mission performance and dozen RED-Clearance Armed Forces recruits Q Whom do you trust? current priorities, I have assigned you and briefing officer Lee-Y-TBO-3. Lee-Y to consultancy with the Armed Forces. gestures for the team to take places in crash When the Troubleshooter’s situation looks truly Report immediately for assignment seats embedded in the walls of the APC, and desperate, or they start infi ghting, Adrion-U with Unit Delta Five-Zero-Three. Please then orders the driver to get moving. screams. He clutches his head, his eyes bulge report to citizen Lee-Y-TBO-3. Your Lee-Y delivers the mission assignment with and blood trickles from his nose. Ham up the performance record remains under barely suppressed emotion and pride in the speech below with dramatic pauses, random review. That is all.’ capability of his men. However, whenever his yelping and gurgles of despair. gaze passes over the Troubleshooters, his Throughout Adrion-U’s prophetic soliloquy, The Computer fi nishes speaking and the disgust is unmistakable. the service group representatives panic, monitor in the wall goes dark. The BLUE gawp and call for assistance, while the eye of Troopers relax ever so slightly, lower their Lee-Y stands perfectly still, his hands The Computer watches the High Programmer weapons and then march the Troubleshooters clasped behind his back, as the APC unwaveringly. out of the room. They ignore questions and rocks and shudders. He composes answer protests with a swift rifl e butt across himself, then calmly details the task ‘Dying… all dying… a natural the back of the questioner’s head. ahead: conclusion… something born of ‘Grunts. You have committed ignorance. Death… a dread fear of yourself to protect Alpha Complex,

40 PARANOIA: The Underplex MISSION: THE ONE ONE-ARMED BANDIT

and today you get the chance to prove flashlights short-circuit; their helmet lights Q Armed Forces your worth on the front line. You have break; their batteries fritz. In the next part of recruits a mission of utmost importance, as the mission, they can get their lights working part of a greater force marching on again, but for now, you want them fl oundering Stealth 07, Violence 08, Energy the enemy secreted beneath Alpha in darkness. Weapons 12, Arm Wrestling 14, Complex. We have assigned you to Ask the Troubleshooters their position in the Hardware 07, Weapons and Armor sector XXX, coordinates 33.455.321. unit and what they’re carrying. Clarify exactly Maintenance 11, other skills 06; combat Enter and secure the area. Ensure no who has the positions nearest the back and fatigues (I1/E1), laser rifle with red enemy forces survive. Kick butt!’ the front. Then read this: barrel (W3K), three spare barrels As Lee-Y fi nishes speaking, the APC screeches to a halt and the rear doors As you advance down another stretch slide open. ‘Ship out, soldiers!’ of corridor, you hear a fi zzing noise behind you. At that moment, the lights Whatever the PCs do, the unit starts shooting Lee-Y gives the PCs black and red camoufl age cut out, plunging you into darkness. at them, though they should avoid serious fatigues and two additional laser barrels apiece You can see ghostly afterimages, injury. If anyone tries to use a PDC, the signal of appropriate clearance. Then the APC leaves, and you hear activity all around. is dead. A shout down the corridor draws a hail while Lee-Y, the unit and (presumably) the PCs Then something brushes past you, of slugthrower fi re. If a Troubleshooter wanders enter the Underplex. something that scrapes against the down the corridor, his movement makes the ground. Ahead, you hear a shot! What automatic door open. Give a note to anyone On maneuvers do you want to do? passing through the door to tell him he can no Q longer communicate with his colleagues. The In these scenes, think modern war fi lms—or, Actually, the team didn’t hear a shot, but a PC has fallen down a hole in the fl oor, and the even better, the marine sequences from the rat scrabbling through a blocked door. When sudden drop and closing doors combine to fi lm Aliens or early episodes of Star Wars: The the blockage shifted, the automatic door muffl e the sound of the fall, the ensuing scream Clone Wars. The soldiers move with careful snapped shut. and any cries for help. coordination: A few advance and secure the The players have no time to pause, Ideally you want to railroad all the PCs into passage ahead, while the assigned sergeant communicate or consider. Anyone who the hole, one by one or en masse, even if you makes complex hand-gestures to the rest of hesitates is dithering; he might as well be have to collapse the entire fl oor beneath them. the unit to signal the next advance. The soldiers holding a target. In these circumstances, it should be easy. ignore the Troubleshooters, even PCs of higher If anyone fi res or dives for the fl oor—the security clearance. likeliest actions, of course—it startles a soldier, Get the drift AFC has assigned the unit to scout a stretch who unloads a spray of shots into the wall. Any Q of derelict, decaying corridors in the Tranz sound from the unit causes a chain reaction, The team lands with a bone-jarring thump in (Tension 0). Masonry litters the fl oor; moisture startling another unit somewhere off behind pitch darkness. Sand covers the ground. They drips from the ceiling into murky pools. Light the PCs. They fi re several shots as well. Give feel a cool breeze from a ragged hole in the panels in the ceiling fl icker and fi zz. the team another chance to react. Mention the fl oor nearby. For this part of the mission, make sure soldiers seem to have retreated at speed back Communicators and PDCs get no signal. everyone is in the dark and stays there. Their the way they just came. Anyone stupid enough to get up and start

AT LEAST NO ONE CAN SEE US IN THE DARK... 41 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET walking should make a Luck check. Success BLUE-Clearance restaurant and kitchen means the Troubleshooter walks safely into a wall of rubble. Failure means he walks straight into the hole and snags his fatigues on a metal fl oor support. The Troubleshooter could pull himself up with a minute’s effort, or his fellow Troubleshooters could assist him. Assist him—heh! Lights, anyone? You can afford to let their light sources start working now. The team

could use a shot from the Dazzler or the Entrance backlight from a PDC screen. (Continuous use drains the PDC battery dry in 10 minutes.) Kitchen Judge other schemes to create light on their merit, and award Perversity points for clever Dining room Sinks Freezer improvisation. With a light source, the team sees a derelict N corridor (Tension 0). A collapsed ceiling blocks the way in one direction, where the 25m

Troubleshooters fell through; a collapsed fl oor Map by Andy ‘Jazzer’ Fitzpatrick blocks the other. The fl oor has fallen, intact, into a huge room 20m below. Twisted metal Roger-G and his associate need four rounds and torn cabling stick out of the hole’s edge. Roger-G didn’t fare well when he fell to attach his cybernetic leg, at which point both The rubble blocks the way back up. The team down the pipe. Nursing his shattered leg like enter the fray. Until they’re ready, they keep needs ingenuity to get down. that mountaineer in Touching the Void, he quiet, to avoid the Troubleshooter’s attention. The PCs might use the bags of Dooz, if they clawed his way into this abandoned section If attacked in the kitchen, they use the metal still have them; improvise a rope from cables or of Alpha Complex and rigged a short-range counter as cover and try to block the door with fatigues; use mutant powers (right there where communicator from scrap. In the last hour, three a preparation table (armor 2 for both counter everyone can see, eww!); or try something other Metal members arrived with emergency and table). original and probably bizarre. Anyone who falls medical equipment. Roger-G plans to guide Run the battle as a straight fi refi ght, rewarding in the hole must make a Luck check; success one of the members to amputate his leg and quick and clever ideas with Perversity points. means the character is Snafued; failure means fi t a cyborg replacement. Once Roger-G enters the fi ght, he taunts the he’s Wounded. Again, award Perversity points Roger-G restored power to the whole area, team: ‘Looking for the computer chip? Not to players who innovate and entertain. so the team can see fine once they open gonna fi nd it here!’ Don’t railroad the players, but keep them the door. The BLUE-Clearance restaurant If things turn bad for the PCs, yet the players on this level of the Underplex. If they want to (Tension 0) is a cozy hall with ten metal tables have entertained you, bring in the cavalry. (If explore further, they fi nd a couple of other exits (armor 2), four chairs per table. Two Metal they’ve been boring, kill them all.) The Armed from this room. Use the tables in Appendix 1 members (with obvious cybernetic limbs) and to provide places to explore, but block shafts a scrubot squat at the back of the restaurant. or stairs from this level with an inconvenient They’re rooting through trash bags of packing Q Scrubot pile of rubble. pellets in search of the missing chip. When the team reaches the lower room, The kitchen is at the far end of the restaurant, Reactivated bot, asimovs inactive; they see a lot of broken furniture, discarded roughly 15m from the PCs’ entrance. The PCs Obsessive Hygiene 18; soap spray newspapers, shattered ceramics and a telltale can’t see into the kitchen from the entryway. A (O1S impact, Violence roll to avoid trail of blood and packing pellets. The trail leads 1m-tall metal counter fi lls most of the kitchen. falling), mop (S3W impact), armored to a faint light under a closed door. The walls The kitchen also contains preparation areas, shell (1) are painted in soothing shades of (gasp!) pale ovens, freezers and cooking implements, green, and the door is painted (eeeyaah!) blue. including plenty of sharp knives. Roger-G Roger-G-LLE-3 Security clearance violations always make for and the third Metal member have set up their Q an interesting debriefi ng.... improvised surgery here. Roger-G’s statistics are listed in the Beyond the door is a BLUE-Clearance No one immediately notices the PCs, so the sidebar on page 39. restaurant, shown on the map on this page. Troubleshooters have the element of surprise. They can use the tables as cover. Q Corpore Metal Q Smoking out the bandit When the PCs attack, the two Corpore Metal members in the restaurant shield themselves members (3) In this fi nal part of the mission, the PCs face behind the tables and take potshots. The off against ‘Jolly’ Roger-G and his associates in scrubot rushes the team with scrubbing Violence 8, Energy Weapon 12, other an abandoned BLUE-Clearance restaurant and attachments; it sprays anyone within 10m with skills 7; laser pistol w/illegal green barrel kitchen. But they still don’t fi nd the chip. torrents of liquid soap (O1S impact, Violence (W3K energy) roll to avoid falling).

42 PARANOIA: The Underplex MISSION: THE ONE LAUNCHING THE SERIES

Forces recruits storm through the collapsed technology. Once he infects the chip, Adrion-U The Brotherhood of the Boot has chosen to ceiling at the restaurant entrance. Roger-G intends to install it in the central CompNode throw off the shackles of doubt and rebel; they and his associates fi ght to the death, a matter and bring about a new era of peace under are certain demonic code has undermined of 10-20 seconds. The Myco-mputer. ‘The One’ refers to this fi nal the Holy Scripts of the Righteous Computer! Once they’ve won the fi ght, the team can abomination of fungus and machine. Influential members of The Brotherhood search the bags and the Metal members, but guided the GVZ Sector R&D team to create they fi nd no sign of the missing chip. Option 2: I’m with a revolutionary new computer chip with the Q subroutines necessary to completely reformat the replacements and recover The Computer’s data core. Toward the One The Phreaks have hacked into Adrion-U’s ‘The One’ refers to The Brotherhood’s true cybernetic implants. incarnation of The One Computer. Having had their first experience of the On the way up the ranks, Adrion-U suffered Underplex, the team can expect to return. a near-fatal accident in an explosion at Reactor Option 4: Where Adrion-U’s prophecy scares many important #6 in SSB Sector. Adrion-U lost part of his Q people (and The Computer), as does the spinal cord due to burns on 84% of his body. is the One? Underplex. Plus, they’re still looking for the Tech Services and R&D replaced the missing Mutant unrest in the Dungeon has reached computer chip, remember? spine with a cybernetic analog, which also new heights and the potential for open rebellion In the following weeks, the Armed Forces restored cognitive and motor functions. Alas, against Alpha Complex grows daily. Adrion-U continue to treat the Underplex as an extended the Phreaks have found a backdoor into the inadvertently became the conduit for the training exercise.They repeatedly suffer cyberware. They seek the missing computer mutant leader’s psionic communication. The humiliating defeats. After a couple of months, chip to complete work on Apricot, their experience involuntarily triggered the High they pull back most of their soldiers. UNDER ambitious project to replace The Computer’s Programmer’s own mutation. Something takes the lead in exploring, mapping and operating system. ‘The One’ refers to Eon, the about Adrion-U’s mutation seriously disrupted fi ghting in the Underplex. Phreak who fell down the landfi ll pipe at WIN the connection, confused the message Adrion-U remains in a coma for a month. Sector PLC. Eon has the only current copy of and—whoops!—downloaded the mutant Upon recovering consciousness, he claims to the bridging code the Phreaks need to install leader’s mind into the High Programmer’s remember nothing about the debriefi ng or his the Apricot OS on the computer chip. (Moral: brain. (Don’t you hate when that happens?) prophecy. Read the following subsections and Always back up your data!) The mutant leader collapsed dead somewhere choose one or more of the greater conspiracies deep in the Underplex, and Adrion-U lapsed provided (or come up with your own). Many Option 3: Erase/rewind into a coma. of the mission seeds in this book can either Q The Dungeon mutants take their leader’s support these conspiracies or divert attention Adrion-U has succumbed to brainwashing from death as a call to war and mobilize to strike from them. You can mix UNDER missions with a heretical faction of FCCC-P. against Alpha Complex. When Adrion-U standard Troubleshooter activities. Feed the FCCC-P has known about the Underplex for regains consciousness, the leader’s mind team all the rumors from the PLC warehouse a while, but has failed singularly to reconcile exerts control and sets in motion plans to section of this mission, repeating and spreading its existence with the Greater Teachings of the destroy Alpha Complex from within. He will use them around as necessary. Omniscient Computer. High Programmers in the the High Programmer’s signifi cant resources Use the remaining secret society members society have made guarded queries about the and program group. ‘The One’ refers to Adrion- as one-shot villains to continue the thread of underworld, but have found no enlightenment. U himself. the missing computer chip. When you reach the fi nal secret society member, then you can reveal how Adrion-U became involved and stage a fi nal showdown. Make the conclusion showy and destructive. The Troubleshooters have the chance to save The Computer and Alpha Complex—or at least garner a victory for their secret societies. …the memory of a cave I used to know at home was always in my mind, with its lofty passages, Q Option 1: Hurdy gurdy mushroom man its silence and solitude, its shrouding gloom, its The myco-intelligence from Mezcalinzan sepulchral echoes, its fl itting lights, and more infected Adrion-U. Having reached the High than all, its sudden revelations… Programmer through a chain of intermediary contacts, now the sapient fungus has infected —Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad (1869) Adrion-U’s brain. Pressure on his pineal gland caused his prophetic outburst. The possessed High Programmer wants the computer chip, for the myco-intelligence believes it can tap into the bio-component of the

WHAT ARE YOU DOING, CITIZEN? SNEAKING OFF, ARE WE? 43 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET Appendix 1: Random Underplex Use these tables to generate lots of Underplex rooms, corridors, features and hazards. The tables start from the entry point onward, but you can merrily skip between tables if the PCs get off track. (Like that ever happens.) If you fi nd no logic to the table results, improvise, ignore, roll again or just brazen it out. Tthe Underplex should be confusing, because nothing there was ever meant to fi t to together. Overlap: As you generate and map an area of the Underplex, you may have a situation where one element overlaps another on the same level. Don’t worry about complex rejigging; just note the overlap on your map. After your team leave the fi rst room, the second collapses into it. Alpha Complex

1 At the back of a factory fl oor 1–5 Corridor 1–7 Open exit 2 Through a maintenance duct in the wall Gate (1–5: locked, 6–12: unlocked, 6–8 Stairway 8–10 13–14: unlocked and well maintained, 3 In the back of a broom cupboard 15–19: open, 20: battered open)

4 Along the side of a TUBE tunnel 9–16 Room Door (1–5: locked, 6–7: wedged open with a stone or debris, 8–12: unlocked, 5 Through a grating in the fl oor 11–13 rusted, 13–14: unlocked and well 17–18 Shaft maintained, 15–19: open, 20: battered 6 Behind a billboard open)

7 Through the drain of a public fountain LOCATION 19–20 Duct 14 Blocked by a metal sheet

8 Behind a bulkhead marked ‘Keep Out!’ 15–16 Blocked by collapsed ceiling

9 Through a hole in a wall 17 Covered by camofl auge Concealed behind a pile of garbage 10 Behind an electrifi ed gate 18 Determine the area’s lighting and and rubble 11 Through the back of a wardrobe hazard level by rolling 1d20 and consulting this table. Select an 19 Open, but contains a dangerous trap EXIT TYPE 12 At the base of an empty algae vat appropriate threat for the location: Open, but contains a silent alarm to 20 Under the blast shield of a missile launch collapsing fl oor, mutant ambush, alert local Underdwellers 13 bay chiggers, etc. 14 In room 127/c, Level 12 1–5 Safe, lit 15 Bricked over 6–9 Dangerous, lit 16 In an area of a higher security clearance On the opposite side of a cavernous 10–16 Safe, dark 17 chimney

THREAT LEVEL THREAT 17–20 Dangerous, dark 18 Beyond a disused airlock

ENTRANCE TO THE TRANZ 19 Through a ceiling grate

20 Behind a rusted metal door

None (if no other exits available, roll 1–2 again)

Q How to read 3–6 One the tables 7–12 Two These tables include lots of entries formatted like this one: 13–18 Three

Dance hall (1-10: Death Leopards, EXITS 19 Hidden 11-20: Mystics) Roll twice and add all the results to 20 When you get one of these entries, fi nd the number of exits make another 1d20 roll and match the result to the numbered range in parentheses. That tells you who runs this particular dance hall.

44 PARANOIA: The Underplex APPENDIX 1 RANDOM UNDERPLEX Next location All locations vary in appearance depending on their location in the Underplex. A ‘Dangerously hot corridor’ in the Tranz might just contain hot pipes; in the Deeps it might run alongside a magma fl ow. When you roll any location other than a room, roll d20 again for the length (in meters) of the corridor, shaft, duct or stairway. If you roll 19 or 20, roll again and add the results together (for any further results of 19 or 20, add them and roll yet again). Then roll another d20 to determine the Threat Level for the room (see the table on the previous page). Finally, having rolled on the relevant location sub-table check on the relevant subtable, then roll on Exits to see how many ways the team can get out. Each Exit leads to another location you roll on the location table. When you get tired of rolling, either start picking entries that sound good, or just drop a ceiling on everyone.

1–2 Wide and airy 1–2 Open cliff face 1–3 Maintenance duct 3–5 Stuffy and fi lled with cobwebs 3–4 Natural fault in the rock 4–5 Old water pipe 6–7 Floor covered with loose stones 5 Latrine waste pipe

8–9 Floor covered with metal grating 6 Collapsed fl oor 6–7 Conduit for power cables

10 Dangerously hot 7 Garbage chute 8 Damaged vacuum pipe 11 Uneven fl oor 8 Dust exhaust tunnel 9–10 Old lava tube 12 Collapsed wall 9 Old lava tube

13 Filled wth unopened crates 10 Missile launch tube 11–12 Eroded gap in the wall 14–15 Floor scattered with rat droppings 11 Lift shaft 13 Emergency escape route 16 Filled with fungus 12 Steam pipe DUCT 17 Coated with a powdery substance 13 Ventilation shaft 14–15 Ventilation duct

CORRIDOR 18 Narrow with rough walls 14 Maintenance ladder SHAFT 16 Rats’ nest Slopes steeply upward (ascends into 15 Naturally burrowed shaft 19 Alpha Complex, The Tranz or Underplex, 17–18 Sewer as applicable) 16 Well

Slopes sharply downward (descends 17 Bottomless pit 19 Accidental drillbot bore 20 into Underplex or The Deeps, depending on current level) 18 Old mine Grating covered crawl space under a 20 Emergency escape route containing broken corridor with no means to open grating 19 1–4 Broad, sturdy metal stairs ladder and a length of frayed rope

5–7 Narrow metal stairs without railings

8–9 Uneven, wobbly wooden stairs

10–11 Steps carved into solid rock Collapsed stairs with twisted frame 12–13 Roll here for the size of the room remaining and then check under the specifi c 14–16 Ladder location (The Tranz, Underplex or The Deeps) on the next pages. Climbs sharply upward (ascends into 17–18 Alpha Complex, The Tranz or Underplex, as applicable)

STAIRWAY 1–6 Small room

7–14 Normal room ROOM SIZE 15–20 Large room

YOU’VE BEEN HERE FOR TEN HOURS? WOW, I’VE BEEN HERE FOR TWENTY YEARS! 45 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET THE TRANZ TUBE control booth (1-10: active, Vagrant squat (1-10: occupied, Communal squat, Underdwellers 1–2 1–2 1–2 11-20: decommissioned) 11-20: disused) (1-10: occupied, 11-20: disused)

3–6 Empty room 3–6 Empty room 3–6 Empty room

7–8 Wrecked store room 7–8 Algae slurry pool 7–8 Unfi nished transtube

Booth (1-10: confession, Fortifi ed chamber, feral children 9 9 9 Fungus farm 11-20: information) (1-10: occupied, 11-20: disused)

10 Wiring junction 10 Grease sump 10–11 TUBE station

Mine (1-10: active, 11-20: 11–12 Space behind the wall 11–12 Sewer outlet 12–13 decommissioned) Sewage processing room Hangar (1-10: active, 11-20: 13–14 Hot pipe stop valves 13 14–15 (1-10: active, 11-20: decommissioned) decommissioned)

15–16 Blocked stairway 14 TUBE ventiliation chamber 16 Private slime farm

Meeting room (1-10: IntSec, Missile silo (1-10: active, 11-20: 17 Go-4 bot recharge station, inactive 15–16 17 11-20: secret society) decommissioned)

SMALL ROOM Storeroom (1-10: empty; LARGE ROOM 18 Undercommuting junction room 17–18 18 Ore processing plant, decommissioned NORMAL ROOM 11-20: moldering supplies) DELETED citizen squat Dance hall (1-10: Death Leopards, 19 19 Public latrine 19 (1-10: occupied, 11-20: disused) 11-20: Mystics) FCCC-P chapel (1-10: occupied, Prison complex (1-8: active, 9-18: 20 20 Free Enterprise storeroom, abandoned 20 11-20: disused) decommissioned, 19-20: corpses) UNDERPLEX

1 TUBE ticket offi ce 1 TUBE tunnel, collapsed 1–2 Temporary barracks

2–7 Empty room 2–7 Empty room 3–8 Empty room Meditation room (1-5: occupied, 6-15: 8 empty, 16-20: abandoned) 8–9 Abandoned camp site Reactor (1-7: active, 8-17: 9–10 Area 31 fi eld test (1-10: active, 11-18: Storeroom (1-10: abandoned; 11-15: decommissioned, 18-20: leaking) 10–11 9 inactive, 19-20: someone trapped Underdwellers; 16-20: Secret Society) inside) Missile base (1-10: active, 11 Airlock (1-10: no apparent function, 12 Transtube tunnel, abandoned 11-20: decommissioned) 10–11 11-15: access to Area 31, 16-20: access to Large Underplex room) Abandoned sector (1-8: empty, 13 CPU planning offi ce, abandoned 12–14 9-12: contagion, 13-16: predator, Armed Forces guard post (1-10: 12–13 17-20: radioactive) manned; 11-20: abandoned) 14 Corpore Metal fi eld hospital 14–15 Underdweller waste sump 15–16 Undercommunity 15 Armed Forced forward command 16 Power cable junction 17 Dungeon enclave Artifi cial cave, underdwellers (1-10: 16–17 inhabited, 11-20: abandoned) 17 Water stop valve SMALL ROOM LARGE ROOM 18 Free Enterprise market hall

NORMAL ROOM 18 Rat farm Lift car at the bottom of a collapsed 18 shaft DIRE waiting room (1-10: empty, 11-17: 19 Landfi ll 19 occupied, 18-20: just desiccated 19 HPD&MC clerical offi ce, abandoned corpses) Warehouse (1-10: empty, 11-17: odds 20 20 Mystic den 20 Underdweller refuse pile and ends, 18-20: full)

46 PARANOIA: The Underplex APPENDIX 2 EXTRA STUFF THE DEEPS

Cryogenic storage room (1-5: Exiled High Programmer’s residence 1–8 Empty cave 1 occupied, 6-13: abandoned, 14-18: 1 (1-7: occupied, 8-15: abandoned, 16- unpowered, corpse, 19-20: destroyed) 18: destroyed, 19-20: squatter) 9 Crystal cavern 2–8 Empty cave 2–3 Underground lake 10–11 Oily cavern 4 Cataclysmic rift 9–10 Cave-in (1-10: recent, 11-20: old) Cave, Underdwellers (1-6: inhabited, 12 7-20: abandoned) 5–6 Deep mine 11 Hot spring 13 Luminescent cavern 7–12 Empty cave Cave, animal den (1-10: inhabited, 12–13 14 Fordable river 11-20: abandoned) 13 Department store 15 Old Reckoning underground station Lava pool (1-10: active, 11-20: Underground sea (1-10: fresh water, 14 14 inactive) 11-20: sea water) 16 Large refrigeration facility Armed Forces scout camp site Massive natural cavern with small 15 15 (1-8: occupied, 9-18: abandoned, clouds and running water 19-20: attacked) 17 Old Reckoning workshop 16–17 Abyss LARGE ROOM SMALL ROOM 16 Refuse pile Weird swirly gateway that leads back to

NORMAL ROOM 18 an Alpha Complex R&D lab (one-way 18 Outskirts of Mezcalinzan only) 17 Exit to the Outdoors 19 Old Reckoning restroom 19 Magma lake

20 Catacombs 20 Old mining rail track

Appendix 2: Overfl ow This section includes a bunch of text boxes we wanted to include in the earlier chapters, but we had no room. So we’re just kind of fl inging them onto the page at random, back here where they can’t harm the layout. UNDERprepared: The AptiTap Of the bureaucrats involved in training and equipping UNDER teams, how many have actually seen the Underplex in person? You could count them on the fi ngers of one hand—even a mangled hand held by a demented docbot. Most low-clearance managers think the Underplex has wide, well-lit corridors, functional environmental systems and a personal hygiene correction cubicle on every corner. Following interviews with cooperative survivors, Technical Services has created a training shortcut. Engineers have collated the knowledge acquired in the Underplex into fast-burn memory downloads using a revolutionary upgrade derived from the MemoMax process—the AptiTap.Tech Services claims the Aptitude Tap uses peptide resequencing to enhance neural receptors so they can accept new information downloaded in a compressed format. Tech Services bioengineers acquired the distilled knowledge for the AptiTap through selective splicing of archived MemoMax data; they took the essential skills from qualifi ed individuals and then condensed the information into a downloadable, homogenized format. Troubleshooters subjected to the AptiTap procedure can improve personal talents and acquire new skills in a process similar to the standard MemoMax download. The procedure delivers a fl ash download of data directly into the optic nerve, via a microfi lament needle inserted into the left eye. The AptiTap provides a way to let characters acquire new skills appropriate to the Underplex setting. Whether you choose to generate characters specifi cally for the Underplex or intend to just run a one-shot, you can let the players select an UNDER specialty instead of a service group specialty. Otherwise, Troubleshooters visit the AptiTap clinic as part of the briefi ng process for their fi rst UNDER driven mission. Offer each player the opportunity to spend Perversity Points to acquire a new specialty from those listed later in this section. The new specialty costs 20 Perversity and starts at a rating equal to the governing skill rating plus 4. Characters who acquire a new specialty can feel superior to their teammates, while those same teammates can plot to spend the Perversity they saved to make their highly qualifi ed associate fail his next Rock Climbing check.

THERE IS A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL. 47 UNDERPLEX CLEARANCE ULTRAVIOLET Mandates Service, Service! introduced the concept of the mandate, a specifi c kind of authority The Computer assigns to an individual PC. Here are a couple of mandates you can assign to Troubleshooters specifi cally for work in the Underplex. The badge backs appear below. Cable and wiring repair: Power Services’ need to assess repair work in the Underplex means The Computer regularly assigns cable catalog and repair mandates to all vaguely qualifi ed personnel. Duct inspection: Technicians work constantly to inspect, catalogue and repair ducts. They can’t solve many reported problems with fl ow pressure and supply, because there is no clear cause. Tech Services now believes many of these problems originate with leaking pipes, shattered ducts and brimming sumps in the Underplex. To close outstanding cases, Technical Services assigns open-ended mandates.

Comm-victs POWER SERVICES Repair Designated Cables and Wiring TUBE stations commonly include penalty stations for comm- Instruction: Tag outstanding points of repair, and repair tagged points victs. The comm-vict program reinforces a traitor’s educational outstanding. realignment, as delivered through The Computer’s Bright Vision Benefi t: You receive a roll of peel-and-stick RFI Problem Pointers Re-education Centers. (PPs), which identify cable damage, and a radio receiver tuned to a The stations are meter-square metal floor plates with frequency used by another Cable Inspection operative. Job: Inspect power cables and outlets. Determine whether to repair embedded power ports and medical monitors. Traitors, kitted damaged conduits on-site. If repair is needed, apply a Problem Pointer. out with magnetic boots and self-administering gelgernine belt- Another operative will handle the PP with your assigned frequency. If units, stand on the penalty stations and recite loyalty-inspiring your radio receiver indicates a PP nearby, you must repair the conduit slogans and songs. The medical monitor records each comm- and complete an F556.PS.334/a ‘Recognition of Discharged Repairs’. vict’s physical and mental condition, and increases medication Under no circumstances use a PP for any purpose other than as needed to ensure he delivers suffi cient patriotic exertion identifi cation of cable damage. Re-tuning the radio receiver for use as an improvised tracking device is strictly prohibited. throughout the day. A comm-vict’s colleagues, from secret society cells or work groups, may occasionally try to release him. But comm-victs cannot remove the magnetic boots without assistance; this TECHNICAL SERVICES requires either a successful Hardware/Electronic Engineering Periodic Regulatory Inspection of Duct Functionality roll or a direct hit with electromagnetic fl ux (as from a gauss gun Instructions: Verify working order of multifunctional ductwork. or grenade). If the comm-vict is freed, the medical monitoring Benefi t: You are provided a Technical Service-approved allen system alerts HPD&MC the comm-vict has either escaped wrench to access the fl ow regulator of multifunctional ducting. If you or died. Within minutes, a 116 Emergency Systems crew will use this tool on a duct for one minute, you may roll 1d20 against investigate the possible missing persons case. your Hardware skill. Success means you redirect the duct’s fl ow to On the other hand, if power is ever cut or the station is your current location or a location of your choice. The greater your abandoned, the comm-victs are stuck. For a dramatic, or at least margin of success, the more accurate and speedy the diversion. annoying, encounter with comm-victs affl icted in this way, see A diverted fl ow has to come from, and go, somewhere. If you the mission ‘Patch Job’ in the fi ne PARANOIA mission collection use this mandate to divert a blast of water to your location, Crash Priority. somewhere else a High Programmer’s Jacuzzi may suddenly fi ll with raw sewage. Why don’t we stay down here? If your Troubleshooters seem a little too cozy in the Underplex, reinforce its unappealing aspects: It’s dark and cold. Alpha Complex may be oppressive, but at least you can depend on a regulated temperature and plenty of light. You really miss the most basic comforts once they’re stripped away. Before you know it, you’re rocking in a corner, clutching yourself and quietly shivering. If there’s one thing worse than eating algae, it’s desperately force-feeding yourself scuttling nameless bugs. After a day or so in the Underplex, you become quite aware of the absence of well-stocked vending machines. The only things to eat are vermin, insects and fungal scrapings off damp walls. You must savor such natural delights raw—although if you can fi nd a puddle and a crackling power cable, you might manage a fricassee. Things in the Underplex don’t just want to kill you; they want to eat you alive after liquefying your brain. Troubleshooters may struggle at times, but missions mean credits, commendation and a short stop in the local infi rmary. In the Underplex, you struggle to survive every moment. Nine out of ten things you meet want you dead, for no better reason than you look tasty or they’ve had a bad day. Far better just to screw up, lose a clone and get demoted to INFRARED.

48 PARANOIA: The Underplex