As I said, this needed some cleanup work. But, hey, glad I got better in twenty years, right?
The Computer
Balseraph Prince of Paranoia
The world is Alpha Complex. Alpha Complex is the world. All rumors about anything existing outside of Alpha Complex are treasonous, and punishable by summary execution.
Have a nice day.
No Demon Prince would casually admit it, of course, but they all find the Computer (and its Principality, Alpha Complex) fascinating. It is a seamless blend of Technology, Nightmares, and Dark Humor that has bloomed like a malignant flower in the middle of Hell, and the official reason that it continues to exist is because everyone else wants to know how to duplicate the trick. Once they figure it out, then they’ll blow it to pieces. If they can. There are a lot of weird things going on inside of this Principality, and the inhabitants are certainly armed. Rather insanely well armed, really.
However, the real reason that the Princes keep the Computer around is because some of them haven’t had this much fun in centuries…
Dissonance
Getting caught. Servitors of Paranoia suffer dissonance whenever they’re spotted breaking the rules, or doing something contrary to their Band’s dissonance conditions. However, the surveillance that Servitors suffer from ranges from ‘nonexistent’ to ‘omniscient,’ and changes without notice.
Incidentally, possession of two or more points of dissonance is treasonous, and subject to summary execution. Please report all traitors to Internal Security. Thank you.
Organization
The major problem that almost every Servitor of Paranoia has is that he or she doesn’t realize that: a) he or she is a demon; and b) Alpha Complex is actually a Principality in Hell. They subconsciously realize that something is seriously wrong with the universe, but they don’t know what it is, exactly. And they don’t know who is really responsible. Anybody could be behind it all.
It’s good to stay alert then, in case a clue to the truth arises. It’s better to trust no one, because they could be the ones hiding the truth from you. And, of course, it’s best to keep your laser handy, just in case some lunatic thinks that you’re the one behind it all.
Service Group Attunements
All Servitors of Paranoia, depending on their Band, belong to one of seven ‘Service Groups’ that are supposed to oversee the day-to-day workings of Alpha Complex. All Servitors of Paranoia are also members of the Service Group known as ‘Troubleshooters’ (called that because they, well, shoot trouble). Suggesting that there is anything unusual about this is a tacit accusation that the Computer is wasting resources, which is of course treasonous and punishable by summary execution.
CPU (Restricted)
These are the clones who run the Computer’s data systems, of course. Any attempt to disbelieve a Balseraph of Paranoia’s lie is at -2, provided that the lie would support the shared hallucination that is Alpha Complex. They also get a +2 to attempts to summon and placate the Computer.
PLC (Restricted)
The tireless workers in PLC make sure that everybody in Alpha Complex has everything they need to be productive, happy, and loyal citizens. Djinn automatically attune to a piece of equipment that they’ve been assigned as part of their inventory. They can break such an attunement without a roll, at any time.
Armed Forces (Restricted)
The first line of defense against the Commie Mutant Traitors that want to overrun Alpha Complex. Calabim can add their Corporeal Forces to the Power of any of their attacks that utilize a weapon. For some reason, the Computer also often assigns them robot ‘vessels’.
R&D (Restricted)
Visionary geniuses that use science and technology to make Alpha Complex ever better. Although it’s already perfect, of course. Habbalah can put a Song or Skill into a device, by spending 3 Essence. The device lasts for up to (the Habbalite’s Celestial Forces) weeks. Unfortunately, they also imbue the device with the last emotion that they experienced. Anyone that uses this device will suffer from the emotion every time he or she uses it.
Power Services (Restricted)
As has been mentioned elsewhere: these clones have their hands on the nuclear damper rods. Lilim of Paranoia are the only ones that know what’s going on (below Ultraviolet clearance, of course). They tend to stick together. How does the Computer get Lilim? That’s an interesting question, Citizen: what’s your security clearance? Also: what’s a ‘Lilim?’
Internal Security (Restricted)
The tireless and eternal protectors of Alpha Complex against the insidious plots of Commie Mutant Traitors. Shedim of Paranoia may possess the celestial form of an entity normally, and do not have to worry about corrupting their host. Other Princes would love to know how the Computer manages that trick.
HPD & MC (Restricted)
Clones in this Service Group handle maintain societal necessities, like food, water, shelter, and mind control techniques. Impudites have a +2 to influence, Charm or Drain Infrareds (known as ‘damned souls’ in saner parts of Hell).
Servitor Attunements
ROY-G-BIV
This Attunement maintains social order in Alpha Complex. It comes in security clearance levels, with Red being the lowest and Violet the highest being available to most demons. Every roll that features an interaction between two Citizens of differing security clearances is affected by ROY-G-BIV, with the higher clearance Citizen getting a plus equal to the difference between the levels in his rolls and the lower clearance Citizen getting a minus.
For example: a Red clearance Citizen attacking a Green clearance Citizen will be at -3 to all attack rolls targeted against that citizen, -3 to any attempt to use a ‘mutant power’ on the Green, and so forth, while the Green citizen will be at +3 to casually waste the upstart. This absolutely applies to skills as well, except for Emote (known in Alpha Complex as ‘Bootlicking’). Having high levels of Emote (to represent begging for mercy and unctuous apple-polishing) is key to surviving Alpha Complex; the skill even works on the Computer! Unless it doesn’t.
All Citizens must take this Attunement upon Character creation. Infrareds have this Attunement as well, but it only works within the boundaries of Alpha Complex.
Registered Mutant
This Attunement grants no special powers: instead, the Citizen is permitted to use his Songs and resonance without immediately being branded as being a Commie Mutant Traitor. Or rather, he is a Commie Mutant Traitor, but now he’s one who is officially Allowed to Exist, by the gracious mercy of the Computer. He’s also more than likely to get hosed by his fellow citizens, since nobody trusts Commie Mutant Traitors.
Security Clearance
The Computer has a somewhat different hierarchy than other Princes. It uses the human visible color spectrum as an indication of the pecking order: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet, with Infrared denoting the teeming masses and Ultraviolet being the highest security clearance. All citizens are expected to obey the orders of those of a higher security clearance than theirs. Ultraviolet clearance doesn’t get assigned by the Computer, exactly: the Citizens who have it are the demons that actually managed to work out what’s really going on, and have used that knowledge to carve out comfortable niches for themselves inside the Principality. Naturally, failure to wear clothing of the correct color for your security clearance is treasonous, and is punishable by summary execution.
It should also be noted that, due to a quirk in the physical laws governing Hell, the color indigo actually does exist in Alpha Complex.
Superior Relations
Well, considering that the Computer doesn’t acknowledge the existence of any other Prince, things could be worse. Most of the other Princes are really, really fascinated with this new Principality. More than one, when asked by a roving Media team what they’re going to do, now that they’ve scored a significant victory, has grinned for the camera and replied, “I’m going to Alpha Complex!” It’s actually a popular resort area for them.
Of course, they all think the Computer’s insane, but who cares?
Allied: None
Associated: None
Neutral: Everybody (The Computer’s neutral to everyone, too. Hey, it doesn’t admit they actually exist.)
Hostile: None
Enemy: None
Andrealphus: “So much Lust … so much Lust … so much Lust, and none of them know that they have it! Where do I start? OK, I’ll take one of these, and one of these, and just clear off that shelf over there…”
Asmodeus: “Only a madman could have created this social system: only a brilliant, innovative, and subtle madman. I think that we’ll keep the Computer around for just a tad longer.”
Baal: “You haven’t passed my urban insurgency course until you’ve taken a run through Alpha Complex. The best damn targets in Hell; and some of them are even worth snagging for my own troops. Of course, it’s also fun to watch Belial play. I remember the look on his face when he came here for the first time…”
Beleth: “I sit in my ‘borrowed’ Ultraviolet living quarters and I look upon the intricate nightmare that is Alpha Complex, and I see the fear. I literally see the fear: it roils up from the buildings in a haze. Every inhabitant of Alpha Complex is ruled by fear, and they writhe under it until the misery and pain is nearly suffocating. It’s better than a day at the spa.”
Belial: “They give out napalm and explosives to everybody, and everybody uses them! They LIKE the smell of napalm in the morning! They’ve got nuclear reactors melting down all the time! And, and, and look at this: do you know what this is? Do you, do you? It’s a TAC-NUKE GRENADE! It’s standard issue! You can just walk into a supply depot, and they’ll GIVE you one if you’ve got the right form! I LOVE this place!”
Furfur: “Pack your bags, guys: we’re moving. (Bleep) Shal-Mari: this is Hardcore.”
Haagenti: “Mmmmm… foodvats. They don’t like it, which just means more for me.”
Kobal: “I am not a petty Prince. I can recognize true talent when I see it, and the Computer is a specialized genius. Of course, there’s always room for an improvement or two.”
Kronos: “I wish that the other Princes would get over their infatuation with their new toy, and get back to more important things. No, I have never visited Alpha Complex, and have no desire to. …And just where did you get these photos suggesting otherwise?”
Lilith: “Actually, I can take it or leave it alone. A lot of my girls have found Alpha Complex useful for shepherding outsiders around and showing them the sights, but the place is somewhat depressing. Not much fun at all for me, but tastes differ, eh?”
Malphas: “What a glorious vision of the future. We will see this beauty replicated everywhere, someday. I do so love to walk the streets of a place where everyone you see understands.”
Nybbas: “KEEP THOSE CAMERAS ROLLING! KEEP THOSE CAMERAS ROLLING! I DON’T WANT A SECOND OF THIS LOST! I DON’T EVEN HAVE TO PAY THEM SALARIES! KEEP THOSE CAMERAS ROLLING!”
Saminga: “The Computer kills them. Then the Computer kills them again, and again, and again. They kill each other. The environment kills them. They kill the environment. It’s just death, death, and more death, endlessly. I promised myself that I wouldn’t cry…”
Valefor: “Well, it’s no skin off of my nose whether or not the Computer survives, but everybody else seems to love the place, so who am I to go against the flow? Besides, I love vacations. Vacations made by other people who have conveniently turned off their phones and are thus unreachable, even to those emergency calls made when the armed robbers show up.”
Vapula: “A shame that the Computer is mad. It understands the need for good, unfettered scientific research. But I plan to have my next scientific conference in its Principality: nice hotel, local guest speakers, random mass testing of the latest high-powered mutagenic compounds. It should be a hoot.”
Incidentally, requests for the Computer’s opinion about its peers were greeted with “Who?” and a whole slew of Mandatory Bonus Duties as emergency reactor core shielding.
Role in the War
What War? Alpha Complex is under constant attack by Commie Mutant Traitors, of course, but probably that’s not what was meant. The Computer never visits the corporeal plane, so it rarely gets involved in the fight between Heaven and Hell. If angels ever visit Alpha Complex, the Computer will treat them as Commie Mutant Traitors, but it’d do that to any visitor that doesn’t fit its unique view of the universe.
Rites:
: Kill a Commie Mutant Traitor (may be used twice a day).
Chance of Invocation: Roll a die. Ignore a result you don’t like. The Computer shows up when the GM wants the Computer to show up. Manifestations will always be over a loudspeaker or on a monitor screen.
Modifiers (added out of a vestigial sense of fairness):
- +1 A live traitor.
- +2 A dead traitor.
- +3 A successful Bootlicking -3 roll. Act it out, please.
- +4 A whole heap of dead Commie Mutant Traitors.
- +5 Flagrant and repeated use of Mutant Powers when you’re not a Registered Mutant.
- +6 A whining player. No, make that +12.
+1 for every security clearance over Red of the invoker. Ultraviolet clearance citizens get a +12.
+12 Screwing up Big Time.
Note that the PCs — ah, ‘Troubleshooters’ — might not have been intending to summon the Computer. But I’m sure that they’ll be happy to see it take an interest. Happiness is, of course, mandatory.
Paranoia and its characters, situations, stories, and world are (c) Copyright 1983-2001 by Greg Costikyan and Eric Goldberg. Used with permission.
This material is not official and is not endorsed by Steve Jackson Games. In Nomine is a registered trademark of Steve Jackson Games. All rights are reserved by SJ Games. This material is used here in accordance with the SJ Games online policy.