The Rocks
This is a Paranoia adventure I wrote. Because most such adventures are at least half improvisation, some of this is incomplete, wasn't used, or just plain doesn't make sense. It's supposed to be enjoyable anyway, so read on.
--- Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------
The PCs are all new troubleshooters, and have been assigned to Special Task
Force Theta-83.9a17f (make sure the players memorize this). They've gotten a
special dorm room together, and some basic equipment.
Basic equipment consists of a laser gun, two red laser barrels, a red reflect
suit, a notepad and a pen. This is standard stuff and works normally.

When the PCs are just busy unpacking their stuff in their dorm room, the
local computer terminal buzzes and a message is printed out:
 "Special mission for Special Task Force Theta-83.9a17f!
  Important investigation on a group of Rocks in BZZ sector.
  Come to briefing room q5783n17a90 for details.
  Praise The Computer. The Computer is your friend. End of message. Stop."
Show this to a random player and have him read it. Before the players can
write down such useful information as the room number they need, take the
piece of paper back and burn it - it self destructs.
The printer also spits out a map. Suggested is a large grid with horizontal
and vertical lines, and a large X somewhere. The PCs don't know if the X is
the briefing room, or their current location (and given it's either, where's
the other one?), or maybe just something at random.
If the players insist, they can make a Data Analysis roll to figure out which
side of the map is up. Like that's going to help. Questioning The Computer
reveals that the briefing room is 571.3 meters from their present location,
in a direction of 72.7 degrees clockwards of the magnetic north. Does anyone
have a compass? Does anyone know what 'north' means? Thought so.

Right outside the dorm room is a sign pointing the way to room q5783n70h19.
This happens to be a storge room. Some bossy yellow clerk in there wants some
help in moving a load of heavy boxes from one side of the room to the other
side. It takes a strength check to move a box. Failure hurts, or maybe the
character loses grip while carrying it over his head, and it falls on him.
The boxes are sealed shut.
Clever PCs might figure out that this is not a briefing room. They are
correct. In fact the yellow guy knows where room q5783n17a90 is, but he's not
going to volunteer this information because he thinks the PCs are the carry
team he asked for last month. After a while, The Computer will start speaking
over the global speaker system, saying in a mildly annoyed voice that Special
Task Force Theta-83.9a17f has to report to the briefing room /now/.

--- Briefing -----------------------------------------------------------------
Eventually the players should make it to the briefing room. A couple of
guards let them in when they identify themselves. Nothing much is inside,
just some hard wooden benches for the PCs to sit on, and two really comfy
chairs for the present briefing officers, Jams-B-OND-6 and Gorg-B-USH-3, who
are already sitting there impatiently.
First, the players are quizzed about what they know. Point to a random one
and ask for their group number, what they're being briefed for, and what
sector to go to. Then, explanations are about as brief as the summary the
players already received. They are to travel to BZZ sector and investigate
the group known as 'Rocks' to see if they do anything illegal.
Gorg, a very sly person, looks around and asks a random PC a couple of
standard psychological questions, such as what they would do with a traitor.
Hesitation is probably considered treasonous.
The officials want to know 1) who the leader is, and 2) if there are any
other special functions in the group. Let the players fight about this; some
of them will fight to be leader; clever ones will realize that the leader
will be held responsible and therefore will fight NOT to be leader.
The logistics officer, or the leader if there is no logistics officer, is
given the equipment request form. Any questions? No? Then off with you.

Equipment Request Form g389a21-43j
                                                           
By order of The Computer, the bearer of this form is to be issued the
equipment listed below, to be picked up at any PLC depot. The bearer takes
full responsibility for all the equipment and will take care that everything
is returned in good order.

Bearer's signature: ________________________
Authorization sign: the computer is your friend
Equipment list:
  first aid kit, 1; laser pistols, 38; laser rifles, 219; wonderful water
  melon waffles, 18; laser battery units, red, 3; backpack, 8; ***REMOVED
  FOR SECURITY REASONS***, 5; small mirror, 10; shotgun shells, 27; therm
  al gloves, right-hand, 12; advanced plasma accelerator cannon, 1; denta
  l floss, meter, 181; cans of ***CLASSIFIED*** spray, 2; smiley pills, p
  acket of 6, box of 3, 5; radiation goggles, 2; slide rules, 20; shotgun
  , 4; bouncy bubble beverage, liter, 291; sonic grenades, 10; water bott
  le, gallon, 12; communicator, 5; thermal gloves, left-hand, 2; water cl
  ock, 1; neurocharge pills, 792; ***END OF LIST***; gold bars, 4; cylind

--- PLC ----------------------------------------------------------------------
The first PLC building the PCs find is closed; there's a note on the door
stating 'out for lunch - will be back in ten minutes'. Of course nobody is
coming back for the next ten minutes - or ten hours, for that matter. It
would be prudent to locate another PLC building.
The second one is crowded. There are looooong lines. There may be some
strategies of bypassing them (shooting in the air and yelling it's an emer-
gency bomb drill, or something, is likely to work - except that it also
chases away the clerks.
The PLC clerk tells the PCs their equipment isn't there, then holds up his
hand with a grin.
 
 *spullen zijn er niet (hou hand op en grijns)
 *formulier
 *extra dingen te koop, bijv 6e communicator, voor veel geld

The PCs are given everything that's on the list:
first aid kit, 1; anyone with medical skills can use this to effectively
  remove wounded status from a character, or change incapacitated into
  wounded. A succesful roll is required; badly made rolls tend to make things
  worse.
laser pistols, 38;
laser rifles, 219; work fine, but where are the players going to get laser
  barrels for all these guns?
wonderful water melon waffles, 18; the solid equivalent of bouncy bubble
  beverage, this stuff is as tasty as it's filling. Not at all, that is.
laser barrels, red, 3;
backpack, 8;
***REMOVED FOR SECURITY REASONS***, 5; that's right, this stuff is not given
  to the players. Whatever it was.
small mirror, 10; clever players may try to reflect laser beams with this.
  That may actually work if the situation is correct, but anyone trying has
  to make a dexterity check (with appropriate penalties for nervousness and
  all) or burn his hands off. Even if it works, he may have reflected the
  beam into his friends, which is, of course, treason.
shotgun shells, 27; sort of like cone rifle bullets. Roll at random on the
  table to determine which kind of bullet, including tacnuke.
thermal gloves, right-hand, 12; useless
advanced plasma accelerator cannon, 1; this thing is sort of experimental, so
  what it's doing in PLC is a bit of a mystery. When used proprely, it does
  15F damage. However, it has a lot of gauges and switches on it, so it may
  go empty, explode, shoot bolts that arc to the right sharply, etc at your
  (in)convenience. Also, obviously Red citizens aren't cleared to use this
  sort of thing, so let any guards the PCs meet hassle about it. It's really
  large, too, so you can't hide it easily.
dental floss, meter, 181; no, this stuff can not be used to cut somebody's
  throat from behind. But the players are welcome to give it a try.
cans of ***CLASSIFIED*** spray, 2; tear gas, actually. It's possible to spray
  a short burst at someone, who will be blinded long enough to be finished
  off. Trying to create large gas clouds will cause the nozzle to fry and the
  cloud to be centered on the user.
smiley pills, packet of 6, box of 3, 5; count 'em - that's 90 pills in total.
  Taking a single pill is the equivalent of smoking pot for about an hour.
radiation goggles, 2; protects the eyes from radiation. The rest of the body
  mutates as normal.
slide rules, 20; anyone know how these work?
shotgun, 4; as per cone rifle
bouncy bubble beverage, liter, 291; comes from a large barrel in PLC. The
  PCs are given this amount of drink and have to figure out for themselves
  where to put it in. Of course, spilling of Computer's drinks on Computer
  property (like, the floor) is treason.
sonic grenades, 10; do 8E damage in a 20m radius. Pull, toss, and wait about
  ten seconds. In fact these work by creating a strong field of sonic
  resonance that reduces bone and metal to shreds. In my game, some player
  figured he would be unaffected by this if he put his fingers in his ears,
  so he did after he dropped a grenade at ground zero. Oops.
water bottle, gallon, 12; keep them upright because there's no cap
communicator, 5; on a mission, not having a communicator is treason. There's
  six PCs. So....
thermal gloves, left-hand, 2; see thermal gloves, right-hand
water clock, 1; the one thing from the AD&D equipment list that nobody ever
  wants to buy. For outsiders. this is a device the size of a large cupboard,
  that indicates time through an ingenious water-powered mechanism. It weighs
  about 200 kgs.
neurocharge pills, 792; according to the label, these increase one's combat
  ability. When eating one, the player has +2 on strength and endurance rolls
  for half an hour. They are also highly addictive, by the way.
gold bars, 4; these are beyond the end of list, so not given to the players.
cylind; ditto; nobody's even sure what this is.

--- Subway -------------------------------------------------------------------
The PCs can take the subway to the R&D building, which for obvious reasons is
not located in the center of a populated area. It's too far to walk.
There's one rather small subway vehicle waiting for them. It's about ten
meters long and has three chairs against the wall on either short end. There
are no other seats to create more useful standing room. It's controlled by
a built-in bot brain that doesn't communicate.
Nothing much seems to happen for a while. Then, all of a sudden, there's a
loud DING, the doors slam shut and the car takes off. At about 50 mph. Any
PCs not crushed between the doors and not sitting in the forward-facing seats
must roll against half agility or be flung from their feet. There's some neat
contraptions from the ceiling to fly against and bash your head on. Additio-
nally, the car takes a lot of corners so crashing partly through a window is
a certain possibility. After this sudden burst of acceleration the speed is
more or less constant and the players can regain their feet.
Then, suddenly, the lights go out. All of them at once. Since the car is
driving through a tunnel, it's pitch dark. The situation might be ideal for
some inter-party executions. If anybody tries something like that, however,
the lights go back on in a flash, exposing the traitor.
By now, clever characters should have moved to the seats facing backward. You
guessed it, there will be a short but forceful deceleration at the next
station... about HERE. Remember that only three people fit in the seats at
either side. Sitting under a seat is not really a good idea. Then, a pleasant
voice indicates this is the R&D station, and the doors open.
Before the party has any chance to scramble back to their feet, the mob of
several hundred infrareds that has been waiting for this subway car moves in.
How do you move against the prevailing direction in a crowd that large?
Think of something. Maybe brandish a mean-looking gun. Or maybe carry a body
of a fallen fellow troubleshooter with you, shouting he has to go to hospital
urgently. But think of something fast, because the doors close rather quickly
again. Anybody still in the subway after that has to find a way to get out
through the crowd at the next station, then find the track heading the other
direction (which should only take an hour or so, given the simplicity of
subway stations in Alpha Complex) and go back to R&D. A serious delay, that
the lucky troubleshooters that got outside may or may not wish to exploit.

--- R&D Stuff ----------------------------------------------------------------
Outside R&D, there's some guards again asking for IDs. Have the players
memorized their group number? Also, what are they doing with that APAC?
Inside, a lowly Red called Wheee-R-DOH-4 will help the PCs to their
equipment. He wants everything tested, and prefers naming things by their
serial number instead of something clearer than that. If the players do not
want a certain piece of equipment, he'll tell the leader to pick a volunteer
to take it.
The following stuff is issued to the PCs:
D.3-dl.a Metal detector; this works fine except the entire complex is made
  out of metal, just like many things from the PCs' gear. Useful. Really.
Ns8934js Docbot, experimental; the problem with this docbot is that it has
  only limited medical skills. Whenever asked, or when he sees somebody who
  is seriously injured, he will try to help, but he may occasionally come up
  with clever treatments like amputation, or OD'ing somebody on tranq until
  his heart stops ticking. He has two scalpel appendages which he can wield
  with deadly accuracy, as well as a number of syringes with tranq and other
  drugs. Finally he has a fold-out chair appendage complete with straps.
  Resisting treatment is considered treason by the bot, who then promply
  attacks with scalpels, and chases whoever catches his attention. There's a
  power cell under his head; removing that turns him off, but trying so is
  also considered treason and earns you a slash in the belly. Or maybe the
  neck artery. Enjoy.
Jsdklmda Mutant detector helmet; there's a large laser on top of it; the idea
  is that when you wear it, it detects the nearest mutant, warns the wearer 
  of it, and starts firing at it with the laser. Supposing it is ever worn by
  a mutant (like, oops, all the PCs), it will destroy that mutant, of course.
  There is a pleasant voice stating 'nearest mutant found at 0 meters', after
  which a neck strap tightly locks the helmet to the PC's head, and a timer
  starts counting down from 10. Zero means boom.
3-jklx1m Personal force field; this is a belt with some pieces of electronics
  attached to it, and a large button. Pushing the button toggles the thing on
  or off, but there's no light indicating this. While it's on, the forcefield
  will deflect lasers, energy beams and explosions, and block any physical
  attacks including missiles and bullets. There's two slight problems. First,
  while it's on, the wearer can't pick up or drop anything, and can't safely
  fire weapons since they're deflected back at him. Second, the belt
  occasionally switches itself on or off for no apparent reason. For example
  when the user has just dropped two sonic grenades and is counting on this
  device to keep him safe.
I3902.2m Heavy drill; it's heavy. It drills. It works fine until its power
  cells go dead. Then it's just heavy. Got any uses for it?
Jkd29830 Rocket boots; these consist of two boots with some rockets attached
  to them, and a control device to be attached to one's belt. The idea is to
  allow the user to float or even walk on air. Of course, nothing's perfect.
  The user may fail to control direction, speed or height, thus crashing into
  whatever is convenient. Or, the rockets won't go out until they're out of
  fuel. Or, they were low on fuel to begin with. They might even explode
  while worn!
M1902-aa Teleportation cage; this cage is made of some kind of really sturdy
  metal. It's almost impossible to break out of. It is also very heavy. There
  is a small control device with it that allows one to teleport the cage -
  for example around a traitor, so as to capture him. The aiming is very
  easy - you just enter relative X, Y and Z coordinates in a logarhitmic
  scale of inches, yards and millimeters, respectively, and press the green
  button. Be careful of low batteries, though.
12amn-0q Automobile; this looks like a regular, armor-reinforced car. It has
  three two-person couches, and a control panel in front. There is some room
  in the trunk and on the roof, for example for the docbot and the cage.
  The autopilot identifies himself as Charlie, and is happy to drive the PCs
  to wherever they want. This is their transportation for now.

--- Automobile ---------------------------------------------------------------
The players drive off in the automobile, zooming off towards BZZ sector at
reasonably high speeds. The autopilot is pleasantly chatting to him (as in,
having nothing to say and saying it constantly). All of a sudden, in mid-
speech, it goes buzzzzzz-creaaaaaaaak-POP, after which it doesn't respond any
more and the car starts to drive in curves and sine waves. At high speeds,
too. The players have to get out, or get back in control.
The dashboard has a large steering wheel that doesn't seem to do anything
when turned, a large number of unlabeled gauges and lights, and some buttons
and switches that are also unlabeled. Anyone slamming on the control panel,
for example to wake up Charlie, triggers a random button or switch. Charlie
won't come on-line for quite a while.

There are eight buttons, that have a chance of falling off when pressed,
thus disallowing a second use until the button is put back on. Which requires
a dexterity check as long as the car is driving fast.
  1.Honker honks loudly
  2.Car suddenly makes a flying jump. Useful for crossing chasms or walls,
    if any. Also useful for crashing into low ceilings and having people in
    the car bump their heads on anything.
  3.Countdown starts at 60. This may or may not be a self-destruct timer, but
    the players should panic and try to get out quickly. Which is rather
    difficult from the back seats, for that matter, since only doors are next
    to the front seats. Whether the car actually explodes at zero depends on
    how many players actually got out there (and probably left their equip-
    ment inside).
  4.Water sprays on the window. If used too many times, some pipe ruptures
    and oil is sprayed on, instead, barring the view.
  5.Mounted laser rifle fires forward. Heavy laser - damage L12.
  6.Emergency brake - car halts instantly, presumably crashing most occupants
    through the fron window
  7.Disengage countdown timer
  8.Controller eject - the roof opens briefly, and whoever is in the driver's
    seat (or the seat next to that, if there's no driver) is launched upwards
    out of the car. Of course, there could be a tunnel overhead. Ouch.

There are also eight switches, each of which may be stuck in either position.
Stuck switches can only be used after checking strength, after which one has
to _fail_ a second strength check or they break off after use. By the way,
it's impossible to tell whether a switch is on or off.
  1.Gas choke, off - useful for improving initial acceleration.
  2.Reading lights inside car, off
  3.Autopilot, on - if disengaged, car will move in a straight direction at
    the nearest wall unless someone skilled enough grabs the steering wheel.
  4.Lock doors, off - doors cannot be opened while it's on
  5.Headlights, off
  6.Window armor, off - brings up armor plate to cover all windows. This
    incidentally blocks off all sight also.
  7.Roof hatch, off - opens a roof hatch over the middle seat.
  8.High gear, on - makes the car go faster

When I used this adventure, the first thing the PCs hit when Charlie went
crazy was, of course, the countdown timer. Panicking, they tried to get out
of the car, one by blowing out the rear window with explosives (but unfortu-
nately getting stuck by his legs in the glass shards when he tried to jump
out), the rest through the front doors. However, the driver carelessly
stunned himself and the one next to him through careless use of a psionic
power. The two in the middle seat pushed him out and leapt out afterwards,
one by using the forcefield he grabbed from the driver. The driver tumbled
out afterwards. At this point the count reached zero, and nothing happened.
There were two left in the car, one stuck in the glass. The other helped him
out, then they tried to move against the acceleration to get to the controls.
One reached them and started fiddling, getting to the jump button just in
time to pass a wall. Next came the ejection button - which unfortunately was
in a tunnel. Splat. Then, the second one made it to the front seat, looked at
the controls for a second, and pushed a button at random. Ejection again. But
luckily not in a tunnel this time. The car raced on as he started to walk
back to the others.
Meanwhile, the others were stunned again by the psionic (all of them, inclu-
ding the psionic, were stunned). The one who just splatted came back. Then,
one of them found his backpack helmet missing, and shot the one who stole it.

--- BZZ sector ---------------------------------------------------------------
*massa schreeuwende infrarode fans
 *sterke bodyguards
 *de BAND, vier lui met triangel, draailier, neusfluit en alpenhoorn
  Eksel-R-OSE-5, Mekk-R-TNY-4, Johanst-R-AUZ-1, Toone-R-MNS-6
 *flyers voor groot tourneeconcert binnenkort
 *overval door Death Leopard, en masse en gewapend

--- Debriefing ---------------------------------------------------------------
The PCs are welcome to take the experimental vehicle and/or the subway back
to the briefing room. Or they can figure something out for themselves.
First, the mission report form is handed out to everybody, to be filled out
in absolute silence. One random player is accidentally handed a bouncy bubble
beverage marketing form instead. Bummer. Any conversation by players,
including asking what the heck the mission number is supposed to be, is to be
cut short instantly. Persistence is treason.
 | Mission Report Form n38n38n38.7
 |
 |  Name: _____________________________   Mission #: _______________________
 |   Regular Job: ___________ _____________        Mission Duty: ________________
 |
 |  Why were you (not) chosen for Leader? ______________________________________
 |  Why did the mission (not) succeed? ________________________________________
 |  Why was the mission (not) what you expected? _____________   _______________
 |  What did you think of the equipment?  ___
 |  Why is The Computer (not) your friend? _____________________________________
 |
 |  Answer and explain: Of your fellow team members,
 |  Who do you trust most: __________________________________________
 |  Who is most likely to be a traitor: ________________________________________
 |  Who did most towards the goal of the mission: ___________________________
 |  What should this person deserve as a reward (check one):
 |   [] promotion             [] $___ in cash            [] three-day holiday
 |   [] extra food rations    [] brain tissue testing    [] summary execution
---
 | Bouncy Bubble Beverage Marketing Form q2839034859043
 |
 |  Crate serial number: __________________________
 |  Taste(check one):  [] classic    [] light   [] strawberry   [] banana
 |                     [] gasoline   [] diet    [] other
 |  Rating(check one): [] excellent  [] great   [] incredible   [] terrific
 |                     [] yellow     [] outrageous
 |
 |  How did you feel before drinking a can? _____________________________
 |  How did you feel after drinking a can?    ____________________________
 |  How did you feel three hours later?         _____________________________
 |  Who is your Friend?                                   _____________________
 |
 | By order of The Computer, no part of this form may be reproduced in any way,
 | including photoing, copying, photocopying, written text, spoken text,
 | cameras, from memory, xanthograph, and mutant duplication powers.
 | Reproduction of this form is treason.

After this, there are some questions. Firstly, PLC wants their equipment
back, including all pills, beverage, batteries, etc. If anything is not
there, the person responsible is going to have to pay for it. Then, the same
goes for R&D stuff. And they want some comments.

Then, go down the following list and give everybody a bunch of pluses and   
minuses. Feel free to deviate from the list; also remember that everything is
cumulative with everything else, including itself. So being called a traitor
by three fellow troubleshooters means three minuses.
  + Being alive when the mission was called off
  - Being responsible for loss or damage of PLC equipment
 -- Being responsible for loss or damage of R&D equipment
  + Completing secret society mission
  - Not completing secret society mission
 -- Directly opposing secret society mission
  + (for IntSec killers) Terminating any number of IntSec agents
  - (for IntSec killers) Not terminating any IntSec agents
  + (for IntSec agents) Terminating any number of traitors
  - (for IntSec agents) Not terminating any traitors
  - Filling in the form unsatisfactorily (blanks, question marks, ...)
  - Filling in obvious lies (such as job, or whether or not you were leader)
  + Recognizing that The Computer is your friend
  - Not recognizing that The Computer is your friend
  + Not nominating anybody for 'who do you trust most'
  + Being nominated for 'who do you trust most' by somebody else
  - Being nominated for 'who do you trust most' by yourself
  - Being nominated for 'most likely a traitor' by somebody else
 -- Being nominated for 'most likely a traitor' by yourself
  - Not nominating anybody for 'most likely a traitor'
 ++ Being nominated for 'who did most' by somebody else
  - Being nominated for 'who did most' by yourself
Then make up the total score for everybody and give them their appropriate
rewards. Most players should end up in the -2 to +2 range, although when I 
used it one got as far as +4 and someone else got -9. Some examples include:
  +4 Promoted one security level, and credit bonus and short holiday
  +2 Larger credit bonus and short holiday
  +1 Credit bonus or short holiday
   0 No effect
  -1 Small fine and extra food duties
  -2 Larger fine; removed from secret society or duty sector
  -4 Demoted one security level, and fine and removal from society or sector
  -6 Termination
  -9 Termination of entire clone family

Paranoia