Episode 7: Picking Up the Pieces

Episode Summary

The powers that be pick up the rubble from RUR sector, sort through the lies, and dole out blame accordingly. The players are vindicated or executed, depending on the whims of fate (or the GameMaster)...

Encounter One: Wake Up and Smell the Arsenic

Read the following out loud:

Here it is, everyone's big chance to save their necks. How they fare depends on what they say, how they say it, what evidence they have, and whether or not Ko-V-ERT survived the firefight.

Encounter Two: Talk This Way

The key to the players' survival, of course, is whether or not someone recorded Ko-V-ERT in action. Unlike Kill-U-DED from Episode 4, Got-U is actually reasonable enough to take vidtape (or Vide-O-GME's LNX recordings) as evidence. If they have Ko-V-ERT's confession on tape, or footage of him impersonating Tee-V-GDE, they're safe. The tape don't lie, and Ko-V-ERT will fry.

Is Ko-V-ERT still alive? If he is, and the Troubleshooters don't have any evidence to back up their story, then the situation boils down to the word of a Violet against a gang of treasonous clones. Fry the players. Heck, there's a missing episode of Bake the Traitor to fill.

If Ko-V-ERT is dead, and the PCs have tapes on their side, then they can really go to town. Not only did they expose a secret plot to tinker with the machinations of The Computer's power (or The Council's inner chamber), but the Troubleshooters also terminated the traitor. Truly crafty clones will play up their deeds; whether or not Got-U believes them is another matter.

If Ko-V-ERT's dead, but the players have no evidence, then Got-U will kill them with extreme (and I mean extreme) prejudice. Bad enough that the Troubleshooters have committed high crimes against the citizens of Alpha, but they also destroyed a major Warbot project, murdered the last member of a clone family with a sterling record of service, and dared to defame him posthumously with a flimsy lie. Bake the Traitor is too good for these guys.

Of course, these are merely guidelines. Distort them to fit in your own whims, Mr. GameMaster. Maybe have everyone act out their speeches; too many contradictions can come across as clumsy lies, while an ultra-smooth presentation can look too rehearsed.

If you want to save the players (Mercy? Never!), Ko-V-ERT can simply snap, bursting into the room and confessing in a drooling, foaming fit. Or if Ko-V-ERT is dead, a lowly tech finds incriminating files in the computers back at the R-Bots lab.

Perhaps you want to toast the Troubleshooters anyway. After all, no matter how innocent they are, there's still several million credits of damage inflicted, and all the manpower and inconvenience involved in Episode 5. Reassign everyone as reactor shielding. Or just shoot them.

My personal preference, in the true spirit of the game, is to commend the Troubleshooters on a Complex-wide vidshow special. Lavish praise and rewards upon them for uncovering Ko-V-ERT's schemes at risk to their own well-being. Share their harrowing escapes and let their names live on in the annals of Alpha history. Have Teela-O-MLY and other celebrities give heartfelt thanks.

Then, as the show ends, execute them for theft, damages, and treason.

Because, after all, this is still Paranoia...