Original Story Proposal

Premise

A team of loyal low-level Troubleshooters (the players) are selected by The Computer for a series of sensitive missions. They are issued vague orders involving sneaking into the private residences of high-level citizens, heavily-armed laboratories, and other Places That Troubleshooters Should Not Tread. If and when they are caught, no record of their orders can be found, the citizens who they received instructions from do not exist, and all of their actions are disavowed at all levels.

Will the players survive long enough to know what's going on? Can they figure out who's manipulating them and uncover the traitor? Or will they simply end up as so many red smears along the corridors of Alpha Complex?

What's Really Going On

A recent mishap has resulted in the untimely death of one of Alpha Complex's Ultraviolet citizens. The Computer, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to promote one of its Violet citizens to fill the vacancy. It has narrowed the choice of candidates to five names, but is unable to pick one as all are equally qualified. It decides, then, to covertly observe the five, until enough signs appear that one is better than the others.

One of the five candidates has found out about this state of affairs and has decided to frame the other four in order to assure that he gets the promotion. Using falsified Troubleshooter mission orders, he gets the players to do his dirty work, planting treasonous items and setting the other Violets in compromising situations.

The players may botch their first assignment; they will definitely botch the second one. When captured, they will be left unspoken for, and realize that they're being manipulated. Subsequent events will end up with the players freed, fugitives wanted by The Computer for treason. They will realize that their only hope for survival is to find the Violet who manipulated them and clear their names. Of course, with the whole of Alpha Complex on their tails and an armed and dangerous violet ahead of them, the players will either exonerate themselves or die trying.

This adventure is full of classic Paranoia setups. Initially, the players are jerked around for reasons unknown with no way to refuse. Once caught, the players are hosed again as they realize that they've been set up and lied to, and once on the lam, they must work together in order to pull through this crisis. Character rivalries and Secret Society goals can be set up to fuel the character conflicts and make things more ... lively.