# Day 25: Paranoia: Five Clones From Alpha Complex - Vapo-R-IZE-1, Trigger-Happy Troubleshooter tags: #articles/CharacterCreationChallenge/2026 #game/wargame/paranoia-five-clones > [!quote] [[Character Creation Challenge 2026]] > > ![[Character Creation Challenge Image.png]] ## Game of Choice Greetings, citizen! If you're an old hand around the RPG sphere (or if you read the title of this particular post), you know already, just from those opening words, what we are getting into—or at least where we're getting into it. If you're not, or if you don't, well, that's probably treasonous, but I need you to go and read the Grim Tokens page on *[[Paranoia]]*. Preparing to do this cold character generation led me to getting sucked into reading this book because it was incredible fun, well-written, well-produced, well put together, and coherent. I don't know how this happened, but let me throw it down in front of you. ![[Paranoia - Five Clones from Alpha Complex (cover).jpg|400]] *[[Paranoia - Five Clones From Alpha Complex|Paranoia: Five Clones From Alpha Complex]]* may be my **favorite** version of the *Paranoia* mechanics yet. Given how long this setting has been around and how many editions we've seen, that's some big talk, especially for a game which is specifically and intentionally **not** a tabletop RPG. This is explicitly and intentionally an adventure wargame, and it leans into the seriously episodic/isolated mission style of play in a way that old-school *Paranoia* didn't. But I think that the cycle of play that results actually fits the mode and intentionality a lot better. Long-term play was never a big focus of *Paranoia*, so the question of why even bother to pretend makes a lot of sense. *Five Clones* leans heavily on the mechanics already established by Ivan Sorensen's other 5X games like *[[Five Parsecs from Home]]*, *[[Five Leagues from the Borderlands]]*, and *[[Forgotten Ruin - The Adventure Wargame|Forgotten Ruin: the Adventure Wargame]]*. If you know and understand those mechanics, you will easily get to grips with this one. If you don't know those mechanics, you're not going to have any trouble with this either because it's extremely lightweight.[^1] For the most part, it's D6s for resolution, D100s for selecting things off tables, and away you go. Character generation is fast and easy here, but there's one other thing I need to bring up, which is really different than the usual 5x setup. In *Five Clones*, there is a definite focus on multiplayer as the most common intended mechanism of play, rather than solo. That's not to say there isn't a solo play mode. In fact, there are two included in the book. But it's really written with the intention that there be at least three players, and even up to five if someone wants to be Friend Computer. Not only that, I think this would be absolutely glorious with multiple people doing their best not to be seen as the traitor to Alpha Complex, but also simultaneously trying to keep an eye on everybody else to make sure they're not being a traitor to Alpha Complex. It leads directly to the kind of wacky shenanigans that you absolutely expect and demand from *Paranoia*. This isn't going to take long. Let's get stuck in. ## Acts of Creation We're just going to start with the idea that we are going to be playing the **Survival Mode**, which doesn't actually change character generation at all, but instead changes how scenarios are randomly generated. We'll see how this shakes out and then maybe run through scenario generation depending on how energetic I feel. In Survival Mode, you have one troubleshooter and a lot more trouble. Alpha Complex is decaying and falling apart. There will be twice as many NPCs, and our troubleshooter will be the only one that can be randomly targeted by things, so everything will fall on his head. It's going to be awesome. ### Mutant Power The first thing you do to create your troubleshooter is pretty straightforward. You roll a d100 on the mutant power table to find out what your mutant power is. Be aware that being a mutant is treason and punishable by death from Friend Computer if someone discovers that you have a mutant power. You will instantly be marked as a traitor and target for execution. From this, you may shockingly note that all troubleshooters—in fact, all citizens—have a mutant power, which means that all citizens are traitors. There's a reason this game is called *Paranoia*, dammit. - **Mutant Power** - **Trigger Happy** *Shooting laser pistols is so much fun!* When shooting at something, if you roll a 6 to hit, you hit the target twice. However, anytime you want to activate while in sight of other characters and not shoot at something (either a ranged attack or Brawling range with a pistol), you must roll a D6. On a 6, you are required to shoot at the closest character or terrain feature you can see. There is no effect if you have no ranged attack option. You are not required to throw a grenade if you have one. This power does not cause you to become a Traitor in and of itself. You know, that could have been worse. We could shoot toxin darts out of our arms. Instead, we just want to shoot things. Of course, shooting things that are not part of accomplishing a mission or characters which have not been declared traitors is, in fact, a traitorous action. I did mention twice the number of NPCs in survival mode, right? Did I point out that shooting vending machines or computer terminals is also treasonous? If we were playing with a group, there's the option to roll your secret mutant power and keep it secret. At least if you trust everybody else at the table, even if you don't trust their troubleshooters. If you're playing with Friend Computer, you definitely keep your mutant power a secret from the other troubleshooters and just let Friend Computer know what you got. The other troubleshooters are only aware of any action or effect that they can see happening. How could this possibly go wrong? ### Starting Equipment In most *Paranoia* sessions, making the trip down to R&D to get geared up is enough of a potential for crazy shenanigans that your whole mission can end before it actually gets started. Luckily, we don't have to worry about that in *Five Clones*. We just have to roll on the D100 table to see what additional piece of gear we can requisition from R&D in addition to our standard laser pistol. Under ideal conditions, we can carry three items at any given time, not counting our initial laser pistol because it has a nice holster. Should worst come to worst and we die, our third and fifth clones get to roll again on the table when they get dispatched. Did I mention that you have clones? I probably should have. It's in the title. You can guess how many you have. - **Equipment** - **Laser pistol sight** This begins the game fitted to your laser pistol and gives you a +1 modifier to hit when shooting. All right. Normally, I would see this as a complete win. After all, our basic shot to hit is effectively 50-50 for a starting troubleshooter. However, given the fact that we are trigger happy, the fact that we are now more likely to hit a target just means that we are that much more likely to become traitorous, or at least to be seen as a traitor, because we damage Alpha Complex personnel or goods. How could this possibly go wrong? ### Starting Values We have some basic things that get set right at the beginning, which is that we have 5 inches of movement, a Toughness of 4, and 1 Kill Point. Plus, we are only Red security clearance. ### Miniature and Name This is a miniature adventure wargame after all, and so you should pick your miniature at this point, or your standee, or whatever you're using to mark where you are on the 2x2 foot table that missions will be built on. Not surprisingly, [there is a relatively nice line of minis which have been made for this game in particular](https://modiphius.us/collections/paranoia-five-clones-from-alpha-complex/products/paranoia-miniatures-trouble-shooters), but over the decades there have been a whole bunch of minis that you can use, some made specifically for *Paranoia* and many just from things that are visually compatible. The name, on the other hand, is a whole different issue. Traditionally, names in *Paranoia* have a very specific format: a unique designator, followed by a capital letter representing their security level, followed by your home sector,, followed by a numeral which says which clone they are. Typically, this involves a pun or reference. - **Name:** Vapo-R-IZE-1 Look, when you're a trigger-happy nutjob with a high-accuracy laser pistol, there aren't that many names that fit, quite frankly. Is this a terrible dad joke pun? You better believe it. Is it perfect for this game? Also, you better believe it. ### Secret Society Every troubleshooter, and in fact every citizen, likely belongs to a secret society. Of course, belonging to a secret society is in itself being treasonous, but it does come with certain advantages in that they give you extra objectives and special rewards as a member. Of course, they're all made up of backstabbing, treasonous, traitorous bastards. *Five Clones* gives you the option of being a member of a secret society. Frankly, I don't see any reason not to be a member of a secret society. The fact that there are about a dozen ways for you to be traitorous at the same time is just gravy, in my opinion. Now, unlike all of the other *Paranoia* editions, there's no pre-made list of secret societies to which you can belong, which I think is kind of interesting. Instead, there is a random table which lets you roll on the D100 in order to find out some keywords that are important to your secret society, and then you can make it up for yourself. There is also a random table to generate your secret society objective for a given mission. There are some amazing secret societies that you can find in old-school *Paranoia*. The First Church of Jesus Christ Computer Programmer is one of my favorites, in part because, of course, religion is also traitorous in Alpha Complex. Oh, this also includes one of my favourite inclusions in any modern TTRPG: ![[25 - Paranoia-Five Clones From Alpha Complex - Tedious Politics (illo).webp]] But let's roll some dice and see what falls out. - **Secret Society** - **Key Words:** Promote mutants - **Objective:** Interference mission - **Name:** The Heterodyne Society of Mutancy A cell-based secret society of mutant lovers who deliberately and very consciously avoid admitting to any member of the Heterodyne Society that any particular member is a mutant, because that would be traitorous. However, every single one of them owns a mutant-themed body pillow. Their basic assumption is that whatever the Computer wants is probably bad for mutants in general, so acts of sabotage are one of the primary ways of moving up in the society. I couldn't help myself. What we have here is a group of individual citizens, all of whom are mutants, who fetishize mutants but refuse to acknowledge to any other member of the society that they themselves are mutants, because that would be punishable by death. However, they actively work to sabotage the efforts of Friend Computer, which is itself traitorous activity punishable by death. Secret societies and paranoia do not have to make sense. In fact, it's probably better if they don't. Our character gets more points at the end of a mission if the objective given by the computer is not achieved. Don't try to make sense of it. It's wonderful. ### Mandatory Bonus Duties (Optional) There is a tiny little blurb at the bottom of page 22 which talks about something which has been a long-seen pleasure in classic *Paranoia*, and that is the Mandatory Bonus Duty. Effectively, it is a role that the Computer assigns you at the beginning of a mission, which gives you something to do in order to look after the Computer's interests. Does it give you any additional authority? Absolutely not. Does it give you any power to make those things happen? Absolutely not. Does it give you something else that you can be punished for or be accused of being a traitor for neglecting? Absolutely. Generally opens you to more vulnerability? Sure. Yes, that's what it's there for. I love Mandatory Bonus Duties because they're so ludicrous. So, despite the fact that there's no table for it, we're just going to make one and then randomly be assigned one by Friend Computer because happiness is mandatory. | Mandatory Bonus Duty | Roll | | -------------------- | ---: | | Leader | 1 | | Equipment Officer | 2 | | Happiness Officer | 3 | | Hygiene Officer | 4 | | Loyalty Officer | 5 | | Media Officerr | 6 | Looks like we're an **Equipment Officer**, meaning that we are responsible for weapons and equipment which have both been issued and which have been found in the mission sector, being kept in good functioning operating order. Anyone found to be in violation of that very well could be a traitor. Did I mention that we tend to just shoot things once in a while, which could lead to blasting equipment in the sector? How could this possibly turn out poorly? ## Exunt That's it. That's character creation. If we were playing more completely in the **solo mode** and not in the **survival mode**, we would make somewhere between 4 and 6 characters, depending on how much difficulty we were looking to enjoy, and then proceed with figuring out, laying out, and setting up a mission. ![[25 - Paranoia-Five Clones From Alpha Complex - Vapo-R-IZE-1, Trigger-Happy Troubleshooter.webp]] That's it. We're done. That's the whole thing, at least as far as our single character. If we were actually generating a mission, we would run through those tables, which involve setting up the table by splitting it into quarters and figuring out what each of those quarters is zoned for. Figuring out the interesting locations in each of those quarters, laying out the terrain to fit that, figuring out where the doors are, where the entry and exit elevators are, what NPCs are standing around, and what mad objective Friend Computer has set for us. Then dealing with all of it as everything just spirals out of control, as it always does. When I said that this is my favorite set of *Paranoia* rules, I wasn't kidding, because it very specifically sets out to capture the feeling of everything being just a little bit off-kilter, makes everybody paranoid because everyone has multiple things to hide, and yet might also be interested in achieving the global aim but doesn't want to get called out as a traitor by getting caught doing traitorous things. Did I mention that catching someone in the act of traitorous activity and then executing them is worth points at the end of the mission? Did I also mention that if you do manage to kill them, the computer will drop their next clone into the mission, and that new clone is not considered a traitor, even though you watched his exact memory clone do something traitorous? Until he does something else that can be reported as traitorous activity, he's no longer a traitor. Good times. Yeah, good times. But let's say that for some reason, this wasn't actually enough mechanical flexibility for you to run your choice of *Paranoia* missions. Let's say you wanted to run one of the truly classic *Paranoia* scenarios, like *[Orcbusters](https://www.scribd.com/document/816598705/Paranoia-Orcbusters)* or *[Paranoia: Orbital Reds](https://www.mongoosepublishing.com/products/orbital-reds)*. Is there actually enough crunch here to do that? I would say there definitely is. You really don't need more than just the straight up 4+ skill roll, assumed to be only that unless there's some other influence from a mutant power or piece of equipment. But let's say that you wanted more, but you don't want to deal with a whole lot of messy complexity. I've got your hookup. Go grab a copy of *[[Loner]]* or *[[Ensemble]]* and just treat the character sheet that we put together just now as the trait sheet that describes the character and what they can do.[^2] Need to order someone of a lower security rank around? That counts as an advantage. Make your roll. Need to use a piece of gear? There's some question as to whether it's going to turn out well. If it hasn't been tested yet, that probably counts as a disadvantage. If you have some sort of inherent knowledge or reason to be good with it, that counts as an advantage. Stack up your advantages and disadvantages. Figure out which way things break. Make your roll. Let the narration flow. This is the absolute best way to get into and enjoy playing *Paranoia* if you're ready to rock and roll. I have to say, if anybody really wanted to throw down with it, I wouldn't suggest they pick up the current Mongoose edition for its mechanics, but only as a sourcebook. This is the way to go. Tomorrow we wander on over into the glorious wilds of post-apocalyptic Montreal. If you know, you know. If you don't, you're probably going to need to dress warmly. I'll see you then. [^1]: Plus, you've already seen them once this month when we did *[[07 - Five Parsecs From Home - Planetfall|Five Parsecs from Home: Planetfall]]*. [^2]: Of course, the worst part of coming up with this idea is that it makes me want to put together a *Loner* sourcebook for *Paranoia*. That just begs all sorts of toe-stepping. But damn, if it wouldn't be fun.