We were never informed which version of Paranoia was being unleashed upon us in any given session. We were not even supposed to know there were two versions. None of this is official. This is how we did it. I don't expect anyone else did this way. It took 33 years in a stasis tube to make it make this much sense.
'Paranoia Clean' follows a simple rule of keeping it simple.
'Paranoia dirty' follows a simple rule of keeping it logical.
Comparable Example of Paranoia Clean:
"Your clone is dead. The Computer distributes a replacement Clone. It arrives promptly in a drone-clone-carrier. Your new clone is deposited on the still warm body of your dead clone. * Your clone has no memory of what it is doing ** and is reliant on the rest of the team to explain. You may retrieve your clothes and any possessions from the dead clone at your feet."
* Interruptions are occasionally permitted.
The Player asks if that is a 'still warm body' as in it is still warm, or is that a 'still warm body' as in it is still, as in not moving, and happens also to be warm.
The GamesMaster on this occasion expresses the correct answer to be both.
The instructions are literal; it is the interpretation of the Player which has involved itself into double-think and exploration of simultaneously existing parallel universes of meaning.
** This technically is not entirely the truth. The Computer has assigned this specific Clone a secret mission of mopping up after its own mess by eliminating the other Characters after they have completed the mission.
Comparable Example of Paranoia Dirty:
"Your clone is dead. Your team-mates receive a transmission-communication from the Computer. They are to wait until a new clone has been distributed to replace the dead clone. After several hours no replacement has arrived."
The follow through of a Paranoia session is rarely to complete the mission.
"Wait a moment, we were instructed not to use the trans-com because it would make us detectable."
"That is correct."
"The Computer has revealed our location."
"That is possible."
"Bastard."
The trans-com buzzes again. The Computer has been listening to your dialogue. Your statement is identified as Treason. After several moments you hear approaching propeller-blades and then witness two aerial flyers approach you from different directions. One is coloured Red. One is coloured Blue. Otherwise they are identical. They both land simultaneously at opposite ends of the the clearing, surrounding you. Simultaneously from both flyers step a team of three armed security clones wearing orange coveralls and wielding sleek and shiny jet black zap-guns.
"What colour are our coveralls?"
"Orange. You are on security detail. The teams look at each other in confusion. They both approach and surround you."
"Which of you are the Traitor?" asks a clone from the Blue flyer, his zap-gun crackling and pointing intermittently between us at whichever one of us his face is not pointing at that moment.
"Er... he is." My team-mate quickly says and points at the dead clone at our feet.
"Who executed him?" asks a clone from the red flyer.
"Er, he did it to himself." I quickly say.
"Why is that team here?" asks a blue team clone.
"Why are you here?" asks a red team clone.
"To eliminate the Traitors." replies blue team clone.
"That is our orders also." replies red team clone.
It ends with a firefight. Red Team and Blue Team execute each other. We steal one of the Flyers and return to base. Computer decides we are lying and has us electrocuted for Treason using metal floor panels.
What I Love About Paranoia (apart from the Farce)
Alpha Complex.
A giant, cement and metal underground bunker complex.
It's exactly like an ant hive built for cloned humans by a mad computer.
Electronic underground bunker doors sealing zones.
Endless tunnels of concrete and steel. ***
*** Some haven't been searched in years. Could contain anything. Scientific experiments gone wrong. Sealed for a reason. Your clones are sent on a recon mission. The guard won't let you in and assumes your papers are forged, reports you for Treason. Computer executes him for Treason. Etc
The Computer.
The Computer is your friend.
The Computer is in control.
The Computer is insane but don't let it know you have become aware of that.
The Inspirations.
Aldous Huxley's Brave New World
George Orwell's 1984
William Nolan & George Clayton Johnson's Logans Run
George Lucas THX1138
Paranoia As Inspiration
A passion for grimy cement, Brutalist architecture and abandoned underground tunnels stems from imagining Alpha City One during childhood.
But What If We Ever Did It Properly ? 'Properly' ?
My group only ever played one-shot sessions of Paranoia. We did this endlessly. Sometimes we received new clones as a reward for doing something the computer liked. Usually we got killed. We never got much further than that. We repeated the same basic cognitive behavioural cycles endlessly with variations until we discovered a way to break through into different levels of the game. Achieving that usually got us killed.
The GamesMaster was patient and played it by the book without imposing any personal prejudices or agendas upon us whatsoever. Everything which happened was a consequence of our own actions for which we had to learn self-responsibility. Admittedly we were clones being controlled by an insane Computer whose orders contradict themselves almost every single time we played.
Had we ever taken Paranoia seriously we would probably have progressed deeper into the games lore and setting. We may have discovered some of the clones had gained enough self-awareness to be regarded as 'people' with knowledges of the world beyond the complex. Computer typically considered any of that to be Treason.
What would it be like to actually live in a world like that?
As it went though several stages of reinvention and reimagining Paranoia’s presentation of life in Alpha Complex and what that environment physically looks like went through stages of development.
It was difficult for me to get my head around the discrepancy in the contrast between the world presented by the official visual art and the world I imagined when I read the text. I was faced with a choice.
Effectively Alpha Complex is an institution, it’s one of mental asylum with uneducated clones who are spaced out on mandatory prescription drugs almost constantly.
Paranoia is original property of West End Games.