[RPG] How to deal with the concept of clones and assassination missions in Paranoia

paranoia

I'm reading through the rulebook, and it talks about how players may have a mission to assassinate another player character. Also in the Secret Society section it says that if you leave a secret society you may be targetted for assassination.

I'm confused as to how this would work with clones. If a PC murders another PC, perhaps by framing them so Friend Computer wastes them, and pwoom another clone appears, how does that work with their mission? Is their mission just to kill a single clone? Likewise if you leave a secret society, your clone is also in that society, so if you left, and another secret society member (NPC) assassinated you, how would that work regarding their attitude to your clone?

Best Answer

You didn't specify edition, but experience I have was the same in all editions I played. I'm writing from memory, without access to the books, so forgive me lack of clear distinction between "rules says" and "this is how we always did it".

First, you seem to expect things being sane, consistent and make sense. They do, but on a deeper level. On a superficial level you should throw that expectations far, far away! Things are supposed to be paranoid, crazy and inconsistent!

I like lists, so I'll point out stuff point by point here.

  1. Computer is your friend.

    Or a jailer programmed to really believe it is your friend, but thats close enough, isn't it?

  2. Computer does not make mistakes.

    It's error correcting subroutines failed long time ago so it can't perceive itself ever being wrong.

  3. Clones are made flawless. Each new clone is clean, all flaws corrected for, all rebellious thoughts and memories safely removed.

    If you try to tell or even imply to your friendly Computer they no longer are, see point 2. - Computer will not believe you, and you must be a traitor!

  4. Death is a punishment. You don't punish for a crime more than once.

    Unless your punishment counter for that individual has a stuck bit or something, but that neeeeveeeer happens, right? Right?!

  5. Troubleshooters are Computer's friends!

    So they must at least pretend they believe above points

  6. Members of secret societies are the only enlightened ones.

    In their own eyes, that is. They all grew up fed on obedience drugs as infrareds, they were schooled by a faulty Computer's teaching soubroutines and robots, and base their beliefs on spoken history that changes with each retelling

  7. Members of secret societies needs to pretend that they are not, and that they are Computer's friends

    See point 5.

What it all means to your questions? It means there is no clear cut good answer, but that you and your players have a vast possibilities to explore! Do you believe clone was really corrected? Does certain society member believe? Who would act and how? Exploring that paranoia is the game, and you'll have to play it yourselves.