I have GMed a couple of sessions of Paranoia now, but I suddenly realised the other day a strategic error that I have been making with the setting.
I always imagined Alpha Complex as a series of white corridors, but that would mean only High Programmers could walk anywhere. So I changed my mind, imagining the corridors as a lighter-than-battleship grey. Still, if sticking to the whole security clearance issue Alpha Complex should be mostly black… including cutlery, food and drink, and so on.
In the historical documents of Alpha Complex (that is, the game's previous editions), what's the general colour scheme of Alpha Complex? How strictly are the colour coding rules applied?
Best Answer
The colors aren't there to trick anybody. They're there for your protection!
Items in Paranoia will have an obvious color or color band on them. Otherwise, they can be any color that's not a clearance color. Get creative with periwinkle, pink, puce, …
Food color usually doesn't come up, but remember all of the Infrared food comes from food vats and algae tanks. When I run Paranoia, food comes in bland, non-clearance colors (grays, browns) or has an obvious clearance, like if someone is rewarded with a real, RED apple.