PARANOIA
Secret Societies
Death Leopard
- Death Leopard of
CRD
sector have managed to acquire slightly more responsiblity than many of
their counterparts in other parts of Alpha. While they still relish
in the wholescale destruction of Computer property, they actually value
human life fairly highly.
To this end, CRD sector Death Leopard members tend to try to ensure that innocent bystanders aren't injured in their antics. (Guilty bystanders are considered fair game though). Members who manage to kill or injure citizens are likely to be reprimanded unless they have a very good excuse. Killing another Death Leopard member is likely to result in more extreme punishment.
It's not unusual for a Troubleshooter team to contain more than one Death Leopard member, without either of them knowing they're not the only one. Not only can this produce interesting missions (ie. lots of destruction), but members may also end up getting into trouble with their own society if they injure another member.
Free Enterprise
- In CRD sector,
Free Enterprise have hit upon an exciting new way of making money. Bribery.
Rather than shooting members of rival secret societies, Free Enterprise have realised that these citizens are more valuable alive. Not only are they better customers (remember: a living customer is a paying customer), but they can often be made to pay money to keep their society membership quiet. Failing that, you can always make some money by offering to provide proof of their treason to another clone.
Low-grade FE members normally have to try to identify rival society members by looking for identification signals or obvious signs of society membership. Reporting these sorts of things often lead to promotion.
Higher FE members know more about specific societies, and may even know identification signals for a couple of societies. These can come in handy for making other clones believe you are a member of their society. This makes gathering of evidence easier.
Keeping bribed citizens alive can sometimes lead to interesting results - as this may make the FE member look like he's a member of a totally different society. If a non-bribed citizen tries to terminate a bribed one, the FE member may decide to intervene (since he may lose his income).
Humanists
- There are a few red
faces within the ranks of the Humanists at the moment. This is mainly
because one of their big missions has backfired in a major way,
and they haven't got the guts to own up to it.
The plan itself was to cause a major explosion in an electronic hardware depot. This was partly to follow their fundamental aims, and partly to annoy the heck out of Pro Tech. Both objectives were well and truly fulfilled.
What the Humanists didn't know at the time was that the depot in question happened to be the Romantics' secret base. (Well, it was a secret - right?) Since the Romantics are one of the few societies who are friendly to them, they don't feel it would be a good idea to admit that they where the ones who blew up their base. The only saving grace was that nobody was injured in the explosion.
Not surprisingly, the Humanists are being very nice to the Romantics at the moment.
Illuminati
- The Illuminati of
CRD
sector have started to realise that their intimidation techniques perhaps
shouldn't be applied to their own members. It tends to have a rather drastic
effect on your membership figures.
While they may still set impossible tasks for rival society members from time to time, the Illuminati have begun to realise that the best way to protect their members is to confuse the opposition. To achieve this, they have started to infiltrate other societies, with a startling degree of success. This has been aided by the fact that hardly anyone outside of the Illuminati even knows of their existence.
Low-grade Illuminati members tend to keep their heads down and just look out for signs of rival society membership. If they think two clones are rival society members, they try to use that to their advantage. The rationale here is "if they're shooting at each other, they're not shooting at me". Even if an Illuminati member can't work out what societies other citizens are in, they will often try to spread confusion wherever they can. As with most main-stream Illuminati, it's not unusual for low-grade members to be kept totally in the dark about what is really going on.
Higher Illuminati members know about specific societies, and usually know at least one recognition signal. The higher the level, the more societies they know about. They will often know about at least one rival member in their troubleshooting team, and may sometimes even know some of the orders given by that society (sometimes these orders will have come from an Illuminati infiltrator in the first place). In some cases the rival member will believe the Illuminati member is their superior. In extreme cases, two Illuminati members may each believe the other one is a rival society member.
The fundamentals of Illuminati are still there. Low-grade members tend to be given assignments which don't make any sense whatsoever. Once members climb the ladder a bit they tend to concentrate on trying to confuse the hell out of the opposition instead. Obviously first stage is to identify exactly who the opposition are and how best to get at them.
Illuminati infiltrators sometimes have to tread a fine line. On the one hand, they have to look as though they are following the orders of the society they are pretending to be a member of. On the other hand, they can't follow those orders too well, or their fellow Illuminati members will believe they have defected. Think of how Internal Security infiltrates other service groups, then think what it would be like if nobody knew Internal Security existed.
Romantics
- The Romantics of
CRD
Sector are currently without a base. This is mainly due to a rather
large explosion in the electronic hardware depot where they used to meet.
Many of their Old Reckoning artefacts were lost, but fortunately nobody
was injured. While nobody has claimed responsibility for it, the
Romantics have ruled out IntSec (because they would be more interested
in getting confessions than simply blowing things up). So that means
it was either an accident or the work of an enemy society. You can
guess which one the Romantics think it was.
The Romantics are (understandably) a bit jittery at the moment. Their good friends in Sierra Club have been helping out with a temporary home while the Romantics look for a new base. (This friendship is mainly based on the fact that they have similar goals). The Humanists have also been very helpful recently, for pretty much the same reason.
Sierra Club
- The Sierra Club of
CRD
Sector started to notice that their members kept being uncovered.
This was mainly because the Club encouraged the collection of plants and
animals. Because Club members were encouraged to gather their own
private collections, they had to keep these collections somewhere.
Most commonly, the chosen hiding place was either on their person (if the
object was a small fungi or moss), or in the clone's locker (if the object
was larger).
The main drawback with this system was that if the item was discovered, the clone was as good as terminated.
So CRD Sierra Club has now decided to start putting their member's illicit belongings together in "farms". Although this presents a greater risk of loss if any of the secret hiding places are discovered, it does reduce the risk to individual clones.
Sierra Club farms can contain all manner of strange things. Glass rooms full of strange green things ["Do we have security clearance to go in there?"]. Strange four-legged ultraviolet-clearance creatures which eat the green stuff. Weird sweet-smelling things of various security clearances. The dome's the limit!
Sierra Club sometimes hold meetings at their farms, but this is rare since it might attract attention to the location.
For more information on Sierra Club farms, see the mission outline "Outside In".
Sierra Club are currently helping out the Romantics after the unfortunate explosion at their base.