Basic Action Super Heroes!

The recent discussion of random tables reminded me of one of my favorites with supers. So, just for fun....it is the Random Silver Age Character Generator!:

Section 1

Roll 1d6
1-2: Nature
3: Origin/power source
4: Powers
5: Name
6: Miscellaneous

Section 2

Nature
Roll 2d6.
2: Mischievous imp
3: Secret agent. Works for acronymically named organisation.
4: Commie. If the character is a hero, then commies are involved in origin.
5: Ape. Roll on Subtable 1
6: Marvel character. Roll on Subtable 2 - Problems.
7: Outsider. Roll on Subtable 3
8: Teenager
9: Female. Reduce point total by 50%.
10: Evil version of hero like Sinestro or Abomination.
11: Superpet
12: Hippy

Origin/power source
Roll 1d6.
1: Struck by lightning
2-5: Radiation
6: Power armour

Powers
Roll 1d6.
1-3: Animal powers
4: Possesses all the powers of a superhero team.
5-6: Useless power. The ability to eat anything for example.

Name
Roll 1d6.
1-4: Alliterative name.
5-6: Also known by an epithet.

Miscellaneous
Roll 1d6.
1: From an alternate Earth.
2: Ludicrous rogues gallery.
3: Incorrectly programmed an experimental computer causing it to hate all organic life.
4-6: Golden age connection. Roll on Subtable 4.

Section 3 - Subtables

Subtable 1 - Ape
Roll 1d6.
1-3: Gorilla.
4: Orangutan.
5: Baboon.
6: Monkey.

Subtable 2 - Problems
Roll 1d6.
1-2: Monstrous appearance.
3-4: Hated and feared by the public.
5-6: Physically disabled - blind, heart condition, lame or confined to a wheelchair, for example.

Subtable 3 - Outsider
Roll 1d6.
1: Alien.
2: Robot.
3: Mutant.
4: Lost race.
5: God.
6: Bio-engineered.

Subtable 4 - Golden Age connection
Roll 1d6.
1-3: A Golden Age original.
4: Son/daughter of a Golden Age hero.
5-6: Modern version of Golden Age hero. Name and powers same as original. Costume and origin updated.


I didn't write the table (I wish that I had) but a fellow by the name of Doug MacCrae did: http://www.herogames.com/forums/archive ... -1002.html

How does this work exactly?

Could you make a character for us and show how to move from table to table?

It looks neat either way!

Section 1 is actually rather arbitrary and un-needed. I think maybe it should just be deleted and replaced with a note that says something like "roll once on each table." And then there should be note above the sub tables saying something like "roll only once on the following tables as directed above".

Really, this was just for fun. Yeah, I think I will do some generating from them and see what I come up with.

Hey, here's a thought, I'll randomly generate 5 characters and submit them to Y'all for a vote. And the winning character will get statted out. That might be kind of fun.

Thanks for the idea, AslanC!

Alright, since AslanC asked here's what I came up with (I did three characters instead of 5...just too much work). Ok, w/o further adieu, here they are:

Character 1 -

Name – Susie Six (Also has a nickname -
Nature – Female, ½ power as males (but even at ½ power, she has the powers of ½ a superteam!)

Origin/power source – Struck by lightning!

Powers – Has the powers of an entire superteam – Susie Smith was walking on her way to work to the steno pool one day, when out of no where the well known super team, the Sensational Six emerged on the scene battling Lord Destructo. Susie ducked behind a post office box. Destructo was nearly defeated when he unleashed his newest experimental weapon (the ace up his sleeve) the chaos cube! Destructo was desperate, and even though he hadn’t mastered all the incantations, he still chanted what he knew. From the black cube emerged a mystical storm of immense ferocity! Scared out of her witts, Sallie made a break for it, and slammed right into the Senstational Six members. At that exact moment, mystical lightning lashed upon them all. Oddly it didn’t harm Susie, who was wearing her favorite mood ring and had her pet rock in her pocket, which mitigated the effects, and negated the storm! Destructo, being thoroughly thwarted made quick his escape. What also happened was that the storm had somehow been the catalyst to give Susie all the powers of the Sensational Six except at half the power levels. She had ½ the mighty strength of the team’s tenacious brick The Slab, ½ the speed of the blindingly fast speedster Lickedy Split, ½ the power of elastic power of the amazing Rubber Rob, ½ the fire powers of the teams hot head fire elemental Firebrand, ½ the force field powers of Refraction Girl, and ½ the powers of teams the hippy with water elemental powers, Aquarius. Interestingly the Sensational Six kept their powers and offered to mentor Susie who gladly accepted. Will she join them? And if she does will they become the Sensational Seven? And will Lord Destructo seek vengeance? Stay tuned! Same Six station, Same Six Channel!

Miscellaneous – Has a ludicrous rogues gallery - Lord Destructo has summoned evil, alternative dimension versions of herself. Except they are all split up into six different people with just one power set each. They are usually laughable and easily thwarted, mucht to the chagrin of Lord Destructo! Back to the drawing board Destructo!


Character 2
Name – Hummingbird-Man
Nature – Outsider - Humlerian Hybrid (see below)

Origin/power source – Powered armor – actually his father’s hum-harness and armor. He is actually ½ Humlerian, an extra-terrestrial people that came to earth to escape their doomed planet. They look human except for being faster, lighter (hollow bones), and have exceptionally acute vision. Humlerians also have a cast of enforcers called “the Hum Guard” which use special advanced tech harnesses. And there is a special sub class within even the Hum Guard that is a spy speciality that are issued exceptional harnesses that allow them to shrink as well as fly.

Powers – Animal Powers – powers of a humming bird! Can shrink to the size of a humming bird but amazingly keeps the strength of a man (through the powers of the hum-harness). He can also fly and hover with the hum-harness. And he has exceptionally vision and is very fast and agile and is an accomplished master of Judo and Karate. Hummingbird-Man was/is taught/mentored by his father (who is retired).

Miscellaneous – Golden Age connection, son of the famous Golden Age Hummingbird-man

Character 3
Name - Alliteration - Kid Cobalt
Nature - Teenager

Origin/power source – radiation, his skin is bright blue and his hair white

Powers – Useless power – Can teleport 3 feet in any direction flawlessly but then is exhausted and has to sleep for 24 hrs. Thankfully, he is also a brilliant inventor/mad scientist type who is often found in his lab tinkering with immensely exotic, strange and amazing inventions. Unfortunately, many of his inventions tend to go awry and he is forever chasing after them to correct the problem. One particularly nasty invention was the invention of an AI named HANC (Hyper Advanced Nucleonic Computer) that went rogue and escaped from his lab. Now HANC has become one of Kid Cobalt’s fiercest enemies and seeks to expunge all human life.

Miscellaneous - Incorrectly programmed an experimental computer causing it to hate all organic life.

Oh, and here is a revised set of tables that I think works better. I have added a few things and changed the order a bit:

Roll once on each table in section 1
Section 1

Name
Roll 1d6.
1-3: Alliterative name.
4-5: second part of name is followed by gender reference such as man/woman, lad/lass, or boy/girl if character is a teenager
6: Also known by an epithet.

Nature
Roll 2d6.
2: Mischievous imp
3: Secret agent. Works for acronymically named organisation.
4: Commie. If the character is a hero, then commies are involved in origin.
5: Ape. Roll on Subtable 1
6: Marvel character. Roll on Subtable 2 - Problems.
7: Outsider. Roll on Subtable 3
8: Teenager
9: Female. Reduce point total by 50%.
10: Evil version of hero like Sinestro or Abomination.
11: Superpet
12: Hippy

Origin/power source
Roll 1d6.
1: Struck by lightning
2-5: Radiation
6: Power armour

Powers
Roll 1d6.
1-3: Animal powers
4: Possesses all the powers of a superhero team.
5-6: Useless power. The ability to eat anything for example.

Miscellaneous
Roll 1d6.
1: From an alternate Earth.
2: Ludicrous rogues gallery.
3: Incorrectly programmed an experimental computer causing it to hate all organic life.
4-6: Golden age connection. Roll on Subtable 4.

Roll only once on section 2 as directed in section 1 tables
Section 2 - Subtables

Subtable 1 - Ape
Roll 1d6.
1-3: Gorilla.
4: Orangutan.
5: Baboon.
6: Monkey.

Subtable 2 - Problems
Roll 1d6.
1-2: Monstrous appearance.
3-4: Hated and feared by the public.
5-6: Physically disabled - blind, heart condition, lame or confined to a wheelchair, for example.

Subtable 3 - Outsider
Roll 1d6.
1: Alien.
2: Robot.
3: Mutant.
4: Lost race.
5: God.
6: Bio-engineered.

Subtable 4 - Golden Age connection
Roll 1d6.
1-3: A Golden Age original.
4: Son/daughter of a Golden Age hero.
5-6: Modern version of Golden Age hero. Name and powers same as original. Costume and origin updated.


If you still want instructions on how this table works (as in the characters above) I can probably provide quick and dirty ones later.

Why do women reduce their point total by 50%?

Yeah, I don't like that either. The author of the table did that, I think to reflect how women were undervalued during the Silver Age (and they were in the Golden Age as well). On second thought it should probably be taken out. As I think of it, there are several exceptions to that that I can think of (that is strong female characters). Liberty Bell, Power Girl, Ms. Marvel, and of course, Wonder Woman all come to mind.

So yeah, I would take that bit out about the 1/2 power.

Nature
Roll 2d6.
2: Mischievous imp
3: Secret agent. Works for acronymically named organisation.
4: Commie. If the character is a hero, then commies are involved in origin.
5: Ape. Roll on Subtable 1
6: Marvel character. Roll on Subtable 2 - Problems.
7: Outsider. Roll on Subtable 3
8: Teenager
9: Female.
10: Evil version of hero like Sinestro or Abomination.
11: Superpet
12: Hippy

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Also on second thought, I don't think I will stat out the above characters, at least not right away.