THE WHEEL OF SAMSARA: Let's Roll Up A Heroes Character!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Let's Roll Up A Heroes Character!

I'm not even going to discuss how many times I've redone the Body Powers Table since I posted my corrected Take Three. Lord. I mean, improvement and all, but...lordy, lordy. Anyway, I'm so sick of revising that damn Table that I've decided to just roll up some characters today using the the whole Random Roll method as it currently stands, which is "not at all finalized". But who cares?

OK, here's the Table as it stands:

Just like the previous rounds, I've made 20 rolls of 2d6 at Invisible Castle. I'll use the results in order, dropping the second die if I only need to roll 1. So here we go.

I get 6 ranks of Powers. My first roll on Table 1 is 4:5, which gives me the Object Category. An Object can duplicate any other Power, so I roll again on Table 1, re-rolling if I get Object again. My re-roll is 6:2 which gives me the Sensory Category. So I have some kind of sensing device. Going to Table 7, I roll 1:2, giving me the Cosmic Awareness Power. Well, now, that's not something you usually see as coming from a device. Hmn, I'm thinking that this guy has some kind of amazing computer-thing that pulls information from the Cosmic Record (whatever that might be). Kind of a Kirby Mother Box. I've been fond of the Cosmic Awareness power since I first played Villains & Vigilantes (even though I never, ever rolled it). I give it Excellent +2.

My next roll is 6:5, putting me on the Intense Training Category. This gives me the Intense Training power to convert some number of Ranks in Powers into double that many Quality Ranks as I see fit. I'm going to give this Excellent +2, so that I get 4 Ranks in Qualities. The Mother Box idea has me thinking this guy may be from the future or a highly advanced alternate-world. I'll give him something like "Good +1 Cosmic Scientist" and "Remarkable +3 Hyper-Evolved Human".

I have 2 ranks left to go. My roll is 1:3, which is the Energy Power Category. A 2:6 gives me Exotic Energy. Oh man, that's too right. That Power requires me to roll on Table 9 to determine whether this is a focused Power (with 1 Effect) or a Meta-Power. The roll of 1:4 added is 5, so I get the focused version which is Energy Blast. Can you say "the Power Cosmic"? I think I'll give this power the Object Limitation, since this guy doesn't feel like a super-powered being to me. It could be some kind of blaster, but that doesn't feel suitably Kirbyesque. Instead, I give him a mace-thingy, crackling with dots, and call it "The Ion Rod". I only have 2 ranks left so it gets Excellent +2.

I could discard 1 Power and add those ranks to another Power, but I don't think I will.

I move on to Qualities, of which I get 10 Ranks. My first roll is 6:4, which gets me a Vehicle. I'm going to give him some kind of Air Chariot. I think I'll plug quite a few ranks into that. It can fly and maybe shoot out some kind of entangling thing. Gee, maybe even teleport. Anyway, I give it Incredible +4.

6 Ranks left. I get 3:4, which is Iconic Description. I love that one. Whatever my hero is called, his sub-title (if you will) is "The Ultimate Man!" (exclamation point included). I give this Remarkable +3. There's all sorts of times I can see that Quality being pertinent.

3 ranks left. I roll 1:2, a Motivation. With the Iconic Description in mind, the idea immediately occurs to me that my hero comes from a future where a hyper-evolved humanity allows itself to be destroyed somehow. Traveling to the past, my Motivation is "To Save Humanity From it's Own Worst Instincts". I'm not a crime-fighter per se, but someone who feels the need to inspire people to be their better selves. Let's give this one Good +1 Rank.

2 Ranks left and I get 1:5, which is Iconic Description. I don't see him as having another Iconic Description, so I drop this one and give the 2 ranks to my vehicle, bringing it up to Monstrous +6. This is one, sweet Air Chariot.

I get 1 Signature Stunt. I'll have him able to use the power blast from the Ion Rod as a defense; otherwise, the Ultimate Man is going to get splatted rather quickly against any super-scale attacks. It costs 1 Hero Point to do that.

I've pretty much already got my background already: last survivor from a doomed future, hurled back in time to prevent his own tragic reality from occurring. I need a good name now. Hmn. Let's just go ahead and lay the Kirby cards on the table and call him "Apocalypse, the Ultimate Man!". I even have the title of his debut story: "The Man Who Murdered Tomorrow!"