From today's blog entry (http://weblog.xanga.com/RPGpundit/682770214/item.html), where I mention that I specifically had Golden Age supers in mind here, and was assuming that this table would be for use with the 2FT system, though obviously with a little adaptation could be used for any system:
The RPGPundit's Random Flaw Table (1D50)
1. No flaw! Character is a regular joe.
2. Pint-Sized: Character is very short for his gender and age, probably picked on for this in his alter ego.
3. Partial Blindness: the PC is blind in daylight, and can only see in the dark. Alternately, character is blind in his regular identity and can only see when his super-identity is activated (this option automatically means that the PC must "activate" his power in some way, through the use of a device or a phrase or a particular action, and cannot use his power, or see, without doing so first).
4. Delusional: Character believes his power comes from Divine Forces, ancient gods, etc; or that he is either a reincarnation or a time traveller from some ancient culture. It is up to the GM whether or not this belief is true. The PC might style himself after a particular deity or ancient culture.
5. Formula: The PC's abilities can only activate when he recites a certain phrase; either "magic words" or some kind of scientific formula. His powers remain active for an hour after he uses the formula, after which he must repeat the formula or be unable to continue using the powers.
6. Time limit: The character can only use their powers during a certain time of the day or the night (ie. after midnight, from sunrise to sunset, from 9-5, from when the American flag is raised over the national cemetery until it is lowered, etc).
7. Hideous Appearance: The character's face is deformed, possibly causing him to wear a mask to cover it. If uncovered, his Savvy is half the normal rating in all social situations; however, the character uses his full Savvy+2 when attempting to intimidate.
8. Inhuman: The character, while not necessarily ugly, is clearly not human in appearance. This might be due to his powers, or he might be an alien or monster of some kind. The same penalties apply as in "hideous appearance" above; additionally, the character may feel difficulty in relating to regular human society.
9. Haunted: The character is haunted by the ghost of a dead friend or loved one, who either died at the hands of some villain or due to the character's own failure. Only the PC can see and hear the ghost.
10. Addiction: The character's power can only manifest itself when the PC takes a certain potion or pill, and then lasts only for one hour. The drug can only be taken once a day. The drug is addictive, requiring a Very Tricky Mind roll if the PC attempts to abstain from taking the drug. The drug might cause long-term side-effects, or abstaining from the drug might cause withdrawal symptoms.
11. Lack of control: The character does not have full control of his powers. Once per day, the GM can oblige the character to make a Very Tricky Mind check to avoid his power going off at some random moment.
12. Faith: The character's power depends on his belief in a particular ideal (a religious belief, or a patriotic ideal, or some kind of moral philosophy). If the character acts against this ideal, he loses his powers until he undertakes some kind of task to rectify his error. If he is made to lose faith in this ideal (ie. witnesses others committing wrongful acts based on this ideal, or is convinced that his ideal is a lie or doomed to failure) he loses his abilities until his faith is restored.
13. Object: The PC's power comes from some kind of magical or pseudo-scientific object. He must wear or be in physical contact with this object to use his powers.
14. Substance Limitation: The character's powers do not function when in contact with some particular common substance, or they do not function against objects made of this substance (ie. water, wood, fire, metal, glass, gold, etc.)
15. Unknown Power: The PC doesn't realize he actually has a superpower. He will be oblivious to his ability at first, until his power is revealed when he is in some kind of position of extreme stress or danger, or until his power is revealed to him by some kind of teacher or mystic.
16. Genie: The character's power does not come from himself, but from some kind of Genie, Imp, or spirit that obeys his commands. He needs to say some kind of magic word or incantation to summon the genie, who will remain until ordered to depart.
17. Insomniac: The character cannot sleep at night without performing some kind of task (helping someone in need, defeating a criminal, etc); he is haunted by nightmares or bad memories. If he is unable to sleep on a given night, the next day his Mind attribute is temporarily reduced by 1 point: This is cumulative for every night of sleep he misses. For each night of sleep where he manages to sleep the sleep of the righteous, he regains one of those temporary points.
18. Possessed: The character is actually possessed by some kind of ghost, demon, angel or spirit. This is the source of his powers. While possessed he remains in control of his faculties; however, the spirit might be in the service of some kind of higher power or on some kind of quest, and might oblige the PC to work toward this service or quest, withholding his powers if he does not oblige.
19. Guilt-ridden: The character is mentally disturbed by a deep sense of responsibility or guilt for past failings or for the consequences of some past act. At the GM's discretion, certain events or actions or the anniversary of certain dates might cause the PC to be deeply distracted or unstable, reducing either his Brains or Mind attribute to half its normal value for the purpose of skill checks.
20. Dependent: The character has a wife, kid sister, elderly mother, young ward, girlfriend or some other dependent that either knows of their identity or is terribly accident-prone or prone to getting into serious trouble. This dependent is NOT sidekick material.
21. Limited Sense: One of the character's senses (sight or hearing) is extremely limited, reducing their range of sight or hearing to "short range" (5 yards).
22. No sense of touch: the character has lacks the ability to feel anything normally, either due to his powers or some kind of accident. This is a cause of serious mental anguish. He is, however, capable of feeling pain from injuries.
23. Bad Associations: The character was (and possibly still is) affiliated with questionable groups. He is an ex-mobster, crook, or spy; or was previously affiliated with some deplorable association (the communist party, the American Nazi party, etc). He may be seeking to make amends for his previous errors, and his past affiliations might come back to haunt him.
24. Wanted: The character (in his secret identity) has a criminal record, for some crime he did not commit, or possibly for some crime he did commit.
25. Victim of Prejudice: the character belongs to some kind of social class or group that is a frequent target of prejudice (ie. a particular racial or ethnic group or culture, or he is a member of a religious or social minority; or he is a German- or Japanese- American). Even other heroes might treat him differently due to his background.
26. Sure Knows How To Pick Them: the character has notorious bad luck with his choice of romantic affiliation, being prone to fall in love with women or men who are (or turn out to be) criminals, supervillains, or enemy agents. The GM might require the character to make Mind checks to resist "falling for" one of these type; the character becoming convinced that he can somehow redeem them.
27. Assumed Identity: The character's secret identity is in fact a sham; he is living under an assumed name or has taken on the identity of some other person who is either dead or missing. In addition to regular difficulties of having his secret identity revealed, the character must also deal with the possibility that his false identity might come to light.
28. Partnered: The character is part of a "dynamic duo". If he has superpowers, his powers can only be activated when he and his partner make physical contact of some kind (holding hands, pressing their hands together, or touching their fists to each other) and the power can be used for only one hour after that event, the activation having to be repeated to continue use after that. The character's partner is either a twin sibling, a sidekick or a partner of the opposite sex, and may be prone to being captured or going off half-cocked. If his partner is missing, captured or killed, the PC cannot use his superpower.
29. Radio-active: The character's power also causes them to give off deadly radiation, requiring that the character remain inside a containment suit whenever he is around other people.
30. Uncontrollable power: the character's power activates anytime he touches anyone with his bare skin, requiring that gloves be worn at all times.
31. Alcoholic: The character is a frequent drinker, probably due to psychological trauma or personal anguish.
32. Calling Card: the character has a mental obsession with leaving some kind of calling card (either a literal card, or some kind of special symbol) as a mark of his actions or presence; he will be drawn to do this even in dangerous situations, requiring a Difficult Mind check if he wishes to resist this urge.
33. The Silent Type: while in his heroic identity, the character never speaks; considering this to be a part of his "heroic personality".
34. Mute: the character is unable to speak. He can communicate however with notes or gestures.
35. Egomaniac: The character is convinced that he is the "superman", the "ideal man" the perfect representation of the human race. He makes a big deal of expressing this fact to heroes, criminals, and civilians alike.
36. Animal Theme: the character associates his ability or heroic identity with some kind of animal: He might take on a costume resembling that animal or believe himself to have been raised by that type of animal, or that he is guided by the "spirit" of that animal: Any of this may or may not be true (at the GM's discretion). The character will never harm and will actively attempt to protect and help that type of animal, and will believe himself able to communicate with that type of animal, whether or not this is in fact true.
37. Unusual Substance Requirement: The character needs to regularly expose himself to a particular substance (ie. immerse himself in water, bathe in the light of the sun, be exposed to the heat of a sacred fire, etc) at least once a day, for at least an hour. Failing to do so means the loss of his powers until he is able to.
38. Pschological restraint: The character becomes helpless if exposed to or subjected to a certain element or procedure. ie. if his/her hands are bound, caught in a net, exposed to a certain kind of rare mineral, bathed in a certain kind of colour/light, etc.
39. Item: the character's power is actual due to some kind of mystical or technological object. This power can be used by ANYONE who wields or acquires the object.
40. Foreigner: The character comes from some other country, possibly a country under Nazi subjugation. He may experience prejudice or suspicion, and will have an intense sense of duty toward his native land.
41. Second Incarnation: The character is actually the second hero to have used the same heroic name. The previous hero with this identity is either dead or presumed dead. The character must deal with living up to that earlier character's name, may have some kind of personal connection to that other hero, and may have to deal with a lot of unfinished business relating to the earlier hero.
42. Its the costume: The character's abilities actually spring from his costume, and he can only use them when he wears his costume.
43. Mistrusted By Authorities: The character's reputation, whatever it may be in his secret identity, begins at a rating of 2 in his superhero identity. The authorities of his city have decided that he's a villain or a public menace, and want him arrested. Subsequent actions might improve (or further diminish) his reputation as normal.
44. Ex-sidekick: Character was actually the sidekick for another hero, who has either died or disappeared. The character is now on their own, but is still seen as a "sidekick" by many, and may have to deal with unfinished business regarding his ex-partner.
45. Amnesia: the character has no idea what his real identity and origin are.
46. Archaic: The character either is or believes himself to be from a past age, or from a primitive society. He has great difficulty dealing with "modern" things, treat his Brains attribute as being at half-value for any roll relating to dealing with science or technology. Additionally the character does not know how to operate a vehicle unless he purchases the relevant specialty.
47. Wallflower: The character gets hopeless flustered around the opposite. His Savvy is at half the normal rating whenever dealing with the opposite sex.
48. Speech Impediment: the character has some kind of speech impediment (stutters, lisp, etc) that make him have half his normal savvy rating in any check related to speaking.
49. Willfully ignorant: the character is proud of being a "regular joe" to the point that he will only read/speak a single language, and will never take any science or scholarship masteries. This weakness should obviously not be used for any character based on superscience.
50. Dead: the character is actually a reanimated corpse, come back to life to fight evil. He may be beholden to the mystic or divine forces that reanimated him. Additionally, everyone knows his secret identity to be deceased. The character knows that he can only be revived in this way once, and if he dies again, it will be forever.
NOTE #1: Clearly, some of these flaws are worse than others. Some of them are also more direct in how they affect game mechanics, while others are more of a question of role-play. This is all intentional.
RPGPundit
You forgot:
51. Character has fifty sided die to roll on the damn chart to begin with.
Quote from: StormBringer;267707You forgot:
51. Character has fifty sided die to roll on the damn chart to begin with.
How about percentile with a 2% range for each entry on the list?
Quote from: StormBringer;267707You forgot:
51. Character has fifty sided die to roll on the damn chart to begin with.
The characters have dice, Stormy? Are they gamblers? :D
-clash
Quote from: flyingmice;267718The characters have dice, Stormy? Are they gamblers? :D
-clash
Well, not very good ones if they are betting on a fifty sided die. :)
Quote from: PaladinCA;267716How about percentile with a 2% range for each entry on the list?
Half a d% should work. :)
Um.. yeah.. It would be easy enough if this was put into a public game to redo it as a d% roll (with a 2% chance for each entry) but really, you don't know how to roll a D50? Do you have trouble with D3s too?
Its pretty simple, dude: Take a D100 and divide the result in half, rounding up.
RPGPundit
I'd been thinking of random superhero power/weakness charts lately, and the conclusion that I arrived at was that what it needs is a flow-chart. You'd start by picking your general theme of powers, then roll on the themed power chart. The result would take you down one of a handful of branching limbs to the specific power group. From there, you'd roll to go down one of another set of specific powers, and from there, you'd roll to determine specifically themed weaknesses (if any) for the specific power.
One of the age-old complaints about Villains & Vigilantes was that, like Gamma World, you could end up with some real odd-ball and nonsensical power combos.
!i!
Quote from: Ian Absentia;267748One of the age-old complaints about Villains & Vigilantes was that, like Gamma World, you could end up with some real odd-ball and nonsensical power combos.
!i!
FASERIP Marvel wasn't much better, really. You could come up with a really goofy array of powers. On the upside, it did stretch your imagination tying them all together, which can be fun, too.
When I GM V&V I allow the players to roll 4 power sets, and pick the one they like the best. This kind of cuts that problem a bit.
Quote from: StormBringer;267763FASERIP Marvel wasn't much better, really. You could come up with a really goofy array of powers. On the upside, it did stretch your imagination tying them all together, which can be fun, too.
FASERIP Marvel was
worse actually, after the introduction of the Ultimate Powers Book. I'm also pretty sure that it was used to generate most of the X-Men after 1985, and every character created by Rob Liefield. Too many different categories of power.
Trying to justify a characters who has a gestalt form with limited magic spells, mutant wings, a flamethrower and the ability to cause plants to grow is almost impossible, and certainly can't be done elegantly or simply.
I personally HATE Liefieldesque characters with their "I was born in the year 2500, then traveled to Alpha-Centauri where I served as a mercenary in the army of Gordon the Conqueror, which ended when I was stranded in 18th century London and ended up teaching Aleister Crowley about magic before traveling to the present to confront my superpowered family members about the bad touching that occurred when I was a child in an alternate dimension." origins.
I like "I was bitten by a radioactive spider. Now I have spider-themed powers."
Quote from: Jackalope;267782where I served as a mercenary in the army of Gordon the Conqueror, ."
Totally off topic, but I know a guy, named Gordon appropriately enough, that somehow, apparently, managed to get a bunch of people to 'fight in His name (Gordon...)' in Amptgard (or however they spell it...), to the point that, though he has no longer any assosiation with that particular kingdom (or whatever they call them...), there is still an official 'Cult of Gordon' in Amptgard.
Or at least they have a membership roster he could show me online on what passes for, I think, the official page of the organization.
So, apparently if you do Amptgard and go to their big get togethers there is a chance that some one will attack you 'In the Name of Gordon'... and I know that guy. Gordon. In case it wasn't clear.
And if getting a bunch of geeks to mock worship you as a cult isn't a superpower, I don't know what is...
Quote from: Spike;267783And if getting a bunch of geeks to mock worship you as a cult isn't a superpower, I don't know what is...
If I recall correctly, there was an edition of
Champions in which there was a loophole in the powers/flaws list that allowed you to do just that -- create an army of agents who followed your every command -- and
you could get extra points back for it.
!i!
My resolution to the "it doesn't fit the powers" thing was pretty simple; as I said in the blog, if your limitation doesn't make sense for your character, based on the GM's judgment, you just roll again and end up with a different one.
RPGPundit
Quote from: Ian Absentia;267792If I recall correctly, there was an edition of Champions in which there was a loophole in the powers/flaws list that allowed you to do just that -- create an army of agents who followed your every command -- and you could get extra points back for it.
!i!
I pointed out a similar issue with
Cartoon Action Hour a thousand years ago when I wrote a review. You could use a moderate number of points to gain an animal companion with a huge number of its own points to spend on things. Such as... its own animal companion with an ungodly number of points, and so on. In short order, you would have every animal and vehicle on the planet under your control.
Naturally, any GM that isn't brain dead would put a stop to all that. ;)
Quote from: RPGPundit;2677007. Hideous Appearance: The character's face is deformed, possibly causing him to wear a mask to cover it. If uncovered, his Savvy is half the normal rating in all social situations; however, the character uses his full Savvy+2.
For those unfamiliar with the system in question, what does the part about using your full Savvy+2 mean?
Shit, you found a typo! It should say, "however, the character gets savvy+2 when attempting to intimidate".
I'll change it.
RPGPundit
Quote from: StormBringer;267763FASERIP Marvel wasn't much better, really. You could come up with a really goofy array of powers. On the upside, it did stretch your imagination tying them all together, which can be fun, too.
To be fair, this is what "Bonus Powers" (and the suggested related powers) were for--they just fudged the explanation horribly. The idea was that if you got, oh say Telepathy--you could pick up another related power easily.
Pundit:
Nice Chart, however, did I miss the "Hero may become sick and die when exposed to obscure Plotonium?" (There is one for negating powers, but Kryptonite does more than that to Superman..)
Quote from: Jackalope;267782Trying to justify a characters who has a gestalt form with limited magic spells, mutant wings, a flamethrower and the ability to cause plants to grow is almost impossible, and certainly can't be done elegantly or simply.
Blessed by a benevolent green dragon, which is the spirit of the forest. Don't know where the gestalt form would fit though.
Quote from: Silverlion;267851Pundit:
Nice Chart, however, did I miss the "Hero may become sick and die when exposed to obscure Plotonium?" (There is one for negating powers, but Kryptonite does more than that to Superman..)
Yes, that's true; I wasn't thinking of that one as very important since its a very particular case, but I guess you could add, to the one that "leaves you helpless when exposed to some kind of substance" that "At GM discretion prolonged exposure might kill".
RPGPundit
Quote from: StormBringer;267830I pointed out a similar issue with Cartoon Action Hour a thousand years ago when I wrote a review. You could use a moderate number of points to gain an animal companion with a huge number of its own points to spend on things. Such as... its own animal companion with an ungodly number of points, and so on. In short order, you would have every animal and vehicle on the planet under your control.
Naturally, any GM that isn't brain dead would put a stop to all that. ;)
I do know that Champion's had a great GM Advice section where they covered 'broken characters'... on of which used the exponential rule for 'grounds' for secret HQ's to 'own the world'... becoming the landlord of everyone. There may be something about using the Dependent disadvantage to gain 'followers', where you do get points for it... and some dependents can be pretty badass by their own rights(* highly suspect statement. I know I've read at least one 'dependent' disadvantage in some game, possibly champions, where the dependent could be 'stronger' than the hero...). However, by defintion, a Dependent is someone the PC's will need to get out of trouble on a regular basis.
A way of looking at it is 'Jimmy Olson can be considered the PC, with Superman the Dependent NPC. Every so often Jimmy's got to get Superman away from that god damn kryptonite everyone keeps exposing him too.'...
Sure, ordinarily Superman is more powerful that Jimmy Olson... but generally, Supe's doesn't solve Jimmy's adventures for him! (though to explain their relationship, perhaps each bought the other as a dependent...), if anything Jimmy's adventures are beneath Superman... but there's that blasted Kryponite thing again....
Its a bit wonky, but nothing in the Dependent writeup, that I recall, said that dependents were actually obliged to obey the hero.