[OOC] Random generation of esper abilities

[robkelk]

I just had a thought (after seeing some of the discussion of Doug Sangnoir's powers over in the Drunkards Walk forums) - esper powers are pretty much superpowers. And it's rare that somebody gets to choose his or her own superpowers.

So... Does anybody want to take a chance on a random powerset? Epsilon lent me his copy of Villains and Vigilantes a while back, I've still got it, and it has rules for random powers generation. I'll ignore the "powers from gadgets", "powers from training", and "weaknesses" rules and just go with the innate-powers rules.

If you have D&D dice, you can use those for generating the random numbers. If not, well, random.org is a perfectly good source of random numbers.

The process:

1. Roll a d6 (or tell random.org to give you a number between 1 and 6). Add 2 to the result.
   
2. Roll that many d100 (or tell random.org to give you that many numbers between 1 and 100).
   
3. I'll consult the random powers table and see what the numbers correspond to.
   
4. If a power needs rolls on subtables, I'll tell you what numbers are needed.
   
5. I'll tell you what the random results came up with, and you get to drop two of the results and make the rest work together.
   

[Black Aeronaut]

Okay, I'll nibble. Bear in mind, though, I think my Kamijo-esque nullifying ability is power enough. I'm doing this just for S&G. Unless I get something too good to ignore AND would play well with nullification...

First number: (roll 1d6+2) 6
Second Number: (random between 1-100): 47

[robkelk]

Since your first roll was 6, I need six of those 1-100 rolls. so, 47, ?, ?, ?, ?, and ?.

[Rajvik]

Rob, I think he misunderstood and gave you the total of what the six rolls would add up to. Damn that is other some lucky, or damn unlucky dice

[Black Aeronaut]

Nah, I just missed the bit about making as many rolls as the number I first rolled up.

Here's the other five rolls:
18 16 63 93 45

[robkelk]

47: Ice Powers - you generate cold and ice, which can be used as an attack or as armor

18: Dimensional Travel - Choose either travel to and from one particular dimension (e.g. hyperspace, null-space, a dimension that looks like a point in Earth's history or future) with no chance of error, or the ability to travel to and from any other dimension with a chance of error.

16: Disintegration Ray - "the ability to vaporize solids and liquids" (but not living beings; they take damage instead until they're dead)

63: Mutant Power - Make something up

93: Vibratory Powers - "powerful patterns of vibration", which can be used as an attack or as armor

45: Heightened Strength B - Increased strength (the version with the higher possible roll, so Superman-level, not Aquaman-level)


If I recall correctly, Squishy was going to give your SI the Disintegration Ray and the attack part of the Vibratory Powers... and that "nullifying ability" can be your Mutant Power. So, pick one of the other three to keep: Ice Powers, Dimensional Travel, or Heightened Strength. (Considering that Squishy is a Masu, he could give you the Dimensional Travel or the Heightened Strength. And you don't need two attack/armor powers.)

[Labster]

I'm tempted to do this for Osaka, but not sure if I want the superpower lottery or to pick something more thematic. Though I'm not really sure if level 1 or level 5 is funnier for her.

For the SI, nope, I'm going on the magic track instead.

[robkelk]

If you're going thematic for Osaka, I notice that most of the Kasuga family in KOR have telepathy and telekinesis. Just saying, since I didn't start that running gag.

[Mamorien]

If you're going thematic for Osaka, I notice that most of the Kasuga family in KOR have telepathy and telekinesis. Just saying, since I didn't start that running gag.

In email conversation with the inimitable Chris Davies, I once asked him if Ayumu Kasuga was any relation to Kyosuke, and as such qualified for inclusion in his Together Again mega-crossover 'verse. Since I only called her by the name on her family register, I'm not sure he picked up the reference.

[Mamorien]

Also, I cheated. I got my four rolls from WotC's official Dungeons & Dragons Dice Roller: 67, 86, 27, 14. (Then I rolled 1d6+2 there, and it gave me a 6; the resulting two additional rolls were 11 and 43.)

[Black Aeronaut]

47: Ice Powers - you generate cold and ice, which can be used as an attack or as armor

18: Dimensional Travel - Choose either travel to and from one particular dimension (e.g. hyperspace, null-space, a dimension that looks like a point in Earth's history or future) with no chance of error, or the ability to travel to and from any other dimension with a chance of error.

16: Disintegration Ray - "the ability to vaporize solids and liquids" (but not living beings; they take damage instead until they're dead)

63: Mutant Power - Make something up

93: Vibratory Powers - "powerful patterns of vibration", which can be used as an attack or as armor

45: Heightened Strength B - Increased strength (the version with the higher possible roll, so Superman-level, not Aquaman-level)


If I recall correctly, Squishy was going to give your SI the Disintegration Ray and the attack part of the Vibratory Powers... and that "nullifying ability" can be your Mutant Power. So, pick one of the other three to keep: Ice Powers, Dimensional Travel, or Heightened Strength. (Considering that Squishy is a Masu, he could give you the Dimensional Travel or the Heightened Strength. And you don't need two attack/armor powers.)

Hmmm.  I don't believe I ever mentioned anything about vibration powers.  Mainly just a low-end regeneration ability (Deadpool level, mind.  Not Wolverine.  Example: DP can get riddled full of holes by gunfire and regenerate that in a few minutes - about five or ten minutes.  But cut off an arm?  It's gonna take a day or two for that to grow back.)  Also, heightened strength is kinda part-and-parcel with the Masu integration.

So that covers Mutant Power (Nullifier), Disintegration Beam (M/AM Cannon + X-Ray Laser), and Heightened Strength.  This is actually a great Tank-build that lives up to the name, because while IRL tanks can be taken out if you know how to hit them (either special AP ordnance or guerilla tactics), they can also strike anywhere from close- to long-range.

So with that in mind...  I think I'll go for the Dimensional Travel in the form of an inaccurate teleporting ability.  Ben is capable, he just can't perform the math in his head the way Nanoha and the other mages can.

However, I don't think it would be cheating too much for him to have a Boost Device to actually perform the mathematical equations for him - it acts as a navigational aid and he simply executes the jump using the figures it gives back to him.  (Unlike other BDs though, it doesn't augment his power.  It does the math, and nothing more.)

This provides a plot-convenient weakness in that if you separate him from his Device, he won't be able to teleport.  (At least, not without a strong likelihood of killing himself and possibly other bystanders.)

Thoughts?

[itsune9tl]

47: Ice Powers - you generate cold and ice, which can be used as an attack or as armor

18: Dimensional Travel - Choose either travel to and from one particular dimension (e.g. hyperspace, null-space, a dimension that looks like a point in Earth's history or future) with no chance of error, or the ability to travel to and from any other dimension with a chance of error.

16: Disintegration Ray - "the ability to vaporize solids and liquids" (but not living beings; they take damage instead until they're dead)

63: Mutant Power - Make something up

93: Vibratory Powers - "powerful patterns of vibration", which can be used as an attack or as armor

45: Heightened Strength B - Increased strength (the version with the higher possible roll, so Superman-level, not Aquaman-level)


If I recall correctly, Squishy was going to give your SI the Disintegration Ray and the attack part of the Vibratory Powers... and that "nullifying ability" can be your Mutant Power. So, pick one of the other three to keep: Ice Powers, Dimensional Travel, or Heightened Strength. (Considering that Squishy is a Masu, he could give you the Dimensional Travel or the Heightened Strength. And you don't need two attack/armor powers.)

So with that in mind...  I think I'll go for the Dimensional Travel in the form of an inaccurate teleporting ability.  Ben is capable, he just can't perform the math in his head the way Nanoha and the other mages can.

However, I don't think it would be cheating too much for him to have a Boost Device to actually perform the mathematical equations for him - it acts as a navigational aid and he simply executes the jump using the figures it gives back to him.  (Unlike other BDs though, it doesn't augment his power.  It does the math, and nothing more.)

This provides a plot-convenient weakness in that if you separate him from his Device, he won't be able to teleport.  (At least, not without a strong likelihood of killing himself and possibly other bystanders.)

Thoughts?

He really should Memorize some basic pre-solutions along the lines of "displace mass or volume at a predetermined distance on a relative direction forward of himself by X distance along the relative z axis."  Makes a nice surprised when they take his McGuffin away.

[robkelk]

If Ben's teleportation is anything like Kuroko's, then pre-memorization won't work - she has to calculate every jump. (Which means she's at least as good at math in her specialty as Ami is, and perhaps better.)

And I was thinking that Kuroko could use a Boost Device in the same way, so why not?

[Black Aeronaut]

Besides, if you wanna go full hard sci-fi with it, you can go with the book version of Battlefield Earth where teleporters had to take the motion of the planets and star systems into account, even for short range stuff. There’s no way to memorize something like that because you’d have to recalculate each jump, and then do it for however milliseconds in the future your jump will be.

That’s definitely gonna need an assist.

[Norgarth]

heh, out of curiosity, lets see what I get:

D6+2 result is 5 (rolled 3)

Percentile rolls:
83, 13, 04, 02, 76

[robkelk]

Looking up those rolls on the main powers table gives a confused mishmash that can't possibly be brought down to a common power.

Looking up those rolls on the magic powers table, though... 02 and 04 are the same power, and 83 and 76 are the same power, so drop one from each pair. You get Telepathy, Flight, and Astral Projection.

[Black Aeronaut]

Hah! A human AWAC unit!

[Norgarth]

huh, maybe it's a good thing I had called dibs on the X-Men Evolution team, having Professor X around to help teach me how to handle the Telepathy and maybe Astral projection would be helpful (and Storm can help with flying)