Creating Supers Characters – Marvel Super Heroes (FASERIP)

Before I get started, I should mention that Truth & Justice does include a few tables to roll up random characters and provide inspiration, and they're totally fine.

But when it comes to truly gonzo random character generation, nothing really approaches the psychotic variety and dubious playability of characters that the classic Marvel Super Heroes Advanced Set spits out, particularly when the Ultimate Powers Book is brought into the equation. And though it's entirely possible to leave this up to a program, I'm going to run it all manually.

Although creating a character from whole cloth is great, especially with other players involved, I believe that – for a certain kind of player, at least – there is a role for fate to play in the character generation process. It's not for everyone, I know. But ever since I first ran through the lifepath system of the PC conversion of Twilight 2000, and my character's long-term professional plans were derailed by rolling poorly and being drafted into World War III, I knew that a combination of player agency and randomness could help produce compelling narratives long before play begins.

Sadly, MSH doesn't have anything close to a lifepath system. It does, however, have a hell of a lot of tables.

In an illuminating (if all too tantalizing) post, designer Jeff Grubb describes how character generation found its way into MSH circa 1986:

When we did the Basic MSH, Marvel didn't want us to put in any character generation - they wanted people to play Marvel character (which makes sense). We put in a rudimentary system in the back. When it came time to do the Advanced Set, Marvel sent the note "Whatever you do, be sure to put in a character generation system. That's what fans really want to see." I'm not bashing on Marvel here - they were learning like we were learning.

Marvel's feelings on the subject have fluctuated over the years. We'll see when I do Margaret Weis Productions' Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, but though it's very easy to play with licensed characters, I felt it suffered from a... shall we say mushy character generation system.

But not MSH, whose system of power categorization has a comprehensiveness to it that still rings true to contemporary Marvel canon.

Let's make ourselves a monster, shall we?


First, I'd like to compare two tables.

 This is the Origins table from the Advanced Set.

This, on the other hand, is how the Ultimate Powers Book handles character origins. I was not kidding when I said this process was truly gonzo.

So let's hop on over to random.org and fetch ourselves some atmospherically-sourced true randomness for Physical Form. Just who is this person, android, robot, merperson, computer, or... cloud of gas?

My 0 and 8 on percentile dice give me... a Normal Human. 25% is still 1 out of 4. Sorry, 8 pages of lovingly detailed exotic character types!

(A quick aside – the UPB considers the Inhumans to be so-called Breed Mutants that pass on their powers genetically, when in fact they merely pass on their resistance to the more severe side effects of the Terrigen Mist, and gain powers therefrom (holy shit – that's actually a word!) as a rite of passage. Still, I guess the fact that they are related and develop powers is worth mentioning as a category.

But with a bit more research, Wikipedia reveals that the Inhuman breeding program and pollution-free habitat produces naturally physically and intellectually superior beings, which the Terrigen Mists can then enhance or reduce. Carry on, true believers.)

Whoever this person is, they get +1CS, or column shift, in Resources, and whatever powers they have don't slot them into a ready-made Marvel slot – at least biologically speaking. That and I'll roll on column 2 of the Random Ranks Table, whatever that is.

Rolling percentile dice on the Origin of Power table, my 65 earns me Creation. So despite the fact that they're a perfectly normal human being, they were engineered with extraordinary abilities. The Scarlet Spiders, clones of the peak human "natural super soldier" Michael Van Patrick, would fit into this category, although exotic powers like laser eyes or pheromone control will be difficult to justify. Still, this is a challenge, and I'm up for that.

Now it's time to cook up Primary and Secondary Abilities.  The Primary Abilities are where MSH gets the alternate name FASERIP: Fighting, Agility, Strength, Endurance, Reason, Intuition, and Psyche.

So!

	Roll	Rank	Score
Fighting	53	Excellent	16
Agility	26	Typical	5
Strength	23	Good	8
Endurance	20	Typical	5
Reason	16	Typical	5
Intuition	28	Good	8
Psyche	76	Remarkable	26

Unusual mental fortitude and decent fighting chops. So far, so normal.

Health is equal to F+A+S+E, or 34.

Karma is R+I+P, or 39.

Resources is random, and as a Normal Human, I can roll on Column 3. 36 gives me Typical (5) Resources.

Popularity is likewise random – and a 36 on Column 2 gives me Typical (5) Popularity. Fair enough!

Weakness is most often dealt with on a power-by-power basis in modern supers games, but MSH lets it affect the entire hero. Three rolls give me the following:

17 Elemental Allergy – one ounce of a specific element (only in its elemental form; molecules are fine) on the periodic table shuts this guy DOWN.

24 Power Negation – I said DOOOOWN.

84 Limited Duration after Contact – for 1 to 100 turns after contact ends.

I'm somewhat surprised that there's no table for good element candidates, but I guess it's important to remember that this is supposed to be in service of good narrative. The rulebook notes that weaknesses should be roughly proportionate to power, so I'll defer choosing this until we find out how ludicrous this engineered human is.

Now it's time for Power Generation.

The staple supers split between powers and skills is alive and well in MSH, although Talents are nowhere near as useful as Powers. It would be interesting to see whether the original Champions and Villains and Vigilantes made the same distinction, but it's definitely a thing nowadays. One need look no further than Batman and Superman to realize the importance of abstracting the two.

No bonuses for being an – ahem – Normal Human, so a raw roll it is. 85, 67, and 41 yield the following:

	Powers	Talents	Contacts
	8/10	2/8	1/4

So I did earn a ridiculous character! As a GM, I think I'd consider capping initial powers somewhere around 5, or introduce some sort of Mutants and Masterminds-like array system to prevent too many powers from going off at once, but let's see just how ridiculous things turn out.

Roll 1	Power Category	Roll 2	Power	Power Code	Roll 3	Rank
63	Mental Enhancement (M)	85	Telekinesis	M29	86	Incredible	36
82	Physical Enhancement (P)	62	Self-Revival	P10	03	Feeble	2
14	Energy Control (EC)	46	Gravity Manipulation	EC11	70	Remarkable	26
93	Travel (T)	93	True Flight	T21	60	Remarkable	26
22	Energy Emission (EE)	43	Kinetic Bolt	EE7	94	Amazing	46
75	Physical Enhancement (P)	10	Armor Skin	P1	75	Remarkable	26
78	Physical Enhancement (P)	82	Vocal Control	P15	77	Remarkable	26
85	Physical Enhancement (P)	24	Body Resistance	P2	69	Remarkable	26

That's... not a half-bad character. Telekinesis, Kinetic Bolt, True Flight, and Gravity Manipulation could all have a similar means of expression, and Armor Skin, Self-Revival, and Body Resistance are certainly of a kind. Vocal Control is kind of a curveball, but I can live with it. Let's deal with each of them in turn.

Self-Revival is a lovely power to get at Feeble (2) level, since it allows the character to heal from fatal wounds at a rate equal to the rank number times normal – and only then on a Green FEAT, or a roll of 66 to 100 (the case of an ideal death with no dismemberment). Lord knows what the natural rate of healing would be on most traumatic injuries – even doubled, we might not be talking much. For narrative purposes, perhaps the Self-Revival power could have been fractional before waking up, allowing for potential centuries of regenerative quiescence.

There's no question in my mind that this must be a formative event in the character's history, and waking up would be the perfect time for them to go underground. Focusing on this power for future development is a fine story hook, especially if it leads back to the mysterious Creator figure – my first instinct is Mister Sinister, but it could be any number of other Marvel masters of biology. Possible culprits include Sinister's sometimes-rival The High Evolutionary, the suspiciously Krang-like Arnim Zola, Doctor Doom, the Inhuman Maximus, maybe even Dark Beast.

I know Zola doesn't look like this nowadays, but I wasn't kidding about the Krang thing.

Beast's attempt to head off the extinction of mutantkind during the Messiah Complex storyline involved a number of these suspects, including the substantially evil but nonetheless interesting Dark Beast. There's every reason to believe that these evil geniuses conducted their own experiments circa M-Day, and mechanisms that don't rely on the X-gene, like the Terrigen Mists, would definitely have been on the table. But not every supervillain can get their hands on a Terrigen Crystal, and who could resist the urge to succeed in a way that no one has before?

So let's consider this character the heretofore unknown product of a "gentleman's wager" made sometime after M-Day between Sinister and the High Evolutionary, both of whom have powers derived from non-X-gene sources. (Even though Sinister was granted his powers by Apocalypse, he's still not a mutant per se.) Sinister created her somewhat in his own image, but his modeling of Apocalypse's genetic manipulation techniques seemed to nullify, rather than augment, his altered genetic code. The resulting being, code-named Annalis – for such an achievement would be remembered for centuries to come – proved at exhaustive length to be a stock-standard human being. Humbled by his failure in the first round of the competition, Sinister allowed the High Evolutionary to take Annalis into custody. But being as proud as his rival, the Evolutionary simply exiled her to the world of Counter-Earth, presumably to suffer under the rule of his anthropomorphic New Men.

There, she found her way into the resistance movement of the so-called Low Evolutionary, the leader of Counter-Earth's unpowered humans. As a matter of survival, she learned to fight, and fight well, thus her high Fighting score. Her mind, already hardened by Sinister's experimentation, was further tested during the long and ultimately fruitless war.

At long last, the resistance came to the conclusion that their only real option was escape. Given that Counter-Earth was originally set by the High Evolutionary only slightly out of "dimensional synch" with Earth-616, it stands to reason that a device could be built to bridge that gap. She went through during a particularly vicious attack, but the transition killed her...

...catalyzing her powers and proving Sinister's genius. After her arrival, however, she spent several years in a S.H.I.E.L.D. morgue for dimensional anomalies, her Self-Revival ability restricted by a standard stasis field. Eventually transferred to a second-, and then third-tier facility, she finally made her escape after a good seven years of imprisonment. Intermittently conscious during her regeneration, she awoke with a working knowledge of each of her abilities – and escape, while immensely satisfying, did not prove difficult.

Turns out that the asterisk means that Self-Revival counts as two powers as far as limitations go. I can sacrifice two CS of Resources to get an extra power, so my total would go up to 9/10, and Annalis' Resources will fall from Typical (5) to Feeble (2). Sounds fine to me.

Of all of her abilities, Armor Skin is really the only one that sets off medical scanners. Thankfully, for -2CS, I can opt to have it only activate on command. That will make it Good (8) rank. I also need to roll for what sort of skin it is. 38 yields Rigid Plates – like chitin or an armadillo's shell. Chitin sounds great, actually. Body Resistance (at Remarkable [26]), which is simply unusually damage-resistant skin, should stack with that. So with both on, all attacks will be reduced by 34 (8+26) points. Neat.

As mentioned earlier, its stands to reason that all of Annalis' external powers are of a kind.

True Flight at Remarkable (26) will let her move at a maximum of 90 mph through water (though she's not in any way adapted for that), 225 mph through the air, and 4000 mph in space (which she is likewise not adapted to do). Her low Agility will mean that fine maneuvering will be difficult, since turning, pulling out of a dive, and other such moves require an Agility FEAT.

Gravity Manipulation does allow for levitation, though, so perhaps deceleration could be folded into that somehow. Most flyers can cut their movement speed in half each round, so I'd need more than that. Food for thought. With a level of Remarkable (26) on Range Column B, it will work at up to 1 mile.

Telekinesis can move objects at up to Incredible on Range Column A, which is 11 areas... each of which is apparently a square 44 yards on a side. Interesting value, that.

Kinetic Bolt is even noted in the rules to be either a variant of Kinetic Control or Telekinesis. At Amazing (46) on Range Column A, Annalis will have 20 areas to work with. It will have the equivalent impact of... hmmm... steel, granite, or gemstones. Strangely enough, that's one rank up from Vibranium -- but Cap's shield is ranked far higher, so I guess that only applies to generic Vibranium.

It's at this point I realize where the urge to get a little more granular with powers comes from. "Because this power's score is high, it's good, and also good" is simple, but it's not always as satisfying as "this power's score is high, and this is how it's strong". Perhaps this will gird me for future supering.

Vocal Control at Remarkable (26) is the only real outlier in this power set, but it's flavorful. As long as she could reasonably make a given noise, a green FEAT will be 100% accurate. (I hasten to add that convincing mimics and successful impersonators are not precisely the same thing.) Higher FEATs will result in more exotic noises. It can also mimic Sonic Powers at -1CS, so... Excellent (16). I would house-rule that these would count as Stunts, and therefore require a Red FEAT the first time, Yellow FEATs the next two times, and Green until ten successes are accumulated.

Talents! Back to the Advanced Player's Book for this one. A humbler set of tables, but still meaty. Only 2 to roll this time!

Roll	Talent Category	Roll	Talent
55	Professional Skills	6	Engineering
26	Fighting Skills	5	Martial Arts E

Engineering gives Annalis +1 CS on any checks involving building things, including Resource feasibility checks. Let's say she discovered a knack for field engineering during the resistance on Counter-Earth.

Martial Arts E is simple as can be, granting +1 initiative in unarmed combat. Neat.

Contacts, for reasons I don't quite understand, don't merit a random table, though they do have a fine list thereof. Aaaand now it's a set of tables. The organization doesn't really make any sense, but that's an artifact of the source material.

Professional	1– 3
Scientific	4– 7
Political	8– 9
Mystic	10
	Professional		Scientific
1	Medicine	1–3	Chemistry
2	Law / Law-Enforcement	3–4	Biology
3	Military	5–6	Geology
4	Business World	7	Physics
5	Journalism	8	Computers
6	Crime	9	Electronics
7	Engineering	10	Artist/Performer
8	Psychiatry
9	Detective/Espionage		Mystic
10	Hero Group	1– 4	Religion
		5– 7	Occult Lore
	Political	9– 10	Mythology
1–3	Local
4–5	State
6–7	National
8	Other National
9	International
10	Planetary

Rolling 2 d10s for my Contact, I get 6 and 10, yielding an Artist/Performer. In a fit of laziness, I'm going to say it's Dazzler. Is Dazzler alive? Apparently she is. This will provide ample opportunity for Annalis to learn about some Vocal Control stunts on the job, as well as introduce her to the larger Marvel universe before Sinister comes after her.

Name: The Avenging Annalis

Hero's Identity: Anna Lash (secret and assumed; she hasn't lived on Earth for long)

Age (apparent): 24

Age (chronological): 10

Primary Abilities

	Roll	Rank	Score
Fighting	53	Excellent	16
Agility	26	Typical	5
Strength	23	Good	8
Endurance	20	Typical	5
Reason	16	Typical	5
Intuition	28	Good	8
Psyche	76	Remarkable	26

Secondary Abilities

Health: F+A+S+E = 34

Karma: R+I+P = 39.

Resources: Feeble (2)

Popularity: Typical (5)

Special Abilities 

Powers:

Gravity-Based

True Flight – Remarkable (26)

Gravity Manipulation – Remarkable (26)

Telekinesis – Incredible (36)

Kinetic Bolt – Amazing (46)

Physiological

Self-Revival – Feeble (2)

Armor Skin – Good (8)

Body Resistance – Remarkable (26)

Vocal Control – Remarkable (26)

Weakness

Elemental Allergy to Platinum – though this might be too common, it's really up to the GM to be cruel in a narratively edifying way.

Power Negation for for 1 to 100 turns after contact ends

Talents

Engineering
Martial Arts E – +1 CS in unarmed combat

Contacts

Dazzler

And there she goes.

So what did I learn here?

• Fate can be compelling. Although it's just as likely I could have rolled up a centaur with a vague ability to communicate with vermin – modern supers games do make more of an effort to balance characters than making certain powers take up two slots – sometimes being subject to the whims of random happenstance can be fun. If there were more choices to make along the way, the resulting character would have been even more mine.
• Context is powerful. Although creating a character concept from whole cloth is a time-tested and entirely valid practice, setting information can help guide and inspire character creation. Games that support collaborative character (and campaign) creation give the benefits of context without requiring encyclopedic work on the GM's part.
• LICEcap is a spectacularly useful way to capture GIFs from the desktop.