Monday, March 30, 2015

Agents of A.G.E.N.T.S.

When I've got a big thing to do, it helps me to do a completely useless small thing.

I'm changing my job, employer, and city in the next few weeks. After the longest stable period of my life, I should add. Lots of big things to do. Naturally, this seemed like a good time to make a Random Agent Generator for some kind of spy-supernatural-superscience RPG. Which, in turn, led me to brainstorming some basic fixes to Hero. The relentless pull of All The Big Things will probably turn that brainstorm into brain-reality soon enough.

These are the bones of the agent generator. I've gone ahead and worked it out in enough detail to make 100-point Hero System characters, which may be posted some other day. Everything is rolled on a d12; you make 5 rolls total.

1: WHAT'S YOUR STRONG SUIT?
  • 1 - 4 = Research
  • 5 - 8 = Fieldwork
  • 9 - 12 = Confrontation
2: WHAT DID YOU DO BEFORE THIS?
  • 1 - 2 = Military
  • 3 - 4 = Public Safety
  • 5 - 6 = Intrigue
  • 7 - 8 = Deep Scholarship
  •      9 = Action Science
  •     10 = Monster Hunting
  •     11 = Crime
  •     12 = Something Boring
3: HOW DO YOU FIGHT?
  • 1 - 2 = Barehanded
  •      3 = Melee Weapons
  • 4 - 6 = Sneaky Guns
  • 7 - 8 = Scary Guns
  •      9 = Weird Weapons
  •    10 = Powers
  • 11 - 12 = Creative Non-Linear Problem Solving
4: AND WHEN VIOLENCE ISN'T THE ANSWER?
  • 1 - 2 = Sneaking
  • 3 - 4 = Talking
  • 5 - 6 = Cunning and Trickery
  • 7 - 8 =  Big Ideas
  • 9 - 10 = Dumb Luck
  •       11 = Powers
  •       12 = Violence Is Really All I've Got
5: WHAT INTERESTS YOU NOW?
  • 1 - 2 = Normal Science
  • 3 - 4 = Human Studies
  • 5 - 6 = Physical Training
  •      7 = Weird Science
  •      8 = The Supernatural
  •      9 = Tinkering and Gadgets
  •     10 = Forgotten Things
  •     11 = Politics, Power, and Money
  •     12 = Living To See Tomorrow