Random Tables You Didn't Know You Needed (superheroes)

Superheroes

I have lately been suffering from a creative slump, so I of course decided that what the world needs is more random tables...so that people in a creative slump can randomly roll for an idea that they can then refuse in favour of something else they just thought up. (Well, that's how it works for me.)

My goal is eventually to provide 36 options on each of these tables (2d6 worth) but in no way will I be providing that many now. (See above re: "creative slump".) But I'll try to provide at least six for each one.

Where an h is specified, it means the number of heroes, so if the gang is 2h and there are three heroes, it's a gang of six.

Look, you can come up with "Mugging" yourself. Here are some others.

Random street crimes

1D6	The Crime, Of Course
1	Guys damaging a building (extortion or hate crime against occupants) with h+3 crooks
2	Gang fight (because group B is infringing on group A's territory) with 2h each side.
3	Getaway vehicle from crime, with h+1 guys in vehicle
4	Robbery, man, with h+1 bad guys and h victims
5	Train robbery: 4 folks moving through a commuter train or subway robbing people and with someone waiting to get them away before next stop.
6	A person threatening to take own life, either as a distressed person or as a suicide bomber.

Sometimes a hero has to make a choice between hero-ing and personal obligations like these; this assumes, of course, that the hero has a secret identity.

Personal Obligations

1D6	Obligation
1	My beloved fill-in-the-blank is sick and I must be by the bedside!
2	Birthday or anniversary party. Big deal for them, so don't miss it.
3	Interview (job? journalistic subject?) or sitting for an exam, and it's been postponed once already.
4	My beloved has a doctor's appointment and I promised to be there in case it's bad news.
5	First date. Gonna blow them off because Dr. Demolition is blowing up the neighbourhood?
6	Pet needs to go to vet, stat.

And remember, at any time the player can decide that the personal obligation takes precedence: prepare for that.

Of course, you might want a random table of random things, as Dan Swanson has suggested:

Random Random Stuff

D6, D6	Random Stuff
1, 1	A cow.
1, 2	An old computer
1, 3	True love, available in a bottle.
1, 4	A portable trailer full of paper tapes recording the weather patterns of the 1960s.
1, 5	A paper bag containing a dog turd, suitable for putting on a porch and setting on fire.
1, 6	Magical amulet that looks like a snazzy brooch.
2, 1	A disabled gun.
2, 2	An old catalog.
2, 3	Leftover gear from a supervillain.
2, 4	An old digital recording medium (cassette tape, wire reel, record, wax cylinder, etc.) that might be useless or it might have valuable secrets on it.
2, 5	Designer clothes that are out of fashion.
2, 6	How-To book.
3, 1	Alien weapon.
3, 2	Crossword puzzle.
3, 3	Protest placard.
3, 4	$100,000 in large bills in a woman's clutch purse but no identification.
3, 5	Lyrics to a sea shanty but altered to contain a clue.
3, 6	Roller blades.
4-5, 1	Uniform of a decorated armed forces officer.
4-5, 2	Black book containing a stunning number of celebrity and politician numbers.
4-5, 3	A shard from a glass knife that killed a witch.
4-5, 4	Hair clippings from a famous super, during the time they had lost their powers.
4-5, 5	Lost flip phone.
4-5, 6	Musical instrument once played by a celebrity (i.e., glockenspiel once played by Buddy Holly; sawblade used as a cymbal by Gene Krupa)
6, 1	Ring from a candy box that grants the wearer great strength but also great rage.
6, 2	Page from an old bible with family records, written in some kind of red-brown ink (or possibly blod).
6, 3	Stack of Post-It™ notes.
6, 4	Box of chocolates.
6, 5	Replica of a particular medieval weapon.
6, 6	Pencil once owned by a celebrity.

And ICONS needs benchmarks for area and probably volume.

Level	Distance	Area	Volume
1	A couple of yards	A quilt for a king-size bed.	An elevator.
2	Across a street.	A city block.	A two-storey suburban home or hot air balloon.
3	A city block.	Several city blocks.	A small office building or a blimp.
4	Several city blocks.	Square mile.	A stadium.
5	Ten to twenty city blocks.	Area of a small city.	City block of skyscrapers.
6	A few miles.	A county or a small state or province.	Lake Erie.
7	Tens of miles.	A North American state or province (but not one of the really small ones).	Lake Superior.
8	Hundreds of miles.	A country.	Atlantic Ocean.
9	Thousands of miles.	A continent.	Volume of the moon.
10	Virtually anywhere.	Surface of the earth.	Volume of the earth.

Or maybe the personal life; roll 1D3 for the number of pets:

Pets

2D6	Pet
2	Rare and normally illegal (panther, orangutan, genetically engineered lynx, etc.)
3	Farm animal (pig, chicken, goat, sheep)
4	Rare tropical fish
5	Rabbit
6	Dog(s)
7	Cat
8	Rodent (mouse, rat, gerbil, guinea pig, capybara, etc.)
9	Bird (budgie, parakeet, canary, parrot, mynah, etc.)
10	Reptile (chameleon, bearded dragon, boa constrictor, turtle, etc.)
11	Spider or insect
12	Person who pretends to be a pet because owner is allergic.