Why I Embrace Random Character Creation in TTRPGs

The Adventures Of Superhero Girl by Faith Erin Hicks

"I didn't pick my superpowers, they picked me"

- Superhero Girl

Careers have been made in the comic book industry by being able to dream up new and imaginative superheroes and villains, yet "point-build" roleplaying games expect players to do this - sometimes at a moment's notice - right there at the games table.

In this article about my general preference for random character generation, I have leaned into superhero RPGs for the most part as this is where I have largely encountered this issue.

The out-the-door epic scale of some comic book heroes, compared to the street-level 'normality' of others, also helps make my point about emulating genres, even if in an exaggerated manner. 

Sometimes a player will arrive with a preconceived idea for a character, but more often than not - especially if, for example, the players are not totally au fait with the superheroic oeuvre - there's be a lot of umming, ahhing and staring off into space before he or she cranks out a thinly veiled clone of an established, popular character.

This mental constipation can also lead to further frustration and ultimately taint a player's opinion of your campaign before the first adventure has even begun.

And this, for me, is what makes Villains & Vigilantes' random superpower generation system so wonderfully appealing.

Anyone can pick up their dice and within 20 minutes to half-an-hour have the outline of a unique character, ready to play.

It's quick and easy, but there also remains an element of choice - so the experience doesn't go to the other extreme and the player feels totally at the mercy of the gods of fate.

Under normal circumstances, that is playing the "rules as written" in the 2nd Edition Villains & Vigilantes of my youth, each player character gets 1d6+2 rolls across his choice of the five tables of superpowers (powers; devices; magic/psionic items; skills; and magic/psionics) plus a random drawback from the "weaknesses" table.

The player must discard one of his rolled powers and if he wants to drop his "weakness" he has to scrub off a second of his random powers.

Now, of course, the observant among you would have realised this can mean a character ending up with only a single superpower.

Back when we were running our superheroes as a play-by-(snail)-mail game at the dawn of time, we addressed this very issue in our introductory material:

"Whenever someone rolls up a character and then moans: 'But I only got one power! What use is flight?' ... stop and think. If you woke up one morning and suddenly found you could fly would your first reaction be: 'ohhh, boring, wish I could fire blasts of super-heated energy and fry people's skin off..."

You just have to look at classic TV shows like Heroes, No Ordinary Family or Misfits or the original X-Men comics to know that people with a single superpower can thrive in a superhero milieu if enough effort is invested by the writer/player into developing the character's personality and backstory.

On the other hand, game-wise, this striving for realism is often more an ideal than a true reflection of the game as it relies on the other players not having rolled up Superman, Dr Manhattan, or Captain Marvel.

Comic book superteams usually represent a broad spectrum of power levels, but there has to be some degree of compatibility and synergy between team members in a game - no one wants to be the Wonder Twin stuck back at Titans Tower, while the team are off facing Deathstroke or Brother Blood.

This, again, ultimately comes down to discussions between the player and the Gamesmaster.

If he genuinely believes his character is unplayable (or unable to gel comfortably with characters generated by the other players), it's quick and easy to start the random generation process again - rather than endure the mathematically complex juggling act of point balancing, min-maxing and optimisation that goes into "points-buy" character builds.

I've played several different supers systems over the years, but the most memorable characters I - and my peers - have created at the table have all come via the random generation process (e.g. my Acrobatic Flea, Steve's Silverfist, Pete's Hurricane & Brutus, and characters from other V&V games, such as Dave's Nightgaunt and Mark's Copernicus).

I guess my issue is with the idea of "wholly designed characters", and this pretty much applies to any genre, probably because I was introduced to gaming via "old school" Dungeons & Dragons and Traveller.

Both of these systems employed - very different, but no less inspirational - random character generations methods.

I really admire the random "story path" method of character creation in Traveller (yes, your character used to be able to die in the process and, no, they no longer can), but also the fantastic 'group' method of random character creation in Beyond The Wall & Other Adventures from Flatland Games.

This clever folk fantasy system sees your party creating its home village as part of the character creation process, as well as weaving meaningful connections between all the player-characters which, in turn, influence their starting statistics and abilities.

Meanwhile, I have friends who draw Tarot cards to stimulate ideas for their character's personalities and I don't see random generation as being any different.

When it comes to superheroes, all the major teams (such as Justice League, Avengers, Watchmen, Teen Titans etc) feature characters with a broad range of power 'levels' and abilities.

It's only certain structured teams - such as the Fantastic Four - who could be seen to have roughly equivalent power levels.

But the FF are the exception, not the rule, as this "style" of team also tends to share a common origin story as well.

Generally I find that point-buy systems, without a degree of randomness, don't gel for my tastes and style of gaming.

The whole idea of artificial balance is ridiculous and fails to simulate either 'real life' (whatever that means to you, of course, in the context of sci-fi, fantasy, and superpowers) or the comics, novels, films, TV shows etc that your games seek to emulate.

Let's strip this down to ridiculous basics: Players A and B each design 100 point characters; Player A just uses the 100 points and takes no weaknesses, but if Player B takes "heavy smoker" for a bonus of 10 points or "terminal illness" for 50 points, why should Player B's character then have more powers and abilities than Player A? It makes no sense.

I'm not saying character's shouldn't have weaknesses (in fact, as with V&V, I like the risk of random character weaknesses), I'm saying I don't see how the 'reward' for taking them in a point-buy system reflects any degree of verisimilitude.

[Footnote: I strongly recommend you check the highly entertaining Adventures Of Superhero Girl, from 2013, by the talented Faith Erin Hicks, for a wry take on the idea of superheroes with real lives. I can't praise it highly enough - just read and enjoy!].

Shazam! (2019)

I'm old enough to remember when Shazam was called Captain Marvel and Marvel's Captain Marvel was Ms. Marvel.

Which is perhaps why I had some issues with Shazam! (the movie), even though it is essentially Big retold with superpowers. And everyone loves Big, right?

Even the makers of Shazam!... who acknowledge this obvious influence with a little nod from a giant musical keyboard scene.

Shazam! essentially tells two distinct stories: one about a troubled foster child, Billy Batson (Asher Angel) doing everything he can to find his birth mother.

So driven is he that he runs away from multiple foster homes, and keeps people at arm's length emotionally.

But parallel to this earnest tale of a young man's quest to find a family, we also have the story of Billy Batson being chosen by an otherworldy wizard - also called Shazam (Guardians Of The Galaxy's Djimon Hounsou) to become a 'magical champion'... called Shazam.

Whenever Billy says his name, he transforms into his superhero identity (Chuck's Zachary Levi), gaining the powers of superstrength, invulnerability, flight, speed, and lightning blasts... while retaining Billy's mind.

The problem is though - having removed any mention of Captain Marvel from the equation - Billy can't tell anyone his superhero codename because he will then transform into his alternate identity.

This becomes a running gag throughout the movie, as his 'sidekick', foster brother Freddie Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer) - possibly my favourite supporting character in any modern superhero flick - keeps offering unsuitable suggestions.

I realise you could argue this isn't a big deal, but it is if you look at this through the spectrum of comic books - the source material for these movies - where the "superhero identity" is a major element of a hero's "brand".

Shazam! draws heavily from Geoff Johns' New 52 iteration of the character, which reimagined the original wholesome Billy Batson (who you could understand being considered "pure of heart" by a supernatural wizard and deserving of these great powers) into a bit of a brat.

And the thing is, for at least the middle third of the movie, after Billy is given superpowers, he becomes an even bigger brat (as Freddie points out), only really coming into his own once his family is threatened by a similarly-powered individual called Dr Sivana (Mark Strong).

This is, overall, a fun film, which digs deep into the old - and often totally bonkers - Captain Marvel mythology (including the introduction - in the obligatory mid-credits scene - of one of the greatest villains in comics. You can catch a glimpse of him in a very early scene, if you know what you're looking for. I really hope his next live-action appearance can do justice to such a bizarre character).

The central plot - around which the stories of Billy's personal life and superheroic identity revolve - is very linear: bad man gets power, good boy gets power, boy wastes powers, man wants boy's power as well, boy realises how important his powers are, man and boy fight.

Shazam! also falls into that classic old Marvel Cinematic Universe trap of pitting the main character against a dark reflection of himself (Sivana is, here, for all intents and purposes, a 'dark' Shazam, even though we discover later he has limitations that Billy doesn't).

As good as Mark Strong is as the crazed Sivana, this is a bit of a shame given the breadth of exotic and villainous characters the filmmakers had to draw from in the old Captain Marvel comics.

Every so often, when it remembers its Big roots, Shazam! injects some levity into its drama, with Sivana's 'supervillain speech' being a major laugh-out-loud moment.

While it never veers into full Batman v Superman grimdark territory (and their existence is readily - and pleasingly - acknowledged here), there's still an occasionally jarring uncertainty about just how funny this film is allowed to be.

Ultimately, as often happens with comic book movies, it's the potential of what could be done next with the characters and their mythology that turns out to be more inspiring than the actual two-hour film you've just sat through.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed Shazam! - despite all its narrative faults (much of which came from its choice of source material), I just can't wait for the inevitable sequel, especially with the introduction of the extended Marvel family (although we can't call them that).

I always loved the fact that Captain Marvel came with a ready-built team, united by familial bonds.

This is one of the things that makes the character special - and enduring - and I really hope that the sequel (and any future films) build on this, as well as digging deeper into the character's crazy rogues' gallery for its villains.

After the over-the-top excellence (and audience appreciation) of Aquaman, I thought Shazam! would have been the perfect vehicle to ramp up the gonzo stakes even higher.

Hopefully, those delights are still to come...

A Quick History Of The Captains Marvel

From the Marvel Family to Mar-Vell to Carol Danvers, this is the history of the Captain Marvels, exploring the fascinating historical relationship between 2019's two biggest superhero debuts, Captain Marvel (starring Brie Larson) and Shazam! (starring Zachary Levi).

The Echoes of Shazam! by Alex Ross