ProtagonismAsARandomEncounter
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David J Prokopetz:
I watched The Protector last night, and I was reminded of a theme that's quite popular in action movies: the random hero.
Essentially, the heroes of these movies come out of nowhere, with no backstory that can't summarised in a couple of sentences, and they oppose the villain for reasons only tangentially related to that villain's goals. Add to that the sheer improbability of many heroic character concepts, and the villain may as well have rolled him up on a random encounter table.
That got me to thinking:
In a hypothetical roleplaying game where the PCs are playing a villainous mastermind and his/her chief henchman, what would the "Hero, Primary" random encounter table look like? :D
Hero, Primary random encounter table
01 An angry inner-city cop who just happens to be an ex-Marine. Motivation (1d6): Your henchmen killed his wife (1-2)/brother (3-4)/partner(5-6).
02 One of the menial employees you just acquired not only instinctively understands that there is something evil about your overall plan but happens to be an ex-military-officer highly trained in infiltration and martial arts. He also cooks.
03 A pesky kid who doesn't like you because you demolished his 'hood.
04 Tough As Nails mother who wants to protect her children.
05 A man from the future who needs to kill you to (1d6) Stop your evil empire while it's small (1)/Save his father, who is still a child, from being corrupted by your evil organization (2-3)/Rescue the last Humpback Whale from your captivity so to save earth in the future from the devestations of an alien probe (4-6)
06. The Crow. You're screwed.
07 An attractive college girl who doesn't drink, smoke or sleep around. (double damage to non-human PCs).
08 A young child who through his latent psychic powers/seemingly impossible mastery of mathematics has uncovered your secret plan in its entirety. He is being protected by an ex-cop who has a soft spot for kids and doesn't know when he's beaten.
09 An average salaryman who you just pushed too far.
10 The key to destroying you somehow fell into wrong hands.
11 A social outcast from a race of dimunitive creatures that's lucked upon the one thing that can stop you, and has decided to attempt to use it due to his strong heart, and a general lack of anything tying him down.
12 A high school student exhibits the same powers you have, but nowhere near as strong.
13 Your son/daughter/clone.
14 A one night stand you forgot about but who really is a renegade stripper ninja who thought she had found the love of her life, but now realizes that you are a very bad man.
15 A fallen angel, possibly Lucifer himself, tries to stop you to redeem himself. (Twist: God or some of his angels wants you to start Armagedon.)
16 A sleeper agent from the cold war, now an old man or woman, wakes up.
17 A retired assassin, now sworn to pacificism, decides you must be stopped.
18 A journalist whose big break will come from exposing your evil plot.
19 Your all-of-a-sudden ex-lackey who decides he's had enough of killing children (1)/defenseless bystanders (2-3)/some nice bloke (or chick) he's supposed to kill but instead forms a relationship with (either plutonic or romantic, depending on hotness and gender) (4-6).
20. You actually have multiple personalities and are destroying your own work.
Contributors
David J Prokopetz -- It was his idea.
Craig Oxbrow
beachnik
Squid
damion4242
Matt David T.
David R
RobertEdwards
Alik
Kintara
