Web-Based Superhero Generator for Icons Updated

I’ve finally completed the last few mad-libs style backgrounds for my web-based superhero generator.  At last year’s GenCon (2010) I saw the Icons rules and loved them and thought the rules would make a great basis for a random character generator.

I made a lot of progress early, then kept on getting pulled away to other projects.  But now I’ve finished, at least for now.  The last thing I needed to do was finish one of the core/differentiating features of the tool: a mad-libs style background generator.  Each of the eight origins has 3 base backgrounds.  Each of those 24 (8×3) is varied based on whether the character is a hero, villian, or “other.”  Then each of those 72 backgrounds (8x3x3) has at least one fact (the device found, the science experiment that transformed the character, etc.) is varied at least 3 ways.  So there are at least 300 possible backgrounds in this way, and I’d love to add more.

Another cool feature of the tool is the bank of hero names.  Each of the 100 or so Icons powers has at least three possible names.  Further there are a number of generic, not-specific-to-a-power names.  Each time you get to the “Names” step in the process, you see a list of one random possible name for each power plus a generic name.  Pick any using the drop-down list. You can then customize the name by adding “Dr.” or “Captain” or “Mr.” in front along with a number of endings to add after the name.  Or you can ignore it and write in your own name.