Randomizing Boons and Flaws

Honor+Intrigue, like a number of RPGs, includes a game mechanic that incorporates advantages and disadvantages. In H+I these are called boons and flaws. Heroes (the PCs) and villains (their major antagonists) start the game with one boon. They can take on flaws, which can be used to gain additional boons up to a total of three boons. They may take additional flaws, but that earns no additional boons. Retainers, who are the lieutenants and companions of the villains and the heroes, may also have boons and flaws. Each boon requires, or costs, one flaw and retainers may have up to two boons. Again there is no limit on flaws, but no more than two boons are gained.

After play begins, heroes may purchase additional boons with advancement points, which are what H+I calls its experience points. GMs may give villains or retainers additional boons if that suits the character.

For NPCs based on real people I select attributes, including boons and flaws, that represent, insofar as I can determine it, what is known about the historical person. But sometimes, little is known to me or even to experts in that time and place. Other times the NPC is fictional rather than historic. Often I have an idea which advantages and disadvantages the NPC should have, but sometimes I don’t. For those occasions, I created a simple table with three columns.

d100	Boons	Flaws
1	Artistic	Absent Minded
2	Attractive	All Thumbs
3	Beast Friend	Active Duty
4	Beguiling	Arrogant
5	Blessed	Braggart
6	Born Athlete	Can’t Lie
7	Born in the Saddle	City Dweller
8	Born Sailor	Combat Paralysis
9	Carouser	Country Bumpkin
10	Crack Shot	Cowardly
11	Daredevil	Cursed
12	Destiny	Delicate
13	Devil’s Own Luck	Delusions of
14	Dueling Style	Grandeur
15	Excellent Laboratory	Distinctive
16	Favored by Fortune	Appearance
17	Fearsome Looks	Double Life
18	Fencing School	Distrust of Magic*
19	Friends in High	Drunkard
20	Places	Evil Twin
21	Friends in Low Places	Feels the Cold
22	Gifted	Feels the Heat
23	Good Etiquette	Greed
24	Great Wealth	Hopeless Romantic
25	Hard-to-Kill	Hot-Headed
26	Healing Touch	Hunted
27	Herculean Might	Hapless Friend/
28	Amazonian Strength	Loved One
29	Jack of All Trades	Illiterate
30	Keen Eyesight	Incompetent Servant
31	Keen Hearing	Infamous
32	Keen Scent	Landlubber
33	Knighted	Lumbering
34	Laugh in the Face	Lust
35	of Danger	Missing Limb
36	Legacy	Non-Combatant
37	Left-Handed Training	Obligation
38	Learned	Obsession
39	Linguist	Phobia
40	Maneuver Mastery	Poor Hearing
41	Master of Disguise	Poor Recovery
42	Master Tracker	Poor Vision
43	Magic Resistance*	Primitive
44	Magnificent	Soft-Hearted
45	Damascus Steel	Spendthrift
46	Hidden Weapon	Superstitious
47	Perfectly Balanced	Taciturn
48	Trick Sword	Terrible Secret
49	Lucky Sword	Tragic Fate
50	Create Your Own Arms/Armor	Trusting
51	Maguffin	Uncultured
52	Membership Military Order	Unsettling
53	Military Order	Untrustworthy
54	Night Sight	Vice
55	Nose for Magic*	Young
56	Pirate Killer	Zealot
57	Poison Resistance	—
58	Poisoner	—
59	Quick Recovery	—
60	Savant	—
61	Speed	—
62	Ship	—
63	Silver Tongue	—
64	Sneaky	—
65	Seeking	—
66	Special Thieves Tools	—
67	Strength Feat	—
68	Trusted Companion	—
69	Thick-Skinned	—
70	Weapon of Choice	—
71	Visions/Voices	—

 

The first column is a number. The second and third columns contain the all the boons and flaws from H+I.

To randomly determine a boon or a flaw, roll a d100 (or a d80 or d60) and reroll for missing boons and flaws. Or one can use a randomizer program. I created a simple randomizer in MS-Excel which I use to generate ideas for random boons and flaws for my NPCs. I designed it to give me five random boons and five random flaws; I then select an appropriate and interesting set from the five that were rolled. I’ve included a copy of my Excel spreadsheet as a download.

You can add additional boons and flaws. If you do, update the number of boons and flaws in cells G2 and H2 and the formulas will include your new boons and flaws in the formula. If you are familiar with Excel you can modify the file to create similar lists of your own.

Note: to get a new list of random boons and flaws you need to cause the spreadsheet to recalculate. You can do this by pressing the F9 key at the top of your keyboard.

H+I isn’t intended to randomly determine boons or flaws for the player characters. In fact you may get some inconsistent or wacky results. That’s one reason I generate five boons and flaws then select one or more for the NPCs. But if your group wants to randomly determine boons and flaws for their PCs you can use the file for that too.

Get the generator for Random Boons and Flaws. You will need Microsoft Excel to run the generator.