Inator Ideas:
The Save a Rainy Day Inator! (Bad)
Two selected National Action slots are pushed off to two turns from now.
The Procrastinator! (Good)
One selected National Action* gets a free Critical Success, but only takes effect three turns from now.
*No write-ins.
If the balance is off, the Procrastinator (Bad) could be randomized, put off further, or more slots could be put off, causing more of a hero shortage on the future turn.
The Innator! (Bad/Neutral/Good?)
Plagued in a supposedly fancy hotel by bedbugs, children, and a troupe of large blond linebackers, Dr. Doofenshmirtz invented the Innator! Will ward away pests with its noxious gases.
For a voted-upon number of turns, Doofania opinion falls and benostriled Heroes lose X Loyalty in exchange for a Y boost to the DC of Martial & Intrigue actions against Doofania and DEI.
It's an X and Y because I'm not sure how to balance this to be situationally useful. 'Voted for number of turns' is to give players some control, make it less boring, but it's trading a resource players like a lot for a resource players don't really care about, from what I can tell. So players will likely just vote for a duration of zero time unless the DC jump is significant, but I'm not sure how significant it needs to be compared to a temporary -5/-10 Loyalty across the board. On the other hand, if we think we're about to be infiltrated or invaded within the next N turns, this could be an excellent Inator.
@Argidoll
Save-a-Rainy-Day-Inator: Generally inators don't have effects that last longer than a turn if we can help it. Obviously this isn't a hard and fast rule, but this is something that doesn't do anything interesting but slow the quest down.
Procrastinator-Inator: Can't use this, too strong. Even if was nerfed, the nature of how it works really just slows down the pace of progression.
Innator: Besides being pretty incoherently written, the degree of trade-off this necessitates would need to be pretty big. A DC increase against infiltration for four fifth's of your hero units' opinion? Calibrating that would be a pain, as indicated by the fact that you didn't do it. That aside, the theming and narrative of it doesn't really line up with the mechanics? An inn is not normally associated with defense against infiltration or more overt hostile actions.
The Toothpaste-Inator
Designed because your parents would force you to use the rotten bratwurst flavored Toothpaste instead of the far superior Doonkleberry one, this Inator changes the flavors of anything it hits into Rotten Bratwurst with a hint of meat. You were going to hit it at the local Pharmacy when Janus pointed out its far better used in the Franchise Wars.
One Random faction in the franchise wars then you its standing in the [Resturants] lowered by one.
The Declog-inator.
Intended as a gift for Goofy after you gave a backstory of your incredibly brief career as a collage Janitor, the Declog-inator was intended to make it so he could push a button and clean all the toilets at once. Bad news is it put all that dirty water into the New Man lab. While Jumba and Janus were able to save the Specimens, it will take a while to get the place sterile enough to continue.
-5 Loyalty on Janus until you finish a speciman, New Man Project on hold until Jumba or Janus does a clean Lab personal.
@Argidoll
The Toothpaste-Inator: something similar is already on the inator table.
Declog-Inator: it's not...bad, but it's very minor, at least at the moment. If/when you reach the point you get the New Man project running, it'd be a real inconvenience. Part of the push with the new version of the inator table is to make bad inators more interesting than a simple penalty. For instance, the inator you rolled this turn, the investor-inator, gives you multiple options of how to solve it. One of them is better than the other by a long shot, but at the very least there are direct options to deal with it as opposed to it being a simple 'sucks to suck' type of thing. Bad inators create problems, may as well make them interesting problems.
Schrodinger-Inator: You've always heard of people rattling on about the cat in the box, but you've decided to go a bit bigger with your quantum experiment, activating this inator right before reviewing the progress reports from the last two months.
When this inator is activated, the turn as a whole is rolled two times, and one of the two sets of rolls must be selected by a vote.
@Argidoll
This one...is good enough to use as is. 50 xp.
@Argidoll
The Someone-Else's-Problem-Inator (Good): Things are starting to get a bit hectic around here, even by your standards; probably best to turn down the heat a bit. A random faction or individual that considers themself your enemy loses all interest in you and transfers their ire to a random other king.
The Someone-Else's-Problem-Inator (Bad): Things are a bit too calm around here for your tastes; time to spice things up! A random faction or individual loses all interest in another king they consider their enemy and transfer their ire toward you.
EDIT: Also, this one from a while back:
The Wanderlustinator (Good): This device fills whoever is hit by it with a powerful need to travel outside their usual bounds. Five heroes, or the maximum allowed on a given quest, on your roster may be assigned to a quest in addition to their national or personal action.
The Wanderlustinator (Bad): This device fills whoever is hit by it with a powerful need to travel outside their usual bounds. Five, or the maximum allowed on a given quest, randomly selected heroes on your roster MUST be assigned to a quest this turn.
The Someone-Else's-Problem-Inator: This isn't necessarily bad in concept, but it falls apart in execution due to how wide reaching it is by nature. It skips way past the scale at which inators are fun and goes right into the 'wrenches the entire quest on its head' scale. We're not doing that again.
The Wanderlustinator: Something similar already exists on the inator table.
@Argidoll
The Go-Away-Inator: You feel a bit vindictive today. Well, nothing a little making something disappear can't satisfy!
You zap something with the Go-Away-Inator and it disappears; if the Inator roll was less than 51, that something belonged to you and induces a QM-decided penalty. Otherwise, the thing belonged to someone else, giving you a QM-decided bonus or an enemy king a QM-decided penalty
The Go-Away-Inator: This is so open-ended we may as well have a blank inator slot. Try to come up with something more specific?
The-Doctor-is-INator: Lately, your therapy sessions with TECHNOR have been taking a lot of work with too little progress. So you came up with a ray that will overcharge his therapy module, turning him into a MAGNA-therapist for two months! Who says therapy has to be a slow and arduous process?
(This turn, every Hero Unit that is willing may take a personal action to get therapy with TECHNOR, as TECHNOR works off his excessive therapist energy. Results of therapy may be improved over baseline)
The-Doctor-is-OUTnator: Lately, your therapy sessions with TECHNOR have been taking too long with too little progress. So you come up with a ray that will overcharge his therapy module, turning him into a MAGNA-therapist for two months! Unfortunately, the charge was too powerful and it fried his therapy module again.
(TECHNOR goes on another Sabbaddtical and cannot do therapy actions for three turns)
The Amnesia-Inator (Reverse mode)! - You... Frankly don't remember building this Inator? Oh, it has a reverse switch, you wonder what that does? *ZAP*
(Doofenshmirtz suddenly remembers his adventures on the Second Dimension, the knowledge of what not to do gives +10 to the next other-dimensional adventure DEI undertakes. If Phineas and Ferb are active units during the turn this inator is activated, the boys will also remember, and there may be consequences.
The Anti-Plagiarism-Inator! - You were just informed that, in addition to one half of your states, Rival Shego stole your thunder! Apparently, a while ago she had one of her henchmen create a device called the "Attitudinator", even though you had the -inator trademarked properly filed in the Mad Scientists' Patents Office! Well, this will show that plagiarizing two-bit hack!
(Reverses the effect of the last known use of the Attitudinator. Electronique busts herself out of prison and becomes a recruitable Hero Unit, may receive a starting Loyalty bonus if recruited)
The-Doctor-is-[IN/OUT]nator: There are a lot of reasons why the answers for these are no.
The Amnesia-Inator (Reverse mode)!: No. The Second Dimension never make an appearance in Doofquest.
The Anti-Plagiarism-Inator!: Inators are not a blank check for you to shove what you want into the story. Pass.
@Argidoll
Face-to-Face inator: The one bad thing about business is that it's tricky to make time for meeting with other businessmen. Let's make that a bit easier.
You can have a meeting with one random king this turn. (This is treated as a free personal action, if you wish to take it)
Summer-inator: You wished for the summer heat to last a bit longer, and you made it happen! A bit too well actually, even the schools let out for summer!
Summer has come early for Doofania! This upcoming turn is treated as if it is summer, and relevant results are affected accordingly. Phineas and Ferb are available for this turn. If rolled during summer, nothing happens.
Blizzard-inator: Winter has come early for Doofania! This upcoming turn is treated as if it is winter, and relevant results are affected accordingly. If Phineas and Ferb would be available this turn, they are not.
If rolled during winter, nothing significant happens.
Gone-Fishing-inator: Your fishing skills may not be up to snuff, but that's why you built this!
You caught a lot of fish. Maybe you found something in the water? (QM decision)
Face-to-Face inator: Something similar already exists on the inator table.
Summer-inator/Blizzard-inator: Something similar already exists on the inator table.
Gone-Fishing-inator: Maybe.
That feels way to powerful for a single inator; having the target restaurant take a malus for that turn would probably be more fitting
As for some of my own:
@Argidoll
Blood-Is Thicker-Inator (Good) - Bonds are important so maybee have them work together; for your next turn, if you have any Hero Units who consider themselves family or part of a group, you can have one of them take an action to assist another and add half of their relevant stat to whatever task they're performing.
Blood-Is Thicker-Inator (Bad) - Bonds are important but it's also important to have space sometimes; if multiple hero units consider themselves part of the same group exist, they cannot be placed on the action/quest next turn.
and also the one I came up with a while back with a link to the not-quite-meme I did:
Some Say-inator (Good) – A number of funny/positive memes get spread on the internet about Doofensmertz and his company. Gain a small boost to Public opinion.
Some Say-inator (Bad) – A number of memes with negative implications get spread on the internet about Doofensmertz and his company. Take a small loss to Public opinion.
Blood-Is Thicker-Inator: It's not terrible but I'm not feeling it. It's sort of arbitrary and contrived? And yes, that is Inators, but it would cheapen things narratively, I think.
@Argidoll
Pick-a-Fight-inator!
No, seriously, pick one. It happens.
(Next turn, through a series of strange coincidences, Doofenshmirtz will end up in a physical confrontation with a fellow King. The circumstances may be anything from a friendly spar to a publicity stunt to an actual no-holds-barred grudge match! On a good roll, the thread picks the King though vote. On a bad roll, the QMs pick the King and announce it to the thread! Either way, forewarned is forearmed, so Doofenshmirtz gets a +10 on combat rolls from the new forearm guards he bought ahead of time)
Pick-a-Fight-inator!: Something similar already exists on the inator table.
The corporate shakeup inator: Doof was curious how the company might run differently if he assigned different people to the council, but doesn't want to go through the unpleasant sounding process of firing and replacing everyone just to find out. So he built this instead. This turn only, the current members of the council just sort of forget about their important positions and allow themselves to be assigned to National actions instead. Meanwhile, six other random heroes sort of wander in and take their spots.
@Argidoll
The corporate shakeup inator: This is interesting. It's really bad (for you guys), but if we tweak it a bit to make it just a little less game destroying it could be fun! 50 xp.
The Drill-inator: Oh, you were wondering where this had gone! It had been half-destroyed after that debacle at Mount Rushmore with the chasing lava and Perry the Platypus (ah, memories), but you had fixed it because you never knew when you would need a giant drill. Good thing you now have a bunch of uses for this thing!
All infiltration and sabotage actions take a permanent +5 to the roll due to having the means to dig through the ground and either infiltrate secure facilities from below and digging a lot of holes to make the foundations of a building unstable.
@Argidoll
The Drill-inator: Fluff wise we could get some mileage out of this, but don't expect the mechanics to be the same if it shows up.
Admittedly, this one is a bit of a mindfuck:
The Work-Through-The-Pain-Inator!
For the next three turns, every time a National Action fails, Doofenshmirtz receives a temporary +1 bonus to the relevant stat (+2 in case of crit fail). If the total bonus reaches +10 before three turns run out, the temporary bonuses become permanent instead.
The Work-Through-The-Pain-Inator!: Not a bad concept, way too strong.
Inator:
Oh wow! It's your very first Inator, the one you entered in the science fair! To think it was sitting around in your basement all these years! You'll activate it, for old times' sake.
The next time you get a critical success on a National Action, another king you dislike gets a critical success on creating a baking soda volcano, regardless of whether they took any baking soda volcano related actions. Doof gets -1 to his personal actions for one turn as a result. If you take at least one National Action contrary to that king's interests on that same turn, you get +1 to one of those rolls.
Inator: This is actually the wrong name, it wasn't a baking soda volcano maker, the Inator was a giant laser. That aside, a baking soda volcano flavoured inator that encourages causing problems? Ideas ideas...
Shuffle-inator: All Hero units are randomly assigned to a action next turn. If a hero unit is already doing the action, the hero with the highest relevant stat is added in full, while additional heroes have halve the relevant stat added to the roll. Max of three units per action.
Bit complicated and not sure I have explained the idea properly.
Shuffle-inator: This is another one of those 'fun in theory' ones. It's a lot of fiddly busywork for us and is basically impossible for you guys to plan for. Gonna pass for now.
@Argidoll
The Stop-Coming-Up-With-Inators-Inator!: You need. A break.
Next turn, you cannot make an -inator.
If only.
Identity Theft-Inator (Good): For the next turn, you have access to the current Liquid Funds of a random King that you will spend on any National Action that requires it.
Identity Theft-Inator (Bad): For the next turn, a random King will have access to your Funds and can spend it on their National Actions as they like.
Identity Theft-Inator: Free Money vs Lose All Your Money. It's very straightforward, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but there isn't really a strong vision behind this one, the mechanics don't really line up fully with the concept.
The How-Hard-Can-It-Be Inator!
After hearing your councilors complaints for the past couple of weeks, you've created this incredolous inator to force each other to live through each others shoes!
Ok its a projector basically telling them your doing their jobs for the next 2 months and they get to do all the important snooping you normally do, but really who's counting?
Halve Doofenshmirtz stats next turn while your councilors get to use their full stats. Also lose any Councilor traits and use Doofs speciality for Learning critfails.
@Argidoll
The How-Hard-Can-It-Be Inator!: This is a genuinely interesting idea. It's definitely pretty good, but not necessarily too good? It'd need some specific fluff revision but it could make for an interesting turn, especially if for that turn Doof is sidelined narratively...50 xp.
The Superior-Intellect-Inizor!
Apparently, somebody let Rodney into the prison Rec Center by mistake! Lovemuffin escapes containment and goes underground, for now.
No.
The crit-inator
turn one random passing roll into a crit roll while turning a failed roll into a critical fail roll on the next turn
No.
Thank you all for your time and suggestions.
