Probably not relevant anymore, but maybe some desperate limesurvey user will read this and rejoice:
Create a Question (myQuestion) of Type Equation. Set the Question Text to
This will assign a random value between 1 and 4 to myQuestion, if it has not been previously assigned.
Create a Question (myQuestion) of Type Equation. Set the Question Text to
{if( is_empty(myQuestion), rand(1,4), myQuestion )}
This will assign a random value between 1 and 4 to myQuestion, if it has not been previously assigned.