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Time Stop


GCMorris

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If it's really just slowing time then you could start from EDM and re-engineer from there.  That's essentially how Enter the Speedforcezone was done in Ultimate Speedster and later reprinted in the APG.  EDM is also used for Enter the Microverse.  The key thing about using EDM is that like Desol, the character will need to put an Advantage on whatever abilities they want to use to affect characters in the 'regular' world while they are in the EDM one.  Otherwise it's just a really expensive Dive For Cover on steroids.

 

HM

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I think that this comes back to the usual question. What is it that the player wants to accomplish when using the power? You have provided a special effect but you need to explore it. There have been one or two ideas thrown out there. Ultimately you might suggest a power pool, allowing a huge range of effects that can be explained by slowing/stopping time in an area...

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I'd like to note that Stopping Time as it works in D&D/Pathfinder is a very dangerous effect in HERO where actions and powers are mostly unrestricted.  Even if you limit it to non-attacks, a couple of phases of unhindered actions is very potent in HERO, more so than D&D/Pathfinder.

 

Example:  A Troll is about to attack Whackum, the fighter.  Whackum and the Troll have been trading blows pretty badly and the Troll just started a haymaker.  Wacko the mage casts timestop, 1 turn in a game with an average of 3-4 Speed.  Wacko moves the fighter to behind the Troll.  Wacko aids PD and STUN to Whackum and himself.  Wacko summons creatures who take the time stop to get over summoning stunning.  Afterwards he takes a phase to recover if possible, avoid possible DCV penalties and chances to ruin the recovery.

 

In D&D/Pathfinder, Wizards/Sorcerers are basically the only ones who can timestop and while hey can buff they usually can't heal unless they use a high level spell (7th or higher) which is restricted in the number of uses in a day.  In HERO, so long as the player has end, anything he can do in timestop can be done again so long as they have end.

 

I'd suggest a SPD bonus but it may not create the effect the player wants.  A SPD bonus is more controllable, but many GMs loath changes in the speed chart.  Usually an ability 2x a character's speed isn't bad to the speed chart and is still fairly potent.

 

While I am not saying refuse him outright, you might want to consider strongly reviewing the ability and how it might be used in the game.

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"Time stop" is a broad enough description that it could theoretically be almost anything.

 

You could attack everyone on Earth. You could take 50 recoveries in a row. You could disappear, move anywhere, do anything you wanted. Such a power should be very expensive.

 

Or maybe you don't want to be able to interact with anyone. In that case, a teleport with a massive linked Perception bonus (as you take time to look around) might be better. It would certainly be cheaper.

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Whackum the fighter?

Wacko the mage!

 

I'm dying to know the name of the cleric and rogue in this group.

 

:)

HM

Mehdik the Cleric

Ceeya the Rogue

... the Silent Monk

Kerthudd the Barbarian

Wayte the Paladin

and Spears the Bard (how bad can get you get from there).  

 

     Yeah, my players hate my puns and jokes.  Personally, I don't like slapstick but I am very amused by situational comedy and puns.

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Let me see how to make a 200 point power cheep enough to be viable for players to attempt to use in a concept.

 

Time Stop (pages 38-40 of The Hero System Advanced Player's Guide 2: 200 points), Concentration (0 DCV, Unaware: -3/4), Cost Endurance To Maintain (-1/2), Extra Time (Full Phase: -1/2), Perceivable (everyone knows time has been stopped after time resumes: -1/4): Active Points: 200. Real Cost: 66. END Cost: 20 every stopped phrase (cost end to maintain).

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4e

 

A character in our group is a steampunk/clockwork scientist and he wants to build a gadget that stops and/or slows time in an area. I'm not seeing it covered anywhere in the rules unless I've overlooked it. How is this best achieved?

 

I don't have The Hero System Advanced Player's Guide 2 but I think the simplest way to build this simply is: what does he want to do when timestopped? Is he wanting to run around hitting the bad guys? Try a selective area effect attack, and so on.

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I don't have The Hero System Advanced Player's Guide 2 but I think the simplest way to build this simply is: what does he want to do when timestopped? Is he wanting to run around hitting the bad guys? Try a selective area effect attack, and so on.

Sounds like an area of effect, invisible power effect, indirect, selective physical Blast. Really expensive. Then again, to do everything you can do with Time Stop is expensive. (Teleportation, Teleportation Usable On Others, Clairsentince, ect...)

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True Time Stop is one of those "You Win" absolute powers that Hero doesn't model well, and which should be insanely expensive if you try to.

 

Slowing time is another matter. Drain SPD AOE, Personal Immunity gets pricey. But if the mechanical effect is that the user gets to act more than those around him, then a big Aid SPD (Self Only) is close enough for most gaming purposes.

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One thing I think Hero is really good at as opposed to other systems is reasonably and objectively costing abilities that are very powerful but given little thought in other systems.  Take the 1st level Cleric spell "Sanctuary" which makes you unattackable and ignored by monsters while you heal and do other stuff.  That's massively powerful but considered very minor in D&D.

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If you really want to see Time Stop in action, I recommend watching Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders season one and two. Time Stop reappears in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable, but not as much.

 

And the upcoming series Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind has a guy who can 'erase time', removing the effect of an action but not the cause. How would you model that ability?

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And the upcoming series Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind has a guy who can 'erase time', removing the effect of an action but not the cause. How would you model that ability?

 

By using the handyman's secret weapon: Extradimensional Movement :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I strongly feel that trying to use Extradimensional Movement is a terrible way to handle Timestop. It forces the GM to come up with a on-the-spot, arbitrary description of what happens. It's even worse if the effect is left in the hands of the player, effectively granting them GM power. Also, it fails the test of the power itself, as demonstrated below:

 

You're going to a different dimension, yet not affecting the original dimension. "I use EDM to stop time for 1 minute so I can steal a jewel from the shop across the street." The EDM is used to supposedly cause the effect. Within that one minute, you have that lovely jewel. Once the power is over (you used it to stop time for 1 minute, and the power stops afterwards to simulate the 1 minute being over), you have the jewel  - yet the world you left still has that jewel.

 

I find using powers to simulate effects are the best way, as Doc, Tom and others have suggested.

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It just depends what you want to do with it.

 

 

Time Stop

LS: No Need to Sleep

You are able to freeze time and take a nap whenever you want.  You always feel refreshed.

 

 

or

 

Time Stop

Clairsentience, Sight, Touch, limited places you can see (-1/2), "snapshots" only (-1/2)

You are able to freeze time and wander around looking at things.  Because time is frozen, you can't hear anything or move anything, so you can only see places that don't require you to open a door, etc.  You also can't hurt people because they are frozen in time, invulnerable.  You see the world as a snapshot, a single unmoving image.

 

or

 

Time Stop

27D6 Suppress vs Spd, standard effect, NND (time manipulation powers) (+1), Area Effect: Radius (+1), Megascale 1"=1km (+1/4), Costs END only to start (+1/4), Personal Immunity (+1/4)   506 active points

This power stops everyone in their tracks, by subtracting 8 SPD from anything in the city-wide area.  This presumes the highest Spd character in the campaign will have a SPD of 8 or less.  You are free to walk around, use your powers, shoot people, etc, while time is stopped.  Because of the special effect of the power, and the overwhelming points cost, the environment may be altered as well.  Planes do not fall out of the sky, you can safely touch power lines that otherwise would be carrying electricity, clocks do not change, etc.  It is GM's discretion as far as which natural laws will be changed by the use of this power.

 

It just depends what you want to do.

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