Speedster Construct Question: One Man Starship Crew

[Metaphysician]

Okay, I had an idea for a speedster trick: running around the inside of a starship so fast that you can operate and effectively man multiple different stations at once.

 

Problem is, I don't have any good ideas of how to write it up. Any thoughts??

[MitchellS]

Re: Speedster Construct Question: One Man Starship Crew

 

Seems like a good candidate for the In Two Places At Once from the USPD, only give more than 1 duplicate.

[pinecone]

Re: Speedster Construct Question: One Man Starship Crew

 

Seems like a good candidate for the In Two Places At Once from the USPD' date=' only give more than 1 duplicate.[/quote']

Yep sounds like a duplication with some sort of feedback lim (damage to any dup damages all dups)...

[Derek Hiemforth]

Re: Speedster Construct Question: One Man Starship Crew

 

Okay, I had an idea for a speedster trick: running around the inside of a starship so fast that you can operate and effectively man multiple different stations at once.

 

Problem is, I don't have any good ideas of how to write it up. Any thoughts??

Here's an odd take on it, FWIW...

 

Figure out how long it would normally take a single person to do all of the tasks a starship would normally require in, say, a single Turn. If you decide your average starship has 1000 tasks that are done shipwide in the course of a Turn, that's 1000 Turns worth of tasks. 1000 Turns is 200 minutes, or a bit over 3 hours.

 

So our speedster needs to be able to do roughly 3 hours worth of work in a Turn. According to page 28 of H5E, performing a task in less time than it normally takes is a -3 penalty to the roll for each level up the Time Chart. The closest entry on the Time Chart for our purposes is 6 Hours. So we need to buy enough Skill Levels to offset the penalties you'd gain by trying to do a 6 Hour task in 1 Turn. That's 5 steps up the chart, so we'd need 15 Skill Levels to offset the penalties.

 

This all assumes the speedster has the requisite skill and knowledge to handle all these shipboard tasks, but for this SFX, he would be need to anyway. It also assumes most starship-related tasks would be based on Intellect Skills, even if they involve physical actions.

 

So buy something like this...

 

One-Man Crew: +15 Skill Levels with Intellect Skills (75 Active Points), Only For Routine Starship Operations (-1), Only To Counteract Time Modifier (-1), Costs END (-1/2). Real Cost: 21 points

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: Speedster Construct Question: One Man Starship Crew

 

One-Man Crew: +15 Skill Levels with Intellect Skills (75 Active Points)' date=' Only For Routine Starship Operations (-1), Only To Counteract Time Modifier (-1), Costs END (-1/2). Real Cost: 21 points[/quote']

I like it, but since the skill levels are only to counteract the penalty for taking less time than normal, shouldn't they simply be Penalty Skill Levels? Or rather, "shouldn't" isn't really the word, but could they be PSLs? Thusly:

 

One-Man Crew: +15 Penalty Skill Levels vs. Taking Less Time Penalties with Intellect Skills (45 Active Points), Only For Routine Starship Operations (-1), Costs END (-1/2). Real Cost: 18 points

[Derek Hiemforth]

Re: Speedster Construct Question: One Man Starship Crew

 

I like it' date=' but since the skill levels are only to counteract the penalty for taking less time than normal, shouldn't they simply be Penalty Skill Levels? Or rather, "shouldn't" isn't really the word, but [i']could[/i] they be PSLs?

Technically no, because PSLs only apply to combat OCV.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Speedster Construct Question: One Man Starship Crew

 

Okay, thanks. I think I like the Level-based one better, mostly because doing it with Duplication seems like it'd be clunky.

[Hawksmoor]

Re: Speedster Construct Question: One Man Starship Crew

 

Not to mention VASTLY more expensive for what really is a novelty power.

 

Hawksmoor

[Rapier]

Re: Speedster Construct Question: One Man Starship Crew

 

Technically no' date=' because PSLs only apply to combat OCV.[/quote']

Da Hell? Damn.

(looks through FREd)

So it is. So it is. Not that it's happened often but I can think of one character OTTOMH I let have PSLs for Time Mods with a KS (SFX was his Eidetic Memory). Oh well, thats easily fixed.

 

See, GMs do make mistakes. Oh wait. My GM just informed me that this is all a Danger Room scenario and no mistake was made. Whew!

[Pegasus]

Re: Speedster Construct Question: One Man Starship Crew

 

I like the skill levels idea, but I thought I'd try a couple other ideas just for the hell of it. What about an area effect TK with fine manipulation? Or a Change Environment kind of effect? I know they'd be more expensive, question is could they work?

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Speedster Construct Question: One Man Starship Crew

 

Not to mention VASTLY more expensive for what really is a novelty power.

 

Hawksmoor

 

I wouldn't call Duplication a novelty power. Admittedly, if all he uses it for is running the ship, then yes ... but if he uses the fact that there's four or eight of him in a fight, then it's pretty useful.

[Hawksmoor]

Re: Speedster Construct Question: One Man Starship Crew

 

I wouldn't call Duplication a novelty power. Admittedly' date=' if all he uses it for is running the ship, then yes ... but if he uses the fact that there's four or eight of him in a fight, then it's pretty useful.[/quote']

 

Which is admittedly all the Duplication would be used for. Imagine the cost of buying say a limited starship crew of selves like a modest 100. At 350 pts for the character without Duplication that is 70 points. Double up to 128 and you are spending 105 points. All for a novelty.

 

Same with the old "I am moving so fast it seems like there are 100 of me in combat. It seems like Duplication might work for this but it really doesn't. Because at any one instance the character is only in in one place. This effect is better represented by Extra Dice or Extra CSLs or Telekinesis or Transform, but Duplication is too expensive.

 

Hawksmoor

[dbsousa]

Re: Speedster Construct Question: One Man Starship Crew

 

I'm a sucker for Change Environment (Make ship perform operations) in this instance...

[Metaphysician]

Re: Speedster Construct Question: One Man Starship Crew

 

I like the skill levels idea' date=' but I thought I'd try a couple other ideas just for the hell of it. What about an area effect TK with fine manipulation? Or a Change Environment kind of effect? I know they'd be more expensive, question is could they work?[/quote']

 

Probably not. Change Environment doesn't allow positive mods, and Area Effect TK would still not allow him to make more than one skill check.

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: Speedster Construct Question: One Man Starship Crew

 

My take on other methods:

 

Area Effect TK - maybe, but since it doesn't allow multiple actions (as MetaPhysician pointed out), you might have to take a substantial penalty for one big "Operate entire ship at once" skill. But I suppose you could do it that way.

 

Change Environment - I'd say no. This seems like too much of a stretch. I see to much difference between effects like "hotter," "colder," "windier," "foggier," "slippery," etc. and "machinery is being correctly operated in the area."

 

Duplication - it works, but is very very expensive. However, it does give you supreme flexibility, and the ability to use the duplicates in combat. A speedster's "many places at once" duplication with feedback is quite powerful, and should be, given how much it costs.

 

Skill Levels - the best answer provided so far, IMO. Cheap, easy, does exactly what you need it to do. Doesn't help in combat, though.

 

Penalty Skill Levels - my bad. This isn't quite legal, as Derek said.

 

I can think of a few other methods that are mostly just wierd variations on the Duplication idea:

 

Followers - no. This doesn't really work right since followers are under GM control. They really aren't the same as the base character.

 

Summon - also under the GM's control. It seems rather cheesy to make apparent copies of yourself and then say they're slavishly loyal to you, when there really isn't another of you actually there.

[Void]

Re: Speedster Construct Question: One Man Starship Crew

 

There are other ideas that you could employ, but some seem to be forcing the issue. Extra Limbs (with stretching) to enable him to reach the various consoles and operate them. The limitation here is the distance between stations.

 

I could see a speedster buying extra limbs as a sort of virtual extra limb to reflect their ability to grab, let go, grab so quickly that their slower moving opponents can't take advantage of being let go in time.. but it is a bit of a stretch of special effect, I think.

 

I was thinking of building the effect with mindlink to machine minds, but there is no real way to justify using that with a speedster character.

[Ndreare]

Re: Speedster Construct Question: One Man Starship Crew

 

I like it' date=' but since the skill levels are only to counteract the penalty for taking less time than normal, shouldn't they simply be Penalty Skill Levels? Or rather, "shouldn't" isn't really the word, but [i']could[/i] they be PSLs? Thusly:

 

One-Man Crew: +15 Penalty Skill Levels vs. Taking Less Time Penalties with Intellect Skills (45 Active Points), Only For Routine Starship Operations (-1), Costs END (-1/2). Real Cost: 18 points

 

 

& I do not believe anyone has pointed out that you are not allowed to put limitations on less than 5 point skill levels.

[Derek Hiemforth]

Re: Speedster Construct Question: One Man Starship Crew

 

& I do not believe anyone has pointed out that you are not allowed to put limitations on less than 5 point skill levels.

Actually, you can put Limitations on 3-point Penalty Skill Levels, which is what Phil was referring to. But PSL's can only be used for OCV penalties anyway, so...