Super speed and invisibility

[Uncle Shecky]

On the show "Smallville," Clark Kent often runs so fast that he is practically invisible. He's really just invisbile to sight (the requisite whooshing sounds and air wake are usually there). I've never given this ability to a speedster, but I was wondering about the game mechanics behind it.

 

Of course, one could just buy Invisibility to sight with "linked to Running," but I'm curious if people would allow a character to gain effective invisibility from a high velocity. And what would that velocity be?

[i3ullseye]

Buy the invis.

 

Realistically speaking, NO velocity woudl give you the invisibility if you return back to the same spot. Assuming you want to influence things in ne small area, while moving very fast, the end result woudl actually be like a film or Zeotrope. you woudl become a flicker of images superimposed. So you might look jittery, but you woudl still appear to be there. think of the spokes on a fast turning wheel.

[Monolith]

I would make the character buy the invisibility, but it might be something I would allow a character to do as a Power Stunt as well, assuming the character was not going to abuse the privilage (some players you can trust, and some you cannot).

 

I could also see a speedster with an entire SFX "Speed Tricks" multipower. He could have Invisibility (running to fast to see), Teleportation (gets in front of foes before they can move), Desolidification (vibrating molecules), Telekinesis (lifting things by running around them), Energy Blast (spinning hands and making wind attacks), Dispel (getting rid of fires, gases, ect), and quite a few more things.

[TheEmerged]

I have this as a standard speedster trick myself -- but instead of linking it to running, I give it a limitation "Based on Superspeed" at etiher -1/2 or -1/4. From the math perspective that's the same, but I throw a house mechanic at it.

 

Invisibility bought this way must purchase the "No Fringe" option. Characters below a certain SPD number cannot perceive a Fringe; character above a different SPD number can see the character normally. At -1/2 those numbers are 5 and 8; at -1/4 those numbers are 7 and 10.

 

Example: Swish, the resident speedster for the Justice Battalion, has this at the -1/2 level. The vastest majority of non-novas (SPD 4 or less) are subject to the full effect: invisible, no fringe. Most novas (generally SPD 5-7) can percieve a fringe; the faster novas can (like Velociraptor with a SPD of 12) see him just fine.

 

Obviously you'd need to tweak the numbers if your SPD guidelines are different...

 

But giving it for free? Not if the player expects to use it more than once per four sessions or so.

 

Editted because I realized I had the limitation values backward

[dbsousa]

You might consider a Limitation RSR: Sleight of Hand...

[Uncle Shecky]

Bullseye, I should've been more specific. You're right in the case of trying to be invisible in one area, but I meant effective invisibility while moving past someone while traveling a long distance at top speed.

 

Page 229 of FREd has a list of sight PER modifiers. I was thinking that really high velocity movement could act as a negative modifier to PER. I guess a variation on range modifiers could do the trick.

[William Bushway]

I have a speedster character named Speedtrap with this schtick - I defined it as:

 

Invisibility, Linked to his Running (-1/2), must have moved > 10" in last action phase (-1/4), Always On(-1/2).

 

The > 10" was a meta-game decision: Speedy had PD Absorption that fed into his running - without having absorbed any points, 10" was a full move, so at the beginning of any fight he couldn't go Invisible unless he made Full-Moves and eschewed any other actions (well, except Move-Bys/Throughs). However, after he got hit a couple of times, his Running would be amped enough that he could maintain his invisibility while doing half-moves.

 

All in all, one of my favorite constructs for that character

[Uncle Shecky]

Thanks for the feedback guys. William Bushway's method is very close to how I would build it (if it had to be built), although I wouldn't give it Always On. (This goes back to the Great Linked Debate. Let's not go there. ) And I would make the limitation related to velocity, not distance moved (you can gain 5" velocity for every 1" moved).

 

Something like:

Invisibility, linked to Running (-1/2), must move at 50+"/phase (-1/4)

 

I really like The Emerged's house rule for this sort of thing (in a special case): the observer's SPD helps to determine whether he can see the character or not. Without using a house rule, it could even be a limitation to the power above: e.g. not vs. SPD of 6/more (-1/4). That isn't as rich as The Emerged's method, but it gives some of the same effect.

 

If I gave it for free, I'd use a penalty vs. the observer's PER, modified by a related skill (Power skill, maybe Stealth or Sleight of hand); but I think you guys are right about the potential for abuse.

[William Bushway]

Yeah, the Always On part of the power bugged me, but an informal survey of the group I was gaming with said it was kosher - after all, he couldn't choose to be visible if he ran more than 10" in his last combat phase: he just was. But we always played that Linked only limited the power it was applied to, not the power it was Linked to - hence the Always on being appropriate for such an effect.

 

(makes the Evil Eye to ward off gathering GLD spirits)

 

The SFX was that his Kinetic Absorption Field when activated created a transparent bubble around him that interacted strangely with light waves - standing still it almost appeared like a minor heat distortion effect. When he was hit, it rippled around him from the point of impact. When he moved, the distortion got very severe, creating the typical cinematic "motion blur" effect.

 

Of course, his Invisibility was bought with a visible Fringe, and as his field only reacted this way to light waves, it was also Sight only (not the whole Sight group).

[Klytus]

I know this is comic book physics we're talking about, but I never liked the whole idea of "I'm invisible by moving too fast" routine. Unless you have Desolidification to go with it, any kind of super-speed movement is going to be noticed by the sonic-boom being generated or, at the very least, the windstorm you'll be leaving in your wake.

 

Again, I know this is the comics we're talking about, but it would be less offensive if the writers handled it with some consistency. I've seen Superman and Flash moving at super-speeds with the obvious wind-tunnel effect trailing behind them. I also remember the race they ran making sonic booms and shattering nearby windows. Superman is usually careful to not go super-sonic when flying low specifically to avoid creating collateral damage... yet all of these environmental side-effect are conveniently absent when Clark dashes about at invisble-super-speed inside the Daily Planet.

[TheEmerged]

Thanks, Uncle Shecky. BTW, I corrected the limitation values in the earlier post -- silly me had them backward.

 

I also forgot another thing that can bypass the limitation: the new Rapid Sense option in 5th Edition.

[Uncle Shecky]

Originally posted by Klytus

I know this is comic book physics we're talking about, but I never liked the whole idea of "I'm invisible by moving too fast" routine. Unless you have Desolidification to go with it, any kind of super-speed movement is going to be noticed by the sonic-boom being generated or, at the very least, the windstorm you'll be leaving in your wake.

...

 

Yeah, that's a good point, and that is more the effect I was looking for anyway. Invisibility is as viable a speedster power as desolidification, but the sort of free ability I was thinking of probably shouldn't be invisibility: more like unrecognizability. On "Smallville" the gust of wind Clark creates is sometimes noticed, but no one can tell what it was that raced by them.

[jtelson]

I always did it as teleport - must be able to physically reach the end point.

[Victim]

Well, since Invis costs END, it should be visible to at least 3 sense groups, right? Pick touch and hearing for the noisy rush of wind and then any rapid sense.

[Benzini]

Invisibility

 

anyone look at "Blaze" in the current sample articles in the Digital Hero section in #9...she bought Invisibility to sight group, only after half move......so she's gotta be full velocity to engage invisible

[DocMan]

My speedster, Flicker, actually had a power with similar special effects.

 

If I remember off the top of my head, it was a Teleport power that was bought with Usable Against Others (this was 4th edition), with the limitation of only things he could pick up.

 

The SFX of this was that he would start at point A, run to point B, pick up an object (character), run to point C, put it down, and then run back to point A so quickly that you wouldn't see him do more than change position. He could also use it for zipping from A to B without being seen to move.

 

I seem to remember that we modified it later so that after dropping the item at point C he could instead run to point D, providing all the points in question were in the teleport range of point A.

 

It was a lovely way to get innocents out of harms way, or to set a bad guy in front of the Brick's wound up Haymaker.

 

Doc

[Velocity]

Hmmmn...here is a way to do it.

 

I play a speedster in our campaign so I have designed a few powers around superspeed in my time. I always figured that you could sort of see speedsters even at high speeds as a blur or shimmer. I would buy it as Invisiblity to Normal Sight, Linked to Flight (or Running), Bright Fringe with a O End Cost tacked on if you wanted it to be active whenver you ran really fast. If not then just tack on a -1/4 Limitation that requires a certain amount of inches to be moved before it works.

[Lord Liaden]

Originally posted by jtelson

I always did it as teleport - must be able to physically reach the end point.

 

I would favor this as well. I've noticed that Clark in Smallville normally uses that "invisible speed" to get virtually instantly from one point to another - once he arrives where he's going, he's clearly visible again. FREd has a Limitation on Teleportation to reflect that effect: "Must Pass Through Intervening Space" (-1/4), representing the need to deal with walls and the like in the way.

[Rerednaw]

The anime invisibility principle...

 

Actually, using manga and anime as examples, it would be more than conceivable to have an 'invisibility'.

 

There are numerous examples where we see a given anime character start from a dead stop, suddenly vanish and then appear just a few feet away or several meters away. Or the same character attacks (with very visibile effects of the attack) but his opponent simply can't see him even if he is in melee next to him.

 

I've made a few character with invisibility to sight, linked to a SPD boost (-1/4). I also added teleportation to simulate the fx of moving so fast you don't see him while he's moving. I liked this variant a bit better than the 'must take a half move' because what if he only moves one hex?

 

I made the character a base speed 4, with +2 speed, only change on segment 12 (-0), max only (-0) to avoid the tracking multiple speed/segment headaches. I added an END cost (in most anime they don't always start at their highest speed, and it usually takes a visible 'effort' for the speed to kick in) and then linked invisibility to it.

 

Cheers.

[Killer Shrike]

Teleport Must pass through intervening space.

 

In fact, I recently used Thunder-dolt II in play about 4 weeks ago, and I modded him to add this very ability like so:

 

Thunderbolt II Variant

Pretty much as in CKC, except I gave him a MPP for his speed and put his existing Superspeed power in it. I then added a 'Hyperspeed' power built as a Teleport, must cross intervening distances. This power is exactly as the Run based Superspeed power, except it allows Thunderbolt to pull of some tricks like 'running' up walls, across small bodies of water, hurdle gaps, and other similar stunts. To use this ability he must make a DEX check, and he gets +2 on this check from his existing "+2 with Running" levels. I also gave him a Missile Deflection capability, and the ability to 'rev' his metabolism to enable himself to heal faster.

 

I downgraded some of his skills, contacts, and miscellaneous abilities.

 

Thunderbolt II

 

Player:

 

Val	Char	Cost
40	STR	30
27	DEX	51
30	CON	40
15	BODY	10
17	INT	7
13	EGO	6
13	PRE	3
12	COM	1
20	PD	12
20	ED	14
8	SPD	43
15	REC	2
60	END	0
50	STUN	0

25" RUN-22" SWIM08" LEAP0Characteristics Cost: 217

 

Cost	Power	END
20	Toughness: Damage Resistance (20 PD/20 ED)
50	Superspeed: Multipower, 50-point reserve
10m	1) Superspeed: Running +20" (25" total), Reduced Endurance (Half END; +1/4) (50 Active Points)	2
2u	2) Hyperspeed: Teleportation 20" (Position Shift, x2 Increased Mass) (50 Active Points); Increased Endurance Cost (2x END; -1/2), Requires A DEX Roll (-1/2), Must Pass Through Intervening Space (-1/4)	10
3u	3) Fast Hands: Missile Deflection (Bullets & Shrapnel; Missile Reflection, Reflect At Any Target) (45 Active Points); Required Hands (Two-Handed; -1/2)
3m	4) Accelerated Healing: Healing 2d6 (max. Healed Points: 12), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2) (40 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Turn (Post-Segment 12); -1 1/4), Self Only (-1/2) [Notes: No Healing Max (see FREd p. 120).]

Powers Cost: 88

 

 

Cost	Skill
15	+3 with HTH Combat
4	+2 with Running
3	Computer Programming 12-
3	Electronics 12-
3	CK: Millennium City (INT-based) 12-
2	KS: Millennium City University 11-
1	KS: The Superhuman World 8-
1	Persuasion 8-
3	PS: Geologist (INT-based) 12-
3	SS: Geology (INT-based) 12-
1	Stealth 8-
3	Streetwise 12-
1	Systems Operation 8-

Skills Cost: 43

 

Cost	Perk
2	Contact: fence 11-

Perks Cost: 2

 

 

 

Total Character Cost: 350

 

Val	Disadvantages
10	Dependent NPC: Aileen Mitchell (girlfriend): 8- (Infrequently), Normal
20	Hunted: PRIMUS 8- (Occasionally), More Powerful, Harshly Punish, Extensive Non-Combat Influence
15	Hunted: Califoria Patrol 8- (Occasionally), More Powerful, Harshly Punish
15	Psychological Limitation: Selfish And Amoral Common, Strong
5	Rivalry: Tachyon Professional (; Rival is As Powerful; Seek to Outdo, Embarrass, or Humiliate Rival; Rival Aware of Rivalry)
15	Social Limitation: Secret Identity (Rob Bleskind) Frequently (11-), Major
15	Susceptibility: Kelvarite 1d6 damage, per Phase, Uncommon
15	Susceptibility: earth control/manipulation powers 1d6 damage, per Phase, Uncommon
10	Vulnerability: 1 1/2x Effect Drains Common
30	Vulnerability: 2x STUN Electrical Attacks Very Common

Disadvantage Points: 150

 

Base Points: 200

Experience Required: 0

Total Experience Available: 0

Experience Unspent: 0