Help with time-stop ability.

[Quedorm]

Hey all.

 

Due to my previous character folding over in a game I've been in, I've decieded to visit a new concept. Basically, he's a brick who can stop time for ten seconds .

 

Something like a stasis bubble where only he is immune.

 

I'm thinking it'd either be a supress, drain, or entangle... maybe even all three linked. Thing is, once the character uses this power, while it is in effect he has ten seconds until time starts up again. After that, he's unable to use the power again for another few minutes or so.

 

Basically, I've some trouble as to how I should struture the power and it's disads. Can anyone offer any advice on how I should tackle this? I haven't really got anything in the way of examples...

 

Thanks in advance

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Help with time-stop ability.

 

So...it's a bubble where everyone but him is frozen in time for 10 seconds of his subjective time? And everyone and everything outside the bubble continues on as normal? In other words, at the end of the 10 seconds, the character + everyone outside the bubble will be 10 seconds older, but everyone else who was inside the bubble did not live through those 10 seconds?

 

Am I understanding you correctly?

[Edsel]

Re: Help with time-stop ability.

 

The Time Stop power in the UNTIL Super Powers Database is bought as Extra-Dimentional Movement (Time Stop). The write-up comes with a warning that, due to the low cost, the power is potentially unbalancing. In effect it stops everyone else but still allows the user to act as he wishes.

[BNakagawa]

Re: Help with time-stop ability.

 

It's essentially unbuildable without extreme hand-waving.

[Zed-F]

Re: Help with time-stop ability.

 

Here's one version, courtesy of Oddhat:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=119026#Johnny

 

The HDC file for Johnny Tick Tock:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1415&d=1061042591

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Help with time-stop ability.

 

+24 SPD, continuous charge,

 

gets you roughly 18 seconds (assuming avg SPD 6 supers campaign) of "you can so stuff while others can't."

 

And it's so insanely expensive that I didn't bother pricing it, and stopped even considering trying to buy ten minutes that way......

 

Though granted, given the utility, the price may still be a bargain....

[Quedorm]

Re: Help with time-stop ability.

 

So...it's a bubble where everyone but him is frozen in time for 10 seconds of his subjective time? And everyone and everything outside the bubble continues on as normal? In other words, at the end of the 10 seconds, the character + everyone outside the bubble will be 10 seconds older, but everyone else who was inside the bubble did not live through those 10 seconds?

 

Am I understanding you correctly?

 

Yeah, that sounds about right.

 

I've considered limiting it by making it so he'll have to wait to use it again after he's used it though, (eg fifteen minutes before the next ten-second stop.)

 

Any ideas how that would work out?

[Arkham]

Re: Help with time-stop ability.

 

That depends on what you can do while time stopped...

Can he affect the rest of the world?

Can he just look at things and move?

 

Stop time, look at things and leave.

360 degrees vision and N-Ray on his senses with a linked teleport.

 

Actually attack things:

CSLs with rapid fire and Indirect as a naked advantage with linked teleport.

 

Moving other people:

Teleport, UAA Ranged.

 

Moving bullets:

Missle Reflection, Ranged.

[steriaca]

Re: Help with time-stop ability.

 

The Time Stop power in the UNTIL Super Powers Database is bought as Extra-Dimentional Movement (Time Stop). The write-up comes with a warning that' date=' due to the low cost, the power is potentially unbalancing. In effect it stops everyone else but still allows the user to act as he wishes.[/quote']

 

This is true, untill you realise that the hero will be unable to do things like punch someone, or even simple things like opening doors. Eveyone is 'stuck' in time, except him, and this, he can bairly affect anything. If he wants to affect things while in stop time, he has to buy his attack powers with Transdimentinal (from Null Time to Normal Earth), and simply apply the results of his attacks at the time he comes back from Null Time.

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Help with time-stop ability.

 

This is true' date=' untill you realise that the hero will be unable to do things like punch someone, or even simple things like opening doors. Eveyone is 'stuck' in time, except him, and this, he can bairly affect anything. If he wants to affect things while in stop time, he has to buy his attack powers with Transdimentinal (from Null Time to Normal Earth), and simply apply the results of his attacks at the time he comes back from Null Time.[/quote']

 

Intesting idea,

 

but doesn't that effectively give him unlimited combat utility?

 

What's to keep him from staying in Null Time, firing salvo after salvo at each and every opponent until he's built up a couple hundred attacks, all to be applied when he leaves Null Time?

 

Not nit-picking; genuinely curious about what sort of 'catch' comes with this ability.....

[Edsel]

Re: Help with time-stop ability.

 

The write-up in the UNTIL: SPDB, the way I read it at least, certainly makes it sound like the character could attack time stopped characters multiple times without their being able to respond. The write-up warns that this is best used as a "plot device" or an NPC only power.

 

There has been at least one question about how this works posted in the Hero Systems 5th Edition Rules Questions forum, though the answer is not absolutely clear, it seems to me to indicate that the character using the power can attack the time stopped victims. This makes the power far too inbalancing for me to normally allow it in a game.

[Fenixcrest]

Re: Help with time-stop ability.

 

I've always been a fan of Supress SPD, AOE, megascaled to planetary, self-immunity. You just need to get the GM to agree that all objects and effects have a SPD for this purpose.

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Help with time-stop ability.

 

The write-up in the UNTIL: SPDB, the way I read it at least, certainly makes it sound like the character could attack time stopped characters multiple times without their being able to respond. The write-up warns that this is best used as a "plot device" or an NPC only power.

 

There has been at least one question about how this works posted in the Hero Systems 5th Edition Rules Questions forum, though the answer is not absolutely clear, it seems to me to indicate that the character using the power can attack the time stopped victims. This makes the power far too inbalancing for me to normally allow it in a game.

 

Well that's frightening.

 

Under those circumstance, I think I'd go with the uber-pricey +480 SPD, in a desperate attempt at balance!

 

Though I've seen a few variations on what Fenixcrest suggests, and it works well enough for small areas. After all, by the rules, guns, computers, cars-- everything has an SPD score.

[gojira]

Re: Help with time-stop ability.

 

I think that it's going to be tough to have an effective brick, with out trying to add in some sort of uber power like time manipulation. Maybe your last character folded over because you were trying to do to much.

 

What you might do is just build a regular brick with a time manipulation SFX. For example, +18 armor might be Time Enhanced Dodging or maybe a Null Time Shield. +10" running could obviously be due to time enhanced movement.

 

Then add a small multipower with some extra effects. More running, rapid fire on his hand attack, extra armour to represent super time dodging, etc. Take the lims you want on this multipower, maybe only a couple of charges each or something, or maybe extra END to represent the effort it takes.

 

This should allow you to have an effective character all the time, who is occasionally very effective. This might be what you are looking for.

 

 

I'm not trying to dis you or your idea, I'm just trying to spark some ideas for a character that wont fold over like a cheap lawn ornament in the first fight.

 

 

What's the SFX of his time powers, btw?

[Quedorm]

Re: Help with time-stop ability.

 

I think that it's going to be tough to have an effective brick, with out trying to add in some sort of uber power like time manipulation. Maybe your last character folded over because you were trying to do to much.

 

What you might do is just build a regular brick with a time manipulation SFX. For example, +18 armor might be Time Enhanced Dodging or maybe a Null Time Shield. +10" running could obviously be due to time enhanced movement.

 

Then add a small multipower with some extra effects. More running, rapid fire on his hand attack, extra armour to represent super time dodging, etc. Take the lims you want on this multipower, maybe only a couple of charges each or something, or maybe extra END to represent the effort it takes.

 

This should allow you to have an effective character all the time, who is occasionally very effective. This might be what you are looking for.

 

 

I'm not trying to dis you or your idea, I'm just trying to spark some ideas for a character that wont fold over like a cheap lawn ornament in the first fight.

 

 

What's the SFX of his time powers, btw?

 

 

 

Well, of course I realise that stopping time can be abused, which is why I wanted the stopped time to last for ten seconds relative to the character who used the ability. In an effort to maintain that balance, I wanted there to be a period of time between each use of the ability, so he wouldn't be able to chain uses together indefinately.

 

As for the effect I'm after, well basically he'd be able to walk around within the tome-stopped area, and be able to affet objects in there in any way he can (eg throw knives, punch people etc...) only with the knives, they'd slow down to a stop right in front of the target, and the damage from his puches won't take effect until after time resumes again.

 

Of course, I want to have other applications for this power too such as getting innocent civilians away from an oncomming attack etc.

 

I think Steve Jackson posted a time-stop ability in Digital Hero Issue #8, but since I don't have access to it, I can't use his build as a refrence. From what I've heard though, his build is unusable as it is, considering it's supposed to effect an entire universe.

 

But I understand what you mean about bricks being tough enough without time-manipulation powers. The kind of brick I had in mind isn't quite the Hulk in terms of strength and invunrability, nor a normal joe either... He's meant to be strong enough to life a car, maybe a truck.

 

Ah well, thanks for the info.

[TaxiMan]

Re: Help with time-stop ability.

 

There is a pseudo-official Time Stop power (Steve Long wrote it up) in an early Digital Hero. It examines the need to Suppress the nuclear reaction in the cores of bajillions of stars throughout the universe, the Telekinesis needed to stop matter from falling into black holes, that kind of ordinary stuff that stopping time requires.

 

I'm not sure, but I think it was an effort to show how unbalancingly powerful such a power is. IIRC, it cost tens of thousands of points.

[dr. mindslayer]

Re: Help with time-stop ability.

 

How about a multipower with different 'time stop' elements in it.

 

naked modifier AOE and/or Ranged to strength.... doors open and shut on their own...objects move about.. someone got hit in the face but you never moved.

Ranged teleport... Poof, hey, whered that go?

and of course... autofire.

[TaxiMan]

Re: Help with time-stop ability.

 

On a more helpful note, time-stop special effects could be put in a multipower or EC:

 

Telekinesis, IPE - simulates you walking over & doing something, then walking back in 0 time

 

Teleport, Must cross Intervening Space - you walk over somewhere in 0 time

 

Teleport UAA, simultaneously - you can move people & things around

 

Missile Deflection, Usable at Range - you walk over while time is stopped & pluck the bullets out of the air. Doesn't work on energy? (travels at light speed)

 

Clairsentience or N-Ray vision - you walk around and see things

 

That sort of thing should let you simulate a lot of Time Stop abilities - but it's also expensive. Just not 10,000 points.

[Kirby]

Re: Help with time-stop ability.

 

I actually like the Time Stop ability written up in USPD; however, it can easily be munchkined (though that's something I don't do [i hope]).

 

I modified a player's disliked time character to give him Time Stop. The character was 5 SPD, and the PC was able to half-move and fire an EB (maybe NND) four times and do one full move, which used up ALL his END. I didn't increase his END because I planned to use this person as a villain and see if the PCs figured out his 'weakness/vulnerability' when he led a team.

 

Now, if you think the GM is worried about the character being abusive, perhaps you can purchase powers that are only useable when Time Stopped and perhaps they all cost Extra END. OR, you take a Disadvantage to represent this, maybe a Physical Lim of "x2 END when using Powers in Time Stop" or maybe you CAN'T use ANY powers when Time Stopped. Or even a Susceptibility of 1d6-3d6 END loss when using Powers in Time Stop. Something that shows the GM you have no intention of abusing this.

 

Of course, the temptations from the Dark Side will come later.