Maccabe Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Has anyone out there ever played a PC with a 1 SPEED? Why or why not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baphomet Jones Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: 1 Speed No, but our group fought a villain with a 1 speed, he had absorb physical & energy and a spd drain damage shield (he was sort of like a living temporal anomaly), and was the nemesis of our speedster with a 12 spd. Everyone was terrified of him. I've never played a guy with a 1 speed mainly because I never really came up with a good character concept for a really slow guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodstone Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: 1 Speed Do zombie followers count? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outsider Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: 1 Speed It may be metagaming, but I think most players wouldnt be discouraged from making a SPD 1 character on the grounds that it would lead to them being mostly spectators any time the game was running in phases. Generally players want closer to an equal share of 'table time'. When I GM (which was most of the time) a SPD 1 would be a lot more palatable, since I probably have several other npc villains to run, and many other things to do. Not that I actually ever have run a SPD 1 villain... i think SPD 2 has been my minimum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwdemon Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: 1 Speed Never as a PC, but yes as an NPC "monster" villain (e.g. Godzilla). Lots of defense, horrifying offense, but slow as dirt. PCs had to take him down before he got into the city. I honestly wouldn't play a SPD 1 character as a PC. SPD in most of my superhero games has had an unofficial floor of 4. Years of Champions gameplay instilled a mindset of "the 'average' superhero SPD is 5 and anything below 4 is unheard of" in me and many other players. The stock characters are and always have been set up on the basis that the average character SPD will be around 5 (though few go below that). The game just works out better with such a floor in mind for superhero games. The slowest PC I ever used in a superhero game was a SPD 3 brick built on 250pts. He hit hard and was hard to hurt, but agents usually went before him and any character with SPD 6+ could pull a hit-and-run on him at will. That led to me holding actions, which led to inaction, which led me to drop the character shortly thereafter. With more points, I could've probably kept him viable, but not in that game at 250pts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: 1 Speed Josh's low-powered Fantasy Hero game had one character who kept her SPD at 1 for a while. She didn't see the need to be as fast as everyone else in the party. Josh didn't force it, and she came to see why having only half as many combat actions was a drawback, and bought it up. I don't think I've ever had a Champions party with anyone lower than a 4 SPD. I usually buy mine at 4, and always seem to be the slowest member of the party. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
incrdbil Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: 1 Speed I'd never play, nor as a GM allow a 1 SPD PC, unless the game was Diapers and Doo-Doo, the HERO system game of early childhood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hypnotoad, the Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: 1 Speed The only way I can ever see it working is if the players and the GM have a tremendous sense of humor. The only example of a character I've ever heard of having a SPD of 1 was a brick known as the Sloth. He was really really really strong, but he was also really really really slow. He had incredibly high defenses, and had a disadvantage that required him to make an EGO roll, or take a nap. In one situation, the heroes attacked a VIPER base by dropping him on it. He woke up briefly, wandered around while being fired upon, and fell asleep again. Finally, during a battle with the Nest Leader, Sloth woke up, noticed the Nest Leader was right there, grabbed his foot, and fell asleep with it. After which, the other players nailed the poor Nest Leader. I guess you had to be there. It was funny at the time... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: 1 Speed SPD 1 is DNPC material, powers or no. At times with my SPD 4 character I feel like a DNPC. Unless Active Point caps are explicitly waived or relaxed for such a character, it just can't be viable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: 1 Speed SPD 1 for a baby. No way. You turn your back on them for a second. And when you look back they have teleported 50 yards away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh Neilson Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: 1 Speed SPD 1 for a baby. No way. You turn your back on them for a second. And when you look back they have teleported 50 yards away. Babies tend to hold that one action per turn until no one's looking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garou Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: 1 Speed I drew up a concept for a Spd 1 character at one point. He was increidbly tough, to the point where most physical or energy attacks could be shrugged off, and he had enough knockback resistance that he probably wasn't going to go anywhere. What killed the concept (for me, anyway) was the campaign guidelines. The rough guide was Max AP/phase = 500/Spd. Which meant, in other words, that when his one phase came, he could let fly with a 50d6 attack and still be well under the guidelines. Heck, I could have cut it down to 40d6 and put in some things like armor-piercing or something. (This was in a campaign where the average PD/ED was 20-30, with bricks being about 30-35 to start). Anyway, I statted him out, and had enough points for a few CSLs - cheap, since they only had to work with the one attack. I gave him up because it was essentially a one-trick pony, and it would get awfully boring and awfully annoying really quickly. I mean, once per turn, unless villains managed to bring him down, he would obliterate the toughest foe he could see - where's the fun in that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: 1 Speed One word: Entangle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: 1 Speed I never PLAYED the character, but I designed a 1 SPD character that was based on Damage Shields, strong defenses, a massive constant AoE Drain vs STR centered on him, and resetting triggers a while back. I think I called him Ennui or Atrophy, or maybe Apathy. Can't remember which I settled on. The character looked to be pretty nasty in a cheesy sort of way, but so boring and completely meta that I tossed it. I might have the file laying around somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: 1 Speed The only way I can ever see it working is if the players and the GM have a tremendous sense of humor. The only example of a character I've ever heard of having a SPD of 1 was a brick known as the Sloth. He was really really really strong, but he was also really really really slow. He had incredibly high defenses, and had a disadvantage that required him to make an EGO roll, or take a nap. In one situation, the heroes attacked a VIPER base by dropping him on it. He woke up briefly, wandered around while being fired upon, and fell asleep again. Finally, during a battle with the Nest Leader, Sloth woke up, noticed the Nest Leader was right there, grabbed his foot, and fell asleep with it. After which, the other players nailed the poor Nest Leader. I guess you had to be there. It was funny at the time... That's how to make your Disadvantages work for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garou Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: 1 Speed One word: Entangle. Yep, I considered it. So, I bought up a bunch of Str, only to break free from entangles. It got pretty cheap. The real big weakness was other people's ability to run up, smack him, and run around a corner before he could do anything about it. But, if you were still in the open, he could lay down some potential hurt. As I said, it's a one-trick pony. Once you know the trick, getting around it was reasonably easy. I suppose it could work in a team, if people keep chucking targets at Slowpoke just before he takes his action, but it requires good teamwork and shoring up of his weaknesses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gojira Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: 1 Speed Finally, during a battle with the Nest Leader, Sloth woke up, noticed the Nest Leader was right there, grabbed his foot, and fell asleep with it. After which, the other players nailed the poor Nest Leader. Too funny. I owe you rep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinecone Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: 1 Speed This reminds me of a joke concept character I used to play around with..."Stassis lad"...who moved so slowly that everyone missed him because they expected him to dodge around like a normal lightning fast super agile character...so he had levels with DCV only if he was slower than you, and seeing that even Normals have a speed of 2, speed one seemed a natural, and it fit his "power set" He never got past the fun to talk about stage....Hmmm +10 DCV, only vs foes that are faster....say Dex of 30, and I can sell back 3 points of speed ..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted November 5, 2005 Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 Re: 1 Speed This reminds me of a joke concept character I used to play around with..."Stassis lad"...who moved so slowly that everyone missed him because they expected him to dodge around like a normal lightning fast super agile character...so he had levels with DCV only if he was slower than you, and seeing that even Normals have a speed of 2, speed one seemed a natural, and it fit his "power set" He never got past the fun to talk about stage....Hmmm +10 DCV, only vs foes that are faster....say Dex of 30, and I can sell back 3 points of speed ..... Thats funny until someone yells "GRENAAAAAAADE!!!!!", and then all that DCV curls up in a corner and cries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinecone Posted November 5, 2005 Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 Re: 1 Speed Thats funny until someone yells "GRENAAAAAAADE!!!!!"' date=' and then all that DCV curls up in a corner and cries.[/quote'] Dude...Dex 30! dive for cover!... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SatinKitty Posted November 5, 2005 Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 Re: 1 Speed What about those Rock Creatures from another planet whose metabolism was so slow, it was hard to tell they were sentient ? Their speed would be much less than 1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gewing Posted November 5, 2005 Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 Re: 1 Speed The only way I can ever see it working is if the players and the GM have a tremendous sense of humor. The only example of a character I've ever heard of having a SPD of 1 was a brick known as the Sloth. He was really really really strong, but he was also really really really slow. He had incredibly high defenses, and had a disadvantage that required him to make an EGO roll, or take a nap. In one situation, the heroes attacked a VIPER base by dropping him on it. He woke up briefly, wandered around while being fired upon, and fell asleep again. Finally, during a battle with the Nest Leader, Sloth woke up, noticed the Nest Leader was right there, grabbed his foot, and fell asleep with it. After which, the other players nailed the poor Nest Leader. I guess you had to be there. It was funny at the time... Supermegatopia has Zippy the wonder sloth, maybe this is his cousin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted November 5, 2005 Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 Re: 1 Speed What about those Rock Creatures from another planet whose metabolism was so slow' date=' it was hard to tell they were sentient ? Their speed would be much less than 1.[/quote'] I think youre talking about the Tor from Dinosaur Planet by Anne McCafferey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted November 5, 2005 Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 Re: 1 Speed Dude...Dex 30! dive for cover!... Well there goes that TURN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrosshairCollie Posted November 5, 2005 Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 Re: 1 Speed Dude...Dex 30! dive for cover!... That works until you run into two guys with grenades ... or one guy with two grenades, for that matter. Got to pull a stunt like that one ... high DEX martial-artist did a dive for cover against one agent's AE Hex Entangle, so the next agent in line used HIS AE Hex Entangle. Then agent #3 used the Brickbuster ... referring to the superhero archetype, not the building material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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