Haven Walkur Posted June 21, 2007 Report Share Posted June 21, 2007 Speedster with a flaw: Tiger Beetle! Last night on the Nature Channel I saw a program about the ten fastest animals on Earth -- and Number 1 was the tiger beetle. If this large glossy black bug -- which looks a lot like a stag beetle -- were the size of a human, its running speed would be 300+ mph. But even more interesting than this bug's speed is the fact that when the tiger beetle runs at its full speed, it literally goes blind! The tiger beetle has two large prominent greeny-gold eyes and its vision is very keen...but only when the beetle is immobile or moving slowly. When the tiger beetle moves fast, the influx of visual information comes too quickly for the beetle's buggy brain to process. Instead of resolving the incoming visual data to produce coherent images, the beetle goes blind for the duration of its run. Yes, the tiger beetle moves too fast for its brain! And to accommodate the visual lapse, the beetle generally spots its target from a distance, orients on the target -- and then charges at the target headlong and blindly. This interesting bit of trivia made me wonder if a Speedster character could be designed based on the tiger beetle model. It would be an interesting variant on the Speedster trope, for which names like "Rush," or "Headlong" (or Tiger Beetle, of course) might be appropriate. The character would be incredibly fast -- even by Speedster standards -- but subject to visual "blackouts" or blindness when he/she uses his/her Powers to the full. The character would be capable of moving so fast that his/her visual senses would be overloaded; the electronic impulses in his/her nervous system wouldn't be fast enough to keep up with the flood of visual data as he/she ran. (Which means, BTW, that the Speedster's body would be moving faster than the nerve impulses to his/her brain -- actually only about 250 mph -- or something odd is happening with the speed of light.) Like overdriving your headlights at night, this Speedster could actually overrun his/her sight! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MitchellS Posted June 21, 2007 Report Share Posted June 21, 2007 Re: Tiger Beetle! It was stated by Steve some time ago that you needed to buy megascale sight linked to your megascale movement in order to be able to see at those speeds. Of course no one has purchased it in any of the books that I can remember seeing. So technically every speedster with megascale movement is running blind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddHat Posted June 21, 2007 Report Share Posted June 21, 2007 Re: Tiger Beetle! Sounds fun. I guess you'd build the character with +4 or so hearing so he could target with a non-targeting sense in HtH, or just accept that he's going to miss a lot with his move throughs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Serpent Posted June 21, 2007 Report Share Posted June 21, 2007 Re: Tiger Beetle! "Never drive faster than you can see." Could be fun. I wrote up a teen champions villain, "Runaway", a while back that didn't have this particular problem, but did have issues stopping quickly or making sudden or tight turns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodstone Posted June 21, 2007 Report Share Posted June 21, 2007 Re: Tiger Beetle! It was stated by Steve some time ago that you needed to buy megascale sight linked to your megascale movement in order to be able to see at those speeds. Of course no one has purchased it in any of the books that I can remember seeing. So technically every speedster with megascale movement is running blind. Off the top of my head, Tempo from Galactic Champions and Reya de Plata from Champions Worldwide both have it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MitchellS Posted June 21, 2007 Report Share Posted June 21, 2007 Re: Tiger Beetle! Off the top of my head' date=' Tempo from Galactic Champions and Reya de Plata from Champions Worldwide both have it.[/quote'] I knew there was a couple but since I no longer play Champions most of the character data has been selectively removed from my brain and replaced with M&M characters' information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted June 21, 2007 Report Share Posted June 21, 2007 Re: Tiger Beetle! Sounds fun. I guess you'd build the character with +4 or so hearing so he could target with a non-targeting sense in HtH, or just accept that he's going to miss a lot with his move throughs. ... though if your movement is supersonic, hearing can't help... better buy Radar Sense or something. And you'd also better buy extra armor (perhaps limited to protect against damage caused by your own movement) ... I think the beetle has, in effect, done that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkwleisemann Posted June 21, 2007 Report Share Posted June 21, 2007 Re: Tiger Beetle! Bonus OCV with Move Throughs? And I think non-limited armor... just think, a speedster who legimitately has concept-based reasons for campaign-normal (or better) defenses! That's unusual, without the Combat Luck.... Perhaps a new form of Speed Brick, rather like the various Rhino knock-offs.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haven Walkur Posted June 22, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2007 Re: Tiger Beetle! A Speed Brick -- I like that concept, JKW! It's not a Speedster variant I'd ever encountered before. (However, I cannot rep you at this time, blah blah blah.)l As Cancer pointed out, the tiger beetle itself is a heavily armored specimen of bug-dom. It also possesses formidable mandibles that allow it to grab or grapple its prey once the beetle has slammed into it.... So could we be talking about giving our Speed Brick some wrestling moves? An enhanced Grab manoeuvre, perhaps? Or how about pincer-hands (or pincer-gloves), an entangling net or actual mechanical grapples to allow "Tiger Beetle" to more effectively seize his/her opponents after ramming into them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comic Posted June 22, 2007 Report Share Posted June 22, 2007 Re: Tiger Beetle! Huh. I'd thought buying N-Ray and enough levels with enhanced perception would work for mega-vision? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MitchellS Posted June 22, 2007 Report Share Posted June 22, 2007 Re: Tiger Beetle! Huh. I'd thought buying N-Ray and enough levels with enhanced perception would work for mega-vision? Sight has a fixed cost of 25 points. Putting megascale on it is cheap. 1 level of megascale costs 6 points and when you throw on a linked to megascale movement you end up with a cost of 4 points [the level of megascale vision bought needs to match the level of megascale movement bought though]. That's far cheaper then N-ray and enhanced perception. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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