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12 months, 12 characters. January. The Speedster


death tribble

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So the first character is a Speedster. This brings to mind MPH from Astro City, Quicksilver from Marvel but more likely The Flash from DC whether it is Barry Allen or Wally West.

 

Assume for all the generic characters that there is a campaign Dexterity of 20 to 23 and a Speed of 5.

That being the case will the Speedster that we design have a higher Dexterity say 30 to 35 ?

And would their Speed be greater from say 6 to 8 ?

 

The Speedster also needs to have a particular movement power. If we are going to keep things simple and easy to use, then this will be running. If anyone can make a case for flight, swimming or teleportation, please do.

 

After we have made some agreements on the above then we can discuss the other statistics, talents, skills and powers.

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Re: 12 months, 12 characters. January. The Speedster

 

I'm not sure why but I always liked the "whirling" type speedster like Whirlwind from Marvel Comics, maybe because the Champion's powers books always listed whirling as an alternative speedster special effect.

 

While I understand that a speedster does not necessarily need a high SPD to fit the concept, I like it as a mechanic to set them apart from archetypes that fit a similar role in combat (like Martial Artists). As such, my Speedsters usually have DEX, SPDs, and CVs in the superhuman range (based on the chart in the rulebooks). I recommend a DEX of 31, a SPD of 8, and CVs of 11 as a starting point.

 

Running fits the Whirling speedster and opens up the door for movement tricks like Tunneling (the character can spin fast enough to drill through the ground) and maybe Leaping (the character can lift off by extending his or her arms like a helicopter).

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Re: 12 months, 12 characters. January. The Speedster

 

I was toying around with a temporal speedster a few months ago, (has time powers that allow him to slow down time for himself, making him appear to speed up for everyone else). Just a thought.

 

I think SPD 6-7 might be appropriate if the campaign avg is 5. Definitely faster but not annoyingly so. I feel that 8 is too high as he becomes really hard to balance damage wise to slower characters at that level (3 extra attacks means that either he should struggle to hit (which would be odd for a speed concept) or his DC's would have to be dropped to the point that bricks become untouchable for him).

 

Edit: as far as DEX goes if this is 6th ed then we really don't need to push to 35 and such, it really doesn't give us anything. 25ish is faster than most and gives us a 14- on all our dex based skills. At MOST 28 for a 15-. Buy lightning reflexes to ensure we go first against non-speedsters and we should be fine.

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Re: 12 months, 12 characters. January. The Speedster

 

I'm not sure why but I always liked the "whirling" type speedster like Whirlwind from Marvel Comics, maybe because the Champion's powers books always listed whirling as an alternative speedster special effect.

 

While I understand that a speedster does not necessarily need a high SPD to fit the concept, I like it as a mechanic to set them apart from archetypes that fit a similar role in combat (like Martial Artists). As such, my Speedsters usually have DEX, SPDs, and CVs in the superhuman range (based on the chart in the rulebooks). I recommend a DEX of 31, a SPD of 8, and CVs of 11 as a starting point.

 

Running fits the Whirling speedster and opens up the door for movement tricks like Tunneling (the character can spin fast enough to drill through the ground) and maybe Leaping (the character can lift off by extending his or her arms like a helicopter).

 

I was actually thinking of suggesting a whirling type, so I support this idea.

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Re: 12 months, 12 characters. January. The Speedster

 

INT should really be based on his background. If his powers come from some gadget/experiment/etc then a high INT is appropriate. If on the other hand he is a mutant/alien/whatever INT is less important unless we are loading him up on skills. I will note that PER can be important for a speedster depending on GM/Movement powers so that is another reason to boost it up a bit.

 

EGO 18 sounds good. It makes sure that only powerful mentalists can really do anything nasty to him with mind control (It will take around 10-11 dice of Mind Control before he is likely to be able to be forced to do something he normally wouldn't do (EGO + 20)) I guess that means we are going 5e if it affects ECV.

 

STR should be around 18-23. Most speedsters use their fists for damage so I think we want him to be at least superhuman strong. We can boost his damage with HA to represent speed of punches.

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Re: 12 months, 12 characters. January. The Speedster

 

STR should be around 18-23. Most speedsters use their fists for damage so I think we want him to be at least superhuman strong. We can boost his damage with HA to represent speed of punches.

 

18-23 STR could be explained by increased muscular development induced by the stress put on his frame by frequent high speeds (g-forces).

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Re: 12 months, 12 characters. January. The Speedster

 

The only issue I have with STR 35 is that it is moving him into brick territory, he can pick up and throw around cars and the like. I would not envision a speedster doing that with his base strength, it would require a speedster trick of some kind to pull that off (if we go with the whirling concept some form of a tornado picking up the car and throwing it, which sounds more like TK than base strength to me).

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Re: 12 months, 12 characters. January. The Speedster

 

I know it's cheating but.... :P

 

Hypersonic

 

Faster than you all Opale !

 

I don't call that cheating I call that a good example. Thanks !

 

I call STR 40 plus Brick territory but Psyber624 does have a point.

 

Getting onto powers I would like to avoid a Variable Power Pool but a Multipower and Elemental Control would be feasible.

In order to do this where do people want the powers to come from ?

Options are:

Mutant

Accident

Focus like a ring, necklace or a speed suit

 

If it helps come up with a cogent background to explain the powers. Please make the person sexless at present so it could be male/female. You can use names like Leslie/Lesley and Steve (suprisingingly ther have been girls called Steve). George/Georgina is another option.

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Re: 12 months, 12 characters. January. The Speedster

 

I don't call that cheating I call that a good example. Thanks !

 

I call STR 40 plus Brick territory but Psyber624 does have a point.

 

Getting onto powers I would like to avoid a Variable Power Pool but a Multipower and Elemental Control would be feasible.

In order to do this where do people want the powers to come from ?

Options are:

Mutant

Accident

Focus like a ring, necklace or a speed suit

 

If it helps come up with a cogent background to explain the powers. Please make the person sexless at present so it could be male/female. You can use names like Leslie/Lesley and Steve (suprisingingly ther have been girls called Steve). George/Georgina is another option.

I didn't know we were allowed to throw full characters out!

 

Here is my template for a Whirling Speedster I haven't played yet. He doesn't have any personality or background yet so right now he is just a starting point for characteristics and powers.

 

(EDIT)

Back to the drawing board

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Re: 12 months, 12 characters. January. The Speedster

 

Mutant has always been one of my favorite origins (since it forces me to be more creative coming up with a background story) but Focus does have the benefit of giving us a built in Limitation to help reduce the cost of powers.

 

Ever since I got "The Ultimate Speedster" I have wanted to play around with a highly "trick-centric" build and anything that can honestly reduce the cost of powers (without being abusive/cheesy) is always welcome.

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Re: 12 months, 12 characters. January. The Speedster

 

@DocSamson : I like the idea but I have a question tough.

 

How do you explain the Unified Power Limiter on all his powers ? Isn't that a cheesy way to make it costless, without a good reason ? I know me or my Co-GM will point that out.

And for his super strength, wouldn't that be better to divide it and make him buy a partial STR with a "Only When Whirling" -1/2 limiter ?

 

and what about adding Twister Attraction and Throw: Telekinesis (34 STR), Affects Porous (61 Active Points); No Range (-1/2), Instant (-1/2), Affects Whole Object (-1/4), Unified Power (-1/4) ? in the multipower ?

 

Looking for your character fully written hopingly :)

 

Whirling Opale

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Re: 12 months, 12 characters. January. The Speedster

 

yes I know that Hyper-Man. :)

My question is more : How do you justify this limiter ? because to me, it's just cheesy.

 

pointless Opale

 

It's no more cheesy than the 5th edition Framework that it replaced: Elemental Control.

It imposes exactly the same negative consequences as that Framework did. However, it only affects the character if Power Drains make the occasional appearance in the campaign universe. If they never do, then I agree it would be a cheesy limitation to take. But that goes for ALL limiations. Like Disadvantages/Complications, Limitations should be interpreted by a GM as a message from from the player saying "I want my character to be faced with these challenges in-game".

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Re: 12 months, 12 characters. January. The Speedster

 

If a Drain is used against a single power inside of a Multipower or VPP that does NOT have the Unified Power Limitation it means that ONLY that single power is affected. If the Framework in question is full of various slots representing the different versions of Ruby-Optic Blasts of Cyclops (AP, AOE, No Range Modifier, x2 Knockback, etc...) this ends up being incongruous with the special effect in question. Something that Drains his Ruby-Optic Energy should affect his ability to generate that energy period. This can be paid for with an additional Advantage on the Drain itself or a Limitation (Unified Power) on the target Power(s).

 

Replace Ruby-Optic Energy with Super-Speed or Speedforce and the argument is still the same.

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Re: 12 months, 12 characters. January. The Speedster

 

I totally agree with you Hype, just when I'm not GMistress, the GM is usually lazy about recalculating scores and such from Drains and Aids, so he simply forbid some.

Which is perfectly understandable !

 

Better to agree with the GM than with the System as I use to say !

 

Diplomat Opale

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Re: 12 months, 12 characters. January. The Speedster

 

I totally agree with you Hype, just when I'm not GMistress, the GM is usually lazy about recalculating scores and such from Drains and Aids, so he simply forbid some.

Which is perfectly understandable !

 

Better to agree with the GM than with the System as I use to say !

 

Diplomat Opale

 

Yes, I agree.

 

The ONLY time I would complain in that situation is IF the GM (after refusing to allow Unified) later introduced an NPC with a single-Power-targeting Drain and rules that it affects ALL slots in my character's Multipower or VPP (Exactly the opposite of RAW and what taking Unified is supposed to represent) thereby enforcing the effects of the Limitation without the points savings it deserves.

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