12 months, 12 characters. January. The Speedster

[Opale]

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

 

Well, no GM would ever do this to me

.

Two reasons : One I'm GMistress, and we are a pretty rare kind. Second, I'd not do anymore pies for the RPG sessions. Yes I know it's blackmail, and so what ?

 

Winking Opale

[Doc Samson]

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

 

Hi all. I used Unified to model a much less streamlined limitation in one of the powers books. It was something along the lines of powers only work while spinning or moving. As a GM, I wouldn't want to have to constantly ask the player if he was spinning so I though it would be neater to say that if anything inhibits the character ability to spin, it effects all his power with a SFX of spinning. In game terms, unified power does this in relation to adjustment powers. I could probably create the same effect using restrainable but then having a power that enhances a character's ability to escape would be cheesy I thought.

 

Also, as Hyper-Man pointed out, Unified is kind of the 6e version of an Elemental Control which both rewards and limits character's who pretty much have one giant power that they use for a lot of different effects.

[psyber624]

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

 

Slapping unified power on everything seems weird, and several of those powers should probably have Linked instead of Unified Power, IE they can only be used if he is "Whirling", if he can't for some reason (such as an entangle) then his powers stop working. Not sure what I would use as the base power for the Link (probably the running, but it would have to be moved out of the Multipower for that to work.)

 

Also, as it stands you have no skills at all but have already spent 390 points, so you have a pretty one dimensional character, just an opinion.

[Doc Samson]

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

 

It was just a starting point. Tough crowd:p...

[Doc Samson]

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

 

Slapping unified power on everything seems weird, and several of those powers should probably have Linked instead of Unified Power, IE they can only be used if he is "Whirling", if he can't for some reason (such as an entangle) then his powers stop working. Not sure what I would use as the base power for the Link (probably the running, but it would have to be moved out of the Multipower for that to work.)

 

Also, as it stands you have no skills at all but have already spent 390 points, so you have a pretty one dimensional character, just an opinion.

 

Ouch, as I wrote above it's not a character, it was just a starting point. Tough crowd...

 

I agree unified may not be the best way to build whirling but linking things to running (which I think was suggested in the 5e Ultimate Speedster) means the Linked powers won't work if he spins in place (which didn't make sense to me).

[Opale]

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

 

What about Restrainable limiter then ? Meaning powers doesn't work if he can't spin, i.e having his legs free.

but that makes some of his powers unworthy (against Grab/Entangle)

 

Unrestrained Opale

[Pattern Ghost]

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

 

Jumping in late, but I'll toss out some ideas/opinions! I think the build a month thing sounds fun.

 

another thing to consider:- do the Speedster's powers and statistics come from an artificial means i.e. drugs' date=' a magic ring/amulet, a speed suit etc[/quote']

 

I kind of like accident origins, as it lets you play the reluctant hero or the lottery winner, as you wish. Pretty flexible.

 

Minimum Dex will be 27 and a minimum speed of 6.

 

I kind of favor lower speed unless he's trained in combat, so 6 works for me. DEX also doesn't have to be that high for game terms, maybe 24, but with levels in combat reflexes to reflect his reaction times. I'd even go lower if this is 6th, with decoupled secondaries.

 

But how about other statistics ?

I tend to up INT and EGO to 18 for the trade offs in skills and increasing ECV.

But what do people think ? How intelligent should our speedster be ?

 

I'd go a tier lower and put INT at 13, unless background indicated otherwise. That'll leave some room for failure, and room to have a few INT-based things the character is particularly good at by buying up +1 or +2 levels. I'd include buying up Sight PER checks in that (and maybe some telescopic vision), so that our speedster can see what's coming up. (That idea was the basis for my Greyhound character.)

 

How strong as well ?

 

IMO, bricks should be able to run like the wind. They have strong leg muscles after all. But speedsters aren't bricks, so I'd keep the STR low enough not to head into demi-brick land, but high enough to carry one or two people, or one bigger person along. So, maybe 15-25 range. I'd probably go with 20-25.

 

another thing to consider:- do the Speedster's powers and statistics come from an artificial means i.e. drugs' date=' a magic ring/amulet, a speed suit etc[/quote']

 

Do we need the points?

 

I tend to prefer innate powers, but anything goes. A zero friction suit can make for an interesting, and slippery, speedster. Used to have one as a villain. I think there's a published character with the same schtick.

 

 

ETA: Uh, I answered one twice. Sue me. =P

[death tribble]

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

 

What talents should the Speedster have ? An innate sense of direction ? Or time ?

 

And what skills should the Speedster have naturally like City Knowledge, Area Knowledge, Professional Skill and what others should they have ?

[Opale]

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

 

With speedster reflexes, I'll think about

 

Acrobatics

Breakfall

Defense maneuver

Skill levels with movement mode

power tricks (speedster)

CuK (campaign city)

AK (Region)

KS : other speedster (for rivalry)

KS: Physics (for more scientific approach and ideas about speed powers)

weaponsmith (for disabling agents weapons at superspeed)

 

 

Speeded Opale

[Matt Holck]

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

 

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.

 

Characters may now take "counts as a fish" as a 5 or 10 point complication depending if it is a joke or a serious joke

[Wyrm Ouroboros]

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

 

There are certain powers I've associated with Speedsters, but the one that I've always thought of as being key was actually something along these lines:

 

Can't Slow Down: +2 SPD, Inherent (+1/4) (25 Active Points); Always On (-1/2): 17 real cost.

 

Most people will think this is a con of some sort, but for 3 points, it means that if you hit the speedster with anything that affects them on their SPD, such as a gas or drowning, it affects them much faster than anyone else who can voluntarily lower their SPD to 2.

 

There's also 'increased SPD, costs END' for pushing themselves to be even faster.

 

As for flight or teleportation, there are a dozen or more such tricks: moving so fast you can run across water or up any surface (Flight, only in contact with surface, must make at least half-move); running so fast people don't see you get from A to B (Teleportation, Must pass through intervening space); running so incredibly fast you can cover continents in the blink of an eye (Teleportation, megascale, must pass etc.). Other tricks include hitting everyone around you by moving really fast (AoE on a hand attack punch of some sort), hitting them with a sonic boom (make a HA into an energy attack or Flash), setting up a harmonic wave and disrupting it (HKA, only vs. rigid targets, extra time), getting out of the way (force field/combat luck), speed-reading (very rapidly - x100,000?) moving so fast you dodge bullets without even looking like it (Desolidification, affected by full AOE (not AOE Accurate) attacks), moving so fast you're functionally in multiple places at once (Duplication with Feedback), missile deflection, and even making your senses into full AoE (looking everywhere at once, or even touching everything at once, incredibly quickly).

[Pattern Ghost]

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

 

What talents should the Speedster have ? An innate sense of direction ? Or time ?

 

And what skills should the Speedster have naturally like City Knowledge, Area Knowledge, Professional Skill and what others should they have ?

 

A speedster with absolutely no sense of direction because he's so fast that he's never needed it might be funny. When you can make ten wrong turns a second, you'll still eventually get there.

 

For skills, I like AK: Shortcuts for the city of operation. I always like a couple KS that reflect background, too. For example, Greyhound might have KS: Dog Racing and Gambling as background skills since he's kind of a minor miscreant at heart.

[Pattern Ghost]

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

 

 

Can't Slow Down: +2 SPD, Inherent (+1/4) (25 Active Points); Always On (-1/2): 17 real cost.

 

Most people will think this is a con of some sort, but for 3 points, it means that if you hit the speedster with anything that affects them on their SPD, such as a gas or drowning, it affects them much faster than anyone else who can voluntarily lower their SPD to 2.

 

Nice.

 

There's also 'increased SPD, costs END' for pushing themselves to be even faster.

 

I prefer to do this with increased movement (or other appropriate powers) to avoid dealing with SPD changes during game time. That gets a little clunky for me. (Granted, not for other people necessarily, this is just a matter of preference.)

[Wyrm Ouroboros]

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

 

I prefer to do this with increased movement (or other appropriate powers) to avoid dealing with SPD changes during game time. That gets a little clunky for me. (Granted' date=' not for other people necessarily, this is just a matter of preference.)[/quote']

 

That's one way of doing it, but sometimes you need more actions, not just more distance. It's typically understood, though - a -0 Disadvantage, if you will - that you can only put the power into effect on Phase 12. Then you sustain it Turn-by-Turn. Because SPD doesn't usually cost END, I give it a -1/4 effect of 'costs END every Turn' - kind of a crossover between END every Phase and Delayed END Cost.

[Hyper-Man]

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

 

I really like the concept of using 3 Overall Levels to represent an aspect of Superspeed (I first saw this used by OddHat in his Flash homage Always). They can be used for anything including moving the time it takes to complete non-combat actions 1 step down the Time Chart (something that normally takes 1 Minute now takes 1 Turn).

[Wyrm Ouroboros]

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

 

Hmm. I wasn't aware there was a framework for doing that. I presumed rushing a job (moving it 1 step faster) was a -2 for some reason, but ... that's a nice use.

[Hyper-Man]

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

 

Rushing is -3 per step on the Time Chart.

[psyber624]

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

 

For skills:

Breakfall is almost mandatory to avoid damage if we are forced to loose control at high speeds. And a Speedster Power Skill is likewise very important (there are just too many things you can do with superspeed to NOT have this as and option.) Acrobatics and Sleight of Hand are also easily justifiable. The rest fall more into what his background is which is entirely independent of his speedster power itself and we really haven't defined.

 

For Perks: The same thing basically applies. Nothing seems overly appropriate for "Whirling Speedster" itself, we can definitely add some flavor to the character here of course but that all depends on things that haven't been determined yet.

 

For Talents: Any of the SPD related ones would be appropriate, Lightning Calculator, Lightning Reflexes, Speed Reading, etc. Combat Luck is a good defense as well (as already noted above). Danger Sense/Combat Sense can also be added to the pot with speedster-centric SFX (Danger Sense being that he can "sense" an attack right before it happens and still have time to react to it sort of thing)

[death tribble]

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

 

I would prefer that for the speedster, any level of player could use them. That means visualising what they do and using the rules. So let's keep some of this simple.

 

Now if we have increased strength I would suggest that Con and Body be increased. For energy prohectors I usually use 23 so if the Speedster has increased strength I would suggest increased endurance so 20-23 for Con. As for Body 13 seems reasonable if Con and Str are 18 plus. Thoughts ?

I would say that Stun would not be great unless this was a very experienced speedster so this may depend on background.

 

After the weekend sample builds begin. Please bear in mind we are not trying to outdo The Flash.

Also for those interested we decide on male or female and costume designs for the artwork.

 

Just read this from Cassandra. Any comments on the template for Speedsters. Please note her posts 1 and 2 are not duplicates.

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php/92874-Superhero-Characteristics-Templates

[death tribble]

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

 

Anyone wanting to post sample builds can do so now. Also can someone drop me via PM the maths for calculating OCV, DCV etc under 6th edition.

 

Sample backgrounds as well which should be left genderless from the point of view of the speedster.

 

For those wanting to contribute to the debate on the artwork we need to decide male or female before doing anything else on costume design.

[Tom Cowan]

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

 

uh, 6th does not have 'calculated OCV', so it is base of three plus levels of OCV, for cost 5 per level

no Dex or other stats adding to the OCV

[death tribble]

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

 

Using Cassandra's template as a start

I'll add to this using 5th as a template to do 6th edition version.

 

Speedster

 

5th Edition

Value Char cost

20 STR 10

27 DEX 51

20 CON 20

12 BODY 4

13 INT 3

11 EGO 2

15 PRE 5

18 COM 4

6 PD 2

6 ED 2

6 SPD 23

10 REC 12

50 END 5

32 STUN

 

Cost 147

 

6th edition

Value Char cost

20 STR 10

27 DEX 34

20 CON 10

15 BODY 5

13 INT 3

12 EGO 2

10 OCV 35

12 DCV 45

3 OCMV 0

3 DCMV 0

15 PRE 5

6 PD 4

4 ED 2

6 SPD 40

10 REC 6

50 END 6

32 STUN 6

 

Cost 213

[death tribble]

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

 

Still looking for people to suggest a background and for the art pick gender and costume designs.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

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

 

Which form of movement / sfx have been decided upon? Origin might depend on that.

[ayinde]

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

 

can I put in a vote for unknown origin. just run with the idea and origin will fall into logical place