Range of Operation

[Hadmar von Wieser]

 Question to all:  How do you simulate moving at the speed of light for characters like Flash or Marvel's Captain Marvel II/Pulsar/Photon/Spectrum?

 

I built FLASH with a 60 pt. Variable Power Pool using ALL of these options and some more:

All 60 pts. in Combat Running

Almost all pts. in Non Combat Running Multiples

Megascale Running

Teleportation 20m; Must Pass Through Intervening Space (-¼)

Non Combat Teleportation

 

EXTRA-DIMENSIONAL MOVEMENT, Costs Endurance (-½): Move to a dimension where everything but the character is frozen and cannot be affected in any way.

And most important and surprisingly simple:

12 SPD practically lets you move between other your usual interaction with other characters. Even if they can influence some of this segments by aborting or AOE or other effects, they can not influence ALL 12 segments.

Other players hate him when it's his turn for the third time in a row. But as he is using his Variable Power Pool to get those +6 SPD (adding to his usual 6 SPD) he is just a mere mortal without most powers. So he can box and shove a bit, rearrange things, do skill rolls for free, and the like, but usually not that much that makes a super-powered partner or opponent look small.

That is rather close to the way most FLASH's actions are depicted in comics and films.

Let's face it: Most of the time he isn't moving fast.

In the TV series you see red streaks. That means he is moving at 3000 km/h. That is incredibly slow compared to light.

In the comics he usually covers a few hundred meters on one to three panels (before some other character moves). Once again: That is fast, but about 1/1000 of light speed.

Even if he searches the whole base of the villain while BATMAN gives orders to the other heros this is not much faster.

And even searching through Central City in one picture is not light speed.

Remember those races between SUPERMAN and FLASH around the whole world? They needed a full comic book for that. Light circles the planet in one second. Seven times!

 

And the FX tell us the same: There usually is no super-sonic boom, only a few papers flying around. There is nothing close to the shockwave a 100kg meteorite entering earth's atmosphere would create. Imagine a car passing you by standing at a highway. You actually feel that. FLASH passing by at 3000 km/h would hit you faster than a tornado. FLASH passing by at 90% Light Speed would heat the atmosphere to 10.000°, vaporize Central City, end all life on this planet, and then throw earth from it's orbit.

 

So FLASH doesn't move at Light Speed - except for very special dramatic situations.