Burst of speed

By Ali Mesratep, in Star Wars: Force and Destiny RPG

I was watching the Phantom Menace few week ago (again) and it reminded me the Burst of speed Force power. Is there a way to handle this kind of Force feat with F&D (or EotE or AoR) ?

· A new Enhance Force power Control (or Range) upgrade? (is there room for that?)

· An add-on to the description Enhance basic power or upgrade?

The character takes his maneuver to move, then he takes an Athletic skill action (with his Force Rating as part of the dice pool) to sprint: according to me he gets another move for sprinting and he may use two advantages to get another extra move (as any mundane athlete can do it). Then he may use Force Points (one or two?) to get extra move maneuvers (with or without limitation?). Which allow a Force user with the Enhance force power to move really fast (I mean “super speed” fast) as we saw it in the Phantom Menace . I summarize: the user may spend XX Force Points to gain another (or extra) move action(s).

· Another narrative way to describe the Force leap from the Enhance Force power?

· A new Force power tree? (yuck! yuck! yuck! yuck! yuck!)

· Any other Force power?

· A Talent from a Specialization tree that eluded my vigilance?

Edited by Ali Mesratep

The only talent I have always associated with Burst of Speed is Quick Movement from Pathfinder tree.

Enhance. First control upgrade on the right + range upgrade.

One action, two pips, move from engaged to medium range. Since its an action, you can still take maneuvers to move even farther,allowing you to cover serious ground.

The other use of Enhance, boosting Athletics, can also be used. Given that Athletics is the basis for the chase mechanic, it makes it pretty easy for a Force user to outrun someone.

Generally you're going to want the Enhance power.

Taking the full assortment of Upgrades on the right hand side of the three will enable a PC to got to any spot within Medium Range while largely bypassing any difficult terrain as a maneuver, and can easily be done twice, possibly even three times if you're willing to use your free Maneuver for one activation, your one Action for a second activation, and then suffering 2 strain for a second maneuver for a third activation.

That pretty much covers the "burst of speed" we see in TPM, with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan simply choosing to move horizontally instead of vertically, covering a whole lot of distance in a hurry.

The boost to Athletics and Coordination can be useful for on-foot chase sequences, especially if you've got multiple Force dice since you're more liable to get the extra successes you need to catch up to or outrun the other party. Which can be described via the narrative as running incredibly fast or making prodigious leaps over/across various obstacles (PARKOUR!)

Question. Apart of Clone Wars (cartoon) and Episode I, and without considering "Force Jumps", Force Speed/Burst of Speed appeared elsewhere?

About the post, well, I will use or the Athletics Enhance or the Control Upgrade (Leap). But I prefer the first option sincerelly.

Also I would like to add that we don't use Burst of Speed in out games because, well, it's weird that Jedi only used it there (Ep 1) and not on other scenes (that would made a lot of sense). So we agreed on: Yes to Enhances and Leaps, not to Bursts.

Edited by Josep Maria

I always thought it strange that Kenobi didn't use Burst of Speed to catch up with Maul and Jinn during the Theed battle. :/ Not a massive fan of Burst of Speed as it appeared in previous RPGs, and much prefer the application of Enhance for jumps and increased athletic ability.

There was an argument on whether or not Burst of Speed was actually an enhanced ability or an illusion because Obi-wan didn't use the ability during the Duel at Theed. Then again I suppose plot demanded to have Qui-gon die... a poor decision in my eyes.

There was the Knight's Speed power in the KOTOR games and Star Wars Saga RPG.

There was an argument on whether or not Burst of Speed was actually an enhanced ability or an illusion because Obi-wan didn't use the ability during the Duel at Theed. Then again I suppose plot demanded to have Qui-gon die... a poor decision in my eyes.

Maybe he had his Force dice committed, say to one or more Sense upgrades, and/or he was using Enhance commits to boost Brawn/Agility. Maybe he had only 1 Force die left. He used a pip to jump up from the catwalk, but maybe on the next turn he only rolled black pips and didn't want to use them, thinking Qui Gon could handle it.

These mechanics make it easy to rationalize many scenes :)

There was an argument on whether or not Burst of Speed was actually an enhanced ability or an illusion because Obi-wan didn't use the ability during the Duel at Theed. Then again I suppose plot demanded to have Qui-gon die... a poor decision in my eyes.

Ewan: Hmm... can Obi use "Leap" to run down the hall? I could then use my maneuvers and be out of range of those Destroyer Droids!

George: Ummm... sure! I like it when things go faster! Roll for it, see if it works.

Ewan: ○○ HA!

Later...

Ewan:Ok, I'm gonna try that Leap trick again, see if I can through the shields.

George:Roll faster.

Ewan:• Awww..... And outta D-points.

Even Later

George: Maul is laughing and swinging his saber above you.

Ewan: Ok, Leap out of the pit!

George: Roll.

Ewan:••

George: Sorry.

Ewan: ---- that noise, I gotta D-point this time! Gimme my Conflict, I got a Sith to slay.

If you want to view the Naboo Duel in terms of this system, he'd probably already used the Force Leap part of Enhance to go from the ledge he was on to the platform that was on the same level as Qui-Gon and Darth Maul were on.

From discussions back in the early days of Saga Edition, the space between where Obi-Wan was and where he leaped to was pretty significant, ranging around 8 meters at a minimum, and likely much further than that. He probably only had a Force Rating of 2 at that point in time, and most likely wanted to keep at least one of his Force dice committed to the Sense Control Upgrade to increase the difficulty of incoming attacks. So he uses his Action to leap up to where Qui-Gon and Maul were dueling via a Force Leap, possibly needing to activate that Ranged Upgrade just to get to that platform, then spending his maneuver to try and catch up with the big fight, only to come up just short.

Also remember that at this point in time, Obi-Wan was a bit on the cocky side (something that Ewan McGregor tried to convey through body language as well as little things such as unnecessary twirls and flourishes during Obi-Wan's fight scenes), so as a character he probably thought he could make it through the energy shields in time without having to rely on the Force. Mechanically could have been that Obi-Wan needed to roll a Vigilance check to time his run correctly to get through all the shields in time, and failed the roll, though possibly with a slew of Advantages that he used to recover strain and pass a boost die onto Qui-Gon and himself for their next rolls.

Man I love this system. ^_^