I've seen plenty of discussion about super strength and what do, but how about the trickiest superpower of all, even for dedicated supers rpg systems: Super Speed!

How do you do justice for speedsters, especially in structured combat? I think about scenes like Quicksilver had in Avengers 2 or Days of Future Past. And Quicksilver is extremely slow compared to the fastest man alive The Flash.

Super powers themselves are extremely ill defined in the rulebook, and it's frustrating the system would add a small section that's just like "use the rules presented to represent god-like powers. Have fun!"

Thinking about super speed, would Speedsters deserve multiple initiative slot per round?

How about distance traveled per maneuver? In SWRPG there were planetary scale vehicle speeds, and then space vehicle speeds. For fast characters I was thinking changing their movement to planetary vehicle scale speeds per maneuver. Then for extremely fast characters changing their movement to space vehicle speeds per maneuver. I know it's kind of ridiculous, but I don't know if this would excessive for a supers setting.

What are your thoughts about super speeders?

Free maneuvers and a third maneuver per turn. Double check how many maneuvers it takes to move from short to long range.

Depends on the level of super-speed you mean. The Flash and Superman both can move too fast for any rules set to effectively represent. If we keep it in the realm of what the rules can cover, a few ideas come to mind:

The Rapid Reaction talent could be folded into super speed in some form or another, possibly by reducing or removing the Strain cost.

Super speed allows movement through multiple range bands per rank of the power. At its top end, you could move from Extreme to Short in one maneuver.

Your defense (M/R) increases per rank of super speed, to a max sustained defense of 4. Beyond that, you could start upgrading difficulty to hit.

If you hit an opponent while moving at super speed, you could do +2 damage per range band moved prior to the attack (representing the velocity behind the strike).

For “not insanely fast fast” I would go with two free manoeuvres a turn. Edit: probably 10xp in the species

A bit faster than that would be increasing manoeuvre limit to three per turn with 2 free. This has to be 15xp at least

The fastest of the fast could be a species/archetype ability

Super Speed: Spend a Story Point to get a second activation in the Initiative order for this round. This extra activation happens at the end of the round. This could be 20, but really potentially 25xp

I'm developing Super-Speed for my City of Heroes theme I'm working on. Now, CoH is a slightly more balanced playing field for super powers thanks to it's MMO origin, but I think the mindset will adapt here too.

First, think of speed in two different frames of mind; tactically and narratively. Tactically, I'd rule that someone with super-speed can move to any point at long or extreme range as a single move action. To preserve game balance, I'd still require a maneuver to engage or disengage from an opponent. You could give them a second initiative slot at the end of the turn, too, as if they were an "Enhanced Nemesis", but there's an issue. The problem with trying to pull off the Flash and Quicksilver tricks from the movies during combat is that those scenes are GREAT for the speedster, and boring as **** for everyone else. The speedster is setting up turn after turn of moves and skill checks to make bullets move and opponents punch each other in the face or souffles to explode all over someone, but all the other players do is watch all this happen. The speedster gets multiple turns each round and is able to perform these elaborate tricks, while everyone else acts normally. Giving a speedster more than one action a turn is a great way of making every other player want to be a speedster.

Narratively, the speedster has a vehicle speed of 3, or 5, or 20, or whatever. This speed can only be achieved in a narrative sense; when appropriate. Superspeed really just means the character can perform tasks that normally take a long time in a very short time. Want to recon the warehouse and see where all the bad guys are, where the hostages are being held, and maybe get a few of them out before the fight starts? Stealth check, Perception or Vigilance check, and an Athletics check please. Does the speedster want to disassemble a car while it's moving? Fine, that would normally take hours (days?) but the speedster is super fast so they can do it in seconds. The fact that the car is moving adds a degree of difficulty to the check, but not an insurmountable one. Daunting Mechanics check with some setback dice for the fact that it's moving.

I think played this way, speedsters can be interesting and fun to play without them becoming over-the-top.

In my superhero setting I added several talents that together help create a speedster. You won’t see the Flash or the DoFP Quicksilver level of speed in my setting, but MCU Quicksilver would fit in nicely. It’s important to make speedsters fun without making them broken and completely overpowered.

An Idea I've been kicking around is a contested roll against an opponent's Agility or Reaction, where if you succeed, your temporarily switch your initiative slot with the current opponent. You basically get to "steal" an opponent's initiative slot, forcing them into your slot. This actually lends to some strategy for the players. Your Quickster takes the later slots and then hopefully steals an enemy slot, letting him actually first, and making opponents act later.

So I've compiled some of the comments here and I am thinking of using the following for super speed as supernatural species traits. Thoughts?

QUICK; aka SUPER SPEED 1 (-10 XP)

You gain two free maneuvers a turn but are still limited to 2 per turn. You can also move to any point at long range as a single move action (maneuver). It still requires a maneuver to engage or disengage from an opponent. In narrative scenes, your speed is equal to a Vehicle speed of 1.

FAST; aka SUPER SPEED 2 (-15 XP)

As Quick, but you may now make up to 3 maneuvers per turn. You can now also move to any point at long or extreme range as a single move action (maneuver). It still requires a maneuver to engage or disengage from an opponent. In narrative scenes, your speed is equal to a Vehicle speed of 2.

CELERITY; aka SUPER SPEED 3 (-20 XP)

As Fast. You may also spend a Story Point to get a second activation in the Initiative order for this round. This extra activation happens at the end of the round. In narrative scenes, your speed is equal to a Vehicle speed of 3.

On 1/5/2018 at 2:55 PM, DarthGM said:

I'm developing Super-Speed for my City of Heroes theme I'm working on. <snip>

As a huge fan of the dearly departed and greatly missed CoH I cannot wait to see this!

On 1/5/2018 at 8:55 AM, DarthGM said:

I'm developing Super-Speed for my City of Heroes theme I'm working on.

I, as well, would love to see this. I have some friends who still mourn the loss of CoH and would like to see it when you have it. Or even, if you want a sounding board or someone to talk things over with I am available. I am working on a game that combines some low level superhero antics as well. Mine is based off of things like Quantum Break, inFamous and Prototype.