The major strength and weakness, to me at least, of Mayfair Games' DC Heroes is the Attribute Point system. The idea of a geometric scale for time and information, as well as such mundane things as distance and weight has intriguing prospects.

But I'm not here to present a critique of the AP system. The AP system provides DC Heroes with a way of handling Superspeed, an important power to such luminaries as Superman and the Flash, not available to other game systems. Namely, it provides a mechanic for measuring the amount of subjective time provided by the power for taking non-combat actions, such as thinking, reading, building and so forth. Someone with 10 APs of Superspeed can "live" an hour in four seconds (0 APs of time being 4 seconds and 10 APs being an hour), doing in that four seconds anything a person could normally be expected to do in an hour.

In a game in which time is scaled off of a more linear perspective, which includes pretty much every other game on the market, representing this gets a bit sticky. GURPS, for example, charges 100 pts. for one level of Altered Time Rate, with each level providing an extra second (which is the length of a GURPS round). Of course, theirs is usable in combat for extra actions. Anyway, before this turns into a long, rambling article, here's my write-up of DC Heroes Superspeed for Champions, based on a 30 Active Point limit:

• +10 Dex*, only for determining initiative (-1) (SFX Reaction time)
• 2d6 Physical EB, Area Effect (+1¾), Selective (+¼) (SFX runs around the room hitting people)
• 6d6 Physical EB (SFX runs up, hits target and runs back)
• 2d6 Physical HKA (SFX hits target several times, picking good spots)
  (Note: you could justify more such EBs along these lines)
• 15" Flight, only in contact with surface (-½) (SFX running)
• 5" Flight, x32 noncombat (+2) only in contact with surface (-½) (SFX running)
• 10PD, 10ED Armor (SFX avoiding the blow)
• 1½d6 Minor Transform‡ (incomplete project to complete project), for limited category of results (+¼), Cumulative (+½), ½ END (+¼), May Require Skill Roll (-¼), Extra Time, full phase (-¼) (SFX applies skills at incredible rates of speed)

* The point cost basis for this is Hand-to-Hand Attack, which give +1d6 H-to-H damage for per 3 pts. spent. This is the same as buying extra Strength, only for purposes of doing Normal damage, Which would be the same as buying 5 pts. of Strength with a -1 limitation (only to add to Normal damage). Since this is just buying one aspect of Dex, as H-to-H is buying one aspect of Strength, I figured that the relative point cost should be about the same.

‡ I forget whether or not you can legally put Transform in an Elemental Control, but for illustrative purposes I'll keep it all together.

Clearly, the Transform is my attempt to cover that "living at an accelerated rate" aspect. This person could read a book or write a report in one phase (usually, though the report would probably require a skill roll), but could also assemble a 100 BODY building in about forty phases (about two minutes at Speed 4) if he had the skills and parts necessary. This use of Transform could be heavily abused and the GM ought to keep an eye on how the player wants to use it. Then again, that's true of a lot of uses of Transform.

I may also put up a Fuzion translation of this when I have some time. For now, feel free to contact me with any questions or comments about this interpretation of Superspeed.

Back

Four Winds Bar