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Old 06-30-2022, 12:36 PM   #15
KarlKost
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Brazil
Default Re: Turn of Combat Reformulated - Velocity

Quote:
Originally Posted by Curmudgeon View Post
The first issue I have with Velocity is that the game slows down to a glacial pace if the velocities are too disparate. If you were to insist on resolving each of Flash's 500,000,000 actions first, the Batman's player is going to be waiting 13 years to declare his action (assuming you can resolve 1 action every second and don't do anything else for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week). If you're not going to resolve things action by action, then Velocity isn't needed and whatever you're using for a more rapid solution is the solution you're looking for.

For Velocities where the differential is 2:1 or less, a difference of exactly 2:1 is easily resolved as 1 level of Altered Time Rate. For a ratio less than that, it seems that Initiative by Speed should be an adequate solution. Granted nobody gets an extra action in, eventually, but at GURPS resolution, it seems like much work for little gain. Taking longer with a swing action than a thrust action is perhaps more easily dealt with as a house rule that penalizes speed when swinging as opposed to thrusting, say something like "declare your attack as a swing at your usual place in Initiative, but roll for success at Speed-0.5 in the Initiative list (roll a die to resolve order if you're tied with anyone at that Speed)."
If you have someone with Altered Time Rate 5000 the player with none will still have to wait all the 5001 actions of the speedster to play out.

The thing about that extra level of detail is that it also encompass how it becomes easier for a faster mover to hit a slower target - like for example anybody can always hit a turtle - and how it's harder for a slower mover to hit a faster target.

This new trait plays good both for insane differences as for small ones; for example, a V14 vs V12, both within human scope, would nevertheless present a significant difference when they fight, with the V12 guy suffering both -2 to his own dodge and facing a +2 higher dodge from his adversary.

I'll add Striking ST, since someone with V14 obviously punches harder than a V12 due to the speed of the impact alone.

Also, Velocites bellow 2:1 - in the human case, between 10 and 20 - means that a person CAN act faster than once a second - just not every second. At V15 for example (the normal human max), you act at 2/3 of a second - this means that every 2 second, you have 3 "turns". This cant be represented by by Altered Time Rate - and yet a skilled martial artist would be poorly served by being denied that advantage.
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