Captain America Falling

[Edges]

Originally Posted by Miles

I'd call it reasonable to let Catfall halve the penalty for diving from a great height.

That's not a bad idea. I've always been unsatisfied with Catfall's non-scaleable, 5-yard value. I've used it as a leveled advantage before. But it never felt quite right.

[Otaku]

I haven't gotten a chance to see this iteration of Captain America in action outside of "Avengers"; how specific were they about his powers because the comic books have that typical mishmash that comes from non-technical descriptions couples with assumptions, even before factoring in retcons and the like. The premise was (is?) that Captain America is turned into a "peak human" or the like by the Super Soldier Serum, but that is very open to interpretation; does that mean realistic peak, does it include his brain structure as well, etc.? Traits that some people have but others lack? An actual design stand point (this is the best a human can evolve into while still being "human"/this is restoring humanity to some ancient peak before decline/whatever the setting calls for).

Relevance to the discussion is what has already been lightly addressed; how high are Cap's Attributes, what mundane and exotic physical Advantages he might have, etc. Oh, then toss in what skills he would have developed by this time; even in the Marvel Movie-verse, I would hope he's had at least some high level (or at least normal level) military training.

[Culture20]

Originally Posted by Otaku

even in the Marvel Movie-verse, I would hope he's had at least some high level (or at least normal level) military training.

Answers spoilered:

Spoiler:  

When first created, Steve had no combat experience, but immediately rushed into action to defeat the Nazi spy that destroyed the lab and killed Erskine. Since he is the only one of his kind, the Army decides to make him into a recruiting tool (emphasis on tool), which is why he gets the colorful costume and heater-shield. The round shield comes after he finally proves his effectiveness in actual combat while he was performing on a stage in Europe for the troops. His Army training would consist of Public Speaking, Performance, Acting, Makeup, etc. According to the movie, all of his combat skills would be defaults (except maybe brawling), along with combat reflexes, very fit, and talents (like throwing round objects).

[Mister Ed]

Even in the movie, didn't they show him getting SOME kind of training BEFORE becoming Cap? No combat experience, but something like Basic Training?

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Otaku

...
Relevance to the discussion is what has already been lightly addressed; how high are Cap's Attributes, what mundane and exotic physical Advantages he might have, etc. Oh, then toss in what skills he would have developed by this time; even in the Marvel Movie-verse, I would hope he's had at least some high level (or at least normal level) military training.

Even though we could argue forever over what human limit means for reality, he's still a comic book character. And comic books emphasize different aspects of people with different balances of human environment interactions.

In most comic books, humans are fearful, weak, fragile, perpetual victims that paradoxically almost always survive wounded rather than get truly killed.
So peak humans would be brave, strong, tough, heroes.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Mister Ed

Even in the movie, didn't they show him getting SOME kind of training BEFORE becoming Cap? No combat experience, but something like Basic Training?

I think Basic teaches Soldier skill at best. It's simply too short of a time to cram much more in. But Soldier skill does grant defaults to skills used by militaries that normally have no or worse defaults.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Culture20

Answers spoilered:

Spoiler:  

When first created, Steve had no combat experience, but immediately rushed into action to defeat the Nazi spy that destroyed the lab and killed Erskine. Since he is the only one of his kind, the Army decides to make him into a recruiting tool (emphasis on tool), which is why he gets the colorful costume and heater-shield. The round shield comes after he finally proves his effectiveness in actual combat while he was performing on a stage in Europe for the troops. His Army training would consist of Public Speaking, Performance, Acting, Makeup, etc. According to the movie, all of his combat skills would be defaults (except maybe brawling), along with combat reflexes, very fit, and talents (like throwing round objects).

There are no defaults to unarmed combat skills. You fight at DX without them.

After even the spy incident in the movie he's got the experience to buy the first couple of pts of Brawling. By the end of the movie he's got _lots_ of xps and quite possibly more than Brawling +10 or something like that..

Even before enlistment and experiment skinny ol Steve Rogers was getting beat up regularly. He might have had skill by then but it does no good when you're ST 7 or 8.

[Otaku]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

There are no defaults to unarmed combat skills. You fight at DX without them.

After even the spy incident in the movie he's got the experience to buy the first couple of pts of Brawling. By the end of the movie he's got _lots_ of xps and quite possibly more than Brawling +10 or something like that..

Even before enlistment and experiment skinny ol Steve Rogers was getting beat up regularly. He might have had skill by then but it does no good when you're ST 7 or 8.

Plus by the time of "The Avengers", we see Steve practicing in what looks like a boxing gym. So while he probably doesn't have the Spec Ops training that would really make him a "super soldier", by now I think he's got at least a few skills taken care of and/or its a setting where you can get skills like Soldier! or what have you to cover things in broad strokes. That or the serum somehow includes some points into skills considering how often Cap performs actions that should suffer a penalty... when even with a perfect 20 attribute to base it off of, should have him rolling against well under a 16.

[Langy]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

There are no defaults to unarmed combat skills. You fight at DX without them.

After even the spy incident in the movie he's got the experience to buy the first couple of pts of Brawling. By the end of the movie he's got _lots_ of xps and quite possibly more than Brawling +10 or something like that..

Even before enlistment and experiment skinny ol Steve Rogers was getting beat up regularly. He might have had skill by then but it does no good when you're ST 7 or 8.

Yeah, by the end of the movie he's an extremely accomplished and experienced special forces operator, with all that entails (the movie covers several years of time, I believe, most of it shown in a montage of butt kicking). Much of his skills have been learned via experience rather than training, but he did get some minor training (Boot Camp-esque) prior to the Super Soldier serum injections and it isn't unlikely that he got some more afterwards, too (just not shown on screen due to time limits).

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Otaku

I haven't gotten a chance to see this iteration of Captain America in action outside of "Avengers"; how specific were they about his powers because the comic books have that typical mishmash that comes from non-technical descriptions couples with assumptions, even before factoring in retcons and the like. The premise was (is?) that Captain America is turned into a "peak human" or the like by the Super Soldier Serum, but that is very open to interpretation; does that mean realistic peak, does it include his brain structure as well, etc.? Traits that some people have but others lack? An actual design stand point (this is the best a human can evolve into while still being "human"/this is restoring humanity to some ancient peak before decline/whatever the setting calls for).

There's a writeup of Captain America in "GURPS Supers" for 4th Edition. The serieal numbers are filed off, but the template has a shield as one of two suggested gadgets, making it very, very obvious.