Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 04-06-2021, 02:31 PM   #11
Prince Charon
 
Prince Charon's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Default Re: [Supers] A More Scientific Golden Age

The one character for this setting that I've already posted elsewhere; Rush is a 'jumped-up nobody' type of supervillain, rather than a schemer, and is in the vague span between the more common pulp-level characters and the setting's rare supers:

Russel T. Jackson, aka 'Rush,' 1938

Age: 17

Attributes

ST 10 [0]; DX 12 [40]; IQ 10 [0]; HT 12 [20]

Secondary Characteristics

HP 10; Will 10; Per 10; FP 12

Basic Speed: 10; Move: 20; Dodge: 13

Brawling Parry: 14
Knife Parry: 14
Parry Missile Weapons Parry: 14 (9 against bullets)

Social Background

Languages: English (Native) [0]; Italian (Broken) [2].

TL: late 6^

Cultural Familiarity: 20th century Western [0].

Subtotal: 62


Advantages

Eidetic Memory [5]
Street Smart 2 [10]

Basic Move (Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) +10 [20]
Basic Speed (Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) +4 [32]
Enhanced Move (Handling Bonus +5, +25%; Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) 3 (Ground Speed 160) [60]
Enhanced Time Sense (Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) [18]
Immunity to Acceleration (Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) [2]

Enhanced Parry (All; Speed Tricks, -5%; Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) 5 [18]
Extra Attack (Speed Tricks, -5%; Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) 4 [40]
Mach Punch: Striking ST (Armor Divisor (2), +50%; Double Knockback, +20%; Explosion, +50; Incendiary, +10%; Selectivity, +10%; Inaccurate -2, -10%; Only while running, -30%; Speed Tricks, -5%; Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) 10 [68]
^ High-Speed Punch: Striking ST (Alternate Ability of Mach Punch; Accurate +2, +10%; Double Knockback, +20%; Selectivity, +10%; Speed Tricks, -5%; Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) 18 [14]
Super Climbing (Speed Tricks, -5%; Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) 4 [4]
Super Jump (Speed Tricks, -5%; Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) 4 [16]

Perks

Craft Secret (Super-cocaine). [1]
Dirty Fighting. [1]
Highly responsive to super-drugs. [1]

Subtotal: 310


Disadvantages

Addiction (Super-cocaine; Expensive and highly addictive; Illegal) [-15]
Enemy (The Archetype; Hunter; Built on more than 150% of points; 6 or less) [-10]
Enemy (The Human Bullet; Hunter; Built on more than 150% of points; 9 or less) [-20]
Enemy (Police Department; Hunter; Medium-sized group; 9 or less) [-20]
Jealousy [-10]

Quirks

Attentive. [-1]
Has little respect for the property rights of others. [-1]
Imaginative. [-1]
Loves to run. [-1]
Proud. [-1]

Subtotal: -80


Features


Skills

Acrobatics [DX/H] [4] 12
Area Knowledge (Bad parts of Chicago) [IQ/E] [2] 11
Area Knowledge (Rapid City) [IQ/E] [1] 10
Brawling [DX/E] [2] 13
Climbing [DX/A] [4] 13
Escape [DX/H] [4] 12
Jumping [DX/E] [4] 14
Knife [DX/E] [2] 13
Lockpicking/TL6^ [IQ/A] [4] 11
Merchant [IQ/A] [1] 11*
Parry Missile Weapons [DX/H] [4] 12
Pharmacy (Synthetic; Stimulants)/TL6^ [IQ/A] [4] 11
Running [HT/A] [8] 14
Scrounging [Per/E] [1] 12*
Shadowing [IQ/A] [2] 12*
Streetwise [IQ/A] [4] 13*
Urban Survival [Per/A] [2] 12*

*Includes +2 from Street Smart Talent

Techniques

Disarming (Brawling) (H) Brawling-0 [2] 14
Retain Weapon (Knife) (H) Knife-0 [2] 14
Slip Handcuffs (Escape) (H) Escape-5 [6] 12
Work by Touch (H) Lockpicking-5 [6] 11

Subtotal: 69

Total: 361


Equipment

Costume
Mask
Running shoes

Notes

Rush is a villain and former petty thug who originally got his super-cocaine from the Hyperintellect, mad scientist enemy of the Archetype, but later learned to make it himself. The Archetype is a powerful psychokinetic who claims to be from the lost city of Archos (and secretly makes a living as a mild-mannered comic-book writer and illustrator in Chicago, Illinois), who might appear in this thread at some point, depending on how I end up designing him. The Human Bullet is a speedster from Rapid City, South Dakota who is more likely to appear, and who doesn't need drugs to have super-speed; Rush became the Human Bullet's enemy out of jealousy, when he learned this.

His Pharmacy skill has both a required specialization and an optional specialization, hence the lowered difficulty. Super-cocaine is cocaine that has been treated with superscience chemicals and methods; normal cocaine can treat the withdrawal symptoms, but not entirely remove them. The 'Superscience, -10%' limitation is functionally contained within the Trigger limitation, rather than being separate. The 'Speed Tricks' limitation means that some of his powers are side effects of being and thinking so fast, rather than being powers of their own.

'Highly responsive to super-drugs' means that if a drug grants humans temporary super-powers, he gets more out of it, whether in terms of intensity, duration, or some other benefit (and at least in the case of super-cocaine, what he gets out of it now is more than he got out of it the first time he tried it). This is why the Hyperintellect used him so much, when they still lived in the same city.


Thoughts?
__________________
Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life.

"The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates."
-- Tacitus

Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted.
Prince Charon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-07-2021, 09:36 AM   #12
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: [Supers] A More Scientific Golden Age

What you are calling Speed Tricks seems to be an Accessibility, perhaps worth -10%.

Can he swim super fast? I'm envisioning his churning through the water like a paddlewheeler.

I don't recall seeing the expression "running shoes" even as late as the 1960s; in the 1930s I think they would be called "tennis shoes" or "track shoes."
__________________
Bill Stoddard

I don't think we're in Oz any more.
whswhs is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 04-07-2021, 12:19 PM   #13
Prince Charon
 
Prince Charon's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Default Re: [Supers] A More Scientific Golden Age

Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
What you are calling Speed Tricks seems to be an Accessibility, perhaps worth -10%.
It is accessibility, I just didn't think it needed to be more than -5%. Do you think it needs to be higher?

Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
Can he swim super fast? I'm envisioning his churning through the water like a paddlewheeler.
He's not exactly a skilled swimmer, having never needed to, so he doesn't have the advantage. A player could justify buying it, though.

Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
I don't recall seeing the expression "running shoes" even as late as the 1960s; in the 1930s I think they would be called "tennis shoes" or "track shoes."
Yeah, probably. He calls them running shoes because they're better for running than the shoes he wore before.
__________________
Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life.

"The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates."
-- Tacitus

Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted.
Prince Charon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2021, 05:05 AM   #14
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: [Supers] A More Scientific Golden Age

Quote:
Originally Posted by Prince Charon View Post
It is accessibility, I just didn't think it needed to be more than -5%. Do you think it needs to be higher?
Well, that's a little complicated. Looking at Accessibility, I see that it's -10% for "Only in altered body form (Invisible, Insubstantial, etc.)," and that seems kind of like the minimum. On the other hand, it's not clear that this ability is tied to some specific body alteration. Which of his abilities does he have to be using to use these derived abilities?

I don't think it's Enhanced Move or even increased Basic Move, because his Mach Punch has "Only while running, -30%." (Incidentally, that seems as if you're giving him two Accessibilities on the same ability, which I think is questionable. And "Only while running" doesn't seem fairly comparable to "Only while flying" or "Only while swimming," as humans spend a lot less time doing the latter two. Or do you mean "Only while running at super-speed"?)

Is it increased Basic Speed that triggers the Speed Tricks? or Enhanced Time Sense? If so, are those traits that he can turn on the way one might turn on intangibility? Or do they come on automatically when he takes his special drug? If the latter is the case, I might say that it's covered by his Trigger. But if, having taken the drug, he can say "I'm going to do X" or "I'm going to become Y" and then he gains access to Extra Attack and Enhanced Dodge and so on, I might give him Accessibility for -10% and drop the Trigger. (It seems a bit of double counting to say both that he gets -10% for having a Trigger and -5% for having an Accessibility that's based on a trait that has the same Trigger.)

At the same time, on a different topic, I'm not sure about denying him Superscience, -10%. Superscience is functionally equivalent to Psionic or Super; it consists of being subject to antipowers AND to specialized technological countermeasures; neither of these can be equated to "has to take a special drug to gain his abilities."

Though when I wrote up Götterdämmerung, with its 14 different power sources, one of my assumptions for it was that there were no generic "Super" abilities that were subject to generic antipowers or technological countermeasures. The former applied to Psionic abilities, and the latter to both Psionic and Biological abilities; no one had generic Super abilities. And Superscience seems like just Super with attached gadget mods. So maybe it's better than you didn't take it.
__________________
Bill Stoddard

I don't think we're in Oz any more.

Last edited by whswhs; 04-08-2021 at 05:13 AM.
whswhs is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2021, 06:24 PM   #15
Prince Charon
 
Prince Charon's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Default Re: [Supers] A More Scientific Golden Age

The main problem is (apart from the fact that I'm responding while tired again, due to the fact that if I don't, I might not reply at all) that it's been long enough since I started working on the character that I don't have a very clear memory of my logic re: Speed Tricks. I think it was something like 'these are not so much abilities on their own, as things that he learned to do with his other powers,' but that's not necessarily a good reason to have even that -5%, so there may be something that I'm forgetting. I've occasionally considered recalculating without it, and I may do that later.

As for Superscience, it's his power source, but I'm starting to wonder if it should be a power modifier, basically for the reasons you've given.

Hopefully I'm being clear about this, and haven't phrased anything too badly.
__________________
Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life.

"The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates."
-- Tacitus

Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted.
Prince Charon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2021, 06:56 PM   #16
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: [Supers] A More Scientific Golden Age

Quote:
Originally Posted by Prince Charon View Post
The main problem is (apart from the fact that I'm responding while tired again, due to the fact that if I don't, I might not reply at all) that it's been long enough since I started working on the character that I don't have a very clear memory of my logic re: Speed Tricks. I think it was something like 'these are not so much abilities on their own, as things that he learned to do with his other powers,' but that's not necessarily a good reason to have even that -5%, so there may be something that I'm forgetting. I've occasionally considered recalculating without it, and I may do that later.
(a) Which specific other abilities do the abilities in question depend on? Logically they ought to require that he be using something without the Speed Tricks modifier, right?

(b) If he takes a pill or potion or injection, and gains ability A, that's a Trigger for ability A. If he also gains ability B, it's a Trigger for ability B. In that case, it's as if he has two (or several) independent abilities, each with a Trigger, which may happen to be the same Trigger for all of them. On the other hand, you might say, "He can use ability B only if he is using ability A." That seems kind of like an Accessibility. It's probably worth -10%, because "only when invisible" is -10%, and also "only in Altered Form X" is effectively -10%.

(c) I'm not 100% sure about that, though. On one hand, being invisible, or intangible, or in the shape of a velociraptor, imposes certain limitations on what you can do; it's not clear that any of boosted Basic Speed, boosted Basic Move, or Enhanced Time Sense imposes any such limitations. On the other, after he's taken his special chemical, and used his power, can he take another does and go right on using his power? If so, there's no evident reason he couldn't be superfast 100% of his waking time. So his use of the secondary abilities doesn't seem very restricted.

(d) I'd make an exception for his Mach Punch, because it seems that he has to do a run up to hit somebody super hard with it; "requires a run" does seem like a real limitation.
__________________
Bill Stoddard

I don't think we're in Oz any more.
whswhs is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 04-10-2021, 05:45 PM   #17
Prince Charon
 
Prince Charon's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Default Re: [Supers] A More Scientific Golden Age

Good points. Also, wondering if I should make more of them Alternate Abilities, but I'm not seeing any that really fit, beyond maybe Super Climbing and Super Jumping (would it make sense to be able to use both at once? if not, I should really make Super Climbing an AA, even though the cost saving is small).
__________________
Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life.

"The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates."
-- Tacitus

Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted.

Last edited by Prince Charon; 04-10-2021 at 06:05 PM.
Prince Charon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-12-2021, 12:35 PM   #18
tshiggins
 
tshiggins's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
Default Re: [Supers] A More Scientific Golden Age

Quote:
Originally Posted by Prince Charon View Post
Pulp-7, 1938

(SNIP)

Thoughts?
I've been pretty clear, for years now, that I rather dislike four-color supers settings, and the more "vanilla" they are, the less I like them.

However, as might be surmised after a quick glance at my avatar, I would likely enjoy this setting, quite a lot. :)
__________________
--
MXLP:9 [JD=1, DK=1, DM-M=1, M(FAW)=1, SS=2, Nym=1 (nose coffee), sj=1 (nose cocoa), Maz=1]
"Some days, I just don't know what to think." -Daryl Dixon.
tshiggins is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-13-2021, 03:46 AM   #19
Prince Charon
 
Prince Charon's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Default Re: [Supers] A More Scientific Golden Age

Quote:
Originally Posted by tshiggins View Post
I've been pretty clear, for years now, that I rather dislike four-color supers settings, and the more "vanilla" they are, the less I like them.

However, as might be surmised after a quick glance at my avatar, I would likely enjoy this setting, quite a lot. :)
Yeah, the four-color elements are more distant (less dense?) in this setting. They exist, but it's intended to be more clearly Pulp than, for example, the Earth-2 of Five Earths.
__________________
Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life.

"The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates."
-- Tacitus

Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted.
Prince Charon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-18-2021, 03:48 AM   #20
Prince Charon
 
Prince Charon's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Default Re: [Supers] A More Scientific Golden Age

OK, here's the recalculated version of Rush, to compare with the earlier version:

Russel T. Jackson, aka 'Rush,' 1938

Age: 17

Attributes

ST 10 [0]; DX 12 [40]; IQ 10 [0]; HT 12 [20]

Secondary Characteristics

HP 10; Will 10; Per 10; FP 12

Basic Speed: 10; Move: 20; Dodge: 13

Brawling Parry: 14
Knife Parry: 14
Parry Missile Weapons Parry: 14 (9 against bullets)

Social Background

Languages: English (Native) [0]; Italian (Broken) [2].

TL: late 6^

Cultural Familiarity: 20th century Western [0].

Subtotal: 62


Advantages

Eidetic Memory [5]
Street Smart 2 [10]

Basic Move (Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) +10 [20]
Basic Speed (Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) +4 [32]
Enhanced Move (Handling Bonus +5, +25%; Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) 3 (Ground Speed 160) [60]
Enhanced Time Sense (Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) [18]
Immunity to Acceleration (Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) [2]

Enhanced Parry (All; Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) 5 [20]
Extra Attack (Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) 4 [40]
Mach Punch: Striking ST (Armor Divisor (2), +50%; Double Knockback, +20%; Explosion, +50; Incendiary, +10%; Selectivity, +10%; Inaccurate -2, -10%; Only while running, -30%; Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) 10 [70]
^ High-Speed Punch: Striking ST (Alternate Ability of Mach Punch; Accurate +2, +10%; Double Knockback, +20%; Selectivity, +10%; Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) 18 [14]
Super Climbing (Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) 4 [4]
Super Jump (Trigger, super-cocaine: Rare, illegal, and addictive, -60%) 4 [16]

Perks

Craft Secret (Super-cocaine). [1]
Dirty Fighting. [1]
Highly responsive to super-drugs. [1]

Subtotal: 314


Disadvantages

Addiction (Super-cocaine; Expensive and highly addictive; Illegal) [-15]
Enemy (The Archetype; Hunter; Built on more than 150% of points; 6 or less) [-10]
Enemy (The Human Bullet; Hunter; Built on more than 150% of points; 9 or less) [-20]
Enemy (Police Department; Hunter; Medium-sized group; 9 or less) [-20]
Jealousy [-10]

Quirks

Attentive. [-1]
Has little respect for the property rights of others. [-1]
Imaginative. [-1]
Loves to run. [-1]
Proud. [-1]

Subtotal: -80


Skills

Acrobatics [DX/H] [4] 12
Area Knowledge (Bad parts of Chicago) [IQ/E] [2] 11
Area Knowledge (Rapid City) [IQ/E] [1] 10
Brawling [DX/E] [2] 13
Climbing [DX/A] [4] 13
Escape [DX/H] [4] 12
Jumping [DX/E] [4] 14
Knife [DX/E] [2] 13
Lockpicking/TL6^ [IQ/A] [4] 11
Merchant [IQ/A] [1] 11*
Parry Missile Weapons [DX/H] [4] 12
Pharmacy (Synthetic; Stimulants)/TL6^ [IQ/A] [4] 11
Running [HT/A] [8] 14
Scrounging [Per/E] [1] 12*
Shadowing [IQ/A] [2] 12*
Streetwise [IQ/A] [4] 13*
Urban Survival [Per/A] [2] 12*

*Includes +2 from Street Smart Talent

Techniques

Disarming (Brawling) (H) Brawling-0 [2] 14
Retain Weapon (Knife) (H) Knife-0 [2] 14
Slip Handcuffs (Escape) (H) Escape-5 [6] 12
Work by Touch (H) Lockpicking-5 [6] 11

Subtotal: 69

Total: 365


Equipment

Costume
Mask
Running shoes

Notes

Rush is a villain and former petty thug who originally got his super-cocaine from the Hyperintellect, mad scientist enemy of the Archetype, but later learned to make it himself. The Archetype is a powerful psychokinetic who claims to be from the lost city of Archos (and secretly makes a living as a mild-mannered comic-book writer and illustrator in Chicago, Illinois), who might appear in this thread at some point, depending on how I end up designing him. The Human Bullet is a speedster from Rapid City, South Dakota who is more likely to appear, and who doesn't need drugs to have super-speed; Rush became the Human Bullet's enemy out of jealousy, when he learned this.

His Pharmacy skill has both a required specialization and an optional specialization, hence the lowered difficulty. Super-cocaine is cocaine that has been treated with superscience chemicals and methods; normal cocaine can treat the withdrawal symptoms, but not entirely remove them. The 'Superscience, -10%' limitation is functionally contained within the Trigger limitation, rather than being separate. The 'Speed Tricks' limitation means that some of his powers are side effects of being and thinking so fast, rather than being powers of their own.

'Highly responsive to super-drugs' means that if a drug grants humans temporary super-powers, he gets more out of it, whether in terms of intensity, duration, or some other benefit (and at least in the case of super-cocaine, what he gets out of it now is more than he got out of it the first time he tried it). This is why the Hyperintellect used him so much, when they still lived in the same city.


Also, I've edited the power source/modifier lists in posts #2 and #3 due to recent conversations. Please have a look and see if it helps.


Thoughts?
__________________
Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life.

"The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates."
-- Tacitus

Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted.
Prince Charon is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
martial arts, psi, pulp, supers

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 12:44 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.