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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: Yosepi on August 05, 2014, 05:59:28 PM
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So I have a character concept I am trying to gather ideas on(not in a game though I am looking for a pbp to join) that is somewhat inspired by seeing the new "The Flash" series trailer. The idea is a character with super speed though I want to have more to the concept then just the speed. I am thinking the character has a hero mentality in the nerdy way, he grew up a comic book fan then discovers a world of magic but also the potential horror of it. What I am having difficulty with is thinking on where he gets his power from. A scion of Hermes? A changeling? Item of power? I am looking for a interesting method for him to gain power as well as other powers or stunts that would go well with superspeed. I am somewhat new to rpging but am a huge fan of the Dresden Files.
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I've played with this quite a bit for theoretical builds. I'll likely want to try one of these ideas someday.
Obviously SU speed, or mythic in a high refresh game.
Stunts like "too fast to react" (athletics for stealth Ambush trapping) or "plenty of time to react" (athletics instead of alertness to spot an ambush) can add a lot to the flavor.
If you're really high end (like DC's flash character, rather than somebody who's just very fast), consider thematic Channeling (Super Speed Tricks) and your focus item might be something like the Flash Suit (you can't go to extreme super speed tricks without protection). A "flash suit" could instead be an item of power, perhaps provided to keep your super speed from tearing you apart (maybe you can only do inhuman speed+stunts without it), provided by a friendly magical patron. The Star Labs scientist on the 1990s TV show provided the Flash Suit for that reason.
Feeding dependency would fit the TV show pretty well, when Barry Allen used his powers much he would literally starve unless he had a bunch of food on hand to devour. Some kind of recovery power tied to a feeding dependency would also make sense (you heal fast, if you can rest/eat).
Power.....
Scion of Hermes or similar speed oriented entity could work. There are probably some messenger angels that might apply too, or diabolic influences for that matter. Or you could just go the Focused Practitioner route, you're a mortal whose magic is just all about moving yourself around quickly and safely.
Again, just stealing ideas from the 1990s TV show, Barry Allen is a mundane who had a magical accident, then hooked up with a white court wizard who provided a suit that helped him control his power, in exchange for favors/future services, plus lore stuff to let him know important things like he could kill himself with hunger if he overdid things.
A changeling is possible but a super-speedster is likely to have gone all the way over to Fey side. A Fey who got fascinated by superheroes might be kind of fun. Dewdrop faeries are REALLY fast. What if one of them figured out how to make a human sized body out of ectoplasm, but kept the speed? (too heavy to fly, but still super fast). (shapeshift, where your shifted form has dim size/flight, your "human" form is an ectoplasmic exoskeleton, maybe the costume hides how it isn't a very good copy of a human....).
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Did he make a bargain with a Sidhe? Did he get struck by lightning? Did he make a bargain with an entity that is effectively living lightning? Did he fall asleep on a ley line and absorb some of the power? Did he find an old amulet that gave him the power? Son of a god would work, of course, or maybe the son of lightning itself. Or wind? There are bound to be all kinds of entities trying to mate with humans.
In some cases, "Marked by Power" might be a good choice, making him sort of an emissary of the entity that gave him the power.
Recovery could simulate a sped up metabolism going with the general speed, so he would heal faster.
As the son of the wind, he could have "gaseous form", becoming wind itself and flying around at high velocities.
Speaking of flying, "Wings" might be appropriate, giving him the ability to lift himself up on currents of air, airbender style. I've had a character concept of an aeromancer once who had enchanted a skateboard to work off air-currents instead of wheels, so he could skate around the air like Marty McFly.
Channeling/Ritual/Sponsored magic with a speed/lightning/air theme. If "supernatural speed" is your active power, you could take ritual(speed) for more elaborate things to do with speed and put them into items. For example an item that allows you to vibrate at high speeds and shimmer through a wall.
Going a bit crazy: "Diminutive Size". You can move so fast, that you suffer from length-contraction due to relativity. You've learned to control this, so you can shrink yourself even without moving near the speed of light.
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The going small and hunger track ideas seem interesting. I know I want him to gain his power as an adult so not at puberty like changelings. I also want him to have a heroic ideal, maybe even making a a lame costume, but also want to tempt him with going on a darker path, not evil so much as taking less heroic means seem to be necessary.
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Maybe he started off with a mental breakdown after being robbed? He started thinking as a split personality/alter ego, made a costume and everything, and actually made a difference in his neighborhood, when a supernatural entity took note of him and slowly made him grow into power to build him up as a champion for his cause. Once day the entity reveals itself and asks him to do something shady for him in return. Your character refuses, and when he tries to rescue an old lady from three muggers, he suddenly loses his powers, since the entity is no longer backing him. He agrees to work for the entity in exchange for the power to help other people.
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If you want to worry about dark side, I think a focused practitioner has a lot going for it, because of the laws of magic. If you don't want him to be a typical "lore/discipline/conviction" guy you can use stunts to shift key skill trappings around (it's easier if you stick with Channeling or Rituals, rather than trying to do both). There's plenty of precedent for someone with latent talents getting a power boost by being near a big magical event. (eg, some college student who got too close to the Darkhallow having talents awakened either for necromancy or its opposite)
Consider a speedster whose power is based on having time go slower around him, rather than kinetomancy. You avoid all the issues of tearing yourself apart (the world is slow around you, rather than you being super fast) and what you can do is different (you don't cause sonic booms even if you travel objectively at speed of sound, but your ability to communicate is challenged...everyone speaks so sloooww, and you speak really fast and you can probably search a room really quickly without causing a vortex of wind to blow everything around).
Such a speedster will be right on the edge of the time travel Law, might even have Lawbreaker feats, and if you have rituals you're likely to be able to actually capable of time travel, maybe even opening time-travel "ways" for others even if you don't for lawbreaking reasons.
Even a typical "flash" type build has risks of first law violations (you hit someone too hard, or your slipstream-fallout causes property damage to the point where somebody dies). Some kind of aspect indicating you're addicted to speed could work nicely with a feeding dependency to encourage you to use your powers and then pay for it later.
By contrast "Emissary" and "I'm a creature of the never never" type concepts tend to be less conflicted. You behave according to your nature, or that of your boss...the problem is not as personal.
Mechanically I'd do the speed-addicted Kinetomancer as a channeler (area punches/maneuvers, rapid-fire punches for high shift single attacks, blocks where you catch all the bullets/knives/block punches within a zone, etc with options on sonic booms, slipstreams and similar effects where appropriate or for fallout) and the chronomancer/lawbreaker as a ritualist (magic items or potions for combat-speed effects, normal rituals to let you do things like search an entire building in 15 minutes or read an entire library in a day). Frankly the speed-addicted kinetomancer sounds more like a typical superhero of the two examples, but there are some more cerebral superheroes out there, and a contrast between his greater power (slow rituals) and the desire to just go "fight crime" and do flashy hero things might also be entertaining...high concept vs trouble kind of stuff.
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The chronomancy bit sounds attractive though would using any chronomancy be breaking the law or just the trying to go back in time specifically?
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The letter of the law matters.
"Never Swim Against The Currents of Time"
If all you're doing is traveling forward through time at a different rate than everybody else, but in the same direction, I suspect you're fine. It's when you want to swim AGAINST the stream of time (ie go back in time and meddle) that you get into trouble.
Whether all wardens will see it that way depends on your trouble I suspect :)
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I like the idea of his"speed" bein time based but I almost don't want it to be intentional, sort of the power sudden appears through some means and he is left to try and navigate the magical world with no idea whats what. Being a decedent of Hermes or find the shoes of Hermes seem like the best choice.
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Having Hermes for an ancestor might work better than the sandals.
The sandals let him fly with the speed of the wind, and likely helped open ways to Never Never (he could fly between Olympus and the mortal world, and escort spirits to Hades). If I was to write them up in DFRPG, they'd be an object of power with flight and worldwalking. When Perseus got his hands on them (everybody gave him a pile of items of power, it was kind of silly...the man had Contacts like nobody's business) all they did was help him fly. The "speed of the wind" was likely Hermes, not the sandals, but some of the Perseus legends indicated that he was faster too...you might consider inhuman speed without them and supernatural speed with them.
If you postulate that the reason why Hermes was so fast, and so able to sneak around even gods without being noticed was that he could travel forward through time slower than everybody else, a little thread of blood of Hermes might be enough to justify a talent for Chronomancy without it being too likely you'd time travel by accident (that would take training from somebody with theory in such things, leveraging your talent that you are currently using the way your ancestor did, to be really freaking fast). So it might be you attract the attention of a wizard or sorcerer that WANTS to break the 6th law but lacks the aptitude and is eager to teach you and study you (although the real agenda may be hidden, so they help you master your speed powers first when they manifest....gee they're so nice and helpful....that nice Star Labs Lady is always looking out for me...)
That said, any of his regalia might be a good excuse for your powers manifesting. This link has a good original-source compilation of Hermes legends. He's got the staff, the traveling hat and the sandals.
http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Hermes.html
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In general (not specifically Hermes)
you might want to look at the teleport custom power. To represent moving at the speed of thought or moving through obstacles like the Flash can by vibrating super fast. The latter can be representing by gaseous form, though.
I see having a strength power justifiable with a limitation. Basically the bonus to damage but not the lifting capability because you're hitting people with so much momentum. A re-skinned claws power would work for that, probably.
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If you're not going down the Channeling road, yeah, claws are a good idea. You'll get much bigger shifts (and things like zonewide "punch everybody") tricks with channeling but you get all the baggage of spellcasting. It's a matter of if you think high end superspeed should be exhausting. It does depend on your flavor a lot though. On a chronomancer claws would be more likely to be a temporal disruption as the "the world seems slow to me" approach rather than "I'm just super fast" approach lets you ignore most of the inconvenient physics aspects of going so fast...but also likely takes some of the flashier super speed powers (slipstreams, sonic booms and possibly even offensive use of superspeed as purely speed rather than some kind of chronal paradox effect) off the table.
If he goes down the Hermes road he's looking at speed of sound (fast as the wind) not speed of light, which likely means SU speed plus high athletics plus an aspect "fast as the wind" gets you cross country speeds without needing rituals, although obviously if you HAVE rituals/Superspeed or rituals/chronomancy your options increase.
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Would the sponsored magic of Hermes be effective?
Edit: Reading the link you posted Hermes sometimes acted as a psychopomp, created music and was "charming", and is the God of travel, roads, commerce, and shepards, so his sponsored magic could be more versatile then just speed
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Sponsored magic would work well, if you can afford the refresh.
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Would the sponsored magic of Hermes be effective?
Edit: Reading the link you posted Hermes sometimes acted as a psychopomp, created music and was "charming", and is the God of travel, roads, commerce, and shepards, so his sponsored magic could be more versatile then just speed
And thieves. Don't forget that he was the god of thieves, as well.
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Sponsored magic is pretty powerful if you know how to make use of it. Evothaum can do amazing things in the nick of time, and boosting it with sponsor debt can make it even more powerful.
Also, the sponsor can be your justification to take other powers that fit the sponsors theme.
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To represent moving at the speed of thought or moving through obstacles like the Flash can by vibrating super fast.
At the risk of turning this into a comic thread, I still don't get this one. Wouldn't vibrating increase the likelihood of your atoms interacting with other ones? With even more catastrophic consequences because you've artificially added energy to the collision?
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At the risk of turning this into a comic thread, I still don't get this one. Wouldn't vibrating increase the likelihood of your atoms interacting with other ones? With even more catastrophic consequences because you've artificially added energy to the collision?
I've always interpreted that as some sort of tunneling, as in quantum-mechanics. Basically, you charge your atoms with so much kinetic energy, that they zip through the wall without actually touching it in the process. It doesn't work 100% as an explanation, but it's close enough for a world in which you can set people on fire with your mind.
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I love how quantum mechanics explain everything it seems lol.
Anyway, I think I am going to go with the descendent of Mercury(prefer that name to Hermes) who ends up employed y his ancestor(now if I can find a game) Depending on the power level I am going to prioritize supernatural speed and inhuman recovery(For the vigorous quality, i would have no idea for the catch) then if able the sponsored magic.
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Well, it is the same principle as why sunlight reflects off a mirror but an x-ray goes right through it.
The only difference is wavelength and energy.
But then you know, particles are waves.....light isn't an especially easy topic either to bend your mind around.
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I've always interpreted that as some sort of tunneling, as in quantum-mechanics. Basically, you charge your atoms with so much kinetic energy, that they zip through the wall without actually touching it in the process. It doesn't work 100% as an explanation, but it's close enough for a world in which you can set people on fire with your mind.
Flash uses vibrating to travel to different dimensions...which, maybe, explains how he goes through matter? He transports his body to a parallel dimension that has no wall? I dunno. It's a good justification to take Swift Transition, though.
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I would just pick up Supernatural Speed and some stunts. Sponsored Magic gets sticky quickly (*cough* I hate the stuff *cough*). Having Superb Athletics, the +4 from Supernatural Speed while sprinting, and perhaps Fleet of Foot nets you at 11 zones worth of movement per action, which is ridiculously fast. Although zones don't have a set distance, this is easily at least a few city blocks worth of movement in only a few moments.
Keep in mind that truly Flash levels of power are most likely well outside the realm of what PC's are capable of, excluding a very lenient GM or very high refresh levels. That being said, some re-flavoring of existing powers (Claws, Swift Transition, Gaseous Form and Inhuman Recovery all sound like good ideas to me, and there are likely more) can add some extra toys to play with if stunts aren't doing it for ya.
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Yeah I think I will go that direction. Depending on the power level of the game(if I can ever find one to join) I think Supernatural speed, inhuman recovery, and then world walker, if the character is working for Hermes then those seem necessary. What would be a good catch for a demi-god though?
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Yeah I think I will go that direction. Depending on the power level of the game(if I can ever find one to join) I think Supernatural speed, inhuman recovery, and then world walker, if the character is working for Hermes then those seem necessary. What would be a good catch for a demi-god though?
Celestial bronze? Hydra blood?
Really though, the perfect catch for a scion of Hermes is...mercury!
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I rather like that idea haha.
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At the risk of necroposting, I finally remembered a weakness for the Greek gods.
There was a creature called the Ophiotaurus (part bull, part serpent). If the creature's entrails were burned, it would give the one who did so the power to overthrow the gods.
Fairly obscure catch but there you go.
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everyone worries about the laws of magic. That only applies to members of the white council or those humans with abilites that warrent inclusion in that body. If you where not a member or a member of another group you could do whatever you wanted at least in regards to the laws of magic. They only apply to humans who are or could be members. In game terms if you broke the laws you would be a monster. But if you had super speed and because time moved more slowly around you I don't see how you would be in violation of any law. If you had ties to the fey or another power there isn't anything the white council could do you wouldn't fall under their political umbrella.
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Chronomancy doesn't break the 6th law unless you go back in time, unless the wardens are being jerks. Chronomancy for speed is still going forward, just slower.
Any power where you're able to generate a lot of offense risks breaking the first law...flash-level superspeed is certainly in that category.
But yeah, if you want to play Dr Who, you're best off playing somebody who is already a monster, not a half-breed, scion, emissary etc. In DFRPG though, expect your high concept and any other aspects to get a lot of compels...the whole point of mortals is they can change who they are. If you don't have a bit of mortal, it's going to be a pretty static character in a lot of ways, so you'll want to figure out what sort of thing you'll do when you hit milestones and whether you're comfortable with a character that reacts to shattering events by being more of who they already are. It's certainly doable, but it's a more alien character than most PC concepts.
(it's not like other genres don't have this problem, too, but the immutability of any being of the never-never compared to mortals is unusually strong in Dresdenverse. OTOH, there is some plasticity - Toot Toot is clearly changing into something more like a Sidhe, but most of the plasticity is seen as toxic...it's why the Denarians fell from being angels, it's a major plot point with the Ladies, etc).
While you can get some political protection if you belong to another faction, that's limited unless you BECOME that faction - while Elaine, if exposed as Justin's pupil, as Emissary of Summer wasn't going to have her head taken off by a warden until the political crisis was over, the moment she was merely a ward they'd have gone after her, it would have only been a matter of a death payment and they might have done it anyway.. Had Elaine been a changeling, similar. Had she been a changeling sorceress who became, say, a Selkie, or turned by the Red Court the Wardens would have no excuse at all to go after her, and likely wouldn't risk it unless they were at war with the nation.
Thing is though, the political protection if you're still mortal doesn't protect you from the universe. You'll still have to spend refresh on lawbreaker, although again, if I wanted to play a Time Lord, I'd likely WANT 3 refresh spent on 6th law. +3 to time travel stuff is right up their alley.
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But yeah, if you want to play Dr Who, you're best off playing somebody who is already a monster, not a half-breed, scion, emissary etc.
I don't think the laws apply to sufficiently advanced technology, though.
You'll still have to spend refresh on lawbreaker, although again, if I wanted to play a Time Lord, I'd likely WANT 3 refresh spent on 6th law. +3 to time travel stuff is right up their alley.
Eh. Refinement would be more efficient.
And anyway Lawbreaker caps out at 2 Refresh. IIRC you get the extra +1 from having multiple Lawbreakers.