[Torg] The Speed Power of our Speedster in our game (while we are discussing it)

[Benjamin Grant]

Continuing work on Cad Calloway and the Speed Power.

Further details including some Power Stunts examples using the various levels of the Speed power. These power stunts are not intended to be anything like an exhaustive list, nor should the *lack* of an example for a power use be construed as an inability of the ability to have that use. Also, the use of the following abilities do not tire him out at all, cause shock to be taken, or have any other negative consequences unless otherwise specified.  Finally, most of the following abilities must be used while conscious – his Speed Aura helps him take less damage while falling, but not if he is unconscious. Some powers – notably Instant Reaction Time – can speed the transition time from asleep to fully awake to zero.

One other note:  Incidental flavor text regarding fallout from power uses are by and large up to the power user.  What does this mean?  When someone SuperSpeeds into a room, whether or not (and how much) papers go flying in a whoosh of displaced air is the user’s call.  When the Instantaneous Tasks ability is used to stack soda bottles, they are not “ready to burst and fizz” if opened – unless the user wants that.  This becomes even more absolutely true once the Speed Aura ability is mastered.

Also, since most of the abilities deal with speed and timing, they by and large can synergize and overlap each other.  This is intended.  All synergies are to be permitted as written.  If one has Infinite Speed, Instant Reaction Speed, and Instantaneous Tasks it would be possible, in the moment one sees the front door of one’s apartment beginning to open to  1) Infinite Speed (TP) to the hall, 2) make a simple perception check to see one’s mother in law coming to snoop, 3) Infinite Speed to a store, 4) grab a cleansing product (the one simple action this round), 5) Infinite Speed back into the apartment, 6) use Instantaneous Tasks to clean the apartment top to bottom, 7) Infinite Speed back out to the hall – and all of these during your initiative in one round in the moment before the door opens.

Finally, since this is a speed power, our Torg rules for action in a round should be noted:  First the order of initiative is determined, then each character normally gets to make a passive defense action, a normal movement action, a simple action (any action that a take-0 yields a success at), and a complex (rolled) action such as an attack, a skill use, an active dodge in place of a passive on, and so on.  All of the actions of one character in a round normally occur during their initiative, in any order.  It is also common for a character to hold one or more of their actions until later in a round, for example, the character may use a simple action by shouting at an opponent, see what they do, and then respond after the opponents initiative has concluded with their held or unused actions.

Some Speed Power stunts modify existing abilities, such as a Dexterity boost.  Some Speed Power stunts create entirely new actions, such as SuperSpeed travel.  Each ability will note its timing rules and how it is to be used in the pace of rounds and actions.

 Every scene in which Cad uses his Speed power in a cool or interesting way, Cad gets a checkmark.  He can get a maximum of one checkmark per session.  An extraordinary use of the power may qualify, under GM discretion, for an extra checkmark that session – but this would be on the order of a Speed power Glory, or something similar.  It almost goes without saying that all checkmarks are erased when buying the next level of the power.
 
The Speed power levels check mark requirements are as follows:

Level	Prerequisite
One	None
Two-Three	1 check
Four-Five	3 checks
Six-Seven	5 checks
Eight-Nine	7 checks
Ten	Only with GM permission

This makes it require, at a minimum, 32 sessions to get level Nine.
10 levels make up the Speed Power:

1.	Improved Reaction (IR) – Always wins initiative, never suffers surprise
2.	Alacrity (Alac) – Dex and Per bonuses
3.	Super Speed (SS) – Sub Mach one speeds, included inverted and vertical
4.	Instantaneous Tasks (IT) – Perform large group of related tasks as a single action
5.	Improved Multi-Action IMA) – Performing many actions as one
6.	Speed Aura (Aura) – Violate physics, Str and Tou increases under certain circumstances
7.	Instant Reaction Time (IRT) – Absolute control over reaction time
8.	Infinite Speed (IS) –teleportation and simple perception through Infinity
9.	Air Control (Air) – Absolute control of air through Speed
10.	Ultra-Speed (US) – Absolute Oracle and Jamesian mastery of Speed.

Improved Reaction (IR)

This gives one the ability to always go first and to never suffer penalties due to surprise – Complete, Partial, or otherwise.  Here are some sample uses and guidelines:

•	Sniper on the roof fires a shot. Cad gets a perception check, and if made, is informed of this fact, and gets to act first.  (Here the difference between IR and IRT is easily illustrated: In order to use IR against a sniper Cad has to make a Perception check.  With IRT Cad can act when the bullet barely touches him.)
•	Cad rounds a corner, bumping into a security guard. Cad can try to dodge back around the corner, before the guard’s next action. However, the guard may still see him, based on the guards perception roll.
•	Once Cad has Speed Aura, he gains the ability to allow the other person to start their action, potentially revealing to Cad what the other person is attempting, allowing Cad to perform an interruptive action which resolves first. (This will probably become a standard tactic for this power – let them start their action, revealing it, and then use one’s own action to interrupt theirs.) 
•	By the use of Improved Reaction, multi-actions, speed power actions – all actions that one is entitled to can all occur before another can accomplish any action – the normal result of a vastly superior initiative.

Alacrity (Alac)

This ability improves Dexterity and Perception based skills due to the boosted Control and Alertness.  All skills adds based on Dexterity gain +X where X = Speed Power level. All skills based on Perception gain +(1/2) X.  Here are some sample uses and guidelines:

•	Cad does not have Fire Combat, but due to his Alacrity has a +X to his Fire Combat skill add (although it still counts as unskilled.) At level 2, he has a +2 Fire Combat add. As it affects his skill add, it also applies to GJN, increasing the damage done through accuracy (just like a higher skill would.)
•	Cad does have Dodge, at 2. He has an effective dodge of 4 at level two of the Speed Power.
•	Cad needs to make a perception roll to spot something. At level two of the Speed power, he would get a +1 to make that perception roll. (It is assumed that a skill exists for every task resolution check, whether or not that skill is possessed.)

SuperSpeed (SS)

With SuperSpeed one can run at sub Mach One speeds (700+ mph), even up vertical surfaces or inverted ones like ceilings.  One can also run on or in water.  When the Speed Aura is achieved, this enables SuperSpeed to go up to Mach 10. Here are some sample uses and guidelines:

•	Cad is in a warehouse with an open skylight. He can run up the wall, across the ceiling, and through the skylight. He cannot stop on the ceiling without falling, but he can run in a circle on the ceiling without falling.
•	Cad can run from New York to London by running on the waves – he can run on water.
•	He can also run *in* water (in scuba gear if necessary) at the same speeds. He can simply choose whether he is on or in the water, and switch between the two at any time.
•	In a medium like water, he has effective 6 degrees of freedom, able to run in all 3 directions, effectively “flying” through the water. Of course, he still needs to breath, unless he can hold his breath the entire time he is in the water.
•	He WILL suffer the effects of any great depth in the water if he hasn’t yet gotten his Speed Aura.
•	This action is a movement action, and has the timing of any other movement action.

 
Instantaneous Tasks (IT)

This ability permits the user to perform a related group of tasks (cleaning, disarming a group of thugs, even combat) in a single round as a non-rolled, complex action.  No roll is allowed, the user must use a “take-5” (simulating the extra time taken) on any and all skill rolls required for the task group.  If during the attempt either one Wound or three Shock Points are taken, the remainder of the task is aborted and the round ends.  Here are some sample uses and guidelines:

•	IT can be used to combat a group of ords. If Cad uses IT Combat, he must decide whether to use a *wide* attack, that attacks every desired ord once, or a *deep* attack, that attacks a single ord repeatedly.  If the latter, Cad gets a take-5 attack on the target, and the target gets a free dodge roll (not active defense).  If Cad hits, the target takes damage, and the cycle repeats with another free dodge roll and possibly more damage, until the target is either defeated or manages to beat Cad’s take-6 attack.
•	IT combat cannot be used against P-rated antagonists, or antagonists that the GM considers to be central cast. GM’s discretion.
•	If faced with an army of thousands, it is likely that Cad could disarm them all – there is no limitation based on number, only on the task attempted. Of course, the disarm might still fail on certain of the soldiers that rolled well enough to resist (if any did.)
•	Any task definable in a simple sentence is eligible for IT. “I clean the apartment” “I disarm (or knock out) the thugs” “I assemble the device” “I read the telephone book” “I move the books of the library onto the street” “I place the books on the street back in the library in the correct order” “I sort through all the library cards, putting them back in the right order.”
•	In each of these tasks, success is rated by the take-6 mechanism. The more difficult the set of tasks is, the more of a chance that a take-6 will not be sufficient.
•	Tasks not eligible for IT include conditionals and any other compound actions such as if-then, some “and” statements, etc.
•	For example, Cad cannot as one IT “clean both this building AND assemble the model” – that’s two separate task groups.
•	Cad cannot also “knockout the army of thugs, and remove the weapons of any that fail to be knocked out” because that uses a conditional.
•	Cad cannot also “examine all the bodies, if a puncture would is found, then assemble the model” – that’s still two separate task groups.
•	Cad *can* combine two applications of the same set of tasks into one IT where sensible.
•	For example, Cad can “clean the living room” and “clean the bedroom”. Cad can also “clean the living room and the bedroom”.
•	Likewise Cad can “clean the living room” and “recarpet the living room”, and since those actions are related, he can “clean and recarpet the living room”.
•	Similarly, Cad can “disarm the thugs” and “knockout the thugs”, and so can he “disarm and knockout the thugs.” (Or “knockout and disarm the thugs.”)
•	The rule of thumb is no conditionals allowed and the actions must be related, part of an overall simple goal (making the living room nice, dealing with a threat) – the GM has ultimate discretion, but should use these examples as guidelines.

Improved Multi-Action (MA)

Cad can use Improved Multi-Actions (IMA) in one of the two following ways.  Cad cannot use both of the following uses in the same round:
•	The first use of this power is to offset the penalty from doing Multi-Actions.  The offset is X, where X is the Speed Power level.  This means that at level 5, instead of paying -2 penalty for the first complex action, -4 for the second, -6 for the third, -8 for the fourth, -10 for the fifth, and so on; his penalty is reduced by 5, yielding (at level 5) no penalty for the first or second action, -1 for the third, -3 for the fourth, -5 for the fifth, etc.

•	The second use of the power, incompatible with the first, is to perform one single skill attempt  repetitively.  This requires that the character be trying to use the same skill roll to accomplish the same goal, through repeated use.  For example, the character may be trying to break down a door.  The door may have a Toughness of 15, and require a total of 50 Accumulated Result points to bust it down.  This power permits the character to make a roll.  If this roll beats the difficulty, the results of this roll can be applied without limit, an infinite number of times.  This naturally means that if Cad Calloway can beat the difficulty number, it doesn’t matter how many ARPs are needed, Cad will get that many and more within this one complex action.

The limitations on the second type of use of this power, besides not being compatible with the first way to use IMA, are that the character must be making the same action, repetitively, with the same goal or target.  Another limitation of this use of this power is that it cannot be used against an unwilling sentient target.  For example, to physically attack an opponent many times with one action (or more), the first use of this power must be used.

Speed Aura (SA)

While many of the preceding powers already violate physics, this power solidifies and extends that, especially with regard to momentum, speed, force, mass, etc.  This allows the character to begin to do “impossible” feats like catching a bullet, or throwing a projectile at hyperspeed, doing more damage. Momentum and inertia of whatever he touches become controllable.  Likewise, Cad’s strength is magnified through speed. The augmentation due to inertial effects to his strength is +X where X is his Speed Power level.  His Toughness with respect to inertia impacts, such as bullets or falling from a height, also benefits from this inertial control, with such effects losing X in damage rating upon his touch.  Here are some sample uses and guidelines:

•	The user can make any task attempt involving Strength with +X to the Effect Value – because of the Strength boost of +X.
•	He can also leap fantastic distances and heights – add X to his normal distance value and read the resulting measure as distance on the Value chart. This of course ignores movement limits.
•	This power, apart from the Strength (and partial Toughness) bonus, is fairly nebulous – the GM is advised to use discretion, and allow non-specific uses of the Speed Power based on this where appropriate.
•	 For example, Cad wants to run across a telephone pole line from one roof to another. The GM could rule that instead of having to make a balance roll to avoid falling, the Speed Aura allows Cad to use his inertia to prevent a loss of balance.
•	 Likewise, in plucking a person out from a speeding vehicle, according to physics damage could result to any organic being that changed vectors that fast. But the GM can rule that the Speed Aura negates that momentum issue.
•	This level allows him to do all the other feats not covered – such as include another person within the effects of his ability.
•	Some of the pre-defined effects of the Speed Aura on the other powers include (but are not limited to):
o	Improved Reaction (IR) – Speed Aura is required to use this power in an interruptive way – to act after the opponent has revealed their action, but before they accomplish it.
o	Super Speed (SS) – Allows for up to Mach 10 using this power, with or without flavor text such as sonic booms, at the user’s discretion.
o	Infinite Speed (IS) – the speedster can take a touching mass with him, including people, of up to 2 tons.  And because he can use this ability multiple times, he can take 2 tons *per trip*.
o	Other effects at the GMs discretion

Instant Reaction Time (IRT)

This is not just acting on first initiative, this is immediate action in zero time – no time passes during the perception, or between perception and reaction.  So, for example, when he is shot, he can feel the bullet touch his clothing and before any time AT ALL passes, react (such as by IT, SS, IS, etc).

•	The instant a perception is begun to be experienced, time stops. Or to be more precise, Cad accelerates to infinite speed. This enables him to stop and consider his choices.  Examples of situations that can prompt this include:
o	A bullet in contact with his clothes
o	A difference in the taste of the air
o	A person aiming a gun or squeezing the trigger
o	A bomb exploding
o	A car careening
•	Any time the character is aware of something, the character is not only instantly aware, but can instantly interrupt the happening.  In practice, rather than the GM asking for each moment, “do you interrupt”, the player is encouraged to interrupt the GM, rewinding time slightly.
•	For example, if the GM narrates “The villain points his gun at the hostage and fires”, the player can respond with “Before that happens, I use IT to remove all the bullets from his gun”.  The player can always do this, unless the player was not aware of anything happening at all in the first place.
•	He can react so quickly that he can avoid certain outcomes. For example, he can touch a trip wire and stop before he puts enough pressure on the wire to trigger it. He can also turn around a corner, see a guard, and react quickly enough to return back around the corner before the guard is even aware of him. He can dodge a bullet before it even damages his clothing.  Instant reaction time means just that.
•	This therefore can cause events to unfold as slowly as one wants. For example, a military assault can be watched in extreme slo-mo. However, any actions one wants to take must either be performed according to the appropriate rules, if speed power based, or be normal actions in normal time. The point here is that Cad can as precisely as he wants choose his exact moment.
•	For example, if a nuclear bomb is detonated, Cad could choose to wait until the nuclear explosion was exactly 10 feet across (or so) before acting, should he want to.
•	What moment Cad becomes aware of an event is dependent on its perceptibility. If Cad is within visual range of a nuclear detonation, such as 100 feet from the device, he would probably see the flash as it just begins, allowing Cad to act while the explosion is confined to a very small area, such as one limited to the size of the device itself. He may then be able to use IT to transfer the device somewhere where it can continue to explode harmlessly, like the moon.
•	The point is that the very instant that an event is perceptible to Cad, he can react, or choose to wait to observe event unfold at whatever rate he chooses.
•	Some attacks, such as a poison gas attack, may be so invisible and insidious that IRT may not help – although if he sees 4 people keel over gasping, he can then immediately react.

Infinite Speed (IS)

 At Infinite Speed, one travels instantly through every point of the universe choosing to stop at one, without really having been at any of them - allowing effective teleportation.  This permits him access to *any* contiguous space.  It doesn’t matter if it’s on the other side of ten feet of lead or in a cosm 4 thinnings away – as long as the space is physically connected or physically adjacent, he can go there.

•	This is his ultimate travel ability, allowing him to go anywhere in the universe. While using this ability he absolutely cannot be harmed or affected – even if he travels to the center of a star - although at some point he needs to come out of this ability for the next round to occur.
•	As he travels at IS he gets a limited perception of his travels without leaving IS – a take 0 perception check, no roll.
•	This travel power lets him go anywhere, a locked room, a bathysphere at the bottom of the ocean, without crossing specifically the intervening space.
•	However, it can be useful to have information about the scene and surroundings, so his normal approach would be to set his destination (a specific office) but actually hit several surrounding destinations en route (spots around the building, spots within the building.) At each spot he makes a take-0 perception check (no roll).
•	He can travel to any number of IS destinations, making any number of take-0 perception rolls in a round. He can still perform all the same ordinary actions each round that a normal character could.
•	He cannot take another person with him until he gets Speed Aura. 
•	He can use this ability to do a take-0 search of an area – but only for obvious targets, like a hostage or a room number – nothing that takes interaction to find, such as looking in things – that is what Instantaneous Tasks is for (IT).
 
•	At the GM’s discretion, area searches using IS may be limited to a certain area based on the searched for item (ie, searching a city for an intersection or license plate; searching a building for a person. Rule of thumb is that the ultimate container of an item is the limit. Therefore a car parked on the street is contained by a City. A person in a building is contained by that building or building complex.
•	Only one such search per round.
•	IS can only be used before a normal rolled action, or after, but not both. However, IS can be used before *and* after any non rolled action, such as a take-0 or simple action, or an Instantaneous Tasks use.
•	There are two exceptions to the above rule.  When using Improved Multi-Actions, one of the extra “free” actions can be assigned to a group of IS use, that doesn’t count against the above restriction.  Also, playing a Haste works exactly like a “free” IMA action – it doesn’t count against the IS limitation.
•	IS can be used in a single use to travel across cosms and past thinnings so long as either all cosms in contiguity have high enough axioms to permit the use of powers, or the user invokes a Reality Bubble (itself a simple action.)  One option to getting across the cosmverse is to like water flowing try to find a path to the destination in the chain of cosms that support powers, and if none is found, use a simple action and IS again – all as one single action set.

Other uses include (each of which can occur in a single round.):

•	IS travelling to an opponent. Attacking him, probably with some element of surprise.
•	IS searching a building for an object, which is found on a desk in a room. (NOT in a desk). Going there and using a simple action to pick up the object.  IS travelling somewhere else.
•	IS travelling to a computer, using a take-0 to change a setting on the computer, IS travelling to another location.
•	Being attacked, IS travelling elsewhere (assuming the initial attack does not render him unconscious.)
•	Note: this is not to replace Level 5’s Instantaneous Tasks. The only actions that can be taken multiply without limit is travelling and take-0 perceptions. Apart from that, even simple actions such as opening a box or picking up an item take the normal amount of time and happen only the normal amount of time in a round. To refresh, any character can move, perform a simple action, perform a passive defense, AND roll for one action, every round. IS only adds unlimited travel and unlimited simple perception, the only restriction being that a rolled action must not both be preceded and followed by IS. Of course, other powers can get around this restriction – such as using Instantaneous Tasks in combination with IS, or using Speed Combat in combination with IS.
•	Again, to clearly restate IS’s timing:  IS permits almost unlimited additional actions within a round as long as each of these extra actions is either a take-0 perception or instant travel to a contiguous spot as previously defined.  The only limitation is that any and all rolled actions must occur either before all IS use or after, *unless* an extra action is used through a Haste or through Improved MultiAction.

 
Air Control (AC)

This allows one to control the air – create and dissipate tornadoes, hurricanes, walls of air, perform ranged air “pushes”, etc. The effects he creates are under one’s precise control as long as one continues to exert control at least once each round.  Here are some sample uses and guidelines:

•	When one creates a wall of air, or any other air formation, it will dissipate within one round after being created unless one action during the round is spent maintaining it. So if one creates an “air-wall”, he can maintain it indefinitely, but on the round after he stops doing so, it acts naturally.
•	For example: rounds 1-5 one creates and maintains a tornado, with one spinning at the center. Round 6 one does something else. Round 7 is when the tornado acts naturally – most likely starting to dissipate.
•	Cad can choose to sweep up debris in the air (if some is available) to create a visually impenetrable wall of air, or to use for extra blunt damage by attacking with that air wall.
•	Or Cad can choose to not sweep up debris.
•	Cad may also choose to create clouds or mist by this same action.
•	Ultimately, there is full control over the air, what it does, how it transforms, etc. 

Speed Force Unity (Unity)

This is the ultimate Jamesian level of becoming speed/inertia/momentum/force incarnate. At this level Cad’s actions are limited only to the player’s imagination and GM discretion – and the GM is advised to approve any and all effect that can be explained through perfect control of speed, including (for example) perfect dodge (can only be hit with AoEs).

•	This is equivalent to being an archmage or oracle of Speed.
•	There isn’t much to be said about this level – except that I sure look forward to playing Cad at Speed Power: 10!

Those are the ten powers, listed here again for convenience (in no particular order):

•	Air Control (Air) – Absolute control of air through Speed
•	Alacrity (Alac) – Dex and Per bonuses
•	Instantaneous Tasks (IT) – Perform large group of related tasks as a single action
•	Speed Aura (Aura) – Violate physics, Str and Tou increases under certain circumstances 
•	Instant Reaction Time (IRT) – Absolute control over reaction time
•	Improved Multi-Action IMA) – Performing many actions as one
•	Improved Reaction (IR) – Always wins initiative, never suffers surprise
•	Infinite Speed (IS) –teleportation and simple perception through Infinity
•	Super Speed (SS) – Sub Mach one speeds, included inverted and vertical
•	Ultra-Speed (US) – Absolute Oracle and Jamesian mastery of Speed.

So the question that remains is what order should they come in.  Obviously Unity must come last.  Likewise, SuperSpeed has to come before Infinite Speed.  Improved Reaction has to come before Instant Reaction Time.  It probably makes sense for Speed Aura to come after the powers that it can modify, like IR, SS, and IS.  Air Control is perhaps the second most powerful ability – perhaps that should be the level 9 power.

I would put the following powers as starting powers in some order as each of them is, at the early levels of the Speed Power, fairly minor in comparison to what comes later:  Improved Reaction, Alacrity, and Super Speed.  I believe those should probably be the first three powers, any order can be made workable.

The final three powers should be the most powerful.  Unity should obviously be the last, and I suggest Air Control is so powerful as to be next to last.  What should level eight be?

Speed Aura should probably come somewhat *before* eight, as it leads to Unity.  Perhaps Infinite Speed should be the level eight ability, as it largely supplants the early power SuperSpeed, and is quite powerful and unlimited.

Instantaneous Tasks – the ability to clean a room in the blink of an eye, also seems an earlier power, in that it seems a base speedster ability as opposed to seeming more like an ultimate ability.  Let’s place IT at level four.

We are left Speed Aura, Instant Reaction Time, and Improved MultiActions.  We need to fill levels five, six, and seven – but which should go in which?

Improved Multi Actions feel like a first half power instead of last half – let’s put it at level five..  Speed Aura should probably not be left until level seven, to distance it from Unity, let’s put it at level six.  That leaves Instant Reaction Time for level seven – and since it is pretty powerful, that sounds ok.

This yields the following progression:

1.	Improved Reaction (IR) – Always wins initiative, never suffers surprise
2.	Alacrity (Alac) – Dex and Per bonuses
3.	Super Speed (SS) – Sub Mach one speeds, included inverted and vertical
4.	Instantaneous Tasks (IT) – Perform large group of related tasks as a single action
5.	Improved Multi-Action IMA) – Performing many actions as one
6.	Speed Aura (Aura) – Violate physics, Str and Tou increases under certain circumstances
7.	Instant Reaction Time (IRT) – Absolute control over reaction time
8.	Infinite Speed (IS) –teleportation and simple perception through Infinity
9.	Air Control (Air) – Absolute control of air through Speed
10.	Ultra-Speed (US) – Absolute Oracle and Jamesian mastery of Speed.
This is just one conception of an ordering that could be done – perhaps IRT and IS could be swapped, or maybe Alacrity and IMA could be exchanged – if you have any different ideas as to the ordering of the abilities, I am all ears.

Whew!  There you have it.  Let the discussion commence.

-Benn Grant
eFix Computer Consulting
benn at 4eFix.com
603.283.6601