Hewn and Some Numbers

 First of all a picture, because the kids like pictures. He is Hewn, carved from the Living Rock at the Base of the World. He's a sentient elemental inhabited by a little kid who has four elemental spirits he can embody. It's a whole mood.

Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about numbers. I put together a table that lays out all of the various values in the game: the attribute ratings (with modifiers), what the comparable Challenge Rating would be for a check at that level; what weight that equates to; speed and distance per action; and heat at that rating as an example of what intensities might look like.

The only problem/concern is how speed scales in terms of distance per action. The problem is that as characters get more powerful, they get more actions each round; so, a level 4 speedster with hyperspeed and PWR 20 (+5) is getting 9 actions each round. If he uses one of his actions to run, then this aligns well to traveling at 600 mph (moves 1 mile with each action). However, since he can theoretically use all 9 actions to run, he can actually run 5400 mph if he's using every action every round to run... so I've got to find some way to scale the action distances wayyyy back. I cannot assume that every character is going to take hyperspeed, but I have to account for it somehow. I think if we slow the progression of distance per action (maybe just go with a default of 100' per rating after 13) this would allow for an incremental bump, and allow you to really move, but also would keep things reasonable. This also accounts for the fact that you would be in combat most of the time, so you are doing more than just straight out running (or flying). You are dodging attacks, communicating with allies, and doing other combaty stuff that is not just straight up sprinting. 

Super Chart of Awesomeness

Rating (mod)	CR	Weight	Speed	Distance  per action	Heat
2 (-1)	12	30 lbs.	Immobile	1’	50 F
3 (-1)	13	50 lbs.	>1 mph	5’	55 F
4 (-1)	14	70 lbs.	1 mph	10’	60 F
5 (--)	15	100 lbs.	2 mph	20’	65 F
6 (--)	16	150 lbs.	3 mph	30’	Standard room (70 F)
7 (--)	17	200 lbs.	4 mph	40’	80 F
8 (+1)	18	300 lbs.	6 mph	60’	90 F
9 (+1)	19	500 lbs.	9 mph	90’	100 F
10 (+1)	20	700 lbs.	12 mph	120’	Highest Temp on Earth (120 F)
11 (+2)	21	1,000 lbs.	20 mph	200’	140 F
12 (+2)	22	1,500 lbs.	30 mph	300’	160 F
13 (+2)	23	1 ton	40 mph	400’	180 F
14 (+3)	24	3 tons	60 mph	600’	Boiling Point of Water (200 F)
15 (+3)	25	5 tons	90 mph	900’	300 F
16 (+3)	26	7 tons	120 mph	1,200’	400 F
17 (+4)	27	10 tons	200 mph	2,000’	500 F
18 (+4)	28	15 tons	300 mph	3,000’	Inside an oven (600 F)
19 (+4)	29	20 tons	400 mph	4,000’	900 F
20 (+5)	30	30 tons	600 mph	1 mile	1200 F
21 (+5)	31	50 tons	900 mph	1.5 miles	1500 F
22 (+5)	32	70 tons	1,200 mph	2 miles	Lava (2000 F)
23 (+6)	33	100 tons	2,000 mph	3 miles	4000 F
24 (+6)	34	150 tons	3,000 mph	5 miles	6000 F
25 (+6)	35	200 tons	4,000 mph	7 miles	8000 F
26 (+7)	36	300 tons	6,000 mph	10 miles	10,000 F (surface of the sun)

Editing Amok

Editing continues at a decent clip. Here's today's update...

1. I am cleaning up the trait (i.e. power) descriptions quite a bit. I am cutting maybe 25% of the language and tightening up concepts considerably. I'm simplifying operations and streamlining the numbers across the game. There is a LOT more cleaning up than I expected to be doing. I keep asking myself where the extra number crunching delivers any extra bang - do you really need to add two or three modifiers when you could just add one, and simplify that one to a cleaner number? That's where Feats came from and that's where several of the changes I'm toying with are going. Cleaner and simpler all around.

2. I think I want to go with 100 traits (powers) for the core rules. Instead of several rolls (by type, then by individual trait) I can have all 100 on a single percentile roll. It is forcing me to combine some powers (what is the real difference between charm, mind control, and hypnotism - can't these all be three flavors of the same power? I think so...) The basic rules for mind control work one way, but you can take limitations (hypnotism plants subtle suggestions; charm allows the target to maintain self control but to favor you). I like this. It's simpler and cleaner, but doesn't take away anything. Another example is plant animation; it's basically just summoning huge plants. Combine the powers and allow you to 'summon' pretty much anything that fits your character's theme.

3. This is the big one - I did this with Army Ants, and I almost did it with Tales of the Splintered Realm; you get a number of actions per round equal to your level. This is shark jumping territory, I know. But, the source material supports it. Batman doesn't leap and then wait for Riddler to act. He leaps, kicks Riddler, fires a grapple gun, and zips away. That's solid. Hulk grabs Loki, smacks him on the ground four times, and drops him. The cooler a hero is, the more stuff he or she gets to do on his or her time to shine. This is mitigated by a few things: A) the game only goes to level 6; B) most characters will end up being level 3 or 4 I would think. Level 5 is very high level, and 6 is the most powerful characters in the world.

Hyperspeed ends up being CRAZY fast then. Let's take Quicksilver. He's level 3 (so 3 actions) and has hyperspeed with PWR 18 (+4). This gives him 7 actions each round. DAAANG. But (and this is a big but), he is not really dealing that much damage. Yeah, he can run up, punch a dude five times, and run away... but each punch is only doing like 1d4+2 damage or so... I mean, yeah he might hit five times, but he's still only dealing 15 damage. The other thing is that this really aligns with the source material; when Spiderman was fighting the bank robbers in Homecoming, he's attacking three or four times before one of them gets to go. Then they each take an action, then he goes four or five more times. Realistically, you don't stand around while your foe makes a whole bunch of attacks; dramatically, this happens ALL. THE. TIME. Since the game is emulating the source material and not the real world, this is logical.

Looking forward to play testing some of this. Oh, and here's a sketch because pages with images tend to get more interactions. Just sayin'.

Compressing the Scale

Changing the modifiers for attributes has the ripple effect of compressing numbers all across the system. The modifiers for attributes are the default way to scale traits; your PWR modifier is the effective rating of your various talents linked to Power. If you had PWR 15 (+4), your default rating for many powers was 4. If this is linked to your hyperspeed, this means you can run 100 miles per hour; you are a lower-tier speedster. It's a respectable, albeit not particularly impressive, run speed. 

However, compressing the attribute scale means that the 15 rating is now a +3 modifier, pushing your run speed (if I was to use the same scaling) to 50 miles per hour. The old scale capped out at a +10 modifier, giving you a run speed about 10x the speed of sound; now, using the same scaling, you'd cap out just short of the speed of sound.

Two things are going to happen in the newer game; the scale is going to take slightly bigger chunks at each level, but the top end is going to cap out slightly lower. I am going with the Incredibles as the vibe for the game, but also as setting the power levels; Mr. Incredible is probably the strongest superhero in the world, but he's not Superman level strength. In FASERIP terms, he's probably Amazing (about the level of She Hulk) and maybe up near the Thing (Monstrous). He's not Unearthly - the is where our Hulk parallel would go. Since FASERIP and the Handbook of the Marvel Universe hard wired my thinking around these things, I put 100 tons as about the limit of what a superhero should be able to lift; this is far short of Superman (or even raging Hulk), but that sort of unbelievable cosmic power is not around in the world of the Incredibles. Doc Stalwart and Mr. Incredible would draw in an arm wrestling match, and Doc is my peak exemplar of superhuman strength; so I want my scale to top out near 100 tons. Sentinels came close to that, pushing one or two steps beyond. I can compress the climb, keep enough granularity for my purposes, and still check all my boxes. Here's a compressed scale for travel speeds and distances. This implies that a character with no superhuman speed (0) can travel up to 30' with an action (10' with a minor action), and up to 100' with an action and a successful Feat. A speedster character with respectable PWR (let's say 18, a +4 modifier) can travel 3000' in a single action (and 1.5 miles with an action and successful Feat). That's pretty dang quick.

One more thing: Going with the Incredibles, Dash is able to run as fast as those saucer glider things that I'd estimate are whizzing around at maybe 300 mph; but he might be making a whole bunch of successful Feats (he keeps pushing his powers). It is possible that his PWR is in the neighborhood of 14-16 (+3), and is making Feats to keep pace with those gliders. This all feels right for me.

Rating	Movement	Distance
-1	1 mph	10’
0	3 mph	30’
1	10 mph	100’
2	30 mph	300’
3	100 mph	1,000’
4	300 mph	3,000’
5	900 mph	1.5 miles
6	3,000 mph	5 miles
7	10,000 mph	15 miles