The Fastest Man Alive!!

[BaronVonStevie]

Working on stats for the "new 52" JLA. For some reason this game has inspired me to stat up current takes on DC characters. I think in part it has something to do with the new JLA feeling slightly scaled down or Earthbound. First up; Barry Allen!

The Flash

Affiliation: Solo d10, Buddy d8, Team d6

Distinctions: Brainy, The Fastest Man Alive, Showoff

Speed Force: Godlike Reflexes d12, Godlike Speed d12, Intangibility d10, Superhuman Stamina d10
• SFX: Think Fast! Use two or more Speed Force powers in a single dice pool at -1 step for each additional power.
• SFX: Vortex. Add a d6 and step up your effect die by +1 when inflicting Speed Force related complication on a target.
• SFX: Whirlwind. Add a d6 and keep an additional effect die for each additional target.
• Limit: Speed Force Conduit. Both 1 and 2 on your dice count as opportunities when using a Speed Force power.

Specialties: Crime Expert d8, Science Expert d8, Tech Expert d8

Milestones:
• For the Greater Good: 1XP (when a threat first presents itself on a Cosmic Scale), 3XP (when you first decide you’re the only hope to end some catastrophe or great menace and then attempt to), 10XP (when you either sacrifice yourself for some great cause or you survive a change in the timeline that strands you there)
• The Rogues: 1XP (when you declare a villain an old foe), 3XP (when two or more villains first gang up on you to bring you down), 10XP (when you either join your foes or bring two or more of them to justice)

[MidnightBlue]

I like it!

I love Barry Allen...and never thought we'd see him again except in flashbacks after the original Crisis.

Now, let me first say that I have no clue about anything going on recently (Flashpoint/New 52), so I could be off base on some of this.

I really like how you reflavored the SFXs and Limit, but I'm not so sure that Flash should have your Speed Force Conduit Limit.

I usually see that Limit for someone that has to really weigh the possibility of causing more harm than good if he uses his powers (like the Sentry). But the Flash uses his powers all the time.

Is there something that has happened recently in the comics that makes Barry hesitant to use his speed powers?

[MidnightBlue]

Oh...and the Milestones are inspired!

Nice touch!

[BaronVonStevie]

Is there something that has happened recently in the comics that makes Barry hesitant to use his speed powers?

it's a dramatic effect thing. He's not really hesitant per se, but the Speed Force can be dangerous and the GM should only really use this limit when the story requires it. If you roll a ton of 1's and 2's... maybe it might be a good time to activate this and beef your doom pool up or whatever. Afterall, the Speed Force *can* be dangerous.

[MidnightBlue]

Hmmm...maybe I need to go back and read over the Limit section, but it was my understanding that this particular Limit just worked without needing an activation.

I.e. whenever Barry uses a Speed Force power and rolls a 1 or 2, the Watcher has the option to activate an opportunity.

Am I wrong about that?

[N01H3r3]

Is there something that has happened recently in the comics that makes Barry hesitant to use his speed powers?

it's a dramatic effect thing. He's not really hesitant per se, but the Speed Force can be dangerous and the GM should only really use this limit when the story requires it. If you roll a ton of 1's and 2's... maybe it might be a good time to activate this and beef your doom pool up or whatever. Afterall, the Speed Force *can* be dangerous.

It can be, but normally only when a speedster really pushes themselves. To me, that sounds more like the Unleashed SFX (the Flash rarely travels at full speed - in part because errant sonic booms and so forth can cause problems, and in part because approaching the speed of light risks him being dragged into the Speed Force) rather than the Growing Dread limit (which is always on - you don't have to activate it, and just as importantly you can't turn it off).

My personal feelings on the character are to use the Exhausted Limit - Flash's high-speed antics and similarly accelerated metabolism means that needing to stop and eat a dozen burgers from a nearby vendor to refuel seems like a more common problem than the risk of being dragged off into a parallel dimension.

[BaronVonStevie]

hmm.. maybe unleashed. I'll read the limit section. didn't know growing dread needed to be activated. (and even if it did, kind of still works)

[MidnightBlue]

hmm.. maybe unleashed. I'll read the limit section. didn't know growing dread needed to be activated. (and even if it did, kind of still works)

What I was saying (if I have a clue of what I'm talking about) is that I don't think that the Growing Dread limit is an activation thing.

That means that every time the Flash rolls a one or two, the Watcher will get the chance to use the opportunity. Every single time.

Anyway, it was just a thought and a question.

If you are happy with it, great!

That's all any of us can ask for.

[BaronVonStevie]

yeah the watcher will get a *chance* to. i hate getting into discussions like this when I'm at work and don't have the book on hand.

I feel like you can keep it as is if the stakes are particularly high and the Watcher (I just call it the DM myself haha) decides that the doom pool needs to be gigantic because of some cosmic level baddie or huge event. If you want to keep compensating the player, you're just putting Barry in a place where he is more and more up to the task to save the world, cosmos, multiverse, or whatever.

again. I don't have the book with me.

[MidnightBlue]

Heh...I was posting the same way...at work and without my book...that's why I was being cautious about what I said "definitively."



But that is an interesting way to look at Growing Dread.

The character builds the DP faster...moving the game to the bursting point faster...and gaining those PP's to allow for a truly spectacular end scene all the faster.

Interesting...

He truly IS the fastest man alive!