Marion G. Harmon, A Writer in Vegas.

Author’s Warning: I normally fill this space with book reviews, ruminations on writing, superheroes (of course) and other general items. What follows is something much more specific–if you are not interested in GURPS (the Generic Universal Roleplaying System) and superhero role-playing games, ignore this and subsequent GURPS-related entries. Everything below is essentially a character-sheet with player notes.

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GURPS Wearing the Cape: Characters.

This is the first of a series of posts I intend to do, based on my original character notes and covering the Sentinels as they are when Hope first meets them at the beginning of Wearing the Cape. I decided to start with Rush because, of the different types, he differs most from the superhero templates in GURPS 4^th Edition Supers. Hopefully, I’ll have a new Sentinel up every week or so. Each character will be linked through the GURPS WtC  page.

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Rush (aka, Travis Burl), 1,014 Points.

Appearance: Rush is 6’1” tall, weighs 218 lbs., and is 27 years old. A blond-haired and blue eyed athlete, he wears a tailored red and white racing jumpsuit and a matching visored half-helmet.

Attributes: ST 14 [40]; DX 12/16* [40]; IQ 10 [0]; HT 16 [60]

Secondary Characteristics: Damage 1d+2/2d+3; BL 45 lbs; Hit Points 15; Will 10 [0]; Pers 10 [0]; FP 16 [0]; Basic Speed 7 [0]; Basic Move 7 [0].

Advantages: Attractive [4]; Legal Enforcement Powers/Local [5]; Patron/Enemy (City of Chicago, Very Powerful Organization, Watcher, Fairly Often) [15]; Reputation +3 [15]; Very Fit [15];

Disadvantages: Duty (Fairly Often, Extremely Hazardous) [-10]; Greed (<15) [-8]; Lecherousness (<15) [-8]; Overconfidence [-5].

Powers: Altered Time Rate 5 (Super, -10%, Super-Speed, +20%, Switchable, +10%; Visible (eye-twistingly blurry, fast speech), -10%) [550]; Alternate Ability: Jumper/World (Super, -10%; Limited Access/Hypertime, -60%; Extra Carrying Cap./Extra-Heavy, +50%; Reduced Time (Instantaneous), +120%; Reliable +6, +30%; Special Movement/Free and Mobile, -10%) [52]; Enhanced Time Sense (Super, -10%; Link-ATR, +10%) [45]. Extra Attack 1 (Super, -10%; Multi-Strike, +20%; Link-ATR, +10%) [30]; Enhanced Block/Dodge/Parry +3 (Super, -10%; Link-ATR, +10%) [90]; Enhanced Dexterity (Not affecting High Manual DX skills) +4 (Super, -10%; Link-ATR, +10%) [60].

Skills: Area Knowledge/Chicago-10 [1]; Driving/Motorcycle-17 [4]; Brawling-18 [4]; Explosives/Demolition-11 [4]; First Aid-12 [4]; Guns/Pistol-18 [4]; Running-17 [4]; Sex Appeal-15 [1]; Sport/Football-15 [1]; Streetwise-9 [1]; Swimming-15 [1]; Throwing-15 [1].

Quirks: Congenial, Proud.

Weapons/Equipment: In combat, Rush prefers to use stunners (built into his gloves) and pulls his punches, but he has also used shaped demolitions against tough targets; his specialty is getting in fast and using just enough force to do the job. Rush rides a custom light-weight motorcycle equipped with several kits (first aid, combat gear, etc.), and his costume is a custom-made armored jumpsuit and helmet (treat as ballistic armor, DR 12/4). Like all Sentinels, he wears an earbug (very ear-attached communicator) connecting him to Dispatch.

Background/Personality: Rush’s power-set defines the A Class Speedster-Type. A natural athlete and high school quarterback who turned his talent into a college-football scholarship, Travis Burl seemed on his way to a professional contract. Then, running on painkillers and adrenaline, he experienced a breakthrough while trying to turn a looming quarterback-sack into a winning touchdown in the most important game of his college career. He was caught “speeding” on national TV, killing his dream of sports fame.

Travis’ football nick-name became his superhero name, and he approached his new career with the same single-mindedness that nearly took him to the pros. While a team-player, when the action starts Rush’s speed means he’s often the first on the scene; he performs reconnaissance, evacuates bystanders (and sometimes injured teammates), and engages the enemy with a high degree of personal initiative. He trains hard, works hard, parties harder, and enjoys the wealth and fame that being a Sentinel brings. Ever since grabbing the spotlight as his high-school’s Golden Boy, he has loved the attention and adulation and actively seeks it out. He likes fancy bikes and beautiful women, and trades both in regularly (none of his marriages have lasted more than a year), but he is cheerful, generous, outgoing, and the life of any party. While his overconfidence has gotten him in trouble from time to time, he is almost as good as he thinks he is.

Speedster Notes: Altered Time Rate and Jumper/Hypertime.

In the post-Event world, speedsters can accelerate their personal flow of time relative to the rest of the “realtime” world. They call this speeding, and it is not their rest-state (an unconscious speedster will automatically stop speeding). With the exception of Jumper (an alternative ability), all other Speed powers are linked to Altered Time Rate, available only while speeding.

To go into hypertime, the speedster must already have Altered Time Rate switched on. He then switches to Jumper with a Ready maneuver and instantly goes into hypertime. (This means that, going from a cold start, a speedster requires one Ready maneuver to go into ATR, then another to jump into hypertime—but since he’s moving at 5 seconds per second it appears instantaneous to everyone else.) Hypertime is a parallel world that appears to lack the dimension of time; a speedster entering hypertime enters a frozen world. He may move freely in hypertime at normal speed. No matter how much time he spends there, he returns to realtime at the exact second he left.

Because everything but the speedster is frozen in hypertime, he cannot interact with the world physically; closed doors and windows are impenetrable obstacles, nor can he inflict damage on the frozen people around him. The speedster’s presence in hypertime is also unstable; anything he brings with him will “drop” back into realtime when he loses physical contact with it, and if he loses consciousness he will return to realtime as well (but as a bonus, attempting to return to realtime takes no time and always succeeds). Objects a speedster “throws” (including laser beams and bullets) freeze and lose all force before dropping back into realtime. The frozen nature of hypertime does not protect the speedster from the effects of hostile environments—gas, heat, vacuum, etc. will still inflict damage for every second of exposure.