Putting some 'oomph' into the Spd attribute

[SoulofThunder]

IIRC wasn't there someting in the first Rifts Conversion Book that talked about Spd and bonuses for high levels?

I remember something like that in an old TMNT book.

[LostOne]

It all depends on how the GM sets up the encounters. For instance, if in Rifts the group comes up against CS soldiers, 9/10 times it'll be starting from hundreds of feet away. Having a few more points in Speed might make the difference of one or two attacks of running time. And during that time the soldiers will be shooting at you.

But if the GM always sets up encounters that start in the same room, then yes, speed is pointless.

[Iczer]

It's just not that useful. Honestly now, how often will the difference between a Spd of 20 and a Spd of 80 come up? .

well... I had a game a few years back, where one PC had, in her transformed state, a Spd of 66 (so, at full tilt, 990 feet in a melee round). while we were all impressed with her ground speed, what with the room average coming to about 22, we were doubly impressed when the bad guys were escaping from her lab in an inner city forensics building. The bad guys ran out from the 9th floor, after leaving her civillian identity tied up. she was transformed, free and out the door by the time the bad guys hit the car park (their spd scores of 18 were no match)

Tactically, her movement far outstripped everyone else, roughly moving 60 odd feet to clock someone meant that even ranged combatants only got a shot off before meeting her claws.

batts

[NMI]

The math for speed basically boils down to

you can move your "Speed Attribute" in feet, per second.

Speed of 15 x 20 = 300 yrds in 1 minute. divide by 60 = 5 yrds per second. 5 yrds is roughly 15 feet. So 15 feet per second in this example.

[LostOne]

For all you non-math types, this is what I boiled it down too and found easy to remember for converting using a normal calculator.

Spd attribute * 15 / 22 = mph

speed of 22 * 15 / 22 = 15 mph

For those wondering, that 15/22 came from 3600 seconds / 5280 feet...aka... 1 hour / 1 mile.

All my players wrote that little equation next to the speed table in their RMB, so they don't have to guess at their speed in mph based on the table, they can figure it exactly (we round to the nearest .5 mph).

[say652]

I use spd converted to feet per melee then divided by the number of attacks to establish "melee" combat range.
Being able ti engage in fist fights with people fifty feet away and not lose an action is pretty impressive.

[say652]

Still awesome to be in melee range no penalties at distances like that.

[LostOne]

Character A has a speed of 62 with 7 attacks
Character B has a speed of 53 with 5 attacks

Character A:
Speed 62 x 20 = 1240 yards per minute or 1240 / 4 = 310 Yards (930 ft) per melee round at full move. With 7 attacks that allows 45 (rounded up) yards or 135 ft per melee action.

Character B:
Speed 53 x 20 = 1060 yards per minute or 1060 / 4 = 265 Yards (795 ft) per melee round at full move. With 5 attacks that allows 53 yards or 159 ft per melee action.

This is how we go with it. Honestly, the extra work you're going to seems to make little difference in most battles for our group, with the two characters needing the same number of attacks to close the distance with a relatively close opponent, or a full melee or more to close with a distant opponent who is using a modern ranged weapon. Honestly I don't care how the math works out, I will always want more attacks, because once I close distance I still get more attacks for the rest of the fight. I suppose if the guy is 100ft away and you can run 159ft an attack you have a problem with using a partial attack to get to him and wasting the attack? Combat will never be a perfect system, just relax and try to enjoy the game.

[Glistam]

For everyone involved in the melee, take the lowest number of attacks and figure everyone's movement per attack based on that number. Then, when that person has used their attacks and everyone else with attacks is finishing up, don't allow any more movement. Just have them use up their flurry of attacks at the end of the melee round and move to the next melee.

In general I just let people move their speed attribute in feet without losing an action or attack. If they want to move faster then they have to sacrifice their attack to do so.