Doug's Musical Ability, in GURPS

[Mark Skarr]

Okay, combat initiative is based on Agility (or in the case of those with Heightened Speed, Agility + 1/10 of their ground speed bonus). Initiative is generated by rolling 1d10 and adding it to this base.
Doug has a 47 agility, the average normal has 10 (well, 10.5, but it rounds down). On an average combat round -- with a roll of 5 for both -- Doug will have an Initiative of 52, and the normal 15.
Highest initiative goes first, obviously. And for every 15 points of initiative, counting down, you get another action. So Doug would go on 52, then 37, then 22, then the normal would go on 15, and Doug again on 7. (There is no 0 action.)
This is a simplified case, of course, but you should get the idea. Yes, the normal could get 2 actions (acting on anywhere from 20 to 16, and again on 5 to 1, depending on the roll). But Doug would still act twice before they did, and win any ties where they both acted on the same phase.
And if he reserves one of his earlier actions, he could even interrupt the other person's action on a phase when he wouldn't normally be able to act. (He/I did that a lot. It's good to be fast in V&V.)
Does that help any?

That sounds like Shadowrun 1e, I never played any of the others, but that’s how the initiative worked for them. So, I think a level of Altered Time Rate, Combat Only (-20%) might be appropriate, or even Extra Attack. However, when Doug is fighting normal in GURPS, just the surprise rules might account for that.

Oh, some do. When he shifts to a tiger, he gets a Claw/Claw/Bite/Rake attack sequence. And of course, he can always use the V&V multiple attacks rule, but that doesn't have a GURPS equivalent.

It might, now. There are scads of new options in 4e. All-Out-Attack (Double), Rapid Strike, and what have you.

That's terribly subjective. Konya wa Hurricane certainly qualifies. Resurrection is pretty amazing (and no, it doesn't require two targets, it can affect up to two).

Can someone, please, point me to the chapter, so I can review it.

To be absolutely honest, 75% or more of Doug's awesome is SFX that doesn't really have a game (or story) effect.

Oh, yes. I’m very familiar with that. I have a spectacular Hero GM and another Hero guru (Ghost-Raven. To the point that we’ve had games interrupted by Steve Long himself calling to get information from Ghost-Raven. The first time that happened, I had to be told who Steve Long was). The separation of SFX for Mechanics has become second-nature to me, now.

Fair enough. Without digging out his character sheet, I recall his carry cap is in the vicinity of 250 lbs.

Which gives him ST 16. ("Lifting capacity is proportional to the square of ST", according to page B14, and 16^2 = 256.) This is the easy number to calculate.

It’s not quite that easy, Rob. That’s his ability to lift, not carry. A ST 12 is capable of carrying 290 lbs, and a ST 14 can carry 390. The question becomes, what can an average person, in V&V carry?
A ST 14 in GURPS has an X-Heavy of (as I said before) 390, but a heavy of 234. I think 14, or maybe even 13, might be ideal.

Ah, well, there's a rub... Doug is hyperintelligent -- 300 IQ (30 Int vs. 10 Int for a normal), along with a near-eidetic memory. He has a raft of mental disadvantages that take the edge off that, including impulsiveness, his tendency to leap to conclusions, and a few other things, but he is brilliant. He got through an Ivy League university by reading his textbooks once at the beginning of each semester.

Here we have to consult the body text and sidebar on page B15... which doesn't give as much help as one might think. Any score above 15 could be justified, depending on just which mental advantages Doug has. Just giving Doug a GURPS IQ of 30 isn't right, because "Intelligence broadly measures brainpower, including creativity, intuition, memory, perception, reason, sanity, and willpower." (Emphasis mine.)

Doug and Rose will get along so well, he knows what it is to be trapped with the slow children.
I think Rob is right. I think we may be able to get away with an IQ of around 16 (which would cause his skills to be lowered because, well, he’s jumping to the wrong conclusion when he’s suffering penalties) and eidetic memory (but not full photographic, unless you think he needs it). We’d need to spike his Will (I think a 20-25 wouldn’t be out of the question).

As for health, whatever works. Doug doesn't get sick, without his armor he could take several volleys of small arms fire with little effect, and he just keeps going when folks think he ought to drop (part of which is sheer cussedness, aka willpower, but still). However you want to quantify that.

Well, Health is about not getting sick and staying alive. Surviving several volleys of small arms fire, that’s going to be (my favorite supers advantage, and a requirement for my IST game) INJURY TOLERANCE: DAMAGE REDUCTION! Seriously people, if you’re playing supers and you’re not using that, I have to think that “yer doin’ it wrong!”

Oh, and I don't know if this helps, but have you seen his Fuzion writeup on my website?

*phone ringing*
Gummi (my Hero GM): Hello
Mark: Hey, Gummi, it’s Mark.
Gummi: Mark, how’s it going.
Mark: I’m fine; I have a question: You mentioned Fuzion a while ago . . ..
Gummi: **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!**
Mark: I’m taking that response to move away from it like it’s radioactive?
Gummi: **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!**
Kat (Gummi’s Wife picks up the phone): What’s he screaming about? Did someone mention Fuzion to him?
Gummi: **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!**
Mark: Sorry, Kat. I did, I was trying to find out about it.
Kat: Well, now you know.
And knowing is half the battle. He may still be screaming for all I know.

No, Doug explicitly does not have Trained By A Master. It's mentioned early in DW5, in fact, that he has trained himself in hand-to-hand combat by copying the moves of people he's fought and making a patchwork crazyquilt style of his own out of them. He's never had any kind of formal combat training, at least not until he started on the Walk -- and that training is almost exclusively in melee weapons.

That I remembered. There are ways around it. Usually Perks and, conveniently enough, super powers!