Quick Change

[prufock]

I know of the Quick Change feature, but is there any rule on how long it takes to change without it? Tried a forum search but no luck.

[Monolith]

There's really no set amount of time. It could be anywhere from 1 round to 10 rounds. It's basically up to the GM and the situation. You don't want to keep people out of the action too long, as the putting on of costumes isn't the important panels in a comic. I usually say 2 rounds, unless the player is the only character in the encounter. Then it's just something that happens before combat time.

[Murkglow]

The time depends on the character but lets just say that putting on skin tight spandex in a broom closet is going to take time. Since every round is only 6 second (which makes the above answer of 2 rounds, ie 12 seconds, seem dang fast) I would say that putting your costume on mid combat would be largely impossible. Outside of combat would depend on the situation. It also depends on how much of the suit you already had on. If you just had to pull off your shirt and pants and put on your mask/boots/gloves then it can be fairly quick, if you need to strip and then put everything on it would take a while.

[HustlerOne]

Superman wears his costume underneath his normal business suit. Yet, I don't think he needs quickchange.
I guess his quickness and speed power makes up for it.

I forget if any DC character has quickchange. I think Flash with his instant costume in his ring has it. Green
Lantern might also have it since his costume comes from his powers. Iron Man might have it if he uses the suitcase armor. Normally, I think it would take a long time for him to put on his armor.

I guess it really depends on each individual character. Having a simple mask with a costume that can be
hidden underneath your street clothes would be easy to take off. Putting your street clothes back on is another matter.

[Monolith]

In the comics how often is the clothes changing important to the encounter? Basically never. Peter Parker turns into Spider-man and saves the day before the second "help" can be cried out. Even Ironman get get into his armor in only a few seconds. When most combats only go 6-8 rounds do you really want to make a player miss most of it just to change clothes?

[Murkglow]

Actually there are stories where the hero doesn't have time to change and needs to either fight in their street clothes (usually via stealth so as not to give away their identity), help out covertly/pretend to be a hostage, or even sit the fight out because they can't change/get away from their friend/spouse/whatever to go fight and instead leave it to another hero/police to buy them time/opportunity.

And yes I do on occasion pull this. Not only is it a different challenge for the players to overcome, it's a good opportunity for players with removeable/easily removeable decives and equipment not to have access to them (since that's part of the cost break involved it should happen at least every once in a while).

[Monolith]

Those situations seem like a complication to me, and a reason to award a hero point; but they don't seem like they should be the norm.

[Murkglow]

You don't get a hero point for not having your equipment/device with you at all times, you got points back for that flaw already. Having to fight covertly or pretent to be a hostage however could be worth a hero point depending on how big an inconvenience it is, sure (Clark Kent casually melting a bank robber's handgun with invisible heat vision = probably not a hero point, Billy Batson being stuck as a hostage unable to become captain marvel = yes potentially hero point). And yes this would not be the norm. Normally your heroes would just have their suits on when the situation happens. Quick Change is for those unusual situations where you don't.

[ursinethemadbear]

Quick Change is basically so that when the GM says: "OK, you do not have your costume on, what are you going to do?", you can respond with "Screw you, jackwagon!"

NOTE: Calling your GM a jackwagon may result in instant death, either character or player.

[prufock]

Okay, no official action time. Thanks dudes and dudettes.

[saint_matthew]

I know of the Quick Change feature, but is there any rule on how long it takes to change without it? Tried a forum search but no luck.

Changing costume has a very specific speed: It happens at the speed fo plot

It takes as many actions as the GM feels are necessary within the confines of the story. Quick Change is just the SHAZAM effect.

[JDRook]

If you need to formalize it, Normal Change should be at least a move action to parallel similar effects. Instant Up allows you to get to stand from prone as a Free Action instead of a Move Action, so Quick Change is just that logic applied to changing costumes.

Another existing mechanic would be Quickness Limited to One Task: Changing Clothes. This costs 1p for 3 ranks of Quickness, and since Quickness defines Free Action as rank -2 time or less, working backwards makes Changing take up to rank 1 time, or 12 seconds, which is 2 rounds as was suggested above. You could even define this further as 4 Move actions, allowing for some comedy where you can intersperse attacks, movement and stealth with getting your costume on.

So informally but derived from published definitions, changing clothes should take 3-12 seconds, or 1-4 Move Actions. Done under pressure, this essentially turns getting dressed into a Challenge that might call for some Dex checks.

[FuzzyBoots]

I'd personally go for a minute for the costume change. Not terribly much outside of combat, but very annoying within combat. I know that, as an actor, a complete costume change does come in around a minute, less with training and/or prep. ^_^ If you really want some fun, give it a base time and a Dexterity check, and then let people decrease the time by taking penalties to the check. And for failure, you get the torn spandex, misaligned masks, and the like ("You punch the thug. Your mask slips. You're Blinded until you take a Move action to adjust your mask" or worse, "You launch a mighty at Mr. Horrible. You hear a loud rip as the rip in your tights widen and a collective gasp as the busfull of orphans you're saving see your Mr. Mighty. Your enhanced hearing recognizes the distinctive click of cell phone cameras going off").

[Goldar]

I forget if any DC character has quickchange. I think Flash with his instant costume in his ring has it. Green Lantern might also have it since his costume comes from his powers.

I believe that Wonder Woman has the Quick Change ability at Rank 1. Most of us agree that means very speedy Quick Change, while a few think it means not so fast or the rank would be higher. (Sigh).

Our main discussions were about how she does it: Lasso around herself or spinning. Or just quick changing? Can she do all 3 at her choice? Would they provide the same effect, that is, fully costumized? What about some of her different outfits? Could she obtain those (Armor with wings/sword, underwater, motor cycle, skate-boarding, street clothes, etc) by all 3 QC methods?