Celerity: Optional Rules

by: Dare for Sanguinus Curae

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Basic movement rates are given in the rules as; Walking: 7 yards per turn, Jogging/Slow It is unknown to me what is the actual number of people in the world that understand the basic law of physics that states: faster=more energy=more damage.

But - for those that do, I have prepared an optional rule for Damage bonuses when characters are using Celerity.

The basic bonuses are listed in the table below, with an explanation of how I arrived at those bonuses following (for the stout of heart or those that understand physics - be warned).

 

 

The Explanation

This entire bonus system is based on the simple axiom of physics:

E=½MV²

Where 'E' is the energy of the strike, 'M' is the striking object (in this case the arm/leg of the character), and 'V²' is the speed of the strike - which is changed by Celerity.

Stated in simpler and more common mathematical language:

½M x V²=E

Now, in any consideration of a single character's unassisted vs. Celerity-assisted damage, 'M' remains constant, since the mass of their body doesn't change. For this reason I have rewritten the formula as follows, wherein 'Mc' equals '1'.

½Mc x V²=E

So, in essence, the formula becomes:

V²=E
or
ms²=N

with 'V²' represented by meters per second squared (ms²) and 'E' represented by Newtons (N).

Now assuming that an average person's unassisted punch/strike travels at about 4 feet per second - the same as their walking speed - which is 1.2 m/s, and assuming that level 1 Celerity makes you twice as fast, and level two makes you three times as fast, and so on. We can easily generate the following table:

 

 

But does this mean that Celerity 9 should give a bonus 149 times as great as Celerity 0? No.

Why? Because of the relatively non-specific system of damage used by White Wolf. So, to solve this problem, I had to interpret White Wolf's damage system somewhat.

The following table shows my own interpretation of overall bodily damage based on the White Wolf Health Levels.

 

 

Using this system, we can compare the levels of energy quite easily, and we can also find a comparison between Health Levels much more readily as can be seen when we refer back to the energy table and insert a column showing the difference between each level of energy.

If that difference is assumed to be the comparison between overall amount of damage done, and is compared to the Health Level chart we just looked at, then the damage bonuses are easy to find.

(In each case I have rounded the difference up or down to the nearest percentage applicable.)