MP - Water Walking

This is one of those "just thinking out loud" kind of blog posts, and sharing to see what you think.  My daughter is 5, so I've seen a lot of episodes of PJ Masks lately. One of Gecko's powers is "Super Lizard Water Running."

The ability to run, walk, or stand on water gets modeled in lots of different ways. Some games, like Champions, modeled it as a modifier to Flight, while others, like Mutants and Masterminds, as a modifier to Super Speed. And GURPS, which pretty much has a power for everything, just has a power for walking on water.

Might Protectors buries "Water Walking" under the Speed ability, as a modifier.

This creates a bit of an odd duck, where for 2.5 CP a character can buy:

Speed: Acceleration 16, Top Speed 16 (-5), Modifiers: Fast Acceleration (×2) (5), Water Running (+2.5)
Final Cost: 2.5 CP

Now this is an "odd duck" for a couple of reasons. First, it doesn't always make sense to modify a character's top speed, especially since highly agile (like the basilisk lizard) or strong characters (like Gecko), might normally be able to move faster than 16.

Second, it's a toss-up if it's implied the character has to keep moving the whole time, or implied that "Water Running" also includes "Water Standing."

I think the solution is a side-step called "Physical Ability: Water Walking."

Physical Ability (Water Walking): The character can move across the surface of water, as if it were dry land. This includes the ability to stand, walk or run. The character can voluntarily sink at any time. Cost (2.5 CP)

This is essentially identical to the Speed Ability Modifier.

I considered a more fine-grained split, like "can move across water as long as doesn't stop moving" for (+2.5 CP) and "can stand on water" for (+2.5 CP). I don't think this is inconsistent with Mighty Protectors, overall.

However, the precedent of "multi-medium movement mode" has been established under both Flight and Speed, where the power can also be used underwater for (+5 CP). With the two Modifiers under Speed, the precedent already written, making "can stand on water" cost extra is both overkill and excessive hair-splitting.

For a character like Gecko, modeled after lizards, such as the water-running "Jesus lizard," the player and GM can decide as a SFX that he has to keep moving and can't stand still, but there isn't any CP benefit to it.

Similarly, I have a gadgeteer, written up in Heroes Unlimited (of all things) (Mighty Protectors hack in development), who made boots that allow her to stand and walk slowly on water, but running results in her breaking the fragile water tension, and sinking.

Following that same precedent, however, I'm choosing to interpret "Speed usable for running on land and swimming in water" does not automatically confer water walking. The ability to move ones limbs quickly enough to produce rapid swimming speed isn't the same as being able to walk on water.

So, what do you think?