Character Creation Example
Keith is a big fan of Bishop, so he decided that he wanted his character to be similar in powers and appearance. It's probably best to work up a concept for a character before assigning numbers. Seth Davis (the name of the character) was going to be a successful gang member from the city of Calgary, in Canada. He came from a poor background, and helped support his single mom by acting as a gun-runner and enforcer for various criminal elements in the city. Already, you can see that Seth is probably going to be a combat-ready guy who will be more ruthless than most of the heroes in the comics.
The first step (character concept) being complete, Keith fleshed out Seth by assigning his Attribute points, electing to make him a Physical character (so he could exceed the five-point limit with Freebies or Experience). He doled out the points as follows: 7 to Physical, 5 to Mental, 3 to Social. This fell out as follows:
STR: 4
DEX: 3
STA: 3
CHR: 3
MAN: 1
APP: 2
PER: 3
INT: 2
WIT: 3
Seth is physically impressive, but not terribly smart. He is something of a straight shooter (Manipulation 1) who prefers speaking bluntly to dancing around an issue. With his mutant Powers, perhaps he never needed to lie to people in order to protect himself.
Rather than go with assigning the character's Abilities right away, as is the normal procedure, Keith decided that the skills that Seth had chosen to develop would probably have had a great deal to do with which Powers he was heir to. Therefore, he immediately skipped to choosing Powers.
Since Seth was a Physical character, he decided that his primary Power category would also be Physical. Seeing as he wanted Seth to have Powers similar to Bishop's, Keith chose the Social category as his secondary, leaving Mental as the tertiary.
Looking over the list of Powers, Keith chose Energy Absorption/Conversion as his first Power. Looking under the variations available, he chose the Energy Conversion variation, which meant that he would convert any energy attack into a specific energy form to be redirected at his opponents. He looked to the Energy List. Not wanting to make this a double-cost Power, Keith ignored energy types such as Nexus Force and Balefire, electing to convert energy attacks to plasma.
Since Seth's primary category was Physical, Keith decided to look over the Physical Powers, and found one that would complement his other Power quite well. It would also explain why he made such an effective gangster. He took the Power: Force Absorption/Conversion with the Strength variation as his second Power.
Not wanting to spread Seth too thin, Keith decided that two Powers was quite enough, and assigned three Ranks to each- matching his Actual Power Level. If he had wanted to make one of these Powers a Rank higher, then he would have had to improve his Actual Power Level to four using Freebie points.
Keith continued to ignore the Ability assignment, and chose his Backgrounds. He looked over the list, and then decided that he wanted Seth to have a close relationship with Charles Xavier. He spent a full five points on the Mentor background to get Chuck on his team.
Finally, Keith turned to his Abilities. Keeping his character concept in mind, Keith decided that Seth wouldn't have much education, so he left only 5 points to go into Knowledges. Seeing as Streetwise, Intimidation, and Brawl were all in Talents (and these would be important skills to Seth), he assigned 13 points to Talents and 9 to Skills. His choices fell out as follows:
Talents
Alertness 2
Athletics 2
Brawl 3
Dodge 2
Intimidation 2
Streetwise 2
Skills
Directed Blast 2
Firearms 3
Melee 3
Stealth 1
Knowledges
Area Knowledge 1
Enigmas 1
Investigation 1
Linguistics 1
Medicine 1
He justified his purchases as follows: all of the Talents would be vital to a street survivor. Likewise, all of the Skills except Directed Blast, which he would need to use his Energy Absorption/Conversion Power. He got Area Knowledge from gun-running, and Enigmas from his practice in trying to puzzle out what his enemies were going to do next. Investigation he put in as part and parcel of gang life, like finding out who shot up Mikey. Seth learned French (Linguistics 1) while running guns in Quebec, and Medicine while tending the wounds of his gang brothers.
Keith noted Seth's initial Willpower (3) on the sheet before turning to Freebie points, of which he had 15. He assigned them as follows:
Wanting Seth to be an epic mutant someday, he spent six points boosting his Power Potential to six. He also blew three points improving his Willpower- bringing the total up to six. He spent four points improving his Brawl and Melee to four (after getting the Storyteller's permission to increase an Ability to a level above three), leaving him with two Freebies left. Finally, he decided to push his Firearms up to four as well, killing the last two points. This left Seth with no Power Stunts to start off with, but seeing as his Powers were both reactive (requiring the actions of others to set them off) this was not unreasonable.
As Keith did not improve his Actual Power Level, Seth's Power Charge was set to three also.
Thus, Seth ended up looking something like this:
Name: Seth Davis
Codename: Siege
Attributes
STR: 4
DEX: 3
STA: 3
CHR: 3
MAN: 1
APP: 2
PER: 3
INT: 2
WIT: 3
Abilities
Talents
Alertness 2
Athletics 2
Brawl 4
Dodge 2
Intimidation 2
Streetwise 2
Skills
Directed Blast 2
Firearms 4
Melee 4
Stealth 1
Knowledges
Area Knowledge 1
Enigmas 1
Investigation 1
Linguistics 1
Medicine 1
Powers
Energy Absorption/Conversion (Plasma) 3
Force Absorption/Conversion (Strength) 3
Backgrounds
Mentor - Charles Xavier (5)
Power Potential: 6
Actual Power Level: 3
Power Charge: 3
Willpower: 6