Powers seem to be the most vexxing to new players when they are creating their characters for an application. This is primarily because X-Men: Retribution is not a statted game with all the benefits of pre-written definitions, stats and capabilities. The following has been provided on an object in the Guest Starting Room to help with this, but the text of it is as follows:
Writing Up Powers For An Application
If you are having a difficult time putting definitions on your powers, then you should consider formatting the powers section thusly: First of all, your characters powers should be broken into two parts, the 'now', and then 'later'. The 'now' is how powerful, and how much control your character has over his powers when you first enter the grid.
As this is a Year One game, that is everyone is basically just starting out, power levels should be low to moderate at best. The 'later' on the other hand is how much power and control your character has the _potential_ to have, usually with years and years of training. Note that the 'later' shouldn't be added to your +char sheet on the game, but included in the web-app so staff know what direction you're hoping to go with this.
It's a good idea to separate the 'Now' according to 'tricks' your character can do (i.e. flight, healing factor, electrokinesis, turning blue, etc.) to keep sections of text formatted in such a way so our Application Team's eyes don't cross and don't potentially MISS something on your application. Organizing it like this will make it easier to put it into the +char sheet once on-game, also.
The following questions will give you an idea of what the Application Team is looking for when examining applications on the web. NOTE: Please do NOT fill out your powers sections split up by these sections! These are guidelines ONLY. Refer to the formatting above, but keep these questions in mind when detailing out your powers section.
Please feel free to use the following as a template while writing up your powers if you're truly stuck and to help keep the Big Paragraphs of Doom (tm) down to a minimum. Your application staff team will thank you!
- Description - What is the nature of the power? That is, what exactly does the power do, can they throw powerbolts around? Control the weather? Run really fast? But do more than give a generalized answer, give some thought to _how_ the character achieves his powers. Perhaps his internal organs are different, perhaps his powers are psychokinetic rather than biological. The more detailed you make the nature of your character's power, the better you will be able to Roleplay how it works in different situations.
- Accuracy - How accurate are they with the power? This, more or less is how much fine control that they have over the power. Can they only manage large bolts of raw power that they have difficulty even aiming? Or can they shoot the proverbial wings off a fly at fifty paces? This applies to all powers, for example if the character teleports, how close to the spot that he's trying to get to does he usually end up? If the character is Telekinetic, can they only manipulate large objects or is it just like using their hands for them? And so on.
- Control - How much control do they have over the power? This is a bit different from the previous question though related. It asks how much control the character has over its activation. Does it only manifest when the character is angry or scared? Or does it answer to the character's whim? Sometimes it's somewhere in between, in that the character can call on it when they wish, but the can't _stop_ it from happening when they're emotionally distressed.
- Range - What is the power's range? This is an easy one, how close does the character have to be to use the power? Do they have to touch the target? Or can they do it from 10 meters away, 20 meters? A mile?
- Potency - How potent is the power? Again, an easy one, though perhaps harder to quantify. How powerful is the power? If the character can throw powerbolts, how much pressure is behind a hit? If it's heat based, what is it hot enough to melt? How badly injured would a person be if hit by one?
- Duration - What is the duration of the power?' That is, how long can the character keep using the power before they get tired? Do more than give a set period, but give examples of how long they can maintain the power when they use it at 1/4th power, at ? power, at full power.
- Concentration - How much concentration does the power take? What else can the character do while they're using the power? Can they do everything they normally can? Or are they reduced to only concentrating on using their ability?
- Misc. Anything and everything else that might be relevant to a power but not fit into the above categories. For example, if the character can alter people's memories, how likely is a person to realize that their mind has been tampered with?
NOTE: It's also advisable to include an 'out' in powers that may impinge on other players' consent at all. If you have a character who is a telepath, this might be as simple as including that she can't always read minds if she's distracted, if the person has a particular immunity to mind-reading or that she has a limited range of five feet around her. For someone who has a more physical power which could seriously injure another character in a single blow, the player might want to add an OOC Caveat such as the following (in truth, staff may insist on one in some cases):
OOC Caveat|I recognize that this is a particularly powerful character and that s/he may do considerable damage to another character. As such, I promise to carefully adhere to the consent rules and to handle these powers carefully and in concert with the OOC communication and help of the other players or staff involved in a scene where it might be used. I understand that staff may, at any time, remove this character from play if they feel it is being misused or in violation of consent.
(Please note that this is an example of an OOC Caveat and may be paraphrased or adjusted to fit the individual power.)
Templates for Powers?
We've had some confusion in the past from applicants over writing up applications. The one thing we can't stress enough is to please don't write it all up in either point-form or one gigantic paragraph. It's best to separate each section up into clearly defined paragraphs (preferably with a space between each for ease of reading) which fully explain the details of your character's powers.
If the power is straight forward such as "Telepathy - My character can communicate with other people with his mind.", the above might work well as a template. But it might not work as well for those who have either more than one power or more than one 'trick' they can do with their power (e.g. "Telekinesis - My character can move things with her mind to the extent that she can manipulate small items such as turning doorknobs and flicking switches on or off, throwing small items across a room and finally levitation up to a person (including her).").
We'd suggest doing the above for each power. For each 'trick', these might share similar accuracy, control, range, etc., as the other tricks under the same power, so you might just want to write up descriptions about the natures of each of these tricks and then the accuracy, control, etc., for the over-all power that all tricks would follow. If they follow different rules and guidelines to each other, treating each trick as its own power would be appropriate with full write-ups.
Powers Flaws vs Limitations/Restrictions
There has also been some confusion over what is a power 'flaw' versus a limitation or restriction. The easy way to decipher the difference is that a power-based flaw would have some kind of immediate and direct detrimental effect upon the mutant using it.
Limitation: So if your character manipulates ice, saying that they can only use their ability when it's cold outside isn't a flaw, really. It's a limitation.
Flaw: Saying that they can only use their ability when it's cold outside or they will risk heat stroke from the effort... that is a flaw.
Limitation: Your character is telepathic but can only talk to people telepathically if they are touching the person they wish to speak with; this is a limitation (on the range, in fact).
Flaw: That the telepath in question then immediately goes into a trance-like or vegetative-state before the person, leaving them prone to physical attack and that it might possibly look like a stroke and land the person in the hospital under observation and a metric buttload of testing because their target misinterpreted what was going on; this is a flaw.
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