Step #2: Character Creation

Character creation is done using the Venture City Stories rules. If you do not have access to that book the details are presented below.

When you make your character, do so according to the rules in Fate Core, but with one exception: you also get powers.
Powers are a lot like stunts, except bigger, flashier, more powerful, and more complex. Each power you build costs a certain number of stunts, but don’t worry about not having enough! We’re giving you three bonus stunts on top of what you normally get from Fate Core to use exclusively for building powers. To add to your powers or build new ones, you can also spend refresh and use your normal allotment of free stunts as you would when building normal stunts. The three free stunts you’re getting in this adventure have to be used for powers, though. Most characters have a single power. Some might have two, but that’s where
it tops off. Powers are big and complex enough that more than two would be a bit unwieldy. What you can do, however, is build multiple effects into a single power, creating a power suite that does a bunch of related things. Here’s how
building a power works.

Concept
Figure out what you want your power to do. What is your character’s shtick? What’s the big flashy thing you do that other people can’t do? Figure this out in general terms. Maybe you’re inhumanly fast, or super strong, or you can fly, or you shoot energy blasts from your hands. You might have a power useful for doing many things. You might be telekinetic, for example, which suggests you can push people around and attack them with force blasts, lift heavy objects with your mind, create a shield of force, and fly by levitating yourself. These are all related abilities, so they’re all one power. If you’re telekinetic and you can heal with a touch, though, those might be two different powers.

Break It Into Stunts
Break each power down into its component abilities. What specific things do you want to be able to do with your power? Boil these down into mechanical effects and phrase them like you would stunts. Each stunt-like ability that you create costs you a stunt. You can spend multiple stunts on a single ability, making it extra-powerful. Also, because you’re crafting a superpower, you have license to do things that stunt might not otherwise let you do. You could use a stunt to fly using Athletics, or fire eye-beams with Shoot, for example.

For clarity and uniformity: an ability that a skill normally can’t do is worth one stunt (ie Flying with Athletics), a +2 bonus to a skill is worth one stunt, adding a range of up to 3 zones is worth one stunt. If your idea doesn’t seem to fit these parameters, run it by me and I will figure it out.

Add Special Effects
A special effect is an extra-special thing you can pull off when you succeed with style. Whenever you succeed with style on a roll that utilizes one of your powers, you can forgo the normal benefits of succeeding with style to add one of your special effects instead. You can also spend a fate point to add a special effect to any successful roll, even if you’ve already got a special effect attached to that action. Special effects always happen in addition to the normal effects of success. Your power starts with two special effects. If you want more, you can buy them with a stunt or refresh; each stunt or refresh you spend gets you two more
special effects. If you need special effects, use the following list. If our suggestions don’t suffice, you can create your own special effects using this list as a guideline.
• Forced Movement: You move your target up to two zones.
• Area Attack: Attack everyone else (foes and friends) in the same zone as your target using the attack value minus two (so if you hit your target at +6, everyone else would defend against +4). Attacking everyone in a zone at full strength is a collateral damage effect (page 25).
• Inflict a Condition: You add an aspect to the target, which you can invoke once for free.
• Extra Movement: You can move up to two zones for free.
• Physical Recovery: You recover from all physical stress.
• Mental Recovery: You recover from all mental stress.
• Extra Action: You can remove shifts from your action and apply them to a different, related action as if you’d (performed and) succeeded on both. You can never succeed with style on the second action, and its opposition (i.e.,
difficulty) can’t be higher than that of the original action.

Remember you get two of these per Power that you create. They are replacement options for Boosts you get on exceptional successes. You will have the choice of either the +2 boost/free invoke/extra damage or one of these effects. I feel this is a pretty good list, but if some other idea occurs to you, run it by me, I’m sure we can work it out.

Add a Drawback
All powers come at a cost, and all superheroes have a weakness. Decide what yours is, and phrase it as an aspect. A drawback is an aspect like any other, though you should phrase it so it’s easier to compel than to invoke. Each power gets a drawback, not each individual stunt within a power.

Basically this means characters in this game will have two or more Trouble Aspects. This one should be directly related to your powers however. And like the text says, one Drawback per Power.

Add a Collateral Damage Effect
Super-beings throw a lot of power around, power that often has unintended consequences. Sometimes city blocks get leveled; sometimes innocent bystanders get hurt. Your collateral damage effect is an extra benefit—something super-potent you can do with your power. The potency of this isn’t strictly numerical; pick some powerful narrative thing you can do, like affecting everyone in a scene or ignoring all the damage that comes your way in a round. Use the sample characters to get ideas for what collateral damage can do (page 26).
You can choose to use this effect at any time, but using it comes at a cost: you inflict a situation aspect on the area around you that represents the collateral damage you’ve caused. The GM gets to determine the exact nature of that aspect each time you use it.

Finally, I am more than happy to hash out ideas with you, as I’m sure the other players are too. We are shooting for characters that fall somewhere between X-Men and Avengers in power level. Slightly above "street level" but not "World Shattering". The Hulk or Superman are Omega metahumans and are not playable characters (for many reasons, but we are talking power level right now). You can play scaled down versions of those type of characters, you won’t likely be throwing Sherman tanks around like baseballs.

Also, don't worry about purely cosmetic changes to human form. Those are "free" as long as you don't try to go for any mechanical benefit.

So you could have horns or claws, at no cost. If they add to your Fight skill then they are a power or Stunt of some kind.

You will also have a "Power Level" designation that is purely story based. All PCs are either Apha or Beta class. The difference is how immediately applicable your power set is to hostile situations. If you can shoot lasers or blow holes in the side of a bank vault, your an Alpha. If you can turn invisible you're a Beta. If you can turn hundreds of people invisible at once you probably are rated Alpha. In the end it is just plot point, not a mechanical rule.

Dave Evans

High Concept: Enigma Systems Computer Wizard

("Enigma Systems" is the negative part of the aspect - they rely on me, so this will conflict with my police work. Computer Wizard in the sense that I am a computer genius, but also that I have acquired some almost magical powers with a computer/network flavour. I'm working them up now... My current ideas in no particular order are Transmit himself through walls; Process huge amounts of data; Zap people; Zoom at electric speed).

Trouble: I'm thinking of having some sort of classic super hero weakness - in my case to water, as I am computer-themed. But I can't think how to phrase this as an aspect. Ideas about the wording, or other ideas for a Trouble? I like the cooperative nature of Fate and am more than open to suggestions!

Good start. I like the High Concept, that has a lot of potential. The Powers set is working for me, looks like you've got four things going there, so that will be 4 of the 9 total stunts spent at least. I'm thinking the Zoom at electric speed is running down the road like the Flash? If so you get some kind of bonus on Athletics while running maybe? if its a +2 that really isn't "Electric Speed" maybe that needs a +4 or higher bonus? You let me know. Also, you could cut the cost if you actually turn into electricity, this would combine your ability to pass through walls with the speed. It gives me openings like having large metal objects attract you were you don't want to go or something.

That leads into your question about your Trouble. or more specifically your Drawback. I'd like to have one trouble specifically for the character and one for the power (or one per power if the character has multiple powers sets) So having a weakness to water for an electric based character makes sense. The question is how exactly do we approach that. I see two avenues right from the start, but there could be more.

1. When you put electrical devices in water the conductivity of the water medium causes electricity to act in ways the device is not designed to handle. It arcs and surges, blowing out fuses and burning components. At least that is how I understand it happens, I am not an electrician or scientist. I graduated high school 15 years ago and haven't really thought about science class that much. So, maybe Dave has "extra electricity" now. And being exposed to water causes shorts and burnout in the new systems his powers created?

2. Maybe Dave is now partially an energy being. His matter converted (partially or can convert totally) into energy when he wills it to (i.e. his ability to "teleport" through walls). If this is the case then the water causes his new electric powers to "bleed off" as water is a better conductor of electricity than flesh and bone.

So option #1 would be something like "Water causes [Dave's hero name] to burnout/brownout/blackout". Option #2 would be more like a "drained" effect. Would either of these sound right for how you think Dave's powers work? Or what else were you thinking?

Izaac Cain

High Concept: Psionic Command and Control
Trouble: Too Many Voices

Izaac was diagnosed with brain cancer 4 years ago, just after he graduated high school. As a result, he's been unemployed due to most companies' reluctance to hire a walking corpse that could drop any minute. Chemo failed, he was given an expiration date, and found himself on his deathbed when the cosmos suddenly decided it had other plans. Prometheus went off and within the week the doctors were giving him the all clear. The cancerous cells all regenerated to full function and his brain was intact. Another week went by and he started hearing things, voices. Why were people all around him pouring out their deepest secrets? Then he realized it was him looking in...

Izaac is a psionic with various mental utilities: telepathy, limited telekinesis, mental disruption (basically a flash-bang), intelligence and dexterity, etc. Long story short, a supercharged mind. He can use this to coordinate the team tactically and disrupt hostile operations. In addition, he has a low-grade healing factor that keeps him from getting sick, makes injuries heal faster so he's hospitalized for less time, and most importantly cured his cancer. His drawback comes in that he sometimes looses focus due to the sheer volume of mental static put out by people around him. This can make it difficult for him to use his powers and can at times even be painful.

OK, cool I like KennyGardnerIII's idea, and now I want to make sure that Dave is sufficiently different. After all, we're both basically superbrains.

So, I think I want to emphasize the specifically tech-related aspects of Dave's power, and the idea of infiltration and protection.

I brainstormed some power ideas along these lines, and here is my current shortlist. I'm sharing this as a work in progress to somehow emulate the back-and-forth which Fate chargen can often be, and welcome feedback from everyone, GM and players alike.

I've been re-reading the relevant sections of Fate Core, but will work on the mechanics once the concepts are hammered out. As I understand it, we have a maximum of 9 stunts (if we want to sacrifice all 3 refresh - which I don't think I will), and then 2 special effects and 1 collateral damage linked to some of them.

* Shutdown: Cause electronic systems to go into forced shutdown. Maybe with an extra effect of causing damage if I want to blow up someone's smartphone or something, or maybe that should be a different stunt.
* Pentest: Gain access to a private computer network.
* Broadband: Super speed or at least increased speed.
* Wifi: Teleport
* Firewall: Block incoming (mental / cyber / missile?) attacks
* Cyber brain: Able to deal with enormous amounts of information, and select the most important details.

As you can see, I'm now trying to develop the computer networking theme more specifically, and this might mean rethinking my Drawback altogether, though one of foolsmask's suggestions might still work. Food for thought!

For my Trouble I've been thinking something like "Hyperconcentration" - ie when I am busy with a computer-related task, I am so absorbed as to be unaware of what is going on around me, which could put me or my companions in danger.

I like this. You are right that you have 9 refresh "points" to use, but if you spend them all you won't have any when we start the game or have a moment to refresh them. The six things you have listed are all good options. The Shutdown ability could be like a localized, directed EMP or something. This seems like adding the Attack action to a skill that normally doesn't have that application... Crafts maybe? Pentest and Cyber Brain could be functions of Investigate skill. Pen test, the ability to access networks is just an ability to connect directly with his brain and Cyber Brain gives him a +2 to Investigate rolls. Firewall could give a bonus to defense actions with a few different skills...or create advantage so that others can have a bonus to defend actions.
The Superspeed and teleport are interesting extra abilities, maybe if they were tied to needing to have a network nearby to use?

It would be kind of cool if generally your powers didn't do damage, but you have the Extra Damage Special effect so when you do get an exceptional success you could fry electronics or something.

And you do get 2 special effect, 1 Collateral Damage and a Drawback for every power set you have. Generally speaking you have one or two power sets. I think you might have an argument for two in this case, one for the Shutdown, Firewall , super speed and teleport abilities and one for the ability to access computers with your brain. But you could make it one if you want. You can get extra special effects for 1 refresh spend out of your nine. But since you get the collateral damage and Drawback with each power set you may want to limit how many you have.

I also like the new trouble idea you put out there. Hyper Concentration to the point you ignore things going on around you is a great character problem. The power Drawback can be related to water still.

Name: The Warp, formerly Clarence Addison of Southend
High concept: Streetwise

When Clarence was a young-un, he would help out in stree gangs as a lookout. It wasn't relaly a choice the way that people outside the Southend looks at gangs as. Young people choosing to join gangs in Clarence's neighborhood was about the same thing as people putting out resumes to find a job. They offered you security and income, especially for an guttersnipe like Clarence. But while most of the kids on the block were concerned with the streets, Clarence liked the towers the most. He would climb to the top of the housing projects just to look at the rest of the city. Soon, it felt like the rooftops, not just at the towers, were the place where he'd find the most freedom. It was during one of his evening runs that he ran into Panama who the boy soon grew to like. Panama didn't take no lip and had grown up on the streets back in the bad times yet still made it out and became and electrician. His hobby of raising crows soon became Clarence's too.

When the Promethean Event happened, Clarence was tending to the crows he had named Huggin and Muggin after some crows Delroy said was famous. When he first began to feel sick, he thought it was normal, something bad he ate. But then he began to vomit black nothingness from within him. As he retched up cosmic fluids, Huggin and Muggin eating at the viscuous mixture, he could feel his body changing, his mind altering. The raditiation changed his physical nature into that which makes up the spaces between worlds, the pyschopompic energies of space and time. It opened up his mind too as he could see the interconnectedness of all things. The changes did not scare him. Fear was a concept that no longer applied to the Warp, as he was no longer Clarence Addison of 376 Parkway Avenue Apartment 304B. No. Now he was The Warp and could see the cosmic weave of all things. He could track the movement and ride the Cosmic Wefts that bound together the cords humans knew as "fate" if such a word could actually be applied to the machinations of the Great Tapestry.

The Warp was conflicted by the world he was presented with. While he had the ability to travel great distances with a single step, bending the space between places, the problems of Southend still tugged at the place within him that wanted to remember who he was once. Panama still allows his visits but the conversation is nonexistant. The last six weeks have been interesting at street gangs with newly discovered powers have become terrible forces to contend with. The Warp can see that their destruction will ring out through the years if they are not stopped. His personal mission has attracted the attention of other forces as he waged his small scale war in the streets of Southend.

I like this concept overall. There are a few things that is like to address however. I'll start at the top and work my way down.

High Concept: I don't feel like "Streetwise" is enough description. It might be in your head, but it lacks the flexibility needed in a good High Concept without more details on how you interpret the word. Looking at Harlandski's character above we see "Enigma Systems Computer Wizard". Based on his Place and Fave we know that means that he has a day job that could interfere with being a super hero and that he is not just good with computers, he is amazing (wizard!) Streetwise tells us that Warp has street smarts and knows how to avoid trouble, but not much else about him. What does he do with those street smarts? You might add something like "Streetwise Philosopher" to reflect that he knows the streets but is a thinker and working to change things. Or give us more on what you think Streetwise means so we can understand how it will be used. A good Aspect is a double edged sword. It has meaning(s) that will both help your character and hinder them. Referring back to Harlanski's High Concept, I can make his job and everyday life a hurdle for him, or he can use it to gain a bonus. He has a regular paycheck and contacts in the offices of Enigma Systems or its clients. He understands some of the most useful tools in the modern world. These are all good things. However, he probably can't survive long without access to civilized society. If he has to chop wood to survive, his character probably is in for a rough time. Or, he can be pulled away from what he wants to do by the things he has to do to maintain the life he wants. So think about that when developing a High Concept and other aspects. Your character's Trouble is another type of aspect that is usually more of a hindrance than it is helpful. From what you've written here something like "Disconnected from Humanity" might work well. I'm getting a strong Dr. Manhattan vibe from this character. Dr. Manhattan is from Watchmen if you don't know and he had issues understanding petty human concerns like love and self-worth because he could see the cosmic gears turning the universe. So think about how you want to word that as well. Again it generally needs to be a negative but not crippliglng to your character.

So speaking of Dr. Manhattan and total cosmic awareness, that might be a bit much for the scale of this game. Don't get me wrong, its a cool thing, but it might make telling the story awkward. If you know that a bullet is coming why would you ever get hit by it? Especially if you have teleportation powers like it sounds like you are angling towards. Perhaps we can scale it back to "a growing cosmic awareness"? In the moments that your character was bathed in the radiation from Prometheus's Fire he did have total cosmic awareness, but he couldn't hold on to it. He had to stuff himself back into his own brain (metaphorically speaking) or risk merging with the cosmos and ceasing to be altogether. He still kept a sliver of what he was shown and it will grow over time. He has hyper senses that border on precognition (like Spider-Senses in Marvel comics) but he can't really predict the future. Or maybe he reads the environment so well he can make analytical calculations that makes the best super computer in the world look like an Atari 2600. He is seeing the "strands of fate" just not the entire universe all at once. Again, this is for the sake of plausibility, both in the story I want to tell and the mechanics of the game itself. I just can't imagine someone with the full power you seem to be describing working in this story. He would see the bad guy coming a mile away and be ready to nuke them before he began his evil momolouge. Its a great concept though and you presented it well. If you are OK scaling back a bit to the kind of things I described then I am very happy with this character. If you feel this is too limiting let me know, I'm sure we can work it out.

Also, like you said you've never played Fate so this is new. Please don't take any of this as hard criticism. I'm just trying to explain how it works.

Yeah, you were definitely picking up what I was throwing down. I had meant to have more following the Streetwise bit but must have got sidetracked into the backstory. Essentially, I've been watching a whole crapton of The Wire recently and I wanted to bring that element into having his mind cracked open to see the cosmos. I like not being able to hold onto it. A single conciousness would have been too small to contain it all without destroying the boy. But he definitely has had a break with reality (the consciousness once expanded by a new idea never regains its original dimensions) and I was definitely going for teleportative/perfect timing type of powers that would be more about gaining advantages than actually overcoming obstacles. I like him being able to see the strands of fate but since he can't see the big picture anymore he can't actually tell if it is for the better or the worse, he just knows they have to happen. It would bring up a question to him morally if say a strand led to a baby in a crib that fate decided had to die (I don't know, maybe it's future Hitler) and he had to decide between the ordered cosmos and being human. I'll rework it a bit and post a finished draft later today.

Yes. Great concept. I started the wire but haven't gotten far into it. But I think we are on the same page here. I like the idea that sometimes he let's things happen because he can't decide if he should interfere with "fate" or not, other times it could be because he couldn't grasp the "big picture" and see what was about to happen. I think we are good to go on this concept.

And on your high concept, that's fine, work on the idea more.

Name: The Warp, formerly Clarence Addison of Southend
High Concept: Transcendental Former Hoodlum
Trouble: Disconnected from Humanity

He liked to visit the crows. It was where Panama found him six weeks ago, screaming at the sky with blood coming out of his ears and nose. His left eye was on the ground, ripped out, and being eaten by two of the birds. His skin was blistered. They rushed him to the hospital to stop the bleeding and bandage his skin but nothing, not even the sedatives they gave him, would stop the screaming. It was a full day before he stopped and a few days more before he woke up and opened his remaining eye. The whole thing had changed into a inky black abyss. Nurses would either look away or stare deeply into the eye, unable to turn away from what they saw in it. Either way, they always used thick gloves to change his bandages. They told him then what had happened, how his skin had become reactive. First responders that had touched him had fallen over convulsing, getting nose bleeds. When questioned later, they could not describe what they had saw but each had seen or felt something beyond this world.

What they saw was a mere shadow of what Clarence had seen. Now that he was awake, it was slipping from him but even so, he could still see strands of fate with his eye, the connections between people and objects and beyond them, the Great Abyss. He could tell when people lied to him because their strands always told the truth. He noticed little details in his hospital room and those that lined the faces of nurses, doctors, family, and friends, and he read the stories that the details told him. They seemed so small and the stories of their lives so insignificant compared to what lay beyond.

When he was released at the end of the week, he went back to what felt familiar, Southend, but when he got there he was assaulted by a barrage of new sensations. The street was alive with sounds and sights and smells that he had never noticed before. Maybe it was that everything was so empty in the Great Abyss that here, amongst the living, everything was so much more significant. Things on the rooftops were different too. His birds responded to him differently, especially Huggin and Muggin. They would sit on his shoulder and it seemed as if they could read his thoughts. With a small amount of practice, he found that he could guide these two and that they themselves could lead more of the crows. At night, when he closed his eyes, he could see himself again against the Great Abyss, his body wreathed in cosmic flames, the voice of the beyond ringing in his ears.

But life in Southend after the event was not wholly a happy and magical place. Clarence's block had been taken over by some bangers with powers. He could see the strands of fate around the neighborhood being frayed by their existence and their violence. He had to do something. In the dark of night, bundled up in his bandages and wearing heavy clothes, he followed his new senses to their hideout. He sat in the shadows with Hugs and Mugs on his shoulders. He took off his gloves and unwrapped his hands. He would make them see the error of their ways. Even if it killed them. What was the sum of their life anyways compared to the greater scheme?

The next day, he watched from the rooftops as they ambulances came. He had left them mostly alive. He stopped short of killing the one in charge only barely. Mugs flew into his face and squawked waking him from his righteousness. He had slipped back into the shadows and back to his rooftops, leaving the bodies. Here in the daylight and with his crows, he remembered who he was again. He liked to visit the crows.

Wow...that is awesome.

Maybe it could be HAL9000? jk, HAL10000

Maybe something simple. Cyber?

@Haroandski: Overall I like where you are going with Dave. I approve of the skills. I agree Stealth is a little out there but who knows. Maybe he was bullied as a kid and learned the art of not being noticed. Overtime it became less important for day-to-day survival as nerds took over the business world. And Burglary does make sense for a top skill. Does he also train in real-world scenarios, like watching lock-picking demos on YouTube, or does he stick to purely electronic avenues?

One question about powers. The two teleportation abilities...why seperate them? I like the idea of limiting it to sight and needing a network for traveling through walls, but do you have a reason for seperating them?

And I love the name Root because it would cause confusion with people not technically inclined. I could see him meeting a little old lady while getting a cat out of a tree and shed say something like "Oh, do you talk to plants or something?" "Uh, no ma'am its a computer term." "Well that doesn't make any sense. Your saving cats from trees, there's no computer in that tree!"

Cool, thanks for the detailed feedback.

I like the idea of using Dave's childhood to justify some of his sneaky skills. In fact, I could also link this idea with Burglary, Provoke and Deceive. To put a slightly different spin on the "geeks get bullied at school" trope, how about we say something like...

Dave's interest in computers at school inevitably attracted unwanted attention from the jocks*. But even back then, Dave was a determined kid, and though there was no way he could face them mano-a-mano, he thought of his own way of striking back. First it was little things. Oh how unfortunate that someone spilled a can of coke in the locker above Tom's new school football uniform just before the game. Later he got more daring, stealing stuff from the jocks' pockets and bags, breaking into their houses and moving their stuff around or scrawling threatening graffiti, and once even stringing up a dead ferret** (the symbol of the school football team) in the lead jock's bedroom. The actions raised his confidence against the jocks, and in the end he didn't back down from verbal confrontation with them. He also got some practice at making cover stories for the school authorities and police on the few occasions he was sloppy...

As for the Bluetooth and Wifi skills. I actually had them as one thing (costing 2 refresh), but then split them mainly because I thought it made sense for the Bluetooth ability to be basically free (within line of sight), but the Wifi one to require a roll (Burglary) and be more limited in terms of when I could use it. What changes would you suggest? If they were one thing, would it cost 1 or 2 refresh? Ultimately it is one continuum with my Collateral Damage too.

Thanks for voting for Root. I also like Cyber @KennyGardnerIII. As for HAL I supposed I asked for that, calling myself Dave! ;-) Any other suggestions?

* For any fellow Brits reading, I am not talking about Scottish people here, but about stereotypical sporty bullies in US schools!
** If this sounds implausible, it actually happened at my school, though in a disliked teacher's (head of department's) office rather than a jock's house. The ferret left a suicide note saying how unhappy he was at the school due to the teacher's bad management decisions...

Great additions to Dave's origin. That ferret thing is dark...fine for story purposes, but I'm glad I don't know the kid responsible for that.

I'm racking my brain but I can't come up with a justification for combining the two teleport abilities and making it cheaper. I considered giving you not for one and requiring a roll every time, but that seems unfair when you have a clear and open path to where you want to go. So I guess we should just leave it alone.