As I stepped through the door I found myself in what appeared to be a personal gym. There was a pair of lockers next to a full length mirror, a short bench sat along the wall near the mirror. There was also a heavy bag and a combined weight set on the opposite wall next to a scale and some other testing equipment. Inset in the wall to my right was a display screen that lit up as I entered. On it was what looked like a trio of files each with a radar graph on the cover. Before I could explore further Savira appeared sitting on the bench and began to explain, “Welcome to the character creation room. You can adjust your appearance with the mirror, though you will be unable to make major changes to your physical. The lockers are used for your starting outfit and hero costume. The workout equipment is mostly just decoration, although you can use it. The screen next to you will allow you to handle your power selection. You can choose a basic template or customize your abilities from there.”

I stepped over to the mirror first and asked, “How do I use this?”

“What would you like changed?” she responded.

“Can you clear up the scarring, and restore some of the muscle tone I had before the incident?” I asked.

I watched the view of me in the mirror change, my body shifting slightly as the muscles firmed up a bit. I hadn’t lost much yet, but I had started to show the difference of two months of recovery rather than exercise. I also had her alter my hair color from the dirty brown to dark red almost black hairdo and clear up the scruff of not shaving for two days, but I left my green eyes alone. As I couldn’t adjust my height I was stuck at the six foot mark that made me want to duck whenever I was near a ceiling fan.

After finalizing my appearance I moved back to the screen with the folders on it. The three folders listed Technology, Genetic, and Magical. I looked to Savira and she replied without prompting, “The first choice is the source of your powers. Technology heroes are those who use gadgets or powered armor to empower themselves, historical examples of this include Marvel’s Iron Man and DC’s Batman. Genetic heroes are those heroes who have abilities inherent to their being; their powers are a part of them such as Marvel’s mutants or DC’s aliens. Magical heroes use mystic forces to accomplish their goals; this can take multiple forms depending on choices made. The second choice is to either take a power template common for your power origin or create one; the options for this depend on your power origin.”

I tapped on the folder for genetic heroes and saw another set of folders with the headings: Custom, Blaster, Strongman, Psychic, and Elemental. Each had a varied radar graph on the cover of the folder. The Blaster and Strongman templates both had straight spikes in different sections, while the Psychic and Elemental graphs covered a wider range. “What’s with the different graphs?” I asked.

“As this game uses SWS personal capability is determined by the player. The variable factor is the superpowers a player has. In most superhero fiction there are three types of heroes. Specialists such as the strongman, generalists who can use a wide multitude of specialized abilities, or those with a power that crosses multiple uses yet can’t cover every possible need. To reflect this there are three potential power templates: spectrum, spike, and specific. A genetic hero has access to spike and spectrum abilities, a magical hero has spread and specific, and a technology hero has spike and specific. There are eight power fields on the chart from the top going clockwise we have: Enhancement, Defense, Elemental, Environmental, Projection, Control, Psychic, and Sensory. To give you an example using a fictional model; Marvel’s Iceman would be classified as a Genetic Elemental spread template. He would have a primary power rating in elemental, a secondary in control, and a tertiary in defense.”

As she explained this a graph filled up with the information. She pointed over my shoulder at it and stated, “Notice this allows for some of the graph to cover the environmental and projection fields. This would allow for power techniques to be developed in those fields as well, but limited in power based on the hero’s power rankings in their chosen areas.”

I nodded my understanding and she continued, “A spike template only gets a primary and secondary power field, but the increases are increase by a factor rather than a multiple. For example, a spectrum template that had a primary in defense would be five times tougher than normal, where as the defense of spike template would be raise by a factor of three or one hundred and twenty-five times tougher.”

“So a spectrum template has more flexibility, but not the same level of peak strength,” I stated before asking, “Why five and three though?”

“The numbers were set for an initial balance. This rating affects both Villain’s Creed and Hero’s Call, so those who choose to engage in the player vs. player aspect need to be kept balanced at the start,” she responded.

“Okay, what about the specific template?” I asked.

“Technology and magical heroes can choose specific power techniques. Instead of getting a broad range of abilities that they develop techniques within they must create a technique for any ability they wish to possess, and they increase the power of these abilities individually. It allows for the most flexible character options, but without the ability to develop something on the spur of a moment,” she answered.

“What about hero’s who have both tech and genetic abilities like Spider-Man, or who use tech to augment magical abilities like Dr. Doom,” I asked, seeing a flaw in the template idea even if it was mostly correct.

“A hero with a spectrum template can also create specific power techniques within their sphere of influence that uses an external source. In these instances the power technique is based on the other origin and has the same restrictions. Using your example of Spider-Man he has the web-shooters. In the various comic books he has developed a multitude of techniques with this device, but it is reliant on him having the device equipped. At character creation a player may opt to forgo either their tertiary focus on a spectrum hero or some power ranks on a spike hero to create a single item based power spread. Or multiple specific power techniques,” she answered.

“Sounds like it can get technical, but should cover just about anything. What about options like for the elemental field being just a single element?” I asked as I tried to get a better understanding of how this would work.

“After the basic power graph is created you may impose limitations on any power field you have access to. Depending on the limitation imposed you can gain increased power ranks in the field that is limited, a specific power technique, or on a secondary item based power set,” she answered.

“I’m going to guess that character advancement isn’t going to be a standard experience bar and level up,” I stated blandly as I looked at the graph.

“Why don’t you choose your powers before we discuss how you will ‘level up’ as your choices will affect this,” she answered with a small laugh.

I studied the graph as I thought through my options. I didn’t want a magical hero; while I didn’t see anything wrong with them I didn’t think it was really my style; that left tech or genetic as my options. I asked, “Could a technology based hero have both some specifics and an item based spectrum power set?”

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Savira answered quickly, as if she had expected this question, “Yes, this is common with a hero that employs powered armor of some form. They can have multiple power techniques that are based on the tools they have, and a general use suit of armor that can be rendered inoperable.”

That opened some interesting ideas, but I had a hunch that technology based heroes would have to spend time creating tools to use. While it could be extremely flexible I didn’t want to toil away in a lab trying to create the next shrink ray or some shit like that. That left me with the genetic hero. I tossed out the idea of being a spike hero, too linear for my taste, and focused on the different power fields and what kind of abilities I thought I could work with. I was pretty sure I would ignore the psychic field; I preferred to be physical in my approach to things. I tossed out a few ideas as too limiting before I settled on a concept I thought might work. The spectrum covered most of the field, and would allow me to develop different options, while still having the abilities be natural. I could even think of some appropriate limitations that would fit into a theme.

“Savira, could you show me a spectrum graph with an Elemental primary, a Projection secondary, and a Sensory tertiary?” I asked.

The graph lit up with a triangle that showed the overlapping areas, primarily Enhancement and Defense. As I examined the graph I asked, “If I were to apply the limitations of no psychic techniques except mental resistance and projection techniques limited to something I could throw how would that affect the graph?”

She seemed to consider the question for a moment before asking, “You have another limitation in mind don’t you? Please specify it before I answer your question.”

I grinned and stated, “When I see Elemental I think energy. I want to limit it to kinetic energy only. The concept is someone who manipulates kinetic energy in various ways.”

“As you are limiting your primary and secondary power selections, you can increase the strength of your tertiary option to rank three or choose two tertiary options that will begin at rank two instead of rank one,” she answered.

“I think I would like to have both Sensory and Enhancement at rank two. Do you see any problems with that?” I asked, suspecting that there would be a greater benefit to having additional power fields.

The graph changed, and I saw the limitations listed under the headings. I didn’t want to restrict my other potential power development options, so I said, “That should do it for those options. What’s next for this?”

“Next you get to pick a power technique for each ranked power option you have. You also get to pick an additional technique for your primary power choice or two additional techniques in your secondary or tertiary powers choices,” she responded.

I looked for a listing of technique options briefly before she stated, “Techniques are created by the player and approved by the system’s AI. For example you can create a kinetic projectile technique that increases the damage and speed of a thrown object, which is what I believe you limited yourself to.”

“So these are more freeform than previous games spells or skills which just did one thing with maybe a side effect?” I asked.

“Yes and no, the techniques you develop are limited in that sense, however there is nothing to prevent you from creating new techniques that have a more personalized effect shaped around how you want to use them. Let’s use the example of two players that used the basic elemental blaster template. One could have a technique that throws a fireball from their hand, while the other had flames that form around the target. Both options would work and potentially have similar damage scales, but slightly different execution,” she answered.

“Sounds open to abuse by outside the box thinkers,” I said, pondering ways I could game the system.

“It was intended that way. The advantage of this power system is that players can come up with different methods and none would be technically wrong if they achieved the goal, now you have been logged in for almost eight hours now. You need food and water soon, so we can either pause the creation of your character here, or we can speed this up without you trying to, what’s the phrase, ‘munchkin the hell out of it’?” she stated seeming a little grumpy.

“One last question before I make some choices,” I said, at her nod I continued, “I can develop new techniques later if I choose?”

“Yes, but it will take time, effort, and possibly other resources you earn in the game world,” she answered.

“Then I would like a technique for a kinetic projectile like what you mentioned earlier. A radar or motion sense technique, I’m not sure what would be more appropriate. A general speed and impact enhancement technique and I’m not sure for the primary power as it is purely the element,” I stated and watched as a list of techniques appeared beneath the graph.

Kinetic Projectile – Increase the velocity of a thrown projectile by a multiple of X, where X= Elemental (Kinetic) x Projectile, this technique requires ammunition which may be destroyed.

Enhanced Body (Kinetics) – Increase velocity of the bodies movement by X, where X= Enhancement. The elemental energy protects the user from the reactive force of their actions to the same degree.

Radar Sense (Kinetic) – The user may sense anything that is affected by motion in an area up to Elemental (Kinetic) x Sensory feet away from the user. Stable objects are identifiable unless within a hermetically sealed area. As this is limited to objects with a kinetic component the user will also have a sense of where motion is expected to begin and end.

“Your point regarding Elemental being a difficult power to create a technique from has been mentioned by other players creating characters during the Alpha test. As such it is used primarily as a power multiplier for other techniques. Also please keep in mind that the techniques can cross into multiple power fields. For example all of your powers are both Elemental and the chosen field.” Savira replied.

“So technically my Kinetic Projectile could be considered my Elemental power?” I asked to clarify my understanding.

She nodded and I rubbed my hand in glee, “Okay that makes it a little easier. I would like to add a kinetic barrier of some form, something that would allow me to stop bullets from impacting me.”

“Do you wish to be able to create a wall, or surround yourself in a bubble of kinetic energy?” she asked.

I thought about that for a minute before stating, “Honestly I would like both since I have two primary power options left.”

She nodded and I saw two more techniques appear beneath the chart.

Kinetic Bastion – Kinetic Bastion – The user creates a field of Kinetic force that reduces the force by a multiple of X, where X = Elemental (Kinetic) x velocity or X = Elemental (Kinetic) x mass whichever is greater. This field remains in place so long as the user concentrates on maintaining it.

Kinetic Armor – The user surrounds himself in a barrier of Elemental (Kinetic) energy. This armor reduces the force of anything that strikes the user by a multiple of X, where X = Elemental (Kinetic) x velocity or X = Elemental (Kinetic) x mass whichever is greater.

“So these barriers do more against high speed projectiles than they would against someone hitting me with a baseball bat?” I asked.

“That is, in general, accurate, as kinetic energy is based on force this means that either the mass of an object or the velocity is the determining factor in the force applied,” she answered.

Okay it was official, I needed to do some physics research if I wanted to come up with interesting tricks for this power that I was going to use. I had taken Introduction to Physics in high school, but I hadn’t retained most of the information. Sighing I stated, “Okay, I think I need to stop the creation process here and take a break. Just costume and clothing left to complete right?” I asked after confirming my choices.

“Costume, clothing, and names, I will have an email sent to your registered email address with what you have left. In addition you can respond to that email with any concept ideas you would like to apply for a filter to save yourself some time,” she replied.

I nodded in thanks and closed my eyes to make the transition easier.

A few moments later I opened my eyes to the immersion pod rising up to a vertical position and the door opening. I stepped forward, my hands holding onto a convenient grip on the side of the pod. My grip was the only thing that kept me from falling on my face as I tried to step forward with my missing left leg. I swore as I used the handle to regain my balance and grabbed my prosthetic off the nearby table. Eight hours of having a leg again made me forget already what it was like to not have one.

“I really hope this works out in the end,” I said to my now dark apartment, before moving to find the light switch and, after a rumble from my stomach, food.