Before you start figuring out a character’s abilities, Powers and other statistics, you should think a bit about who the character is. That’s what sets them apart from others and breathes life into them, making them more than a simple collection of numbers and rules.

It’s often easiest to start out with a high concept: a one-sentence description of the character that tells you what’s most special about them. This can focus on their personal history, the origin of their Powers, the kinds of Powers they have or all of the above.

For instance, for Spider-Man (Peter Parker), the high concept might read like this:

Bitten by a radioactive spider, which gave him spider-related Powers, orphaned and bullied high-school Student Peter Parker strives to help others out of a sense of great responsibility.

That single sentence tells you most of what you need to know about Peter Parker, and you can flesh out the details from there.

It’s okay if your high concept isn’t particularly sharp or polished at first. Go ahead and get started making the character anyhow. As you dive deeper into that process, the character should become more in focus, and you can go back and revise the high concept to fit them better if you’d like.

Part of a Team

If your hero is going to be Part of a Team, talk with the Narrator and the other players to think a bit about how that character might help round out the team. For instance, a team that’s filled with big bruisers who can punch out tanks might be great at Brawling but could fall short in other areas.

If that’s the kind of game you and your friends want to play, go for it. Do whatever you like at your own table.

If you want your team to be ready for anything, though, consider trying to fill out a better-balanced team instead. Just talk with your fellow players about who wants to play what kinds of characters and then try to spread out among those roles as best you can.

It’s okay, though, if you have some gaps in your team’s overall abilities or if the team focuses on certain types of heroes. Your team is what you make of it, and your Narrator can usually adjust to that by coming up with adventures that fit your team well.