Step two was finding how we could slide these powers into character advancement. We decided to limit each Archetype to one Primary Power and one Secondary Power that matched the roles we had assigned to them. In the case of the Scrapper, that would be, say, Claws (Melee) and Regeneration (Defense). How could we come up with a way for a player to receive something new on a regular basis? We immediately realized that there were a ton of powers that ended up in the Etcetera category (such as Flight, Teleportation, etc.). We dubbed it a Power Pool, and thought that players could, at certain levels, choose one of these powers. These were powers that occurred often in comic book heroes or were “utility” powers that weren’t easily categorizable, and it seemed right that any Archetype could choose from them.
And a glimpse at how the Power Sets will be laid out:
Step three was expanding each of these individual powers from the Power Set name. I drew from everything I had at my disposal to come up with an appropriate variety for each power: comic books, pencil and paper RPGs, and other computer games. Here’s an example of what I did with the prosaically named “Claws”:
Claws Swipe – Fast claw attack. Slight damage.
Claws Strike – Normal claw attack. Normal damage.
Spinning Claws Attack – hand to hand attack to everyone within melee distance.
Feint – an attack that does little damage that increases damage and chance to hit on next attack
Slash – focused hand to hand attack, lots of endurance, lots of damage. Reduces target’s defense to all attacks.
Taunt – Challenges someone to fight
Focus – A short-range attack.
Evicerate – Heaviest attack. Some damage over time. Chance to do double damage
Wave – Cone attack to everyone in front of the hero’s claws.
Get all the details and the rest of the story at IGN.
