<div style="text-align: justify;">Trying to quickly grab a few things to answer, while still waking up.  I apologise to everyone whose points or ideas I've overlooked!<br/><br/>(Oh, and <strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: impact;">happy new year</span></span></strong>, everyone!  ;D )<br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong>Equipment</strong>: To quote an explanatory sidebar on p212 of the Handbook: "<em>Just because a character happens to own a cell phone, laptop computer, car, or a home does not mean the character is expected to have ranks in the Equipment advantage. Broadly speaking, MUTANTS &amp; MASTERMINDS characters are only expected to pay for adventuring equipment, which is to say items that have a direct impact on their roles as heroes. The rest is just background color, perhaps encompassed by ranks in the Benefit advantage for heroes with a lot of wealth and material resources</em>."<br/><br/>So... you can <em>have</em> a 'normal' (for your income, your degree of tech-savvy, and for the year 2014) cell phone without paying for it.  But if you want a secure, high-grade one and / or one that can come close to matching 2022 'average' new-model smartphones, then you should invest in Equipment.<br/><br/>For a character like Valerie, investing an Equipment point in guaranteeing access to a secure laptop, desktop, and phone would probably make sense.  Even if she builds or modifies her own, the Equipment point would guarantee that she had relevant high-grade parts available at home.  For the veteran former superheroine, investing in secure kit might be an old habit that has refused to die... or could be something she has consciously rejected, while embracing her 'mundane' life.<br/><br/>According to the Handbook, a standard cell phone is a 1-point item - as is a computer, camera (digital or film; still or moving), comm link, or audio recorder... and a great many other <em>useful things</em> besides.  I'm happy to go with that as a general rule, and charge an extra point for top-end versions of such things... though I should really have a look at the Gadget Guide. ;)<br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong>The Create Power</strong>: it was only in reading up on it for Claire that I discovered quite how it works in M&amp;M.  The idea of "create things" being a major-league attack power that lets you squash people (potentially with utterly-imperceptible objects of immense size!) is not something I had previously encountered as part of the supers genre.  I confess that it caught me by surprise!<br/><br/>I think that quite a lot of "create things" options might be better covered by some other powers, or by slapping Limitations onto Create.  E.g. Damage can take just about any form; so Ranged Damage could let you throw shards of obsidian or steel slivers or blasts of cosmic force at people.  If you're happy for the generated <em>thing</em> to vanish when the attack is complete, then there's no need for anything more than an appropriate Descriptor on the power.<br/><br/>For force fields... I think that two options come to mind.  To make force fields in three-dimensional shapes, Create could be used - with Limitations to remove all mass &amp; weight, meaning that you can't crush people with them).  Alternatively, you could modify Protection to be non-permanent and area-effect (perhaps also Ranged), allowing you to erect bubbles of defensive shielding around yourself or other targets in range.<br/><br/>If, however, you want to make physical things that last for any length of time, the design process gets more demanding.  Create again is the obvious option, but you could potentially also do it by adding Extras and Features to other powers.  E.g. if you can <em>only</em> make steel items in a specific shape and size, then that sounds much more like a Feature of another power than a full power in its own right.<br/><br/>And Descriptors can be used to cover quite a lot of things.  For 1 point, you can add a new Desciptor to an item or power.  In the <em>Eden Universe</em> game run by Muse, my character has an enchanted sword with four Desciptors - she can choose which one to employ with each attack she makes, to try to find a way past opponents' defences (thus far totally unsucessfully, but it's the sort of thing that would be great if it worked! ;D ).  You could have a few Descriptors attached to a power to let you make a limited array of specific items, perhaps.<br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong>Wilderness Lore</strong>: One or more Expertises could make sense here.  A single one covering "Cryptid Tour Guide" would provide general expertise across everything relevant to that... but you might also want to break it down into multiple things.  "Wilderness Lore" and "Storyteller" and "Local Myths and Legends" could all be suitable fields of competence, which might each have applications beyond the tour-guiding.  It depends on how much you want to invest in being good specifically at that particular job, or being good at that job because you're gifted in a swathe of relevant fields.  ;)<br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong>Terminus Invasion</strong>: Don't feel obliged to tie a move to Emerald City closely to the Invasion's date.  It could quite credibly have taken a few years for someone to come to feel that they simply can't cope with Freedom City any more (especially while raising a  new child), and that sort of delay could perhaps make Emerald City seem additionally-attractive as the Mars Renaissance starts to have visible effects and get nationwide media coverage... but the massive impact the Invasion had on Freedom and its residents <em>does</em> seem like a good catalyst to push someone into rethinking her priorities and pulling out of the superheroic scene.<br/><br/>But now, if her child (or children) is old enough to be considered adults (at least to a significant degree) then a new crisis arising might allow her to pitch back in fairly whole-heartedly to defend the city that's been her home for 15-20 years (and is perhaps the only home her child can remember).<br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong>Elemental Stuff</strong>: Having characters with <em>somewhat</em> similar powers isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially if one is meant to be a mentor.  I'm not advocating a team of electrokinetics, but having characters with relevant overlapping experiences might <em>help</em> RP even if most of the manifestations of their powers are different in terms of the game-system.  Any such overlap is by no means a requirement, but I'd say that it's not necessarily something to shy away from, either.<br/><br/>@Avernale: do you have any inclinations for what sort of element Amber might focus on?  I see "Ranged Combat: Lightning" in there, but most other things are still "Energy Control type", so I'm not sure if that's a definite choice.<br/><br/>As an aside - a powered-up-to-PL10 version of Sashay could potentially work well in the group, depending on quite what powers Claire winds up with (especially if she goes for the previously mentioned "force fields" as a focus, rather than "squish 'em all!").  ;D<br/><br/></div>