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This page describes how to build a character on points. The process is the same for characters built at any point in the game.
Players have 20 points with which to build their characters, with the possibility of two additional points in contributions. They can spend points on Elements and Powers.
There are limits on how a character spends his or her points initially:
Each character is also entitled to a zero-point power.
Each character in House of Cards has a unique minor ability, power, or signature item as a freebie. This is the "zero-point power", because it costs no points in character creation.
The zero-point power can be any one-point Everway power, which means it can be frequent, major, or variable. You cannot combine a zero-point power with an existing power to get a two-point power for one point.
The purpose of the zero-point power is to give each character a unique power or ability.
Examples of zero-point powers include:
The utility of zero-point powers varies a lot. You can choose something extremely useful or something with almost no game effect that will round out your character. You cannot change your character's zero-point power after entering play, with one exception: you can buy it up to a regular power with experience gains and gain a new zero-point power to replace it.
As in ADRPG, we allow contributions to increase the number of points a player can allot during character creation. There are two contributions we regularly allow:
Other creative endeavors for points may be agreed with the GMs. In our experience, players give up on ongoing contributions like diaries, so we no longer offer them as a regular option. We initially offered creating Shadows as a contribution, but we no longer need additional Shadows and thus aren't accepting them as contributions.