So where are we? And when?
An indefinite period into the future, and on Earth. But things aren't quite like they used to be, basically every piece of land has been covered in miles of urban construction. Vertical miles, inhabited on every level from the ground to the top.
The top layer is the Green layer, where there's actual vegetation and parks. Below that is the Blue layer, where there's still clean water. One level further down, and you've got the Yellow layer, named for the fact that there's still SOME sunlight penetrating. Below that is the Brown, which is a labyrinthine slum in permanent twilight. And finally, at the far bottom, the Black, a cavernous realm of twisting tunnels and criminal hideouts excavated from scrap and debris.
Most of the REALLY rich have managed to escape off-planet, to the Moon, Mars or orbital facilities. Word is that it's actually NICE living out there.
You're not that fortunate, though. You're residents of the Brown and Yellow, some of those unfortunates who are suffering from mutations.
Wait? Mutations?
Yeah, it started a few decades ago. At first it was just odd birth defects, deformities, strange appearances, but soon mutants were born who had superhuman or borderline supernatural abilities. Super strength, super speed, absurd reflexes, claws, poison spit and even more bizarre abilities. They're still rare, no doubt about it, and most still just have cosmetic things wrong with them.
But every now and then something crazy gets born, like a guy who can control fire or someone who can walk through walls. No one's quite sure why, mutation screwing with human DNA has been accused of being the culprit by most people so far.
Some areas seem to have more common occurrences of certain mutations, like the zones dominated by the Skuller gang, in the Brown and Black, which have an inordinate number of people born with skull-like faces(most of which are inducted into the gang almost from birth), other areas have a lot of the population with claws, hardened carapaces, etc.
The lower you get in the urban levels, the more common the mutations tend to be, at the upper levels any mutant born is usually registered, and officially the lower-level mutants are supposed to be as well, but in practice most mutants don't let themselves be registered, as the lower levels tend to have a lot of distrust of the government.
Particularly troublesome mutants and gangs of same tend to get hunted down by Control, the government ministry tasked with keeping the "problem" under, well, Control.
Alright, sounds cool. So how do we do this character thing?
We use BESM, 3rd edition, 225 as a starting point for characters, want to leave some room for growth. Maybe 250 if people feel too restrained. No inherent Weapon powers should be above 5 ranks. Telepathic mutations are practically unheard-of, and any sort of energy/ice/etc. control are very rare. Generally mutant powers focus on the user, not on the world around him, so mutants with Regeneration are pretty common, while mutants with the Healing attribute are one in ten-thousand(mutants, not normal people).
Additional Info
Control: Urban Police
The Convictors: Control's most elite branch.
The Omniweb: Where the nerds hang out.
The Skullers: The nastiest gang the Urban's ever seen.
Slam!: Inexplicably the most popular sport in the Urban.
Zones: The structure of the Urban
