Mutant Registration Act Enacted: Details Within

[Lilaena De'Ville]

That is true and I will add it immediately.

[Taya Robbins]

I had a thought - the MRA threat levels right now are written from an in-universe perspective. It's the sort of thing you'd see on official policy documents, a list of criteria meant to cover a broad variety of potential cases. But that doesn't mean it's the most approachable guide, especially for writers who are new to this setting.

Technically, characters who aren't registered don't even need to bother with threat levels, but since it's a useful way of categorizing your character, here's a simple writer's guide to the threat scale. It's all based on how many non-mutants it takes to pose a serious threat to your character.

1. A mutant with a threat level of one doesn't have any significant combat advantages over a normal human being. So if you bumped into a large, angry thug who decided to turn violent, you'd need to consider him a very real threat.

2. A mutant with a threat level of two has some significant advantage that allows him or her to either overpower or escape one attacker. Maybe you can paralyze him with a psychic attack or simply evade him with super speed or invisibility. But if he has a gang of friends with him, you're in danger of being overwhelmed.

3. A mutant with a threat level of three will give that gang serious pause. Sure, you might eventually be overwhelmed by sheer numbers, especially if they're armed, but you'll take so many of them down with you that they'll be reluctant to attack. More powerful threes will be able to wipe out a room full of bad guys without taking a scratch. This is a broad category, and it's where most combat-focused mutants fall.

4. Replace that gang of thugs with a company of highly trained, heavily armed special forces personnel. A level four mutant can either combat these troops to a standstill or create an environment so hostile that they can't effectively get to you (for instance, turning an entire city block into a raging firestorm). Aside from heavy military hardware, just about the only thing that can seriously threaten a level-four mutant is other mutants.

Level five simply means a level three mutant who is a dangerous criminal, and level six is reserved for enemy mutant masterminds like Saladin.

You may find your character is straddling the line between two categories. If that's the case, just pick what you think feels right.

[Captain Untouchable]

One thing I could use a smidge of clarity on - is this the threat level of their power, or the threat level of the character as a whole?

Using Tom Harriman as an example: his power is probably a 2, based on your description. However, as a soldier and martial artist, he can probably "give a gang serious pause". I went with a 3 for criminal record reasons, and it still fits the character as a whole once everything is taken into account... but would someone like that be a "natural 3" anyway, or is the rating purely on their mutation?

Does your threat rating increase if you're a muscly mo-fo who does a lot of boxing, but your mutant power is to make daisies shoot out of your nose?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

It's my understanding this is based on mutation/criminal record only, but certainly things like military training or service could be taken into consideration. Perhaps adding a point, much like a rap sheet does?

So, Tom is a 2, plus 1 for non violent crime, plus 1 for military training? But then it's starting to get a little ridiculous and we'd need more than six numbers.

So, then, it's rating mutation and how it sets a character apart from a regular human. So military training would be a note on the file but not affect the ultimate rating. I think that works best - just leave it as is. Mundanes are military or skilled martial artists, so we're rating how Tom's mutation gives him an advantage over them, too, not just against the granny that lives on the corner.

[Aidan Fox]

Your baseline threat level measures mutation alone. For example: if Scott Green, an NPC who can change his skin color, became a mixed martial arts master, he certainly could defeat the average thug and might even be able to intimidate a crowd, but his prowess would have nothing to do with his mutation. He'd still be a one, barring a criminal record.

There are going to be marginal cases like Harriman. In those cases, it's totally up to the author. You could say he gets bumped up because his physical training includes creative ways to weaponize his mutation. Or you could say what you said there - he gets two points for his mutation, one for his criminal record.

I've done the same sort of thing with Taya. Her claws could certainly give her an advantage over a lone assailant, but her temperament, combined with the fact that she's a 105-lb girl, really say non-com to me. So I kept her a one.

TL;DR, go with what feels right for the character. I enjoy systems and categories like this, but it's a spectrum, and I'm certainly not going to be anal about it.