A clear idea of who you're creating, or even just a conceptual thread to guide decisions.
Select a species, you gain one of that species' tier 1 powers for free!
You may select 9 powers from any skill, aside species other than your own. You can't have more powers in a particular tier of a skill, than you have in the tier one lower. So you cannot have two tier 3 bows powers if you only have one tier 2 bows power.
Select one tool to have "specialty" with.
You gain 10 'weapon points', one d4 armor or shield, a suit of clothing, and 3 other items or tools who's Trade DC does not exceed 10+ your Trade modifier.
If 10+your Trade modifier exceeds the Trade DC of the item you selected in step 4, you gain that item as a bonus item.
You may choose not to gain an armor or shield, to instead gain 2 additional other items or tools.
Alex's Storyteller informed the group that the campaign would feature a lot of time at sea. So they decided they'd like to try a sailor character.
Unsure which species they wanted to play, Alex rolled a d6 to randomly choose, getting "Gorun" as their result. Gorun's are big, ape-like creatures with poorer vision than some of the other species. But they have natural abilities that would work really well on a ship both in and out of combat. Looking through the Gorun power options, Alex is immediately intrigued by the "Gorun Draw" power, which they suspect would make it easier to attach ropes to opposing ships. So they take this as their automatic race power. Alex decides to call their Gorun Sailor "Jerrick". Now, with species, species power, and name chosen; Alex has 9 more powers to pick for Jerrick.
Alex notices that the Gorun Draw power also counts as a Bow power, meaning if they wanted they could get a tier 2 bow power immediately as well. Checking the tier 2 bow powers they notice that "Fired Piton" sounds like another application of the kind of force to fire ropes at an enemy ship, so they grab that one. This means Alex has 8 more powers to select.
Because Gorun's are so bulky in general and Alex is certain they'll lose their weapon at some point, they grab a Tier 1 Unarmed power; Opting to take an undetailed one so as to help define it later.
Looking at the defensive skills, Alex decides to wait and come back if they have points to spare later. Or maybe, they figure, they'll choose the parry option for unarmed at some point so as to not spread themself too thin.
Scrolling through the other skills; Athletics, Climbing, Labour, and Seamanship grab their attention. Alex snatches up an undetailed power for each of these. Remembering the poor vision of Goruns, they also grab a Tier 1 Senses power.
At this point Alex has 2 powers remaining, they want to get something defensive but suspect it'd be fine to wait and rely on Unarmed later. Instead they opt to select a Tier 2 Climb power; it's a big ape-sailor, they have to be good at climbing! And for the final power they select Artistry, imagining this guy relaxing by sitting down and gently bending thick wood like someone might weave.
This gives the character Gorun +1, Bows +2, Unarmed +1, Athletics +1, Artistry +1, Climb +2, Labour +1, Seamanship +1, and Senses +1.
Alex's Storyteller allows everyone to start with 1 speciality and up to 8 points worth of weapons. Every image of Jerrick in Alex's mind includes rope in some way; climbing the rigging, firing rope-arrows to other ships, swinging or even just carrying it in case. So they waste no time in selecting Rope as their speciality tool; this means any time Jerrick uses a rope to help him do something, it would give him a d6 tool die instead of the normal d4!
For a weapon, Jerrick could have a Greatbow, which itself is worth 7 weapon points and is extremely powerful in his hands. But Alex instead decides to give him a Longbow; it's as powerful for Jerrick as a Greatbow is for most other characters, and gives Alex 2 points to spend on something as a backup instead of 1. They ask their storyteller if she would count a weapon [Slashing, Tool, Aiding(Slicing)] would work as a knife designed to cut rope. The storyteller agrees so Jerrick starts with one of those as well.
Jerrick therefore has;
Gorun +1, Bows +2, Unarmed +1, Athletics +1, Artistry +1, Climb +2, Labour +1, Seamanship +1, Senses +1. Rope speciality. A Longbow and a Rope Cutting Knife(S, T, A(S))