Characters

"So here I am
Doing everything I can
Holding on to what I am
Pretending I'm a superman.
I'm trying to keep
The ground on my feet
It seems the world's falling down around me.
The nights are all long.
I'm singing a song
And trying to make the answers more than 'maybe'.
And I'm so confused about what to do.
Sometimes I want to throw it all away." -- Goldfinger, "Superman"

Requirements

1. A motivation to fight with a mask. It doesn't have to be even half as pathological as Batman's, but it must exist. Remember that Batgirl was just wearing a silly costume to a costume party when something happened and suddenly she was a heroine. (But she had to have at least a little twist to her brain in order to keep doing it.)
2. A costume. This is part of the setting. Costumes strike fear into the hearts of most criminals, who are superstitious and cowardly lots. They also help protect secret identities, which is even more important in Gotham City than in most, because of the constant danger of retaliation from organized crime.
3. A simple summary of their "powers". Gadgets? Training? Mutancy? Accident? Experiment?. You really have to be able to describe the powers of your character in one or two sentences. (Batman's is "exceptional detective combined with tremendously talented and well-trained martial artist".) Exactness is not required at this stage but summarizability is.
4. A compelling connection with other PCs. In this respect the PC group will be a little unlike the lone brooding masked avenger Gotham City stereotype. They will be a little bit more of team players. This may be achieved in many ways - common enemies, common targets, common origins, or common backgrounds.
5. A reason not to kill. This reason has to be more than just "it will be too much trouble if I kill".

Character Creation

"I got a room at the top of the world tonight.
I can see everything
tonight.
I got a room where everyone can have a drink
And forget those things that went wrong
In their life.
I got a room at the top of the world tonight.
I got a room at the top of the world tonight.
I got a room at the top of the world tonight
And I ain't coming down.
I ain't coming down." Tom Petty, "room at the top"

Characters have 22 freebie points.

Download the character sheet.

Knacks and Facets

In Adventure! "proper". you can only take Knacks that match your Facet (Intuitive = Heroic Knacks, Reflective = Psychic Knacks, Destructive = Dynamic Knacks). This is not the case here.

In summary, all characters have two Facet-related abilities, one Knack, and have access to dramatic editing, cliffhangers, "sheer heroism", and intuition. Most people in the setting do not. A few villains can dramatically edit, and may have Knacks (most Rogues Gallery villains have Death Defiance, for example) but they get no intuition and no Facet abilities.
Here's a quick list of knacks available and what they do.

HEROIC KNACKS

Death Defiance - "Nobody could have survived that explosion/fire/etc."

Dramatic Entrance - More pronounced first impression

Eagle Eyes - Bonus and reduced penalties for visual perception

Enhanced Impact - Knockback on a type of attack

Fists of Stone - (Strength + 3) bashing damage for hand to hand combat
(instead of Strength + 1). No damage from punching anything less sturdy
than iron.

Forgettable - Penalties to remember someone or what exactly they did

Gadgeteer - Intuitive super-engineering and MacGuyvering

Indomitable Will - Immune to mundane attempts at hypnosis and
brainwashing, severe penalties to powered atttempts

Instant Expert - Get your Facet score in a skill you don't know, once per
session.

Jack of All Tongues - Natural linguist

Lie Detector - Nobody with less than Subterfuge 2 can fool you. Everyone
else finds it very difficult.

Lightning Reflexes - Anytime you roll a 1, 2 or 3 for initiative, we
pretend it's a 4.

Master of Dissimulation - Pretend to be anything, with a little
appropriate-sounding gibberish.

One-Man Army - The more people who are in hand-to-hand combat with you,
the more bonus dice you get.

Perfect Poise - Totally unflappable.

Resilient - Heals all wounds as if they had one fewer wounds. Halves
healing time for Bruised. This does stack with medical care and rest.

Steely Gaze - Wins staredowns.

Trick Shot - Harder shots become much easier and get bonuses.

Universally Deadly - Never penalized with an unfamiliar weapon, get
bonuses to the use of weapons.

Untouchable - If you don't carry a gun, you become much harder to hit with
guns.

Wheelman - Top speed, and maneuverability of your vehicles increases, as
does your ability to dodge attacks.

PSYCHIC KNACKS

Brain Skimming - Read surface thoughts.

Command Voice - Short verbal command.

Marked Man - "Mark" a person or object, then track them anywhere.

Perfect Translation - Automatic understanding of languages when the
speaker is present.

Psychic Hand - Low levels of raw telekinesis.

Scientific Prodigy - Tap into gestalt of nearby researchers to improve
super-scientific design skills

Thermal Manipulation - Protection from heat or cold, and extinguishing
fires.

DYNAMIC KNACKS

A Single Bound - Well, you get the picture.

Cool Hand - Inhumanly steady. No wound penalties for Dexterity skills.

Heightened Senses - Just what it sounds like.

Mad Scientist - Research time goes from days to hours.

Man For All Seasons - Incredibly able to survive extreme natural
conditions.

Powerlifter - Might skill is enhanced.

Sex Symbol - Mega-attractiveness.

Backgrounds

In general, an important part of Year One is that everyone is really just starting out. In the first Year One book, Batman nearly completely screws up his first "night on the town". So it's important that your character have an appropriate "real life", because that's going to be important to the story. I'm going to make a lot of plots focus directly, personally on the characters, that way when things start to go wrong, the personal stake is maintained. Depending on the characters that are created, we might not actually play out that "first night" in real time, but we may do it in flashback!