Slow But Steady

I'm working my way slowly through Innate Powers--which is tough because there's a lot of stuff to review and try to get right. And the explanations of it all have to be at least decent if not actually "tight."

There is some question where to put standard blocks of rules. Take, for example, Charge Up.

Charge Up
Charge up means, in the simulator, that the ability (an attack) is not useful on Round 1 (or Round 2, for example, if it has a Charge Up of "2"). It generally does not cost REA to "charge" the ability (if it does that's a different matter) and, well, that's that. Contrast to Cool Down which means the ability is useful on the first Round of combat but then takes some "time off" after use.

These are simple rules--but the specifics get more complex. Let's take a look:

1. Charging an ability allows a Roll for Initiative by everyone who can sense it. It's presumed to have some audio component and it's unambiguously a readying for attack. You can't be facing down the enemy leader and "charge your fire blast" and have him 'not realize it.'
2. You can't "hold" a charged power. If you don't use it next Round it's inactive the Round after--in general--although the intent of the rule is take the ability out of play on the first Round of combat so there are some optional rules about "holding" the charge so long as "combat is still going on." This would, likely, be a GM call at some point.
3. Activation Abilities Work With Charge-Up. If the power has a Charge and an Activation Roll that's okay. The charge Round happens (there is no activation roll--the power simply isn't available) and then on the first Round where the ability is possibly active you start rolling. If you make the roll, the ability is online. If you miss it, the "charge" is saved until the activation roll is made. Then it's either use it or lose it.
4. Once charged an ability can be used for its entire Rate of Fire. If the Rate of Fire is Standard (two shots a Round for 5 REA each) you can Charge the ability, fire both shots (or however many), and then it's off-line after that until it charges again. Some abilities have both Charge Up and Rate of Fire of 1--meaning you must charge after every shot--but not all of them do.

Who knows, there might be some more.

Clearly this text, with an example or two, needs to go somewhere. But where? How many places? In the first chapter there will be some mention of these standard rules--and short descriptions.

In the back of the book there will likely be the full descriptions with all the caveats.

What goes in each section or each power description? That's not so clear to me. The obvious answer is to produce some boiler-plate that goes in the beginning of each chapter. However each chapter has multiple sections. Do I need a table or description there? It has been suggested that if I can get things short enough I could have like a "footer" on every page with some notes about the rules. That's interesting--but I'm afraid that very short descriptions may actually make things worse if they are not extremely clear.

And that's just one of the issues I'm struggling with.