Thoughts ? Expectations ? Wishes ?
P.S: Im lefting this here as a reminder of the awesome evocativeness of the game, and as a wish that the new edition be fulled of this kind of thing.. (thanks Longes)
Longes wrote:Let's talk about Avatars for a change of pace.
The Trickster, from "Stratosphere", p.76
Trickster is an all around great archetype. It's an actual archetype people can think about (unlike, say, Mystic Hermaphrodite), it has a good taboo and it has great powers. Really, the name speaks for itself, so I'm not going to go into details of what a Trickster is. Think Loky, Hermes, Smilin' Stan S. Stanman.
Taboo: Trickster can't choose straightforward way when it's possible to do a complicated con. Taking a loan - nay, making a pyramid scheme - yay.
This taboo is great. It's something that the avatar of Trickster would want to do anyway, and it, potentialy, leads to fun roleplaying experience.
Powers:*
1%-50%. Trickster is such a nice guy, that no one can stay mad at him. While in Trickster's presence, everyone with the Soul score less than the Trickster's avatar skill thinks that the Trickster is a great guy no matter what he does, or did in the past. It's possible to resist this with a Soul check, if the Trickster is asking you to do something harmful to you.
This power is great. This is an eternal "get out of jail" card. Guards bust into an oval office and see you drenched in blood, standing over the president's lifeless corpse? You smile, ask for a towel and leave. It was clearly an accident, you could do nothing wrong. Can this archetype possibly get any better?
51%-70%. Yes, yes it can. At this level you get the ability of the Perfect Lie. With a successful Avatar check you can convince any single person of the veracity of a single statement, no matter how outrageous it is. The person keeps believing that what you said is true until proven otherwise. The keyword is "proven". Memory doesn't help.
This ability... It's just so great! You can convince your enemy in combat that they need to reload. You can convince a shop clerk that you've already paid for whatever you took. You can tell someone that their name is Bobbin Threadbare, and they'll go by Bobbin Threadbare until they check their ID. The possibilities are endless.
71%-90%. You can flip-flop any check related to decieving - lying, disguise, forgery, magic tricks, etc.
Very useful, but not very interesting.
91%+. With a few props you can perfectly disguise yourself. Put on a bald wig and british accent, and you are Patrick Stewart. Paint your face black and wear a tie and you are Barak Obama. Use some lipstick and a pink ribbon and suddenly you are a gourgeous woman. The disguise is explicitly impossible to penetrate.
Conclusion. This Archetype is great in every way possible. The taboo is great, the powers are great. It's worth every skillpoint invested. As a cherry on top, it blends wonderfuly with most schools of magic. In fact, the only school of magic it doesn't blend with is Irascimancy (you need to get people angry with you to get charges, and first channel prevents that).
*Avatar is a skill you take, and you get new powers at the appropriate skill level.