StreetSamuraiI’m playing in a MUCK using Unknown Armies fluff, but none of the crunch as I don’t really know the system yet.
My character is an Avatar of the Masterless Man, contracted as a bodyguard to a starlet who doesn’t really want fame-but can’t think of anything else to support herself. The Avatar himself is thinking of convincing her to join the Underground, but isn’t so sure what to inform her of. He was thinking Demagogue, but as she doesn’t want to be famous, and doesn’t like her job, that doesn’t work.
Does anyone have any ideas?
ashwoodDepends on her goals and how much effort she is willing to put in to achieve them.
If she just wants money + power, go for the Merchant avatar. There is a Twilight Zone episode The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross that shows how the avatar works. You can probably watch it on YouTube.
If she wants to do something meaningful with her life, Epideromancy (fleshworking) will allow her to heal people, but you have to injure yourself to get charges.
If she is the type of person who wants magic because it’s cool, try videomancy it’s not particularly useful or powerful but, unlike most other schools, you can practice videomancy without screwing up your life.
ashwoodBoth avatars and adepts can use ritual magic, no reason to concentrate on rituals alone when you can get them as a bonus.
BTW how did she become a starlet if she didn’t want fame? Wouldn’t she have needed to study acting and go to auditions? Or did she start out wanting to be an actress and then find out it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be?
ashwoodIt would be like bringing a knife to a gun fight. Also, she would be stuck with minor rituals only, unless she learns a charging ritual. And charging rituals are rare and jealously guarded.
Streetsamurai, channeling an avatar is sort of like acting, so you might want to go with an adept school instead.
A mechanomancer could probably do fairly well money wise. Build a few significant clockworks with the mechanic skill and have them restore classic automobiles for you to sell. Build a clockwork that looks like you and get it a couple undemanding jobs flipping burgers (no reason it shouldn’t work both the day and the night shift).
WrattsKnife to a gun fight? Nah, not really. Oftenly enough, Adepts get into serious trouble and Avatars have to deal with rivals, so it can just as well turn out that being one of the freakos of the Underground is like bringing mojo to the gun fight, when you could just bring an actual gun. It’s also easier to sell to the cops that you shot someone in the face in self defense rather than having to explain how that specific someone’s face melted.
In Unknown Armies, clued-in mundane characters are oftenly more powerful than the adepts and avatars, last but not least because of that taboo thing.
ashwoodWe are talking about a starlet, looking for a way to support herself without acting. I doubt she has the skills, connections, or the money needed to play the game without magick.
Guns and Magick :
If someone gets shot in the face and you are holding a gun, the cop is going to take you in. Especially if he was using magick to attack you instead of a physical weapon.
If someone’s face melts, you just scream “Oh My God!!! What’s Happening to Him???” and the cops won’t automatically connect you to the death.
Finally, like ritual magick, adepts and avatars can use guns as a bonus. Plutomancers can shoot you, then make you shoot yourself. Cliomancers and Avatars of the Fool can shoot you and make you shoot random people in the area. Chaos mages can shoot you and become 50% bullet proof.
WrattsWell obviously, a good way to stay out of trouble is to stay off the radar. And by that I mean the radar of the Underground’s more unpleasant fellows who spend alot of resources to dispatch people who actually get into the situation of melting someone’s face and the cops interfering and thusly some heads turning in the way of the unnatural.
I would have said “Flying Woman” as an avatar for her would be funny, a neat little irony to have Flying Woman and a Masterless Man working next to eachother. But the problem with avatars for her is the rivalry, if she wants power just to defend herself and no world-view with it, then it’s a risk-reward kind of thing to go with because she already has a name and going an avatar path beyond the first channel will get heads turned her way–in the Underground, not among normal public. She doesn’t want fame, but wants protection, so taking an extra risk and step in those directions doesn’t sound like a reasonable way to go for her.
Then there’s Narco-Alchemy, which, stylistically, would fit quite well–it’s regarded as a minor school but can do some serious stuff, but the nice perk for a starlet who doesn’t want to be famous is that she could get into Narco-Alchemy via the drug scene (a natural thing for celebrities) and fall from grace of the public eye. The problem with adepts is that you take up a worldview.
And the character, so far, seems to have no conviction whatsoever, more lethargic and defensive than anything. Which is why I’d say, stick to a Masterless Man bodyguard, get contacts in the Underground, get rituals, get guns, get artifacts, get to work in the Underground and make some crazy pals who do the mojo *for* you. If she became a starlet even though she doesn’t like it, I’ll bet she has some good social and mental skills. That’s perfect to stay sane and make people do the dirtiest work *for* you while you stay in control.
Skills like “You Do What I Say!” and “Don’t Hit Me, I’m Innocent” can work wonders. Completely without mojo.
ashwoodI think you are making too much of the rivalry between avatars. As long as you stick to the standard interpretation of the avatar and don’t seek the godwalker chair you shouldn’t have too much trouble. Peacemaker and healer avatars aren’t likely to come after you guns akimbo. Merchant avatars would probably be willing to make a deal instead of resorting to force, and necessary servant avatars are encouraged by there first channel to work together.
Rituals are dangerous to acquire, inflexible, and you have to watch out for booby-trapped fakes.
Guns bring too much trouble with the law, especially when she is semi-famous to start with. Only chaos mages and fleshworkers attract attention by face melting. Plutomancer = suicide. Urbanomancer = accident. Cliomancers, Videomancers, and Personamancers = nervous breakdown.
Useful artifacts are rare, very well guarded, and a big bull’s-eye on your back. Anyone rumored to possess a ring of eternal youth, isn’t going to have a very long life-span unless they have some serious mojo to defend themselves.
As for getting people to work for you, the question is going to be “What do you bring to the table?”. If I can start fires with my mind, why should I listen to some starlet trying to tell me what to do?
You might as well suggest she take over the local chapter of the Crips. She just doesn’t have the cash or street cred (occult or otherwise) to be taken seriously.
WrattsYou seem to know something about the original poster’s game that I don’t.
First, I thought starlets generally had a good deal of cash over Average Joe unless they blow it all on drugs and immediately worthless luxury.
And about not being taken seriously, that’s my whole point. That’s how clued-in mundanes get around for so long in the underground, until they get the leverage to make themselves a name and secure themselves from troublemakers. What do you need mojo for, if nobody takes you seriously, nor wants to do anything to you? Low profile: it’s how all the top dogs started out, once. And you’ve got to start somewhere.
But there are some fundamental questions about this starlet character and “wanting something to support herself”: Why dive deep into the underground and not just skim the surface? Why start working some mojo and juju when she could stay mundane?
Yes, from the viewpoint of game mechanics, what you say is valid, and makes sense, don’t get me wrong. It’s just not making any to me in the sense of a living, breathing character. Someone who doesn’t know squat about the underground and isn’t already on some avatar path or inside some whacky little world of her own–who has the cash to hire a bodyguard, and skulk around not liking her occupation as a starlet–sounds like a wannabe with no real goals or determination, in terms of Unknown Armies. There’s not even any indication of her having an obsession.
Maybe I’ve understood something completely wrong about Unknown Armies, and I should shut up now. But people don’t just enter the occult underground and start working magic for shits and giggles, or as a hobby or your average 20% job for extra income. People in the underground are dedicated, determined, obsessive freaks who know what they want, they’re not like high school chicks deciding which pants to get at the mall. If that’s your angle in life, you may want to start it slow and use one of the backdoors, rather than jump into the middle of the fray and get eaten by the sharks before you know your heads from your tails. Is all I’m saying.
ashwoodCould you give a few examples of low profile mundanes becoming top dogs?
Alex Abel started out as billionaire with hit squads, a top dog from the get go.
You also mentioned the Superconductor in a previous post as using connections instead of magick to be on top. It’s true that he doesn’t need mechanomacy for his role as the leader of Mak Attax, but he has something else that the starlet doesn’t have. He has a cause. The Maks do what he asks them to because they are all working a towards a common goal. “Let’s all get together to make me rich” isn’t going to get many converts.
Concerning the starlet not having an obsession: If you were camping in the woods, witnessed a U.F.O. land and little grey aliens walk around collecting samples of the local flora, wouldn’t you get a little obsessed about aliens?
The starlet is about to learn that her whole concept of reality is wrong. Magick is real, you can communicate with dead people, and the entire universe is going to be destroyed and reborn as soon as archetype number 333 ascends to the stratosphere.
WrattsBy far, the most important thing you mention for my angle of the discussion is the cause. It’s not just important to lead people, you need it if you want to work magic. Sure, you can just act the part if you go the avatar way, but at one point or the other you have a hard image to uphold and it helps to have a cause, otherwise you won’t get far (the first channel is relatively weak for avatars, the second isn’t but needs more work, the third and so forth are alot more powerful but then the rivalry will start cropping up). But for adepts? You must be absolutely convicted and see the world that way. Wanting to go to hogwarts and learning how to do some tricks won’t cut it. Getting mentored into the ways of an adept will make you go mad, and worse.
I’m just saying, I don’t think it’s very credible that a character in Unknown Armies would actually advise another to become an adept or channel an archetype. Because what you hear and probably come to believe of the underground is that all those people line the graveyards and have gone insane, and they are the tools for mundane folk. The Plutomancer? He’ll kiss your feet for buying him a donut because he’s gone on an accounting binge for days without food. The avatar of the Pilgrim? He has something to do, and if you help him do that, he’ll be grateful. The Epideromancer? Has a simple deal with you, he’ll heal you if you make sure he’s never put into hospital or under a doctor’s knife. All these kooks are surprisingly easy to satisfy with mundane means. You don’t need kewl powerz to convince people to do things, you just need to know what they want and give it to them in the right doses so they do what you want.
ashwoodThe Plutomancer can order take-out.
The Pilgrim probably would be grateful, but how often is he going to have the free time to help you? Pilgrims tend to keep themselves busy.
As for the Epideromancer, if he is unconscious and seriously hurt, it might be a good idea for him to get medical attention. Besides, how could you make sure he is never put into a hospital anyway? Unless you bodyguard him 24/7, it would probably be more effective for him to buy a medical alert bracelet that says “Christian Scientist : I refuse all medical treatment”
Also, I think the taboo only applies if you willing allow someone to alter your body. Otherwise, you would lose all your mojo whenever someone alters your body by shooting you. Getting CPR wouldn’t cost you your charges because you are unconscious and unable to object.
WrattsBut the Plutomancer can’t invite potential corporate business partners to a meal in the most expensive restaurant of the world which nets a bill of over $10.000. You can, however, and the Plutomancer will probably be very grateful.
You can probably find a way to get the Pilgrim to do something for you if you make it look like it’s furthering both your and his goals together.
The Epideromancer’s rules in the book are one thing, but the way a real Epideromancer as a person would look at it implies that the thing with the medical alert bracelet you described is not really off the wall. However, that won’t stop some overzealous medic from trying to save her and pissing over religious exemption, even risking a lawsuit for the sake of saving lives, so having a partner-in-crime to ensure it doesn’t happen when going to do some dirty work in the Underground is perhaps worth noting.
People in the Underground most oftenly have obsessions. Adepts in particular have very strong, bizarre ones. Avatars don’t necessarily, but at one point you’re probably in so deep that you’ve got your obsession on your hands, and worst case scenario, your obsession conflicts with your path’s taboos. It boils down to this: people don’t become happy-go-lucky adepts. If they want the real deal of avatar power, they have to work for it, too, and sometimes that means getting your hands dirty or swimming in the pool with the sharks. Basically, what I’m trying to say is, people in the Occult Underground don’t recommend becoming some oddball adept or pursuing avatar powers without some serious words of caution. The only ones who do that are the rare weirdo adepts trying to get you to accept their own worldview and become just like them, or avatars who want you to take up a different path which will threaten their rival’s position on the ladder to the statosphere. And people without fitting obsession are normally turned off by the weirdness entailing the taboos and daily rituals of avatars and adepts, because, well, they lack the motivation to do such crazy stuff. Being a clued-in mundane duke is a much safer and saner road to take, but your mileage may vary–if the game features weirdness around every corner trying to eat your face and gunfights every day without any repercussions like lawsuits or law enforcement pursuing you, I guess you could just recommend fellow player characters to do some nasty stuff to themselves and others to gain some kewl powerz and, together, form a ring of the equivalent of the Captain Planet Team in the world of Unknown Armies.
Though, that’s just too far away from the personal horror feel of the game as I know it, I guess. That’s just my opinion. I believe there are many others prefer the game to be more lighthearted and humorous than me.
ashwoodMak Attax is all about bringing magic to the masses, and one of their members (Harry Duopoulous) is described as obsessively happy-go-lucky.
Obsessions aren’t necessarily destructive or depressing. Take a look at the wiki entry on Furry fandom. It’s not too hard to imagine one of them making the move into personamancy. Are they obsessed? Sure, but they are obsessed because they enjoy it so much.
Enjoying your magick doesn’t have to take away from the horror feel of the game either. Consider the movie The Craft, four girls form a coven because it’s fun and cool, then things start getting out-of-control and scary.
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