Capes and Cloaks and Masks, oh my!

Inigo: “Who are you?”
The Man in Black: “No one of consequence.”
Inigo: “I must know.”
The Man in Black: “Get used to disappointment.”
— _The Princess Bride_

“What are you?”
“I’m Batman!”

The Mystery Man is a relatively new Archetype, though its roots are thought to spring from the legends of mystery knights, known only by nom de guerres and the color of their armor. Because of the power associated with this indeterminacy of identity, the archetype is also sometimes called The Masked Man. Please note, however, despite the word “Man” in the Archetype name, avatar-hood is not limited to men.

Attributes: The power of this Archetype springs from a handful of related concepts: the inability to predict the actions of an unknown personality, the power of mystery itself, and the ability to draw on the strengths of two personalities (or souls?) in one body. These attributes give the Mystery Man a superior position when dealing with other people, often based on the fear of the unknown. The last attribute of a “dual-soul” allows the Mystery Man to transcend normal human limits, since there’s really twice as much of him, in a sense.

It’s important to note that the character is not a Split Personality. The Mystery Man is choosing to express portions of his personality only while Masked, and express the other while unmasked. It’s a conscious choice, and effectively doubles the range of his personality. Vide Peter Parker’s ability to avoid his shyness when hiding behind the mask of the irrepressible Spiderman. That flamboyance was always a potential of Peter’s, but he never expressed it until he could hide from recriminations behind a mask.

As a servant of Order, the Mystery Man can do much good by stepping outside of the strictures that bind ordinary, law-abiding folk. Through his doubled nature, he can survive the rigors of coloring outside of the lines for the greater good without imperiling the status quo. As a servant of Entropy, he can cause terror unimaginable: the devil you don’t know — cannot know — is always worse than the devil that you do.

Taboos: The Mystery Man must balance his Mask Time and Secret Identity Time. The stress of channeling pure Mystery in human form is great. Every 6 hours Masked, the Mystery Man must make a Stress Check against Self. The rank of this Stress Check accumulates as time passes. At 6 hours, it’s a Rank-1 check; at 12 hours a Rank-2 check; at 18 hours a Rank-3 Check; etc. Time spent actively (not sleeping) in the Secret Identity reduces this accumulated time. Accumulated Mask Time may only be reduced to zero; one cannot “store up” a pool of Secret Identity Time.

Example: Dan is secretly the Mystery Man known as the Owl. He’s tracking a serial killer, and spends 12 hours on Monday night as the Owl, tracing leads. During that time, he makes 2 Self checks, one at Rank-1 and one at Rank-2. He goes home and crashes for 8 hours. He wakes up, puts on a clean trench coat and domino, and hits the streets again. After 6 hours of hunting, he must make a Rank-3 check against self. The time he spent sleeping did not reduce his Mask Time. He fails, freaks out, and decides to call it a night. He sleeps for 8 hours again.

On Wednesday, he runs some errands as Dan, the Secret Identity. This takes about 4 hours. He goes out to dinner and a movie with his buddies, still as Dan. This takes another 4 hours. Now, when he suits up after midnight as the Owl, his accumulated Mask Time is only 10 hours (18-8=10). He can be the Owl for 2 hours before needing to make a Rank-2 Self check.

Also, the Mystery Man must not reveal or allow anyone to reveal his dual identity to the world at large, or suffer the drop of his Avatar: Mystery Man skill to 0. Whenever someone new discovers the truth of the dual identity, the Avatar:Mystery Man skill drops by 1d10%. After that, as long as the people who know the secret (like a faithful servant, love interest, or sidekick) keep quiet, the Mystery Man suffers no additional loss. The size of this group of people “in the know” is limited to the tens place of the Mystery Man’s Avatar. Other avatars do not count against this limit. Their mystical nature means they are in tune with similar forms of power, and will not disrupt the delicate tension between identities.

Symbols: Obviously, the mask is the prime symbol for this Archetype. Capes are also popular, as are body-suits, coins, question marks, and playing cards, as well as any specific symbol that the Mystery Man chooses to associate himself with.

Suspected Avatars in Pseudo-History: Numerous Knights of the Round Table, at one time or another; Sir Percy Blakeney (the Scarlet Pimpernel), Dr. Syn (the Scarecrow), Don Diego de la Vega (El Zorro), John Reid (the Lone Ranger), Kent Allard/Lamont Cranston (the Shadow), Richard Wentworth (the Spyder), Britt Reid (the Green Hornet), etc.

Channels:
1%-50%: The Mystery Man’s control of his personal mystery grants him a powerful presence. Depending upon the Mystery Man’s iconography and actions, using this channel could garner loyalty, fear, or respect from others. The player must describe how the Mystery Man is trying to evoke this reaction. The Mystery Man may roll against his avatar skill for any attempt to charm, lie, intimidate, frighten, calm a crowd, gather followers, etc. Stress Checks may be required for targets of this channel at the GM’s discretion.

This channel may also be used to seemingly vanish into thin air, or appear out of the shadows like a ghost; by dampening one’s prescence, bystanders will tend to ignore the Mystery Man. With a roll against his Avatar: Mystery Man skill, he can disappear swiftly and undetected (-10% to Notice checks to sense him). The Mystery Man may roll against his avatar skill for any attempt to sneak or move mysteriously.

A failure on either of these types of rolls means it doesn’t happen quite like the player described. The worse the failure, the further from the reaction or movement desired.

Example: On a rooftop, the Owl is watching a gang of thugs load crates of weapons from a warehouse into a truck. He wants to be down there and start mixing it up. The Owl’s player says, “The Owl drops from the rooftop into the darkness of the alley. Within moments, he is hidden in the shadows next to the truck.” He successfully rolls against his avatar skill, and it happens just as he related.

The Owl’s player decides to scare the holy bejeezus out of the thugs. “Gathering himself, he leaps into the middle of the thugs from out of the shadows, his trench coat flaring around him, growling, ‘Not in my town, punks!'” Unfortunately, he fails his avatar roll — by a lot! The punks are nonplussed by the Owl’s appearance, and drop their crates, ready to fight!

51%-70%: Luck favors the Mystery Man. While Masked, the Mystery Man may draw on his personal mystery to gain a +20% shift to any skill or stat he has, except his Avatar or Magick skills. This requires a second (or one combat turn) of concentration to prepare; the Mystery Man may move or dodge, but cannot do anything else. The Mystery Man may use this channel as many times in a month as the tens place of his Avatar skill.

Example: Dr. Devious is escaping, having just jumped onto the departing ferry. The gap between the dock and the ferry is widening. The Owl takes a moment to concentrate as he runs, and draws on his inner reserves to make a mighty jump. He rolls against his avatar skill and gets a success! He may add a +20% shift to his Acrobatics skill for his jump. He makes it easily, and continues chasing Dr. Devious!

71%-90%: The Mystery Man can take a tremendous amount of damage and survive, due to his dual nature. The Mystery Man has a battery of Wound Points, drawn from his other personality. This doesn’t mean his wounds heal, rather, it represents the tremendous vitality and relentless drive to “fight through the pain” of the Mystery Man. With a successful avatar skill roll, he may tap his battery to restore the sum of the dice. This channel may not be used in combat; it may only be used while “out of the scene.” Battery points recover at 1 point per day; 2 points if the Mystery Man partakes of complete bed rest.

Example: The Owl is fighting a fleshworker on a rooftop, who tears a huge chunk of the Owl’s thigh away, knocking the Mystery Man off of the building with the blow. The Owl lands on a fire escape two stories below. Since the Owl is now out of combat, he may draw on his channel to “fight through the pain.” If successful, when the fleshworker comes scrabbling down the side of the building after him the Owl will still be bleeding, but be a bit less winded.

91%+: At this level, the Mystery Man can raise his personal mystery to effectively “vanish” from the scene — or at least become nearly impossible to draw a bead on. This channel, while much like that of the 0-50% level, extends to metaphysical and magickal invisibility. When anyone tries to find information on, the location or identity of, or target the Mystery Man (guns, magickal blasts, smear campaigns, etc.), the Mystery Man may roll against his avatar skill. If successful, the number rolled is the negative shift applied to the character(s) targeting the Mystery Man. This cloaking effect only effects a single attempt, or at most, 3 combat turns. The Mystery Man may only have one cloak up at a time. The GM will determine the exact effects.

Example: The Owl bursts through the window into a meeting of the Gambione crime family. All of the thugs go for their guns. The Owl rolls against his avatar skill of 93 to avoid gunfire-and gets a 45! The GM decides that all of the thugs trying to shoot the Owl will suffer a -45% shift for the next three turns. However, since the Owl was only trying to avoid getting shot, any of the thugs who slash at him with a knife or take a swing at him are unaffected.