[UA] Channelling Multiple Archetypes

[Bailey Watts]

>But really, the reason that weighs most heavily against this for me is, for 
>want of a better term, the "White Wolf Baggage" problem.  I love the 
>Wolfies and they've done better by me than any other game company -- but 
>they ran into the problem of supernatural proliferation early and hard.  
>There are all kinds of rationales -- the vampires control everything (or, 
>as of Achilli, just influence everything) just seeing some of these 
>critters makes people nuts, you can buy a cheap background that just makes 
>people forget you... but I wanted to get away from those dodges with UA.  I 
>want people to be unaware of the supernatural because it really IS as rare 
>as it's supposed to be in other settings.  In RPGs there's a natural 
>tendency for the paranormal elements in a game to bloat, because they're 
>shiny and fun to play with, but I think that in the long run a game line 
>suffers from getting into the constant "But I can top THAT!" loop.
>

I actually can handle the characters mainly dealing with supernatural stuff. 
  Mainly because I've seen the rl non-powered occult stuff and have seen how 
some folks become just completely apart from normal society.  One guy I know 
had a job that wasn't social.  It had the usual office small talk, but each 
person got done what they needed to get done.  He assumed a base of common 
knowlege from the people around him that was completely unreasonable.

That is what I picture PCs in UA being like.  They can't strike up a 
conversation at the watering hole since their usual small talk involves 
stuff like ergregores and the possibilities of forcing evolution of memes.

I also have no problem with accidental avatars since the first channels are 
almost all flip-flops and things that could just be a certain kind of luck a 
person has.

It also fits with my idea of archetypes as the molds the universe tries to 
fit you into.  Without ritual behavior and a strict avaoidance of taboos 
you're never going to advance beyond, forwant of a round arbitary figure, 
10%.  Certainly I'd say few accidental avatars would advance beyond 3-5%.

I wouldn't worry about people going online to find out about learning funky 
powers.  Damn near all the first channel stuff is flip-flops anyway.  So 
you've got luck without flashy effects, and based on anectdotal evidence.  
Besides the taboos alone are a disincentive for anyone who wants an easy 
path to power.  Sure you can be the ultimate dispensor of justice, but you 
don't get to make any judgements yourself.  Sure you can learn to fly, but 
you can never ask anyone for help or be concerned with anyone's opinions of 
you or you'll fail.  You can survive any attack as long as you make sure you 
never learn anything.  You can gain the ability to take abuse like nobody's 
business, but only if noone can trust you.  Notably, most folks would have a 
low level avatar rating that they can only use unreliably since taboo would 
be violated more often then a concious avatar.

Still, in my opinion widespread unconcious avatars would be a necessity to 
avoid breaking my suspension of disbelief.

As for my opinion on multiple avatarhoods, I'd say no.  If you could fit 
into more than one category in such a way you wouldn't really be archetypal, 
unless you consider the Rennesaince Man to be an archetype.
>Next stop, Shadowrun.
>
>So maybe a more appropriate question would concern, not fundamentalist 
>Christians, but neurosurgeons.  Why is it that so few neurosurgeons are 
>also professional NBA basketball players?
>
>-G.
>
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