[UA] archetype rarity?

[Frank Lohmann]

Just a question that came up in the last game...

Are all the archetypes' avatars equally common? Are there about as many avatars 
of the Necessary Servant as there are of the Mystic Hemaphrodite? Or are some 
archetypes just more accessible, more common than other archetypes?

Argument for: some concepts of archetypes are harder to get than others. While 
just about anyone can get the concept behind the Mother, some people (including 
some of my players) still haven't figured out what it is exactly that makes the 
Mystic Hemaphrodite or the Flying Woman tick... Subsequently, they argue, more 
people will go for the easy-to-understand-archetypes, and thus, there'll be more 
avatars of the Mother that of the Mystic Hemaphrodite.

Argument against: all the archetypes are embedded in humanity's big collective 
subconscious, so if one person doesn't consciously understand the deal about one 
specific archetype, that person still has a certain "gut feeling", a certain 
subconscious understanding of the archetype. And that's exactly the deal - 
following an archetype is not an intellectual endeavour, not a matter of 
analyzing and researching the archetype in question in order to follow it better 
(or otherwise it'd be a mind, not a soul skill), but something where you have to 
follow your instincts and feelings about the archetype. And since that's 
something only a few selected people can do anyway, all the archetypes are 
evenly spread among those few.

What do you people think about it? Me, I tend towards the second argument since 
IMHO it ties in better with the gameworld AND is reflected in the mechanics 
(always a nice touch), but then again, I find the idea of archetypes of varying 
commonness ... intriguing. But maybe that's because I get the odd M:tG 
flashbacks now and then...

Have a nice weekend!
	Frank
...who'll trade you three uncommon mid-level True Kings for one ultra-rare 
Dermott Arkane Herald Godwalker... 8)
-- 
Frank Cord Lohmann           
GEOMAR - Forschungszentrum fuer marine Geowissenschaften 
Wischhofstr. 1-3   24148 Kiel   Germany 
Phone : +49 431 600 2336



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