The Mystery Man

*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.

**Copyright Chad Underkoffler, posted on the official UA website July 18, 2002**