Alternate Identity (mage V20)
Alternate Identity (mage V20)
Sometimes you’ve gotta be ready to disappear. Especially for shape-changers, clones, or people in dangerous professions (spies, informers, assassins, etc.), the ability to adopt alternate identities can mean the difference between a new life and an unmarked grave. With this Background, you can duck behind a fake identity; the higher the rating, the more support you have for that identity’s existence. Each dot in Alternate Identity provides a certain level of official recognition that stands up to increasing degrees of scrutiny. A cheap fake ID could get you past a bouncer, but it won’t fool the Highway Patrol!
By itself, an alternate identity is useful but not extremely so. You can use a new ID for a short time, but that’ll leave you starting fresh unless you’re planning to rebuild your life from scratch. Other Background Traits, however, can be linked to an alternate identity; you won’t be able to get a new Avatar, of course, but you might have Allies, Resources, Spies, and so on that are connected to that new you. For each dot in the Alternate Identity Background, you may add one dot’s worth of other Background Traits to your other self. You’ll still need to pay points for those Backgrounds, of course – they don’t come free with this Trait. Still, if and when you need to ditch your previous identity, you could have new resources waiting for you. (See the sidebar Differential Backgrounds for more details.)
Strong IDs stand up to close observation. To penetrate an alternate identity, a character would need to roll a Mental Trait + Investigation against a difficulty of your Alternate Identity + 3. You can purchase this Trait several times in order to reflect a set of alternate IDs. Even so, you should use some form of magick or disguise to provide distinct appearances for your different identities. Sure, your driver’s license might read “Jane Palmer,” but if you still look, act, and sound like Eva Morrissey, you’ll probably be recognized as the latter.
- X -- You’re just you.
- • -- A fake driver’s license that kinda looks like you.
- •• -- A passable fake ID, plus a few supporting documents.
- ••• -- Respectable identification papers and support documents that’ll pass casual inspection.
- •••• -- An established alternative identity.
- ••••• -- A fully supported identity with complete history, support documents, witnesses, fake family photos, alternate homes and so on.
