Working Both Sides of the Street?

[phydaux]

Say you have a PC - Good Stats, lots of skills, martial arts, a Gadget Pool and a Base.  On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays he puts on his red, white and blue costume and fights villainy in his Secret ID.  All standard super hero stuff.

 

Now lets say that back in his base he ALSO has a red, BLACK and blue costume, and on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays he goes out as a super villain - Different name, different contacts.

 

Would this be a second Secret ID?  A Deep Cover?  How would you build this?

[薔薇語]

So there is one guy who has a normal life but also has two Super-IDs: one good and one bad. If either was discovered it would cause him major hiccups. If both were discovered, it would cause extreme hiccups as people would know he was playing both sides. For me this would be a case of having two secret IDs. But I think I might build this as being one Social Complication - Very Frequent & Extreme. That is a 25 point complication. The Very Frequent part reflects that he is constantly on the hide from lots of people on all sides - not just baddies, not just goody-two-shoes. The Extreme part of it reflects the confluence of both IDs being revealed. If any singular one is revealed it would be terrible but perhaps manageable. But both would mean the character's way of life is irrevocably destroyed. I think 25 points is good enough but you could slap on a 5 point adder to that to reflect your own personal tastes. I personally wouldn't ever let it go past a 30 point complication, though. 

 

Soar. 

[Comic]

I have a character, Merritt, with three identities: civilian, teen hero (Magneceptor), adult villain (Perul).

 

The 'adult' villain was a result of his first attempted outing as a hero going badly wrong, and the media storm that followed. Being a bright, adaptable guy, Perul rolled with the flow and uses villain status to infiltrate the underworld.

 

Magneceptor is a different costume, size, look, smell and psychic appearance (paid for with Shape Change).

 

It's just one Secret Identity complication, but it supplies different rivalries and hunteds. I'd pay for Deep Cover, if either secret identity were long-established and reliably difficult to break at the time the character started out.

[Hyper-Man]

I've always understood the complication/disadvantage to a Secret Identity is the social responsibilities of the non-costumed identity.  Having 2 different costumed identities might be a further complication if there are teammates for one or both identities or other common NPC's between both.  I would think some Acting and Disguise Skills would be required to maintain the identities in the latter situation. What really matters is whether this is a choice or a some type of insanity split/personality compulsion.

 

example choices:

Batman/Bruce Wayne has a deep cover identity he sometimes uses called Matches Malone.

Robin (?) from the original Teen Titans Animated Series had the Red X identity that he used to infiltrate a villain organization. He did NOT share the secret with his Titan teammates initially.

 

Also, an every other day split between identities is going to be rather simple for other heroes and villains to figure out pretty quickly.

[steriaca]

Reminds me of what happened to Nighthawk. Old 'ducky' once staged his own death, then started a villain identity to infiltrate VIPER. Once the other Champions realized that Nighthawk staged his own death and the other identity, they kicked his ass out of the group (and he formed his own proactive super group for a time, but many of the members were villains themselves, and with the exception of Duke Red, evently went back to crime).

 

End result...Nighthawk rejoined the Champions as a reserved member (and only after a long stint of proving that he was willing to come back and play nice with the rest of the group). Duke Red also, I think, became a reserved member (I'm willing to make it so, even if not official. The rest of the Champions vouched for him at his trial, and Duke was sentenced to the Champions as probation...if you wish it so).

[bigdamnhero]

...and fights villainy in his Secret ID.

Traditionally the term "Secret Identity" refers to the civilian or non-costumed identity, so I'd probably write it up as one Secret ID ("aka Joe Normal") and write up the Villain ID as a Harmful Secret ("Playing Both Sides..."). [/pedantic semantics] Regardless of what you call it, I'd say the risks of trying to maintain a triple life would definitely be worth a 2nd Complication. You'd probably have two different sets of Hunteds too, but that's easily handled by reducing the Frequency of each.

 

On the positive points side, I might also charge him a Deep Cover Perk to capture the benefits of having two costumed identities. Contacts, etc , would all be Limited By ID, tho I don't think I'd charge any more for that than if the character had only one Hero ID - the downside of having to change costumes before you go talk to someone is fairly minimal.

 

If the Hero and Villain have different power sets, then you might be looking at some sort of Multiform?

[Doc Democracy]

Hmm. There is one point to consider here before deciding what costs etc might be.

 

How big an element does the player want this to be. If it is something he might want to come up once in his career with major consequences, it is probably pretty low point complication,

 

If it is something he constantly gas to deal with, ensuring low grade thugs he has done jobs with don't suss he is also Captain Whitebread, then it is possibly also low point.

 

If he us one step ahead of PRIMUS and two vigilantes at all times then you might be getting up for it being a huge deal, both as a social co placating and a couple of linked hunteds.

 

All in all it depends what the player wants it to represent IN GAMEPLAY, not in narrative terms.

 

Doc