Avatars

By Mike Knight (Jaknig@globalnet.co.uk)

Introduction

In ancient thought, a man was split into three parts: the mind, the soul, and the body. When the body died, usually the mind dissolved, and the soul passed on to reincarnation. Those who are particularly strong willed may keep their personality and mind intact, and become Wraiths.

Some people pass on, but their mind and soul never separate, and they are reborn knowing what they were in their last life; in these cases, the person is still who they were last time. These people are called Avatars, after the fact that they are the descent of their last life (Avatar means 'descent' in Sanskrit). Their physical appearance may change, but their mind does not. They have the same access to all the things that they knew last time. They also gain the ability to work magic, as their experience Awakens them, to some extent. They are not susceptible to Paradox, but do not have the same power as mages.

Beginnings

Avatars have probably existed since the dawn of human experience, but they were only quantified as something different in ancient India, where most of the magical abilities of all types of supernatural creatures were defined and mapped out.

Characteristics

Aside from their magic, Avatars are ordinary humans; they heal and die in the same way as the rest of us. They are just as susceptible to disease as anyone else and take as long to heal.

When an Avatar is reborn into a human child they are completely self-aware and know who they were. Indeed, they remain conscious throughout the whole of their existences. Perhaps only one Avatar is made per million people, if that, meaning that they are extremely rare.

Avatars have an advantage called Atman; this describes how powerful their soul is. An Avatar may never have an Atman score of less than one. The words Atman means 'Self' or 'the breath of life' in Sanskrit.

An Avatar is reborn instantly, in the nearest human child about to be born. Some Avatars make a point of only returning as their own descendants, which can get really confusing for all concerned; how would you cope with your child being the reincarnation of one of your parents?

Avatars have a Humanity score, but this can never drop below one. Similarly, no Avatar Virtue can ever drop to less than one.

Avatars can see the auras all living creatures possess, and tell what kind of mental state and so on they are in, simply by rolling Perception + Empathy [7] Avatars are easily recognisable; they all have a golden tint to their auras.

Organisation

Most Avatars keep in touch with others, but talking to someone constantly for even a hundred years can get extremely dull . . .

Many Avatars have others for mentors and friends, although there are many enemies among them. Feuds don't easily die when you live forever.

Some Avatars form cliques with others, to watch out for each other's interest while they are dead or growing up.

Avatar Magic

All of these powers stem from the Atman, and its relationship to the mind and the body.

This gives the ability to control the minds of others.

* Command: One-word commands; reaction is instant.

System: Roll Charisma + Intimidation [subject's Willpower]

** Dictum: Simple suggestions; eye contact must be made.

System: Roll Manipulation + Subterfuge [target's Willpower]

*** Jackdaw: Steal, create, remove memories.

System: Roll Manipulation + Subterfuge [8]. Length and extent of alterations determined by chart below:


Successes	Results
1	Only remove parts of memory; memories may return
2	May remove, but not alter memory.
3	May make slight alterations to memory.
4	May alter or remove entire scene from subject's memory.
5	Whole periods of subject's life my be reconstructed.

**** Red Rag: This allows stimulation of emotions in subjects, so that they will become more impassioned about subjects. There must already be a feeling about something there or this will not work.

System: Roll Manipulation + Subterfuge [7]. Each success creates a stronger degree of  emotion.


***** Mind Wipe: This allows the Avatar to completely wipe someone's mind and reduce them to drooling vegetable. This is typically used as punishment for those who have harmed an Avatar.

System: Roll Strength [8] in a resisted roll against the subject's Willpower [8]. If the Avatar wins, then the victim is wiped. If he fails, then nothing happens. If he botches, then the current body dies.

This is a way of increasing the senses beyond normal limits.

* Rabbits: Hearing

System: 2 extra dice for rolls involving hearing.

** Eagle Eye: Sight

System: 2 extra dice for rolls involving sight.

*** Nose of the Hound: Smell

System: 2 extra dice for rolls involving smell.

**** Cat Eyes: Nightsight

System: Ignore sight penalties for darkness, provided it is not complete darkness.

***** See Beyond The Veil: This allows the character to sense whether someone else is a supernatural creature, and of what sort.

System: Roll Perception + Empathy [7]

This provides various temporary improvements to the body.

* Mediation: This allows the character to catch up on lost sleep.

System: Stamina + Meditation [4]. Each success allows the equivalent of one hour's sleep.

** Increase Dexterity: This allows the Avatar to temporarily increase his manual dexterity in order to accomplish complicated or delicate tasks.

System: Spend 1 Willpower to increase the Dexterity by one for the remainder of the scene.

*** Lesser Yoga: This allows the Avatar to control any bodily system that does not involve things immediately concerning survival.

System: Dexterity + Yoga [6-8, assigned by the Storyteller].

**** Power Of The Self: This allows the character to ignore wounds so that they do not affect him so much; in Avatar lore, much of the body is under the control and impulses of the mind.

System: Roll Stamina [8]. Each success allows the character to not take a wound if injured.

Example: Manu is hit by a bullet for 4 wounds. He rolls his Stamina (3) against a difficulty of eight, and achieves 2 successes, meaning that the bullet only inflicts 2 wounds.

***** Greater Yoga: This includes the hearts, mind, and other internal organs, including those pertaining to immediate survival. This power also allows the Avatar to speed up his healing processes. To use this power, an Avatar must meditate for at least two hours.

System: Dexterity + Yoga [9]. If successful, the character may alter his major biorhythms. If used for healing, each success allows the healing of one level of any damage.

This is the ability to read another's mind. The simpler the mind, the easier they are to read.

System: Perception + Empathy [Target's current Willpower if unwilling, Intelligence if willing]

*	Surface thought
**	Open subjects
***	Shady subjects
****	Closed subjects
*****	Complete immersion

This is the ability to mentally communicate with others, including both Avatars and other creatures that have a latent telepathic ability. It is easier to communicate with an intelligent mind than with an unintelligent one because intelligent creatures have an easier time decoding information.

System: Roll Intelligence + Empathy [9 - subject's Intelligence].

*	Communicate basic thoughts
**	Simple ideas
***	Short sentences
****	Gist of a conversation
*****	Communicate anything.

Rebirth

When an Avatar dies, his body is immediately vacated by his Atman, which is immediately drawn to a human infant who is about to be born. The Avatar then occupies the infant, sending its soul off for another round on the Karmic wheel. Some Avatars feel guilty about this, but there is nothing to worry about; it's not like they haven't done it before, or will not do it again. The Avatar remains self aware of himself and his condition. For some reason, no Avatars are born to Werewolves, Changelings or any other supernatural creatures; they are always reborn as ordinary humans. Also, Avatars cannot be Embraced; it simply kills them, sending them off into a new body.

Avatars seem also to grow at a phenomenal rate for their age; perhaps twice as fast, so that at the age of ten they will look around 20. They normally stop growing at around 12. An Avatar can do anything that a normal human can, and a few things they can't . . .

The Avatar retains all Mental Attributes, Charisma and Manipulation. They also retain all their Talents, Skills, and Knowledges. They have 7 points to distribute between their Physical Attributes and Appearance; this reflects the fact that they can impose some of their old body's qualities on their new body through the strength of their Atman, although they will have a different appearance, due to their new body's heritage. They also gain a total of 10 points to distribute among their Abilities, with ST approval for those gained or improved. This reflects the Avatar's new learning and experiences.

Some Avatars go insane due to the trauma of dying. To represent this, roll Willpower [6] and if they botch, they gain a Derangement (ST's choice). Despite this, most Avatars are quite cheerful; they can't die, and they get to have a bit of fun while they're at it.

The endless cycle of death and rebirth can erode the mind -- memories become more and more distant. Avatars can also forget things; not that they are an Avatar, but things like their newly learned skills and other abilities. To represent this, every time that an Avatar is reborn, roll Intelligence [6] against any Ability that exceeds the Avatar's Intelligence and score enough successes to make up the difference. Partial success means partial retention of memory, each success giving back one dot. A botch means that the Avatar loses one from the memory minus the difference, e.g. if a botch is rolled on an Occult 5 versus Intelligence 3 roll, then the Occult rating goes down to two, as the Avatar forgets another piece of his past lives.

Character Creation

Most Avatars will be on at least their second life, but I would recommend that characters be on their first life; this allows them to experience the trials of being an Avatar for the first time, giving them more impact and importance.

Age is also a factor; it gives more Attributes and Abilities, but increases the risks of insanity and forgetfulness. This will be dealt with later.

Attributes: 7/5/3
Abilities: 13/9/5
Backgrounds: 7
Magic: 4
Virtues: 9 (at least one dot must be put into each)
Atman: 3
Willpower: Courage + 1
Humanity: Memory + Self Control.

Backgrounds

Characters may take any background which is non-specific to a game, e.g. they could take Allies, but not Gremayre.

This reflects how many lives the Character has already lived. ST approval is needed to take this.

Level	Number of Lives	Extra Ability Points	Increase in Memory roll Difficulty
*	1-2	8	0
**	3-4	9	1
***	5-6	10	2
****	7-9	11	3
*****	10	12	*

^*All memory rolls are at difficulty 10

Freebie Points and Experience

All costs are at normal for V:tM.

Freebies:

Magic: 5 per level.
Atman: 2 per point.

Experience:

Magic: Current x 5
Atman: Current x 5^*

^*Only after long periods of introspection and with ST approval)

Opinions of Others

Kindred: They can't do much to us so who cares.

"They are weird."

Garou: They're alright, but a bit boring, as it goes.

"They might be of the Wyrm, as they are not in the cycle."

Mages: Yawnarama, but watch out for the Technomancers -- they can be very unpleasant.

"They are an . . . interesting case."

Wraiths: Our cousins. Why don't they just move along? They seem to envy our abilities.

"Bastards. They can return."

Changelings: Freak outs! Ever tried reading the mind of a Changeling? No? Good idea.

"Aaaaaargh! They won't go away!"

Mummies: Our brethren. They are much the same, although they are stuck in the groove; at least we change every so often.

"Worth watching. Similar, but different. They could be dangerous, and are even harder to find than we are."

Quote

"Fine then. Kill me. Like I care."