Can a Vigilante change his social identity?

[Natan Linggod 327]

For example if, through the course of the adventure, his social identity becomes widely known to be the same person as his vigilante identity, can he then abandon his old social identity and take a new one?

How much would it cost to establish the new identity? How long?

I couldn't find any rules regarding this so if I've missed it, pointing out which page it's on works too!

thanks all

[AnimatedPaper]

Outside of the many guises talent tree, and, you know, the disguise skill, I don't think you're meant to.

But hey, whatever the GM and player is comfortable with.

[Natan Linggod 327]

Hmm, would prefer an official ruling on the matter but as I am the GM, I'm going to rule it takes time and effort to build a new identity.

For the vigilante identity too. Like Robin becoming Nightwing and in some versions, becoming Batman.

thanks for the reply though

[The Raven Black]

Would retraining work ?

[Natan Linggod 327]

Hmm that might actually.

[Trekkie90909]

The wording on dual identity stipulates that the vigilante's REAL identity must be their social identity; while you could certainly stop appearing as the social identity (through using many guises for instance, or normal mundane/magical disguises/gender transformation/other polymorph effects), you cannot change the social identity.

[Deadmanwalking]

Yeah. You could go to a new city and start using a new name, but it wouldn't work any better for you than it would for, say, a Fighter or Rogue who did the same.

[Natan Linggod 327]

That sucks. No Count of Montecristo style Vigilante then.

Hmm it also means if the Vigilantes real name got out, he's pretty much screwed.

Especially if he needs to do things that need to stay separate from his vigilante identity.

And there's no guidance I can see about what to do in those circumstances. Am I just supposed to hand wave everyone magically forgetting it?

[Deadmanwalking]

Natan Linggod 327 wrote:

That sucks. No Count of Montecristo style Vigilante then.

I dunno. He used mundane means to change identities. Discovering that 'The Count of Monte Christo' was Edmund Dantes would require someone to look. Nobody did or had reason to. That kind of complete revision of yourself seems fine to me, you just don't get any Vigilante specific benefits to it.

Natan Linggod 327 wrote:

Hmm it also means if the Vigilantes real name got out, he's pretty much screwed.

Not really. He can just stop caring, go around in his social identity all the time, and not worry about showing off his Vigilante Talents, since his cover is already blown. It's the best of both worlds in some ways.

Natan Linggod 327 wrote:

Especially if he needs to do things that need to stay separate from his vigilante identity.

That's what Many Guises is for.

Natan Linggod 327 wrote:

And there's no guidance I can see about what to do in those circumstances. Am I just supposed to hand wave everyone magically forgetting it?

Uh...no. They know, you're blown, and you have to work around it. Vigilantes who don't want their identities public should work hard to avoid this situation.

[CBDunkerson]

Natan Linggod 327 wrote:

For example if, through the course of the adventure, his social identity becomes widely known to be the same person as his vigilante identity, can he then abandon his old social identity and take a new one?

Yeah, I had similar questions here.

Hopefully there will be rules for this in a later supplement ('Intriguing Origins'?).

[Natan Linggod 327]

Deadmanwalking wrote:

Natan Linggod 327 wrote:

And there's no guidance I can see about what to do in those circumstances. Am I just supposed to hand wave everyone magically forgetting it?

Uh...no. They know, you're blown, and you have to work around it. Vigilantes who don't want their identities public should work hard to avoid this situation.

Even Paladins who fall and lose their powers can regain their standing and class abilities.

Compared to regaining the blessings of the gods, rebuilding yourself as a different person and regaining the benefits of your class shouldn't be impossible.

[Deadmanwalking]

Natan Linggod 327 wrote:

Even Paladins who fall and lose their powers can regain their standing and class abilities.

Compared to regaining the blessings of the gods, rebuilding yourself as a different person and regaining the benefits of your class shouldn't be impossible.

It's doable. But not by becoming a new person. You need to convince people they were wrong about your identity in the first place. If they go back to believing you're not the same person, you're good to go. Except for those who don't believe that, of course.

A Wish would also likely work to remove an incident like this from people's memories, though you'd need to be very careful in your wording...

[Protoman]

Deadmanwalking wrote:

A Wish would also likely work to remove an incident like this from people's memories, though you'd need to be very careful in your wording...

<cough> Spider-Man <cough> <cough> terrible <cough>

[Natan Linggod 327]

It seems silly that the designers don't seem to have even considered this potential situation.

I think I'll stick with the retraining idea. That you're essentially "retraining" yourself to be a new person.

After all, people can and have undergone massive changes and become entirely new people (mentally) even irl. And the Vigilante can already do it on a regular basis (changing from social to vigilante persona).

[Deadmanwalking]

Protoman wrote:

Deadmanwalking wrote:

A Wish would also likely work to remove an incident like this from people's memories, though you'd need to be very careful in your wording...

<cough> Spider-Man <cough> <cough> terrible <cough>

No. Stop. I repressed that memory for a reason, damn it. :(