Shapeshifting

Shapeshifting can happen solely in the mind, but more often it is an alteration of the body. The changed form may be greater or smaller in size than the original.

The True Shapeshifting ability (below, page 177) is rarely possible for a mortal mind to bear—the stress and strain placed on the sense of self inevitably leads to a psychotic break of some sort. (This may be why those mortals who do learn how to shapeshift rarely enjoy more than a single, fixed alternate form—such as werewolves of the Alpha style.)

Whatever the case, this is very much a case of (mental) function follows form—changing the body may well be the easiest part. What to do with the mind when this happens—that’s paramount, at least as far as mortal shapeshifters are concerned. Most supernatural creatures already have it covered—or aren't particularly bothered by petty things like psychosis. Others conquer this problem with a variety of limitations, magical “cheats,” or just good hard training.

Unless explicitly noted otherwise, shapeshifting may be done as a supplemental action.

You're able to take on the form of a beast, rearranging the priorities of your skill list. Musts You must define the particular kind of beast that you change into.

Beast Form You take on the shape and appearance of the beast you specified at the time you took this ability. This only covers a cosmetic change of form and does not convey additional abilities like Claws (page 162) or any supernatural Strength, Speed, or Toughness abilities—you will need to take those separately to get the appropriate benefit.

Skill Shuffle You may shuffle around your skills for a different configuration while changed (using the same number of skill points and following the same rules as during character creation, page 65), so long as any knowledge or social skills are not given a higher value by the change. In other words, you can’t suddenly know more about Shakespeare just because you’re a wolf (or whatever). Physical and perception skills, however, may (and perhaps should) be increased in this way.

Running around in a body that isn't yours is hard, so you contract out the hard work to a spirit. Usually an evil, angry one. Musts You should have an aspect referencing this pact in some way. The GM is going to be compelling it. The GM should think about what the co-pilot’s agenda is.

Demon's Agenda You gain a +1 on any skill roll that's in keeping with your shapeshifted form or demonic co-pilot’s agenda (often having to do with gleeful murder). When doing so, you must roll Discipline against the result, as if you were defending against an attack. Failure to defend results in mental stress as if from an attack; psychological consequences that result are set by the GM, in line with the demon’s agenda.

This is a variant on Human Guise (page 176) that offers a few extra benefits. Most commonly used by Red Court vampires, a Flesh Mask is a real-seeming outer layer of ectoplasmic flesh, usually embodying an idealized human form. But the creature beneath can move around inside, sometimes able to perform small actions underneath its very “skin,” likely unnoticed by those around it.

Flesh Mask The flesh mask is a pliable outer shell of false flesh, made of ectoplasm. The true creature beneath can tear through this mask with ease, discarding it to take its true form. Similarly, the flesh mask may be ripped away from the creature by particularly vicious attacks—any physical attack that inflicts a consequence of any size is sure to pierce the mask, at least a little. It takes only a few minutes for a flesh mask to be restored after it has been removed, whatever the means.

Idealized Appearance Your flesh mask has a single appearance—usually a stunningly attractive version of the human you were before you became a vampire. Any social action where appearance is a primary factor gains a +2 on the roll, so long as the target of your action is not aware of the horror that lies beneath the outer veneer.

What Lies Beneath You may move around within your flesh mask, so long as the motions are small and subtle—such as pulling your real arm out of the mask-arm and pointing a small gun at your opponent. Keeping such an action concealed is done with a simple Deceive or Stealth roll.

Certain Black Court vampires may have the ability to turn into a cloud of gas, seeping under door cracks, traveling great distances undetected, and so on. Other creatures may do this as well.

Gaseous Transformation You may transform into a gaseous cloud. In gas form, you set aside all ability to act in exchange for the Physical Immunity ability (page 186) with a Catch of any of your normal weaknesses, if you have any, plus the vulnerabilities a cloud of gas might have; the ability to fly à la the Wings ability (page 165); and the Insubstantial effect of Spirit Form (page 170). The only real actions available to you are movement and maneuvers—you cannot attack or block while in this form. It takes a whole exchange to make the transformation.

While in this form, you’re potentially vulnerable to things that can affect a gaseous cloud: someone could bottle up part of you if he got off a good enough “attack;” a strong head-wind could impede travel, adding borders to zones if you are trying to float into the face of it. However, you may be able to ignore other border values entirely by seeping through cracks under doors or windows, traveling through ventilation systems, and so forth. You’ll still be stopped by something airtight and slowed down by something that’s mostly airtight.

You're a shapeshifter, but when you haven't shapeshifted, you're just a normal person.

Regular Joe/Regular Jane Specify which of your supernatural abilities (usually most or all of them) are unavailable to you when you’re not shapeshifted into your “powered” form. As long as you specify at least 2 points worth of supernatural powers, you gain back 1 point of refresh for making this choice. If you only have 1 point of supernatural powers affected by this, Human Form is not worth any refresh.

Rare or Involuntary Change If you are only rarely able to take your powered form (due to involuntary change, rare times of the day or month or year, etc.), you regain two points of refresh for taking this ability, instead of one. The total cost of the abilities affected by the Human Form must be greater than the amount of refresh points paid back by this effect. So to get this version of Human Form, it must affect at least 3 refresh points’ worth of powers.

Congratulations, you pretty much look like everyone else. The effects of this ability are so minor that they’re really considered to be almost cosmetic, at least in terms of the impact on the game mechanics; hence the zero cost. Ghouls are one example of a creature with this ability, as are White Court vampires.

Normal Appearance You have a number of supernatural abilities (often from “Creature Features” on page 162, though others may apply) that give you an appearance that’s noticeably, often horrifically, different from normal folks. With this ability, you are able to take on a human guise that conceals your supernatural nature from mundane senses. Supernaturally gifted individuals may still sense your unusual nature using Investigate, Notice, or Lore.

Your other abilities are still technically available to you while you’re looking normal, unlike with Human Form (see this page). The moment you choose to use your powers, however, the human guise drops away. So long as you do not use your abilities, you don’t give away your nature to mundane senses—though under times of great stress or high emotion, you may be called on to make a Discipline roll to keep the guise in place.

You are able to mimic the abilities of another individual, at least to an extent. Musts You must set aside a number of points of your refresh equal to the maximum total refresh value of any mortal stunts and supernatural abilities you wish to copy from a target. These are called your mimic points.

Eat Power You may clone the supernatural powers of your target (see below) under particular circumstances. This cloning is only possible if you lay hands on a significant part of the victim—such as his brain, his heart, or a large portion of his magic power. If the victim is not dead from this, then he is at least diminished while you access his abilities (reflected by a consequence resulting from the attack that allowed you to steal from him, the terms arrived at when taking him out, etc.). This is what gave the Nightmare not only Harry’s form but also his advanced spellcrafting abilities in the Grave Peril casefile.

The cloning may be undone if the victim is able to turn tables on you and reclaim what you’ve stolen from him. Usually this requires winning some sort of supernatural or magical conflict with you, though it probably goes without saying that killing you will restore the victim’s power.

You can keep your mimic points configured in a certain way indefinitely. If you switch out your current set of powers for a new one, however, you can’t go back to your previous “settings”—you’d have to eat those powers again to have access to them.

Mimic Stunt You are able to clone any of your target’s mortal stunts. You must clone these abilities by temporarily paying for them out of your mimic points (above).

Mimic Skill Allocate one mimic point to copy any one of your target’s skills. This replaces your actual rating with that skill while the allocation remains in place.

You are able to mimic the appearance of another, given the right materials to work with: ideally a piece of their flesh, some strands of hair, a patch of skin, or a vial of blood. (Mortal monster-hunters, take heed!)

Take Form You may take on the form, voice, and other seemings of another individual, provided you have possession of something significant of theirs—the better the object, the more convincing the copy. You roll Deceive at +4 to fool others if your mimicked appearance is close to perfect; the bonus decreases significantly if you don’t have the right “fuel.” You fleshy types leave so much detritus around, it’s a shock that more creatures don’t take advantage of it.

You can improve your physique, taking on a variety of abilities as you change your form.

Musts You must “pre-pay” a number of refresh points equal to the maximum total value of the abilities you want to be able to change around at will, plus a surcharge of two refresh (so a pool of 7 points would cost 9 refresh: the base of 7, plus 2). These are called your form points.

Function Follows Form You may shapeshift your form to take on a variety of abilities, taking a full action to change them around. When making such a change, you may reallocate some or all of your form points (see above) to purchase new abilities, focusing on those available as Creature Features (page 162), certain Minor Abilities (page 169), Speed (page 178), Strength (page 183), and Toughness (page 184).

Description: You are able to shapeshift into a variety of human and non-human (usually animate) forms.

Multi-Form You may take on nearly any humanoid or beastly form as a supplemental action. Changing into something else—say, a tree, a vacuum cleaner, a water bed—takes a longer amount of time, usually several actions, or even minutes, depending on how different. Concealing your true nature while in these forms is casually easy, but if you do something to call it into suspicion, your attempts to evade detection are at +4 on your Deceive or Stealth rolls.

Skill Shuffle As with the skill-shuffling effect of the same name under the Beast Change power (page 174), only with multiple different configurations to suit the form you take.