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 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)

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.

### **Beast Change [–1]**

**Description:** 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.

**Skills Affected:** Many.

**Effects:**

**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 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 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.

### **Human Form [+1]**

**Description:** You’re a shapeshifter, but when you haven’t shapeshifted, you’re just a normal person.

**Skills Affected:** Varies.

**Effects:**

**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.

### **Human Guise [–0]**

**Description:** Congratulations, you pretty much look like everyone else.

**Skills Affected**: Discipline.

**Notes:** 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.

**Effects:**

**Normal Appearance.** You have a number of supernatural abilities 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 **Investigation, Alertness, or Lore**.

 Your other abilities are still technically available to you while you’re looking normal, unlike with Human Form. 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.