Transformations and your Characters
Copyright © 1996 CW Kelson III
Transformative Characters!!!
Whatever can that mean. It means that we can turn our characters into living, breathing creations instead of statistics and lists of gear and equipment carried. This means they can grow and develop just like real people instead of simply changing their clothes and calling that development.
How to do this and why. The why is the easy part. In life things and people change. Both in large and small ways. But they do change. That is part of what separates Human Beings from all of the rest of the creatures on this planet. We can change for the better or worse. But when it comes to player and their characters there is little to no change involved in the playing. Often times though our characters only change in what it is that they kill other things with. This seems such a shame. A large part of the people's lives that play the games is missing from their recreation. This short article is to point out a few ways and ideas on introducing or inducing change in the Role Playing Environment.
Change and the Character.
Change can take many forms. The evolution of the character through Role playing rather then Roll playing. Outside events in the campaign or perhaps in real life. Perhaps something monumental happens that changes the character forever. Or a reoccurring villain undergoes a drastic change or refocus. This is a concept often seen in the Superhero genre. Frequently also in the Martial Arts genre and games.
Perhaps just a change in the relationship of the character to some non player characters that results if loss or difficulty.
Example:
Between encounters a significant NPC undergoes a transformation. In some way their abilities or skills take a drastic or dramatic shift. Either into a new direction or a very noticeable increase in a current direction. These changes can be actual or cosmetic. Sometimes this can result in a nearly new NPC.
Another Example:
Again during a battle of some kind a significant non player is wounded. With this injury comes bitterness and subsequent use of illegal measures to gain the capacity for revenge. But these capacities now makes them a threat to everyone. How to handle the shifting loyalties and what to do to alleviate the situation.
Other possible examples include; broken down by gaming genre;
Fantasy: A Magic using character into a Massive Undead creature
Cyberpunk: From UnEnhanced to Enhanced with Cybernetics
Shadowrun: A foe becomes Awakened or Goblinizes
World of Darkness: Become a Vampire, realize Garou descent, Awaken into a
Orphan Mage
Superheroic: A device oriented Hero redesigns their equipment
A common technique in Cyberpunk literature is for cosmetic surgery to alter a character's appearance. 2 immediate examples include Sarah in Walter Jon William's book Hardwired and Mona in William Gibson's book Mona Lisa Overdrive.
In both cases the character was altered to look like someone or something else. Sarah to be more attractive to a target and Mona to look like a famous person.
Another transformation using cyberware and other changes comes from the book Krocodile Tears by Jack Yeovil. An excellent source of Dark Ideas and how cyberware can dehumanize a person.
Keep in mind that conceivably anything can change or transform a Character either Player or Non. Perhaps an illness strikes reducing one or two physical characteristics. Let us say that on the last mission or adventure a Player Character becomes wounded. They then need to flee through the rain or by means of a sewer system. In reality infection and disease would occur in many cases. So strike them down with the flu. Nausea and vomiting will do wonders for all the skills. A bed-ridden character cannot meet with contacts. This could annoy those in power, "We don't care if your runner is sick Mr. Johnson." And down the tubes go the precious reputation. Add in medical costs and ergo instant conflict with no guns involved. If nothing else does the cyberware ever get wet? Does it rust, say in the Steampunk genre?
Anything to shake them from their accustomed habits or to loosen up the view they have on what is supposed to happen where or when.
Yet another Example:
Often in the Horror Genre there will be a monster that will mate or fuse with a human. This will result in something less then pleasant. Such things as the Aliens form the movies or numerous HP Lovecraft monsters mating with humans and the resulting Whaterlies. Or what about the Genestealers of the Warhammer 40K setting. They too mate with humans and produce monstrous hybrids the parents are hypnotically compelled to defend and protect at the costs of their lives.
Some potential Transformative devices and Plot items:
- Skills
- Cyberware
- Spells
- Psionics
- innate abilities undiscovered before now
- Magic
- Ancient artifacts
- devices
- DNPCs
- A Nemesis
- Diseases
- Financial or other Windfalls
- crippling injuries
- Allies
My suggestion is to think in terms of three (3) dimensions.
- Increase/Improve
- Decrease/Worsen
- New/Changed directions
The following are some examples of things I have done in past campaigns to foster or drive changes.
Both instances occurred in my Shadowrun Campaign.
The campaign included the main Player being hired as the head of security for a mini-corp just starting up in the Seattle area. During the course of the game he had some run ins with several of my own gangs, The Towering Dooms and some others along with the Ancients of the setting. So the gentleman was good and paranoid from previous betrayals, random violence, corporate strike teams posing as bike gangs and other ongoing plotlines.
At this point I gave him just what he wanted. A huge monstrous hand cannon. Just a little bigger than an Ares Predator using Firepower ammo, 1st edition rules here. Along with the gun I gave him a special holster. This character already was under 1 for essence from cyberware, trigger happy and in charge of security. So borrowing an idea from Harry Harrison's Deathworld Trilogy I gave him the "Ultimate" in fast draw holsters. In the trilogy the holsters have the pistols attached by a cable. The holster actually rests on the forearm. This way the gun comes up and lands in the owner's hand ready to fire. Since the gun does not have a trigger guard if the finger is held correctly the weapon will fire immediately. So as fast as your reflexes are is how fast you can shoot. I game terms I boosted the speed of the holster. Gave the gun happy Samurai a + 4 to reaction for first fire only. This was applied to the draw. It was also smart linked and I did not impose any penalty for drawing and firing as one (1) action. There was nothing that could beat him to the shot. He, the player, loved the gun. It was almost obscene. Finally the character felt up to the tasks at hand. Now he was a whole lot faster than anything out there. I let him know that both in and out of game.
What I never told the player was that the holster was invading his nervous system and slowly taking him over, ALA a cursed sword, driving him towards greater violence. So that as time went by he was becoming a slave to the gun and it's holster. The premise was that the weapon was rewriting his personality via the now invasive hardware, the holster was growing into his arm, of the system. I kept discouraging him from taking it off with reminders of how dangerous life had become for the character lately. This was also a well established, long played character adding to the sense of worth and "self-preservation" with in the game context.
So to drive up his violence level I had him make Willpower rolls to not shoot when he was startled. This was because in the design if the wearer held his hand as if to shoot the holster read the muscle patterns and put the gun, triggerless remember, straight into the hand. So if I thought he would have been startled and perhaps would react offensively He needed to roll. Over the course of five (5) or so game sessions the rolls got tougher and it gave me more time to work and reinforce outside of the game what the 'Holster' wanted him to do.
Eventually the player wanted it off his arm. He had almost blown away his boss and his girlfriend at the beginning of the latest game session. This is when he found out it was growing and grafting into his flesh. This freaked him out. Lots of out of the game ranting and raving at me. It was wonderful. Then it was off to the street doc to get it removed. Of course the streets of Seattle are dangerous so it was interesting and exciting for him to not go postal on everyone that he encountered on the way to find a Street Doc.
I let him succeed in finding one. He paid an exorbitant fee and locked the gun up afterwards. Overall it helped to focus on how violent the player was with this character and emphasized his diplomatic skills.
Another incident with the same Street Doc, by the name of Mixmatch. This particular Street Doc specializes in Neuro rerouting/rewriting. In this instance he seduced the sister of the above Player Characters Girlfriend. During this procedure he put her under the knife. The game equivalent was to the CP2020 Tactile Boost with extra care taken with tweaking up the libido. The cosmetic effect was a silvery tracery tattooing along the major nerveways.
The end result was an uncontrollable bedroom fiend who attacked her sister's boyfriend, the main character, whenever she could. Lots of humorous scenes as the character tried to keep his cool and not antagonize either the girlfriend or the sister. When he went to confront Mixmatch the culprit was gone, vanished into the shadows.
These are simply two (2) examples from my own gaming. Feel free to elaborate or use these in your own campaigns.
Credits: Mona Lisa Overdrive by Walter Gibson
Krocodile Tears by Jack Yoevil
Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams
Deathworld Trilogy by Harry Harrison
Cyberpunk 2020 is the property of
R. Talsorian Games Shadowrun and the Ancients are property of
FASA Inc.
World of Darkness, Vampire, Garou, and Orphan Mages are property of
White Wolf Games Warhammer 40K and Genestealers property of
Games Workshops HP Lovecraft and his works are the property of whoever it is that owns them.
All rights reserved. Everything was used and quoted or mentioned without permission. No infringements intended.
Tags: Gaming GMing
