← SHIFT  ·  PLAYBOOK 2 OF 2
The SHAPESHIFTER
You've worn so many faces you occasionally forget which one started it. You've decided that's a feature.
PERSONNEL FILE
STAT: SHIFT
PRIMARY: +2
ACCESS: OPEN
The Shapeshifter  ·  FILE SHIFT
The SHAPESHIFTER
PRIMARY: SHIFT
HERO / ANTI-HERO / VILLAIN
You've worn so many faces you occasionally forget which one started it. You've decided that's a feature.
ASSUME FORM▼

When you transform into a specific person you've studied or touched, roll +Shift.

  • 10+: Perfect duplication, voice, mannerisms, biometrics. Will fool anyone who doesn't have supernatural detection.
  • 7–9: Close enough to fool casual inspection. Someone who knows them well will notice something off.
ADAPTIVE CAMOUFLAGE▼

When you shift your skin, texture, or coloring to match your environment, roll +Shift.

  • 10+: You're effectively invisible for the scene, but only while stationary or moving slowly. Attacking or moving at full speed breaks it.
  • 7–9: Effective at range while still. Anyone within arm's reach or moving with you can tell something's off.
STUDY▼

When you observe a target long enough to memorize them, roll +Intuition.

  • 10+: Perfect memory. You can replicate them flawlessly later without a roll.
  • 7–9: Good enough. You'll still roll to impersonate them but take +1 forward.
RAPID SHIFT▼

When you transform mid-combat to gain a physical advantage, roll +Shift.

  • 10+: The transformation gives you exactly what you need — size, density, reach, mass. Deal +2 harm or gain 2 armor for this exchange.
  • 7–9: The shift is effective but partial — +1 harm or 1 armor.
ADAPTIVE RESISTANCE▼

When you take a specific type of harm, your body begins adapting. Roll +Shift.

  • 10+: Reduce all subsequent harm of that type by 2 for the rest of the scene.
  • 7–9: Reduce subsequent harm by 1.
CREATURE FORM▼

When you take the form of a non-human creature you've studied, you gain its physical capabilities, flight, aquatic breathing, enhanced senses, venom. Roll +Shift to fully control the form.

  • 10+: Full control. Access all capabilities.
  • 7–9: Control but with one instinctive behavior the GM describes.
GHOST▼

When you need to be unremarkable, a face that people don't remember, a person who belongs anywhere, no roll required. You simply become whoever fits the environment. Attempting something that requires scrutiny, roll +Charisma.

MASS SHIFT▼

When you dramatically increase or decrease your body mass, roll +Shift.

  • 10+: Double mass: deal +2 harm, +1 armor. Halve mass: ignore physical restraints, fit through any opening a small animal could.
  • 7–9: The shift is unstable — it holds for this exchange, then you must re-roll to maintain it.
STEAL FACE▼

(1/mission)

When you touch an unconscious or restrained target, you can replicate them perfectly without a roll. The replication persists for one scene and includes access to any keyed systems (fingerprints, retinal scans, voice).

RECOVERY SHIFT▼

When you shift away from harm, reforming after a crushing blow, flowing around a blade, roll +Shift.

  • 10+: Take no harm from the attack. Something about your form absorbed or avoided it.
  • 7–9: Take half harm.
TELL▼

You can detect other shapeshifters, illusion users, or disguised targets by touch. No roll for obvious cases. For subtle disguises, roll +Intuition.

  • 10+: Know exactly who they are and what form they're using.
  • 7–9: Know they're not what they appear. Don't know who they actually are.
MIMIC POWER▼

When you've touched someone with a physical superpower, roll +Shift to replicate its outward form.

  • 10+: Approximate their ability for this scene at reduced power (half harm, shorter range, etc.).
  • 7–9: A weak version, once only.
SPLIT▼

When you need to be in two places at once, create a convincing physical duplicate of yourself from your own shifted mass. Roll +Shift.

  • 10+: The duplicate is independently mobile for the scene. It can act, speak, and draw attention, but has 2 harm before collapsing.
  • 7–9: The duplicate exists but is static, convincing to look at, not to interact with.
INTERNAL SHIFT▼

You can alter your internal biology, metabolize toxins, change blood type, regulate temperature, alter what your body needs to survive. No roll for gradual changes. Immediate changes roll +Tough.

LIQUID FORM▼

When you reduce your density to flow through gaps, vents, or under doors, roll +Shift.

  • 10+: Move through any space larger than a crack. No detection, no damage.
  • 7–9: You make it through but take 1 harm from the compression.
SOCIAL INFILTRATION▼

When you're in a group of people and need to direct or manipulate the crowd without revealing yourself, roll +Charisma. You blend in completely while steering the group's behavior.

  • 10+: The crowd does what you need, parts, panics, clusters, disperses.
  • 7–9: They move but not cleanly, one unexpected element the GM describes.
TERROR FORM▼

(1/session)

Assume the most threatening form your imagination can produce. Roll +Shift. On 10+, everyone who can see you must make a morale check or flee. On 7–9, non-super enemies flee; powered individuals take -1 ongoing from unease.

COMPOSITE FORM▼

When you have time to think, you can mix features from multiple forms, the strength of one, the appearance of another, the senses of a third. Roll +Smarts to design the optimal combination.

  • 10+: Three features from different sources work simultaneously.
  • 7–9: Two features work. Third causes instability, the GM describes the complication.
ANCHOR▼

Choose one person whose form you can always perfectly replicate, without a roll and without study. This is someone who matters to you. The GM may use this.

SHAPE MEMORY▼

You can return to any form you've held for more than an hour without rolling. Your default form is always accessible regardless of what's happened to you. Passive.

PERSONAL ASSESSMENT
  • FaceThe one you've chosen for today, note it can change, and the eyes are always the same regardless
  • BodyComfortable in any form, slightly uncanny at rest, the proportions are just a half-degree from natural
  • StyleMinimalist, clothes are a tool, not an identity. Usually something that can be hidden or shed easily.
  • PresencePeople aren't quite sure why they remember you differently than how you look. You're hard to describe after the fact.
  • Default FormDescribe your true form, or the one you return to when exhausted. Is it the body you were born with, or something you chose? ---
ORIGIN
  • You've always been able to do this. You were a strange child.
  • A transformation that was meant to be temporary. It wasn't.
  • You absorbed the ability from someone else. You haven't been able to find them since.
  • It happened in pieces, first facial features, then voice, then everything. You still remember the first time.
  • You requested it. The reasons seemed good at the time. They still might be.
GEAR & EQUIPMENT

Your body is your primary weapon. But sometimes a specific tool helps.

Choose one weapon:

  • A blade that folds flat (2 harm — you can hide it inside a shifted form)
  • Sidearm (2 harm — carried in a shifted compartment in your body)
  • Retractable claws (2 harm — you grow them, they count as part of you)

Choose two additional items:

  • Voice modulator (shifts voice even in forms that wouldn't naturally match)
  • Body scanner (detailed biometric data on a target — improves mimicry rolls)
  • A mirror you actually need (you lose track of your face sometimes)
  • Encrypted identity archive (stores 10 cover identities with supporting documentation)
  • Polymorphic restraints (designed to contain shifting — useful evidence that you exist)
KNOWN ASSOCIATES / CONNECTIONS
You impersonated someone close to them. Ask them: do they know, and what was the reason?
They've seen your default form — not a performance, just you. Ask them: did that change anything?
You wore their face once. Tell them when and why. Ask: how do they feel about that?
They're one of the few people who can always tell it's you regardless of form. Ask them: how?
You know something about them you learned while in a different face. Ask them: do you ever tell them?
They've asked you what you actually look like. Ask them: what did you say?
You've shifted into a form specifically because of something they said. Ask them: do they know they influenced that?
They've caught you in a form you weren't ready to explain. Ask them: what did you tell them?
You've used your shifting to help them in a way they still don't fully understand. Ask them: when do you explain?
They're one of the people you've never shifted around — you're always yourself with them. Ask them: have they noticed?

YOUR STATS

Your primary stat is SHIFT: +2

Distribute the following among your remaining 9 stats:

+1+1 00 00 -1-1 -2

Improvements (every 5 XP)

  • Take a new Shapeshifter move
  • Take a move from another playbook
  • Add +1 to Shift (max +3)
  • Add +1 to Agility (max +3)
  • Add +1 to Charisma (max +3)
  • Add 1 to your harm track maximum
  • Your shifts are now instantaneous, no perceptible transition time
  • You can now replicate voices from memory without scanning

Advanced Improvements (every 5 level-ups)

  • True Polymorph: You can become anything biological, animals, plants, things that shouldn't be alive. Define with GM.
  • The Original: You find or remember your true original form. It has one property no other form has, define with GM.
  • Change playbook: You've grown into someone different.
  • Retire: You settled on a form and stayed. Tell the table which one, and whether anyone who knew you before would recognize it.