← 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.