Changelings and PC viability, What's the limit? Options

[ElFenrir]

I suppose it can differ from table to table...or even from game to game. I suppose a bunch of gangers might accept a burly, four-armed dude that proves himself as a lieutenant than a corporation, for example. Fitting in the ''goth-punk'' floor at the Inferno looking like a vampire-demon-bat with spikes on your elbows, bright red hair, fangs and a tail is probably possible in the least, while at the high end Tres Chic formal club in the middle of town might not be.

Now, metas already sort of have their own social quirks going. Changelings, no doubt, have more, even if they were human.

What would you say a good rule of thumb would be for ''typical, everyday stuff?'' Like, going to the Stuffer Shack without being harrassed, kind of thing?

I have an elf changeling, and he's charismatic(they don't get charisma minuses, his is a 5), generally likable(first impression), handsome, the whole nine...but he's also got Horns(ram's to be exact), fangs, claws on both his hands and feet, natural white fairly long Mood Hair, eyes that are sort of a black-light color in the iris with blue pupils(Extravagant Eyes-though his wire-rimmed glasses give him an intelligent look), and, most of all, Satyr Legs(which, instead of hooves, he has more quadruped mammal-type feet, beastlike if you will. I took advantage of the claws). So yeah, he does look like a ''wtf'' in society due to all of this, but just how much can things like natural charisma and First Impression help out? [For the record, in his story, he went into the shadows due to the fact no professional place would hire him as a technician-which is what he is, at heart. He also couldn't play soccer anymore, unless it was just recreational(unfair advantage, and his claws didn't help), nor earn money in martial arts tournaments like he did in the first half of technical college before he SURGed(they were afraid he'd kill his opponent.)]

Naturally, this guy IS a freakshow, and while he's more of a freakshow than someone that just has, say, inner Surges, or Mood Hair and something controllable like a 5 BP Surge...but he's also less of a freakshow than someone with six arms, a frog tongue, bone spikes, quills, a beak, a Thagomizer, and a lion's mane.

For those who allow changelings-how do you work it? Do you start with a modifier for certain(non Internal) SURGES and go from there in everyday places? Could my Elf have a chance of doing normal, everyday things without being harrassed every 5 minutes?

[HappyDaze]

I'd say it depends on location. Some cities have neighborhoods where the SURGEd congregate and form their own subculture, and acceptance will start to radiate out from there to other parts of the city. Consider that in some areas am 'obvious transvestite' sticks out while in others it's not too uncommon. Likewise consider the appearance of 'gay friendly' districts within RL cities and how acceptance has generally grown (some exceptions apply) and this can be applied to Changelings too.

[Snow_Fox]

it really depends on your game more than anything. Changlings runs the serious risk of becoming an anime joke. It really becomes the work of the GM and the players together/ Someone strutting around with feathers or a tail in the mall is bad, unless you have a goofy off the wall campaign. Someone in as cl;ub you get friendly with and discover "holy drek those scales are real" or are those eyes/bits cyber or....? is a big better.

[Ol' Scratch]

Considering in all but the most extreme situations, there's nothing you can get via SURGE that you can't through surgery... I just don't know how to wrap my head around this forced "OMG he r Changeling lets git him LOLOLOL" stuff. It'd be little different than running into a club kid today when you're at the grocery store or something. And would have just about the same effect. A couple stares, maybe a snide comment from an overly Puritan house wife. And then having the samy overly Puritan house wife all but ignore the green mohawk-sporting troll dressed as a viking that's standing in line behind her.

I'd expect the same treatment for a guy with a fishtank cyberarm, cat's eyes, chloroplast skin, balance tail, eyeband, or any of the other weird implants that, apparently, are totally acceptable. But you don't get them with the Changeling quality, so it's apparently okay to do that. Even though all but one of the above is covered by the Changeling rules, too.

[Rasumichin]

Let's first asses the situation for changelings as RC presents it, both fluff- and mechanics-wise :

Remember that about 1% of the entire population are changelings.
That's not a terribly large number and many of them will have traits hardly noticeable as SURGE, at least without genetyping, plus they'll spend a lot of time in the "changeling quarters", but in a major sprawl, you'll see several noticeably SURGEd people every day.

Along with this, pop culture idolizes the more presentable SURGElings and some people even surgically copy certain SURGE traits, so a catgirl won't face that many problems unless she's not confronted with people who are biased against anyone who doesn't look like their metatype.

There's also metatraits that are barely noticeable.
Hence the description of the Unusual Eyes quality- most people will just asume you've got yourself some weird cybereye model, like so many of the spoiled corp brats craving the next fashion trend.

Most of the time, one can assume that the majority of people are halfway used to changelings.
If the changes are visible, they still earn you the Distinctive Style quality (i houseruled that this only counts for visible traits, as anything else is just plain retarded)*, and people will be biased slightly more often than it would be the case for your baseline metatype, but that's about it.

If changelings are outright unfit for a campaign, this usually does not have ingame reasons, but depends on the group disliking SURGE for stylistic reasons.


Then there's the more disturbing stuff- basically any traits who earn you the -3/+2-Freak-modifier, such as Cephalopoidal Skull, Proboscis, Third Eye and so on.
I assume that these traits are either rare and people aren't as used to them as to fur, scales and the like, that they look downright disturbing for some reason or both.
These will earn you the described modifiers unless you happen to be among a decidedly transhumanist crowd, in the changeling ghetto, at an anime convention and so on.
If people are already prejudiced, these modifiers stack.
And god help you if you have Bug Features...

In case of the Deformity quality, i also assume that it looks just plain horrible, hence the doubled modifiers.

All these traits are really unfit if you want to be the group's face, but can come in handy if you resort heavily to intimidation.
In fact, combined with Nasty Vibe, Semper Paratis and a custom-looking gun, they enable even uncharismatic characters to intimidate others successfully.

Besides that, i do not penalize players additionally for that or any combination of changeling features.
If they choose these just for stylistic or mechanical reasons, that's fine with me.
Of course they can take additional levels of Distinctive Style or the Genefreak quality if they want to play a character who suffers more consequences than other changelings, but that's up to them.

The mechanics don't penalize you for looking like a gecko, rhino, toad or angler fish and neither do i.

In general, style should be left open to the players, which is why i'm reluctant to bring down the whole weight of RCs' suggestions on my players- they've gone a little too far a couple of times IMHO.

_____________________________________________________________
* @ Dr. Funkenstein : RC mentions that certain cyberware or biosculpting will earn you the distinctive Style quality or even the freak modifiers.

[ElFenrir]

See, I'm sort of with this. I just really wanted to play a Changeling, and he's got the manga-kinda design, yeah, but I just wanted something a little different. BUt I'm sure there's a lot worse running around with cyberware.

In his background, I figured it made sense htat he'd have trouble at some ritzy corp area getting a job, and figured it would work in well on how he got involved in the shadows. I kinda figured that someone with his SURGE(he's a level 2, I guess that's appropriate for him...or is his more a level 3? they both seem to be obvious. I picked 2 because he still basically looks like a metahuman) could still fit into normal society-just some places easier than others. (Hell, he even used his Metalworking skill to make sheathes for his claws, because they aren't retractable, to use in public.) He tries to fit in, anyway.

I mean, when I GM, and someone wants to play something a bit different looking, I'm not going to bring the hammer down on them overly harsh. I mean, yeah. Someone who has the descriptor of ''elephant nose, six arms, bone spikes coming out of his eyes, a third eye, a Thagomizer, Satyr legs, scales, a frog tongue and color changing skin that's the color of lava naturally'' MIGHT take some penalties when dealing with some people, but I won't completely torture their character. Ok, the Bug thing might have some problems....

[Rasumichin]

(he's a level 2, I guess that's appropriate for him...or is his more a level 3? they both seem to be obvious. I picked 2 because he still basically looks like a metahuman)

Should be appropriate.
Lvl 3 would be a lot weirder, more of an antropomorphic animal instead of a human with extra animal features.
If your character also had a goat snout, a couple of spikes here and there and vestigial bat wings on his back, he might be lvl 3.

According to the fluff, human-plant hybrids also fall in this category.

Someone who has the descriptor of ''elephant nose, six arms, bone spikes coming out of his eyes, a third eye, a Thagomizer, Satyr legs, scales, a frog tongue and color changing skin that's the color of lava naturally'' MIGHT take some penalties when dealing with some people, but I won't completely torture their character.

I wouldn't either, as i would simply not allow a character with positive SURGE traits for 80BP in my game. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[ElFenrir]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif) Yeah, I lost count a bit. I mean, if someone wants to pop their 15 BP on a level 3 Surge, and buy extra Surge stuff with it...well, I'd make sure it was balanced out somewhat. I'm not sure of what, by RAW; is the maximum SURGE qualities someone can get. I'd eventually call it off, but if someone wanted to be a part of Jim Rose 2070, I suppose I could find it in me to let them. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Rasumichin]

I'm not sure of what, by RAW; is the maximum SURGE qualities someone can get.

With SURGE III and all your other positive and negative qualities used up for metagenetic traits, that would be 50 positive and negative each.

[venenum]

I am in the middle the playing a six armed changeling, nothing else too unusual. We like to play are SR quite dystopian. For example at one time my character was in the middle of the barrens and was trying to defuse a hostile gang situation. (we accidentally went into their territory by accident.) and they started to try and pick a fight with him. This lead to an interesting story and changed the perception of the gangers (after the fight).

Needless to say the way you play the racism is up to your game. If trolls get stopped all the time in upper crust neighborhoods that changelings should be too.

[HappyDaze]

Remember that before changelings existed, 2% of the population of Seattle was listed as other as far back as SR1.

[Rasumichin]

Remember that before changelings existed, 2% of the population of Seattle was listed as other as far back as SR1.

I wonder how high that percentage would be in 2071, if one counts Infected and changelings among other.

[redwulf25_ci]

it really depends on your game more than anything. Changlings runs the serious risk of becoming an anime joke. It really becomes the work of the GM and the players together/ Someone strutting around with feathers or a tail in the mall is bad, unless you have a goofy off the wall campaign.

Why would that be the case? In the Shadowrun setting some people have feathers or a tail. Do you assume for some reason that they DON'T go to the mall?

[Rasumichin]

Why would that be the case? In the Shadowrun setting some people have feathers or a tail. Do you assume for some reason that they DON'T go to the mall?

Ingame, within the setting as written, this would indeed not make sense.
In Seattle alone, there are at least 6000 changelings, most likely more, as people who are so apparently marked as outsiders are more likely to migrate to urban areas, where they stick out slightly less and encounter a more open-minded atmosphere.

And a great deal of them will have some visible animal features.
It would be unusual not to see at the very least one or two of them in the mall or on the way there.

1 percent of the population doesn't mean that much when you see hundreds of people every day.

Every sprawl inhabitant would be used to seeing people with SURGE.
When he came home from work, he would hardly tell his wife "today on my lunch break, i saw a guy with a beak, can you imagine that?", even though a guy with a beak would certainly stick out in any crowd in Seattle.

When so many people come together in such a relatively small area, one is likely to encounter even the smallest minorities frequently.

Ingame, it is not inappropriate in the least.

But there's people -i see this on SR boards frequently- who have an outgame problem with it, as they are used to metahumanity consisting of only 5 publicly noticeable subspecies, with one of them making up 80% of the population, as it was in SR1 and 2.
For them, the fact that "normal" humans make up at best 68% of the population by now and that the limits of what exactly constitutes being human is constantly blurred, causes serious problems, as it gives them the impression of not recognizing the setting anymore.

[Fuchs]

In my campaign there is a "extreme body mods scene" including cyber fetishists, full body replacement with sculpts, wanna-be mermaids, anthromorphs etc. In short, a "freak show", with their own clubs (One of them I took from the "Athena" comic). They got their problems/reactions, just like the extremes of today's branding/piercing scene. Changelings would fit in right in that scene, or other scenes.

Public reaction varies according to what public is there, but generally is not any more hostile than racist reactions to metas - which yes, means it's rather hostile if you meet violent people, but generally limited to some avoiding and "sorry, all rooms are taken" responses.

In my campaign I'd also assume that with the modifications possible thanks to cyberware and bioware, every changeling with money would get fixed anyway - the only ones walking around with surge traits would be those who actually like that, or those who can't afford the surgery. (Please note the "IMC" disclaimer. I don't care if the rules actually say that for some strange reason, you can't replace your surged skull with a normal cyberskull, remove your tail, or genemod yourself back to normal. In my campaign, a changeling could be as modded and changed as anyone else, which means every surge change is fixable.)

[Chrysalis]

I think changelings could end up too easily into joke characters such as anthropomorphic chicken. The problem I foresee is that they in no-wise differe from all the other 1001 biomodified freaks out there. I mean unlike today you can go to a mall and go through body modification treatment to look like a cat girl or have scales, or any number of things.

-Chrysalis

[HappyDaze]

I mean unlike today you can go to a mall and go through body modification treatment to look like a cat girl or have scales, or any number of things.

The question isn't really whether or not the average citizen can do this, it's whether or not they commonly will do this and how acceptable it is at the street level. Each person's game will differ, but I'm willing to bet that regardless of how common it is you'll still see 'changeling zones' where they are more common and more accepted than in the mainstream.

[Ol' Scratch]

Considering how ridiculous and outlandish just about every character displayed in the artwork looks... I really find it hard to believe that anything but the most bizarre SURGE traits would even get a second glance in most situations. Especially on the streets and in the shadows.

[Heath Robinson]

And a great deal of them will have some visible animal features.
It would be unusual not to see at the very least one or two of them in the mall or on the way there.

A great many of the mall-goers who SURGE will get some kind of cosmetic surgery to minimise the visibility of their SURGE traits, I believe. It's a racist world out there, and not being willing to undergo a relatively safe piece of surgery in order to fit into your cube farm marks you as lacking corporate loyalty, creates a glass ceiling, and moves you to the top of the rightsizing candidate list.

There are some communities and jobs that would accept or even favour SURGE traits. A metal-flavoured music store might be totally into the human with Troll horns, for example.

[Wasabi]

In my own game if anyone plays an obvious Changeling I plan on using the "Obvious Cyberware" modifiers as a baseline and increase the penalties for truly outlandish things. So small goat horns would be a small penalty but a runner with 6 arms, green skin and an elephant trunk would find it... more challenging... to be accepted.

[Fuchs]

Why do your characters keep their surge traits?

[Rasumichin]

A great many of the mall-goers who SURGE will get some kind of cosmetic surgery to minimise the visibility of their SURGE traits, I believe. It's a racist world out there, and not being willing to undergo a relatively safe piece of surgery in order to fit into your cube farm marks you as lacking corporate loyalty, creates a glass ceiling, and moves you to the top of the rightsizing candidate list.

Like so many things in SR, this would totally make sense, but is not reflected in the setting description at all.

[Fuchs]

Hence my question - why do those characters who get surge traits that can be removed keep them? What's their motivation?

[Ol' Scratch]

Like so many things in SR, this would totally make sense, but is not reflected in the setting description at all.

Hugh swaths of the setting description don't make any sense. Particularly regarding racism.

[ArkonC]

Hence my question - why do those characters who get surge traits that can be removed keep them? What's their motivation?

To thine own self be true...