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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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....

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.



I wouldn't either, as i would simply not allow a character with positive SURGE traits for 80BP in my game.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Why do your characters keep their surge traits?

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

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

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

To thine own self be true...

It's also possible the wage slaves and such have no money with which to get those traits reversed or removed. After all, they're barely making enough money to live (hence the term, wageslave), so how are they going to afford elective, non-critical surgery? Most insurance providers won't pay for an elective procedure.

Consider that the average wage-slave can get a 40h/week Day Job and make 5,000 nuyen a month. That just cuts a Middle Lifestyle, but if the wage-slave is single, they might be able to skimp a bit here and there if using the advanced lifestyle rules (which I happen to love). However, if there are two wage-slaves (such as a married couple) and two dependents, the income doubles to 10,000 nuyen per month with expenses of 6,500 nuyen per month for that Middle Lifestyle. If fully 35% of an 'average' couple's income is disposable, then cosmetic surgery could end up being pretty damn common.

Money which you can only spend on your corporation, who may or may no provide such a service (hooray for corpscrip). Not to mention you being surged may be a permanent black mark, even if you do get the surgery. Lots of potential problems.

That's for a middle-class wage slave. Not all jobs are middle class (or corporate, for that matter). In fact, in 2062 (SoNA), the per capita income for UCAS is 28,000 . For Tir T, it's 25,000 . For CAS, it's 25,500 . That puts the average person solidly in the low lifestyle -- but it doesn't count the corporate citizens, of course. [hmmm... no wonder the common folks would like to be wage slaves.] So chances of a typical UCAS citizen being able to afford significant cosmetic surgery is low.

And, even in today's corporate world, those who don't "fit in" rarely are promoted above the lower levels of the company. When was the last time you saw a Fortune 500 executive (or middle manager) with tattoos all over his/her face and seventeen facial piercings? (heck, my husband's company actually has rules against visible piercings, and has specific, written standards for hair, including facial hair, styles) Outside voluntary body ornamentation, when was the last time you saw a corporate executive that had significant visible scars, birth defects, was in a wheelchair, was exceptionally obese, had dwarfism, or had other visible "differences?"

With the rise of extraterritorality (and the corresponding loss of any type of anti-discrimination laws), my opinion would be that mainstream corps would be even worse. I can't seem most corps promoting changelings. Of the big 10, probably only Evo would have significant numbers of changelings (heck, metahumans at all) in middle level or higher positions. Okay, and maybe Horizon. (And in those two, you'd probably fare better keeping your changeling appearance as-is.)

Actually, that's just the default Day Job Quality from Runner's Companion. I did forget to reduce the cost of the Lifestyle by the fact that the wage-slave is likely living in corporate housing, so the disposable income actually increases.

Living in corporate housing isn't free. The corp is still going to charge you (although it may be subtracted directly from your pay before reaching your credit account). In fact, corporate enclaves are frequently in the High category for neighborhood, so your middle-class wage-slave living in corporate housing may, in fact, be overspending his/her salary each month (but that's why they need their working spouse).

That being said, a middle class lifestyle does generally include the occasional minor cosmetic surgery...

Per Runner's Companion, a Middle Lifestyle (15) with the Corporate Owned Quality (-3 value) will cost 3,200 nuyen per month.

You're right. I hadn't considered qualities. And, really, for a wage-slave, neither Corporate Owned lifestyle quality, or Day Job, would be the negative qualities they're listed as... Boy, those wageslaves sure do have it cushy.

But I still maintain that a changeling is much less likely to earn 60k a year in a corporate environment. And less likely to get a place in the corporate enclave (after all, what if his/her neighbors started to complain? Corporate politics can be such a hassle). (Again, with the exception of a few notable corporations, like Evo.)

What about player characters? If your PC's surge traits are a liability, why doesn't he/she get rid of them? Especially in "Black" campaigns, as opposed to "Pink Mohawk" or "Chrome" games.

For a character that *must* fit in, I'd opt to get them toned down, or find a way to downplay them if possible. In a lot of cases, the PC may already feel like an outcast (You *are* a criminal after all), and thus a little more freak in their daily life isn't that big a deal.

There's always the Human Looking quality. Don't have my books handy to check, but I don't recall there being any rule saying they were excluded from taking it.

Well, for this concept, I *wanted* to play a Changeling, I just selected some traits I liked that weren't 100% offensive to folks(mostly anyway, some overly religious folks get a bit weird with him with his horns, fangs, claws, or whatever.) Otherwise he looks like a generally intelligent, attractive fellow, if you can get past the strange-shaped, clawed legs. He changed, and he figured that's what he is-and to try to take advantage of his new stuff(while he doesn't bite people or really use the horns, the claws and legs come in handy in combat, and the legs just for running, jumping, and the like.) He opted to get bodily enhancing cyberware instead; he figured he might as well get the best out of his new form that way, and this way he would be more successful in the shadows, as well as keeping his ''shadow tech'' job going with his Fomori hacker friend.

In his case, he had the money, but opted to do something else with it-despite it's drawbacks he was 'blessed' with a rather nice set of options.. Now, of course someone could get a concept for the opposite-they end up with a bunch of the traits that REALLY mark them as a freak, and they are trying to earn money to get out of the lower-class they are stuck in-so they turn to shadow work to make it happen faster.

But I'm sure for every changeling who doesn't like it, there might be one who does-and nice things mentioned about certain jobs digging it(hell, a warehouse job could find a 4 armed guy rather handy, and said heavy metal store thinking humans with troll horns cool as well.)

Seriously, is the Thagomizer in the Runner's Companion? That's named after the late Thag Simmons, you know.

Strange that a Gary Larson comic would not only end up in SR4 but apparently has even been adopted as an informal anatomical term.

And yes, I can see the use of changelings being a problem, but thanks to the catchall flaw that is distinctive style.. well.. it shouldn't be an issue.

As far as the dislike begetting violence, club kids at the grocery store don't have odd body parts that are more often found on nonhuman animals. A pair of sagging baggy pants does not really equal a unicorn horn, for example. It's just another situation where prejudice can rear its ugly head, and it is a little harder for a guy who has feathers and a chicken beak to pose as a janitor on a run.

However, the eagle shaman who has feathers and a beak might not be treated so harshly, but that's probably because he can firebolt your sorry hoop for making snide comments.

I usually look at the characters and think 'how would this character fare in an AAA zone?' Most of the time, your average runner with some odd fashion sense and some obvious cybermods will get a little more attention than a soccer mom; you just compound the reaction when the runner in question has hooves, a tail, horns, and rabbit ears.

"Hey, isn't that... the JACKALOPE? He's a wanted runner! Get him!"

"Aww man, not AGAIN!"

Plus, the more distinctive a style someone has, all the easier for someone to get a few fast mods installed to look enough like the person in question, and then all the trouble comes home to roost right at the poor changeling's clawed feet.

I do plan to write up a dwarf who, through surge, now resembles a tiny troll.

Actually, given the state of cosmetic surgery, it does. Having a doctor drill a hole that will accept a variety of screw-on horns into your skull is about as cheap and easy as getting a facial piercing is today, and probably about as popular among certain crowds.


Its fairly difficult to tell the difference between a changeling as a hardcore body-modder, whether it be a punk, an urban primitive, or a shy fellow who came to the conclusion that be comming a lesbian catgirl would give him more confidence with women.

Take, for example, http://www.web-ho.com/Scrapbook/HumanMarvels/

The transhumanist movement were the first to accept changlings. Because they where on the fringes, because they where wierd and strange to the 'moral majority' and understood.

What is unknown is frightening and therefore reviled and shunned. Often later to be venerated as unique. In 2064 there was changling clubs for example but in 2063 there were changling riots.

Normal is a relative term and though in SR the catagory is boarder, fall out side and the hammer of opinion falls against you. Being a genetic freak of nature hits on an instinctive level, it is easier to believe you are less human than someone that was 'normal' and choose to express themselves via tech. Not rational but very human.

Being a changling could score you points or lose you points depending on th crowd. Your character is nice guy and given the chance would probably win over the crowd. Its just being given tha chance.

While you make an excellent point (as SR4 seems to still have tones of overt racism, but individuals band together to avoid it as best they can), the issue with the snap-on horn mod is that when snap-on horn-mod club-boy goes for a new job interview, he's snapped off his unicorn horn in hopes it won't work against him. When he's on his own time, it gets snapped on and bam, he's 'himself' again.

Joe the guy with feather and a chicken beak isn't so lucky, so he can't avoid the inherent distrust, dislike, or even a violent beating at the hands of 'Joe the chicken dude'-ophobes that may exist in varying amounts in your specific campaign world.

So while the amount of people who look odd includes the SURGE crowd plus body-modders, there's a decent amount of the modders who can, in a pinch, remove or disguise their mods as to better fit in with a different crowd.

Joe can just have his skull replaced with a cyberskull, or get some genetherapy, or get some extensive cosmetic surgery and no more feathers and beak.

That is awesome, and you should feel awesome.