There was recent discussion about PCs transforming into mind flayers, and it made me think about the wider topic of major transformations of PCs.

My first introduction to major transformations was from Champions 2 (1982), which introduced the idea of a "radiation accident" to a superhero PC. This adapts a common trope of the superhero genre, and introduces a radically changed version of the hero - which could happen in different ways - magic, mechanics, cybernetics as well as actual radiation. My first PC in college was an android ("Volt") who re-engineered himself after establishing himself with the resources of the established PCs, completely changing his abilities.

In one of my Call of Cthulhu campaigns, all of the PCs ended up transforming fairly radically. One of them discovered that he actually had snake-people heritage, and gained powers at the expense of his sanity. Another was killed by an explosion (simply in the course of play), but I had him brought back from the dead by an NPC they thought was an ally. I felt like it fit well with many Lovecraftian themes for the PCs to find horror in themselves instead of just gunning down the enemy.

In a Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG, I had a PC Slayer who had a baby, and the party witch attempted a spell that split her into three selves to keep things together (a mommy self, a work self, and a Slayer self). That lasted for half a season before the spell was undone, but it was a pretty big change.

There's also having PCs be mind-controlled or the equivalent. There are a handful of times when I've recruited a player to work as the villain in the game. I can't recall an actual mind-control, but I did have a PC replaced by an evil duplicate - that the player then played out. That was only for a session, but it was a big change.


I think there's a lot of potential for fun in this, but it can be tricky. I'd be curious about other people's experiences, good or bad.

Years back, in a GURPS fantasy game, our whole party got zapped with a freaky Friday magical effect. Everyone in the party switched bodies.  We roleplayed our characters mental stats, advantages, and disadvantages, and used the physical characteristics of the character we were swapped with. It was an effect that lasted several game sessions. Certainly a fun experience for everyone.

It's all fun and games till the Decepticons show up

Quote from: Exploderwizard on September 13, 2023, 07:31:04 AM
Years back, in a GURPS fantasy game, our whole party got zapped with a freaky Friday magical effect. Everyone in the party switched bodies.  We roleplayed our characters mental stats, advantages, and disadvantages, and used the physical characteristics of the character we were swapped with. It was an effect that lasted several game sessions. Certainly a fun experience for everyone.

Cool. I had a one-session similar effect in my Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG campaign. Did you randomize it? I shuffled everyone's character sheets and handed them back out. They had the other character's skills but not their personality. (This was important because they had to do each others' jobs/roles.)

I remember one stand-out fun example from a short lived college game.  I was playing an elven fighter/magic-user and my character somehow got charmed (elven resistance notwithstanding.)  I was ordered to attack the party magic-user, and I suddenly realized that the idea appealed to me.  He'd been kind of showing me up in some ways and this was a good time to set things right.  He was a bit higher level than me but I was a lot more versatile, because that's how xp worked for 1E.  It went like this.
Him:  I cast fly (He thinks he can stay away now)
Me:  I cast fly too
Him:  I cast Minor Globe of Invulnerability.  (My spells can't touch him now)
Me:  Me too (right back atcha, bucko)
Him:  I can't do anything to him, so I give him a sneer.
Me:  Cool, I draw my sword
Him:  *runs away*

I dunno if anyone else will think so, but I though it was pretty funny

Transforming PCs is a tricky thing to include while still keeping the game fun.  My contempt for the namby-pamby "I need consent, where's my x-card" crew in other threads notwithstanding, this is a spot where you really do need player buy-in if the change is going to be long term to permanent. 

As a general rule, players hate this type of thing for several good reasons.  First, their PC is the _only_ thing they truly control in the game universe.  Take this away and they're helpless.  No fun.  Second, it can make the game boring.  I've read in any number of online discussions that most players would rather have their characters killed than taken prisoner.  Playing a prisoner is boring.  Third it can be humiliating.  You can refer back to the prisoner example for this one.  Lastly, being changed against one's will can be pretty disturbing, even if it's just your PC.  Someone famous once said that the essence of horror is being changed against one's will.

And the big one, is that if the characters are changed without player buy in then the players aren't getting the experience they signed up for.  If I'm playing D&D, I'm there to be a heroic adventurer.  If my character is changed into a mindflayer or werewolf, then I'm playing a bad guy, which is not a lot of fun for me.  As a short term thing it's fine.  But if it's permanent than I have no hope of getting back to the type of play I came to do, and I have no real reason to continue playing because I'm not having fun.

If you want to permanently transform PCs, then the remedy for these issues is to have a kind of mid-game session zero.  "Hey guys, since y'all get bitten by were-gerbils last session, I was thinking of taking the game in this direction – you can be bad guys and terrorize the kingdom rather than saving it.  What do you think?"  If the players hate the idea, then it's going to be important to have the transformation be short term.

Quote from: Exploderwizard on September 13, 2023, 07:31:04 AM
Years back, in a GURPS fantasy game, our whole party got zapped with a freaky Friday magical effect. Everyone in the party switched bodies.  We roleplayed our characters mental stats, advantages, and disadvantages, and used the physical characteristics of the character we were swapped with. It was an effect that lasted several game sessions. Certainly a fun experience for everyone.

We did something very similar in Fantasy Hero, except it was only for several hours as part of an adventure, and what we did was say it was a personality change, and everyone kept their original character.  A subset of the adventure was learning how to change back.  So it was a roleplaying challenge to play your own character with the personality that had been demonstrated by the other player.  The results were hilarious for all involved, but a bit stressful.

When we were done, the players looked at me, and said almost in unison:  "That was a blast.  Never do that to us again." I've found since that a lot of things on the "intrusive" list of GM options are like that.  You can use them sparingly with no problem.  A few you can use exactly once.

Quote from: Mishihari on September 16, 2023, 03:53:23 AM
Transforming PCs is a tricky thing to include while still keeping the game fun.  My contempt for the namby-pamby "I need consent, where's my x-card" crew in other threads notwithstanding, this is a spot where you really do need player buy-in if the change is going to be long term to permanent.

I agree, you need player buy-in -- but that's not difficult. Just check in with the players saying "would this be fun?" And if it's not, then don't do it.

It feels to me like some posters are giving up on perfectly good fun that RPGers have been having for years because it sounds like what other-politics gamers do.

Transforming PCs can be fun when there is player buy-in, and it's not hard to check for player buy-in.

Just because it hasn't come up yet, it's worth mentioning that there's a lot of fun you can have with more minor transformations. My Hyperborea character ended the campaign with mismatched eye colors and an inexplicable hunger for raw meat. Another character had his skin turned blue and grew fangs. In my Dragon Warriors campaign, two of the players accidentally drank water from a fairy fountain that stopped them aging. Stuff with no mechanical impact, but it adds flavor and people remember it.

Quote from: jhkim on September 13, 2023, 05:39:51 PM

Quote from: Exploderwizard on September 13, 2023, 07:31:04 AM
Years back, in a GURPS fantasy game, our whole party got zapped with a freaky Friday magical effect. Everyone in the party switched bodies.  We roleplayed our characters mental stats, advantages, and disadvantages, and used the physical characteristics of the character we were swapped with. It was an effect that lasted several game sessions. Certainly a fun experience for everyone.

Cool. I had a one-session similar effect in my Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG campaign. Did you randomize it? I shuffled everyone's character sheets and handed them back out. They had the other character's skills but not their personality. (This was important because they had to do each others' jobs/roles.)

I was a player in this campaign so I don't really know how the GM decided who was switched with whom. We just got new character sheets with (Name) in (other character's name) body with our temporary new stats.