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# System prepended metadata

title: 'Changelings [Veritius, Unapproved]'

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# Changelings [Veritius, Unapproved]

Changelings should be genuinely terrifying. Like, serious The Thing shit. A changeling should make the crew collectively shit its pants.

## Mechanics
### Biomass
Drastic modifications (such as extruding chitin armor) should require biomass. Changelings obviously can't pull matter out of thin air (that's the job of a wizard), so it needs to get it from somewhere, right? And guess what's a great source of biomass - the crew. (You shouldn't be able to produce it though, you gotta eat people.)

### Undetectable
A changeling in human form should be completely undetectable by reliable means. No technology can detect a changeling when it's trying to hide.

This would encourage interesting gameplay on the part of Security to sleuth out the changeling, ~~and give the detective an actual job.~~

**(this is probably only good for mrp+ servers but whatever)**
Changelings cannot be detected by technology, but a changeling modifying itself (even in a way you can't see) should trigger a prompt like *your hair stands on end*, and perhaps passing animals may get upset near a changeling.
This could obviously be used for metagaming bullshit, so it's not really suitable for LRP servers.

## Tactics
There should be two primary ways of playing Changeling, that can be changed between for a significant biomass cost. Changing would also make you vulnerable for a few seconds.

### OH GOD WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT
A changeling should have the option to take full advantage of the fact it has full control of its biology. Stuff like rapidly extruding chitin armor to protect itself, turning its arms into blades, you know the drill.
A changeling in murder mode would, of course, be incredibly obvious, but more than that, an immense threat.

Changelings that decide to be murder machines will need a lot of biomass to sustain their changes, as changing their body to fit the situation is important. This encourages more murder and eating more crew, to sustain the murder and eating more crew.

### Stealth
A changeling should have the option to be stealthy. Like in SS13, it should be able to disguise itself as anyone, though anything non-organic should be excluded.

A stealthy changeling won't need as much biomass - changing between human forms will be relatively cheap. This would normally encourage slow, boring gameplay, but... what if a stealthy changeling could pick a target, infect them with something to increase the biomass they gain, and then stalk and kill them for higher profit? That would allow really interesting RP scenarios, and scare the crew shitless through a silent killer slowly picking them off.

## Further thoughts (morphs and stuff)
CrudeWax had a cool idea about Changelings being good at mimicking organics, and Morphs being good at mimicking objects like vending machines. I thought that was an interesting idea worth mentioning.