River may seem like the chillest dude on earth, but it comes at a cost. When tensions run high, he may lose control, transforming into a horrible mixture of man and beast. His flesh warps in unpredictable and horrific ways, growing and reabsorbing limbs and extremities in a chaotic expression of his passion.
Exert your Mind and spend a Quick Action. Whenever you fail or botch a Trauma or Self-Control roll, you must activate this Effect.
You transform into a monstrous mixture of human and beast for 3 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are a monstrous mixture of human and beast, and you can use your equipment. Your Battle Scars, Injuries, and physical Liabilities are carried over between forms. Reverting from your Alternate Form cannot cause your existing Injuries to kill you. Instead, you remain Incapacitated.
While transformed, your Brawn is increased by 2 and your Dexterity is increased by 2. You do not suffer any Stress while transformed.
Your body is adapted to demolishing and sprinting. You receive +3 dice on non-attack rolls related to demolishing and sprinting.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see transformation into a kronenbergian nightmare.
Your alternate form renders you unable to speak any human language and incapable of fine object manipulation. You can only hold or grasp objects in a crude, clumsy way.
While transformed, you automatically fail any Mind roll to resist an impulse and suffer -3 dice on all other Mind rolls.
Injecting the serum into the neck of someone, their body mutates as they swell up black biomass and blood expelling itself out of the user's pores that drains their intellect in exchange for unbridled power. Converting the poor user into an armored berserker, hellbent on destruction.
Lewis’s experiments have achieved a new breaking point as he has discovered ways to tap into the potential of human evolution and create soldiers who know only how to fight.
Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1, use up this syringe filled with red liquid (unless you succeed on 1d10, Difficulty 7), and spend a Quick Action. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you gain traumatic brain injury.
You transform into A hulking mindless berserker clad in black organic knight armor for 3 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are A hulking mindless berserker clad in black organic knight armor, and you can use your equipment. The Injuries and Battle Scars of your Alternate Form and your true form are tracked separately.
While transformed, your Brawn is increased by 2, your Dexterity is increased by 2, and your Perception is increased by 2. You do not suffer any Stress while transformed.
Your alternate form is its own deadly weapon. Unarmed attacks made in your alternate form deal +3 Weapon Damage (instead of the typical -1).
While transformed, instead of your normal clothes and equipment, you are equipped with: Organic black plate mail (Armor 4)
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see the user's body swelling up and becoming a monstrous berserker leaking blood and biomass.
Your alternate form renders you unable to speak any human language and incapable of fine object manipulation. You can only hold or grasp objects in a crude, clumsy way.
After this Effect ends, you cannot move quicker than a walk (15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.
Whenever you enter Combat, roll Self-Control. If you fail, you cannot choose which targets to attack and cannot stop fighting until there are no targets remaining.
While transformed, you automatically fail any Mind roll to resist an impulse and suffer -3 dice on all other Mind rolls.
If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.
As the change overtakes him, Norman is instantly engulfed in a violent flash of blood-red flame, the searing light swallowing his human form in less than a heartbeat. With a guttural, agonized scream that twists the soul, his already imposing figure contorts and swells in a blur of impossible speed. Where Norman once stood, an abomination towers—a nightmarish, eldritch beast over nine feet tall. Its hide is covered with thick fur; a swirling, reddish-brown coat constantly rippling as if alive, radiating waves of unnatural heat. Two jagged and ribbed horns rip from its skull and curve menacingly backwards and to the sides, their edges glowing faintly with feverish energy. The creature’s eyes burn with a sickly, otherworldly glow, and its mouth stretches into a savage rictus, exposing an arsenal of needle-like, interlocking fangs. The air seems to warp and shudder around it, reality recoiling from each of its thunderous, echoing steps. The transformation ends as suddenly as it began, leaving the world ringing with the echo of Norman’s tortured scream and the lingering, acrid scent of scorched earth—a horrifying reminder of the eldritch power now unshackled.
Exert your Mind and spend a Quick Action.
You transform into an Eldritch Beast for 30 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are an Eldritch Beast, and you can use your equipment. The Injuries and Battle Scars of your Alternate Form and your true form are tracked separately.
While transformed, your Attributes are the same. Your Stress is reduced by 2.
You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see an eldritch, demonic and feral creature emerge from the burst skin of a polite southern gentleman.
Your alternate form renders you unable to speak any human language and incapable of fine object manipulation. You can only hold or grasp objects in a crude, clumsy way.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Uncontrollable Anger.
Apex Cryptid: The Primordial Shift
The moment you activate this power, a deep, guttural resonance hums through the air—like a chorus of ancient, forgotten beasts calling from the dark corners of the earth. Your body twists and stretches, bones popping and muscles coiling into unfamiliar shapes. Your skin ripples with patterns that seem to mimic the natural camouflage of apex predators long thought extinct. Scales, fur, or chitinous plates may shimmer across your form, shifting with every step as though the essence of cryptids from across the globe surges through your veins.
Your human instincts dull as primal instincts take hold. Words become foreign; the structure of language replaced by a heightened awareness of your surroundings. The scent of fear hangs like a thick mist, every sound sharpened into a potential threat or prey. Your hands become crude tools—talons, claws, or massive, rugged fingers that can grasp but never delicately control.
Stress dissolves as the primal mindset overtakes you. The noise of human worries is replaced with the singular clarity of survival and dominance. In this form, you are an echo of the unknown, the whispered terror of campfire stories given flesh.
Apex Cryptid → Amalgamation of Cryptids: The Unveiling
If the battle turns against you—if pain strikes deep and the cryptid essence within senses true danger—a terrifying metamorphosis unfolds.
Your body convulses, and the injuries that should cripple you instead fuel a grotesque evolution. Limbs elongate and twist, growing jagged with predatory adaptations stolen from creatures lost to time. Gills flare along your neck. Serrated fangs emerge where human teeth once sat. The eyes of countless predators open across your body, each gazing with predatory instinct.
For one breathless minute, you become the embodiment of earth’s cryptid lore—a walking nightmare of mismatched power. Movement becomes instinctive, effortless. Every step feels like a hunt, and every breath crackles with the potential of the predator’s pounce. The air itself seems to recoil, bending to your unnerving presence
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
You transform into Apex Cryptid for 30 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are Apex Cryptid, and you can use your equipment. The Injuries and Battle Scars of your Alternate Form and your true form are tracked separately.
While transformed, your Attributes are the same. Your Stress is reduced by 2.
If you take Injuries totaling 4 Severity or higher while transformed, you recover all Injuries and change into Amaglamation Of Crytids Across the earth. All dice rolls are at -1 Difficulty for the next minute or until this Effect ends. Cooldown 1 day.
Your alternate form renders you unable to speak any human language and incapable of fine object manipulation. You can only hold or grasp objects in a crude, clumsy way.
After this Effect ends, you cannot move quicker than a walk (15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.
User becomes rather soft and flexible, and their skin has a sort of snail-like texture. User’s body also rejects all meat! User can only eat vegetation. How odd…
You gain the following benefits at all times.
You are permanently and visibly transformed: just a squishy dude?. You are considered to be a Sapient, Living being when targeted.
You can squeeze through any cracks and passageways a cat would be able to.
Lorelai has gained enough control over her lycantropy to be able to use her alternate form to her advantage. Her form suddenly shifts to that of a muscular, antropomorphic wolf, turning her claws and fangs into deadly weapons and allowing her to shrug off grievous wounds.
Exert your Mind and spend a Quick Action.
You transform into a white-tailed werewolf for 30 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are a white-tailed werewolf, and you can use your equipment. Your Battle Scars, Injuries, and physical Liabilities are carried over between forms. Reverting from your Alternate Form cannot cause your existing Injuries to kill you. Instead, you remain Incapacitated.
While transformed, your Brawn is increased by 1 and your Dexterity is increased by 1. You do not suffer any Stress while transformed.
Your alternate form is its own deadly weapon. Unarmed attacks made in your alternate form deal +3 Weapon Damage (instead of the typical -1).
After this Effect ends, you cannot move quicker than a walk (15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.
While transformed, you automatically fail any Mind roll to resist an impulse and suffer -3 dice on all other Mind rolls.
The werewolf unleashes their inner beast, transforming into an imposing hybrid of human and wolf. Their head reforms into that of a wolf, robbing them of speech but bestowing a maw of deadly fangs. Grey fur sprouts from their body as it swells with muscle, ripping any tight-fitting clothes. While transformed, the werewolf is impulsive and driven more by instinct than logic.
If The Werewolf is struck my moonlight, they are compelled to transform.
Exert your Mind and spend a Quick Action.
You transform into a werewolf for 3 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are a werewolf, and you can use your equipment. Your Battle Scars, Injuries, and physical Liabilities are carried over between forms. Reverting from your Alternate Form cannot cause your existing Injuries to kill you. Instead, you remain Incapacitated.
While transformed, your Brawn is increased by 2 and your Dexterity is increased by 2. You do not suffer any Stress while transformed.
Your alternate form is its own deadly weapon. Unarmed attacks made in your alternate form deal +3 Weapon Damage (instead of the typical -1).
Your alternate form renders you unable to speak any human language and incapable of fine object manipulation. You can only hold or grasp objects in a crude, clumsy way.
After this Effect ends, you cannot move quicker than a walk (15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.
While transformed, you automatically fail any Mind roll to resist an impulse and suffer -3 dice on all other Mind rolls.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Whenever you are struck by the light of a full or gibbous moon, you must roll Self-Control to resist transforming. Triggers a max of once per night.