[Space/Thaumatology] Stargate: Fantasy - Worldbuilding thread

[Kesendeja]

Shapeshifting Question I

1. Only spirits and actual gods (the Ascended in canon) can shapeshift.
2. Spirits and gods, as well as powerful 'mortal' beings like the Goa'Uld and High Elves are able to shapeshift.

Honestly these two have my highest vote.

4. Learnable shapeshifting abilities (e.g. spells and rituals) exist, and do not require overwhelming power.
8. Artifacts and magic items that induce or grant shapeshifting abilities (or that curse the wearer with involuntary shapeshifting) may be encountered.

These would be alright as well. But I would say that the power requirements would need to be raised to at least moderate/high, but still not overwhelming. It would also leave open the option for curses, just not inherited ones.

[Prince Charon]

Three voters is kind of a small consensus. Poll remains open, so does anyone else feel like weighing in?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Three voters is kind of a small consensus. Poll remains open, so does anyone else feel like weighing in?

I'm not strongly invested in the question but I'll give the nod to 1 through 5 plus 8 (which is mostly just a variant of 5). These are all typically magical. 6 and 7 I find to be optional..

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Three voters is kind of a small consensus. Poll remains open, so does anyone else feel like weighing in?

I like Varyon's vote.

[Prince Charon]

Shapeshifting Question II

Rather than just totally up the numbers of the previous vote, should I just make Varyon's vote (quoted below for clarity) canon for this setting?

Originally Posted by Varyon

I'll vote for 2 (Spirits/Gods/Powerful Mortals), 3 (races with inherited shapeshifting), 6 (slime girls people), 7 (swarms), and 8 (artifacts). I'd like to add the caveat that while Spirits/Gods/Powerful Mortals can have relatively open-ended shapeshifting (that is, the Morph Advantage), the others should be more limited. Races with inherited shapeshifting should either only have one (or maybe a few) Alternate Form(s) or have a form of shapeshifting that largely-maintains their base form, so they can't really pass as something they aren't, like the Uryuoms from El Goonish Shive - they can change their form significantly (Lavender there is SM+0 rather than the default ~SM-2, has a full head of hair rather than being bald, has a Caucasian skin tone rather than being a shade of green, and has very human-feminine body structure rather than being genderless), but are still clearly uryuoms. Slimes and swarms should also be fairly obvious what they are (unless purposefully concealed; both would be well-served by illusion magic, or just wearing a mundane disguise that covers their clearly-inhuman nature), and artifacts should probably only grant one (or maybe a few) Alternate Form(s), just like being born a werecat or whatever.

Please respond with YES in all caps or NO in all caps.

*******

Answer: Varyon's idea wins, three votes to two.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Shapeshifting Question II

I'll go with YES, but I'm admittedly a bit biased here.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Shapeshifting Question II

Rather than just totally up the numbers of the previous vote, should I just make Varyon's vote (quoted below for clarity) canon for this setting?



Please respond with YES in all caps or NO in all caps.

*******

Answer: .

NO (no slimes, no swarms)

[Kesendeja]

NO, personally It's too crowded. I'm going to stick with my original vote. If we have to have to have racial shapeshifters, I'd go with changeling types, the subtle ones who can only do mild cosmetic changes.

[adm]

YES .

[TGLS]

Well it'd just be awkward if I didn't say YES