09-10-2019, 07:11 PM
I was having a conversation with someone and this topic came up. At first I pretty much dismissed it, but the more I think about it, the more sense it makes to me.
Adding one of the 'other body' values for shapechange to include the name displayed. Defaulting to be the same as the human body value, of course, but giving the option to be able to alter it - to one specific alternative at setup. It would need to still be a properly identifying name, of course, but I think there are a lot of characters in the game already who would benefit from such an ability.
There are several characters with some degree or flavor of 'possession' in which they are two distinct "people" - some with and some without the knowledge of the other 'half' of themselves. (One perfect example, Dagon/Kelien. The human is Kelien while the dragon is Dagon, and Kelien is largely unaware of Dagon.) There are a number of shapeshifters of one sort or another who take great pains to keep the knowledge that human and animal forms are the same being secret. (My own Aniqa is this way, as are at least some of the werewolves, for example.)
Something like this would make that particular type of RP much easier for those folk, and help reduce unintentional meta'ing. (It happens a lot, and leads to having to have an OOC bit of convo, which really breaks the flow of RP.)
I would think, as long as it was only one (optional) alternative, properly identifying, set during setup, especially with the .look not changing, the potential for abuse is not much different than being able to have multiple characters, which we already have.
Adding one of the 'other body' values for shapechange to include the name displayed. Defaulting to be the same as the human body value, of course, but giving the option to be able to alter it - to one specific alternative at setup. It would need to still be a properly identifying name, of course, but I think there are a lot of characters in the game already who would benefit from such an ability.
There are several characters with some degree or flavor of 'possession' in which they are two distinct "people" - some with and some without the knowledge of the other 'half' of themselves. (One perfect example, Dagon/Kelien. The human is Kelien while the dragon is Dagon, and Kelien is largely unaware of Dagon.) There are a number of shapeshifters of one sort or another who take great pains to keep the knowledge that human and animal forms are the same being secret. (My own Aniqa is this way, as are at least some of the werewolves, for example.)
Something like this would make that particular type of RP much easier for those folk, and help reduce unintentional meta'ing. (It happens a lot, and leads to having to have an OOC bit of convo, which really breaks the flow of RP.)
I would think, as long as it was only one (optional) alternative, properly identifying, set during setup, especially with the .look not changing, the potential for abuse is not much different than being able to have multiple characters, which we already have.