It's been a while and I kind of stopped blogging out of shame over half-assing the Ink-tober post with the cat and general malaise. But now I'm back and I found a brand new RPG thingy that I'm going to make content for!
Here's a link to the full explanation of MOSAIC Strict. It's basically a standard for writing modular rpg rules that are compatible with everything. There are several reasons I'm switching my very serious niche rpg allegiance to this (aside from the novelty of a new cool sounding label) is that I don't feel my attempts to write my own personal system have borne much fruit because I'm rarely able to muster the energy to run a game, so it's not likely that content ends up being used by anyone. Entirely stand-alone modules that slot equally well into free-form, D&D-adjacents or story-games are more likely to eventually grab someone's interest and plugged into their own game as they please. So far my favorite posts to make have been magical subsystems and the format of MOSAIC Strict allows those systems to stand on their own as complete texts and provides some nice creative restrictions to get a concept across in crisp and clean fashion. MOSAIC Strict by virtue of placing limits on rules but not the fiction, encourages keeping most of the information diegetic, which I like.
On the topic of fiction first approaches, there is an interesting convergent evolution, where independently the GLOGosphere has been playing with the idea of Δ Templates, a method of character progression where if a character fulfills an diegetic trigger they receive some benefit, usually also diegetic, like some of the peripheral moves in Apocopes World. This idea was then expanded on with some templates requiring others to be acquired, allowing for an entirely in character class progression system, like if feat chains in D&D 3e were cool and narratively impactful. The "Delta Tree" that started off this trend was Pyromancy, and the only thing that makes it not MOSAIC Strict is that it's not attested as such. This applies to most of the other Delta Trees that have been inspired by it, except maybe for the fact that that they leave the template format unstated. Delta Trees walk like a MOSAIC module and quack like a MOSAIC module, so I think that both would be enriched if they were associated together. For that reason I'm going to do both right now! Also I guess I'm not actually ending my friendship with GLOG and Into The Odd, but I had to say it, for the meme.
Also while I was writing this post, MOSAIC Strict has already become a known thing among the gretchlings, so I guess this is directed more to people not in the GLOGosphere?
Δelta: Transfiguration
Have you ever wished that you were different? Have you ever envied the form of someone's nose or the silhouette of a bird high in the clouds? Has circumstance put you in a body that doesn't fit you? And ironically there are people out there in the world who have what you need but are just as dissatisfied, because they need what you have. Luckily there are those who can help.
The Fleshmongers, the Chimera-Nurses and the Beastwrights, beings who are able to swap body parts like articles of clothes, rearrange organs as they see fit and sculpt bodies like clay. They are as varied as their powers. In some places they are monsters hunted down for crimes against nature, in others they are tolerated for the services they provide, and in other places celebrated as miracle workers and practice their Art with pride. Should you seek them out, their appearance will be just as varied, some look entirely human, others look like a hodge-podge of unrelated elements or beautiful beyond compare.
The secret of the Transfigurist's power lies in the Chimera Gland, an organ that has two significant properties. It grants the power to transfigure at the cost of preventing growth. Those with the gland are unable to grow up, though they can grow old, they cannot bear children, their wounds hardly heal and physical training amounts to nothing but lost time and a sore body. Fortunately a transfigurist's body is still able to maintain homeostasis. Practitioners have to actively monitor the operation of their bodies, but in return are able to have much greater mastery over their form. The generally accepted way to receive a Gland is from a master who proceeds to teach you the Art.
Creatures that have been changed by transfiguration but do not possess the Gland, grow and wilt like any other. Notably transfigurations do not get passed down.
Each Transfiguration Method follows the format of a Name in bold and ranked, a requirement in italics which describes how one could gain the Method and description in normal text, which describes what it does. To get a Method you need to have at least 1 Method of a lower rank.
Methods of Transfiguration:
(0) Sculpt Flesh:Have a Chimera Gland. Losing it to an exchange or injury means you can't perform transfigurations, but you still remember how.If your body is relaxed, you are able to morph, merge and woundlessly split body parts using a dexterous appendage. This allows you to pinch the outer ear to make it pointy, detach it by tracing around it with a nail and reattach it by placing it against skin and smoothing it over with a thumb, but moving the inner ear requires you to carefully "dig out" the parts and place them transfer them into a new opening you've split somewhere else. Organs outside a body can survive for several hours before becoming dead and useless. An poorly done transfiguration can be debilitating or lead to death.
(1) Body Control:For 3 days and 3 nights you cannot use any of your limbs, mouths or other appendages for their intended uses, and must instead use some other body part in their place. If you ever use something the way it's supposed to work such as hands for grasping or mouths for chewing and swallowing, start over.As long as you keep focus you can control a specific body part to do what it should not. This allows you to halter and accelerate biological processes at risk of breaking something, organisms are complicated and intricate systems. It also allows you to make soft tissues bend in ways they are not supposed to and even act as dexterous appendages for sculpting flesh.
(1) Exchange Parts:Swap the location of two of your surface elements exactly. Swap two bones and still be able to bend them correctly. Swap the location of two internal organs without complications. If you fail, try again.When holding two body parts of roughly equal size, you are able to swap their location. They can be on two different organisms as long as both of them are relaxed and willing.
(2) Practiced Touch:
Perform a hundred unique transfigurations.
You have practiced in the Art long enough that you can either transfigure safely and reliably or know exactly what the risks and trade-offs are. You've also developed your own distinct style, making your handiwork recognizable to those who know what to look for.
(3) Universal Connection:
Transfigure yourself to be physically inseparable from an organism you consider a person. Live like this for a month. If you are separated, start again.
Methods that could only target yourself, can now target any relaxed and willing organism you are touching. This does allow you to merge multiple organisms into one.
(3) Shape Shift:
Replace all the tissue you were born with, so there is no trace of what you were.
You realize that you never needed an appendage to perform transfigurations, you can freely modify yourself just by willing it. To modify others you still need to be touching them, but where you touch them and what is modified is irrelevant.
(3) Cruel Intent:
First, you must hate yourself, and you must hate others. Spend a year and a day living among people, but without showing any kindness nor being accommodating for anyone's needs but your own. If you are compelled to act for another's benefit, punish them with disproportionate pettiness or start over.
Your Methods work on organisms that are not relaxed or willing, but it will be painful.
The given rules are MOSAIC Strict.
Magical Organ Bartering:
No matter if they are at the heart or the periphery of society, Transfigurists are often able to provide a service for others, so there are always people who seek them out. I don't know what your setting is like and what sort of people are there, but here is a table to help spark ideas of how characters could be motivated to interact with weird creatures. It's by no means a complete list of possibilities.
Wants and Needs:
- Someone has a disability that they have suffered for all their life and want it fixed.
- Someone has a disability they have recently acquired thought misfortune and want it fixed.
- Someone needs a false identity to escape, for political or personal reason.
- Someone has been living with the incorrect body and want it fixed.
- Someone in following the latest fashions, wants a body to match.
- Someone wants to change their body to become better at something.
- Someone is ordered to change their body to better suit a task.
- Roll twice and combine.
Design Discussion:
I remade the Chimeric Exchange spell I made way back and the focus is still very much around creating space for weird hybrid creatures, with added support for unusually proportioned beings. This Δelta is as much for creating NPCs as PCs, and is arguably more suited for creating powerful allies or terrifying enemies.
I decided that Chimeric Gland is an organ that gets passed around with Transfiguration to keep the subsystem MOAIC Strict. I then decided that it has the disadvantage of prohibiting growth because I think it's an interesting restriction because it encourages Transfigurists to think of bodies differently compared to normal people and gives them weird challenges that only they have to worry about.
Transfigurists need a lot of friendly living things around to be at their most effective. A transfigurist can significantly impact a community that lets them, in a role that's something like a doctor. They can also be weird dudes in the woods who spend their time making owlbears and skunkducks. I find the first dynamic more interesting and Cruel Intent is meant to reflect that. If there is someone exists who has Cruel Intent then something
has gone wrong, because unless your directly oppressing people you have to at least pretend to play nice.
This Δelta doesn't add many abilities, but these abilties do allow you to basically build your own artisanal monster so I think it's fine.
Addition: This is dreadfully important. Shape Shift allows you to do the thing the wizard in
this cartoon is constantly doing, and what else would you want magic for?
