Does the Were-Form Stress Track Change When You Shift?

[evirenia]

Hey everyone,

I've been playing a were-form character in a friend's campaign, and just realized that I've been assuming something that may not be true. I know that the Beast Change power that comes with a Were-Form's list of musts allows you to reorder your skill list when your character changes between forms, but does that also extend to your stress tracks? It would only make sense...but nowhere in the rules is it stated, and the character sheets I've found for were-forms have space for two skill lists but not two stress tracks.

What do you all think?

[Cadd]

p176 actually does indicate what happens, in my mind. It talks of what happens to extra stressboxes when shifting away from them. To me, that indicates that you re-calculate your stress track as the skills they are derived from shifts up and down.

[Haru]

Yes, you recalculate the stress boxes. Often the stress boxes that are only available sometimes are noted in brackets. For example, a character with mediocre endurance in human form and great endurance in wolf form plus supernatural toughness. I would write that down like this:

OO (OO) (OOOO)

So the first two boxes are always active, the next two boxes are from the increased endurance, and the last 4 are from toughness and therefore subject to the catch. Some people only make one bracket, I suppose, but I like the distinction between increased skill and toughness powers, so I know where to apply the catch.

[evirenia]

Thanks Haru and Cadd - that's really helpful. I've been using a fillable pdf, so representing it's going to be a little silly until I figure out another way. I wish there was a more elegant way to represent gaining or losing stress boxes with beast change...

Cadd - I'm not seeing what you're talking about on p. 176, but I'll take your word for it!

[Taran]

Here's a question related to this:

Let's say, in wolf form, I have an Endurance of Superb, which gives me an extra mild consequence.  Assuming I've filled both those milds, what happens to the extra mild when I shift back into human form and my endurance drops to +3?

[Haru]

It stays as is. Your opponents still have the opportunity to invoke it to their advantage, and it has to heal like any other. You just can't take the additional mild consequence in human form, but once it is there, it is part of your character in both forms.

It's the same with stress boxes. Just because you change back to human doesn't mean that the additional stress boxes are gone and you are immediately taken out. They are still filled, you just can't fill them in human form.

[PatchR]

I'm not sure I agree philosophically about the downshifting from wolf to man not taking you out if your injury is grievous enough, but it looks that way mechanically.

[Cadd]

Cadd - I'm not seeing what you're talking about on p. 176, but I'll take your word for it!

It's the notes in the margin, right next to the Human Form power.
Note: This is p176 going by the numbers printed in the book, in my pdf, Adobe considers that page to be 177.

[PatchR]

Only margin on page 176 is about Kravos.

[Haru]

Only margin on page 176 is about Kravos.

You might be having the pre-release PDF.

[Cadd]

to clear it up: (unless this is posting too much of the book, if so, please delete)

(click to show/hide)

What happens if you shapeshift out of a form that has a power ability with extra stress boxes? And what if those boxes are checked off?

You lose access to those boxes, but the checkmarks don’ t go away. You aren’t instantly taken out, but if you later bring those boxes BACK, they’ ll still have those check marks unless enough time has passed.