I've got shapeshifters, now what?

So, I got this brief spark of an idea for a setting that involves people who can turn into animals (think Animorphs or Sam Merlotte). Most shifters have a "go-to" form that they use more often than others (such as a specific kind of dog/bird/whatever), and they generally first "spark" when they're in their teens, a la homo superior. I'm leaving it vague as to the source of their powers: Maybe aliens, maybe magic, maybe a lab experiment; who knows?

There's a slight Masquerade going on: Generally, people know about shifters, but it's not really a subject that comes up that often; and the shifters themselves don't really go around shouting it from the rooftops.

And this is where I've gotten stuck. What can I do with this set-up? Just having them fight evil shapeshifters seems kinda dull; but I don't know what else to do with it. Suggestions?

I imagine that the existence of shapeshifters could impact a great many elements of life and work—I suspect that one might find potential stories of a wide variety of types.

So, I suppose that the first question is this: What sort of story do you want to write? Action? Thriller? Romance? Drama? Slice of life? Something else entirely?

A few potential lines of thought:

• How might shapeshifting affect various jobs, both action-related (such as in the military) and otherwise?
• How might shapeshifting affect society, and how does society view shapeshifters?
• How might shapeshifting affect day-to-day life? What things might shapeshifters do differently to non-shapeshifters?
• What advantages and disadvantages might shapeshifting confer? (Perhaps try thinking about various animal forms that a shifter might take on, and what advantages and disadvantages might come with them.)

edited 9th May '16 4:34:04 PM by ArsThaumaturgis

Generic suggestion coming in:

You could go fantasy kitchen sink and have the shapeshifters fight off aliens and supernatural baddies that are secretly threatening the normal population.

The above would of course be in addition to a turf war between the 'good' shapeshifters and 'bad' shapeshifters who have different ideas about how to exploit their powers.

All very good ideas.

My two cents: Since humans are animals, you could have shapeshifters who specialize in mimicking other people's forms. These shifters could easily become assassins, bodyguards, and the like; their existence would make life pretty scary for people in positions of power and influence. Heck, they'd make life scarier for ordinary people; identity theft would be even harder to fight.

Good point. If you can change yourself to match one animal, you could probably do it to match another.

On the whole espionage/assassination thing, In a World… where humans can change into a variety of animals, one would presume that savvy people would be suspicious of any dogs, cats, birds etc anywhere near their secret stuff - be it military, government or competitive big business - that cat sniffing around the dumpster could be really sniffing around to see what secrets it can find by peering through the windows into the factory floor...

I imagine there would also be methods to copy humans exactly, all the way down to the minutia of the face. What of fingerprints? Footprints?

Sorry I haven't written back in a while; my computer's being a jackass.

Anyway, in response to one of the first responses, I was thinking more along the lines of action-adventure. I just don't wanna end up creating another Manimal knockoff. One thing I got to considering was the possibility of a secret group of shifters that's on the side of the angels, "The Order of Whatsis", which has been around since who-knows-when. They'd have uniforms that'd change along with the characters when they shifted, to avoid the whole nudity thing (unless the series is picked up by Showtime or HBO).

Some other options with shifters (these could be completely random; some might have all of them, some might have none, some might have one or two):

• 'FULL MOON FEVER: For some reason, the shifter feels the uncontrollable need to transform into their "go-to" form during a full moon, a la lycanthropy.
• IDENTIFYING MARKS: Two versions: 1). Their go-to form has markings similar to their human form (ex. Bob has tattoos on his upper arms, and his go-to form [in this case, a monkey], has similar marks on its arms). 2). Every form they take on has coloration similar to them (ex. Alice has black hair and blue eyes. Everything she turns into [whether cat/fish/elephant/etc.] is also black with blue eyes).
• SHIFTER-SENSE: Much like immortals in Highlander can sense the presence of other immortals, shifters can "sense" each other.

edited 12th May '16 12:39:24 PM by Starbug

Cool ideas. Would a brown-skinned person become a brown-skinned dolphin or are you saying their animal skin would be their human hair color?

Can they also become invertebrates or just vertebrates?

You would have to draw the line somewhere. If you can shift into things with no identifiable brain, then readers will ask. Where is the person inside that animal body? How are they still thinking?

Vertebrata have the clade Craniata, which are animals with skulls. This group does not contain insects.

Eumetazoa is the first category that contains both insects (Anthropoda) and vertebrates. It basically includes anything with a recognisable brain. It excludes Sponges

I guess it'd probably vary from case to case. It was just an idea; inspired primarily by Beast Boy or Snowbird. Again, some of the "side-effects" I suggested would be random.

That one I'm not very sure about. It could be suggested that, like Sam Merlotte or the Animorphs, the shifter would have to observe/establish contact with a creature in order to mimic it.

Another option could be that certain animals are easier to shift into than others (varies from shifter to shifter; for instance, cats [from house to jungle] are easy as pie, birds take a little longer, and aquatic creatures are rather painful).

edited 12th May '16 12:47:01 PM by Starbug

Regarding "Full Moon Fever", you could broaden it into a variety of different triggers than just the full Moon, such as emotions running wild or exposure to certain substance. Expanding upon it, a Shifter could potentially gain new triggers as they acquire new animal forms or use/sync with one too much (such as turning into a predator upon smelling/tasting blood) .

In addition, Hybrid & Partial shifting can be a thing, which allows new options for an action-adventure story and make Shifters hot-topic since they're able to form all kinds of biological oddities that scientists would otherwise have to painstakingly figure out.

My thoughts are you can go in two general ways in how shapeshifting fit in the plot: 1. Shapeshifting is central to the plot. Example the villain think shapeshifter should rule over 'normals' 2. Shapeshifting is a tool in the plot. Example you reconstuct the airduct enterance by having the heros turn into mice. It also matter how much world building you want to do. The extemes are: 1. Shapeshifting happens in the foreground but the setting is our world. 2. You really think about it and how society. For example, secure facilities check anything entering for mice (who could be spies).