Fetch, also known as doppelgangers, are creatures of lost-and-found identity. They are inherently enigmatic because their defining feature allows them to blend in with most any society. A fetch can change their body to match that of anyone they’ve seen, and make further minor adjustments to alter that appearance. Though a main suspect of identity theft, doppelgangers most often keep a portfolio of personalized identities which they rotate through like a person may change clothes.
Regardless of how or why they use their shapeshifting, their abilities force some level of social intuition and interaction, and a heavy amount of people-watching. Fetch’s which have grown up around others of their kind often share a common trait as if they were all in the same family.
The LARP variation of this legacy can be found HERE
Playstyle
The fetch can be extremely social creatures, but they are explicitly observant creatures. They understand what form might best appeal-to, or be unnoticed-by, a specific character or group of people. They have a natural propensity for deception and subterfuge and empathy.
Even good-natured fetch face mistrust, and the line between a familiar face and an invasion of privacy is not always clear. Play a changeling if you want a character with a fluid perspective of self-identity and which can easily appear inconsequential to outsiders.
References: Eberron’s Changelings, The Prestige, Mystique, Skrulls
Visual Identity
The fetch do not have a base form lying underneath their current appearance, but an ever changing identity that evolves with the present need and their memories of the past. However, all fetch have identifiers that show up in most of their forms – favored traits and biases which the fetch have become attached to. For example, a close-knit community of fetch may have the capacity to appear in any humanoid shape, but all favor red hair, pointed ears, or sharpened teeth. For traveling fetch, these favored traits slowly hyperbolize their initial inspirations, favoring the remembered impression over visual accuracy.
When making a fetch, consider what traits carry over between different forms, and what experiences and individuals caused those traits to give a lasting impression on your character.
Signature Ability: Mutable Appearance
The fetch have freedom to change their bodily appearance with just a few seconds of mental effort. Although they must remain humanoid and can only mimic traits they have seen on other humanoids, a fetch can mix-and-match the traits, and tweak and exaggerate them even further, allowing for a unique look.
These changes include voice, coloration, hair color and length, sex, height, and weight, but does not alter attribute or skill values. Fetch can alter their height between 1-3 meters. Shapeshifting can also mimic additional limbs and tails, but such additions hang loosely and are difficult to manipulate. A fetch’s shapeshifting can even alter the texture of their skin, matching scales, fur, and even plant-like forms. However, a fetch’s shape-changing ability does not affect the items they hold or wear.
Disadvantage: Compulsive Motivations
To a natural actor, appearance comes with baggage. When mimicking an individual or incorporating parts of their visage into a fetch’s own image, the perceived intents of that individual worm their way into the fetch’s mind. A fetch will find it difficult to act negatively towards people their visage’s originator is friendly towards, and difficult to act positively to those their visage dislikes. Furthermore, a fetch will feel the constant compulsion to pursue their visage’s perceived goals.
A fetch takes a cut of 1 on any action checks when acting against the goals and wishes of their visage’s originator. Likewise, they must make a resolve check if they see an easy opportunity to assist the visage owner’s goals and want to resist doing so.
Separately, as magical creatures, fetch cannot cross a threshold uninvited.
Designer Note: Assumed Identity and Motivations
A fetch’s shapeshifting nature does not provide additional insight on the personality and wants of their mimicked targets. The compulsion to pursue a mimicked target’s interest is entirely based on the fetch’s perceived understanding of that character.
For players following compulsions based on character presumptions, care to consider the source of the compulsion to ensure it comes from a trait based on their target’s perceived character, not their target’s appearance. Care to avoid creating compulsions based on stereotypes and prejudices.
Merits
Merits represent the core characteristics, traits, gear, and companions that a character has at their disposal. Merits Tracks represent a form of character health, merits help make actions easier to perform, and many merits provide unique powers and abilities for a character to take advantage of.
Each legacy has 1 signature merit (underlined below), a powerful and complex merit that provides the core ability characters within that legacy are known for. Signature merits can be further enhanced with the meta merits of the same legacy, up to the number of Meta Slots the signature merit has (see the following list after regular Merits).
| Signature Merit | Effect | Track | Meta Slots |
| Mutable Appearance | You can alter your body to mimic that of another humanoid creature you have seen. This includes voice, coloration, hair color and length, sex, height (1-3 meters), and weight. | 2 | 1 |
| A fetch’s entire body and anatomy has no distinctive appearance, except when it shifts to change appearance. | |||
| Doppelganger Merits | Effect | Track |
| Piecemeal Parts | You can adopt metals and other materials into your body. You may hide esoterics and mundane materials inside your body. | 4 |
| A collection of materials makeup parts of your body | ||
| Clone Masks | Mark to create a masked clone of yourself, with your attributes, skills, and merits, but only a track of 1. You may act, hear, and see through either body. If you already have 1 clone, creating another causes the other to painlessly dissolve. | 2 |
| Ornate porcelain masks with an inked expression of intense emotion. | ||
| Shiftweave Clothing | You wear clothing that can change its appearance at your will, though it must always remain cloth. | 4 |
| An iridescent fabric sewn by mindweavers and an unnatural silk. | ||
| Amalgamate Cuffs | Mark to place one cuff on yourself and the other on a willing creature. Merge with that creature’s body, with its body taking on faint visible, physical alterations to resemble your last form. You may use any senses or body parts the owner allows you to. You or the other creature can unmerge at any time | 4 |
| A pair of identical metallic cuffs ornamented with cracked glass and stone. | ||
| Skill Replication Lenses | When incorporating the visage of someone, you can mark to temporarily replace the level of one of your skills with the level of the visage owner’s same skill, up until you next change your appearance. | 4 |
| A set colored contact lenses that change the shape of the wearer’s pupils. | ||
| Background Character | When not present in a scene and not otherwise occupied, you can mark to claim to have been an unnamed character within the scene (confirm with the GM). | 4 |
| A semi-professional bag filled with various forms of attire and identities. | ||
| Copy Cat Hat | When attempting an action that you have recently seen someone else do, increase the effect of your action. | 3 |
| A shapeshifting hat that grows slightly tighter when the wielder starts to mess up an action. | ||
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META Merits
Meta Merits alter or enhance a legacy’s signature merit and automatically extend that merit’s track with their own. Meta merits are unique to their legacy and cannot enhance any merit other than the signature merit of the same legacy.
| Meta Doppelganger Merits | Effect | Track |
| Shifting Wounds | When you use Mutable Appearance, you may re-allocate and rearrange marks on physical, body-based merits and other Fetch merits | – |
| Extra Shapes | When you use Mutable Appearance, you may incorporate elements from one non-humanoid creature that you have recently seen. Add a descriptive tag to this merit based on the additional incorporated elements. Next time you use this ability, replace the previous elements and the associated tag with a the new one. |
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| Mutable Aura | When you use Mutable Appearance, your magical aura matches your new appearance | – |
| Instilled Knowledge | While using Mutable Appearance to mimic a creature’s appearance, you acquire some of the creature’s general knowledge, allowing you to speak any languages or niche-expertise-babble the creature could speak. | – |
| Portfolio | You can save up to 5 exact appearances to utilize for future reference. | – |
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Alternative Concepts
Body Snatchers,