Shifter Overview

The Las Vegas Shifters, An Introduction:

Please Also Read: Shifter FAQ's and faction info for more detailed information.

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The basic idea for Sin City's shapeshifters is, “beasts in a gilded cage.” Tourists come to Las Vegas to see things they can't see elsewhere. Many casinos have nightly shows involving shapeshifters, and there are even some casinos built entirely around preternatural themes. In these places shapeshifters can live openly and without fear — but only so long as they respect the invisible bars of their gilded cage.

Las Vegas is above all else a tourist paradise. Anything that frightens the tourists is bad for business. A wereleopard might be encouraged to slink around the casino in animal form, but the instant all the flashing lights and loud noises get too much, the instant some poorly-supervised toddler grabs fur and cruelly twists it, the instant the tourists stop believing they are perfectly safe… the casino hopes you enjoyed your time in the spotlight, because you'll never work on the Strip again. All it takes is ten seconds of frustration to end a career, and what had been a proud and noble creature prowling around like a queen in the neon jungle is now stripping in an off-the-Strip club for a quarter the pay.

Shapeshifters even distrust other shapeshifters. The casinos hire preternaturals (largely the Pack) to serve as high-level security. After all, when you have to fire a preternatural for scaring the tourists, they might not take the dismissal too well: it pays to have your own preternaturals around to keep you safe. This creates division and harsh feelings within the preternatural community: for all that people might talk a good game about how all shapeshifters are in it together, the reality is the community is deeply stressed and might come apart at any time. Powerful Alphas lead the respective shapeshifter groups, and keep these factions in line through leadership, force of will, and sometimes naked violence. Many Shifter groups have a symbiotic relationship with the Vampires, to the mutual benefit of both groups and enhancing the general opinion of Las Vegas being a titillating playground.

Many Shapeshifters live in community dwellings, especially the newly infected. One bad, uncontrolled rampage means bad business for everyone, and it is in the community's best interest to keep their members safe. There is often a system in place for making sure the newly infected are cared for, involving a buddy system of sorts depending on the group and the leaders.

Leaders, like the shifters themselves, are made, not born. Most shifters have an ingrained need to collect into groups through a primitive instinct for protection and safety. It is natural that leaders would rise (and fall) within these groups. In general, these people tend to be driven in nature and focused on their groups. Power can be as good a reason to become a group leader as is an altruistic interest in the group's advancement in the social structure of Las Vegas.

Shapeshifters occupy a strange spot in Las Vegas: so long as shapeshifters know their place they may live without fear, but the instant they try to break out of the gilded cage the combined economic, social and legal force of Las Vegas falls down upon them.

Application Information

  • Other weres are accepted on a case-by-case basis. This will require further application/persuasion.
  • Wolves are assumed to belong to the Pack; rats to the Nest; great cats to the Hunt.
  • No one has a right to a Leadership slot. Lead shapeshifters will be given to players who create RP for others, are friendly to newbies, and work with Staff to create a good environment for others. If you get turned down for an Leader slot, it doesn't mean we think you're a problem player or that we don't trust you: it just means either (a) there is already a leader, or (b) we haven't seen enough of your RP yet. However, we do encourage players to try and overthrow the existing leadership if it is within your PC's design to do so. As a warning, however: we will endeavor to support our active leaders and tend to frown upon newbie players just looking to make conflict. This makes everyone sad.
  • Cursed shifters will need a supportive background.

General Information

  • Being a shapeshifter is as much a curse as it is a blessing. ‘Out’ shapeshifters face all kinds of social discrimination — some overt, and some very subtle. The same NPC that is entranced by your grace in a casino show might be terrified of you in a Starbucks. Remember the theme: “beasts in a gilded cage.”
  • While we expect players to be courteous and friendly, shapeshifter characters live in an urban jungle and have the hearts that are as much animal as human. Shapeshifters are not huggable animatronic animals.
  • Play smart. Weres who go out of control may soon find themselves facing severe IC consequences.
  • You are part of a team. If one member of the Pack goes berserk on the Strip, all Pack characters may have to deal with consequences in one way or another. ("Those werewolves! They're all alike, the lot of them!") Likewise for the Nest and the Hunt.
  • Being a member of one group does not give you membership in another. It's possible to be popular in the Nest, but have the Pack want to kill you on sight.
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