NULL_POINT() // SYSTEM REFERENCE // ARCHETYPES v0.1

Shaper

Static turned inward. The body is the instrument — reshaped, amplified, transgressed.

OVERVIEW

Shapers channel Static inward rather than outward. They do not reshape the net. They do not inhabit machines. They rewrite their own biology in real time — pushing strength past its designed limit, accelerating healing, adapting sensation, and at the far edge of the possible, doing things a body should not be able to do at all. The Static is not a tool they aim. It is something they have learned to become.

Shaping is entirely active and triggered. Nothing happens passively. Every ability must be activated deliberately and paid for in Heat. The body has a budget. Sensitivity determines how much it costs to exceed it — and how badly it goes wrong when you do.

CORE MECHANICS

Physique + Shaping skill — the roll that drives ability activation, cooldown, and sustained shape management.
Heat — accumulates as abilities are activated. Does not reset between combat passes. Crossing thresholds strips bonuses and eventually triggers Catastrophic Overheat.
Heat limit — Physique + Sensitivity. More attuned bodies handle more Static before failing.
Three tracks — Physical Enhancement (open to all), Biological Manipulation (Sensitivity 3+), Transgression (Sensitivity 6+).
The Drift — consequence track. Mechanical bonuses, narrative curses. Branches at Stage 3 into Predator or Vessel.

THE SHAPING SKILL

FOCUSES

Control — managing Heat, sustaining shapes, operating at the edge without going over. Active cooldown rolls, resistance to involuntary overheat effects.
Expression — activating abilities cleanly, maximizing effect, minimizing waste. Net successes on activation may extend duration, reduce Heat cost, or trigger simultaneous activations.
Transgression — operating beyond the boundary of what the body should do. Required for Track 3 ability fluency. Covers controlling involuntary reshaping and managing consequence track advancement.

SPECIALIZATIONS (EXAMPLES)

Combat Endurance (Control) — sustaining shapes in active combat under constant pressure.
Combat Shaping (Expression) — activating abilities as part of or immediately preceding a physical attack.
Covert Shaping (Expression) — activating without visible tells — suppressing the micro-expressions and subcutaneous movement that betray Shaping to observers.
Threshold Walking (Transgression) — operating at later consequence stages without the narrative curses fully manifesting.

SENSITIVITY & SHAPERS

SENSITIVITY INVERSION: Higher Sensitivity gives Shapers a larger Heat limit and access to deeper ability tracks — but it also means the body has shifted further from baseline human. A Sensitivity 6 Shaper's biology is not operating on normal rules even at rest. The power is real. So is the cost.

HOW HEAT WORKS

Every active ability costs Heat when triggered. Heat accumulates across a scene — it does not reset between combat passes. The Shaper's Heat limit is Physique + Sensitivity. As Heat fills toward that limit it crosses thresholds that strip combat bonuses and eventually force the body into failure. A character who manages their Heat well is dangerous for a long time. A character who burns hot gets more out of a short window at severe cost.

DISSIPATION

Passive — 1 Heat per combat pass without activating any ability. Outside combat, 1 Heat per scene of rest.
Active cooldown — Complex action. Roll Grit + Physique vs. TN 3. Each success removes 2 Heat. Cost: the Shaper is visibly struggling — readable to anyone watching as something wrong. Subject to Expression Focus modifier.

HEAT THRESHOLDS

Band	Heat Filled	Effect
Cool	0–25% of limit	No penalty — full access to all unlocked abilities
Warm	26–50% of limit	Minor tells — elevated body temp, visible vascular response
Hot	51–75% of limit	Track 3 abilities locked — body prioritizing stability over transgression
Critical	76–99% of limit	All abilities cost +1 additional Heat — the body is fighting itself
Overheat	100%+	Catastrophic — see below

CATASTROPHIC OVERHEAT

WHAT HAPPENS

All active shapes drop instantly
Physical track takes Severe damage (3 boxes) — the biology rebelling
Shaper must pass a Grit roll vs. TN 4 or be incapacitated for one full combat pass
Involuntary reshaping — GM selects one Transgression-level effect that manifests without the Shaper's consent, lasting until Heat drops below Critical
Drift consequence track advances by one step regardless of current Sensitivity level

FICTIONAL FRAMING

Overheat is survivable but it announces exactly what the Shaper is to anyone watching. The body doing something to them rather than them doing something to their body is a meaningful distinction — and a great horror-adjacent moment in a cyberpunk setting. The involuntary reshaping is not theatrical. It is the Static completing something the Shaper interrupted.

Physical Enhancement is the first and most accessible track — Static pushing the body's existing capabilities past their designed limits. Speed, strength, endurance, resilience. The changes at this level are dramatic but not visibly wrong. A conditioned street runner hits harder than they should. This track explains it.

Surge Heat cost: 1 — lasts one action Explosive muscular output. Next physical action (attack, jump, break) gains +Sensitivity dice. The body does not maintain this — it spends it.

Brace Heat cost: 1 — declared before attack resolves Skeletal and muscular hardening. Adds Sensitivity to armor rating against the next hit only. A reactive defense — the Shaper must anticipate the hit to call it.

Sprint Heat cost: 1 — lasts one turn Metabolic overdrive. Movement this turn treats all range bands as one step closer. Short become point blank. Medium becomes short. The body burns fast to move fast.

Iron Heat cost: 2 — lasts Sensitivity combat passes Sustained physical amplification. All Physique-based rolls gain +2 dice. The body is running above its normal operating threshold — not sprinting, but elevated. Requires reactivation to maintain past its duration.

Reflex Edge Heat cost: 2 — lasts one combat pass, Heat cost applies each time Neural acceleration. Dodge pool increases by Sensitivity dice for this combat pass. Refreshes with the pass but the Heat cost applies each time it is reactivated — sustained acceleration is expensive.

Threshold Heat cost: 3 — lasts Sensitivity combat passes Pain suppression and damage absorption. Wound threshold penalties are ignored for the duration. The body still accumulates damage. The Shaper simply does not register it yet. This is dangerous — the effect ending while the character is severely wounded can be disorienting.

Where Track 1 amplifies, Track 2 rewrites. The Shaper is no longer simply pushing harder — they are directing the body's biological processes at a level below conscious control. Healing accelerates. Senses recalibrate. Toxins are neutralized. The changes at this level are not subtle, but they are inward-facing — the outside world may not immediately see what is happening.

Clot Heat cost: 2 Accelerated coagulation and tissue response. Remove 1 box from the Physical track. Cannot remove boxes above the Severe threshold — this is field repair, not miraculous healing. The tissue responds, not the wound.

Flush Heat cost: 2 Metabolic purge. Clears one chemical or toxin effect. The substance is neutralized but the Heat cost reflects the biological effort of processing it — the body burns its own resources to clear the contamination.

Adapt Heat cost: 2 — lasts Sensitivity combat passes Sensory recalibration. Enhance one sense dramatically for the duration — low light vision, directional hearing, chemical analysis through skin contact. One sense per activation. The world becomes very loud in one specific way.

Mend Heat cost: 3 — 1 additional Heat per pass to maintain Sustained tissue regeneration. At the end of each combat pass while active, remove 1 Stun box. Cannot mend Physical track damage. The body is directing resources toward recovery — this costs something to sustain.

Metabolize Heat cost: 3 — lasts Sensitivity hours Extreme biological efficiency. The Shaper does not need to eat, sleep, or breathe normally for the duration. The body is running on Static instead of biology. Useful for hostile environments. Noticeable to medical scanning — the body's chemical profile is wrong.

Shift Heat cost: 4 — lasts until deactivated, 1 Heat per scene to maintain Structural biological alteration. Fingers elongate into usable tools, jaw articulates past normal range, eyes adjust focal length dramatically. Functional. Deeply unsettling to observers who see it happen. The body cooperates with the request.

TRANSGRESSION LOCK: Track 3 abilities are locked when Heat is at the Hot threshold (51%+) or above. The body is prioritizing stability over transgression. Shapers who want access to their deepest abilities must manage Heat carefully — arriving at the moment they need Transgression with enough capacity left to use it.

Transgression is where the body stops obeying biology and starts obeying the Static. Every ability at this level carries Drift consequence track implications — using them regularly, especially Dissolution, advances the Drift regardless of other trigger conditions. The Shaper who lives in this track is becoming something. The track documents what.

Shed Heat cost: 3 — not subtle Rapid cellular replacement. Remove up to 3 boxes from either track. The old tissue is visibly sloughed — biological material left behind. This is not subtle. The room knows it happened.

Extrude Heat cost: 4 — lasts Sensitivity combat passes Biological weapon formation. Bone or cartilage restructures into a functional weapon at a natural joint — knuckle spurs, forearm blade, finger needles. Damage as light blade, Power 5. Retracting costs a Simple action. The body provides.

Cascade Heat cost: 4 — lasts Sensitivity passes, −1 die to all non-Shaping rolls Full sensory expansion. All senses operate simultaneously at enhanced levels — Static field perception, electronic emissions, net traffic as pressure. Limited Technomancer-level net awareness without the ability to act on it. Extremely disorienting.

Unmake Heat cost: 5 — contact, deeply illegal Contact biological disruption. Touch attack — Physique + Shaping vs. TN 3. Net successes deal Physical track damage directly, bypassing armor. The Static briefly rewrites the target's biology. Leaves distinctive biological evidence. Every jurisdiction considers this a weapon.

Ghost Flesh Heat cost: 5 — lasts Sensitivity passes Dermis and surface tissue restructures to eliminate physical signature. Body heat, scent, and acoustic signature reduce to near zero. Effectively invisible to thermal, chemical, and acoustic detection. Visual camouflage is partial — motion still readable. The body becomes quiet.

Dissolution Heat cost: 6 — advances Drift track every use The boundary between self and Static blurs. The Shaper exists partially outside normal biological parameters for Sensitivity passes — cannot be traced by biological means, medical scanners read nothing, physical restraints have reduced effectiveness as the body briefly stops fully obeying physics. Advances the Drift consequence track one step each use regardless of current Drift level. This is the edge of what a body can survive being.

DESIGN PRINCIPLE

Advancing the Drift makes the character mechanically more capable — each stage grants a bonus that directly improves Shaper operation. The cost is narrative: the track represents the body becoming something other than standard human biology, and the world responds to that. A Shaper at Stage 4 hits harder and heals faster than anyone else in the room. They are also no longer entirely human, and people can tell.

ADVANCEMENT TRIGGERS

Sensitivity pressure — Sensitivity 3+ makes Stage 1 available; Sensitivity 5+ makes Stage 3; Sensitivity 7+ makes Stage 5.
Trigger events — Catastrophic overheat; regular Transgression track use; Dissolution use (always advances regardless of current stage).
Recovery — Stages 1–2 recoverable with downtime without triggering the relevant events. Stage 3 branch is permanent. Stages 4–5 cannot be recovered.

STAGE 1 — MARKED

FICTIONAL

Something is different. Most people can't say what. Body temperature runs consistently elevated. Healing is visibly faster than it should be. Animals are occasionally uneasy around the character — they sense something the character has not yet learned to suppress.

MECHANICAL BONUS

Passive regeneration begins. Remove 1 Stun box at the start of each scene without spending Heat. The body has started doing this on its own.

STAGE 2 — ALTERED

FICTIONAL

People notice. They don't always say something, but they notice. Joints articulate past normal range under stress. Pupils don't react to light correctly. Subcutaneous movement is visible when the character is actively shaping. Standard medical treatment has reduced effectiveness — the body's baseline has shifted enough that normal interventions don't quite fit anymore.

MECHANICAL BONUS

Heat limit increases by 2. Active cooldown rolls gain +1 die. The body is learning to contain more of what the Static is doing to it.

STAGE 3 — BRANCH POINT

PERMANENT CHOICE: At Stage 3 the track branches. The character's history determines the path — primarily combat and Transgression use in violence leads to the Predator; primarily biological manipulation and non-combat Transgression leads to the Vessel. Once chosen, the branch cannot change.

BRANCH A — THE PREDATOR

Triggered primarily by combat overheat events and Transgression use in violence.

The body has optimized for threat. The inhuman qualities read as predatory — sharper, faster, more dangerous. Other people find it difficult to maintain eye contact. Social situations carry an undercurrent of unease that the character cannot fully suppress.

Bonus: Surge and Extrude abilities cost 1 less Heat. Physical attack rolls gain +Sensitivity dice when running hot.

Curse: Social rolls involving trust or comfort take a −2 die penalty. NPCs who don't know the character well default to wariness. Corporate spaces and civilian environments generate friction — security pays more attention, people move away.

BRANCH B — THE VESSEL

Triggered primarily by biological manipulation use and non-combat Transgression abilities.

The body has turned inward. The changes are about capacity and adaptation — something that has moved past human need rather than past human restraint. The character no longer registers hunger or thirst normally. The body runs at an efficiency that reads as wrong to medical scanning.

Bonus: Metabolize costs 0 Heat. Biological Manipulation abilities that remove damage boxes can now affect the Physical track as well as Stun.

Curse: Human connection becomes difficult — the character is increasingly hard to read emotionally. Medical treatment is now actively unreliable — roll Logic + Medicine at TN 4 before any medical intervention works correctly.

STAGE 4 — PATH DEEPENS

PREDATOR — APEX

The character is visibly not entirely human at rest. Movement patterns are wrong — too efficient, too still between actions, too fast when moving. Other Shapers and Technomancers can feel the Static coming off them without trying. The body has stopped aging at its normal rate.

Bonus: Threshold ability now applies to Physical track damage as well as Stun. Unmake ability costs 3 Heat instead of 5.

Curse: The character cannot enter corporate or government spaces without triggering security response. Civilians who observe them in action report the experience as traumatic. Must actively suppress predatory threat display in high-stress social situations — Grit roll TN 3 or instinctive response manifests visibly.

VESSEL — TRANSCENDENT

The character's relationship to pain, hunger, fatigue, and biological need is essentially severed. They maintain the body as a tool rather than experiencing it as self. The Static has become their primary sensory layer — they perceive the world through biological and electronic signal simultaneously.

Bonus: Gains limited passive Awareness equivalent to a Technomancer's net sense — feels electronic presence, detects active signals, senses other archetypes within Close range without rolling. Dissolution costs 3 Heat instead of 6.

Curse: The character must be reminded to maintain basic biological functions. Extended periods without Shaping feel wrong — uncomfortable in their own body when the Static is idle. Identity questions are no longer academic.

STAGE 5 — PERMANENT / IRRECOVERABLE

PREDATOR — SOMETHING ELSE

The body has fully optimized. The character is functionally a different category of being — still person-shaped, still conscious, still themselves in the ways that matter. But the biology is no longer operating on human rules.

Bonus: Catastrophic overheat no longer causes Physical track damage — the body has learned to contain it. All Track 1 abilities cost 0 Heat.

Curse: Cannot pass as human under medical or close physical examination. Technomancers perceive them as a significant net presence even without equipment. They exist outside available categories.

VESSEL — BEYOND

The character has become something the Static shaped rather than something that shapes themselves. The distinction between tool and wielder has blurred past recovery. The body is maintained because they choose to maintain it, not because it maintains itself.

Bonus: Shaper abilities can now be applied to other willing targets through touch — Clot, Mend, Adapt applied to another person. Shed removes damage from either track without limit.

Curse: No longer readable as human to automated systems — facial recognition fails, biometric scanning produces errors, medical equipment gives nonsense readings. They exist outside available categories in a way that has practical daily consequences.

Shaper

What Is a Shaper

Heat

Track 1 — Physical Enhancement

Track 2 — Biological Manipulation

Track 3 — Transgression

The Drift