taalismn wrote:Sputnik rams into a transparent 'sphere' encompassing the entire Earth...seems we're caged in...By whom? When? And for what purpose?
Damn, Randy should have just gave back the space cash!
Swapper Virus:
A plague besets the human race. Transmitted via bodily fluids, and unable to live outside of the human body. Initially it was a blank virus with very little "payload". This is Swapper A.
When Swapper A infects a person, it lies dormant for months or years, then eventually bonds with their DNA, but in a reversal of normal viral behavior, it copies a random sampling of DNA into itself. This makes it Swapper B. A person will typically be a carrier of Swapper B for life. The person also has Swapper A in him, but this is rarely communicable.
If Swapper B infects a person, it deposits that payload, replacing the victim's DNA with the prior victim's. Results are random. Jawline might shift, eyes may change color. Conditions like diabetes or huntingtons or cancer may appear or disappear. Even intellect or disposition may change. And sometimes the changes aren't uniform. Someone with a round jaw might get Swapper from a square-jaw and have only half his jaw change. Sometimes, even gender traits swap.
However, sometimes, the payload isn't delivered, and it just infects the victim with Swapper A. Whether this happens appears to be wholly random.
The virus only affects humans, and metahumans are resistant (and normal humans are resistant to Swapper from them). In addition, people with extra or missing chromosomes are totally immune to the effects.
Infection gives an immunity to other Swapper B strains that lasts a year or so, but eventually fades. Of course the strain that previously infected you would just rewrite your new DNA with the same new DNA so no change would be noticeable(unless a subsequent SB infected you and overwrote those bits).
At first, panic and confusion abound as people begin shapeshifting into chimeras. Biometrics stop being reliable. People who need to disappear deliberately infect themselves and hope for a big change.
Due to SA's long dormant phase, it spread to much of humanity. Ergo, these people are all carriers for Swapper A and their own Swapper B strain.
A vaccine is also found for Swapper B, but due to the nature of the virus, the best we can manage is a vaccine for SB merged with specific human DNA (ie, you won't get infected from that person, but this can change if that person get's swapped enough). Vaccination costs about $500.
Curing Swapper A is impossible. It is inextricably bound to the DNA. Curing Swapper B is possible, but then a new SB pops up (and any vaccines to your old strain are worthless). Still, SB cures are applied if someone's Swapper B would give a serious disease of disfiguring change.
If a parent is infected with Swapper, their offspring have a high chance of being born with Swapper A or B.
Society eventually adjusts. Most take precautions to avoid getting swapped around. Symmetrical features become a more important visual cue (less likely to have been swapped). But a growing subculture of Swapheads see the virus as liberating. They deliberately infect themselves and spread their DNA among their cliques, reveling in their amorphous forms. Some even use the Swapper B cure to purge themselves of the virus so they can swap themselves out faster. Unfortunately, too much swapping often leads to instability, and also difficulty in identifying perpetrators (height, weight, fingerprints, eyes, hair, facial features, any or all could change). As a result, the cops come down hard on all Swapheads (who are easy to spot with their mishmash of chimeric features).
edit: for an alt. universe campaign, you could have the DNA of the PCs be just different enough that they are incompatible. This could, of course, lead to them being "outed" as alien.
And even worse, nobody knows where Swapper came from. Now there's these guys with no ID records in the system, possibly with advanced tech, and they're immune. You just know the PCs are gonna get blamed for it