BlueNight's original List Transformed guidelines
with editorial comments from Quentin 'Cubist' Long

If everyone on the list transformed at two'o'clock, EST, on Tuesday, January 23, 2001, what would have happened?
Sorry, folks, but only those people who actually were members of the TSA-talk mailing list at Zero Hour got zapped. Exception: BlueNight has ruled that your LTF avatar need not be assumed to have joined the List at exactly the same time as you did; thus, anyone who joined as late as 2-3 weeks after Zero Hour, can be a changeling. Otherwise, it's strictly "was you subscribed at the moment in question?" Doesn't matter if you were never a member, or used to be but unsubscribed, or joined way too late -- you remain unaltered. Whether or not you got zapped, however, you can still write LTF stories; 'the LTF Event' proved that the Universe is not as regular or predictable as people thought it was. While the changelings will be tryna cope with their new selves, everyone else gets to try to cope with a whole new world! And if you shouldn't have been zapped, but insist in writing a 'Fun With My New Body'-type LTF story anyway... you can! Since the majority of List members are 'lurkers', people who just read it and never contribute, you can write about a lurker who just happens to be a (thinly disguised) version of yourself!
Writing this storyline will give us insight on our fears as a group, and possible solutions if it does happen.

  1. This storyline is about interactions, with the world, the countries, the cities or towns, and the people around you. Remember, backlash would come AFTER recognition of existence, so stories about the first day might sound like a dream come true, while stories in a month might be darker. "We don't want your kind here" requires knowledge of "your kind," while "It's coming right for us! Kill it!" shouldn't still be happening after the first month.
  2. Dragons and any other biologicals are okay, but no inanimorphs. If you look like a car or a robot, you're still biological, the "metal" is a fingernail-like exoskeleton. See also: chitin, clamshell, etc. If you look like a teddy bear, you're just really fuzzy all over. Note for fans of inanimate TFs (plushies, etc): This "living forms only" schtick is less of a limitation than you might expect, as the range of inanimate forms which can be convincingly faked is pretty damned large. Former people with no speech and no human behavior can blend in with wildlife if they have the instincts, but not everyone has them. TGs would probably have a harder time with people who knew them before, simply because a sex change is a major role change, while species change is a social unknown up to this point.
  3. Don't give the characters evidence of the cause. The cause is, it's a mundane universe we're writing, except that this transformation has happened for no apparent reason. It's slice-of-life with social implications. There's no government conspiracy, no secret hidden society, no aliens, no rayguns, and nothing but what exists in our universe. All of which said, you know that lots of people are going to be very interested in Finding The Answer, so feel free to write whatever you like about efforts to do just that. Sure, all such efforts are automatically doomed to failure, but the characters don't know that, right?
  4. No shapeshifters, unless they're realistically biological (ie, same mass/volume, a change mechanism in their blood or cells, etc). No gaseous entities. No superpowers. No lame powers. FYI: As a universe arbiter, BlueNight has a weakness for ingeniously twisted concepts with plausible-sounding details. This is how I managed to become the first (and only, thus far) LTF shapeshifter...
  5. Fish out of water are out of luck. That may not apply to FISH, who didn't want to be a fish last time I talked with him.
  6. There is no rule 6.
  7. If a rule can be bent without breaking, do it. If you want to use someone's character (besides mentioning their name), ask.
  8. Actions have consequences. Give consequences.