The Baby Changing Station: A Magi-Tech Item for Your Game!

"The Baby Changing Station" was inspired by a graphic found on Facebook (included) and a comment made by a Facebook Friend. It is written with the d20 System in mind, but it is rules-light enough that it can easily be incorporated into any game setting that features highly advanced technology and/or magic---or even a combination of the two, as can be found in the World of 2044. All text in this post is presented under the Open Game License and may be reproduced in accordance with it. Copyright 2017 by Steve Miller.

THE BABY CHANGING STATION
In the year 2244, the Baby Changing Station allows wealthy parents who are tired of taking care of an infant to turn it into a pet. In certain jurisdictions, parents convicted of child neglect or endangerment are compelled to turning their infant into an animal. If the neglect or abuse continues, they are executed.

The Baby Changing Station was developed from Atlantean magi-tech, based on devices that turned rocks into edible food. When used for commercial purposes—voluntarily turning a baby into a pet—there is a charge to the parents of 20,000 credits.

The pet created is random and generated by the magic at the heart of the device’s function. All possible animals were favored pets of spellcasters in ancient Atlantis.

Roll 1d20 against the table below to see what the baby is changed into.

1. Bat
2. Cat, Demonic*
3. Cat, Domestic

4. Dog, Chihuahua*
5. Dog, Poodle

6. Ferret

7. Fox
8. Gecko

9. Gibbon

10. Hedgehog

11. Hedgehog, Demonic*

12. Iguana
13. Meerkat
14. Mongoose
15. Parrot

16. Raven

17. Raven, Demonic*

18. Sloth

19. Snake, Garter
20. Sugar Glider

*See below

Occasionally, a glitch introduced when humans modified the magic to create the Baby Changing Station will cause a “demonic” version of an animal to appear. The creature appears normal, but has INT and WIS scores of 18, can cast spells as a 13th level sorcerer, and is fluent in all human languages (although many animals must use spells to speak). The demonic pet may or may not reveal its true nature to its owner, depending on how it perceives its situation.

If treated kindly by its owner, the supernatural beast will grant three wishes each month to him or her—even if the owner doesn’t know the wishes are being granted. (For example, if the owner says within earshot of the demonic animal that he wishes he noisy neighbor would die, and no other wishes have been requested or granted, the neighbor will indeed die a horrible and messy death. These beasts were familiars to the most powerful Atlantean mages in ancient times, and if an owner actively takes advantage of the creature's ability to grant wishes or asks it to cast spells in support of his or her activities, the owner suffers all penalties described in the rules that occur when a familiar dies.

If the owner of the pet is not kind to one of the demonic variety, it turns its magic subtly upon him or her, inflicting a -2 penalty to all rolls until amends are made. If the owner outright kills a demonic pet, he or she must is subject to the affects of a curse spell (as if cast by a 13th level caster, and permanent until a remove curse is cast by a 15th-level or higher caster), and the pet haunts his or her home as a poltergeist.

For an additional 20,000 (40,000 total) the parents can choose what sort of pet the baby is turned into. In such a case, the GM must still roll a 1d6 to see if the pet is a "demonic" variety. On a roll of 5-6, the pet is "demonic." Note that Chihuahua Dogs are always demonic.

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