{"schemaVersion":1,"record":{"key":"mechanic/point-and-click--family-29","type":"mechanic","id":"point-and-click--family-29","lang":"en","title":"Abilities, forms and controlled entities","summary":"The player changes form or controlled entity to gain a different set of actions.","updatedAt":"2026-10-22","status":"active","url":"https://gamemechanics.pro/en/knowledge/mechanic/point-and-click--family-29/","jsonUrl":"https://gamemechanics.pro/api/v1/knowledge/en/mechanic/point-and-click--family-29.json","markdownUrl":"https://gamemechanics.pro/content/knowledge/en/mechanic/point-and-click--family-29.md","aliases":["Abilities and controlled entities"],"tags":["Point-and-click adventures","Extended adventure systems"],"sourceIds":["source-d0f904004e312936"],"sources":[{"id":"source-d0f904004e312936","title":"Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective","url":"https://store.steampowered.com/app/1967430/","verifiedAt":null}],"sections":[{"id":"principle","title":"How it works","body":"The player changes form or controlled entity to gain a different set of actions."},{"id":"variants","title":"Variants","body":"### Variants\n\n<a id=\"family-29-branch-1\"></a>\n\n- Physical abilities: use strength, size, agility, resistance or unusual anatomy. <a id=\"family-29-variant-1\"></a>\n- Special perception: use fictional trace vision, hidden hearing, emotion reading or lie detection. <a id=\"family-29-variant-2\"></a>\n- Remote effects: move, heat, activate or change distant objects. <a id=\"family-29-variant-3\"></a>\n- Reading memories and thoughts: obtain information unavailable through ordinary inspection. <a id=\"family-29-variant-4\"></a>\n- Possession: enter animals, mechanisms or characters and use their capabilities. <a id=\"family-29-variant-5\"></a>\n- Transformation: change form, size, species, status or available actions. <a id=\"family-29-variant-6\"></a>\n- Helpers: send drones, familiars, robots or animals into inaccessible places. <a id=\"family-29-variant-7\"></a>\n- Ability limits: solve range, charge, area, prohibition and combined-power constraints. <a id=\"family-29-variant-8\"></a>"},{"id":"context","title":"Context and limits","body":"A working classification with 44 families and 355 variants. Families overlap: one puzzle can combine items, dialogue, deduction and a character schedule. Core actions, progression architecture and assistance are separate layers. Sources identify examples from neighboring adventure genres."}],"relations":[],"placements":[{"catalogId":"point-and-click","id":"family-29","title":"Point-and-click adventures","url":"https://gamemechanics.pro/en/mechanics/point-and-click/#family-29","categoryIds":["section-4"]}],"supersededBy":[],"attributes":{"preview":{"updatedAt":"2026-10-22","title":"Abilities and controlled entities","description":"The player changes form or controlled entity to gain a different set of actions.","image":{"src":"images/mechanics/adventure-ghost-trick-00.webp","width":1440,"height":810,"game":"Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective","sourceUrl":"https://store.steampowered.com/app/1967430/","originalUrl":"https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/1967430/ss_0d9a02d8e24e3fb05b1fda410cbb7d9470eb21e3.1920x1080.jpg?t=1787717141","credit":"CAPCOM Co., Ltd.","rights":"Game imagery © its respective rights holders. Publisher-distributed Steam screenshot; all rights reserved. Excluded from MIT and CC BY 4.0.","caption":"The ghost selects an object to possess","alt":"The ghost selects an object to possess","markers":[{"x":51,"y":67,"label":"Core of an object available to control"}]},"tips":["Show the new entity’s actions and how control can return."],"examples":[{"title":"Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective","url":"https://store.steampowered.com/app/1967430/"}]}},"endsAt":null,"provenance":"Original taxonomy adapted from user-selected design discussions; linked sources support specific examples, not the whole classification.","license":"CC-BY-4.0","codeLicense":"MIT","attribution":"gamemechanics.pro contributors","catalogKey":"catalog/point-and-click"}}