Not sure where to start.
Scott is right, that it is on a case-by-case basis. It's also important to note that the referee should make every effort to retain desired skills learned in the zygote body when the body reverts, even if that means that the reversion is incomplete.
There are a couple ways that can be done. One is to retain body parts. For example, if a verser had versed into the body of a scorpionoid, he might retain a stinging tail when he returns to human form. On the other hand, the last time I did a zygote sprite, after he versed out he was in a halfway form, and could glide with his wings, and then with a bit of help from a friend figured out how to morph between three forms, his human, his spritish, and the halfway form.
In the ordinary case, the verser was just a different person, and so it's just a matter of facial features, body build, skin tone, and similar matters mostly of appearance, plus the recovery of any lost physical attributes (although nine out of ten zygoted versers manage to build better bodies the second time around, and so keep those attributes), so it's really just a matter of what you look like and how close you are to your peak physique. The point of the rule, ultimately, is that you're supposed to be you, and I as referee am not permitted to take that from you permanently. To the degree, though, that "you" now identify yourself with that other person, you will retain some of that other person.
Yes, Whisp (and it does have the H, and should be pronounced so by anyone who knows the difference between W and WH) zygoted as a girl. I was not around at the time, but I'm pretty sure it was done to him because of his propensity to treat women as sex objects, to give him something of a feeling for how the other half live. He did not take to it well, and it was actually a joke that for a very long time he could shape change into nearly any other animal as long as it was the female. He found it very frustrating, but one day discovered that he was male again. (I do not know whether the referee has been gradually shifting him from "not female", that is, reducing the female physical traits, because I'm pretty sure that Whisp was not a man-eater when he was a woman.)
There is also the age issue, as zygoted bodies do age and grow (obviously), and it is possible that someone might verse out much older or much younger than his original self. I usually let the character decide what age to be thereafter, as long as it is not outside the bounds of his previous character ages at verse-out.
Thus my objectives in guiding the transition are
- Bring you into a body that is similar enough that it is "you" to you;
- Create interesting game situations along the way (usually because you have a form that is between two other forms);
- Retain your skills and best attributes;
- Figure out what ultimate form you would find most acceptable.
--M. J. Young
