Synapse RPG

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Except as otherwise identified, all written portions of this book and Synapse logo ©2009 Greg Christopher, all rights reserved. All artwork in this book is owned by its artist.The mention of, use of, or reference to any company, trademark or product in this book is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright in question. This book is not for sale. Download a free copy at www.synapserpg.com.

A Note about Gender

The English language is sexually specific in how it handles pronouns. As a result, an author must always struggle with whether to use he, she, he/she, his, her, his/her, or any pronouns at all. In an effort to balance against all the books in the past which ignored this problem and simply used masculine pronouns throughout, this book is written exclusively with female pronoun forms when refering to the player. That being said, Synapse is designed for people, not genders. We embrace all players regardless of their gender.

Game Design Greg Christopher Special Craig Brasco, Luis Garcia, Mattias Silvsten, Peter Kovalsky, Trina Williamson, Michael Williamson, Roger Jones, & Daniel Rezendes Layout Design: Greg Christopher Thanks:

Art Direction: Greg Christopher Typesetting: Greg Christopher

Editor: Peter Kovalsky Cover Artist: Adrian Humphrey fweak.deviantart.com Artists:

Alayna Lemmer: www.alayna.net Gabriel Perez: wiredgear.deviantart.com Alexander Nanitchkov: www.artofinca.com Hrvoje Beslic: hbdesign.deviantart.com Alexandra Schastlivaya: fleur-art.blogspot.com Jeremiah Morelli: www.morjers-art.de Antoine Miguel: pataplouf.deviantart.com Katrina Lin: k-atrina.deviantart.com

Aram Aramesh: abtin.gfxartist.com Lorraine de Bruin: renahmoonsinger.deviantart.com Banu Andaru: www.banuadhimuka.com Michael O: www.bymichaelo.com

Courtney Howlett: seageart.daportfolio.com Mike McCain: mikebot.cgsociety.org Darek Zabrocki: darekz-art.website.pl Myke K: www.geneticmess.blogspot.com David Cheung: vofff.blogspot.com Nicholas Kay: www.nicholaskay.com

Delilah K: delilah88.deviantart.com Pavel Savchuk: sobaku-chiuchiu.daportfolio.com Emily Chan: www.eychan.org Peter Ortiz: standalone-complex.deviantart.com Farhat Ali: farhatali-005.deviantart.com Sabrina Pohle: www.splinteredshard.com

Flint Anderson: tauceti.deviantart.com Tony Rudolph: zulusplitter.deviantart.com Frank Hong: frankhong.artworkfolio.com Veli Nyström: vablo.deviantart.com

Yap Kun Rong: krypt.cgsociety.org A Note about Contributors

All of the artwork in this book has been donated by the artists. In addition to the above credits, each image placed in the book links back to the artist’s gallery. Please take the time to visit them and consider buying a print. This book would not have been possible without the generosity of these artists. I am eternally grateful for their support. I am also grateful for the constructive criticism of my friends and family. Finally, I am grateful for the superb editing and commentary of Peter Kovalsky. I could not ask for a better editor.

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What is a roleplaying game?

A roleplaying game (RPG) is played by a group of typically four to six people, usually around a table. The goal of the game is to tell an interesting, collaborative story and to have fun doing it. To tell the story, you use your imagination. There are no winners or losers because the game is about cooperation.

One person, called the gamemaster (GM), is in charge of managing the game and

establishing the basis of the story. Every other person around the table controls a single character in the story, like a character in a book or movie. People who are controlling characters are called Players. The game involves using your imagination to determine how your character will interact with an imaginary world. The world and everything in it, including all of its non-character inhabitants, is described by the GM.

The GM describes where your characters are in this world and in return each player tells the GM what they would like their characters to do. Your decisions should be played out through improvisation based on how you feel your character would react. The rules for adjudicating the success and failure of these actions is called a game system. The game system uses dice, the same dice that you find in traditional board games, to add the element of chance. Sometimes your characters will fail. Other times they will succeed. The odds of success are based on your character design. You will have better chances of success at some actions and poorer chances with others. Knowing when to attempt certain actions based on these chances introduces the element of strategy.

The Flow of Play:

The GM typically has a story in mind that she is trying to tell. She has made notes about the personalities of the other people in the world, such as the innkeeper, sheriff, soldiers, and so on. She has also prepared challenges for the characters, typically in the form of combat with some kind of enemies who are working in opposition to the heroes. She has usually created a dastardly villain with diabolical plans, which the players must struggle to overcome. As the players take actions in the world, interact with its inhabitants, solve problems, etc, the GM will reveal more of the plot.

The attempt by the players to advance the plot to its conclusion is called an adventure. A typical adventure will take many hours of gameplay, usually broken up into chunks of play called sessions. The adventure may be only one in a series of adventures that together make up a campaign. The length of the story and its complexity depends on both the storytelling ability of the GM and the contributions of the players. However, players are not passive participants. They are the primary actors. The story is like a novel whose pages are blank until you read them. The future is based on your real-time decisions, not written ahead of time. The story is dynamic, complex, and unpredictable. Why play an RPG?

Why should you play an RPG instead of playing a board or video game? • Complex social interactions that cannot be replicated in other games.

• Creativity is used to make every game. Your character is not defined by someone else. • You are the entertainer. You are not consuming someone else’s game. The game is yours.

• Imagining yourself in the role of someone else encourages empathy and greater understanding. • Spend quality time with your friends and family, away from a computer screen.

• Repetitive simple math is extremely helpful to young players.

To tell the

story, you

use your

imagination.

Players are

not passive

participants.

They are the

primary actors.

Key Features Cooperation Imagination Improvisation Chance Strategy

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What is a Game World?

All gameplay takes place inside of a game world. The game world is the imaginary geographic area in which your character’s exist. A game world might be an entire planet, a single continent, or a smaller geographic area. A game world is a component within a concept called setting. A setting is difficult to define, but it encompasses a particular culture, time, theme, style, or context. “Genre” is a slightly different but related concept to use for grasping this. A good way to understand a setting is to focus on the aspects that set it apart from the modern day. For instance, a Vampire setting that occurs in the modern day is simply called Vampire, whereas one that occurs in the Middle Ages might be Medieval Vampire or Dark Ages Vampire. You can have different game worlds within the same setting. For example, you can have two different games that occur in an Ancient Roman setting. One could take place in Gaul while another takes place in Egypt or Rome itself. A setting is sometimes called a universe if it consists of multiple imaginary planets instead of a single world. Star Wars or Star Trek are probably the most recognizable examples of a universe.

The game master will probably have an idea about what kind of world she wants to build, but the GM and the players should talk about it and decide on a game world together. This may be the most important decision you make in the entire game because it will affect a great many things. The game itself will come into existence because the game master has a story to tell in a particular game world and/or setting. She might say to the group, “I have a great idea for a game in a dystopian futuristic Moscow.” Since the gamemaster is going to be doing a lot of work designing this game world for play, she needs to be working on a game world she enjoys in a setting she enjoys. It will make for a better game. As a player, you have the same prerogative and should only join games that you are interested in playing. If the idea of a dystopian futuristic Moscow doesn’t interest you, offer up your own idea for a game world for which you could be the game master. Maybe you have some cool ideas for a medieval fantasy world where an evil dragon is running roughshod over the defenseless peasants. Alternatively, you can always just pass on the chance and move on to a different group. Everyone is at the table to have fun. Play whatever you want to play. Don’t stick around if you are going to be unhappy, but also don’t be afraid to try new things in new settings.

Synapse is a universal system that can be used with any conceivable setting in which you are playing an intelligent lifeform. The only limit is your imagination.

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What is a Character?

When you are moving around the game world, you are pretending to be a character which you have designed. You try to imagine what this person would think, feel, and as a result what she would do. The gamemaster describes the world to you and you tell her what you think your character would do in that circumstance. For example, your character might have just walked all day along a dusty road and the game master tells you that as you come over the last hill, you see a bridge crossing over a river and on the other side of the river is a small

town. You may decide that your character is parched and runs down the hill to drink from the river. You may decide that your character stops and decides to watch from the top of the hill to see if she can notice anything about the town before deciding to go down towards the bridge. The choices are yours.

A character is simply an avatar or representation of your presence in the game world. This book will assist you in creating a written record of your character in the form of a character sheet. The purpose of the character sheet is to help you remember what the character wants to do and what she is capable of doing. Synapse contains a lot of rules about how your character interacts with the world. These rules are collectively referred to as mechanics. A large portion of the game mechanics exist solely to help you make decisions for your character. In Synapse, your character will have a culture in which she was raised, a worldview representing what she believes, and a set of skills representing what she can do. These aspects of your character will be recorded on your character sheet and you can reference them throughout play to help you make decisions for your character.

Over time, your character will change based on the decisions you make. Unlike many RPGs, in Synapse your character does not accumulate experience points, nor does she gain levels. Instead, you are what you do. If you decide to greet everyone with a smile, ask a lot of questions, and try to help others, your social skills will improve over time, through practice. Characters that act aggressively will over time either become more aggressive as they find aggression suits their needs or less aggressive as they learn the consequences of being combative. Over time, your character will change as a result of the decisions you make. As in real life, you do not get points. You make good decisions or you make poor decisions. You will have to live with the consequences, for good or ill.

Also as in real life, you do not have missions or objectives beyond those you set for yourself or agree to perform. You may find it helpful to develop some short-term and long-term goals for your character. You may have materialistic goals like getting enough money together to buy a Ferrari or a mansion. Alternatively, you may have social goals like finding your true love, making more friends, or being respected as a hero. You may decide to throw your attachment to material goods and human connections aside to head off into the wilderness to find the Lost City of Gold. The goals that you want to accomplish and how you go about accomplishing them are yours to decide. That being said, some characters begin play with limitations on their behavior. For example, if you start play as an active duty soldier, it is assumed that the military has a great deal of control over you. When you made the choice to be a soldier, you took on that set of duties.

Part of the appeal of roleplaying is the fun of pretending to be someone else. In many ways, that is an issue of material condition. If you are not a wealthy person in real life, it can be fun to pretend to be a wealthy world-travelling adventurer simply because the material conditions of that lifestyle are exciting. It is fun to engage in running shootouts down dark alleyways, even though you have never fired a gun in real life. However, unless you carefully designed her to be just like you, your character will also have a lot of personality traits that you do not. You may be very generous and humble while your character is greedy and materialistic. As with professional actors in the real world, pretending to have emotions and desires that you do not actually have is challenging. You may find that it substantially changes your perspective on life to take a walk not just in a different pair of shoes, but in a different mind. You may find that the people of the world are even more diverse than you ever thought before. Some differences in thought cannot be simply discussed intelligently, but must be experienced to be understood. Walk a mile in someone else’s mind. It can change your life, and it can be really fun.

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What is a Party?

It is possible that you are playing the game with just two people: yourself and the gamemaster. However, in most cases, you will be playing with a number of other players. These players have their own characters with which to interact with the game world. Collectively, the players form a party. As you will see when you get to the

Connections chapter, your character will already have relationships with the other characters in the party when the game begins. These relationships should set the tone for your interactions with each other. Feel free to flesh out these relationships to a greater degree than you would a normal relationship in the game world. You may decide that your character feels that her cousin Tim, even though she loves him, is a bit of a dolt. Tim’s player may decide that your character, though he loves her, is a bit of a bossy control-freak. These kind of details can add a great deal of flavor to the game.

As friendly as you might be with your fellow party members, your character is her own person. She has an idea about what is or is not in her best interests and she has her own goals. You are fully empowered to treat your party members however you wish. That being said, it may be advantageous for you to try to keep relationships harmonious, since it can be very hard to accomplish your goals if everyone in the party thinks you are annoying.

What is a Gamemaster?

You control your character. Other players have their own characters. So how do you know what exists around your party? This is the role of the gamemaster (GM). The GM will describe the game world around you, from the smallest blade of grass at your feet to the highest mountain in the distance. What she tells you is the baseline and you may be able to find out more information if you ask. For example, your characters might be walking down a path in the forest and the GM tells you that you come across a closed box lying in the road. At this point, you need to take the initiative and tell the GM what you are doing, something like “I run over to the box and look inside.” Then the GM might then tell you what is inside the box or she might tell you that the box is nailed shut. If so, you then need to come up with a way to open the box (e.g. smash it). As you take actions, the GM tells you what happens. Exploring the game world and interacting with what you find is a large part of what roleplaying is all about.

The GM is also in control of all the people in the world that are not members of the party. These are called non-player characters (NPCs). You will spend a lot of the game interacting with the NPCs. Maybe instead of finding a box along that forest path, you find a man lying on the ground with a terrible wound. The GM tells you that he begs for your help. What do you do? You could help him if you have that capability. You could try to pick him up and carry him somewhere else for help. You could leave him lying there and walk off. Making decisions about how to treat other people, what to say to them, how to respond to their requests, and what to do about their actions is another large part of what roleplaying is all about.

So what is the GM ultimately trying to do? Why are you walking down this forest path? These are questions that concern plot. The GM will have some idea about what she would like you to accomplish. Let’s say that the GM described a person in the nearby town where the game started: a small girl who was worried about her missing father. The girl told the party that her father went off into the woods and the party decided to go after him. Maybe that wounded man lying on the forest path ends up being the father of this girl. He might tell you that he was attacked by a group of thieves and give you some clues to locating their hideout. Maybe those thieves were hired by a wizard to harass the locals and keep them occupied while she works towards some diabolical goal. The party’s effort to unravel the secrets of the wizard’s plan and stop her before it is too late is called the plot. Providing assistance in developing plots and setting up games based on them is the primary goal of the Game Mastering book (currently under development).

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What can you do?

Let’s go back a bit and say that you just found that wounded man lying on the ground on the forest path. You don’t know about the thieves or the wizard -- you just found this guy. He is wounded and if you don’t get him some help pretty soon, he is going to die. So what do you do? Let’s say you decide you are going to try to heal him up, stop the bleeding, and take care of him. You may know a lot about medicine in your real life or you may have been watching a lot of primetime dramas on TV, but does your character know those things?

Your character sheet contains a list of all your skills. This is what you know how to do. Each skill represents some ability that your character has. Maybe you are a great pilot, or a ninja, or an archaeologist. If you have a skill on your character sheet, you are more skilled than the average person at doing whatever that skill covers. If you have the Aircraft Piloting skill, you know a lot more about flying a plane than the average person. If the skill is not on your character sheet, you are just as knowledgeable or trained as the average person. Your skills define what you are really good at doing.

Remember when I mentioned mechanics, back when we were talking about what your character is? There are rules that govern how you use skills during play. With any task, there is a chance that you will succeed and there is a chance that you will fail. The more skilled you are, the more likely you are to succeed. Success and failure are determined semi-randomly through the use of dice. Synapse uses only six-sided dice because it is a game designed to be used by anyone, even those with no experience in roleplaying. You can just use the same six-sided dice you find in a board game like Monopoly. It will be helpful to have a lot of these dice, as many as six or seven per person playing. However, you can play Synapse with a single die if that’s all you have.

The chapter on skills will describe how to pick which skills your character has and how they work. Many skills are very simple and involve simply rolling a few dice and comparing them to a number. If you roll higher than the number, you succeed. If you roll lower than the number, you fail. Some events are too complex to represent in this way and are covered in the Resolution Mechanics chapter.

So let’s say that your character, tending to the man lying wounded on the forest path, happens to know a skill that might help him. Your GM will tell you to roll some dice based on your skill level and then she will tell you if you succeed at helping him or not. Some settings will have special ways to heal the man, like magic or modern surgery. Then again, you may not have a relevant skill. Maybe you can’t heal the man. However, you might be strong and decide to carry him back to town. You might build an improvised cart and pull him back to town. You might use a magic spell to fly back to town and rally some helping hands. Finding solutions to problems as simple as a wounded man lying in a forest and as complex as a brilliant wizard’s scheme is at the heart of roleplaying games.

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Why do you do it?

All this talk of wounded men and wizards raises the question, what are you doing all this for? What do you care if a wizard is causing trouble? What do you care if thieves are preying on people from the town? What do you care if a man is lost in the woods? The answer is motivations. Motivations are one of the central innovations that Synapse brings to the roleplaying game genre. Motivations provide you with information about how your character thinks, how she feels, and what she desires.

Maybe your character is helping the girl because she has a strong desire to help other people in need. Maybe your character is helping the man because she want the town’s admiration as a hero. Maybe your character is breaking up the thieves den because she wants to get her hands on some of the loot. Maybe your character hates the wizard because long ago that wizard killed her brother and she wants revenge! When you create your character you will write down how strongly she feels about each motivation. During play, you will reference your character sheet to help you make decisions.

You are pretending to be someone else. She thinks differently from you. Sometimes, you may be placed in a position where what you want conflicts with what your character wants. You might come across a large quantity of money with no apparent owner. As a player, you may want to use this money to buy your character more equipment or property because you like those things. However, your character might be more inclined to use that money to help her friends or a particular cause.

Usually, these conflicts are wrapped up in the concept of winning. In a roleplaying game, there is no winner. The goal of the game is to have fun and tell an interesting story. There are a lot of games out there that encourage players to only think about themselves, to help others only when absolutely necessary, and to amass wealth and power to the exclusion of all else. Try to resist that temptation. Your character is not you.

There are people who seek power exclusively for its own sake. We call them villains. Roleplaying usually assumes that you are the heroes, not the villains. Few bards sing ballads about fallen villains. Few children grow up idolizing villains. Few movies are made where in the end, the villain wins. Victory for villains does not usually make for a good story. It is possible to build a character with a motivation setup that emphasizes power-seeking behavior. If you’ve done so, then by all means play your character in that fashion. However, if your character is highly motivated to help others and make friends, play your character to fit those motivations instead. The spirit of the game is to pretend that you are someone else.

What if you die?

Sometimes, characters die. There are rules that dictate the circumstances and game mechanics that control just how much physical punishment your character can absorb before dying. Combat in Synapse is very fast and very brutal. If you pick a fight with someone who is a much better fighter than you, you will probably die, unless they decide to only beat you unconscious. Combat is a very fast path to death’s door. Engage in it at your own risk. There may be a time when you choose to die. Maybe a door can only be closed from the wrong side and the zombies are coming down the steps. You should not fear a heroic death. What do you lose? A piece of paper? A small emotional investment? Sometimes, the path of death may be voluntary. You may want to embrace it. If you want to die in this manner, you might want to have a conversation with your GM first. If a character dies, just go through the character creation process again and make a new character. Your GM can help.

It should also be noted that some settings may actually have the ability to bring your character back from the grave, either through magical or technological solutions. If so, death may only be a temporary hindrance.

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How does the game unfold?

There are a number of ways to organize a roleplaying game. The following list of styles is in no way exhaustive, but is meant only to serve as a guideline. You should talk with the GM before the game starts about what kind of game she intends to run.

Free Play:

Free Play is the most common style and easily recognizable to veteran roleplayers. The party does not have a clear goal except for the characters’ personal goals. They are simply wandering travellers, looking for wealth and fame. The characters typically come from an amalgam of backgrounds who are cooperating for mutual support. The world around them is a dangerous place and traveling alone is extremely risky. This forms the glue which keeps the group together.

Each character brings a unique set of skills to the table. The characters are consciously designed so that for almost any type of obstacle, someone in the group has a skill to help overcome it. The GM gives the players open choices to travel in virtually any direction they want with very few constraints. The plot of a game like this is typically simple or there is actually no overarching plot except for the goals created by the players -- perhaps something as simple as “keep going down into this dungeon searching for treasure and ultimately to kill a powerful villain at the bottom.”

The drawback of this style of play is that it typically plays to the most materialistic objectives possible and encourages very little risk-taking. Characters are seldom willing to take great risks for a higher cause and this makes dramatic plots difficult to implement. The advantage of this style of play is that it can be used to link together a string of otherwise unrelated storylines, locations, or conflicts. The group is just moving on to the next task that tickles their fancy.

This is the classic style of play and Synapse embraces it.

Task-Oriented Play:

Task-Oriented Play is slightly less common and still very recognizable to veteran roleplayers. Task-Oriented play involves characters that are specifically put together to accomplish a particular task. They may be members of an elite military unit, a coterie of vampires tasked with a specific objective by their elders, or a hodge-podge mix of characters trying to throw a magic ring in a volcano. Whatever the goal, once it is accomplished the game is typically over. However, the goal is rarely as simple as it first appears.

Going to a peaceful planet to bring the secret battlestation plans to the rebels might not be as simple as booking travel on a beat up freighter. The planet might be destroyed, you might get captured by the omnipresent evil empire, free a princess, escape to a hidden base only to have to fight the battlestation in a climatic final battle. However, no matter what happens, you maintain a consistent goal throughout the whole affair.

This style of play is appropriate for shorter games with an intended length of under sixteen hours, particularly convention gaming with even shorter timeframes. Synapse works well with this style of play because the Task itself can be used as an additional type of motivation. Conflicts between the motivation to complete the task and other character motivations can provide very dramatic gameplay.

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Styles of Play

(continued)

Cinematic Play:

Cinematic Play is more rare, but it is a style with which Synapse can work well. Cinematic play involves a small number of characters that are the heroes. They have high Heroism attributes. The other characters play secondary support roles and are focused less on their character’s long-term survival. The primary focus of all characters is on the heroic narrative. Some players may alternate between multiple characters over time. Cinematic Play is appropriate when you have one or two really important characters and a number of more temporary secondary characters. For example, if you were going to actually roleplay a storyline from a movie about a swashbuckling archaeologist, then Cinematic Play would be much more appropriate than Task-Oriented Play. There are many characters who appear for brief periods of time and then move out of the storyline for their own purposes. These secondary characters support a core of one or two heroes: the archaeologist and later his father. Some of the characters are actually not heroic at all; they may secretly be enemies, even though they may be members of the party.

This style of play allows the secondary characters to act recklessly, dramatically, or treacherously, all while fueling a great story. By reducing the attachment that the players have to the secondary characters, they are more likely to boldly jump into situations that they would normally avoid. If the secondary character dies, another one can be created and used instead. The secondary characters can collude with the GM much more closely than they normally would to help the GM pull off some amazingly dramatic scenes.

Solitary Play:

This style of play has been around since the first RPG. It involves one hero, played by a single player. The GM may control non-player characters that assist this hero from time to time, much like in Cinematic Play. This may be the only style of play available to you if you are unable to find people to play in your game or if you are playing it with someone while traveling or camping. Synapse supports this style of play as well.

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What makes Synapse unique among roleplaying games?

Synapse is a roleplaying game system where your character is conceptualized as a brain, not an entire person. In most RPGs, your character has both physical and mental attributes. For example, in the biggest game in the market, there are three physical attributes and three mental attributes. That division persists, even across wildly different systems. It is the industry standard. By contrast, in Synapse, all your attributes are mental. Your physical self is more like equipment than a part of your character.

That distinction is not because the game is set in some kind of cybernetic universe where body parts are exchanged at will, though it could be. The game system is universal and can be used with any conceivable setting where you are playing an intelligent lifeform. That might be some cybernetic universe, it might be traditional sci-fi, it might be sword-and-sorcery fantasy, and so on. It could be anything you want.

The reason why the focus of the game is the brain is because that is the only thing that you are truly roleplaying. That statement could apply to any roleplaying game, not just Synapse. Your mainstream character might have a high strength attribute and you may enjoy playing the role of the tough guy, but when you think about it, you are really just playing the role of a brain that is in possession of a lot of physical strength. Though it might pain you to admit it if you are a veteran of RPGs, most of the time, you are really imagining what it would be like if you had a lot of physical strength.

It is hard to pretend to be someone who is smarter than you are, or the opposite. It is hard to roleplay a character who can solve a riddle that is too complex for your brain. Conversely, it is hard not to figure out the riddle when your character is supposed to be stupid. The same applies to the traditional conceptions in the RPG industry today of all types of mental abilities, whether we are talking about wits, wisdom, charisma, manipulation, persuasion, fast-talk, or any other name for such skills, abilities, or attributes. So, to make things easier, they simply ignore or grossly simplify the mind. As a result, because there is no framework, you simply project your mind into the character.

When you really think about it, the standard RPG is about what you can do. When you play the game, you primarily imagine what it would be like to be able to do those things. These games define most, if not all, of what you can do first, and only later encourage you to imagine how it is that someone came to be a person who can do these things. Who you are is a secondary consideration. You can throw lightning bolts from your fingertips and brew potions. How you learned these things isn’t really important. The details are either very weak or non-existent. The burden of providing the explanation falls to the player instead of the game system.

The character creation process for these games is completely out of sync with actual human development. You begin by determining fixed attributes of both your mind and your body, as if a child could come out of the womb with a defined strength or agility score. After this, you are usually given an occupation or class of some sort. How your character came to actually acquire this occupation is usually ignored. Why everyone who wants to be a fighter or a wizard ends up with the same exact abilities and then advances in the same way is always ignored. Then you choose from a typically narrow list of skills that is only slightly associated with your previous decisions. Only after all of this, are you told to actually figure out any of your character’s history. In some games, there is as little as a single column on personality and background for your character. It is half of a page in the back of a chapter that most people don’t read. In a mainstream game, giving your killing machine a name and perhaps a hair color is detail enough.

The game system

is universal and

can be used with

any conceivable

setting where

you are playing

an intelligent

lifeform.

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The process exists this way because traditional RPG games are, when you examine them carefully, not as much about telling a story as much as they are about killing things and taking their stuff. Most RPG rulebooks contain voluminous information about things to kill, how to kill them, and what stuff they have squirreled away. This is why nearly every expansion sourcebook contains new classes, new equipment, new vehicles, new monsters, or new powers. New things to kill, new ways to kill them. This is the industry standard.

Synapse is different. Synapse is not a combat miniatures game that has a few optional roleplaying rules attached to it. Synapse is at its core a roleplaying game, not a combat game.

Synapse is designed in such a way that your character sheet will tell you who your character actually is, not just what she can do. It will tell you about a character who has actual motivations and thoughts beyond killing things and taking their stuff. The character creation process is matched to the actual growth and development of real human beings in the real world. It begins by determining the characteristics of your brain chemistry, the representation of your innate and unchanging mental structure. Your brain chemistry is the unique combination that makes you who you are. It determines how you learn and process information, what you are good at doing naturally, and conversely what you struggle with.

Your brain chemistry is then run through the gauntlet of real life. Your brain is born into a body that is primarily determined by race. Your life is then profoundly impacted by the culture within which you grow up. Your brain processes your life experiences and comes out a mature being, shaped by what it has experienced. Your natural talents and the doors opened by your life experiences form the rich soil from which a personality is formed and a tree of skills grows.

Your favorite hero from books or film was not good at hand-to-hand combat because she rolled a good dexterity score and picked a warrior class. She was good at hand-to-hand combat because her brain processed spatial movement better than most, because she had a talent for balance and agility, and because she went through rigorous and demanding training. Heroes don’t pick a class and magically learn their abilities and skills. They are the product of real experiences. Sometimes those real experiences leave scars, either on the body or on the mind. This is your guidebook to a character with real emotion, vibrant expression, and powerful depth. A world of the human mind. A world of limitless possibilities...

Synapse is

at its core a

roleplaying

game, not a

combat game.

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4

How does Synapse accomplish this?

Synapse contains several innovations in game design that expand your ability to roleplay your character’s mind. Mental Attribute System

As mentioned previously, the core attributes of the Synapse system are all mental. So you begin character creation by defining in a very specific way how your character’s brain works. This system forms the basis of the whole character creation process and keeps you focused on the character’s mind instead of her body.

Flexible Cultural Model

Each character comes from a specific, defined culture. You can choose to use a template or you can design your own custom culture from twenty-five variables. These variables cover every major influence that the culture exerts on your character, from the hunger for exploration cultivated by living in a backward region to the

impulse to accumulate wealth because she aspires to join the plutocracy ruling her society. Where your character is from and what kind of people she lived with during her formative years has an enormous impact on how your character perceives the world. Synapse builds these forces right into your character sheet.

Comprehensive Personality Model

Most games on the market leave your character’s personal desires, aspirations, and moral decision-making almost completely up to the player. They provide little to no structure to assist you in making these decisions. As a result, you project your own personal morality into the game and your medieval knight has a very progressive, modern moral system and desires that are the same as your own. In order to more accurately simulate all the various beliefs and motivations throughout time and across settings, Synapse has a system to help you get inside your character’s head.

Throughout character creation, you will make choices that feed into a personality model based on twenty-two motiviations and six types of moral decision-making. These motivations form a schematic model for your character. It defines what your character is interested in, what she aspires to accomplish in her life, what she needs to feel comfortable, and more. When you are playing the game and ask yourself what your character would do in a given situation, the motivational model can provide your answer. Additionally, your character has a moral decision-making model that is not based on a simple good-vs-evil concept. Your character will have a clear model of choice, ranging from self-interest to rights-based morality, that can guide you on how she would feel about the moral choices that arise during the course of play.

Expanded Social Connections

There are many games on the market where your character has no defined connections to any other people in the game world on your character sheet. There are games where you can play as a multi-century old vampire who knows about five people. This stretches credulity to the maximum.

In Synapse, your character will have at least a dozen people on your character sheet whom she knows. There are twelve possible types of people and fourteen types of relationships. A point-buy system is used to guide these choices, so that you can customize your character’s social network to a very detailed degree. There are variations between characters based on mental attributes, cultural influences, and life experiences.

Detailed Non-Combat Interaction

Most RPGs have a highly complex combat model and a very simple non-combat model. Synapse, in contrast, provides a non-combat interaction model that is just as detailed as the combat model. The differences are too complex to be outlined here, but the game system description so far should give you some clues.

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How to use this book

Character Creation is a guide to character creation and to basic mechanics. This will teach you everything you need to know to create your character and interact with the game. There is another book, the Game Master Guide, which contains all the information your Game Master will need to perform her duties.

The first eight chapters of this book describe in detail the process of creating a character. Don’t be intimidated by this process. It is designed to be as simple and straightforward as possible. Character creation involves making a series of decisions. Each decision will be explained to you. Choose the option you want. It is that simple.

Your character sheet (the last two pages of this book) can be used to record your decisions as you make them. It is designed in a two page format where one page contains almost all the information you need when you are actually playing the game and the second page forms a reference of the decisions you made in the past with information that you are only going to refer to occasionally. When you are actually playing the game, you will be looking at the information on your character sheet for what your character desires, knows, and is capable of. You might want to keep some material close at hand during play so that you can refer to it whenever you wish. If you are not sure how to do something, just let your GM know and she will help you figure it out.

Determination Boxes

Every major character creation element has a determination box, which looks like this one. They contain the guidance you need to make a valid character.

Most decisions about your character are managed through a point-buy system. This means that you have a number of points to spend on something and a variety of choices, each of which costs some amount of points. Some sections roll over points into a future chapter, so if you dont spend all your points on one section, those points can be used on another section.

Read these boxes very carefully as you build your character.

Settings and Setting Plug-Ins:

As mentioned earlier, the actual game world that you are playing in should be the result of a collaborative decision between all participants: the GM and the players. Popular settings include medieval fantasy, vampires, futuristic science fiction, the wild west, modern day, and many more. The choice is for your game group to make. Once you decide on a setting, you will need to consider what racial choices, skills, and possessions will be

appropriate for that setting. If your character is a medieval knight, she should not be carrying a plasma rifle. Nor should she have mandibles or communicate using telepathy. Use your judgment and consult with your GM if you are unsure that your choices are really appropriate for the setting. Your GM may specify racial or cultural templates for you to use that will simplify this process greatly.

This book contains the basic information you need to play natural characters. If you want your character to be supernatural, to have magical powers, super powers, force powers, and so on, you will need to discuss adding a

Setting Plug-In. A Setting Plug-In contains the skills that are necessary to play with the new setting; you just need to choose specializations appropriate to the game world. The basic mechanics all remain the same; the available skills are the only things that change.

You can also convert currency units from Synapse into the currency from another game system and use the equipment from that sourcebook with your Synapse game.

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6

Outline of Character Creation:

Step 1. Define your brain chemistry

You will determine your specific brain chemistry, represented by seven attributes, five talents that you have, and one talent that you lack. The two concepts together represent your unique brain and form the foundation on which your character is based.

Step 2. Define your biology

Next you will determine the biological basis of your character. These characteristics represent the innate physiology that you are born with. Your race may or may not be the same as your species.

Step 3. Define your culture

You will then build the culture in which you were raised as a child. This represents the subtle impact of the society around you on how you think. In some instances, your entire species may share the same culture. However, most of the time you will have a unique culture within your own species as well as in contrast to the multiple cultural groups within each species.

Step 4. Determine your life experience

You will now advance through time from the birth of your brain to its current state at the start of the first adventure. Life experience can be positive or negative. Positive experiences can open doors to skills and physical advantages (such as muscular strength). Negative life experiences hamper your freedom in the game itself. Don’t be afraid of negative experiences. Remember that even heroes have their flaws.

Step 5. Define your personality

You will then build the schematic that your brain uses to process the information you receive about the world around you. Your life experiences and how they interact with your culture’s pressures with respect to concepts like religion & morality are central to this process. During this step, you will determine what motivations dominate your thoughts.

Step 6. Determine your connections

You will now determine what relationships you have in the game world. You may have friends, allies, contacts for information, illicit connections, and so on. This step will firmly root your character into the world you are entering.

Step 7. Define your skill set

You will now choose a set of skills. You have a number of points to spend on skills. Each skill is subordinate to a talent. If you have the appropriate talent, skills are easier to learn and are more effective when used. If you lack the talent completely, you cannot take any skills dependent on it. Your choice of skills will be heavily impacted by your creation choices up to this point.

Step 8. Determine your possessions

You will now determine what kind of material condition you live in. This is also heavily based on your creation choices so far.

What do you need to play?

In order to play Synapse, you will need this book, a pencil, a copy of the character sheet in the back of this book to write your character’s details on, and at least one six sided die (d6). It will be useful, but not essential, to have multiple dice & scratch paper. If you decide to use one, you may want a minature figure to help conceptualize the scene and a miniature battle mat to describe the scene.

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Chapter 1:

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8

Attributes:

Attributes are the basis of your character. They are used as the basis for all skill rolls, as well as used to derive secondary statistics. The value of each attribute is a number between and 8. A normal human has a in every attribute. Values beyond 8 are possible through supernatural or technological means, but 8 represents the pinnacle of biology.

Synapse:

Synapse, the game’s namesake, represents the speed at which information is processed by your brain. This is integral in avoiding possible danger, particularly in combat, and making decisions when your character is experiencing an adrenaline rush. Synapse affects your reaction time and how quickly you take actions both in and out of combat.

Characters with a high Synapse value think faster than other people and are capable of reacting at incredible speeds. Hong-Kong action movies revolve around martial arts with high Synapse speeds. The gunslinger who can draw his six-shooter as fast as you can blink has a high Synapse. People with high values in this attribute can actually think faster than other people. Time unfolds more slowly to them. They move faster than other characters simply because their brain is able to issue mental commands to their body at a quick pace.

Characters with low Synapse are slow thinkers, poor drivers, and bad liars. They cannot think quickly on their feet and find themselves frequently at a loss for words. They stand by stunned while other people take action around them.

Attribute

Synapse Processing speed Cognition Processing quality

Spatial Movement and coordination Empathy Communication and language

Stability Tolerance for change and surprise Focus Multi-tasking

Heroism Concern for others

Attribute Determination

Every attribute starts out at the human norm of . You get 8 points to allocate as you wish.

Though we do not recommend it, your GM may allow you to reduce some values below to gain more points to allocate.

Synapse Skills Talent

Aerospace Piloting Reaction Aircraft Piloting Reaction Astrogation Judgment

Block Reaction

Bluff Deception

Boating Judgment

Capital Ship Piloting Judgment

Dodge Reaction

Driving Reaction

Gambling Reaction

Hide Deception

Hover Operation Reaction Mech Operatoin Reaction Power Armor Operation Reaction

Probe Deception

Propaganda Deception Sea Navigation Judgment

Shadowing Deception Ship Piloting Judgment

Smuggling Deception Suggestion Deception

These are provided for reference only, choosing skills for your character occurs

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Cognition:

Cognition represents the ability to understand complex information. Cognition is essential for highly skilled characters because it determines starting Skill points. In technologically advanced settings, it is essential to many technological skills. In magical settings, it is essential to the learning of some kinds of magic.

Characters with a high Cognition are respected by others for their brilliance, but that does not make them wise or tactful. They are capable of solving complex logic problems, puzzles, and other mental challenges. The proverbial mad scientist, the gadgeteer, the sage, the absent-minded professor, and the precocious pre-teen are usually high Cognition characters. Learning and inventing new things comes easy to characters with high values in this attribute.

Characters with low Cognition are dull-witted, mechanically-challenged, and sticklers for tradition. They don’t want to try new things because they don’t know how they will turn out. They have trouble figuring out problems and typically avoid academic subjects whenever possible.

Cognition Skills Talent

Academics Knowledge Aerospace Mechanic Knowledge A.I. Programming Knowledge Analysis Deduction Appraisal Deduction Area Knowledge Knowledge

Biotech Design Innovation Brewing Innovation Camouflage Innovation Capital Ship Mechanic Knowledge Computers Knowledge Connoisseur Deduction Counterfeiting Precision Cybernetic Design Innovation

Disguise Innovation Electronics Knowledge Energy Shields Knowledge Etiquette Knowledge Farming Knowledge Fishing Knowledge First Aid Knowledge Gambling Deduction

Heraldry Knowledge Herbalism Innovation Herding Knowledge Hover Mechanic Knowledge Language Knowledge Mech Mechanic Knowledge Naturalism Knowledge Power Armor Mechanic Knowledge Pharmacy Innovation Research Deduction Robot Mechanic Knowledge Sensor Management Knowledge

Siege Deduction

Soldier Knowledge Survival Deduction Tracking Deduction Vehicle Mechanic Knowledge

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0

Spatial:

Spatial represents the awareness of objects in space, how objects move through space, and how to predict those movements. Where Synapse allows you to avoid being hit, Spatial is integral when you are the one trying to do the hitting. Any character who plans on engaging in combat should put at least some points in Spatial. All combat skills are related to this attribute.

Characters with high Spatial are graceful and coordinated. They make excellent sharpshooters and fencers. People with high values in the attribute are powerful opponents in combat because they generally hit what they are aiming for. They tend to enjoy physical activity and sports with a strong emphasis on coordination like tennis or baseball.

Characters with low Spatial are clumsy and accident prone. They can fire a shotgun at the broad side of a barn and miss. These kind of people should not be running with scissors.

Spatial Skills Talent

Acrobatics Balance Alter Trajectory Archery Trajectory Artillery Trajectory

Beast Balance

Body Sense Balance Catching Trajectory

Climbing Balance

Control Balance

Diving Balance

Energy Projectiles Trajectory Energy Sword Balance Flame Thrower Trajectory Gauss Projectiles Trajectory Grenade Trajectory

Jumping Balance

Lockpicking Dexterity Melee Weapon Balance Missile Launcher Trajectory

Musket Trajectory Pickpocket Dexterity

Pistol Trajectory Quick Draw Dexterity Recoilless Guns Trajectory

Riding Balance Sling Trajectory Slugthrower Trajectory Sport Balance Steal Dexterity Throwing Trajectory Thrown Weapon Trajectory

Unarmed Balance

Vehicle Weapon Trajectory Weightlessness Balance

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Empathy:

Empathy represents the ability to imagine what is occuring inside the mind of another person. This is essential when you try to connect emotionally with others, to communicate effectively, and attempt to understand culture and language. Empathy directly determines the number of Languages you can learn.

Highly empathetic characters are much better at interacting with the people and cultures around them. A character that intends on talking a lot should have a high Empathy. These characters have an easier time interacting with people in conversations, make and keep more friends, and generally get what they want when people come into non-violent conflict. Highly empathetic characters are the peacemakers, the politicians, and the business leaders.

Characters with low Empathy are tactless, brutish, and

irritating. They tend to make offensive comments, treat others in ways that totally undermine their own goals, and tell long boring stories. There are a litany of 4-letter words to describe these kinds of people.

Stability:

Stability represents the ability to make decisions under stress. Combat in particular can cause large amounts of stress and characters unable to deal with that stress will have trouble functioning effectively. Stability is essential to how well you can resist stress from accumulating, how much residual stress

it takes to begin affecting your character’s ability to function, and how well your character is able to stay cool when making morale rolls.

Characters with a high Stability attribute are able to keep their cool under stress and still perform necessary tasks. They can keep down their lunch while under duress and keep moving when their legs are begging to rest. They can push themselves far beyond the point at which a normal person would just give up.

Low Stability characters have a tendency to break down under pressure. They are easily shaken, quick to back down from conflict, and have many nervous ticks and behaviors. These people are frequently thought of as cowards and weaklings.

Empathy Skills Talent

Barter Persuasion Diplomacy Persuasion Gesture Persuasion Haggling Persuasion Interrogation Persuasion Negotiation Persuasion Pleading Persuasion Seduction Seduction Socialization Persuasion Torture Persuasion Transmission Persuasion

later in the book in the Skills chapter

Stability Skills Talent

Body Control Toughness

Courage Bravery

Hiking Toughness

Meditation Willpower Running Toughness Swimming Toughness

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Focus:

Focus represents the ability to concentrate on certain tasks, handle multiple tasks at once, and perform incredibly precise tasks. Focus determines how many actions you can take in a single combat cycle, how well you can fight while wounded, and how aware you are of the world around you.

Characters with a high Focus are capable of doing many things at once and tend to be very good at combat. Characters with high Synapse as well as high Focus are the best suited for combat, as they are fast and strike multiple times per combat cycle. Highly focused characters are able to keep their body still when others would flinch, they see things that others might miss, and they can create things that are too detailed for others to duplicate.

Characters with a low Focus have trouble staying on task. Their minds tend to wander aimlessly for hours. They tend to overlook things, forget things, and make careless mistakes. When a low Focus character offers to help you, the smart response is to politely decline.

Heroism:

Heroism represents concern for others at the expense of oneself. Heroic characters are natural leaders, dedicated

healers, inspirations to others, and champions of moral causes. This attribute is rarely directly tested, however it can be used to boost other skills during moments of dramatic heroism, which is when you act in a way that places you in significant physical danger in order to save the lives of one or more people. While engaging in dramatic heroism, you may add your Heroism value minus dice to all Skill rolls made in support of your heroic objective, including the Courage to take the action in the first place. So if you have a Heroism of 5, you would add dice.

For example, you might climb onto a sinking ship to save a child trapped inside. In order to get to their location, you need to bypass a locked door. Any skill you use to do that would benefit from your Heroism as well. Perhaps later you need to jump across from the boat to a life raft. You would add your Heroism to that roll as well. However, if you tried to pick the lock on the captain’s chest to keep a little gold for yourself, that roll would not benefit from your Heroism. What constitutes dramatic heroism is ultimately the GM’s decision. Heroism does not represent concern for all people, just those most closely identified with oneself in accordance with your morality type and personal beliefs.

Focus Skills Talent

Assassination Precision Biotech Design Innovation Body Language Awareness Cartography Precision Counterfeiting Precision Crafting Precision Cybernetic Surgery Precision Explosives Precision Force Entry Precision Forgery Precision Holdout Precision Knot-Tying Precision Lip Reading Awareness

Listen Awareness

Machinist Precision Move Silently Precision Navigation Awareness Observation Awareness Poisons Precision Physician Precision Repair Precision Search Awareness Sense Awareness

Space Rocketry Precision

Spot Awareness

Traps Precision

later in the book in the Skills chapter

Heroism Skills Talent

Altruism Sacrifice

Command Presence

Falconry Motivation Intimidation Presence Performance Presence Public Speaking Presence Teamster Motivation

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Talents:

A talent represents innate ability in a particular type of mental process. Each skill is associated with a talent. Taking a talent on your character sheet represents that you are exceptional at it. You learn skills that draw upon that talent much faster than others and you are better at using those skills when called upon to do so. You will also choose a talent which you will lack. This represents something that your brain simply cannot do. You cannot take any skills related to this talent or even attempt them untrained. It represents your character’s flawed nature. The average person has one or two talents and one or two talents which they lack. As a hero, you are more talented than the average person.

Attribute Talents

Synapse Deception Reaction Judgment Cognition Knowledge Deduction Innovation

Spatial Trajectory Balance Dexterity Empathy Persuasion Seduction Eccentricity

Stability Bravery Toughness Willpower Focus Awareness Precision Multitasking Heroism Sacrifice Motivation Presence

Value # Related Talents

, , None Allowed 4 Talent Allowed 5 Talent Allowed 6 Talents Allowed 7 Talents Allowed 8 All Three Talents _Allowed

Synapse Talents:

Deception:

Deception is really the ability to think ahead and act in a way that undetectably misleads others. The most common form of deception is lying, but it is not limited to conversation. It might take the form of a clever feint in combat or knowing how to forge a document. Deception skills frequently mimic other skills, but for nefarious purposes (such as inspiring false confidence instead of the real confidence inspired through Motivation).

Characters who lack deception cannot keep a straight face when lying or concealing ill-timed humor. As a result, they often appear to lack tact or social grace. When they have done something wrong, they look obviously guilty. Characters without any ability to deceive should probably avoid criminal activity for their own safety.

Reaction:

Reaction is the ability to react to new stimuli. It might take the form of getting out of the way of an incoming punch or pulling up on the yolk before your airplane smashes into the ground. Reaction controls the time delay between when you notice the grenade at your feet and when you actually do something about it. Reaction skills govern behavior that is highly dependent on reaction times, such as driving or dodging. Characters with the reaction talent can react in combat without giving up their current action.

Characters who lack reaction often freeze up in stressful situations. They are often dumbfounded like the proverbial deer in headlights. Their car insurance rates are usually high. Friends don’t let friends drive without reaction. Characters without reaction lose all their actions if they attempt to react in combat, not just one. See resolution for more details.

Talent Determination

Choose five talents from the list below. These are the talents at which you are exceptional. Then choose one more talent which you lack completely. You cannot take any skills relating to this talent or even attempt them untrained. As shown below, you are restricted in the

number of talents you can have that relate to the same attribute based on the attribute value. For example, if you have a Spatial of 6, you can only take two of the Spatial talents. Choose wisely.

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4

Synapse Talents (continued):

Judgment:

Judgment is the ability to make good snap decisions based on limited information. Characters with very high judgment appear to be lucky. They always seem to know what to say, which card to pick, and which stock to buy. Judgment does not affect any skills, but instead allows you to change motivational appeals in conversations without penalty.

Characters who lack judgment never seem to catch a break. They can never win a game of chance or skill. Their stock picks always nosedive. No matter which route they take, it will invariably become the longest possible route to the destination. Characters without judgment cannot change their motivational appeals in conversation. See resolution for more details.

Cognition Talents:

Knowledge:

Knowledge is the ability to remember things that you have learned. This might be the location of a particular landmark, the name of a long dead king, or the answer to the riddle of the Sphinx. Knowledge skills generally allow you to ask the GM for information and receive reliable answers. “Where is the baker’s house? Do I remember what that symbol means?”

Characters who lack knowledge are uninterested in the idea of learning. They do not read very well, if at all. They have no interest in understanding complex ideas and have a very simple outlook. Characters without knowledge cannot take any form of training based on non-physical abilities, such as technical or medical training. Nor can they take any form of education above standard. They cannot use advanced machinery, electronics, or computers except to accomplish very basic tasks.

Deduction:

Deduction is the ability to apply information that you know to solving problems. Deduction is figuring out which button to push, how a machine works, or who killed Colonel Mustard. Deduction skills generally allow you to ask the GM for solutions to problems and receive reliable answers. “How much is this probably worth? Can I figure out which way she went based on these footprints?” Deduction is not about remembering information, but about figuring things out using limited information.

Characters who lack deduction are generally clueless. They don’t get jokes, they can’t figure out the magic trick, and they don’t know who is buried in Grant’s Tomb. Characters without deduction get -4 to starting skills. Innovation:

Innovation is the ability to generate new thoughts, ideas, and technological devices. Innovation skills tend to allow you to create new objects (e.g. equipment for the party) and repair existing ones. Cooks, engineers, and mechanics are typically innovators. So are most musicians and entrepreneurs. There are few Innovation skills and they govern skills used purely for creating things, like brewing. In addition to this, you roll an extra die on any skill roll when you are trying to make something new. For example, you might use the Computers skill to make a new virus or program. In that case, add +d6 to your attempt.

Characters who lack innovation cannot create new objects or ideas. They cannot use any skill, even non-innovation skills, to create new things. They cannot create that new virus or program, even if they have the

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Spatial Talents:

Trajectory:

Trajectory is the ability to predict motion through space. This is essential to ranged weapons, from the throwing spear to the rocket launcher. Throwing weapons and grenades, bows, guns, blasters, and missiles are all highly dependent upon trajectory. Trajectory covers a wide range of skills that govern these types of actions.

Characters who lack trajectory cannot hit the broad side of a barn. They are terrible at most sports and they should never be given a grenade or a gun. The inability to take trajectory skills is a signficant drawback in almost any setting or gameworld.

Balance:

Balance is the ability to control your body’s movements. This is useful out of combat if you are trying to traverse a treacherous environment or walk on a narrow ledge. It is especially valuable in combat because balance is essential for all forms of melee and unarmed combat. Balance is also important for riding animal mounts. Characters who lack balance are extraordinarily clumsy. If something can be knocked over, they are likely to knock it over. Their dancing makes Elaine look good. The inability to take balance skills is a signficant drawback in almost any setting or gameworld.

Dexterity:

Dexterity is the ability to manipulate fine objects. Dexterity is essential to slight of hand and thievery of all sorts. Opening a lock requires exceptional manual dexterity. Parlor magicians, criminals, and tricksters tend to have this talent and use it frequently. Using any instrument that requires complex finger movements (e.g. guitar) would draw upon dexterity.

Characters who lack dexterity are ham-handed. They tend to drop coins while standing at the front of the line, drop their phone in the toilet, and suffer from similar unfortunate slip-ups. The inability to take dexterity skills is a signficant drawback to living a life of crime.

Empathy Talents:

Persuasion:

Persuasion is the ability to convince others. That might involve convincing someone to make a decision in your favor or getting a merchant to lower his prices. Persuasion covers interactions with a small number of people at a time (i.e. not public speaking). Persuasion is important for many communication skills.

Characters who lack persuasion have a very hard time interacting with other people. They have few friends and are extremely isolated. The inability to take persuasion skills is a signficant drawback in almost any setting or gameworld.