Empathy

Empathy is not an automatic lie detector, but it does help characters gain a sense of other people’s motivations or deceptions. Is the caravan leader steering me into an ambush because she’s in cahoots with a robber gang? Is the baroness secretly poor, even though she claims otherwise? Is the alchemist’s elixir as good as she says, even though she seems to be trying to suppress a laugh?

Check: SGC/INT/CHA
Applications: Discern Motivation, Sense Deception
Encumbrance: No
Quality: gain insight into another person’s motivation or intentionally misleading statement.
Failed Check: the hero is unsure.
Critical Success: the hero gets a strong sense of what drives a person to act in a certain manner.
Botch: the hero misjudges the situation completely (believing every word a liar says, or thinking an honest person is lying, for example).
Improvement Cost: C

• The hero isn’t distracted and can focus +1
  
• The hero is slightly distracted -1
  
• Sense deception Competitive check — Empathy (Sense Deception, Discern Motivation) against Fast-Talk (Manipulate)