Whisperspace Rules Docs

Empaths

Many call Empathy a gift; others, a curse. Feeling - not just sensing, but feeling - the emotions of others around you is exhausting, and Empathy doesn’t have an ‘off’ switch. Those who are blessed (or cursed) with it must bear their unique abilities as an ever-present burden.

Some Empaths go insane. The constant weight of others’ feelings is too much and they cannot handle the strain. Others seclude themselves, hiding away from the world in the most remote locations imaginable to escape their ‘gift’. Still others seek to find ways to live with it, to harness it; draw away stress and the sting of traumatic emotion from those around them, or quell dangerous feelings before they can boil to the surface.

Then there are Empaths who embrace their gift. They wreak havoc with the emotions of those around them for sport and revel in their power over their fellow man.

However they cope with their gift, Empaths are a small group of people from all over the Shatterbelt who are capable of feeling and at times intentionally altering the emotional state of living creatures around them. They can defuse fights before they start, or conjure them up between friends. Their services are always in high demand, both for good and ill.

Using Empathy

To use an Empathic Ability, you must first have the appropriate feat. Then roll an Empathy check:

Roll 1d12 + SOC (DC determined by the Empathic Ability being used)

Results:

Extreme success: ability resolves and is Heightened.
Success: ability resolves
Failure: ability does not resolve.
Extreme failure: ability does not resolve; suffer +1 stress.

All Empathic Abilities must target a living creature.

When targeting an unwilling creature, increase the Empathy check DC by the creature’s Composure rank. Conversely, when targeting a willing creature, gain +1 bonus die on all Empathic Ability checks.

Empathic Paths

All Empaths fall into one of three paths: readers, pushers, and vessels.

Readers

Those who are constantly aware of the subtle play of emotions around them. Beyond simply knowing who is happy and who isn’t, Readers are capable of tapping into the subtle web of emotion felt by all creatures; they can sense deeper, underlying feelings and even guess how those feelings are likely to shape their actions.

Using a Reader empathic ability requires the Empath: Reader feat.

Pushers

Empaths to whom playing with another’s emotions is as easy as breathing and nearly as commonplace. Pushers can bring peace to the most anguished soul or turn a kind-hearted man into a killer.

Using a Pusher empathic ability requires the Empath: Pusher feat.

Vessels

Perhaps the most empathetic of all Empaths, Vessels sacrifice their own emotional stability for others. Instead of imposing a feeling of their choice on another creature like a Pusher would, a Vessel siphons away negative emotion and allows the creature the choice to feel how they wish afterward. The price can be steep: whatever negative emotion is removed finds its home within the Vessel themselves.

Using a Vessel empathic ability requires the Empath: Vessel feat.

Empathic Abilities

Reader Empathic Abilities
Name	DC	Range	Action Cost	Effect
Emotional Attunement	8 + stress	Very Near	2	Form an Empathic Bond with target. When you have an Empathic Bond:You may have no more than one Empathic Bond at a time. You may dismiss an Empathic Bond by using 1 action. This ability cannot be Heightened.
Sense Violence		Medium		Violent emotions have a particular tang to them, reminiscent of a metallic taste. You are aware of these around you at all times, though you cannot determine the exact origin.
Read Motive	10	Medium	1	Discern what underlying emotions are influencing target creature’s current actions. What drives a merchant: greed or necessity?

All your other Empathic Abilities targeting bonded creature are bumped up one level of success. So an extreme failure becomes a failure, a failure becomes a success, etc.
Once per round, you may use 1 reaction to reduce stress gained by bonded creature by 1 (minimum 1).
Whenever bonded creature suffers stress, you take half of that stress (rounded up) while it takes the remainder.

You cannot be Surprised by living creatures.
You gain +1 bonus die on Initiative rolls against living creatures.

Heightened: you know the exact origin of these emotions. Additionally, the first attack by a living creature against you each combat suffers +1 penalty die.

Heightened: you gain knowledge of target’s greatest emotional lever: their greatest fear, desire, or hope.

Pusher Empathic Abilities
Name	DC	Range	Action Cost	Effect
Sow Chaos	8	Very Near	1 to 3	Transfer stress (amount equal to number of actions spent) from yourself to target creature.
Reap Carnage	12 - target’s stress	Melee	2	Impose the Frenzied condition on target. At the end of the target’s turns, they may roll a Composure or Willpower (DC8) check to end this condition.
Lash Out	9	Near	2-3	Release a violent surge of emotions to all creatures within Near range of you. Every living creature in range gains 1 stress for every 2 stress you currently have (minimum 1). You reduce your stress by half the total stress inflicted (rounded up). Creatures who receive stress this way must immediately roll Composure (DC8) or gain the Demoralized condition.

Heightened: transfer twice as much stress to target instead.

Heightened: target creature ignores all penalty dice for the duration of Frenzied.

Heightened: you may exclude yourself and any bonded creature from the distribution.

Vessel Empathic Abilities
Name	DC	Range	Action Cost	Effect
Siphon Tumult	6 + target’s stress	Very Near	1	Remove up to 2 stress from target creature. Gain stress equal to the amount removed. If target is reduced to 0 stress in this way, they may ignore the next instance of stress gain before the end of the day.
Take the Burden	10	Melee	2	Transfer one negative mental condition from target creature to yourself.
Emotional Grounding	8	Near	1-2	Until the start of your next turn, choose one per action spent:You immediately gain 1 stress per action spent when using this ability.

Heightened: remove up to 4 stress instead.

Heightened: while you are affected by this condition, the target cannot regain it again from the same source.

Target reduces all stress gain by 1.
Target gains +1 bonus die on Composure checks

Heightened: you may apply this effect to yourself as well.

Empaths and Machines

Machines are emotionless; cold and silent to Empaths. As such, most Empaths tend to have one of two reactions to them: relief or distrust. Spending time near an entity that isn’t loud in your head can be valuable and welcome, yet by the same token it makes robots and machines unpredictable and impossible to control.