Attributes And Edges

Attributes and Edges
Attributes form the basis of your character. They tell you how strong, agile and smart your character is. Attribute scores normally range from 1 to 5, though some species can have higher scores. Your character's base attributes come from the Template, which represents your character's species. There are five attributes:

• Fitness: Fitness represents the physical makeup of your character. It governs how much that character can lift, how much damage she can withstand before falling unconscious and overall athletic ability.
• Coordination: Coordination represents a characters' gross and fine motor skills—how well she shoots, fights, dodges attacks, performs sleight of hand tricks, and so on.
• Intellect: Intellect measures your character's overall intelligence, deductive reasoning capability, technical acumen and perception. The ability to operate computers, provide medical assistance or realize that someone is following you are all linked to this attribute.
• Presence: Presence measures the character's personal magnetism. The character's ability to negotiate with alien diplomats, bully or interrogate a subject for information, or charm someone into doing her a favor are all linked to Presence.
• Psi: Psi represents a character's innate extrasensory mental abilities — telepathy, empathy, telekinesis and so forth. Most characters will have a Psi attribute of zero, indicating that they have no innate mental abilities. Characters with Psi 0 cannot buy Psionic skills or raise or lower their Psi edges; however, with the Narrator's permission they may be allowed to spend Experience Points on Psi, Psi edges, and Psionic skills to develop whatever latent psionic powers they have.

Edges
Each attribute can be further broken down into two aspects, called edges. Edges make attributes a bit more flexible. One person may be slightly stronger than another, even though both have the same general Fitness. Edges are expressed in terms of "+" or"-" values. The value of an edge indicates a bonus or penalty that modifies the amount of dice players roll in appropriate situations. For example, a security officer might have a high Intellect, but she may also buckle under pressure (giving her a -1 Willpower edge). On the other hand, a diplomatic attache may be sorely lacking in Presence, but his affinity for people and negotiation gives him a +2 Empathy edge. Under normal circumstances, edges range from -2 to +2. (For more about Tests, see the Tactical Chapter).

Fitness Edges
• Strength: Strength modifies a character's ability to lift heavy objects and exert physical force. The Strength score indicates that the character receives fewer or extra dice when making Strength-based Fitness Tests.
• Vitality: Vitality modifies the general energy level and health of the character. Vitality modifies the character's ability to withstand the effects of fatigue, poisons, illness and injury.

Coordination Edges
• Dexterity: Dexterity modifies a character's manual dexterity - - his ability to move quickly and gracefully. It modifies many Coordination Tests, such as jumping, gymnastics, moving stealthily and attacking accurately.
• Reaction: Reaction modifies a character's ability to respond to sudden changes in the immediate situation - - dodge enemy disrupter fire, parry melee attacks and so on. It also affects who acts first in combat.

Intellect Edges
• Logic: Logic modifies a character's problem solving and deductive-reasoning ability.
• Perception: Perception modifies a character's ability to notice events and items in his environment.

Presence Edges
• Empathy: Empathy modifies a character's ability to read the body language and emotional state of people he encounters.
• Willpower: Willpower modifies a character's ability to withstand pain, illness or psionic manipulation.

Psi Edges
• Focus: Focus modifies the degree of precision with which Psi-talented characters can use their mental powers.
• Range: Range modifies the distance over which Psi-talented characters can effectively use their mental powers.