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Dexterity
This ability is physical precision, which is
more abstract or less concrete than Physique. Dexterity
is comprised of 4 sub-abilities: Hand-Eye
Coordination, Agility, Reaction Speed, and Enunciation.
A high ability score in Dexterity indicates
that a character is probably nimble, moves easily and
as desired, has lightning reactions, and can speak
quickly and clearly if necessary.
Hand-Eye Coordination: This type of
Dexterity affects skills (see Chap. 8: Skills) such as
Aim, Ambidexterity, Basketweaving, Blindfighting,
Delousing, Disarm, Dying, Enameling, Engraving,
Forgery, Hunting, Hurl, Juggling, Lock-picking, Massage,
Milking, Mounted Archery, Musical Instrument,
Painting, Parry, Pick Pocket, Complex Ritual, Rope
Use, Sculpture, Surgery, Tailoring, Urinating, Weapon
(General), Weapon (Specific), Weapon Trick, and any
other activity demanding accurate finger or hand
movements. Hand-Eye Coordination determines a
character’s Finger Precision, the finest intended precision
with which fingers may be manipulated.
Agility: Differing from Reaction Speed below,
Agility is not the ability to physically react to a
stimulus, so much as the ability to physically enact
an action as desired, once chosen. Agility affects
Current Armor, thereby protecting those who are
agile, while those with low Agility are more vulnerable
to attacks. Agility affects skills (see Chap. 8:
Skills) such as Balance, Brawling, Climb, Physical
Comedy, Contortion, Dance, Disarm, Hide, Juggling,
Mountaineering, Mounted Archery, Parry,
Riding, Silence, Tumble, Weapon (General), Weapon
(Specific), and Wrestling. Regarding the Brawling
skill, Agility affects the number of Brawling attacks
per round. Agility also affects the number of seconds
necessary to stand.
Reaction Speed: Often considered to be
mental Dexterity, Reaction Speed entails neural responsiveness
such as combat responsiveness or the
speed of awakening in an emergency. Those with
high reaction speeds can awaken from a deep sleep
and be coherently on their feet in a few seconds, or
react very quickly to the many minute factors of
combat. This is represented on the table as Deep
Sleep Recovery, listing the number of rounds required
to be alert and able to react without penalty
in an emergency. Reaction Speed directly affects
Initiative (see Chap. 10: Combat), as well as the
Blindfighting skill (see Chap. 8: Skills).
Enunciation: Verbal coordination is the
basis of Enunciation, such as speaking quickly and
not getting tongue-tied, avoiding the slurring of
words, and speaking clearly. Characters with low
scores in Enunciation may, upon being frustrated
or fearful, become unable to articulate their speech,
and therefore babble incomprehensibly. Direct
measures of Enunciation include how quickly a character
may cast a spell, and a character’s Maximum
Speech Rate, which is represented in words-perminute
(w.p.m.). Few characters ever speak at this
rate, but this is the fastest that this sub-ability of
Dexterity allows a character to speak. Obviously, a
character’s Average Speech Rate, as listed for Rhetorical
Charisma, may never exceed their Maximum
Speech Rate, as listed for Enunciation. Enunciation
affects the skills of Spitting and Ventriloquism
(see Chap. 8: Skills).
Chapter 3: Abilities
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