Okay, I'll try to be brief with my setup, if possible. If I fail, just skip to the bottom, my question will be there somewhere.

I roamed Elanthia with my first empath(and my main character) years ago before Transference was a twinkle in some GM's eye. When DR went from AOL to the web, I could not come with sadly.

Jump ahead to a few years ago. Hit by a bit of nostalgia, I decided to hunt down DR again, and rolled up a fresh new empath. I was a bit confused by the Transference skill(and completely opposed to it, but that's a dead horse for another day) , but I went with the flow. Had a good time and all, but it just wasn't the same. Eventually I left again, in part because I missed the feeling I had as a member of the 'old' guild.

Present-time. Was talking with my girlfriend about my time in DR, and we decided to fire up a couple accounts and play together. No Transference skill, Empathy instead. I wrote it off as being Transference's winter coat; same skill, different title.

However in reading the boards and a few brief discussion with others, I've heard how 'things are much better now than they were with Transference' and such. I've tried to find some fundamental difference, but I guess I'm missing it.



Now, with history out of the way, on to my actual question:

What is the difference between Transference and Empathy? What makes Empathy so great compared to the oh-so-bad Transference other than having leeches and a special perceive tied to it?



I still feel like I'm chasing down patients to circle. I can't explain why it bothers me so. I've always loved to heal, and I still love this guild, so it really shouldn't make a difference.

But it does, logic be damned.

Heroiklim is right on the money. The problem with "Transference" as a skill name is that it's very limited in what you can do with it. You can only "transfer" so much stuff before you run out of ideas. The guild (and apparently the guild GMs) felt that this name was too limited, and by opening it up into something more general, like "Empathy", a lot more could be done to the skill without violating its name.

After all, you don't transfer anything when you perceive health, remove leeches, manipulate a critter, etc., etc. -- all things we've received after, and I believe as a result of, this change in name.

Meghan

Not much I can add to what's been said here, already. But one way to picture the difference is, Transference is a subset of Empathy. Transference, as has been noted, is merely the ability to take wounds from another person onto your body. Empathy has the much broader definition of 'attunement to life forces'.

It also bears mentioning that apparently we will eventually be getting Transference back, as an additional skill (not a replacement to Empathy).