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Originally Posted by sir_pudding
Why not? They can still look stuff up in the archives, talk to Special Agent Jones about what really happened in Nebraska in November or whatever they could do if you were in Virginia. You being elsewhere doesn't change what they can do.
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I agree - a Contact should be able to provide favors and information logically, even if they're not in the same place you are, if they're described in a way that that's appropriate. I just think that those features should be paid for. Either Contacts who can't provide that sort of assistance should be cheaper, or those that can should be more expensive.
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Originally Posted by sir_pudding
To some extent this should figure into their effective skill, but yes it is probably a bad idea to take a useless Contact. That homeless guy is probably better defined as a friend perk.
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I would disagree - a homeless person could actually be quite useful. Besides providing Streetwise, they can do favours like watch a location for you, find a safe (if unpleasant) place to hide out for a while, point out good places to do your own observation or panhandling, make some introductions if you want to hire some other street people for a quick job, provide introductions to Beggars' Guild "officials" (if such exist), or even call up a few stronger or more unhinged street people to act as a temporary "goon squad". All stuff I certainly wouldn't let a Friend perk cover!
But if we're still thinking of a homeless person as "useless", let's use another example. Say you've got a fence for a Contact, who also provides Streetwise. That's definitely a classic example of a Contact, I'd say. But their utility is likely sharply limited outside the city they're in. Most fences aren't internationally connected, so the fact that you can call them up from anywhere doesn't help, they're still going to tell you "I can't help you sell that illegal thing you've stolen unless you come here". I think that's clearly less useful than the CIA analyst Contact, but not so much so that it deserves to only be worth 1 point. I think that if your Contact has a bigger scope, you really should be paying more.