Questions about Contacts

[Mgellis]

Okay, here is something that has puzzled me about Contacts...

The RAW says you pick an effective skill for a Contact and give it a rank, like Administration-15 or Forensics-18.

That makes sense, but how do you handle the other things a contact does? For example, the real benefit of having a contact in a local police force is not that the guy can give you tips on Criminology, although he may do that, but that he can tell you what the force is up to, what investigations are ongoing, which cops are believed to be dirty, etc.

One would imagine that every Contact has "Current Affairs (Local Organization)," but this isn't really mentioned in the description of the advantage. Is it reasonable to assume a) it is a 0-point feature of the advantage and b) the Effective Skill level can be used to determine the general level of knowledge possessed by the Contact?

In fact, should the Effective Skill be used to cover everything a contact does? For example, if the Contact is asked to look through some files that he really shouldn't be looking at (this counts as non-hazardous, since he might be reprimanded but he probably wouldn't be killed on the spot), then he might need Stealth or Lockpicking or Fast-Talk or other skills to get it done. Now, of course, the GM is doing all this AND it is all happening "off camera." It would certainly be easier to just use the Effective Skill and not worry about the details (especially if this is happening "off camera") but is this the way the Advantage is actually supposed to work?

Any thoughts on this?

Mark

[Dinadon]

Originally Posted by Mgellis

In fact, should the Effective Skill be used to cover everything a contact does? For example, if the Contact is asked to look through some files that he really shouldn't be looking at (this counts as non-hazardous, since he might be reprimanded but he probably wouldn't be killed on the spot), then he might need Stealth or Lockpicking or Fast-Talk or other skills to get it done. Now, of course, the GM is doing all this AND it is all happening "off camera." It would certainly be easier to just use the Effective Skill and not worry about the details (especially if this is happening "off camera") but is this the way the Advantage is actually supposed to work?

No. How the contact does it is unimportant. Their Effective skill is considered to take into account how they get hold of that kind of information, and says so in the advantage description. If you want to have a contact do other things, then stat him normally.

[quarkstomper]

If you're going to put that much detail into what the contact is doing, then you might as well stat him up, assess a point value and call him an ally. A contact is a minor NPC and what he does is give information. Everything else he does is off-panel. The only thing the GM needs to know about him is (a) how often can the PC contact him; (b) can he get the information the PC wants; and (c) how accurate is that information.

For convenience sake, bundling everything a contact might need to do into a single roll make sense.

[Tinman]

Im with Dinadon on this. The skill is his skill as a contact.
You want to know what the cop's are upto? Rookie patrolman contacet skill 6
tells you "I don't know... I was just sent to patrol near the docks"
the 20 year vet detective skill 18 "Yeah, they are worried about Columbians shipping in drugs this week into the port here in town."

If you want to send someone to brake into an office & check somones files, I would think thats an ally.

[Mgellis]

Originally Posted by Tinman

Im with Dinadon on this. The skill is his skill as a contact.
You want to know what the cop's are upto? Rookie patrolman contacet skill 6
tells you "I don't know... I was just sent to patrol near the docks"
the 20 year vet detective skill 18 "Yeah, they are worried about Columbians shipping in drugs this week into the port here in town."

If you want to send someone to brake into an office & check somones files, I would think thats an ally.

In other words, the answer to my first question--does the Effective Skill also include general knowledge about the organization for which the contact works, assuming he is part of an organization?--would be, "Yes." Am I getting this right?

I may have used a bad example for the "everything else the contact does" question because I was trying to make it more concrete. The description of the advantage says contacts can do small favors for you--I figured this included things like "take a look at files the player character would never normally be allowed to access."

But maybe the distinction is that a Contact can look up anything in his own files and tell the player character, or "borrow" something MINOR from the warehouse or military base that he supervises, etc., BUT when he starts breaking into someone else's warehouse or looking at someone else's files, etc., he is an Ally. Does that make sense?

Mark

[Figleaf23]

Originally Posted by Mgellis

In other words, the answer to my first question--does the Effective Skill also include general knowledge about the organization for which the contact works, assuming he is part of an organization?--would be, "Yes." Am I getting this right?

Yes, that would be my take.

[Anaraxes]

the distinction is that a Contact can look up anything in his own files and tell the player character, or "borrow" something MINOR from the warehouse or military base that he supervises, etc., BUT when he starts breaking into someone else's warehouse or looking at someone else's files, etc., he is an Ally

I'd agree. A Contact doesn't do your adventuring for you. They might be willing to bend bureaucratic rules a bit, or even hint at some classified information. But they're not seriously risking their life or freedom.

[Tinman]

Mgellis, Yes. I think You hit the mark 100%.

[Kromm]

It's the ability to look at the off-limits file or speak with the guy who won't even give you an appointment that justifies your buddy Joe at the PD having an effective skill level as a Contact that's as much as nine levels higher than any believable personal skill level (comparing a professional 12 to an ungodly 21). You don't game out these particulars, though. If the plot hinges on all-or-nothing access to information or people rather than merely hard-to-make skill rolls, then Contacts won't help. On the other hand, if the plot hinges on making a roll at -5 to skill and you've only got default level, the Contact with effective skill 18 is rolling at 13, and the GM can always say, "He pulled some strings, got a look at the info, and got you your answer."

Generally, if you want an NPC who actually does diverse deeds to help with an adventure, you want an Ally. Contacts are nothing more than a fancy way to buy a skill that doesn't suit your character. The specific details of the Contact's life, training, and access are deliberately left vague because the PC cannot exploit them directly. An alternative is to take a Contact Group, which covers any number of related skills within a social context that is specified in detail. I'd say that the effective skill of a Contact Group would be of use for finding out who's doing what within the organization of which the Contact Group is a subset.

[Mgellis]

Originally Posted by Kromm

An alternative is to take a Contact Group, which covers any number of related skills within a social context that is specified in detail. I'd say that the effective skill of a Contact Group would be of use for finding out who's doing what within the organization of which the Contact Group is a subset.

Just to clarify this...a single contact could obviously answer questions about what he has seen, who he has talked to, what he might have access to, etc.

The only time you would need an entire Contact Group to get information regarding an organization would be if you wanted a fairly detailed run-down about the entire organization or a very large part of it.

Example...your Contact, Detective Jones, Effective Skill Criminology-15, can answer questions about Criminology, and can also tell you about cases that he has worked on and a lot of the basics of what his department is like. (e.g., "Don't annoy Jeff. Good cop. Bad temper. Very bad temper.")

He MIGHT know something about the cases that other detectives have worked on, or about which cops in his precinct might be taking bribes, but maybe not. One man, even a very well-informed one, is not going to know everything about his workplace and his co-workers (even the Chief, with Effective Skill 21-, won't know everything.) That's the level of "Current Affairs (Your Organization)" I'm talking about.

If you had an entire Contact Group of detectives, they might be able to put together a general assessment of corruption in the whole department, with details on who the main suspects are, what investigations are being run, etc. Of course, even they won't know everything. And you would need a Contact Group for that level and depth of information.

Am I getting this right?

Mark