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Old 01-05-2018, 06:46 PM   #1
Kesendeja
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Default Contacts and Allies for a conspiracy theorist

The characters are almost done for my FBI game, but the subject of Allies and Contacts came up for the "Mulder" of the group. He's less politically connected but also less outspoken. Outside of a low level CIA agent and the a Lone Gunman style group, we're having a bit of a problem picking contacts and allies.

CIA agent = Ally
Lone Gunmen = Contact

Any other's you could think of?
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Old 01-05-2018, 07:07 PM   #2
Refplace
 
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Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
Default Re: Contacts and Allies for a conspiracy theorist

Actually either could be an Ally or Contact.
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Old 01-05-2018, 08:00 PM   #3
Kelly Pedersen
 
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
Default Re: Contacts and Allies for a conspiracy theorist

Like Refplace says, both of those could easily be Contacts or Allies. The real distinction between an Ally and a Contact is that an Ally is regularly willing to accompany the player on adventures, doing whatever is within their abilities to assist, whereas a Contact provides information, uses their skills on behalf of the player, and does them favors, but a) only a limited number of times in an adventure, and b) generally this doesn't involve actually coming along (a Contact might join the party as a favor, but I'd generally rule that that would be for the duration of an encounter at best).

All that said, there's lots of options for Contacts for this sort of character. Consider any of the following:
  • Another FBI agent, who can provide information about other cases in the Bureau that Spooky hasn't been assigned to, and the actions of other agents.
  • People in other government branches, like the CIA, the NSA, various military branches, the civil service, and so on, who can provide info about what their particular agency or what have you is up to.
  • News reporters, conspiracy bloggers, or other sources of current events who can give the agent a call proactively to let him know about stuff that has crossed their radar, or potentially "spin" a story when it becomes public.
  • Random homeless people, children, waiters, etc. who just happen to be in the right place to see some weird stuff, and let the agent know.
  • Technical sorts, like radar operators, electrical engineers, physicists, etc., who can look at the evidence the "Mulder" has collected and tell him whether or not its plausible signs of alien/bigfoot/mothman activity.
  • Truckdrivers, airline pilots, or boatmen who can let the agent know about strange occurences on the highways/in the air/on the water, and give him a helpful lift from time to time.
  • Medical professionals who can evaluate mysterious wounds, check tissue samples for DNA matches, and patch up a bullet wound or two that Spooky would rather the Bureau not find out about.

And so forth! Really, almost any skill can be turned into a Contact. Just remember the player has it, and make sure that information relevant to it comes up in the adventures, so they have reason to use them.
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