[Otaku]

Originally Posted by johndallman

If so, the modifiers will need care, because these describe three different kinds of interaction.

1. An Ally goes places with you, and shares in the risks of adventuring.
2. A Contact is someone who stays in the context of their own life, and doesn't go places with you.
3. A Patron involves themself with your life, but on their terms, not yours.

Don't they break down that way simply because the RAW force them to, as opposed to something inherent in the concept?

My basic premise is that all three major distinctions are not universally true and in a significant enough number of cases, you'll have overlap for all three Advantages. Thus why not try to make it a single more generic, universal Advantage that can be tailored to fit the circumstances? I know some really hate getting too crunchy, but they will still have their options of merely using worked examples, "eyeballing it" or of course avoiding/ignoring the Advantage all together.

A Contact is

Originally Posted by p.B44

...an associate who provides you with useful information, or who does small (pick any two of "quick," "nonhazardous," and "inexpensive") favors for you. The point value is based on the skill he uses to assist you, the frequency with which he provides information or favors, and his reliability as a person.

Note: The bold text in the quote are italics in the actual book; at least when I quote text on the board it italicizes all of it, hence why I changed it.

Of course, mechanically they are basically just an externalized Skill roll; an abstraction to make things easier on the GM. That is the only reason I can come up with to keep them distinct, and I don't consider it that great of a reason myself. I am not going to say it must be abandoned entirely, but why not err on the side of being generic and universal by making it so that the Contacts Advantage as we know it exists only for GMs and/or players that need such abstractions? If you want more fleshed out role-playing, your Contacts become Allies either built to focus on "Contact" style tasks or with Limitations that keep them from behaving like unrestricted Allies or Patrons.

Re-reading through Patrons, I think the division is mostly a matter of forced perspective; anything an Ally can do, a Patron can do. Anything a Patron can do, an Ally can do... it is just likely less impressive because Allies aren't built on as many CP. Now, thinking like a GM, there are definitely times when I wouldn't allow the players a Patron that wants to behave as an Ally, but that's not a "generic, universal" thing but a specific setting, campaign, adventure or even session call. That isn't anything unique however; many (most?) Advantages have similar pitfalls.