Contact as a Limitation on Ally

[Donny Brook]

I want to canvass the forum on something -- I'd appreciate your gut reaction to this before reading any posts that may be put on the thread.

Imagine that the specific benefits provided by a Contact (provides useful information, or does small (pick any two of“quick,”“nonhazardous,” and “inexpensive”) favors for you), were instead configured as a Limitation on Ally. What would that Limitation be worth?

[Anders]

You're trading most of the usefulness of the Ally. I would put it somewhere in the -50% to -80% range.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

I want to canvass the forum on something -- I'd appreciate your gut reaction to this before reading any posts that may be put on the thread.

Imagine that the specific benefits provided by a Contact (provides useful information, or does small (pick any two of“quick,”“nonhazardous,” and “inexpensive”) favors for you), were instead configured as a Limitation on Ally. What would that Limitation be worth?

I'd guess about 50%.

[Daigoro]

If your Ally has History skill, you can query him about it any time he's with you. If it's a Contact with History skill, you can only ask him once a day, and only about History, as you lose access to everything else your Ally knows. So as far as information goes, I'd say -80%.

Now, add back into that the ability to get one favour a day and you could do a similar calculation, but I think that'd come close to -80% as well.

[Black Leviathan]

It seems like a semantic issue but I see allies and contacts as fundamentally different.

Contacts tend to be either experts or luminaries, people you know that you have no reason to call a peer like an analytical chemist or a newspaper archivist. These aren't relationships that have to make sense or that don't have great reciprocation. You just met someone that you recognized would be useful to you and traded contact information. They are valued based on their skill, how available they are and how likely they are to help when it might hurt them.

Allies are friends and colleagues. Their connection to you is something that makes sense and comes from the work you've put into a relationship with them. Their skill isn't really relevant, most often they have skills very similar to yours or skills that are readily available in most places. Their ability to come through in a pinch is presumed, they have your back in all but the most insane consequences. They aren't always a good source for useful information but they can be your eyes and ears or hands when you're stretched thin.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Black Leviathan

It seems like a semantic issue but I see allies and contacts as fundamentally different.

More OOC-wise, you could say that Allies have character points and character sheets, whereas Contacts are more nebulously sketched, with only a line or so of stats.

Nonetheless, this is still a useful exercise- you could easily have an Ally who acts more Contact-like. Forex, depending on the version you're emulating, Bruce Wayne could take Alfred as either an Ally or just a Contact.

But also, you're only considering these advantages as if they're normal people in a normal society. What if you want to write up a shaman's spirits or a hacker's ghost AI using either of the advantages?