Contact Groups and Alternate Abilities

[Celti]

One of my players just came up with a very clever use of the rules; I'm allowing it, but I want opinions on it.

Contact Group (Usually Reliable; Skill 12; 12 or less) [20] + Contact Group (Usually Reliable; Skill 15; 9 or less; Alternate Ability) [4] + Contact Group (Usually Reliable; Skill 18; 6 or less; Alternate Ability) [3].

You roll for appearance once, and if you roll high enough you get a higher level of skill. Sound reasonable?

[Mathulhu]

Your player deserves a gold star.

I will be using that in the future.

[The Benj]

Hmm, I think you'd actually have to choose before you roll.

[warmachine]

Please describe the concept behind the Contact Group.

[Dwarf99]

Originally Posted by Celti

One of my players just came up with a very clever use of the rules; I'm allowing it, but I want opinions on it.

Contact Group (Usually Reliable; Skill 12; 12 or less) [20] + Contact Group (Usually Reliable; Skill 15; 9 or less; Alternate Ability) [4] + Contact Group (Usually Reliable; Skill 18; 6 or less; Alternate Ability) [3].

You roll for appearance once, and if you roll high enough you get a higher level of skill. Sound reasonable?

I'd take it a step further and instead of writing out all those skill levels and activation numbers I'd make it a campaign enhancement

Varied Skill +40% (I assumed you meant both alternates to be 4 points, and 8/20 is 40%) to save character sheet clutter

Originally Posted by warmachine

Please describe the concept behind the Contact Group.

From a strictly CP standpoint that's a non-issue, Either the ability should be allowed, or it should not. who the contacts are and why the player has them (both concepts) dont have any bearing on whether it should be allowed.

[warmachine]

Originally Posted by Dwarf99

From a strictly CP standpoint that's a non-issue, Either the ability should be allowed, or it should not. who the contacts are and why the player has them (both concepts) dont have any bearing on whether it should be allowed.

Does the player have an example of a concept he's trying to describe that RAW cannot? If so, a different house rule might be better. If not, it's a solution to a non-problem.

[Langy]

Originally Posted by warmachine

Please describe the concept behind the Contact Group.

It's probably a Contact Group wherein it's easy for him to get simple help, harder to get expert help, and harder still to get master-level help - but he can still get them.

In other words, not everyone in the contact group has the same level of abilities, and he's randomly being put in touch with someone.

It could be used pretty well for a nationwide network of separate contacts, rather than a single organization or something similar where everyone will be working together to help you.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Dwarf99

From a strictly CP standpoint that's a non-issue, Either the ability should be allowed, or it should not. who the contacts are and why the player has them (both concepts) dont have any bearing on whether it should be allowed.

Exactly! Either the principle is valid, or the principle is not valid. There is no legitimate "it depends". It is a strictly game mechanical question.

[Christopher R. Rice]

One of the things I suggested during the playtest, but that never made it into Social Engineering, was the idea of a "proto-contact." Basically, if you had a Contact or Contact Group, you could use a version of Using Abilities at Default (Powers, p. 173) to temporarily "know a guy." The player would then need to roll against a appropriate skill at the penalty indicated for what you'd normally roll against the power.

For example, a character that knows Contact Group (Chicago Underworld; Criminal Skills-12; 9 or less; Somewhat Reliable) [5] could try to say his character knows dirty cop in New York (Contact (Streetwise-15; 9 or less; Somewhat Reliable) [2]). Since this is 40% of what his originally advantage cost, he rolls against Streetwise-4. Success means he gets the use of this Contact temporarily. The dirty cop knows some of the guys that the character knows.

Another way to do a "proto-contact" is to allow characters to put unspent character points in a proto-contact pool. This operates similarly to potential advantages, but once you spend the points, you gain that contact permanently.

You could also use Favors In Play (Power-Ups 5, p. 8), which works quite well.

[Kromm]

The concept seems fine to me. Rolling once for appearance for the same NPC, however many traits it appears in, is probably the most logical way to do things, and I see no good reason not to compare it to multiple frequencies of appearance.