Roleplayer #15, August 1989
A New Advantage: Contacts
by Brian J. Underhill
A Contact is an NPC, like an Ally or a Patron. However, the Contact only
provides information. Contacts may be anything from a wino in the
right gutter to the Chief of State of a country. The Contact has access
to information, and he is already known to and guaran-teed to react favorably
to the PC. The contact may want a price, in cash or favors, for the information.
The Contact is always played and controlled by the GM and the nature of
the price must be set by the GM.
The GM may assume that a contact is, in general, well-disposed toward the
PC. However, the Contact is not an Ally or Patron, and is no more
likely to give special help than any other generally-friendly NPC!
A Contact does not have to be created when the PC is first developed. Contacts
may be added later. When appropriate, the GM can turn an existing NPC into
a Contact for one or more PCs, possibly in lieu of character points for
the adventure in which the Contact was encountered.
Whatever the case, the Contact can provide information only about his own
area of expertise. The technician at the forensics lab probably has no information
about Nazi agents in New York, and the First Secretary of the British Embassy
probably can't do a ballistics comparison. The GM assigns a skill (Streetwise
for a minor criminal, Forensics for a lab tech, etc.) to the Contact. All
attempts to get information from him require a secret roll by the GM against
the Contact's "effective" skill. Note that the effective skill
is not necessarily the NPC's actual skill; the actual skill can
be set by the GM if the NPC comes into regular play. For instance, the president
of a local steel mill might actually have business-related skills in the
16-18 area, but he has an effective skill of 21, making him worth
20 points, because he himself has good connections!
Point values for Contacts are based on the type of information and its effective
skill, modified by the fre-quency with which they can provide information
and the reliability of the information. Importance of infor-mation is relative
and the list of possible Contacts is virtually endless; a few are listed
below as a guide to help the GM determine value.
Type of Information
Street Contacts. These are minor criminals, derelicts, shoeshine
boys, street entertainers, fences and other streetwise NPCs who provide
information on illicit activities, local criminal gossip, upcoming crimes
and so forth. Base cost is 5 points for "unconnected" contacts
(not part of the local criminal organization; Streetwise-12) and 10 points
for "connected" contacts (Streetwise-15).
Business Contacts. Executives, secretaries -- even the mailroom
flunky -- can provide information on business dealings. Base cost depends
on how much the contact can be expected to know: 5 points for a mail boy
or typist (effective skill 12), 10 points for the president's secretary
(effective skill 15), 15 points for an accountant (effective skill 18) or
20 points for the Chairman of the Board (effective skill 21).
Police Contacts. This includes anyone connected with law enforcement
and criminal investigation:
patrolmen, detectives, forensics specialists, coroners, federal agents and
so on. Cost depends on access to information or services. Beat cops are
5 points (effective skill 12); detectives, federal agents or records clerks
are 10 points (effective skill 15); administrators (lieutenants, captains,
Special Agents in Charge, etc.) are 15 points (effective skill 18) and senior
officers (sheriffs, chiefs of police, District Superintendents, etc.) are
20 points (effective skill 21).
Frequency of Assistance
Frequency refers to the chance that the Contact can be found when
needed. When creating the character, the player must define the way the
Contact is normally contacted! Regardless of the chosen Frequency, a Contact
cannot be reached if the PCs could not reasonably speak to him. No Contact
may be used more than once per day, even if several PCs share the same contact.
Multiple questions may be asked each day, at a cumulative -2 for each question
after the first.
Almost all the time (roll of 15 or less): triple cost.
Quite often (roll of 12 or less): double cost.
Fairly often (roll of 9 or less): listed cost.
Rarely (roll of 6 or less): half cost (round up).
During the adventure, if a PC wants to talk with his Contact, the GM rolls
against the availability number for that Contact. A failed roll means the
Contact is busy or cannot be located that day. If the Contact is available,
then the GM must roll against the contact's effective skill for each general
piece of information the PC requests. A Contact can never supply
information outside his area of knowledge. Use common sense. Likewise, the
GM must not allow a Contact to give information that short-circuits
the adventure!
If a PC gets a critical failure when trying to reach his Contact, that contact
cannot be reached during that entire game session.
Reliability of Information
Contacts are not guaranteed to know anything useful, and are not necessarily
truthful. Use the following modifiers (cumulative with frequency modifiers).
Completely reliable: Even on a critical failure, the worst response will
be "I don't know." On an ordinary failure be can find information
in 1d days. Triple cost.
Usually reliable: On a critical failure the contact will lie; on any other
failure he "doesn't know now but check back in 1d days." Roll
again at that time; a failure then means he can't find out at all. Double
cost.
Somewhat reliable: On a failure the contact doesn't know and can't find
out; on a critical failure he will lie; on a natural 18 he will let the
opposition know who is asking questions. Listed cost.
Unreliable: Reduce effective skill by 2. On any failure he will lie; on
a critical failure he will notify the enemy. Half cost (round up).
Money Talks
Bribery, whether cash or favors, motivates the Contact and increases his
reliability level. Once reliability reaches "usually reliable,"
further levels of increase go to effective skill; bribery cannot make anyone
totally reliable!
A cash bribe should be about equivalent to one day's income for a +1 bonus,
one week's income for +2, one month's for +3 and one year's for +4. Favors
should be of equivalent worth. The favor should always be something that
the character actually performs in the game. The GM must maintain proper
roleplaying; a diplomat might be insulted by a cash bribe, but welcome an
introduction into the right social circle.
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