Long Post Warning…
So I feel the need to introduce a move that allows players to create contacts/NPCs. The concept is heavily inspired by Burning Wheel’s Circles. Here’s my current concept, which I would appreciate some help with:
When you remember and search out a local contact within your circle of influence, briefly describe this person and how you know him/her, and Roll + Influence.
– On a 10+: The contact is as amiable as could be expected and pleased to hear from you.
– On a 7-9: there is a grudge, unfinished business, or prevailing complication that must be dealt with or tactfully navigated. The GM will tell you what, or ask you questions regarding it.
I love the idea of players being able to introduce a potentially helpful NPC when they find themselves in a jam (similar to how Han Solo recalled Lando when they needed a place to lay low in Cloud City… which obviously was a 6- roll). I also feel that every character, even those with the worst personalities, should have contacts… just more complicated ones. But this idea obviously conflicts with the Personality move: Contacts.
My resolution is two-fold:
(1) Every character, at creation, also designates a Circle of Influence that ties into his/her Background but is more defined. If your background is Privileged, your circles could be nobles, or doctors, or even criminals, etc. Your background flavors this, however, as someone with Privileged: Criminals Circles would obviously have contacts with much more white-collar criminals than one with Brutal: Criminals. Any sort of Circle (Traders, Smugglers, Scientists, Actor/Actresses, Engineers, etc.) takes on wildly different flavor according to the background you attach it to.
When using this move, you may only introduce a contact that fits within that designated circle of influence. Through the fiction and adventures characters can naturally acquire new circles of influence if the GM feels it fits.
Characters with the Contacts move are not restrained by their circle of influence. They have contacts everywhere.
(2) The Contacts move that already exists only lets players introduce an NPC when first visiting a civilized area. This works in the same way as the above move but without needing a roll. You just get the contact as if rolling a success. So it’s still a really powerful move. But if you’ve already designated a contact upon arrival and now find yourself in a situation where you could use someone else – now you make the Circles of Influence move.
What are your thoughts, community? What should be tweaked or clarified?
While there is nothing wrong with this move, I don’t see the need for it. If a player wants to introduce a contact, they just can. They are their character, and if they’re in a jam there is nothing stopping a player from saying: “So, I want to get a hold of someone who can maybe help me out? Like an old friend?” And then you have that conversation at the table. The GM just follows their principles at this point, and makes GM Moves, and maybe you roll to Face Adversity with Influence if there is a risk the contact won’t assist you.
I think your circles of influence idea is spot on, if unnecessarily restrictive. I mean, what you’re describing is exactly how MCs should be be treating character’s careers/origins in the first place, but there is little to be gained by making the Brutal character decide immediately whether they know Pirates or Gladiators… they’ve been alive in this universe for how long? I’m sure they know lots of convenient space opera personalities when the going gets rough.
Finally, I am wary of creating a whole mechanized move that makes calling on friends player-facing, as it risks defanging Uncharted World’s faction rules. If players are in a pinch, UW’s principles seem to suggest they should be calling on Factions and getting deeper and deeper into trouble. If players wanted to avoid that — which there ARE moves for — and go to old friends for help, I feel like that is exactly the scenario where a GM should be making his or her soft moves.
Again, nothing wrong with this move, I just think it is doing a lot of lifting that is already accounted for, and that I wonder if it ruins the Faction moves players have access to.
Hmm, I agree that it’s something that players should be able to do (introduce an NPC), I also need to be careful to protect the Contact move that already exists. If anyone can just name a contact at any time, then that move becomes useless.
I do like the idea, however, that such a thing would always be complicated. So if the character’s don’t want to get factions involved and just use contacts, but don’t have the contacts move, then whatever character you introduce will have some necessary complications.
That’s kind of what’s happening with this move anyway, though. Most will be complicated, some will luck out and be ok, some will be even worse.
See, but player facing moves aren’t about complicated: they’re about control. A player-facing move says: Here are the potential outcomes, lets make this situation less unknown, less chaotic.
For things that are inherently complicated and out of your control, that screams MC Move.
Again, just my opinion, but I wouldn’t introduce a move to call on allies if I wanted it complicated — after all, when a player looks you in the eye and goes “Hey can’t I call someone about this?” thats your golden opportunity to look at your sheets and Make a Move! That’s as risky and complicated as it gets, asking the MC to say what happens next!
This reminds me of a similar move in Urban Shadows:
PUT A FACE TO A NAME
When you put a face to a name or vice versa, roll with their Faction. On a hit, you know their reputation; the GM will tell you what most people know about them. On a 10+, you’ve dealt with them before; learn something interesting and useful about them or they owe you a Debt. On a miss, you don’t know them or you owe them, the MC will tell you which.
Yeah, I like that move Seth Harris ! I haven’t checked out Urban Shadows yet, but it would be worth learning from.
And I agree with you as well, Alfred Rudzki , but I think it drives us in different directions. You helped me put words to what I desire from this move. I do want the players to have more control there, and I want less GM control in that area. I want to encourage the players to actively populate the universe with their own NPCs, with built in ties to their characters.
I get that is something that could happen anyway, but I sincerely don’t think it will without a move that draws attention to it (unless you play with story game veterans that take initiative with that sort of thing).
Because there’s a move that gives players permission to create an NPC, it implies that such a thing is off limits to players without that move. By adding this move I put such a thing in the realm of all players. My big concern, however, is how to ensure that the Contacts move already in place remains viable and enticing.
Also, as I tweak the move, I think I prefer to just limit it to background. So any player without the Contacts move can name a contact that fits in with their background (Brutal, Impoverished, Regimented, etc.)
Do you guys feel this breaks the Contacts move though?
And since I want to run a universe where every player has numerous contacts, how do you make someone who specializes in contacts still stand out? Simply that their contacts are reliably solid ones?