Question: Contacts
I’ve done character creation and will be running my first session next week, I was just wondering if anyone can fill me in on the differences between declare a contact and the fixer move I know people?
Do you not add the person as a contact if you get 9 or below on I know people?
Is it mostly that no favors are involved but it’s more character based?
Tips would be appreciated đ
I donât think there is a lot of difference. The fixer can just do it twice per mission.
EDIT: Having re-read it, I understand your question better and I think it’s not as clear as I first assumed.
Yes, it says this: “Once per mission you may introduce a new Contact. Name the contact, say what they do, then roll Style.”
So presumably, you get to introduce a new Contact (capital C). But then only the 10+ result lets you write them down as a Contact (capital C) for use with Hit the Streets.
“10+: youâve worked with the contact before; they have talent. Write them down as a Contact
“7-9: youâve never met them before, theyâre an unknown quantity
“6 minus: you know them all right. Tell the MC why they dislike you
“After youâve rolled, describe how you contact them; the MC will ask some questions.”
So that’s a good question. The first sentence, you introduce a new Contact (capital C, can use Hit the Street with capital C Contacts). But is it really a Contact?
I think the way I’ll run it (I have a Fixer PC in my upcoming campaign) is to have 10+ make a Contact; 7-9 potentially make a Contact, but only after he meets them (I can play all kinds of tricks here but it’s essentially a success and I’ll treat it as such); and six minus make a Threat or face of one of the evil megacorps.
I think thereâs a mention about Circles and backgrounds as well. Itâs pretty brief but it colors the type of people you would know with the Basic Move, Declare a Contact.
The Fixer Move has no such restrictions.
So say youâre a tough as nails soldier or killer with a background as a Corp Security.
You could Declare contacts in that world whereas your Infiltrator might have said their background was from a Hacker collective. They have contacts in that circle of people.
Now the Fixer? (Or those with the Fixer move I Know People) can make that move and name someone totally outside their circle of history but they might only know of, or have met in passing, or what have you this particular contact.
Thatâs at least how Iâm playing it currently.
My slightly related concern about the I Know People move is how useful it is after a few missions. The PCs don’t lose their old contacts from the last mission — though one or two might be dead. After a few missions, the team will have a lot of Contacts, and “I Know People” stops being all that useful.
I guess the implication is that the GM should be killing off contacts left and right. “Look through crosshairs” and all that jazz.
Jon Lemich in our Sprawl campaign we never had a Fixer, but we all declared contacts just about every mission. You’re right on the money about looking at the contacts through crosshairs, but I think what we did right (or wrong, depending on your perspective) was declaring pretty specific contacts. I believe I declared one black-market weapons dealer and one skillsoft dealer that I visited more than once, but a lot of the time my contacts were like “my dad’s aide, Mohammad”. It felt more cyberpunky to us that you’d go to specific people for specific stuff rather than having “a weapons guy”.
Jon Lemich I definitely had that concern as well.
Iâm doing pbp and I sorted of created âturnsâ so to speak to give it structure.
I have a crew of three: an Infiltrator, a Killer, and a Pusher. Since Iâve only planned this to run about four missions for the first âSeasonâ I also let them pick a move from a separate playbook.
I gave each of them an âactionâ during the legwork phase.
The Infiltrator did some Assessing from the street (I used Augmented Reality to build the nearby buildings and general atmosphere which I think turned out well).
The Pusher did some Research.
And the Killer (who had taken I Know People) rolled that move to get in touch with a Hacker from some job in the past.
He rolled an 8 and we said they never actually met during that last job. But the killer had the guyâs contact info. I have him Hit the Street (although itâs through voice) and he rolls a 12.
The Hacker (Jackson Seattle) is iffy about the killer but is intrigued by the job. He gives them [intel] and also offers a side gig at the same location.
So we resolved those moves as the posts came in and everyone rolled really super well so the legwork clock didnât advance and they rolled a 10 to Get The Job. So they have a bunch of intel and gear.
I offer them another round of info gathering, they say no, I add a Directive: if you create a plan and act on it by Friday the 9th, mark 1 xp.
So that was that, we move into the Action phase and only have 1 contact named.
This is only our first job but if thatâs the norm then I suspect it wonât be too much of a problem, especially if once the Corp clocks begin advancing then these contacts will end up dead or maybe flipping or whatever.