I’m currently running a game set in the Babylon 5 universe. The players are an advanced party making sure a Moon is ready for a diplomatic party to arrive. While they have naturally met with some problems (mostly dealt with by ‘ahem’ forceful diplomatic measures. A couple of questions have come up that have made us all scratch our heads.
1 party member has befriended a local business woman (leisure sector) and has on several occasions called on her for help staffing functions. Having got on applicable he bit the bullet and out of game took the ‘Relate’ advancement. What does this actually mean? Has become the question.
Did he lose all the favours and debt, this NPC now being willing to help in all but the most dangerous of issues? Or ??
Mean while they are also dealing with mysterious tech issues and another character wants to call in special help, with a view of eventually adding them to their personal staff. Would I be right in thinking this runs the line of taking a debt with the crews normal managers to get them assigned and then later taking a ‘crew’ advancement from a career or the luxury one to get a personal assistant?
Thanks Richard
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“Relate” (and a lot of the other new advancement options in FBH) allow you to take control of an NPC in order to do a bit of downtime storytelling. Basically, you get to play both parts in a blossoming friendship, or romance, or serious partnership of some sort (however that social bond is expressed).
Ultimately, that NPC is now something akin to a “stationary crew”. They’re a very good friend and confidant. They do stuff for you, they’ll listen to your problems, etc. BUT they’ll expect the same. They might ring you up at 2am for a booty call (if that’s the nature of your relationship).
As for the second situation, you hire the crew as an Acquisition, just like any other asset. Note the disparity between 10-12 and 7-9 on Acquisition. It’s unlikely the managers would be willing to permanently hire out a trained crew, so a rental of services would count as “amiably disposed”, while a permanent hiring on would almost always need extra assurances or compromises (you’re basically headhunting their workers out from under them, not cool from an HR standpoint)
I’m still figuring out how to run this game before we start our campaign, but I LOVE the idea that a character is in a gunfight or space battle somewhere on the edge of the known when suddenly a text from several planets away finally reached them.
“you up?”