Hi everyone, I wanted to share a “rolled” variant on the Declare a Contact move. I plan for it to formalize the range of contacts in my Sprawl game, and I’ve taken cues from circling up a contact from Burning Empires.
What do you all think? Is the balance between the number of boons and banes right? Do you think it covers contacts from your own games? Can you think of additional Boons and Banes to add to the list?
Full version here: https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-LK1tHR0T1Bxzjs-vRug
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Once per mission, you may declare a contact. Choose one Boon from the list below and roll 2d6. After the roll, you may pay Cred to improve your result, 1-for-1. You must always spend at least 1 Cred this way.
On a 6-: Choose one Bane.
On a 10-12: Choose one more Boon.
On a 13+: Choose two more Boons.
On any roll, you may choose to include one additional Boon and Bane.
##### Boons:
* *High Ranking*: They are in a position of power, leadership, or responsibility within their organization.
* *Skilled*: They possess an unusual skillset.
* *Talented*: They are especially talented at what they do.
* *Resourceful*: They have access to unusual resources.
* *Metropolitan*: They come from an unusual background.
* *Reliable*: They have no ulterior motives (or have an agenda that is clear to you).
* *Incognito*: They undertake tasks independent of the wishes of their employers.
* *Old Friend*: You’ve worked together before and they are amicably disposed to you.
##### Banes:
* *Bad Blood*: Maybe you’re rivals, maybe you’ve wronged them before, or maybe you owe them one. You know each other, and there’s bad blood between you. Tell us why.
* *Mercurial*: This person’s loyalties are in question, or are conflicted. The GM will decide if they have other loyalties, priorities, or agendas… and then not tell you about it. (Not compatible with Reliable)
* *Tough Times*: They’ve fallen on tough times. Maybe they’re on the run, owe a debt, or had some trouble with their employer. They won’t have access to all of their resources, but they’ll be desperate for help… from you or other parties.
* *Premium*: Their help doesn’t come cheap. Wherever applicable, consider the option “it costs extra” to be always selected.
“After the roll, you may pay Cred to improve your result, 1-for-1. You must always spend at least 1 Cred this way.”
There seems to be a contradiction here? The first sentence says you may pay cred, the second says you must?
Also, what does spending cred actually do? Is it intended to directly buy new boons or buy off banes, regardless of the roll? Or is it that spending 1 cred will improve your rolled outcome by one step – e.g from “6-” to “7-9” or from “7-9” to “10-12”?
If you rolled a 10, you can spend 3 Cred to bump it up to a 13. But you have to spend at least 1 Cred this way whenever you Declare a Contact (It’s a carry over from a house rule in my game, that contacts cost 1 Cred, to prevent too many contacts from piling up).
Ah, so when you say “1 for 1”, you mean each cred spent adds one to the die roll? That’s pretty expensive then – maybe worth it if you need just +1 to make it to the next tier, but I can’t see myself ever wanting to burn more than 1 cred on this.
Also, are you unusually restrictive on what contacts can do? Contacts with unusual skills or access to resources or rank… the base game already allows that, no problem with characters knowing a good hacker who can fill a gap in the team, or well-placed executive they’ve helped before.
The goal was to codify what can be done with contacts. I’m running a West Marches style Sprawl game with a large number of players, so I felt it was important to keep “contact levels” consistent across the board. (By that token, I’m throwing out the idea that you can decide if the contact owes you a favor or the other way around. I don’t think that fits within the West Marches style.)
My thought was that even on a 6-, both those ideas can be filled (Skilled and Talented for the Hacker, and Ranking and Friend for the Exec), but they’ll both come with some serious complications (2 Banes each).
Simon Geard I agree the costs seem excessively punitive if additional expenditure of Creds are also still required to pay the Contact for whatever service they are performing.
It’s a cool concept that definitely fits your West-Marches style game well for the reasons you described. I couldn’t imagine imposing this on my players in my 4-person game, though.
I would suggest doing away with the 10-12 and 13+ categories, if for no other reason than uniformity with the rest of the moves in the base game. To that end, I would drop the cred expenditure portion as well, and replace it with your Sprawl-Standard Hold System. 3 for 10+ and 1 for 7-9. Hold = Boons. Every contact has one bane.
Or you might consider adopting the Driver’s “wheels” move and get rid of the dice roll. Just re-name Power, Weaknesses, and Armor. [Boons, Banes, and Force/Presence(?)] Then let the players budget points with a similar spread of options that the Driver gets with Wheels, no roll required.
Do the boons imply Contacts aren’t competent, resourceful, or powerful enough to perform services for a PC unless the PC has a lucky roll when they are created?
Thanks Jeff DeJohn, I”ll definitely give that some thought. Phrasing it as “holds” might be more intuitive. The pay Cred to boost is somewhat optional, and a way to ensure getting exactly the contact you want, provided you’re wiling to pay for it. I don’t see it used very often, but it’s there if needed. I might get rid of the 13+ option though.
Omari Brooks, basic contacts (no boons) are competent informants with limited access to useful, restricted information. That seems inline with the contacts we’ve created already. You don’t need a lucky roll either. On a 6-, you can still get Skilled and Talented, for instance.