Talk:OOC:Rules Modifications

Increasing Contact Connection

Status: Adopted

So after reviewing the chip rules in RF, here's my suggestion on expanding contact connection in a sanctioned way for the future:

• You cannot be raising the Connection rating of a different contact
• You must be Loyalty 3 or higher with the contact you are trying to raise.
• You need to spend chips equal to new Connection rating
• You need to spend karma equal to new Connection rating
• You need to either spend time equal to new Connection rating in weeks or wait twice that time (this represents either you working to getting the word out or waiting for word of your deeds represented by the chips to disseminate naturally)

— Revàn^(Talk) 11:24, 30 November 2020 (EST)

I like most of this, though I feel having multiple options for time is a bit inelegant. Personally I'd prefer just the "wait twice the time" option, though it's a mild preference.

Also of note is the following from RF p.176:

If the characters are able to complete work that brings significant benefits to the contact, the gamemaster may improve both the Connection rating and the Loyalty of the contact as well at the end of the adventure.

For example, bumping Lyra at the end of Magic Mike. If the reward is not worth a whole rating, then at least granting some number of chips seems reasonable.

Do we care about the difference between Loyalty and Connection chips? Narratively they're different, but I like keeping them together mechanically.

— Jynx^(Talk) 13:40, 30 November 2020 (EST)

The two kinds of chips are what matters most to me honestly, definitely a fan of being able to spend both kinds of chips at once --Malta^Talk

> I like keeping them together mechanically.

That's an interesting thought. I think aside from Malta nobody's *really* had a lot of interaction with chips in general. Combining them would make it more enticing for everyone else to get in on it, I think? Less bookkeeping is also a plus. I don't think there is that much of an incentive aside from the more face-y characters to spend that much resources to contacts and this is a shame.

> Personally I'd prefer just the "wait twice the time" option, though it's a mild preference.

I am OK with this

> definitely a fan of being able to spend both kinds of chips at once

I think this is doable. Assuming we combine the types of chips I would be OK with "spend 2x (generic) chips to increase Loyalty and Connection" (and pay the other associated costs)

— Revàn^(Talk) 17:09, 30 November 2020 (EST)

So from this discussion and some backchanneling, my current proposal is:

1. There are two kinds of chips, one for Loyalty, one for Connection.
2. Connection chips may be used for Loyalty raising, but not the reverse.
3. Loyalty raising costs are unchanged from Run Faster - spend chips and weeks equal to new rating.
4. Connection is similar, but also costs karma - spend chips, karma and weeks equal to new rating.
5. There are separate time tracks for raising Loyalty and Connection, each also separate from generic Downtime - You can raise yourself, a contact Loyalty, and a contact Connection at the same time.
6. To raise Connection, the Loyalty must be at least 3.
7. Gaining/spending any kind of chip should come with some actual narrative - some in-game or downtime action that gets at least a bit of spotlight.

I am ambivalent about (3) and (6) - they're from Josh's preceding proposal and represent Connection being harder to raise, since it's helping the contacts abilities as opposed to bettering the relationship. However, this might be subsumed by Connection chips simply being "harder" to obtain, and also usable as Loyalty chips. I don't really care either way.

While separate chips and time tracks is more book-keeping, I've reversed my position on keeping them together. Contact specific chips forces narrative outside the PCs. Some of the best stuff to come out of recent runs, imo, was bringing Malta's Tenement more into play and putting Lyra in a more central position. The world gets bigger and richer. And more inspiration for plot hooks.

Separate time tracks incentivizes more contact improvement and hence using them more.

— Jynx^(Talk) 13:31, 1 December 2020 (EST)

Full disclosure, (6) is from the rule in Better than Bad which required you to have 3 loyalty to raise Connection.

On (2) I thought about this and decided that the chip system shouldn't be *too* fragmented, since chips are also supposed to be tradable for favours (and have ratings). Maybe we should restrict raising connection to higher rating chips if we want to represent it being harder to raise instead? If we want to keep them seperate we should have them tradable for favours and not have Connection and Loyalty mix.

The follow-up on (7) is "what constitutes a reasonable action to gain loyalty/connection chips?" Using Lyra as an example, if for example Revàn goes with Lyra on a talisman reagent gathering trip in the middle of the mountains as a favour to her for Loyalty chips, does this constitute me going on a run to do this or just me saying that I did this and mark the time on my calander?

— Revàn^(Talk) 18:13, 1 December 2020 (EST)

With respect to (7), I'm fine with you just saying that and marking it on the calendar. But you have to at least come up with something to say, and it has to actually happen in game sometime, whether downtime or on a run.

For (2), I honestly don't particularly want Connections to be *harder* to raise, just different. Loyalty is your personal relationship which can be raised through various interactions with the individual. Connections is external and can't be improved just by doing generic favours, you have to somehow build up their presence/resources.

— Jynx^(Talk) 00:44, 2 December 2020 (EST)

Honestly, in my mind, the narrative is how you gained the chip. Hence why we have them. Whereas, the process for spending it is basically working your contacts and other resources to help the contact. Mostly (2) I assume would be that Connection chips are assumed to be useful for loyalty, because you raised their standing, they now like you, and so when you raise their connection you can put the extra legwork in for Loyalty.

-- Malta^Talk 15:30, 3 December 2020 (EST)

Per discussion last session, I believe the below is our current model for this rule:

• Specialized 'Connection Chips' exist
• Same mechanics as Loyalty Chips, but obtained through narrative/runs that improve the contacts standing instead of their relationship with you.
• When spending Connection Chips, may increase Loyalty in addition to Connection
  • So a spending a Rating 5 Connection Chip on a Connection 4, Loyalty 1 contact would take 5 weeks and improve the contact to Connection 5, Loyalty 3

— Jynx^(Talk) 12:27, 9 December 2020 (EST)

Ramming and Crashing

Status: proposed

Ramming

Use as per Ramming Rules on SR5 p203, but symmetric — each vehicle takes damage according to the Body/Speed of the other.

Crashing - Barriers

Treat as a Ram as above against Body=Structure and Speed=0

Falling

Use pedestrian falling rules.

— Jynx^(Talk) 00:56, 16 December 2020 (EST)

Rationale

The first ruling means bigger vehicles win the ram, the remaining are ideas for where rules don't explicitly cover. The crash rules still damage bigger vehicles more though. — Jynx^(Talk) 01:06, 16 December 2020 (EST)

Other problem to think about - those are damages to the vehicles, not passengers, so we need to figure out how much the passengers resist. Maybe however many boxes were actually dealt to their vehicle? So if a vehicle gets 4 hits to soak a 10 DV attack, passengers resist 6 DV? Book also says characters resist at AP -6. Thoughts? — Jynx^(Talk) 01:49, 20 December 2020 (EST)

Group Contacts

Status: Proposed

Treat groups the PCs have a strong relationship with as a single contact (as opposed to several, or a faction). E.g. 37 Juggernauts for Malta, Jynx's potential technomancer tribe, possibly Gate of Ishtar for Revàn.

Rationale

Faction rules as is are essentially unusable, but we would like ways to "level up" the group. For the tribe, arguably I could grow four individual contacts; but for the juggernauts, I don't see a mechanical way to represent their increasing presence. Maybe it's unnecessary and can be handled solely through narrative. *shrug*

— Jynx^(Talk) 01:10, 16 December 2020 (EST)

Merging Pilots & Agents

Pilots & Agents are now known as Knowbots, and are the same thing. Though knowbot packages are called Agent or Pilot based on suites and role.

Pilot programs & agents both get a free personality. Changing it costs 100¥ & avail 4, or a Logic + Software [ratingx1.5] (hour) test.

Knowbots can, usually, use skills linked to Logic and Intuition. They can only roll skills they have, they are not fully intelligent (if you want that, see AI). However, whenever they are using attributes they have, they roll their rating in place of the Attribute.

Knowbot Prices: (2^R)x100 Avail: Rx4 Capacity: Rx3

Name	Price	Avail	Capacity	Time	Threshold
Drone Pilot suite:	Rx2000	Rx2	[R]	1 day	Rx3
Vehicle Pilot suite:	Rx2500	Rx3	[Rx2]	1 day	Rx4
Skill Package:	Rx500	10	[1]	Rating Hours	Rx2
Innate Autosoft:	Rx500	Rx2	[1]	2 hours	10
Smartsoft:	1500	6	[1]	30 minutes	6
Additional Attribute:	Rx1000	Rx2	[R/2]	4 hours	Rx2

Drone/Vehicle Pilot Suite: This allows the Knowbot to act as the Pilot program for a specific vehicle or drone. A Pilot could also have multiple pilot skills. Beyond being able to control the chassis, this also gives the Pilot a Reaction attribute

Pilot Suites over Rating 3 are Resitricted.

Skill Package: This allows a Knowbot to use a skill linked to the attributes that it has. It gains the skill at the rating purchased, though that can be increased later. The maximum skill rank a Knowbot can have is its own rating.

Valid skills are:

• Knowledge Skill (any)
• Chemistry (Restricted)
• First Aid
• Instruction
• Language
• Lockpicking (Restricted)
• Mechanic (Any)
• Medicine (Restricted)
• Any skill in the Close Combat Skill Group (Must pick a weapon)
• Navigation
• Performance (Must pick a specialty, cannot roll outside the specialty without taking this option more than once)
• Professional Knowledge
• Any Skill in the Electronics Skill Group
• Any Skill in the Cracking Skill Group (Restricted)
• Ettiquette (Must pick a specialty, cannot roll outisde the specialty without taking this option more than once)

Innate Autosoft: This allows the Knowbot to gain an Autosoft. In order to gain the Autosoft, the Knowbot must contain a Pilot program for that chassis. For autosofts like Maneouvering, the Knowbot must have a specific version of the Autosoft for each chassis, if the Knowbot is a pilot for multiple chassis, it must have innate autosofts for each of them.

Additional Attribute: Knowbots can only use Skill Packages which are linked to their Attributes. By default, all have Logic and Intuition, and anything with a Pilot Suite has reaction. Adding Charisma is common for receptionist drones, and also just to liven up the home. Adding Willpower is rare, but does make an Agent capable of making some basic Matrix defenses (though it cannot substitute its own willpower when running a PAN). Some people have been known to add Agility to drones, especially Anthrodrones, though mostly to allow them to use blades. Knowbots cannot have a Strength score, using the chassis' Body if another option can't be found.

A Knowbot's initiative is equal to its Intuition+Reaction (if it has reaction) +4d6. They are always in Hot Sim.

When upgrading a Knowbot, once you've purchased the libraries (the set of instructions and software packages required to create the custom upgrade), you must then install them. To do so you must make an Extended software test, with a Threshold listed on the chart, and it takes time equal to the time listed on the chart for each test. For items labelled in days, the character is assumed to be working on nothing else for 8 hours, but still eating and sleeping normally.

Instruction Teacher Costs

Status: Adopted

Given that we can acquire Rating 6 Skillsofts in a skill for ¥2,400, I think we should have the costs for flesh-and-blood instructors be greater than that. I have a proposal which divides the instructor cost into three parts, the referral fee, the fixed cost, and the variable cost.

-- This seems like the opposite of true - Humans are competing with software, and so they seem like they want to be cheaper? --Malta^Talk 23:21, 14 June 2021 (EST)

>> Maybe for a regularly scheduled class or such, but since we're effectively paying for a one-on-one tutoring session the expectation is to be better than the software (in unexpected curcumstances) and thus more expensive. — Revàn^(Talk) 11:27, 15 June 2021 (EST)

Referral Fee

Use the networking rules on SR5 p.388 with threshold of half the desired Instruction Skill of the instructor. The threshold may be lowered if the contact used has expertese relevant to the skill being trained. Since this represents trying to find an *avaliable* instructor, no oppertunity for a new contact is given.

-- What fee is this? There's no costs. --Malta^Talk 23:21, 14 June 2021 (EST)

>> Using the Networking of a contact counts as a service/favour and the aforementioned fee is assuming that the contact is willing to take cash. — Revàn^(Talk) 11:27, 15 June 2021 (EST)

>>> This is the 7-Loyalty * 100¥ thing? --Malta^Talk 19:58, 15 June 2021 (EST)

>>>> This is either the [Connection Rating] * 100¥ or 1000¥ depending on if Networking is information or a service or something in between (SR5 p. 389, Favour for a Friend) — Revàn^(Talk) 00:22, 16 June 2021 (EST)

Fixed Cost

This is the cost to have the instructor show up on short notice (i.e. on your training schedule). This cost is [Instruction Rating] x ¥500.

Variable Cost

This is the cost for training and is [New Skill Rating] x ¥10 per day of training actually given (i.e. after the 25% reduction and Instruction die roll reduction).

This means without any other reductions in time, if we wanted to improve a skill to 7, this would be Referral Fee + ¥3,500 + (37 - Instruction Hits) x ¥70 ≈ ¥800 (connection 4 x ¥200 (double contact price for "information")) + ¥3,500 + ¥2,380 (34 x 70) = ¥6,680

We may also want to allow for a Negotiation reduction on the Fixed Cost, maybe something like 5% off per net hit up to a max of 10 net hits.

Discussion

-- Why not use the rules for buying skill checks from Cutting Aces? --Malta^Talk 23:21, 14 June 2021 (EST)

>> 'cause I can't find anything in the damn book and thus didn't know about it. Can you give an example of what that might look like? (i.e. are you applying it to the dice pool of the instructor's Instruction? Are we counting 8 hours a day of daily tutoring over weeks (seems unreasonable, but I think we suggested an hour a day of tutoring time in an email thread which sounds more reasonable)?) — Revàn^(Talk) 11:27, 15 June 2021 (EST)

>>> Bargaining Table, pg 162, the big question is how many hours is instruction? --Malta^Talk 20:10, 15 June 2021 (EST)

>>>> In an email I sent dated Feb 22nd, I calculated the cost of getting an Instruction 7 to teach Summoning 7 (the use case where I will want an instructor better than software) using what turns out to be for knowledge skill in Cutting Aces (100¥ x skill rating) at full 8 hours a day for the requisite amount of time, and this turns out to be 207,200¥, which is 40% of buying a Medium lifestyle. In the email I suggested one hour a day for each day after the Instruction roll, which applying the same calculation with the updated Cutting Aces dice pool (450¥ * 37 days) = 16,650¥, which is still a hefty sum. We could also do 8 hours for the first day (so you will still need to pay for an instructor even if you get it down to one day) and then an hour each day after that or something if we're worried about that edge case. Honestly, the idea of seperating the fixed cost and variable cost is to make the long training times more feasible/affordable to have an instructor for all of it. — Revàn^(Talk) 00:22, 16 June 2021 (EST)

>>>>> Ok, perfect, makes sense. I mean, someone with Instruction 7 is pretty bonkers good and gonna be very hard to get a hold of. Right now, in Street Grimoire pg 140 it says that 5 weeks of instruction (for Initiation) is 10000¥. Which puts the 16650¥ is probably on par for that (Summoning 7 is gonna be 14 weeks - right? And Instruction 7 is a lot). The knowledge skill thing in Cutting Aces is for *one* event, and it's Pool*100. The other one is ongoing use of Active Skill (previous item on the table), it's gonna be, assuming a Cha 6 Instructor, (6+7)/4*150 300¥/hour, at 40 hours a week it's gonna cost 12,000¥/day. Which is also gonna be super spendy. The real question is how long does it take to make a Instruction test. Is it one day? Can you make more than one per training time? --Malta^Talk 15:40, 16 June 2021 (EST)

>>>>>> The example is Instruction 7 because under Using Instruction (SR5 p 141) it says "The teacher can only teach up to their own Instruction Rating". It's also 7 weeks (it's not 2 weeks per until you try to raise it to 9), and with the 25% "instructor show up" reduction it's 37 days. What I am proposing is that it is probably not neccessary for an instructor to show up for 8 hours a day for all 37 (less Instruction hits) of those days (maybe the first) because a lot of it will be practice and homework.

TO recap, I'm proposing an instructor to be broken up into:

• Referral cost: Cost to your contact to find an avaliable instructor (using contact service/favour rules on SR5 p 389)
• Fixed cost: Cost for the instructor to show up and reduce the training time by 25% on your schedule
• Variable cost: Following up by the instructor checking up on your progress as you go though the material across the training period

Fixed cost I have proposed [Instructor Rating] x ¥500, although after reading the Cutting Aces rule this probably should be the knowledge pool x ¥100 in the knowledge of the skill being trained (which I think needs to be at least as high as the new rating of what is being trained?). Variable cost I am currently proposing [Instruction Die Pool / 4 round up] * ¥150 as per the Cutting Aces active skill rules, per day of the training.

(Also worth noting that I will be using this with Apt Pupil and Chosen Follower so I won't actually be using the full 37 days in the example) — Revàn^(Talk) 21:34, 16 June 2021 (EST)

Technomancers Crashing

There's no rule in 5th edition about if technomancers go offline when they go unconscious. However, Shadowrun 20th Anniversary is explicit that they do. I think we should make it clear that unconscious (but not asleep)technomancers automatically crash (as per other devices crashing).

Matrix Search

The real thing about Matrix searching is the context. Characters tend to be doing one of four things when they are searching:

• Collecting Leads
• Answering Questions
• Learning about something/someone
• Ransacking a Host or Device

These all seem the same on the surface, but all have very different methods. Mostly, it's a matter of how people tend to go about the situation.

Collecting Leads

When someone is collecting leads, they're a lot less like someone trying to ask a question, this is far more of the modern equivalent of wiki-walking. Rather than trying to answer a question, the searcher is gathering all the related information, and then sorting the information by its value. The whole process is less about answering specific information, and more about filtering out disinformation. The character will get as many leads and hints as successes allocated to additional leads. Of course, the GM may add red herrings and incorrect information, but must give as many correct pieces of info as successes (assuming there are that many pieces of real info).

Generally this is rolled about situations, often as a generic "let's do the Matrix Legwork" roll. The roll takes approximately 12 hours, but hits can be allocated to remove time from the roll, each hit removing an hour, though those hits don't count for information gain.

One important thing is that not all information is available. Personal communication is stored in hosts. Secrets are stored in Hosts. Important parts of the Matrix are very much not public. Other portions of the Matrix are stored on Devices, getting access to these is also necessary for important information. The obscurity of the info you get is based on your original difficulty.

• 1 Hit - Public information, common rumours, AAA corporate policy/news
• 2 Hits - Uncommon information, rumours, AAA corporate policy/news
• 3 Hits - Secrets about AAA corporations, transporation records, rumours from the shadows
• 4 Hits - Shadow community information, AA corporate secrets
• 5 Hits - Shadow community secrets, information erased secretly

Example:

Jynx rolls Intuition+Computer in order to do a Matrix search. She has 6 int, 6 computers, gets 6 points of diagnostics from Sprites, +2 from Hot Sim, for a total of 20 dice. Since she's confident, she sets the difficulty at 5. She rolls 8 hits. 5 hits immediately go into the obscurity of the information, and she puts all 3 remaining hits into amount of information. This means she should get at least four info tidbits. The GM is allowed to give them more, but also the additional information doesn't need to be true.

Malta later is on a boat to LA, rapidly trying to figure out the specifics of a Horizon black project before everyone gets there. He has four hours on the boat, so would like to be done before they land on the Lacuna and need to start sneaking. So he has 4 Intuition, 4 Computer, +2 Analytical Mind, +4 from an Agent helping him, but he has the Browse program allowing him to cut time in half, same with Analytical Mind, it cuts that down to 33%, or, 4 hours. He decides he's not too confident, and so sets the difficulty to 3. He rolls 3 total hits, decides he wants more, post edges and gets 3 more hits. Firstly, 3 hits go to obscurity. Then he decides to spend one to reduce the time, and the other two for more info. So he gets three info tidbits, and an hour to prepare based on that info. Good thing the boat drives itself.

Answering Questions

All questions have a difficulty. Generally they are based on the complexity of the question. Answering a specific question only takes an hour, every hit above the difficulty removes 10 minutes, every hit below adds an hour to the time it takes to find the answer.

Use the difficulties from Shadowrun Core.

Learning about Someone/Something

This is an opposed form of Answering Questions. By default, learning about someone is difficulty 0. However, a character who is being clandestine, or a specific item which is rare will be more difficult. By default, the person being investigated rolls Logic+Willpower reflecting their ability to know what the correct choices are, as well as the discipline to keep it up. This takes 30 minutes, minus 5 minutes per net-hit.

The following things give free hits on this test (or raise the base difficulty from 0)

• +1 SINless

• +2 Related to Dragons

• +1 Protected by a AAA Corporate

• +1 From Another Country

• +1 From one of the Elven countries

• +4 Information Erased by a skilled hacker

• +1 Owns a Fairlight Exalibur or Paladin

• +[Resonance-6] Technomancer

Example:

Jynx wants to dig into a Mitsuhama Decker in order to figure out what the hell his deal is. He's protected by Mitsuhama and owns a Fairlight Excalibur. He has a Logic of 11 and a Willpower of 6. Jynx has a Computer of 6, Int of 6, 6 assistance, and Hot Sim. The Decker rolls badly and gets 4 hits, setting Jynx's difficulty to 6. She gets lucky and rolls 8 hits, finding him in 20 minutes, and digging into his background. Got him.

For objects, they don't roll dice, but they set their difficulty based on:

• +2 Related to Dragons

• +1 Protected by a AAA Corporation

• +4 Information Erased by a skilled hacker

• +1 From Another Country

• +1 Magical

• +1 Related to the Fourth World

• +1 Not Famous

• +2 Owned by a Private Collector

Ransacking a Host/Device

Hosts are a major part of the Matrix. Most, not all of the Matrix, is publicly stored in data nodes, in Grids, and on public Hosts. But sometimes you need to ransack something to get secrets. Hosts are vast sprawling portions of the matrix. A Decker must spend at least one Complex action every turn in order to keep the search going (though if they don't spend the action, they simply don't make progress that round). This assumes that the character is running around the host at maximum speed looking for something. The character needs to defend against patrol IC (if any) every single round where they take the Ransack action. The character needs a number of net hits equal to Host Rating * 3, making one test for every complex action spent on Ransack, maximum once per combat turn. If the character wants a specific piece of information instead of any information, they roll edge every 3 hits. If they get a success on their edge roll, the information is found.

Ransacking a Host is an illegal action, and you gain 1d6 overwatch every time you take a Ransack action. Ransacking a Device is not.

Devices are a lot faster, but tend to store less information. They are searched the same as hosts, but time is measured in Complex Actions, not Turns (so a searcher can speed up the search).

In order to Ransack a Host or a Device, you must have one MARK on it.

Example:

Jynx is inside a Mitsuhama Host. The Host is Rating 5 and full of juicy info, especially paydata, so she decides to start hiding. The main thing she wants to know is where is the original paper on The Hundred stored. So she rolls her 20 dice from above, and gets 7 hits. She has 6 hits, so rolls edge twice. The first roll gets no hits, but the second gets a hit. So she has the info for the Hundred Paper, but there's still 8 successes more info. She hunkers down, and begins to use Cleaner to fix her Overwatch score. Unfortunately, she must also roll against Patrol IC, which increases her host Overwatch. Luckily she's sneaky. The second round she gets 9 hits, and finds the remainder of the pay data. The most interesting of which is a cleaning schedule inside a Zero Zone.

Contact Clarification/Specification

This is a complete lift of Shadow Haven's Contact Rules, but also changed a bunch to remove their other houserules. So read this one, but feel free to look at theirs too.

Capability (Dice Pool)

A contact’s dice pool describing how well they can and are willing to perform a particular service for a particular character. Add the following together to form a contact’s dice pool:

• The connection of the contact,
• The loyalty of the contact (Including penalties applied to Loyalty due to favors owed to the contact,
• 2 dice for every aspect that applies to the check,
• The dice pool modifier for the contact’s archetype,
• If cashing in favors owed to the player, a bonus equal to the number of chips being cashed in,
• And the dice pool modifier for the contact’s faction should it apply.

Connection Rating

As described on page 386 of the core rule book, Connection Rating describes the capabilities of a contact.

A contact has a number of Aspects equal to their Connection Rating plus one.

Loyalty Rating

As described on page 386 of the core rule book, Loyalty describes the relationship between a contact and a player character.

To reflect a contact’s motivation to go above and beyond, Loyalty will, together with Connection Rating and Aspects, determine a contact’s Capability for any given service.

Loyalty also factors into whether a contact will accept compensation other than Nuyen.

Loyalty may be affected by favors owed.

Aspects

A number of keywords equal to their Connection Rating plus one, signifying areas of expertise and specializations applicable to the contact’s services. If you want your contact to be awakened/emerged you have to put one of their aspects as something related to the magical or resonance nature. This can be fairly freeform from 01 follower to security aware. Some examples:

• A C2 Weaponsmith with the Aspects: Maces, Troll Weaponry and Krime

• A C2 Investment Banker with Corporate Finance, Executives and EVO

• A C3 Punk Band Frontman with Puyallup, Street, Anarchist and Music

• A C2 Street Doc with Awakened Patients, Toxins and Drugs

• A C3 Hermetic Mage with the aspects Hermetic Magician, Health, Manipulation and Ritual Spellcasting

The Flavor of a Contact and their Relationship to the World at Large

In this system, the flavor of a contact and their mechanical attributes are intended to go hand-in-hand. When writing a contact’s motivations, aspirations and vices, consider including hooks for Complications as Payment. When writing a Contact’s social ties, background and career path, try to develop their Aspects from it.

Contact Archetype

In addition to aspects, each contact has an archetype that modifies their dice pool for a certain type of action.

• Service contacts focus on active skills.
• Gear acquisition contacts get a bonus to finding stuff.
• Legwork contacts get a bonus to their knowledge skills.
• Generalist contacts balance their abilities but are weaker overall.
• Fixers are special. (See below)

Contact Archetype Dice Pool Modifier

	Fixer	Service	Gear	Legwork	Networking	Generalist
Knowledge Checks	0	4	-2	8	4	2
Active Checks	-2	8	0	4	-2	2
Gear Acquisition Checks	4	0	8	-2	0	2
Networking Checks	8	-2	4	0	8	2

Fixers

Fixers have invested time and nuyen into your runner and as such they are more firmly in your corner and will not give up information about you except under exceptional pressure. They will organize rescue runs in the event you burn edge and generally ensure you won’t be screwed over by your Johnson. They also vet you to your Johnson, putting your J at ease. Your success is their profit, so they will ensure you can get to a meet and can complete the run.

Custom Archetypes

Custom Archetypes may also be created, assigning the +8,+4,0,-2 bonuses however you like. They are denoted on the contact page using the following:

For example, Custom(K,A,G,N) for +8 knowledge, +4 Active, 0 Gear, -2 Networking.

You also may have a custom Fixer array denoted as Fixer(K,A,G,N).

You may swap the order to change the array.

Contact Actions

Knowledge Checks

Ignore the contact legwork mechanics in core, pages 387-388.

Players may ask their contacts questions. What Aspects a contact has will define what areas they are knowledgeable in, a contact with the Aspect of ‘Gang member’ would know about other gangs, what their turfs are and who is who among gang leaders.

Contacts roll their Capability against the normal thresholds for knowledge tests as outlined in Core.

Contacts will freely give away information up to loyalty hits. However, if the contact gets hits over their loyalty, they may ask for nuyen or favors according to the table below with time equal to 1 hour. Consider the risk to the contact in providing this information, but generally, every hit over the loyalty is a favor.

Contacts can take up to connection rating in teamwork dice. If you help your contact, this does not apply to the dice pool when calculating costs.

Networking Checks

Ignore the contact legwork mechanics in core, page 388.

Contacts roll their dice pool to see if they know a person that would be in a position to be of use to the players, the test has a threshold of the desired Connection rating of the person being sought after. Their dice pool is based on their Capability, determining Aspects valid to the type of person searched for. If no existing contact exists and therefore no connection is established, the GM set alter the threshold as they deem thematically appropriate, a janitor might be C1 or C2 while the personal assistant of the mayor could be C5 or even higher.

Contacts will freely introduce you to other contacts whose connection ratings are equal or lower than your loyalty rating to that contact. Otherwise, it is considered a favor and the contact will want nuyen or a service for the connection according to the table below. Consider the risk to the contact in providing this connection, but generally, every hit over the loyalty is a favor.

Gear Acquisition Checks

Contacts roll their Capability to see if they can find gear for characters with applicable aspects applying.

Loyalty 6 contacts apply a -4 dice pool penalty to the availability of gear.

Loyalty 5 contacts apply a -3 dice pool penalty to the availability of gear.

Loyalty 4 contacts apply a -2 dice pool penalty to the availability of gear.

Loyalty 3 contacts apply a -1 dice pool penalty to the availability of gear.

Loyalty 2 and up include discrete delivery.

Contacts can assist the runner in acquiring the gear in order to give the runner the benefit of reduced availability, instead of the runner assisting the contact, however this a favour equal to Availability÷Loyalty (contacts wont bother with favours greatehr than Rating 6 of course).

Example: Trash Panda has the contact Scrap, a gear acquisition contact, at Connection 2, Loyalty 5. She wants to buy a R6 area jammer from her contact for the run. Scrap has the applicable aspects: Electronics and Black Market Connections. Trash Panda would roll 2 (Connection) + 5 (Loyalty) + 8 (Gear) + 2 (Electronics Aspect) + 2 (Black Market Connections Aspect) for a total of 19 dice. The Area jammer normally has an availability of 18F; however, because of Trash Panda's high loyalty with the contact (5), we impose a -3 penalty to the availability of the gear giving us a total of 15 dice in the opposed test.

Active Skill Check

A contact’s dice pool is equal to their Capability, a contact with the Aspect of ‘Infobroker’ would add that Aspect to their dice pool for the purposes of doing a matrix search.

Contacts can take up to connection rating in teamwork dice. If you help your contact, this does not apply to the dice pool when calculating costs. Easy tasks with low favor ratings may be done freely by the contact up to loyalty rating. Everything over loyalty rating must be paid for as a favor.

Lend Gear and Services

Contacts lend gear based on their aspects. What gear a contact has is based on GM fiat. Follow the table to determine the max value of gear a contact will freely lend out.

		Connection
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Loyalty	1	¥94	¥781	¥2,188	¥2,734	¥3,516	¥3,906	¥4,297	¥4,688	¥5,469	¥6,250	¥7,031	¥7,813
	2	¥375	¥3,125	¥8,750	¥10,938	¥14,063	¥15,625	¥17,188	¥18,750	¥21,875	¥25,000	¥28,125	¥31,250
	3	¥1,500	¥12,500	¥35,000	¥43,750	¥56,250	¥62,500	¥68,750	¥75,000	¥87,500	¥100,000	¥112,500	¥125,000
	4	¥6,000	¥50,000	¥140,000	¥175,000	¥225,000	¥250,000	¥275,000	¥300,000	¥350,000	¥400,000	¥450,000	¥500,000
	5	¥24,000	¥200,000	¥560,000	¥700,000	¥900,000	¥1,000,000	¥1,100,000	¥1,200,000	¥1,400,000	¥1,600,000	¥1,800,000	¥2,000,000
	6	¥96,000	¥800,000	¥2,240,000	¥2,800,000	¥3,600,000	¥4,000,000	¥4,400,000	¥4,800,000	¥5,600,000	¥6,400,000	¥7,200,000	¥8,000,000

For gear over that price, a contact will lend it out at a rate of (7-Loyalty)*5% the remaining worth. Contacts expect their gear to come back in the same condition; make sure to patch up any bullet holes before returning it.

If you get in trouble, higher loyalty contacts will use this pool of money to try to bail you out. They do expect to get paid back ASAP.

Tests of Loyalty

This section overrides the RAW test of loyalty. Run Faster, Page 177.

Sometimes, your contact is holding the bag or otherwise finds themselves in a slotted up situation where throwing you under the bus would help them. If that is the case, roll 13-C with a threshold of (6-loyalty). If you beat the threshold, the contact will attempt to use their active skill dice pools and nuyen to help you out, risking themselves and their reputation. If you fail, under the bus you go.

Paying your Contacts

Services and Favor Rating

Capability can be rolled to determine a contact’s willingness and ability to provide a Favor, using the Favor Ratings table in Core 389. Use the rating given as a Threshold for the test. The roll can be bypassed with GM Fiat determining success or failure. The test may, at GM discretion, receive some of the modifiers applicable to Social Tests (Core p140):

• Projected outcome appears advantageous to Contact: +1
• Projected outcome appears annoying to Contact: –1
• Projected outcome appears harmful to Contact: –3
• Projected outcome appears disastrous to Contact: –4

• Character has a heavy bargaining chip / highly desirable favor to trade: +2

GMs are free to add additional modifiers as they feel appropriate to the situation.

If a contact is tricked into acting against their own interest and finds out, GMs may choose to to dock one or more points of loyalty rating as they feel appropriate and/or have the contact demand a favor in recompense.

Service Costs

Favor Ratings are also guidelines for the costs of getting help from a contact. These numbers are guidelines and GMs are free to adjust them to better fit with the payscale of the run (especially hooding runs, high risk of retaliation runs, etc). The suggested cost is based on the favor rating (as determined by the GM), and the dicepool of a the contact (A more skilled contact will charge more for their expert services.)

		Favor Rating
		1	2	3	4	5	6
Payment Type	Hits (Nuyen)	(DP/4)*100¥	(DP/4)*250¥	(DP/4)*600¥	(DP/4)*1,500¥	(DP/4)*6,000¥	(DP/4)*10,000¥
	Extended Service	(DP/4)*hours*100¥	(DP/4)*hours*250¥	(DP/4)*hours*600¥	(DP/4)*hours*1,500¥	(DP/4)*hours*6,000¥	(DP/4)*hours*10,000¥

Magical/Resonance Services

The cost of magical and resonance services is up to the GM based on the risk of said service. GMs should account for the service’s drain/fading values while determining the risk to the contact. Magicians and technomancers are rare and know their worth, double the nuyen cost in the table above for their services.

Generally, 3 drain/fading is a rating 1 favor. 18+ drain/fading is a rating 6 favor. Double the nuyen cost again if the drain/fading exceeds 50% of the contact’s dice pool since that is generally when these things change from stun to physical damage. However, the favor rating can also be increased by circumstance. Sustaining a spell to go geek some rats is very different from sustaining a spell to go geek an Aztech blood mage in a Aztech pyramid. These are just guidelines and the favor rating should be both a discussion between the GM and player along with the contact and runner.

Complications, Side Objectives and Runs as Payment

GMs should have contacts who take payment in services or goods seek repayment for their services. This repayment can be in nuyen or tasks using the nuyen value to negotiate (via Cutting Aces or the Run Rewards table).

Favors and Chips

Some contacts may agree to work for free in exchange for a favor, or may agree to owe a character a favor. These are tracked with "Chips". A Positive number of chips means the Contact owes the PC a favor. A Negative number means the PC owes the Contact a favor. This may affect your contact's Capability, Service Costs, ect. A contact is less willing to help out if they are owed, especially if the character isn't interested in repaying the debt.

• If the contact has a positive chip value (i.e. Contact owes the PC a favor) and the player is calling in that favor, add the value of the favor as a dicepool bonus to the test.
• If the contact has a negative chip value (i.e. PC owes the Contact a favor), apply the number of favors owed as a penalty to the Contact’s Loyalty. If the Contact reaches 0 Loyalty in this way, they will still assist, but will always charge for help, and may charge extra until such time as they have been repaid.
  • Note that this modification of loyalty will affect Capability rolls, as well as Contact Availability Checks
  • If the negative chips drops the contact to 0 loyalty, they are not lost. Instead, the contact will refuse to assist the runner any more until the debt is repaid.

GMs are encouraged to find opportunities for contacts who prefer Favors as payment to either ask for favors, or offer a chip in the form of a favor in the future.

Player Actions with Contacts

I Know A Guy Adaptation

Ignore the rules on RF 177. Instead use the following rules: Spend a point of edge, describe the contact, how you know them, and why they aren't your contact currently. The GM should assign a connection between 1 and 6 and loyalty of 1 to this contact, granting more connection for better or more entertaining flashbacks to the contact. You temporarily gain the contact for the run. You may later buy the contact by getting a chip on them, and making them a contact.

Personal Contact Tags

Players may apply the following tags on their contacts without paying karma. They function exactly like RAW unless otherwise noted.

• Blackmailed - Follows RAW rules (RF, 178)
• Family - Treat this contact as having -1 loyalty for all tests except tests of loyalty, which are +1. You also earn one less chip than normal when doing favors for your family contact.
• Intimidated - Follows RAW rules (RF, 178). You can not remove this tag once applied outside the use of memory magic or drugs during a run.

Contact Availability Checks

Contacts have their own lives. A GM can make a contact available or unavailable due to a situation where a runner can intervene. Generally, higher connection contacts are more busy.

If a GM doesn’t care either way, ignore the core rules (SR5 Core, 387) and instead roll 2d6+Loyalty (Connection). Note this works like an initiative roll, not hits; if the total of the two dice and your Loyalty exceeds the contact’s Connection, the following applies:

On a tie, the contact isn't immediately available but will get in contact with the character after what the GM deems a thematically appropriate delay. They will also have a reason or complication regarding why they couldn’t return the message.

With 1 higher than the threshold, the contact will immediately answer the runner but explain a situation or complication that they need to resolve before helping the runner. The runner may intervene in these situations.

With 2 or more higher than the threshold, the contact is immediately available with no complication.

Add the number of chips you owe to the connection threshold. Subtract the number of chips you are owed from the connection threshold.

Negative Aspects

Adding a negative aspect to a contact grants it an additional positive aspect. GMs are encouraged to leverage the negative aspect of contacts a player involves in a run to make said run extra spicy. You may only use the aspects listed below. The lifespan of contacts with negative aspects is also questionable. Obviously the list of negative aspects is non-exhaustive.

• Wanted
• Blissfully Unaware - This is someone who doesn't think that their contacts are runners and doesn't understand the whole runner thing. If they find out you are a runner, immediately make a test of loyalty. If you fail the test of loyalty, they will think you are a terrorist, burn you and contact law enforcement. If you succeed in a test of loyalty, they will be willing to listen to you explain yourself and even help you leave the runner life. You may be able to convince them to associate with the Shadows. Contact a GM or thematics if this happens as it may involve the removal of that tag. Gear contacts with this contact will only sell you legal gear, or restricted gear with the appropriate licenses unless you conduct a social test to convince them the lack of paperwork is for a benign reason.
• Toxic Magic/Dissonance
• Hard to reach - Always do an availability test for this contact with their connection +3 than normal.
• Unreliable - The GM rolls in secret a 1d6. If the roll a one the contact will say, with complete confidence, that they will do the request or that they have the right information. They will then flake out or their information will be wrong. They will say they got the gear then accidentally sell it to another person.
• Overworked - Services may take longer. Every time the contact provides a service, roll 2d6. The normal amount of time that it would take to provide the service is multiplied by the resulting number.

Positive Aspects

List of potential positive Aspects

Aspects can stack, but should not be synonymous for the same thing already on the contact. Ideally, they should get more specific the more you go.

Good example: Weapons Dealer > Firearms > Krime > Shotguns

• This example is good because while they are going to be REALLY good at finding you a Krime Wave, their specializations tend to branch off of each other and they won’t all apply in all attempts at acquiring gear.

Bad Example: Arms Dealer > Weapons Smuggler > Armaments Expert > Supply Sergeant

• This example is bad because all 4 aspects are basically the same thing, and all 4 would always apply to every roll made to acquire any weapons.

A few positive aspect examples are listed below. You may create your own as well.

• Service Type (Armorer, Doctor, Smuggler, etc.)
• Drones
• Cyberware
• Bioware
• Blades
• Blunt Weapons
• Automatic Firearms
• Handguns
• Longarms
• Heavy Weapons
• Drugs
• Electronic Accessories
• Commlinks
• Cyberdecks
• Rigger Command Consoles
• Milspec Gear
• Consumer Grade
• Ammunition
• Equipment Brand, e.g. Ares, Krime, Shiawase
• Magic Tradition (Dark Magic, Missionist, Vodou)
• Magic Category (Combat, Illusion, Detection, Manipulation, Health)
• Spirit Type (Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Man, Beast, etc.)
• Focus Type (Qi, Power, Sorcery, Conjuring, etc.)
• Fake SINs
• High-Fashion Armor
• Tactical Armor
• Firearm Accessories
• Armor Accessories
• Explosives
• Software
• Extreme Environments
• Vehicles
• Medical
• Blackmail
• Private Info
• General information
• Building layouts