Usefulness of Contacts?

[LHG]

I'm running a campaign set in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world.  Most population centers (and hence, most governments) have been destroyed, leaving only small villages and tribes and a few loners.  The world is very dangerous and people are just starting to put the pieces back together.

One of my players is playing an Explorer.  We have not found a way for him to get any use out of his contact at all.  In a fantasy setting (without telephones, for instance), I'm having some difficulty figuring out how contacts would be worth a feat or even the reputation they cost.  My setting makes things even more difficult in that there are no population centers larger than about 200.

I tend to be a loner at heart, so I probably wouldn't be good at using contacts under any circumstances, but can anyone give me examples of how contacts are useful and worth what they cost?  Also, does anyone have any ideas on how to make them more useful in my setting (which admittedly makes using them more difficult)?

[Krensky]

Well, as GM why did you approve contacts that you or the player couldn't think of a way to make useful?
Why aren't you, as GM, making them useful by structuring your adventures so the Explorer can call on his contacts from time to time?
Why isn't he using his Core Ability to overcome these by simply declaring that his Contact is close by for whatever reason?

Traveling merchants, wandering warriors, weird sages, all of whom can show up where ever or whenever the GM wants.

If your contacts are all settled and you're traipsing around the world with no means of talking to them, well, then they're not useful. Unless, of course, you're an Explorer and have a Core Ability that gives you the ability to spend an Action Dice to declare they're near by.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Traveling merchants, wandering warriors, weird sages, all of whom can show up where ever or whenever the GM wants.

Traveling performers, nomads, diplomats, thieves who are always on the run, flying magical beasts, nature spirits, small gods.

If you're up for it you could make his special contact more like an organization, so that it's not that the same person is always conveniently available but that there are a bunch of similar people around the world.

[LHG]

Well, as GM why did you approve contacts that you or the player couldn't think of a way to make useful?
Why aren't you, as GM, making them useful by structuring your adventures so the Explorer can call on his contacts from time to time?
Why isn't he using his Core Ability to overcome these by simply declaring that his Contact is close by for whatever reason?

Most of the reasons for the above is because this is the first time we have played Fantasy Craft.  We just picked up the book and figured it out.  Unfortunately, that means that we sometimes missed things and didn't realize exactly how they would work until we got them in play.

The deeper issue for me, though, is the cost versus the benefit.  We have all sat around trying to think of any time a contact would be useful enough to pay for its cost and we can't come up with anything.  A competent NPC seems to work out to around 60 xp.  To take it as a contact, you must pay 30 reputation.  Being able to call on that contact for a single task or scene once per adventure just doesn't appear to be much benefit.  I don't think we are thinking about it in the right way, but we just can't seem to come up with anything that would make the cost worthwhile.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

The issue has been discussed before.  The answer is more-or-less "sometimes it isn't".

[LHG]

Thank you.  I'll have to try to find that discussion.  I must have missed it.

[Pooka]

Sorry to butt in, but I have a related question about Contacts/Personal Lieutenants/Followers;

What happens when the mechanics of such things smash headlong into the storyline logic?  I can't really explain what I mean abstractly, but I can give an example...using the Justice League.  

Superman: "Oh no!  Batman is in a coma!"
Wonder Woman: "This is terrible, but I'm sure we'll soon have this sorted out, with help from Robin."
Robin: "Uh...actually, I can't help."
Superman: "But why not?  Batman needs you!"
Robin: "Yeah, that's actually why I can't help.  I'm not a PC.  I'm just Batman's Personal Liutenant feat.  If he's not around, I don't mechanically exist."

What I mean is, it seems like there needs to be a way for a group to share contacts or NPCs, somehow, so that half a group's narrative resources don't go poof because Jim couldn't make it to the game that night.  What happens when an NPC handcuffed to a PC becomes entwined in the story (as ideally they should), if something happens to the PC?

[Krensky]

60 XP? 

Yeah, you guys aren't looking at it right.

Signatue Skill (Haggle) X is 10 XP. The three Skill feats are another 6. Another 12 for the rest of his stats. Add another 2 points for gear (up to 20 complexity worth).

Voilà, the parties own factor. Not necessarily the best (since Impress is important for getting the most out of Haggle) but not too shabby for 15 Rep.

This NPC will have a bonus to Haggle of +15, threaten on a 17 or better, and activate criticals for free.

At TL 1.

Now, this is an extreme example that many GMs (myself included) would not allow since it's a complete one trick pony and a route to utter domination on the Haggle check to fence to loot when this guy's around. It should show you how to look at things though.

You're building an NPC who does you a favor in their specialty.

The big, expensive contacts are better off won as Prizes from the GM.

[Krensky]

Sorry to butt in, but I have a related question about Contacts/Personal Lieutenants/Followers;

What happens when the mechanics of such things smash headlong into the storyline logic?  I can't really explain what I mean abstractly, but I can give an example...using the Justice League.  

Superman: "Oh no!  Batman is in a coma!"
Wonder Woman: "This is terrible, but I'm sure we'll soon have this sorted out, with help from Robin."
Robin: "Uh...actually, I can't help."
Superman: "But why not?  Batman needs you!"
Robin: "Yeah, that's actually why I can't help.  I'm not a PC.  I'm just Batman's Personal Liutenant feat.  If he's not around, I don't mechanically exist."

What I mean is, it seems like there needs to be a way for a group to share contacts or NPCs, somehow, so that half a group's narrative resources don't go poof because Jim couldn't make it to the game that night.  What happens when an NPC handcuffed to a PC becomes entwined in the story (as ideally they should), if something happens to the PC?

Um, that depends entirely on your table.

If you run it as the PC who couldn't make it goes into the PC waiting room, then it makes some sense that the NPC does too.

On they other hand, the PL NPC is still a NPC so the GM is perfectly within his rights to run the NPC or to turn it over to the rest of the table.

Me? You don't show your character gets run by the rest of the table. That includes the boy target. Especially if target boy has the skills or abilities needed to drive the game forward.

[Coyote0273]

Easiest way to solve his problem is that when the Explorer actually uses his feat, it isn't the Contact who shows up. When word gets out on the network, its a "mutual" friend that answers the call for the contact as he's too far away.

[Gentry]

Regarding the original post-apoc concept, I'd favor letting your explorer create a template contact, and then work with him to come up with a dozen names and backgrounds for what is mechanically the same guy. Using Krensky's Haggle-meister as an example, you'd use that statblock, but in the Ruins of Omaha (and surrounding environs) the contact, when contacted by the player, is Buddy Rich the vegetable merchant. In the remote mountain valleys between Denver and Coeur d'Alene, the contact is Mesa Jack, fur trapper and wasteland circuit trader. In the west coast rad-pits of the greater Lost Angeles basin, it's "X", gunrunner and black marketeer. And in the Old Towns of what used to be called New England, it's LaShondra O'Neal, sometime doctor and all-the-time badass pistol-packin' mama.  

So your player would pick a specialty type of contact and build it according to the rules, so he'll establish a concept like "My Explorer likes to cultivate ties with local merchants and traders wherever he goes--it makes finding the little comforts so much easier." And then whichever region he's in dictates the flavor skin the contact wears. If you really want to dig into the ruleset, you could even let him set aside two or three points of the mechanics to custom tailor each flavor-skin, so you'd get basically the same contact every time (game mechanically speaking), with a minor variance by region.

[ludomastro]

Gentry, you are a mad genius.  Please consider this idea stolen ... uh, borrowed.

[Krensky]

To provide some background for those of us new to Crafty. Honestly. I think sme of us old timers experience with 2.0 is coloring our view and that lack of experience is making things a bit confusing for those coming from other games.

The three classic archetypes for the Explorer in Spycraft 2.0 are Indiana Jones, Laura Croft, and Daniel Jackson. The core ability represents that they know someone everywhere.

The 2.0 core ability was to basically have a floating, undefined contact who is a skill resource and can be summoned with 1d6 hours of and an action die who had to be paid. The contact system was a little different in SC2.0, but I would just play it the same.

Explorer spends some time and an AD, he finds someone he knows directly or indirectly. Either have him stat up some generics, or pick a NPC from the Rogue's Gallery who's under the XP limit. Often, in FC you may not actually care about the NPCs stats, just that they'll be helpful. Think of Contacts a little less mechanically, and more narratively.

[Psion]

Regarding the original post-apoc concept, I'd favor letting your explorer create a template contact, and then work with him to come up with a dozen names and backgrounds for what is mechanically the same guy. Using Krensky's Haggle-meister as an example, you'd use that statblock, but in the Ruins of Omaha (and surrounding environs) the contact, when contacted by the player, is Buddy Rich the vegetable merchant. In the remote mountain valleys between Denver and Coeur d'Alene, the contact is Mesa Jack, fur trapper and wasteland circuit trader. In the west coast rad-pits of the greater Lost Angeles basin, it's "X", gunrunner and black marketeer. And in the Old Towns of what used to be called New England, it's LaShondra O'Neal, sometime doctor and all-the-time badass pistol-packin' mama.  

So your player would pick a specialty type of contact and build it according to the rules, so he'll establish a concept like "My Explorer likes to cultivate ties with local merchants and traders wherever he goes--it makes finding the little comforts so much easier." And then whichever region he's in dictates the flavor skin the contact wears. If you really want to dig into the ruleset, you could even let him set aside two or three points of the mechanics to custom tailor each flavor-skin, so you'd get basically the same contact every time (game mechanically speaking), with a minor variance by region.

Well put. This is the approach I take with explorers in my River of Worlds and freeport games. In the river of worlds game, it happens to be the "socially influential lady-in-every-port"

[Fortinbras]

So your player would pick a specialty type of contact and build it according to the rules, so he'll establish a concept like "My Explorer likes to cultivate ties with local merchants and traders wherever he goes--it makes finding the little comforts so much easier." And then whichever region he's in dictates the flavor skin the contact wears. If you really want to dig into the ruleset, you could even let him set aside two or three points of the mechanics to custom tailor each flavor-skin, so you'd get basically the same contact every time (game mechanically speaking), with a minor variance by region.

Brilliant. Stolen. Maybe I can convince people to take Contacts now if I can assure them they'll always be able to call on someone.