Kadzar
2016-10-27, 11:53 PM
For the next adventure I run, I'd like to add some sort of contacts mechanics. By this I mean a mechanic where a player can say that they know someone (previously undefined), and the GM will then bring in an NPC that that character has some kind of history with and that they can interact with. It's present in most versions of FATE as the Contacts skill, and I've heard there's some sort of contacts mechanics in Shadowrun, and Burning Wheel has something similar called "Circles", and many other games contain similar mechanics.
To some extent, you could say this is covered by backgrounds, but I want a little more mechanical weight than saying, "Yeah, you probably know someone because of your background," and also to allow for the possibility that they might have met someone outside their normal circle. I'd probably give a bonus for it, though, and still honor the wording of any feature.
One thing I definitely don't want to do is make this Charisma-based. Part of why I'm doing this is to get all the PCs involved in socialization, rather than letting the party Face do the talking. It would still have use for normal Charisma-based skills, and possibly some sort of initial reaction roll.
So, how do we make this work? The first thing I thought about was making it a skill, like in FATE. But skills are rather precious commodities in this version, and I want everyone to have access to this. I thought of something like Hero Points, from the DMG, but I'm not sure that I want to make it a limited resource like that. Ultimately, unless I find something better, I think I'll make it a new ability score.
The way it will work is, whenever the players are in a situation where they need help from some sort of NPC while in some sort of civilization, they can make a Contacts check to see if they know somebody. If they succeed, they'll get in touch with them in relatively short order, and they and the DM can work together to define who this NPC is and what their relationship is with them. If they fail, they don't know of anyone who could help with that problem in their current location, and can't make the check again, though other PCs are able to see if they might know someone.
I might let players with a relevant background or class feature add proficiency to the roll or maybe roll with advantage. DCs will go up or down for how likely the sort of person they're looking for would be there, with size of the location definitely playing a part. Also, importance of the person should play a part, so it would basically be impossible for you to just know a king unless you're a noble (and, even then, you probably wouldn't start with a good favorability rating).
Since we already roll for ability scores, I'd have them roll for this one, and I might have it be rolled separately from the others, so it can't be used to improve the rest or as a dump stat.
Can anyone think of a way to improve this, or has a good idea for an alternative system?
To some extent, you could say this is covered by backgrounds, but I want a little more mechanical weight than saying, "Yeah, you probably know someone because of your background," and also to allow for the possibility that they might have met someone outside their normal circle. I'd probably give a bonus for it, though, and still honor the wording of any feature.
One thing I definitely don't want to do is make this Charisma-based. Part of why I'm doing this is to get all the PCs involved in socialization, rather than letting the party Face do the talking. It would still have use for normal Charisma-based skills, and possibly some sort of initial reaction roll.
So, how do we make this work? The first thing I thought about was making it a skill, like in FATE. But skills are rather precious commodities in this version, and I want everyone to have access to this. I thought of something like Hero Points, from the DMG, but I'm not sure that I want to make it a limited resource like that. Ultimately, unless I find something better, I think I'll make it a new ability score.
The way it will work is, whenever the players are in a situation where they need help from some sort of NPC while in some sort of civilization, they can make a Contacts check to see if they know somebody. If they succeed, they'll get in touch with them in relatively short order, and they and the DM can work together to define who this NPC is and what their relationship is with them. If they fail, they don't know of anyone who could help with that problem in their current location, and can't make the check again, though other PCs are able to see if they might know someone.
I might let players with a relevant background or class feature add proficiency to the roll or maybe roll with advantage. DCs will go up or down for how likely the sort of person they're looking for would be there, with size of the location definitely playing a part. Also, importance of the person should play a part, so it would basically be impossible for you to just know a king unless you're a noble (and, even then, you probably wouldn't start with a good favorability rating).
Since we already roll for ability scores, I'd have them roll for this one, and I might have it be rolled separately from the others, so it can't be used to improve the rest or as a dump stat.
Can anyone think of a way to improve this, or has a good idea for an alternative system?