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Message no. 1
From: "D. Ghost" <dghost@****.COM>
Subject: Contact Advancement
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 18:05:26 -0600
I was wondering if anybody had any ideas for improving Characters'
contacts (other than saying the contact improves arbitrarily.)?

Some ideas I had:
-Give the contact 10 (or 5 or 1) karma for every 1 karma the PC expendes
to improve the contact.
-Give the contact 1 karma for every 500 (or 1000 or more) nuyen the
character spends to improve the contact.
*For the above two, some limit on the amount of karma the PC can give the
contact should be set (like 50-75% of the karma the PC has earned).*
-Give each contact 50% (or 25%) of any karma the character earns since
the character acquired the contact.

The intention is to keep the contacts on a level that they are still
useful to the PC and not to mimic the "ShadowPimp" from another thread.

Thoughts?

--
D. Ghost
(aka Pixel, Tantrum, RuPixel)
"Coffee without caffeine is like sex without the spanking." -- Cupid
re-cur-sion (ri-kur'-zhen) noun. 1. See recursion.

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Message no. 2
From: Robert Hudson <R_Hudson2@*****.MSN.COM>
Subject: Re: Contact Advancement
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 18:27:10 -0600
At 6:12 PM D. Ghost wrote:

>I was wondering if anybody had any ideas for improving Characters'
>contacts (other than saying the contact improves arbitrarily.)?

>Some ideas I had:
>-Give the contact 10 (or 5 or 1) karma for every 1 karma the PC expendes
>to improve the contact.
>-Give the contact 1 karma for every 500 (or 1000 or more) nuyen the
>character spends to improve the contact.
>*For the above two, some limit on the amount of karma the PC can give the
>contact should be set (like 50-75% of the karma the PC has earned).*
>-Give each contact 50% (or 25%) of any karma the character earns since
>the character acquired the contact.

>The intention is to keep the contacts on a level that they are still
>useful to the PC and not to mimic the "ShadowPimp" from another thread.


I generally regard trying to come up with formulaic solutions to problems
like this as extraneous effort. In upgrading Contacts [or NPC's for that
matter] I simply eyeball the PC's and then make any adjustments to the
NPC/Contact as I feel necessary to keep them where I want them to be
relative to the Player Characters. Trying to chart this process based on
fractions or percentages seems a bit - excuse me guys, no offense intended -
silly. Just make the necessary alterations and move on - there are other
things that demand more of my interest and time than unnecessary, nitpicky
bookkeeping.

My two cents worth.

Rob Hudson
Message no. 3
From: Fade <runefo@***.UIO.NO>
Subject: Re: Contact Advancement
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 1998 01:49:17 +0000
> I was wondering if anybody had any ideas for improving Characters'
> contacts (other than saying the contact improves arbitrarily.)?
>
> The intention is to keep the contacts on a level that they are still
> useful to the PC and not to mimic the "ShadowPimp" from another thread.

This should depend on the contact, I think. Many characters won't
really 'improve' much - bartenders, for instance, should be fairly
static, unless you bring'em into a lot of trouble. 'combat' contacts
should probably improve at a similar rate to the runners if they are
similarly active. I think improving them arbitrarily should work just
fine, actually.

Regards,
--
Fade

And the Prince of Lies said:
"To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:
Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven."
-John Milton, Paradise Lost
Message no. 4
From: Adam J <adamj@*********.HTML.COM>
Subject: Re: Contact Advancement
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 18:12:47 -0700
At 18:05 11/13/98 -0600, D. Ghost wrote:
>I was wondering if anybody had any ideas for improving Characters'
>contacts (other than saying the contact improves arbitrarily.)?
>
>Some ideas I had:
>-Give the contact 10 (or 5 or 1) karma for every 1 karma the PC expendes
>to improve the contact.

Ugh. No.

>-Give the contact 1 karma for every 500 (or 1000 or more) nuyen the
>character spends to improve the contact.

Ditto.

>-Give each contact 50% (or 25%) of any karma the character earns since
>the character acquired the contact.

Ack!

>The intention is to keep the contacts on a level that they are still
>useful to the PC and not to mimic the "ShadowPimp" from another thread.

I missed something about pimping?! Damnit! :D

BTW, the reason for my dislike of all your above ideas is simply that I
don't feel a typical character has that much to do with the contacts
development. If your character decides to spend a week training the
contact in a certain skill, fine. But if you just have a spare karma you
want to dump, no way.

-Adam J
--
< TSS Productions down - New URL Soon! / adamj@*********.html.com >
< ShadowRN Assistant Fearless Leader / TSA Co-Admin / ICQ# 2350330 >
< FreeRPG & Shadowrun Webring Co-Admin / The Shadowrun Supplemental >
< "Raven loves me! He just bought me a new rubber ducky!" - Lodi >
< TSS : ftp://thor.flashpt.com/pub/srun/ShadowrunSupplemental/pdf >
Message no. 5
From: Mike Bobroff <Airwasp@***.COM>
Subject: Re: Contact Advancement
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 1998 04:36:15 EST
In a message dated 11/13/98 7:11:58 PM US Eastern Standard Time,
dghost@****.COM writes:

> I was wondering if anybody had any ideas for improving Characters'
> contacts (other than saying the contact improves arbitrarily.)?

Spend time with the contact in terms of roleplay. Take them out to dinner.
Become interested in their general welfare. Give the chummer a break
sometimes. Take the time to get to him/her/it.

Improving a contact should be something that takes time to do, not something
which should arbitrarily increase for some reason or another (and money will
not do it).

-Mike
------- Money can't buy happiness, but it sure helps.
Message no. 6
From: Gurth <gurth@******.NL>
Subject: Re: Contact Advancement
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 1998 11:59:07 +0100
According to Adam J, at 18:12 on 13 Nov 98, the word on the street was...

> If your character decides to spend a week training the contact in a
> certain skill, fine. But if you just have a spare karma you want to
> dump, no way.

Unless, of course, your contact is a free spirit :)

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
He likes to sleep. Sometimes he has good dreams.
-> NERPS Project Leader * ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/plastic.html <-
-> The New Character Mortuary: http://www.electricferret.com/mortuary/ <-

GC3.1: GAT/! d-(dpu) s:- !a>? C+(++)@ U P L E? W(++) N o? K- w+ O V? PS+
PE Y PGP- t(+) 5++ X++ R+++>$ tv+(++) b++@ DI? D+ G(++) e h! !r(---) y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 7
From: "D. Ghost" <dghost@****.COM>
Subject: Re: Contact Advancement
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 1998 06:41:17 -0600
On Sat, 14 Nov 1998 04:36:15 EST Mike Bobroff <Airwasp@***.COM> writes:
>In a message dated 11/13/98 7:11:58 PM US Eastern Standard Time,
>dghost@****.COM writes:
>>I was wondering if anybody had any ideas for improving Characters'
>>contacts (other than saying the contact improves arbitrarily.)?

>Spend time with the contact in terms of roleplay. Take them out to
dinner.
>Become interested in their general welfare. Give the chummer a break
>sometimes. Take the time to get to him/her/it.

but this promotes the idea that the contact exist only for the character.

>Improving a contact should be something that takes time to do, not
something
>which should arbitrarily increase for some reason or another (and money
will
>not do it).

Well, the characters don't spend time to advance their enemies or the
oppposition, do they? The third idea I proposed was meant as a measure
of time based on the PC's growth. The opposition PCs face (in most [?]
cases) increases automaticly because their enemies have lives outside the
PCs. Contacts, IMO, should do they same for the same reason.

--
D. Ghost
(aka Pixel, Tantrum, RuPixel)
"Coffee without caffeine is like sex without the spanking." -- Cupid
re-cur-sion (ri-kur'-zhen) noun. 1. See recursion.

___________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html
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Message no. 8
From: Adam J <adamj@*********.HTML.COM>
Subject: Re: Contact Advancement
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 1998 07:37:48 -0700
At 06:41 11/14/98 -0600, D. Ghost wrote:

>>Spend time with the contact in terms of roleplay. Take them out to
>dinner.
>>Become interested in their general welfare. Give the chummer a break
>>sometimes. Take the time to get to him/her/it.
>
>but this promotes the idea that the contact exist only for the character.

Uh..this promotes the idea that you have to give something back to the
contact.

>Well, the characters don't spend time to advance their enemies or the
>oppposition, do they? The third idea I proposed was meant as a measure
>of time based on the PC's growth. The opposition PCs face (in most [?]
>cases) increases automaticly because their enemies have lives outside the
>PCs. Contacts, IMO, should do they same for the same reason.

So increase them automatically because they have lives outside of the PCs,
instead of tying it to the PCs like you were trying to do before..

-Adam J
--
< TSS Productions down - New URL Soon! / adamj@*********.html.com >
< ShadowRN Assistant Fearless Leader / TSA Co-Admin / ICQ# 2350330 >
< FreeRPG & Shadowrun Webring Co-Admin / The Shadowrun Supplemental >
< "Raven loves me! He just bought me a new rubber ducky!" - Lodi >
< TSS : ftp://thor.flashpt.com/pub/srun/ShadowrunSupplemental/pdf >
Message no. 9
From: Jett <zmjett@*********.COM>
Subject: Re: Contact Advancement
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1998 06:18:50 -0500
Mike Bobroff wrote:

> In a message dated 11/13/98 7:11:58 PM US Eastern Standard Time,
> dghost@****.COM writes:
>
> > I was wondering if anybody had any ideas for improving Characters'
> > contacts (other than saying the contact improves arbitrarily.)?
>
> Spend time with the contact in terms of roleplay. Take them out to dinner.
> Become interested in their general welfare. Give the chummer a break
> sometimes. Take the time to get to him/her/it.
>
> Improving a contact should be something that takes time to do, not something
> which should arbitrarily increase for some reason or another (and money will
> not do it).
>

I agree that spending time and RP and maybe some money on the contact is the
best way to maintain. As far as stats are concerned, giving your karma to your
contact is pointless, not to mention semi-impossible unless your contact is a
free spirit, as Gurth pointed out.. Why should your contact learn and grow from
your experience? He has his own. Arbitrary growth is fine for the stats, or
maybe give the contact karma for helping the PC, etc, if you REALLY want to keep
numbers. However I don't see it as being necessary.
And if you have a really big favor to call in from the contact, hell, just
buy him a new car. :)


--Jett

<*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*>


"I'll make this clear, that I'm just here for backup. And to offer the
occasional advice or insult."
--Jett, on being an NPC

Behold the mighty sonic scream of the Jett!

http://www.scifi-fantasy.com/~zmjett/shadow.htm

Further Reading

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