From:	Paul Jonathan Adam <Paul@********.DEMON.CO.UK>
Subject:	Re: What is a Contact?
Date:	Sun, 3 Sep 1995 12:56:42 GMT

> What is a Contact?
> Is he/she only a Phonenumber which a player could call to get some
> information/gear and to pay him/her? Or is he/she a friend of the
> runner? Do they know each other and go together to bars and partys?
> What sort of friend-/relationship is between them?
> Thanks in advance

A contact you acquire in character generation, in my game, is someone
rather above "acquaintance". Someone who owes you a few favours, or who
knew you in a bad spot a while ago: Lynch's police contact is an old
Desert Wars buddy.

What does that mean? It means the guy will cut Lynch a small amount of
slack... once, Lynch called him and heard "No, sir, I'm not available for
that duty. There's a criminal called Lynch at large, and a major manhunt
is underway." He won't help his friend: he won't betray his job. What he will
do is give an old friend a warning, then do his job.

Likewise, Lynch has a duty not to ask for too much from his friend. Occasional
requests for info - "Can you check on this vehicle for me?" are OK. But if
the owner of that vehicle dies messily two days later, that counts as a
betrayal.

And, sometimes, Lynch has been asked for things: "This guy works for Yamaetsu
and he's dealing BTLs. We don't have jurisdiction. Can you... do something
about it?" This comes under the heading of Lynch doing *his* job...

It's basically up to the GM as to what constitutes a "contact": just make
sure your players are aware of your ruling. For instance, when Lynch did
DNA-DOA, he was the first rescuer Dr Owens saw: she considered he saved her
life. The GM ruled that made her a "contact-plus" who would take more risks
and do more to help Lynch than most.

After several runs for a local oyabun, where Lynch impressed with his ability
and (surprisingly) his social skills, he gained that oyabun as a contact.
He has access to information that others do not... for a price. The point of
having that contact is that otherwise he couldn't even negotiate the price of
that information: but Sugai will sometimes contact Lynch, to inform him that
he has data on a certain matter available. The price can be high, though,
if rarely financial.

Main point of all this rambling: contacts are people too and have their own
motivations. They aren't puppets for the PCs: and sometimes it's a two-way
street, because *you* are a contact for that person and maybe they need a
favour.

--
"When you have shot and killed a man, you have defined your attitude towards
him. You have offered a definite answer to a definite problem. For better
or for worse, you have acted decisively.
In fact, the next move is up to him." <R.A. Lafferty>

Paul J. Adam paul@********.demon.co.uk