Charisma bonus to Contacts? Options

[milspec]

Blakkie's excellent Excel character sheet has a House Rule proposal in it:

Characters get a bonus to their starting Contacts of 2xCharisma. That means a character with an 4 in Charisma would get an 8 BP contact (4 Connection/4 Loyalty, for example) for free.

My group has debated this house rule a bit and we have mixed feelings about it. Those in favor of it say it helps to give Charisma needed value at char gen, while those opposed say char gen is all about hard choices and buying contacts is just another hard choice.

What does everyone else think?

milspec

[ElFenrir]

Oh, I love this option. It's not unbalanced in the least. See, it shows the importance of Charisma...but rememeber, buying Charisma costs BP, too! So really, it's sort of evening itself out...and it still costs points...a Cha 3 is 20 bps, and grants 6 points of contacts. Not too bad at all. Ive played around with the rule and i don't find it to be broken at all.

[emo samurai]

And a person with 6 charisma can get a Yakuza oyabun as a loving uncle... Wait... that's bad...

Then again, people get free BP for knowledge, so I'm all for it.

[Cold-Dragon]

How about a different approach: you get Cha x2 BP points free, but no contact can have more than the characters Charisma total in value, at least with free points. A contact you buy regularly does not suffer this limit.

So basically, you can make a freebie contact or two, than any others have to be built normally with a high rating. Course, you could make it cha x2 for total as well, then it's like having one good friend if you put all yours points in it...

Either would do wonders with my dumb players that don't make contacts. :P

[PlatonicPimp]

I use it for certain, in addition to the house rule that contacts cost loyalty x connections, not loyalty + connections. As others said, it's related to the way one gets free knowledge skill points from logic and intuition, and it hearkens back to previous editions when you were forced to choose contacts.

Adding the multiplication to the contact ratings means that most people would rather get several low powered contacts than one uber one, seing as the uber one will cost 36BP. And frankly, having a yakuza oyabun for an uncle is WORTH 36 BP.

[Cold-Dragon]

Don't forget that the higher that wonderful uncles connections, the harder he is to get. Wasn't it something like having to roll a number of successes or something like that? Your uncle should be hard to get if he's that high up - and he must be one hell of an uncle to risk his life in the system for you. Big Bosses have big consequences. Using such a contact is a calculated risk - how do you know your uncle wouldn't have you killed if he helped you, and you failed? You're practically doing work for him in a sense. You may be family, but in the black markets and streets of Seattle, family only goes so far (and that's if you don't rip them off).

[PlatonicPimp]

The limit you just described is a low loyalty. If someone buys a loyalty of 6, they get a loyalty of 6. Don't arbitrarily decide to make the person act at a lower loyalty, that cheats the character. If you don't want them to have a loyalty 6 contact, then tell them at chargen so they don't waste points.

[Butterblume]

Charisma has a lot more usability than Strength, for example, so i think it is fine as it is.

[PlatonicPimp]

yes, well, it's only fine as it is if you don't mind agility being the Uber stat. Strength needs some love as much as charisma does. It's just that we're all at a loss as to how to do that.

[ogbendog]

this gives the Face lots of contacts for free, that's nice, as a Face is a non-combat character who should have lots of contacts.

this also gives the elf shamen lots of contacts for free.

we did it as 2xcha free BP in contacts, no limit on how to do spend them.

[nick012000]

[ogbendog]

you roll a d6, you have to = or beat their connection for them to be available

[Bearclaw]

I think that since they used most of the GURPS contact system, they should have went ahead and used the whole thing.
The availability (to you) of your contact is part of the expense.
Jeb Bush is very powerful and very well connected, giving him a connection of six. That means he's really hard to get ahold of, unless your name is also Bush. I bet if his brother calls, he gets right through every time.

So, use the multiplication method, and subtract the availability maybe?

So your ganger poker buddy 3/2 is available to you most of the time you call (3 or better) he costs 3 points (3*2)-3.
The Yakuza oyabun who's nephew you once saved 3/6 is available to you rarely (6 or better). He costs 12 points, (3*6)-6.

Probably makes it too cheap, but I'm making this up as I go along. Anyone got a better idea?

[emo samurai]

That's only if the GM doesn't think the contact if vital to the run. But the whole "oyabun uncle having consequences" thing should be toned down, but still be in existence, if the character's trust is at 6. Like, if he fucks up or he ends up getting yakuza killed, he'll lose honor, but he won't be hunted.

And can there be contacts of 7? Like, Damien Knight or Nadja Daviar?

[PlatonicPimp]

Sure there are. you just can't get them at chargen, only through roleplay. Meaning that gamemasters restrict the availability of such people as contacts.

[PlatonicPimp]

As a side note, has anyone considered buying contacts cheap and "advancing" them after character generation? It's probably relatively easy to get higher loyalty through displaying loyalty yourself. On the other end, my players are actively performing runs that will leave several of their contacts in a position to climb the ladder, so to speak.

[Drace]

My group has been trying to implement that idea, and so far we have decided to have it that if you help the contact above what they would do for you (risking your life for them, saving a relative, saving their job etc.) or any favour jobs their loyalty goes up. And if you help your contact climb the latter in what ever feild their in, or introduce your contact to more people in their feild, or people that they can use, their connection goes up, and also loyalty if it is risky for the pc to do it.

[TheHappyAnarchis...]

I would argue that Charisma is not the weak stat at character creation. All the mental stats are pretty well balanced.

The only ones that are not really balanced are reaction and agility. Those are the only ones that everyone wants. Maybe Intuition and Willpower too.

Everyone else gets what they need. For some Strength is useful. Others Charisma, others Logic, others Body.

Really depends on the character, but everyone needs Agility, Reaction, Willpower and Intuition.

[ogbendog]

heh, those are my lowest stats, reaaction, agility, and intuition. And I'm not playing a Decker.

Troll Mage.