Social Skills Options

[Zen Shooter01]

Casazil has a point about superfaces. If you're throwing 25 dice on your social skills, you're going to acquire a cult. People are going to fall in love with you when you ask them where the bathroom is. And that can get to be a problem. Ask any rock star. Also, anybody with that kind of magnetism cannot hide in a crowd. "Did you see Cameron Diaz to the second power walk through here?"

On the other hand, 25 social dice are of little value when somebody shoots you in the back. Any highly specialized character is going to have weaknesses like that. I've never liked the GM technique of inventing gimps to hobble specialists. Just confront them with problems that aren't their speciality.

Casazil: when do you do your thing at Sci Fi City?

[Zolhex]

@ Buster via Glyph
I think he's talking about contact upkeep.

You are correct. Contact upkeep can really drain that hard earned cash.

@ Zen Shooter01 For the time being I'll be available at Sci-Fi City the 2nd Saturday of the month. This will be true till like September when we get another 5 Saturday month so as long as I don't get bust with Halloween Horror Nights :eek: :rotfl: :P October will see me back to the first Saturday of the month.

Have to work around the ol home game don't ya know.

[Magus]

Yes that is my Social Adept Cas is talking about. We just finished a round the world trip/campaign, whereas it was lucrative I do spend a lot of money keeping up the playboy demeanor. I go to a club and by my sheer magnetism I walk out with 10 or so level 1 contacts. By spending nuyen taking them out schmoozing them and in some case if they are female sleeping with them I push thier loyalty/connection rating up. So I am a Karma whore as well as a money sink. When we go into a meet I try and push the envelope for what the J is going to pay us and then try and push for at least 50% upfront. I usually get it. Silk is an elven face with a 7 charisma 4 Social Group and 5 Kinsitics (sp?) I also took 2 ranks in Improved skill Con and Negotiation as well as Quality First Impression. I can throw down some social dice Despite social modifiers. Plus I took the Human Looking Quality to cut down on my Elven to Human social mods. I have a separate sheet in excel just for contacts. He has multiple contacts world wide from Finacial to Legal down to serves and joygirls. He is fun to play, but sometimes it gets a little boring. Silk has little to no combat value, so I mainly fall back on my chameleon suit and Stealth skills to follow the gun bunny.

[Buster]

[adamu]

@Buster - it was in SR3 that they attached hard numbers to it. But it's a good concept to keep in mind whatever the game/edition.

[adamu]

Maybe I'll just throw in a comment here.

It encompasses some of the excellent points already made, but I think offers a new observation.

I was once playing table top with a very experienced group of gamers playing quite advanced shadowrunners. These guys knocked over high security facilities or took on similar challenges on a weekly basis.

And then one week, just as part of the rising action of the story, they had to get at a box which was sitting on a shelf in plain sight behind the bar at some average, working class tavern. Regular bar staff.

No big deal, right?

Well, damn me to munchkin hell if they didn't have a harder time getting that box than taking out a nosferatu den. Whatever idea they came up with, players and GM alike had endless thoughts on all the things that could and probably should go wrong. All the schemes they thought of were generally deemed "unrealistic."

The problem was, we had all been in bars. We had all known bartenders. It was so close to our real-life experience that we our conception of the scene was so rich in detail and verisimilitude that we were hyper-aware of every potential pitfall - nitty-gritty stuff that never crossed our minds when conning Mafia dons.

And that is basically my illustration of the earlier point that sammies are allowed to have a zillion dice for shooting people in the face and making them DEAD, but we balk at Faces having that many dice for talking to people and just making them HAPPY.
It is because talking to people and trying to persuade them of things is a part of our daily lives. It is immediately real to us to the point where we are acutely, sometimes painfully, aware of the limitations - much much more so than most of us are cognizant of the upper limits on firearms performance, and infinitely more so than any of us are invested in the maximum potential of powerbolt casting.

Thus, we are that much quicker to say "No way - you can't do that" to a face than to a rigger or a hacker.

[Critias]

Some of us gripe occasionally about the Sammies having a zillion dice and shooting folks, too. Or, at the least, we try to post descriptions of those face-shootings and declare our actions in such a way that will reconcile the weird-ass firearm/damage rules in Shadowrun with real life a little bit better.

Just...piping in. :)

[Zolhex]

Yeah there are no real guidelines anymore.

Think about it like this you have friends and granted you don't need to do something with them everyday or heck even every month (would be nice if the sims creators got that concept) but at the least a phone call helps keep you in touch.

Now with shadowrun stop and think why did you get the contact?

local contacts:

Ok so you live near the person call them up once a month at the least they will remember you and might help out if they can.

On the other hand take them out to dinner once a month and do some other stuff 1 or 2 times a month and your a good friend you call they say hey what's biz?

Lastly you sleep with them (Silks good at this one :rotfl: ) ok now you need to do dinner at least 2 times a month and weekly calls buy some gifts and do other activities.

Non-local:

Calls are a must and when in the area stop by if only to talk for a bit if time allows go to dinner.

As for other things to do for long distance contacts maybe when you do a job and you find out something big check to see if ones of your contacts abroad needs to know asap. (mind you wait till after your done and been paid leaks before could hurt the payout)

No matter the contact food and fun always on your dime. the closer the relationship the more you should do close is a night out at a club real close is a night out at a the top night club in the city. Maybe even a hop to the next nearest city should there be a better one close by.

[Critias]

[Ravor]

[Zolhex]

Tis true good sir I whole heartedly agree with your point.

Guess that's why Silk is now a contact for one of Magus's other characters lol.

But yeah I see a definite need for a better balance between character/contact relationships I just work with the concepts I have.

[Zen Shooter01]

No way in frozen hell my contacts know my birthday.

[Critias]