Groups as Contacts - How to handle Connection, Do they get their modified Connection rating on all relevant tests? Options

[Seidaku]

I've been reading over the Groups as Contacts rule from the Runner's Companion, and I'm confused by the wording for the group's modified connection rating:

...
While the basic Loyalty and Connection rating concepts remain consistent, these rules don’t accurately address the resources that an organization can bring to bear on a situation.

To address this expanded scope, groups add in a modifier to their Connection rating before calculating BP cost. Use the Group Connection Modifiers table as a reference to calculate the modified Connection rating. The modified Connection rating is written in the same way as a modified attribute. Note that this modified rating will exceed 6 for many organizations.

So, from the wording, I'm unsure whether the connection modifier is only an increase for purposes of BP cost, or whether it's meant to be used as the contact's connection rating wherever applicable. I suspect it's the latter, or else it wouldn't make much sense to pay so much extra for the contact. Take, for example, having the local Bear Shaman's Guild as a contact:

Membership: +1 (2-19 members)
Area Of Influence: +2 (Sprawl-wide)
Magical Resources: +6 (Vast magical resources)
Total: +9

So, even if you took the group as a base Connection of 1, it would have a modified connection of 10. Does that mean for things like Legwork, Networking, Swag, etc. that the contact would roll 1 connection die, or 10? Also, what does that mean when rolling an Availability test? With a Connection rating greater than six, the contact would literally never be available. This is counter intuitive to say the least: a group contact would, if anything, suggest increased availability, since there are more people you can try to get a hold of.

Anyone know if this is clarified anywhere?

[Makki]

don't ever roll the connection rules as written in the book. they don't work. if at all, role for every member against the base rating

[Raiki]

The Made Man quality in Runner's Companion gives you a group contact with a connection rating of 8. It can't just be for BP cost when buying the contact, because the BP cost of Made Man isn't dependent on connection rating.

And for what it's worth, I've always run group contacts (and enemies) using the modified connection rating for everything. Though my table doesn't use the contact availability rules in the book, so YMMV.





~R~