Messing around with Contacts, Getting the most for your Karma Options

[BlackJaw]

I played 4th edition a fair amount, but I didn't really understand the contacts rules when I made my hacker or other alts, and never much used them.

As I've been toying around with 5th edition, I've taken a closer look at the contact rules, and I've started putting more thought into the mechanics associated with them. In particular, I've probably put too much Connection into a lot of my contacts in the past.

Here are some the contact archetypes I suspect I'll be making more use of in 5th edition:

1) Pawn Broker (Low Connection, High Loyalty)
He'll buy just about anything at Loyalty x 5% base price, no questions asked, money immediately. A useful contact for turning bulk amounts of minor loot into cash. He's not useful for buying things or learning things because of his low Connection rating, although you might get lucky and someone will (or has) pawn what your looking to him already.
Similar Contacts: Organlegger (get % of impalnts, also useful for dispossing of bodies in general.)

2) Blackmarketeer (High Connection, Low Loyalty)
She can get you just about anything if you're willing pay. She adds her high Connection rating to already impressive Negotiation skill for attempting to secure items. If you happen to get your hands something really interesting, she can also help find a good buyer and negotiate a good price (taking her cut of course.) She might also have heard interesting things, and may be willing to make introductions with her other clients, but just don't trust her, because this is all just biz to her, and she'll sell you out for the right price.
Similar Contacts: Arms Dealers, Smuggler Bosses, Criminal Kingpins

3) Technoshaman (Low Connection, High Loyalty)
Sometimes it can be useful to have a Sprite or two along for a run, especially if you are a rigger. Your buddy the technoshaman can be convinced, and/or paid, to lend you some regisger sprite favors. Gain Loyalty as a bonus to negotiate the price, or possibly convince him to do it for free a s favor for a friend.
Similar Contacts: Shaman

4) Wardrobe & Prop Manager (Low Connection, Low Loyalty)
A good disguise can be made all the better with the right costume and props. This clerk is willing to rent you high quality costumes, usually used on stage and screen, to make sure you look the part. Your Loyalty can be used to negotiate better prices, but clothing rental is cheap enough and rare enough that it's probably not worth the karma.
Similar Contacts: Costume Rental Clerk, Struggling Actor, Makeup Artist, (Used) Clothing Store Owner

5) Executive Driver Contact (Mid to High Connection, Mid Loyalty)
Sometimes you need a ride, and the back of the street sam's bike or the rigger's van will work fine. Some times you need to arrive in style, or even from the air. Executive Driver provides town cars, limos, and even private helicopter rides, complete with drivers/pilots to those that can afford it. Thankfully you know a manager or even the owner, and can get rentals and drivers under the table. Connection is required for level of rank and number of employees the rental company has. Loyalty is added to your negotiations for price. The contact may also be willing to give your rumors he or his drivers had heard while working, or even setup introductions to some of his other clients.
Similar Contacts: Boat rental

[Tyro]

I'd make Pawnbroker mid to high Loyalty, or even low to high. Some fences will sell out their clients more easily than others.

[RHat]

I'd make Pawnbroker mid to high Loyalty, or even low to high. Some fences will sell out their clients more easily than others.

I think these are more the advisable Loyalty ratings, rather than available.

[Cain]

1) Pawn Broker (Low Connection, High Loyalty)

The prototype fixer was The Finn, from Neuromancer. He was a pawnbroker/used electronics dealer who still managed to mingle with decently high circles. I don't see how this is any different than a fixer with flavor text; after all, that's what fixers were based on.

2) Blackmarketeer (High Connection, Low Loyalty)

Again, this is just a fixer. You mentioned Arms Dealers as a subtype; that one came from Fields Of Fire, a fixer who specialized in weapons and armament. Specialized fixers for certain items is a good idea, but maybe the entire black market is a little too broad?

3) Technoshaman (Low Connection, High Loyalty)

This is a good idea; I've seen lots of deckers used as contacts, but not many TM's, and fewer Technoshamans. They'd be just as useful as a decker contact, and somewhat more flexible.

4) Wardrobe & Prop Manager (Low Connection, Low Loyalty)

I like this one; although I've used high fashion contacts for certain characters, I never had one for generic disguises. Then again, the problem here is that the Fashion and Makeover spells render this contact pretty redundant. Those spells aren't out yet for SR5, but they've been in every edition since SR2, so I'd expect them eventually.

5) Executive Driver Contact (Mid to High Connection, Mid Loyalty)

This is also a fun one. I've seen Executive Protection riggers before: riggers who bought a limousine, tricked it out, and hired themselves out as high-end secure transportation services. You can get away with lower Connection, though; not all limo owners are rich. (Sitting right outside my home is an old, beat-up limo for rent. In rather tacky letters it advertises itself as "Blue Collar Limo".)

[Umidori]

Pardon if this is a stupid question, but what exactly makes someone a Technoshaman compared to your typical Technomancer?

I've never encountered the term before and my Data Searching is only turning up references to the phrase without giving a definition.

~Umi

[Jaid]

actually, technomancers make ridiculously good contacts.

as has been discussed, the most impressive tricks a technomancer can bring to bear are best used in a supporting role. for a decker, having a machine sprite helping you out can mean +1 to all your limits, a few bonus dice, ignoring regular glitches, and reducing critical glitches to regular glitches, any time you use your cyberdeck. even for other characters, it's pretty good; if you're stealth focused, have that machine sprite help out with your chameleon suit. if you're a gunbunny, have it boost your gun. but yeah, if you're a decker, it's a great idea to have a technomancer buddy. they're a very powerful support class, and best of all they can lend you support without it costing them anything non-renewable and without it being particularly risky.

a support technomancer is very effective, it just also happens to be very boring.

(also, as an added benefit, they have excellent motivation to be skilled in first aid, and are probably used to operating them through the matrix anyways... i wouldn't consider them a replacement for a street doc, but not everyone can or should have a street doc in their starting contacts, and in any case this is just adding some bang for your buck).

[Sendaz]

Pardon if this is a stupid question, but what exactly makes someone a Technoshaman compared to your typical Technomancer?

I've never encountered the term before and my Data Searching is only turning up references to the phrase without giving a definition.

~Umi

Some early day Otaku referred to themselves as Technoshamans, as they looked at the Matrix and all inside it as being a sort of living thing and they interacted with it like a shaman does with the astral and spirits.
Unwired went on to refer to a certain mindset of TM's as this here:

Technoshamanism is a spiritual view of the Matrix. Members of this stream think of the Matrix as something bigger, something alive, a higher being they can communicate with. While some technoshamans are former otaku who believe that Resonance was created by some sort of higher beings or spirits of the ma- chine, many newly Emerged technomancers are attracted to this digital spirituality based on a connection they feel with the virtual world.

[RHat]

Pardon if this is a stupid question, but what exactly makes someone a Technoshaman compared to your typical Technomancer?

I've never encountered the term before and my Data Searching is only turning up references to the phrase without giving a definition.

~Umi

One of the streams from Unwired. They take a more religious/mystical approach to their abilities, use Charisma for Fading, and often specialize in sprites.

[Umidori]

Huh. I never really looked through the advanced Technomancer rules, because I never play them.

Neat.

...although... it raises the question... if they believe that the Matrix is alive, how does that mesh with the fact that the Matrix has been destroyed twice? Each time it was rebuilt in an entirely new way.

~Umi

[RHat]

Huh. I never really looked through the advanced Technomancer rules, because I never play them.

Neat.

...although... it raises the question... if they believe that the Matrix is alive, how does that mesh with the fact that the Matrix has been destroyed twice? Each time it was rebuilt in an entirely new way.

~Umi

Suuure, that happened with the parts metahumanity controls, but there are in fact elements of the Resonance/Deep Resonance from pre-Crash 2.0 that are still around.

[Sendaz]

...although... it raises the question... if they believe that the Matrix is alive, how does that mesh with the fact that the Matrix has been destroyed twice? Each time it was rebuilt in an entirely new way.

~Umi

It's now the Third Age for TM's (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

One more Crash and they are back in ED.

[Umidori]

That explains Wireless Bonuses! They're like the Digital Equivalent of rising Mana Levels! As the "Resonance" levels increase, technology starts becoming capable of "magical" feats that were previously impossible! It all makes sense now! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Which means... oh crap.

The Digital Horrors are gonna show up at some point, and then Technomancers will have to seal themselves off in Digital Cairns or fall prey to the monstrosities that lurk in the darkest corners of the internet. Anonymous and 4chan shall feast upon the weak!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

~Umi

[FuelDrop]

That explains Wireless Bonuses! They're like the Digital Equivalent of rising Mana Levels! As the "Resonance" levels increase, technology starts becoming capable of "magical" feats that were previously impossible! It all makes sense now! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Which means... oh crap.

The Digital Horrors are gonna show up at some point, and then Technomancers will have to seal themselves off in Digital Cairns or fall prey to the monstrosities that lurk in the darkest corners of the internet. Anonymous and 4chan shall feast upon the weak!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

~Umi

They're already here...

[FuelDrop]

They're already here... and they made me double post.

[RHat]

The Digital Horrors are gonna show up at some point, and then Technomancers will have to seal themselves off in Digital Cairns or fall prey to the monstrosities that lurk in the darkest corners of the internet. Anonymous and 4chan shall feast upon the weak!

... I'm not saying there were Dissonant Streams/Paragons that were basically just 4chan, but... There were Dissonant Streams/Paragons that were basically just 4chan.

[Sendaz]

That explains Wireless Bonuses! They're like the Digital Equivalent of rising Mana Levels! As the "Resonance" levels increase, technology starts becoming capable of "magical" feats that were previously impossible! It all makes sense now! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

What is kind of sad is that it is still one of the better reasons for Wireless Bonuses (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Which means... oh crap.

The Digital Horrors are gonna show up at some point, and then Technomancers will have to seal themselves off in Digital Cairns or fall prey to the monstrosities that lurk in the darkest corners of the internet. Anonymous and 4chan shall feast upon the weak!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

~Umi

Crap indeed, they are going to have to cobble a Digital Cairn together from the husks of old PS6s and Nintendo512s.

Although I wager Clockwork may well volunteer to play Mr Darke for the coming Digital horrors. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Cain]

Pardon if this is a stupid question, but what exactly makes someone a Technoshaman compared to your typical Technomancer?

As previously stated, Technoshamans were essentially an otaku tradition; the other major one was (IIRC) Cyberadepts, who took a more mechanistic/logical view of the Matrix. Nowadays they're referred to as Streams.

The Digital Horrors are gonna show up at some point, and then Technomancers will have to seal themselves off in Digital Cairns or fall prey to the monstrosities that lurk in the darkest corners of the internet. Anonymous and 4chan shall feast upon the weak!

There's actually been a Shadowrun plotline along those grounds. The Immortal elf Leonardo was trying to use otaku to build matrix cairns, to protect themselves from the Horrors. He pissed off Lowfyr, and had a lot of his work destroyed, but presumably he's still at it.

[BlackJaw]

I'd make Pawnbroker mid to high Loyalty, or even low to high. Some fences will sell out their clients more easily than others.

When you sell stuff to your contacts (instead of using them to find a buyer), you get Loyalty X 5% of the base price flat out, no questions asked. (See Page 419) The idea here is to have a contact that is used primarily for that function: quickly selling loot. A Loyalty 6, Connection 1 contact would give you 30% of the base value of an item, but loyalty 6 is hard to justify (my brother the pawn shop owner?) I generally prefer a Connection 2, Loyalty 5 pawnbroker/good friend contact that just happens to be a low level member of the mob. I can get 25% of the value of all items with the contact, and the occasional bit of organized crime info.

< About a Pawn Broker >
The prototype fixer was The Finn, from Neuromancer. He was a pawnbroker/used electronics dealer who still managed to mingle with decently high circles. I don't see how this is any different than a fixer with flavor text; after all, that's what fixers were based on.

< About a Blackmarket Contact >
Again, this is just a fixer. You mentioned Arms Dealers as a subtype; that one came from Fields Of Fire, a fixer who specialized in weapons and armament. Specialized fixers for certain items is a good idea, but maybe the entire black market is a little too broad?

True, these are both essentially Fixer of one kind or another, but the point is how they are built. In 5th edition, a contact can have connection 1-12, and loyalty 1-6, with a karma cost of those two ratings combined, but are restricted to no more than 7 karma at character creation. That means a 6/1 or 1/6 is about as extreme a contact as a starting shadowrunner can "buy." Connection and Loyalty aren't just ratings, they are mechanics used in some situations, which is what I'm trying to optimize.

For my standard shadow fixer I like a Connection 4 / Loyalty 3 contact. Legwork is a major use of a shadow fixer, and Legwork uses Connection to find information out, but Loyalty is used to get the Fixer to give you information that is confidential or possibly dangerous if it gets out. It also acts as a threshold for when the fixer is pressured to sell you out. Now of course the Fixer can also be used to acquire various (illegal) items using the Swag rules on page 388, and gaining their Connection as a bonus on their Negotiation rolls to get you gear.

If I have the karma (or free connection karma) to spend, I also like to pickup two other contacts that are similar to a fixer, but optimized for more specific uses:

For a Pawnbroker, the point is just to sell them stuff, so a 2c/5 L will buy your looted goods at 25% full value "no questions asked" according to the rules on page 419. Describing the character as an actual pawn store owner helps explain why they are willing to buy nearly anything to turn around and sell it, but have few channels (connection) for acquiring gear.

For a Blackmarketeer, the point is to buy high availability things using the contact swag rules on page 388, so a 6c /1 L contact gets to add the 6 connection to purchase tests (which they are probably very good at anywya), but it's no one you'd want to trust. "It's just biz." They can also help fence things for you using the same Swag rules (instead of the quick sale rules on page 419 that the Pawnbroker contact is built to use) but this takes as much time as buying an object instead of an immediate payment to remove the object from your hands. The contact is actively looking for a buyer for you, and then negotiates the price for you, but you have to hold onto the illegal goods in the mean time, and probably make the trade... all of which has risk (and effort) that is only justified for high value items. Describing the character as a major smuggler helps explain why they can get a hold of nearly any restricted or illegal item. I actually think a connection 6 "Smuggler Queen" is a decent explanation for having a Blackmarketeer contact instead of a more narrow "arms dealer." In any case, their function is still the same as the Fixer: they aren't restricted to just a particular set of gear. An arms dealer is only really good for weapons and the related, although they are probably better at it thanks to specializations and the like. For a face character, the broad option is better, but a street sam or gun bunny might prefer the weapon focused dealer.

This is also a fun one. I've seen Executive Protection riggers before: riggers who bought a limousine, tricked it out, and hired themselves out as high-end secure transportation services. You can get away with lower Connection, though; not all limo owners are rich. (Sitting right outside my home is an old, beat-up limo for rent. In rather tacky letters it advertises itself as "Blue Collar Limo".)

The connection rating here isn't for a guy with a limo, it's for a guy with a company that owns multiple limos, town cars, and even a couple of helicopters. You get some choices this way, and he's likely to always have a car and driver free. Page 387 notes that Connection can be used to describe how highly ranked in a corp a contact is. At the very least, the connection rating determines how many employees he has.
It also implies the contact has connections in the local A and AA companies that regularly hire him, and may know a bit about what's going on in the corporate world.

But you do bring up an interesting point. The Favor rules on page 389 are interesting, and I hadn't looked at them in detail until now. There is a connection vs loyalty mechanic for a price of a favor, but it's also implied that a contact will do their standard job at market price with negotiation roll for a discount that's modified by loyalty. It's also pointed out that the favor a character will do for you, based on the favor table which includes some price points, is also effected by loyalty, with a negotiation roll for favors over the loyalty rating. "Market price" isn't easy to come up with in all cases, but for these transportation prices Coyotes page 8 might help, but that gets complicated as it doesn't account for the price of the vehicle. It covers the price for travel in a city, crossing into Redmond, carrying weapons, etc. Of course the price for a drive may not cover the needs of a shadowrunner needing a vehicle on standby for a pickup from a run, etc. The "favor for a friend" prices may be cheaper, especially with the "no questions asked" price being $5000. I guess that's the advantage of using a Contact, instead of hiring things at full market price.
A connection 1/loyalty 5 Helicopter pilot might cost you only $500 to "rent" as a favor and because a helicopter is probably a rating 5 favor (Fed-Boing Commuter or Ares Dragon equivalents), loyalty 5 means you don't have to negotiate to get him to accept the job. The loyalty also reduces the price, making it very cost effective, but is it something you'd use often enough to be worth 6 karma? Also note that loyalty 5 means this person is essentially your best friend.
A driver with a nice town car (Bentley Concordat) could be done with 1c/4L, and would cost $600 to rent as a favor (is that cheaper than market price?). I imagine that's a night's rental instead of a single flight like the helicopter would likely be.
A limo (Nightsky) would be about a Loyalty/Favor 5 meaning it would cost $500 for a night's rental as a favor (again, what is market price?)
An armored cabbie, (GMC Bulldog) is about Loyalty/Favor 3 meaning it would cost about $700 for a night's rental, but it's less likely to to a problem in bad neighborhoods than a limo or town car.

Considering the discount vs Coyote's probable prices, if you think transportation is a big issue for your character/team, these individual contacts may be worth their karma.
For a consolidated contact, especially if you have a decent negotiation dice pool (like a Face character), I think a 3c/4 L Vehicle Rental CEO could probably provide you with a limo, armored town car, limo, or helicopter. Connection rating 3 is high enough for him to have "a few friends" which can represent a pool of drives and mechanics, as well as the connections needed to maintain a driver service to the rich. You'd need to make a negotiation roll to get the limo or helicopter out of him (they are worth more than Favor/Loyalty 4), but as a favor to his "buddy," the price for any rental & driver is $1,800. (connection x $1000 - Loyalty x 10%) and as per any use of a contact, it's "all under the table." And of course as a connection rating 3 contact in the business world, and in the vehicle world, he can be helpful for Legwork, vehicle repair, or even buying/fencing stolen high end vehicles. Did you steal a Concordat from an Orxplotation rapper? He'll pay you $13,000 for it on the spot "no questions asked," or help you find a buyer and negotiate a price for you if you're willing to sit on it a while.

Some early day Otaku referred to themselves as Technoshamans, as they looked at the Matrix and all inside it as being a sort of living thing and they interacted with it like a shaman does with the astral and spirits.
Unwired went on to refer to a certain mindset of TM's as this here:

Technoshamanism is a spiritual view of the Matrix. Members of this stream think of the Matrix as something bigger, something alive, a higher being they can communicate with. While some technoshamans are former otaku who believe that Resonance was created by some sort of higher beings or spirits of the machine, many newly Emerged technomancers are attracted to this digital spirituality based on a connection they feel with the virtual world.

This is what I was trying to reference. Technoshamans make great sources of Sprites, and for my Cascade Ork Rigger, a Technoshaman contacts fits his NAN background more than a classic technomancer.

[Jaid]

as i said, any sort of technomancer makes a ludicrously good contact. technoshaman might fit your character's concept better, but mechanically they can all offer about the same benefits.

[Sendaz]

Strongly recommend you read WebMage for ideas on TM, especially as a contact you can fluff the flavour of the contact.

It's not a SR novel and they treat Hacking more as Hacking=Magic, but the interaction with their equivalent of Sprites is certainly interesting, especially as the series progresses issues about the sprites and their identity/independence comes into play.

In their version, their form of sprites and such are manifested forms sort of, having a physical device form and a humanoid form in the real world, but can hook up and project online as well.
Imagine your commlink being able to transform into a small goblin that can also hack with you on the Matrix.

[Cain]

True, these are both essentially Fixer of one kind or another, but the point is how they are built. In 5th edition, a contact can have connection 1-12, and loyalty 1-6, with a karma cost of those two ratings combined, but are restricted to no more than 7 karma at character creation. That means a 6/1 or 1/6 is about as extreme a contact as a starting shadowrunner can "buy." Connection and Loyalty aren't just ratings, they are mechanics used in some situations, which is what I'm trying to optimize.

The point is, you can build either one by making some simple adjustments to the Fixer. You don't even need to go that deep; converting a normal fixer to a Pawnbroker is mostly a case of flavor text.

For a Pawnbroker, the point is just to sell them stuff, so a 2c/5 L will buy your looted goods at 25% full value "no questions asked" according to the rules on page 419. Describing the character as an actual pawn store owner helps explain why they are willing to buy nearly anything to turn around and sell it, but have few channels (connection) for acquiring gear.

Again, the biggest change is in the flavor text. You can still use a normal fixer as the template; in this case, you don't have to change anything mechanically or thematically.

For a Blackmarketeer, the point is to buy high availability things using the contact swag rules on page 388, so a 6c /1 L contact gets to add the 6 connection to purchase tests (which they are probably very good at anywya), but it's no one you'd want to trust. "It's just biz." They can also help fence things for you using the same Swag rules (instead of the quick sale rules on page 419 that the Pawnbroker contact is built to use) but this takes as much time as buying an object instead of an immediate payment to remove the object from your hands. The contact is actively looking for a buyer for you, and then negotiates the price for you, but you have to hold onto the illegal goods in the mean time, and probably make the trade... all of which has risk (and effort) that is only justified for high value items. Describing the character as a major smuggler helps explain why they can get a hold of nearly any restricted or illegal item. I actually think a connection 6 "Smuggler Queen" is a decent explanation for having a Blackmarketeer contact instead of a more narrow "arms dealer." In any case, their function is still the same as the Fixer: they aren't restricted to just a particular set of gear. An arms dealer is only really good for weapons and the related, although they are probably better at it thanks to specializations and the like. For a face character, the broad option is better, but a street sam or gun bunny might prefer the weapon focused dealer.

The problems here are, first, that the "black market" is really broad. You're describing someone who can get you anything and everything, for a price. In practice, that's what fixers are for. But since we're using fixers as the base, that's not a big problem. The problem is that there's no niche for a smuggler queen: that spot is taken by fixers. There isn't any particular advantage in that contact, no matter what connection/loyalty you set her at, unless you make her so much better at acquiring gear that normal fixers are redundant. That shafts fixers, though, and potentially introduces toys at an accelerated rate.

This problem can be solved by introducing Dealers: fixers specialized in acquiring specific things. "Dealers" was a term introduced in SR2, and used to refer specifically to arms dealers, who could get milspec armor and weapons. This only takes a small change to the Fixer template as well, so it's easy to arrange.

The connection rating here isn't for a guy with a limo, it's for a guy with a company that owns multiple limos, town cars, and even a couple of helicopters. You get some choices this way, and he's likely to always have a car and driver free. Page 387 notes that Connection can be used to describe how highly ranked in a corp a contact is. At the very least, the connection rating determines how many employees he has.
It also implies the contact has connections in the local A and AA companies that regularly hire him, and may know a bit about what's going on in the corporate world.

As you pointed out, Connection can be read in a couple of different ways, so different levels might be appropriate depending on what you're going after. I've never used a rental company owner before in game, but I do use "Sal Worthington's Used Cars" as a regular contact in my games. He's based on a real-life car lot owner that was very famous in Seattle in the 80's, for his wacky ads invovling circus animals. Anyway, his Connection isn't really great, but as a kind-of specialized fixer, his skills are specialized in getting ahold of vehicles and vehicle toys.

Adapting him to SR5: since most vehicles have no resale value, he'd be good at quickly turning over cars. That way, shadowrunners could trade in their vehicles on a regular basis, making them harder to track. (I allow most characters with a Medium lifestyle or better to have a free car, with no stats. That means if it gets into combat, it's toast. Trading in these sort of generic vehicles can happen in the background, as part of staying anonymous.) As a favor, he could sell shadowruners junkers, cars for dirt cheap that are meant to be disposed of after the run. He also has access to a repair facility, so he could arrange for vehicles to be repaired. And he can do all this at connection 2-3, not very high.

[BlackJaw]

Cain, what you're telling me is that I've just been classifying different Fixers. I'm fine with that. My point is that the 5th edition game mechanics for contacts actually makes them better or worse at various things. My pawnbroker fixer isn't so great at acquiring illegal goods, but his loyalty is very useful at buying things up on the spot. The smuggler queen (an actual contact of my T-bird smuggler. She runs a T-Bird smuggler airfield in the cascades which is a major point on the blackmarket routes into and out of Seattle) has a lot of connection which she can use to get a hold of things. Essentially a Fixer who is really good at getting items. So... yes it's all flavor text on fixers.

Clearly I'm still working my way through this all.

[Cain]

Cain, what you're telling me is that I've just been classifying different Fixers. I'm fine with that. My point is that the 5th edition game mechanics for contacts actually makes them better or worse at various things. My pawnbroker fixer isn't so great at acquiring illegal goods, but his loyalty is very useful at buying things up on the spot. The smuggler queen (an actual contact of my T-bird smuggler. She runs a T-Bird smuggler airfield in the cascades which is a major point on the blackmarket routes into and out of Seattle) has a lot of connection which she can use to get a hold of things. Essentially a Fixer who is really good at getting items. So... yes it's all flavor text on fixers.

Clearly I'm still working my way through this all.

Well, like PC's, contacts need to be distinct. I mean, who chooses four identical fixers for contacts? Each one needs to have their niche, which doesn't impede too much on another archetype's niche.

So, in this case, why not swap out the contact's stats themselves? Take a fixer, swap the etiquette (Street) Specialization for (Smuggler), switch the Corporate Rumors knowledge skill for Smuggling Routes, and there you go. You don't need to worry about exact Connection and Loyalty ratings, which are abstract on purpose. Mix flavor and rules, plus a conversation with the GM on what you're going for, and you've got a really good shot at getting it.

[RHat]

Well, like PC's, contacts need to be distinct. I mean, who chooses four identical fixers for contacts? Each one needs to have their niche, which doesn't impede too much on another archetype's niche.

So, in this case, why not swap out the contact's stats themselves? Take a fixer, swap the etiquette (Street) Specialization for (Smuggler), switch the Corporate Rumors knowledge skill for Smuggling Routes, and there you go. You don't need to worry about exact Connection and Loyalty ratings, which are abstract on purpose. Mix flavor and rules, plus a conversation with the GM on what you're going for, and you've got a really good shot at getting it.

I think you're still missing the point on this - Blackjaw's purpose in this derives from the particular ways in which Connection and Loyalty DO matter.

[Cain]

I think you're still missing the point on this - Blackjaw's purpose in this derives from the particular ways in which Connection and Loyalty DO matter.

Even so, what he wants isn't best done though connection and loyalty, but through story and GM choices.