How are contacts ratings improved? also i couldnt find how to get a contact after initial chargen? any info on this?

you roleplay it.

no karma cost any more?

Nope, the cost during character generation is just to start out with contacts. Later you gain them through roleplaying. If you meet a new contact, you start out with a Loyalty of 1 (or higher, if it's the friend of a friend or something else provides some initial level of trust), and if the two of you get to know and trust each other better, that rating might improve over time.

Gamemaster's discretion.

Bye
Thanee

interesting actual roleplaying in SR......dont know if i like it LOL

Creepy, innit?

Is SR supposed to be more or less RP heavy than RPG's like DnD or Feng Shui?

Same

Bye
Thanee

RP is pretty much a function of group. SR can be heavy, mild, or light on it. As a general guideline, the longer the group has played together and the longer they have played the characters they are playing, the more they will RP. There are, of course, exceptions.

my players got a contact in session 2 from an NPC, loyalty 1 and connection 3 or something... I had never considered that you would need to buy a new contact evar

I have my players pay carma for all contacts (BP = KP) so 1 KP to improve Loyalty by 1.
If they use Friends of a Friend, these stay FoF, the pc´s can use them again, but have to go throu the original contact(s). If they want a FoF as solid contact, they´d have to pay Karma.
But I allso do give extra Karma for good roleplaying with contacts/FoF, which should then be dedicated to buy/improve the Contact. The players don´t have to use the Karma that way, but over time, that would give them a reputation as social leaches, as the npc´s get the feeling, that thay are devoting much more affort to this friendship/partnership/bussinessrelation, than the pc.

EDIT: Naturally, everyone can contact every npc, they´ve got the contactcode, too (though some may not reply). But that does not make them basic business associates, that know and trust each other at least a bit (Loyalty 1). To get to know all these npcs and macing them regular contacts, they´ve got to spend Karma for each of them (or play out the getting each other known and apply the earned karma).
Allso, if they don´t note a new npc and forget the name, the pc has forgotten thair comcode (or trashed it in thair comlink).

As a plug for Shadowrun Missions...

In each Mission that has been released and that I've worked on, there are oppurtunities for the runners to earn contacts. These contacts range in their loyalty depending on how the runners interact with them but they can be quite useful. For example in the first SR4 Mission, Parliament of Thieves, it is possible to earn a few coyotes as contacts. These are specialized smugglers who move people and gear back and forth through the dense borders of Denver.

I've got a few questions here. One is not on topic, and the other is.
Off Topic: Where did you find the SR4 mission parliment of Thieves? I've been looking for an SR4 mission for a while.

Back to the topic. One of my players and I got into a discussion yesterday about the usefullness of using contacts to get gear for you. If you have a Negotiation skill of 4 and a Charisma of 7, you have no need to get ahold of your contact because the chaces are you'll be able to get the item faster than your Contact can. Illegal items, on the other hand, would probably require a Contact to get. Here comes another problem: Do Contacts have a "rating" per se? They have a loyalty, and a connection rating, but what about a professional rating? How good are your contacts skills? Are the contacts you start with generally low level contacts and then you have to RP and have to work to get the contacts that can find you mil spec rocket launchers and such?

Any thoughts?

Regards,
Ryan

So are you saying you'd say to add their connection rating to the Characters negotiation+charisma roll? That makes sense to me, but it feels like the character is doing all the work.
The book, however, states that the contact adds their Connection rating to the contacts Negotiation+Charisma roll. So this brings us back to the point about contacts not having a professional rating.

It's one big circular loop of suck!

For now though, I think I'll just use to contacts connection rating and allow the player to add that to their Neg+Cha roll.

When you look for the stuff yourself, you use your own attribute + skill, and you have to spend the time.

When you let the contact do the work, you use his or her attribute + skill + connection, but have to pay a fee.

Bye
Thanee

I second Thanee on both posts.

But I do use two aditional ratings for the contacts abilities. Since 2ndEd Companion, I used a Contact system similar to the Foe-Ratings.

Loyalty and Conectionas usual + Power for sheer combat ability, if it ever gets tight + Resources, which includes gear, implants and non-combat skills.

(I halved the cost for all ratings, so the middle cost for contacts stays the same)

EDIT: i.e. if I had nothing prepared, I´d simply use Conections + 2*Ressources for the Test to organize gear. But usually I´d make up ratings for Charisma and Negotiation on the spot and note them for futur uses, same with other npc-stats that come up unexpected in play.

You do as always and disregard availability ratings. It´s still a single-value system, so it will not work well.