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stevebugge
This thread is for Brainstorming / Sharing ideas for more unusual non-canon contacts and their potential uses. Sure everyone has their Fixer, Mechanic, Street Doc, Talismonger, Lawyer, Yakuza Thug, and Ganger. For the most part the listed Canon Contacts cover everything you'll most likely need. This is an opportunity to pull out that unusual niche idea for a contact you want to share, maybe because it relates to your RL job or experiences, or you just had a crazy idea for a character or run and you really needed say an engraver or a taxidermist to make it work.

So my first contribution:

Movers.

Stats I might add later, but figure higher physical lower mental.

In 2065 most moving crews are composed of low income low education Orks or Humans. Most companies prefer to hire Orks when possible because of their greater strength while still being able to fit easily in most truck cabs and residences. These guys are the frontline of the relocation industry, carrying the load both literally and figuratively. They do have their uses though, one might just get you inside a corp enclave as hired on casual labor, moving companies with corp contracts do background checks but nothing too serious. In addition they have been inside just about every apartment and condoplex in their area, and for a fee can probably recall the layout in pretty good detail.

Active Skills:
Pilot Groundcraft 2
Athletics 1 (Lifting & Carrying 3)
Computer 1
Navigation 2 (Local City 4)
Ettiquette 1

Knowledge Skills:
(Local City) Neighborhoods: 3
Moving Industry Paperwork: 3
Packing, Wrapping, Loading: 4 (or less depending on quality of company)
Kanada Ten
Professional Hair Stylist

Here's a man on the cutting edge of fashion and the tools to put it to use. The Hair Stylist has one mission: to make your hair a living (or plastic, or chrome, or...) symbol of his artistic talent. His establishment has done them all, from the Forever Frost of Jenna Astpace to the Buzzing Beehive of Betty McZeal. And he's heard all their stories too. Some might call him the sympathetic ear of the stars.

Cosmetic Surgery (Hair) 3
Hair Styling (Humans) 4
Fashion Sense (Simstar) 3
Rumormill (Simstar) 3
Etiquette (Simstar) 2
Kiedo
High Profile Vetrinarian

Got a sick animal, or want to know who has a sick animal, this is the guy you go to, while most folks can barely afford healthcare for themselves, this Dog doctor's buisness thrives off of high profile clients who's companion needs a booster shot. And while he might not be able to patch up your pet sasquatch, he's your go to guy when your awakened coy, start looking a bit sleepy, or when fido needs a new cyberleg. When his clients bring in thier furry compainions, he just might happen to get a piece of that buisness call to a rival corp...

Active Skills
Animal Handling 3
Cybertechnology (animals) 2(4)
First Aid (animals) 3(5)
Medicine (vetrinarian) 3(5)
Etiquette (high society) 2(4)

Knowledge Skills
Zoology 4
[edit]Parazoology 2[/edit]
Vetrinarian Practices 4
Pharmeceutical Supply Chains(vetrinary) 3(5)
Big D
Motivational Speaker

Skills: Nothing over 2

Gear: Ares 2044 Model 10 van (disabled, parked illegally down by the river)
Jaid
Cryptozoology?

i would think parazoology would be a more suitable knowledge skill. cryptozoology is for creatures whose existence has not been proven, and thus does not include such things as dragons, hell hounds, etc [edit] in a SR setting, of course =P [/edit].
FanGirl
Corp Princess

Your one-stop source of information on the lifestyles of the rich and famous, including the secrets and scandals that the modern peerage just can't hide from their peers.
Kiedo
There, I was in a big foot mode, and that's what he is IRL, nyahnyah.gif
Aaron
I got nothin', but my girlfriend (who hasn't played SR, but wants to) keeps coming up with stuff. [skills omitted cuz I'm lazy]

Maid
She might not be a power broker, but she knows more than she's letting on. She's got her nose in everyone's garbage, literally. And she knows the dirt on the rich and famous.

Street Mime
Sure, nobody likes them. They are the very symbol of annoyance. And yet they can blend into the crowd if they need to. Like a ninja, a mime is often forgotten when he doesn't speak.

Receptionist
Speaking of invisible people, everybody forgets the receptionists, even when you hit on them. And yet, they know who comes and who goes, and who is calling whom.

Building Cleaning Crew
Without OSHA, unions, or a minimum wage to bother them, hiring meat cleaners is actually cheaper for the corps than cleaning drones. These are people with access to secure areas and to other people's dirty laundry, or at least their trash.

Accountant
Most people don't even know their accountant's name, and yet they know what happened to every nuyen those people didn't claim on their taxes.

Kremlin KOA
Fashion Guru:

This guy wants to be one of the Fab Five:
What the hair stylist knows about hair, this guy knows about clothes and shoes
between the two of them that can have you looking 'Fabulous' for any occasion, you will blend in wherever you want to go... unless you want to stand out
hyzmarca
The Dude

The Dude is both ubiquitious and enigmatic. Everyone knows of him but no one knows anything about him. If there is a social function he is usually at the center of it. He is sly, smooth, calm, and cool. He always knows the right witty quote for the situation and he always has a relevant but useless but of trivia to share. Twenty-five hours of his day are spent partying and several more are spent hanging out and hobnobing. He shouldn't have time to eat, sleep, or work but somehow he manages.
The Dude's complete lack of usefull knowledge or skills is balanced by his plethora of contacts at all levels of society.
stevebugge
Bicycle Couriers

Sure most of the time you just want to run these idiots off the road, or maybe they are sending you diving for cover on the sidewalk, but thanks to performance enhancing mods and headware memory they may be one of the more secure data transmission services available, and unlike your comm they can deliver a package too. Of course make friends over a few sports drinks and they might share a thing or two about where they've been and who been sending them on errands, if you're lucky they may have a copy, but you'll have to crack the encryption on your own. Like so many low level contractors and employees these guys have access to all the downtown office towers.
Kanada Ten
Miracle Shooter Master

Sure, he may be a scrawny kid from the suburbs, barely scraping by with a substandard grade, but this maniac has all the right moves when it comes to the digital gun and the virtual target. The six hours between school and his parent coming home are spent racing about the city streets, ambushing l33t payers when they least expect it, sulking about the subways, and trading Miracle Money for nuyen. They've offered him a job as gamemaster, but he dreams of one day being World Champion and employees can't enter that contest. For now, he feints contentment with the money he earns and the fame he's achieved - yet, he counts the days until the birthday when he'll finally be eligible for the World Cup.

Miracle Weapons (Dual SMG) 4
Navigation (Seattle) 2
Subway Shortcuts 2
Ambush Spots (Downtown Parks) 2
Ares Entertainment (Miracle Shooter) 2
Special: Edge 3

"Geronimo!"
stevebugge
Espresso Cart Owner

One of the last small entrepenuers left in the sprawl, the Espresso cart operator rolls her cart out every morning before dawn to set the sararimen up with their grande mocha with 3 extra shots. Like any good coffee monger she knows her customers, knows their drinks, knows their schedule, and knows a bit about their lives. She also sees a lot of what goes on on her corner, so what's an extra large tip with your morning coffee to get the local buzz with your caffine buzz?

Artisan 2 (latte's 4)
Ettiquette 3
Pistol 1 (Yamaha Pulsar Taser 3)
Coffee Lore 3
Teulisch
file clerk.

some offices still use paper. they have to keep and store hardcopy for legal reasons. this includes law offices, banking, and goverment offices. Someone has to manage those files, keeping them in order, retreiving things on command, and making sure nothing bad happens (a burst pipe can ruin your day). and of course, most files have been scanned thus saving the time and hassle of pulling a copy every time you need to look at it, so files can be safely stored offsite.

low pay, low skill. but hes got decent credit and no criminal record. and you may be able to bribe him to look up some information for you. and his company handles offsite storage for a dozen firms or more. blueprints? tax records? patents? yeah. he can make a copy for ya.

why waste time with a datasteal to get the digital files, when a couple hundred can get you a photocopy?
stevebugge
Garbage Collector

Sure he may be a myth in the barrens where you live, but he fills an essential if invisible role in the upscale neighborhoods. He works for a city contractor, for low nuyen. He picks up what the maid, the cleaning crew, the butler, and the family or small business leaves out for him, which depending on the neighborhood may be pure gold to the right people. Working early in the morning or late in the evening he sees the darker side of the city streets and alleys as well as the trash of the rich and famous. Since part of the job involves sorting out recyclables (for a bit of extra money) the Trash Collector may just have what you need, and god knows he could use the nuyen.
Divine Virus
Lawn Care worker
Need to get ride of a body? No problem, he can turn it into compost. Need access to a property, he can help. figure out the rest for yourselves, cause I am damn tired and lazy.
GrinderTheTroll
QUOTE (Big D)
Motivational Speaker

Skills: Nothing over 2

Gear: Ares 2044 Model 10 van (disabled, parked illegally down by the river)

Hahaha! rotfl.gif
Kanada Ten
QUOTE (Divine Virus @ May 16 2006, 05:41 PM)
Lawn Care worker
Need to get ride of a body? No problem, he can turn it into compost. Need access to a property, he can help.

Man I wish we could access the old forums about now.

Migrant Tribal Worker

Highly educated but unable to find consistent work within the NAN, she uses her skills to buy an ambassador tag from her home country, giving her the right to legally nation hop. Then, she works the fields as a supervisor for a tribe of migrants at various megafarms. Her status as a NAN official allows her to loophole employment laws: essentially, the landowners pay her, and she hires the migrants - all perfectly legal. The immigration departments of various nations may scrutinize her, but places like the Ute-PCC and Tir need workers so desperately that they do little more than demand a bribe. If you want to sneak around with migrant workers, she's your first stop at gaining their trust.
ARKARY
You know, I first read this thread and I thought it was brainstorming for nonconventional shadowrunners. The thought of a shadowrunning team consisting of a maid, mime, janitor, receptionist, and accountant is just hilarious.
Moon-Hawk
Let's see, the receptionist is obviously the face. The accountant is a hacker. The janitor is the rigger (commanding his army of cleaning drones), the mime is a stealth adept, which leaves the maid as the magician? Hmm, that last one is a little weird. Unless she's a really high-priced magician maid who's job includes warding around the mansion, fasion spells, healthy glow, nutrition, fast, minor healing, detox, etc. Even summoning little spirits to clean up. Hmmm, considering she could replace an entire staff that's starting to look like a good idea for the very wealthy.
NightHaunter
Local Pharmacist or "Pharmacist".

Perfect for all your drug addiction needs.

Just ask my team, oh wait they didn't take one for their two addictees!
stevebugge
Maitre D'

He is the front door man for an exclusive restaurant, the kind where the rich and powerful dine, but only if they are on the list. So how would you like to get on the list? The Maitre D' can put you, or your high class alias, on the list if you get to know him. Because behind the French Linguasoft and the arrogant facade he's a regular guy doing his best to make a nuyen and get by.
Toptomcat
These are all specific rather than general, but I've been told that I'm good at making good, original contacts.

That Guy Who Does That Thing. A fixer of unknowable racial origin and gender, considering he communicates only through heavily-encrypted text messages using a complex lingo taught only to his customers. That Guy Who Does That Thing takes secrecy and anonymity to a sometimes ludicrous extreme.
"The rodeo clown is to leave the coop when the clock strikes blue."

Megami, female elven CIA counterintelligence officer. She knows her way around the Agency: rather than being unsubtle and just 'losing' the records pertaining to a case she's asked to help stall, she just kicks it into a beuracratic subcommittee of a subcommittee of a bunch of outside academics who aren't cleared for anything that could help accomplish anything. Obcessed with old flatvid anime.
"That Evangelion boxed set you got me is worth its weight in gold these days. Don't thank me for getting the Agency off your back- I should be thanking you."

Marilith Millions, assasin for hire. A kidnapping run went pear-shaped on her a few years back, and she got stuck with a pathologically trusting eight-year old hostage that nobody would pay for. Two years later, she couldn't bring herself to just cut her losses and sell the poppet to organ-leggers. Stockholm syndrome kicked in with a vengeance, and Marilith now has herself an ten-year-old partner in crime.

Jordan, female human (for now) talismonger and mage. Has magical powers with bizzare side effects: her spells usually do what they're supposed to, but also do wierd things like changing the caster's gender (three times now,) cause nearby mirrors to display disturbing images, or force nearby mages into the astral.

Scott, ork bartender/bar owner and weirdness magnet. If it's freaky, SOTA or in the news, it shows up at his bar. A drunken merc burned a hole in the wall with the Ares MP Heavy Laser Plus two days before it hit the open market. Four people drinking at it suddenly expressed SURGE simultaneously, and a metal table leg turned unexpectedly into orichalcum. An insect shaman was a regular and vanished suddenly during the Bug City debacle. And he swears he's seen Elvis three times.

Aldolf von Leiterhoef, psychotic human male German weapons dealer/smuggler with a nasty habit of slipping really heavy, truly nasty stuff into standard orders...like putting a radioactive 'dirty bomb' into a box of grenades, or substituting capsule rounds with VITAS for gel. A neo-Nazi.
"And this, the SPECIAL 9mm caseless! An excellent Jew-killing round, I got twenty boxes just today."

Simon O'Connel, male dwarf professor at MIT&T and a leading authority on unusual foci/magical items. His actual spellcasting abilities are minimal, obscured by a good deal of cognitive bio and cyberware, but his theoretical knowledge and analytical prowess is beyond peer. Also a fiendishly clever practical joker, he manages to completely shut down the main campus building about once a year (and has never been caught!)
"The summoning focus is the crux of the whole thing. All the rest is basically analogous to the insulation of a wire: necessary for safety, but technically inert and not actually needed for function. If these safeties are successfully removed from the spell design, the eventual effect will be to put tarantulas into every air duct in the building.
Should be fun. Come around here about four on Thursday."

Sven, male human Scandinavian decker with a passion for bodybuilding. Has access through his uncle to some top-of-the-line programs, which help make up for his fair-to-middling unmodified CMT Avatar and only slightly above-average decking skills. Sculpts the Matrix to look like Valhalla.
"Sure, I'll get you the files if you spot me at the gym next Thursday."

Eduardo, goofy, enigmatic male human Asian fixer who surrounds himself with bonsai. He specializes in runs for the Japanese and UCAS governments, as well as putting customers in touch with gunsmiths. He has a good sense of humor and is very well-liked.
"This run should be a cinch. There are only ten thousand things that can go wrong, not the usual forty or fifty thousand."

Street Doc, Dr. Pollison. A senile old coot who thinks he's working in a prestigious hospital, he is in fact running a shadow alpha clinic run by his ostensible nurse, an elven Dove mage named Diana. He is generally racist and bigoted to anyone who's not white, male, and 'old money:' however, despite his incredible medical/surgical skills, he never seems to realize that 90% of his patients are dirt-poor metahumans.
"F**kin trogs should all just die in the poorhouse...there, now how's the knee, Mr. Mutilator?"

Mao Mao, female human Chinese fence specializing in small arms and chemical/biological/pharmaceutical goods. She is about four feet tall and savagely confrontational, a textbook case of Napoleon syndrome. She is also an incredible polyglot, speaking over thirty languages. This can be interesting when she starts cussing you out: with so many languages to choose from, she never runs out of invectives or repeats herself. However, her good prices inspire her clients to tolerate the abuse.
"@#$(*(_%#$^*(^@#(%$&)#(*&_*@%_)#@$*)@&$)(&(*$)&#@%&^!&@)(**&^%#&*__$*#@)(*&^#@$@!
(_*@%#&^_%_()#&*)_($@*)!_&#)%@(&%^#@*(^&*#)@_)+@$#*!!!!!"

Talismonger, Talks-With-Walls-And-Trees-Apparantly. An orcish Lion shaman talismonger prone to having conversations on his headware radio at top volume, and over other conversations.
"SO I SAID TO HIM, THEN I SAID the meet'll be difficult to set up, that's not exactly Girl Scout cookies yer sellin THE GOLFER WAS REALLY A VIKING! HA HA HA!"

Molly Malone, female elven UCAS military officer in the quartermaster's corps with a passion for a Matrix game called Omni that pits two participants in all manner of virtual contests. Not above slipping a little 'hardware' to a friend. Enjoys old flatvid anime.
" So the last one was kendo and this one is a speed-reading contest? GOD, I love this game."

Max, male ork mechanic who uses rigged drones to do all his repair work. He himself is completely paralyzed, and communicates through a trideo projector on a motorized wheelchair.
“*purple happy ideogram*”

Monroe, male ork leader of the gang that claims the runner's neigborhood as their territory. His primary source of power is his gang's status as a go-between in a combat-drug smuggling ring. In a former life, he was a Japanese art student, but took to the streets when he goblinized and his parents disowned him.
"An original Rembrandt? Six thousand grams of the pure stuff."

Bruce, Force 7 Free City Spirit that takes the form of a titanic St. Bernard with a barrel around his neck containing items that prove beneficial to the dozen or so people he irregularly visits.
"WOOF."

Otto Von Brauchisch, last survivor of the Third Reich. The escaped testbed for the Leonization genetic age reversal process, Otto is over a hundred and fifty years old. He was there for the dawn of special ops, served actively in the Waffen-SS, and was the favored protege of the legendary special operator Otto Skorzeny. Still an unrepenetant Nazi- after all, what has fascism done that capitalism done wild hasn't already inflicted on the Sixth world five times over?

Maestro, gunsmith/shadowrunner. A professional criminal for fifteen years and running, the Maestro understands that the key to succeeding at a job is having the right tool, and knowing how to use it. The subtle power of a narcojet pistol, the surgical precision of a sniper rifle, and the unfocused devastation of a claymore mine can all be powerful tools to apply to a run- and he can use them all with skill and confidence. If he can't find the peice he needs in his considerable arsenal, no worries- give him a week or two and he'll make it himself.
His street name comes from a bizarre and unique weapon he has designed and made his firearm of choice. Cross-linking his smartlink with a musician's synthlink and extensively redesigning a gas vent with valves and precise tonal proportions, Maestro has transformed a standard Ingram LMG into an exquisite wind instrument that plays a requiem for his enemies as he guns them down.

Dial-A-Cache, unique shadow service company. Founded by a pair of former runners who found their habit of scattering equipment caches across Seattle was very much appreciated by their teammates, Dial-A-Cache secrets guns, knives, ammunition, armor, and other bits of basic 'running equipment all across the city. Just call them up, and one clandestine credit transfer later, they'll tell you how to get to the nearest pile of their goodies.

Moria McTaggart, reporter for NewsNet. Her habit for digging up corporate secrets that many consider best left unhidden has led her to cultivate underworld contacts as a matter of necessity: the runner's one of them. He's given her info that’s saved her rear, once or twice: if she comes across something big, she’ll let him know.

Mad Abdul of Mad Abdul's Taxi Service. A former Islamic Jihad driver of captured Humm-Vees in the Iraq war, Mad Abdul makes his living by going where other transport services can't or won't- through areas dominated by motorcycle gangs, slums where road maintinance is nonexistant, or extraterritorial corporate properties where outside vehicles are shot on sight. He careens around Seattle in a battered, bullet-ridden taxi with bolted-on armor and the last remnants of a scorched, mud-spattered, bloodstained yellow-and-black checkered paint job. Don't expect to take a road-legal route- or even a route that mostly involves roads- and be prepared for your eyes to water when you see the fare...but there's no one who can get you from A to B faster.
*BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM*
"There's guns under the seat, feel free to join in!”

Grinder, gang leader. Leader of the motorcycle gang the Reds, Grinder is a remarkably competent, if self-taught, mechanic. The Reds run a vehicle chop shop that both funds their operations and gives them their vehicles, and are notorious for cobbling together ‘Frankenbikes’ out of dozens of parts from other motorcycles, cars, scooters, planes, motorized lawn mowers, and the like.
“You drive with a rudder! And it’s got missiles! Isn’t it wiz?”

Raphael Aguinaldo, Spanish master of exotic martial arts and the runner's sparring partner. He learns exotic martial art styles the way other people collect stamps, and holds black belt equivilents in drunken boxing, Krav Maga (an Israeli style), and Pankratos (an ancient Greek style), as well as traditional Shotokan karate. He is the primier martial arts instructor for the Seattle branch of the Yakuza, and as such holds considerable prestige within that organization- and is the highest-ranking Yakuza official without Japanese ancestry. As such, he balances on a razor's edge, forever defending his position from traditionalist elements.
"No, Shotozumi-sama, I was *not* drunk during that demonstration. I must regretfully correct you, Shotozumi-sama. It is a style of martial arts. Yes, I am sure, Shotozumi-sama. Yes, I am *very* sure.
Please do not order me to cut off one of my fingers, Shotozumi-sama..."

Amy Martinson, chemist. She started cooking up and selling designer drugs, toxins, and plastic explosives in college to help pay off her student loans: after they were completely paid off after only six months of work, she dropped out of college entirely and devoted herself to supplying the criminal element. She can make you anything from pure hydrochloric acid to riot-control concretizing foam to thermite to cyanide to combat drugs.
"Three weeks of all-nighters cramming for a bioneurochemistry test'll mess you up worse than LSD ever will. I know, I've done both."

Yao Wang, Chinese fixer. Yao is a retired shadowrunner-gone-fixer, a man who provided sniper cover for dozens of 'runs back in the mid-2050s. He's known as a good man to work with, so long as you don't plan any double crosses...most people who try two-timing him, or the contact he hooked you up with, end up with a bullet in their brain. One one memorable occasion when both sides of an arms deal tried to double-cross each other, he shot them both.
"I've got an interesting little job lined up for you. Most employers in this buisiness value anonymity, but this one's interesting. Every time I try to trace his background, I end up dead-ending at phony credentials from the obviously fictitious Sixth Congregational Church of Rodney. Reminds me of that one run with Babs...anyway, you up for it?"

Nikolai Ivanovitch, human fence in the Organizatsiya (Russian mafia). He’ll buy and sell just about anything- from pirated copies of the latest sims to cyberware still warm and reeking from its previous owner to illegal drugs by the kilogram. However, he specializes in art objects, favoring early Soviet propaganda art especially.
“A grenade launcher? Why think small, comrade- I can get you a howitzer!”

Sean MacKenzie, dwarven talismonger (retailer of magical goods). Sean runs a combination magical goods/freeform sculpture business, and has an eccentric reputation for his tendency to make the items he enchants extremely strange and totally unique.
“The thatched teapot helps with summoning, the fur-covered toilet’s nice for ritual sorcery, the Hello Kitty doorknob glued to the bottom of the Ben and Jerry’s does a little bit of everything, and for the love of God don’t touch the stuffed koala.
FanGirl
Can you break up Mao Mao's quote? My screen is too small!
stevebugge
Fishing/crabbing boat captain

Of small business owners, the commercial fisher or crabber has to be about the craziest. The awakening brought bigger scarier, rarer, and most important to him more expensive sea creatures to the depths. Of course the resulting chaos brought more boundaries, national disputes, pirates, smugglers, ecoterrorists, and other dangers, making his catch nearly worth it's weight in gold. For a competent runner with decent sea legs, working with the fishing boat captain is a win-win situation. The captain gets muscle to safeguard his catch and the runner gets well outside the grasp of the Star long enough for the heat to die down, provided they all survive the sea.

jklst14
DMV Office Worker
A bored civil servant working at the Department of Motor Vehicles, this government wageslave has data at her fingertips that puts the highest paid data brokers to shame.

Street Vendor
You don't want to know what are in those "hot dogs" he sells but drop him some nuyen and he might happily divulge all he sees from his street corner vantage.

stevebugge
Shoe Shiner

With his kit and chair the shoe shine may be set up in an office tower lobby, a park, or on a street corner to ply his trade. People see him both to get their wing tips waxed and for the snappy conversation. He gets to know his clients and sees a lot of what goes on in his area, and might share for a particularly good tipper.
Cang
i might get some time on my hands and put these ideas on the npc wiki.
FanGirl
A more fleshed-out version of the "corp princess" I mentioned earlier:

Ana

A rich, ditzy hotel heiress who turned herself into a household name just by being a rich, ditzy hotel heiress, Ana can provide all the latest gossip about all kinds of VIPs and use her influence as a celebutante to help you gain an audience with many of the Sixth World's movers and shakers--if you can drag her away from her marathon shopping sessions or pampering her pet chihuahua.

Possible run involving this contact: Ana is having problems with her jealous ex. It seems that he wants to get back together with her, and he's threatening her with an ultimatum--if she doesn't swear her love for him, he plans to release a simsense recording he made during one of their "intimate moments" over the Matrix. Seeking to avoid (further) soiling of her name, Ana asks the team to recover the recording and bring it to her before the ex can release it.

(e) Notable Quote: "That's hot."
Smilin_Jack
rotfl.gif

Damn does that sound familiar..... nyahnyah.gif
stevebugge
Personal Trainer

Want to be in top shape? This is the girl you come to. Either an independent contractor or on commission at a health club the personal trainer can whip you in to shape with a personalized exercise routine, diet recommendations, and will happily sell you all the supplements you need. Of course she has a wide array of clients, and while professionalism would dictate she doesn't discuss them, a girl does have to make her 'yen.

(Note if your GM enforces training times for skills and attributes, having a personal trainer can help with increases in strength, body, agility, reaction, and athletics)
Daethanil
Taxi Driver

If the streets are the veins and arteries of life, then the Taxi cab is that red blood cell among the billions. Always on the move, always watching his surroundings (be it the corp princess in the back, the cars on either side, or the gangers around the second corner). They know the roads and pathways better than their own apartments. If you need to know what's moving, where, and how to beat it there - this is your friend.

(Assorted skills, Driving & Knowledge primarily)


Simdoll Trader

Sex is money. And this trader has something perfect for you, even if your too ugly to attract a boil. His goods range from full body pleasure dolls to individual portions. But when you deal with the bottom rung, you can always get more than looks offer. Including information on local drug raids, safehouses, and corp activity. And if you have the cred, pleasure dolls rigged for some decidedly non-pleasant activities, and high grade robotics if the drones could use a kick.

(Alot of Con and Etiquette, some ability to defend themselves. Also generally a hacker or Technomancer, with some assassin dolls amid the selection)


Dinosaur Fanboy

Dinosaurs. Yes, dinosaurs. So what if his hobby has to do with 65 million year old dead things. So what if it doesn't have a single thing to do with anything currently walking on the planet. Even the Great Dragons can laugh at this poor sap. Chronically overdressed, with no social skills to speak of. But if you need to know anything about any of the museums in the city - he's your man. He even knows the security guards on a first name basis and when the vending machine man, James, comes to refill the Snickers.

(Pure knowledge skills, w/ Low Pain Tolerance, and Ineptitude; Social Skills)


fool
one of my characters (Cherie, the maxed face who is a total nympho and owns a strip club) took a street preacher as a contact. The preacher doesn't have any connection to her past, he's just a regular at her bar. BTW the bar doesn't really do anything like money or increase contacts in gfact she avoids having any meets there for paranoisas sake. It's just nice color for the character.
Street preachr- he's on the street corner all day everyday and knows most of the down and outs of his neck of the sprawl. Often has dirt on mafia types (they being catholic and all.)
stevebugge
QUOTE (Cang)
i might get some time on my hands and put these ideas on the npc wiki.

That would be cool
Voran
Rec Center Coach:

A man/woman of infinite patience. Helps run the local rec center in sectors that see gang violence, walking dead and rats that can chew through your car, if not carry off the whole thing by themselves. He knows the gangs in the area on a personal basis, knows their brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, where they live who they hang out with, and they talk to him/her. Somehow able to maintain an uneasy but astonishingly stable handle on potential ganger violence. He/she doesn't like cops, as they tend to bust gangers but not really help deal with fallout. A wonderful street level contact, if you can spend a little time, or nuyen helping out the center. Date at your own risk, make him/her cry, and you've got a sprawl fulla gangers who'll hunt you down.
maikeru
wow this thread is pretty cool. I would have never thought of half of this crap.
Kanada Ten
Simjournalist

The simjournalist travels to the extents of the Earth and beyond to experience and record for humanity all of existence. Whether hiking through the Amazon or sitting beneath a perfect summer sun in the lazy hot days of Georgia, these recordings give people a greater understanding of the world. They make travel an affordable possibility and bring appreciation for other cultures, nature, and the majesty of life. She has walked in space, eaten every dish ever called local, spoken with thousands of tribal leaders, danced with shaman of all stripes, swam in the belly of a leviathan, and breathed in the sweet fragrance of the deadly awakened nightshade as it bloomed beneath the new moon. Too bad that last bit killed her.

"Wow, just wow. I can't believe how lucky we are to be seeing this. A five headed black hydra. You can see how mad he is, look at the venom just dripping off his fangs. Each bite delivers enough poison to kill a behemoth. Needless to say, we better be really careful. Whoa there, buddy; it's ok. I'm going to let him go now..."
SL James
QUOTE (Toptomcat)
These are all specific rather than general, but I've been told that I'm good at making good, original contacts.

Are you Blackjack by any chance?

QUOTE
Sven, male human Scandinavian decker with a passion for bodybuilding.

Sounds like the hacker in Demolition Angel, only not good at hacking.

QUOTE
Otto Von Brauchisch, last survivor of the Third Reich. The escaped testbed for the Leonization genetic age reversal process, Otto is over a hundred and fifty years old. He was there for the dawn of special ops, served actively in the Waffen-SS, and was the favored protege of the legendary special operator Otto Skorzeny. Still an unrepenetant Nazi- after all, what has fascism done that capitalism done wild hasn't already inflicted on the Sixth world five times over?

Capitalism hasn't rid the world of the Jew.
fool
Local librairan
don't have that data search skill or a hacker contact, he's your best freind. Need a cerain text that's only around in hard copy these days (they're still out there ya know). In the know on alternative sexual lifestyles too.
ludomastro
QUOTE (toptomcat)

Mad Abdul of Mad Abdul's Taxi Service. A former Islamic Jihad driver of captured Humm-Vees in the Iraq war, Mad Abdul makes his living by going where other transport services can't or won't- through areas dominated by motorcycle gangs, slums where road maintinance is nonexistant, or extraterritorial corporate properties where outside vehicles are shot on sight. He careens around Seattle in a battered, bullet-ridden taxi with bolted-on armor and the last remnants of a scorched, mud-spattered, bloodstained yellow-and-black checkered paint job. Don't expect to take a road-legal route- or even a route that mostly involves roads- and be prepared for your eyes to water when you see the fare...but there's no one who can get you from A to B faster.
*BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM*
"There's guns under the seat, feel free to join in!”


rotfl.gif

I know this guy! I've ridden in his cab!


Art Director of a local museum:
Most museums are run by the munipality where they are located and the pay is poor. For a little extra he can find you a buyer for the little something extra you picked up from the downtwon office or can verify that the piece you stole is authentic before given it to Mr. J and being accused of ripping him off. Can also give a crash course in "culture" before your next infiltration.
Geekkake
I can't believe no one's thought of this. No shadowrunner should be without an attorney.
fool
uh, we're talking nonstandard contacts. Mob consiglierie is listed in the BBB. Besides you get your fixer to hook you up with a mouth piece.
Kanada Ten
The Friend Collector

It's not exactly clear where she finds the time, or how she earns a living, but the friend collector has set her goal of adding every metahuman on the 'Trix to her friend's list. You're not even sure how she ended up on your friend's list, much less how she found your profile, but this girl gets around both worlds with amazing ease. And, with several million people at her finger tips, she manages to hold hundreds of simultaneous conversations, comment on pages weekly, post sim reviews, and generally act like a bubble of encouragement to anyone with a sad tale. The blinking "Online" arrow next to her name almost never goes away, and several groups babble about the net that either revere or hate her. There is even a group titled "We will not be your friend, THX1138". She can set you up on a blind date, listen to your troubles and read your bad poetry with a thumbs up. Just don't delete her, or you'll face the wrath of millions.

"OMG! I totally luvved that poem. It was like sooo deep. I feel like you were reading my soul. Leave me a comment! CU"
SL James
I know people IRL (that is, in the RL meat world) like that.

Scary.
Kanada Ten
The Prophet

Incanting from his pulpit on the street corner, the prophet predicts the weather and misfortune with a fever and conviction only madness can create. He can't really know the future... can he? Whether magic or mundane, the prophet forewarns of danger, or maybe he just feeds your paranoia. Don't bug him in the food line, though. That's his time off.

The Future (By Neighborhood) 1
Gang Politics (By Neighborhood) 2
Toublemakers (By Neighborhood) 2
Soup Kitchens 3

"And the demon shall bear a nine bladed sword. Nine bladed! Not two, or five,
or seven- but NINE! Which he shall wield on all wretched sinners, sinners
just like you, sir there. And the horns shall be on the head, with which he
will..."
Voran
QUOTE (Kanada Ten)
The Friend Collector

It's not exactly clear where she finds the time, or how she earns a living, but the friend collector has set her goal of adding every metahuman on the 'Trix to her friend's list. You're not even sure how she ended up on your friend's list, much less how she found your profile, but this girl gets around both worlds with amazing ease. And, with several million people at her finger tips, she manages to hold hundreds of simultaneous conversations, comment on pages weekly, post sim reviews, and generally act like a bubble of encouragement to anyone with a sad tale. The blinking "Online" arrow next to her name almost never goes away, and several groups babble about the net that either revere or hate her. There is even a group titled "We will not be your friend, THX1138". She can set you up on a blind date, listen to your troubles and read your bad poetry with a thumbs up. Just don't delete her, or you'll face the wrath of millions.

"OMG! I totally luvved that poem. It was like sooo deep. I feel like you were reading my soul. Leave me a comment! CU"

E-viiiiiiiil
stevebugge
Caterer

One of the few remaining people truly skilled in actually cooking with real food the caterer is in high demand with the corporate elite. Whether doing jobs as a personal chef, catering parties for the social elite, or doing large events the caterer has the contacts to make those events happen. Of course his contacts have to reach to the Shadows too because if he needs an ingredient he'll go to anyone who can get it, and will pay top nuyen for it, and may trade information or access if he has too. Just don't tamper with his food because in his world it's his rep, and he know's other people like you who can help clean his rep up if you tarnish it.
-X-
Genealogist

A true genealogist is a master researcher, whether that means in the Matrix, delving into musty church basements or cruising graveyards. Most of their skills are designed to help them track people down, living or dead. While usually they're doing this to fill out that next pesky name in their genealogical chart, for the right favor, or just the right credit amount you might be able to convince them to locate an individual. And who knows? You're probably related to them anyway. This is the person you want to be friends with if you suspect your landlord might be an immortal elf. Or an ancient vampire. Or a child of incest. If you're lucky the genealogist in question might be both skilled and have a buyable moral code. Convince your friends that you're an immortal elf. Or an ancient vampire. Or a child of incest. Genealogists spend most of their time tracking people down so it is usually best to keep on their good side. Pretending to be related to the mark you're tracking probably isn't a great plan.
stevebugge
Geologist

This guy is in to rocks, mud, earthquakes, and volcanos. Most of the time he's just a guy out taking soil samples, raising a stink about building codes, and scaring people in to moving off hillsides. He might fit some time to teach a class at the community college in to his schedule too. But what he knows about rocks, minerals, and dirt can be useful to the right person, it could give away where something came from or help you with a structure hit. Oh and he and his seismograph can tell you the difference between an earthquake and an underground explosion.
emo samurai
Street Psychiatrist

People who go to the shadows aren't always trying to kill, steal from, or blackmail somebody. When their only legitimate option for therapy is the company shrink, who'd gladly sell your files to your coworkers, you turn to him. He'll tell you everything the company shrink isn't told to say, and may dredge up things in your subconscious you just don't want to deal with. But the experience will make you a stronger person. Hopefully. He may or may not share his patient information with you, depending on how much he hates his client.

Skills: Possibly mage with freaky mind-affecting spells, social skills.
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