Re-envisioning my mage again, and I looked into the Enemy flaw more than I have in the past. I like the idea that the enemy's characteristics are primarily based on the amount of resources you choose at character generation. The more money you have at chargen, the more resources available to your enemies. I also like how you can distribute your enemies resources among several NPCs, e.g., one level-3 gang leader and four level-1 gang members for a total of 7 resource points.

Do you think something like this might work well for contacts at chargen?

no.

Well.... I guess that says it all now, doesn't it?

I've never liked the chargen enemy system. What enemies you have should be defined by your background - it's ridiculous to arbitrarily create enemies and then force them upon a character just because they took more resources. They've already paid for those resources by sacrificing the priority or build points over something else they could've bought, such as higher attributes or more skills. Why penalize them more? And with something that is clearly an act of GM metagaming to boot?

Ditto for contacts.

[Edit: Reflecting back, metagaming may have been the wrong word to use. But I still don't like it. ]

Agreed, enemies comes with flaws, the enemy flaws should represent your background, but the ones who HATE people taking high resource probably loves the enemy system.....
And they probably only use ONE enemy, and he's called "Deus" or something.....
(or "Hestaby" or "king steves kickass ninja squad" or whatever)

I like the whole "priority points" for enemies but I too dislike that its based on your char gen resources.

I guess it makes sense on some level but also steam rolls alot of your background if you spend lots of cash.

Back to the contacts: I like it just the way it is. You can take any contact as long as you have a reasonable background for it (or your a Face--they know EVERYBODY. they just do). A reasonable background being: "went to high school w/ him" "Mowed her dad's lawn" "Sold her brother BTLs" "Sold BTLs for her brother".

That way you could be street scum but still know some minor legue legit movers and shakers b/c they slum at the bar you grew up in or worked at your soup kitchen, etc...

Or vice versa...be legit, know street scum...

Speaking of enemies ...

Is there a quick and dirty (and non-copyright-infringing ) explanation anywhere on what the different grades/costs of enemies are? I'd love to use the enemy flaws in NSRCG, but don't have the book that describes them (in fact, i don't remember here which book it is, but that's mainly because I don't have NSRCG open at work. )

Maybe the enemy thing can be taken like an inverse contact, thereby allowing me to afford better contacts ... *laughs* Maybe I should wait till I have some and just buy the book.

You split points between Power, Motivation and Knowledge. Average the points to get the Level of the enemy.

Power can be personal strength or the amount of resources they can bring down on you. Motivation is how bad they want you and to what degree they want to harm you, from a stern scolding to a slow, painful death. Knowledge concerns knowing where to find you. It ranges from you could be anywhere on the planet, within it or in space for all the enemy knows, to they have you under constant surveillance.