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makari
I'm rounding out a character and found a couple of contacts I wanted to get, but am having a very hard time determining the cost for them

in the advanced contacts in runners companion, it lists the exchange, and I've read about it in other places, including one that suggests how to use it (every run roll 3 die for the exchange and 3 for the character, a tie nothing happens, if there's a winner then he gets a favor with a rating equal to the successes... if the character lost he gets asked to do a favor of that rating)

however, I'm having a hard time putting a point value on the exchange to start with... I wish when they gave these examples they would have went ahead and listed their modifiers....
from what I can gather, one of the sidebars mention that there are likely thousands of members so I'm guessing membership +6 modifier... area of influence? I'd assume with the numbers limited to thousands thay are in a single sprawl but would you really give them any influence since they dont really do that like a normal contact? and then magic and matrix resources... I'm thinking just 1 of each but I'm not sure how to handle that again since these resources dont get called on like a normal contact again... and for that matter with the way this contact would work I'm hesitant to make it cost the +6 mod for membership.... and I'm not sure how to handle loyalty or connections base for them at all...


another one is the Warezhouse 24, a hacker, software group... it lists their members as 87 I think it was so +2 membership, but how about area of influence... it's matrix based and even mentions that the main hardware is on some legal remote location, but again I'm hesistant to give it the +6 global modifier simply because it's a matrix based group... especially one so small

any suggestions or comments on how to handle these?
DireRadiant
When working with a group contact what's important is the level of influence you get to use. While the group itself may have thousands of members and a world wide scope, you might only get to use the local chapter of 8 people, and that chapter might not have magical or matrix contacts. So when determining the cost in BP, you apply what level you can use.

see p. 126 RC Large groups

"Note that the same large group can sometimes have different
modifiers depending on the level of the overall organization a
particular character is in touch with.
For instance, the Membership modifier for a character possessing
a 10-member Mothers of Metahumans neighborhood chapter
as a contact would be different (+1) from one who is connected
to the international leadership of the thousands-strong organization
( +8 ). Similarly, depending on how high up in the widespread
organization the character’s connections go, the applicable Area of
Influence modifier might vary. For instance, one character might
have a local branch office of the Atlantean Foundation as a contact
(+2), while another might have the Atlantean Foundation’s board
as a contact (+6 since it’s global in area of influence). Such details
must be decided when the contact is chosen, and will limit the
information and resources the character’s particular group contact
has at hand."
makari
I kind of understand that, but I'm still unsure how to handle these


especially the exchange, how would you even handle the base loyalty and connections ratings? they're not loyal to you, and you can't call someone up to use that loyalty rating to accomplish something... so why have it? similar thing with connections, you can't ask favors, or anything similar

for exchange I'm thinking of asking if the group just wants to house rule it as a 6bp contact, loyalty and connections dont really matter since you never get to really use them, but we'll say 3 each for arguement and if it should ever come up

graywulfe
You could modify the system you were talking about before. Instead the player rolls Loyalty while the GM rolls Connections. The number of hits on the losing side determines the size of the "favor." Keeping in mind the basic concept of The Exchange.

All that said I like your simple 6BP contact solution. Just offering a different solution.
DireRadiant
If you buy the Exchange as Loyalty 2 Connections 2 base, then that is amount it helps you.

So if character A has exchange at base loyalty 5 and Connections 5, then cool stuff happens to help them all over the world a lot of the time.

If a character has base Loyalty 2 and Connection 2 for the Exchange, then they get a little help in a small part of the world a little bit of the time.
Nows7
QUOTE (graywulfe @ Mar 18 2010, 04:35 PM) *
You could modify the system you were talking about before. Instead the player rolls Loyalty while the GM rolls Connections. The number of hits on the losing side determines the size of the "favor." Keeping in mind the basic concept of The Exchange.

All that said I like your simple 6BP contact solution. Just offering a different solution.


Just House rule that the player must buy Loyalty and Connection equally. Otherwise your players could just get it at L6/C1 and be rolling 6 dice to the Exchange's 1 dice and be getting large favors regularly.
graywulfe
QUOTE (Nows7 @ Mar 18 2010, 11:30 AM) *
Just House rule that the player must buy Loyalty and Connection equally. Otherwise your players could just get it at L6/C1 and be rolling 6 dice to the Exchange's 1 dice and be getting large favors regularly.



Reread my post. Size of favor determined by loser's hits. If they have connections at 1 they will never see large rewards, the most hits the "loser" can have at that point is 1. of course the hole there is they would never owe any favors worth mentioning, zero hits.

hrrm

Graywulfe
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