I was browsing through SR4 and noticed that Med Student and Ambulance Driver were acceptable substitutes/alternative names for the Street Doc, and it got me thinking about their respective Connection Ratings. Like a Med Student might be a Connection 1 Contact, whereas a contact with a rating 5 Connection is supposed to be a "global" level professional, someone who can compete globally, potentially the best on the planet, like Dr. House or something. So how do you represent their dice pools? How do you account for augmentations, specializations, tools, and assistants? They only list one set of stats in the book, and they don't include most of those things.

This works okay in SR5, and with SR4's smaller dice pools it might work there as well. Add Connection as bonus dice. This represents augmentations, better skills, etc, that the contact has picked up. This only applies to things that the contact is good at, though, so a street doc doesn't get bonus dice on acquiring guns, and a mechanic contact doesn't get bonus dice for repairing commlinks.

This seems underwhelming to me. A contact from the book might have, as an example, 7 dice in their pool, 8 then for a rating 1 "med school" contact, and 12 for a rating 5 connection that other people might fly in from overseas to see.

It seems to me that the rating 5 guy should have specialized tools, assistants, and augmentations, along with higher attributes and skill levels, that take his pool much higher than that in their chosen field.

I would say leave this in the hands of the GM. If you start defining what each contact has, then you'll get bogged down.

Besides the contact may be as good as you say he is, but maybe if he can't help you. Maybe he's got friends who could and they'll help you, but you've got to do something for them...

Instant plot hook and the GM doesn't have to spend time stating them out.

Also, in the case of a doc, they have their med equipment to help out. Maybe the med student just has a med kit but the doc has access to med facilities which are between rating 8 and 10, which is a pretty nice boost.

That's what I was thinking. So how could I translate that into numbers, precisely? Because every contact getting the same base stats doesn't seem right to me, with a bonus of only 1 die to their pool per connection rating.

I´ll second leaving this to the GM. Talking about what you want your contacts to be and if the GM/group is willing to let the idea fly is much more important than stats in some book or custom document. I have given (and as a player, received) much more screen time and support than defined dice pools would have. High-level fleshed out contacts are a very powerful resource that can influence a game heavily, but even on the low level they get better if actually used by the GM/campaign.

If you define dice pools just try to agree on whatever. It will vary with the power level your group is going for, and once you join a new group, every stat will have to be accepted by your new fellows.

I've been thinking about this question a lot recently, namely that Connection ≠ competence.

A fixer might know precisely squat themselves but since they know a lot of people and have a lot of influence they would still have a high Connection rating.

Connection 1 is someone who hardly knows anyone else but they might be a wiz in their specialty. Does that mean I can have the world's best street doc at Connection 1 just as long as he or she is a cloistered genius and/or socially inept and/or any other circumstance that would lead him/her not to know anyone else?

I'm not sure how to balance this. I've been thinking about adding some sort of Professional Rating to the mix but I'm uncertain how that would affect contact costs, etc.

P.S. I'm the GM more often than not, trying to figure this out for when the players inevitable ask like they are here.

You could have the Professional rating (or what have you) be a stat. Give the players's contacts Connection 1, Loyalty 1, and Professional 1 free of charge to begin with, but limit them to (Charisma) contacts. Then require Karma/contact points to increase each rating. No contact can have a Connection rating beyond 6, and nor contact can have more than 9 points spent on them. Each contact adds (Professional x 2) to their attribute base (3 +/- metatype modifiers) to determine dice pools. At least, that's how I'd run it in 5e.

Alternatively, randomize each contact's competence. It should still be a function of their Connection (as a highly competent fixer doesn't get there by being an idiot) but roll 3D6 + Connection. That seems viable.

I had also thought to add Professional Rating to the mix, but then how does that apply to someone like a Fixer, whose Professional Rating is largely synonymous with their Connection rating?

Overall, I still think the PR+Connection+Loyalty approach works, but then you have to ask yourself how it applies to the free contact points that players receive via chargen, since you've added a category that will increase the cost of a contact by roughly 50%.

I'd probably allow a contact to cost up to 10 karma at chargen. That way you can start with a PR4+C4+L2 fixer, or a PR3+C3+L4 pal.

As the GM you have the most awesome super power of all. You can make drek up on the fly. As long as you're consistent with those NPCs, then have at it! Defining characters by stats makes them impersonal and limits you.

Have that bumbling socially awkward nerd being a super genius when it comes to making a Matrix program. That muscle bound asshole could a drek hot Shaman and you know what, your players will love it because it adds character.

I have no issue with making things up on the fly. The challenge, as you say, is staying consistent. Occasionally it helps to have a mechanic to serve as a guideline and/or reminder. Adding color and personality is easy; remembering if I rolled 10 Negotiation dice or 12 the last time they interacted with this NPC (a month ago) is harder.