[The Masked Ferret]

Raising Loyalty is really hard to do, though, when it comes to non-Missions contacts.

Indeed. Especially for a Connection 6 contact. It required me to sell out a dragon to get him from Loyalty 1 to Loyalty 2. I have no idea what it will take to get him to 3.

[martinchaen]

Follow-up on this;

1. If buying gear during a mission, do you still have to use the "buying hits" method?
The FAQ only states that you have to buy hits when "making tests during downtime" under the "Can I buy/train/do downtime items such as (fill in the blank) at the game table?"; this does not cover buying an item that one needs before a mission, as it wouldn't take place during downtime activity but during the run itself.

And a repeat:
2. What is the actual maximum values for Connection/Loyalty for SRM Season 5 Contacts?
Despite Bull's previous statement that the Mission contacts exceeding 7 karma spend was a mistake, they are still listed in the new Prep documents as "Connection X" (a fixed value) and "Max Starting Loyalty Y" (a variable), which in some cases would put them over the 7 limit (Goober 4/4, Martin Tate 5/3). I'd be very curious to know the correct values for these contacts.

3. Sample contacts in the SR5 rulebook have a "Uses" description, indicating that some may be used as fences and others may not, while SRM contacts do not have this descriptor; is it assumed that all SRM contacts can perform all possible services?

[Michael Chandra]

1: Didn't the v1.0 file state anything without expiration date that carries on inbetween Missions involves buying hits?

2: I'd still assume the 7-karma limit applies and they forgot to adjust it, of course confirmation would be nice.

[martinchaen]

Michael
1. It does, but wouldn't this fall outside the "in between Missions action", as it would occur during the mission (say, buying any avail 12 item that might be needed for a particular mission but that no one on the team has, like plastic explosives, or a simrig to record events, or whatever else might be needed)

Actually, re-reading the FAQ I just noticed that the paragraph you refer to actually states "I want to do X, which can be done in game or as a downtime action. Do I roll skill dice or buy hits?" with the answer that buying hits are used. This includes buying items, and seems to be a VERY broad definition (anything that can be done during downtime, basically); it also nearly invalidates buying items as a character, simply because a contact will be better than a character without very significant investment (Charisma 6 + Negotiation 6 still only gets you 12 dice or 4 hits, though a specialization and the Exceptional quality might raise your dice pool all the way to 15 from the get-go)

2. Agreed, my assumption is that the 7 karma limit still applies, so some sort of confirmation is exactly what I'm looking for (hopefully with an updated Contacts sheet)

[Michael Chandra]

Don't forget that contacts only have Conn+Conn+Loy so are limited to 12 dice as well. And that's for the ones you heavily invest in. But yes, Negotiation is mainly interesting for players who want to be a secondary or primary Face. On the other hands, contacts no longer require a cut so contacts are always the way to go.

By the way, 12 dice is 3 hits, not 4.

[martinchaen]

Absolutely, that was partly my point; one of your contacts will likely have 12 dice (if you intend to be buying anything high-avail) for a moderate investment of 7 karma points (either free or discretionary), whereas getting your own dice pool to 12 requires 6 skill points and 6 attribute points, which is only likely to be relevant for a Face type character. Presumably, things like tailored pheromones won't work on Availability Tests

Thanks for the correction on 3vs4; apparently I'm still too sleepy for basic elementary level math

[The Masked Ferret]

Don't forget that contacts only have Conn+Conn+Loy so are limited to 12 dice as well. And that's for the ones you heavily invest in. But yes, Negotiation is mainly interesting for players who want to be a secondary or primary Face. On the other hands, contacts no longer require a cut so contacts are always the way to go.

By the way, 12 dice is 3 hits, not 4.

A connection 6 / loyalty 1 contact could get 13 dice to start with, for a max of 16 (investing a good bit)

[Michael Chandra]

Yes, but it'd be a custom contact, for which raising loyalty is extremely difficult. For 5/2 you got multiple options with the Season 5 Contacts, and good odds at raising loyalty with them.

[The Masked Ferret]

Yes, but it'd be a custom contact, for which raising loyalty is extremely difficult. For 5/2 you got multiple options with the Season 5 Contacts, and good odds at raising loyalty with them.

True, it would be much harder to raise. However, it would not go away by campaign fiat like the campaign ones are known to do.

[Michael Chandra]

Those go away? I thought it simply was a matter of not being in the same city.

[The Masked Ferret]

Moving from Denver to new York, all contacts less than loyalty 4 or so would not even return you calls

[Arioch]

Since Sprawl Wilds are now valid Season 5 Missions, what is the connection rating of the orc fixer gained in Manhunt? It says you gain him as a contact with +2 loyalty, but it does not say what his connection rating is.

[Michael Chandra]

You mean Carbon Copy? Bull is listed on the website in the list of SR4 contacts.

[Arioch]

Sorry yes, Carbon Copy....

[Marzhin]

Nice to see some familiar faces this season. Simon Andrews is a favourite of mine (the first T'skrang of the Sixth World  ), and it's always nice to have news of characters like Quantum Princess (from Bug City) and Lothan the Wise (even if the Shadowrun Duels action figures were not very successful it's cool to see they're still part of the canon).