All right, so here's the issue I see: both Sincereagape and Absols are looking at contacts as two-dimensional 'if you have a high Loyalty, then you would do whatever is
actually in your power to assist me.' Poindexter seems to be thinking somewhat along those lines as well, though he has something of a glimmer as to what I'm on about. What I'm
on about is the fact that what you are buying is
what defines your relationship - that instead of looking solely at the numbers, you determine a way to turn the numbers into a Real Relationship.
Loyalty describes the cost of doing business with the guy - whether you have to pay him cashy money for the time of day, or whether he's going to stop everything he's doing, piss off whomever he's with (wife, mistress, a press conference), in order to take
your call.
Connections describe what he's willing to do
for you. Oh, sure, maybe Loyalty 6 means that if he's right there, he's going to step in and take a bullet for you - but that's
him, not all the people he knows, or his reputation.
If you buy a guy at a lower contact level than he has, then however readily he takes your call, whatever price break he gives you, then there is only so much he is going to be
willing to do for you, for
whatever reason. It isn't up to me to come up with each and every detail of your contacts, or their reasons for not giving you the benefit of absolutely everything they have access to. President Obama is not going to throw a pardon out to his well-and-truly best friend 'cause the guy committed murder; he'd get frickin'
crucified.Let's take a look at all four examples, how they've been laid out as 'being impossible' and how I would
interpret the contact value and how it affects game play.
For whatever reason they're both in holding cells, they both make they're phonecall to the mayor, for the one who bought him at C1/L6 the conversation goes something like this:
Shadowrunner: "Hey buddy, got a problem, I'm in jail, can you pull a few strings and get me out no questions asked? I can pay you, an I'll owe you a big favour."
Mayor. "No can do bud, to risky, sorry."
Shadowrunner: "Wait, what? I can pay you if you like, I know you do this kind of stuff for other runners!"
Mayor: "Still no." *Hangs up*
How I would explain this Connections 1, Loyalty 6 situation:
"John Booth and Alex Lincoln went to boarding school together. They were on the same teams, they did all the same activities, they roomed together - they were, in fact, inseperable. As time went on, they went their seperate ways, but while John sunk into criminal activities, Alex got his law degree, entered politics, and became mayor. Even today, however, John and Alex will get together now and again for a beer, a night of bowling, or just shooting the bull over a Sonics game. The media have caught them together any number of times, but since Booth hasn't been arrested for anything, he can be at best described as questionable - and Lincoln's spin doctors have used the friendship to keep Lincoln's 'man of the people' shine polished to a gleam."
And NOW Booth wants Lincoln to pull strings to get him out of jail. If Lincoln does this, he's throwing himself in front of a frickin' bus. Lincoln's political opponents are going to keep an eye on 'lowlife Booth', and the news that he's in jail is going to put them on the edge of their seat, just
drooling over the possibility that Lincoln is going to pull strings. Even worse, Booth wants to
pay him to do this - something that a shadowsnoop is going to be
all over, shaking her own trees until 'BofA #126893-916, belonging to Booth, John, deposited 15,000 nuyen to 5/3 #169305-13-561A, belonging to Lincoln, Alex' pops up on her commlink and she can nail Mayor Lincoln to the wall for frickin' bribery, influence peddling, and all the other assorted crap.
In regards to Booth, Lincoln is
exposed. He's best buddies with the guy. He'll take Booth's calls all day long, right in the middle of a committee meeting,
whenever - but if he does anything more than let Booth pick his brains, he's opening himself up for a whole shitstorm, and because Booth's player bought him at that level, Booth-the-Character is both aware of that,
and has accepted those limitations on how far his best-buddy-ol'-pal will go for him.
The Shadowrunner who bought him at C6/L1 calls:
Shadowrunner: "Hello, my fixer put me in contact with you, I'm in jail, I heard you can get me out for a Fee?"
Mayor: "Correct, I'll make a phonecall, I expect 15k Nuyen to be in my account within the hour"
Shadowrunner "Done."
Soo...how on earth does that make sense?
Connections 6, Loyalty 1. "Please hold."
Six hours later, you have a conversation like what's above. Blake Lively is perhaps known in passing to the mayor, but because there's no open connection between the two (as in 'Loyalty 6, best buddies forever'), the transaction can remain
anonymous. Newsies might report about a suspected criminal posting bail remarkably quickly, or it being remarkable that he was even allowed to do so at all, but that shit happens all the time with anonymous people. Blake has no known association with the mayor, isn't being watched by the media, and if he gets let go early, there's no reason to suspect.
Blake's player bought this level of contact for just this reason. Oh, he may have to wait a while, and pay a whole shitload of cash, but you get what you pay for. Hell, he didn't even
vote for this guy for mayor ... but his Fixer had an 'in', so Blake's walking while John's sitting waiting for his orange jumpsuit.
Club owner contact for Loki (C1L5)
Loki: Hey, can you get me a meeting with the yakuza oyabun, hanzo who frequents this establishment and helped you get your club? I will pay you a large sum of nuyen. It is life or death and you are the closest thing I have to a friend. He thinks I killed some of his men but I was not even there, I need to explain it to him.
Alessia: Sorry doll, you're very handsome and I care about you, and I know you need this but I can't do it for you. I just don't have that pull for you. That's not our relationship.
Abso-fraggin'-lutely right. "Babe, you know I like you and I always have time to talk to you, but I ain't about to put my life in your hands, because I'm not sure
I believe you. This guy has his knife at my throat already, and you want me to give him a possible reason to kill not only you, but me too?? Ask me my opinion all you want, but don't get me involved in your shit."
Next runner: C4L2
Runner: hey toots I need to meet with hanzo and make it snappy. I am a regular and buy drinks from ya. Hanzo wants my balls because he thinks I killed some of his men and I just wanted a chance to tell him that it was some other Tusker and not me.
Alessia - sure big boy, you came to the right person. You can use our back room, but it will cost you.
Errr ... try, "Watch your fuckin' mouth, dickweed. How much are you going to pay me to risk my head on this for you?? It better be enough to get me far away from here - and if I do this anyhow, I'll be in there with Hanzo, and I'll cut your throat in a heartbeat if he says he doesn't believe you."
If you guys are locked into 'if you do business with me, then you MUST be willing to give me access to
absolutely everything you can do', then yeah, you'd better pick your characters' contacts with the full amount of Connections rating they could possibly bring to bear. Your contacts, however, are likely to remain primarily numbers - not 'real' flesh-and-blood people with their own lives, concerns, limitations, and requirements.
For me - and for other people who think of things somewhat more flexibly - a Connections rating represents how much the individual is willing to do
for me,
not the absolute limit of how much they
could do for me or someone like me, while a Loyalty rating says how readily (and how cheaply) they're willing to perform the tasks they
are willing to perform for me. It describes less an 'absolute reach' and more a 'what are you willing to do for me' give-and-take relationship that, hey, I can actually work on and improve.
Maybe my L6/C1 contact is Bull McAllister; he'll always give me the time of day, but man, he just doesn't poach in other fixers' territories, and you're already claimed, buddy. Over time, however, I can persuade him that there are some things he can just move better or give me a better price on, and buy his Connections rating up. And y'know, I might just happen to give the GM an idea for some 'slice of life' RP for the group, when my 'other' Fixer sends a couple of leg-breakers to 'axe' me to come talk to him about giving business to a rival, and I have to try to explain things in such a way that I can keep 'em both happy. It makes the two contacts
people, not 'my L3/C6 fixer and my L2/C6 fixer'.
