Contacts house/new rule for Dark Fantasy X part I

How to use contacts? By contacts I mean something more than just the idea that a PC has a family, maybe, or friends. Rather, I mean that the PC has professional or personal contacts of enough power, influence, or knowledge to be useful to him in game. Maybe they've got a network that can be accessed in various places, like a criminal mob, or something like that. Maybe the PCs were childhood friends with someone who went on to become an important political or military figure in the kingdom. People who can offer real, substantial aid during the course of a campaign.

It's not in my nature to make overly complex systems of rules, because I greatly dislike doing so. But it is in my nature to come up with handwavey, and simple subsystems that allow players to roll more dice.

So, if a PC wanted to have a contact in his background that could offer meaningful and substantial real aid during the course of the game, how would I do it?

First off, recall that in Dark Fantasy X, a character puts all equipment on his person in one of twenty slots that he has. But these slots don't literally represent "slots" on your person, and there's no paper doll like expectation, like a video game. Spells count as slots, for instance, and if you want to use them, they have to be on your person. Contacts will similarly take item slots, and to be used, have to be "equipped." How many slots a single contact takes represents how "good" of a contact it is, i.e. how successful and likely he is to actually help you in a tough spot. A contact can be a one, two or three slot contact. Depending on how many slots he takes up, that's how many d20s you are able to roll when making a contact check; and of course, you take the highest roll.

The Contact Check When making a contact check, you first need to be able to get in touch with your contact. Contacts are not like Tom Bombadil; you don't get to simply recite a rhyme and have your contact instantly appear to bail you out of trouble. That doesn't mean that contacts need to be difficult to reach either; many contacts, especially two or three slot contacts, can be contacted via dead drop, via a network or agents, etc. and if you can afford to wait a couple of days tops, you'll probably get an answer from your contact.

The DC for a contact check depends on what you're asking. If your contact is some kind of sage, academic, or other holder of obscure and esoteric knowledge, and you want him to translate an ancient text for you, or tell you something about the provenance of an ancient relic, etc. that's probably a modest DC, unless it's something really obscure that your GM doesn't think hardly anyone is likely to know. I'd usually go for a 10-15 or so, with 15 being really obscure.

If you want your contact to give or loan you something spectacularly unusual, rare or precious, like a magic item that you need to overcome the innate magical protections of a daemon, you're probably only going to be successful on a natural 20—and even then, your GM may rule what you're asking is so unreasonable that even a natural 20 will only give you a partial success.

On the other hand, if your character concept is a "pseudomage"; a mechanic who's whole schtick is imitating magic by using magic items rather than taking the risk of casting actual spells, then you probably have a supplier that you can buy from at a more reasonable DC; 15-18 or so, depending on the power of the item, as well as a stiff fee for finding it. For this kind of thing, if you fail, especially by a relatively small margin, you can probably try again a few weeks later.

To make the check, your GM will tell you the DC, which he'll estimate by accounting for what kind of contact you have (is the help you're seeking in his wheelhouse or not?) and how reasonable it is that a contact would actually provide you with what you're asking for. Again, with a DC being between 10 and 25 or even a little more at the high end. Roll a d20 for each slot that the contact takes up, select the highest result, add your character level, and meet or beat the DC to be successful.

How many contacts can you have? As many as you're willing to sacrifice slots for. No contact can be more than a three slot contact, but if you want to have four three-slot contacts and are willing to permanently use 12 slots to do so, knock yerself out. It's highly recommended that if you have more than one contact, that you make them a different kind of contact with a different specialty.

Of course, a more economically viable way to do this is to have different players have different contacts, so no single character has to dedicate too many slots to them. Of course, when the party is looking for help, they better be together, because one character's contact will be meaningless to another character in the party.

Creating Contacts To create a contact, you'll have to work closely with your GM. For GMs, it may actually be prudent to get a handful of index cards and create contacts in advance that PCs could choose, or at least use as a model. This way, you can be sure that nobody is creating a contact that isn't appropriate for the type of campaign you're looking to run. 

Contacts need the following information to be useable:

- Level (i.e., how many slots does he take, 1-3. This more reflective of the closeness of the relationship between the contact and the character, but some contacts who are more limited in the scope of what they can offer may not be able to rise about 1st or 2nd level.

- Name, race, a few other distinguishing features.

- Area of expertise or specialty

- Where is he to be found, usually, and if he's not there (or if the PCs are somewhere else) how can he be contacted? Note; not every contact can be reached from everywhere. A contact with a political career in Garenport can be reached easily in Garenport itself, without too much trouble elsewhere in Northumbria, and with some possible delays anywhere else in the Hill Country, but if you're far away from the Hill Country, he probably can't be reached at all. (In which case, he probably isn't a very good candidate for a viable contact in a campaign that takes place somewhere other than the Hill Country.)

- A quirk or two of personality, including maybe something that he'd be especially willing to help with, and something that he'd be reluctant to help with. Or maybe he wants PCs to do something for him before rendering his help, etc.

I've created a few example contacts. In fact, as I've decided slowly that I wanted to merge my iconic PCs, I thought it might make sense for the unused iconics to turn into contacts instead. But I have some other NPC characters here that I always intended to be helpful contact-like characters from the get-go.

Alpon von Lechfeld

Alpon von Lechfeld A renowned scholar and investigator into the obscure and the occult. He had a storied career at the Academy in Mittermarkt, but is now retired to the Northwoodshire countryside after the death of his wife in Timischburg, where he continues his research independently and lives with his teenaged daughter Revecca.

Von Lechfeld is an older, middle-aged man, who has a dispensation from various authorities to study things would otherwise be illegal for most. His knowledge of the occult, necromancy, daemonology, and the forbidden is prodigious, although he himself is no necromancer or daemonologist. Rather, he's occasionally offered his services to various organization, such as the Shadow Rangers, the pursuit of rooting out these baleful influences. He studies them with an eye towards protecting his people from them.

Von Lechfeld tends to be friendly and polite, if closed off and quiet. His eyes get hard and he will go out of his way to help anyone who is on the track of a vampire, but he clams up and will often send away anyone who brings an influence who he believes might threaten his daughter.

Von Lechfeld holds forth in his manor outside Cockrill's Hill, a town in the eastern end of the Copper Hills in the Northwoodshire section of Southumbria, but he still travels a fair bit consulting his colleagues, or otherwise doing research, and he can be found sometimes when needed in any urban area in the Hill Country, or even the eastern part of Timischburg, where he still maintains contacts. Sometimes dropping his name in an academic setting can be as good as talking with him personally, as people who know him, or know him by reputation may be willing to help a friend of his. When he's not readily available, he can be reached by messenger bird (pigeons being the most commonly used, but occasionally specially trained ravens, usually an NPCs animal companion) or by express post, a service throughout the Hill Country that's somewhat similar to the old Pony Express.

Drancent Hewe

Drancent Hewe Hewe is also a renowned Zobnan scholar, although his area of expertise is not the occult, and he will generally indicate his distaste for any investigation into "generic" occult items, and provide a very high DC due to his reluctance to address it. He spends half of his time in Lomar, where his people are and his "permanent address", but he also has highly profitable "gigs" in both Garenport and Barrowmere, where he'll spend months at a time as a guest researcher in their universities and academies, living relatively large in houses in the center of town. His real passion is history, and he is especially knowledgeable about ancient kingdoms and places, languages, the history of the various demihuman kingdoms and comings and goings. More recent history, or history of more recent people like the hillmen, for instance, he finds boring. The older and more obscure, the more interesting to him. He is also universally recognized as the foremost expert on the Heresiarchs—other than the Heresiarchs themselves. 

Drancent is best consulted when one needs knowledge about something that is hard to find anywhere else, especially about history or geography. When the PCs need to find anything that they can about some lost artifact, city, powerful relic belonging to an ancient historical figure, etc. Hewe is their man.

Hewe is a Zobnan grayman, and a confirmed bachelor, although he's still only in early middle age (because of the pale coloration of graymen in general and their white hair in particular, they sometimes look older than they are anyway.) He's in good shape, but he is somewhat indolent in his habits. He can sometimes be more easily persuaded by someone who brings him a fine wine, exotic cigar, or who buys him a very fine meal first. He's a snappy dresser in finery that looks a bit exotic, but would otherwise be fit for what most people imagine nobility dresses like. In spite of all this, he's not averse to some real adventure, and if you have a really exciting (to him) thing that you're looking for, he could even be convinced to come with as a guide or on site expert. Although he'll probably pack way too many clothes and require his own packhorse (or two) for all of his luxuries.

Shule

Shule I've already discussed Shule somewhat as a potential iconic, but I think he actually works better as a contact. Shule is also a subject matter expert, but not an academic; he's the kind of person you go to for street smart wisdom and experience. As a goblin informant around town (whichever town he happens to be in, and he does wander quite a lot) his information seems nearly unbeatable. He's also got contacts, friends, and fellow informants and criminals of his own everywhere, or so it seems, and anyone who can confirm to their suspicious nature that they are friends with Shule, can be more or less equivalent to Shule, even in locations where Shule isn't at the moment.

In addition to being an informant about what's going on in the criminal underworld, Shule is also an important liaison between the PCs and potentially all kinds of other criminals and the services that they might offer; smugglers, black-marketers, fences, protection, and more. However, if it's the Chersky Mafia that you're trying to get information on, the only thing Shule will give you is whatever intel can be used to discomfit them. He hates the Chersky Mafia with an abiding passion, and isn't super keen on any kemlings at all, frankly, whether they're related to the Chersky Mafia or not. This can occasionally get the PCs in trouble, if Shule's prejudice against the Cherskies causes the PCs to be seen as enemies of them as well.

Shule has a rat that he always keeps with him, and he's rarely seen without it perched on his shoulder, or resting in one of his pockets. Sometimes he holds it up on his wrist and speaks to it. Some who know him believe that the rat is actually the eyes and ears of Shule's outfit, and that somehow he is able to communicate what he sees back to Shule, which explains his preternatural street smarts. Others, of course, think that this is superstitious nonsense.

Oisin Dughall

Oisin Dughall This large and strong woodwose used to be associated with the Chersky Mafia himself, as many urban woodwose were, as shakedown and protection, rather than deeply involved with the organization. Oisin, however, had a falling out with the Mafia (see the Shule link above; it's also an Oisin link). However, he's been "out" for a number of years, and spends most of his time in the rural areas of the Hill Country, avoiding the cities, and trying to keep a low profile. That said, he's a friend to many rural homesteaders, hunters, scouts, trappers, and other men with a lonely occupation in the wilderness. He's hard to find, but because he wanders across the Hill Country, he could be nearby almost anywhere if the GM needs him to be. Other hunters, trackers, homesteaders, and woodwoses may also have knowledge of where to find him, although they're often suspicious and protective, and will only share such knowledge if convinced that the seeker is a genuine friends of Oisin.

Oisin's support to potential PC activities can be quite varied. There are fewer experts with more knowledge of the backwoods and backcountry of the Hill Country than Oisin, and he can be consulted about what happens and what's to be found outside of settled areas, where his advice and knowledge is second to none. Where he can be even more helpful, though, is that because he's always on the move anyway, it's not hard to convince him to travel with the PCs for a short time, offering his expertise freely. Any time travel rolls are made through the Appendix travel system with Oisin in the group, treat such rolls as effectively +5 due to his expert knowledge of the geography. He's rarely lost, he makes good time across the wilderness, and he's an expert at finding food as well as avoiding trouble from other travelers, wildlife, or anything else that you might find in the wilderness. He's also a fierce fighter when he needs to be. However, he'll never stay with the PCs for long; a few days to maybe a week or two tops—and less if they are heading into a town, city or even a village for more than a night, or if they are magnets for trouble getting involved in all kinds of combat with all kinds of things.

Oisin is friendly to those he knows, but always chary, with everyone. His eyes dart around carefully, he rarely looks you in the eyes, he often stops and ignores you, even mid conversation, as he listens for something beyond you; in short, he always behaves paranoid.

——( † )——

That's enough for now. The post is long enough and it's getting late in the evening. When I come back for part II, I won't have more rules, but I'll have probably half a dozen more example contacts, some taken from NPCs in the campaign(s) and others as former iconics who didn't make the cut when I reorganized the iconic parties.