Contact Group 4
Variable
You have a network of Contacts
(see Contacts, below) placed through-
out a particular organization or social
stratum. You must specify a corpora-
tion, criminal syndicate, military unit,
police department, or similar organi-
zation, or the underworld, merchants,
upper class, etc. of one particular
town. Broader Contact Groups are not
allowed.
You may request information from
a Contact Group exactly as you would
an individual Contact, using the same
rules for frequency of appearance,
effective skill, and reliability. The dif-
ference is that a Contact Group’s effec-
tive skill reflects ability at an entire cat-
egory of skills – e.g., “business skills” if
your Contact Group is a corporation,
or “military skills” if your Contact
Group is a military unit – as opposed
to one specific skill. You must define
this area of knowledge when you pur-
chase the Contact Group, and it must
be appropriate to the organization.
The GM rolls against the group’s
effective skill when you request any
information that it could reasonably
provide. However, this is an abstract
success roll, not a roll against a specif-
ic skill. For instance, a police Contact
Group could provide ballistics com-
parisons, criminal profiles, legal
advice, police records, and introduc-
tions to criminals. It would not specif-
ically use Forensics, Criminology,
Law, Administration, or Streetwise
skills for this, but the information pro-
vided might be appropriate to any of
these “police skills.”
To determine the point cost of a
Contact Group, select its effective skill,
frequency of appearance, and reliabil-
ity level just as you would for a simple
Contact, then multiply the resulting
cost by 5.