The Matrix is full of information, but the things shadowrunners need to know are not the kinds of things people put up on their personal or corporate websites. Word of available jobs, news about what street lowlifes and organized crime figures have been up to, dirt about who’s just snuck into town and who may be looking to make a quick getaway—this is stuff you’re not going to find through a quick data search.
To get this information, you need contacts. Contacts come in a lot of forms. They may be the arms dealer who has a knack for coming up with armor-piercing bullets right when you need them. Or the underground journalist who is willing to share what she knows if you give her some inside info about upcoming juicy stories. Or the old standby, the bartender with the watchful eye and the listening ear. Shadowrunners have a roster of personal contacts that they can turn to in order to help them find jobs and provide useful information about what’s going on in the world.
Contact Ratings
While some contacts may be fully stat'd out characters like any other, how they interact with the shadow community at large is encapsulated in four special attributes — Connection, Loyalty, Expertise, and Size.
Connection
Rating 1-12
This rating reflects the contact's level of influence — the higher the rating, the more juice that the contact has. More specifically, it's the amount of that influence the contact is willing to apply in the character's favor. Just because Joe Runner is Damien Knight's third cousin twice removed, that doesn't mean Mr. Macrotechnology will put the full weight of Ares behind him. He might let Joe borrow a megayacht for the weekend, though.
While not a requirement, a good rule of thumb is that a contact's Connection should not be more than it's Loyalty+6 or less than it's Size+3.
| Rating | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Virtually no social influence; useful only for their personal abilities. |
| 2 | Has one or two friends with some useful abilities, or has some minor social influence. |
| 3 | Has a few friends, but not a lot of social influence. |
| 4 | Knows several people in a district: a borough mayor or a gang leader. |
| 5 | Knows several people and has a moderate degree of social influence; a metroplex councilman or a low-level executive it a small-to-medium corporation. |
| 6 | Known and connected across his state; a city/sprawl mayor or governor, notable fixer, or a mid-level executive in a medium-sized corporation. |
| 7 | Knows a lot of people over a large area, and has considerable social influence; often holds a leadership position in a national corporation. |
| 8 | Well-connected across a multi-state region; an executive in a state government or a national corporation. |
| 9 | Well-connected on his own continent, with considerable social influence; a mid-level executive in a small national government or AA megacorporation. |
| 10 | Well-connected worldwide, with significant social influence; a senior executive in a small national government or a AA megacorporation. |
| 11 | Extremely well-connected worldwide, with significant social influence; mid-level executive position in a major national government or AAA megacorporation. |
| 12 | Global power-player with extensive social influence; holds a key executive position in a major national government or AAA megacorporation. |
Loyalty
Rating 1-6
Loyalty is an indicator of how much the character and the contact trust each other. Mechanically, it often serves as die bonus in negotiations or as a modifier or Threshold (as appropriate) when someone else tries to put the squeeze on a contact about the runners.
| Rating | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Just Biz — The relationship is purely mercenary, based solely on economics. The people involved may not even like each other, and they won’t offer any sort of preferential treatment. |
| 2 | Regular — The relationship is still all business, but the parties treat each other with a modicum of mutual respect. |
| 3 | Acquaintance — The people in the relationship are friendly, but calling them friends might be stretching it. The contact is willing to be inconvenienced in small ways for the character, but won’t take a fall for him. |
| 4 | Buddy — There’s actual friendship here, or at least solid mutual respect. The contact will go out of his way for the character if needed. |
| 5 | Got Your Back — The parties know and trust each other, and have for some time. The contact will back the character even in risky situations. |
| 6 | Friend for Life — The contact and character will go to the wall for each other, if that’s what it takes. |
Expertise
Rating 1-6
Expertise defines how good a contact is at whatever they do. It's the primary source of dice in any rolls the contact might make. The exact way Expertise manifests is dependent on the specific type of contact.
Size
| Rating | Membership | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | ×1 |
| 1 | 5 – 10 | ×1.5 |
| 2 | 25 – 100 | ×2 |
| 3 | 125 – 1,000 | ×2.5 |
Sometimes a contact represents an organization rather than a single person. These contacts have Size greater than 0. Each level of size is roughly an order of magnitude larger than the previous size, so anything above 3 is pretty unlikely.
This comes with a few benefits and a few drawbacks.
- Every point of Size grants the contact an additional Type — for instance, a Size 1 group contact could be both a Gear contact and a Service contact or it could offer multiple Services.
- Add Size to the contact's effective Expertise; many hands makes for light work.
- Subtract Size from the contacts Loyalty; anything more than one person knows just isn't a secret.
Contact Types
Fixer
Every working member of the Seattle shadow community — a.k.a shadowrunner — has a fixer. Fixers are the people who connect 'runners with Johnsons.
Gear
Gear contacts have the things you need, or know where to get them. Each specializes in a particular type of gear, though well connected gear contacts may have a secondary specialization.
- Armor & Clothing
- Critters
- Drugs & Toxins
- Electronics
- Implants
- SINs & Licenses
- Talismonger
- Vehicles & Drones
- Weapons & Ammo
Legwork
Legwork contacts don't have things, but instead know things and can be paid to share that knowledge.
Service
Service contacts are the people you go to when you need something done, generally anything short of bleeding for you.