[Banshee]

It's also the lack of info on how to build and use personal contacts for Missions. Spelling it out more would help players understand why they need that rating 6 fixer and what type of contacts they actually should have for their character that isn't just a fixer. (e.g. Are we supposed to build them using the Contacts rules in core, limited to missions legal qualities, or.. should they just be relegated to fluff and being a fixer? ) The faq says that personal contacts are really important but then doesn't say how to legally make them and barely touches on their use.

Really looking forward to seeing the next FAQ update.

Not sure what your asking about here, but there is no change to contacts in Missions. The only addition is the Missions contacts themselves that earn through playing.

[ScytheKnight]

It's also the lack of info on how to build and use personal contacts for Missions. Spelling it out more would help players understand why they need that rating 6 fixer and what type of contacts they actually should have for their character that isn't just a fixer. (e.g. Are we supposed to build them using the Contacts rules in core, limited to missions legal qualities, or.. should they just be relegated to fluff and being a fixer? ) The faq says that personal contacts are really important but then doesn't say how to legally make them and barely touches on their use.

Really looking forward to seeing the next FAQ update.

It is relatively straightforward to some degree:

Playing a gun-bunny? Get a weapons dealer contact for new weapons and ammo.
Playing a mage? Get a talismonger contact for reagents, spell formula and foci.
Heavily augmented? Get a cybertechnician contact for upgrading chrome.
Playing a rigger? Get a drone supplier contact for new drones and upgrades.
Playing a decker? Get an electronics supplier contact for software, agents and upgrades.
Using lots of drugs? Get a dealer contact for basic drugs, or a chemist for pharmaceutical grade stuff.

If you've got that sort of stuff covered then get either a fixer or people who can give you the word on the street or amoung various circles of society.

Not sure what your asking about here, but there is no change to contacts in Missions. The only addition is the Missions contacts themselves that earn through playing.

[falar]

Yeah, the only difference between Missions Contacts and Shadowrun-normal contacts is that bog-standard contacts you roll their Charisma + Negotiate + Quality Bonuses to find gear. Since you may have contacts that don't have a Charisma or Negotiation rank known, the Missions way is to treat them all based on their Connection rating and Loyalty rating.

For most Missions Contacts that you can earn, they do actually have those statted out, but this was done both to make it easier if you didn't have their statblock with you and to keep parity with custom contacts, which aren't usually fully built. Ironically, this means that Sarah Silverleaf can only get you availability 15 gear at character creation with Missions or availability 19 with 6 Loyalty (which is ... unlikely), but could get you up to 19 or 23 if you use her sheet values.

I'm confident the upcoming reputation guidelines will make gear-biased characters pay less of a tax on availability.

[schenn]

Well there's things like

"How many different favor types can a contact provide?"

"Can a fixer have a primary favor that doesn't have a fixer cost?"

"How specifically does one increase a personal contacts loyalty?" (Connection was clarified on facebook as being non-increasable until after Season 09 while they work it out)

"Are CHIPS allowed in Missions?"

"What contacts do I actually need other than a fixer?"

The core book says that Prime Runner Contacts are typically either inferior or equal to players in terms of karma and nuyen payout. "Which is it for missions?" It matters because for $15,000 you can hire your contact to help on a run.

"Does a Contact's Contacts matter?"

"Are instruction costs reduced by loyalty?"

"Missions has limitations on qualities and actions which can be performed in order to create balance between the Missions Tables. Are any of those limitations applied to contacts or, due to their nature, does it not matter?"

"When my contact is making a purchase, can I add die to their rolls by adding money or is that only when my character is searching for gear?"

There's more but that's what I could think of in a few minutes.  "Contacts are normal contacts in missions" doesn't answer any of those questions.

[schenn]

It's also the lack of info on how to build and use personal contacts for Missions. Spelling it out more would help players understand why they need that rating 6 fixer and what type of contacts they actually should have for their character that isn't just a fixer. (e.g. Are we supposed to build them using the Contacts rules in core, limited to missions legal qualities, or.. should they just be relegated to fluff and being a fixer? ) The faq says that personal contacts are really important but then doesn't say how to legally make them and barely touches on their use.

Really looking forward to seeing the next FAQ update.

It is relatively straightforward to some degree:

Playing a gun-bunny? Get a weapons dealer contact for new weapons and ammo.
Playing a mage? Get a talismonger contact for reagents, spell formula and foci.
Heavily augmented? Get a cybertechnician contact for upgrading chrome.
Playing a rigger? Get a drone supplier contact for new drones and upgrades.
Playing a decker? Get an electronics supplier contact for software, agents and upgrades.
Using lots of drugs? Get a dealer contact for basic drugs, or a chemist for pharmaceutical grade stuff.

If you've got that sort of stuff covered then get either a fixer or people who can give you the word on the street or amoung various circles of society.

Not sure what your asking about here, but there is no change to contacts in Missions. The only addition is the Missions contacts themselves that earn through playing.

That Talismonger needs to be the same tradition as you in order to help. Do they also provide instruction tests? Gathering reagents is banned in missions... How do I increase my loyalty with my Talismonger and how do I help my talismonger provide me with better gear. 

What do I have to give my armorer in order to have them produce the item. Some items have +availability while some mods have their own. Do they require their own availability test?

Also, if you have high charisma, than due to the "7 points" limit in missions, none of those contacts can have high loyalty and high connection, so you have to add a handful of them to spend the points, but if a fixer can do the same job as all the other contacts, why even bother?

we can hand wave a lot of the details because they don't matter in the minutia of missions play, but if you're trying to follow the calendar rules and utilize your contacts efficiently (outside of just 'get me a piece of gear in my downtime plz') then there's a lot of grey area which could be clarified and would help to answer questions like "How does one get high availability gear"

edit: Also, while Missions doesn't change Contacts in the faq, they also don't include any rules about how to make them and since a great deal of balance is required between tables, its very easy for one contact to break the table if they aren't built right. What are the limitations on contacts for missions?

[Banshee]

There's more but that's what I could think of in a few minutes.  "Contacts are normal contacts in missions" doesn't answer any of those questions.

actually it does, I don't have my books or anything with me since I'm at work, so I can back it up with any page numbers or paragraph references so maybe someone could back me up, but see below ...

"How many different favor types can a contact provide?"
varies based on type of contact

"Can a fixer have a primary favor that doesn't have a fixer cost?"
no, that's why they are a fixer and not a ... weapons dealer for example

"How specifically does one increase a personal contacts loyalty?" (Connection was clarified on facebook as being non-increasable until after Season 09 while they work it out)
through roleplay ... see core rule book (CRB)

"Are CHIPS allowed in Missions?"
read the FAQ ... not disallowed means they are allowed

"What contacts do I actually need other than a fixer?"
whatever you want for your character

The core book says that Prime Runner Contacts are typically either inferior or equal to players in terms of karma and nuyen payout. "Which is it for missions?" It matters because for $15,000 you can hire your contact to help on a run.
no change for Missions for contacts ... see Prime Runner guidelines in the FAQ for pc's

"Does a Contact's Contacts matter?"
not really ... see "asking around" in the CRB, that's what a contact using his/her contacts is

"Are instruction costs reduced by loyalty?"
look up instruction cost ... I don't think so

"Missions has limitations on qualities and actions which can be performed in order to create balance between the Missions Tables. Are any of those limitations applied to contacts or, due to their nature, does it not matter?"
contacts are not pc's ... so no it doesn't really matter

"When my contact is making a purchase, can I add die to their rolls by adding money or is that only when my character is searching for gear?"
yep, just like it states in the CRB

[Banshee]

edit: Also, while Missions doesn't change Contacts in the faq, they also don't include any rules about how to make them and since a great deal of balance is required between tables, its very easy for one contact to break the table if they aren't built right. What are the limitations on contacts for missions?

again I'm not sure what you're asking here
game mechanic wise contacts consist of a name, type, loyalty rating, and connection rating ... that's it, anything would be fluff and shouldn't have any bearing on game play

[falar]

Is the Who You Know? section (Run Faster, pgs. 172-195) allowed?

Not really. Much of this section involves the ins and outs of Contacts, specifically in what sort of
relationship a character has with her Contacts. Unfortunately, much of this is outside the scope of your
average Missions game to handle, and we already handle Contacts a little differently anyway. Factor in
the unusual nature of the Campaign Contacts that characters automatically earn (usually), and the
majority of this section doesn’t really apply.

Chips, different contact types, costs, group contacts, blackmail, etc. are all in this section.

[schenn]

Which is described as "Not really" allowed. Which parts aren't and are? The FAQ also says that you can pay $15,000 to have your contact come and join you for a mission, this means fleshing them out actually matters since they can be used.  While a lot of the details are fluff, a fair bit of it impacts availability tests and calendar time which leads to lifestyle costs.

[schenn]

"How many different favor types can a contact provide?"
varies based on type of contact

** And where is that described? Because the Who You Know section is considered "Not Really" allowed in the faq.

"Can a fixer have a primary favor that doesn't have a fixer cost?"
no, that's why they are a fixer and not a ... weapons dealer for example

** Does it say that anywhere or is that your opinion?

"How specifically does one increase a personal contacts loyalty?" (Connection was clarified on facebook as being non-increasable until after Season 09 while they work it out)
through roleplay ... see core rule book (CRB)

** Which is great, but is very vague and is exactly what I'm talking about in terms of "can unbalance the table" because of the differences in GM opinion. So how does it work in Missions since things have to be codified to limit abuse?

"Are CHIPS allowed in Missions?"
read the FAQ ... not disallowed means they are allowed

**Read the FAQ. The sections are described as "Not Really" allowed. That does not say which parts.

"What contacts do I actually need other than a fixer?"
whatever you want for your character

** Good advice for new players there...  Why if there's no real benefit and it only takes connection ratings to achieve goals?

The core book says that Prime Runner Contacts are typically either inferior or equal to players in terms of karma and nuyen payout. "Which is it for missions?" It matters because for $15,000 you can hire your contact to help on a run.
no change for Missions for contacts ... see Prime Runner guidelines in the FAQ for pc's

** "No Change" does not answer "Which" when there are two options and neither are treated as default.

[quote
"Does a Contact's Contacts matter?"
not really ... see "asking around" in the CRB, that's what a contact using his/her contacts is

"Are instruction costs reduced by loyalty?"
look up instruction cost ... I don't think so

** It doesn't say it is, but shouldn't it? Shouldn't an instructor contact cost less to use than a random person on the street? If not, we start getting back around to the original question of why even bother with contacts when a Fixer can simply provide everything.

"Missions has limitations on qualities and actions which can be performed in order to create balance between the Missions Tables. Are any of those limitations applied to contacts or, due to their nature, does it not matter?"
contacts are not pc's ... so no it doesn't really matter

** Until you pull them out to adventure with you

[/quote]

[Kiirnodel]

Hiring a Contact to help out on a Shadowrun is restricted to the Missions specific contacts, and even then they will only help out in certain ways.

[SichoPhiend]

"Can a fixer have a primary favor that doesn't have a fixer cost?"

Yes, but it is fairly rare, one example is from season 5, Quantum Princess.  She is a Fixer/Decker whose specific uses include computer gear.

As such you could use her for Decker related gear at no fixer mark-up, but anything else will have the +10% fixer mark-up.

As for what is Decker related gear, I myself play by a fairly strict interpretation, for example cyberdecks - yes; commlinks - no.  And yes I know that many people will disagree with my interpretation, if in doubt ask the closest thing you have for a missions GM.  Even if that's us, just be ready for a debate if you ask here.

[schenn]

That's great for Missions contacts, but the FAQ encourages the player to create their personal contacts as Missions Contacts are really only relevant in very limited circumstances. (QP can't really help you in the Knoxville runs, etc)

We need clarification and more specificity on building contacts for missions, I expect that it will get proper treatment in the FAQ, but that it will just take some time before we get to see it unfortunately.

[Bull]

We need clarification and more specificity on building contacts for missions, I expect that it will get proper treatment in the FAQ, but that it will just take some time before we get to see it unfortunately.

To build a contact, you purchase a Loyalty and a Connection, give them a name and choose what type of contact they are, and you're done.  Nothing else needed or used.

All necessary rolls in Missions play are based on those two numbers*, so you don't need stats, and backgrounds and all the rest are pure fluff and have no impact on the game itself most of the time (barring home games where GMs have more time to involve personal backstories, contacts, and the like into the games).

You're overthinking this to a vast degree.

This is subject to change based on the new Missions FAQ, of course, but this is how the current rules are designed.

Bull

[Banshee]

To build a contact, you purchase a Loyalty and a Connection, give them a name and choose what type of contact they are, and you're done.  Nothing else needed or used.

All necessary rolls in Missions play are based on those two numbers*, so you don't need stats, and backgrounds and all the rest are pure fluff and have no impact on the game itself most of the time (barring home games where GMs have more time to involve personal backstories, contacts, and the like into the games).

You're overthinking this to a vast degree.

This is subject to change based on the new Missions FAQ, of course, but this is how the current rules are designed.

Bull

absolutely correct Bull ... the only changes we have made to Mission contacts in the FAQ since you wrote it are identifying what kind of resources they can be used for