Contacts and Enemies
Contacts and Enemies
Contacts and enemies are based on the Charisma stat All characters have a base 1d3 primary contacts. Characters gain an additional starting contact for every two points of Charisma above 8, rounding up. Characters under 5 Charisma suffer a -1 to their contacts roll (minimum 1) and those under 3 Charisma may only have a single contact. Primary contacts are those which are extremely reliable and are willing to go a reasonable amount out of their way to help the character. Secondary and tertiary contacts will not be listed, but are generally associated with the character’s organization knowledge skills All characters have a base of 1 primary enemy. Characters gain an additional starting enemy for every two points of Charisma below 16, rounding up. Primary enemies are those which actively seek out the individual or actively work to hinder or harm the character whenever reasonably possible. Secondary and tertiary enemies will not be listed, but will generally not pose a problem for the character unless opportunities arise that are very convenient for the enemy or rival to use
| Charisma Stat | Base Contacts | Base Enemies |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 9 |
| 1 | 1 | 9 |
| 2 | 1 | 8 |
| 3 | d3-1 | 8 |
| 4 | d3-1 | 7 |
| 5 | d3 | 7 |
| 6 | d3 | 6 |
| 7 | d3 | 6 |
| 8 | d3 | 5 |
| 9 | d3+1 | 5 |
| 10 | d3+1 | 4 |
| 11 | d3+2 | 4 |
| 12 | d3+2 | 3 |
| 13 | d3+3 | 3 |
| 14 | d3+3 | 2 |
| 15 | d3+4 | 2 |
| 16 | d3+4 | 1 |
| 17 | d3+5 | 1 |
| 18 | d3+5 | 1 |
| 19 | d3+6 | 1 |
| 20 | d3+6 | 1 |
| 21 | d3+7 | 1 |
| 22 | d3+7 | 1 |
| 23 | d3+8 | 1 |
| 24 | d3+8 | 1 |
| 25 | d3+9 | 1 |
Determining Contact Type
To determine the variety of contacts a particular character has, use the following table to gain the general classification of the contact. Keep in mind the character’s history, origin, class, etc. and feel free to throw out areas which do not seem appropriate:
| % Roll | Category |
|---|---|
| 01 - 14 | Merchant |
| 15 - 17 | Nobility |
| 18 - 28 | Peasantry |
| 29 - 33 | Government |
| 34 - 46 | Entertainer |
| 47 - 55 | Clergy |
| 56 - 60 | Underworld |
| 61 - 63 | Mage/Sage |
| 64 - 79 | Military |
| 80 - 93 | Tradesman |
| 94 - 98 | Racial |
| 99 - 100 | Unique |
XXX Contacts
Contact Name : NPC introduction in one sentence. Summary of powers, contacts, demeanor, etc in two sentences. Summary of NPC and PC’s relationship and interaction in two sentences. Summary of NPC’s influence on PC’s skills and abilities in one sentence
XXX Enemies
Enemy Name : Enemy introduction in one sentence. Summary of the root of hatreds and rivalries with the PC in two sentences. Summary of enemy’s known abilities and scope of power in two sentences. Summary of enemy’s methods and designs on the PC in one sentence
Base Reaction Rules
For some encounters, the way someone reacts to your character will be integral to the plot and calculated by the DM in advance. For instance, the primary evil mastermind in your campaign is unlikely to be your chum or become even slightly chummy with you no matter your Charisma or any number of people skills you may have. Additionally, significant NPCs also have a degree of “reality” to them that makes them act or behave beyond basic reactions for people which can span from more friendly types or less friendly types and will also be subject to what the DM has envisioned the NPC as. These sorts of encounters are considered predestined, but realistically, these encounters will make up a very small portion of the people you may run into. These rules are designed to help with the no predestined encounters
The Basic Reaction Categories
Friendly – a friendly encounter is one that is reasonably helpful, reasonably personable and generally smooth. This does not mean that the person wants to immediately be your friend and how you act and what you say can change this base reaction in relatively short order. However, say you ask for directions for instance, if the person knows the answer they’ll give it to you in a very helpful fashion, if they don’t they will likely try to point you in the direction of someone who might be able to help and otherwise they would probably apologize citing they just don’t know how to help but would if they could. If you are old or a woman in most settings a friendly encounter might be someone who would give up their seat to you. In general the person will be amiable and may be more helpful than you bargained for when shopping for that new hat, asking what’s good on the menu or asking the innkeeper where the most happening night spot is
Indifferent – most encounters begin this way and are neither negative nor positive. This is what you see just about every day on every street. People walking by each other, not making too much eye contact, not bothering the people around them and hoping to not be bothered by them either. Such individuals won’t go out of their way to be rude to you, nor will they go out of their way to help you. Usually any interaction with someone in an indifferent state will be brief such as, “three blocks up on your left,” or “sorry I don’t have time,” as they wave you off
Cautious – a cautious encounter is one met with suspicion at the outset. This is much like being approached by a shady looking individual on the street. Their guard is immediately up and they are prepared for something to irritate them or go badly. Patience is probably thin and the wrong move by the character is likely to move this toward a threatening level. A cautious person may try to avoid interaction with you to a certain extent. Shopkeepers, servants and other people who don’t have the choice of avoiding certain interactions will simply be expecting the worst
Threatening – a threatening encounter is one that is fully on edge from the beginning. Depending on the individual encountered this could be the evil eye and a sneer or a person who immediately crosses the street and turns a corner to get away from you. Attempting to talk to such a person requires appropriate skills because initially they will either get agitated with you and treat you like crap or completely avoid talking to you with everything they can muster. Threatening does not necessarily mean confrontational, it just means that they immediately don’t like you. Avoidance vs confrontation must be determined by the type of individual being encountered
Hostile – a hostile encounter is one that is ready to turn terribly sour at any moment. Facing tough individuals this may immediately turn into hurling insults, bumping, shoving and attempting to instigate a fight in one way shape or form. This kind of situation is a lot like a Wild West gunfighter trying to get the person he wants to kill to “draw.” Depending on the situation, the person will be just looking for a reason to fight you, kill you or get you into serious trouble. Facing weaker or easily scared individuals this is likely to immediately turn into flight mode, running or hurrying away at as fast a pace is as reasonable, a shop keeper slamming shut his door to keep you out, or a tattle tale type rushing to tell a local authority figure of your presence and quite possibly lying or overly dramatizing your actions in hopes that they’ll get rid of you, etc
General Encounters
80% of all non-specific encounters with related races will begin as indifferent. People are not necessarily wary and not necessarily friendly, they want to see how someone acts first. To replicate the other ends of the spectrum the DM should roll a d10. A roll of one indicates the person is more inclined to be cautious while a roll of ten indicates they are more inclined to be friendly. Keep in mind this does not fully move them into another category, they should still initially be considered indifferent, but leaning towards moving one way or the other
60% of all non-specific encounters with unrelated races will begin as cautious. People are generally more wary because they don’t fully understand the other race’s cultures and such. Thus they will generally be hesitant to approach or talk to such individuals and are more likely to avoid them like a bum on the street. Again to replicate a good cross section of people the DM should roll a d10. A roll of a two should make the person lean toward threatening and a roll of one will place that person firmly in the threatening state to start. These rolls will generally replicate some sort of pre-existing racial bias on the part of the individual encountered or perhaps just a general surliness or crotchetiness. On the other end, a roll of nine will make the person lean toward indifference and a ten will place them fully in the indifference category. These rolls will replicate random people who have likely had more exposure to other races during their lives or are generally just more open minded individuals
80% of all non-specific encounters with hated races will begin as threatening. A prime example of this is Elves and Orcs. Ancient animosity persists and most elf and orc meetings will be stiffly abrupt and rude. Again the other ends of the spectrum should be gathered by a d10 roll by the DM. A roll of one will indicate the individual leaning toward the hostile end of the scale while a roll of ten will lean them in the direction of cautious
The Effect of Appearance
The way someone appears on the outside, for good or for bad, affects the initial reactions of most people. Not everyone will be affected by the way someone looks but a good percentage will. For the effects of different races (or radical cultural differences) on people’s appearance, utilize the above reaction categories for assessing an overall appearance minus based on the difference of race. Beyond this, if a character has a low appearance or high appearance this will shade reactions as well
Negative appearance – if a character has a negative appearance adjustment (appearance 8 or lower) the encounter should lean towards one reaction type worse. If a character has a very negative appearance (appearance 4 or lower) the encounter should move into the next worse category (i.e. – a goblin with appearance 10 in a predominately human area will not make things any worse than they would be on the unrelated race reaction section above. People would be cautious and keeping an eye on the little bugger for sure. However, an ugly goblin with an appearance of 6 would look more bestial, probably scare little children and thus the base cautious attitude would lean toward threatening, shooing him away, moving kids behind adults, etc)
Positive appearance – if a character has a positive appearance adjustment (appearance 12 or above) the encounter should lean towards one reaction type better. If a character has a very positive appearance (appearance 16 or above) the encounter should move into the next better category. If a character has an incredibly positive appearance (appearance 21 and higher) the encounter should move into the next better category and lean toward the positive side of that as well. Keep in mind that sometimes this draws a lot of unwanted attention as everyone wants to get to know you (i.e. – Sirisha is the hottest girl in the Spice District of Gargan with a staggering appearance of 20, though some are intimidated by her beauty, nobody immediately thinks ill of her and if given any opportunity, everyone is initially very nice to her. Even those cautious people are more on the curiously friendly side of indifferent and she gets her fair share of unwanted attention and advances nearly every day)
The Effect of Circumstance
Often the major factors of an encounter are the pure circumstances that are involved at the point of meeting. The DM should keep these things in mind when determining the base reaction level and how much of a factor, race, appearance and other things should play. For instance, a group of orcs walking into the elven side of town are going to slide things toward the worse end of a scale (toward the hostile end of threatening, people scurrying into their houses, doors and shutters closing and the local bad ass elves coming out to see what the hell is going on) however a single orc would probably not provoke such a shift. A group of characters walking into a war zone and meeting guards on alert and on edge will probably be automatically leaning more toward cautious or fully cautious rather than indifferent. An ugly as sin character walking into the temple of a goddess of beauty might immediately set the priests and followers fully cautious as opposed to indifferent, etc
On the flip side, merchants in a bazaar, militia stationed at a busy port or an inn catering to a diverse crowd where people are used to seeing races and people of all kinds may slide the normally cautious toward a basic indifference, taking each individual on a case by case basis. A monastery in charge of caring for lepers or other diseased individuals might be more prepared to deal with or even care much more for people who are ugly and disfigured moving them more toward the friendly side of indifference. The DM should keep in mind that there are a myriad of circumstances that will shift a basic initial reaction slightly one way or another and take this into account. Additionally, keep in mind that there are various skills that can help characters avoid more difficult areas and/or find more receptive areas or notice what sort of an area they are heading into (i.e. – alertness, area knowledge, heraldry, anthropology, psychology, information gathering, streetwise, etc. can all come into play in managing and identifying such circumstances)
The Effeoct of Random Encounter Rolls
One of the standard, variable elements of fun in most games is the daily random encounter roll. Generally in each day while characters are traveling, altering the location of their environment or pretty much doing anything short of library research, hunkering down in a camp or inn, etc. the characters should take turns making a random encounter roll. To do this, the DM secretly rolls a percentile and the player rolls as well. The difference between the two rolls creates the possibility of a random encounter. In some cases (i.e. – extra-planar travel, open ocean, etc) the DM may have prepared a special random encounter table that is shaded toward the likelihood of running into things in that particular environment (i.e. – fewer encounters on the ocean, higher chance of bad encounters on the negative material plane, etc) In general, however, the standard rule of thumb outlined below should be the basis from which things are adjusted. Keep in mind that random encounters do not necessarily coincide directly with the standard reaction levels listed in above sections
Within 10% of DM roll – good encounter; might be significant or insignificant, but you will run into someone who is registering on the “Friendly” category automatically. Again might be just a wanderer who shares a meal with you and stories about the road or something more depending on what the DM thinks up
+/-40% of DM roll – no significant encounter; pretty self explanatory, but unless the characters go looking for something, the day will pass without an incident, red herring or other course of action that takes them away from their current plan. The 40% margin is intentional so that if the DM rolls a 1-9% or a 91-00% roll, there is still going to be an encounter when a player rolls a spot on 50% and thus there is not a 100% neutral zone
+/41% up to +/70% of DM roll – negative encounter; this will not necessarily mean a fight or a hostile situation, but you will definitely be encountering an individual or group who dislikes you and your group immediately. It may also mean a minor fight with hostile animals, monsters or other creatures. Such an encounter should be around the group’s normal challenge level and should automatically be considered starting at least in a cautious leaning toward threatening position when dealing with intelligent opponents
+/71% up to +/90% of DM roll – bad encounter; this probably means a fight and a serious threat. It could also mean being accused of something and being hauled off to jail by authorities or a number of other things which require a concerted effort to get out of or escape. Such encounters should be on the difficult side of the group’s challenge level and should automatically start in a threatening leaning toward hostile position when dealing with intelligent, non-supernatural opponents
91% or more from DM roll – horrific encounter; this is a bad situation and often pits the characters against an extremely powerful enemy. Sometimes this is something that characters should run from and pretty much cannot be beaten by the characters, sometimes it is an opportunity to do something terribly heroic but equally dangerous, sometimes it is something incredibly difficult but not insurmountable. DMs should keep in mind that while such encounters should be very serious, smoking characters out of hand is not the point and characters should be given opportunities to assess the threat appropriately. However, such encounters should be at least slightly beyond the group’s normal ability to deal with such a situation (thus, excellent tactics, ideas, execution and probably a good dose of action points will be required to succeed or escape)
The Effect of Skills
Sometimes a character will not even have the chance to interact with someone. If someone feels threatened for instance, sees the character a block away and quickly ducks into a building or down a side street to avoid them then it is highly unlikely a skill will even have a chance to come into play. Additionally, some exceedingly stubborn, opinionated or resistant individuals (DM) will be immune to attempts to use a rudimentary skill of any kind. However, in such a skill driven game, most other situations will give a PC an opportunity to use a skill in one manner or another to affect a base reaction and in some cases turn a bad situation into something good. A DM should refer to the below explanations of how basic interpersonal skills work and use them to extrapolate how something might affect a given situation. Keep in mind that sometimes supplementary non-people skills can help the effectiveness of a people skill (i.e. – gambling skill roll when gambling with mercs in an attempt to make them like you along with etiquette or other people skills; an artistic ability skill roll when attempting to woo a female interested in art along with a carousing skill; DM.) These ancillary skills are not outlined below but should also be kept in mind
Skill Levels
No Skill – a character with no appropriate people skill for the situation in question simply defaults to a basic CHA roll for purposes of any interaction. For the most part, the DM will not call for a roll in this case as the character in question will not have the ability to move the base reaction one way or the other. In certain cases, the DM may allow a roll and a critical success will shade the reaction slightly toward a better category while a critical failure will make the situation worse
Rudimentary Skill – a character with rudimentary skill is quite a bit more capable than someone without such skills and may attempt to make a roll to improve a reaction in relation to the skill in question. A successful roll will move the base reaction to the edge of the next better reaction (i.e. – a handsome rogue attempts to use carousing ® on a beautiful girl but she is indifferent to him, he succeeds and though she is still in the indifferent category she is now leaning toward being friendly opening the door for the rogue to impress her)
Standard Skill – a character with a standard skill is either a natural people person or at least deals with people for a living in regards to the skill in question. Without any roll at all, such a character can automatically shift any non-difficult situation toward the next better reaction level (i.e. – the same rogue above wouldn’t need to roll to move the girl toward the friendlier side of indifference.) Depending on the difficulty of the situation or if the character wants to make a serious play at improving the reaction the DM may allow a roll. A successful roll will move the reaction fully into the next better category (i.e. – Emerald Sky acolyte walks into a gathering where several arch mages are and attempts to put on his best show of etiquette using a standard skill for mage guilds. A success would impress the mages with his knowledge of protocol and show of proper respect. Though probably not spoken this would very likely register with the arch magi and might influence future interaction or set up the use of another skill such as diplomacy)
Specialized Skill – a character with a specialized skill is both impressive and rare in the realms of such interaction and such skill is always noticed. Without any roll at all, such a character can automatically shift any situation, even a difficult one, fully into the next better reaction category. Keep in mind this still requires the character to interact with the target(s) and if not given any opportunity to speak, act, evaluate, etc. then the skill never comes into play. In exceedingly difficult or critical situations, the DM may allow a roll (generally this will only come into play in threatening or hostile situations) and a success on such a check can accomplish something amazing and move a reaction two full levels better (thus threatening can be reduced to indifferent and hostile can be reduced to cautious)
People Skills
Carousing – this skill applies solely to meeting people for the purposes of romantic attraction. It will not work on anyone who cannot be attracted to you in that fashion (i.e. – a male cannot use carousing on another heterosexual male, etc.) Success does not mean you’re going to be in bed with that person, marrying them or anything else but you’ve planted some seeds. Unless you’re bedding a whore (figuratively or literally) or asking a complete air head to marry you then you probably still have work to do and must take time to develop things
Etiquette – this skill applies solely to appropriate behavior within a social, business, religious or other organizational structure. Success means only that you appear respectful, knowledgeable and appropriate with behavior in such circles. In almost all cases the effect of this skill is a passive effect on reactions and cannot in and of itself improve a reaction overtly
Leadership – this skill applies only to situations in which people expect to be lead, wish to be lead or are in a state of confusion (i.e. – fire breaks out and people don’t know what to do, etc.) Success means that people will recognize your directions or orders and are more likely to act in a cooperative fashion especially if it makes sense. Most commonly this is going to be applied in situations where people are indifferent and a success will move them toward friendly (aka – cooperative)
Diplomacy – this skill applies to situations regarding people’s opinion on things and is probably the most definitive of all the people skills. Assuming the character has a chance to talk for a few moments a success will move the opinion or the acceptance of the character’s opinion toward a better reaction category. Keep in mind that some things are very deep seated in the minds of people (racial hatred, political opinions, religious values, etc.) and cannot be changed in a matter of minutes. However diplomacy can immediately cause people to realize you aren’t as crazy, weird or stupid as they originally thought and over time diplomacy along with other skills can sometimes change people
Oratory/Debate – this skill applies only to people who want to listen to you in the first place and does not affect reactions unless an individual is interested in the topic you are speaking about. If an individual is interested in what you’re speaking about or you can engage them in debate about a topic this skill can slightly improve a reaction or add a bonus to other skills such as diplomacy or fast talk (DM)
Psychology – this skill applies only to understanding other people’s behavior and stances on things. Unlike many of these skills, psychology cannot change a reaction, but it can help the character to understand the people around him. This should translate into a bonus of some kind when applied to another social skill for various purposes (i.e. – a detective prepares to interrogate someone and talks to them casually feeling them out with psychology standard. A success gives the detective a +25% on his interrogation roll when he is ready to grill the suspect)
Intimidation – this skill applies to situations where a character wishes to force people to back down or comply with their commands. Unlike many people skills, intimidation generally has no chance of improving the actual reaction, but rather bullies someone into acting in a better reaction category out of fear or shock (i.e. – a half-ogre is getting turned down at every restaurant for food and he’s hungry. After door after door is closed in his face, he jams his boot in the next closing door and tells the waiter that he’d better get him some food before he gets really pissed. A success scares the person and others in the place to supply him with something to eat and steer clear of him)
Interrogation – this skill applies solely to situations where a character is trying to get information out of someone. Once again, this is a skill which will not usually change the reaction level, but will rather either wear down the target, trick or scare them into compliance or otherwise create a desirable result based on tactical questioning. If rolls are used, there are usually a variety of synergistic skills which can aid, such as Psychology, a variety of knowledge skills and the like. A success causes the target individual to share at least some manner of information (unless the target has appropriate resistances, skills, etc. (DM)) through the appropriate means (scared, convinced, tricked, etc)
Detect Lies – this skill applies only to noticing the fact that someone is attempting to lie to you and allowing you to utilize other skills or methods to deal with that fact. The skill cannot change reactions by itself, but can improve the results of interrogation, provide opportunities to identify with the subject (i.e. – a mafia fixer detects a desired assassin lying about his availability, allowing him to change tactics to sweeten the deal and insure he get the man he wants on the job) or allow an opportunity to use intimidation or some other method to gain the desired information or result. A success provides knowledge of lies being told and depending on the level of success, possibly clues into the nature or purpose of the lies
Begging – this skill is highly effective for gaining minimal cooperation from people even when starting with cautious reaction levels. While begging generally will not help you get significant help, it is a good method for getting a free meal, a spare coin or two, a warm blanket or something of that manner. A success will move the reaction level toward the next reaction category and can be improved based on how minimal an item or request is being made. Additionally this skill can easily be augmented with synergy from Acting, Psychology and the like
Bribery – this skill
Crowd Working – this skill
Fast Talk/Haggle – this skill
Information Gathering – this skill
Streetwise – this skill