Contacts
How a Name Is Kept and Spent
A Contact is a person who knows the character and matters to them: chosen at creation from the Station the character left, and gathered afterward on the road. Every Contact stands in a Relationship State toward the character, and the state is the measure of what may be asked. The asking is a Relationship Check against a mark, and what the check wins is a Boon.
Bound · +3Oath, blood, or debt. Refuses only for extraordinary cause. May succeed you.
Trusted · +1Loyalty or history. Accepts measured risk. May succeed you.
Neutral · +0Expects reciprocity: reason, leverage, or mutual benefit. Where a new Contact begins.
Wary · −1Limited and conditional. No Life Debt granted.
Fraying · −3Minor Favors only; one more step down breaks it.
BurnedCannot be invoked. The bond is broken; the Contact may work against you.
MovingOne step at a time, on what you do; a Life Debt failed by 4 or more, two.
Reach and creditYou can plausibly reach the Contact, and the request reaches them in a way they would credit.
Reason and meansThey have a reason to help and the means: a shrine keeper cannot fence goods, a fence offers no sanctuary.
Exceed the markThe total must beat the mark. A tie is a refusal.
Make a caseReasoning, an oath invoked, common ground: add your Persuasion rank and one Rhetoric Acumen, at the GM’s call.
No coercionIntimidation, Leverage and Threatened Consequences do not apply. Using them drops the state one step.
One ask, one answerNo second attempt at the same boon. A different boon, another day.
Minor Favor · CM 8A rumor, a night’s shelter, an introduction, a message carried, loaner gear.
Costly Favor · CM 10At personal cost or risk: hiding you, unrecorded access, a word before judgment, short credit.
Serious Obligation · CM 12Standing or safety at risk: a safe house, a major payment, passage past a watched gate.
Life Debt · CM 14Everything at risk: ruinous sanctuary, an oath broken, the blame taken, a grave crime.
By 4 or moreThe request is denied and the state worsens one step.
A Life DebtAlways costs one step, succeed or fail; failed by 4 or more, two.
Refusing themA Contact who spends on you seeks a return; refuse a reasonable request and the state drops one step.
WhenThe state falls below Fraying; you endanger or betray them; they suffer reprisal for you; a Serious Obligation or Life Debt is ignored.
ThenNever invoked again. They cut ties, turn hostile or defect, keeping all they know of you: face, habits, safe houses.
New ContactsEarned in play: obligations honored, a lord served, a campaign survived, devotion proved. No cap, but each takes attention.
SuccessionWhen a character dies or retires, a Trusted or Bound Contact may step forward as a new character, with the debts and feuds, not the skill.