Generating Friends for Characters

Friends for characters in RPG’s.

Customizing Characters, Part Two: "Friends".

In every RPG system, there is a poor, sad character attribute that contributes no direct benefits to combat abilities, and is score players feel most comfortable with sacrificing in the feverish race to gain advantages

elsewhere. Typically, this marginalized attribute is the one dealing with one's social and interactive ability, Charisma in AD&D terms, Eloquence in 2300 AD. The irony is that in Real Life, this is the one attribute that will get you further than all the others.

One sure fire way to breath life into an under-appreciated attribute is giving it some concrete benefits. One I have concocted for this attribute is "Friends". Simply put, the higher the score, the more likely it is that

the character has a Friends available who can be of some use.

How many friends? of what kind? Where are they? This is the area of the great gamemaster conspiracy. There is no way to construct a good chart for this, as Friends must be game specific. So, with great solemnity, flip pages in a notebook, declare that an eloquence of such with so many years in

this career entitles the player to this many friends, (see the “rule of thumb” below but modify it as you need it) and have him roll dice for each, following bad rolls with a suitable "aww" and good rolls with "wow" as appropriate, then handing the player the cards that you think are most suitable (Or simply want to see in play for your own plans) with information on his new character's friends.

What kind of friends? It's best to make up, in advance of a character creation session, a variety of cards, numbered, indexed, with a variety of people. Do not locate them in your campaign unless you must. For plot purposes, you’ll want them to turn up where they can be useful. Otherwise, your player will be reluctant to leave areas in which he has good contacts. Make 2 sets of cards- one has the real data, one has the data releasable to players. Make a lot. None will go to waste- Friends not assigned will certainly show up as NPC's, You can never have too many pre-made NPC's around. Then Rate them according to their social level. (which is frequently but not always the best way of judging just how much aid and influence they can bring to the character.)

Rule of thumb- A character should have as many Friends as 1/2 Eloquence plus 2 per turning point, LESS the number of other player characters typically around. (or they will have enough friends, in a large group, to populate a colony). Make a variety of them, set them up as a card deck, with the pairs of cards paper clipped together. Classify them, purely subjectively, as to where in the social strata of their career path they fall, as one of "Lowly", "Average" "Important" and "High and Mighty"

.

Have the player roll a D10, add his Eloquence modifier,

1-3 Give the player the card for the next suitable Lowly Friend.

4-5 Give the player the card for the next suitable Average Friend

6 If this is the FIRST character to be designed in this section, count

this roll as a 7-9, and give the player the next available card for an

Important friend. Otherwise, choose a friend already given to another

character, the first available one of Important or High and Mighty status.

(or lower if none of these are available) Make a copy of the card and give

it to this player- this is a mutual friend!

7-9 Give the player the card for the next suitable Important Friend.

10+ Give the player the card for the next suitable High and Mighty Friend.

Use absolute discretion. Skip cards that are not suitable for that character, or make up reasons, or just use a specific card if you think it helps. Remember, friends are not just NPC's, they are NPC's that are PREDISPOSITIONED to help a certain player, (giving a good reason to have that high Eloquence score at last!) and therefore should be woven into the past and present of a character. A little creativity can make most combinations work: A young character with nothing but a short military enlistment behind him has a high and mighty politician as a Friend. Well, perhaps our young soldier was on a staff or attache assignment, he was a guard or a driver, and the two talked a lot. Perhaps the young soldier calls

the colonial governor "Dad". (Friends can be relatives, of course.) You may be thinking of using one of the old but established plots in literature- old friend goes bad and must be stopped. In this case, make sure that at least one of the Friends you give a player would make a challenging opponent.

Balance out the relative lack of ability of lowly and average friends with their mobility. They can appear in convenient places as sources of assistance and plot complications. Remember that these "friends" have

lives of their own, and may be quite mobile- you may have to update their status frequently. A 50 year old character commanding a starship may have an academy room-mate who commands another starship, then retires and turns up in a future scenario as a merchant ship captain. The student your Academic character knew may be a military officer now. Friends are people too, of course, and although they are pre-disposed towards the character, they will not be stupid about it (unless that is their character). Acts of self sacrifice might be called for under a desperate situation, but “hey, can I borrow your starship” under any but the most dramatic of circumstances will not fly. Remember also that RELATIVE status between friend and character also bears. If the Friend is among the rich and powerful, and so is the character, yes, a loan of 10 million Livres might be in order. If the character is just an moderately positioned person, and the Friend is rich and powerful, it would be refused. (A request for a job, on the other hand, or stock tips, would be in order). Also bear in mind that the characters reciprocal actions will matter. Friends may be not friends, further down the road.

Some potential “Friends” for various types of characters: (anything goes, but these are starters)

Military Careers: Buddies the character served with. Seniors who had a special trust in the character, or subordinates who were especially loyal.

Exploratory Careers: Old team members. (except for a few family members, the friends of an explorer will probably consist entirely of old team members) Perhaps an alien.

Academic careers: Mentors, Students, Colleagues. Possibly media people as well.

Agents. Trouble shooters, law enforcement: As Military, and Explorer, might also have some “working contacts”.

Extralegal types: other extralegal types. Perhaps a law enforcement officer they provided valuable intelligence too. (Hey, Detective Jones, remember when I ratted out the Punk for you, you said if I was ever in trouble…)