When I first moved to Buffalo and didn't know anyone in the area, I ended up staying with my girlfriend's roommate's mother's friends in the area (they were great people). When someone on the OSR discord was asking for a good contacts system I thought I would try my hand at one that reminds me of that connection. I figure this is probably half a solid contacts mechanic, so I hope someone gets use out of it.
Draft One
Roll | Relation (1d20, 1d10) | Ability (1d6) | Strength (1d8) | Weakness (1d12) |
1 | classmate | fence item | loaded | owe them money |
2 | roommate | carry stuff | trustful | addiction |
3 | friend | employ party | respected | snitch |
4 | fiance(e) | get information | loyal | hunted |
5 | drinking buddy | get item | manners | dumb |
6 | ex | teach skill | cautious | cowardly |
7 | landlord | learned | unwashed | |
8 | tenant | strong | hidden | |
9 | coworker | bad blood | ||
10 | boss | cursed | ||
11 | brother | mad | ||
12 | sister | busy | ||
13 | cousin | |||
14 | uncle | |||
15 | aunt | |||
16 | niece | |||
17 | nephew | |||
18 | mother | |||
19 | father | |||
20 | grandparent |
This is what I made initially, and you can see it with a little more in the Google doc. When you have a chance to meet new contacts, you can roll up a contact at two removes (e.g. 1d20 and 1d10 under "Relation"). If that contact doesn't work out for you, add another d10 to relationship, then another d20, and so on each time you need a new contact before you can naturally make more.
Draft Two
Then I thought I'd try automating this process, because that's trendy these days. This generator owes a lot to Betty Bacontime and Spwack's work, but I had to rework it to make it do what I wanted it to.
A clarification: the idea behind the tertiary contacts is that the relationship is more tenuous, your information less sure. That's why you wouldn't start there, but it's what you've got to work with unless you can spend some more time meeting people (at the expense of some resource).
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