I was thinking of a house rule...

[VemuKhaham]

So, I was thinking of a house rule that I thought was needed because it would add some importance to an often under-rated ability and a bit of flavour to the background of a character.

The house rule is about a character's friends, connections and such, made before the campaign takes place. Often, this important aspect of characters gets forgotten, because it is not rated as useful in campaigns, but I figure that in real life, connections can, at least to some people, be an enormous help during life, and as such also in adventures.
It is however often easy to say for a character that he has a hundred friends all over the world, and that all of them would risk their lifes for him should they have to.
The leadership feat is in my opinion not applyable in this case, cause it mostly focuses on cohorts who travel along with the character, and also mostly cohorts are made during the game.

So, to make sure characters don't underestimate/forget/ignore the power of charisma and friends, and so that they can't overdo it on purpose or by accident, I was thinking of creating a house rule for it.

Now that I'm done with the creation, I would appreciate all of your feedback/critisism/comments and such. The house rule comes in the shape of a skill, and possibly some added feats:

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Connections (untrained, cha)

At first level, and only at first level, a character can invest skill points in this particular skill. A character can, unlike any other skill, invest as many of his skill points as he can with his starting amount into this skill, so their is not the limit of level+3. A character without any ranks in this skill has a base amount of five+cha connections he may write up.

For each rank a character has in this skill, he may write up one extra friend or other friendly connection besides the base amount of five connections each character starts with. Connections are automatically considered as helpful (see diplomacy skill table) to the character at the beginning of the game. If one of your connections is of higher level then 1, this connection will cost 1 extra rank for each level the connection has. Besides that, the character with the skill may write up anything about the connections he has, at the DM's discretion of course.

Note that, even though connections start the game as helpful to the character, over time and with certain developments a DM is free to decide wether this helpful status remains or should be changed.

Also note that this skill is no action, and thereby has, like Speak Language, no roll required to use it.

It is a class skill to all classes.

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Now the feats that could be taken in addition:

Network of Friends

Prerequisite: 2 skill ranks in Connections.
Benefit: With the basic 5+cha connections a normal character starts with, someone with this feat may double his charisma bonus to determine his base connection list.
Note: Can only be taken at first level. This feat can be taken more then once, but only humans and other characters with more then 1feat at 1st level can do so.

My brother Boris

Prerequisite: must have at least 1 connection with 4 or more levels.
Benefit: The character may choose 1 of their connections with at least 4levels and add 3 extra levels to that character.
Note: Can only be taken at first level. This feat can be taken more then once, but only humans and other characters with more then 1feat at 1st level can do so.

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That's it. Thanks in advance to your feedback: feel free to be mercyless if you don't like it or don't like one part of it. I have only spend little time so far in its creation.

[Toptomcat]

Shadowrun did something similar. Did you get inspiration from that?

[K Man]

I like the skill idea, however I dislike the only at start and no limit. It steps outside of the normal way skills are used.

I would make it just like a normal skill. Lvl+3 max ranks, can be added as a class skill to everyone for advancement.

This way, it represents the beginning adventurer coming into the world with but a few contacts and beginning their adventuring career. Then, as they advance and adventure, they gain more. It just seems more logical and it's not a special set of rules one has to memorize about a certain skill.

That said, I'm not sure this needs to be represented with a skill set over just good roleplaying. I see this more as tool to rely on an NPC for perhaps a loan.

For instance, a player needs to come up with a ransom for another NPC. They lack the 100,000gp the kidnappers demand and they need to rely on their web of contacts as help. The DM gives the player a "Connections" DC of 25. If the player rolls over that after mods, she gets the gold and can pay. Of course there will be role-playing consequences for borrowing, but that can be an all new adventure.

But then this creates more of a 'wealth' score for D&D and may detract from role-playing.

Anyways, I don't see a point in having it over a well kept NPC list and basic details, but that's just me.

[IstarinCale]

I like the idea of Connections .. but KMan is right, players may use it more as a tool for wealth other than information.... and you say that it is forgotten in the game so you should make a skill (house rule) for it.. Ok, I have 6 friends, doesn't mean I'll meet them in the adventure and that can be forgotten as well. (Must say that "My Brother Boris" made me laugh a few times )

Now for something about what KMan wrote:
Yes, probably you'll find new friends and connections in the middle of the adventure, but if you just level and by that make new friends its a bit stupid (no offence)..
It happened that on our P&P group we got out of a not-so-friendly-town and killed a few goblins that wanted our weapons... we leveled up a bit after that cause we wasted a lot of time for making the characters - how could we make connections with something like that? it has to apply only if we meet people and they actualy like us, thats why its in the first level only cause then the character "wastes" atlease 20 years (Human scale) for "living without the player" so with this skill you may give him friends.

[VemuKhaham]

thanks for all the feedback; it really made me think a few things over.

TTC: I haven't got in touch with anything named 'Shadowrun'. It wasn't inspired by other sources, more inspired by something I thought as a problem.

Kman:

I understand your critique. First, let me give you the motivations for why I did what I did:

The 'Only at first level' rule was made because this way it wouldn't overlap other skills like diplomacy, and the entire roleplaying process linked to that skill and the campaign itself. Flash Jack pointed that out as well. Instead it only concentrates on what network of connections the character might have build up up to the day you as the PC took over control of his life.

I did the 'no limit in skill points' rule because I also wanted to make absolutely as sure as possible this skill didn't interfere too much with the player's freedom of creating his background and network of connections. If now he wants to have this freedom, he'll have to invest in it like any other skill, but he's able to do so. That's also why all classes have it as their class skill. This rule of course was a reaction to the previous rule 'only at first level', cause it wouldn't have been necessary if they could take it at level advancement.

This way, it represents the beginning adventurer coming into the world with but a few contacts and beginning their adventuring career. Then, as they advance and adventure, they gain more. It just seems more logical and it's not a special set of rules one has to memorize about a certain skill.

Again, you are right that the beginning adventurer would probably have few connections and gain more later, but the option for beginning adventurers with larger networks should also remain. The possibility to gain new friends during adventuring is still there, but now through roleplaying and the diplomacy skill.

I see this more as tool to rely on an NPC for perhaps a loan.

In my vision, this is a good example yes, but basically you could ask your connections anything that any other helpful NPC would do as well. Granting a loan of a 100.000gp is a bit much I think , but as with all things like NPC attitudes, it's at the DM's discretion.

As for detracting from the roleplaying itself, that's the hard part to assess. It can work out in many ways. But essentially it takes away from roleplaying as much as the diplomacy skill does. The only difference with diplomacy is that the Connections skill isn't about making new friends, but having a network to start with. The roleplaying with these connections is the same after the use of either skill.

Flash Jack:

but KMan is right, players may use it more as a tool for wealth other than information....

That depends on what the character's attitude towards his connections is: an evil or neutral character might be more inclined to exploit their friends, while a good friend would respect them. If players just start to see their connections as helpful wealth boosts or such, regardless of their character's alignment, then... well, then that's just bad roleplaying. ;D

and you say that it is forgotten in the game so you should make a skill (house rule) for it.. Ok, I have 6 friends, doesn't mean I'll meet them in the adventure and that can be forgotten as well.

Well, I indeed was hoping that, if something gets incorporated in the rules system, it becomes more of a part of the game, and players and the dm can better refer to which connections a character has, therefore making it a more interesting aspect of a character's background.

You know, sometimes I must admit I can be really defensive about my ideas. (Bad quality I know) If this thing is going to work (if it even has potential at all), it is clear that I'm going to have to refine some things. I also got some negative feedback on the wizards boards, though only 2 replies so far. If anyone's interested check the link:

boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=352803

Many thanks for the help. I'd always appreciate more.

[IstarinCale]

You know, sometimes I must admit I can be really defensive about my ideas. (Bad quality I know)

Its not a bad quality. Why? Cause I have this one too

Well, I have an idea that could make the rule.. more improved - it won't be forgotten.
Every time the players gets to a town that is normally civilized they must roll Connections with DC of 10 + 2/3 DM's NPCs in town (That the DM prepared). So if the player succeed he may have +1 connection for every point he passed the DC (DC 12, Roll 15 - 3 friends) as long as he has that much friends ;D.
In the middle of the woods/cave etc. that the player will visit during his task/mission/adventure the DC will be 25-35 + 2/3 DM's NPCs (not counting the enemies) in the area, as long as they are not adventurers or if they are they must be at the level the players specified he has a friend in that level or else it can't be his contact.
(So actualy, finding your brother boris would be hard )

[Lin]

I don't think this should be a skill.

Connections would work quite well as a feat. A complicated feat, like leadership, which has a "connections" score like leadership. I believe the leadership feat would be a better basis for this ability than a skill with ranks. Skills may help you deal with your contacts (Diplomacy to sweet talk them, intimidate for bullying, gather information for finding them, etc.), but contacts themselves as skill ranks seems counterintuitive.

Besides leadership, Favored in the House, Eclessiarch are two other feats that represent social advanages. Connected would fit in, could be charisma linked and would advantageous to humans more than other races, all things that you seem to want. You can still have followup feats as well.