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Contacts are valuable resources in a game. Some games go as far as making them game mechanical advantages that you need to purchase during character creation or with experience. But contacts can also be added through a backstory agreed with the GM, or by roleplaying during play.
You can differentiate contacts in many different ways:
- Fields of knowledge or expertise.
- Social standing.
- Position within an organisation, government, or company.
- Ease of finding when you need them.
- Knowledge or skill level.
- Reliability of information they give you.
- Loyalty and discretion, versus turning you in if they think they can profit from it.
- Price or favours you need to offer to get what you want.
- Ability to discover information they don't have on hand.
- General attitude towards you - helpful, reluctant, friendly, annoyed, etc.
By varying these parameters you can make every contact who appears in a game individual, and hopefully memorable.
Commentary by Keybounce (who has not seen the movie)
[Keybounce's comments will appear here when received.]
Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)
Chewbacca has an exceptionally good idea which probably should have been mentioned as soon as Nute was mentioned as a possibility. Maybe he'll even have some time to fix some of the parts that Rey neglected or smashed! It might be a little too difficult with the injured arm though. The ship certainly needs the repairs done and fixing the ship is not going to happen just on its own anyway.
That would definitely be a recognizable contact. Old and shriveled could be any number of previous characters, but I can't think of a single Star Wars character that has had glasses before. Goggles affixed to helmets sure, but not actual glasses. That will be pretty cool to see assuming Chewie's info is still accurate.
All that said, this "staying here with the ship" business all of a sudden feels a little odd. It was Chewbacca's idea to meet up with someone that presumably he knows about, but now he's hanging back. The injured arm is obviously no impediment to walking around, so why the sudden change of thought?
Transcript
Chewbacca: I say, given our recent concerns regarding Nute Gunray, I’d feel better if I stayed here and checked the Falcon’s antiviral systems are operating nominally.
Finn: How will we recognise your contact?
Chewbacca: He’s a retired Jedi. Old, shrivelled, big glasses, you can’t miss him.
Chewbacca: Uses various aliases, but his friends call him Darth Kanata.
Rey: I’m not familiar with that name.
Chewbacca: He’s been out of the loop since... oh, before you were born. Roaming around incognito.
BB-8: What’s he doing hanging around in a bar then?
Chewbacca: It’s the perfect cover. No reasonable person would look for a Jedi in a bar.
Yanni: I would!
Chewbacca: I rest my case.