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Rolling for Contacts: Giving Players More Creative Input in 5E

Like many GMs, I feel my players don't influence the game enough. One of my goals is to always customize the game to fit what the players want. Unfortunately 5E is light on mechanics for this. To start to fix this, I am proposing a new mechanic: Rolling for Contacts.

Contacts are non-combat NPCs that the players have a connection to in order to get help of whatever non-combat form they want. The player gets 1 contact every 4 levels. To gain a contact during the game (not at level up!), they describe an NPC they want to gain as a contact and then the GM rolls a hidden skill check while the party is not in combat. That skill check must be related to the type of contact they wish to gain. For example, a good stealth skill check may gain a member of the local thieves' guild. A good religion check might gain a local cleric that would be a PC's friend. The player, however, gets to describe exactly who their contact is, in whatever level of detail is desired and appropriate.

If they roll a 30, they gain an NPC exactly as they described. However, for rolls less than 30, the contact comes along with "baggage". Baggage is some non-ideal characteristic that this NPC will have that the GM adds on. This can manifest in a number of ways.

With a 20+ roll, maybe the PC's contact doesn't speak common, so only a limited subset of the party can interact with them. Maybe they only have partial knowledge of the answers the PC's seek. Perhaps the contact travels and will only be available for interaction for a short time.

With a 15-19 roll, things become more interesting. Maybe the contact knows more about the PC than the PC has told the party and might let something slip. The contact might have a task they need performed in return for assistance. Maybe the contact has an obvious distrust of the rest of the party. It could be that the contact is not of high enough station to help the party in the way they desire.

With 10-14 roll, maybe the contact has split loyalties, resulting in the answer sought, but additional dangers for the party. The contact now might have a full quest for the party to fulfill to gain the contact's help. Maybe the contact is an enemy of one of the other party members.

Below a 10, however, is the most fun. Now the GM gets to bring in a contact that will actively oppose the party, but may help the party this one time to gain their trust. This contact could become a future villain or just be a general annoyance throughout the game.  These outcomes definitely make the game more interesting.

In all cases, the GM needs to be prepared to improv roleplay of this new contact. This can be challenging, but the advantage is that the NPC is now tied to a player and will be helping in some way. That generates immediate buy-in at the table for whatever emerges, no matter how rough the execution might be.  Of course, this unknown element also introduces additional uncertainty in the plot. This is just part of being a GM. If the biggest step off the plot is one additional NPC, I'd be pretty surprised. Just try to go with it.

I plan on introducing this into my normal D&D adventuring campaign soon, if the players like the idea. I'll share in the future how it turns out. Feel free to give it a try and you game, and share how it turns out.

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