Networking

Where social networks shine is their value in networking for favors. If you need to get advice from an expert, find someone who can fix your problems, acquire a piece of black-market tech, or crowdsource a solution, you can turn to your contacts and the online community at large. Your rep score reflects not just your social capital, but your ability to leverage it and maneuver through this web of personal and impersonal connections to find who and what you need.

In game terms, you take advantage of your connections and personal cred every time you need a favor. A favor is broadly defined as anything you try to get via others in your social networks, whether that be aid, goods, or information. Different types of favors are described under Favors.

Using Rep

To pursue a favor, you pick a social network and make a Rep Test. Roll Rep score same as you would a skill. The type of favor you are asking for can impact the test; apply the modifiers from the Rep Tests table. Likewise, if you are trying to keep your query discreet and under the radar, modifiers will apply Keeping Quiet.

Rep Tests are task actions — it takes time to call in favors or track down information. The timeframe depends on the type of favor, as noted on the Rep Tests table. GMs can modify this as they see fit.

Rep Tests

Favor	Modifier	Max Amount	Burn Cost	Timeframe
Trivial	+30*	Any time, no limits	—	Immediate
Minor	+10	3 per week	5 rep	2 hours
Moderate	+0	1 per week	10 rep	8 hours
Major	−30	1 per story arc/campaign	20 rep	24 hours

* No test necessary with a Rep of 60+.

Rep Limits

Using rep has its limits — there are only so many times you can call in a favor. These limits depend on the level of favor, expressed in terms of the maximum amount of times you can safely request such a favor each timeframe.

If you need to seek another favor before that level of favor has refreshed, you have two choices. You can expend a higher level favor instead, keeping in mind that higher level favors refresh more slowly. Alternatively, you can burn reputation (see below).

A Rep Test failure will not use up a favor, unless you score a critical failure.

Be sure to mark off favors used on your character sheet.

Burning Rep

In dire situations, it may be more important for you to get what you need, even if you have to step on people’s tentacles. In this case, you can burn some of your Rep score, meaning that you exchange a loss of Rep for a shot at a favor. This reflects that you are pushing the bounds of how far people are willing to go for you; your reputation takes a hit as people flag you for being too demanding.

You can burn rep for two purposes:

• Additional Favor. If you’ve used up all of your alloted favors, you can burn rep to get one more. The cost to your rep depends on the type of favor, as noted in the Burn Cost column on the Rep Test table.
• Bonus Modifier. This indicates that you are pulling strings and calling in markers to get the favor you’re after. This is particularly useful when you are trying to obtain a major favor. You receive a modifier to your Rep Test equal to the rep points you burn × 2. The maximum modifier you can achieve is +30 (15 rep points).

Keeping Quiet

The problem with using social networks for favors is that you end up letting lots of other people know what you’re up to. When you’re involved in a clandestine operation, that could be exactly what you don’t want. The only way to diminish this is to take your requests to trusted friends and ask them to keep quiet, but this diminishes the pool of people at your disposal.

In game terms, you can try to keep word of what you’re doing quiet, but this makes it harder to get what you need. For every negative modifier you apply to your Rep Test, the same negative modifier applies to anyone making a Rep Test to acquire information about what you’re up to.

Reputation & ID

It is important to note that reputation is closely tied to identity. If you are undercover and using a fake ID, you take the risk of giving yourself away if you call upon your normal Rep score. You can try to minimize this by using the rules for Keeping Quiet. However, if anyone is sniffing your mesh activity, you may be found out.

False identities come with their own rep scores, though these are minimal (usually 10). The low rep is usually explained away as you having only relatively recently re-instantiated or otherwise being new to that faction/network. You can build up the rep of your fake identity, which must be tracked separately. This may be considered a waste of effort, however, given that some alter egos are meant to be disposable.

Optional Rule: GMs can allow GP to be spent on improving the rep of a new fake ID. Every GP spent increases one rep score by 5.

Favors

Creative players can undoubtedly come up with many uses for their social networks, but a few of the more common are detailed here.

While it can be easy to handle rep favors as a quick dice roll, GMs are encouraged to roleplay them out. Though social network interactions are often transacted online, either by messaging, vid calls, or VR meets, they sometimes end up resolved in-person. Regular use of a social network, especially for related inquiries, may have you dealing with the same NPCs repeatedly, perhaps recruiting them as a contact over time.

Acquire/Unload Goods

Social networks are a good way to find items that you can’t buy legally or make at home. In outer system autonomist areas, they are the medium for gaining access to a habitat’s community resources. Follow the rules for Acquiring Gear when using your rep this way.

Sometimes you may be looking to rid yourself of equipment or valuables. In this case, a Rep Test can be used to trade in goods for an equivalent favor, or a favor one step lower, down the line. GMs must use their discretion here, keeping in mind that in the profit-motivated inner system, trade-in value is lower than actual cost. For example, fencing Moderate complexity gear can get you an extra Minor favor. In the outer system, however, exchanges are more equal. Alternatively, contributing gear back to the general habitat community resources may get you a small rep score bump.

Acquire Services

When you lack the skills or education you need, or you just need another set of arms, you can call out to your social network to find someone to help you out. If you are looking for someone with a particular skill, the result of your successful Rep Test roll is the skill rating of the person you find. The higher your Rep, the better able you are to find highly skilled professionals.

Example Services

• Minor Favor: Act as a lookout, borrow a vehicle for a few hours, legal advice, make a backup, provide an alibi, use a healing vat for an hour, services for an hour.
• Moderate Favor: Egocasting, intimidation, psychosurgery, sabotage, short shuttle trip, smuggle something, services for a day.
• Major Favor: Borrow a shuttle, espionage, getaway pilot, kill someone, legal representation, resleeving, services for a week.

Acquire Information

When you can’t find the information online or you don’t have the time or capability to look, you can turn to people in your social network and tap their accumulated knowledge base. This type of sleuthing is especially useful for information that is less likely to be codified or public online: gossip, people’s personal history, confidential data, suppressed news, and so on. You can also use this type of favor to find out what favors others are asking for, though modifiers may apply if they are covering their tracks Keeping Quiet.

Example Information

• Minor Favor: Black market location, gatecrashing logs, gossip, hypercorp directory, known research, local cartel, public data.
• Moderate Favor: Cartel members, confidential data, hangouts, internal hypercorp news, new research, secret relationships.
• Major Favor: Blackmail, illegal operations, safehouse location, secret facilities/projects, undercover cop identity.