Contacts

In politics, it's as often about WHO you know as what you know.
The contacts system is designed to allow players to meet, and make introductions with, useful people in the world around them and then to help then navigate further social connections.
Need to find a seller of rare spell components? Ask around, your Booker may know a guy. Need some noble gossip? The barkeeper might remember a young scion who's lips are too loose after drink. Need a new Booker? Well I'm sure someone is hiring!
These contacts are not a replacement for social encounters but rather a mechanic for players to go "I know a guy!" as a solution to their problems. Their importance and and loyalty can change through their interactions with players and NPCs met during sessions can be developed themselves into contacts.

Mechanics

Each contact can be broadly described by 4 traits: their location or sphere of influence, their role, their specialism and their importance.
To create a contact, you need to define their location and role and then assign contact points to their importance (see below)

Importance	Level	Contact points
Inconsequential	1	1
Fixer	2	4
Specialist	3	9[/td
Professional Authority	4	16
Master of their craft	5	25
			Rival		-(half importance CP)
			Enemy		-(Importance*(Importance+1))

At character creation each character gets a number of contact points = 5 + 2*starting level + CHA modifier.
Further contact points can be acquired during downtime by Making Introductions (see Gold Use, Downtime and XP acquisition )
The Role is the type of aid a contact typically offers: broadly contacts will be either a Fixer, a Fence, a Trainer or an Ally.
A Fixer is someone who's principal role is in acquiring information. This can be someone who is more knowledgeable about aspets of lore or someone who is able to conduct Gather Intelligence checks for the player. A booker is a specialised fixer who's expertise lies in finding jobs! Mechanic: a Fixer will normally be used as a bonus in Gather Intelligence checks or as a source of lore that the players don't know.
A Fence is someone who's principally engaged in acquiring items for or from the party. They might be someone the party buys specialist gear from or someone the party is able to sell high value artifacts to. Mechanic: a fence contact adds a bonus in Finding Contraband and Curios (see Gold Use, Downtime and XP acquisition) checks, and also will usually be able to recommend a good location to sell items the party acquires.
A Trainer is a person (or location) that a character uses to develop their class training or a talent. They will usually be specialised to an appropriate Talent Tree or class/subclass. Mechanic: A trainer applies a bonus to the investment rate for appropriate training and may be necessary to have a trainer fro certain levels of achievement.
An Ally is someone the players can turn to for aid - be it an extra warm body in combat, a porter to carry items or someone to lend them gear, they are a contact whose principal worth is in what the players an convince them to do. Mechanic: Offers appropriate aid based on their abilities and the party's necessity.
Importance is a measure of how potentially useful a contact is. It is specific to the NPCs role - for example a well renowned herbalist, the captain of the Cyning Guard and the second son of one the Dukes may all be ranked as Importance 3, but would have very different impacts in the world around them. As a general rule, the greater the importance the more access to rare items, political leverage and specialised training, a contact will be able to provide.
For example, Ben's Level 1 Kobold Dusty is a Private Investigator with a charisma of 10. He thus has 7 (5+2*1+0) contact points to assign at beginning of game. He rents a room from a barkeeper named Ardie Kirkwood. Ardie is based in The Mutton Dagger Inn in the Frithceap slums and is a well-connected tavern owner. Ardie's connections to local riff raff give her an importance of 2 (4 contact points). Dusty has also angered a mid ranking member of the Ten Cinders gang in the Frithceap Narrows. This enemy has a considerable reach and sway within the gang giving them an importance of 3, however because they are an enemy they are assigned -3 contact points as a measure of the potential inconvenience they will pose to Dusty. Dusty's estranged father is a rather famous botanist, currently on a exchange program in the Arcanum Potentas University. His excellence in the field gives him an importance of 3 (9 contact points), however the challenging family dynamic means any interaction is likely to be difficult to navigate making him a rival, and refunding half the contact points for a total of 5 contact points. Totalling up Dusty has 3 main contacts for a total of 7 (5-3+5) contact points.