Effect: Contacts provide your character with information. Each dot in this Merit represents a sphere or organization with which the character can garner information. For example, a character with Contacts ••• might have Bloggers, Drug Dealers, and Financial Speculators for connections. Contacts do not provide services, only information. This may be face-to-face, via email, by telephone, or even by séance in some strange instances.
Garnering information via Contacts requires a Manipulation + Social Skill roll, depending on the method the character uses, and the relationship between the characters. The Storyteller should give a bonus or penalty, dependent on how relevant the information is to that particular Contact, whether accessing the information is dangerous, and if the character has maintained good relations or done favors for the Contact. These modifiers should range from -3 to +3 in most cases. If successful, the Contact provides the information.
One use of a Contact is to dig dirt on another character. A Contact can find another character’s Social Merits, and any relevant Conditions (Embarrassing Secret is a prime example.)
A character can have more than five Contacts, but the Merit’s rating is limited to five, for the purposes of Allies blocking.