Maelstrom House Rules

Contractor Creation Rules

• New Contractors must be submitted for approval in The Contract Discord server's #approvals channel before their first game.
• At creation, Contractors cannot take more than a combined 5 Assets and Liabilities that cost/grant Exp. Free Assets do not count toward this limit.
• Contractors cannot be direct ripoffs of pop-culture concepts, to the point that NPCs in-game would notice the similarity. For example: you could play a heroic strong-man or a famous weapons-developer but not specifically Superman or Iron Man.
• Contractors may not start out as a concept that is likely to disrupt Contracts (e.g. being a walking, talking fox, being as notorious as Osama bin Laden, having a bomb in their chest that detonates when they die, etc).
• Contractors are mundane people who would see their ambitions through regardless of access to powers. That is why a Harbinger offers Gifts, and why they are willing to risk their lives for the power to make their dreams come true.
  • Your Ambition must be a core driver to your character's actions, is a large point of tension for their story, and is likely to get them into trouble. Craft your Ambition carefully and be open to suggestions and changes from Endorsed GMs in order nail it.
  • Keep in mind, however, that Ambitions can (and will) change over time as your Contractor develops. It's simply part of character development! No matter what, Ambitions are why a Contractor risks their life continuing to participate in Contracts. 

Maelstrom Contractor Limits

• In order to facilitate more focused character concepts, Maelstrom has a hard limit on the number of Newbies and Novices per Player. At Maximum, a Player can only have 2 Newbies and 3 Novices active in Maelstrom at once.
• Any Contractor housed in the Playgroup is considered active. Remove them from the Playgroup if you don't want to play them. Moving Contractors back into the Playgroup requires Judge approval. 

Power Creation Rules

• Cohesive Powers: Manifested Gifts must be in-line with Character Concepts and requires Endorsed GM approval.
  
• Logical Flavor: Players must be able to explain how and why their power works in a given situation, otherwise GMs have license to cause them to fail.
  • For Example: a Blast flavored as a ball of fire might not work underwater. But at the same time, that same Blast power might do extra damage to enemies vulnerable to fire. GMs always have final say, but must remember to make Powers feel powerful. 

Citizenship

• Active Players are expected to GM Contracts from time to time. If you have played as a Contractor 6 Maelstrom Contracts, you are barred from playing in Maelstrom again until you GM a Contract yourself.
  • This limit can be temporarily lifted if an Endorsed GM gives explicit approval to allow you to play in their game.
  • If at this limit, you may attend a game run by another GM fulfilling Citizenship.

Downtimes

Interacting and addressing Loose Ends, Conditions, and/or Circumstances require Moves during the Downtime between Contracts. This connects your contractor with the world in some tangible way.

• Treacherous Loose Ends: A Contractor who waits for a Loose End's threat to manifest without taking any precautions against it during their Downtimes will see the threat revealing itself at the worst possible moment during downtime. Ask Endorsed GMs and Playgroup Leaders for Moves to help control Loose Ends before they control you.
• Neutral/Unknown Loose Ends: Some Loose Ends are Unknown, meaning that they give the *Player* a hint of moving parts behind the scenes, but not necessarily the *Character*. A Neutral Loose End usually means that the dangers or benefits of the Loose End are obscured or up to the Character's actions once it manifests.
• Investments: Some Loose Ends bestow benefits at the end of their clock. Investments are usually rewards for Moves and Hustles, but they might come from other sources as well. Ask Endorsed GMs and Playgroup Leaders for Moves to further your Contractor's goals.

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Notes on GMing in Maelstrom

• All members of Maelstrom are encouraged to GM and run Moves, and no approval is required. Custom Scenarios likewise do not require pre-approval. 
  • Feel free to ask Endorsed GMs and Playgroup Leaders for feedback on your custom scenario before running it. 
  • By default, you cannot run Games or Moves for a tier that you have not played in yourself. For example, if you would like to run a Novice game, but have never played a Novice game, you must wait until you have had some experience in Novice as a Player.
• Use GM Notes on the Story tab of the Contractor Sheet! This is a place to provide more detail about Circumstances, Conditions, and Loose Ends as well as important developments behind the scenes. Good GM notes makes it easier to run relevant Contracts and Moves for characters.
• Keep intros concise during game time. If you want to run more extensive introductions, try to do it before playtime. Players, in general, should not need to be wheeled-and-dealed to agree to a Contract. A simple message sent to them should suffice.
  
• In general, Contracts and Moves are subject to an "Exposure" criteria, especially when it comes to posted World Events. Contractors in higher Gift ranges have more freedom to affect the playgroup as a whole. At Newbie/Novice, however, the outcomes games will not ever have an international reach. Though Contractors might remember terrible things happening during their Contract, World Events might be scaled back due to meddling from The Powers That Be.
  • Don't take it personally if your World Event gets edited by a Playgroup Leader. It's part of the game and our efforts to keep consistent tone within the Playgroup.
    
• GMs are encouraged to build interesting, consistent locations and organizations for Contractors to explore and engage with through Contracts and Moves. Talk to a Playgroup Leader about location development, they are happy to delegate the development of content.

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FAQ

The above notes should be enough for you to get started on playing the game, and running games. If you have any other questions, you can ask the playgroup members in the discord. However, there are some other questions that are asked frequently, and for that we have this FAQ.

You don't need to read all of it to play in Maelstrom, but it may be referenced for explanations of some rulings, and playgroup norms. The FAQ applies only to Maelstrom, and not the Contract generally, but you may freely copy any parts of it you find usefu.

High level basics:

Q: What is the contract?

A: The contract is a TTRPG with an accompanying website
https://www.thecontractrpg.com/

Q: What is this server?

A: This server is the central discord of the Contract. Here we play games in the Maelstrom Playgroup, and people ask questions about the game in general. 

It’s main goals are to 
help people learn to play and run the contract
Run games in the official setting of the contract
Give official contract announcements (about the website, and similar)
Make sure people have fun.

Q: What is a playgroup?

A: A Playgroup is a group of Players who regularly play The Contract together. A Playgroup is also a group of Contractors that share a setting. 

Q: What is Maelstrom?

A: Maelstrom is a playgroup (https://thecontractrpg.com/playgroup/13/) that uses the official Illumination setting : https://thecontractrpg.com/guide/setting-world-building/ . It has its own set of house rules, its own history and some quirks that come from it being the place most players start.

Q: What’s the difference between a playgroup and a server?

A: A server exists in discord, the playgroup is part of the website. A lot of games happen over discord, either in Voice chat (VC) or Play by Post (PBP), but some playgroups play exclusively in person, without using discord.

Getting Started:

Q: Okay, I want to play! What should I do?

A: Make a character! Note the house rules of Maelstrom. Notably
You can’t have more than 5 assets and liabilities at character creation.
We expect that your ambition, archetype and  paradigm fit the setting, and that all your powers come from your paradigm. https://thecontractrpg.com/guide/rules/#character-concept

We also don’t allow child, or animal contractors until players have been around for a while, and multiple Judges approve the character. This is because they can be disruptive and make the game less fun for other players. See a later question about this specifically.

After you have made a character, post them in approvals. Then a Judge (Purple name) or a Gavel Goblin (Green name) will look over them, and make sure they follow the rules.

You may be tempted to min max your character, and get 5 assets and liabilities. We push against that slightly for first characters, as it adds complexity, but doesn’t necessarily make your character better. But you can if you want.

Q: I played my first contract and I won!

A: Great! Now you get your first gift. If you fill out all your questionnaires and journals you can get bonus EXP, and extra improvements!

Q: I played my first contract and I died!

A: Great! Death happens in the contract. Different playgroups and GMs have different levels of lethality. Now you can make a new character, and by spending a charon coin that character will start with a gift!

Q: I’m worried that my character will die! I don’t want them to

A: You can play in different playgroups where it is less likely your characters will die. Some don’t allow death before a certain number of wins. Some have more and less lethal games. Maelstrom aims to feel dangerous, because that is the original design of the contract, and we think that a risk of death adds a lot to the stories.

Q: How else can I improve my character?

A: Every game you get some experience and a gift point. If you fill out your journals, and questionnaires you will get more experience and improvements that you can spend up to a cap (most people don’t hit the exp cap).

You can spend this Experience on improving your abilities and attributes, or your source. You can’t decrease an ability or attribute unless you are doing a rework.

Sometimes, if there is a good story reason, or you are doing a rework, you can add assets, or liabilities. After initially acquiring, these will often cost exp, and require either a contract or a move to have given the character a reason to acquire it (for example having a horrifying experience can justify the character acquiring the Jaded condition). Assets always require approval to get or remove. Getting liabilities requires approval, but removing them doesn’t.

Q: That assets and liabilities paragraph seemed confusing, how do I get new conditions and circumstances?
A: There are a few ways.

If you do a move, you can gain trophies, some conditions and some circumstances. These usually don’t cost exp, because the change is acquiring something physical (money, a cool weapon) or something social (respect, expertise, etc).

But, if you want to change something about yourself (get longer arms, get better at ignoring pain, get faster reflexes), then you need to get approval, and spend EXP.

GMing:

Q: What is Citizenship? Do I really need to GM?

A: In Maelstrom, after you play in 6 games, you need to GM one. This is necessary for making sure that enough games are run in Maelstrom, and that everyone gets to play. It is necessary for the playgroup health. 

If you don’t want to, you are welcome to hang out, ask questions, play in your first 6 games, and move your character to a different playgroup, but for the sake of community health, we need citizenship.

Q: What do I get for GMing?

A: Every time you GM you get an improvement, which you can add to your character. Improvements let you increase the cost of gifts you already have. You can do until your gifts + improvements reach a cap of 2 times the number of victories you have earned. You can also earn exp by running moves and writing them up, running for new players, or running a golden ratio.

Q: I want to run a Highlander game! What should I do?

A: First, make sure that every player knows the game is a highlander game before they sign up. Include it in the notes, or any invites.

Second, make sure to talk about expectations beforehand. Highlanders can be fun, but can also be upsetting to some players, and taking extra care is good practice.

Q: How does voiding games work? Why would one do it?

A: See https://www.thecontractrpg.com/guide/rules/#voiding-contracts . You generally don’t void games, unless something really bad happens. (A player with an unapproved character got the party killed, The GM misunderstood a rule in a way which made people have a bad time, or generally that the players and GM really didn’t have fun, and think the game won’t make the story more interesting.)

Q: I want to run a game, but only 2 people signed up. Can I still run a game?

A: Maybe.

Duo games (games with two people) are recommended against for newbies, because of their danger, and a history of bad play experiences. 

But, if everyone is warned, they can be done.

Games going long +  other issues:

Q: I’m in this game, and it’s been going on for 5 hours! But I don’t want my character to die if I leave. Can I leave?

A: Games in Maelstrom are expected to be completed within 4-5 hours at maximum. 

If a game goes over 5 hours, players are allowed to leave without consequences. This means a win, or a loss without consequences that come just from the player leaving. 

Games can go long, but no one should feel trapped in a game. 

If a game needs to take a particularly long time, consider making a cycle, or splitting into multiple sessions. 

Q: I’m running a game, and I can’t make it last less than 5 hours! What should I do?

A: Cut down the number of obstacles, push characters to move along if they are spending too long doing RP, or investigating something that won’t lead to something. 

There is also some amount of GM skill with managing time and expectations around. If you are newer, and can’t run short games, try starting with less players, and more experienced players.

Q: I have a loose end/ circumstances, but I can’t find the GM that game them to me/ they can’t run for a while. I don’t want the loose end to pop/ don’t want the condition, but I also don’t want this character to be frozen. 

A: If a GM can’t run a loose end for your contractor in a reasonable amount of time (a week or 2 is a reasonable amount of time), then you can get another GM to run the loose end for you, or take over in a similar way. 

Note that some GMs have less frequent schedules, but are fantastic GMs. You have the ability to swap GMs, but are not obligated to.

Reworks

Q: I have a character I’m not happy with, what can I do?

A: Whenever a character moves from newbie to novice, novice to seasoned, or seasoned to professional, they can be reworked. A rework allows you to make changes to your character that are usually not allowed (Changing a power you’ve had for a while, changing a limit, adding a condition without, reducing an ability or attribute, moving around improvements).

You can also make large flavor changes to your character, changing their paradigm, their archetype, etc.

If it is only one gift you are unhappy with, and you got it last contract (or first used it that contract), you can change that gift by reopening the approval thread and changing it.

Q: Oh, so when I get a character to be seasoned I can move my gifts up to be all seasoned and more powerful?

A: No.

Seasoned gifts are limited. This is checked by looking at the number of gifts a character has with the “requires seasoned” tag. 

When a character reaches seasoned, they can have two gifts that require seasoned. Then that limit increased by 2 every victory.

Q: Oh, so I can save up a bunch of improvements and then get one super powerful seasoned gift with max improvements?
A: No. Please don’t do that. This has a bit of a history, and lots of people have done it, and planned around doing it. But current policy is that you should not do that.

This is annoying to check, so usually Judges and Gavel goblins don’t check. But this is lame.  If we notice you have way more seasoned improvements in a power than "seasoned improvements" (Increases in the gift cap you got from playing a game that gave you a seasoned gift point) then we’ll scold you and make you change it.

Moves

Q: What is a move?

A: A move is a non contract session of RP where the character tries to change something about the world, interact with the story, or acquire more goods. This is done with at least one GM, and 1 player, but there can be more than 1 player. The GM's character's can't be involved in the move.

Q: Who can run a move?
A: Anyone can, but you probably want someone more experienced to check the outcome of it. Also see the next question.

Q: How much of the world can I affect on a move?
A: This all varies playgroup to playgroup. But I will give the Maelstrom guidelines.

As a newbie character, you can impact a town

As a novice character, you can impact cities.

As a seasoned character, you can impact states, and small countries.

As a professional character, you can impact countries. At Veteran, you can impact the entire world.

Q: What kind of rewards can I get from a move?
A: Look at the https://thecontractrpg.com/guide/gm-manual/#trophy-systems for guidance, and https://thecontractrpg.com/guide/gm-manual/#running-moves 

For every move, the reward you gain must be balanced by the risk! That risk can be mitigated by some gifts, and some moves are just an application of gifts, but generally in the world of Maelstrom, all rewards require risks.

Q: How do I do a move?
A: Make a post in the moves channel with your plan. Interested GMs will check it out.

Q: How do I run a move?
A: If you want to run a move, find someone’s move thread that looks interesting, then run it like a contract. Keep in mind restrictions on rewards.

Also, if a character is interacting with their backstory, make sure they don’t get any rewards not already specified. A prince of hell character can’t do a move to ask his dad to smite something (unless maybe that is the flavor for a gift)

Q: What is a hustle? How is it different from a move?
A: The difference between a hustle and a move is GM time investment.

If a GM needs to spend time planning and preparing, and a good amount of time running, then it is a move.

If the GM has a 5 to 10 minute conversation about you doing something which doesn’t much impact the world, then it is probably a hustle.

If you have a 5 minute conversation, and your character drops a bomb on a city, cures cancer, starts a plague, or does something else that would require a large world event, that the GM will have to write up then it is a move.

Moves should be written up by the GM who ran by going to the characters story tab, and hit record move. If you write enough, you will get bonus experience.

Approvals

Q: What do I need to do to get my contractor/ gift approved?

A: Post your contractor or gift in approvals.
Make sure
The name of your contractor or gift is the title of the post
The gifts fit the contractors paradigm (Rarely ambition or archetype https://thecontractrpg.com/guide/rules/#character-concept) in flavor and have a visual description
The gift is added to your contractors sheet. This makes it easier to see how the gift fits with the contractors other gifts
If you have a maddening or disfiguring on a gift add it to your sheet

Q: I have a maddening or disfiguring, where should I mark it on my sheet?

A: Add a battle scar or trauma by clicking add battle scar, or add trauma. (if you already have a trauma or a battle scar, that can’t be a maddening or disfiguring for a new power, you need to add a new one not gain on a contract)

Q: Why hasn’t my gift/contractor been approved yet?

A: The approval process is done by judges, and gavel goblins that are doing it voluntarily because it is important for the community. They will get to it when they get to it, but feel free to bump your thread to make it appear at the top of approvals if it has been a while.

Q: Why do we even have an approval process? Why can't I just play?

A: Maelstrom expects a certain quality of characters, and for powers to be easy for GMs to reason about and understand in game. Approvals makes this happen more.

Q: I notice some gifts and contractors get approved super quickly. Why is that?

A: Gifts get approved most quickly if they are in the flavor of a contractor's gift, and don’t have complicated write in.

Q: I keep seeing people say flavor, what does that mean?

A: Flavor means visual description, and story wise where the power comes from. A blast power can represent a storm of blades, or a fireball with the same power improvements. Flavor determines how the gift is described, and sometimes how and when they can work.

Q: I want to get a gift with the Triggered improvement, what kind of triggers can I use?

A: Triggers are a very powerful, and very sensitive improvement. Because of that, we are very careful with them, although approvers have had different policies for what triggers in the past.

The current policy with Triggers is that:
Triggers are dumb. They can be triggered by certain stimuli, but they can’t get hidden information.
Triggers can’t detect attacks or dodges. Someone giving you a friendly slap on the back will trigger the same power that triggers on attacks.
Triggers can be triggered by taking damage, but must be a sev-2 or higher

Q: I want to use a conditional, what conditionals can I use?

A: Conditionals should be not usable half the time. Common conditionals are the time of day, or requiring another power with an activation requirement to be activated.
Items and Crafting

Q: So I can make a lot of artifacts, can I have one character make a bunch of artifacts for my other characters?

A: No. Maelstrom doesn’t allow characters to benefit from that player’s other characters. You also can’t trade items for out of character reasons.

Q: A character I met has a cool item. Can I buy it from them, or trade something?

A: Maybe!

For balancing reasons, we don’t allow all levels of character to trade with each other. Doing so would allow for some characters to have abilities that aren’t balanced for the scenarios they are attempting.

Novice artifacts cannot be given to newbies. Although novices can be looted by newbies.

Seasoned can give to novices but only a Max of 1 gift with 2 cost or lower, unless they are looted. 

Vet can give to Prof. But only 1 gift, with 2 costs or lower.

For all of these trades, they must happen between contractors that know each other from meeting, or a mutual connection, Offr will not advertise items to a lower tier of play than the contractor is in.

Q: Crafted Items are so expensive? How do some people have so many?

A: Whenever you make an item, you get up to 2 free crafts of it, at its highest level.

Miscellaneous:

Q: I keep hearing about a seasoned test, and a few other types of test with the other ranks.

A: On the last novice game for a character, GMs will often try and make the game more difficult, because the character should be at the peak of their level. This is called a Seasoned test.

The last game of professional level is called a Vet- test. This is a solo game where they must be able to do a high level game by themselves. They must complete this to become a veteran.

These two have led to a general term for the last game in a bracket being call the X-Test, where X is the next bracket (novice-test, professional test, etc.) 

These are part of the culture, but not necessary in the contract generally. A special kind of game for a Seasoned test is not required to move up, but a Vet test is required to move up.

Q: I want to buy a country. Or a multi million dollar item. But finances caps out at 1 million. Can I save up? Can I have my company buy it? How do I handle and run large purchases

A: A large part of The Contract as a game is risks for power. This is where a lot of the story, and intrigue comes from. You can minimize risks, and be clever, but if you want to get substantial benefit, you need to take risks. For purchases under one million, you can take that risk by reducing the finances you have access to for the next game. For purchases over one million, you need to take some other sort of risk to get a lump of cash.  The goal of this is to  facilitate interesting stories. 

Q: How do I do a move to increase my finances?
A: You need to take a sizable risk. Something a GM would find interesting to run, and which can come with complications. Potentially a multi part move.

Q: I want to put an Item on Offr Red. Are there any limitations on who and how much I can trade with?

A: Yes! 

For trades on Offr, contractors can only interact with someone in the bracket equal to them, and the one above and below them. Novices can only interact with Seasoned contractors, Seasoned contractors only with Novices and Professionals, and Professionals with Seasoned and Veteran contractors. 

If you are trading an effect which is above the level of the contractor, i.e. a Seasoned effect, you can only give one effect of that type to a contractor. 

A Novice can have one seasoned effect in this way, and no more. A Professional can have one Veteran effect in this way. 

Q: If a contractor dies on a contract, but then is brought back, can they still do contracts?

A: This depends. With the Lazarus enhancement on heal wounds, regeneration, inevitable comeback, Possession and a few gifts that specifically give their users continued life, yes they can. 

With Raise Dead, generally no (unless it was the veteran enhancement, and on a game)

Q: I want to play a child contract! Or an Animal!

A: For young children (younger than 16), or animals, we generally want a player who has played and GM’d a while before having a character with the potential to be very disruptive. 

The general standards are to have a character at Seasoned, and to have GM’d 6 games. 

Then 3 Judges, or Gavel goblins can give their stamp of approval on the character, and they can be played.

Q: I have a stat boost from something other than my Mythic. Does that count towards improvements like ‘Seeing Double’ on mythic perception and unflappable on mythic charisma?

A: No.

Powers Special Maelstrom rules / clarifications:

"Pets"

Q-1: I found a super powerful enemy that took a bunch of contractors working together to kill. Can I raise it from the dead and bring it on every contract?
Q-2: I found a super powerful creature that after beating down a lot with the help of others I was able to command creature and tame them. Can I bring it on every contract? 
Q-3: I found a super powerful creature, tamed them, and used Andalite to become them. Can I travel to the next contract in their form?
Q-4: I had some way of making a permanent minion with awesome magic powers  not mentioned above! Can I bring it to every contract.
Q-5: I have this super powerful trophy, and ...

A: No/Maybe/ ask.

Contracts are going to have a lot of different enemies, and GMs will make custom stats and special effects. GMs will disagree in maelstrom about some of these. Because of that, you generally can’t bring super powerful alien beings from other contracts onto a contract. Or at least, you can't expect them to have access to all their effects. If using them in moves, you should make sure the GM knows about it, and understands the stats.  If you want to use them on a game, tell the GM, and they will have the right to veto anything that relies on powerful magic that couldn't be reliably made without a special creature.

For example: You command creature a drake that could breath fire, had 8 armor and 11 body that regenerates 1 wound level per round (this probably shouldn't be something you encounter regularly). You will need to ask the GM before expecting the dragon to be able to breath fire or regenerate. You can expect that the dragon will at least behave like a "Giant" creature mentioned in the extended text, and any augments you gave it/ other standard stats for creatures, but the other alien properties are up to the GM.

For anything thing you got on other contracts, GMs have veto right, and you should expect that the stronger it is, the more likely they are to use that veto.

Q: For animal transformation, and the Analite improvement, If you become an alien creature/ a creature without standard stats, do you get it's stats, and magic abilities or the stats of a creature that size. 

A:
Options I see for this
Weakest - The only thing that matters is the size parameter, and the +3 dice for things the creature is naturally adapted for
Slightly stronger- You get the exact physical attributes of the creature you copied. You cannot have access to any alien effects on them.
Very strong - You get the exact physical attributes of the creature you copied. You have access to the physical effects which are passive and innate to physiology
Crazy - You get access to all stats of the creature. Your int, charisma and perception stay the same, but everything other stat is replaced. You have access to all effects.

In Maelstrom we use option 3. You get physical attributes, and physical effects which are passive and innate to physiology

 However, see the above question on bringing on contracts. You cannot start a contract with an alien creature from another GM and use it in any game. You can bring standard stat creatures, or augmented creatures, or similar if you can get them to the contract.

This is to prevent people from showing up with armies of dragons, or fire breathing salamanders that the GM might not have background on, and might overshadow the rest of the game.

Energy Transfer
Q :  I know for mythic enhancements like Seeing Double from perception or Unflappable from Charisma, don't get buffed with drain attribute, because they specifically reference +x per Extra Attribute.
 I have a couple different things that could be clarified, about Drain Attribute and E-Transfer in general Brilliant deduction and Remarkable Self-Aware. Can both receive extra dice because their rolls are based on purely on INT? Due to how the additional info on Drain is worded, does it only effect mechanics in a negative way, such as lowering free move from being drained of dexterity, or less encumbrance from losing strength?  or can you gain free move and encumbrance?
Q: Is Tough Armor from Brawn increased if I receive more dice/benefits from Drain Attribute
Q: Does additional brawn from drain attribute work with Caber Toss, which states, "You may lift an additional 2000 pounds per point of Brawn beyond 5"

A: Attribute drain doesn't give you any extra stats for the sake of other qualities that depend on that attribute. So, Tough, encumbrance and free move would not be changed. Remarkably self aware and brilliant deduction would increase.

Q:  Does Attune have a limit on the number of people I can be attuned to at once?:
Q: If I Attune to 2 people and have Cut Out the Middle Man, can I E-transfer between them? 
Q: If I hit someone with a restrict, that doesn't encase them and only bans movement, are they considered "Bound" For the purposes of being unable to resist
Q: What if encase does pop do they now count as Bound
Q: If a target is grappled do they count as Bound for resisting

A:  With the rules are written, Attune does not have a limit on the number of people you can be attuned to. However, Energy transfer is one of the gifts planned to be updated in the next patch due to the power of the cult leader improvement. So for now, attune has a limit of 2 people in maelstrom. This will be updated when energy transfer is updated in the next patch.

 You can transfer between individuals if you are attuned to both. Restrict will only count as bound if they are encased and imprisoned. Grapples do not count as bound.

Q: Can I suggest/mind control someone to always pay for my activation cost with Pooled Resources, (i assume so, but sometimes Contractors don't know exactly how the system works, so i don't know), 

A: Yes