Preplanning

[WaterAndWindSpirit]

So I've playing Payday 2, and one thing I absolutely loved about this game was preplanning. So basically, before a heist, you could spend cash earned during previous heists in order to make your life easier in the next heist. Some heists have a very simplistic preplanning, in that you either buy assets or you don't (Firestarter Day 1: Either you buy the grenade case or you don't, you the ammo bag or you don't, you buy the doctor bag or you don't), and those assets you bought will spawn at a very specific spot on the map. In some mission, it was more elaborate, you had a favor limit, each asset cost favor (a set amount for the whole party) and cash, and you got to chose the best place to put that asset. Assets includes getting a grenade case being brought and stashed somewhere on the place, a bag of ammo, a bag of medical supplies, planting spy cameras, getting a spare keycard or spare keys, getting someone to put a ladder at a location that advantages you...

So basically, I would love to get a preplanning mechanic in my GURPS campaign. Player Characters could get some mileage of having extra spare cash around after they got the best gun, best armor, best anything around. So how could I make this work in practice?

Thanks!

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by WaterAndWindSpirit

So I've playing Payday 2, and one thing I absolutely loved about this game was preplanning. So basically, before a heist, you could spend cash earned during previous heists in order to make your life easier in the next heist. Some heists have a very simplistic preplanning, in that you either buy assets or you don't (Firestarter Day 1: Either you buy the grenade case or you don't, you the ammo bag or you don't, you buy the doctor bag or you don't), and those assets you bought will spawn at a very specific spot on the map. In some mission, it was more elaborate, you had a favor limit, each asset cost favor (a set amount for the whole party) and cash, and you got to chose the best place to put that asset. Assets includes getting a grenade case being brought and stashed somewhere on the place, a bag of ammo, a bag of medical supplies, planting spy cameras, getting a spare keycard or spare keys, getting someone to put a ladder at a location that advantages you...

So basically, I would love to get a preplanning mechanic in my GURPS campaign. Player Characters could get some mileage of having extra spare cash around after they got the best gun, best armor, best anything around. So how could I make this work in practice?

Thanks!

There's a pyramid issue that does this, introduces the Foresight ability - #3/53 I believe

[WaterAndWindSpirit]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

There's a pyramid issue that does this, introduces the Foresight ability - #3/53 I believe

I've been looking at it... You mean "I've got an idea"? Is it good?

And thanks.

[Gef]

I've seen this a lot in various campaigns when players take the initiative, and I've never needed a specific mechanic for it other than the existing social traits. Contacts can help you locate and acquire black market gear (if you can pay), other contacts can dig up info on the target (like floorplans), arrange diversions, and so forth.

[McAllister]

This is one of the very few things I can say that I'd know how to do in Exalted 3e, but not in GURPS. I find, in RPGs, it's more useful to have the power to say, in the middle of a break-in, "well, luckily I planned for this, and stashed a fire axe under an air conditioning unit in the next room" (and possibly roll for it) than it is to try to plan it all out ahead of time.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by McAllister

This is one of the very few things I can say that I'd know how to do in Exalted 3e, but not in GURPS. I find, in RPGs, it's more useful to have the power to say, in the middle of a break-in, "well, luckily I planned for this, and stashed a fire axe under an air conditioning unit in the next room" (and possibly roll for it) than it is to try to plan it all out ahead of time.

That is Serendipity.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by WaterAndWindSpirit

I've been looking at it... You mean "I've got an idea"? Is it good?

And thanks.

It is, without a doubt, the BEST way to represent characters who are chessmasters, magnificent bastards, and those schooled in the Xantos Gambit. Doug's character in my supers game has it and it ends up making him pull off tactically genius things even if Doug himself forgets.

[whswhs]

When I ran a fixers campaign, initially we had the players actually plan out the entire scheme ahead of time, and then carry it out. And since their characters were all incredibly competent, this was a series of completely predictable successes. After just a couple of times, all but one of the players were saying that this was totally boring and they would just as soon not play.

What I came up with instead was to allow the "planner" character to make a Leadership roll (with complementary skill rolls from other PCs). And for every two successes, he got one chance during the caper to say, "Ah, but my plan allowed for that!" and pull a rabbit out of his hat. It seemed to work pretty well. At least it emulated the experience of watching a caper movie.

[Walrus]

Power-Ups: Impulse buys may be a solution. You can modify that system as you like anyway.

Also this may be a case of Patron (Provides Equipment, Highly Accessible). And for really weird case it may be even heavily modified Snatcher or Payload (Cosmic). It's a power from video game, so you may need seemingly supernatural traits to represent them.

But I'd go with Gizmo for such ability. Or just plain campaign-wide Impulse Buys with no relevant advantage on Character Sheets unless players want different access to that mechanics for different PCs.

[Wavefunction]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

It is, without a doubt, the BEST way to represent characters who are chessmasters, magnificent bastards, and those schooled in the Xantos Gambit. Doug's character in my supers game has it and it ends up making him pull off tactically genius things even if Doug himself forgets.

For the sake of clarity, the article you're thinking about is 'Fortunately I Saw This Coming', there's another article in that same issue about planning called 'I've Got An Idea' which seems to be what WaterAndWindSpirit is refering to.