Preplanning

[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.

[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.

[scc]

Originally Posted by Refplace

That is Serendipity.

Or Gizmo's

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by scc

Or Gizmo's

Suddenly remembering you have one is Gizmo but finding one in the next room is more likely Serendipity. Still its possible.
Also rereading Foresight that really can cover a lot of what the Op wanted.

[Captain Joy]

Refplace has nailed it, IMHO. Basically, I'm urging you to consider everything he said.

Originally Posted by Refplace

Preplanning can bedoen any of a number of ways.
Action! Introduces BAD which is a penalty to an action based on various things about the job or your foe. Skills can counter some of those issues.

I recently read about "BAD" in GURPS Action 2: Exploits, and it sounds like it may be exactly what you are looking for.

Originally Posted by Refplace

You can simply roleplay it, more interactive but requires players think ahead of time. And plan well.

This always works. The difference between this and the BAD system is that the players (as opposed to the player characters) can have a quantitative idea how effective their planning is. E.g. the GM could say, "So far, your prep and planning will result in a +3 to offset the BAD on the upcoming heist." Of course, the GM need not reveal his accounting to the players. This kind of concrete objective feedback may be perfect for Wavefunction's game.

Originally Posted by Refplace

Or you can use advantages like Luck, Serendipity, Gizmo and others to just happen to have what you needed.
Applying limitations such as "planned ahead of time" can reduce the cost of those advantages.

This is more a way to retcon planning. It works, but probably not suited to what Wavefunction wants.

[Erling]

In Pyramid issue Fourth Edtion Festival the was an optional rule by Kromm which states that successful Tactics roll before the combat (or rather won QC of Tactics) lets the party reroll their failed dice rolls times equal to margin of success/victory. I think it's easy to adapt this rules for preplanning and Strategy.

[PK]

Originally Posted by Wavefunction

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.

Yes, and both articles overlap slightly in concept, but not in treatment. "I've Got an Idea" is mainly about ways to reward players for deliberately planning ahead, while "Fortunately, I Saw This Coming" is a way to simulate characters with so much foresight that they can take retroactive actions. It's the difference between, "Our characters spent a few hours in-game sitting down and poring over the blueprints, so we get special benefits whenever that comes up," and, "He springs a trap? Okay, I realize I didn't say this before, but because of my Foresight, I'd already planned a way to get out of this."

[Polydamas]

Don't forget Schrödinger's backpack which lets you run the guy who carries lots of mundane but useful things without having to list them and succeed or fail based on how well you as a player can predict what your character will need.

Handling access to contraband is a bit difficult, because prices and availability realistically vary quite a bit. I do not know how I would do it if I were GM.

Gizmos are great for cinematic inventors and science officers, or something like the TV-Batman's utility belt ("luckily, Robin, I brought my piranha-repellant with me.")