SR: Planning Pool house rool

[Joose]

I was bumming about on the Dumpshock forums the other day, and ran across a house rule that I quite liked the idea of. Their execution of it left a little to be desired though, so I thought I would open it up to everyone to see what they think.

The problem they were trying to solve is the fact that they are not criminal masterminds in real life. Even though their characters were statted in a way that means they should be able to pull off Oceans 11 style runs, they couldn't think up the plans. Something unexpected always shafted them.

What they suggested was a "Planning Pool". Basically, its a pool of dice based off the characters skills, like their security design skills, or their corporate knowledge skill or whatever. When something unexpected attempts to bite them in the ass, you can use this pool to sort of retcon in you character having planned for it. You would still have to make the appropriate rolls as if you had thought of it, this just gives you the chance to unfuck the situation.

For example, lets say Mr Face is up to no good in a corp facility. A security guard stumbles across him. Oh no! Mr Face uses the Planning Pool, and succeeds in his roll. "its ok guys, we knew this guard would be here, so earlier today I schmoozed him". Mr Face rolls a persuasion test against the guard, and wins! The guard gives him a knowing nod and a wink, and carries on his patrol.

That's the basic idea, anyway. What needs clarifying is the specific rules. The way they had it seemed waaaaay open to abuse. I see it as something like this:

1) Before the run, each player picks a relevant skill to put to the planning pool. They roll a test on those skills. All the hits from all the tests are added together, and that makes the Planning Pool for the run.

2) During the run, any character can call on the planning pool to retcon something. The idea is that the skill roll in the previous step made them aware of the situation that needed planning for.

3) The player then rolls the Planning Pool dice against a target number of hits set by the GM. If they are trying to get over a small snafu, it should be a low target (1 to 2), if its a total balls up, it should be a bigger target (3-4). If they succeed, they can then take whatever tests they would have taken earlier, if they had thought about it.

4) Finally, whether they succeed the Planning Pool test or not, the Planning Pool is reduced by one die for the rest of that run. Just like with Edge, this is to avoid it being overused.

The only bit im not sure is right is step 1) generating the Planning Pool to begin with. What do you guys think?

[Roman Totale]

I think this is a super idea. If you have a vague idea of the mission ahead, it would make sense to do a bit of planning beforehand utilising skills and experience.

On that last point, experience, maybe past encounters could also be stuck in there. For example, the current team on your (Joose) run might be given another job where have to face Ghouls again. They could say "oh, such and such worked last time" and...

Actually ignore that bit it's fucking stupid.

In summary, Joose idea good, Roman idea gibberish.

[deject]

Yeah I like this idea. Maybe an unsuccessful use of the pool should take 2 dice out instead of just one? The other thing is that I'm thinking that there needs to be some restrictions on what you can do with the Planning Pool. For example, no matter how many guys with super climbing or running skills, that shouldn't really help with getting a security door hacked or stealing data from a server. Maybe we can make a table of what originating skills can allow what effects from the Planning Pool. This would have to be very generalized, and would require a GM ruling for every use.

I like that it could result in a sort of Ocean's 11 kind of storytelling in that you know they have a plan but what exactly will happen is revealed.

[Joose]

The other thing is that I'm thinking that there needs to be some restrictions on what you can do with the Planning Pool. For example, no matter how many guys with super climbing or running skills, that shouldn't really help with getting a security door hacked or stealing data from a server. Maybe we can make a table of what originating skills can allow what effects from the Planning Pool. This would have to be very generalized, and would require a GM ruling for every use.

This is an excellent point. I'll have a think about that today, see what I can come up with. It would need to be fairy general, as the sheer range of SR skills could turn it into a massive pain in the arse, but I think it could be done.

[Dog Pants]

I like the mechanics of that. It's always a problem that the players won't always have the knowledge the characters do and limit them by that. In game you can prompt the player to make a roll and give them information their character would know, but as for things outside the box like this it's difficult. The only issue I'd have is that it makes the game a bit more abstract and as such might cause some disconnection from the events. To extrapolate to a silly degree what I mean, you could roll a 'Do Run' skill and not have to interact at all, just get experience based on how well you rolled. I think if you could slide the rolls in with a bit of creative narrative though as a little background piece as to how it came about it could work though, and if done well maybe add a little after the fact colour to the between-runs sections.

[deject]

I like the mechanics of that. It's always a problem that the players won't always have the knowledge the characters do and limit them by that. In game you can prompt the player to make a roll and give them information their character would know, but as for things outside the box like this it's difficult. The only issue I'd have is that it makes the game a bit more abstract and as such might cause some disconnection from the events. To extrapolate to a silly degree what I mean, you could roll a 'Do Run' skill and not have to interact at all, just get experience based on how well you rolled. I think if you could slide the rolls in with a bit of creative narrative though as a little background piece as to how it came about it could work though, and if done well maybe add a little after the fact colour to the between-runs sections.

That's a good point. I think it would definitely need both the dice pool and role playing aspects. The players definitely need to come up with a satisfactory action. I think the entire aspect of the planning pool would require a lot GM discretion, more so, possibly than more normal gameplay.

[HereComesPete]

Idea - planning pool is edge pool. Each runner rolls say d6/2 (or gets half their own edge to add or whatever) this is stacked and available to all throughout the run. It equates to those lucky breaks, skills and trades you pick up that allows ocean's 11 type shenanigans.

Eg - Al gets into fisticuffs with someone too big and drunk to talk round, but he remembers a move Chopper used on some guy in a pub, grabs the guys balls and gives them a good squeeze. This equates to the extra dice that mean he could well triumph in something he normally wouldn't.

Or a taciturn Frank remembers a few of Al's favourite lines and manages to bag hot ork lady.

This is a great idea!