The Basics Options

[Sicarius]

In a similar vein, what have fellow GMs noticed that players ALWAYS forget?

For me its masks and gloves of some kind. I can't tell you how many players i've had startled by the fact that their face shows up on the tv, after a run. Heck its only 2005, and when in almost all crimes you see at least a grainy video image. specially for actually useful targets like banks, or commercial thefts. I even suprised one group by having their description come out over their scanner after they were only a few mintues from the scene. One player bitched about that for awhile, while i explained how the Corporate Rapid Response Team's Decker had already downloaded the security camera's footage, and uploaded it to his team.

They never go anywhere without a mask anymore.

[Cain]

Silencers for your guns. I just got a player on that tidbit-- he built his character around his gun abilities, then found himself in a stealth situation where he had to kill someone. No silencer meant he was in a load of trouble.

[sanctusmortis]

With a decent Decker knocking out building security, the "hey, I'm on TV!" thing happens a lot less often. But yes, sadly it is rather obviously forgotten.

Most commonly forgotten thing? A backup plan! :D

[Trax]

[Guest_Overwatch_*]

Amen to that. I've GM'd about ten years worth of SR games, and only ONCE among any number of different runs and runners, did ANYONE ever come up with a back up plan. They'll sit around and go into frightening detail about camera positions, guard schedules, the materials that doors and windows and walls are made of, etc. etc. etc.

But no one ever says "hey...what if this particular plan doesn't work?"

The result is usually half a run or so going exactly as planned, and the other half consists of "winging it":)

[Trax]

There is a problem of overthinking a plan though. You can't plan everything perfectly, otherwise you'll be spending a month real time planning for a run that will take possibly 15 minutes to actually complete. And that is no fun at all.

I prefer to just have a quick sketchy plan and wing it the rest of the way, it's more fun for everyone instead of sitting around a table roleplaying characters sitting around a table.

[Vaevictis]

Men plan, God laughs. -- proverb

Plans never survive contact with the enemy. -- Field Marshal Auchinlek

Plans are of no use whatsoever, but the act of planning is indispensible. -- Duke of Wellington (I think)


You don't plan because you expect to follow the plan; you plan because it gives you some idea of what to expect, and some idea as to how you might care to react to it. Plan B's are no better than Plan A's -- they're just more of the same.

[Clyde]

"I think a plan is just a list of things that never happens." -Mr. Parker from "The Way of the Gun"