Here is a translation of the Scams & Intrusion part (the rest of the document is about something else). I've used Platinum's extraction and partial translation and cleaned it up.
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QUOTE ("le grümph")
It starts with the mission statement: Mr. Johnson wants to extract a scientist from the laboratory of a certain corporation.
The GM gives some general information, rubbing his hands.
And that's when the players give themselves a distressed look, knowing they will once again spend two hours to assemble a cheesy plan, which will not hold beyond the first three minutes and will end anyway by a not so quiet shoot'em up on the premises of the corporation or even in the streets. Why bother? They might as well rush directly guns blazing, after checking the available amount of ammunition.
But this isn't the only solution. If you like movies like Ocean's Eleven (and its sequels), The Sting, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Spanish Prisoner, Experts, or series like The Unit or Mission Impossible, here's a way of getting the excitement of such works, with complex plans which work despite the inevitable surprises!
The Old-Fashioned Plans
The players aren't the characters.
They do not think at everything, aren't specialists in the same areas and, especially, don't have the necessary time and resources.
This makes it impossible to design, evaluate and implement a comprehensive plan that could lead to a break, a scam, or even a paramilitary operation worthy of the name.
Generally, plans that players try to put up, just to make their little brains think and to show they aren't just mindless brutes, are doomed to failure in the short or long term.
Indeed, the GM is not neutral.
He's not even deterministic because he can't thing of everything either. That leaves him with two choices when the characters begin to unfold their operation: either that the plan is good, in which case ten minutes later it's done without a hitch (and without any hassle), or he identifies vulnerabilities, exploits and the plan can then be thrown away because the characters can not cling to any rescue plan, except for their firepower.
Neither case is satisfactory, either for players or for the GM. The rising tension, the stress setting in, but also the pleasure to see a plan succeed -or not- that's what players won't feel without a great amount of good will.
From good preparation...
Fortunately, there is a relatively simple solution: do not plan.
More precisely, planning isn't the players' job but the characters'.
They are the one on the front line, after all. It is their blood that will be shed if it goes wrong.
And what do they know about the ground truth, those players who control them, well protected with their feet under the game table?
So the characters are the one preparing the plan. They call their contacts for information, resources or equipment, technicians to prepare the ground, their skills or experience to think of everything.
And only then, they embark on the operation itself!
The guiding principle is elementary: the characters will try to accumulate mission points by moving their bodies and planning.
This is not about predicting things in detail, nor about obtaining accurate information from the GM.
They must use their own resources in a rather mechanical way, for example by involving their skills or their background.
They can therefore:
• Build on their contacts to learn more about the targets.
A broad information is worth one mission point, a specific or complete can yield up to five points.
Everything depends on people contacted or resources used, and their affinity with the target.
• Use their skills (Engineering or Computer to provide the necessary equipment, Survival or Street Knowledge to know where they will set foot, or Influence or Con for social engineering, etc.).
It is impossible to detail all possible actions - it always depends on the initial conditions, the universe and the characters.
Each skill test takes time, of course, but can bring a number of mission points, depending on the number of hits or a scale of difficulty determined by the GM for the game's system.
What is important is that the GM will never detail the information, assistance or material obtained.
It must always be evasive information: listing of employees, access to a computer system, obtaining property or vehicles (without necessarily specifying which ones), etc..
It's up to the players to decide, in the time before the operation itself (which is often limited), what their characters give priority to, according to their expertise and the nature of the operation.
... To good implementation
Because it's only when implementing the plan, during the adventure, that the information or resources will be precisely described ... and used by the players.
Thus, during the resolution of the operation, each time the GMconfronts the characters to a new obstacle, they can spend one or more mission points accumulated during the preparation phase, to cause a last-minute change.
The underlying idea is that if players can not predict in advance the script, the characters themselves are able through their experience, their knowledge and adaptability!
The evil guard who surprised the characters in the middle of the lobby of the corporation turns out to be the cousin of one of the characters (2 pts).
The keypad of the lift has been obtained thanks to a discreet camera installed in the lobby (1 pt).
Surveillance cameras have been offset by a prerecorded loop inserted into the main computer room (3 pts).
The cops, alerted by the silent alarm, who will surprise the team on its way out, won't find anything compromising about the characters because since the beginning the exfiltrated researcher had to use another way out (5 pts).
You have to play on the predicatble elements but also on the reversals - numerous in Ocean's Eleven, for example: when Danny Ocean finds himself alone with the wrestler in a small room, it is expected that he'll get his ass kicked! Nay, the guy is a friend ...
The important thing is to estimate correctly the price of mission point, and especially to force the players to explain how they can spend it at this time. Of course, when all the mission points are spent, the characters have to improvise with what they have left.
Please not that all obstacles don't need to be circumvented with the mission points.
The characters still have their skills available and players can continue to think.
In front of a door with a lock, no need to spend a point of mission when a locksmith roll may be enough; in front of an angry (and mustached) secretary, no need for a mission point when you can get away with little blah-blah, a few winks and the promise of a dinner for two.
The mission points are limited and powerful resources to be reserved for the most difficult moments, those in which there is no apparent solution - when the characters are cornered in a dead end, without light nor hope.
Note also: the mission points are not miracle or random luck.
They are strongly linked in one way or another, to the capacity of the characters to expect the worst.
The characters have always foreseen the event and the players must explain when, how and why - the famous explanatory flashbacks in the series of Ocean's when they discover that everything was planned and organized.
Assessing expenditure
Circumventing an obstacle: 1 point
Minor obstacle (involves a single NPC or a local system): +0
Middle obstacle (involves a NPC team or a global system): +1
Major obstacle (involves authorities, an elite team of NPC, or a particularly tough system): +2
Obstacle that could trigger a combat situation: +1
Obstacle allowing the authorities or the target to trace the PC or their employer: +1
Surprises and mischief!
For the GM, the work is both simpler and more complicated.
Simpler, because he does not need to describe all elements of the mission to the players.
They just need the bare minimum.
Everything else can be more or less improvised.
Moreover, he can also provide lots of obstacles and difficulties, without wondering whether the characters can overcome them (or how), and balance it out during the game.
More complicated, as players can also improvise!
The GM must know how to fit their requests, their ideas, to force them to think carefully about the use of their mission points, and clearly describe the desired effect.
He must also assess the price in mission points of each element of the plan that is improvised (see our table indicative).
Creating a complex plan is now within reach of any gaming table No more hours and hours of talking in a vacuum, and ready for the action!
All it takes is to spend time and money in order to accumulate mission points.
Then it's during the game, by being clever and thoughtful, that the players can prove their expertise.