Hey!
Technical question for you and I’m mostly interested in various MCs perspectives: what’s the distinction between the Aquire an Asset downtime action, and a Flashback to set up something during a score?
I mean beyond the possibility of Stress costs etc.
If John addresses this in the text, I would love a page number.
Thanks!
Hmmm, I tend to distinguish them by how obvious it is to the heist. If you’re picking up a smuggling run, but don’t have a cart/boat/etc. then you better acquire the asset. Or you’re going to capture one of the Reconciled, and know that you need something more potent than a simple spirit bottle to do it, then you need to acquire the asset before you start the heist.
But flashbacks cover the side things that are handy NOW, and weren’t so obviously necessary. The target took off in his craft down the canal? You can flashback for acquiring your own boat that was ready for just such an occasion. These ones I also treat as far less reliable, because you didn’t spend the downtime/coin to get the good stuff.
I believe you need to allow some version of acquiring assets as flashbacks, otherwise you start slipping back into planning for and predicting contingencies, rather than cutting to the action.
I have no idea if this distinction is addressed in the text though :/
Kevin Tompos thanks for the discussion. You pinpoint the issue of that specific downtime action as such, as it requires preplanning. This is the exact thing that flashbackd are geared to circumvent. Quality is determined by Tier and the results of the action / fate roll.
So, the only efficient use of Aquire an Asset would be to stack the engagement roll in your favour by having just the thing for your Plan.
I’m open to being wrong about this tho.
.
Huh. I think we’ve been running that you can do Downtime actions in flashbacks, but you still need to spend a Coin or Rep to pay for them.
No difference. Also no stress cost: p132 “If a flashback involves a downtime activity, pay 1 coin or 1 rep for it, instead
of stress.”
We’ve actually hit problems with players acquiring assets during Downtime, rather than waiting to flashback when they actually need to use it. During a flashback, the player has a better idea of the quality/tier they actually require. During downtime, they often overestimate things and end up spending more coin than they feel they needed to.
I think that even works for things like transport plans, where you need a boat. Lock in the need for a flashback to acquire the boat, but keep the actual acquire asset roll on hold until the players actually meet an obstacle they want to overcome and the boat’s quality is a concern. I don’t think it’s overly generous, it just assumes the characters would’ve known better than the player, and it helps the get past the ‘must overplan’ that some of my groups always struggle with.
That’s what I was looking for!
Awesome! Thanks Oliver Granger . I clearly had that wrong.