Picking a plan
Do you guys pick a plan based on the ultimate goal or the first obstacle of the score?
My group are assassins and so far all of their scores were murder which would make all of them assault plans. In the last score they wanted to blow up 2 guys in a meeting room in a military compound. The scores started with them getting into the compound. Their plan was to get smuggled in with a shipment, so it felt like a stealth plan even though their plan was to blow up an entire office. We rolled, they were in the warehouse but the crates were being checked right then (and then the flashbacks started…).
So how do you guys pick a plan and how much does the “pick a plan” mechanic actually affect your game? For me it’s mostly “Players decide what’s the goal, I tell them the first obstacle, we roll” without all of the formalities of the rule book.
I base it on their path in, like you. Based on how John Harper has run the game for RollPlay (which is also a crew of assassins) I think that’s correct.
It’s a little squishy, but for me it’s about the primary means by which they plan to achieve their final goal.
So…
If they plan to ambush some thugs in the street and stab them up, that would probably be Assault.
If they plan to lie their way into a guard post and then poison the inspector, that would probably be Deception.
If they plan to quietly sneak into the barrister’s house and strangle him in his sleep, that would probably be Stealth.
If they plan to wrangle a ghost into possessing the witness and leeching away all her life force, that would probably be Occult.
If they plan to talk to a cutthroat’s boss and negotiate for him to turn the bastard over so they can sink him in the canals, that’s probably Social.
If they plan to sneak a bomb through a well guarded route and then leave it outside the Bluecoats’ post so they get blown to smithereens when they exit, that’s probably Transport.
In all cases, the end goal is that someone ends up dead, but the method and means is very different in each case.
I feel the main point of the plan and structure is to provide tools to short-circuit the process of planning out the whole score. There needs to be some thought to a basic frame, but if it starts spiraling into players planning it all out, cut back to the plan and detail.
I also feel the plan is about method more than objective; it’s a frame for how they plan to approach the challenges overall.
Rather than saying a plan is about the objective or the first obstacle, I would say the plan is the main mode of operation they intend to use. Stealth will be important this time. Getting in is most important. Combat capability is most important. Then once it gets underway, well.
For our group, plan is about what we want the action to focus on. If their job is to bring some stuff to a place and talk to people there to sell it or whatever else, that sounds like either transport or social. I let them pick which one they want and then more heavily focus on the scenes around that aspect. This can, of course, change based on what happens in the fiction, but it certainly defines the initial setup(and may affect stress costs for flashbacks for “this was part of our plan” if it’s actually “this is a contingency for a fight if our social plan goes off the rails”).