Rule question
does the gear and intel you receive from hit the street and other legwork moves go int a communal pool shared by players or does it only get to be used by the player that earned it. cant find any clarification in the book and am tired of losing all my preparation to other players when the mission starts
It’s yours. There’s nothing communal about it. That the [gear] is abstracted doesn’t change that it’s your gear. It’s the resource you bring to help you on the mission.
It’s not specifically stated in the book, but I assume it’s private unless characters (not players!) explicitly share…
Especially for gear, what’s the fictional justification for another player using it? Remember, gear represents some incidental piece of equipment that you picked up earlier in the mission, and didn’t bother mentioning until you needed it. So it would be odd if another character is magically conjuring up some gear that was nominally in another characters pocket.
Intel is a bit more hazy, but the same assumption applies – Intel earned by a character represents some piece of information in that characters head. So that player might permit another player to use it – retroactively declaring that they’d shared some info – but I wouldn’t consider intel to be communal by default…
As for your question, I could see it going either way depending on the group. Some teams are going to keep intel and gear a personal thing, others are going to share it around. Whatever works for your play group is correct.
However. Based on your statement of “am tired of losing all my preparation to other players when the mission starts” it sounds like you and the other players need to have a talk. This is a collaborative game and players need to compromise. People shouldn’t be making unilateral decisions for things that affect other players and characters.
Have you brought this up to your group?
we have talked but the consensus is that if the rules dont say who gets it, everyone gets it. wanted to know if there was a clarification
I don’t think there is an “official” ruling, but I could be wrong. Maybe Hamish Cameron can weigh in.
Even if intel and gear end up being a team pool, it sounds like players are willing to spend them over your objections. That’s not good.
I didn’t comment immediately since I agreed with J Stein’s first comment.
Same as with any move, when you roll it, the hold accumulates to you. You can share it if you like, but its yours. Now, I’ve definitely seen groups track it collectively, and that works fine as long as the group is in agreement.
As Chris Stone-Bush says, it sounds like you need to have a talk with your group.
“If the rules don’t say who gets it, everyone gets it” is an interesting assumption to unpack!
Generally, my assumption is the opposite. The benefit of the move goes to the player rolling the move individually, unless it specifically says otherwise (or unless the fiction dictates otherwise).
Do the rules specifically say who gets +1 forward when acting on assess? That’s another where my it goes to the player making the role, but if fictionally appropriate, I usually allow it to be shared. Or asking the assess questions. The hold also goes to the player rolling, but they can ask the group for suggestions on the question.
I always ran it as a communal pool. My reason is that it is a team game. The Fixer isn’t just out there getting things for himself, but for the whole team. Since you don’t have to declare what [gear] is in advance, it can be a powerful tool for overcoming unforeseen obstacles. In the heist genre, it is common that we see flashbacks to a scene where a piece of gear or intel is revealed. Allowing that resource as a type of safety net gives the players the confidence to do things instead of himming and hawing over what to do.
Helping or interfering is a move, and your plus 1 forward can go towards it with ease. I don’t see a need to transfer that bonus directly.
It is indeed a team game, and I can see the [gear] and [intel] resources being communal. But if they are personal resources, it encourages all the characters to get involved during the Legwork Phase. If you want [gear] and [intel], go get it yourself. That helps entangle everyone in the sprawl, and encourages players to get involved instead of relying on one or two players to collect resources for the team.
The Sprawl isn’t a game where everyone will be equally able to contribute to all phases of play. Some playbooks are more focused on legwork while others live more in action. There is nothing wrong with that, but it does mean that certain characters are less likely to engage in certain phases. You can ameliorate this to some extent by not having every miss be a failure. Even then, players may get annoyed at all the extra complications that are cropping up because someone can’t sit quietly for a few minutes.
I’d contrast The Sprawl against Fate Accelerated, in that the moves of The Sprawl require certain stats to be linked to them. Fate Accelerated would play better with everyone acting in a certain phase because they can all approach the issue from the angle of their choosing. No one is being forced to engage with their weakest areas. None of this is to say that all the players shouldn’t or can’t engage in the Sprawl in every phase. Only that not every playbook grants equal access to all parts of the game.
I do not disagree with what you are saying steven swezey. Different playbooks are focused on or more competent in different phases to a greater or lesser extent. The resources can absolutely be communal.
I’m coming from the assumption that, just because the team works together doesn’t mean they trust each other absolutely. Keeping [gear] and [intel] personal resources helps support that. If you send the Killer out to Hit the Streets, there’s no guarantee she’ll share everything she gets with the rest of the team.
Chris Stone-Bush(null) I can see where you are coming from. As much as double crosses are part of the genre, I find that sort of cloak and dagger stuff to be extremely disruptive. It’s very easy for the game to devolve once you allow the players to stick knives in each other’s backs. Since I want to keep friends instead of losing them, I don’t run that style of game. I understand some people like it, but it isn’t for me.
I can absolutely see where you’re coming from. I should have clarified, but the characters might be keeping secrets from each other. I don’t think players should be keeping secrets.
steven swezey to the degree that the playbooks are mechanically balanced it is, in part, assuming characters with Gear-generating moves will have the resultant benefits of that, mechanically and fictionally. If you were playing DnD you’d agree, I think, that the wizard can’t steal spell slots from the cleric because they’re on the same team.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with treating them as communal pools, as long as everyone at the table is cool with that. As I said above, I have done it myself before.
That said, if doing so leaves a player feeling like their character advantage/skills/niche is being impinged upon, then it might be a problem to treat them communally. Or the situation might be revealing a social contract issue that the table should talk about.
J Stein Stealing implies that it wasn’t given freely. The cleric can totally cast his spells on the wizard, which is what sharing intel and gear is. Many people would go so far as to suggest that one of the main duties of a cleric or wizard is to use their spells for the team. Sometimes that means buffing the fighter. Like Hamish was saying, if communal pools aren’t working for you, there is probably a social contract issue. If you want to introduce competitive elements like Chris was suggesting, than you may be better off using personal pools.
The difference between using your spells /on/ the team and giving spell slots to the wizard is a difference in efficacy and agency. The latter removes the character from play and turns them into a passive buff.
J Stein – yep. That’s why I mentioned deliberately sharing intel… the receiving player doesn’t just magically get +1 to a roll for no reason. They get it because their character is interacting with the character who actually has the intel.
And in game, that might be as simple as chatter on the shared comms… the intel-laden hacker saying “Check your inbox; I just sent you a file I found earlier containing floor plans”.