SM PS Improvising

Also known as "The Art of Faking It"
There may be situations where a character has to attempt something totally new. He or she does not possess the required skill. He’s not stupid, just ignorant.

Unskilled labor in a life-and-death situation is bad, but it happens all too often. So, no idea how to accomplish the only option? With enough time and resources, the “self-starting” character can train on-the-job. This usually requires low stress levels, a generous time limit for trial and error plus the freedom to actually make an error (fixing engines is one thing, disarming bombs is a little different).

Here’s an example scenario...
"Let's say a character has been an analyst (desk jockey) in the CIA for most of his life when suddenly, he's called upon to do some fieldwork. Everything is fine as Mr. Ryan treks through the desert… until the Land Rover flips on a steep dune and kills the local guide. Even if he could find a leverage to flip the Rover over, Mr. Ryan does not possess any mechanical skills. Nor is he familiar with desert survival or land navigation (orienteering). So does he just die out there or what?""Too many folk would give up and die. More resourceful folk lean toward: or what. There are usually any number of ways to solve a given problem and it becomes the player’s pleasure to prod the character through the challenge. For grins, we’ll call Jack Ryan’s player “Tom.” Off the top of Tom’s head, he improvises three possible courses of action for Mr. Ryan:""Flip the Rover over and tinker under the hood - the dubiously effective average-guy response to car troubles.""Grab the travelers’ checks and start a long walk (bringing an improvised scarf to simulate the latest Bedouin fashions and looking at the setting sun for a directional clue); Or get on the radio and call for an emergency rescue – and hope nobody else hears.""All of these options could work. Which one will the player pick? Which one has the highest probability of success? Which can be repeated and which changes the situation at the very attempt? Time to Speculate.""Tom figures that while Bedouins may or may not welcome his character, dehydration will kill Jack first. Second, since this operation has no diplomatic cover, he’s not going to get an evacuation flight (especially since the helicopter would have to fly over Libyan airspace to get there). That leaves the first and greasiest option: tinkering with the engine.""While Tom-the-Player could be a quick-change artist at Jiffy Lube, poor Jack-the-Character is the guy in the pinch… and Jack doesn’t know himself when it comes to things mechanical."(2H.0.0) Learning on the Fly

(1) Given a secure environment, a character may study a problem to search for a solution.

(2) The character may apply up to 10% of his intelligence skill at a rate of one DoD point per hour of apparent elapsed time up to his maximum.

(3) Apply luck.

(4) Compare mDoD against accumulated study.

''If the task fails, and key objects were not destroyed in the process, the character may reattempt. See the “Improvisation mods” below.''

(2H.0.5) Improvisation mods.

There are, of course, caveats. Fortunately, when hard work and brain power are applied, those caveats usually fall in favor of the PC.

(2H.1.0) Trial and error.

Even a failed attempt will have taught the character something. For each max-time-limit failure, simply by tinkering, the character will accumulate 1 knowledge point in that skill up to the same 10%-of-Intelligence cap. So, assuming the character has oodles of time, he could have (for example), an 8 point skill bonus on top of 8 transient study points, and maybe a little luck on top of that.

(2H.1.1) Complex tasks.

Obviously, field experimentation is only going to get you so far. For more complex tasks – like filing 1040 forms or performing networked “Windows” installations – the character may be SOL. Or is he? Somebody manages to figure these things out, why not the character? It happens. If the PC is really lucky, the doohickey’s directions are within reach. An engineering acronym leaps to mind here: RTFM (Read The Fucking Manual).

That’s right, folks, having documentation handy is a good thing. It doubles the rate of study (2 points per hour), and boost both the single attempt and accumulated permanent skill caps to 15%. To get any better than that, you’ve got to go school.

(2H.2.0) ADAPTING RELATED SKILLS:

This is the part of the job they talked about when they specified candidates need to be “flexible and resourceful.” You may have a clue, but no specific training. On the other hand, no differentiation is made for task complexity beyond the DoD.

(2H.2.1) Alpha Blur:

A task falls into the same field as a character’s skill, but under a different specialty. The character may apply half his skill from a closely related field.

(2H.2.2) Bravo Blur:

The character has a skill that is similar (note an arguably gray area here), but not the same as demanded by the task DoD. The player may apply 10% of that reasonably related skill (round up to the nearest whole number, these players are our friends). This is cumulative with the Intelligence-garnered study bonus.