[Bane]

What's your standard issue plan? Your main fallback plan.

I usually like the deep planning that takes hours, but once something goes wrong, it's Plan B time.

Plan B: Break in there, kick everyone through a wall, do what we came there to do, then leave.

[Crash_00]

GMs hate me. I don't really have a standard operating plan, but my top three MOs tend to be intimidation (usually by kidnapping/making target think we kidnapped loved ones), blackmail (after some in depth research into the target), and Disguise (men in radiation suits show up with geiger counters clicking and assembling an emergency shower what do you do?).

The target is usually someone that can give us access to our goal: a security guard, board member, scientist, ect depending on goal.

Plan B is usually brutal for my characters because they don't like to leave witnesses when things have gone horribly wrong.

[Onion Man]

My plans change with my characters.

In one of my local games, you would have swore that NML's plan A was to ditch the Johnson in Africa and take off in a bush plane for Italy.

His plan B would probably be to kick in the door (or smoke the targets out of a building) and fill them with bullets...

More rational characters have more rational plans.

[CanRay]

Considering the number of characters I work with, all the plans and possibilities...

*Sighs*...  I'll shut up now.

[JoeNapalm]

What's your standard issue plan? Your main fallback plan.

I usually like the deep planning that takes hours, but once something goes wrong, it's Plan B time.

Plan B: Break in there, kick everyone through a wall, do what we came there to do, then leave.

Having an SOP is good - you and your team should be able to operate in new environments without having to chit chat about who's job it is to do what. My Merc is going to be on Intimidate, Point, or Body Guard duty, depending on the situation - no one has to tell him when to switch roles. Our Face knows when she's our frontman (frontperson?) or covering the rear, etc.

Standard plans, on the other hand, are dangerous. Standardizing anything involves making assumptions and being predictable. Plans that make assumptions and are predictable are generally not a good idea. Too easy to reverse engineer, either as an ambush, or simply as someone setting up a defensive strategy by looking at it from the opposing angle.

-Jn-
Ifriti Sophist

[Denver Doc]

Plan A:
Data mining, social engineering and contacts will typically get me everything I need for planning the job.  Recon the target real soft. Then I have to assemble the gear, crew (but lets face it I'm stuck with my usual chuckleheads) and skills.  I prefer to get the data or person all via planning and cleaver tricks,  Hard recon, before job, when needed. 

Plan B:
Depends on the situation.  Sometimes its hard entry shoot em up.  Sometimes its walk away, or in many cases run.

I always try to have a reasonable number of contingency plans in case things go tits up. 

(I think a well planned job is a great way to spend an afternoon, but most of my chummers find planning and info gathering quite boring and would much rather do a hard entry.)

[Trenchknife]

My plans....

1. Get all the information I can on the target no matter how mundane.
2. Develop a fairly nice plan to use for the purpose of gaining access to target and completing the mission.
3. Watch plan destroyed by the mad habits of my fellow shadowrunners.
4. Use one of 14 different pre-planned exit strategies to insure that I live to find a new group of runners to try and make some nuyen with.

[Red Canti]

Your main fallback plan.

Shoot everything that moves and run like hell. Not necessarily in that order.

[CanRay]

Fallback Plan:

Shoot everything that moves and everything that doesn't using tracers so I can kill it with fire.  Ammo is cheap, life is expensive.

[Angelone]

The main plan is to accomplish the mission with I dunno intel or schematics or something.

The backup plan is to lob flaming hobos at the facility until they give us what we want. If that fails I will use the flaming smelly chaos to slip in, my face powers to convince people I'm the new girl who happens to be terrified by flying flaming hobos and lost my ID in the panic.  I will then grab the objective and slip out. If I can't slip out I will use an elf to traverse a zipline.

[Charybdis]

1. Legwork
2. Assess Weaknesses of Target vs Strengths of the group
3. Discuss plan A, B and onwards
4. Implement plan A
5. Watch it go to hell
6. Implement plan B
7. Watch it get fragged
8. Repeat recursive loop
.
.
.
127. Exit loop counter and walk away from smouldering wrackage of run

[Stahlseele]

My GM:"Plan B is NOT to be used as Plan A!"
We usually get our GM by doing something completely dumb.
After 4 hours of planning, seeing his eyes get bigger and bigger with glee . .
We usually think we are trying to be too smart . .
And then somebody says:"Do you think they would expect a full frontal assault?"
And the GM-Head hits the table and we do it to just get it over with . .

Also:"There is ALLWAYS a sewer large enough to go through near by!"

[CanRay]

Plan A:  Explosives.

Plan B:  Twice as many explosives.

Plan C:  Hijack a tractor-trailer of mining explosives.

Plan D:  There's usually nothing left after Plan C.  (Trust me, a 50-foot trailer of mining explosives does not leave much behind!)

[Charybdis]

Also:"There is ALLWAYS a sewer large enough to go through near by!"

We got to use the sewers properly just the once. After that we found:
- The sewers/stormwater access drains required full-suit scuba gear due to recent heavy rains
- Repeated use of monowire grating  (that hurt.... and open wounds in a sewer...ewwwww  )
- Paracritters a go go
- A toxic spirit or two  (Excrementals.... yep, they're icky  )

And basically that't not working.

And just once the crew decided to screw it all and go for a full-frontal assault (My PC thought it was crazy so declined to take part, but decided to watch in the Astral from a great distance). Events which then followed were:
- Heavy weapons fire reduces front gate to rubble
- Rigger maneuvers van through wreckage and into open compound
- Sirens and loudspeakers start wailing: 'Unauthorised access Code 1. Surrender immediately. Resistance will be met with deadly force'
- Group continues, their heavy weapons popping off at any targets of opportunity (Gatehouses, radio antennae, guards etc)
- Turretted ARES Firelance lasers pop-out from multiple gate sections and walls
- Group gets turned into sushi

[StarManta]

My old GM found a pretty good handout to describe the levels of success/failure (and we swore by it ever after, as it helped us prepare for many eventualities). I'm writing this from memory and I'm not sure where he got it from, so if anyone can source the original that would be cool.
Plan A: As per the usual definition - everything went great and according to plan.
Plan B: Stuff's gone wrong but we can still come out clean.
Plan C: Combat. Keeping this in mind would force us to always remain in position to be ready for combat (near cover, in possession of a weapon, etc)
Plan D: Demolition. Shit's gone down and the only way to cover up the mess we've made is to make a bigger mess.
Plan E: Escape. The mission has failed, let's just get out with our lives, ok?
Plan F: Failure. One or more PC's are dead.