A Red Document Envelope: P.A.C.E Planning

[Dire Rabbit]

I will try not to clutter up the files with too much of these kinds of postings, but I wished to introduce a specific kind of planning tactic. The P.A.C.E. planning principle is easy to grasp, powerful and intensely valuable as a tool for success.

These are not plans you make when you’re preparing to go for a run, but a series of principles that allow the would be strategist to ensure their mission is successful through redundancy.

In essence, a PACE plan is two backup plans and a fail safe. It stands for Primary, Alternate, Contingency and Emergency.

• Primary – This is our plan. (We’ll take the high road.)
• Alternative – Our backup plan if conditions don’t allow for our primary plan. (We’ll take the low road.)
• Contingency – What happens if neither plan is an option due to circumstance or realities of the field. (We’ll get off the road all together and slog through the swamps to get where we need to go.)
• Emergency – This is if everything else is unavailable to us. (The roads are on fire, the swamp is full of zombie trolls who are also on fire. Therefore, we will be exiting the area as expeditiously as possible.)

Plans don’t work unless they are tested- dry runs, sandbox practice, experimenting and testing will help you figure out the problems with your plans. Battle is not the place to find out your plans aren’t going to work.

I hope this has given something to think about, I know adventuring is a life often short on planning and high on improvising (I love seeing the creativity involved in it!) but we can apply this mindset to everything from strategic decision making down to personal supply.

This is another tool in the toolbox, blessed by the Red Knight. A tool that grows more powerful the more it's used.

Aspirant Keline Hallenthen