Aquiring items with Resourses or just declaring you have it

[Taran]

So what's the difference between making a resources roll to get some gear or important item vs just declaring you already have it?

With something like scholarship, you can tell a player it's going to take x amount of time to find the information.  With resources, I'd like to do the same:  "you need a new car?  That will take time to arrange financing".  But couldn't a player, assuming they can justify it, just make a declaration, "I bought that car last week!" They make a roll or pay a FP and it's true? On one hand, I'm not sure about the character that can get anything on a moments notice, but on the other hand, I suppose a character with high resources should. It's just that I could see becoming a problem with rarer items. 

Also, I've had a character take a stunt to give Burglary the "buying things"  resourse trapping.  So, since you can get anything that is 2 levels lower than their resourses, with a high Burglary, they could "own" quite a bit.  I'm not sure how to deal with that because, technically, it seems like it should probably take some time to get and lets not forget that most of what they own is stolen.  Perhaps there should be something mentionned in the stunt to take this into consideration...

[THE_ANGRY_GAMER]

Functionally, the Buying Things trapping of Resources is a Declaration itself. YS322 says handling it via Declaration is the simplest option.

[Haru]

So what's the difference between making a resources roll to get some gear or important item vs just declaring you already have it?

There is none, except for the difference in narration. In some cases it will be cool to get a new car, in other cases it will be cool to let the rich guy say "let's take one of mine".

With something like scholarship, you can tell a player it's going to take x amount of time to find the information.  With resources, I'd like to do the same:  "you need a new car?  That will take time to arrange financing".  But couldn't a player, assuming they can justify it, just make a declaration, "I bought that car last week!" They make a roll or pay a FP and it's true? On one hand, I'm not sure about the character that can get anything on a moments notice, but on the other hand, I suppose a character with high resources should. It's just that I could see becoming a problem with rarer items. 

Well, maybe there is one difference: If you make a roll to buy a car, you can jump around on the timetable to get around a low skill. But if you need a car, you probably don't want to wait a month till you get it.

Also, I've had a character take a stunt to give Burglary the "buying things"  resourse trapping.  So, since you can get anything that is 2 levels lower than their resourses, with a high Burglary, they could "own" quite a bit.  I'm not sure how to deal with that because, technically, it seems like it should probably take some time to get and lets not forget that most of what they own is stolen.  Perhaps there should be something mentionned in the stunt to take this into consideration...

I remember a thread where this was discussed, and one of the ideas, I think, was to give everything that is acquired by this stunt a "stolen property" aspect. That way they are not as good as bought items, since they can be compelled on you at any convenience. Then again, that's probably one of the ideas of a character like that anyway.

[JDK002]

Pretty much no difference, the difficulty rating would be the same and you would still be rolling Resources.  As others have said it's really only a narrative difference.

[Sanctaphrax]

You use the Lifestyle trapping to already own things. I suppose a player could use a Declaration in its place, but they might face an increased difficulty.

[InFerrumVeritas]

You use the Lifestyle trapping to already own things. I suppose a player could use a Declaration in its place, but they might face an increased difficulty.

In practice, my group uses this to mean that the character doesn't have to roll to see if they have something if it is two steps lower than their resources skill.  The caveat is that this must be something that they would reasonably possess (no, you don't happen have a plane ticket leaving for Rome this evening, as you didn't have any plans to go to Rome until a few minutes ago).