The Utility Belt Talent allows a player to spend a Destiny Point to take out an item that was previously undocumented from hit belt, pockets, pack, whatever.

But . . .

. . . isn't that one of the uses of a Destiny Point already? To spend one and get a necessary item to the situation at hand? What's the point of this Talent?

It's the no questions asked option limited by size, rarity, frequency, etc. Whereas with a DP a GM should be weighing what the players try to use a DP for to cover an equipment shortfall, particularly how often. If they are just not planning terribly well I wouldn't let them use a DP, but with Utility Belt if it meets the reqs it meets the reqs imo.

I agree in that "If we forgot something, we have 3 Destiny Points to cover us." is kind of lame and I wouldn't allow it if they use it as a crutch versus "Oh ****, we need X now!"

Still, I can't recall a single moment that has ever come up where my specific players have ever used Destiny Points as a crutch, particularly because it turns to a Dark Side Destiny Point and I am always creative with those to scare my players. So would Utility Belt not be a good Talent for our particular style of play? If so, that seems very strange.

Spending a D-point to generate gear is more to allow the story to keep rolling and requires the GM to approve it.

Player: Oh no we forgot to get scuba gear! Can we spend a D-point to assume we already bought some so we don't have to fly three weeks back to civilization to get some?

GM:Sure!

Spending a D-point on the Utility Belt Talent provides constraints in exchange for not requiring GM approval.

GM:You're trapped down the well and no one can hear you screaming and your backup comlink broke from that despair you rolled earlier.

Player: That's ok I have a backup-backup-comlink!

My five cents:

Honestly, the talents as written now and then lead to questions like this. Especially in case of "Spend Triumph to do X" or "Spend Destiny to do Y" sometimes lead to the question "shouldn't you be able to do that with a DP or Triumph anyway?!" (Knockdown being another example that springs to mind). Those talents limit by their very wording the flexibility of the GM and the players to interpret the effects of triumph and destiny points, which is somewhat problematic.

So you are essentially left with two different ways to look at it:

1. If there is a talent that allows me to do something with destiny or triumph, then it can't be done without the talent or it would be harder to do.

2. The talent allows the player to decide the effects of triumph or destiny, whereas otherwise the GM has to approve.

If you opt for version 1, you can simply add an additional test/better results as requirement for the players action to work. ("Can I spend a destiny point to have a hydro spanner with me?" "You don't have utility belt, so you would need 2 destiny points or spend destiny and succeed at a hard intellect-test to have thought of it") I am not really very fond of this way to look at it, but it would work.

The second version is basically what 2P51 said. It's an ok interpretation of how it would work, but imho EVERY idea a player comes up with has to be approved by the GM and most of the time it would be unreasonable for the GM to disallow a brilliant player idea, just because there is a talent that would allow the player to do what he wants to do and he does not have it.

So depending on your play style the talent is kind of awkward and it might be best to houserule this. Easiest way to do it: read any talent that says: "spend destiny to do Y" as "once per session you can do Y".

There was a discussion a while back on this about the difference between the item Utility Belt, the Talent Utility Belt and the use of Destiny Points to get an item conscious was something like this:

After reading the Utility Belt entry (pg183) and the Utility Belt Talent (pg145) it's seems like just an unfortunate naming issue of the talent matching the name of the item. It's pretty clear that the Utility Belt item is just a way to hold an additional 1 ENC worth of 0 ENC items that the player is supposed to document. The Utility Belt Talent allows a PC to spend a Destiny Point to pull out a small (likely 0-1 ENC only), up to rarity 4, undocumented item from anywhere on the PC (less subject to GM approval unless they feel it's too large).

Reading the Destiny Point/Deus Ex Machina section (pg28) it's seems clear that when spending a Destiny Point to "find" an item it is actually a suggestion to find any somewhat likely item (with no implicit ENC or Rarity restriction) within the scene and does not mean that the item is immediately available or on the PC, the GM may place the item anywhere and require some action to retrieve it. However "Player's should not abuse this use of Destiny Points: the more outrageous or unlikely the suggestion the more likely the GM will curtail the Players' use of Destiny Points" This clearly means that whatever the Players' ask for is not guaranteed to be given.

So here are the breakdowns:

Utility Belt (item): Carry up to 10 additional 0 ENC items in the PC's inventory.

Utility Belt Talent: Spend a Destiny Point to gain a small (likely 0-1 ENC), up to rarity 4, undocumented item from anywhere on the PC. (less subject to GM approval unless they feel it's too large).

Destiny Point/Deus Ex Machina: Spend a Destiny Point to find any somewhat likely to be found item (with GM approval) somewhere within the scene and may require an action to find or retrieve.

Yeah, I'll echo that the difference between standard Destiny Point usage and Utility Belt usage is "likely to have". Without the utility belt talent, the GM should really only be giving something that likely to be laying around, or something that the characters should have thought of as part of Standard Procedure, or is plot advancement critical (which in our game is typically flipped by the GM. "Good thing the Jedi Temple gave you rebreathers for your trip to Naboo"). Utility Belt gives the player the opportunity to pull out an item they have no logical reason to have. "Yes, I know we're on a civilized planet that prohibits all weaponry, and we were just headed to dinner, but it's a good thing I brought this extra stun grenade."

The Utility Belt Talent allows a player to spend a Destiny Point to take out an item that was previously undocumented from hit belt, pockets, pack, whatever.

But . . .

. . . isn't that one of the uses of a Destiny Point already? To spend one and get a necessary item to the situation at hand? What's the point of this Talent?

Yea, isn`t it? I use it like that in my game. I wonder about other talents and game mechanics too, that I think don`t really have to be part of the game mechanics. Like Hdden Storage and a few others I have wondered about.

In other games these things can just happen or exist based on the story and player creativity.. I guess they still can, but these game aspects make it more solid or improved somehow?

To those that have suggested the DP on its own puts an item with the scene, but not necessarily in the PC's hands... Thank you, i had completely missed this and it makes a lot more sense to me now.

on the broader topic of talents like this and Hidden Storage i think its important for the GM to try and provide opportunities for them to come into play, not every encounter, or session, but to have moments for the PC's to use these talents to the best of their abilities. When the player takes one of these talents, they are saying to the GM, this is cool, i wan to be able to do this.