Pull a heist in 4 easy steps
How to run a heist adventure
Heist movies are the essence of cool. Cool characters, intriguing situations, mind-boggling puzzles. A D&D heist adventure has tremendous potential since the campaign already has cool characters and a unique and rich setting – especially if you read the Instant World Builder and Instant Campaign Builder.
Tim, a Dungeon Mastering reader, recently e-mailed me:
I want to design a part of a campaign where the group will need to pull off a heist, similar to say an Ocean’s Eleven or The Sting. […] I was curious as to your thoughts about its feasibility, and whether or not it could be worked out based on DnD restrictions.
I decided I would share my thoughts here and hopefully you can all add your comments and ideas too and make this heist project work.
1 – Determine why it’s impossible for the PCs to pull off the heist.
I would start by deciding how the target is guarded and protected and making sure it is completely utterly definitely impossible to pull off the heist. The target must be well guarded by multiple layers of protection. It must be beyond anyone’s reach. That’s what makes the heist special – it cannot, should not be achieved.
2 – Add cracks in the protection
Once it is clear that the target is perfectly unattainable I’d add some cracks in the protection. Not big cracks though. The challenge has to be daunting.
- Information. Is there available information that would allow the PCs to bypass one of the layers of protection of the target?
- Allies. Does anyone have an agenda similar to the PCs’ who could help with the heist?
- Traitors. Would anyone with inside access or information be ready to help the PCs?
- Magic. Is there a magic item or spell that could breach the magical protection of the target?
3 – Plant information
Once I know of some ways the PCs could pull of the heist I’d start planting the information over time. If you plant the information over a long period of time the heist becomes harder to pull off because it’s harder for the PCs to meta-game and figure out which clues are relevant.
4 – The Exposé
Now the fun part! Who’s briefing the PCs on the heist? That character will tell the PCs how impossible the heist is. He knows all the reasons why it’s unrealistic to try the heist. That speech should make for a great scene.
Any ideas?
Share your thoughts and experience on heist-style scenes!
Robin Laws wrote a great blog post about planning sessions from a narrative perspective as opposed to a tactical perspective, titled “You Have Already Planned”.
http://robin-d-laws.livejournal.com/219754.html
Our GM used those suggestions for one of our sessions and it was a blast!. He posted the details in the comments:
http://robin-d-laws.livejournal.com/219754.html?thread=1613930#t1613930
The more I think about it, the more I think I was wrong about the “It’s impossible” expose. It would indeed be important to make sure the PCs are fearless and overconfident before building up “impossible hype” about the heist.
One heist I’m planning for my group is:
A nobleman is going out of town. During that time, his seneschal will take over.
The PCs are employed to steal a painting from his house. There’s an optional subplot they can do if they want where they’re asked to get a rubbing of his locks for key forgery later on.
The way in: the seneschal is having some furniture delivered to the house. The furniture maker has been bribed by an organization who doesn’t like the noble. The organization will smuggle the PCs into the grounds by sewing them physically into the sofas.
Once inside, the PCs can get the painting by evading the guards, and they are asked to take a set of dummy wax keys in and put it into the locks, thus providing the organization with working copies of the locking mechanisms for their locksmiths to crack.