Help designing a heist?

[kitsune9]

I'm having trouble coming up with possible reasons the noble will either be gone from the house or distracted. I thought about having the cliche "villain throws a party" going on, so the group can sneak past the guards, etc. Or even the noble may take his family on a trip, and the group sneaks in when only the household staff is there. But neither of these seem very interesting, and I want to give the group a few different scenarios to choose from.

So, what have you used in your campaigns, or what can you think of to make this more interesting? My players (and I, of course) will be thankful for whatever you can come up with!

So here's my advice in two parts--distractions for the villain and twists for the party while sneaking about.

Distractions

1. The villain is devoutly religious and is a patron of [insert god] church. The PC's will know that the villain will be performing his nightly supplications and prayers at this time and his piety is measured by maintaining concentration and not allowing himself to be disturbed. The bodyguard sits outside the family chapel door.

2. The villain is down in his basement torturing some poor soul / minion who has failed him. Maybe the PC's thwarted some other guy who was supposed to kill the PC's and now he's paying for his failure in the villain's dungeon. Or the guy could be someone who owes money and now he's getting a financial lesson on interest. The villain is a real sadist so is going to spend his time on the guy.

3. The villain is a known drug addict and around this time, he's zoned out.

4. The villain is conducting a backroom deal with the local magistrate, guilds, high-level clerics, powerful figures, etc. down in his cellar which is warded against evesdropping. This discussion will be heated and take an hour or so to resolve.

5. The villain summoned an oracle to divine certain events for him. They are in a study or his library where they are not to be disturbed.

Twists for the PC's

1. The cat's out of the bag--the PC's get followed around by a cat who likes to meow--loudly. They think the cat's meow will attract the attention of the servants so they will want to shoo it away or literally put it in a bag to shut it up. The cat is not stupid and will run away from cruel PC's who attempt to shoot it or draw their gleaming weapons. You can make this funny as the cat will dodge into areas where the PC's could knock over a vase, fine china, etc.

2. Loose mantle--a greedy PC' will notice a fine gold chalice and maybe help themselves to it. Of course, taking the chalice causes the mantle to become loose and suddenly the other trophies begin to fall and now the PC must make some quick reflexes to grab the stuff falling or else it will hit the floor with a big CRASH! This will draw the attention of a servant and the PC's will need to do a quick hide checks.

3. The darn house is just falling apart--the PC's are walking across a rug, but there's a flagstone missing underneath, they got to make a reflex save or go crashing into a suit of armor. Then, they need to be somewhere else.

4. Ummm? Chimney Inspection?--the PC's are searching a room and suddenly they hear voices coming down the hall. They need to hide and hide quickly. The obviously solution is up the chimney. Have them automatically scramble up the chimney, but then dust and soot gets in their eyes and they have to make saves to avoid sneezing/coughing while there is conversation in the room. Suddenly they see some logs being tossed into the chimney, but whoever is talking says that they need to go downstairs, etc. Now, if the PC's get caught, there was a chimney inspection due that day and they will be completely covered in soot so servants who catch them are a little dense and let them go about their business if the PC's pull off a good bluff check.

5. Those annoying imps--at the time, the PC's are searching around, they will have to contend with an imp who will harrass the PC's all by himself. He will toss a glass jar at the PC's to see if they can catch it, throw grease, and so on to cause noise. If the PC's attack him, the imp will position himself where if they miss, the telling blow goes smashing into the fine china cabinet and so on.

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

A hiest is all about the complications. Here are some good ones

A Better Offer: So someone wants the McGuffin. Surely someone else wants that McGuffin as well. He's willing to pay a single party member extra for it. This betrayal doesn't have to be obvious to the other players. Allow the betraying party member a chance to replace the McGuffin with some sort of fake.

3rd Party: Another group is stealing the McGuffin the same night. This group should be going about it differently from the PCs. If the PCs are using Stealth, the rival group is team "kick the door down."

The Xanotos Gambit: The villain wants the party to steal the McGuffin. Returning it to Lord Light triggers the secret of the McGuffin and it does [insert something nasty here]. Of course, the villain is also happy to hold onto the McGuffin. Or perhaps the Villain hired the PCs simply to open the vault itself. The McGuffin inside is truely useless compared to what he can do now that the door is opened. Either way, the villain wins.

It's a Trap: A classic hiest trope. Just as the PCs get to the McGuffin, the lights switch on. The PCs are surrounded by henchmen and the mastermind is applauding.

 

[Diamond Cross]

Just don't do it in a biker's bar. Somebody may just overhear your plans and use them to successfully rob a bank.

 

[Ralls]

My DM gave us a pretty cool heist senario. I'll throw a few ideas in:

Infiltration:
-There could be a shipment of tapestries, booze, or drugs arriving into said manor. A PC could cling to the bottom of the wagon or stowaway in the supplies.
- From above! A glider landing on the roof is always a fun start. Or even parachuting in. A rather interesting complication is if a PC gets stuck in a tree and must hide as the guards walk over to check it out.
- An inside job. Get a PC to bribe a guard to leave a door unlocked. An interesting complication is the guard double-crossing them for even more cash.
- A distraction. Set fire to the estate's forest. sneak in while the guards are away.

Mid-heist complications:
- Is he coming back? the villian in on his way back inside for some reason, prompting a rather daring escape.
- Security spells. Like security cameras, only they're detectable spells. Possibly marked on a map prior to the heist from a resource.
- A sleepwalker. Have an occupant of the house sleepwalk into a coordoor or passageway the heroes need to pass. It'll be entertaining.

The daring escape:
- The classic rope over the wall and into the night.
- Why should we smuggle it out? Hide the item in a cart or stall that's known to go into town the next day. then just pick it up from there.
- Walk right out of the front gate. This one will be tricky to pull off, but is rewarding if you can manage a scenario that would allow it.

 

[jimmifett]

You can set part of it up like a skill challenge, albeit you'll be splitting the party a little bit.

The party learns of the son of a rival Noble of slightly higher rank that the evil noble is currently in the area. The party arranges to kidnap the son, or at least drug him, so they can rob his credentials and disguise the party Faceman as the son.

Face man strolls into town, creating some flambouyant ruccus at a social gathering, forcing the evil noble to "deal" with him when he normally wouldn't even attend. Knowing that he can't openly oppose the son of his superior in the open, he is forced with loathing to give the White Glove treatment to his "Honored Guest" (and possibly his companion / other party memeber).

Meanwhile, the rest of the party is skill challenging thier way through the manor and it's traps and such.

I would break it into alternating scenes, what the faux noble is doing with bbeg, and what the rest of the party is encountering.

It could even be multiple skill challenge type events (consult Heroes of Battle, but over lay an Oceans 11 template instead of battle template) where success or failure in one event affects future events during the session, adding/reducing difficulty checks, granting more time to finish the job, or less time, added or laxed security measures.

Your twist is when a redfaced man in bedraggled clothing bursts into the social event, points at the faceman, and calls him out for impersonation, starts a fight, and decks the surprised BBEG by mistake. It now turns into a non-combat swashbuckling battle royale as the BBEG has had enough and is trying to get back to his home, the faceman either needs to entangle him in the commotion to delay him or escape himself, all while dealing with the real noble's son.

If the party succeeds well enough, they escape without a trace. If multiple failed events stack up, they can all meet up just in time to have a combat, making sure the faceman has rejoined the party against either the son of the noble and his underlings, or the bbeg and his underlings, as everyone is trying to either race to or out of the manor.

 

[Janx]

I think part of the problem is who's doing the planning?

The GM's job is to provide an environment that enables and encourages a heist.

to encourage a heist, you've got to provide information and opportunity.

this means the PCs need to be able to discover:
the macguffin is at location X
the nature of security precautions
the schedule of people who might interfere (guards, BBEG)

Now getting some of this information may be its own session worth of info. But if you want them to seriously consider it, at least some of these elements need to fall into the players lap so they can make the mental leap of "Hey, let's steal it!"

Setup the Timing Vulnerability:
Detemine if there's a special occasion or not. If there is (like a party), plot out what that normal timeline would be (prep, the event, post-event) and let the PCs get that info. The event could be a party, or a trip, etc.

If you don't have a special occasion planned, the PCs will generate something or break in during a "safer" time like at night, changing of the guards, etc.

The PCs will be wanting to identify a vulnerable time to do the heist. Your job as GM is to invent/expose it if the players don't find a way to generate one (like inviting the BBEG to a party somewhere else). If there's no timing vulnerability, the PCs will be less likely to pursue a heist (ANY vulnerability increases the perception that the heist is a doable idea).

The typical Twist on this is that schedule deviation occurs, causing somebody to show up early/late.

The Security Precautions:
figure out when the guard changes are and patrol patterns
figure out when people go to bed, etc
figure out each security and alarm system (even passcodes and signals)

Make sure the PCs can get this information, otherwise, they will be less likely to enter the BBEG's house with ZERO intel. Perhaps they go to the installer, or bribe a BBEG's employee, or somebody disgruntled babbles about how they know how easy it would be to break in to that bastard's house in bar.

The typical Twist on this is that the information is mostly correct, except something has been changed (perhaps as an upgrade or response to a prior break-in).

Other twists:
somebody else shows up for the macguffin
the BBEG was waiting for them at the macguffin
the macguffin reveals some new world altering information
the macguffin isn't what they thought (perhaps it's a live person)

The point of all this is to create a play space for the players to get the idea to do a heist and give them the info to plan it, and execute it as THEY want.

You shouldn't tell the players that they HAVE to break in.
You shouldn't tell the players HOW they're going to break in (even if the HOW is obvious by nature of the security)
You shouldn't neutralize the players good planning just to make it harder

the key to all the heist movies is the protagonists know an aweful lot about the mark. You have to give them that info rather readily. You then making challenging by nature of the actual security (knowing there's lasers doesn't mean its easy to get past them). You also increase the challenge by adding complications to the situation that weren't known during the planning stage.

Out of all this advice, remember these don'ts:

You shouldn't tell the players that they HAVE to break in.
You shouldn't tell the players HOW they're going to break in (even if the HOW is obvious by nature of the security)
You shouldn't neutralize the players good planning just to make it harder

 

[bluesfella]

Wow, you guys have some tremendous ideas! I am making a big list of these now...my players are going to love it!

 

[bluesfella]

You shouldn't tell the players that they HAVE to break in.
You shouldn't tell the players HOW they're going to break in (even if the HOW is obvious by nature of the security)
You shouldn't neutralize the players good planning just to make it harder

I totally agree. I just wanted to plan out my options to have interesting things going on, and interesting "intel" they could acquire. Beyond the party and vacation ideas, I just couldn't come up with anything, but with the suggestions here, I've started to work out a really cool back story for Greymoor that will give him several reasons to be out of the house at various times, and I should be able to work in a few nice surprises for the PC's.

 

[Janx]

part of the challenge for the DM, is making the scenario winnable for the PCs.

Its easy to make an impreganble fortress with unbreachable security.

The point all heist fillms make is that a vulnerability is discovered/known and utilized.

so after building up the BBEG's security details, look for or invent vulnerabilies that you can reveal to the players during the info gathering stage.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Reavers show up. The only way to save the innocent townspeople is to lock them in the bank vault.

What?