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Message: <blockquote data-quote="slobster" data-source="post: 6023095" data-attributes="member: 6693711">Ok so I'm double-posting, which is bad juju, but I think that a discussion of all the ways that my players screwed up before getting the heist wrong (horribly, horribly wrong) will be as useful, maybe more so, than the story of when they finally got it right (related above).The first attempt wasn't a serious try. Since we had the rather unique situation of being able to run the simulation as many times as it would take to get it right, the PCs decided to go Neo-in-the-lobby-scene style and just light the place up. Gunning down the security guards was easy. Getting the bank manager to open the security deposit vault was likewise easy, but he flatout refused to open the inner vault and cops were already arriving outside. Disgusted, they knocked him out and tried to hack the inner vault, but it had some crazy technobabble security system and their hacker couldn't even begin to penetrate it, even after a quick mental data download from their operator outside the system.The cops stormed the place with tear gas, a few of the PCs fell, and the rest probably would have escaped if it weren't for the Agent that showed up and quickly punched their clocks.The next attempt was only slightly more sophisticated. Fixating now on the inner vault lock, the PCs tried to sneak in as repair men during the night shift to have all night to hack the system. The night guards wouldn't let them in, because they didn't have a work order. The PCs took care of the night guards, disabled the security (hey, the hacker couldn't handle lockzilla, but he still wasn't a pushover), and got to work on the lock. Unfortunately, they didn't know about the "all-clear" signal that had to be sent out every 10 minutes. Cops responded, Agents arrive, everyone dies.A few more attempts ensued to get around that vault door by brute force. They threatened to execute hostages if the bank manager didn't open it. He entered in the destruct code. They kidnapped him before his shift started and tried to get the codes out of him. He told them that the codes change every day, and he has to go into work to find out what they are. They tried repeatedly to blast the door open. It was a sturdy vault, and eventually they collapsed the whole building without cracking the vault. They stole a tank and tried to use it to wrench open the vault door, and failing that to blast it open. That was hilarious, but didn't do the trick.Agents arrive, Agents arrive, rocks fall, Agents arrive. Everyone dies.It was good intel gathering, if rather brutish and unsuitable for field conditions, but I like to think that it taught them the importance of knowing your enemy and planning your moves. At this point their senior instructor stepped in with a few helpful suggestions, including the idea of using misdirection instead of armored vehicles or excessive explosives (can't it be both?). The rest is history.So I guess the moral of the story is threefold. One, give it to your players straight. It may seem to you that you've left a cunning trail of breadcrumbs leading to the important info just waiting to be uncovered through diligent investigation, but your PCs are likely to get lost. Spell things out for them, and move on to the fun part: the heist!Two, be prepared for things to go off the rails. Unless you are planning on just giving them the plan for the heist (a legitimate move, to be fair), they are very unlikely to execute the robbery like you've planned it out in your mind ahead of time. As long as what they are doing seems like it maybe makes sense, and fits the genre, roll with it. Maybe even fudge some of the security measures that should have stopped it. The heist should seem like it's going smoothly until the last moment, after all, when everything goes to hell!Three, give something for everyone to do, and run things concurrently so that nobody gets bored. It isn't really that apparent from my story, but in several cases some of the players were just sitting around while someone else hacked, or sitting around while someone else interrogated. In the final heist, everyone had a job to do and they all happened simultaneously, so everyone was entertained. Aim for the latter! It simulates heist fiction, with its intricate plots and intercutting scenes, better anyway.Good luck!</blockquote>

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