Heist Based Adventure

[phindar]

Heist movies are also based around The Reveal. It's hard to do classic misdirection in a D&D game, because the gamers are the only audience. They know what the plan is from the very beginning, so the only question left is "Does it work?" (And if it does work, it can be anti-climatic. As a guy who has run and played a lot of Shadowrun in his life, I can attest that players are usually disappointed when their plans go smoothly. Dramatic action is all about Things Going Wrong.)

Twist Points are a great way to preserve The Reveal of heist movies. "But I was planning it all along..." It lets the pc's get things back on track after its derailed.

Also, if you're making the group up for the game, you might consider putting in a mole. Its harder to get intrigue with an existing group who has adventured together for years, but I guess it depends on the group.

 

[xrpsuzi]

Also, if you're making the group up for the game, you might consider putting in a mole. Its harder to get intrigue with an existing group who has adventured together for years, but I guess it depends on the group.

Also a very cool idea. If you make on of the players a mole, preplan and give them the pertinant info ahead of time. Passing notes at the table is a dead giveaway that something is going on.

You'll definitly get a reveal then.... and maybe a lynching.

-Suzi

 

[jmucchiello]

You might also have the players play more than one PC for this game. It isn't called Ocean's 11 for nothing. Capers of this magnitude need bodies. It will also cut down on downtime for each player.

This will make the cutaway less helpful to the party but it's better I think that the PCs not have to rely on an NPC and worry that you will screw them that way.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Twist point--that is a really cool idea. In your game, does the GM or the player determine how the twist-in-plot works out?

I used it as "Oops. Ooh - can I use my twist point here? Obviously, we needed to get taken into custody to get past security... maybe I've got a connection with one of the guards?"

DM frantically brainstorms to make it work somehow

One caveat was that key (and probably obvious) NPCs were immune to twist-point tampering. If the mission is to get the magic stick off Bishop MacGuffin, then a twist-point won't make Bishop MacGuffin a secret sympathiser for the magic-stick-stealer cause.

On the other hand, I suppose it could reveal that Bishop MacGuffin is your long-lost estranged brother. Which might not make him any more likely to hand over the magic stick, but it opens up all sorts of fun roleplaying possibilities...

-Hyp.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

Well, I've decided on several twists.

A. They discover a shrine to Mammon in the lowest level of the place, run by the nations Minister of the Treasury. He wants the sacrifice the PCs to mammon.

B. Another group is robbing the place at the same time as the PCs, with no connection to the PCs. Both groups discover each other at the same time.

C. The place is counter fitting coins of another nations, so as to damage the reputation and economy of that other nation. This means there will be more staff members present than the PCs anticipate.

D. The man who hires the PCs is pulling a long con, while his assistant has ratted them out to the Minister of the Treasury.

Further, the PCs are hired to:

A. Destroy the financial records kept in the place

B. Use a lead ooze (a monster I created in guild books Banks that changes gold to lead and tries to eat PCs) on whatever gold they can not steal.

C. Not be captured or do anything traceable back to their employers.

I am thinking about;

A. One PC is a mole for one group, while another PC is a mole for a rival group.

B. Someone replacing the lead ooze with a green slime in the jars they carry in.

C. Maybe an earthquake hiting.