In planning my upcoming adventure, the Wonder Vault Heist, I had to think through some of these issues. I'll share some of my thoughts with you on how to overcome them.
As you recall from the Challenges post (or, as I'll tell you now if you haven't read it), a majority of the challenges to planning a heist adventure have to do with how to present the planning of the heist to the players. Much of the advice below will have to do with those challenges. Some of these ideas can be used together, some are best used separately.
1. NPC Mastermind
One way to bypass the opportunity for PCs (Player Characters) to have bad plans, and possibly even the information gathering phase, is to have an NPC present by the plan and the information to the PCs.
This strategy cuts out a lot of the advance legwork for the PCs, which many players find tiresome anyway, and allows them to get right to the heist, which is what a lot of the PCs want to do.
The only issue with this strategy comes if the PCs question why the NPC Mastermind isn't involved in actually carrying out the heist. If the NPC does accompany the PCs, he/she should only have a minor role in the heist. Remember, the PCs should be the protagonists of the story, and the spotlight and action should revolve around them.
2. Pre-planned Plan
Rather than having an NPC plan the heist, it can be assumed that the player characters planned the heist, but that the adventure is starting after that point. As GM, you should either provide handouts to the players detailing the plan, or review the plan in advance of getting into the adventure.
As a whole, this strategy provides many of the same advantages of the NPC Mastermind. It cuts down on the roleplaying opportunities of having a scene where the mastermind lays out the plan, but it does get to the action much faster. It's all a matter of what your group enjoys the most.
If you are reviewing the plan, you can do it in stages, as the PCs progress through the heist itself. This way there is not just an infodump all at once, and it also creates the feel of other heist movies and tv shows where scenes of the plan discussion are cut and intermingled over scenes of the characters actually carrying out the plan.
In The Wonder Vault Heist, I use an NPC mastermind, but I still have a method of intermingling the planning scenes with the heist scenes to effectively create this feel. I don't want to give too much away about how this works in that adventure, for fear of spoiling the fun for potential players in the future. I will say that while it works well in fantasy settings, it would not work as well in a non-magical setting.
3. "Yes, but..."
If you do let the players plan the plan, or even if you don't and they are just adapting to circumstances as they arise, they are going to have the most fun if their ideas work. Players can (and usually will) come up with things that you, as the GM, have never thought of. As a GM, notably, you might have plans that oppose these ideas, but if you can be flexible and think on your feet fast enough to allow for the player plan to work or at least be enacted, they will have a blast, even if something else goes wrong right afterward.
And it probably will, and should. Especially if they have already been told about some security measure that their plan neglects. In letting the player's idea/plan bypass one area of security, another might be triggered. Whatever the complication, it should be something that doesn't cause the whole heist to fail, and still allows the PCs to keep moving forward. This allows the PCs to succeed where they want to, and feel that victory, but it also immediately ramps up tensions and it establishes consequences for neglecting information that has been given.
4. Things go Sideways
There are often two types of heist-type scenarios in shows and movies: The first are the ones where the main characters pull off the heist perfectly and according to plan, where any perceived failure is revealed to actually have been a part of the plan itself the whole time. The second are the ones where things go wrong for the characters and they are forced to adapt and come up with a new plan in order to pull it off.
Do you know how to know which is going to happen? As a general rule, the more the show/movie shows you of the planning in advance, the more likely it is that something is going to go wrong. This is because there's no tension, and therefore interest from the audience, if they know exactly what is going to happen. When the audience is given the plan and it works, it's boring. When the audience is given the plan and can see things go wrong, it becomes exciting to see how the characters will get out. When the audience doesn't know the plan, everything that happens is a clever surprise.
Likewise, for players in an RPG, if they have a detailed plan, follow it, and it works, then in the end the adventure tends to be a bit flat. Especially if the plan was handed to them in advance and not even their own idea.
So, keep things interesting. Have complications arrive. Maybe the guards changed their shifts. Maybe some other team of thieves is trying to steal the same thing. Maybe someone at the heist location recognizes one of the characters from some shared past. Maybe a person of importance is visiting the location. Any number of things can happen, but have one or more unexpected complication that the PCs have to figure out in the moment on their own.
But, don't forget to follow the next bit of advance. It is in the moment, but it should still be something that the PCs can (and probably will) overcome, not something likely to ruin the whole heist, even if they think for a moment that it might.
5. Keep it Simple
This is true of complications, as well as the known complications for the heist itself. Especially if the players are the ones planning the heist. Make there be straightforward paths and easy solutions to the problems at hand. Chances are, the players will come up with a complex plan anyway. Just putting in people and security measures, and saying they're advance, the players will think that they are dealing with something complex.
Make it simple so that the players can solve it. Give them a genuinely complex heist to handle, especially if they don't have a lot of experience with heist adventures, they'll never manage. It is something they can be worked up to, but in truth, let them solve a simple heist with easily solved hurdles, and they'll think they are criminal masterminds.
6. Think of it as a Normal Dungeon
There are rooms, there are NPCs, there are traps. It's not actually that much different from how dungeons would normally be laid out. The biggest things are that the PCs probably won't be killing everyone, and that they'll be trying to be sneaky. Having traps and alarms in more abundance than normal is probably a good idea. Still, it can be laid out as a normal dungeon and you shouldn't over complicate things for yourself at the GM in thinking about it otherwise.
Hopefully these pieces of advice are helpful.
If you missed the first post of this series, check it out here: Heist Adventures 1: 5 Challenges
For the next post in this series, check out: Heist Adventures 3: 3 Heist Campaigns
To see a heist adventure that I've made, be sure to check out The Wonder Vault Heist when it comes out next month.
In my next post I'll be talking about campaigns structured around heist type adventures, so be sure to come back and check it out.
In the meantime, what other advice or challenges do you perceive for heist adventures?
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