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Because I've been working on a Cypher System adventure based around a Heist, The Wonder Vault Heist, I've been writing about running Heist Adventures in Tabletop RPGs.
If you haven't seen the other articles in the series, check them out here:
These articles have been focused on individual adventures. However, sometimes players and GMs will want to have an entire campaign based around heists. There are a few different perspectives to take with this, depending on the sort of game your players want to have.
Notably, heist-based campaigns tend to be more episodic, with each heist being a part of a separate job. However, sometimes there can be overarching plots or threads that connect the varying heists.
1. Independent Group
Your player characters are on their own. They have no one backing them and no leadership outside themselves. This is the most commonly portrayed option in television/movies. This is Ocean's 11, Leverage, the Italian Job, etc.
This group can be motivated by selfish/personal reasons, as is the primary case in the Ocean's movies. Maybe it's profit, maybe it's just independent ambition. This is sort of like an evil campaign, just with probably less death. Player characters in this sort of campaign have pretty loose morals and don't care if people get hurt from what they do.
They could also have a more Robin Hood type dynamic, fueled by some sort of moral driving to steal from the rich and powerful in order to right some sort of wrong. This is more or less the premise of Leverage.
An important part of determining how the campaign progresses is determining how the group will receive jobs. One of the easiest/best ways of doing this is by giving the player characters contacts who can pass word of opportunities to the group. However, it could also be done through player characters doing independent research or seeking out opportunities on their own.
2. Thieves' Guild
In a Thieves' Guild campaign, the players work for a larger group or guild which is designed around thievery and crime. The extent of the influence of the group may vary depending on your setting and the campaign outlook you have.
Usually, the primary goals of a thieves' guild are profit and infiltration/control, with motivations and moral ranges similar to the selfish/personal group type motives.
A thieves' guild campaign has the added benefit of having a structure from which the missions can be given to the group. This makes things nice and orderly and allows for moving things forward easily. Also, it provides an easy way of having knowledgeable NPCs who can help the PCs plan heists or gather information about their targets.
A potential campaign arc might involve having the PCs start as fledgling members of the thieves' guild, and have to work their way up the ranks. Possibly, there is inter-organization competition and politics which the PCs have to wade through and eventually overcome. This could all eventually result in the PCs rising to become leaders of the group, or even potentially start their own.
3. Spy Agency
Spy fiction seems to have almost as many heists going on as crime fiction. Oftentimes, this is breaking into an enemy base of some kind, but sometimes it's even more convoluted than that. Spies seem to sometimes even need to break into places controlled by allies or even neutral parties to gather intelligence, technology, research, or some other McGuffin.
Having a spy agency allows for all/most of the benefits and opportunities of a Thieves' Guild campaign with none of the moral ambiguity. Well, to be perfectly honest, spy stuff does tend to have a lot of moral ambiguity involved in it. However, usually a spy agency is committed to some purpose or goal other than wealth/selfishness. This could be dedication to a country, opposition of an enemy, or something else depending on your setting. This provides an advantage if you want to have heist adventures, but have players who don't want to play selfish/evilly motivated characters.
A spy agency also lends itself more readily to ongoing plots, with each heist revealing more about something sinister and convoluted going on, with recurring enemy factions, and with a structure that mixes investigation and thievery together.
Hopefully, if you're looking to run a heist campaign, one of these ideas will be helpful to you.
If you'd like to see a heist adventure that I've put together, check out The Wonder Vault Heist when it comes out next month.
What other ideas or suggestions do you have for running a heist-based campaign?
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