This is extremely clear and easy-to-use advice. Speaking as a person who has GMed since literally 1974(!), I got useful tips on how to run a heist here. Thanks, Seth.
Holy Hot Heck Are You Sandy Petersen Of Call Of Cthulhu? You are the maker of my current favorite RPG! And commenting on a Seth Skorkowsky video no less!
@@pulloutkingthefinestnamein3089 Seth and me are buddies - we met last fall, and up until the GLOBAL PANDEMIC hit, he was playtesting my board games about once a week. So I guess I'm old hat to him by now.
One bit I would add, don't forget to weigh the mission based on the player's, not just the characters ability and experience. With beginners, I usually give them an "in". For instance, their employers might get them basic IDs to get past the perimeter or info that the delivery driver is susceptible to bribery/blackmail. For intermediate players, similar assistance is available if they look. Maybe they can hire a NPC expert to exploit a weakness the team can't (for a cut of the loot). IF the PCs do enough legwork they can find a weakness (note: this is not a fatal weakness, the weakness should allow them to beat one level of security only example: the head guard on floor 17 has a thing for blondes with an Australian accent so your Face character should be able to exploit that). For advanced players, I put the defenses in place first, then it's up to the players, no Training wheels. Another thing to consider is the defenses need to make sense. Any GM worth their salt should be able to make an impregnable vault. The question is why did they spend $25 billion to defend a treasure worth $1 million? If the "treasure" is a research file for the company's new product, why would they lock it down so hard that the research scientists themselves can't access it? Just like the ecology of a dungeon should make some sense (why is there a tribe of 30 goblins on level 15 of the dungeon with no access to water or an apparent food source), the security should make sense. I mean, yes I can defend the jewelry store with a dozen automated sentry turrets and omni-directional anti-personnel mines and the sales clerks in military grade combat armor, but who's going to set foot in a store that is designed to kill you?
Anecdote: to get into the secure building, players rent a shop next door so they can tunnel in thru the basement walls. But maintaining the cover of the shop becomes the main adventure, as they have to make it look and act like a real business to avoid suspicion. A rival heist team also wants that shop so is continually creating problems in order to drive the shop out of business. By the time the actual heist happens the "shopkeepers" are disappointed to abandon the thriving new business.
A heist killed my group of 2 years. I had been running shadowrun with them for about 9 months, and to be honest they never were the most creative bunch even when we played different systems, but I figured they were ready to do a heist since it's a very common kind of run in the setting and I wanted to give them a different kind of session from the usual, figured maybe it's spark their interest. Long story short, their lack of initiative drove the game to a halt for three weeks, and my patience ran out. I know I should plan games to cater to the group, and this was really a problem that was going on for far longer than just three weeks, but I gave them every tool to do the job; I prepared blueprints, I planned shifts and routines for the staff, I took into account each of their abilities, they even had not one but two contacts with previous criminal experience ready to advice them IC in case they needed the help. I made sure they were *aware* they had all of these tools too, but they were all so goddamn lazy and unable to think that I ran out of patience and flipped the proverbial table on them. They don't even have the excuses of them just not wanting to play a heist since they could always just not take the job. In any case, I just wanted to drain since I felt wronged for the amount of effort I put into every single session for them to never appreciate it. Showing up late, missing lots of sessions without prior notice, the lack of action on the actual heist was just the last straw in a series of annoyances I had with them. It's a shame since I consider them all my friends, but god they made me being a GM just not fun anymore. Anyway, just wanted to vent since this happened two weeks ago and this video proved somewhat topical.
Well done, flipping the table is hard, but sometimes necessary and the only reasonable action. Enduring beyond the obvious limit is how RPG horror stories are made.
Another way to handle planning is only giving the pc's like 10-15 minutes, then giving them like 3-5 tokens that they can use for flashbacks. So they just get started qnd when faced with an obstacle they can spend a token to flashback to how they prepared to overcome it. But eventually tokens run out and they have to improv on the spot :)
The Dragon could always turn that "hole in the fortress" in to a honey-trap. An obvious trap to capture the unwary...perhaps that is how another team supposedly went in.
And the dragon could also be a self destruct system on the artifact to destroy it if someone tries to steal it (or alternatively, the artifact could be the plans for something bigger and thus if you alert people of your presence they will change their plans, then instead of easing the job for an ulterior mission, it will have either no effect or make it even harder). So many cool things to do with this set up really
Theres a game out there called Cryptomancer that was invented by a group of IT CyberSecurity professionals. It takes the concepts of cryptology and applies it to a fantasy world with a fantasy internet. It goes on about how to think like a cryptologist, breaking things down in to systems and how to hack those systems, whether its layers of security or social circles. Its really interesting. Its not for everyone however as its a Death Spiral kind of game. How long can you keep the Fantasy Illuminate from coming down on your head? But its really neat. I agree with lots of things in this video. I love basically setting up a series of obstacles in front of the players and letting them figure out how to go about pulling off their heist. I have a group of friends who totally love heists/assault heists.
@@owlbear4928 no Covid lasted so long that by the time those of us that could get back together could get together we had lost more than half the party and what was left didn't work well on their own. So we started a completely new campaign with a few new folks and they didn't want to play Dragon Heist again so soon.
I actually prefer putting a "timer" on the characters rather than the players. This way, if the players get very sidetracked or start to stagnate, I can advance the time in the gameworld to encourage them to come to resolution. If the timer is in the real world, it's harder for me to elegantly adjust.
Something I like to do is after the guards and protections are in place, I allow the players to make their set up plans. One may flirt with the secretary. Another may carouse with the guards at the local tavern. The key to the "research phase" is that if they fail, the protectors are alerted that "something is up". The more they fail the greater the chance of getting caught. Contrariwise, if they do exceptionally well, they may get some bonus information. At any event it sure beats: "I make my Steal Things roll."
Tons of useful stuff here. I especially appreciate the advice about how to implement the Dragon. I normally think of that as something like a level boss who's supposed to be defeated. Making it instead a threat that's broader in scope and best avoided will definitely give my next heist adventure more suspense.
Most of the time he's an affable geek, but cross him and the next thing you know, he's telling you to lie to Captain Binky about how everything's going to be alright. Best stay on his good side, unless you want teddy bear brains all over your best gaming table.
I once ran a heist in Call of Cthulu not to long ago. They needed to get to an artifact held in a giant bank with alarms, guards and police. They ended up having the mob blow up part of town to distract the police and some guards while they used a flimsy board to walk from roof to the banks roof, it ended up with them with the artifact with no one knowing.
Oner mechanic for heists I really like is giving the players "heist points" that they can use in response to either kinks or other unexpected circumstances to explain, in hindsight, how they actually *DID* think about and plan for a circumstance. It works like a flashback in a movie where the player describes a previously unmentioned detail. Some examples: 1) Say the vault they are stealing from has an emergency lockdown if the artifact is ever moved and the players didn't consider it, by spending a heist point, the player can rewind and flashback to his holding the door open a crack by dropping a wedge in it as he entered. 2) If the PCs are being chased, a heist point can be used to say they stashed bags of ball-bearings or placed tripwires or bear traps along the escape route (if that would otherwise make sense in the game world). Since they placed them, they can easily avoid them, but they will slow down pursuers. 3) Or, say that the client hiring the party specifies that no one in the Fortress can be killed, but a crazed (and cursed) PC panics and fells a museum curator with his axe when he's discovered (this really happened in a game), then one of the PCs (even the offending PC) can spend a heist point to flashback to a scene of him grinding away and dulling the edge of that axe...so that the blunt axe may injure - but won't kill - anyone. How many heist points people get vary depending on how many kinks the GM is throwing in or expects they will face. I think one or two per player as a base. The more PCs there are, the fewer heist points they should get. Too many heist points can make the heist too easy, but having them as a resource also helps diffuse "planning paralysis" if the PCs are just afraid to get the actual heist started. Players seem to enjoy basically being able to co-create the story in an imaginative, but plausible, way.
Running a heist in CoC this week. Using a bank from a videogame as my place, mostly due to my printer crapping out so i had to find a premade one and it had a bunch of names for Callouts used in game that makes it easier to follow how we are moving. But im super excited because i have a couple of small details to add to the campaign inside as well as a being able to watch my players dive into it.
As someone with an interest in Heist games/movies and real-life (non violent) heists and con jobs, I love heists in RPGs, especially in the 20th/21st century & future settings. However, I'm the only GM in my friend group who GMs these eras so I always end up with 5000 IQ heists like: Walk in and try stealing the thing, out in the open, with 3 guards watching you, when you told the other guys in the crew you'd only stake the store out. And now the mission changed from a heist to a breakout
Really love this channel, one day I will see a Seth Skorkowsky game here on youtube, unfortunately here on Brazil, finding game masters is a problem and a cool one that is commited to make the players experience fun like Seth is even rarer.
Great advice! The kink is a great excuse to plug a hole you left, but the key is to roll dice to “see” if it happens. Roll for each thing the heist plan relies on. All of them should be an easy roll vs having a problem, not a brick wall. Eventually, they’ll run into a kink. This sort of thing seems fair & natural, and if one of them plug the hole you left that would’ve made it too easy, that’s a plus.
My players expected the Kink. So did I, planned it. But with the constant critical success rolls, their characters are now known as ”the guys, who ran the Kallistas job without a shot fired.” And that made a little less exciting game session very memorable.
Good video. And oh man, I have one hell of a story about the characters thinking up a way into my "fortress" that I hadn't expected... MAN, did it get wild.
This video giving me all kinds of ideas for a fantasy heist where the players have to break into a wizards tower to steal a magic item... really great video!
Funny. I just introduced my players to Blood of Heroes (formerly DC Heroes RPG) and they need to break into a secured military research facility and steal both a particular research project and its head researcher. They are told that the researcher is not to be harmed in any way but otherwise any collateral damage is irrelevant. The facility is patrolled by multiple heavily armed guards and dogs and there are three entrances, each with their own issues (one is the large freight entrance protected with heavily armed guards, autocannons and even missile launchers. The "main" entrance is where the researchers and staff enter/exit and it moderately secured by security guards with assault rifles and body armor, as well as dogs. The last is relatively lightly armed with security guards in light armor and submachine guns, but that's the entrance most security guards use to enter and exit. Once inside, there are 4 banks of elevator, each going to an isolated level of the facility and each level is working on a different project. They need to find out which bank of elevators lead to the project they need. Since the information available on the facility is all hearsay, some information may be wrong or just their employer's "best guess". Waiting until Saturday to find out what hi-jinks they have planned to get in and out. :)
I just recently ordered Cyberpunk 2020 and the Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart and your videos(Which I discovered shortly after) have been very insightful, thanks
Handy tool for Fantasy-GMs for preventing magical solutions: A Homestone (not sure if there is a translation, I just did a literal one). It comes from the P&P RPG Midgard. The spell permanently empowers a certain set of stones that need to be built into the protected structure (be it as small as a house or as big as a huge castle), the main focus - the Homestone itself - having to be kept somewhere inside, and if it is removed the spell breaks. With this spell active, it is impossible for magic to leave or enter the building in ANY way, which means no flying, no teleport, no telekinetic yoinking of important objects, no magical attacks from either side (can suck for the defenders if they have more spellcasters), summoned creatures can not enter or leave and if they are furced they are very likely to be destroyed or dismissed. This makes it an ideal tool for heists, as magic still works inside, so casters aren't useless, and opens the possibility of a teleport escape if the party manages to snatch or destroy the Homestone. But getting in will require creativity, because even the fallback plan of "fly over it, drop feather fall", doesn't work, as the featherfall will be dispelled as soon as the enchanted people enter the protected zone. The size of that isn't precisely described other than "encompassing the entire structure", so GMs can assign the height of the blocker zone wherever they want to make falling down a bad idea. EDIT Sidenote: Quite possible this also exists elsewhere, but Midgard is where I personally encountered it for the first (and so far only) time.
I always love your videos; they give great ideas on how to be a player or how to run a campaign. Maybe one day I'll finally get the courage to start a campaign...
I ran a little heist one shot in D&D 5e for 3 friends as their first game. it was great fun and a good entry point into the ttrpg genre, as everybody has seen some heist movie and kinda knows what to do. been thinking about doing another one for some time now. these tips will come handy.
I was running the 2nd edition AD&D module a howl from the north. My players just discussed there plan to sneak into the barbarian camp for over 4 hours.
One of our PCs had gotten a weird random rolled artifact that was basically a portal gun with 5 uses. He didn't use it for months and everyone forgot about it. We basically forced our GM to do a big payoff heist. The GM made it practically impossible. Portal gun guy stole everything. We bought a city district.
I love your stuff man! Keep up the good work. Being a RPGer since 1984, you've help renew the love for gaming I haven't felt since the 90's. Thanks again!
I adore doing heists and my favorite system for it is actually Star Wars Saga Edition. You'd think that having Jedi and droids and whatnot would ruin the game but there's a lot of benefits: 1. This is a world where (generally speaking) telepathy, telekenisis, sentient robots and hyperspace travel are known quantitites - thus the focus of security is on delaying, containing or killing a thief rather than convict them after the fact because forensics is practically a non-starter. In games like Shadowrun, worrying about that sort of stuff can quickly lead to ulcers. 2. Hacking isn't just looping the video or running coms. Slicers are more of a "safecracker, but for everything" kind of character. That means you can bypass some problems in exchange for others. 4. The Force fixes a mutitude of sins. Its a great way to cover for the party's weak points. But if there's a force-sensitive baddie in the area, one mind-trick could leave you stuck in a cat-and-mouse game or blow the whole thing immediately.
Currently planning a whole short campaign full of heists, and I just wanted to say that this video is super helpful for anyone looking to plan a heist game! A great and helpful vid, and I look forward to putting these ideas in practice!
Thanks for the video. Really helped crystalize some of the ideas I'd been having for a hybrid heist/raid in a Changeling: The Lost/God-Machine crossover Chronicle. The Artifact: An Occult book that the God Machine is using to develop fae-detection Infrastructure. It wants to identify some Changelings that have been sabotaging it over the past few years. Even if it gets the saboteurs, it's still a threat to have an eldritch horror deity who can identify the members of the local freehold. The goal is to steal the book and/or destroy the facility from the inside. The Fortress is a skyscraper built to house a facility of a God Machine: From the outside, people just see 3 curved skyscrapers connected by a circular bridge section. Thanks to some weird space folding, there's a fourth, cylindrical tower in the center with limited access where the heart of the Machine's facility is. The Dragon: If the PCs get identified, the facility can make life hell for them afterward or simply unleash a Destroyer Angel to quietly assassinate them.
Hey Seth, I just finished listending to Damoren on Audible and have to say, without spoiling anything, holy shit dude. That was an awesome ending that I never saw coming. Now from an RPG standpoint, do you ever put your players in such dire situations like the knights faced during the final act? If you do, I would love to hear how you design such a scene, your thought process behind it and how your players feel about it. Now its time to load in Hounacier.
Great to hear! Glad you enjoyed it. As far as RPGs, I've never done the exact situation, but I have done the elements in separate situations, such as having them escape and get their gear, or fighting overwhelming opponents, or giving a time limit like "The artifact will be destroyed in X-time unless you stop it." Hounacier is a bit of a different animal than Book 1. I figured that instead of doing another Save The World plot with a large cast, I'd go with something a bit more gritty and personal. It's more noir-horror than action-adventure. So get ready for something different. It's the darkest in the series. I try to give each book a very different feel than the others while still being clear sequels. Also, if you can, any reviews/ratings you can leave for Damoren on Audible/Amazon or Goodreads would be greatly appreciated. Those help little authors like me out a whole lot.
If you find that you have left a hole, any security expert will tell you that glaring holes are sometimes left as a "honey pot" to catch intrusions. Depending on the level of your players and their experience, you may be able to give them warnings about it. If you have a security expert character, it might appear as too good to be true and prompt them to investigate it further, or avoid it. All great security fortresses should employ a "honey pot" to provide an additional security layer that stops novices.
Heists are really fun! Some good inspiration is also Payday 2, a game in which heisting is the name of the game - though it is very much over the top. It does show a good number of layers for a heist. Second is Thief: the Dark Project. One of my favourite games ever, and also good inspiration for stealthy heisting. Third: The Sprawl. It's a cyberpunk-rpg in which heisting is common, and it provides a good system for it. Thanks for the vid!
Nice! I love to do the planning with the players and sometimes even help the planning. I mean, I didn't include any shortcuts, why can't I be engaged? Thought about an involuntary mistake: I just had the idea that you could make any maps about a few months to half a year old. That should give the GM the excuse to have the PCs encounter minor changes. It's not enough to rebuild the castle and close the gap, but it may be enough to install a few steel bars or to change the guard routine.
The stake out phase can be viewed as discovering the puzzle of the fortress. The better they do at this the more doors they can unlock beforehand. Gathering info could easily be weaved into several sessions where they tap sources and launch probes to scope out the scene. By the way contacts and social clout is a great reward for missions.
22:00 lol there was a dashcam/chopper footage released of chase the resulted in an OIS the other day and there was this one van who was not getting over. While an unmarked car chases a work truck down the highway. All the other vehicles are pulling to the right lane or shoulder to get out the way. Van driver just stays in front blocking both the truck and unmarked cop going the just above the speed limit. Though not to block the guy in just so he doesn't need to pull over. The fleeing Truck took a turn and the van just kept going.
We were doing a heist in shadowrun, don't remember the artifact (most likely closed off data or something easily transportable) we were going to be in and out like the wind using carefully monitored guard movements and our 2 tecnomancers (one of them was me) blipping cameras so we didn't get caught we get to the fire exit and the troll just headbutts it, did enough damage to the door to make it a twisted mess but without dislodging it (and enough damage to himself to one-shot himself but he soaked all of it) so we went to plan B we ran for the front door (as all the freaking guards would be heading to where the alarm was) technomancers just cut the cameras and troll bulldozed the front door and the 2 guards left there, crew just blasted our way to the target grabbed it and ran. still in and out like the wind just a freaking tornado instead.
I love heists too, it's a shame that everyone I play with seems to not care for them and never seem supportive of the idea whenever I propose it, be it as a different GM from me running it or as me running the heist. But I'm certain that some day I'll find a group that enjoys them & when that day comes I'm sure what I learned here will be very helpful.
remember if your running a game like shadowrun where the Heist mission type happens alot keep in mind that not every heist needs a kink id say maybe every one in 3 should be kinkless
One way to RP characters with very high intelligence is to allow extra time in the planning phase. Use a base time allowance then add additional time based on the relevant stat bonus. It can help simulate the advantage of super geniuses without having to be one. I have also have used a flashback mechanic for high wisdom characters.
At most I think the only thing you could have added was Leg work. I've never run Cyberpunk so I can't say anything about how it works with those games, but I know in Shadowrun you often spend time calling up contacts to see what kind of Leg work and Information you can get out of them. This only works if the contact has a certain profession. Then when you make your roll to see what kind of information, how well the player rolls after all the RPing, the quality of the information may be different based on the result. So you can end up with misleading info if you roll badly or really distilled info if they rolled above and beyond what was needed.
..my Players always debate endlessly, making up plan after plan only to dismiss them because they involve some risk no matter how much risk. They debate and plan for hours, even entire sessions. If I place a time limit they afterwards say it was my fault if anything happened because they did not have enough time to prepare, so I let them debate as long as they want because they demand that from me. Finally when they have a plan they deem perfect enough they go in, start shooting the first guard they see and blow the whole plan out of the window. Happens every time. :D
For running a heist, you really want to know your players before you start setting up your end of it, and you really want to keep an eye on things to keep it from getting out of hand. Sure, you really want their ideas, but it's very easy to have the entire thing end in a major disaster with some players (An easy thing to find that kind of covers it is the video Spoony did a long while ago about a museum heist gone horribly wrong)
If they find a hole, leave it. Perhaps they left an "easily exploitable" way in with the hopes the heisters will notice it, take the bait, and go for what they think is an easy job. If they do their research and find out more about the defenses around said hole and use that to their advantage. Maybe use the hole as a distraction as the real job gets done. That, or the players think it's an obvious trap and go for something else, so you don't have to worry about it.
Love the channel and I will be using some of those tips in the future. Also, just wanted to let you know that one of your books is on a service my company has called Hoopla (hoopladigital.com) and I look forward to listening to it.
Followed the link to the short story at the end. And I have to ask do you have a stat block for the mist creatures created? Or a map of the city? I would super buy a pdf of that info off the dm's guild.
Designing from POV of Fortress owner can end up with unsolvable fortresses at least without unstoppable monster waking. Esp if strictures of concealment of heist are laid down, say switching a vial and not letting it be known until X
Time limit for characters is far better idea. You have to get it before it's used or put into a vault. Or you have to get it before ... or you(or someone important)'ll die/be killed. And just make real time translate easily to ingame time like 1h=1day or 15min=1h.
When you first said kink, I couldn't help but think about that lizard lady on Omicron Persei 3. Now she could...ahem, and then I realized you and I were not on the same page...🙃
Ran a heist in modern day COC ... For reasons beyond common sence... they got zero dollars, ...2 got killed outright ....1 was in a coma for life... and 2 will be released in 2052 let them get caught
Hey Seth, after all of this COVID-19 stuff finally dissipates, are you going to run any games at a CON? I live in Oregon, but I'd love to jump in a game. Maybe we could grab like, I don't know, 2k of your RUclips fans and hold a CoC game. :) Thanks for doing these videos. I just subscribed.. after watching for a year. I didn't realize I hadn't subscribed yet. smh. Keep up the good work. Oh, and R.C Bray is the man. Good choice on your narrator!
An observation I came across a while back: a heist is something like a magic trick, and happens in the same three stages: the pledge - establishing the goal and limitations, what tools are available, and more importantly what tools aren't; the turn - something happens that's technically within the rules established, or at least appears to be, but that someone wasn't expecting, and that seems at a glance like those tools that aren't allowed should be needed; and the prestige - the exciting part, getting back to normal without breaking the rules.
An interesting idea would be to reverse the scenario. The players are the dragon, guarding the macguffin, while you as the GM present a group of NPCs who are going to steal something.
There used to be an old module collection like this (2e D&D I think) where the PCs were goblins and they build the dungeon for the NPC adventurers. There were like 3 scenarios, each a higher level. Never read it, myself, but remember a buddy telling me about it.
@@SSkorkowsky It's newer than this video, but the Wicked Ones RPG from Bandit Camp is pretty much the reverse dungeon heist thing mashed up with the old Dungeon Keeper PC game. Uses the Forged In the Dark engine that Blades in the Dark and Scum & Villainy use, which is explicitly designed for heist gaming. Worth a look if you get the chance - and actually see this post months late.
I had an idea like this once: The PCs start out working for the secret BBG as security specialists - building the base and defending it from thieves. Until the twist where the villain is revealed and the party is on the run with the climax of the story breaking into the base that they helped design.
I'm a fan of the Blades in the Dark style of planning heists. You basically just start the heist with minimal planning, and then spend points to have flashbacks to planning. For example, if you come up with a plan DURING the heist where cutting the power to the building would have been smart, you can call for a flashback where you paid off a friend to cut the power when they get a signal. Even the items you bring aren't decided before you start
Scum & Villainy takes the same approach, but in a space opera setting - for folks who want that Firefly or Mandalorian feel instead of the fantasy Lies of Locke Lamora /Thieves World feel of Blades.
This is extremely clear and easy-to-use advice. Speaking as a person who has GMed since literally 1974(!), I got useful tips on how to run a heist here. Thanks, Seth.
I take this as one of the highest compliments I could have. Thank you, sir.
Holy Hot Heck Are You Sandy Petersen Of Call Of Cthulhu? You are the maker of my current favorite RPG! And commenting on a Seth Skorkowsky video no less!
@@SSkorkowsky How did you manage to not fanboy over Sandy Petersen commenting on your video?
@@pulloutkingthefinestnamein3089 Seth and me are buddies - we met last fall, and up until the GLOBAL PANDEMIC hit, he was playtesting my board games about once a week. So I guess I'm old hat to him by now.
Sandy is just so used to people fanboying over the decades that he hasn't even noticed my constant high-pitched squealing.
One bit I would add, don't forget to weigh the mission based on the player's, not just the characters ability and experience. With beginners, I usually give them an "in". For instance, their employers might get them basic IDs to get past the perimeter or info that the delivery driver is susceptible to bribery/blackmail. For intermediate players, similar assistance is available if they look. Maybe they can hire a NPC expert to exploit a weakness the team can't (for a cut of the loot). IF the PCs do enough legwork they can find a weakness (note: this is not a fatal weakness, the weakness should allow them to beat one level of security only example: the head guard on floor 17 has a thing for blondes with an Australian accent so your Face character should be able to exploit that). For advanced players, I put the defenses in place first, then it's up to the players, no Training wheels.
Another thing to consider is the defenses need to make sense. Any GM worth their salt should be able to make an impregnable vault. The question is why did they spend $25 billion to defend a treasure worth $1 million? If the "treasure" is a research file for the company's new product, why would they lock it down so hard that the research scientists themselves can't access it? Just like the ecology of a dungeon should make some sense (why is there a tribe of 30 goblins on level 15 of the dungeon with no access to water or an apparent food source), the security should make sense. I mean, yes I can defend the jewelry store with a dozen automated sentry turrets and omni-directional anti-personnel mines and the sales clerks in military grade combat armor, but who's going to set foot in a store that is designed to kill you?
Anecdote: to get into the secure building, players rent a shop next door so they can tunnel in thru the basement walls. But maintaining the cover of the shop becomes the main adventure, as they have to make it look and act like a real business to avoid suspicion. A rival heist team also wants that shop so is continually creating problems in order to drive the shop out of business. By the time the actual heist happens the "shopkeepers" are disappointed to abandon the thriving new business.
A heist killed my group of 2 years.
I had been running shadowrun with them for about 9 months, and to be honest they never were the most creative bunch even when we played different systems, but I figured they were ready to do a heist since it's a very common kind of run in the setting and I wanted to give them a different kind of session from the usual, figured maybe it's spark their interest.
Long story short, their lack of initiative drove the game to a halt for three weeks, and my patience ran out. I know I should plan games to cater to the group, and this was really a problem that was going on for far longer than just three weeks, but I gave them every tool to do the job; I prepared blueprints, I planned shifts and routines for the staff, I took into account each of their abilities, they even had not one but two contacts with previous criminal experience ready to advice them IC in case they needed the help. I made sure they were *aware* they had all of these tools too, but they were all so goddamn lazy and unable to think that I ran out of patience and flipped the proverbial table on them. They don't even have the excuses of them just not wanting to play a heist since they could always just not take the job.
In any case, I just wanted to drain since I felt wronged for the amount of effort I put into every single session for them to never appreciate it. Showing up late, missing lots of sessions without prior notice, the lack of action on the actual heist was just the last straw in a series of annoyances I had with them. It's a shame since I consider them all my friends, but god they made me being a GM just not fun anymore.
Anyway, just wanted to vent since this happened two weeks ago and this video proved somewhat topical.
Well done, flipping the table is hard, but sometimes necessary and the only reasonable action. Enduring beyond the obvious limit is how RPG horror stories are made.
@Matt Olch Seconded, thoroughly. I would love those blueprints and guard routines!
Another way to handle planning is only giving the pc's like 10-15 minutes, then giving them like 3-5 tokens that they can use for flashbacks. So they just get started qnd when faced with an obstacle they can spend a token to flashback to how they prepared to overcome it. But eventually tokens run out and they have to improv on the spot :)
Remember...a trash can.
That’s actually a really interesting concept.
Blades In The Dark?
@@NayrAnur from what I understand Blades has a mechanic like it yes, but I never played it unfortunately
The Dragon could always turn that "hole in the fortress" in to a honey-trap. An obvious trap to capture the unwary...perhaps that is how another team supposedly went in.
And the dragon could also be a self destruct system on the artifact to destroy it if someone tries to steal it (or alternatively, the artifact could be the plans for something bigger and thus if you alert people of your presence they will change their plans, then instead of easing the job for an ulterior mission, it will have either no effect or make it even harder).
So many cool things to do with this set up really
That's a great idea.
Ok so i kinda want to hear that full rooftop heist story.
YES!
Theres a game out there called Cryptomancer that was invented by a group of IT CyberSecurity professionals. It takes the concepts of cryptology and applies it to a fantasy world with a fantasy internet. It goes on about how to think like a cryptologist, breaking things down in to systems and how to hack those systems, whether its layers of security or social circles. Its really interesting. Its not for everyone however as its a Death Spiral kind of game. How long can you keep the Fantasy Illuminate from coming down on your head? But its really neat.
I agree with lots of things in this video. I love basically setting up a series of obstacles in front of the players and letting them figure out how to go about pulling off their heist. I have a group of friends who totally love heists/assault heists.
Seth really loves jumping the gun on Bombshell when it comes to Cyberpunk
That was a great video too 😊
Currently working on Waterdeep Dragon Heist and attempting to redesign the final bit to make it a real heist, so this video is fairly helpful.
Did it work out?
@@owlbear4928 no Covid lasted so long that by the time those of us that could get back together could get together we had lost more than half the party and what was left didn't work well on their own. So we started a completely new campaign with a few new folks and they didn't want to play Dragon Heist again so soon.
I see Seth, I click.
I actually prefer putting a "timer" on the characters rather than the players. This way, if the players get very sidetracked or start to stagnate, I can advance the time in the gameworld to encourage them to come to resolution.
If the timer is in the real world, it's harder for me to elegantly adjust.
Something I like to do is after the guards and protections are in place, I allow the players to make their set up plans. One may flirt with the secretary. Another may carouse with the guards at the local tavern. The key to the "research phase" is that if they fail, the protectors are alerted that "something is up". The more they fail the greater the chance of getting caught. Contrariwise, if they do exceptionally well, they may get some bonus information.
At any event it sure beats: "I make my Steal Things roll."
Tons of useful stuff here. I especially appreciate the advice about how to implement the Dragon. I normally think of that as something like a level boss who's supposed to be defeated. Making it instead a threat that's broader in scope and best avoided will definitely give my next heist adventure more suspense.
No van is ever truly complete without a hidden retractable turret of dual-linked autocannons on the roof.
Dweebles is so bloodthirsty. I love it.
Most of the time he's an affable geek, but cross him and the next thing you know, he's telling you to lie to Captain Binky about how everything's going to be alright.
Best stay on his good side, unless you want teddy bear brains all over your best gaming table.
I love how short your plug ins are. I could really use the inspiration for my heist campaign
I once ran a heist in Call of Cthulu not to long ago. They needed to get to an artifact held in a giant bank with alarms, guards and police. They ended up having the mob blow up part of town to distract the police and some guards while they used a flimsy board to walk from roof to the banks roof, it ended up with them with the artifact with no one knowing.
Oner mechanic for heists I really like is giving the players "heist points" that they can use in response to either kinks or other unexpected circumstances to explain, in hindsight, how they actually *DID* think about and plan for a circumstance. It works like a flashback in a movie where the player describes a previously unmentioned detail.
Some examples:
1) Say the vault they are stealing from has an emergency lockdown if the artifact is ever moved and the players didn't consider it, by spending a heist point, the player can rewind and flashback to his holding the door open a crack by dropping a wedge in it as he entered.
2) If the PCs are being chased, a heist point can be used to say they stashed bags of ball-bearings or placed tripwires or bear traps along the escape route (if that would otherwise make sense in the game world). Since they placed them, they can easily avoid them, but they will slow down pursuers.
3) Or, say that the client hiring the party specifies that no one in the Fortress can be killed, but a crazed (and cursed) PC panics and fells a museum curator with his axe when he's discovered (this really happened in a game), then one of the PCs (even the offending PC) can spend a heist point to flashback to a scene of him grinding away and dulling the edge of that axe...so that the blunt axe may injure - but won't kill - anyone.
How many heist points people get vary depending on how many kinks the GM is throwing in or expects they will face. I think one or two per player as a base. The more PCs there are, the fewer heist points they should get. Too many heist points can make the heist too easy, but having them as a resource also helps diffuse "planning paralysis" if the PCs are just afraid to get the actual heist started.
Players seem to enjoy basically being able to co-create the story in an imaginative, but plausible, way.
Running a heist in CoC this week.
Using a bank from a videogame as my place, mostly due to my printer crapping out so i had to find a premade one and it had a bunch of names for Callouts used in game that makes it easier to follow how we are moving.
But im super excited because i have a couple of small details to add to the campaign inside as well as a being able to watch my players dive into it.
As a driver of a white cargo van. thank you for making my life a bit more interesting
As someone with an interest in Heist games/movies and real-life (non violent) heists and con jobs, I love heists in RPGs, especially in the 20th/21st century & future settings. However, I'm the only GM in my friend group who GMs these eras so I always end up with 5000 IQ heists like: Walk in and try stealing the thing, out in the open, with 3 guards watching you, when you told the other guys in the crew you'd only stake the store out. And now the mission changed from a heist to a breakout
Passing this video to my friends who enjoy DM'ing
Really love this channel, one day I will see a Seth Skorkowsky game here on youtube, unfortunately here on Brazil, finding game masters is a problem and a cool one that is commited to make the players experience fun like Seth is even rarer.
I am truly inspired to try and make a heist game. A crazy kink would be a secondary NPC team from a separate contractor. That would be lit.
Nice Ryan Reynolds "Foolproof" thumbnail shout out. An underrated heist film IMO.
I'm running a heist tomorrow night, and as luck would have it I have done no prep. Come at me Seth!
The employer betrayal is classic! "Ironman, Ironman this is Charlie One. Message is: Pass them by."
"Go Dweebles! Get those mo***kers!" Lol
Just started writing a dnd heist style game using gritty realism rules. Great timing
Great advice! The kink is a great excuse to plug a hole you left, but the key is to roll dice to “see” if it happens. Roll for each thing the heist plan relies on. All of them should be an easy roll vs having a problem, not a brick wall. Eventually, they’ll run into a kink. This sort of thing seems fair & natural, and if one of them plug the hole you left that would’ve made it too easy, that’s a plus.
I have been waiting my whole life for this video
My players expected the Kink. So did I, planned it. But with the constant critical success rolls, their characters are now known as ”the guys, who ran the Kallistas job without a shot fired.” And that made a little less exciting game session very memorable.
Running the heist later today. So excited. And very grateful for your tips 👏
Good video. And oh man, I have one hell of a story about the characters thinking up a way into my "fortress" that I hadn't expected... MAN, did it get wild.
This video giving me all kinds of ideas for a fantasy heist where the players have to break into a wizards tower to steal a magic item... really great video!
Funny. I just introduced my players to Blood of Heroes (formerly DC Heroes RPG) and they need to break into a secured military research facility and steal both a particular research project and its head researcher. They are told that the researcher is not to be harmed in any way but otherwise any collateral damage is irrelevant.
The facility is patrolled by multiple heavily armed guards and dogs and there are three entrances, each with their own issues (one is the large freight entrance protected with heavily armed guards, autocannons and even missile launchers. The "main" entrance is where the researchers and staff enter/exit and it moderately secured by security guards with assault rifles and body armor, as well as dogs. The last is relatively lightly armed with security guards in light armor and submachine guns, but that's the entrance most security guards use to enter and exit.
Once inside, there are 4 banks of elevator, each going to an isolated level of the facility and each level is working on a different project. They need to find out which bank of elevators lead to the project they need.
Since the information available on the facility is all hearsay, some information may be wrong or just their employer's "best guess".
Waiting until Saturday to find out what hi-jinks they have planned to get in and out. :)
I just recently ordered Cyberpunk 2020 and the Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart and your videos(Which I discovered shortly after) have been very insightful, thanks
Handy tool for Fantasy-GMs for preventing magical solutions: A Homestone (not sure if there is a translation, I just did a literal one). It comes from the P&P RPG Midgard. The spell permanently empowers a certain set of stones that need to be built into the protected structure (be it as small as a house or as big as a huge castle), the main focus - the Homestone itself - having to be kept somewhere inside, and if it is removed the spell breaks. With this spell active, it is impossible for magic to leave or enter the building in ANY way, which means no flying, no teleport, no telekinetic yoinking of important objects, no magical attacks from either side (can suck for the defenders if they have more spellcasters), summoned creatures can not enter or leave and if they are furced they are very likely to be destroyed or dismissed.
This makes it an ideal tool for heists, as magic still works inside, so casters aren't useless, and opens the possibility of a teleport escape if the party manages to snatch or destroy the Homestone. But getting in will require creativity, because even the fallback plan of "fly over it, drop feather fall", doesn't work, as the featherfall will be dispelled as soon as the enchanted people enter the protected zone. The size of that isn't precisely described other than "encompassing the entire structure", so GMs can assign the height of the blocker zone wherever they want to make falling down a bad idea.
EDIT Sidenote: Quite possible this also exists elsewhere, but Midgard is where I personally encountered it for the first (and so far only) time.
I always love your videos; they give great ideas on how to be a player or how to run a campaign. Maybe one day I'll finally get the courage to start a campaign...
I ran a little heist one shot in D&D 5e for 3 friends as their first game. it was great fun and a good entry point into the ttrpg genre, as everybody has seen some heist movie and kinda knows what to do. been thinking about doing another one for some time now. these tips will come handy.
Good video man, will help me setup the Shadowrun heist this weekend
I was running the 2nd edition AD&D module a howl from the north. My players just discussed there plan to sneak into the barbarian camp for over 4 hours.
One of our PCs had gotten a weird random rolled artifact that was basically a portal gun with 5 uses.
He didn't use it for months and everyone forgot about it.
We basically forced our GM to do a big payoff heist.
The GM made it practically impossible.
Portal gun guy stole everything.
We bought a city district.
I love your stuff man! Keep up the good work. Being a RPGer since 1984, you've help renew the love for gaming I haven't felt since the 90's. Thanks again!
I adore doing heists and my favorite system for it is actually Star Wars Saga Edition.
You'd think that having Jedi and droids and whatnot would ruin the game but there's a lot of benefits:
1. This is a world where (generally speaking) telepathy, telekenisis, sentient robots and hyperspace travel are known quantitites - thus the focus of security is on delaying, containing or killing a thief rather than convict them after the fact because forensics is practically a non-starter. In games like Shadowrun, worrying about that sort of stuff can quickly lead to ulcers.
2. Hacking isn't just looping the video or running coms. Slicers are more of a "safecracker, but for everything" kind of character. That means you can bypass some problems in exchange for others.
4. The Force fixes a mutitude of sins. Its a great way to cover for the party's weak points. But if there's a force-sensitive baddie in the area, one mind-trick could leave you stuck in a cat-and-mouse game or blow the whole thing immediately.
"The kink should be an obstacle the characters can overcome." Unless your playing Shadowrun. Then the kink is a TPK. Every time.
Tnx. You have narrowed it down to digestable tips
Currently planning a whole short campaign full of heists, and I just wanted to say that this video is super helpful for anyone looking to plan a heist game! A great and helpful vid, and I look forward to putting these ideas in practice!
Thanks for the video. Really helped crystalize some of the ideas I'd been having for a hybrid heist/raid in a Changeling: The Lost/God-Machine crossover Chronicle.
The Artifact: An Occult book that the God Machine is using to develop fae-detection Infrastructure. It wants to identify some Changelings that have been sabotaging it over the past few years. Even if it gets the saboteurs, it's still a threat to have an eldritch horror deity who can identify the members of the local freehold. The goal is to steal the book and/or destroy the facility from the inside.
The Fortress is a skyscraper built to house a facility of a God Machine: From the outside, people just see 3 curved skyscrapers connected by a circular bridge section. Thanks to some weird space folding, there's a fourth, cylindrical tower in the center with limited access where the heart of the Machine's facility is.
The Dragon: If the PCs get identified, the facility can make life hell for them afterward or simply unleash a Destroyer Angel to quietly assassinate them.
Hey Seth, I just finished listending to Damoren on Audible and have to say, without spoiling anything, holy shit dude. That was an awesome ending that I never saw coming. Now from an RPG standpoint, do you ever put your players in such dire situations like the knights faced during the final act? If you do, I would love to hear how you design such a scene, your thought process behind it and how your players feel about it. Now its time to load in Hounacier.
Great to hear! Glad you enjoyed it. As far as RPGs, I've never done the exact situation, but I have done the elements in separate situations, such as having them escape and get their gear, or fighting overwhelming opponents, or giving a time limit like "The artifact will be destroyed in X-time unless you stop it."
Hounacier is a bit of a different animal than Book 1. I figured that instead of doing another Save The World plot with a large cast, I'd go with something a bit more gritty and personal. It's more noir-horror than action-adventure. So get ready for something different. It's the darkest in the series. I try to give each book a very different feel than the others while still being clear sequels.
Also, if you can, any reviews/ratings you can leave for Damoren on Audible/Amazon or Goodreads would be greatly appreciated. Those help little authors like me out a whole lot.
@@SSkorkowsky Darkest in the series?! Noir-Horror?! I'm sold.
This video is extremely informative, helpful, and detailed! Thanks for the help, my heist is going to be much better having seen this
Best of luck with the game.
If you find that you have left a hole, any security expert will tell you that glaring holes are sometimes left as a "honey pot" to catch intrusions. Depending on the level of your players and their experience, you may be able to give them warnings about it. If you have a security expert character, it might appear as too good to be true and prompt them to investigate it further, or avoid it.
All great security fortresses should employ a "honey pot" to provide an additional security layer that stops novices.
TotalCon 4 lyf! Great vid as always!
Heists are really fun! Some good inspiration is also Payday 2, a game in which heisting is the name of the game - though it is very much over the top. It does show a good number of layers for a heist.
Second is Thief: the Dark Project. One of my favourite games ever, and also good inspiration for stealthy heisting.
Third: The Sprawl. It's a cyberpunk-rpg in which heisting is common, and it provides a good system for it.
Thanks for the vid!
Nice!
I love to do the planning with the players and sometimes even help the planning. I mean, I didn't include any shortcuts, why can't I be engaged?
Thought about an involuntary mistake: I just had the idea that you could make any maps about a few months to half a year old. That should give the GM the excuse to have the PCs encounter minor changes. It's not enough to rebuild the castle and close the gap, but it may be enough to install a few steel bars or to change the guard routine.
The stake out phase can be viewed as discovering the puzzle of the fortress. The better they do at this the more doors they can unlock beforehand. Gathering info could easily be weaved into several sessions where they tap sources and launch probes to scope out the scene. By the way contacts and social clout is a great reward for missions.
22:00 lol there was a dashcam/chopper footage released of chase the resulted in an OIS the other day and there was this one van who was not getting over. While an unmarked car chases a work truck down the highway. All the other vehicles are pulling to the right lane or shoulder to get out the way. Van driver just stays in front blocking both the truck and unmarked cop going the just above the speed limit. Though not to block the guy in just so he doesn't need to pull over. The fleeing Truck took a turn and the van just kept going.
We were doing a heist in shadowrun, don't remember the artifact (most likely closed off data or something easily transportable) we were going to be in and out like the wind using carefully monitored guard movements and our 2 tecnomancers (one of them was me) blipping cameras so we didn't get caught we get to the fire exit and the troll just headbutts it, did enough damage to the door to make it a twisted mess but without dislodging it (and enough damage to himself to one-shot himself but he soaked all of it) so we went to plan B we ran for the front door (as all the freaking guards would be heading to where the alarm was) technomancers just cut the cameras and troll bulldozed the front door and the 2 guards left there, crew just blasted our way to the target grabbed it and ran. still in and out like the wind just a freaking tornado instead.
I love heists too, it's a shame that everyone I play with seems to not care for them and never seem supportive of the idea whenever I propose it, be it as a different GM from me running it or as me running the heist.
But I'm certain that some day I'll find a group that enjoys them & when that day comes I'm sure what I learned here will be very helpful.
remember if your running a game like shadowrun where the Heist mission type happens alot keep in mind that not every heist needs a kink id say maybe every one in 3 should be kinkless
This is great!
Hey Seth, any chance for a follow up to this video about how to run the Assault type heist game you mention? :)
One way to RP characters with very high intelligence is to allow extra time in the planning phase. Use a base time allowance then add additional time based on the relevant stat bonus. It can help simulate the advantage of super geniuses without having to be one. I have also have used a flashback mechanic for high wisdom characters.
thanks man this video was really informative and inspirational :)
At most I think the only thing you could have added was Leg work. I've never run Cyberpunk so I can't say anything about how it works with those games, but I know in Shadowrun you often spend time calling up contacts to see what kind of Leg work and Information you can get out of them. This only works if the contact has a certain profession. Then when you make your roll to see what kind of information, how well the player rolls after all the RPing, the quality of the information may be different based on the result. So you can end up with misleading info if you roll badly or really distilled info if they rolled above and beyond what was needed.
Another good video! 😁 Hope we see a video about his time playing Runequest.
Loved these.. ever since Blakes 7 raid on control
WOAH YOU ARE ALIVE SIR!?!
..my Players always debate endlessly, making up plan after plan only to dismiss them because they involve some risk no matter how much risk. They debate and plan for hours, even entire sessions. If I place a time limit they afterwards say it was my fault if anything happened because they did not have enough time to prepare, so I let them debate as long as they want because they demand that from me. Finally when they have a plan they deem perfect enough they go in, start shooting the first guard they see and blow the whole plan out of the window. Happens every time. :D
For running a heist, you really want to know your players before you start setting up your end of it, and you really want to keep an eye on things to keep it from getting out of hand.
Sure, you really want their ideas, but it's very easy to have the entire thing end in a major disaster with some players (An easy thing to find that kind of covers it is the video Spoony did a long while ago about a museum heist gone horribly wrong)
The video came right as I needed it for prep my next session! You saved me there.
Dweebles is badass.
The fact that he got somebody else to do the narration is INSANE
7:40 shout out Blues Bros.
If they find a hole, leave it. Perhaps they left an "easily exploitable" way in with the hopes the heisters will notice it, take the bait, and go for what they think is an easy job. If they do their research and find out more about the defenses around said hole and use that to their advantage. Maybe use the hole as a distraction as the real job gets done. That, or the players think it's an obvious trap and go for something else, so you don't have to worry about it.
How have I missed these novels before? Off to amazon I go!
Dweebles is swearing is always funny.
Love the channel and I will be using some of those tips in the future. Also, just wanted to let you know that one of your books is on a service my company has called Hoopla (hoopladigital.com) and I look forward to listening to it.
Happy to be of help. Enjoy the book. :-)
Great video
Nice
Have been to 2 other “how to write and run a heist” videos first, should have checked seth skorrr-kowsky first.
Followed the link to the short story at the end. And I have to ask do you have a stat block for the mist creatures created? Or a map of the city? I would super buy a pdf of that info off the dm's guild.
Designing from POV of Fortress owner can end up with unsolvable fortresses at least without unstoppable monster waking. Esp if strictures of concealment of heist are laid down, say switching a vial and not letting it be known until X
Time limit for characters is far better idea. You have to get it before it's used or put into a vault. Or you have to get it before ... or you(or someone important)'ll die/be killed. And just make real time translate easily to ingame time like 1h=1day or 15min=1h.
Now you need to make a video about running a chase. Have you done that yet?
I've been looking for a way to pitch the Elite: Dangerous RPG to my group. I think this would be a perfect format.
Ah, Seth. I've missed your face(s).
holy you wrote the tales black raven... sorry i stole ahren for my rouge
Bombshell! I love it !
When you first said kink, I couldn't help but think about that lizard lady on Omicron Persei 3. Now she could...ahem, and then I realized you and I were not on the same page...🙃
Ran a heist in modern day COC ... For reasons beyond common sence... they got zero dollars, ...2 got killed outright ....1 was in a coma for life... and 2 will be released in 2052 let them get caught
You son of a bitch! I'm in.
Seth Skorkowsky, you son of a bitch! I'm in!
Hey Seth, after all of this COVID-19 stuff finally dissipates, are you going to run any games at a CON? I live in Oregon, but I'd love to jump in a game. Maybe we could grab like, I don't know, 2k of your RUclips fans and hold a CoC game. :)
Thanks for doing these videos. I just subscribed.. after watching for a year. I didn't realize I hadn't subscribed yet. smh. Keep up the good work.
Oh, and R.C Bray is the man. Good choice on your narrator!
Good day! Have you seen "An Inner Darkness" supplement to CoC by Golden Goblins Press? Can I suggest it for a review?
An observation I came across a while back: a heist is something like a magic trick, and happens in the same three stages: the pledge - establishing the goal and limitations, what tools are available, and more importantly what tools aren't; the turn - something happens that's technically within the rules established, or at least appears to be, but that someone wasn't expecting, and that seems at a glance like those tools that aren't allowed should be needed; and the prestige - the exciting part, getting back to normal without breaking the rules.
Great description!
An interesting idea would be to reverse the scenario. The players are the dragon, guarding the macguffin, while you as the GM present a group of NPCs who are going to steal something.
There used to be an old module collection like this (2e D&D I think) where the PCs were goblins and they build the dungeon for the NPC adventurers. There were like 3 scenarios, each a higher level. Never read it, myself, but remember a buddy telling me about it.
@@SSkorkowsky Yeah, the Reverse Dungeon. I remember seeing that module at Media Play (I know, that dates me pretty hard).
@@SSkorkowsky It's newer than this video, but the Wicked Ones RPG from Bandit Camp is pretty much the reverse dungeon heist thing mashed up with the old Dungeon Keeper PC game. Uses the Forged In the Dark engine that Blades in the Dark and Scum & Villainy use, which is explicitly designed for heist gaming. Worth a look if you get the chance - and actually see this post months late.
I had an idea like this once: The PCs start out working for the secret BBG as security specialists - building the base and defending it from thieves. Until the twist where the villain is revealed and the party is on the run with the climax of the story breaking into the base that they helped design.
First also you should have a podcast
I read this as 'First, you should have a podcast'
In the mean time, he appeared on my podcast ;-)
I'm a fan of the Blades in the Dark style of planning heists. You basically just start the heist with minimal planning, and then spend points to have flashbacks to planning. For example, if you come up with a plan DURING the heist where cutting the power to the building would have been smart, you can call for a flashback where you paid off a friend to cut the power when they get a signal. Even the items you bring aren't decided before you start
Interesting idea. I might use that if I run a heist in future.
I have to play that game. I own the PDF and haven't been able to run it yet. UUUUGH
Yeah Blades in the Dark really nails down the whole heist gimmick with the flashbacks and whatnot.
Scum & Villainy takes the same approach, but in a space opera setting - for folks who want that Firefly or Mandalorian feel instead of the fantasy Lies of Locke Lamora /Thieves World feel of Blades.
@@richmcgee434 Recently watched Firefly and you might've just made the quickest sell on any TTRPG ever