Heist Campaign Ideas

[Fletchard]

I'm thinking about running a campaign that revolves around heists and other sneaky work. All the characters would be rogues, wizards, ninjas, etc. It would be low on combat, high on skills and about medium on magic. I thought I'd throw some questions out to you guys for some ideas.

What kind of creative adventures should I run? Of course there is the sneak into the middle of the house and assassinate or steal something. A twist on that is having to sneak two huge, half orc barbarians with no stealth at all into the middle of a fortress so that they can assassinate someone. That would pose plenty of problems for the PCs. Another idea might be to have a rope-based adventure, having to lower a PC down to a very low level of a dungeon that is inaccesible except by a well, or from a bridge. Any other ideas?

What kind of character concepts should I recomend? There is the sneaky rogue that disables traps etc, the charismatic rogue that talks and diguises his way through, the wizard that uses spells to help himself with either of those areas, the wizard that uses polymorph to turn into small animals. Also the mastermind wizard who directs the missions using divining spells and such, the maester who can craft items for each mission, and a dungeon delver might be useful. What else?

And finally, what obstacles to theft could they encounter. I have some ideas, a hallway that produces a loud echo because of the stone walls, the target object being surrounded by sand so that any guard who sees footprints during the whole heist will be able to sound the alarm, a target object deep under water (again a well?), or in a magically guarded display case.

I think this campiagn would be a fun diversion from what is my normal experiene of D&D, there wouldn't be a large divergence in goals and methods. They would all have the same mission, and would all use stealth, but there is still plenty of freedom for the PCs to develop their own unique characters. What do you think?

 

[Chaldfont]

I'd love to run a campaign like this! I've often thought about it but never done it.

Here are some ideas.

Check out the TV show Hustle currently running on AMC. Its my new favorite show. Its about a group of London con artists and their elaborate schemes. Other shows/movies for inspiration: The Sting, The Spanish Prisoner, Nine Queens, Ocean's Eleven, Kelly's Heroes, Sneakers, Alias, Point of No Return, The Great Train Robbery. You might also check out the excellent PC game Thief and it's sequels. You could even steal plot ideas from James Bond movies!

I think fun aspects would be allowing the players to come up with elaborate plans. They should have access to highly specialized cool magic items and figure out ways to use them. Pull out all the cool stuff that rarely shows up in your typical campaign but you've been dying to use (like immovable rods and portable holes).

Some specific adventure ideas:
* The King's council is getting too powerful. The King hires the PCs to plant evidence/frame three of the council members so he can remove them and replace them with loyalists. Two of the three have obvious vices that can be manipulated, but the third is a paladin.
* Two epic level wizards are rivals. For ages they have fought over a single artifact that has no power, but immense sentimental value to them. One of the wizards hires the PCs to steal it from the other. The PCs could get a better offer from the mark or they could try to run off and try to sell the "powerful artifact". This is an excuse to pull out all those old-school insane wizard dungeon tricks.
* A rival gang is taking business away and making the PCs lives miserable. The rival gang makes an offer--whoever can steal the most in the next seven days is the best gang and the losers must leave town.
* It looks like one of the team's own is plotting against his fellows. Pick a player and conspire with him. Make it look like he is setting them up. But it is really just part of a larger con that will make everyone rich. Or is it?
* The PCs need an expert for a job, but the expert is in the King's dungeons and must be busted out. Is he trustworthy? Or did the authorities just let him go so they could catch the PCs in the act?
* A PC must be actually killed and later raised from the dead as part of a con/heist.
* A high level bard hires the PCs to steal a rival's voice.

 

[Shadowdancer]

I ran an urban campaign back in 2E along the same lines using the Complete Ninja Handbook. All of the PCs were members of a ninja clan aligned with a successful merchant clan. The PCs engaged in lots of spying/assassinations/sabotage/arson/theft against rival merchant clans. It was a lot of fun.

Look at the Nightsong Infiltrator and Nightsong Enforcer prestige classes in Complete Adventurer. There also is some information in that book on thieves guilds and related organizations. You should find some ideas there you can use. Shadowdancer prestige class also makes a good character for this sort of campaign.

One idea for a recurring foil: create a highly skilled catburglar-type thief who, at least starting out, is of a higher level than the PCs, with better developed skills, who appears from time to time to thwart the PCs' goals by stealing items they want first, or showing up at a location where they are trying to pull a job but the catburglar is trying to pull another job, or have the catburglar lead pursuing guards straight into the PCs during a job as a diversion so the catburglar can escape. Keep this going, off and on, throughout the campaign. The PCs will grow to hate the catburglar, and maybe even try to track him or her down. Then have a situation arise so the catburglar and the PCs are forced to work together.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Another idea I forgot to include in my first post: Plan a campaign sort of like the NBC series "Heist" in which the PCs have to commit a number of smaller, preliminary jobs to gather needed items, money, and info for a large, blockbuster-type job at the end of the campaign. The whole campaign would be building toward that final job; if the PCs finally pull it off, it will be sweet and very rewarding.

If you haven't seen the show, the basic premise is that this group of high-tech thieves is planning on robbing all the jewelry stores on Rodeo Drive in L.A. during Oscar week, when their vaults are full of expensive jewelry that stars will be wearing to the awards show. The first episode was a bank robbery, in which they stole a large sum of money to finance the caper. Subsequent episodes revolved around stealing floorplans for the jewelry stores; breaking into the offices of the jewelry stores' security firms to find out what sort of security systems are used in the jewelry stores; etc.

 

[Fletchard]

Haha thanks, the PCs will really have a fun time killing each other in order to resurrect them for a mission. Mwahahaha

I'll also have to, if they ever get captured, cut one of their fingers/hands/arms off. It would be replaced later by something just as good, but it would be fun for a mission or two. Maybe they could steal their arm replacment.

Great idea for the small heists leading up to the big heist. The other, better at first, catburgler will also be cool until they use a magic item on him that I forget the PCs had. Last time I tried to create an archnemesis for them they used a scroll of lightning and blasted him while he was cackling with laughter and trying to get away.

And Chaldfront, trying to incriminate a Paladin will be awesome. Thanks for the list of movies and reminding me about immovable rods