I'm GMing a game with newish players (and trying to get my GM chops in back in shape, assuming they ever were), and have an idea for a daring heist of some sort.
There are 2 characters, a half-orc Rogue 2/Fighter 1 (heading for duelist) and an elf rogue 2/wizard 1 (heading for arcane trickster) in a homebrew set in Absalom. They've befriended a cleric of Calistria who works at the pleasure salon, and will serve as the "contact" for setting up a robbery of some kind. It should be important to the temple, I think, but it doesn't have to be.
Pretty standard fare: Go into building x and steal object y without being noticed or killing anyone. I want to make it memorable without making it too hard for a pair of 3rd level characters.
Both characters have good scores between them in the relevant skills, but, as with any heist, one bad roll can really ruin things. Any suggestions on how to make this fun and suspenseful, but with a reasonable chance of success?
Dunno how that would fit into your world but how about this?
The goal is to steal from a little temple located in a cemetary. They could go in wondering why there are hardly any guards, but when they grab the token item skeletons raise and try to get them.
Since they are rogues, undead are more of "flee" monsters for them and you could have a nice chase scene through the cemetary (perhaps even like in dawn of the dead with hands commming out of the ground to grab their feet and such)
Other ideas...
A montain monastery? In case of fail you could make a risky dive into a lake far below.
Suggestion 1) PCs are hired to steal a sword from the tomb of a minor branch of the current Royal Family. The patron contacts them through several different levels of middle-men, so they can't immediately find out, but as they go down, kick some weak monsters in the face and come to the tomb, find an elegant mithril Rapier in the clutches of the dead Noble
... Half-Orc picks it up, and then a voice is heard....
"Oh, thank you, thank you, you have no idea how long I have been stuck in this terribly boring .... by the GODS you're ugly!"
... Elf picks it up, and then a voice is heard....
"Oh, thank you, thank you, you have no idea how long I have been stuck in this terribly boring .... wait, an Elf? Don't tell me your kind has finally given up hugging trees?"
PCs are now stuck with a proto-sentient weapon, only +1 but possesses the ability to vampiricly drain enhancements out of magical items it remains in contact with over long periods of time ... if they can stand it's high opinion of itself and it's annoying tendencies to spout acidic wit at whatever comes within range. Keeping the weapon allows them to follow the Sword's memories to an ancient treasure trove or some other welcome plot-hook device.
Suggestion 2) PCs get an assignment to steal back a love-letter that could potentially compromise a sympathetic Noble or other highly-powerful political entity. They are given the 'true' hit, while the patron's other forces (Re: Mooks) are deployed to draw forces away from the hiding place in faked raids on other holdings of the enemy.
PCs get back the letter, plus more documents that implicate this enemy in something well beyond the normal feint and bluff of the city politics, such as slave-trading, selling of state secrets to an enemy nation or force, an up-coming assassination attempt against a respected public figure, the list is endless.
This way, you can even assign a mook to the PCs as a hireling of their patron, something to compensate for a 'role' they might be lacking, such as a Bard to provide healing as well as stealth, a Monk to provide some grunt or even a non-PC race to spice things up. Sell them on a spy-campaign, in which they're not going to go charging in, Staffs blazing, but there will be plenty of fighting in the campaign, just not 'wading through a sea of enemies, axe held high' style.
"For a Lady's Honor" from Dungeon #8 was kind of a cool adventure; the PCs are hired to steal a lady's garter belt back from her former lover who is now blackmailing her.
First, I would mine some good heist movies for ideas (Rififi, The Italian job, Heist, etc.)
Do you want to run the whole heist in one session, or build it up a bit? If you choose the second route, you have more options for story-building and suspense. The PCs need to case the location and come up with a plan; they need to get someone on the "inside;" they need to track down an expert NPC and convince him/her to help them.
As for the heist itself, First there should be plenty of obstacles that the PCs are able to overcome because they planned well (PCs slipping in between guard shifts & locating a key to an inner area that they've learned a guard leaves in a secret spot so his lover can sneak in; sleeping draughts in the guard dogs' drinking water; disarming magic traps).
Deeper in, there should be some unforseen obstacles that require quick thinking to deal with (a magic lock keyed to a particular voice that the PCs might bluff their way past; a puzzle trap; an important item, perhaps the loot itself, not being in the place it is supposed to be).
Play to your PCs' strengths and give them opportunities to use all their skills and abilities. Check your player's sheets for those skills they've been putting ranks into but rarely come up in the game.
Make sure you have a way for the PCs to pull an inelegant smash-and-grab if they set off an alarm and things go pear-shaped. Likewise, they should have a plan B.
Heists are all about the best laid plans working wonderfully, right up to the point where they don't.
I would also recommend playing Thief I or Thief II .... Thief III really isn't that good, but unless you can find the ever-elusive patches for Thief I&II, they don't play on most modern machines. Very good games that emphasis 'get the loot and get out' and on harder levels slap you down hard for killing a target.
I also recommend getting out a 'heist' film to get the feel for pacing the adventure. A lot of work is required for a successful theft, ranging from days or weeks of preparations, working the information brokers for knowledge while also trying to ensure you lay some false leads in case those same brokers sell the information of what your PCs were after, acquiring specific tools for the task, whatever it may be, arranging alibis, disguises and potentially bribes, although once again I must stress the PCs should go through a few middle-men in this regard to avoid being immediately turned over by a Guardsman eager to avoid the noose for betraying his oaths, etc etc.
ideally you have two options:
1) Whodunnit? The theft goes down in history as the one the Guards were never able to figure out the thief's true identity. Leave not one single trace of your entrance or exit. This can be as subtle as you want, although sometimes the Players' baser urges overcome them and they resort to Fire, the great Problem Solver, to cover their tracks.
However they do this, it's also a great hook to have a master thief-catcher take up their gauntlet, intended or not, and chase them down. PCs are soon embroiled in a battle of wits with a guy that could make Sherlock Holmes look like a dribbling idiot (especially with Magic on this person(s) side!) plus the usual offenders (Rival thieves, their own boss if things go pear-shaped, the guards, would-be heroes/adventurers, hungry monsters etc)
2) It was them! Honest! PCs drop false clues that make it look like their rivals/enemies are behind the thefts. Steal a few more items while you're in there to make the Guards have to cast a wider net to recover the item. For bonus points, give the PCs the chance to frame the NPC they REALLY don't like for these thefts or the chance to pilfer an item or three that might not be missed in the calamity as the solid Mithril +5 Holy Handgrenade is discovered to be missing!
Even if the ruse is discovered, assuming the PCs were smart about these things and didn't run around going "Oh my Gods we're so badass!" to the NPCs, they should still be in the clear after all this time .... unless you bring in a high-level Caster to pull Magical Shenanigans, at which point they need to hit the sewers and stay out of sight for a few months....
Steal a severed head from a crimeboss's sitting room, so it can be re-joined to its old body and revivified.
Except it's already been animated and is QUITE talkative....
Or maybe something like Bob the Skull (From the Dresden Files) stolen from a magician's lair....lots of magical traps, constructs, summoned beasties, undead, magical sensors, apprentices, etc.
Maybe break into a rebel-rouser's secret lair and steal the music sheets of an anti-king song the CG NPC bard is working on.
Steal a creepy jar of formeldahyde (with SOMETHING in it!) from a necromancer....or maybe a giant jar with the remains of a kraken in it!
I say go Reservoir Dogs. Make it likely that something will go wrong and they will be able to sneak in, but they'll have to fight their way out.
Also something has to be other than it seems. A doublecross works great for this. Maybe the NPC assigning them the mission has an inside man who is suppose to help them infiltrate the temple, but is actually been bribed or coerced to work for the town guard or a competing crime syndicate. Once they think they've successfully escaped, he tries to lead them into a trap(ala Reservoir Dogs), or tries to steal the Mcguffin(ala trainspotting). Or depending on the dynamics of your player style, maybe an outside organization bribes one of your PC's to betray the party. Even if the PC doesn't want to, he may feel coerced to agree to it, and then fail to deliver on his promise, therefore becoming a double-double agent ('I can't remember whose side I'm on anymore).
While it can be rewarding to let the players do the deceiving, and therefore enjoy dramatic irony (the audience knows something some of the non-player-character's don't), I'd recommend having a few surprises of your own up your sleave. One of the only Heist movies I can think of where the heist is 100% successful is Ocean's Eleven. The only reason it is entertaining is the audience doesn't get to know how all of the pieces are going to come together, until they do. In this case the character's know something the audience doesn't. If there are no revelations for your players, it could just feel like they're easily outsmarting a bunch of dumb NPC's who never had a chance. Shooting fish in a barrel is a cheap thrill and doesn't make for a memorable situation. Also it can be undramatic for the players first to draw up detailed plans, and then just watch their plans work as expected.
Don't make the adventure predicated on them not being detected, because they may fail the necessary skill checks, and you want it to be fun regardless of what the dice gods dictate.
Or maybe give the PCs incomplete information about the McGuffin. Maybe there are 1000 of them, and the PCs have to pick the right one. Maybe it is much, much bigger and heavier than they thought.
Maybe the nature of it is totally different than expected (a ruby ring is really a woo beewing, etc.)
Maybe the words of the sacred scroll are tattooed on the sacred bull.
Maybe the sacred chalice is the source of all water in the desert town, and stealing it would deprive hundreds of innocents of their life.
Excellent suggestions, as I've come to expect. You each gave me something to get the gears turning! Thanks!
I'll let you know how it goes.
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"For a Lady's Honor" from Dungeon #8 was kind of a cool adventure; the PCs are hired to steal a lady's garter belt back from her former lover who is now blackmailing her.
I was just thinking that the best heist would be of an item of no significant material value, but that would be socially devastating to someone if it were revealed or changed hands or whatever.
Examples;
1) love letters that, if revealed now, would be socially damaging to one or both parties (or make great blackmail material for the Calistrian cleric)
2) a signet ring that verifies that a bastard child is the son of someone important, stealing the ring allows the nobleman to dismiss his claim
3) papers that reveal the recipe for a famous chef's signature dish, a famous dwarven smiths celebrated style of acid-etched design, a prominent young mage's 'personal' spell, etc. and that also proves that the recipe/smithing technique/spell was actually designed by someone else...
Or, for a different sort of 'money-grab,' specially prepared alchemical red wax, imported parchment and the impression of a seal-stamp from the offices of an official of the court, allowing the owner to forge payment documents that are indistinguishable from those sealed by the exchequer himself, and waltz into the city bank and collect one's 'pay' for 'services rendered to the crown.'
And, the reverse-heist.
The 'thieves' are given one of the above items, and sent to plant it where it will be 'accidentally discovered' by a visiting dignitary or expert or family member, implicating the target in whatever scandal the Calistrian priestess has cooked up (or uncovered).
It could even be a two-part job, with the first mission being to find the missing 'proof' of scandal, and the second phase being to plant the proof where it will be 'accidentally' discovered.
Ideally, no forgery will be required, but it's possible that the 'proof' might be placed in such a way as to allow for misinterpretation (love letters sent to one individual, but with unclear wording, leaving uncertain whom exactly they were addressed to, being planted in a different party's personal belongings, making it seem that the writer had been having an affair with them, instead of the real recipient. The best way to make something like this work would be if the *actual* subject of the love letters is of higher station or important to the 'fall guy,' placing the recipient in the position of having to admit to scandal to 'take the fall' for the person who actually was involved in the scandalous behavior, forcing a son to be embroiled in scandal to save his father from losing face, for instance.).