I am putting together a plotline for my campaign which involves getting hold of a specific item from the local mine. The item in question is a specific type of crystal, which the mine has an exclusive contract to sell to the local mages guild because it has magical properties, so they won't sell it to anyone else.
I am anticipating that the players may wish to perform a heist to get these crystals, so I am working it out like the start of your average heist movie to try and make sure that I have all he details available to them if they decide to go down this route, without anticipating any of their plans - I want them to work out what they want to do and then try to execute it, and I will decide whether they've neglected any details or not when I decide what is occurring with it!
What I have so far:
The mine is on the edge of a cliff, and the cliff drops to salt flats. Over this salt flat comes a sky ship, once a week, to pick up the crystals.
I have details of where the crystals are stored, how they are stored, and how they get in & out (via a crane), and who knows this information (the mine workers).
I have details of how the transaction takes place, which is like clockwork each week, with an amount of guards and their positions at any given time, how long the cargo is waiting on the docks, how many crates, and so forth.
I have details of what happens once it's on the ship, how long it takes the ship to get back to the mages guild, and how many people are on the ship
I have details on where the ship docks and what happens after that as well
It's not a shady deal or anything so it will be all out in the open during the day.
Is there anything else I need to consider? They aren't actively attempting to avoid being heisted, they don't expect it and have guards for general raids and as a deterrent.
Is the only entrance to the cave with crystals in it from the cliff, or can you access it from the mine itself?
Who runs the mine? (Bribing/job getting)
How do they find the crystals? Is it possible for the characters to pose as workers and harvest one themselves? (Bit of a stretch, but could be relevent)
You might want to have a surprise in store- maybe the guard schedule has been changed slightly since they got the info, or maybe one of the mages wanted a surprise inspection. Complications and surprises make for interesting heists!
The big thing in D&D heists, imo, is teleportation magic. Either to get in or out or both, it can trivialize any robbery. I reason that in worlds like this, it exists, and everyone knows it exists, so owners of high value items will take precautions, like an anti-magic field or something. Even if the PCs don’t have access to teleport, there are people in the world who do, so the mine will need to plan accordingly. To a lesser extent, stone shape, and making doors wherever you like, can make a lot of buildings porous. So they often make walls 6 feet thick (or 11), so at least they have to cast it more.
I try not to overthink or over plan ahead of time, mainly because I have learnt whatever you think the methods might be the party try, they will go and do something you never even saw coming.
Map out the mine, work out where the traps are, the guards, what the watch pattern is, are there more people about during the day or at night. Work out a random element, for instance there is a 30% chance at any one time that an extra guard will be stationed at the entrance. That means that when the players scout out the. ine ahed of time there might, or might not be the same number of guards that will be there when they return.
Work out the size and shape of the thing and how you will describe how it can be transported. Figure out if it is moved at all, if this is a mine then at some point the crystals have to be transported away from it. Figure out who might know, maybe a tavern near to the mine where they workers normally go to after a shift.
Slowly you will populate out the area, then, just let the players play in your sandbox, if they come up with clever ideas reward them by making them possible. You want to get guard costumes made, yep there is a tailor that might be able to do that, etc but I find it is better to be reactive then overly proactive or that cool heist you wanted to get the players to do, turns into a railroad computer game where there is only one way to get it done.
When I ran my heist campaign, I had an NPC play the “planner” role (think Joe in Reservoir Dogs) and it was up to the players to execute the heist. That makes it more linear while preserving the heist feel, and there’s nothing wrong with that IMO.
No, nothing wrong with that. Just a different style of game is all. But I also want the planners to have their shot at it. I mean, supposing you have planners in your group. Not all groups do, or it isn’t their favorite part. Just different ways different people enjoy the game. (But, if they do it, then that’s 1 more thing I don’t have to do.) And it gets to be fun for me as DM seeing how they go about the caper. I get a kick out of their plans. Sometimes it’s Oceans’ 11/Leverage/The Italian Job, sometimes it’s Seal Team 6, sometimes it’s Scoobey Doo. Sometimes it’s The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. 🤷♂️ I never know. It’s awesome.
If the Mages are the only ones who can purchase these crystals , does the party have a mage that can, you know..., buy one?
Can the party bribe/steal/purchase one from a less reputable mage?
The Heist is a big job. Professional criminals look for the easiest/weakest link in the chain to exploit. The plan may come down to robbing an individual mage for the item as opposed to taking on the mine, especially if they only need one. Is there a reason that the party would need to go to the mine instead of another source? Are the crystals in the mine "clean" and not imprinted on the buyer before they are sold/shipped?
Take that into consideration before you plan the Heist.
Is the only entrance to the cave with crystals in it from the cliff, or can you access it from the mine itself?
Who runs the mine? (Bribing/job getting)
How do they find the crystals? Is it possible for the characters to pose as workers and harvest one themselves? (Bit of a stretch, but could be relevent)
There will probably be air shafts in the mine, so I will add them when I map it out! I might even add that they destroyed the old well by mistake by tunneling into it, so there's a new well. I'll throw them that info ahead of the time, so that they might remember it!
The mine will be worked by generic miners, who live fairly normal lives. There is also the overseer and the accountant who are in charge of managing the miners and wages & sales respectively.
The mine tunnels will be quite large, as there are a lot of the crystals to be dug out. Most are small and allowed to be sold to the general public, it's the big ones which the mages guild has the monopoly on, and which the party need to get.
The mine is below the cliff, and the town and such is at the top of the cliff. There will be other ways in, via airshafts and the well as mentioned above!
Overseer runs the mine, and he is greedy, so there's a chance for them to bribe him. The accountant however is very strict, so they will have to approach him alone!
They absolutely could pose as workers! Finding a large crystal is something of an event and they are usually taken straight to the storage cave. These crystals are 3ft long, so smuggling one out might be difficult!
You might want to have a surprise in store- maybe the guard schedule has been changed slightly since they got the info, or maybe one of the mages wanted a surprise inspection. Complications and surprises make for interesting heists!
An excellent idea, I will definitely have some randomness, as well as chance events for them to get past (guard dropped something so doubled back to find it, meaning their counting how long he takes to perform his patrol is suddenly countered!)
The big thing in D&D heists, imo, is teleportation magic. Either to get in or out or both, it can trivialize any robbery. I reason that in worlds like this, it exists, and everyone knows it exists, so owners of high value items will take precautions, like an anti-magic field or something. Even if the PCs don’t have access to teleport, there are people in the world who do, so the mine will need to plan accordingly. To a lesser extent, stone shape, and making doors wherever you like, can make a lot of buildings porous. So they often make walls 6 feet thick (or 11), so at least they have to cast it more.
The party will quickly learn that there is a very good reason that the crystals are of interest to the mages guild - they store magic! Teleporting in is not an issue, but teleporting out again with a magic-eating crystal...
I am now deciding that the boxes will be lead lined (they can notice this and work out what they want from it, they'll probably assume it's radioactive!) and this keeps them from interfering with the magic that keeps the skyship afloat. This could get very interesting if they try to take them out of the crates whilst in the ship...
I try not to overthink or over plan ahead of time, mainly because I have learnt whatever you think the methods might be the party try, they will go and do something you never even saw coming.
Map out the mine, work out where the traps are, the guards, what the watch pattern is, are there more people about during the day or at night. Work out a random element, for instance there is a 30% chance at any one time that an extra guard will be stationed at the entrance. That means that when the players scout out the. ine ahed of time there might, or might not be the same number of guards that will be there when they return.
Work out the size and shape of the thing and how you will describe how it can be transported. Figure out if it is moved at all, if this is a mine then at some point the crystals have to be transported away from it. Figure out who might know, maybe a tavern near to the mine where they workers normally go to after a shift.
Slowly you will populate out the area, then, just let the players play in your sandbox, if they come up with clever ideas reward them by making them possible. You want to get guard costumes made, yep there is a tailor that might be able to do that, etc but I find it is better to be reactive then overly proactive or that cool heist you wanted to get the players to do, turns into a railroad computer game where there is only one way to get it done.
I am definitely using the tavern where the miners drink as a feature in this! A sterling suggestion, thanks!
I'm definitely taking the "plan the area, let them work it out" approach with this. They might just hit & run whilst they are loading!
When I ran my heist campaign, I had an NPC play the “planner” role (think Joe in Reservoir Dogs) and it was up to the players to execute the heist. That makes it more linear while preserving the heist feel, and there’s nothing wrong with that IMO.
I might do this if they are struggling. I will try to get it so they discuss this somewhere where they could be overheard, so if they are just drawing a blank and say "sod it, we'll just kill the guards" then I'll have an NPC step in to help them, for a cut.
If the Mages are the only ones who can purchase these crystals , does the party have a mage that can, you know..., buy one?
Can the party bribe/steal/purchase one from a less reputable mage?
The Heist is a big job. Professional criminals look for the easiest/weakest link in the chain to exploit. The plan may come down to robbing an individual mage for the item as opposed to taking on the mine, especially if they only need one. Is there a reason that the party would need to go to the mine instead of another source? Are the crystals in the mine "clean" and not imprinted on the buyer before they are sold/shipped?
Take that into consideration before you plan the Heist.
It's the mages guild which has the deal, not just any mages, so the party wizard might have some chances to join the guild, but not to climb high enough to access these crystals without considerable time and effort!
There are definitely other options for the players, though bribing a mage may require that they first sneak aboard the ship to get to the mages guild, where they could then bribe someone to access the crystals and give them one!
The mine is the only source of these crystals, they are unique to this location. The crystals don't need to be stolen before they are sold, but the weakest link will be before it reaches the mages guild - there it is guarded by all the mages using a glyph of warding which alarms all nearby mages and guards if the door is opened without using the key, so breaking in there will likely see the party detained! I expect the party to identify that the weakest point is before it is delivered!
Thank you all for the feedback, I will definitely be including a lot of this in my designs!
Also just be aware for all your intention for this to be a heist this may well turn into an armed violent robbery leaving a trail of bodies and destruction in it's wake lol. Be ready to know what the impact of that will be. Maybe the party will have to go on the run, maybe they will be arrested or cornered.
A different game but we had a similar thing in a cyberpunk campaign very recently I was a player in. we spent 24 hours real time (6 sessions) planning out the heist, infiltrating the building next door, getting the net runner in position to hack computer systems and find out transport schedules, breaking into the headquarters of the company guarding the warehouse so we could find out guard schedules, get one of us in as a replacement, steal uniforms. Day of the heist came, we had ot all planned out, 4 of us where inside the warehouse under false identities, the net runner had hacked the cargo manifest and put our 2 lorries on it, and set up the auto loaders to be ready for them to turn up. We would have emptied the whole warehouse of cyberware into 2 big rig trailers and driven them to the contact. 4 days of game time, 6 weeks of real time planning. The lorries pull up, the guards get a bit suspicious and want to do some additional checks, one of the characters, a nomad driver gets an itchy trigger finger and shoots a guard. literally 30 seconds into the heist all that work and planning to waste and we end up just shooting the place up and killing everyone in it. As one player said, why didn't we just do that in the first place lol. After it the GM told us that was how he thought things where going to go, we had forced him to ad lib 6 weeks of sessions, create maps and answers to questions he didn't ever anticipate us going what he thought would be a one session bit of fun turned into an 8 session epic (clearing the warehouse took 2 sessions to complete).
I used to run Shadowrun games, and I'd figure out all the security so I'd be ready for the players. I knew the what kind of Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics (ICE) we freezing the Matrix. I knew what magical security they had on tap. I'd say, ok, what do you guys do?
"We use stealth, until stealth is no longer an option, and we fight it out from there."
"We use stealth, until stealth is no longer an option, and we fight it out from there."
I am fully anticipating this being the final result XD
Still, I'm hoping that the lack of any actual bad guys is going to drive their cause. Nobody is an evil overlord trying to take over the world - the mages want to keep the crystals safe from anyone who would use them for evil, so have secured an exclusive contract with the overseer to buy all the crystals over a certain size. They did this as a business deal so the Overseer didn't realise their power and try to find another buyer for them, and so there was no real attention drawn to it. The miners, guards and mages are nice people just doing their jobs.
But, the party needs one of those crystals, and nobody is going to just let them have one, so I'm hoping they decide to try and steal one instead of killing their way in and out!
One mechanic depending on what how you'd like to run the hesits may be fun to use for the players I have seen used based of the Blades in the Dark system, give the players a charge of you can heist movie style, in the middle of the heist when they come across a problem, describe how you planned for X thing and give me some preparations you made for it prior to starting the heist that we will say can be used now.
Blades in the dark basically has 0 planning for heists it works purely off players coming up with solutions to the obstacles before them. Obviously you can throw in rolls for them to see how well bribing guards prior went etc.
Like it doesn't necessarily stop need for planning on your side prior bar that you can have more freedom to plan less for specific outcomes because the players could creatively use the charges to get out of the situation (maybe by making more issues).
I am putting together a plotline for my campaign which involves getting hold of a specific item from the local mine. The item in question is a specific type of crystal, which the mine has an exclusive contract to sell to the local mages guild because it has magical properties, so they won't sell it to anyone else.
I am anticipating that the players may wish to perform a heist to get these crystals, so I am working it out like the start of your average heist movie to try and make sure that I have all he details available to them if they decide to go down this route, without anticipating any of their plans - I want them to work out what they want to do and then try to execute it, and I will decide whether they've neglected any details or not when I decide what is occurring with it!
What I have so far:
The mine is on the edge of a cliff, and the cliff drops to salt flats. Over this salt flat comes a sky ship, once a week, to pick up the crystals.
I have details of where the crystals are stored, how they are stored, and how they get in & out (via a crane), and who knows this information (the mine workers).
I have details of how the transaction takes place, which is like clockwork each week, with an amount of guards and their positions at any given time, how long the cargo is waiting on the docks, how many crates, and so forth.
I have details of what happens once it's on the ship, how long it takes the ship to get back to the mages guild, and how many people are on the ship
I have details on where the ship docks and what happens after that as well
It's not a shady deal or anything so it will be all out in the open during the day.
Is there anything else I need to consider? They aren't actively attempting to avoid being heisted, they don't expect it and have guards for general raids and as a deterrent.
Cheers!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
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I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
Are there any back routes in and out of the mine?
Who all works there?
What are the mine tunnels like?
Is the only entrance to the cave with crystals in it from the cliff, or can you access it from the mine itself?
Who runs the mine? (Bribing/job getting)
How do they find the crystals? Is it possible for the characters to pose as workers and harvest one themselves? (Bit of a stretch, but could be relevent)
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
You might want to have a surprise in store- maybe the guard schedule has been changed slightly since they got the info, or maybe one of the mages wanted a surprise inspection. Complications and surprises make for interesting heists!
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
The big thing in D&D heists, imo, is teleportation magic. Either to get in or out or both, it can trivialize any robbery. I reason that in worlds like this, it exists, and everyone knows it exists, so owners of high value items will take precautions, like an anti-magic field or something. Even if the PCs don’t have access to teleport, there are people in the world who do, so the mine will need to plan accordingly. To a lesser extent, stone shape, and making doors wherever you like, can make a lot of buildings porous. So they often make walls 6 feet thick (or 11), so at least they have to cast it more.
I try not to overthink or over plan ahead of time, mainly because I have learnt whatever you think the methods might be the party try, they will go and do something you never even saw coming.
Map out the mine, work out where the traps are, the guards, what the watch pattern is, are there more people about during the day or at night. Work out a random element, for instance there is a 30% chance at any one time that an extra guard will be stationed at the entrance. That means that when the players scout out the. ine ahed of time there might, or might not be the same number of guards that will be there when they return.
Work out the size and shape of the thing and how you will describe how it can be transported. Figure out if it is moved at all, if this is a mine then at some point the crystals have to be transported away from it. Figure out who might know, maybe a tavern near to the mine where they workers normally go to after a shift.
Slowly you will populate out the area, then, just let the players play in your sandbox, if they come up with clever ideas reward them by making them possible. You want to get guard costumes made, yep there is a tailor that might be able to do that, etc but I find it is better to be reactive then overly proactive or that cool heist you wanted to get the players to do, turns into a railroad computer game where there is only one way to get it done.
Don’t plan the heist, plan the security.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
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This.
It's the players' jobs to plan the heist. It's your job to set up the obstacles.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
When I ran my heist campaign, I had an NPC play the “planner” role (think Joe in Reservoir Dogs) and it was up to the players to execute the heist. That makes it more linear while preserving the heist feel, and there’s nothing wrong with that IMO.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
No, nothing wrong with that. Just a different style of game is all. But I also want the planners to have their shot at it. I mean, supposing you have planners in your group. Not all groups do, or it isn’t their favorite part. Just different ways different people enjoy the game. (But, if they do it, then that’s 1 more thing I don’t have to do.) And it gets to be fun for me as DM seeing how they go about the caper. I get a kick out of their plans. Sometimes it’s Oceans’ 11/Leverage/The Italian Job, sometimes it’s Seal Team 6, sometimes it’s Scoobey Doo. Sometimes it’s The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. 🤷♂️ I never know. It’s awesome.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
If the Mages are the only ones who can purchase these crystals , does the party have a mage that can, you know..., buy one?
Can the party bribe/steal/purchase one from a less reputable mage?
The Heist is a big job. Professional criminals look for the easiest/weakest link in the chain to exploit. The plan may come down to robbing an individual mage for the item as opposed to taking on the mine, especially if they only need one. Is there a reason that the party would need to go to the mine instead of another source? Are the crystals in the mine "clean" and not imprinted on the buyer before they are sold/shipped?
Take that into consideration before you plan the Heist.
There will probably be air shafts in the mine, so I will add them when I map it out! I might even add that they destroyed the old well by mistake by tunneling into it, so there's a new well. I'll throw them that info ahead of the time, so that they might remember it!
The mine will be worked by generic miners, who live fairly normal lives. There is also the overseer and the accountant who are in charge of managing the miners and wages & sales respectively.
The mine tunnels will be quite large, as there are a lot of the crystals to be dug out. Most are small and allowed to be sold to the general public, it's the big ones which the mages guild has the monopoly on, and which the party need to get.
The mine is below the cliff, and the town and such is at the top of the cliff. There will be other ways in, via airshafts and the well as mentioned above!
Overseer runs the mine, and he is greedy, so there's a chance for them to bribe him. The accountant however is very strict, so they will have to approach him alone!
They absolutely could pose as workers! Finding a large crystal is something of an event and they are usually taken straight to the storage cave. These crystals are 3ft long, so smuggling one out might be difficult!
An excellent idea, I will definitely have some randomness, as well as chance events for them to get past (guard dropped something so doubled back to find it, meaning their counting how long he takes to perform his patrol is suddenly countered!)
The party will quickly learn that there is a very good reason that the crystals are of interest to the mages guild - they store magic! Teleporting in is not an issue, but teleporting out again with a magic-eating crystal...
I am now deciding that the boxes will be lead lined (they can notice this and work out what they want from it, they'll probably assume it's radioactive!) and this keeps them from interfering with the magic that keeps the skyship afloat. This could get very interesting if they try to take them out of the crates whilst in the ship...
I am definitely using the tavern where the miners drink as a feature in this! A sterling suggestion, thanks!
I'm definitely taking the "plan the area, let them work it out" approach with this. They might just hit & run whilst they are loading!
Yep, definitely!
I might do this if they are struggling. I will try to get it so they discuss this somewhere where they could be overheard, so if they are just drawing a blank and say "sod it, we'll just kill the guards" then I'll have an NPC step in to help them, for a cut.
It's the mages guild which has the deal, not just any mages, so the party wizard might have some chances to join the guild, but not to climb high enough to access these crystals without considerable time and effort!
There are definitely other options for the players, though bribing a mage may require that they first sneak aboard the ship to get to the mages guild, where they could then bribe someone to access the crystals and give them one!
The mine is the only source of these crystals, they are unique to this location. The crystals don't need to be stolen before they are sold, but the weakest link will be before it reaches the mages guild - there it is guarded by all the mages using a glyph of warding which alarms all nearby mages and guards if the door is opened without using the key, so breaking in there will likely see the party detained! I expect the party to identify that the weakest point is before it is delivered!
Thank you all for the feedback, I will definitely be including a lot of this in my designs!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
Also just be aware for all your intention for this to be a heist this may well turn into an armed violent robbery leaving a trail of bodies and destruction in it's wake lol. Be ready to know what the impact of that will be. Maybe the party will have to go on the run, maybe they will be arrested or cornered.
A different game but we had a similar thing in a cyberpunk campaign very recently I was a player in. we spent 24 hours real time (6 sessions) planning out the heist, infiltrating the building next door, getting the net runner in position to hack computer systems and find out transport schedules, breaking into the headquarters of the company guarding the warehouse so we could find out guard schedules, get one of us in as a replacement, steal uniforms. Day of the heist came, we had ot all planned out, 4 of us where inside the warehouse under false identities, the net runner had hacked the cargo manifest and put our 2 lorries on it, and set up the auto loaders to be ready for them to turn up. We would have emptied the whole warehouse of cyberware into 2 big rig trailers and driven them to the contact. 4 days of game time, 6 weeks of real time planning. The lorries pull up, the guards get a bit suspicious and want to do some additional checks, one of the characters, a nomad driver gets an itchy trigger finger and shoots a guard. literally 30 seconds into the heist all that work and planning to waste and we end up just shooting the place up and killing everyone in it. As one player said, why didn't we just do that in the first place lol. After it the GM told us that was how he thought things where going to go, we had forced him to ad lib 6 weeks of sessions, create maps and answers to questions he didn't ever anticipate us going what he thought would be a one session bit of fun turned into an 8 session epic (clearing the warehouse took 2 sessions to complete).
I used to run Shadowrun games, and I'd figure out all the security so I'd be ready for the players. I knew the what kind of Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics (ICE) we freezing the Matrix. I knew what magical security they had on tap. I'd say, ok, what do you guys do?
"We use stealth, until stealth is no longer an option, and we fight it out from there."
<Insert clever signature here>
I am fully anticipating this being the final result XD
Still, I'm hoping that the lack of any actual bad guys is going to drive their cause. Nobody is an evil overlord trying to take over the world - the mages want to keep the crystals safe from anyone who would use them for evil, so have secured an exclusive contract with the overseer to buy all the crystals over a certain size. They did this as a business deal so the Overseer didn't realise their power and try to find another buyer for them, and so there was no real attention drawn to it. The miners, guards and mages are nice people just doing their jobs.
But, the party needs one of those crystals, and nobody is going to just let them have one, so I'm hoping they decide to try and steal one instead of killing their way in and out!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
One mechanic depending on what how you'd like to run the hesits may be fun to use for the players I have seen used based of the Blades in the Dark system, give the players a charge of you can heist movie style, in the middle of the heist when they come across a problem, describe how you planned for X thing and give me some preparations you made for it prior to starting the heist that we will say can be used now.
Blades in the dark basically has 0 planning for heists it works purely off players coming up with solutions to the obstacles before them. Obviously you can throw in rolls for them to see how well bribing guards prior went etc.
Like it doesn't necessarily stop need for planning on your side prior bar that you can have more freedom to plan less for specific outcomes because the players could creatively use the charges to get out of the situation (maybe by making more issues).
Loex - A Lizardfolk Lvl 4/7/4 Hexblade Profane Blood Hunter/ Battlesmith Artificer/ Cleric of the Forge
Arborea - A Warforged Lvl 5 Hexblade Warlock
Archive - A Autognome Lvl 3 Old One Warlock
ER15 - A Autognome Lvl 7 Binder Warlock
DM - "Malign Intelligence"