While you see a lot of games out there that can be used to run heists (Bully Pulpit Games’ Fiasco comes immediately to mind), this selection is specifically built around heists. Not games that can be used for heists or games that can be twisted to run heists, but games that have their mechanics built to pull off one last job.
I’ve included quite a few Big Heist games here, but also a lot of smaller, indie games. Additionally, a lot of heist-y games are built out of a few core systems, most notably perhaps Blades in the Dark by John Harper. I’ve included the base game and a few other games that have been Forged in the Dark using the default use licence for BitD. They’re all good games.
Royal Blood
“ROYAL BLOOD is a rules-light heist roleplaying game for three or more players and a gamesmaster. To play, you’ll need a deck of tarot cards and a handful of coins.”
Capybara Capers
“A super elite team of capybaras has been assembled to steal the mythical Awesome Lemon once and for all. But each of you have your own motives… and there may very well be a traitor in your midst. Can you afford to trust one another?”
Blades in the Dark
“Blades in the Dark is a tabletop role-playing game about a crew of daring scoundrels seeking their fortunes on the haunted streets of an industrial-fantasy city. There are heists, chases, occult mysteries, dangerous bargains, bloody skirmishes, and, above all, riches to be had — if you’re bold enough to seize them.”
Sherwood
“Sherwood is a game of outlaws and arcana, inspired by modern Robin Hood fantasies stories, the Robin of Sherwood television series, and the medieval outlaw ballads and romances, Sherwood is set in a fantastical version of 13th century England. Physical copies are available at Spear Witch.”
Stealing Stories for the Devil
“Save existence as we know it by bending reality to carry out the perfect heist with the unique zero-prep tabletop role playing game. When you play Stealing Stories, you pull off the perfect heist. A collaborative scenario-building process means zero GM prep as the group formulates its elaborate plan while creating the adventure scenario at the same time. Unique mechanical elements such as Mission Cards hand the initiative to the players, turning crisis into opportunity just when it looks like there’s no hope of success.
And, as reality-shaping liars, PCs can reshape their situation in literally any way they can conceive of. And lies always succeed. (While success is not the question, the price may be steep.) Throughout gameplay, unprecedented player agency ensures the PCs create and pull off amazing feats, completing their heists against incredible odds and looking great while they do it.”
Apocalypse Keys
“The Doomsday Clock is ticking down and emotions run high as you and your team of DIVISION agents struggle to find the Keys before the villainous Harbingers unlock the Doors of Power and bring about the apocalypse.”
One Last Job
“One Last Job is a game based on the Lasers & Feelings system by John Harper. It takes inspiration from films such as Ocean’s Eleven, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Rock, Baby Driver, and National Treasure. Create characters who excel at Capers or Cons, and specialise in roles such as the driver, the bruiser, or the grifter.
When things go wrong (and they will), call for those all important scenes where it’s revealed to be All Part Of The Plan. The more you rely on this technique however, the more pressure your character begins to feel in the form of Pressure Dice; they can glide along on the adrenaline of it all for a while, but sooner or later they will mess up.”
The Great Soul Train Robbery
“The Great Soul Train Robbery is a tabletop roleplaying game for 2-6 players and 1 gamemaster about Desperados robbing the train to Hell. Spin an allegorical Weird Western yarn as your sharpshooters, fiddlers, homesteader widows, and other Desperados attempt a Hellish train heist. Will you claim your prize from the train, or be overcome, damned, or broken by the heist?”
A note that I wrote a table for this game! I do not see any proceeds of its sale.
Stealing the Throne
“Stealing the Throne is a storytelling game of giant mecha heists. Zero-prep and GM-less, it’s specifically designed for exciting one-shot play. Build a Throne, invent its fiendish defences, and then take them apart one-by-one with your crack team of thieves.”
A Family of Blades
“A Family of Blades is a tabletop roleplaying game about a team of criminals who became a family, broke up, and have now been thrust back together for one last job. Powered by the Forged in the Dark engine, A Family of Blades has been written with an emphasis on fast-paced one-shots and episodic gameplay. Inside you’ll find all the rules you need to play games inspired by the likes of Leverage, Burn Notice, Ocean’s Eleven, and the Fast & Furious movies.”
Dream World Mercenaries
“In Dream World Mercenaries, the players are aiming to implant or obtain information that will help them complete a heist without excess use of force. This is accomplished by entering the subject’s dreams and manipulating their subconscious. You may choose your role in the team, plot, gather information and then dive into the aquarium of the mind. But be warned, it’s possible to be trapped in your own mind as a result. Balance the risk with the promise of reward and consult your team.”
Time to Drop
“Time To Drop is a GM-less tabletop game where you and your friends take on the roles of a heist crew trapped in a time loop, trying to get their final job right and ride off into the sunset with the goods. You’ll use dice and a tarot/oracle deck to determine and overcome Complications such as your Mark, and the Guard of the goods you’re after, ally with NPCs, and spend downtime phases working through your feelings about the crew splitting up.”
Score
“Score is an ENNIE-nominated rules-lite tabletop RPG designed for fast paced and high energy crime. This 36-page PDF contains the rules for play, character sheets, and tons of resources to generate a wide variety of heists. All you need are a pile of six sided dice, some character sheets, and a desire to steal some cold, hard cash.”
Scene Theives
“Scene Thieves is a theatrical roleplaying game where players collaboratively ‘write’ a play while simultaneously choreographing an elaborate heist in the background. During the game’s pre-show, players create a band of thieves who use theatrical performances as cover for their crimes. Players also establish broad strokes for the game’s show before writing down a variety of props on notecards. Then, it’s showtime. In Act I, everyone draws prop cards from a pot and incorporates them into the progression of both the play and the heist. At Intermission, players take note of whether the evening is trending towards comedy or tragedy. In Act II, they have a final chance to reverse their fates before the end of the game.”
Coming in Hot
“Coming in Hot is a game of audacious robberies and daring heists. Will you get away with the perfect crime, or have to put the pedal to the metal in a high-speed pursuit? Will you go all-in for the team, or plan a brutal betrayal to claim a greater share of the prize for yourself?”
Crustacean Bus Station
“You are a crab. You live in a tidepool community with other crabs. However, your crab factory job is at the other end of the beach. To get there, you must traverse dangerous terrain, evade seagulls and seals and morays, and wear yourself out scrambling over barnacle-covered rocks. This commute would be so much easier if you had a bus.
“Unfortunately, crab bus stops are banned by seal civic ordinances. Crabs are rejected from the prestigious Seagull School Of Engineering. And Moray Refreshments, your factory job, is very strict about attendance. Miss even a few minutes of your shift and you risk having your pay docked — which will put you behind on your rent and give Octopus Realty all the incentive it needs to start processing evictions.
You’re between a rock and a hard place, but fortunately that’s where a crab thrives. Tonight, you’re going to build your own bus with nothing but pincers and theft.”
Eat Trash. Be Free.
“Think of Eat Trash. Be Free. as a setting or expansion to Blades in the Dark. The activities your players will be getting up to are pretty similar to BitD. Your players will be running a Faction, going on scores, competing with rival gangs, and doing all the skullduggery you do in BitD. In addition to thematic and setting changes, there are a few different rules from BitD and those will be explained on the next page and in the Critter Handout. Overall you will still be playing BitD but in a different setting and with different motivations.”
A note that I wrote a table for this game! I do not see any proceeds of its sale.
The Roleplayer’s Guide to Heists
“The Roleplayer’s Guide To Heists is a system agnostic collection of 35 heists ranging from your standard bank jobs, to space based sci-fi capers, to fantasy smash-jobs into a wizard’s mind-realm. If you like stealing stuff (in games) and getting away with it, this book has everything you could want!
Each heist comes complete with a detailed map of the joint for you to properly case; oodles of scene hooks, enemies and traps; ideas for the getaway; and of course the loot itself. With essays on the finer points of how to run heists in your campaign and tables full of security systems, adversaries and loot ideas, this book is ideal for any gaming table.”
Squeakeasy
“It’s the roaring twenties, and times are tough here in New York City. This town is no place for you, they say: it’s teeming with dogs, cats, all sorts who would see you dead where you stand — if they could catch you.
“You and your crew, you know it’s hard out there. So you do what little you can to make life a bit easier for the average rat off the street looking to escape their sorrows for a night. And you do it in the only way you know how: By running an EXTREMELY ILLEGAL UNDERGROUND BAR FOR RODENTS.”
It Was Never Yours
“In the dark future of 202X, England has finally been forced to go through with Brexit. The resulting economic crash has devastated Britain, resulted in the breakup of the United Kingdom, and caused a minor, worldwide, financial crisis.
“Now England is alone, loathed, and weak. Vulnerable, in a way it has not been since William the Norman stormed its shores. What is terror for the British crown is opportunity for you, for the British have been pirates and plunderers for hundreds of years. They still have artifacts stolen from across the world, things they never truly owned, and it is now time for them to be returned to their rightful owners. As the English have decided not to do so willingly, you have been tasked with facilitating the matter.”
1400 Sneak
“1400 Sneak is lo-fi heist-fantasy. A secret and sinister world hides in the darkness, a world of subterfuge, larceny, and murder-for-hire. Loyalty belongs to the highest bidder, and everyone has a price, or a price on their head.”
Taels of the Heisty Vixens
In Taels of the Heisty Vixens, you play as vixens with supernatural powers, going on heists in a city occupied by colonizers. For 3-5 players plus a master of ceremonies (MC).”
Spree
“Spree is a rules-lite TTRPG about putting together a crew and pulling off big heists.”
Court of Blades
“Court of Blades takes place in the vibrant, fantasy renaissance city-state of Ilrien, in a world populated by scheming nobles, court magicians, and dashing duelists. As a noble retainer, you will engage in the polite civil warfare of the great families. You will host lavish balls, and manipulate the courts, uncover the plots of your rivals, protect the city from arcane dangers, manage your own intrigues and personal scandals, leverage your reputations, connections, and so much more.”
Dusk City Outlaws
“Dusk City Outlaws is a tabletop roleplaying game for 3-6 players, set in the sprawling city of New Dunhaven. In this game, the players take on the roles of criminals on the wrong side of the law, collectively known as the Right Kind of People to those who run in outlaw circles. These criminals come together to form a crew, and take on a Job, a criminal enterprise brokered to them by a third party.”
Leverage: The Roleplaying Game
“GET READY TO GET EVEN! The rich and powerful, they take what they want. You steal it back from them. You were bad guys, but there are worse people out there. The weak and the helpless need you. You provide… leverage. Leverage is one of the hottest hours on television, a fast-paced drama series about a crew of grifters, con artists, and thieves who use their skills to avenge the innocent.
“Using the critically-acclaimed Cortex System as its foundation, the LEVERAGE Roleplaying Game includes all the rules you need to create your own team of rogues, plan a job, and get it done… even if it means going to Plan B.”
Scum and Villainy
“Scum and Villainy is a Forged in the Dark game about a spaceship crew trying to make ends meet under the iron-fisted rule of the Galactic Hegemony.
Work with the members of your crew to thrive despite powerful criminal syndicates, warring noble families, dangerous aliens, and strange mystics. Explore the ruins of lost civilizations for fun and profit. Can your motley crew hold it together long enough to strike it big and insure your fame across the sector?”
Honey Heist
“Honey Heist is a surprisingly successful one-page RPG. Here is the plot:
1) You have a complex plan that requires precise timing.
2) You are a GODDAMN BEAR.”
Picaresque Roman: A Requiem for Rogues
“Picaresque Roman: A Requiem for Rogues is played with 4-5 people, as well as a gamemaster. Each person makes their own player character (PC) with a quick, streamlined system, then competes with each other in addition to the GM to earn the highest amount of ‘influence’ each game. Over the course of a session, players can earn secret info that gives them a leg up on the other PCs, as well as make deals with or even steal from them. Regardless of whether or not you decide to help or hinder your fellow rogue, all that matters at the end of the day is who’s got the most influence of the group, which means stealing from the sought-after ‘VIP’ character who’s under the GM’s control each game and is often the focal point of the scenario or story.”
Boy Problems
“It is many years into the future. A wealthy and powerful person (or persons) has claimed a rare and much sought-after prize: the ‘vault’ of 200 unreleased (this is real!) songs from renowned Canadian pop artist, Carly Rae Jepsen.
“Hired by an anonymous sponsor, your team of highly trained individuals will raid a well-defended location to retrieve said item. From planning to set-up to execution, you will see this heist through to its completion, whether that be a success or failure. There will many twists and turns along the way, and don’t always trust the specialists by your side.”
There they are! 30 whole games just for heists. If I missed your favourite, drop a line.