H is for Heists

Heists are the meat of the Edge of the Empire game, an ‘adventure’ in Dungeons & Dragons parlance. While highly complex and nuanced plots can be easily lost on players at the table, a Heist that is too straightforward, linear, and predictable is boring and might not challenge the players creativity enough for their liking.

To generate a Heist, roll at least once on each of the columns below. Each Heist starts with a basic premise: the fringer crew must do some Action at some Location, which is owned by an Owner. The reason why this Heist became a good plan is because the fringer crew has come upon some Inside Information that either increases the reward for a successful Heist or decreases the risk and dangers posed for a botched Heist. Unfortunately, all Heists have at least one Unforeseen Complication that forces the fringer crew to quickly change their plans and/or come up with a creative solution to the new problem.

Heists can be seen throughout the Star Wars films:

• rescue Han Solo from Jabba’s Palace
• smuggle goods for Jabba the Hutt, try not to dump cargo at the first sign of the Imperials
• rescue Princess Leia from the Imperial Death Star
• escort Rebel Alliance transports past an Imperial blockade at Hoth
• covertly destroy the shield generator on Endor
• smuggle cargo through the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs*
• deliver Han Solo to the highest bidder

d10	Action	Location	Owner	Inside Information	Unforeseen Complications
1	Capture/Steal	freighter convoy	Imperial	lightly guarded	military presence
2	Capture/Steal	colony ship	Imperial	abandoned	T is for It’s a trap!
3	Smuggle past	luxury cruiser	criminal organization	in a minefield	J is for Jedi are involved
4	Smuggle past	orbital depot	criminal organization	a gambling tournament is involved	has a secret, different owner
5	Smuggle past	armed starship	civilian	Need to use speeder bikes	must meet with a contact
6	Rescue	military outpost	civilian	Disable security via central computer	civilian hostages become involved
7	Rescue	medical facility (hospital, cloning, etc.)	civilian	location is underwater	moral quandary affecting a fringer’s D is for Destiny
8	Investigate / Discover	factory	politician	Working with someone on the inside	time limit
9	Protect	residence	pirate	besieged	one type of technology doesn’t function (shields, blasters, etc.)
10	Destroy	uncharted system	Rebel Alliance	uncharted location	forged permits don’t work

* I just looked up the Wookipedia entry for ‘Kessel Run’ and vomited in my mouth, just a bit. Han is quoted as saying his starship can travel the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs. Clearly, the writers (Uncle George?) didn’t realize at the time that parsecs are a measure of distance. It sounds like ‘seconds’ so they wrote it as a unit of time; a minor mistake, no big deal. But to keep their precious canon, a layer of pseudo-science and coverup bullshit has been put onto this, making the whole thing just stupid.