A good heist requires an immense amount of careful setup. Details about the security, the target, the way in and the way out, the crew, the tools needed, all of those need to be studied and planned for extremely carefully in order to make success as likely as possible.

I have none of that.

There’s a big fancy estate up on that hill that I know has to be full of all sorts of goodies. There’s me. And there’s the cover of darkness.

I have no idea what I’m heading into tonight, where anything is, or how I’m going to get away, but I’m still determined to make a fortune with No Map, No Plan.

King of Hearts: I’ve only just crawled in through the window, falling onto the floor inside, when I’m surrounded by people with sharp knives and sharper eyes. I think I’m dead before I started until Kyra the Whisp stepped forward. The master thief who had caused an entire kingdom to collapse smirked at me and tossed a golden locket in my direction.

“Good luck, kid. If you make it out, look me up.”

Then they were gone, out through the way I came in.

[1 Piece of Treasure, Stealth 4 -> 3]

5 of Hearts: There’s a statue in this room of a noble paladin from ages past. Defeated a demon king, saved the world, built a new society where everyone could live peacefully. Of course, that’s the same society I’m living in right now.

I stare for a while. They probably meant well, but then people got involved, and here we are. Can’t take it with me, so the monument of a hopeful past gets to stay here.

Ace of Spades: I have to tuck myself into the smallest, darkest corner I can find as line after line of heavily armed and armored troops in the estate’s colors march through. It’s enough to rival any kingdom’s elite force and yet it’s merely a security sweep for a private manor. Can’t be for me; looking for Kyra, maybe?

[Stealth Check 11+3 = 14, Success!]

8 of Hearts: Rifling through a desk, I find a set of masterwork thieves’ tools. Weirdly, they don’t seem like Kyra’s. The initials on the leather wrap they’re in are “BA”. Blaine Averre, the Scourge of Scerra? They say he vanished one day, but did he meet a bad end in this very estate? Well, his misfortune is my good fortune.

[Stealth 3 -> 4]

5 of Spades:  A locked door! Luckily, Averre’s kit does the trick just fine.

Granted, it takes me longer than it should, probably, and that patrol comes by two seconds after I close the door behind me.

Still, just fine.

[Stealth Check 2+4 = 6, Success!]

2 of Clubs:  Ow. I literally trip over my own two feet trying be sneaky and fall down a fight of stairs. I hear a servant muttering two rooms over about the new klutz on the cleaning staff. Embarrassing.

King of Diamonds: Another desk, another drawer to rifle through, but this one holds the deed to a beachfront estate in Southern Desia.

I could move my family there. There’s probably enough loot on the grounds to fend off any attempt to reclaim the estate in the courts. Even if I have to stay in the game, this will set Mum and Mariana for life.

Now I just need to escape.

[2 Pieces of Treasure, Stealth 4 -> 3]

Jack of Diamonds: “The Fallen Lovers.” A painting that’s been copied, written about, and discussed for centuries – the play based on it is two hundred years old and the crown jewel of any troupe. Last I heard it had vanished from the Royal Museum – which, I note, is free to all.

I guess someone hired some thieves of their own.

[3 Pieces of Treasure, Stealth 3 -> 2]

7 of Diamonds: I find an antique timepiece, worth a pretty penny all on its own. It’s frozen at one minute past midnight, and the inside has words carved in it.

“Whoever casts the die can win the game.”

[4 Pieces of Treasure, Stealth 2 -> 1]

Ace of Diamonds: How many desks are in this estate!? This one holds financial records that nearly put me to sleep, but I stick with it. I now have the means to access  multiple accounts, each filled with spoils from thieving guilds and smuggling operations.

There is shouting from behind me. The Alarm is Raised!

[6 Pieces of Treasure, Stealth 1 -> 0]

4 of Spades:  I’m trying to sneak through when I bump into a vase. I manage to catch it and put it back on its table. I consider it for another piece of loot, but the images on it are primarily sexual in nature. That would be just fine, if they weren’t of the estate’s owner. Blech.

[Stealth Check, 5+ 0 = 5, Success!]

7 of Hearts: I nearly run over an old man in a butler’s uniform, who immediately calls me a good lad for showing up to work during “all of this nonsense” and gives me directions to clean out the trap door in the northeastern wing.

Well, now I know where not to go!

Jack of Clubs: I turn a corner and am face to face with the heir apparent to the estate. He chortles – it’s the only word for what it sounds like – and says that he won’t have seen me for the ‘right price’.

I whack him on the forehead with “The Fallen Lovers” and run while he screeches behind me.

[Stealth 0 -> -1]

Red Joker: Another open window, on the opposite side from where I started! As I run for it the troops from earlier burst in through another door.

The timepiece bounces off the first soldier’s helmet when I throw it, staggering him.

I send “The Fallen Lovers” sliding towards a convenient fireplace, and the troops literally fall over one another to save it (I’m glad they do).

Then I’m through the glass, out into the night with my spoils – although, when I count them, the locket from Kyra is gone.

[Stealth Check, 7-1 = 6. Sacrifice 3 Pieces of Treasure for 6+6 – 12, Success!]

Counting The Loot

Pieces of Treasure: 3

After I claim the beachfront estate and move Mariana and Mum out to Southern Desia, I use all my newfound and stolen-fair-and-square wealth to found a Thieves Guild of my own. The thieves that flock to my banner are, well, not much better off than myself in the planning department, but they’ve got the sheer guts needed to pull off ridiculous jobs like my first one.

I hold them to some simple rules: no taking from anyone who has to worry about where their next meal is going to come from, and pay special attention to any retired members of our own trade who got a little too big for their britches. After all, further reading of all those records make me think I know exactly who used to be known as the Scourge of Scerra, and I’m thinking maybe I should pay them another visit…

---

No Map, No Plan is a GMless roleplaying game for one to four players in which you take on the role of a thief completely winging the heist of a rich estate with zero preparation or foreknowledge, in complete violation of the common sense about such things. You’ll respond to prompts, try to remain stealthy, acquire treasure, and try to find your way out before you can get caught.

Putting fire back into Solitaire Storytelling via shameless self-promotion? Well, it got started that way, so why not?

The 2024 theme for DriveThruRPG’s annual game jam, PocketQuest, was Heists and halfway through the jam’s run I was scrambling to come up with an idea. I had no real plan whatsoever. However, I then decided that a heist without a plan might be exactly the kind of game I wanted to design, so I started searching around for a system that might work for it.

The lightning bolt that finally made the magic happen was Leon Richardson’s Carta SRD. Carta is built for exploration – at its base you have a 4×6 array of face down cards, and like the Wretched & Alone SRD it pulled some inspiration from each card comes with a unique prompt for the player to respond to as they move from card to card and flip it over.

It’s also free, so, no reason not to go and check it out for yourself.

The wrinkles I spliced in, especially after reading several more Carta games, was that the player would have a Stealth Rating (starting at 4) that would be added to the roll of a d12 whenever prompted to roll a Stealth Check (mostly Spades). Failed Stealth Checks reduce Stealth Rating by 1. Acquiring Pieces of Treasure is the goal, but each one reduces your Stealth Rating as well. When Stealth is reduced to 0 for the first time, The Alarm Is Raised!

From then on if a Stealth Check is failed the thief is caught, Busted!, and the narrative resolves from there. On the other hand, the thief can now sacrifice pieces of Treasure to either re-roll or gain a +2 bonus to their Stealth Check, so the more loot you gathered before things went south the better. While it would have been nice to find it beforehand, now you’re really trying to find the Red Joker that’s been dealt out onto the table, because that’s your Escape Route – one more Stealth Check, and you may be able to start Counting the Loot and resolving your thief’s tale!

As with most Carta games, NMNP defaults to single player experience, but you can add up to three more players, each starting their heist from different sides of the estate. You might be part of a slapdash team, or could be completely unrelated thieves making each other’s night infinitely more complicated.

You can also play NMNP as a campaign of sorts provided you get away the first time, spending enough Treasure to live off of and stashing the rest before embarking on another equally ill-planned heist.

---

No Map, No Plan offers a low prep heist both in and out of character, by yourself or with some friends. That being said, though, it’s only one of more than 90 different titles that have been released as part of PocketQuest 2024, so I’d more strongly urge you to go check them out! There are a lot of first time designers in there, and each one has heisted a good idea out of the aether for your enjoyment!