Does anyone have any advice, or better yet a template of some kind, for a heist. Nothing too simple (like stealing a spanner from watto's garage), but it needn't be overly complex.

I do not own the Yavin adventure.

If you look at Under a Black Sun there is a part where you break into a corporate HQ which provides at length a number of issues and approaches. Probably could be a decent guide to follow.

It needs to work in a specific way:

The PC's are essentially the getaway driver. They are hired to work with an existing crew who will succeed in the heist proper but will end up killing each other while one of them makes off with the prize, leaving the pc's carrying the can. So they need some interesting stuff to happen while the actual heist occurs, not just sitting there with the gas running.

Questioned by a Police patrol? They could use a number of social skills to BS their way out of it. Just waiting for the heist to end sounds like a single scene which is tough to fit much in.

It needs to work in a specific way:

The PC's are essentially the getaway driver. They are hired to work with an existing crew who will succeed in the heist proper but will end up killing each other while one of them makes off with the prize, leaving the pc's carrying the can. So they need some interesting stuff to happen while the actual heist occurs, not just sitting there with the gas running.

A little more detail so we can provide more detailed responses please. Getaway drivers in a ship? Landspeeder? What or at least how big is the prize? What kind of place is the target? A building? Urban or rural setting?

I am in the process of creating this so detail is part of th eproblem

There are 2 pc's: Pilot and Hired Gun. They have a Firespray ship so i imagine they'd use that as ships work well in atmospheres and in space. That's what happens in star wars all the time anyway. Like a helicopter i suppose, fly alongside the building and pick everyone up perhaps.

The prize is going to be similar to the Yavin Vasilika from the Underworld comics: a prize with a hidden use. Initially the crew are working for a Hutt who wants the prize becfause it's expensive and shiny. But there will be others who will get involved later. It is something that can easily be carried in a bag.

Don't know where the heist will be; bank? Secure facility? Definitely urban and during a storm, because all the best thigns happen during thunderstorms.

It seems the obvious course would be to throw some wrenches into the plans for the players. Let everything go completely smooth at first. Point out everything is going great. Then throw a wrench or two at them:

• As 2P51 said above, a routine police patrol comes by and pulls alongside the hovering ship. They break into comms and ask them what the hell they are doing hovering above the local branch Bank of Altor. Deception and other personal actions.
• When the team exits with the Maltese Falcon, they are being chased by security. Pilot and Gunnery actions.
• You mentioned a storm. Lighting strikes an atitude control thruster on the Firespray just before the team exits. Pilot and Mechanical actions.
• The obvious one - as you pull away from the heist building with the entry team on board, security cloud cars give chase. Gunnery and Pilot actions.

Use one or several of above?

While hovering near the top of the building or perhaps landed on a pad, local police come by in an airspeeder. They pull alongside and question the crew requiring a cover story and some sort of Deception action. The police leave (hopefully). The entry team gives notice they have the mcguffin, but security is chasing them. Gunnery actions to cover the team as they exit the building to the rooftop. Pilot action to hover while the team leaps aboard. Just as the Firespray begins to turn and prepare for the ascent to orbit, lighting strikes. Suddenly, the ship is much harder to contol as the Pilot must make an action to keep the ship from careening into a skyscraper. To make things worse, the security from the target building is now responding with two cloud cars. Pilot and Gunnery actions as a chase scene begins with the Pilot downgrading every action and unable to reach top speed due to the lightning damage. Perhaps the non-Pilot has to make his way up top of the ship during the chase to actually make a quick rudimentary repair using Mechanical so the Pilot can get the craft to top speed and escape:

Does anyone have any advice, or better yet a template of some kind, for a heist. Nothing too simple (like stealing a spanner from watto's garage), but it needn't be overly complex.

I do not own the Yavin adventure.

Well, not sure what you have in mind, but you might want to simply (ahem) steal an idea. Go watch something like Snatch or Ocean's 11 or any of the countless heist movies out there. If you want something a little less mainstream, something your players are unlikely to have seen, you might want to try one of the Lupin the 3rd movies. Sure you'll have to dial the goofiness back some, but the concepts are still pretty solid.

You should play Grand Theft Auto V, they do a number of heist in it and there is plenty to "borrow" from. But if you you don't have the time to play 15-20 hr game then I can just give you some of the stuff they did.

(Mission Spoilers)

I'm sure you can search youtube for GTA V heist and watch them all.

The basic outline for all of them was the same. Plan, prepare, execute, getaway, then unload the goods and get paid.

Thanks for the replies.

What needs to happen:

The crew are stealing something that both the Empire and the Alliance wants (like the Yavin Vasilaka). One of the crew is an Imp agent and plans to make off with the prize. This leaves the rest of the crew, if any survive (he plans to leave noone alive) in hock with their employer who wants the prize for himself and no excuses.

So at some point during the heist, the agent will acquire the item and make off with it. But this needs to encompass the following conditions:

1. As an imperial agent he still needs to be vulnerable. So the Empire can't have an easily accesible presence where the hesit is taking place otherwise he just makes it to Imperial HQ in the city, flashes his ID and game over.

2. It can't be a straight confrontation otherwise the pc's just kill him when he comes for them and they take the prize back anc get paid. game over!

3. i'd like to hint that something's amiss before the pc's get going: maybe they are last minute replacements because the agent actually secretly killed the last pilot for discovering his true identity. But not something so amiss that the pc's find out he's a spy before hand otherwise, again, game over.

4. i want to run this tomorrow and I'm rather crap at writing up adventures these days.