I just finished watching Ocean's Eleven--the George Clooney vehicle rather than the Frank Sinatra vehicle. It was the first time I ever saw it. The movie had come up a few times in my campaigns, in reference to situations regarding meticulous planning and cool names for groups. We'll get to that later. As I sat there, watching the George and the gang act cool and hatch plans, I started to wonder why more games aren't like this. I mean, sometimes there is an obstacle or some form of security to overcome. Too often, it comes down to 'move in swinging' and 'rogue, get that lock.' For me, the problem was the power-level of the group, especially for the world they were in. Of course, relative super-toughness is supposed to be the point of getting to a high level (I consider 10th level, epic--I'm a bit conservative that way, definitely out of the 3E loop).

So, I've got my fireball packin' wizard on one side, my card-carrying, lightning bolt flinging sorcerer on the other, the multi-classed fighter/rogue ready with his dancing sword and his intelligent frostbrand, the cleric/fighter as a healing battery and then there's the tank--that's the barbarian. (They've started on a new campaign in a different setting and aren't so powerful anymore--kind of a restart switch!) How does one get PCs like these to sit down and really consider a great plan for getting into the castle? How does one make the players ignore the 'kill 'em all and let some of the gods sort 'em out' solution to problems?

Well, one answer I came up with is the innocent dupe ploy. The villain has duped the guards and inhabitants of the castle or whatever into protecting this particular plot coupon. They aren't charmed or otherwise magically altered, as that would just allow one of the spell-slingers to whip up a solution. There's always the ticking bomb, some reason why they are running out of time, and any attempt to persuade the dupes they are, in fact, dupes is met with grave suspicion (make sure the NPC running the joint has a really high sense motive!). The PCs might succeed in talking their way through the dilemma, but they've got the ticking bomb, so they've got to slap together a plan that doesn't get a bunch of people killed. This one's a lot of fun, but if you've got a good party, and things hit the fan, any fatalities could cause alignment problems. Still, for me, it worked beautifully.

There's also the 'instructions' stratagem. In this manoeuvre, an NPC is overseeing the action--a king who has hired them, a mentor or other individual with seniority--and the NPC tells them not to kill anyone. The thing with this is, if things get hairy and someone's got to die, we aren't talking alignment deviation, just a pissed off boss. Pissed off bosses are never a good idea. This one isn't as tight a straitjacket as the dupe scenario, and so the PCs might include a little carnage, or you might give them that leeway if they are the type of players who like a high body count.

Finally, there is the 'they're just as tough as you' gambit. I don't like to use this one, since the PCs have worked long and hard to be the toughest bad-@$$es on the block. Still, sometimes it's necessary. There's always somebody bigger, tougher and smarter out there, and when they've got the thing you want, sometimes wading in, swords and spells swinging isn't going to work. This one takes a bit of background to set up. If you are going to pull this one on your PCs, I suggest dropping hints about the real hardcases in the castle down the block well before the encounter actually happens. Maybe even have a little encounter, a demonstration of the power of the other group. The biggest problem with demonstrations is that dice don't always cooperate, and maybe that wizard with the lenses of true seeing gets a frostbrand up the wazoo! So, I might suggest sticking with rumour and the testimony of witnesses.

Now, only the last will work with an evil or very neutral (read evil) party. Since I don't run evil campaigns, I get to play that alignment card. And, these are only the ways I've figured out. There are, of course, other, quite possibly better ways of getting the group to actually plan something. And if things work out, if they succeed, no matter how big of a cluster-fig the plan turned out to be, they'll probably see the advantage of doing the Danny Ocean more often. I've found now, after running a few of these situations, that my players always take a bit of extra time to consider the options before jumping into any situation. For me, as a DM, that makes it all the more challenging, and all the more fun.

After the big heist, when the plot coupon was safely in hand with no fatalities (though a few guards with jaws wired shut I imagine) the group wanted a cool name. We didn't have eleven PCs, or a character named Ocean, so it ended up being the Catspaw Five. Don't ask.