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Ten Easy Heist Encounters

by Mike on 28 July 2025

Run more easy encounters!

Here are ten encounters that can take place while the characters are engaged in an infiltration- or heist-style adventure:

A couple of angry rats leap out at an inopportune time.
A guard snoozes at her post.
Three guards play dice when they should be busy.
The master-at-arms comes back from the garderobe.
A rival rogue comes in from another path.
A goblin stumbles through struggling with a big pot*.
Two guards walk down the hall chatting about considering quitting.
The leader's pet worg wanders in.
A dangerous prisoner escapes from the dungeons below.
The floor collapses into a mimic hole.

Easy heist encounters escalate into hard encounters if the characters don't deal with it quickly and quietly.

* Bonus List: Ten Things in the Goblin's Pot

Favorite bones
Pet rust monsters
Disgruntled frogs
Murder hornets
Mimic pot
Lots of copper coins
Bell collection
Lord Grobarb's chamber pot
Favorite NPC's head
Rattling jars of alchemist's fire

More Sly Flourish Stuff

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video.

Patreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers.

Talk Show Links

Here are links to the sites I referenced during the talk show.

Last week I also posted a couple of YouTube videos on Build a D&D 2024 Character on Paper in 10 Minutes and Alien Invasion – Dragon Empire Prep Session 31.

RPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as RPG tips. Here are this week's tips:

Use Luck and Doom Points from Tales of the Valiant in any of your 5e games.
Show legendary resistances to your players so they can watch their save or suck abilities cracking through a boss’s defenses.
Let boss monsters eat minions for temporary hit points.
Your own experience with the characters gives you a better gauge of their capabilities than encounter building guidelines.
Build bigger battle arenas.
What five scenes might take place in your next session?
Fill scenes with evocative locations, interesting NPCs, and scary monsters.

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