Smuggling Adventures

 Smuggling offers many opportunities for adventure, while keeping adventures well within the sword and sorcery parameters of low stakes, high action - or alternatively, low world stakes but high personal stakes. In fact, I can't help think that smuggling operations make for better adventures than 'busting' them. There are a number of reasons this is true.

Smugglers are constantly operating outside the law. There is no 'fall back' position, unless they have a powerful patron (such as corrupt local lord intent on avoiding paying taxes). So players have to solve their own problems, however weird they get.

There are continual challenges and near perpetual threat. You don't have to look far to find peril here. The forces of the law alone are a consistent and evolving force of antagonism. Here, combat may well be viewed in this context as a fail state a sign that things have gone badly.  Smuggling depends upon subterfuge and stealth; not being noticed is a win.

Each operation consists of multiple component parts. Acquiring the contraband. Transporting the contraband. Concealing the contraband. Retrieving and  moving the contraband. Selling the contraband. At any of those points enemies can seek to thwart them, plans can go awry and 'things' can go 'wrong'. All of which leaves a lot of scope for a wide variety of adventure. Opposition, challenge and setting/terrain. From dodgy merchants trying to rip them off, to honourable and duty-bound officials and law enforcement officers trying to catch them, to robbers and rivals. Wether the campaign is set in a pseudo-medieval, modern or sci-fi setting, these things still apply. Each operation is, in fact, a mini-campaign.

Hiding contraband isn't easy. Smuggliers in Britain in the eighteenth century used a range of methods. These area few examples of historical contraband concealment and how they might pan out in a campaign.

Weighted barrels were sometimes sunk off-shore. Local merfolk object/steal the goods/demand a tax.

Hidden in ruins - either buried or in hidden cellars or other rooms

Hidden in caves - sea caves or in cliffs

other people's cellars, barns or houses - with or without their knowledge!

On small, offshore islands 

Buried in fields

 

 Lots of roleplaying. because of the above points, there are tons of opportunities for roleplaying interactions with a range of recurring and single-use NPCs or many types. But hat roleplaying can also take the form of planning and execution of potentially complex operations.

 

I came up with the following potential twists to a smuggling operation and made them into a randomized table, so I can roll up how any given operation might go south. Ideally, I would set out the normal situation, the plan of the smuggling operation, and then roll to see why it doesn't go to plan. 

These adventure seeds should be used alongside my Types of Shoreline post. 

Roll 1d12 

 1. Straightforward smuggle; no untoward developments.

2. The goods are not what they seem to be (on a d6) 1 - more valuable; 2 - magical; 3 - magical and aligned with an evil power in the world;  4 - of special interest to the Church/most powerful religious body; 5 - of special interest to local secular powers; 6 - of special interest to the ruling national government.

3. Stolen goods. The contraband was initially stolen and the former owners are making extensive efforts to get them back.

5. Betrayal; a member of the smuggling gang has betrayed them to a rival.

6. Tip-off; someone has tipped of local law enforcement, who are expecting the shipment. Are they waiting when the contraband arrives, or do they sit back until a better 'net' is in place? Will they expect to be bribed?

7. Rivals undercut; a rival smuggling operation has already delivered similar contraband at a lower price and demand has dried up. Find new buyers.

8. Local robbers attempt to take the contraband by force.

9.  The local Lord wants a cut in return for turning a blind eye. 

10. A dragon hears about the cntraband and decides to take it for itself.  

11. The journey becomes a naval adventure: Storm, mist, becalmed, mysterious island, haunted hulk, etc. 

12. Haunted goods; the contraband itself is haunted in some way.

 

It is my intention to run these as an 'unpredictable' smuggling themed campaign. Other elements required are:

Ports. Smuggling adventures work best in space or at sea. Smuggling, of course happened in other arenas, but these are the best for RPGs because they include both the special terrian of sea/space and the 'HQ' of a ship of some sort which the players will care about (eventually). I figure I need about half a dozen. Not more. The need to be visited repeatedly, so players can develop their sense of them. 

Factions. Buyers, sellers, The Law, rivals, robbers, 'dangerous other'. That's four types of faction and they should all be included.  Robbers might mean pirates. Work out how navel law and law enforcement work in your world. Know who the smugglers are buying from and selling to. 'Dangerous other' might include mer-folk, water elementals, weather spirits, ghosts or demonic entities. 

Ships or vehicles. For player immersion to really work, you need a credible, detailed ship or other vehicle. If its a plane, fine, but make sure you (and the players) get familiar with it over the course of the campaign. Spanish galleons were large, complex places, with lots of rooms, nooks, crannies and specialist aspects. The same goes for modern shipping. 

Contraband. It is helpful if you know exactly what contraband there is in your world, where it comes from, how much it costs, and why it is valued. And if any conflict is inherent in its nature (which there WILL be in the case of modern, illicit drug shipments, for example, or any other high-value, mobile commodity). 

 

That's all I can think of for now.

I'd love to hear from someone who had tried this!