Hey ![]()
I'm curious to know if any FFG manuals addresses any economic concerns about smuggling runs.
I'm currently reviewing ships to offer a selection of them for my players to buy, but i'm not sure about the effective importance of cargo space.
I'd be really interested in a manual depicting the dangers and expected profits from a smuggling run.
Currently, i'm thinking of "winging" it, providing the opportunity for the players to perform one smuggling run of their choice inbetween adventures, choosing among the routes they discovered.
I'd give a basic difficulty for "not getting caught" and i'd provide expected costs for fuel (astrogation reduces) and expected profit per unit of cargo devoted to smuggling (modified by negotation) (so the ship they use actually matters)
For example:
Long arm of the hutt has provided my players with the ability to smuggle Ryll, after they recovered the mining operation and negotiated with Duke Piddock. They wanted to take advantage of that, and i'd like something better than "narrating" they get X credits out of that.
So i'm thinking of something like this:
PCs now know a new route: Ryloth -> Geonosis
The systems are close by and in the outer rim -- let's say difficulty 2 to not get caught by difficulties (empire, hutts, whatever else) (which skill?)
As the systems are really close by, i'd go with something like 1.000 Cr for fuel, plus anything they need to spend on landing fees (let's say another 1k per route, but they might want to negotiate better terms if they plan to stay). This can be reduced by Astrogation, where each success is -10% and each advantage is -5% (same for failure/threats)
Smuggling Ryll - Looking at it from a "gamist" perspective, i'd say this is a basic, low-risk route and so should have low payout, especially because it's the first route the PCs found. Let's say they can get an average profit of 60 cr per unit of encumbrance delivered, modified by negotiations. Starter freighters have around 140-160 cargo space. If you bring 130 encumbrance worth of Ryll to Geonosis, you are looking at 7800 Cr of income, minus average operating costs of 2000 Cr, that's a net profit of around 6000 Cr before negotiations and fuel saving. A good crew might get 10.000 Cr net profit out of that.
As a once-per-adventure affair, that looks interesting to me, and also allows players to choose the right ship for them, balancing combat prowess with cargo space.
Over time, the PCs might build a list of possible trade/smuggling routes, with each of them having different difficulties, time required, profits, etc for them to choose each time they want to attempt one.
Of course, this is all homebrew and eye-balled. It would be great if any manuals exists (even non-FFG) that can provide more interesting things to have for smuggling runs.
Edited by Madeiner
