My upcomming game will have Nar Shaddaa and Tatooine as centerpieces.

I will start the players off in their ship, in hyperspace. They can decide if they are on their way from Tatooine to the Smuggler Moon or the other way around and what they are smuggling.

If they are flying from Nar Shaddaa to Tatooine, no problem, they can choose to smuggle anything; blasters, cyborg-prosthetics, slaves, spice, vibroblades... Whatever!

I guess all kinds of things can go through Mos Eisley, but what is likely to be smuggled out of Tatooine to the Moon? a tranquilized Rancor?.. It says illegal goods under major exports, but what?

Cheap knock off iComlinks. Spice. Cheap bacta substitutes (now with 10% real bacta). Second hand blasters packaged as new. Anti-Imperial propaganda in the forms of holofilms, including the ever popular "Springtime for Palpatine."

I think illegal goods is a catch-all category for contraband. Most likely illegal starship and/or cyborg modifications . The way we handle Tatooine in our games is that, since the Hutts pretty much control the planet, most cities on Tatooine act as a sort of clearing house for illegal stuff, making it the last stop before it hits wider distribution across the galaxy because of its position on the Corellian Run hyperlane, making it an easy inroad to the Core Worlds.

Slaves.

Tatooine has sand. They could smuggle sand.

Or serious answer: they could be smuggling any sort of tech. Jawas gather that stuff up and sell to anyone. It's not unreasonable to expect they found something valuable/illegal. Maybe they're smuggling assassin droid parts. Or sand.

You wouldn't actually smuggle anything to Nar Shaddaa, even less so from Tattooine. Nar Shaddaa has no real law enforcement beyond whatever Hutt controls the area you're landing in, and stuff that would get you arrested in almost any other port in the galaxy would hardly raise an eyebrow on Nar Shaddaa.

If you need your players to run some illicit cargo for some reason, my advice would be to have them ship something belonging to one Hutt crime lord/kajidic into an area controlled by a rival Hutt lord/kajidic. Otherwise, smuggling just about anything onto Nar Shaddaa would be like smuggling cocaine to Colombia.

You wouldn't actually smuggle anything to Nar Shaddaa, even less so from Tattooine. Nar Shaddaa has no real law enforcement beyond whatever Hutt controls the area you're landing in, and stuff that would get you arrested in almost any other port in the galaxy would hardly raise an eyebrow on Nar Shaddaa.

If you need your players to run some illicit cargo for some reason, my advice would be to have them ship something belonging to one Hutt crime lord/kajidic into an area controlled by a rival Hutt lord/kajidic. Otherwise, smuggling just about anything onto Nar Shaddaa would be like smuggling cocaine to Colombia.

So how does anything get to Nar Shaddaa? Hutts run things, but a lot of other people and species live there too, 85 billion of them.

I`m pretty sure the Hutts, other criminals or people on the moon aren`t willing to pay all kinds of Imperial taxes to get absolutely everything they want or need.

And once the characters get to the moon, everyone would try to get their cut of everything!

Maybe one crimelord has control of the docking bays in the area the smugglers have to land. Another crime boss owns the streets and route they will have to take to get to the low sector where the gangster they work for rules.

A journey of bribes, negotiation and favours. Anarchy is the same as extreme capitalism. No laws = money and power in charge.

Gangsters owning gangsters loyal to other gangsters in war with more gangsters. And some are in the pockets of rich casino owners, some owned by Hutt kajicks, some might even get their paychecks from the Empire.

And at the top, the Hutt overlords who all profit from everyone at the moon having to bribe and paying someone off. No laws maybe, but I bet there are lots of rules to survive!

You wouldn't actually smuggle anything to Nar Shaddaa, even less so from Tattooine. Nar Shaddaa has no real law enforcement beyond whatever Hutt controls the area you're landing in, and stuff that would get you arrested in almost any other port in the galaxy would hardly raise an eyebrow on Nar Shaddaa.

If you need your players to run some illicit cargo for some reason, my advice would be to have them ship something belonging to one Hutt crime lord/kajidic into an area controlled by a rival Hutt lord/kajidic. Otherwise, smuggling just about anything onto Nar Shaddaa would be like smuggling cocaine to Colombia.

So how does anything get to Nar Shaddaa? Hutts run things, but a lot of other people and species live there too, 85 billion of them.

I`m pretty sure the Hutts, other criminals or people on the moon aren`t willing to pay all kinds of Imperial taxes to get absolutely everything they want or need.

And once the characters get to the moon, everyone would try to get their cut of everything!

Maybe one crimelord has control of the docking bays in the area the smugglers have to land. Another crime boss owns the streets and route they will have to take to get to the low sector where the gangster they work for rules.

A journey of bribes, negotiation and favours. Anarchy is the same as extreme capitalism. No laws = money and power in charge.

Gangsters owning gangsters loyal to other gangsters in war with more gangsters. And some are in the pockets of rich casino owners, some owned by Hutt kajicks, some might even get their paychecks from the Empire.

And at the top, the Hutt overlords who all profit from everyone at the moon having to bribe and paying someone off. No laws maybe, but I bet there are lots of rules to survive!

Nar Shadaa is in Hutt space and not subject to Imperial taxes. So, you'd smuggle something OFF an Imperial world (to avoid things like taxes) or onto an Imperial world (taxes or just flat out illegal there), but places like Nar Shadaa and Tattooine wouldn't be where you'd have legal issues with your cargo.

Got slaves onboard? just walk them right off in broad daylight. Now, if you're taking them to Coruscant or Correlia or any of the thousands of Imperial worlds... might have an issue.

Pornography.

Nar Shadaa is in Hutt space and not subject to Imperial taxes. So, you'd smuggle something OFF an Imperial world (to avoid things like taxes) or onto an Imperial world (taxes or just flat out illegal there), but places like Nar Shadaa and Tattooine wouldn't be where you'd have legal issues with your cargo.

Got slaves onboard? just walk them right off in broad daylight. Now, if you're taking them to Coruscant or Correlia or any of the thousands of Imperial worlds... might have an issue.

Hutt Space is officially in the Baxel Sector and should be subject to imperial taxes, but I agree that the Hutts are good at avoiding taxes and ducking the rules.

Is there no Imperial presence over Nar Shaddaa, besides the TIE-fighter factory?

Tatooine is an Outer Rim planet, but under government it says: "local councils under nominal imperial governor." And the core book says it is under imperial control. So wouldn`t both local and Imperial laws apply?

Wouldn`t it be even slightly risky to smuggle things in to or out off the planet with both imperials, locals and criminals(hutt or otherwise) being possible threats?

Anyways, the smuggling bit isn`t the real focus. I just like the two worlds a lot and I want my players to be able to choose where they want to go as we start the game.

They are transporting something from world planet to another.

I guess Imperials would be a problem when smuggling things in to or out of Tatooine, maybe even local law to some tiny extent.

Transporting goods to or from Nar Shaddaa could be dangerous because of gangsters on-world and pirates off-planet

Huh, I like this topic.

Okay, so what does Tatooine NOT have? Water? Sure mosture farms, but that output has to be taxed or at least rationed all to heck. I mean it's the stuff of life right? The Imperials are there sure, in a token capacity, they're only going to get involved for something really serious, like the last remaining two Jedi alive. But it's basically a Hutt planet.

I'm assuming that water has to be rationed in some capacity. Jabba (who I'll assume is still alive in your game), probably controls the water market.

Water's not sexy or exciting, but it's gotta be absolutely vital to a planet like Tatooine.

I'm thinking that you could make a killing moving water from anywhere to Tatooine. You'd probably unload it with a shady water merchant (who's probably over charging, but still selling it for less than Jabba). But yeah... figure out who controls the water on Tatooine in your game, who gets paid, and whether there's some type of rationing in place. Then take it from there. Basically just decide how people get their water (in my mind, the Tatooine equivalent of going into a grocery store and buying it by the barrel), decide how your PCs could work that market to their advantage, and decide who would want to stop them and why.

Now Nar Shaddaa:

Nar Shaddaa, in my opinion, is a somehwat more problematic destination for "smuggling". Nar Shaddaa, at least in my mind, is the sort of place where anything goes, anything can be bought, anything can be sold, and so long as the Hutts get their cut, life is fine. I would imagine that you wouldn't smuggle TO Nar Shaddaa, you'd move something FROM there to elsewhere, because everything's available for the right price. In my previous example, water is probably one of those things that you can buy barrels of on Nar Shaddaa, then you take that to Tatooine, and look out for whoever would want to profit off of it or stop the PCs from making money.

Why smuggle something, when you can smuggle someone in particular? If slavery is something you can stomach (as many suggested, but I've seen recently that some don't like it as part of their games), perhaps you could provide transport for a particular troupe of dancing girls who are the prized possession of one Hutt of kajidic (A), but coveted by another from a rival kajidic (B). The PCs are employed to bring the slave girls from Ryloth where they performed at a party of a powerful Hutt from kajidic (A) back to the home of their owner on Tatooine. The owner sent them to perform as consolation for his lack of attendance. Before their departure from Ryloth, an intermediary for kajidic (B) approaches the PCs and offers them a sizeable reward to bring the girls to Nar Shaddaa instead. The PCs are inexiplicably wedged between two powerful factions and are bound to make an enemy of one of them (obligation). The PCs could face Imperial customs, pirates, or mercenaries hired by the opposing faction during their journey.

I guess all sorts of things will be transported to Nar Shaddaa to be moved on, either straight away, after cooling down, being repurposed or cut up and sold in parts.

Imperial weapons, armor, shuttles and gear would be something that could be stolen from troops on Tatooine and smuggled to Nar Shaddaa.

There is a TIE-fighter factory over Nar Shaddaa and parts and equipment could be stolen from that and "smuggled" away to a hyperspace jump point.

There isn`t much imperial presence on the moon, but there is a little. And the grand moff in charge of the Baxel Sector and therefore Hutt Space, might have small raids on piracy and smuggling now and again.

Jobs with less direct imperial involvement could include taking slaves, a rancor or droids from Tatooine to Nar Shaddaa as a gift to another hutt or to be sold on.

Local law on Tatooine might raise an eyebrow, pirates may attack on before jump point, or even imperials taking a hard stands on piracy and smuggling might want to check them out.

SOMEONE would want their taxes too! There are taxes on everything from getting your goods registered to traveling imperial hyper-routes(or fines if you don`t).

Food.

Smuggle those bantha, screw quarantine, screw taxes.

Huh, I like this topic.

Now Nar Shaddaa:

Nar Shaddaa, in my opinion, is a somehwat more problematic destination for "smuggling". Nar Shaddaa, at least in my mind, is the sort of place where anything goes, anything can be bought, anything can be sold, and so long as the Hutts get their cut, life is fine. I would imagine that you wouldn't smuggle TO Nar Shaddaa, you'd move something FROM there to elsewhere, because everything's available for the right price. In my previous example, water is probably one of those things that you can buy barrels of on Nar Shaddaa, then you take that to Tatooine, and look out for whoever would want to profit off of it or stop the PCs from making money.

The thing that has struck me is that A) Both Nar Shahaa and Tatooine are both under nominal Imperial control and B) Nar Shadaa anything goes.

What this means is that legal goods moving from Tatooine to Nar Shadaa should still pay Imperial taxes. So what would you smuggle between the two? Anything that you don't want to pay taxes on. So Tatooine may not produce anything but what it may be is a stop on a trade route from places that do make things. So frieghter 1 ships normal high value stuff to Tatooine but declare it as low tax goods that are used on Tatooine. The PC's than are hired to move this to Nar Shadaa avoiding all Imperial Taxes. Much like how tiny countries in Europe import more tabacco than the population could ever smoke but is taxed low that then turns up in the country next door who taxes tabacco much higher. Moving overwise legal items without paying taxes is still smuggling just not sexy smuggling.

Also on the same theme while Tatooine is still under technical Imperial control it will almost be as currupt as Nar Shadaa so it could be a great place to store illigal stuff before moving them onto Nar Shadaa. Tatooine is a much smaller place and it would be easier to store things out in the wilds away from prying eyes and it would be harder to steal things on Tatooine than Nar Shadaa because you would have to transport the theives to Tatooine first.

So think of the Hutts smuggling operations more like a Walmart distribution system.

This is kind of the problem with scale in Star Wars though, isn't it?

I mean each planet is, in fact, the size of a whole planet. Say planet earth was a police state under a singular government. I'm not convinced that you'd have military law enforcers everywhere at once.

I suppose the real question here should be "do I want my PCs to deal with Imperial or Hutt forces?"

If I were going to use Nar Shaddaa in my game tomorrow, I'd be using it where the PCs can conflict with Hutt forces. But if I wanted to switch it up, I can just say, "okay, now you're going to THIS port on THIS landmass, this is not the place you were last time, and the Imperials are THERE".

A farm boy and an old man.

A farm boy and an old man.

A couple of droids.... and no questions.

Agree with Krieger22, though i.jenkinson makes a good point about Imperial taxes. You wouldn't actually smuggle much, if anything, between these two places. Lots of goods might be transported (people gotta eat), but that doesn't mean smuggling. Tatooine and Nar Shadaa are simple drop points, places of exchange, or home bases. Somebody might have smuggled crates of blasters out of Corulag, and brought them to Nar Shadaa to find a buyer who will take them somewhere else. Having an exchange point makes it easier on everybody, because it means you don't have to worry about both ends of the transaction...you know blasters are valuable, and you don't have to care who wants them or where they end up; or your client is looking for blasters so you go to Nar Shadaa to find a supplier.

Edit: of course if you do find a way to control both ends of a transaction, you make a lot more money and can potentially monopolize the trade.

Agree with Krieger22, you wouldn't actually smuggle much, if anything, between these two places. Lots of goods might be transported (people gotta eat), but that doesn't mean smuggling. Tatooine and Nar Shadaa are simple drop points, places of exchange, or home bases. Somebody might have smuggled crates of blasters out of Corulag, and brought them to Nar Shadaa to find a buyer who will take them somewhere else. Having an exchange point makes it easier on everybody, because it means you don't have to worry about both ends of the transaction...you know blasters are valuable, and you don't have to care who wants them or where they end up; or your client is looking for blasters so you go to Nar Shadaa to find a supplier.

Edit: of course if you do find a way to control both ends of a transaction, you make a lot more money and can potentially monopolize the trade.

If you don`t plan to pay taxes, it is smuggling. And reading about the Outer Rim in the Galaxy chapter of the Core Rulebook, especially, "Grinner`s Outer Rim Opportunities", and about Tatooine,

I would most definitely say that smuggling and imperial taxes do apply. Maybe imperials have less power out there, but you might run into them, even in the Outer Rim, hell, even in Hutt Space!

Those places might be a smuggler`s dream, but it is still illegal to dodge taxes, it is still called smuggling.

And even Nar Shaddaa might have sectors where corrupt imperials or gangsters demands a bribe to let you move along with your goods.

I agree that both these worlds are stopping points where goods change hands and contacts and deals are made.

Tatooine has sand. They could smuggle sand.

Actually, illegal sand mining is a huge issue in our “real” world (see <http://www.wired.com/2015/03/illegal-sand-mining/>), so you could very easily have that translate into the Star Wars universe.

All sorts of nice parallels there.

A whole Hutt?

Interestingly, being the party responsible for transporting Jabba's body back to his clan could make a memorable job/adventure.

I'm reminded of Laurel & Hardy trying to shift a piano.

People could also be smuggled. Someone needs to get off of Tatooine for whatever reason. Pissed off Jabba, Imperials or Jawas, anything really. Maybe they have business on Nar Shadaa and they don't want anyone knowing they are coming. Could be fun adding a mysterious character into the mix.

A container of damaged Astromechs that suddenly, by no fault of the kid with an EMP, becomes a container of really dead Astromechs?