Right, so in my recent game, we've gotten two sessions under the belt and the party wants to try and set up their own smuggling ring as an overarching goal for their adventures. A number of ideas were tossed around, including blazing their own secret hyperlane network, building their own shadowport, etc. Going by the galaxy map, the players want to use a world that isn't connected to a hyperlane, which we've come to believe means that while it probably has one, it's just very minor or not often used by people from outside that area/planet/sector. Some suggestions were thrown around before the players settled on Naos as the system they wanted to try using as a base world, with the goal of setting up a secret hyperlane network along the edge of wildspace from Teth to Spice Terminus.

Depending on how they go about it, I plan to use the Colonist Base rules to represent their business (and/or shadowport, if they choose to build one). I'm also going to use this whole setup as the starting point to a whole slew of adventures, from earning favors to recruiting people into the network, etc. I hope to keep everyone updated on this, perhaps so they can use our ideas for their own group, but I'd also like to see if we can get some good ideas from the community here for adventures, smuggling jobs, characters, locations, and especially what to include in a base of operations for such a group.

I would suggest buying the smuggler splatbook, Fly Casual, because it has lots of informations about smuggling and smuggling rings.

Heh, that was the first thing I bought after getting the core rulebook and a set of dice. Though now you mention it, I'll be reading through it again to get a few good ideas. Really the idea I had for this thread was to make a place for a sounding board and sharing area, where I can share stories from my own campaign and get ideas/evil plots from other players and GMs if they feel like sharing. Maybe some other GM could use my own ideas as the seed for their own adventures towards becoming a smuggler baron.

I would say an actual Smuggler Baron character could benefit from the Entrepreneur, Politico and/or Trader specs, as those seem like a good fit.

As for ideas, you always have rival organizations. Established criminal empires like the Hutt Cartels and the Black Sun aren't going to be happy with upstarts stealing business, if that's how the group is working, although a smuggling organization could just as easily work as an asset for such groups. Also, how would a group like this organize themselves: are they like a company, with employees, or a guild, with subcontractor members?

How would the group deal with slavers? I can see an adventure dedicated to finding out one of their client's are trafficking slaves and dealing with that somehow.

Pirates? Do they work with them, against them? I can see a campaign dedicated to the group getting involved in a pirate war, if they are trying to gain support or allies with one of the groups.

I like to look at Hondo as the ultimate example of how a Smuggler baron or pirate leader can be played.

Being a Smuggler is really just being a delivery service for illegal goods, once you do a few runs where one or the other, or both, parties double cross the PCs your game can get pretty boring. My advice is to keep the basic smuggling operation as background that happens between adventures and then for your actual gaming sessions throw in missions that push the PC's into moral conundrums (help prisoners escape an Imperial labour world), daring heists (Jewel of Yaven style), treasure hunting (Beyond the Rim), or taking on a criminal empire (Mask of the Pirate Queen). Think Firefly and watch the episodes again, you'll see only a couple of them actually focus on smuggling jobs, mostly you hear about a job they did off screen.

Barons, eh? Well, they need a nemesis named Rex Banner... otherwise, to whom would they report their headgear acquisitions?

Far Horizons, Business rules. Go.

Barons, eh? Well, they need a nemesis named Rex Banner... otherwise, to whom would they report their headgear acquisitions?