Players and Shipping

By HadesHerald, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

Hello all! I’m about to start a campaign with a heavy focus on smuggling. Now, any given mook can move a couple of boxes, but it takes a true Trystan Valentine to get black-market goods into the hands of trusted buyers. However, a mostly empty ship would definitely raise Imperial suspicions.

What materials would be universal enough to ship to most Outer to Mid Rim planets, and mundane enough to bore the Imperial inspectors?

In addition, are there rules for moving exceedingly mundane goods like these? (Not the smuggling rules in Fly Casual.)

Textiles, non-exotic animals (there are plenty of animals that have been we exported in large numbers all across the galaxy), produce, commerical hardware, construction/demolition refuse, metal ore, lumber, toys, labor droids.

I would say that battery packs (energy cells or whatever you want to call them), droid lubricants and de-greasers, repulsor lift coils, and universal computing/processing chips and boards for electronics. Along with protein paste/bars, nutrient gels and liquids, with water purification tablets would also be of use of the less "civilized" and industrial worlds.

And since you started it... Kimonos, lots and lots of Kimonos!

Dress Kimonos, Work Kimonos, Lounging-Around-The-Ship Kimonos, Work-out Kimonos... the stars are the limit here!

Some of the equipment in the Explorer or Colonist books would probably work, especially if you're heading towards the Outer Rim. Survey equipment, droids, colony-building stuff, that sort of thing. And those have prices listed, so that give you numbers to work with.

Soap from the moons of Iego. It's a totally legit cargo and not at all an attempt at a scam from hustlers in the port of Worlport on Ord Mantel. Or transport Banthas, something that will really stink up the ship and make sure no custom agent wants to stay on board for more than a cursory check.

Moisture vaporators.

Well, i mean, you'll wanna make sure the players are okay with it first. That sort of thing can make people uncomfortable of done wrong so...

Oh! You meant literal shipping! Well... >_<

Ahem! So, my biggest example was when my group of nascent Rebels were trying to smuggle a spy off a planet. They hid her in a barrel and brought on some more "standard" cargo to cover. A bunch of paint made to make Booster Blue. They had paperwork for the paint!

That is now their cover for everything: "we're just transporting some paint. We have paperwork for the paint!"

3 hours ago, Absol197 said:

Well, i mean, you'll wanna make sure the players are okay with it first. That sort of thing can make people uncomfortable of done wrong so...

I thought the same thing when I first saw the thread title.

Edited by Vorzakk

I'd say anything with a rarity rating that basically puts it into the "commonly obtained items" would easily count as "standard goods for shipping."

I mean, there is a HUGE trading system across the galaxy, so tons of everyday things are flying all over the galaxy, at any given second.

Planet X might mass produce medical supplies and foodstuffs, because they are an arboreal planet, and they can easily make these products, but they don't have a lot of durastell and plascrete for construction. So they ship off food and medicine, and ship in construction materials and luxury goods. Any one of those items, and a bajillion more, can easily be bought and reshipped somewhere else as legitimate trade, to mask smuggling.

3 hours ago, Absol197 said:

That is now their cover for everything: "we're just transporting some paint. We have paperwork for the paint!"

Nice! With my players it was always, "urgent ice delivery for the planet Hoth." I gave them really bad penalties for their deception checks each time but they kept it up :D

Cans of Lanyard oil, tubs of Elbow grease, boxes of Grid Squares. :D

Have them transport "100 gross self-sealing stem bolts".

If anyone laughs, kick them out of the game for being filthy trekkies. ;)

On 10/24/2017 at 5:03 PM, awayputurwpn said:

non-exotic animals (there are plenty of animals that have been we exported in large numbers all across the galaxy)

My PC's once had to transport a cargo hold full of rabbit-like critters from Naboo to Eriadu. They gnawed through the little containment fence that the tech threw together for them and things got... complicated.

11 hours ago, Absol197 said:

Well, i mean, you'll wanna make sure the players are okay with it first. That sort of thing can make people uncomfortable of done wrong so...

Oh! You meant literal shipping! Well... >_<

8 hours ago, Vorzakk said:

I thought the same thing when I first saw the thread title.

Yeah, I as well thought this was that kind of shipping and was like oooooh!

Edited by GroggyGolem

On 10/25/2017 at 7:01 AM, Palomarus said:

I would say that battery packs (energy cells or whatever you want to call them), droid lubricants and de-greasers, repulsor lift coils, and universal computing/processing chips and boards for electronics. Along with protein paste/bars, nutrient gels and liquids, with water purification tablets would also be of use of the less "civilized" and industrial worlds.

And since you started it... Kimonos, lots and lots of Kimonos!

Dress Kimonos, Work Kimonos, Lounging-Around-The-Ship Kimonos, Work-out Kimonos... the stars are the limit here!

Great suggestions, and considering I stuck then on Tosste (just galactic south of Mustafar) these are 100% non-suspicious items!

ps: Glad to see a fellow fan! Just recently found them, been trying to catch up!

Fuel
Food
Ores
Bacta / Kolto
Electronic parts
Luxury Goods
..

Bacta and medical supplies. High tech items like droid brains, components for assembly lines that suffered an inventory misshap. The other elements (fuels, ores...) tend to be carried in real bulk freighters, not the glorified space vans that are still 4 or 5 freighters. We are talking planetary scale trade here. The PC ships are basically designed for last mile delivery runs, not bulk transport.

Valuable cargo in general that is transported in small amounts. As long as you want to earn money at least.

Bad read of the topic: Made me think of players and RELATIONSHIPS, heheh. Like "shipping" two characters in a show.

You are not the only one :P .

7 hours ago, Absol197 said:

You are not the only one :P .

Yeah, I was like, "That's generally not acceptable at my table. I mean, unless the players are into it or doing it to themselves."

11 hours ago, Simon Retold said:

Yeah, I was like, "That's generally not acceptable at my table. I mean, unless the players are into it or doing it to themselves."

You know, funny enough we never talked about it with any of my groups but one group just decided to woo some NPCs with Charm checks and it became a thing for a brief time in that group.

Well, in my case its fguel, energy rods, glow rods, basic spices {legit spices, not the kessel stuff!} Kolto, kolto tanks, droid parts... For the mundane stuff at least, for the critical stuff, Kessel Refined Spice {the illict stuff}, lightsaber crystals, lightsabers, hyperdrive fuel, people. {apparently a Jedi Padawan is worth 45,000 credits right off the bat}

Now relationships is an entirely different matter and I wont bring any up :)