It has become quite clear to me that Smugglers get very different jobs than Shadows! Any good recommendations for smuggling jobs that are more exciting than “take this interesting item to this other place”?
It has become quite clear to me that Smugglers get very different jobs than Shadows!
It has become quite clear to me that Smugglers get very different jobs than Shadows!
* Plant an item in someone’s possession
* Extract an important person from a desperate situation
* Play multiple sides in an arms race
* A race to deliver some elicit/important item before someone else
* Fetch a renowned doctor from another city and bring them to tend to Lord Scurlock
Multiple people are interested in an item in your possession. Sneak your type of cargo into the city. Two part scores: get the item then transport it.
* Get someone or something into / out of Ironhook
* Find a new route into Duskvol / map the underground tunnel system within Duskvol
* diversify the type of items you smuggle / expand your business into selling the items / take out rivals etc.
* Scavenge in the lost district / old port / deadlands
There’s several parts to a smuggler’s work:
– Find item to acquire
– Acquire item
– Transport item
– Secure/Deliver/Distribute/Sell item
You could mix it up by varying which is the part that takes place “on screen” each time.
Maybe one score they’re transporting something important and two other crews want/need to destroy/acquire it or get rid of the crew before it arrives.
Maybe a middle man won’t give up their supplier (since they’d be cut out of the loop) so the crew have to either tail them or break in to their house and find out who it is.
Maybe the item gets broken or lost in transit and now they have a seller who won’t be happy about that and a buyer who won’t accept failure, leading to a gang war if they players can’t fix their mistake.
Maybe they arrive at the drop off point and all they find are bodies and the Bluecoats arriving to arrest them.
There’s loads of options outside of just the transport side. But really, it isn’t all on you to come up with things. If your players are happy with the “Take X from A to B”, no need to change it. If they’re not, it’s up to them to tell you what they would find more interesting. Get them to pitch ideas that make sense in the Duskvol you’ve created together.
Also, don’t feel you always have to have the whole collection-transport-delivery in one score. Start from wherever is interesting and cut whenever feels right.
I ran a game where the crew were “hired” by the scovaland resistance to get some boxes that turned out to be time bombs to an area by a certain time. The pcs didn’t know the timers were on when they got the cargo. They were just told not to tarry
I assume that you already checked the Smugglers opportunities page in the book… (p. 123). Also there’s a cool list of Contraband / Cargo.
Also, there was a call for opportunities via twitter some time ago and I collected some of the feedback:
– A massive gang war creates high demand for restricted military weapons and heavy ordnance.
– Union organizers want to arm factory workers in advance of a strike.
– A jailbreak at Ironhook means many escaped prisoners seek flight from the city.
– A route is closed to traffic
-and Bluecoat inspection-due to (pick one): imminent collapse—weird events—toxic gas—fires– A cult wants to smuggle their demon-tainted “chosen one” past the Spirit Warden hunters and out into the deathlands.
– A client wants you to move a strange package around the city for two days straight. Don’t stop moving! That would be bad.
– You are tasked with moving a pallet of boxes. Easy money right? Are those boxes…breathing? Do you hear whispering?
– Heiress needs to leave city to meet her forbidden love. If you make it look like a kidnapping she’ll split the ransom.
– section of town is walled off due to a ghost infestation/plague. They need basic supplies, and spirit wards even more.
– Noble needs to sneak out of a city and back in. Paying well. No questions asked.
– Leviathan Hunter Ship made some undocumented stops. Need you to meet them on the water and bring some things in uninspected.
– A fine lord/lady wants to meet a paramour. Needs unrecorded transport. Their official SO may have investigators hired.
– A seditionist pamphleteer wants to print a book right under the noses of the Ink Rakes, but supplies aren’t easy to come by. Also, the work’s true author is in Ironhook Prison.
– deliver artifacts from the lost district to the nightmarket for the circle of flame that hint at the wereabouts of Kotar relics
– Refugees are flooding into the city, there’s coin to be made in getting them papers, time to break into the records office.
– A coffin needs to be transported from one side of the city to the other. It’s lighter than a body but there are knocking sounds
– An ancient artifact has been found outside the ghost field and academics need it in the city yesterday. For study, of course.
– A new spice has been “discovered” in Tycheros but it’s officially banned. Naturally, everyone wants it.
– For nominal fee, a Bluecoat will help you acquire a vehicle seized from another gang.
– A diplomat will be returning to their homeland for a holiday. They’ll take someone with and promise they won’t be searched.
– The bladders of Deathseeker Crows, when swallowed, can prove a great help hiding arcane substances from detection.
– A crazed noble wants you to capture his spirit in a vial after he commits suicide and then take it to a Whisper of ill repute
– The Reconciled need bodies to possess to further their interests. Smuggle them past the Spirit Wardens from the Crematorium.
– A crewmember’s bitter enemy is on the list of people to be smuggled to safety.
– A crime lord needs some stolen jewelry sold to a rival before the Spirit Wardens track the ghost who has possessed an old ring.
– The powerful ghost of the Dwimmer Matron is being smuggled into port and sold to the highest bidder.
– A derailed ghost train has a lot of salvagable cargo.
– A friendly crew lies low, asks you to watch their stash. But the rightful owners of these stolen ___s could pay a lot of coin.
– A refugee trafficker is gearing up to run dozens of people out of Duskvol. Thing is, they need /two/ crews to pull it off.
– Coin can be made by supplying The Menagerie with new and unusual exotic creatures.
– The recipe for the town’s most popular health tonic fell into the group’s lap and the corporation has hired goons to find it.
– The children of merchant families all want the hot new pet: the adorable cubs of huge beasts from the Deathlands.
– A Hawker gang wants you to transport their raw product from the docks. But their powerful rivals control the stevedores.
– A wealthy family’s past crimes leave their assets frozen. Their Leviathan fleet, full from the hunt, is forbidden to dock.
– A cult offers an exorbitant fee to smuggle crates offshore. The job is easy but the employer has one request: no questions.
– Exiled nobility slumming it in Doskvol has a sudden and urgent need to go home that they won’t explain.
– Local Hawkers are willing to make a deal: get them their goods and have steady business. None of their deals ever go well.
– A rival crew is flooding the city with cheap competing product, threatening your business.
What’s worse, they hide GOOD.
– A local cult has requested you smuggle in a sacrifice for their latest ritual. After you take the job you learn it’s a child.
– A group of clients wants to be smuggled as ghosts. And they want new bodies to possess at the other end.
– an older guy needs you to smuggle him and a young man, because it turns out the young man is the Emperor’s right-hand man’s son
– Famed street artist was banned from the city but is looking for help back in for one final hurrah.
– A massive order of exotic animals turns up on a nearby shore. The cargo’s long dead, but the buyer doesn’t need to know.
– Humorous: Rare mushrooms are restricted from import due to risk of foreign parasites. The rich, paying gourmets don’t care.
– Many safe and effective medical treatments contain illegal spirit essences.
– There is an electrical failure in the area, and an unnatural tempest snuffs out even closed lamps. It is pure darkness.
– Near your lair, there is a ghost passage. If you drive off of a building, you don’t die: you’re under a tunnel in South Point.
– The annual city race between young nobles is on. Aid a daring young thrill seeker to the finish before all other contestants.
– the state is at war with state that provides the smuggled goods
Whoah, Stefan Struck with the tour de force!
I recently had the smuggler crew I’m running for get hired to smuggle a weird arcane tool into Ironhook, to be delivered to a dude who’s currently being held there as the prime defendant in Duskwall’s trial of the century. Power plays and set-ups abound. Smugglers can get up to some wild stuff.
Adam D 🙂 I believe in good bookkeeping. Pity that I often forget that I have tons of them in the heat of the moment
Tip off the bluecoats to ruin someone elses smuggling operation without getting caught.