New Trade Goods

[Sir Thalius Hayle]

To me, this is almost historically accurate, as the opium wars in China made a lot of pirate merchants wealthy or dead.

What makes this interesting as an added dimension is how you would have merchants with solid ties to the governmental leadership vowing to avoid the drug trade, all the while participating in it secretly. It would add all kinds of elements of secrecy and you would never really know what the other person is up to.

There would be consequences to being a drug runner, merchant, or producer. And there would be rewards for not being in that trade. However, there would be great financial benefits to participating. And a person would have much to lose if they were found out to be involved.

It would add more power to the political class. Also, NPC fleets could added that were Royal Naval Law Enforcement (DEA) that would randomly stop and search fleets. If your fleet doesn't have drugs, you get some kind of credit or reputation. The more fleets you have that don't get caught with drugs, the higher your rank is with the government. The better your reputation, too. That would have potential benefits and profits as well. But if you got caught running drugs, you lose that.

I realize it's making things more complicated and I"m sure it could be simplified. But instead of the parasitic pirates feeding on the work of merchants they could instead go after the drug runners for more profit.

As your reputation with the governmental leadership grows, new nation missions become available that would yield benefits- Some missions that would increase in nation influence or loyalty and others that would yield gold (of course), and could provide an entertaining story line and alternative to farming NPC fleets.

Drug traders that are caught could have a bounty placed on them that increases as their reputation decreases with any nation, and merchants that acquire too bad a reputation in the drug trade become branded as pirates. Reputation would need to be restored to good standing in some way before they could re-join a nation, and bad reputation with a nation does not automatically become better- nation missions to restore reputation could be created.

I would imagine that ships would be occasionally inspected at ports when trading, and if drugs are found they would be seized and the players reputation drop with the government controlling the port where the incident occurred.

All of this would mean that drug running would have to be very profitable to justify taking the risk, which would also be substantial.

[Most Lee Harmless]

Again, we return to the simple fact there were no 'illegal drugs' in the period the game covers thus there was no 'drug-running'. There was to smuggling of 'contraband', which was basically un-taxed goods, such as alcohol and tobacco, but could include other high value taxed items, like silks and cloths, spices and such. Some nations forebad the export of key resources which could see examples such as tea bushes being smuggled out of China to create the new plantations in India.

But drugs? Nope... was not an issue then.

[PFH]

The drugs had taxes on them and with others had warrants of transportation with these types of cargo. The quartermaster of the cargo fleet/ship would have to present a material/cargo list and the tax collector would have them pay the amount of currency required to move the cargo through that port.
A lot of times, the quartermaster would bribe the tax collector to ignore illegally transported cargo. In other cases, the tax collector could be drugged, kidnapped, or even killed to prevent others from knowing what is in the ship or to skip the taxes and save their money. Burandanga, or Borrachero, would often be used in the southern American countries for this purpose, but was used in many past events. Borrachero has been used for hundreds of years by native South Americans in spiritual rituals and for native war control. That was one of the issues with certain drugs.

[Most Lee Harmless]

Again, we still aint talking about drug-running : its not the movement of the goods which is illegal, its avoiding taxation, duties, or tariffs on the goods : it's plain old vanilla smuggling and any concept which wants to progress the above ideas has to relate to that, not the modern-day so-called 'drug war'.

[Bmw]

there have been drugs in the past but they weren't really labeled as drugs just banned cargo.

[Sir Henry Morgan]

I agree with Danik.

There were no illegal drugs.

Smuggling was tax evasion and pirates selling goods.

As for the smuggling idea, I like it, but this fearure will have more viability once more nation features come into play, ie, forts, blockades, trade embargo, etc.

Ship abilities and flag ship also need to be in place to truly get the excitement and challenge.

[Shadowood]

I agree with Danik.

There were no illegal drugs.

Smuggling was tax evasion and pirates selling goods.

As for the smuggling idea, I like it, but this fearure will have more viability once more nation features come into play, ie, forts, blockades, trade embargo, etc.

Ship abilities and flag ship also need to be in place to truly get the excitement and challenge.

Agreed

[DezNutz]

I agree with Danik and SHM. It wasn't illegal back then.

HOWEVER you run into the moral dilemma of current times. Opium was openly traded back then, but in today's society is considered an illegal substance. The same can be applied to slavery a common trade during the time period for the game, but in modern times is not acceptable. Do you add them for historical accuracy even though in modern culture they are frowned upon and potentially face a backlash by players that don't want to see that in the game.

IMHO, if we are going to open the game up to additional trading, it should be manufactured goods.

[Shadowood]

I agree with Danik and SHM. It wasn't illegal back then, but you run into the moral dilemma. Opium was openly traded back then, but in today's society is considered an illegal substance. The same can be applied to slavery a common trade during the time period for the game, but in modern times is not acceptable. Do you add them for historical accuracy even though in modern culture they are frowned upon and potentially face a backlash by players that don't want to see that in the game.

Sorry if I ruffle a few feathers with this statement. It is not my intent.

To add on Dez statement... This is a Role Playing Game, set in a time period that had certain elements that are of course horrible and unthinkable in today society. But I know that this Game is just that... A game. If elements were ever introduced that were "time period" specific, it should never have a negative effect on the experience of the game. It should only enhance it.

Just my two cents for now.

[Banger]

I agree with Danik and SHM. It wasn't illegal back then, but you run into the moral dilemma. Opium was openly traded back then, but in today's society is considered an illegal substance. The same can be applied to slavery a common trade during the time period for the game, but in modern times is not acceptable. Do you add them for historical accuracy even though in modern culture they are frowned upon and potentially face a backlash by players that don't want to see that in the game.

Sorry if I ruffle a few feathers with this statement. It is not my intent.

To add on Dez statement... This is a Role Playing Game, set in a time period that had certain elements that are of course horrible and unthinkable in today society. But I know that this Game is just that... A game. If elements were ever introduced that were "time period" specific, it should never have a negative effect on the experience of the game. It should only enhance it.

Just my two cents for now.

Wholeheartedly agree.