Smugglers (2025)
Smugglers (2025) Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Objective
Smugglers is a set collection game. In this game you are greedy merchants during the silk road era who want to smuggle illegal goods and other goods that are not allowed through the customs. You can always depend only on legal goods to be safe, but the other merchants will have the chance to smuggle illegal goods which are worth much more!
Components
- 120x Goods cards
- 16x Customs cards
- 1x First player sack figure
- 1x Rule book
Set Up
- Take out the 10 variant goods cards (Gold coins & Silver coins) from the goods deck if you want to play the standard mode. (Note: if you want to play the variant mode, ignore this step).
- Shuffle the goods deck and deal 5 cards facedown for each player, then put the rest of the cards in the middle of the table facedown.
- Reveal 3 goods cards from the top of the goods deck and put them faceup next to the deck representing "The Market", if you draw a card and there is already a copy of it in The Market discard it immediately and draw another card instead of it since The Market must always contains 3 different goods.
- Take out the 4 Long game mode customs cards that are symbolized with "L" on the corner. (Note: If you want to play the long game mode, ignore this step).
- Shuffle the customs cards and place them facedown in the middle of the table.
- The last person who broke a rule in real life gets the first player sack figure.
Game Play
The game will be played in 12 rounds. Each round consists of 4 steps, as the following:
1- Customs Step
Flip the top customs card face up and read it out loud. Everyone MUST follow the rules of the customs for this round.
2- Smuggling Step
All players choose a card from their hands and play it facedown in front of them. Simultaneously, all players reveal their playing cards and discard any cards that have effects that force you to discard them (e.g., some illegal cards and bag of gems if already owned) or violate the customs rules. All other cards that have not been discarded are placed in front of each player who played the card which means the smuggling was successful and you did not get caught.
3- Cards Drawing Step
Starting with the player with the first player sack figure and going clockwise, each player may discard only 1 card from their hands then refill their hand back to 5 cards by drawing from the market and/or the deck. If you draw a card from the market, fill the market back to 3 cards by drawing from the goods deck. (Note: When filling back the market, if you draw a card from the deck that already has a copy of it in the market, discard it immediately and draw another one until you have 3 different cards in the market).
4- First Player Sack Figure Step
Pass the first player sack figure to the next player clockwise. Now this player will be drawing cards first in the next round.
Running Out of Goods Cards
In case you need to draw a card under any conditions from the goods deck and it is empty, reshuffle the discard pile and make a new deck. In rare cases, if you run out of goods cards and there is nothing left in the discard pile, the game ends immediately.
Game End
The game ends after completing 12 rounds for the short game mode or 16 rounds for the long game mode. Each player sums up the points of all cards in front of them following the rules of scoring for each card "see Goods Cards Index". The player with the most points wins the game!. In case of a tie, the player with the most illegal goods wins the game, If there is still a tie the winning players share the vicory.
2-Player Game
For a 2 player game there is no change in the set up. However, a Robot will be in play acting as a third player. It will only be engaged in the smuggling step. When the 2 players choose a card from their hand and place them facedown, draw the top card from the goods deck and place it facedown, as it will act as a third player who played a card with you. After revealing the robot card, then discard it by placing it in the discard pile. The Robot's card can still affect other cards just like a normal player will do. You can always add more than 1 Robot if you want the game to be more challenging.!
Solo Game
For a solo game it follows exactly all rules of a 2-Player Game, Except you must include at least 2 robots. Of course you can also add more than 2 robots. This mode is designed to challenge yourself as you try to break your last highest score.
Variant
To add more challenge to the game this variant can be played by adding the 10 variant goods cards (Gold coins + Silver coins) to the goods deck and shuffle them with the other cards, then follow the same set up as the standard mode.
Long Game Mode
The short game mode is the standard game, for a longer game time, this mode can be played by adding 4 more customs cards that are specialized with the letter "L" on the corner with the rest of the customs deck and shuffling them together.
Goods Cards Index
Legal Goods (green cards)
- 10x Spice: Score 0 points when you play 1 or 2 copies, score 10 points when you play 3 copies, score 26 points when you play 4 copies.
- 10x Silk: Score 1 point when you play 1 copy, score 5 points when you play 2 copies, score 20 points when you play 3 copies.
- 10x Tea: Score 2 points when you play 1 copy, score 0 points when you play 2 or 3 copies, score 30 points when you play 4 copies.
- 7x Fruits: Score 12 points for every 2 copies and score 0 points if there is a single card (e.g. if you play 3 copies you will score 12 points, if you play 4 copies you will score 24 points)
- 7x Pink Gem: Score 3 points per card played + score extra 10 points per set of 3 different colors of gems played (Purple+Blue+Pink)
- 7x Blue Gem: Score 4 points per card played + score extra 10 points per set of 3 different colors of gems played (Purple+Blue+Pink)
- 7x Purple Gem: Score 5 points per card played + score extra 10 points per set of 3 different colors of gems played (Purple+Blue+Pink)
- 5x Bag of Gems (Unique): Score 10 points when this card is played, if you play this card again it will be discarded.
- 5x Ring (Unique): Score 3 points + At the end of the game attach it to a Gem of your choice and double the score of the Gem
- 5x Gold Coins (Unique): At the end of the game reveal all gold coins cards and score 10 points per card "this card must still be in your hand at the end of the game in order to score it"
Illegal Goods (red cards)
- 8x Crossbow (Weapon): Score 10 points per card played / this card will be discarded during the round if another weapon card is played either from you or another player.
- 8x Great Sword (Weapon): Score 10 points per card played / this card will be discarded during the round if another weapon card is played either from you or another player.
- 8x Snake Venom (Poison): Score 10 points per card played / this card will be discarded during the round if it is the only poison card played either from you or another player.
- 8x Rat Poison (Poison): Score 10 points per card played / this card will be discarded during the round if it is the only poison card played either from you or another player.
- 5x Stolen Jewelry (Unique): Score 10 points per card played / this card will be discarded during the round if there are other illegal cards played either from you or another player.
- 5x Ivory (Unique): Score 10 points per card played / this card will be discarded during the round if it is the only illegal card played either from you or another player.