Contraband: A Smuggling and Bluffing Game
Contraband is a bluffing game for 3 to 6 players where you take turns acting as smugglers and customs agents. It is designed to be played with a standard 52-card deck, poker chips, and a simple hand-made board.
The Premise
Suits represent different types of illegal goods:
- Hearts: Chemicals (Caffeine, Opium)
- Spades: Weapons (Pistols, Darts)
- Diamonds: Art (forbidden literature, paintings)
- Clubs: Information (blueprints, manifestos)
How It Works
Players attempt to “ship” cards past the customs agent. You declare the suit and rank, but you might be lying.
- The Legal Limit: A dynamic board tracks the legal limit for each suit. Any card at or above the limit is considered contraband and worth far more if successfully smuggled. Face cards are always illegal.
- Customs Inspection: The customs agent can “search” cards by paying the smuggler their declared value in cash. If they find contraband, it’s confiscated. If the cards were legal, the smuggler keeps the “search fee” and the cards go through anyway.
- Selling Goods: Successfully smuggled goods earn you cash ($rank, or double if illegal). Selling a suit also increases its legal limit, making future smuggling in that suit harder.
The game ends when a player reaches $100. It’s a tense game of economic management and bold-faced lying.