Interesting D&D/fantasy contraband other than spell components?

[Zaq]

What sorts of interesting contraband might someone in the D&D universe find profitable to smuggle? For the purposes of this discussion, let’s say no spell components (that wouldn’t make sense in the context I’m thinking, but the explanation why is likely more of a potential thread derailment than I want) and no slaves (I’m thinking more “lovable scoundrels” and less “hardened criminal sociopaths,” and smuggling slaves goes to a darker place than I’m aiming for, even if the smugglers in question aren’t intended to be heroic).

Other than that, this is all just background brainstorming for some roleplaying and worldbuilding, so I’m open to your ideas! Sure, whether or not something is contraband is really a function of the local/prevailing government, but let’s at least aim for something that might be reasonably expected to be banned before just lunging straight for the wildcards based on definition.

I feel like I should start us off in good faith, but I’m honestly having trouble coming up with anything interesting. Governments banning weapons in the D&D universe is a little awkward, and I guess we can describe some kind of fantasy intoxicants, but other than that I’m drawing a blank.

[flappeercraft]

Magic items that facilitate crime would be a big one.

Creatures would be another one, after all there is always the rick person who wants an exotic pet which is illegal and or dangerous. Maybe it could be Shock Lizards for example.

[Kayblis]

I would go with spices, as most laws pertaining to spice trade are taxation and restrictions if you're not part of nobility and/or a merchant guild, instead of outright bans. It's a relatively low-risk job for the dealers, and you can't really say they're making the city worse in some major way like drug contraband.

[FelineArchmage]

Any materials that would be considered poaching - the fantasy equivalent of ivory tusks so to speak.

So stuff like unicorns horns/blood/hair and other materials from magical beasts that could be illegal to kill.

(Away from book at the moment, so I'm blanking out on any other magical beasts that I that could be an example lol)

[Falontani]

Any material component that is specifically for a spell with the Evil tag would be outlawed in normal society, however those who know what components are explicitly for evil spells would be few and far between, causing rumor of someone practicing dark magics to have their components confiscated until someone with more experience coming in to look over them. (example would be black onyx which is only used for the creation of undead)

Most poisons would be outlawed, and most exotic animals would require a permit or specific permission from higher up the chain (specifically any exotic animals that are obviously dangerous, like dire bears) however mages would get a pass for their smaller creatures that are familiars.

While weaponry in and of itself would not be outlawed certain weapons most likely would be, examples would be Poison Rings (if they can be identified as such), garrotes, and gnome quickrazors off the top of my head. Obvious weapons would be much less likely to be confiscated than easily hidden weapons.

Alchemical supplies would be strictly regulated, you'd probably have to have a permit or be a part of a specific guild in order to carry them openly.

Magic would not be banned, however explosive or otherwise uncontrolled magic would be expressly forbidden (so things like a fireball and shatter would be forbidden, however spells like shockwave would be allowed... ish)

Assault is obviously forbidden, however a mage defending himself would be fine, unless he uses a spell that damages nearby property in the process, or harms those that aren't part of the fight.

Finally while not good everywhere, a good rule of thumb from Sharn City of Towers


The following items are considered to be contraband in Breland:
• Absentia (page 160)
• Dragon’s blood (page 161)
• Dreamlily (page 161)
• Most addictive substances (DM’s discretion)
• Blank pages notarized by House Sivis
• Any poison that can inflict more than 1 point of Constitution damage, permanent damage to any ability, or more than 1d6 damage to any ability.

Other items are not actually illegal, but are restricted. These items can only be sold to members of the royal military or the Sharn Watch. Possession of a restricted item is not illegal, but the Watch will want to know why the character has the item, and if the explanation is insufficient it may be confiscated.
Restricted items include:
• Any bane weapon that affects a humanoid creature type.
• Any type of poison that is not actually outlawed.
• Any magic item (including scrolls or wands) that reproduces the effects of any of the following spells: cloudkill, chain lightning, circle of death, cone of cold, contagion, delayed blast fireball, disintegrate, finger of death, feeblemind, fireball, flesh to stone, greater shout, horrid wilting, ice storm, imprisonment, incendiary cloud, insanity, invisibility (including greater invisibility), lightning bolt, meteor swarm, Mordenkainen’s disjunction, phantasmal killer, poison, polar ray, power word kill, soul bind, sunburst, or weird.

[BowStreetRunner]

Throughout history there are plenty of examples of governments attempting to control ownership of rare goods - declaring that all of a certain material belongs to the crown. You could put any Special Materials (Adamantine, Mithral, Darkwood, etc.) under a Crown Monopoly which would require people not purchasing such goods from the Crown not only to have them smuggled, but also to have the appropriate seals forged on the finished goods to prove they were not illicitly obtained.

Another common reason for smuggling was simply to avoid taxation. "Sin taxes" might be applied to alcohol and tobacco, but also to any goods associated with a religion other than that of the state church. Protective Tariffs might be placed on Dwarvencraft goods in an Elven community, or vice versa. There are also currency transaction taxes placed to take a cut from money-changers, which might encourage illicit money-changing and smuggling of currencies.

[Piggy Knowles]

In general, I envision a city or government regulating sale or trafficking of items, and hence creating a market for smuggling, either because an item is dangerous (either to the general populace or specifically to a ruling or protected class), to preserve a regulated/controlled market, or because of local taboos. So, thinking about things from that angle...

-> Weapons, especially easily hidden ones. Easily concealable knives, hand crossbows, cane swords, weighted cloaks, etc. Things that a city or government might reasonably prohibit from a fantasy setting that largely allows people to walk around visibly armed. Gunpowder or pistols, if it's that kind of setting. Alternately, weapons of war (harder to smuggle due to size, but siege weapons are definitely a reasonable thing to restrict, though I can't imagine a huge market for them.)

-> Magical Enhancements. Potions in particular, because any schmuck off the street drink can gulp down an elixir of fire breath or potion of invisibility and start causing trouble.

-> Cursed items. Could be a whole secret market in cursed items that are either purchased to use against enemies, or sold as the non-cursed versions of magical items in order to make a profit.

-> Explosives. Alchemical items, mostly.

-> Poisons. Doesn't really need any elaboration here.

-> Drugs. Another fairly obvious one. Could fall under one of the other categories, but magical drugs are fairly dangerous, so let's put it here I suppose.

-> Quintessence. Kind of fits under a lot of categories. It's dangerous to the touch, difficult to make, messes with psions and those with PLAs, can bottom out the magic item market by extending charged or X uses/day items. Hells, it can double as a poison if need be; at a point of damage every round, that sounds like a painful and recurring way to poison someone.

-> Dangerous literature. Religious scripture for a banned religion. Manuals of war. Banned books. Satirical pamphlets. Treatises and manifestos from excommunicated or exiled individuals.

-> Heavily taxed items. Spices. Artwork. Liquor. Tobacco. Niche food items. Basically anything that is heavily taxed or regulated in one nation and that a clever smuggler could buy for much cheaper across the sea and smuggle in here.

-> Counterfeit items. Fake jewels. Forged paperwork. Knock-off versions of expensive artwork or items. Fake magical items. Swords made of cheap metal and spears made of cheap wood.

-> Taboo items. OK, pornography is the obvious choice, but that's boring. Go wild here in thinking of local taboos. Certain types of clothing or food are the most likely targets, but why stop there? What if it's taboo to depict the dead in pictures or paintings? Or to have religious figurines? Games of chance?

-> Eggs. What are these strange eggs? Why does everyone seem to want them? Why do they pulse warmly at exactly midnight? Why do I suddenly feel compelled to dig up my life savings to buy them all from you?

[ExLibrisMortis]

I'm not an imaginative person, so I just look up "contraband" and "smuggling" on Wikipedia. Suggestions: drugs, weapons, poisons, blasphemous (or holy) books/artefacts, classified documents, anything deemed immoral to own, anything counterfeit or made without guild affiliation (these are forbidden or restricted, and only available through smugglers), also anything heavily taxed or obtained through theft or fraud (these are legal and obtainable, but sold cheaper on the black market--a property that counterfeits share, incidentally).

If you want to give a positive spin on smuggling sentient beings, consider freed slaves being smuggled out. You can also smuggle spies, assassins, priests of forbidden deities, or even legitimate diplomats (e.g. when a leader/government is being ousted, preliminary talks can ensure the new government is on good terms with its neighbours).


In the case of D&D, magic items would make great contraband, but they're typically so expensive that they have to be custom-made, which precludes mass smuggling. In modern prisons, cell phones are serious contraband, and long-distance (secure) communication across closed borders is equally important in D&D, so maybe that's a good entry-level magic item to smuggle.

[Vaern]

Book of Vile Darkness has a section on drugs, complete with mechanics for addiction and penalties for withdrawal and overdosing.

[Nifft]

- Baby monsters, especially if they can be trained as mounts / guard animals.

- Illegal immigrants.

- Foreign currency, especially if there's a trade war (or regular war) going on and the local state currency is debased / inflated.

- Untaxed liquor / tobacco / magical ammunition.

[JustIgnoreMe]

It's already been said, but once more for emphasis: smuggling used to be mostly about legal luxury items you hadn't paid the taxes on (and so could source for much cheaper). Brandy, furs, silks, tobacco: anything you can make a worthwhile profit on, which means anything the government taxes harshly.

-edit-I just remembered my government used to tax tea so highly that it was worth smuggling it into the country.

[Venger]

Shoot, people said all the good ones already.


Finally while not good everywhere, a good rule of thumb from Sharn City of Towers

Obviously, yours is better, but on that note, Silverymoon actually has some pretty reasonable protections in place as well:

spells with the death, evil, or teleportation descriptor, conjuration (summoning) (but not calling, of course. durrrr), and evocation [fire] are all verboten there.

While it's a little different from a straight ban, there's also a permanent invisibility purge, negative energy protection, and protection from evil effect on passively, so you can't mind control anyone.

In any kind of reasonable setting, you could also ban mind control spells instead of teaching kids how to make them in high school.



-> Weapons, especially easily hidden ones. Easily concealable knives, hand crossbows, cane swords, weighted cloaks, etc. Things that a city or government might reasonably prohibit from a fantasy setting that largely allows people to walk around visibly armed. Gunpowder or pistols, if it's that kind of setting. Alternately, weapons of war (harder to smuggle due to size, but siege weapons are definitely a reasonable thing to restrict, though I can't imagine a huge market for them.)
Your list is also predictably great.

Siege engines probably would have a pretty good market because shrink item exists.

Shrink item would probably also be banned, because I can shrink down a whole truckload of absentia or expired gorilla milk and carry it in my pocket to avoid paying import taxes.



-> Magical Enhancements. Potions in particular, because any schmuck off the street drink can gulp down an elixir of fire breath or potion of invisibility and start causing trouble.
A similar process of contraband has been enacted in the core rules on oils. They're so forbidden, there aren't even rules on how to make them.



-> Taboo items. OK, pornography is the obvious choice, but that's boring. Go wild here in thinking of local taboos. Certain types of clothing or food are the most likely targets, but why stop there? What if it's taboo to depict the dead in pictures or paintings? Or to have religious figurines? Games of chance?
Lots of good stuff to mine here as well. Maybe it's forbidden to depict people's faces in art and sculpture.

An in-universe one in faerun is that it's illegal to wear red robes in Thay. Only red wizards are allowed to do that, and if you do it, you are subject to instant summary execution. This has a trickledown effect culturally where most Thayans don't wear any red on their person at all.

In addition to the ones everyone else already said: medicine.

I know medicine doesn't actually exist for the most part in dnd, so say blessed bandages, wolfsbane, potions of cure x wounds, scrolls of close wounds, et al. The government in a theocracy could say only the church was allowed to be in control of healing magic, (and thus they'd only heal people in good standing) so apostates and heretics couldn't go there if they needed help. If you're practicing a different faith or are a political dissident and get stabbed or w/e, you may need to avail yourself of some contraband healing goodies, or if you're a political dissident, you may smuggle these goodies to the rebel base.

[Talanic]

- Dwarf beards. Although they can be acquired via means that don't require crime or even violence, trafficking in them is just asking for trouble.

- Kittenbush seeds. Man, had to look up where those are from: they're from here in 2007. Kittenbushes are adorable but potentially dangerous.

- Potions. Especially ones that might tip balances of power. If one specific (neutral or evil) church holds sway in an area, traffic in healing or curing potions might be taxed to keep said church cheaper and more attractive.

[unseenmage]

A lot of the smuggling would be based on context too. No wolfsbane allowed in a certain city probably because a city official is a lycanthrope.
No garlic or mirrors allowed in a vampire infested city either while we're at it.

The Smoky Confinement spell essentially gives us Shrink Item for creatures. Random shrunken monsters could be profitable to smuggle. Not even sapient enslavable ones, just shrunken dinosaurs could be worth trafficking.

And in case I missed it... necromancers need dead bits of folk to do what they do and there's always gonna be at least a few secretive types with the funds to have shipped in what they dont want to spoil the neighborhood making themselves.

Also, check the link in my sig for the math on how many Constructs or Undead can be crammed into various extradimensional spaces using the Squeezing rules.

[tterreb]

I don't think there's really anything that hasn't been covered at this point... Smugglers will smuggle anything they think will turn a profit, from illegal or high taxed goods to people trying to enter/exit a city. Even if goods have a reasonable tax, why pay it if you can avoid it? The bottom line it's all that really matters. And maybe a moral code, if you happen to have one.

The important thing to decide here isn't so much what is being smuggled as it is how they decide what to smuggle. Are they a stand alone merchant or do they work for somebody else. Are they open to taking commissions/side jobs or do they stick with one particular thing? Is there a high demand good that is sure to bring profit? How much risk are they willing to take to earn their money? Because really, that's what it all comes down to.

[BowStreetRunner]

Smugglers may also smuggle people on occasion - for instance they might agree to smuggle a farm boy, a wizard, two constructs...and no imperial entanglements. :smallbiggrin:

[Talanic]

Or perhaps it's not something illegal, per se, but something that the purchaser wants off the books for other reasons?

Say, the party opens a crate and finds that it's full of what looks like a slave trafficker's gear. Manacles, whips, collars and gags, but further investigation reveals that the cuffs are lined with fur...

[Nifft]

but further investigation reveals that the cuffs are lined with fur...

So it's werewolf slavery.

I guess that's fine.

[Andor13]

Ohhh. Now I'm imagining an underground trade in werewhatever slobber. That could be hilarious. Especially if poorly labeled.

[Talanic]

So it's werewolf slavery.

I guess that's fine.

I forgot to mention that the cuffs have a quick-release lock but otherwise look authentic.

[tterreb]

I forgot to mention that the cuffs have a quick-release lock but otherwise look authentic.

Inept werewolf slavers.