Bootleggers
“It don’t matter which planet ya’ get to; there is always somethin’ folks want that they ain’t allowed to have. Or somethin’ they ain’t supposed to know about, or do, or sometimes even be.”
“That’s where my crew an’ I come in.” 
“We bring folks what they ain’t ‘supposed’ to be brought. Or get ‘em outta where they ain’t welcome. No judgment from us, as long as the payment is good.”
“How can ya’ pay? Well now… could be ya’ got somethin’ we can sell, or trade. Could be ya’ got somethin’ to upgrade or outfit our ship, or one of the crew for that matter. Could be we’ll let ya’ just owe us one, if it seems like we can trust ya’. Always good to have friends out here in the Big Ol’ Black. Now, what is it you were after, exactly?”
Introduction:
Welcome to Bootleggers, a tabletop role-playing about making a living in the future of human kind. A free living, that is. Even though humanity is slowly expanding out through the galaxy, most people still live their whole lives on one lonely planet. A bunch of them are probably even satisfied with that. But that kind of life isn’t for you and your crew. Not when you can get out there in the ‘Big Ol’ Black’ and see all the crazy, dangerous, beautiful, things which are out there.
How did we get here?
Well now, that’s a deep question. You probably mean the history of the Big Ol’ Black. Hmm. The best place to start is probably the 21st century by the Earth calendar. First, somebody finally cracked fusion power. That gave folks a LOT more juice than they used to have. There were lots of things that fusion power let folks do, but the most important ones came one after the other. 
First off, people made cheap, easy superconductors. Then it turns out if you run a current through a superconductor, you mess around with local gravity. Seems that’s a big deal, because pretty soon some clever folks found a way to exploit that link between EM fields and gravity. Enough power, and you can make gravity bend around you – bent enough to get moving fast. Faster than light, as it happens. No buzzing cities at ‘warp 9’ though. The tech doesn’t work as well near a gravity well. It’s something about ‘a rubber sheet that’s already stretched needing more juice to stretch it further’.
All that opened up exploring nearby stars and planets. Combine that with the emerging nanotech revolution happening at about the same time, and soon enough we had Terraforming. It’s funny how only the historians had any idea of what that meant for the future.
It had been a few generations since humanity had really had a frontier, see? A place where people could go and make a truly fresh start. No rules but the ones you make. No people except the ones you want to bring with you. Various groups started claiming planets as their own. There wasn’t as much arguing and warring about this as you might expect. Space is BIG. You could always pick someplace further out to make your home. Launch your T-Form payload a few years ahead of your people-mover and the planet would be just about ready for you and yours by the time you got there.
A lot of national economies collapsed, back then. Not enough people were willing to stick around doing a boring nine-to-five job when a whole new start was waiting for them. Of course, a few nations started cracking down on emigration. Some were even pretty successful. Now those nations are the ones without many children out in the Big Ol’ Black. That brings us close enough to the now.
What’s out there now?
Short answer? Everything. Of course there were official colonies from the nations that could afford it. The bigger corporations made their own colonies too, though they usually didn’t call them that at first. A few of those nations and corps claim whole systems and even regions of space as their own now. Religious folks were what you might call ‘early adopters’, too. Heaven-on-Earth hadn’t worked out for most of them, so they thought they’d try another planet. All manner of starry-eyed visionaries moved out with whoever they could convince. Communists, Objectivists, Anarchists, you-name-its. They’ve all got, or at least had, a colony of their own out there somewhere. A surprising number of colonies were started by folks saying ‘It’ll be just like the place we’re leaving, only you’ll get to start over.’ The siren of the Big Ol’ Black sings many songs.
What can our technology do these days? Well, the answer to that is pretty complicated too. Research and experimentation hasn’t slowed down out in the Big Ol’ Black. It has fragmented though. Back on Earth, everybody had access more-or-less the same knowledge. It seems like every colony out here advanced that knowledge in a different direction. You’ll have deep and meaningful conversations with intelligent machines. You’ll get specially built or grown parts to upgrade your body. You’ll see weapons that make you doubt we deserve to be called ‘humanity’. You’ll tap into a euphoric group-consciousness that makes you think about leaving notions like ‘humanity’ behind you. Any damn thing, really. This tech isn’t shared too often or quickly either. We can move ships faster than light, but not our transmissions.
Aliens? Nope. Of course there are rumors, but it’s always ‘a friend-of-a-friend saw something’. No one credible has ever claimed to be an eye witness to honest-to-god aliens or even their leftovers. 
What does a bootlegger crew do?
They get by as best they can. That probably seems like poor answer, but it’s the only answer that is true for all of them. With nanotech fabrication and the resources of a virgin planet, the colonists don’t suffer much from scarcity. Most bootleggers make a profit from selling what people aren’t allowed to have. Sometimes that’s physical stuff. Sometimes it’s info, or entertainment. Whatever the case, the bootleggers are likely to be criminals in most of the places they go. They deal with the powerful and the poor; the executive and the exile. 
Why do they do it? Well, some say it’s for the money. Some say they are running from problem or a threat. After a while though, most of them do it because they have seen just how much is out there in the Big Ol’ Black and they can’t imagine going back to being trapped on a planet. 

Characters

So, We like to say we're the good guys, but you know that's not strictly the truth. We wouldn't be out here doing this shit just for funsies. 

Most of us are here 'cuz we can't really be there. (Roll D6) 
 1.	Don't like others
 2.	Others don't like us
 3.	We have issues
 4.	Someone wants us dead
 5.	We done some'in' pretty bad
 6.	We're too good for the likes of them. 

And we have a couple skills we can use in the Big Black: (Pick 5: 1 at High, 1at Medium 3 at low go round the table two players cannot have the same skill at High or Medium)

 1.	Pilot
 2.	Gunner
 3.	Navigator
 4.	Engineer
 5.	Medic
 6.	Fast Talker
 7.	Procurer
 8.	Thug
 9.	Psionic

Somehow we got together and formed a team of sorts. Of course nobody is perfect. Sometimes it seems like the better you are at your job the worse things are in the rest of your life. (Set your skill level at a number from 1-6. Higher is better)

So usually we find out about a job from people in a nearby system. We can usually justify this stuff to ourselves because we have to see it that way. (Roll 2D6)

 2.	Exotic Animals 1
 3.	Stolen Goods 1
 4.	Illegal Immigrants 1
 5.	Religious Artifacts 1
 6.	Drugs 2
 7.	Sex Workers 3
 8.	Weapons 2
 9.	Propaganda 1
 10.	Foodstuffs 1
 11.	Person 1
 12.	Under Cover Cop Chase (see Below)

What the character rolls mean. 

These are your reasons for being out in the Big Black build a background which makes sense for the reason. 

We don't like others – The big black seems to have a whole lot of them running things. You don't like those sort of people for some reason. Define who they are that you think are out there and how much you don't like them. 

Others don't like us – Your people have been put down for generations and you are not going to take it any more. Give your people a name. This character gets -1 in situations when dealing with others. 

We have issues – Someone did something you think needs avenged. It was not necessarily against you, but you are fighting this wrong. Define the injustice you are against. You get +1 when acting against your enemy, but cannot leave them behind after the job. You must confront them at the end of the job. 

Someone wants us dead – You have personally offended someone with the power to end your life. Who are they and what did you do? Every time you run a job roll D6 to see if they find out about you. On a 6 they find you. 

We done some'in' pretty bad – You have committed some breach of the peace somewhere bad enough that they are still looking for you. You can have a specific crime or just be a general criminal. Every time you encounter law enforcement officers roll D6 on a 6 you are recognized by the authorities. 

We're too good for the likes of them – You were ahead of your time in some way; and are not good at suffering fools gladly. You may have made enemies or been a laughing stock. Doesn't really matter. This Character gets 2 High and 2 Low skills. 

Skill Rolls 

If you attempt to do something where the outcome isn't clearly one way or another roll a D6. If you roll at or under your character's skill number the attempt succeeds. If you roll over you can take a fail, or if you have the skill at Mid you can roll again or at or High twice more. 

If you are trying something for which you don't have a skill, you roll over your skill number to succeed. You cannot reroll. 

Running the Jobs

Everyone who is looking for a job rolls 2D6. If the character is a procurer they can also look at the jobs directly above and below their roll. If the character is the fast talker they can increase the take by one. 

Try to make the Job as simple and appealing as you can. In the case of Weapons play up the plight of the oppressed people who need them, Sex Workers are students or nurses or the like going to see the sights. Then as the job starts try to make the mission as unpleasant as possible. 

If anyone rolls under cover cop spring it right away. Fleeing is a skill that no one has. If they succeed roll a die and if your die is higher than theirs you catch up with them. If it is not roll again. If it is still not higher you loose them. 

Let the players make the plan. The plan should have a number of steps between one and three for every player. The more steps they choose the fewer things you can bring against them. Agree with whatever they think is good. But in every step try to think of either how the thing thy are bringing in is hurting them or how the people being smuggled are causing problems because they do not necessarily want to reach the end. 

If there is only one action per character, the GM can add 5 characters from outside the plan to work against the players. Put these characters in the players way. For each additional action per player put one less character in their way. These should be guards, or people who want to steal the smuggled items, or people who think they deserve the item. 

Combat

There are three types of combat. Dry, Wet and Ship. Dry combat amounts to anything which is unlikely to kill you. It includes things like convincing someone to change their mind, grappling, or seduction. 

Wet combat is the sort where there is a good chance you could die. This includes acting under fire, Dry combat against someone with a weapon, or against a thug, and some types of Psionics. 

Ship combat is combat in space. It requires the ship to have the ability they are trying to use. 

In combat the player rolls their die and any rerolls. The opponent rolls to see if they can beat the number regardless of the outcome. If they succeed then damage is taken regardless. Dry damage, if it is not an argument the damage would be one. Wet Damage the damage is 1D6, 

SHIP DAMAGE WILL HAVE TO BE WRITTEN IN PART THREE

Every time you take the ship into space it costs 1 and there is a 1 in 6 chance that the ship suffers a breakdown. Every trip into space between maintenance rolls increases the chance by one. A successful roll by the engineer reduces the chance by three and can be rolled at any time. Additional rerolls can be purchased for 1. In addition any damage incurred in combat will cost 1 to fix.