This story first appeared in the February 9th, 2007 issue of the Houston Chronicle.

Smugglers Gambles on Sci-Fi Fans
By Louis B. Parks • Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Doing business with Jabba the Hutt got space smuggler Han Solo encased in carbonite in Return of the Jedi.

For the crew of Serenity of TV's Firefly, pilfering "abandoned" cargo on a drifting colony ship nearly led to death by space cannibals.

The life of a space rogue is exciting — but filled with danger, treacherous business associates and some tough lessons in planetary economics.

Living that excitement appealed to Houston science-fiction fans Daniel Strain and Nathan Abrashoff. Not able to catch a rocket to other planets, they combined their love of science fiction with another lifelong passion — board games — to create Smugglers of the Galaxy.

"The reason we made it is we wanted to play it," says Strain, a 35-year-old marketing and graphics consultant. "There just weren't any good board games out there that really capture the space smuggler genre. An adventure game in space. You get to do a little combat and also have to worry about economics and upgrading your ship."

Strain and Abrashoff, also 35 and a computer programmer, met at Blocker Junior High School in Texas City, where they shared a passion for Star Trek and games. They will demonstrate their creation to other serious fans this weekend at the annual Owlcon gaming convention at Rice University. Smugglers of the Galaxy will be open to players in the Grand Hall at 8 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Sunday.

Like strategy games, Smugglers requires planning and maneuvering. But there are elements of chance involving dice and the luck of the draw. There's even a bit of role playing. Smugglers uses character cards, planet cards and "destiny" cards to pit two to six players against each other as they warp from planet to planet.

"Basically you are a space smuggler, buying and selling goods, luxuries, robots, medical supplies or weapons," says Strain, who did the game's artwork. "The different planets have different demands."

The goal is to buy low and sell high. A plague on one planet may jack up the demand for medical supplies, so if you picked some up cheap on the last planet, you stand to gain big. But you may lose your cargo to space pirates before you can get there.

"The ultimate goal is to become the greatest smuggler in the galaxy," Strain says. "To do this you have to complete the Koroth Run. You are trying to supply arms to rebels being suppressed by a tyrannical government. It's hard to make this run, so you have to play the game awhile to have a ship large enough and fast enough."

Not all space entrepreneurs are rakish smugglers like Star Wars' Solo or Firefly's Capt. Reynolds. Just look at weaselly love-broker Harry Mudd of the original Star Trek or bounty hunter Boba Fett in Star Wars.

Smugglers of the Galaxy has scoundrel smuggler Jake Jouster, hunky Capt. Jiminez, bounty hunter Sharon Rex, android DD-55 and a half-dozen others. Each player is dealt cards to determine his character.

"Your character card greatly impacts the decisions you make in the game," Abrashoff says. Each character has his own weaknesses or strengths. Xun, the psychic alien, always has a bounty on his head. Space pilot Mihoko Fujiwara can never acquire friends to help in her adventures.

In the gaming business, computer games dominate, but specialty game stores such as Houston's Midnight Comics & Games stock dozens of board, strategy and role-playing games.

"The thing about board games," Strain says, "you are sitting there face to face with other people. You have your friends over and you spend time with a real person. You just can't replace that experience. There's no way around it."

Strain and Abrashoff are close to finishing their next project, a retro-look science-fiction game called Rocket League.

Information on both games can be found at www.playusmaximus.com.

louis.b.parks@chron.com