An Infamous Traffic Board Game by Cole Wehrle, 2nd Edition, English

Descripción

Explore the dramatic rise of the opium trade in 19th-century China in this cutthroat business game from Cole Wehrle, the award-winning designer of Root, Pax Pamir, and Arcs. 

An Infamous Traffic is the next chapter in our series of games on the British Empire. With these games, we’ve explored the rise of the British Empire from a variety of vantage points. Pax Pamir examined how imperialism was often shaped by local political realities. John Company looked at the institutional and social dimensions of empire and how non-state actors such as the East India Company incubated some of the worst imperial excesses of the modern period.

An Infamous Traffic focuses on the entrepreneurs who built their fortunes by evading the wishes of the world’s most powerful empires, shifting the currents of global commerce in ways that are still felt today. 

The game begins in the 1820s. Opium has been illicitly traded in China for centuries for both recreational and medicinal use. The drug is one of the only effective painkillers available, and, in response to global demand, the East India Company has begun monopolizing its production in India. With a new supply of opium established, free traders see the possibility of lucrative profits. 

At this time, the drug is strictly prohibited within China. Early discussions about its regulation and taxation have yielded increasingly draconian enforcement policies. However, the Qing government has grown dysfunctional under the Daoguang Emperor. The southern coastline is rife with pirates and smugglers. Though the East India Company dare not trade the drug directly within China, it’s clear that others might be able to do so without provoking a response. That’s where the players come in.

In the game, you take the role of an enterprising merchant, eager to take advantage of the clear demand for opium in Qing China. To do this, players will travel between London, India, and China, and work to build a global network of business contacts who can supply and ship the drug. 

This trade will put players on a collision course with Qing officials like Lin Zexu who were tasked with policing the trade. Historically, the blowback from these enforcement measures sparked British outrage that led to the First and Second Opium Wars and the broader opening of China. But players will be able to explore other possibilities as well, from a successful Taiping state to a strictly regulated opium trade backed by a resurgent Qing government.

An Infamous Traffic offers players a clear-eyed assessment of a difficult period of history that saw a huge range of people engage in the opium trade, from well-meaning philanthropists and scholars to cutthroat drug dealers. Most of the firms represented in the game are still operating in some way, forming the foundation of some of the largest commercial fortunes in the world today. This is a period we haven’t left behind, and it’s incumbent upon us to understand the consequences of our connection with the past. 

An Infamous Traffic is a deep, interactive historical game. The design harkens back to old-school business games, with a straightforward set of rules that gets out of your way. The game is easy to set up and can usually be completed in under two hours.

Over the course of the game, players will develop a network of business connections and a portfolio of enterprises to profit from the demand for opium in China.

The game is centered on creating supply chains. Each region of China will have some amount of demand, indicated by the sum of the dice in that region. In order to profit from this demand, players will need to fill supply chains in the region using their enterprise tiles.

Each tile has a value, indicating how much profit the tile will bring if the supply chain can be completed. A chain is complete when all of its spaces are full and the total profit is equal to or less than the demand. If players overshoot, they will have to spend time adjusting prices or finding other ways to increase demand.

It is often impossible for one player to complete a supply chain alone, so players will need to work together. But you’ll have to be careful too. Deals are rarely equal, and if you get too greedy, your rivals may attempt to undercut your position.

Of course, it takes money to make money. All of the work of setting up supply chains requires capital. Players will need to carefully manage their company’s line of credit. Ideally your profits will cover the debt you took to secure a foothold in Canton, but as the game continues, you’ll find other obligations threatening your bottom line.

Each decade you’ll compete in the London Season with the other players, securing lucrative offices, a house in a fashionable part of London, and maybe a wife from a prominent family. But all of those things cost money too. With each decade the expenses will pile up and your new domestic obligations will shrink your business tableau.

But in the end, all of your wealth is only a means to an end. What matters is the status you’ve secured back home.