Cross-Border Travelling - Entry Visas

[Marchand]

I'm very keen on the Hinterworlds as a sector (as my profile suggests): Solomani, Hivers, K'kree, a clutch of interesting minor races, and an actual ringworld - what's not to like.

The thought of setting a game there has got me thinking about how to handle travel and trade between worlds that are not part of the same interstellar state. The real world offers enough grounds for thinking governments will want to control the movement of people and, especially, economic transactions across their borders.

As a first pass, we could make the crew roll to get an entry visa.

CT suggests a roll of 7+ for officials to recognise all paperwork to be in order, DM+2 per level of admin expertise, -3 unskilled.

This a) seems too easy and b) takes no account of local conditions. It might suffice if the crew are just visiting a world without trading - in fact in those circumstances as ref I would probably just allow entry to the world to move the action along, unless it suited the story to introduce a bureaucratic delay.

So the rest of this applies mainly to trade.

The natural thing would be a roll of law level or greater on 2D to secure a merchant visa. There could be a whole range of DMs.

+1 per level of Admin or Legal
other skills from advanced chargen like liaison, broker, or trader might come to bear perhaps serving as (level-1) in admin; perhaps -3 for totally unskilled
Variable for destination world starport: +2 for A, +1 for B, -1 for E.
-1 for visa on arrival (as opposed to at the consulate on the previous world; roll <= (destination world population - distance in parsecs) for it to have a consulate on the origin world;
DM based on political standings - this would be something similar to the alien trade table from Book 7 but tweaked to be about politics rather than consumer preferences. e.g. Imperial ship trying to enter Solomani space should probably get a DM of at least -2. Relations between worlds in the Hinterworlds are largely unspecified so the ref could go to town. e.g. I can see hi-pop Pusan and Dahlia being deadly rivals with respective spheres of influence.

The players should also be allowed and encouraged to boost their chances of securing a merchant's visa by undertaking appropriate actions like contacting a trade partner who will support their application, or inappropriate actions such as blackmailing consular staff.

Visas may not be required in practice for worlds unable to enforce control of their own orbit space / airspace. But then, could you really be sure some friendly government or passing arms merchant hadn't sold those barbarians a basic missile system?

Merchant visas could have a lifetime - just like real world visas they could be single entry or one-year multi-entry. This could be tied into the degree of success: bare success = single entry, +1 = 2 entries, +2 = multi-entry two months, +3 = multi-entry six months, +4 or higher = multi-entry one year.

There would be a little extra book-keeping but it seems worth it for the additional play options it throws up.

Here is an example: crew are on Yerve (Hinterworlds/2132 B410847-A) trying to secure merchant visa to Dahlia (HW/2032 B754A8A-B). Roll 9- for Dahlia to have a consulate on Yerve (pop A, 1 parsec distance, ref determines no other applicable DMs)

If yes: roll 10+ for visa, no political effect, no skill effect (liaison-1 used as admin-0), +1 for B class starport.

I just rolled an 11, +1 for 12, beating the target number by 2. So the crew get a multi-entry mercantile visa to Dahlia valid for 2 months. It costs them Cr500.

Has anyone else introduced similar systems? Is there a published rule someone can point to that I don't know about?

 

[Whipsnade]

There would be a little extra book-keeping but it seems worth it for the additional play options it throws up.

I cannot agree with that statement more strongly. Thank you for sharing your system with us.

Has anyone else introduced similar systems?

I imposed visa requirements when such requirements met my needs as a GM. While I didn't have a carefully thought-out system like the one you posted, I didn't impose visa issues willy-nilly either. It was usually a matter of the players learning they'd need a visa for their next stop and getting one. A few times the players found themselves in systems they hadn't planned on visiting and, because they hadn't visas, found themselves limited to the port and/or paying fines.

Once I had the players' visa not honored thanks to a change in government between the visa being issued and the players' arrival. They had to return to their last port-of-call and reapply for a new visa from the new government before they could land their cargo.

Is there a published rule someone can point to that I don't know about?

I'm not aware of one in GT: Far Trader although all sorts of paperwork is discussed there. One or more of MgT's many books might discuss it, but I haven't read them all that closely so I can't say.

 

[Doyle Hunt]

Using a real-world model, it's common for transportation workers (airline or ship crew) to be granted a "transport" visa that's only good for something like 24 hours, so the crew can leave the port to obtain overnight lodging and such. For a longer stay, they'd have to apply for a tourist or work visa. Which is why customs officers ask "business or pleasure?" in the movies; your answer determines which visa you're granted, and they often have different time limits as well as different limits on which activities you can legally perform. If a starport has lodging on the premises, a transport visa might not even exist on that planet since there's no need to cross the X-T line, but for class D and some class C ports, a transport visa might be common for subsidized merchants making scheduled stops to pick up freight, but a free trader captain who has to spend a week to look for cargo would need to upgrade to a work visa, and crew on shore leave might need a tourist visa to travel beyond the port city.

Other documentation required includes pratique, which is clearance for the vessel to enter the country, and requires that the vessel clear quarantine first. Until pratique is granted, the only person allowed to depart the ship is the captain, so that he can go to the customs office (or Port Warden's office in Traveller) to submit the necessary paperwork.

Before leaving, zarpe is usually required, which is a certification that all of the vessel's obligations have been met, including all debts having been paid (port fees, etc.) Without zarpe from the prior port, it may be difficult to obtain pratique at the next port.

An interesting twist here would be when leaving a low-law port that doesn't require zarpe, and traveling to a high-law port that requires the ship to have zarpe from the prior port before granting pratique. Convincing the prior port to grant zarpe when they usually don't bother could be difficult. How do you bribe someone to NOT look the other way?

Another real-world complication is the Port State Inspection and Flag State Inspection. The Flag State Inspection is performed at by the ship's flag state (where it's registered) as a condition of maintaining the registry. The purpose is to make sure that all registered vessels are seaworthy (spaceworthy in Traveller) and meet all safety requirements.

The Port State Inspection is performed only in foreign ports of call, and are also ostensibly used to verify that the vessel is seaworthy (or in the case of Traveller, spaceworthy). But in actual practice, it's a revenue generator. The inspection itself costs nothing, but if any deficiencies are found, then those have to be corrected before the ship is allowed to leave (no zarpe until the inspection is passed). This creates business for the port's repair yards. So, in Traveller, only ports that have repair capabilities would bother to perform Port State Inspections, with a roll of Law Level or less for the inspection to be performed. Checks of Admin and Engineering to pass. If failed, another check after everything is corrected. It's possible to undergo multiple inspections before they're finally satisfied. A further revenue generator is that the first reinspection is free, but subsequent reinspections will have a fee associated with them— Cr100×Law Level per inspection, perhaps.

Certain governments, known for being flags of convenience, tend to be targeted for port state inspections. In the real world, a Panamanian or Liberian registry ship would be inspected more often in the US than would a British freighter. In Traveller, a Sword Worlds ship would be targeted for inspection more often than a Darrian ship. And free traders would be targeted for inspection more often than Tukera or Oberlindes or Al Morai because they're more likely to fail and so generate revenues for the port's repair yards.

To top things off, it's not uncommon for the flag state to require that at least 50% of all maintenance, by cost, be performed in the flag state. Rack up too many failed Port State Inspections and you could end up paying a fine back in the flag state. Here's how it works in the real world… Let's say that 55% of the maintenance for the year was performed foreign. The flag state would then institute a fine equal to (55% - 50% =) 5% of the total cost of maintenance for the year; the fine equals the excess. In Traveller, it's always a good idea to have your starship's annual overhaul done in the flag state, since except for breakdowns or battle damage that will be the bulk of your maintenance expense and you're less likely to have maintenance and repairs performed foreign. And it might be worth paying a bribe to have foreign repair work done off the books so it's not reported back to the flag state.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

The Regency Sourcebook for TNE has a process of sorts in dealing with cross-border traffic within the powers of the Spinward Marches states. There you must go to a system acts as customs station and get inspected. One must do this as the the penalties are rather severe in the Virus era if you don't check in, as in attacked and destroyed by Quarantine ships on detection.


Can ships show up in any system for Entry Visa or do you have chokepoint systems? From a techie point of view, your ship may be able to jump 6 parsecs into foreign territory (well 5 or less realistically). Still, that could be like real life in the US. Avoid the checkpoints and government assistance where ID is required. An illegal traveller can get around

What are the planned imposed penalties if a group does not check in at approved system and is found inside the borders later on? Persons executed? Ship impounded? Adventures just because the papers are not in order...he..he..he..

 

[Whipsnade]

Using a real-world model...

Great information Doyle, especially the practique/zarpe system, thank you for taking the time to post it all. Looking over that system, plus the Port/Flag State inspection system, and adding Nathan's idea about choke/check point systems, I can see how a wily GM could really throw a wrench into his players' plans...


Imagine an interstellar state containing dozens of systems. While not exactly xenophobic, it is definitely insular. To that end, it limits who can conduct both cross-border and internal trade by limiting the number of systems in which foreign vessels can first arrive - Nathan's choke/check points and trade visas - and by limiting the number of foreign vessels which can travel within it's borders - the practique/zarpe and inspection systems you mentioned.

Cap'n Blackie and the gang aboard the Running Boil, for example, aren't going to be able to jump over the border willy-nilly with a load of neck sleeves to sell and, once over the border, Cap'n Blackie & Company aren't going to jump about traveling where they want spreading their unique version of love and sunshine.

Instead, a foreign ship has to first enter our insular interstellar state at a handful of designated systems with a trade visa issued by consuls on a handful of foreign worlds. Then, if the foreign ship wants to continue to travel/trade "inward", it must undergo a Port State inspection and receive a zarpe limited to the specific system it wants to visit next. Any further jumps from there require another inspection and another system-specific zarpe.

So, our insular interstellar state isn't flatly prohibiting foreign ships from traveling within it's borders but it sure isn't making it easy for foreign ships to do so. Cross border and internal trade are going to be carried only by those companies and ships the state directly or indirectly controls.

Imperial Spain had a roughly similar system with regards to it's worldwide colonies. Trade, internal or cross border, could only be carried by or conducted with those vessels licensed by the Casa de Contratacion. While enforcement of that requirement varied from port to port and across time, you weren't as a Dutch, English, Portuguese, French, or whatever vessel going to routinely land or pick up goods at Manila, Acapulco, Cartagena, or Lima without a license or without corrupting/bribing the local officials.

The problems Spain's Casa de Contratacion system faced are going to mirrored by our insular interstellar state. There are going to be backwater systems where officials will look the other way while foreign starships without the necessary documents conduct business. Patrols will be looking for such vessels, but patrols cannot be everywhere and patrol commanders can be corrupted too.

Such trade will be dangerous for those foreign vessels too. A system that was welcoming last month may have a new governor this month. A visiting potentate may mean a previously supple officialdom is now conducting a crack down. That easily bribed patrol commander may have been replaced by a hard ass eager to make a name for himself.

While the cat's away the mice definitely do play. Smart mice remember that the cat always comes back, however.

The information you, Nathan, and Marchand were kind enough to share with us can easily be used by canny GMs to create years of adventures.

Thanks again to you all.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Excellent game-related synopsis, Whipsnade! And, thank you, Doyle and Nathan for some great info!

IMTU, I have one polity that is actually a little stricter than Whipsnade proposes. You are limited to very specific worlds within that main - there is NO trade with external ships outside of those planets. And, there is no travel outside the starport areas on even those worlds. Wandering about outside those systems/travel routes/starports will get you attention from the "Enforcers of the Path".

Another example of the sort of restrictions being talked about - though not related to ships - was the system the East Germans had if you wanted to travel the land corridors from West Germany to West Berlin. Once you had your approval, you entered at the first checkpoint (at the border). Then you were warned to carefully obey the speed limit, and cleared to proceed to the next checkpoint. At which point, they hacked the clock and called the next checkpoint with your expected arrival window. If you didn't make that window, they were coming looking for you and would be very unpleasant about it. If you made it early, they wrote you a ticket for speeding.

If you add into your Traveller polity a restrictive "jump window" to moving from one system to the next, a courier could jump ahead, with all the ship particulars and manifests, etc. They then pass that off to the customs guys at your next port-of-call. (That's thought to be how it works in that polity IMTU.)

 

[Marchand]

Thanks all for greatly expanding my perspective on this. We've almost got a Special Supplement worth of material here!

The bureaucratic requirements others have discussed here help underline the importance of the old Traveller idea of the Starport on the Mainworld - it (might be) the only place in a system where a ship can fulfil these requirements, which are a necessity if you want to interact with the locals.

An example of one of the funny things I find with Traveller - the more I think about it, the more sense it seems to make.

 

[Marchand]

Another real-world complication is the Port State Inspection and Flag State Inspection. The Flag State Inspection is performed at by the ship's flag state (where it's registered) as a condition of maintaining the registry. The purpose is to make sure that all registered vessels are seaworthy (spaceworthy in Traveller) and meet all safety requirements.

The Port State Inspection is performed only in foreign ports of call... So, in Traveller, only ports that have repair capabilities would bother to perform Port State Inspections, with a roll of Law Level or less for the inspection to be performed. Checks of Admin and Engineering to pass. If failed, another check after everything is corrected. It's possible to undergo multiple inspections before they're finally satisfied. A further revenue generator is that the first reinspection is free, but subsequent reinspections will have a fee associated with them— Cr100×Law Level per inspection, perhaps.

To top things off, it's not uncommon for the flag state to require that at least 50% of all maintenance, by cost, be performed in the flag state. Rack up too many failed Port State Inspections and you could end up paying a fine back in the flag state. Here's how it works in the real world… Let's say that 55% of the maintenance for the year was performed foreign. The flag state would then institute a fine equal to (55% - 50% =) 5% of the total cost of maintenance for the year; the fine equals the excess. In Traveller, it's always a good idea to have your starship's annual overhaul done in the flag state, since except for breakdowns or battle damage that will be the bulk of your maintenance expense and you're less likely to have maintenance and repairs performed foreign. And it might be worth paying a bribe to have foreign repair work done off the books so it's not reported back to the flag state.

This brought to mind the Empress Nichole from Book 7 - "The Empress Nicholle is registered out of Vland, but has not called there in over twenty years." !

And also THANK YOU for this as it addresses one of my issues about CT starship design - this creates an in-game mechanical (sorry!) reason, beyond RAW/GM fiat, for having more than one engineer on big enough ships. Why do you need more than one? Because when we touch down at port we are going to have our J-drive and M-drive looked over - that's you, Tom and Dick - and the reactor checked over - that's your department, Harry. Engineer covering another shipboard function: -1 per week since previous check. If covering gunner: additional -1 per combat encounter since previous check.

I can see how a wily GM could really throw a wrench into his players' plans...

Imagine an interstellar state containing dozens of systems. While not exactly xenophobic, it is definitely insular.

Like the Ral Ranta, say?

 

[Jame]

It strikes me that most Imperial Travellers would not need a visa to visit most Imperial-aligned worlds (same goes for Hivers on Federation worlds and Zhodani on Zho worlds, or Aslan on worlds within their specific clan).

Though in most Vargr states you would, while Solomani would depend on what world they're from.

 

[Whipsnade]

Like the Ral Ranta, say?

Guessed it on your first try.

 

[Reban]

Thanks all for greatly expanding my perspective on this. We've almost got a Special Supplement worth of material here!

Seconded on both counts.

It strikes me that most Imperial Travellers would not need a visa to visit most Imperial-aligned worlds (same goes for Hivers on Federation worlds and Zhodani on Zho worlds, or Aslan on worlds within their specific clan).

MTU is influenced by the European Union's internal free movement rights. IMTU all Imperial Citizens hold an Imperial Passport which entitles them to freedom of movement across the XT line at Starports on Imperial Member Worlds.

I operate a two tier system in my Imperium where there are citizens and subjects. Subjects must obtain Visas where they are required and may even have to obtain an exist visa from their Homeworld.

Now I have much more detail on how the Visa system will work. Thanks.

 

[Whipsnade]

It strikes me that most Imperial Travellers would not need a visa to visit most Imperial-aligned worlds...

That's a very good point and it raises the question of just what being an Imperial client state entails. While I believe that not all client states are alike, I would think that being a client state would put you in the Imperium's (for lack of a better term/example) Schengen Area. When entering the Imperium, ships registered on Collace, for example, would be treated like ships registered within the Imperium while a ship registered on Forine would find itself going through the inspection system Doyle wrote about and perhaps limited to the checkpoint worlds Nathan suggested.

... (same goes for Hivers on Federation worlds and Zhodani on Zho worlds...

Agreed.

... or Aslan on worlds within their specific clan).

World controlled by multiple clans are going to be tricky.

Though in most Vargr states you would...

Because Vargr government and borders change, from a non-Vargr viewpoint, relatively quickly, a ship could very easily find itself holding the wrong paperwork from the wrong people at the wrong time.

... while Solomani would depend on what world they're from.

The explicit mentions from S;10of worlds and/or groups of worlds within the Confederation engaging in trade wars with one another (see Kukulkan) mean that paperwork shenanigans and snafus are going to be more common in the SolCon than in the Imperium.

As for the K'Kree... who do you think was the other polity I had in mind when I wrote about that insular interstellar state?

 

[Nathan Brazil]

The size and politics of the most states during the "Classic" era I think will overall allow for relatively free travel. Papers and documentation, yes most definitely. Entirely prohibited from entry, no. This is not mean you wont be monitored or have totally free movement. If you go with the stereotypes:

The Two Thousand Worlds is most likely the most dangerous place to go to no matter what species you are. You look or smell like a carnivore (or a Hiver) and are found without papers, Killers of Vermin will take care of you for sneaking up on the herd. Even then, Charted Space is a big place for sentients to get lost in. How you get papers from them, that would be a good question.

 

[Limburger59]

Great thread everyone. Thank you!

 

[Marchand]

Sorry to necro, but this entry on a forum for sailors really threw some of the issues raised up-thread into sharp relief...


http://www.oceannavigator.com/January-February-2003/Dont-leave-without-customs-clearance/

 

[Jame]

WHIPSNADE says: with Aslan on worlds within their specific clan, worlds controlled by multiple clans are going to be tricky.

Yes, though I'd imagine that in many - not all or even most, mind - such places either they'd be going to their clan's spaceport or would be landing at the primary starport and being picked up or arranging their own transport if their clan does not control local starports.

Though in most such places where the clan does not control a starport, they would usually have right-of-transit from at least one port to their local territory, save when the clan(s) which control the port is trying to take the other clan's territory away. I do admit that I would expect most clans on a balkanized world to have their own port, even if it's an "E plus" where you have a bare strip of land with a beacon, a port control, a few guards and a handful of outbuildings. (To me, it's the presence of fuel and maintenance, however bare-bones, that differentiate between E and D.)