Customs

[far-trader]

Originally posted by Lochlaber:
I do have a question here though. How do you file a flight plan with the destination if the fastest way to communicate from the point of launch to the target destination is to carry it with you? Second even if you could file a flight plan ahead of time, how do you arrive on time when Jump mechanics specify 168 hours +/- 10%.

Same way (in MTU at least) that you know (as per your SOP in 2 below) when to go to jump precipitation stations. It's not an unknown. In MTU the jump calculation must be precise, both in time and the other three dimensions. The only way you don't come out exactly where and when you should it's because something went badly wrong (misjump). The "random" emergent time and location are simple metagame functions to cover the fact that the two ends of a jump are not exactly 1 parsec multiples apart.*

* This also means fleet jumps are trivial in MTU, all it takes is the computers talking to each other and a decision made on when everyone should jump.

Unless you keep your crews on about a 34hour station watch for jump precipitation

"you heartless bastard"

So in MTU you can file a flight plan, well in advance and as long as you stick to your scheduled jump insertion you'll not only be expected but they'll know precisely where and when to expect you. Of course the facilities to file such a specific flight plan will only be found on some links. Such as XBoat routes. Or you could file the flight plan forward with another starship outbound to the same destination. It'd be an expected courtesy in many places.

Other differences from MTU and YTU


1. All ships entering a system outside of standard traffic pattern are presumed hostile until identified otherwise. Traffic patterns exist for all mapped systems, even if they aren't enforced everywhere. Nobody is likely to be looking in some backwater system with an E class starport but you can bet the rules are strongly enforced in the subsector capital. All B class or better systems will monitor and enforce the rules, and most C class systems and even some D class systems will too.

2. Many commercial ships and all military ships go to general quarters (action stations, battle stations) right before jump emergence which is a known quantity. A misjump resulting in an early precipitation may catch the crew by surprise, and everybody will get very nervous if the precipitation time comes and passes and you're still in jump-space.

3. If a ship emerges from jump in close proximity to another ship it'll probably be because one of the ships has strayed from the accepted traffic pattern and can be presumed hostile if not in distress. See 1 above. It is only under very rare circumstances that a ship will emerge from jump in close proximity to another ship if everybody is following procedure. Of course in times of war all that goes out the airlock.

The rest is pretty much my take too, with a few small exceptions and one statement I wouldn't touch here with a 10ft network cable. Even saying that almost feels likes too much.

 

[Icosahedron]

I just caught this thread.

I do have a question here though. How do you file a flight plan with the destination if the fastest way to communicate from the point of launch to the target destination is to carry it with you? Second even if you could file a flight plan ahead of time, how do you arrive on time when Jump mechanics specify 168 hours +/- 10%.

Not the way most people think, apparently.

Traffic is moving between systems daily. You arrive in system, take a couple of days to figure out what's on offer and where you are going, send a flight plan message to your destination system by midweek mail carrier and then get some dirtside R&R (or adventure). When you arrive in the new system, the authorities will have had your flight plan on file for several days. Even if you register a change of plan the day before you lift, they will still be expecting you.

IMTU Jump mechanics are subject to some house rules. It is possible you will be a little early or late, but you will still be expected.

This may not work for some hick planet that digs out the red carpet every time a trader comes calling, but it works fine for most of the Empire.

[ August 18, 2006, 02:15 PM: Message edited by: Sigg Oddra ]

 

[princelian]

far-trader posted:

Unless you keep your crews on about a 34hour station watch for jump precipitation

"you heartless bastard"

A Freudian slip, Mr. Burns, if that's your real name. The Solomani secret police will be coming to your door soon, you alien-from-a-world-with-a-34-hour-day, you!!!

 

[far-trader]

<ding dong>

"Odd, I don't have a doorbell?"

<knock knock knock>

"Yeeeeees?"

We have a report of an illegal alien at this address.

"Realllly?"

Yes, we'll have to search the premises.

"Of course, please do come in. Tea?"

...

That was close. Now that "they" are "taken care of"...

All I meant by the 34hour watch was that's the window of jump preciptation, the +/- 10% of the 168hours in jump, approximately. If in YTU (perhaps the OTU) you don't know exactly when you will come out of jump and it could be anytime in that +/- 10% then you need to be on watch for nearly 34hours. Kinda cruel on a ship with just a small crew. Even navy ships would probably need much more crew just for the jump watch, maybe that's the reason behind all those officers on HG ships over 1000tons. Still begs the question how a typical free-trader is supposed to manage.

 

[princelian]

Hmm...all right, I'll accept your explanation, but I'll be watching you for signs of alienness, you can be sure of it.

<quickly hides tail under desk>

 

[Blue Ghost]

So getting back to personal weapons on ships, if your group doesn't have access to a ship and needs to charter one, and said expedition requires your personal fire arms (ACRs or what have you), then how does your party deal with the ship's restrictions?

 

[Black Globe Generator]

Originally posted by Blue Ghost:
So getting back to personal weapons on ships, if your group doesn't have access to a ship and needs to charter one, and said expedition requires your personal fire arms (ACRs or what have you), then how does your party deal with the ship's restrictions?

Ship 'em as freight.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Hmm, okay, but what if you need a ship capable of planetfall on a type X starport? I guess that's what I'm really getting at.

In MTU hijackings weren't all that frequent, nor were they uncommon. It really depended on what part of space one was in; i.e. "bad neighborhoods" tended to breed more piracy and hijackings than say Core, Home, Terra, or other major ports of call.

Afterall, if a group of adventurers had some military hardware in their inventory, but were without a ship, and needed a ship to search for that lost University Researcher on Wilderness Planet - X with fiftyfoot tall psionic/fire-breathing monsters, then accomodations could be made. The ship's captain would think nothing of letting them charter his vessel, Fusion Guns and all, and off they would go.

Now, if that same band of adventurers needed that same ship and were near say the Vargr extents, then said ship's captain might tell them to take a hike and go buy their own vessel, and/or report them, or allow them to charter the vessel via low passage.

I guess it's a judgment call, and hinges on the leniency of the GM and type of adventure being run. I guess if it's cinematic (Hollywoodish) then all good assumptions can be made; i.e. a trusting captain letting trust-worthy, yet heavily armed, band of adventurers come aboard.

On the 100D and 10D limit for law enforcement. Maybe I missed something in the basic books, but I've always been under the impression that an entire system was assumed to be under the local world's jurisdiction, and that it didn't matter whether a vessel was 10 AUs out beyond the solar system's farthest satellite or in close orbit because it was still subject to the law of the planet's government.

I can see exceptions, and the praticalities of enforcing that kind of jurisdiction. A pirate or corsair with a damaged jump drive might speed for the nearest jovian body, gas up, then continue to accelerate outward. How likely would a local police SDB give chase? Would a navy element risk an in system jump to enforce customs and anti-piracy laws? I don't know.

More thoughts?

 

[Lochlaber]

Trade: This is the be all and end all of the Imperium. In space (outside the d10 limit) as long as you do not interfere with trade, i.e. piracy, slaving and/or carrying nukes, you can do and ship whatever you want and the Navy won't stop you or let anybody else stop you (restraint of trade). They will stop you if you are carrying the forbidden cargoes, even if said cargoes are actually legal on Planet A. The Navy and the agents of the Imperial Trade Association, also enforce the transhipment rules that essentially should allow you to land carrying cargo that is illegal on this world, as long as you don't try and sell it here, outside a enclave of course.

Pretty much from the first, the fact was that the Imperial Navy controls all parts of a system outside inhabited planets and/or moons, all of whose authority pretty much ended at atmosphere's edge. A planet only controls it's own space to 10 planetary diamaters. This will include any planetary colonies it might have on other planets in the system but does not include orbital colonies, at least IMTU.

As for nukes and WMD's, IMTU only interdicts military grade nukes and doesn't worry about Biochemical and/or biological weapons. This is because any planet T-6 and above is more than capable of making their own, without needing to import any.

 

[Black Globe Generator]

Originally posted by Blue Ghost:
I guess it's a judgment call, and hinges on the leniency of the GM and type of adventure being run. I guess if it's cinematic (Hollywoodish) then all good assumptions can be made; i.e. a trusting captain letting trust-worthy, yet heavily armed, band of adventurers come aboard.

I would think they would be more likely to find a captain with a certain legal and moral "pliability," let's say, one who's used to avoiding "Imperial entanglements" and has the firepower of his own to prove it.

Sure, your band of happy mercs can drive their GCarrier on board, but it's secured from access until landing, whereupon your squad departs under the watchful eyes of the gunner in the triple-laser turret.

Then there's the matter of the bond posted to the Bank of Goolzstan before the mercs and their weapons are allowed anywhere near the ship...

This seems to be like the dreaded p-word: I think it's a shade too easy to start down a path of inferences that say that mercs and pirates are both "unrealistic" in the TU while forgetting that the mores and customs of the TU are not our own. We tend to think in terms of our own usually Western, mostly modern lifestyles and assume that they are the endpoint of human cultural development. My advice is to think a bit more outside the box - rather than try to explain something in terms of how we do it here-and-now, consider why a culture might develop in which heavily-armed mercenaries would be an expected feature of life in space, and the sorts of shipboard and contract routines might appear as a result.

 

[Plankowner]

BGG, good point.

As a ship owner/operator, I allowed Blade weapons to my passengers and light body armor (Jack and Mesh, but not Cloth) Reflec was allowed, but Lasers were not.

Weapons were NOT required to be shipped as cargo. Passengers could check them into the Ship's Locker via the Chief Steward. Standard X-ray and Chemical sniffing was assumed when the passengers went through customs at the Starport. Body pistols were the only firearm that I allowed to get through the standard customs inspection prior to boarding, but even then, there was a chance of detection.

I used that rule on my character's ships and for NPC run ships.

If the Navy wanted to randomly inspect a ship, planetary verification of the vessel was made and when they docked, they were met without visible weapons. Usually, the IN had light weapons, but a squad of marines just on the other side of the door...

Planetary patrol were NEVER allowed on my ship. Extraterritoriality guarenteed the rights of my Imperial Registered Ship.