"Riding the Gas"; pilot licensing and certification

[GamingGlen]

I started my newest Traveller "Firefly-esque"* campaign tonight. After the initial get-everyone-together phase of the session, the PCs settled into await repairs on their recently acquired scout ship.

One character has a Ship's Boat, so he asked about getting jobs using it during the wait time. I came up with a phrase "Riding the Gas" for having to do something with one of the two gas giants in the system. But then I could not come up with what that meant, so I asked for ideas from the players. One suggested that it has something to do with some chemical make up of the atmosphere causing some euphoric effect, so I went with that for the time being. But, later I realized I did not really like that idea.
Then it hit me: planking a gas giant. Possible?

Since it involved an underworld agent ("Tejon"), it had to be something not exactly legal, or illegal. Perhaps those caught get fined, and any pilots who assist have their licenses revoked. That brought up another question.

Has there been any rules on spacecraft pilot certification and licensing, in general and for the OTU? How much does a pilot license cost? Does a pilot have to renew it every year?



* set up "The Cluster" in Ley sector, using the Interstellar Trade Cluster world info from Gateway to Destiny, to the year 820. So this means that the worlds were fairly recently annexed into the Imperium ("Joining Day" still causes bar brawls ) and the Psionic Suppression Policy :file_22: is ongoing. The worlds were mostly settled by Terrans from the western hemisphere, so English and Spanish are the mixed dialects, informally known as Spanglic.

 

[aramis]

Actual rules? Not particularly.

implied rules on NPC and PC cards? yes - if you've skill 1+ you probably have a formal qualification.

Freelance Traveller hosts an unofficial article of mine on merchant spacer's tickets.

Riding the Gas might just be unlicensed skimming of the GG, possibly due to native life in the GG's atmosphere. Especially if it's the intelligent Jagd-il-jgd. (Who are canon, but may be misspelled.)

 

[Garyius2003]

One of the giants has a storm region of very long standing. It has become trendy for humans to be dropped off in a suit equipped with a grav belt at the one g level within the storm.

This is because the celebrity and artist Johnny Vertiliteck did it first, and proclaimed the colors and light from the lightening the most perfect aesthetic interplay every seen, but only when seen totally alone, and seen by someone with human eyes.

At first the trips by the very upper reaches of local society were covered by tri-v, but once persons outside the top level started booking trips fines were proposed for the trips because of the risk and possible drain on system resources due to rescues. This was partly in response to an event where Johnny appeared to have turned off his belt, and transmitted a cryptic set of verse regarding merging with the greatness.

Fortunately, only two system defense boats have been assigned to the giant, so only one is usually over the storm area, which is the size of a normal planet. On the other hand, it is there, and the fines are ruinous.

I based this on BASE jumping in US National Parks. Anyone want to flesh this out further/better?

 

[BytePro]

My first thought was a lot more mundane - 'Riding the Gas' simply sounds like slang for ferrying fuel (ala strap on tanks) to me... perhaps inherently dangerous especially when going between orbit and dirtside. So not glamorous or illegal, but not an everyday job for just anyone.

 

[samuelvss]

My first thought was a lot more mundane - 'Riding the Gas' simply sounds like slang for ferrying fuel (ala strap on tanks) to me... perhaps inherently dangerous especially when going between orbit and dirtside. So not glamorous or illegal, but not an everyday job for just anyone.

Anything can be illegal with sufficient regulation and insufficient attention to safety or others' rights.

Permit fees for commercial scooping of fuel make it uneconomical for small operators, unless they do so unpermitted; there are enough of these, that enfocement is spotty, and a bribe can go far to learn where the targetted enforcement is going to be for the next 24 hours.

 

[BytePro]

Anything can be illegal with sufficient regulation and insufficient attention to safety or others' rights.

:rofl: Quite True!

Negligence, from milking tight margins, for instance, potentially leading to dropping a tanker of fuel from orbit, would probably classify as illegal.

I should have written 'inherently' glamorous or illegal...

 

[Spinward Scout]

Has there been any rules on spacecraft pilot certification and licensing, in general and for the OTU? How much does a pilot license cost? Does a pilot have to renew it every year?

GURPS Far Trader pgs. 82-85 has a list of licenses, but I don't think it has the detail you're looking for. Of course, that's not OTU.

 

[GamingGlen]

GURPS Far Trader pgs. 82-85 has a list of licenses, but I don't think it has the detail you're looking for. Of course, that's not OTU.

Thanks, that is one of the few GT books I do have. Bah on the hindbound must-be-OTU strictness, too. It's my game.


Thanks to everyone else for the suggestions.

I do like the artist version, which could be used for every little flimsy excuse why something is: artistic expression.

But for that "Riding the Gas" phrase, I think I shall use it for the mundane skimming of gas giants activity; it just might have had an extra or hidden meaning in that circumstance, especially since I want compile a list of English and Spanish phrases for flavor for "The Cluster".

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

here is a suggestion:

the gas giant, and the mineral/gas skimming rights for it, are the sole property of <insert suitable megacorp>. officially, no one else is allowed to skim off the giant, but in practice it's very hard to stop a free trader form skimming and then jumping away.

however, it's somewhat more easier to trace the illegal fuel skimming if they try to take It to the starport and flog it to undercut the corps monopoly. since they control the only supply of fuel, anybody who suddenly has more fuel than before that didn't buy it form them must have got it illegally.

thus, any black market for fuel is based mostly on hacking the corps sales records and entering new sales to cover the illegal sales. your PC's contact, "Tejon", is part of this network, buying the skimmed fuel off the PC's at some low price, then selling it on to traders for slightly less then the corp charges, while paying a hacker to create covering paperwork for the whole thing.