[Starport/Downport] Procedures

[DaveChase]

Should there be a set of general Imperial procedures for approaching a port?
Contacting a port?
Or are there just spacer guidlines for approaching a port?
Or is it assumed that until you visit a port for the first time (or are given reliable information on it) that you have to be told what to do? (Ie is there common traffic control rules and procedures at all ports.)

Are ships required to give destinations (ie their next port of call) to the port before they leave?

Are there fines for not following the port’s procedures?

Are there procedures for picking up passengers and/or dropping off passengers (or other undesirables)?


Dave Chase

 

[hdan]

Comms skill mentions familiarity with such procedures, so I would suspect there are standard Imperial protocols.

For better starports, I imagine it's something along the lines of:

This is <X> space control, please transmit your identification codes
<codes transmitted>
Welcome back, Beautiful Dreamer. Please state the nature of your business
<loading and unloading passengers and cargo. Transmitting manifest>
Docking fees are X per week and fuel is Y per ton. Do you accept these terms?
<Yes>
You are cleared to land on Pad 12.
Tune your navicomp to YYY and activate landing sequence alpha
You have Z blocks of waiting messages; the delivery costs will be charged to your account. The harbor master's representative will contact you after you land.
<Roger than space control. Beautiful Dreamer out.>

On D or worse starports, there is probably no chit-chat. Tune in to the automated beacon and park in any unavailable spot.

Departure is probably similar. Good ports with lots of traffic require clearance and a launch window, enforced by the local system defense patrol. Frontier ports might request warning before you leave so that they can avoid mid-air collisions.

 

[aramis]

Dave: Most of these can't have any real answer, because they are going to vary so widely as to defy any one answer.

Canon (MT, in Ref's Companion) does note that there are established and published com frequencies.

 

[Hemdian]

IIRC some of this was detailed in High Passage magazine.

IMTU I have SPANaR (Starport Authority Navigation Rules) ... pronounced “spanner”. It is a standardised set of laws and procedures governing the navigation of ships, craft, and other spaceborne and airborne vehicles designed to reduce the chance of an accident or collision.

Also IMTU, filing a flight plan is not ‘required’ by law but frequently required by the terms of your insurance policy or the terms of your bank loan.

 

[E.D.Quibell]

J Andrew Keith did a piece for Far Away Magazine (No 1) called the Complete Starport.

Regards,

Ewan

 

[jawillroy]

I think there are a few JTAS articles about this stuff. It depends on the class of port, but a lot hinges on how universal you envisage your Interstellar Government's control is, and how much you leave up to the world in question. The OTU's Starport Authority seems to create a certain uniformity which might make things easier. MTU, the big empire isn't all that big, and while ports are customarily extraterritorial, the world's law level has a big effect on how each port is actually run.

For me, A & B ports involve both a low and high port, fairly busy spaceways and busy starport controls. C ports are pretty rudimentary: they'll give you instructions and alerts, but you're expected to mind your own scanners on the way in. (Figure it - if they won't even give you refined fuel...) D ports, you're lucky if there's a navigation booth to get a chart for the next jump.

I don't imagine most high ports would be too heavily armored; naval installations would be physically separate, at least by a bit. Too many eggs for one basket, otherwise.

I always liked Cherryh's Downbelow Station to describe a really developed high port.

 

[mbrinkhues]

Minimum on any port is a beacon that broadcasts position and approach corridor data on a "well defined frequency". Ports may not enforce the corridor but leaving it means that for the final part of the trip you are "outside the empire" and the local law applies.

Ports with high traffic volumes will give more detailed approach vectors within that corridor to make sure ships do not collide. Some may even require that the final approach is handled by remote control/a port certified guide/tugs to make sure nobody pulls a 9/11 with the highport

Many ports will have a secondary beacon that transmits general data (Weather, port status, availabel docking space etc.) on a repeating "tape". Again using a "well known frequency"

I do not use flight plans since they don't match my view of a rotten/corrupt empire (and make live for pirats more difficult). The shipping lines will post "regular" (within the J-Drive limits) schedules while the tramps will post "Will leave for x on the y or when hold is full" notices

 

[kafka47]

1. Breaking Thrusters from Jump Point exit.
2. Turn on com to traffic control channel.
3. Hail the Starport.
4. Wait for response and approach vector provided.
5. Proceed to rendezvous point - await go ahead from traffic control.
6. Await customs packet or directions to port official.
7. Approach planetary surface, await direction from COACC and/or SDB control centre by hovering.
8. Make planetfall.
9. Await customs control from SPA or Planetary Government.
10. Dispose of all waste through EcotubeTM
11. Have the SPA hookup ship to datanet and port's life support upon confirmation of payment of said service.
12. Payment of fuel. Wait for fuel to be delivered.
13. Meet with Port Official pay one week's of berthing fees.
14. Arrange for a broker to handle cargo fees including passengers.
15. Deliver cargo to destination specified in manifest.
16. Look at the Want Ads to do the whole thing over again on another planet...

Ever get the sense that Traveller is too bureaucratic...it is if you want it to be...most of these actions need not be role played but they should form a background that the Referee can call up any time for each one can involve a measure of peril or entanglement. And, granted this list not complete...for that I would refer to the excellent articles cited above and/or Cargonaut's Starport supplement and maybe Rob Ford's Starports.

Essentially, I think my guiding principle is not to have a rule for everything but an explanation. Insure that your Traveller Universe is consistent with what players know and expect & grow the story organically.

 

[hdan]

I agree with kafka47. I like to know what these procedures would be, but (depending on the group) I would not burden my players with those details unless it was useful for the story.

Something like, "You're on the ground running through your post-landing checklists, seeing off the passengers and getting your cargo manifests ready for the harbor master's cargo inspector when the computer reports an error. The local datanet isn't accepting your banking id codes, and is giving a 'please contact the local banking representative for further instruction' error code. You won't be able to collect payment on your cargo until you get this sorted out...."

But that's only if I was running a merchant campaign, and my players were interested in that level of detail. For a generic "adventure" where the cargo is only there to help pay the bills, I'd probably gloss over even those details and just give the players a bill for the cost of landing, refueling and unloading.