Starports

A thread of 2 messages, 12 May 1992 to 14 May 1992, in the order they were sent.

#4112 Starports

Adam Naylor · 12 May 1992

But first a thankyou to those wonderful people in netland who provided
their versions of combat mods etc

Starports

Who owns them on a planet ????? I read somwhere that the starport
was imperial territory on planets . What do people think ?????

My version is like this .

All starport territory (the land) is owned by the imperial government .
It in turn leases this land out to various coorporations who set up
the starport (for a nominal fee) . Thus in theory the starport is imperial
territory . The security in a starport would be imperial marines I guess
.. Thus somebody could enter a starport and be in an 'exclusion' zone . Of
course there would be extradition (but with a 'undemocratic' government
benign buearacrats could put alot of red tape in the way) .

The problem with this view is that the planets government might be
a tad resentful that their planets starport is run like this .

The situation is a bit like Shanghi in China before the outbreak
of the second world war . The port was run jointly by france, england
and I think america . Most of the city was chinease but the port area
was run by the govts who had troops stationed at the 'border' with
checkpoints and the like . People had to have the neccessary papers
to cross between the areas . When the japanese invaded, these
govts still controlled the exclusion zone.

I would really like to know others views and comments on this
(cause I am going to use em in the next adventure) .

What do you think

Edmund

(er ........yeah........and........well.......michael)

- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Dont you hate having to clean mice ???? they get bits of fluff stuck
in them all the time" Me

#4129 Re: Starports

Traveller Mailing List Mail · 14 May 1992 · reply to #4112

In my universe the "Starport" is part of the contractual obligation
that the imperium has for the planet when it joins the imperium, the
same as the defense of the planet with the fleet, etc.

This means that when a planet jonis the Imperium, Imperial advisors
are sent in to help the local populace build the port, provide standard
reguations (e.g. communication frequencies), and manpower including
security. The natives still have to build it, which is why there is
such a variation between starport types (A-F).

There is nothing stopping the local populace from constructing their
own starport, in fact the Planet builders book includes the secondary
starports when generating the planet. The characters don't routinely
see these other ports because:
1) They are typically of lower class than the main (Imperial) port
2) Locals run them, so people are not certain of the security, etc.
3) The main port is well versed in customs etc, which the lesser ports
may not be
(I'm sure there are more reasons, but it is essentially cyclical, people
use the main port most of the time because people use the main port
frequently)

This (I think) would make a interesting diversion, the PC's have to
use a local port rather than the main one for whatever reason, and
then they have to deal with unknown customs, people trying to
cheat them (i.e. substandard fuel, unnecessary repairs) if they don't
check closely. Bribery, etc.


				-Dan

Dan Corrin, Network Manager, Mechanical Engineering, UWO, London, Ontario
InterNet: [email removed].                                [phone removed]
TML/CZ/FrameUsers/Consim FTP site: sunbane.engrg.uwo.ca (129.100.100.12)