On 29Apr2020 1003, Bruce Johnson wrote:
>
>
>> On Apr 28, 2020, at 1:05 AM, Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com
>> <mailto:xxxxxx@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> Which illustrates another feature of the UWP people sometimes forget
>> - it tells us stuff that is useful to your average scout, free
>> trader, or other TAS member. Thus the starport rating talks about
>> repairs, (small) ship building, fuel supplies, and the presence or
>> absence of orbital facilities. It does not discuss containerised
>> loading/unloading, specialised LASH support facilities or anything
>> like that.
>
> Leading to my Rule of Traveller Cargo: Extrapolating Imperial Commerce
> Levels from the rules for a Free Trader is akin to modeling world
> container ship traffic by analyzing cross-Indian ocean dhow traffic.
>
> A particularly fiendish GM could have the players aim for the clearly
> marked big starport, only to get promptly yelled at by Starport
> Control along with a hasty visit by Starport security boats (or even
> local Naval forces) when they try to get into the queue for the *real*
> starships…they’re directed off to the little class D field on the
> other side of the big one. “This is where you LITTLE guys go!"
That would be the one mainly used for light in-system traffic, private
craft, etc. As a result it's customs facilities are set up for dealing
with nobles smuggling undeclared pets and such, and not for freight and
speculative cargo. This means it'll be slow, checking the cargo with
pause every time someone more important goes through (and if it's not,
that more important person might choose to take offense at the freighter
that 'dared' to hold them up), and if it's a slow day the customs
officers will definitely go over everything extra carefully, and as
they're not very familiar with this sort of paperwork every single
irregularity, or apparent irregularity, will result in things grinding
to as halt while it's resolved.

--
Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>