Hello Alex,

> On 09/03/2020 9:13 AM Alex Goodwin <xxxxxx@multitel.com.au> wrote:
>
>
> On 4/9/20 1:51 am, Timothy Collinson - timothy.collinson at port.ac.uk
> (via tml list) wrote:
> >
> >>     I know in some commercial ports (and other sorts too, but we're
> >>     talking about merchant traffic) on our seas, you can have a wait
> >>     if the port capacity is reached (same for lock/canal passages)
> >>     and one aspect of that follows with one TMLer's definition of
> >>     pilot as 'harbour pilot' basically... if you don't have enough
> >>     harbour pilots to help bring in the bigger vessels (and ships
> >>     crew MUST be supervised by a harbour pilot, then that's another
> >>     reason the port can seem at capacity (same effect, you can just
> >>     treat this as one of the cases of 'port beyond capacity').
> >     I can verify that there where times when my four boats and the
> >     tender had time to loiter at sea before being brought into port
> >     while waiting for the local pilot to guide us in. The trip into
> >     and out of Rosyth, Scotland was a very interesting one.
> >
> >     However, in Timothy's and Alex's AARs the ship's pilot maneuvers
> >     the craft into and out of port including landings and take-offs
> >     from the downport, achieving orbit/deorbiting, and/or
> >     docking/undocking at the highport
> >
> >
> > That's a good point and one I slightly fudge.  Having spent two years
> > on a ship (please, no one search for that phrase in the archives and
> > tell me how many times I've said it.... sorry), I'm familiar with
> > taking on pilots and have a suspicion I've told anecdotes about such
> > here previously.
> >
> > However, unless there was some plot point that required It (hmmmm....)
> > I don't have port pilots as a matter of course, mainly because I would
> > want a pilot PC to have something to do.  This is a bit of a fudge and
> > might be something I would revisit and think about if we were visiting
> > higher tech worlds (perhaps fortunately, our corner of Aramis
> > subsector isn't well stocked with them) but in general I'd say it's
> > much more exciting - even if it's a relatively Routine task - for the
> > pilot (or in a recent session, the Captain) to take the controls and
> > have the possibility of rolling very low.
>
> Da Famous Tom R, Collision, et al
>
> I only had "port congestion requiring pilot" when The Boatload O'
> Lunatics returned to Terra - upon lobbing, they found all three
> highports congested and had to wait for Sublieutenant "Collision"
> Collinson to lob and guide them in.
>
> My players were all expecting the go-fast jet-fuel type of pilot, not
> the harbour kind.
>
> Extratextually, I was keeping my promise to the real-life Collision to
> Tuckerise him, however briefly.  I also didn't want to shunt a PC (Rosa)
> aside.  It worked out that the pilot Collinson (rather than the
> librarian Collinson) gave her a boon on her piloting roll (given the
> sheer amount of traffic, she needed it).
>
> Intratextually, things had backlogged enough that the ports were worried
> about some dropkick merchant pilot doing a) something stupid and/or b) a
> chunk of the AZS' work for them by causing nontrivial damage.
>
Pilots in the maritime setting that I have experienced and watched on the show Disasters At Sea do not take the helm from the helmsman he gives instructions/commands to maneuver the ship.

Tom Rux