On 19/2/21 10:00 pm, Timothy Collinson - timothy.collinson at port.ac.uk
(via tml list) wrote:
>
>
> <snip>
>
> This does make me think maybe I'm too generous with the March
> Harrier's docking slots.  Not that they go anywhere quite as important
> as Terra. 
>
> Do you use rules for that wait time?

Yes - the times are straight out of GURPS Traveller: Far Trader p28.

I've adapted the mods and sods to MGT2 for improving one's place in the
queue (assuming the congestion is waiting for freight handling, not
docking as I mainly use it):

Work the system – successful Admin roll (diff 8) adds +2 to rolls, +4 on
crit. Failed roll no effect, -2 on critfail.

Bribery – pay freight handler crew of 2-6 people “overtime” of Cr25/hr
apiece. Roll vs Streetwise or Persuade, at +1 for each doubling of
bribe. Success gives +4, crit gives +6. Failure means bribe accepted but
no effect, critfail gives -6 /and/reported to starport law enforcement.

Forgery – Electronics (computers) . Success gives +6, fail gives -6.
Critfail gives -6 /and/reported to starport law enforcement.

Act chummy – successful Carouse roll gives +2 on success, +4 on crit. No
effect on fail, -4 on critfail. Needs GM's ok to find right people off
the clock.

IW-era Terra itself is somewhat sui generis, having three massive
highports (cribbed from the planet's writeup in GT: Rim of Fire), in
synchronous orbit at roughly the longitudes of their namesake cities:

Phoenix Orbital - commercial highport, almost always congested. 
Moustache Ltd has offices here.  Collision Collinson has showed up here
as a port pilot.

Cairo Orbital - governmental/diplomatic highport.

Alice Springs Orbital - naval highport.  The TCN frowns on unauthorised
approaches for some reason.

IMTU, Alice Springs Orbital operates continuously as a naval port from
the TCN's founding to at least 1116 Imperial (when either Dulinor or
I-can't-believe-it's-not-Strephon got done in).  In Parental Advisory,
that's a lot more fluid, as the canonical Second and Third Imperia have
been butterflied away by some twerp discovering Teapot.

Kaufman Raumschiffbau (they haven't yet gotten around to changing the
name to reference _star_ships) maintains a free-flying starshipyard
complex at the Terra-Sol L-5 point, where the PCs delivered Digadich and
his lanthanum. The starshipyard complex is technically itself an A-class
port, but is dwarfed by the monstrosities 2 AU away.

>
>
>     Joe: "In other news, water is wet and this is a day ending in y."
>
>
> Hah.
See above.
>
>
>     <snip>
>
>
>
> This also makes me think...
>
> ... maybe the solution to players' lack of interest in trading -
> despite being merchants!! - isn't to attempt to keep track of cargoes
> myself in a helpful sort of way but simply to track time and costs -
> i.e. increasing debt.  Hmmmm, I think I've been missing a trick...
>
> tc
>
It seems to work for me - especially if they suffer actual consequences
for even inadvertent default (such as Das Boot getting impounded at end
of PA chapter 1)

Alex