Playing a character in the Traveller universe comes with certain base understandings, and it seems helpful to be familiar with ...
BASE CONCEPTS
WAYS OF MAKING MONEY AS A TRAAVELLER
General
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Hauling Freight
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Supply Passage
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Surveyor & Scouting
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Bounty Hunting
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Mercenary
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Imperial Contractor
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Corporate Asset
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Privateering
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Physician
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Mechanic
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Smuggling
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Piracy
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ARMS AND ARMOR CONCEPTS
DEEP SPACE CONCEPTS
STARSHIP CONCEPTS
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Streamlined Hulls
A quality or attribute of airships or starcraft that allows for atmospheric flight.
Unstreamlined Hulls
A quality or attribute of starcraft meant for interstellar travel only, and does not support atmospheric flight.
STARPORT CONCEPTS
Starport
An established port that facilitates interstellar trade, associated with a planet and composed (most often) of an orbital highport and a planetary downport. They are categorized by type with Type A being excellent and Type E being frontier, types D and E often do not have an orbital component but a satellite. Such ratings are determined by the Starport Authority (SPA), and more remote starports are classified by the Imperial Interstellar Scout Services (IISS).
- Highport
The orbital or deep space component or a Starport or Spaceport, geosynchronous above its companion downport. Often enable handling of unstreamlined ships and to allow construction/repair of heavy craft in orbit with shuttles to the companion downport or other cities.
- Downport
The planetary surface component of a Starport, below its geosynchronous highport. Includes cargo handling installations, a landing field, control towers, etc.
Spaceport
A specific type of planetary-based highport without an accompanying downport with limited capabilities. It cannot dock or service starships (i.e. only services or can accept shuttles or suborbital craft)
Beltport
A Beltport is the location of the starport in an Asteroid Belt system. In design, it's between a Highport and a Downport. The advantages of this system have led some worlds to convert a small planetary moon or move a medium asteroid into planetary orbit to serve as an orbital belt port.
Tradeport
A Trade port looks like a typical port, but is in a low population system located on a major trade route. There are little cargo and few passengers to or from the world, but the port can potentially handle a large volume of ship traffic.
Farport
A Farport is an orbital complex located in deep space away from the inhabited planets but remains tied to an astronomical body. For example, the port may be in orbit around a fuel source like a Gas Giant or in a solar orbit far from the primary star.
Sub-surfaceport
Sub-surfaceports set into or beneath the surface of a planet or planetoid. This is common on asteroids (e.g. subterranean Belt ports), vacuum worlds, underwater ports on water worlds, and other hostile planets.
Deep Space Station
A deep space station is a starport or port facility located in deep space, outside of any star system. The Deep Space Station serves as a Jump Bridge, allowing ships to travel between two normally inaccessible systems.
Starport Classification and Size[/FONT]
Starports are broken out into different classes to distinguish quality and level of service available.
- Class A __ Excellent quality installation. Refined fuel, annual maintenance / overhaul available. Shipyard capable of both starship and non-starship construction.
- Class B __ Good quality installation. Refined fuel available. Annual maintenance overhaul available. Shipyard capable of constructing non-starships.
- Class C __ Routine quality installation. Only unrefined fuel available. Reasonable repair facilities.
- Class D __ Poor quality installation. Only unrefined fuel available. No repair or shipyard facilities.
- Class E __ Frontier installation. Essentially a bare spot of bedrock with no fuel, facilities, or bases.
- Class X __ No starport. Class X starports are generally indicative of an interdiction. No provision is made for any starship landings which are prohibited.
STARPORT AREAS
Defenses
Depending on starport class, the defensive capabilities of a station. The amount and type of defenses (which can include mounted weapons and batteries or fighter squadrons) can reflect the prominence of the starport as well as the value of the operations / cargo / financial potential within.
Docking Bay
The area of a starport (or a large vessel) where a smaller space-faring craft may land and be stored / serviced.
Engineering Plant
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Fuel Storage
Typically tanks filled with fuel reserves for purchase. Can be refined or unrefined, priced accordingly.
Hangar
The area of a downport where a flying aircraft (airplane, helicopter, hovercraft) may be stored / serviced.
Parkway
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Refueling Facilities
Designated areas fuel for vehicles is dispensed.
Repair Yard
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Runway
The area of a downport where a flying aircraft (airplane, helicopter, hovercraft) may land.
Security & Armory[
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Shipyard
A Shipyard is a facility with the ability to create, service, and/or overhaul starships and spaceships.
Starport Administration
The legal and logistical command center for the starport, run by a Starport Administrator.
Startown
A Startown is an often unplanned accompaniment to interstellar flight operations almost undoubtedly grows up around starflight facilities and infrastructure. Usually just outside the XT line, it's occupied by cheap hotels, grimy taverns, and even less savory places, serving the people who are not quite part of either the local community or the port, but associate with both.
Traveller's Aid Society (TAS) Hostel
The Travellers' Aid Society offers accommodations in every Class A and B starport. TAS hostels are known as safe, reliable places to sleep and rest.
Traveller's Aid Society (TAS) Ticket Kiosk
Works in cooperation with the Trader's Guild handles ticketing for independent merchants.
Traffic Control
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Warehouses & Storage
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STARPORT SERVICES & FACILITIES
Berthing
Berths are where ships land to transfer cargo, passengers, and other sundries that make trade happen. The SPA defines four sizes of ships; 100 tons, 800 tons, 5000 tons, and 20,000 tons, and designs the ports to have a 4-1 ratio between each size. All berths provide a power supply and life support hookups for ship operation while on the surface. At a Downport a berthing spot will be a large, walled open space. Some will offer retractable roofs, often no more than the equivalent of canvas. A few of these berths have no walls, offering only a roof. At the poorest ports, the berthing is simply an open space on the ground. Each berthing spot is connected to the main terminal by a roadway (for the cargo traffic) and a slide-way or grav vehicle transport (for passengers). At a Highport berthing for smaller ships occur in space dock hangers, which can be closed from space for access, while larger ships will attach using external grapples to ensure stable connections. Outside the Highport are orbital berths, where the ship takes up an orbit next to the Highport, or at least in a standard orbit, where cargo and passengers are ferried to and from the ship by small craft. This may occur when traffic unexpected overwhelms the port design capacity.
Brokerage
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Emergency Services
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Fuel
Usually unrefined fuel is available at most ports where the hydrosphere rating is one or above. Where it is not, expect prices to be greatly elevated due to the fuel transportation costs from gas giants, other planets, or ice asteroids. Often on worlds with available water fuel costs may be less at ground facilities than at the orbital ones.
Life Support Capabilities
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Lodging & Entertainment
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Medical Services
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Military & Paramilitary Bases
Starports, being the primary point at which starships interact with a system, are usually the location for additional bases, such as scout bases, naval bases or other military installations, and for shipyards. In those cases, a portion of the port is normally set aside for military services and personnel.
Naval Architect
An office or company to perform ship design. May also be required for any upgrades to ships to ensure the new changes won't cause damage to the ship.
Search and Rescue (SAR) Services
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Security
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Shipbuilding & Overhaul / Repair Facilities
Shipbuilding is often associated with ports, with starships being associated with starports rather than spaceports. Ports with shipbuilding facilities will also have repair and maintenance capabilities, although there is no guarantee on availability, particularly to off-worlders. Jump drive maintenance and repair may or may not be available at a spaceport. Outmoded ships may be improved by refitting; obsolete systems are replaced by newer models. All refitting must be done at an A or B starport, and jump drives may be refitted only at class A starports. Refitting involves the complete removal of an old system and the installation of a new one; for instance, if a power plant is refitted, the entire power plant is removed and a new one put in its place. Refitting takes up shipyard capacity equal to the refitting ship's tonnage. Changes in power plant, maneuver drive, or jump drive are major changes. Full repair may be done at any A or B starport, but jump drive repairs require double cost and time at B starports, and no starport may repair a ship system of higher tech level than the starport's tech level. Repairs require shipyard capacity equal to the ship's tonnage.
Shuttle Services
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Traffic control manages the arriving and departing ships. They are intended to provide safety and smooth operation at the port via communications. Traffic around ports is generally restricted and controlled, and access to the air and space surrounding the port must be requested and granted. Traffic control divides space around the port into zones; An Airspace Zone which extends 20 kilometers around the port. An Orbital Zone which extends from planetary surface to 10 diameters. A transition zone which extends to 100 diameters. And an Advisory Zone that extends to the outer limits of the system, generally around 100AU or orbit 11. Traffic control procedures are of two types. Procedural Control relies on the craft adhering to published procedures using advisories and information from port control. The ship captain and pilot plot their course to their destination with the advice of starport traffic control. Positive Control relies on the port control to positively identify and track all craft and issue specific directives for operation. All course plotting is performed by traffic control and craft pilot are expected to follow the directions. Where the traffic control switches from procedural to positive control depends upon the classification of the port and volume of traffic.
Transportation Terminal
Large ports usually have transportation terminals associated with them tying them into planetary transportation networks. If the terminal is not co-located with the port, there will be shuttle services connecting them. With smaller ports the availability and frequency will be lower. A small port may only offer services during restrict hours. A frontier port may not offer any scheduled services, but ad-hoc and unscheduled services may be available.
Travellers' Aid Society
The Travellers' Aid Society (TAS) is a private organization dedicated to providing housing and transportation to members. TAS facilities are not available at all ports but are common in class A, B, and C ports. Even when TAS facilities are available, the types of amenities vary.
Warehousing
Warehousing facilities permit rental of space to house cargoes while awaiting sale or transfer to an outbound vessel. Storage availability depends upon the starport type and size. Warehousing options in a downport are generally more available and less expensive than a highport; however, highports may offer the relatively cheap option of providing parking and monitoring of wares in orbital space adjacent to the station. Larger ports tend to have larger warehouses and facilities.
COMMERCE AND MERCHANT CONCEPTS
SCOUT CONCEPTS