Random Spaceports
Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 9:29 pm
It’s the travel season, so I’m going to throw this one out to the boards...and hope you all have a safe and happy holiday, regardless of whether you’re going to be traveling, or staying home for the holidays.
Suggestions and corrections are welcome.
Random-Roll Spaceports
“We’ve been in space for over three millenia but it still heartens me when I go to the rocketport to see children on the lands around it, still watching the ships come and go, and attaching dreams to them. It tells me we haven’t become jaded to being starwalkers, and that we still possess a sense of wonder about space travel.”
“Just another E-class spaceport with the same standard-reg dock and load facilities, same standard-reg bored staffers, same standard-reg accommodations that haven’t been repainted in a century, same standard-reg gamblers and hookers in the station so-called entertainment sector. Same spaceport I’ve seen a dozen times already up and down the Arm. All that’s changed is the name and the species running them. I sometimes wonder if it really is just the same spaceport, only they pack it up after I leave, zip ahead of me in a faster freighter, and set it up before I land again.”
“---I KNOW security concerns have gone up since the last attack, but is it REALLY necessary for us all to have to strip naked, submit to a full scan and search, and be sealed in individual biopods before being loaded onto the ship? I’m a paying passenger, not livestock! Unless there’s something you’re not telling us?”
<“Valhallaport; it’s our ticket off this damn mudball! If we can get in, there’s no telling where we can go, you and I! Ship out for the Coreworlds, or out to the untamed Rim! We’re going places, and it all starts over through those gates if you’re willing to join me!”>
As much interstellar traffic moves through planetary spaceports as through space stations. Though space stations are the preferred venues for receiving spacecraft to a planet, cheap interstellar travel and antigravity systems make planetary landings more readily possible and easier. As a result, spaceports can pop up on planetary surfaces, greatly facilitating the movement of passengers(including adventurers) and cargo directly to exotic planets. Spaceports are the great crossroads of interstellar travel, the interface between a journey and a destination, a stepping-off point or a fresh beginning, the point of farewell or first hello, oasises of standardized civilization or mixing pots of the local color. They can be a culture’s doorway to vast possibilities and great adventures, or can be merely anther bus stop on a cosmic thoroughfare. In times of crisis, they can be enclaves under siege, or points of escape, and they can become subjects of great contention between the organizations that run them and the local laws of the land.
The following charts are for formally-recognized planetary spaceports meant for repeated and regular use(anybody can land on a rough field, if they have the right ship).
The following are some general tables for generating random spaceports.
a) Sponsorship:
“Sure, the spaceport’s on Zemian soil, but Naruni runs the station, and nothing goes offworld or comes onworld without Naruni knowing about it. The Zemian government would LOVE to take over the spaceport and run it themselves because Naruni’s given them a lot of cause to regret that loophole-cheesed trade treaty they signed a decade back, but nothing to violate the letter of the treaty. So the local gov’s got to sit back and respect the extraterritorial clauses, however grudgingly, and Naruni can do whatever they want inside the bounds of the starport.”
Who operates the spaceport?
01-15% Private---The port is run by an individual or family who can, on paper, deny access to anybody they specify.
16-25% Corporate---The spaceport is run by a local corporation for their own purposes. in general, they can set strict terms for anybody not associated with them, but wanting to use the facilities, or deny them outright. At least on paper, however, most corporations are obliged to obey certain laws pertaining to the operation of spaceports, and must open their use to government vessels and ships in distress. In practice, however...+10% to Security
26-40% Offworld Corporation---A nonnative corporation runs the spaceport, either for the profit of running a transport hub, or as a on-planet headquarters for their interests in the local area. +15% to Security
41-65% Municipal---The spaceport is run by the local government, but typically through subcontractors handling various aspects of the spaceport’s operation. +15% to Businesses.
66-90% Government---The dominant government in the region runs the spaceport directly. The spaceport can thus operate in an emergency as a government facility or military base. +15% to Security. +10% to Sensors
91-00% Off-World Government---A government body other than that holding local sovereignty runs the spaceport. Under such circumstances, the spaceport typically gets the perk of Extraterritoriality, in which the premises of the spaceport effectively count as a diplomatic enclave, exempt from the laws of the land outside its perimeter. +20% to Security
b) Type:
“We’re going out via the foundry port. Why? Because the authorities are going to be watching the passenger hubs for you. Hopefully they won’t be guarding the fac-outlets, because it’s all automata and drone ships. And the foundries load the metals HOT; less chance of us warm-bodies being picked up by thermal scanners against all that background glare. Sure, it’s going to be rough riding out in a slag-carrier, but it beats the alternative.”
What is the primary purpose of the spaceport?
01-20% Passenger--The spaceport is run exclusively for passenger service. +15% to Accommodations, +15% to Emergency Services.
21-50% Commercial---The spaceport handles cargo primarily. +10% to Accommodations, +5% to Security.
51-75% Industrial---The spaceport serves heavy industry and deals with cargoes too massive or dangerous to be accommodated by standard cargo-handling facilities. -20% to Accommodations, +10% to Containment.
76-00% General Aerospace---The grounds of the facility are open to everybody, provided they obey the rules and don’t endanger others. The responsibility of any special facilities for handling spacecraft is up to the individual service bay operators and leasers. +15% to Repair Facilities
c) Size:
“Time was, this place was covered with starships, a forest, as far as the eye could see, of spears reaching to pierce the heavens.”
How many vessels can the spaceport accommodate in terms of docking terminals and hangar space?
01-15% Tiny---The spaceport has facilities for handling at best 1d6 ships at a time. Many private and rural spaceports, especially on the frontier, are of this size, typically as sub-fields to larger colonial beachheads.
16-30% Small---The facility can handle 5d6 ships at a given time
31-65% Modest---Rather larger, with a capacity of accommodating 1d6x10 ships of various sizes
66-80% Extensive--- 3d6x10 ships can be served by this spaceport
81-95% Massive--- The spaceport can juggle and dock 6d6x10 vessels of various sizes
96-00% Sprawling---- Something on the scale of Center, with a capacity of handling numbers of ships in the high triple-digits(500 or more). Spaceports of this capacity are almost certainly major trade or service hubs.
d) Vessel Restrictions:
“We do not allow contragravity vessels within seven -raad- of our planetary gravity well. You’ll just have to take your shuttle in the rest of the way. Don’t have a shuttle? We can send one your way; there will be a small fee for ferrying. You don’t want to pay? Well, you’ll just have to walk-”
What kind of spacecraft does the spaceport allow? Some planets refuse to allow starships to land directly on them.
01-10% Tram-Port---The spaceport doesn’t allow others’ spacecraft to land at its surface facility; outsiders have to park in orbit or at a spaceplatform, and spaceport-run ferries carry passengers and cargo to and from the spaceport. Only specially-app roved vessels and parties are the exception to this.
11-50% Shuttleport---The spaceport only receives short range transatmospheric shuttles from arriving ships.
51-00% Open Port---Everything that can fly(and land) is allowed.
e) Location:
“Having the spaceport out several hundred miles away in the middle of the great salt basin? That was good planning. Not only was the noise and fumes and radiation kept way out there away from things, but when that un-scanned shipload of carnivorous squigs landed and broke quarantine, those little monsters barely got ten miles out of the ‘port when they all desiccated to death.”
How close is the spaceport to a major center of habitation or other facility(for that particular planet)?
01-20% Isolated Location---The spaceport is located at a considerable distance from the nearest communities. This can be in the middle of a desert, on a remote island, on a separate floater platform, or high atop a mountain. This can make getting into or out of the spaceport no easy matter, especially if one is trying not to be seen doing so.
21-85%Rural Region---The spaceport is in the middle of a sparsely-populated area, with perhaps a small community within 20 miles or less. This sort of location is the most likely to sport a spring-up support community nearby catering to the needs of the spaceport. +15% to Businesses.
86-00% Urban Zone---The spaceport is built right next to, or in the middle of, a heavily populated area. PhaseWorld’s Center is a perfect example of this. +20% to Containment, +20% to Traffic Control.
f) Hangar Facilities:
“You wanna get under cover as soon as you can. Your shiny starship might be able to cross sectors of galactic space, and handle battle-strikes on its shields, but a genuine full-bore Keskin sandstorm will take the landing gear out from under it if you don’t get that thing tucked away soonest.”
Hangar facilities protect ships from both the elements and criminal activity. They can also provide privacy for those using them.
01-15% None; the spaceport is essentially an open field with hardened landing platforms exposed to the elements.
16-30% Basic---The spaceport provides basic weather covers, equivalent to shacks or tents, for spacecraft to be sheltered in.
31-70% Full Service----Hangars are more solidly built, and include adjacent space for workshops, warehousing, and even rental office space.
71-85% Fortified---Spacecraft can be sheltered in fortified revetments. Individual bays can be locked up and sealed like bunkers.
86-00% Deluxe---Individual hangar bays complete with climate control, fire control, individual security, and even gravitic plating to float ships for easier maintenance.
g) Repair Facilities:
“What do you mean you don’t stock Cetava Cee-Thirty Eight Impellor Initiators?! How can you NOT have Cetava Thirty-Eights?! They’re only the most popular and important engine components in the Furul Cloud! Civilization as we know it couldn’t exist without them! What do you mean, you barbarians have never heard of Furul Cloud?!”
What’s available to repair and service vessels in need of a little work?
01-05% None ----The ships’ engineers are wholly responsible for keeping the ships running.
06-10% Jack of All Trades Mechanic---The spaceport has a single or relative handful of generalist mechanics and technicians who double as spaceship mechanics, in addition to maintaining the spaceport. They will have a small stock of the most common and readily broken parts available, or possibly a few junked spacecraft on hand they can cannibalize for parts.
11-25% Fair----The spaceport has several servicing agreements with local companies for repairing the fleet, but extensive or exotic repairs may be beyond their capabilities, or take a prohibitive time to complete.
26-60% Good----The spaceport has a service/repair contract with a reputable company paid extra for speedy service, has its own small facility for ship repair, and has a stock of replacement parts and components(engines, computers, etc.,) on hand.
61-90% Excellent----The spaceport has its own repair yard and staff of dedicated engineers. If necessary, it can fly out a salvage/repair crew to a disabled ship and repair it onsite. Quality of work is excellent, and turnaround is quick.
91-00% Extensive----Effectively has its own shipyards and facilities to repair and virtually rebuild ships. Technicians are top of the profession and there are damn few things about ships they can’t fix.
h) Containment:
“See the red-designated areas? You don’t want to be in one of those zones when the launch alerts sound. That’s where the blast exhaust from the shuttles gets channeled. We’re talking live nuclear plasma. You get caught in a wash of that stuff, there’s going to be NOTHING left of you to identify, let alone save for a funeral.”
Spacecraft are potential dangers at the best of times; leaking mechanical fluids, energetic propulsion and power systems, and the threat of exotic alien organisms carried aboard arriving starships make spaceports hazard zones. Many spaceports incorporate passive containment measures to isolate spacecraft and make containing potential hazards easier.
01-10% None. Anything coming off a spacecraft can fall where it may, and contaminants are released to the open air, to go where any winds may blow them.
11- 25% Basic---These would be equivalent to raised berms around the landing areas and drain systems leading to sumps, where sewage and contaminants can be trapped(hopefully for later cleanup). Ships may be subjected to basic biocide spraying and decon, during perfunctory examination of areas such as landing gear wells and airlocks.
26-70% Hazmat---Incoming ships are greeted by a full hazmat team that hoses down any hot spots and checks for leaks. Obvious toxic waste spills are reported and cleaned up as soon as possible. Ships are given a thoroughgoing over and decontamination. Hangars are well-drained and have both liquid and air filtration systems to contain or dilute spills, and fire control systems that can double as containment measures.
71-95% Airtight---The spaceport is VERY cautious when it comes to containment issues, and all incoming spacecraft are intensively scanned, in addition to any security checks. Passengers and cargo are not allowed off until the ship is cleared, and then they will be scanned and potentially even quarantined for a time. Similar measures are conducted when flights are departing(though they may be less stringent). Vessels failing the scans, or suspected of posing a danger, may immediately be sealed and isolated by various means, including hull cocoons, forcefield barriers, temporal stasis, and the like.
96-00% Total Lockdown---The spaceport is compartmentalized with auto-deploy barriers around all sections and concourses. Furthermore, if necessary, the entire facility can be sealed up under a giant dome or forcefield, preventing anything from getting out or in.
i) Emergency Services:
“Frankly I’d rather deal with a super-bulk freighter with an out-gassing cargo of unstable rapid-volatizing thermal-chem that could turn the atmosphere of a planetary quarter hemisphere into a giant fuel-air explosive than one Lurgess personal transport with leaky enviro-seals. Exo-plagues are just plain FRIGHTENING.”
In the event of a crisis with a spacecraft, what active facilities and measures are available to respond to the situation?
01-05% None. The crew is on their own when it comes to rescue, and the best that the ground can hope for is that the fires burn out quickly and that the wind is blowing in the right direction.
06-25% WreckWagon---The spaceport maintains a single(or handful of) general purpose firefighting and rescue vehicle and a small team trained in general response. The best that one can hope for is paramedic-level medical training.
26-55% Emergency Teams---The spaceport has on duty a small task force of specialized vehicles and specially-trained emergency rescue personnel. Onsite medical treatment is equivalent to a good aid station or small clinic. Anything more severe will have to be transferred to a community hospital or other facility(which could be light years away).
56-80% Rescue Ships--- Full complement of rescue vehicles and spaceport emergency services can scramble their own near-space/transatmospheric rescue shuttles to intercept ships before they crash, or search for them if they go off course.
81-00% Full Alert Force and Hospital---The spaceport has a full array of emergency equipment and its own fully-staffed onsite medical center for immediately handling accident victims and handling medical quarantine. This includes exotic environ pods for housing alien life forms.
j) Security:
“Okay, I want all of you to be on the lookout for this fellow...and this female...and this child...or this female. Yeah, and they’re all the same being. We’re supposedly be on the lookout for a shapeshifter, with all the headaches that’s going to cause all of us.”
Security serves a twofold purpose; keep threats OUT of the spaceport, and keep potential threats contained INSIDE the spaceport. These threats can include dangerous alien organisms(on either side of the fence), criminal elements, terrorists, and ship-jumpers. Searching for contraband is another duty of spaceport security.
01-05% None. The spaceport is entirely reliant on the well-meaning nature of visitors, any passive containment measures, and possibly the location to keep trouble down.
06-35% Basic---Fence and light patrols, and a basic security gate and guards to keep an eye out for obvious trouble. New arrivals will be greeted with a cursory scan and inspection by unarmed workers, with armed security nearby. Vital areas of the spaceport will have lockable reinforced doors and windows, and main concourses will be surveilled remotely.
36-65%Heavy Security---The perimeter has several layers of fencing and monitoring. Points of access have security scanners and sealable doors or gates, and the guards all carry personal scanners and sidearms. Important areas of the spaceport will be housed in fortified bunkers, and most access ways and general areas will be under electronic surveillance. Also possesses a ‘flying squad’ equal to a good police SWAT team to respond to serious problems.
66-90% Boarding Team---Same as for Heavy Security, but will have more security vehicles and spaceport security also maintains short range shuttles for intercepting spacecraft before they land and scanning them.
95-00% Maximum Force---Spaceport security is essentially an onsite army with the ability to establish a heavily armed and active security perimeter around the spaceport, with armored vehicles, aircraft, power armor, and fortified positions both inside and outside the spaceport buildings. New arrivals are deep-scanned before they even land, and subjected to full-decon.
k) Businesses:
“I’m working my way up the Arm picking up what I need wherever I stop over, and getting my shopping for the year done along the way. You’d be AMAZED at what you can get duty-free at some spaceports.”
Like a spacestation’s Independent Business category, spaceports attract businesses, trading in everything from general cargo brokerages and retail, to more specialized services such as spacesuit sales.
01-05% None. The spaceport doesn’t tolerate or cannot support independent businesses on its premises. Any concessions are owned and managed directly by the same agency running the spaceport, so services and selection tend to be limited.
06- 50% Small Businesses---The spaceport has space for a dozen or so locally-owned businesses.
51-75% Trading Post---The spaceport plays host to several dozen local and offworld business concerns, as well as open stalls rentable by incoming ships to trade directly with the locals.
76-90% Shopping Mall---Planned-out complex with space for a hundred or more various small businesses and outlets, providing a good cross-section of goods and services.
91-00% Grand Bazaar---The spaceport is effectively a major marketplace for the region and traders and businesses come and go freely hawking their goods and services.
l) Accommodations:
“Wow...to think I was booked for a coffin-hotel before I got bumped to a later flight. Look at these digs! And all paid for by the spaceline! I gotta get bumped more often!”
What facilities are in the spaceport are there for extended stays or layovers? Otherwise, passengers might have to venture outside the ‘port to look for lodgings.
01-10% None---In event of canceled flights, passengers are going to have to sleep on the floors of the terminals.
11-35% Basic---The spaceport maintains a number of bare-minimum accommodations for layovers; these consist of a place to sleep(’capsule-hotels’ are a common model), with luggage stowage, communal hygiene facilities, and a few general entertainment and nutritional venues.
36-85% Modest---The facilities are the equivalent of the average roadside travel motel; room, hygiene facilities, light entertainment, and access to local food vendors or basic nutrition.
86-00% Luxurious---The spaceport has a first-class hotel or accommodation center attached to it for passengers. The facilities are nice enough that they could be an attraction unto themselves.
m) Sensors:
“Spaceguard, this is Accelion Station Tower Actual, we have an unannounced boggie dropping out of Jump in the middle of the Pehal approach lane seventy light seconds out. Boggie is not responding to hails. repeat NOT responding to hails. Can you confirm and intercept?”
How well and how far away can the spaceport detect traffic?
Like modern airports, most spaceports, especially in more developed star systems, rely on active TRANSPONDER systems to identify and track spacecraft, and depend on other agencies such as the local military or spacewatch to track and inform them of other threats, such as ‘dark’(non-transmitting) ships and space junk that might enter the spacelanes. Only about 30% of spaceports will have their own military-grade sensor systems that can pick up on other matter in their area of operations.
Spaceports in less-developed regions of civilized space, however, if they have the backing and resources, will have much better developed sensor systems, as they are often THE primary skywatch for a planet.
01-05% None. The first warning the spaceport is likely to get of incoming is when the spacecraft buzz the field.
06-15% Basic/Low Orbit----The spaceport has sensor systems equivalent to a modern day in-atmo DEW system, with radars reaching out 100-400 miles into high atmosphere and low orbit. Anything further out needs to announce its approach.
16-60% HighGuard---Sensors can see out to 50,000 miles with accuracy.
61-90% Advanced---Sensors can see out to a light year away
91-00%Omniscient---The spaceport can tap into a network of orbital early warning satellites that can track FTL activity up to 4 light years away, and gravitic drives up to 0.5 light years away.
n) Traffic Control:
“Stregliner Three-Zero-Six, this is Phylkon Tower Actual. You have deviated pont-oh-seven degrees off your approved course. This is the third such violation of yours within the last eight standard minutes. Do you wish to register an emergency? If you do not register an emergency or continue to deviate from approved course, you leave us no options but to take direct control of your ship-”
What facilities does the spaceport have for managing local air traffic, guiding ships in, and handling scheduling?
01-05% None---The spaceport is wholly reliant on the skills and sensors of ships to guide themselves in and avoid collisions.
06-20% Monitor Beacons---The spaceport relies on automated beacons to provide guidance for ships. These systems are slightly more interactive than passive beacon systems, and may use such methods as beam-riding to designate safe approach lanes to incoming spacecraft, and may automatically alert authorities if a spacecraft fails to follow directions.
21-75% Control Tower---The spaceport maintains a fully-staffed control tower that monitors flights and provides direction. Failure to comply will result in local security and military forces being alerted to the trouble.
76-95% Pilots---The spaceport uses a combination of a central monitoring office and pilots who fly out to board incoming vessels and take command to bring the ships in.
96-00% Active Measures---The spaceport has an extensive array of active measures for dealing with traffic, including robot tug drones, remote direct control hacking of ships’ control systems, forcefield projectors, tractor fields, and gravitic folds.
o) (Optional) Traffic Levels:
“Sorry, ma’am, but traffic’s stacked in a holding pattern with a five hour delay minimum before we can land. All on account of the fertility festival. No, I CAN’T let you open the airlock and skydive! Customs would be all over me like ugly on a Splug!”
How busy is the spaceport at any given time?
01-10% Deserted---The spaceport hardly sees a ship or two a month, let alone a day.
11-40% Regular--- Roughly 1d6x10% of the ‘port’s facilities are in present use, and there’s 1d6 starships coming or going every workday period.
41-70% Busy----The spaceport’s facilities are at 75-80% capacity at any given time, and there’s a ship arriving or departing every hour.
71-95% Bustling----The spaceport always has all its slips and docks occupied, and regularly scheduled flights are arriving and departing at 1d6 every HOUR.
96-00% Swarming---At any given time the spaceport has better than 125% of its docking/servicing capacity moving about. Ships that cannot dock are shunted to parking orbits or landed in the open. A good real life example of this would be Gander, Newfoundland, during the 2001 9/11 lockdown of air traffic
p) (Optional)Special Features:
“Zetti-port’s the first and best preserved of the original way-stations on the ancient Maldee High Road. Through the Door there, there’s a succession of ten more cities all linked by their own Doors. You can fly or tram through the Doors, but popular belief is that it’s best walked. Most folks come here to gain access to the worlds opened onto by the Doors, and the Maldee seemed to like nice planets, though we still haven’t figured out what galaxy or even universe each planet’s in, but some folks come as pilgrims, wanting to walk in the path of the Ancients as a religious experience, just as the Maldee were said to have done, millennia ago.”
What special features does the spaceport have that set it apart from others?
01-20% Spacelane---The spaceport is located somewhere to be able to take advantage of a much-trafficked spaceway or region of space that makes high speed travel more efficient, such as a hyperlane or low-obstacle region of space. Even if the spaceport isn’t particularly busy, it wouldn’t take much for it to become a busy port along a regular travel route.
21-25% Gateway---The spaceport is built around or near a dimensional gate, rift, or wormhole junction that allows ships(or ground traffic if the phenomena is planet-based) to travel to even farther locations or other universes.
26-30% Economic Frontier---The spaceport is located somewhere near a region with vast economic potential, such as a new and paradisiacal colonial zone, mineral motherlode, or the lootable remains of a lost ancient civilization. If not already near a spacelane, a spacelane may come to the spaceport, as people flock to exploit the potential resources nearby.
31-35% Automated---The spaceport is a wonder of automation and requires little, if any, actual living personnel to supervise it.
36-50% Tax-Free Zone---Goods sold on the premises of the spaceport are exempt from planetary import/export tariffs and duties.
51-70% Safe Ground ---By extraplanetary treaty or other ruling, the spaceport operates under a different legal code than that of the planet it is on. Typically this takes the form of neutrality from local politics and, ideally, conflicts. Those who manage to get into the spaceport may be able to request political asylum.
71-75%Sanctuary Zone---This goes beyond legal sanctuary; the peace of the spaceport is strictly enforced by some extralegal means, such as a magical Sanctuary spell, or hyper-advanced enforcer robots who make sure that NOBODY interferes with the rules and safety of the spaceport.
76-85% Black Market Haven ----The spaceport is a haven for illegal activity, likely(75% chance ) with the compliance of spaceport security. Trading and transfer of contraband cargos including weapons and slaves is regularly conducted on the docks.
86-00% Tourist Destination---Whether it’s the spaceport’s architecture or location, the spaceport itself is worthy of being visited, and has a reputation for being particularly scenic, enough that travelers will buy passage to the spaceport just to see it.
Standard Spaceport Template
Random Spaceports:
a) Sponsorship:
b) Type:
c) Size:
d) Vessel Restrictions:
e) Location:
f) Hangar Facilities:
g) Repair Facilities:
h) Containment:
i) Emergency Services:
j) Security:
k) Businesses:
l) Accommodations:
m) Sensors:
n) Traffic Control:
o) (Optional) Traffic Levels:
p) (Optional)Special Features:
Suggestions and corrections are welcome.
Random-Roll Spaceports
“We’ve been in space for over three millenia but it still heartens me when I go to the rocketport to see children on the lands around it, still watching the ships come and go, and attaching dreams to them. It tells me we haven’t become jaded to being starwalkers, and that we still possess a sense of wonder about space travel.”
“Just another E-class spaceport with the same standard-reg dock and load facilities, same standard-reg bored staffers, same standard-reg accommodations that haven’t been repainted in a century, same standard-reg gamblers and hookers in the station so-called entertainment sector. Same spaceport I’ve seen a dozen times already up and down the Arm. All that’s changed is the name and the species running them. I sometimes wonder if it really is just the same spaceport, only they pack it up after I leave, zip ahead of me in a faster freighter, and set it up before I land again.”
“---I KNOW security concerns have gone up since the last attack, but is it REALLY necessary for us all to have to strip naked, submit to a full scan and search, and be sealed in individual biopods before being loaded onto the ship? I’m a paying passenger, not livestock! Unless there’s something you’re not telling us?”
<“Valhallaport; it’s our ticket off this damn mudball! If we can get in, there’s no telling where we can go, you and I! Ship out for the Coreworlds, or out to the untamed Rim! We’re going places, and it all starts over through those gates if you’re willing to join me!”>
As much interstellar traffic moves through planetary spaceports as through space stations. Though space stations are the preferred venues for receiving spacecraft to a planet, cheap interstellar travel and antigravity systems make planetary landings more readily possible and easier. As a result, spaceports can pop up on planetary surfaces, greatly facilitating the movement of passengers(including adventurers) and cargo directly to exotic planets. Spaceports are the great crossroads of interstellar travel, the interface between a journey and a destination, a stepping-off point or a fresh beginning, the point of farewell or first hello, oasises of standardized civilization or mixing pots of the local color. They can be a culture’s doorway to vast possibilities and great adventures, or can be merely anther bus stop on a cosmic thoroughfare. In times of crisis, they can be enclaves under siege, or points of escape, and they can become subjects of great contention between the organizations that run them and the local laws of the land.
The following charts are for formally-recognized planetary spaceports meant for repeated and regular use(anybody can land on a rough field, if they have the right ship).
The following are some general tables for generating random spaceports.
a) Sponsorship:
“Sure, the spaceport’s on Zemian soil, but Naruni runs the station, and nothing goes offworld or comes onworld without Naruni knowing about it. The Zemian government would LOVE to take over the spaceport and run it themselves because Naruni’s given them a lot of cause to regret that loophole-cheesed trade treaty they signed a decade back, but nothing to violate the letter of the treaty. So the local gov’s got to sit back and respect the extraterritorial clauses, however grudgingly, and Naruni can do whatever they want inside the bounds of the starport.”
Who operates the spaceport?
01-15% Private---The port is run by an individual or family who can, on paper, deny access to anybody they specify.
16-25% Corporate---The spaceport is run by a local corporation for their own purposes. in general, they can set strict terms for anybody not associated with them, but wanting to use the facilities, or deny them outright. At least on paper, however, most corporations are obliged to obey certain laws pertaining to the operation of spaceports, and must open their use to government vessels and ships in distress. In practice, however...+10% to Security
26-40% Offworld Corporation---A nonnative corporation runs the spaceport, either for the profit of running a transport hub, or as a on-planet headquarters for their interests in the local area. +15% to Security
41-65% Municipal---The spaceport is run by the local government, but typically through subcontractors handling various aspects of the spaceport’s operation. +15% to Businesses.
66-90% Government---The dominant government in the region runs the spaceport directly. The spaceport can thus operate in an emergency as a government facility or military base. +15% to Security. +10% to Sensors
91-00% Off-World Government---A government body other than that holding local sovereignty runs the spaceport. Under such circumstances, the spaceport typically gets the perk of Extraterritoriality, in which the premises of the spaceport effectively count as a diplomatic enclave, exempt from the laws of the land outside its perimeter. +20% to Security
b) Type:
“We’re going out via the foundry port. Why? Because the authorities are going to be watching the passenger hubs for you. Hopefully they won’t be guarding the fac-outlets, because it’s all automata and drone ships. And the foundries load the metals HOT; less chance of us warm-bodies being picked up by thermal scanners against all that background glare. Sure, it’s going to be rough riding out in a slag-carrier, but it beats the alternative.”
What is the primary purpose of the spaceport?
01-20% Passenger--The spaceport is run exclusively for passenger service. +15% to Accommodations, +15% to Emergency Services.
21-50% Commercial---The spaceport handles cargo primarily. +10% to Accommodations, +5% to Security.
51-75% Industrial---The spaceport serves heavy industry and deals with cargoes too massive or dangerous to be accommodated by standard cargo-handling facilities. -20% to Accommodations, +10% to Containment.
76-00% General Aerospace---The grounds of the facility are open to everybody, provided they obey the rules and don’t endanger others. The responsibility of any special facilities for handling spacecraft is up to the individual service bay operators and leasers. +15% to Repair Facilities
c) Size:
“Time was, this place was covered with starships, a forest, as far as the eye could see, of spears reaching to pierce the heavens.”
How many vessels can the spaceport accommodate in terms of docking terminals and hangar space?
01-15% Tiny---The spaceport has facilities for handling at best 1d6 ships at a time. Many private and rural spaceports, especially on the frontier, are of this size, typically as sub-fields to larger colonial beachheads.
16-30% Small---The facility can handle 5d6 ships at a given time
31-65% Modest---Rather larger, with a capacity of accommodating 1d6x10 ships of various sizes
66-80% Extensive--- 3d6x10 ships can be served by this spaceport
81-95% Massive--- The spaceport can juggle and dock 6d6x10 vessels of various sizes
96-00% Sprawling---- Something on the scale of Center, with a capacity of handling numbers of ships in the high triple-digits(500 or more). Spaceports of this capacity are almost certainly major trade or service hubs.
d) Vessel Restrictions:
“We do not allow contragravity vessels within seven -raad- of our planetary gravity well. You’ll just have to take your shuttle in the rest of the way. Don’t have a shuttle? We can send one your way; there will be a small fee for ferrying. You don’t want to pay? Well, you’ll just have to walk-”
What kind of spacecraft does the spaceport allow? Some planets refuse to allow starships to land directly on them.
01-10% Tram-Port---The spaceport doesn’t allow others’ spacecraft to land at its surface facility; outsiders have to park in orbit or at a spaceplatform, and spaceport-run ferries carry passengers and cargo to and from the spaceport. Only specially-app roved vessels and parties are the exception to this.
11-50% Shuttleport---The spaceport only receives short range transatmospheric shuttles from arriving ships.
51-00% Open Port---Everything that can fly(and land) is allowed.
e) Location:
“Having the spaceport out several hundred miles away in the middle of the great salt basin? That was good planning. Not only was the noise and fumes and radiation kept way out there away from things, but when that un-scanned shipload of carnivorous squigs landed and broke quarantine, those little monsters barely got ten miles out of the ‘port when they all desiccated to death.”
How close is the spaceport to a major center of habitation or other facility(for that particular planet)?
01-20% Isolated Location---The spaceport is located at a considerable distance from the nearest communities. This can be in the middle of a desert, on a remote island, on a separate floater platform, or high atop a mountain. This can make getting into or out of the spaceport no easy matter, especially if one is trying not to be seen doing so.
21-85%Rural Region---The spaceport is in the middle of a sparsely-populated area, with perhaps a small community within 20 miles or less. This sort of location is the most likely to sport a spring-up support community nearby catering to the needs of the spaceport. +15% to Businesses.
86-00% Urban Zone---The spaceport is built right next to, or in the middle of, a heavily populated area. PhaseWorld’s Center is a perfect example of this. +20% to Containment, +20% to Traffic Control.
f) Hangar Facilities:
“You wanna get under cover as soon as you can. Your shiny starship might be able to cross sectors of galactic space, and handle battle-strikes on its shields, but a genuine full-bore Keskin sandstorm will take the landing gear out from under it if you don’t get that thing tucked away soonest.”
Hangar facilities protect ships from both the elements and criminal activity. They can also provide privacy for those using them.
01-15% None; the spaceport is essentially an open field with hardened landing platforms exposed to the elements.
16-30% Basic---The spaceport provides basic weather covers, equivalent to shacks or tents, for spacecraft to be sheltered in.
31-70% Full Service----Hangars are more solidly built, and include adjacent space for workshops, warehousing, and even rental office space.
71-85% Fortified---Spacecraft can be sheltered in fortified revetments. Individual bays can be locked up and sealed like bunkers.
86-00% Deluxe---Individual hangar bays complete with climate control, fire control, individual security, and even gravitic plating to float ships for easier maintenance.
g) Repair Facilities:
“What do you mean you don’t stock Cetava Cee-Thirty Eight Impellor Initiators?! How can you NOT have Cetava Thirty-Eights?! They’re only the most popular and important engine components in the Furul Cloud! Civilization as we know it couldn’t exist without them! What do you mean, you barbarians have never heard of Furul Cloud?!”
What’s available to repair and service vessels in need of a little work?
01-05% None ----The ships’ engineers are wholly responsible for keeping the ships running.
06-10% Jack of All Trades Mechanic---The spaceport has a single or relative handful of generalist mechanics and technicians who double as spaceship mechanics, in addition to maintaining the spaceport. They will have a small stock of the most common and readily broken parts available, or possibly a few junked spacecraft on hand they can cannibalize for parts.
11-25% Fair----The spaceport has several servicing agreements with local companies for repairing the fleet, but extensive or exotic repairs may be beyond their capabilities, or take a prohibitive time to complete.
26-60% Good----The spaceport has a service/repair contract with a reputable company paid extra for speedy service, has its own small facility for ship repair, and has a stock of replacement parts and components(engines, computers, etc.,) on hand.
61-90% Excellent----The spaceport has its own repair yard and staff of dedicated engineers. If necessary, it can fly out a salvage/repair crew to a disabled ship and repair it onsite. Quality of work is excellent, and turnaround is quick.
91-00% Extensive----Effectively has its own shipyards and facilities to repair and virtually rebuild ships. Technicians are top of the profession and there are damn few things about ships they can’t fix.
h) Containment:
“See the red-designated areas? You don’t want to be in one of those zones when the launch alerts sound. That’s where the blast exhaust from the shuttles gets channeled. We’re talking live nuclear plasma. You get caught in a wash of that stuff, there’s going to be NOTHING left of you to identify, let alone save for a funeral.”
Spacecraft are potential dangers at the best of times; leaking mechanical fluids, energetic propulsion and power systems, and the threat of exotic alien organisms carried aboard arriving starships make spaceports hazard zones. Many spaceports incorporate passive containment measures to isolate spacecraft and make containing potential hazards easier.
01-10% None. Anything coming off a spacecraft can fall where it may, and contaminants are released to the open air, to go where any winds may blow them.
11- 25% Basic---These would be equivalent to raised berms around the landing areas and drain systems leading to sumps, where sewage and contaminants can be trapped(hopefully for later cleanup). Ships may be subjected to basic biocide spraying and decon, during perfunctory examination of areas such as landing gear wells and airlocks.
26-70% Hazmat---Incoming ships are greeted by a full hazmat team that hoses down any hot spots and checks for leaks. Obvious toxic waste spills are reported and cleaned up as soon as possible. Ships are given a thoroughgoing over and decontamination. Hangars are well-drained and have both liquid and air filtration systems to contain or dilute spills, and fire control systems that can double as containment measures.
71-95% Airtight---The spaceport is VERY cautious when it comes to containment issues, and all incoming spacecraft are intensively scanned, in addition to any security checks. Passengers and cargo are not allowed off until the ship is cleared, and then they will be scanned and potentially even quarantined for a time. Similar measures are conducted when flights are departing(though they may be less stringent). Vessels failing the scans, or suspected of posing a danger, may immediately be sealed and isolated by various means, including hull cocoons, forcefield barriers, temporal stasis, and the like.
96-00% Total Lockdown---The spaceport is compartmentalized with auto-deploy barriers around all sections and concourses. Furthermore, if necessary, the entire facility can be sealed up under a giant dome or forcefield, preventing anything from getting out or in.
i) Emergency Services:
“Frankly I’d rather deal with a super-bulk freighter with an out-gassing cargo of unstable rapid-volatizing thermal-chem that could turn the atmosphere of a planetary quarter hemisphere into a giant fuel-air explosive than one Lurgess personal transport with leaky enviro-seals. Exo-plagues are just plain FRIGHTENING.”
In the event of a crisis with a spacecraft, what active facilities and measures are available to respond to the situation?
01-05% None. The crew is on their own when it comes to rescue, and the best that the ground can hope for is that the fires burn out quickly and that the wind is blowing in the right direction.
06-25% WreckWagon---The spaceport maintains a single(or handful of) general purpose firefighting and rescue vehicle and a small team trained in general response. The best that one can hope for is paramedic-level medical training.
26-55% Emergency Teams---The spaceport has on duty a small task force of specialized vehicles and specially-trained emergency rescue personnel. Onsite medical treatment is equivalent to a good aid station or small clinic. Anything more severe will have to be transferred to a community hospital or other facility(which could be light years away).
56-80% Rescue Ships--- Full complement of rescue vehicles and spaceport emergency services can scramble their own near-space/transatmospheric rescue shuttles to intercept ships before they crash, or search for them if they go off course.
81-00% Full Alert Force and Hospital---The spaceport has a full array of emergency equipment and its own fully-staffed onsite medical center for immediately handling accident victims and handling medical quarantine. This includes exotic environ pods for housing alien life forms.
j) Security:
“Okay, I want all of you to be on the lookout for this fellow...and this female...and this child...or this female. Yeah, and they’re all the same being. We’re supposedly be on the lookout for a shapeshifter, with all the headaches that’s going to cause all of us.”
Security serves a twofold purpose; keep threats OUT of the spaceport, and keep potential threats contained INSIDE the spaceport. These threats can include dangerous alien organisms(on either side of the fence), criminal elements, terrorists, and ship-jumpers. Searching for contraband is another duty of spaceport security.
01-05% None. The spaceport is entirely reliant on the well-meaning nature of visitors, any passive containment measures, and possibly the location to keep trouble down.
06-35% Basic---Fence and light patrols, and a basic security gate and guards to keep an eye out for obvious trouble. New arrivals will be greeted with a cursory scan and inspection by unarmed workers, with armed security nearby. Vital areas of the spaceport will have lockable reinforced doors and windows, and main concourses will be surveilled remotely.
36-65%Heavy Security---The perimeter has several layers of fencing and monitoring. Points of access have security scanners and sealable doors or gates, and the guards all carry personal scanners and sidearms. Important areas of the spaceport will be housed in fortified bunkers, and most access ways and general areas will be under electronic surveillance. Also possesses a ‘flying squad’ equal to a good police SWAT team to respond to serious problems.
66-90% Boarding Team---Same as for Heavy Security, but will have more security vehicles and spaceport security also maintains short range shuttles for intercepting spacecraft before they land and scanning them.
95-00% Maximum Force---Spaceport security is essentially an onsite army with the ability to establish a heavily armed and active security perimeter around the spaceport, with armored vehicles, aircraft, power armor, and fortified positions both inside and outside the spaceport buildings. New arrivals are deep-scanned before they even land, and subjected to full-decon.
k) Businesses:
“I’m working my way up the Arm picking up what I need wherever I stop over, and getting my shopping for the year done along the way. You’d be AMAZED at what you can get duty-free at some spaceports.”
Like a spacestation’s Independent Business category, spaceports attract businesses, trading in everything from general cargo brokerages and retail, to more specialized services such as spacesuit sales.
01-05% None. The spaceport doesn’t tolerate or cannot support independent businesses on its premises. Any concessions are owned and managed directly by the same agency running the spaceport, so services and selection tend to be limited.
06- 50% Small Businesses---The spaceport has space for a dozen or so locally-owned businesses.
51-75% Trading Post---The spaceport plays host to several dozen local and offworld business concerns, as well as open stalls rentable by incoming ships to trade directly with the locals.
76-90% Shopping Mall---Planned-out complex with space for a hundred or more various small businesses and outlets, providing a good cross-section of goods and services.
91-00% Grand Bazaar---The spaceport is effectively a major marketplace for the region and traders and businesses come and go freely hawking their goods and services.
l) Accommodations:
“Wow...to think I was booked for a coffin-hotel before I got bumped to a later flight. Look at these digs! And all paid for by the spaceline! I gotta get bumped more often!”
What facilities are in the spaceport are there for extended stays or layovers? Otherwise, passengers might have to venture outside the ‘port to look for lodgings.
01-10% None---In event of canceled flights, passengers are going to have to sleep on the floors of the terminals.
11-35% Basic---The spaceport maintains a number of bare-minimum accommodations for layovers; these consist of a place to sleep(’capsule-hotels’ are a common model), with luggage stowage, communal hygiene facilities, and a few general entertainment and nutritional venues.
36-85% Modest---The facilities are the equivalent of the average roadside travel motel; room, hygiene facilities, light entertainment, and access to local food vendors or basic nutrition.
86-00% Luxurious---The spaceport has a first-class hotel or accommodation center attached to it for passengers. The facilities are nice enough that they could be an attraction unto themselves.
m) Sensors:
“Spaceguard, this is Accelion Station Tower Actual, we have an unannounced boggie dropping out of Jump in the middle of the Pehal approach lane seventy light seconds out. Boggie is not responding to hails. repeat NOT responding to hails. Can you confirm and intercept?”
How well and how far away can the spaceport detect traffic?
Like modern airports, most spaceports, especially in more developed star systems, rely on active TRANSPONDER systems to identify and track spacecraft, and depend on other agencies such as the local military or spacewatch to track and inform them of other threats, such as ‘dark’(non-transmitting) ships and space junk that might enter the spacelanes. Only about 30% of spaceports will have their own military-grade sensor systems that can pick up on other matter in their area of operations.
Spaceports in less-developed regions of civilized space, however, if they have the backing and resources, will have much better developed sensor systems, as they are often THE primary skywatch for a planet.
01-05% None. The first warning the spaceport is likely to get of incoming is when the spacecraft buzz the field.
06-15% Basic/Low Orbit----The spaceport has sensor systems equivalent to a modern day in-atmo DEW system, with radars reaching out 100-400 miles into high atmosphere and low orbit. Anything further out needs to announce its approach.
16-60% HighGuard---Sensors can see out to 50,000 miles with accuracy.
61-90% Advanced---Sensors can see out to a light year away
91-00%Omniscient---The spaceport can tap into a network of orbital early warning satellites that can track FTL activity up to 4 light years away, and gravitic drives up to 0.5 light years away.
n) Traffic Control:
“Stregliner Three-Zero-Six, this is Phylkon Tower Actual. You have deviated pont-oh-seven degrees off your approved course. This is the third such violation of yours within the last eight standard minutes. Do you wish to register an emergency? If you do not register an emergency or continue to deviate from approved course, you leave us no options but to take direct control of your ship-”
What facilities does the spaceport have for managing local air traffic, guiding ships in, and handling scheduling?
01-05% None---The spaceport is wholly reliant on the skills and sensors of ships to guide themselves in and avoid collisions.
06-20% Monitor Beacons---The spaceport relies on automated beacons to provide guidance for ships. These systems are slightly more interactive than passive beacon systems, and may use such methods as beam-riding to designate safe approach lanes to incoming spacecraft, and may automatically alert authorities if a spacecraft fails to follow directions.
21-75% Control Tower---The spaceport maintains a fully-staffed control tower that monitors flights and provides direction. Failure to comply will result in local security and military forces being alerted to the trouble.
76-95% Pilots---The spaceport uses a combination of a central monitoring office and pilots who fly out to board incoming vessels and take command to bring the ships in.
96-00% Active Measures---The spaceport has an extensive array of active measures for dealing with traffic, including robot tug drones, remote direct control hacking of ships’ control systems, forcefield projectors, tractor fields, and gravitic folds.
o) (Optional) Traffic Levels:
“Sorry, ma’am, but traffic’s stacked in a holding pattern with a five hour delay minimum before we can land. All on account of the fertility festival. No, I CAN’T let you open the airlock and skydive! Customs would be all over me like ugly on a Splug!”
How busy is the spaceport at any given time?
01-10% Deserted---The spaceport hardly sees a ship or two a month, let alone a day.
11-40% Regular--- Roughly 1d6x10% of the ‘port’s facilities are in present use, and there’s 1d6 starships coming or going every workday period.
41-70% Busy----The spaceport’s facilities are at 75-80% capacity at any given time, and there’s a ship arriving or departing every hour.
71-95% Bustling----The spaceport always has all its slips and docks occupied, and regularly scheduled flights are arriving and departing at 1d6 every HOUR.
96-00% Swarming---At any given time the spaceport has better than 125% of its docking/servicing capacity moving about. Ships that cannot dock are shunted to parking orbits or landed in the open. A good real life example of this would be Gander, Newfoundland, during the 2001 9/11 lockdown of air traffic
p) (Optional)Special Features:
“Zetti-port’s the first and best preserved of the original way-stations on the ancient Maldee High Road. Through the Door there, there’s a succession of ten more cities all linked by their own Doors. You can fly or tram through the Doors, but popular belief is that it’s best walked. Most folks come here to gain access to the worlds opened onto by the Doors, and the Maldee seemed to like nice planets, though we still haven’t figured out what galaxy or even universe each planet’s in, but some folks come as pilgrims, wanting to walk in the path of the Ancients as a religious experience, just as the Maldee were said to have done, millennia ago.”
What special features does the spaceport have that set it apart from others?
01-20% Spacelane---The spaceport is located somewhere to be able to take advantage of a much-trafficked spaceway or region of space that makes high speed travel more efficient, such as a hyperlane or low-obstacle region of space. Even if the spaceport isn’t particularly busy, it wouldn’t take much for it to become a busy port along a regular travel route.
21-25% Gateway---The spaceport is built around or near a dimensional gate, rift, or wormhole junction that allows ships(or ground traffic if the phenomena is planet-based) to travel to even farther locations or other universes.
26-30% Economic Frontier---The spaceport is located somewhere near a region with vast economic potential, such as a new and paradisiacal colonial zone, mineral motherlode, or the lootable remains of a lost ancient civilization. If not already near a spacelane, a spacelane may come to the spaceport, as people flock to exploit the potential resources nearby.
31-35% Automated---The spaceport is a wonder of automation and requires little, if any, actual living personnel to supervise it.
36-50% Tax-Free Zone---Goods sold on the premises of the spaceport are exempt from planetary import/export tariffs and duties.
51-70% Safe Ground ---By extraplanetary treaty or other ruling, the spaceport operates under a different legal code than that of the planet it is on. Typically this takes the form of neutrality from local politics and, ideally, conflicts. Those who manage to get into the spaceport may be able to request political asylum.
71-75%Sanctuary Zone---This goes beyond legal sanctuary; the peace of the spaceport is strictly enforced by some extralegal means, such as a magical Sanctuary spell, or hyper-advanced enforcer robots who make sure that NOBODY interferes with the rules and safety of the spaceport.
76-85% Black Market Haven ----The spaceport is a haven for illegal activity, likely(75% chance ) with the compliance of spaceport security. Trading and transfer of contraband cargos including weapons and slaves is regularly conducted on the docks.
86-00% Tourist Destination---Whether it’s the spaceport’s architecture or location, the spaceport itself is worthy of being visited, and has a reputation for being particularly scenic, enough that travelers will buy passage to the spaceport just to see it.
Standard Spaceport Template
Random Spaceports:
a) Sponsorship:
b) Type:
c) Size:
d) Vessel Restrictions:
e) Location:
f) Hangar Facilities:
g) Repair Facilities:
h) Containment:
i) Emergency Services:
j) Security:
k) Businesses:
l) Accommodations:
m) Sensors:
n) Traffic Control:
o) (Optional) Traffic Levels:
p) (Optional)Special Features:
Gonna be doing the whole 'Dimensional Outbreak' scenario soon, PLUS the PC's need to find info (which in my 'verse does NOT exist on Terra) about the Hell-pits showing up over North & South Am.