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General Problem with assumption: Why would players be 1 week in starport?

A

altidiya

SOC-1
Hello!

This is my first post, somewhat nerveous

I have started re-GMing recently Traveller, but more seriously and long term than practicing one-shots. I'm GMing Mongoose 2e 2022 Update if that is relevant. This has, obviously, make me take more time in setting and assumptions that I just handwaive for cinematic flavor in one-shots. For now, I have a couple of things I feel somewhat weird, but the openness of Traveller to homebrew has help with a lot.

Except a basic assumption I don't get how to relay with players, probably a problem from our experience with other systems. There is an assumption that Travellers have "one week at Starport, one week in Jump Space" but for now our first mission has been "players arrive to planet, talk with Patron, take job" in one day, and immediately jump to their objective, fulfill the job in one day, come back. In total I would say my players are 4 days in "Starport"/Real Space and 4 Weeks in Jump Space.

And I want some guide and advice in why there is an assumption of "one week in port" and how to incentive players to do that if it results being beneficial in some sense.

Thanks for reading!
 
The one week in a starport only matters if the players are involved with trading and taking on passengers.

Upon arrival in a system the PCs can begin checking market boards and commodity exchanges to try and find freight and speculative goods. On arrival at the starport they offload any freight, trade or passengers they have for this world and arrange for refueling and life support/spares restock as desired. Eventually freight and trade goods are identified and the PC ship can seek passengers wanting transport to the next world they intend to jump to.

The trading game is the bit that requires the week on planet, if instead they take a patron's job offer their turnaround can be much faster.

Travellers travel, they need not be ship crew at all. They can buy passage to the next world and potential adventure, or work their passage, or risk stowing away.
 
altidiya said:
I want some guide and advice in why there is an assumption of "one week in port"
Click to expand...
As @mike wightman says, the "one week in port" is the baseline assumption for a commercial tramp merchant ship.
  • 1 week in jump
  • 1 week in normal space to maneuver/unload/conduct business/load/maneuver
It's the "conduct business" part at each destination that tends to take more than 1 day.
Under LBB2.81, there is an assumption in the Speculative Goods purchasing rules that delivery of any speculative goods lots will take 4 days. This timeline can be hastened, but you'll have to pay more to speed up the delivery to the starport for loading (cutting into profit margins). That 4 days of delivery wait time is what eats up "most" of the 1 week out of jump time frame for tramp traders that dabble in speculative goods.

The "conduct business" activity at each destination can also involve giving crews liberty to go waste their salaries at the local shops and so on, rather than keeping everyone "caged" inside the starship at all times.

Maneuvering between jump point/starport/jump point can take 1 day all on its own ... and if you have to make a transit between a gas giant's orbit and a mainworld orbit, you could be spending multiple days there too, just maneuvering (for "free" fuel).

So the 1+1=2 weeks assumption is more a matter of a (generic) Rule of Thumb rather than a hard and fast rule/regulation for how starships MUST operate. Instead, it's more of a commercial trader baseline assumption. If you're not dabbling in speculative goods (which is where the REAL profits are to be found!) then you can have much faster turnaround times while berthed at a starport. If you're a passengers (only) starship, for example, then turnaround times at the starport could be measured in 1 day or less, rather than most of a week.
 
These days, it takes about 48 hours to offload a container ship at US ports, and likely a similar time to load one. Some of that time is due to the process not being fully automated, but it's mainly contstrained by how much hardware you can throw at the problem -- space for cranes and trucks at dockside.
 
kilemall said:
Don’t forget, this isn’t a money making treadmill, it’s an entree to adventure.
Click to expand...
^^^^^ this.

The "obligatory" down-time is where the planet-based adventures happen, or at least start. You've got UWPs for a reason, not a mere listing of starport class, TL, and trade codes.

You don't have to run scenarios at every stop, but the game is set up to provide plenty of opportunities for it.

Given modern logistics it may seem unrealistic, but half a century ago it was perfectly reasonable (and the SF it was based on was even older). Still, it's an anachronism that serves gameplay.
 
altidiya said:
Hello!

This is my first post, somewhat nerveous

I have started re-GMing recently Traveller, but more seriously and long term than practicing one-shots. I'm GMing Mongoose 2e 2022 Update if that is relevant. This has, obviously, make me take more time in setting and assumptions that I just handwaive for cinematic flavor in one-shots. For now, I have a couple of things I feel somewhat weird, but the openness of Traveller to homebrew has help with a lot.

Except a basic assumption I don't get how to relay with players, probably a problem from our experience with other systems. There is an assumption that Travellers have "one week at Starport, one week in Jump Space" but for now our first mission has been "players arrive to planet, talk with Patron, take job" in one day, and immediately jump to their objective, fulfill the job in one day, come back. In total I would say my players are 4 days in "Starport"/Real Space and 4 Weeks in Jump Space.

And I want some guide and advice in why there is an assumption of "one week in port" and how to incentive players to do that if it results being beneficial in some sense.

Thanks for reading!
Click to expand...
I assume it was a game device designed to make the Ref's and player's book keeping simpler when using the Imperial calender. You could count days or even hours I suppose, but that might be a bit to granular for some, though it could be interesting to do so for time sensitive deliveries/flights. In game, you could say it is a basic time scale that all imperial trader crew expect, set by tradition, union or guild rulings, or is just the average time taken in most port to port trips? Time spent between jumps could vary wildly though, depending on wether the ship was just refuelling and jumping again or not, the ship's acceleration rate, the size of the star system they have to traverse to and from the jump point (stars sometimes shadow close in planets with their gravity well), starport and shipboard loading/unloading facilities (not all are busy high tech A class starports), the size of the cargos to be loaded/unloaded, maintenance and repairs needed, fuel availability, demands from crew for time off and sightseeing, space and planetary interdictions, etc.
 
flibbertygibbit said:
I have nothing to contribute above what others have already said. I will say though, as another new person, this community is a bit intimidating and it makes me nervous too. So, good on you for putting yourself out there and asking the question!
Click to expand...
I got into Traveller because I really like Sci-Fi, but there are so many Citizens of the Imperium who have a lot of Technological knowledge that it makes me feel a little lost. On the other hand, it's the sharing of our different perspectives & knowledge that helps to make Traveller more fun for everyone (plus I've learned a lot of new things that I wouldn't normally do any research on).
 
Classic Traveller had a more explicit assumption that the Ref would make a random encounter check in space on arriving in system, check for an urban encounter downside, check law level downside to see if you're hassled or inconvenienced, check wilderness encounter if you leave the city... Also an assumption players would proactively seek out patrons rather than check a job board or have patrons come to them. Or get hired at a bar; a fair number of Classic adventures default hooks start in a startown bar.*

Mongoose has most of those mechanics present somewhere as options, but they're buried deeper and have fallen out of fashion in modern play. Add the trading game in on top and one week is an arbitrary fixed time period that would allow for all those activities to be engaged with, but doesn't make as much sense if they're not being used.

Mongoose 1e's Campaign Guide unburied those options and laid that style of play out more explicitly, but it was marred by atrocious editing and never really took off. I don't hate it myself but I wouldn't recommend you pay retail for it. You might skip all the way back to The Traveller Book when you have the time to kill, not to change your game rules but just to see what the play assumptions were.

*I also think decompression and carousing is underplayed. I'm in a small minority that doesn't like Mongoose' skill training rules. One reason is it incentivizes "I'll be in my bunk, studying, like always" "roleplaying" while penalizing hitting a bar, taking your grav bike out to catch a sunset, or renting a dog at the dog park to get out of your cramped spaceship for a few hours.
 
altidiya said:
Hello!

This is my first post, somewhat nerveous
Click to expand...

Dude, don't be. 40+ years on and I still ask questions about assumptions. The only bad question is the one not asked.

altidiya said:
Except a basic assumption I don't get how to relay with players, probably a problem from our experience with other systems. There is an assumption that Travellers have "one week at Starport, one week in Jump Space" but for now our first mission has been "players arrive to planet, talk with Patron, take job" in one day, and immediately jump to their objective, fulfill the job in one day, come back. In total I would say my players are 4 days in "Starport"/Real Space and 4 Weeks in Jump Space.
Click to expand...

As explained by others it is a artifact of the Trade Micro-game from CT.

So, handle it in the flavor of what makes sense to you in your game. While we all play Traveller, every Traveller game is different.

Oh and Welcome aboard.
 
I take "one week" as being more like, "several days," than a fixed time period. It depends on what the players are doing there and what interactions they have with NPC's. For example, if I want the players to stay put and they're running a merchant ship, I might simply say the cargo delivery is delayed and they're going to have to stay in port for X number of extra days.
 
Since it can bite both ways.

If your starship has a high acceleration, it can zip in fast to the starport, and pay minimum parking, and then leave fast.

A slow boat might also be inclined to minimize intermission, get to it's actual destination faster.
 
First of all, welcome to the board. While, as flibbertygibbit said, it can be a bit intimidating for newbees, users don's bite (at least online ;)).

About your question, never forget ships are cramped space, and crew fatigue is likely to mount quicker than most people thinks, so I guess also taking some R&R days on any planet tyhey land on will be useful for their sanity.

Even domed colonies are less cramped than ships, and have more to offer in this way.
 
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