Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital?

[Trebuchet]

Attention MidGuard Players: stop reading right now!!

 

In my MidGuard Champions campaign we're off into interstellar space to tackle the Ackalian Empireâ„¢ and save the Earth from the twisted schemes of the Empress. I need to whip an outpost on the outer edges of Ackalian space that the characters can visit to do a bit of snooping and figure out their next move. Since this outpost is the nearest point of the Ackalian Empireâ„¢ to Earth, I figure we'll probably be using it in future story arcs as well. What I want is something between Babylon 5 and Mos Eisley spaceport, with a dash of Deep Space Nine thrown in for flavor. A somewhat rundown place where traders, mercenaries, spies, and lowlifes from a number of alien races can interact. I intend to create some NPCs that I hope to reuse in the future.

 

What I can't decide is if it should be located on the surface of some godforsaken planet along the lines of Tatooine, or if it should be an orbital facility. From a role-playing aspect, does anyone have any ideas as to which might be more interesting and reusable? I can see some potential benefits and difficulties to both; what I'm looking for is to see if I've missed anything?

 

Comments? Suggestions? Have any of you used such a facility in Star Hero or Champions campaigns, and what worked and what didn't?

[McCoy]

Re: Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital?

 

Main difference I can see is from a Law Enforcement (and role playing) point of view, it's easier to find someone on an orbital facility. If they were seen, and no ships have left since then, you have a finite search area. Dirtside, on the other hand, no matter how good your perimiter, your quarry may have jumped the fence since last seen.

 

Orbital facility might also have gangs enforcing the "air tax," for a nominal fee, you are not ejected from the nearest airlock. These might be freelance thugs, or they may be official. How much trouble will the PC's be in if they mistake official tax collectors for a shakedown?

[Red Knight]

Re: Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital?

 

Orbital or Planetary... Both have some cool role-playing potential.

 

Here's my thoughts..

 

Orbital: having it based on a space station gives you the possibility of having hull breaches being an MAJOR issue. A "firefight" can be even more dangerous when a stray shot can rupture a bulkhead and vac the room. The station would be more confined and so could make space more of a commodity but also it could create an enviroment where everybody knows everybody else's business.

 

Planetary: If you base it on a planet's surface you have three options. The first is to make the planet inhospitable (poisonous atmosphere.. etc) or like you mentioned (hostile but not fatal) and the third is to make it like a jungle or water planet. Personally I like the idea of the Kaminoan's Ocean City in Star Wars Episode II. Setting the spaceport ina hostile enviroment can create great atmosphere, b/c the players get a closed in feeling. Not to say that they cannot leave the port, but it makes it harder.

 

If I was going to do it I would go with a Sapceport like the Kaminoan's city. A planet of mostly water with huge storms that buffet the planet. Why would they build there you ask?? Well, it could be the furthest planet out and so they use it b/c it is far enough away from the homeworld as to not become problematic. Far enough that they would have time to react if there were problems.

 

Well... that is my ramblings...

[Trebuchet]

Re: Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital?

 

Main difference I can see is from a Law Enforcement (and role playing) point of view, it's easier to find someone on an orbital facility. If they were seen, and no ships have left since then, you have a finite search area. Dirtside, on the other hand, no matter how good your perimiter, your quarry may have jumped the fence since last seen.

 

Orbital facility might also have gangs enforcing the "air tax," for a nominal fee, you are not ejected from the nearest airlock. These might be freelance thugs, or they may be official. How much trouble will the PC's be in if they mistake official tax collectors for a shakedown?

I guess that depends on how obnoxious the tax collectors are. From a strictly power-based perspective, only military equipment is liable to do much more than irritate MidGuard. Of course, an open clash with the base's authorities resulting in a interstellar APB and subsequent manhunt would Not Be A Good Thing.

[Koshka]

Re: Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital?

 

If I were building this place, I'd put it in orbit. Planetary bases have the problem of the users having to fight gravity every time they take off, orbital bases don't incur that extra fuel cost.

 

However, you could always use a low-gravity world or moon. It's a good compromise between ease of use for the intended users and space available for PCs to get into trouble.

[Edsel]

Re: Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital?

 

Why not make it both?

 

For Instance an orbital space station connected to the planet with an orbital transfer elevator (aka a beanstalk). That way you can have the best of both worlds. You can center the action on the space station or on the planet at the base station where the elevator attaches to the planet.

 

The old Traveler 2300AD used this. I am sure it is featured in several Sci-Fi stories (though I cannot think of any right now). I'll bet a simple google search for info would give you a wealth of info. As a matter of fact I think I'll go do one right now. I've made myself curious.

 

EDIT: Yep Wikipedia has got a good write up with links and stuff.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital?

 

If I were building this place, I'd put it in orbit. Planetary bases have the problem of the users having to fight gravity every time they take off, orbital bases don't incur that extra fuel cost.

 

However, you could always use a low-gravity world or moon. It's a good compromise between ease of use for the intended users and space available for PCs to get into trouble.

In an anti-gravity culture that would be much less of a factor. I'm not as concerned with the mechanics of the place as I am with the role-playing aspects.

 

The low grav moon does offer some possibilities.

[wcw43921]

Re: Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital?

 

Why not both? Have a space station in geosynchronous orbit over a groundside facility. The space station could service those vessels incapable of entering a planet's atmosphere, and the groundport could handle everything else. Depending on tech level, the two could be connected by a beanstalk-style elevator system, or even teleporters; otherwise, you'll need a ferry system.

 

I think this would give the players some interesting problems, strategy-wise. Say they're looking for someone on the station--do they search the spaceport, or the groundport? Or do they split up to search both, and risk a chance they'll be ambushed? Or say they need to get off the planet, Millenium Falcon-style--they might out-run the groundport's pursuit craft, but the spaceport's patrol ships are right there waiting for them.

 

I hope you can find a use for those ideas.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital?

 

Why not make it both?

 

For Instance an orbital space station connected to the planet with an orbital transfer elevator (aka a beanstalk). That way you can have the best of both worlds. You can center the action on the space station or on the planet at the base station where the elevator attaches to the planet.

 

The old Traveler 2300AD used this. I am sure it is featured in several Sci-Fi stories (though I cannot think of any right now). I'll bet a simple google search for info would give you a wealth of info. As a matter of fact I think I'll go do one right now. I've made myself curious.

Actually, that might offer the best of both worlds (so to speak). Perhaps the "official" post is the orbital station complete with docking facilities for space-only freighters, with perhaps a mining colony and a space elevator on the ground. A rough and tumble sort of quasilegal "shantytown" might spring up around the edges of the ground station.

[Ghost who Walks]

Re: Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital?

 

How about on a planet surface, where the hook would nbe the planet itself.

 

A world destroyed by some global calamity or interstellar war.

 

The spaceport is either studying the ruins, or acting as base for thousands of treasure hunters, poking around in the remains of a dead civilization.

 

Looters can be played as very unsavory people.

 

You can even have the Ackalians be the ones who destroyed the previous civilization

 

I can think of around a dozen scenarios to have in such a place, ranging from finding cryogenicly frozen survivors to searching for the ocation of the Ultimate Weapon.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital?

 

Now those are some interesting ideas...

 

Thanks!

[Red Knight]

Re: Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital?

 

After reading the other ideas... a sick thought came to me... soooo I just had to share.

 

The idea of a spaceport and a planetary station all in one. What if the sapceport is on a planest surface but the planet has been ripped apart in the past leaving a jagged chunked-apart sort of world. A giant rock riddled with holes and tunnels. Jagged pointy outcroppings and such. Imagine a piece of swiss-cheese-looking rock.

[Agemegos]

Re: Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital?

 

This really comes down to whether you want space ships that can land or not.

 

If ships can land, then there is no juice in a orbital space-port. It just isn't reasonable.

 

But a ship that has the thrust-to-mass ratio to take off and the cargo/passenger space and exhaust velocity to pay its way in inter-planetary shipping is a bit like a cross between a sailing ship and a freight elevator: easier said than imagined.

 

Anyway, it's all about wider implications; If you figure that you want space-ships landing in the rest of your campaign, then an orbital spaceport doesn't make much sense. On the other hand, if you want cargo landed in lighters, passengers landed in shuttles, and marines landed in assault shuttles in the rest of your campaign, then putting a ground facility here is a bit harder to justify (there should at least be several landing points for lighters and shuttles.

 

By the way, geostationary orbit is a good place for a communications satellite, but pretty lousy for anything else. Even at uncomfortably high accelerations, it just takes an unnecessaarily long time to haul things up to and down from geostationary orbit. And a beanstalk doesnt' make this any quicker. A good place for an orbital spaceport is just high enough to avoid significant atmospheric drag.

 

Now a beanstalk is an elevator to geostationoary orbit, not to anywhere else. If you get off below the terminus you will not be in orbit! (Well, not a very desirable orbit, anyway.) That combined with strait dynamic load-balancing requirements makes a passenger elevator on a beanstalk pretty impractical. If you want to use a megastructure to get people or cargo into orbit you will do better with a rotorvator.

[Foxiekins]

Re: Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital?

 

Even if you want spaceship landings, you might still have an orbital facility for quarantine reasons... Basically, the planet has the rule that docking to the orbital facility is okay, but if you try a planetary landing they shoot you down... Not that people can't try and sneak a landing, but anyone legit will dock to the orbital, as well as anyone trying to pass themselves off as legit...

[Chuckg]

Re: Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital?

 

GURPS Traveller uses the "both an orbital and a planetary port" approach, and they /have/ contragrav shuttles. Indeed, they call them 'highport' (for the orbital element) and 'downport' (for the ground-side).

 

All you have to do is jigger the tech of the setting so it's more cost-effective to have the big bulk freighters and ships of the line not be streamlined or built for planetary landings, and voila, need for both highports and downports.

 

For a really amazingly well-done treatment of the topic, I recommend GURPS Starports.

[sinanju]

Re: Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital?

 

Others have already suggested it, but I vote for BOTH. The orbital facility services ships cannot either land and take off or aren't streamlined for atmospheric flight. Why build your freighter or passenger ship for atmospheric entry when you don't have to? It's cheaper not to bother with streamlining.

 

So the big passenger lines (and freight lines, for that matter) that travel the most lucrative and heavily-traveled routes stop only at the highport (orbital facility). Passengers and cargo destined for the planet get transferred to shuttles that move them to and from the surface.

 

On the other hand, scoutships and other vessels (like, oh, say _smugglers_) will want ships that _can_ land on planets that don't have a highport. So there's a facility on the ground to handle them (as well as the shuttles). Of course, the authorities are aware of this, so ships landing at the surface port are more likely to be carefully scrutinized.

 

If you want a lot of ideas for starports and starport adventures, I'd suggest looking for GURPS Traveller: Starports (by John M. Ford). It's chock full of nifty stuff.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital?

 

Certainly there's plenty of precedent even in movies and books for starships that can't land on planets and other ships that can. The original Star Wars trilogy had both Imperial cruisers and the Millenium Falcon.

 

While I really like the idea of a beanstalk (and will probably use it at some base closer to the Empire's core), it seems a bit expensive gadget for a location that's supposed to be a tiny frontier outpost. So my thinking is currently leaning towards a small orbital military & customs base of the Ackalian Empire (perhaps also keeping an eye on the system's jumpline), along with a somewhat larger civilian surface establishment which both supports the military base and serves civilians from various races. I can have lighters and shuttles moving personnel and cargo between the two as needed.

 

And the "customs inspection" can still force the PCs to interact with the Ackalians even if they land on the planet.

[tusaboss]

Re: Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital?

 

Well, on a realistic point of view, the orbital facilty is more convenient because it takes a lot of energy to land and to reach the orbit from a planet's surface...But for starships that can fly across the stars, the difference in energy is negligible, unless your FTL travel is something like teleport or anyways has little energy consumption and ships travel great distances in normal space. If they use rocket engines, the beamstalk is the most convenient solution...But if it is a small station, maybe it's better a small orbital station, perhaps built on an asteroid to have space where storing cargo and fuel (if not, they would have to build very big fuel tanks and cargo pods in the orbit-better to dig them in an asteroid)

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital?

 

Practicality aside, from an RP standpoint I think the orbital facilty is better if all you want is a spaceport.

 

If there's something interesting about the planet itself, you want the PC's to explore the society/big alien city attached to the spaceport, etc., then go with a ground-based one.

 

Could also go halfway in some cases. Big floating spaceport within atmosphere, but above ground. Able to be within planet's defenses, but more easily accessible from space. Spaceships unload there, then atmospheric craft ferry things down to the surface. Especially good for very developed worlds, where physical space on the planet is at a premium.

[Kirby]

Re: Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital?

 

For the role-playing aspect it depends on what mood you're going for, and if you are doing the darker feel, I would choose the planetary surface for the spaceport.

 

On the surface, there is the anonymous factor: anyone can come and go as they please. Not just the heroes, but the villains, and all sorts in between that don't want to be 'noticed.'

 

For the Orbital spaceport, the station knows who's coming in and on what ship. Now, if the PCs are wanting to approach quietly, but you want their nerves on edge, then this could be the way; however, if they're looking for someone, one of the PCs might find/hack a manifest or base's logs showing what ships are present and have been around.

 

An unsavory character (or a mere peddler of 'goods') can be waiting outside the cantina to observe, give advice, sell something, etc. Not so with a spaceport. Also, IF you are going to have a criminal orginization, present and the Spaceport isn't theirs, then planetside would be best. Spies can watch much easier an entrance to a cantina than they can be aboard the spaceport and communicate without being detected.

 

Just my opinions, hope something works for you.