Highport Stats/Specs

[MattL]

Any examples of highport specs out there?

I have a situation where a party might want to try and destroy, or at least credibly threaten to destroy, a highport. I'm wondering if anyone has ship-like specs for a highport that I could use as a starting point.

If not, are the High Guard rules the way to go here or is there other rules for space stations, etc.?

 

[mavikfelna]

Gateway Highport is in Spinward Extents p138
Siren High Highport is in Spinward Extents p171
Affinity Highport is in Core Adventure 2 p8
Anther Highport is in Singularity Act 1, page 6
Chant Way Station is in Singularity Sourcebook page 69

 

[Endie]

The ship design sheet by @Arkathan lays out the thresholds and requirements for each starport type really well.

 

[Anstett]

There is also the Starports book:

Starports eBook

Packed with information on what facilities, characters, and businesses can be found at a starport, this book provides maps, vehicles, and ships that can be readily used to create your own starports, or you can use one of the fully fleshed out starports in

www.mongoosepublishing.com

That combined with some things from PoD can give you lots of inspiration on creating a variety of them.

 

[rinku]

High Guard rules, yes. Although in terms of destruction, there are aspects that won't apply in the same way as for a ship. Space stations aren't mobile, so tend to be much easier targets. They're also typically in orbit, which could of several types. Something that affects the station's orbit beyond its ability to counter (i.e. a powerful M-drive pushing it) would be a credible threat. Even a 100 ton scout might be able to do so, over time.

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

Personally I'd expect most high ports to be either on moons or within converted asteroids. Far cheaper to create lots of space. On a moon it could also reduce the basic power because it already has some gravity, which would mean a smaller power plant.

 

[phavoc]

Any examples of highport specs out there?

I have a situation where a party might want to try and destroy, or at least credibly threaten to destroy, a highport. I'm wondering if anyone has ship-like specs for a highport that I could use as a starting point.

If not, are the High Guard rules the way to go here or is there other rules for space stations, etc.?

Unless the highport is totally unarmed and without any protection whatsoever, the PC's will fail if trying to do it with a ship. Now, if they were able to smuggle either a nuclear weapon or else a lot of very powerful conventional explosives (or even, possibly, using something like LOX to mix with the stations hydrogen storage to create explosives), it's not going to be possible or practical.

In the Traveller universe pretty much everyone and everything has weapons and active/passive defenses. So a highport of any size not having it's own weaponry, let alone ships or satellites to offer it protection, would be a very unlikely thing. And a PC's starship would simply be far outgunned for any sort of decent-sized highport.

Technically you could have a 100 ton ring and call it a "highport" - and if that's the case, then sure, the PC's could probably do it. Otherwise nah, it ain't happening.

 

[Condottiere]

It's probably standardized within the Imperium, and likely, whatever the equivalent is in the Consulate, since they're likely run by an interstellar wide bureaucracy.

Outside of that, it's what the operators, or the local planetary government, wants to term it.

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

Technically you could have a 100 ton ring and call it a "highport" - and if that's the case, then sure, the PC's could probably do it. Otherwise nah, it ain't happening.

That of course brings up another option, the first "High Port" a planet might put in place an old ship (or ships) that is up for scrapping due to being not worth while to replace a failing J-Drive. A minor planet might still find it useful especially if they add a cargo airlock once it is in place and an UNREP to fuel the incoming vessels (using the original fuel tanks of the "station as fuel storage). They of course would also need one or more "shuttles". At that point unstreamlined vessels can visit the planet possibly increasing competition and more ships coming in.

This works especially well for MTU where modular ships are common in many areas. Get an obsolete 1-2000 ton ship with several standard cargo modules (30, 50, 100 and 500 tons sizes are common for smaller ships) and an incoming ship ideally docks at an empty module port and unloads its module and then moves to another module port and loads a replacement, refueled via UNREP from the ships own fuel tank (on a fuel module) and is quickly on its way. Modules can be anything you like, cargo, passenger, science, hospital or prison for a few examples.

Again you would need appropriate shuttles to take things down to the planet (or elsewhere in the system). When you build a "real" High Port this "station" could be moved elsewhere in the system. An advantage of these is that you can modify existing deck plans if using non modular ships.