Docking in Civilized Ports (CSH)

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Although there are many cultures among the Known Spheres, each with its own way of life, commerce must go on. To allow visitors from far-away spheres to visit various spacefaring cultures with minimal difficulty, the spacefaring cultures have worked out a series of procedures that are more or less standard at all of the spaceports in the Known Spheres. While there are rare exceptions, these rules are the ones counted on by spacefaring captains to cover their day-to-day involvement with the administrative details of spelljamming.
The following procedures apply primarily to spaceports, such as the Rock of Bral. Groundling civilizations are too diverse and isolated to have adopted these procedures.
Approaching Dock. Before a ship can dock, it must contact someone at the spaceport and receive permission to dock. This is generally accomplished by a sequence of flags raised on the mast of the approaching vessel and on a similar post on the docking port. These flags not only act as "traffic signals," preventing collisions from multiple ships trying to dock simultaneously, but also act as markers indicating the location of the gravity plane (which on something like the Rock of Bral is not that obvious). The flags also signal any problems (such as disease or fouled atmosphere) that the station may be currently suffering, and the governing race of the station (so that a captain who wants to avoid contact with rastipedes wouldn't dock at a rastipede station). Unfortunately, once you've started the protocol by raising your flags, it looks pretty suspicious if you take off when you find out who the other guy is.
It is uncommon but possible for a station to refuse docking privileges to a ship. The reason may be a problem on the station, like overcrowding, or a partially fouled atmosphere that the new ship with a fouled atmosphere of its own would exacerbate.
Stations also refuse some customers to keep the peace. As policy, some spaceports will not allow beholder ships to dock if any other beholder nation currently has a ship docked. Many try to separate the neogi from the other races, notably the hurwaeti, that have a strong hatred of slave-takers, and a station with inadequate facilities may turn away ships of one or another of those nations.
In general, if a station refuses docking privileges, they must grant the ship leave to refresh its atmosphere in any available planetary body. Nations at war will of course attack rather than allowing their enemies to resupply, but intersphere war is rare. Most stations will also allow a ship to land and replenish its supplies, but a few will adamantly insist on the ship's clearing the sphere as quickly as possible.
Of course, in most spheres there are multiple settlements, and one settlement's enemy may be another's ally. The ability of a spaceport to enforce an exile of a ship is dependent totally on that spaceport's military might. There is no intersphere agreement regarding any given spaceport's territory.
Most ships will be allowed to dock. The actual physical act of docking is almost anticlimactic. The ship aligns its gravity plane with that of the space-port and sails right up to the side. Since most spaceports have a sizable air envelope, with docking bays looking much like the wharfs of a coastal groundling city (except without the water), all that is left to do is to lower the gangplank and walk off the ship.
Customs Inspection. Once a ship docks, it becomes subject to the rules and regulations of that station, if for no other reason than it is difficult to escape the station without the cooperation of the authorities.
Customs inspectors will examine anything brought off the ship or taken aboard. By ancient custom, however, they will not inspect the ship itself and have no power to confiscate any contraband that never leaves the ship. (This is how neogi slave ships can dock and leave supposedly free spaceports.)
Depending on the spaceport and cargo, there may be duties to be paid, and some items may be forbidden. The rules vary from station to station and are sometimes capricious, especially in stations run by non-demihumans. (Then again, beholders and neogi consider many human space settlement customs to be capricious.)
Depending on the spaceport regulations, trying to bring contraband into the spaceport may bring a polite recommendation from the authorities to leave it aboard, or may cause the ship to be seized and all aboard to be enslaved (neogi are extremely fond of the latter approach). Customarily, before bringing something off of the ship, you stand on the gang-plank, hold out the item, and ask the customs inspectors whether it is permitted. If they say no, you have not tried to bring it aboard the station and therefore they cannot claim you were smuggling. However, rastipedes have been known to permit entry to an item displayed this way, only to claim they were joking once it was aboard the station.
Docking and Berthing Fees. Berthing a ship at a station is expensive. As a rule, docking and berthing costs are 1-4 gp per ton of ship per standard day (or fraction thereof), although some species use keel length or beam length to set the rates. This fee covers berthing space and inspection charges.
Many stations also charge a head tax of 5-10 gp per person who comes aboard the station. This is especially common where dracons are frequent visitors, as without such a tax herds of 40-50 dracons would be traipsing around the station together. The tax serves to keep the majority of the herd aboard their own vessel.
There is an additional air tax for all persons in the station's air envelope, whether or not they enter the station. Typically, air taxes are 1-2 gp per person and are designed to recover the cost of periodically refreshing the station's air envelope.
Ships that come in with fouled air are charged an additional 5-8 gp per ton in air taxes. This is because the fouled atmosphere of a ship greatly decreases the time between atmosphere refreshments.
Note that none of these charges covers food, water, or any services while in the spaceport. Daily food and lodging are generally available at 150% of the regular prices (see the Player's Handbook, Chapter 6), and repair services are available at the prices listed in Chapter 4 of the Concordance of Arcane Space.
Getting Underway. Once you have paid all docking fees, berthing fees, and air taxes, you schedule your departure with the harbormaster. By ancient tradition, departing vessels have precedence over incoming vessels—except in emergencies—so you can schedule your departure with exactness.