A govermental subsidiary would administer the portals. For those of you familiar with Stargate, think of the security as how it is handled at Cheyenne Mountain. However, Stargate is a government conspiracy, but my portal network idea, deals on a public knowledge level and is limited to a single continet.
There would be no bureaus. Just a single governmental subsidiary.
As per ticketation and checkpoints, as stated before, all employes of the portal network are government employees. As such, anyone who works for the government still needs a ticket for travel purposes, however such tickets are free.
The use of a portal in a pocket would be considered an act of treason. They are created and distributed among black marketeers. However, portal(s) in a pocket do not have to be limited to the same continent. As per the destination being set at the time of creation, the requirement for creating one would be Teleport, as the individual creating it has to have seen or been to the destination point.
Sir Whiskers said:
Otherwise, the opportunities for illegal activity would be considerable. Then again, the government could essentially legitimize such "illegal" activity, by charging steep fees for the privilege of using such portals. The fees would offset any lost tariffs, and by controlling who is allowed to have (and keep) such portals allows the government to favor its supporters and punish its opponents. Of course, that again raises the question: who actually administers all this, and how does the government control the obvious opportunities for abuse and corruption?
Then again, the government could sell portal(s) in a pocket, albeit at a very steep price. The price depending on where you buy it and where it goes. This would lead to wizards working for organized crime bosses to reverse engineer these and then making them for personal gain. Thus, these portals would be used to 'legitimize' the black market. The conspiracy here might be that the government controls/is the black market. In such a situation, portals accidents would not need to happen, as per anyone with revolutionary ideas, to be assassinated from the 'comfort' of home. Bit of a brain-bender ain't it?
This would make it easy for those with connections to obtain the items not offered by mom and pop and retail stores. I'm thinking that to establish such connections would require x amount of feats or might entail a possible prestige class (no more than 5 levels).
Anymore thoughts?
