My player's have just left Rickety's Squibs and are headed to Bloodcove. Now there's nothing in the AP or Region-specific books that address the issue, but I figure most port's would charge a ship a fee to allow them to dock there. What would be a reasonable amount?
Different ports would probably charge different amounts, so maybe Bloodcove and Eledar would be higher than normal, Bloodcove because they can get away with it and Eledar because the Baron is trying to refill the coffers, but I'm trying to find an 'average' price without just making up a number.
The only reason my group ever went anyplace like Bloodcove was to sell off plunder. Since the plunder selling is already an abstraction, I'd just have the port fees, taxes, etc. be rolled into that.
I ruled that the non-Schackles port claimed a 10% tax on sales. I did this mainly to have them actually gain some value from the smuggling compartment they had installed, and to give them a financial reason to seek the title as Free Captain (and thus the possibility to land in Schackles ports without fear of capture).
I made it up, I I think it was something like 20gp per day, might be too cheap I know but having nothing to go on i just went with it? Each port I had different amounts. Players never questioned it and just paid the fee so I guess it was reasonible.
I used a more expensive amount; 1,000gp per ship (less at smaller ports) for towns along the slithering coast. Shackles towns would charge a lot less (perhaps even nothing) to Free Captains.
I wanted to encourage the PCs to start thinking of finding ways around these fees (making fewer visits, smuggling to avoid charges, making good connections or spending infamy in towns to reduce charges) and start pushing them towards becoming Free Captains.
I'm also using a homebrew world where there are less towns along that coast so they can afford to charge a little more.
I also gave out a few extra plunder during the ship encounters to allow for this extra expense (its essentially 1 plunder per visit as taxes).
Yeah I brought it up as leverage. The first merchant that called out to them when it came time to deal cut them a break on port fees if they sold plunder to him.