Here’s an overview of the Official Traveller Universe (OTU). We’re not playing in the OTU, but a lot of the OTU’s tropes will port over to what I’m doing.

• Starships can travel faster than light (FTL).
1. A ship’s Jump Drive is rated in how many parsecs (3.26 light years) it can travel in a week (J1 drive travels 1 parsec in a week, J4 drives travels 4 parsecs in a week).
2. No matter how far you travel, the trip takes a week. So using a J4 drive to go 4 parsecs takes a week; using it to jump 1, 2, or 3 parsecs also takes a week.
3. Most ships can only carry enough fuel for one jump.
4. Most ships will take a week to refuel and gather supplies (and hunt up work) once reaching their destination—yes, this makes a round trip of 2 weeks.

• FTL communications do not exist.
1. This makes individual regions and planets somewhat autonomous (sort of like feudalism in space).
2. There is a Pony Express-like service that makes use of ships fitted with J4 drives that downloads information to a waiting ship once it gets to it’s destination.

• Space is flat and has a much higher stellar population than our galaxy (or so it seems)
• You are more likely to encounter guns than lasers since lasers either require a bulky power pack or are insanely expensive.

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