Alebelly - Absolutely! Welcome to the game. Waiting for the campaign thread to open and we will get going. Feel free to play around with the character generator
https://www.batintheattic.com/traveller/to get an idea of the kinds of characters you can play . I think we'll plan to stick with just the basic six in the original books (Army, Navy, Marines, Scouts, Merchant, Other (likely criminal...) unless someone is super keen to do one of the other classes that came later.
In a nutshell, the Traveller universe of the Third Imperium (the official background from GDW) is akin to Spain during the Age of Sail but set in space. Information only travels at the speed of transportation which is capped. Even using a network of fast couriers the Capital is still almost a year away from the border regions.
The Imperium is governed by a strict feudal system and fealty is the glue holding everything together - well, fealty and the Imperial Navy, Marines, Army, Merchant and Scout services.
The Imperium rules the space between the stars, collects taxes and protects it's territory with a mighty military. Planets are generally left to run themselves without interference, and many different types of worlds, governments and technology levels abound.
Megacorporations and Merchant lines dominate the most profitable trade and transportation lanes but entrepreneurial and canny Free Traders can still make a name and profit for themselves on the margins.
Player Characters in Traveller are generally experienced veterans, ex-military or merchant marines that have decided, (unlike most citizens who never leave their home worlds), that they prefer a life of adventure among the stars. For comparative purposes think of TV shows like Firefly, The Expanse , Farscape or movies like Aliens, Avatar, Outland, Blade Runner and Star Wars (not really Star Trek, much too clean in my opinion
).
Don't worry if you don't know any of the official background at all, you'll be far enough away that it won't really matter except as window dressing.
)
