A tiny corner of the 'verse

Automatic 0-level skills: Characters are assumed to have 0-level skill (no modifier) in Vacc Suit, Air/Raft, ATV, Steward, a single gun skill of their choice, and a single blade skill of their choice.

Power! Any melee weapon can be bought in a suped-up version that cuts all to hit modifiers against armor in half (rounding down). Such weapons cost three times the normal price. Feel free to add “vibro”, “chain”, “power”, or what to the name of it to sex it up.

Target their main drive! A ship’s gunner can forgo his skill bonus in hitting a target and use his bonus to shift the resulting damage up or down on the location table. 

Diagnosis/Repair: Roll 8+ first to diagnose any damage (takes 10 minutes; re-rolls allowed unless natural 2 is rolled). Roll 8+ to repair one “level” of damage (each “level” takes 10 minutes * level of damage * 1D6).

These are the basic descriptions and starting points for the four major worlds of the Cluster. There's more detail to come, particularly regarding political and cultural data, and for the other, minor worlds in each system, as well as more detailed astronomical data for each system, but this is a quick overview.

Each system listed below is Jump-1 from each other (a jump in Traveller is a hyperspace leap that takes about one week subjective time and travels around 1 parsec (~3.26 light years), and is separated from other systems in the subsector by Jump-2 or more.

Possession (0305):

B797575-7, -/N, A,NI

Good quality spaceport. Refined fuel available. Annual maintenance overhaul available. Shipyard capable of building non-starships present. Naval base present.

11,265.36 km in diameter, dense, tainted atmosphere, 70% liquid covered. Population 85,915. Balkanized government. Law level 7 (near spaceport; other areas may be more or less permissive).

Tech level 7: Solar power, non-starships, hovercraft (ground effect hover only, not anti-grav). Body Pistols and mesh armor. Large craft mounted pulse lasers available. Model 2 computers.

Local governments:

Anthe Council: (spaceport) feudal technocracy, TL7, LL7

Physiosys, LLC: company town, TL8, LL8

Farrell Autonarchy: participating democracy, TL6, LL8

Halimedes: colony of the Farrell Autonarchy, native population once part of the Anthe Council territory. TL8, LL8

ChiCanBo Commonwealth: participating democracy, TL6, LL7

Patience (0306):

C613546-A, -/-, NI

Routine quality spaceport. Only unrefined fuel available. Reasonable repair facilities available.

9,656.07 km in diameter. Trace atmosphere (protective suits and oxygen required on surface), 30% liquid covered. Population 356,854. Representative democracy world government. Law Level 6 (most firearms prohibited, open carry only with registration/license). 

Tech Level A: Laser carbine and rifles, Ablat armor, vehicle-mounted beam laser weapons, Model/3 computers, null-grav Air/Rafts, fusion power.

Damn Nubb (0404):

E100336-5, -/-, NI

Frontier spaceport installation.

1609.3 km in diameter. No atmosphere, no liquid present (vacc suits required on surface). Population 1,012 (permanent residents). Oligarchic government. Law Level 6 (most firearms prohibited, open carry strongly discouraged).

Tech Level 5: Carbine, rifle, pistol, SMG; Model/1 computers; Radio communications; ground cars; oil power.

Whitefall (0405):

B788654-5, -/N, A,NI

Good quality spaceport: Refined fuel available; annual overhaul maintenance available; shipyard capable of constructing non-starships present. Naval base present. 

11,345.11 km in diameter. Dense atmosphere. 80% liquid surface. Population 1,587,158. Feudal Technocracy government. Law Level 4 (strict military weapons prohibited). 

This is the opening email I sent to my friends to entice them to play in my new Traveller campaign:

It's the far-flung future. Earth, once believed to be the original home of Humaniti, has now been relegated to a political backwater in the Third Imperium, a galactic empire inhabited by several strains of humankind  (Solomani, Vilani, and the Zhodani, plus many more minor races) and a few, more alien races. Space travel is possible via the Jump Drive which is fueled by hydrogen fusion. The galactic arm has been divided into Sectors and Subsectors, and planets in each inhabited system are rated into varying tech levels, from low (Stone Age) to high (laser weapons, anti-gravity).

You are crew and passengers of a Type AH Bulk Freighter starship, a 5000 ton ship that has seen better days but still has some life left. The ship has 15 staterooms for crew or passengers (plus some tanks for Low Passengers traveling via frozen sleep) and over 2800 tons of cargo. The ship itself is owned by an arm of the megacorporation Sternmetal Horizons, LIC, and there are still monthly payments that must be made before the ship is owned outright. In order to make those payments, there are various types of cargo that can be bought and sold, or other more risky but more lucrative jobs that can be taken.