In this newsletter | Arcane Sword Press | Get Haunted Industries | Ham & Egg Publishing | Saltheart RPG |
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Magazine Madness ! This week: The Journal of the Travellers’ Aid Society! |
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 | I’ve been collecting these for awhile, but they are hard to come by at a reasonable price! | So if you know me, I’m very into Traveller. There are plenty of things that Game Designers’ Workshop did that I think is fantastic from a game design and publishing perspective with their classic edition of Traveller. One of my favorite releases GDW did was the Journal of the Travellers Aid Society, or JTAS. |  |
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JTAS was a quarterly publication that supported the original Traveller RPG from 1977 by adding new rules, setting lore, spaceships, and adventures. The classic Traveller Boxset was pretty bare bones so JTAS was primarily adding more content for that. However, each issue just offers something completely different and clever. But mostly, JTAS was an in-game setting publication. As in, much of the articles was written to be immersive within the Third Imperium setting and you-the reader are a member of the Travellers Aid Society, an organization that’s somewhere between a Union and AAA in the far future for travellers. Each issue offers consistent articles such as From the Management: an Editor’s column about GDW and Traveller news The Cover Article: This is the big pull for each issue and is always different. Sometimes it’s an adventure module, a rules expansion (like the one posted above about Asteroid Mining), aliens, unique atmospheres, new careers for characters, etc. Featured Article: Additional rule supplements for traveller Traveller News Service: a series of in-game news headlines that advances the Third Imperium’s calendar with significant events that could affect some locations. This essentially implies an immersive way to have a living setting. Casual Encounters: This is a feature that provides a specific Patron for players to interact with and work for along with their agenda and background. Amber Zone: These are adventures to specific locations that are considered “risky” but will always provide high adventure and the promise of payouts. The Bestiary: A new alien creature for players to encounter The Ship’s Locker: New items, vehicles, and weapons that could be found on a ship’s storage bay.
|  | | | Many of the articles featured in JTAS would be expanded upon to create the classic Traveller supplement books later on. One thing I just really need to get across is how cool this was. You publish a solid game, and then you have a subscription magazine to support that game. Nothing else is in there! It is all content created by Marc Miller, Loren Wiseman, and the other folks at GDW. No D&D articles, or Runescape, or anything else for other games. Just Traveller. Yes, there were some ads in it but not as much as you would expect and often they were to support traveller licensed products from other publishers. This is a tightly focused support magazine with fantastic writing and artwork that was eventually used for standalone official products within the line. |  | | |
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JTAS was published from 1979-1985 for a run of 24 issues. I have a sizable collection of them, and they are all fantastic. No duds here! It is impossible to not find game inspiration flipping through the pages. While JTAS is a Traveller magazine, it’s worth noting that most of it is usable for any sci-fi RPG. While yes some weapons have stats as do NPCs, the adventures provided are mechanically neutral and would be a great way to supplement an on-going campaign. If you’d like to check some out for yourself, you can get each issue for the cover price of $2 on DrivethruRPG. You may also order a cd-rom of all of the issues in pdf form (along with everything else published by GDW) from Far Future Enterprise (essentially current day GDW run by Marc Miller) or you can buy a lot on ebay for cheapish.
Next Week- Surprise!
If you’d like to talk about games and meet new friends who love indie RPGs, OSR content, and more- join the Arcane Sword discord! |
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| | New Delirium Division single dropping on Valentine’s Day! |  | Ahoy!
While many of you might know us as TTRPG writers, my creative partner Geo Collazo and I are also lifelong musicians.
When we started Ham & Egg Publishing in 2020 and began writing our first release, Rocket To Russia, in earnest, we also banded together with some of our friends to record a pandemic-era album that has never fully seen the light of day. We called this project, Delirium Division.
Delirium Division is not so much a band but a revolving door of friends and musicians who want to make music for the love of it.
|  | There was a lot of work and heart poured into this project, with Geo Collazo providing most of the instrumentation and all the production. Writing duties fell to Geo and the rest of the group, which included Ryan Levasseur (Vocals, Guitar), Frank Iero (Guitar), Evan Nestor (Vocals), Michael Ragosta (Vocals), Shaun Simon (Guitar, Keyboard), and John McGuire (Bass).
In the almost 6 years since we started the project, like Marvel’s Defenders, we’ve never all been in the same room. Because, like many albums recorded during the pandemic, we recorded it from our homes.
Our fourth single, BLEAK is dropping on Valentine’s Day. You can pre-save it here. | | | | | Cheap Freaks!!! Kitbash your way to happiness!!! |  | Joey Royale, Get Haunted Industries
After checking out the war room at Arcane Con and digesting the creative battlefields of Under the Dice Fest, I proudly sold my soul to kitbashing.
I previously steered away from miniatures due to intimidation and absurd price points. The mad geniuses at these two cons, however, showed me a new perspective that changed everything- break the rules, use what you have, and get crafty. BOOM! Now my fingers are glued together, I got baking soda in my mustache, and I’m happy as a clam making little monsters out of pinecones, clay, and whatever else I find lying around when I walk my dogs.
Listen, if I can do it, you can do it. Watch a couple videos on the slap shop method. Glue a tooth on the neck of a green army guy. Slowly build up a collection of speed paint and washes, about four bucks each. Have a snack. Bada bing, bada boom. Next thing you know, you’ll have your own little menagerie, and I guarantee you will have a special story for each creature.
So, I dare you to give it a shot. Starting on February 1 in the Get Haunted Discord, join us for CHEAP FREAKS – a project where everybody sticks to a $10 budget and creates their own miniature. On February 1, post a picture of your raw materials. On February 28, post the magic creation you have sculpted as your pals cheer you on. That’s it! Let’s get weird!
GHI DISCORD:
https://discord.gg/qnjB5G4KXg | | | | | | | The folks who joined me at PAGE to play Zero Punk, know what that question means. As we get deep into writing the Book of Z, playtesting is critical, and the Black Box scenario has had a lot of mileage. |  | Life of a Zero Punk in the Megapolis sits on a razor’s edge. A walled city bursting at the seams, an apocalyptic wasteland beyond. Zero Punks were born without permission of the Corps. Born with their genetically coded bio-clocks inactive, an unsanctioned life. Parents of unsanctioned births pay dearly for a biohack to activate the dormant clock shortly after birth, some say it costs a decade of life! A Zero Punk’s bio-clock is activated at 0.
Contributions by parents and friends keep them alive until they are old enough to earn their own Life. A Zero Punk quickly learns that on the streets and in the slums life is literally hard won. But, more than just time counters, bio-clocks ensure near immortality, distributing genetic fixes and countering the latest viral or genetic attack, a new threat emerging seemingly every day. |  | Thanks to Kris McClanahan for the awesome sheet! | Based on the BURN 2d6 rules (a bit enhanced), the game will center on a crew of Zero Punks, eeking it out on the edges. The Black Box adventure sets them on the path of a great mystery that could implicate CorpSec in nefarious deeds….
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/burn2d6/the-book-of-z
More to come.
Kevin “Saltheart” | | |
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Your editor this week has been John Hambone McGuire of Ham & Egg Publishing.
Keep on emailing us at hello@analogunion.com to let us know what you’d like to see more of, less of, or just ideas you’ve got. If you like the Analog Union newsletter, please tell your friends to sign up at AnalogUnion.com. See you next week! -JHM |
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