[Fanzine Focus XXXVIII] The Travellers’ Digest #5

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. However, not all fanzines written with the Old School Renaissance in mind need to be written for a specific retroclone. Although not the case now, the popularity of Traveller would spawn several fanzines, of which The Travellers’ Digest, published by Digest Group Publications, was the most well known and would eventually transform from a fanzine into a magazine.

The publication of The Travellers’ Digest #1 in December, 1985 marked the entry of Digest Group Publications into the hobby and from this small, but ambitious beginnings would stem a complete campaign and numerous highly-regarded supplements for Game Designers Workshop’s Traveller and MegaTraveller, as well as a magazine that all together would run for twenty-one issues between 1985 and 1990. The conceit was that The Travellers’ Digest was a magazine within the setting of the Third Imperium, its offices based on Deneb in the Deneb Sector, and that it awarded the Travellers’ Digest Touring Award. This award would be won by one of the Player Characters and thus the stage is set for ‘The Grand Tour’, the long-running campaign in the pages of The Travellers’ Digest. In classic fashion, as with Europe of the eighteenth century, this would take the Player Characters on a tour of the major capitals of known space. These include Vland, Capitol, Terra, the Aslan Hierate, and even across the Great Rift. The meat of this first issue, as well as subsequent issues, would be dedicated to an adventure, each a stop-off on the ‘The Grand Tour’, along with support for it. The date for the first issue of The Travellers’ Digest and thus when the campaign begins is 152-1101, the 152nd day of the 1101st year of the Imperium.

To best run ‘The Grand Tour’, the Referee will need access to The Atlas of the Imperium, Supplement 8: Library Data (A-M), Supplement 11: Library Data (N-Z), Supplement 7: Traders and Gunboats (or alternatively, Supplement 5: Azhanti High Lightning), as well as the core rules. In addition, other supplements would be required depending on the adventure. Of course, that was in 1985, and much, if not all, of the rules or background necessary have been updated since. The campaign is also specifically written for use with four pre-generated Player Characters. They consist of Akidda Laagiir, the journalist who won the Travellers’ Digest Touring Award; Dur Telemon, a scout and his nephew; Doctor Theodor Krenstein, a gifted-scientist and roboticist; and Doctor Krenstein’s valet, ‘Aybee’, or rather, ‘AB-101’. The fact is, AB-101 is a pseudo-biological robot, both protégé and prototype. Consequently, the mix of Player Characters are surprisingly non-traditional and not all of them are easily created used the means offered in Traveller or MegaTraveller. This is addressed within various issues of the fanzine.

The Travellers’ Digest #5 was published in 1986 in the run up to the Origins convention, which took place from July 3rd to 6th in Los Angeles and moved the date on from the 324th day of the 1101st year of the Imperium to 005-1102, the fifth day of the 1102nd year of the Imperium. The opening ‘Editors’ Digest’ celebrates the fanzine’s first birthday and the increase in page count to sixty pages due to advertising revenue! It highlights the fact that two books would be on sale at Origins ’86 designed by the team behind the fanzine—Grand Survey by J. Andrew Keith, published by Digest Group Publications and Traveller Book 8: Robots, published by Game Designers Workshop. In addition to providing an overview of the content of the current it announced the contents of the next four issues.

The fifth part of ‘The Grand Tour’ in The Travellers’ Digest #5 is ‘Feature Adventure 5: The Humaniti Experiment’, written by editor Gary L. Thomas. In addition to the standard books required by the campaign, the supplements Beltstrike! and Traveller Alien Module 6: Solomani are also useful. As a result of the events in ‘Feature Adventure 3: Tourist Trap’ in the previous issue, the Player Characters were knighted and are now on their way to Capitol, the heart of the Third Imperium where they will be formally ennobled by the emperor. They have now reached Vland, the home of Vilani culture and capital of the Sector in the Vland Subsector of Vland Sector in the Domain of Vland.

The scenario opens with Doctor Theodor Krenstein dealing with a possible memory glitch in ‘Aybee’, before they descend to the surface of Vland. Amongst the many tourist attractions on offer, Doctor Krenstein wants to visit the ‘Argushiigi Admegulasha Bilanidin’, the ‘Vilani Repository of All Knowledge’, also known as the ‘AAB’ or ‘the Encyclopaedia’. A combined museum, library, research centre, and publishing house, it is largest facility of its kind in explored space and it should be no surprise that Doctor Krenstein has an old friend there that he wants to visit. Doctor Issac Imlu is pleased to see him and happily gives the Player Characters a tour of the facility when he is approached by a belter who shows him an extremely old First Imperium data disk. The scenario concerns not only what is on the disk, but also where it came from. The belter explains that he has more disks, but will not readily reveal where he found it beyond the name, ‘Star Harbour’. Fortunately, the facility does have a First Imperium data disk reader and getting past the security code is not too difficult. The recording turns out to be a report on the manipulation of a human subspecies on the world of Uradanid to enhance their technological development past the use of the nuclear weapons. Analysing the information on the data disk reveals that the world was in the Solomani Rim and that this manipulation took place over three thousand years previously.

The inference of the information on the data disk is that the world of Uradanid is in fact, Terra, and that the Vilani made covert contact with the Terrans and manipulated their technological advancement so that they discovered Jump Drive technology before they might have done otherwise without this manipulation. This does not negate the Solomani status as a Major Race, that is, one of the species to discover Jump Drive technology independently, but it does call it into question. This is an astounding discovery if true. Certainly, Doctor Theodor Krenstein would want to research it further simply for its historical significance, whilst for the journalist, Akidda Laagiir, it would be an amazing scoop. However, when the Player Characters go looking for the belter who gave Doctor Imlu the data disk, they first find that he has left Vland and then discover that he is dead!

The second half of the scenario leads the Player Characters to the ‘Star Harbour’ system and the discovery that the belter was up to no good and ultimately, that the recording is a sham. Getting to this information is not as structured as the set-up to the scenario’s core mystery, which itself in terms of the Traveller background is both interesting and intriguing. The scenario, although underwritten in this second half, does expose the Player Characters to one of the pro-Vilani/anti-Solomani groups active the sector. These are expanded upon by the scenario’s ‘Library Data’ which describes several of these groups, some of which are extremist in their outlook.

The Travellers’ Digest #5 contains two big articles, both by big names in the Traveller community. The first is ‘Vland! Cradle of the First Imperium’ by J. Andrew Keith. It ties with ‘Feature Adventure 5: The Humaniti Experiment’ earlier in the fanzine, but also provides a map and a complete description of Vland, complete with statistics generated using the rules from Grand Survey. It is followed by ‘Library Data of the Vland Sector’ by Nancy Parker that complements the previous article and the adventure. The Vland Subsector is also detailed. The second big article is ‘The First Imperium’ by Marc Miller. This charts the history of the Vilani from their origins as part of the Ancients colony on Vland and their survival during the Final War between the Ancients, through their industrial and cultural development to their first space exploration and beyond. The discovery of the Jump Drive led to rapid economic dominance of the systems around Vland and the establishment of the three Bureaux that would control vast swathes of space for centuries to come. Within two millennia of this, the ‘Ziru Sirka’ or ‘Grand Empire of Stars’ was declared to govern over the whole of the territory it consolidated before fully instituting an emperor and governing in peace for over another millennia. Ultimately, the article details the Solomani making contact with the Ziru Sirka and the war that followed that would see the Vilani defeated. There is also a map that shows the extent of the Ziru Sirka and the areas controlled by the three bureaux, as well as list of other references available at the time of publication. Together though, the two articles form a very good introduction to one of the Major Races in Traveller and in 1986, they would have been major developments of the background to the roleplaying game.

The issue switches subject with Henry R. Neufeld’s ‘Playing in Character – Effective Role Playing’. As the title suggests, it is a guide to good roleplaying and roleplaying etiquette. It applies as much to the player as it does the players and it topped and tailed by an example of poor play and an example of good play. In between is a list of dos and don’ts that look obvious today, but perhaps might not have been obvious in 1986—at least to some players and Game Masters. It is still good advice though, but a surprising addition to the pages of The Traveller’s Digest though and one has to wonder if the author has had some poor roleplaying experiences…

Lastly, the issue includes the ‘Traveller’s Digest Astrographic Index for Issues 1—4’. This collates all of the mentions of the worlds, subsectors, and sectors mentioned in the first four issues of the fanzine. It is a useful addition for the Game Master wanting to find a location and its specific mention.

Physically, The Travellers’ Digest #5 is, as with all of the issues so far, very obviously created using early layout software. The artwork is not great, but it does its job and it is far from dreadful. What is noticeable about the issue is the first use of colour on its front and back cover.

The Traveller’s Digest #5 picks up the Grand Tour with an episode that does not develop quite as well as its set-up suggests, but remains interesting and intriguing nonetheless. However, it is the inclusion of authors such as J. Andrew Keith and Marc Miller that really elevates The Traveller’s Digest #5 into a thoroughly interesting read that develops the background to the roleplaying game. Overall, this is good issue.