Freelance
Traveller
| September 2014 | Department | Article Title | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
From the Editor | Jeff Zeitlin | |
| Featured Article | |||
| Raconteurs’ Rest | After-Action Report: TravCon 14 | Timothy Collinson | |
| Critics’ Corner | Ships of Clement Sector 5: Traders and Scouts | Megan Robertson | |
| Shipbook: Mirador | Jeff Zeitlin | ||
| Active Measures | The Fated Sky | Michael Brown | |
| Getting Off the Ground: The Benedict Advance | Michael Brown | ||
| Columns | Confessions of a Newbie Referee: #12: Creativity | Timothy Collinson | |
| Doing It My Way | QREBS in the Shopping Mall | Timothy Collinson | |
| Character Generation Rules: John Law II: Character Generation for Traveller: The New Era | Jeff Zeitlin | ||
| Building a Commercial Atlas | Jeff Zeitlin | ||
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From the Editor
Last month’s From The Editor tooted a bit about how it was Freelance Traveller’s first Theme Issue. Sadly, Your Humble Editor needs to peruse his cookbooks for workable recipes for crow; it seems that I designated the May/June 2012 issue as a Theme Issue (for 2300AD), and pride of place for Theme Issues must therefore go to that issue.
I promised last month that I’d give an overview of the list of themes I have for Theme Issues. I should note that what I say about a particular Theme should not be taken as a rigorous limit; if you can think of other ideas that would fit in with the Theme as described, go for it—don’t rule it out just because I don’t mention it below.
Right now, five Themes are waiting for material:
Cruise: For this Theme, I’d like to see a focus on taking a vacation/holiday trip. An ideal linkage would be a Shipyard article on a passenger liner, with deckplans; a “photo” tour of the public areas of the ship; a profile of a Personality aboard the ship, e.g., the Captain or the Chief Steward/Purser; and a shipboard adventure/seed involving the Personality. Examples of other good articles might include a Jump Destination for the ship, looking at a world that’s a Tourist Destination; a story (Raconteurs’ Rest) that takes place there or aboard the ship; a Contact!-style article on a minor race that lives on the world, and so on.
Dark Imperium: Maybe the Imperium isn’t as hands-off with respect to a world’s governance as normally portrayed. Maybe the Imperium has its own ‘political correctness’. Maybe the iron fist behind the velvet glove is a bit more visible, and the velvet a bit more threadbare and tattered. Lots of room here, and I have no specific linkage in mind—but maybe you do!
Prime Directive: When this setting—essentially, Star Trek (The Original Series)—for Mongoose Traveller is finally released, I’d like to kick off Freelance Traveller’s support for it with a Theme Issue. One caution, which goes with all Prime Directive material for any system: No cameos from the TV series, no sourcing from later series or movies—as I understand things, this is a mandate imposed on ADB as part of the terms of their license for the setting.
Space City: This might be the startown of a highport; it might be an independent habitat. Either way, it’s big, it’s populated, and it’s a Place where Things Can Happen. Again, lots of room here, and no specific linkage in mind.
Yacht: This theme can have a lot of conceptual overlap with the Cruise Theme. The principal difference is that the where the Cruise Theme features a passenger liner, this Theme features the privately-owned pleasure ship. The same sort of linkage and articles work for both themes.
Naturally, if you have ideas for other themes, I’m interested in hearing about them. Write and suggest them, and/or tell me which of the above would be most of interest to you.