Freelance Traveller

Sept/Oct 2026	Department	Article Title	Author
	From the Editor		Jeff Zeitlin
	Theme Issue: The Fifth Frontier War
	Critics' Corner	Ashfall	Jeff Zeitlin
		A Plague of Perruques	Ewan Quibell
		Secrets of the Ancients	Steve Hatherley
		The Fifth Frontier War: Fleets of the Minor Powers	Ewan Quibell
	The Prep Room	Traveller - A Package from a Dark, Cold Grave	Dom Mooney
	Active Measures	Getting Off the Ground: A Perfidious Betrayal	David Johnson
		Getting Off the Ground: Race on Rhylanor	Ewan Cummins
	Raconteurs' Rest	The Astoundingly True Tale of José Fabuloso [Chapter 23]	Jo Jaquinta
		After-Action Report: TravCon (UK) 2026	Timothy Collinson
	Kurishdam	Lecture Hall and Library: Thequzievl, the Psionic Games	Tom Bladon
		Lecture Hall and Library: Jump Destination: Dawns	Richard Perks
	Columns	Confessions of a Newbie Referee: #82: A Little Bit More	Timothy Collinson
	Multimedia Gallery	The Pirates of Drinax Graphic Stories: #18: Graveyard of Ships	Joe Adams
	Doing It My Way	Abusing the Jump Drive: Time Travelling	Jeffrey Schwartz

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The articles listed and linked above are also linked in their appropriate sections of our website.

From the Editor

This year’s TravellerCON/USA has a theme of The Fifth Frontier War, and thus so does this issue of Freelance Traveller, which will be the ‘current’ issue of the magazine during the con. We’ve stretched a definition somewhat, however; some of our “theme” articles aren’t themselves directly tied to the war, but are set in the aftermath thereof.

It’s not often that we get to see the evolution of a product; our thanks to Dom Mooney (of TravCon UK fame) for a look into the development of Cold Dark Grave.

While the primary focus of Traveller – and of Freelance Traveller – has been “crunchy space opera”, there’s nothing restricting it to that genre. Our Other Roads section would be a good place to showcase settings for other genres in which you play or run games using Traveller (or Cepheus Engine) rules. (It’s also a place where you can show off your non-Third-Imperium “crunchy space opera” settings.)

Last issue’s “En Route” by Timothy Collinson and Jane Polwin generated some responses; I’ll remind everyone that inspiration is where you find it (and look for it); feel free to share anything you come up with from “random” events in your day-to-day life.

We still have some ideas for theme issues waiting for material. I’d especially like to get enough material together for the theme issue on Religion, and a theme issues on Non-Humans is also high on the list.

As usual, most sections of Freelance Traveller can use submissions. Please consider especially sending in material for Less Dangerous Game (animal encounters) and Fascinating Flora (plant encounters). That said,  anything Traveller you want to write about is of interest, and is grist for this mill.