Overview

History: 1984-1985

Working Passage wasn't the first Traveller fanzine. Two predated it: the fanzine Alien Star (1981-1982) and the newsletter Dark Star (1981), both produced in the UK a few years earlier. However, Working Passage would become a foundational building block in Traveller fandom in a way that neither of its predecessors had, and that was in large part due to its editor: Ed Edwards.

Edwards entered gaming as a wargamer, cutting his teeth on Tactics II (1958) in 1959 and then becoming a more serious collector of wargames beginning in 1976. He was a particular fan of SPI and when that company fell in 1982, he turned to other hobbies. He'd long known about Traveller, having bought his brother a copy in 1977, and now he decided to give it a try himself with his first purchase being Traveller Supplement 8: Library Data (A-M) (1981). Though he hadn't been a particular fan of the Traveller game system, the background of the Third Imperium won him over.

Edwards was definitely a collector. By the end of 1982, he had 40 Traveller supplements. Book 5: High Guard (1980), bought that December, was a particular prize because Edwards loved the solo-play ship-design system; he filled notebooks with his own starships. By the end of 1983, Edwards had 116 Traveller products. By 1984, Edwards was selling off his wargame collection to pay for Traveller products. He'd have 175 by the end of that year.

As a fan, Edwards began reviewing Traveller products for The American Wargamer (1973-2000), starting in late 1983. As a collector, he began producing lists of Traveller products as well. At Origins '84, he discovered many Traveller fans had such lists, and declared himself coordinator of the Traveller Data Base Working Group, intended to produce a variety of lists relevant to Traveller. By the end of the month he'd bought a Commodore 64 computer so that he could better produce the lists and even write a short newsletter for other people working on the lists: the Traveller Data Base Express. Brian Sarver, Steve Tingley, and even Marc Miller all supported early lists for the data base project.

Though Steve Tingley had just a single list under his purview for the TDBWG, the Skills List (TDB #14), he would quickly become central to the story of Working Passage. This began in September 1984, when Tingley and Edwards tested out the design of a new "Newsletter for Traveller Fans", inspired by The American Wargamer and the work of its editor, George Phillies. That newsletter was, of course, Working Passage. Edwards was the editor of the newsletter, responsible for putting it together, while Tingley was the publisher, responsible for printing and distributing it. Their first test issue, labeled "Vol 0, #1" was never widely distributed, although at least one copy made it out beyond Edwards' and Tingley's local friends. It consisted of an introduction, a listing of Traveller Data Base (TDB) lists, and a few reviews that would later be reprinted.

The real start of Working Passage was issue "#0", produced in November. It demonstrated a new two-column layout and was printed at 12 pages (likely six double-sided photocopied pages, and likely meant to weigh just less than an ounce, to keep the newsletter in the cheapest mailing rate for personal mail: 22 cents for first class). Like Dark Star before it, Working Passage was more a newsletter than a fanzine, meaning that both the layout and the content were on the less polished side, and that there tended to be a higher proportion of reviews and news. Nonetheless, it had a fair amount of gaming content.

Working Passage ran approximately monthly for twelve issues from November 1984 through December 1985. They were almost all 12 pages long, with just a few discrepencies near the end of the run. Popular topics included starship design (which remained a favorite for Edwards) and the stories of an "average" character (777777) named ED172ed and his homebase on Dock 137. Working Passage also featured many of the data bases created by the TDBWG; it more officially became the home of the TDBWG with issue #7 (August 1985), when it incorporated the TDB Express.

One other important element of Working Passage was its use of digitally created illustrations. The Travellers' Digest usually gets the credit for having some of the earliest digital illustrations in the entire roleplaying industry, but Working Passage trailed them by just a single month with a digital illustration of "Sword Base" by Pat Stapleton appearing in Working Passage #6 (July 1985).

Steve Tingley only supported Working Passage through issue #3 (March 1985) after which Edwards was abruptly required to take over the actual publication of the magazine. After that the magazine was almost entirely his work, though he had some help. That after all was the name of the magazine: "Working Passage" was meant to suggest that readers would provide their own work to help support the magazine. Marc Miller thus offered an early look at Deneb's maps in issue #2 (February 1985), a rather extraordinary act of kindness toward such a small, amateur fanzine -- but such support of small Traveller press was quite typical for Miller, and likely one of the reasons for the game's success. Other contributors such as Craig Sheeley and Herb Petro would later move on to other publications.

There were plans to do more. In Working Passage #8 (September 1985), Edwards talked about the formation of "Universal Gaming Experiences", a new publisher intended to produce "Approvedd For" products for Traveller as well as Car Wars and The Morrow Project and even their own game "To Challenge Infinity". They would never appear; in fact, Working Passage would soon come to an end.

After the publication of Working Passage #11 (December 1985), Edwards planned to begin work on Working Passage #12 on December 27, 1985 and then after a break for his wife's surgery in January 1986 continue on with issues #14 and #13, the latter to fall on April Fools' Day 1986. It was not to be: on January 9, 1986, Herb Petro received a letter from Edwards telling him that Edwards' Commodore 64 had broken down, and there was no money to repair it. Working Passage was thus ending its production.

But, Edwards had done more than just create a magazine: he'd created a community. He'd already offered Magnus Abel encouragement in the creation of what would be Traveller's fourth fanzine, Between Worlds (1985-1986), which Herb Petro said was "half a step above Working Passage (sorry Ed)" in a review. Following the end of Working Passage, Petro himself picked up the baton to create its direct successors: first The Imperium Staple (1986-1987) and then Continuum (1987). A few columns continued over from Working Passage to the new magazines, as did the presence of both Petro and Edwards.

With the advent of Working Passage in 1984, Edwards had thus created the first Traveller fandom of correspondents and amateur publishers. And, he wasn't done yet. In 1987 he became the most important person in Traveller fandom again when he founded the History of the Imperium Working Group (HIWG) with the support of Mike Mikesh, but that story lies in the history of Tiffany Star (1987-1992).

Obtaining the Magazines

The 0th issue of Working Passage was intended to go out 268 readers, based on a list Edwards and Tingley had generated of "friends of Traveller". Unfortunately, Edwards and Tingley didn't have the money to do so. In fact, the total treasury of Working Passage for the first issue was $20, the sum of the subscription fees paid by Edwards and Tingley ($10 each for 12 issues), since "Working Passage" meant that everyone had to pay, even the editor and publisher. The first issue thus went out to a much smaller set of potential subscribers, ultimately limiting the reach of the magazine. By the final issue, Working Passage had a subscription list of approximately 60 readers, some of them comps.

Edwards did photocopy old issues for new readers. However, the fact that it was a plain newsletter, and that it went out to a fairly small number of subscribers, means that there are probably very few issues left extant today. It's also never been reproduced on the internet.

As a result, this index is primarily a historical document that records what Working Passage was, as opposed to an index that might be useful for actual printed copies.

Special Thanks

Special thanks to Art Gorski who sold me a complete run of Working Passage that he'd bought from Herb Petro. It contained not just the 12 issues of Working Passage but also that test print from September 1984, the final subscriber's list, and a few other pieces of historic interest.

Thank you, Art! Obviously that collection of Working Passage was invaluable for producing this, but moreso it revealed lots of good content for the Traveller history book I'm working on, This is Free Trader Beowulf, which is of course the point of the whole exercise!

This index is © Copyright 2022 by Shannon Appelcline. It is released under a cc-by-4.0 license, allowing reuse with attribution.

Main Index

🧰 Accessories

🎞️ Adventures: Misc

💡 Advice

🛸 Aliens: Humaniti

🛸 Aliens: Major Races

1. Originally intended for publication in ALIEN MODULE 1: ASLAN (GDW, 1984)

🛸 Aliens: Minor Races

📚 Background: Misc

🌌 Background: Geographic, Charted Space

🌌 Background: Geographic, Imperium, Domain of Antares¹

1. Material for the Imperium is divided into its seven major domains as defined by the late Third Imperium. The Domain of Antares is the most Coreward of the Domains. It includes the Antares Sector, the Lishun Sector, the Meshan Sector, and the Mendan Sector, and additionally administers the Empty Quarter. Much of the Domain of Antares is actually part of the Vargr Extents.

🌌 Background: Geographic, Imperium, Domain of Deneb¹

1. The Domain of Deneb is the most Spinward of the Domains. It includes the Deneb Sector, the Reft Sector, the Spinward Marches, and the Trojan Reach. It's the most traditional location for adventure in the Imperium. It is also known as the region "Behind the Claw".

🌌 Background: Geographic, Imperium, Domain of Ilelish¹

1. The Domain of Ilelish lies between the Solomani Sphere and Aslan Space and was the home of the Suerrat Republic. It includes the Daibei Sector, the Ilelish Sectyor, Reaver's Deep, and the Zarushagar Sector, and also administers the Verge Sector.

🌌 Background: Geographic, Imperium, Domain of Sol¹

⌛ Background: Historic

🖊️ Campaign Design

🛠️ Equipment: Misc

🤖 Equipment: Artificial Life

⚔️ Equipment: Combat

🚀 Equipment: Transport

🧶️ Fiction

1. Returned as a five-part strip in CHALLENGE #44-#48 (GDW, 1990-1991).

🎤 Interviews, Memoirs & Notes

⬆️ Meta

📜 Rules

🔎 Previews

⭐ Reviews: Misc

⭐ Reviews: Fiction

⭐ Reviews: Miniatures

⭐ Reviews: Software

Appendix I: Traveller Wargames

🪖 Striker

Covers