Overview

History: 1981-1982

Alien Star magazine debuted in February 1981, making it the first Traveller fanzine of note — and for that matter, the second major periodical of any type, following GDW's Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society (1979-1985), but preceding High Passage (1981-1982) by a few months. Like High Passage, it originated in secondary school: the Poole Grammar School of Dorset in South West England. The creators were students Robert McMahon and John Roberts.

Alien Star's origins in Dorset mean that it was ultimately a byblow of Games Workshop's decision to bring Traveller into the UK, to later print it themselves, and to support it in White Dwarf magazine. McMahon and Roberts proved that they were members of that family by also writing for White Dwarf during Alien Star's original run. Roberts contributed a list of Jump Drive problems to White Dwarf #26 (August/September 1981) and McMahon created a new basic career, "The Imperial Secret Service", for White Dwarf #27 October/November 1981).

Meanwhile, the two offered a fairly typical collection of Traveller articles in Alien Star's first five issues, including stats for new weapons, starships, and other equipment as well as many short reviews — something not common in the more professional magazines. There were also new careers; in particular McMahon wrote one of the many variants of a mercantile advanced career prior to the release of GDW's BOOK 7: MERCHANT PRINCE (1985). Though the pair offered a few adventures set in The Spinward Marches, they also created two subsectors of their own, Anniversary and Orion, and set additional adventures there; the fact that Anniversary and Orion didn't fit into any actual sectors of Charted Space merely demonstrated the immature nature of the universe at the time.

Following Alien Star #5 (October/November 1981), the pair were becoming focused on A-levels and university. They decided to hand the magazine off to Dave Hockham of the Minifigs-Skytrex shops, who would produce the final three issues. For all practical purposes, the last three issues of Alien Star, edited by Hockham, were a different magazine. Some of these changes were purely superficial, such as a change in size from the A4 format of the first five issues the digest-sized A5 format of the last three. However, there were also dramatic content changes.

The subtitle of the magazine heralded the biggest transformation. Where before it was the "Traveller Magazine", now it was a "Science Fiction Gamer's Magazine". Hockham planned to incorporate content for other science-fiction games, but other than a review of Federation Space in Alien Star #8 (April 1982), that never happened. With that said, the content of the magazine took on a tone that often felt more like generic science-fiction than Traveller. Beyond that, the magazine abandoned not just the new subsectors created for the first five issues, but also the Spinward Marches as well.

Three other interesting changes accompanied those last two issues. To start with, there were now themes for each issue, tying together all of the content in a general way. There was a heavy focus on solo adventures, some of them quite intricate. Finally, a much larger coterie of writers appeared, including two notable names. The first was Trevor Graver, a Games Workshop employee who had previously authored the UK's other early Traveller fanzine, Dark Star (1981). The second was John Kovalic, future creator of Dork Tower (1997-Present), here offering up his first gaming comic, Dirk Starworthy.

Theme Issues

• #6: Recovery
• #7: Recreation
• #8: Rebellion

Obtaining the Magazines

The original print runs of Alien Star were miniscule, and limited to the UK. By the final issue of the original five-issue run, it had increased to 300 copies. The earliest issues are thus largely impossible to find. Dave Hockham's version of the magazine had higher ambitions. It was printed in larger numbers and distributed into the United States via the Armory. The latter three issues can thus sometimes be found at low-to-mid level collector's prices.

There have been no official reprints, though counterfeit copies have been sold on eBay for some time, obvious once you get them by their pristine condition, the fact that the first five issues are printed digest-sized, and some slight variations in the cover colors. If you see copies on eBay that purport to be "near new", they're probably counterfeits.

In other words, it's almost impossible to acquire this fanzine, so consider this index a historic reference of what the first Traveller fanzine looked like.

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

🎞️ Adventures: Misc

🎞️ Adventures: Geographic, Non-Canon¹

1. Non-Canon sectors and subsectors do not appear on the official map of Charted Space.

🎞️ Adventures: 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".

💡 Advice

📚 Background: Misc

🌌 Background: Geographic, Non-Canon¹

1. Non-Canon sectors and subsectors do not appear on the official map of Charted Space.
2. Orion was intended to be "a frontier zone of the Imperium rimward of the Spinward Marches". That would presumably put it in what became the Trojan Reach sector.
3. Anniversary was "coreward" of Orion, "deeper into the Imperium".

🌌 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".

🖊️ Campaign Design

🛠️ Equipment: Misc

1. Previously appeared in DARK STAR #3 (1981).

🤖 Equipment: Artificial Life

⚔️ Equipment: Combat

🛰️ Equipment: Infrastructure

🚀 Equipment: Transport

🧶️ Fiction

⬆️ Meta

1. Originally ran in DARK STAR (1981).

🗣️ NPCs

📜 Rules

1. Another variant advanced-merchant career produced prior to the release of BOOK 7: MERCHANT PRINCE (GDW, 1985).

⭐ Reviews: Misc

⭐ Reviews: Miniatures

Appendix I: Other Games

🎲 Misc: Board Games

🪨 Asteroid

⚡ Azhanti High Lightning

🪖 Striker

Covers