Overview

History: 1986-1987

The story of The Imperium Staple begins with Herb Petro, who discovered science-fiction roleplaying in 1984 with Star Frontiers (1982), but was so won over by Traveller (1977) when he received it three months later for Christmas that he immediately dumped his Star Frontiers game and began playing Traveller instead.

Petro became connected to Traveller fandom when he began buying issues of Working Passage, the first Traveller fanzine in the United States, from its founding editor, Ed Edwards. On January 9, 1986 Petro received a fateful letter from Ed Edwards: it sadly stated that Edwards' computer had broken down, and due to a lack of money to repair that computer, Working Passage was coming to an end as well.

Petro, a student at South Point High School of Belmont, North Carolina decided to pick up the torch by founding The Imperium Staple the third major American fanzine, following Working Passage and the recently inaugurated Between Worlds (1985-1986). And perhaps there was one more: Even at the time, there was contention whether Elmer Hinton's PBM-related 'zine, The Travellers' Aide (1985-1987), belonged on the list. If so it would have been the third American fanzine, as it was first published in December 1985, preceding The Imperium Staple. Petro was also following in the footsteps of the creators of the British Alien Star (1981-1982) and the professional High Passage magazine (1981-1982), because like Petro, all of their creators had been in high school — by now an actual tradition in Traveller pubication.

Ed Edwards helped with contributions to the new fanzine and even suggested the title: The Imperium Staple. The "Imperium" revealed that the focus was on Traveller and the "Staple" said that the fanzine would cover the "staple types of Traveller articles". Edwards' work would be extensive over the 'zine's run and he'd eventually be named the head of the Star Port Authority department. Alan M. Nuss, another regular contributor, would similarly be handed the Trade & Commerce department. A few other contributors came from the wider Traveller fandom, among them Mike Mikesh (soon to be a major force in the HIWG), Jefferson Swycaffer (author of the "Concordat of Archive" novels), ... and Elmer Hinton.

The 'zine continued on a shockingly fast monthly schedule from its debut in March 1986 through its tenth issue, published in January 1987. Whenever he was short on content, Petro just filled the space himself. Major topics included a point-based character creation system and a delve into the Foreven Sector.

By the end of '86, Petro was finding his Traveller-focused time decreasing, and so he decided to bring his work on the fanzine to an end. Enter W. Elmer Hinton. Much older than Petro, Hinton had been running a Diplomacy PBM 'zine named Kaissa for almost ten years, as well as his own Traveller PBM 'zine, The Travellers' Aide. He'd also been long associated with The Imperium Staple.

Now, Petro agreed to turn over The Imperium Staple to Hinton beginning with issue #11. Meanwhile, Petro was starting a new magazine focused on news and out-of-continuity material; he expected the new magazine, Continuum, to take up less of his time than The Imperium Staple had because it would be a more casual endeavor.

What happened next was perhaps foreshadowed: some of Hinton's earlier content for The Imperium Staple had been a very strident set of arguments about whether grav drives were used in low-TL Traveller ships. The back and forth of several articles wasn't quite a pre-internet flame war, but it was close. When Hinton began publishing The Imperium Staple, things got worse very fast.

First, Hinton trashed the first issue of Petro's new Continuum magazine in The Imperium Staple #11, Then Hinton sent correspondences to Petro that Petro found "VERY offensive" and called him a liar in The Imperium Staple #12 for a misunderstanding about subscription rates. Hinton even refused to send Petro copies of his two issues of The Imperium Staple (though Petro also ellgedly received to fill a subscription request from Hinton for ContinuumThe Imperium Staple (Hinton said he was fired), and everything fell apart. The Imperium Staple, suffice to say, was DOA after two Hinton issues.

It wasn't intended to be. The last issue contained a long adventure called "The Omega Gambit", which was the first of three parts, to be followed by a five-part "Call fo Arms" and then by "Second Coming". They would never appear, and in fact Hinton would disappear from fandom.

Obtaining the Magazines

Foreven Subsector Index

• K: Barbarian (Xenough) [C #2]
• L: Reidan [TIS #6, C #2]
• O: Piah [TIS #11, C #2]
• P: Uranian [TIS #7, C #2]

About the Contents

This index is © Copyright 2022-2023 by Shannon Appelcline. It is released under a cc-by-4.0 license, allowing reuse with attribution.

Main Index

🧰 Accessories

🎞️️ Adventures: Geographic, Imperium, Domain of Sol¹

1. The Domain of Sol, formerly the Domain of Diaspora, contains the Solomani Sphere. It includes the Alpha Crucis Sector, the Diaspora Sector, the Old Expanses, and the Solomani Rim, and also administers the Hinterworlds and the Magyar Sector.

💡 Advice

🛸 Aliens: Major Races

📚 Background: Misc

🌌 Background: Geographic, Charted Space

🧪 Background: Geographic, Hive Federation

🌌 Background: Geographic, Imperium Outskirts¹

1. The Imperium Outskirts are places lying near the Third Imperium and not claimed by another entity.

⌛ Background: Historic

1. This map was probably part of the announcement packet sent out by GDW on April 15, 1987. It also appears in CONTINUUM #2 (JUNE 1987). Another map produced in the same manner can be found in TIFFANY STAR #1 (HIWG, 1988).

🖊️ Campaign Design

🛠️ Equipment: Misc

🤖 Equipment: Artificial Life

⚔️ Equipment: Combat

🚀 Equipment: Transport

1. Previous iterations of the Longevity-Class Lifeboat appear in WORKING PASSAGE #5 (1985).

🧶️ Fiction

⬆️ Meta

🗣️ NPCs

1. Intended for use with "Road Show", an Amber Zone in JTAS #23 (GDW, 1985),/td>

📜 Rules

1. Revising the career from ALIEN MODULE 6: SOLOMANI (GDW, 1986)

⭐ Reviews: Misc

⭐ Reviews: Fiction

Appendix I: Other GDW RPGs

🌍 2300AD

Appendix II: Other RPGs

🔺 Delta Force

Covers