There appears to have been a misunderstanding of some sort, and so I feel that I need to take a moment here to clarify myself. Some have thought, because I posted last year about delays on my part in releasing issues, that I wasn’t taking submissions for the fanzine at all. Nothing could be farther from the truth, but I can see where some may have gotten that impression.

Just to make it official, I am always looking for submissions for the Stellar Reaches fanzine. While my ability to work on the fanzine is limited at times, I determine when I need to do so based on the amount of submissions I have received. If I do not get any submissions, I tend to assume that no one wants to submit anything, and perhaps that they are no longer interested in Stellar Reaches. Therefore, if you want to contribute to the fanzine, please feel free to do so AT ANY TIME.

Once I have enough submissions to make a solid PDF for the fans, I start putting together the next issue, and typically post something here to let everyone know we’re a month out. This allows existing contributors a chance to check their submitted work and send me updates if they wish to revise anything. Also, it gives those last-minute submitters a chance to send in that article they’ve been working on in their scant free time. I slowly put everything together over the course of a weekend or two, and finally set about posting the next issue and making all the proper announcements.

Remember, the trigger for me to start working on the next issue comes when I have enough submissions from people that I feel we can move forward with a good, strong release. So, I think it bears repeating that I am always looking for new Stellar Reaches submissions.

Finally, some of you may be aware that I am also going to start releasing new Traveller products under the forthcoming Traveller SRD through my publishing imprint, Samardan Press. Rest assured that you still retain the copyright and ownership of any submission you make to me for Stellar Reaches, and it will not be used in any form or fashion as part of a Samardan Press Traveller product without your explicit permission. If you are interested in seeing your product published for profit, please feel free to contact me privately about such matters, and I would be happy to discuss the matter with you, as such business is unrelated to the service we together provide the Traveller community through the Stellar Reaches fanzine.

Thank You For Your Time,
Jason “Flynn” Kemp
Editor, Stellar Reaches fanzine

You might be asking yourself the same question: Where’s Number Nine? Well, hopefully I have an easy answer here. In short, it’s been three months since our last issue, and I have not had a single new article submission. I only have a few adventures left in the slush pile, and those will probably be going into this next issue. As I’ve said before, Stellar Reaches will only last as long as I get submissions. Without your support, there is no fanzine. I will wait one more month, and then publish what I’ve got. If there are no further submissions, then it saddens me to say that it is likely that the next issue of Stellar Reaches will also be its last.

In other news, we will also be releasing a big Stellar Reaches Special Supplement PDF focused on the Empty Quarter sector. This extremely large sector supplement is the work of Alvin Plummer, who has done a lot to help create the depth and breadth of the Empty Quarter sector background with his adventures and articles in previous submissions to the fanzine. I’m sure that once you see the supplement, you, too, will be as impressed as I am with his work.

I’ll let you guys know more on both developments (the future of Stellar Reaches as well as the Empty Quarter Special Supplement) as things progress. Remember, we are definitely looking for submissions to the fanzine, so if you have something you’d like to contribute, by all means, feel free to submit them to me by mid-May.

Clearing Comms,
Jason “Flynn” Kemp

Issue #8 of Stellar Reaches is now available on our downloads page!

This issue is our largest yet, with over seventy pages of fantastic material for your Traveller game. Mark “Commander Drax” Bridgeman brings us our feature adventure, The Irash Express, which is the second part of his series The Lorimar Slot. Alvin Plummer brings us three more Empty Quarter adventures and a Campaign Seed, as well as the second installment of his Biography series. Jeff Hopper continues his fantastic Empty Quarter Echo travelogue series, while Joshua Bell, creator of the fantastic Traveller Map website (http://www.travellermap.com), revisits the “Using Your Model 2 Bis” article series originally appearing in JTAS magazine. There’s a lot of exciting content here, and I hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as I have when I first received these submissions.

We are fortunate to have three artists contributing to this issue as well. Andrew Boulton provides us a great cover for the fanzine, and you’ll see some of Travis Leichssenring‘s fantastic art in these pages as well. In addition, I would like to welcome a new Traveller artist to the fanzine: Jimmy Lee Wilson.

Jimmy Lee Wilson is a 47 year old husband, father and grandfather. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky, and works in the Print Graphics Industry. He started playing Traveller in 1979 while serving in the Navy, and it’s been his favorite RPG ever since! He enjoys the planning and illustration of each game as much as the actual game time!

We are most fortunate that Mongoose Publishing, who now has the rights to the OTU, has agreed to allow us to continue to support the Official Traveller Universe within the pages of this free fanzine. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing their version of Traveller, and am thankful that they’ve opened our favorite game to the Open Gaming License. It’s going to be a great thing for our game.

As always, I want to say thank you to Marc Miller for giving us this great game in the first place, and for allowing the fans to help contribute to the universe created for Traveller over 30 years ago. I’d like also to thank all of the current Traveller license holders for keeping the game alive and vibrant with your product line: Avenger Enterprises, Quiklink, Steve Jackson Games, Spica Publishing, and any others that I may have forgotten. Keep up the great work, guys!

As always, my friends, I wish to thank you all for your continued support of the Stellar Reaches fanzine. Without your continued contributions, this fanzine simply couldn’t exist, so once again I say “thank you, thank you, thank you” to each of the contributors for your efforts!

And finally, thanks to Tsykoduk and nwgamers.org for contributing the webspace for supporting the Stellar Reaches site. Without them, we would never had made it this far!

Enjoy,
Jason “Flynn” Kemp
Editor, Stellar Reaches fanzine

I have received some official clarification from Chris Longhurst in regards to the future of fan-created OTU material in Stellar Reaches:

Hi all.

Just to clarify, we’ve reached a decision: free stuff is okay.

I think a proper ‘fair use policy’ should probably have more legal
waffle than that, but that’s what it boils down to. As far as producing
print versions of Stellar Reaches is concerned, a profit-free version
(which is easy with Lulu) should be fine.

So, crisis over. As usual, any questions, send them my way.

Chris

With that in mind, Stellar Reaches can resume publication of OTU material, so long as it remains free. It looks like business as usual, then.

Also, with the proviso given by Chris, I will be putting together a compilation of issues in a hard copy format later this Spring, per several requests I have received. You will only need to pay the cost of printing and shipping it to you. As usual, I do this for free, and will take no profit from this work.

This news does not mean that Stellar Reaches is limited to the OTU alone. I will definitely accept ATU and generic contributions once Traveller goes OGL. In fact, I would encourage the diversity. There’s room enough for both kinds of material in the pages of the fanzine.

For small-time publishers interested in talent for their for-profit ventures using the Traveller OGL, I highly recommend our regular contributors. Check out their work, and if you like it, feel free to contact them to express your interest and possibly line up some paying work for these guys. I’m sure some would appreciate the interest.

Issue #8 will be out this Sunday, my friends.

Hope You Enjoy,
Flynn

Under the Open Gaming License Version 1.0A, you must declare your Open Game Content, which is the game content that other publishers can use in their own OGL products. Quiklink has already released a lot of game mechanics as Open Game Content, and not all of them are restricted to the D20 System from which Traveller T20 originated. For example, any UWP created with T20’s world generation system can now be released as Open Game Content, because of the declarations found in the Traveller T20 core rulebook. There is a great abundance of Open Game Content in the Quiklink product line, and I highly recommend that you check it out, especially if you are looking at producing your own Traveller products in the future.

When Mongoose releases the upcoming Traveller SRD, even more Open Game Content related to Traveller will become available for use. The important part of the process is to remember to read each product’s Declaration of Open Game Content carefully, and only use the content that is outlined in the declaration. While background material can be released as Open Game Content, it very rarely is, and so you have to be careful with background material.

Through the use of Open Game Content, a lot of the elements that we consider to be Traveller are already available for OGL publishers. While the background of the OTU is considered Product Identity and therefore unavailable for use in an OGL product, these Open Game Elements (such as UWPs, the racial traits of alien races, many starship designs and so on) can be used to create generic Traveller products, as well as articles and submissions for Stellar Reaches. Likewise, the Open Game Content for Stellar Reaches is also available for use by other OGL publishers. (Once Mongoose releases their Traveller Logo License, you can even put the word Traveller on the front of your product, too. Until then, you can’t mention the Traveller name, but we only have a month or two longer to wait before that becomes an option.)

The following content from Stellar Reaches, Issues #1 through #7, is considered Open Game Content, and may be used in any product released under the Open Gaming License Version 1.0A:

Issue #1:
The racial traits and feats provided in the article “The Bwaps, A Minor Race Of The Imperium For T20” are designated as Open Game Content.
The UWPS provided in the article “Gamma Quadrant of the Empty Quarter Sector” are designated as Open Game Content.
The stat blocks and all T20 game mechanics derived from the SRD and the Traveller’s Handbook as provided in the feature adventure “Special Delivery to Gudina” are designated as Open Game Content.
The final TAS Form 3.1 (Condensed) for the Guardian-Class runabout given in the article “Guardian-Class TL12 100-ton Runabout Vessel” is considered Open Game Content.
The stat block of the Praveer Snapdragon provided in the article “Praveer Snapdragons” is designated as Open Game Content.

Issue #2:
The UWPS provided in the article “Delta Quadrant of the Empty Quarter Sector” are designated as Open Game Content.
The stat blocks and all T20 game mechanics derived from the SRD and the Traveller’s Handbook as provided in the feature adventure “Into the Lesser Rift” are designated as Open Game Content.
All T20 game mechanics derived from the SRD and the Traveller’s Handbook as provided in the article “RNA Implant Technology For T20” are designated as Open Game Content.
The final TAS Form 3.1 (Condensed) for the TL13 Deep Space Station given in the article “Deep Space Stations” is considered Open Game Content.
The T20 stat block of the Urduaan Sheola provided in the article “Sheola” is designated as Open Game Content.

Issue #3:
The T20 information contained in the BITS Task System is designated as Open Game Content.
The UWPS provided in the article “Beta Quadrant of the Empty Quarter Sector” are designated as Open Game Content.

Issue #4:
The UWPS provided in the article “Alpha Quadrant of the Empty Quarter Sector” are designated as Open Game Content.
The stat blocks and all T20 game mechanics derived from the SRD and the Traveller’s Handbook as provided in the feature adventures are designated as Open Game Content.
The T20 information contained in the BITS Task System is designated as Open Game Content.
The prestige class information contained in the Prestigious Careers articles is designated as Open Game Content.
Any and all other material derived from the SRD and the Traveller’s Handbook is designated as Open Game Content.

Issue #5:
The UWPs provided in various articles are designated as Open Game Content.
The T20 information contained in the BITS Task System is designated as Open Game Content.
Any and all other material derived from the SRD and the Traveller’s Handbook is designated as Open Game Content.

Issue #6:
The UWPs provided in various articles are designated as Open Game Content.
The T20 information contained in the BITS Task System is designated as Open Game Content.
The starship data found in the TAS Form 3.1 from “Starship Datasheet: Modular Scout Courier” is designated as Open Game Content.
Any and all other material derived from the SRD and the Traveller’s Handbook is designated as Open Game Content.

Issue #7:
The UWPs provided in various articles are designated as Open Game Content.
The T20 information contained in the BITS Task System is designated as Open Game Content.
The starship data found in the TAS Form 3.1 from “Starship Datasheet: Barge” is designated as Open Game Content.
Racial Traits and other game mechanics presented in “Alternate Universes: Space Patrol” is designated as Open Game Content.
Any and all other material derived from the SRD and the Traveller’s Handbook is designated as Open Game Content.

Bear in mind that the remainder of these issues is considered Closed Content and contains Product Identity belonging to Far Future Enterprises.

If you would like to write any submissions for Stellar Reaches, please remember the difference between Open Game Content and Product Identity. Also, if you could let me know what elements of your submissions you would like to see released as Open Game Content (and that can include background material of your own creation, if you like), just let me know, and I’ll make sure it’s covered in the Declaration of Open Game Content.

With Regards,
Flynn

This weekend, I received some very important news that impacts the future of the Stellar Reaches fanzine. The Fair Use policy that allowed me to publish material for the Official Traveller Universe (the OTU) is no longer valid. Mongoose Publishing now has sole rights to the OTU setting, and since I do not have a pre-existing license from Marc Miller to publish OTU material, I cannot include any OTU material in future issues of Stellar Reaches, which includes Issue #8. Since most of the submitted material takes place in the OTU, I cannot use it in its current form.

Under the Traveller OGL, we may use any game mechanics covered in the SRD once it is released, to create and publish for any setting of our own creation, so long as it does not reference the Official Traveller Universe in any form or fashion.

Stellar Reaches will remain as a Traveller fanzine, and will publish fan-generated material for free, as it always has. I am also willing to work with others to publish your Traveller material for profit through my imprint Samardan Press, on terms that can be worked out on a case-by-case basis.

I will be releasing some Traveller material set in a universe of my own creation within the next few months. If you like what you see, and would be interested in contributing to the universe I am creating, please feel free to make article submissions to future issues of Stellar Reaches, or contact me directly with a proposal for a possible supplement or adventure to publish and make a few bucks in the process.

If you have submitted an Official Traveller Universe article that you would like to revise and resubmit, you are more than welcome to do so. I would be greatly appreciative.

Yours In Service,
Jason “Flynn” Kemp,
Editor, Stellar Reaches fanzine

Please forgive me for the long delay in posting an official update to this site. Yes, I am still alive, but as you can tell, Issue #8 is still delayed. This is through no one else’s fault but my own. In September and October of this year, I’ve been dealing with court custody issues involving the safety and well-being of my son, and for those that know me, that will always be my highest priority. We are still waiting for the final ruling on the last court hearing, but things seem to be winding down.

In addition, I’ve been working on a new product for Samardan Press, and that has eaten up a lot of my remaining time. The product, Fantasy Concepts, is an OGL rules system incorporating some of the latest developments in the D20 core system. As it is a paying project, I’ve understandably been placing some emphasis on it. (Some of you may remember from previous posts my thoughts on paying projects.)

In regards to the Traveller OGL announcement, I have checked with Mongoose and Marc Miller, and it is my understanding that Stellar Reaches can continue as a free fanzine under the Fair Use Policy. Should that change between now and the release of the Traveller SRD, then I will be sure to let you guys know, and we’ll discuss the future of our fanzine at that time.

Sadly, the Hinterworlds 1248 Project is officially dead at the moment, a casualty of the Traveller OGL and my own procastination. My apologies for those that were looking forward to that particular product.

Finally, given the nature of the Traveller OGL and Traveller Logo License that Mongoose will be releasing, I am currently working on a Traveller Campaign Sourcebook for publication that is set in an Alternate Traveller Universe. More information will be forthcoming as we get closer to release.

Okay, now that we are caught up at the moment, I will have Issue #8 available shortly after Fantasy Concepts has been released, and I will aim for Issue #9 to be released on or about February 1st, 2008, before the Traveller SRD is released.

With Regards,
Flynn

I was pleased to read this morning that Traveller is going OGL under the administration of Mongoose Publishing, Inc. For more on that story, please check out:
Mongoose’s Traveller announcement

I don’t yet know enough about it to know what this means for Stellar Reaches, but I assure you that I will keep you guys updated as I learn more.

With Regards,
Flynn

Due to personal and Real Life ™ issues, I have not completed the work necessary to release Issue #8 of Stellar Reaches. As Gen Con Indy is only two weeks away, I will probably not get back to it until after I have returned home from “The Four Greatest Days In Gaming”, so I’m putting it upon myself to deliver Issue #8 by the first weekend of September. Please forgive me for my tardiness, and I thank you for your continued support.

With Regards,
Jason “Flynn” Kemp

This is just a quick note to let everyone know that the deadline for submissions for Issue #8 is Saturday, June 30th, 2007. I already have a number of interesting submissions, but I’m always open to more. We could easily use a few patron encounters, starship articles, adventures, amber zones, how-to articles and the like. Art submissions would also be very welcome.

Thank you all for your continued support and interest,
Jason “Flynn” Kemp