GDW's CT and the Bandwagoners

[Easterner9504]

Traveller Bibliography: http://www.travellerbibliography.org/

Here are all known Classic Traveller related products.
Yes = owned at least 1 product

Game Designers' Workshop- Yes
Ad Astra- Never heard of them
Adjutant- Never heard of them
Avon Books- Yes
Ba'Rac Limited (software)- Never heard of them
Baron Publications- Never heard of them
Cargonaut Press- Yes but only a few years ago; was located under a mile from my house
Chaosium, Inc- Yes
Citadel Miniatures- Never heard of them
Digest Group Publications- Yes
Disenos Orbitales, SA- Never heard of them
Fantasy Productions (German)- Never heard of them
FASA- Yes
FFE Collectors' Edition- Yes
Gamelords- Yes
Game Science- Yes
Games Workshop- Yes
Grenadier Miniatures- Remember them
GRiP: The Traveller Edition- Remember them
Group One- Yes though I thought was same as Judges Guild
Hobby Japan- Never heard of them
Hobby Products Miniaturen (German)- Never heard of them
Judges Guild- Yes
Juggernaut Press- Never heard of them
Loner Enterprises (Jordan Weisman)- Never heard of them
Marischal Folio Adventures- Yes
Martian Metals Miniatures, 15mm- Yes
Paranoia Press- Yes
Phoenix Games (n.a.)- Never heard of them
Reilly Associates (n.a.)- Never heard of them
Roll-For-Your-Life- Never heard of them
Seeker- Never heard of them or so uninteresting forgot I did
Star Quest Games- Never heard of them
Starman Adventure Systems- Never heard of them
Star Quest Games- Never heard of them
Steve Jackson Games- Yes
Supernova Games- Never heard of them
Warfield Games- Heard of it but never able to acquire it.
Zocchi Dice- Remember them.

So of 39 publishers I owned product of 14 and had heard of 4 others of which only 1, Warfields Evening Star, was wanted by me. In those pre-internet days getting the word out was much more difficult than now, if JTAS didn't plug your product you were hard pressed to get that knowledge out.

 

[Border Reiver]

Seriously? You've never heard of Citadel Miniatures? Where have you been the last 30 years? One word...WARHAMMER.


Anyhow, only one I've never heard of is Ba'Rac Limited.o:

 

[Swiftbrook]

Seeker- Never heard of them or so uninteresting forgot I did.

Really? Seeker also know as SGS Seeker Gaming Systems. There deck plans were had large advertisement in Challenge Mag, and Traveller Digest.

-Swiftbrook

 

[Easterner9504]

Citadel

The next time I play Warhammer will be the 1st. I've never owned or played any incarnation of D&D either. I'm a wargamer and SPI, AH and GDW wargames are what I played back in the 70's. I never noticed TRAV in any GDW material only in MOVES magazine from a Phil Kosnett article on the game. So the first time I ever heard of Citadel was a few months ago when somebody here found some to sell on eBay.

 

[Dragoner]

Only about 10 of them, I was mostly a war gamer as well, though I did play rpg's such as D&D, then moved on to computer games. Though Traveller would make an awesome MMORG.

I think what hurt Traveller most was that it lost focus and then began such a fractured existence with all the different systems.

PS Star Quest Games is in there twice.

 

[coliver988]

I only played RPGS, primarily Traveller, a couple years in college, 82-83 if I recall. Pre-WWW (and no, I don't count AOL as WWW), little money, and had to walk a few miles (uphill both ways of course!) to the game shop in Norfolk, VA (ODU graduate, class of '86). Lack of money meant I pretty much kept to the GDW stuff and I was unaware of most of the other companies other than Judges Guild & FASA. Now I can't remember what that game shop stocked and I may have overlooked a lot, but I tended to be stingy and tried to get only stuff that had a lot of potential use.

 

[aramis]

Citadel Miniatures, Black Industries, Flame Publications, Specialist Games, and Games Workshop (UK) are all one corporation, different subsidiaries, but massive staffing overlap.

 

[kafka47]

2 or 3, I may not know or own. But in the course, you did forget some publishers like Privateer Press, Lost Imperium, TSR and Star Wrek Enterprises.

 

[Easterner9504]

Publishers

I didn't forget any, the list is from the Traveller Bibliography allegedly commissioned by Marc Miller's FFE.

The duplicate entry and missing material should be submitted to them. See my 1st post.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Heard of about 20, owned 9.

 

[Easterner9504]

New

Are those in the under 11 category new to TRAV so missed '78-'85 CT years so many of the CT companies were long gone by arrival?

 

[Sir Brad]

I think your missing Jedco, although I don't think they qualify as they did not translate stuff or produce anything new, just Reprints for the OZ & NZ markets under licence IIRC.

 

[Hyphen]

Dear Easterner -

Cargonaut Press- Yes but only a few years ago; was located under a mile from my house

I know Paul was going to go to uni in Hawaii, but I never heard anything after that. Do you have any contact details for him?

 

[Appelcline]

Privateer Press, Lost Imperium, TSR and Star Wrek Enterprises.

What in the world did TSR do for Traveller? Heck, let me expand that question to all four publishers.

 

[Sir Brad]

I think TSR carried some ads for Trav in their early mags as well as printing some Reviews, Fan Articles and Adventures.

Can't speak to the others

 

[Whipsnade]

Traveller Bibliography: (big snip)

E9504,

To make it faster, I'm leaving the publishers I either never heard of or have forgotten about:


Avon Books
Ba'Rac Limited
Disenos Orbitales, SA
Fantasy Productions (German)
Group One
Hobby Products Miniaturen (German)
Loner Enterprises (Jordan Weisman)
Phoenix Games (n.a.)
Reilly Associates (n.a.)
Roll-For-Your-Life
Star Quest Games
Starman Adventure Systems
Star Quest Games
Supernova Games
Warfield Games


Oddly enough, my batting average got much lower towards the end of the list.

In those pre-internet days getting the word out was much more difficult than now, if JTAS didn't plug your product you were hard pressed to get that knowledge out.

And if you couldn't get hold of the latest JTAS issue or got it well after it's release date, you were even further out of the loop.

Back when I travelled for a living, I loved checking out those old dusty hobby shops for stray gaming materials. I once stumbled across a small trove of 1970s S&T magazines complete with the games in a store in Wisconsin near an equally dusty display of kites. If the internet had been more than a collection of dial-up BBSs and if eBay had been around, I could have made several hundred bucks. Instead, I picked up a few that interested me and told the fellow that he should schleppe them over to any nearby gaming conventions when he had a chance. I sure hope he did, instead of throwing the magazines out.


Regards,
Bill

 

[aramis]

I started Traveller in fall '83...
I found Judges Guild materials in fall '84, and DGP in fall '86; the rest in the 90's.

As for what TSR did? a dozen or so articles in Dragon.

 

[Easterner9504]

Cargonaut

Nope, I bought my stuff wandered away and that was it.

 

[kafka47]

For a while TSR also had features in Polyheron dealing with general SF stuff but you could tell that Roger Moore was eluding to Traveller. Also, the UK branch, had their own magazine which ran Traveller stuff that was not in Dragon. Even late in Star*Drive they converted the Major Races into the Star*Drive mechanic...

Plus, as they owned GenCon think of how many Traveller adventures passed through those halls. The GenCon catalogue is an untold source of inspiration for adventure nuggets... So, I think TSR could rightly be called a publisher of Traveller items...however small the quantity.

 

[Dragoner]

I remember some Trav adventures in the Dragon.

I bought the boxed set with the first LBB's in '81 and I am in the 6-10 category of publishers I can remember. It was definitely up to what you saw at the local hobby stores really, not many teenagers back then had checking accounts or credit cards for mail order.