GREAT NEWS!
Good Morning, All,
I finally worked around the original size problem by recreating the cover page myself (inspired by Chuck Shaw's original cover design, of course) and in so doing, I dropped the size of the overall PDF down to about one tenth of its original size. While it does not capture Chuck's work effectively, it does allow me to get
Stellar Reaches out the door. Please bear in mind that I've now been up for more than 25 hours straight, and I've spent the eleven hours on this, so if I messed up somewhere along the way, I apologize now. If there are any glaring errors, please let me know, and I'll fix it as soon as I can after getting some good rest.
With that out of the way,
Stellar Reaches Issue #3 is now available for download from the website! (A zipped version is also available there.) The website's URL is:
http://stellarreaches.nwgamers.org/
Inside this issue, you'll find a number of interesting articles. We've got a nice article on converting UWPs from the Classic Era of Traveller (circa 1105 to 1115) to the Gateway Era (circa 993 to 1000), as well as the third article on our continuing coverage of the Empty Quarter sector, this time focusing on the Beta Quadrant. "The Empty Quarter Echo" is a new column that presents worlds of the Empty Quarter sector from an in-character perspective, that of a Far Trader merchant travelling about the sector. We also have an expansion of CT Book Two starship design focused on small craft. "Alternate Universes" is a new column that introduces alternate Traveller campaigns. Finally, we have the five winners from the 76 Ethical Patrons contest we ran earlier this year. We wrap things up with our first "advertisement" promoting an online play-by-post game found on the Citizen of the Imperium boards. We even have permission to include an updated version of the BITS Task System, now including Traveller T20 difficulty classes, and use it in our future adventures. All told, the fanzine has grown even larger than the first two issues with 40 pages, and that's without a lifeform write-up or an adventure this time around. (Don't worry; those features will be returning in the next issue.)
We thank you very much for your patience over the delays in getting this issue out, and we hope that it proves to be worthy of the wait. It is our fervent hope to bring you Issue #4 in either late Winter or early Spring of 2006. Thank you also, fellow Travellers, for your continued support. That's what makes this all worth doing.
Keep On Travellin',
Jason "Flynn" Kemp
Editor,
Stellar Reaches fanzine