Journal of the Travellers Aid Society

Journal of the Travellers Aid Society was a role-playing game magazine devoted to Traveller, commonly abbreviated JTAS.

• If you are looking for the Mongoose Publishing version published in 2019, click here.

Description (Specifications)

Articles in the magazine were grouped in various categories, some of which only started in later issues:

JTAS Article Categories
Section	Remarks
From the Management:	Editorial, sometimes including comments, ideas, and short news items
Cover Article:	The headline article for the issue
Amber Zone:	Ready-to-play scenarios, complete with patrons, rumors and nasty surprises
Contact!:	Intelligent beings or sophonts of the Universe
Modules:	Official additions to the Traveller rules
Ship's Locker:	Expansions to the equipment lists in the basic game
Bestiary:	Expansions to the original Animal Encounters in the basic game
Variant:	A modification to an existing game
Ref's Notes:	Discussions on some aspect of Traveller from the referee's viewpoint
Review:	An in-depth look at items of interest to SF gamers
New Products Seen:	Short reviews of new releases
Q&A:	Answering questions on all facets of Traveller

Table of Contents

Issue Listing:

JTAS (Issues 1-24)

• No. 1: Annic Nova
• No. 2: Victoria
• No. 3: Asteroid Mining
• No. 4: Gazelle Class Close Escort Vessels
• No. 5: Imperium
• No. 6: The Imperial Interstellar Scout Service
• No. 7: Champa Interstellar Starport
• No. 8: Broadsword class Mercenary Cruisers
• No. 9: War!
• No. 10: Planet-building, a Referee's Guide
• No. 11: Striker Miniatures Issue
• No. 12: Merchant Prince
• No. 13: Hivers
• No. 14: Laws & Lawbreakers
• No. 15: Azun: A High-Population World in the Solomani Rim
• No. 16: SuSAG
• No. 17: Atmospheres
• No. 18: Traveling Without Jumping
• No. 19: Skyport Authority
• No. 20: Prologue
• No. 21: Vargr
• No. 22: Port to Jump-point
• No. 23: Zhodani Philosophies
• No. 24: Religion in the Two Thousand Worlds

Best of Series

• Best of the Journal Volume 1 (Issues 1-4)
• Best of the Journal Volume 2 (Issues 5-8)
• Best of the Journal Volume 3 (Issues 9-12)
• Best of the Journal Volume 4 (Issues 13-16)

Challenge (Issues 25-33)

• No. 25: Lisiani
• No. 26: Cargo
• No. 27: Grandfather's Worlds
• No. 28: Sector to Sector
• No. 29: A Decade of Traveller
• No. 30: The Warehouse
• No. 31: Hazardous Cargos
• No. 32: Swift Water
• No. 33: Project Farstar

JTAS (Issues 25-26)

• No. 25: Vestiges
• No. 26: Artifacts Unearthed

Meta-history & Background (Dossier)

The first issue was published by Game Designers' Workshop in 1979 and the last of the first run was #24 in 1985 CE. It was superseded by the magazine Challenge, which took up its numbering scheme and ran from issue 25 onwards with a broader role-playing game focus. All 24 issues in the first run, and the first nine issues of Challenge magazine were collected into three publications by Far Future Enterprises in 2002-3:

• The Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society 1-12.
• The Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society 13-24.
• The Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society 25-33.

The Journal was resurrected for two additional issues in 1996 under Imperium Games, where the numbering was taken from where it was left off (JTAS #25 and #26).

Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society was resurrected as an e-zine edited by Loren Wiseman under Steve Jackson Games and GURPS Traveller. It is currently out-of-print, but is pending “re-print” by Far Future Enterprises in 2018. See JTAS SJG.

JTAS / Challenge Issues

This is an overview of the JTAS / Challenge Magazine (periodical) run:

Journal of the Travellers Aid Society - Challenge Magazine

CT / JTAS / GDW Periodicals: (1979 to 1985) Issue 1 - Issue 2 - Issue 3 - Issue 4 - Best 1 to 4 - Issue 5 - Issue 6 - Issue 7 - Issue 8 - Best 5 to 8 - Issue 9 - Issue 10 - Issue 11 - Issue 12 - Best 9 to 12 - JTAS 1-12 - Issue 13 - Issue 14 - Issue 15 - Issue 16 - Best 13 to 16 - Issue 17 - Issue 18 - Issue 19 - Issue 20 - Issue 21 - Issue 22 - Issue 23 - Issue 24 - JTAS 13-24 MT / Challenge / GDW Periodicals (1986 to 1988): Issue 25 - Issue 26 - Issue 27 - Issue 28 - Issue 29 - Issue 30 - Issue 31 - Issue 32 - Issue 33 - JTAS 25-33 MT / Expanded Challenge / GDW Periodicals (1988 to 1993): Issue 34 - Issue 35 - Issue 36 - Issue 37 - Issue 38 - Issue 39 - Issue 40 - Issue 41 - Issue 42 - Issue 43 - Issue 44 - Issue 45 - Issue 46 - Issue 47 - Issue 48 - Issue 49 - Issue 50 - Issue 51 - Issue 52 - Issue 53 - Issue 54 - Issue 55 - Issue 56 - Issue 57 - Issue 58 - Issue 59 - Issue 60 - Issue 61 - Issue 62 - Issue 63 - Issue 64 - Issue 65 - Issue 66 - Issue 67 - Issue 68 - Issue 69 - Issue 70 TNE / Expanded Challenge / GDW Periodicals (1993 to 1995): Issue 71 - Issue 72 - Issue 73 - Issue 74 - Issue 75 - Issue 76 - Issue 77 - Challenge 25-77 T4 / JTAS / Imperium Games Periodicals (1996 to 1997): Issue 25 / 78 - Issue 26 / 79 Trav / JTAS-Challenge / FFE Compilations (2002 to 2017): JTAS 1-12 - JTAS 13-24 - JTAS 25-33 - Challenge 25-77

Credits (Primary Sources)

Credits (Primary Sources)

Credit	Authors & Contributors
Editor	Loren Wiseman
Writers	A vast number of authors

References & Contributions (Sources)

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science