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This review is one in a series which will look at some of the many Spinward Marches setting books which have been published over the years and which describe the area. It'll offer advice as to which ones were the best and which will work the best with Mongoose's current, fifth-edition, Traveller gaming system.

In 1987, GDW published a second edition of Traveller called MegaTraveller. Unfortunately, it also marked the beginning of a long drought for fans of the Marches, as GDW dropped local setting books entirely with the release of the new line. Instead they changed their focus to the big picture of the entire Imperium--a big picture that was in my opinion too big for any campaign, which was ultimately one of MegaTraveller's failings.

As a result of GDW's change in focus, to get any coverage of the Spinward Marches in this time period, you had to look to top-licensee, Digest Group Publications (DGP), who dedicated a brand-new magazine to the coverage of the Domain of Deneb, an area of four sectors which included the Spinward Marches. It doesn't provide quite the overview of the Spinward Marches books for the other eras, but it's the closest thing in existence for the Rebellion era.

This fifth review discusses The MegaTraveller Journal #1. I'll be covering the first three issues for completeness' sake, since they all discuss the Domain of Deneb. However, this was one of just two that had a particularly strong focus on the Marches proper.

An Overview of the Book

As with any magazine, The MegaTraveller Journal #1 contains a wide variety of information. However, the vast majority of this first issue dealt directly with the setting of the Domain of Deneb--much of it within the traditional Spinward Marches. As you'd expect, these articles are all set in 1121, sixteen years after the start of the Classic Traveller Era and well into MegaTraveller's Rebellion.

Rob Caswell kicks the magazine's coverage of the Domain of Deneb off with "A Guide to the Domain of Deneb." This article gives a very broad history of the Domain, a look at its hot spots in the Rebellion Era, and two pages worth of Library Data. Perhaps more importantly, it includes a fold-out black-and-white map showing the whole domain. It's probably the only place you can get these four sectors (Spinward Marches, Trojan Reach, Deneb, Reft) all printed together. Note, however, that there are no UWP stats in this book. (They'll appear in issue #3.)

The expansion of the Spinward Marches to the Domain of Deneb was an interesting decision that I think ultimately benefits the setting. Sure, 16 sectors worth of planets could be enough for any campaign, but it's nice to have those more far-flung areas at your finger-tips too, because they can really offer up the idea of "travelling" if players decide to visit them. I think this extension of the traditional setting is exactly what MegaTraveller proper should have done, if it wanted to work on a larger canvas (rather than creating Imperium-wide events that were so much bigger than the players).

Anyways, on to the other contents of this first issue ...

"The Norris Interview" acts as a nice introduction to Norris Aella Aledon, the Archduke of the Domain, and his views. Norris is probably the most important character in the Marches, from when he becomes Duke of Regina in 1098 all the way through the New Era, and in this article Rob Caswell and Mark Miller really capture his essence in a way that brings the setting alive.

This issue also sees the first appearance of the "DIS Newsbriefs", which are the spiritual descendants of GDW's "Traveller News Service", but more colorful and fun.

Two more articles give specifics on a few worlds in the Domain.

"The Wardn Enigma" by J. Andrew Keith is an adventure set on the planet of Wardn (Wardn / Lunion 0107). Like many Traveller adventures, it's as much setting material as story. This is a pretty straight scientific mission, as players try and figure out a natural phenomenon on the planet. I wasn't particularly impressed by it. It seemed skill-heavy and somewhat simplistic. At least the first seemed to be a recurring problem with DGP scenarios. Still, I think a GM could polish it up and run it, if need be. (If not, it still provides a bit of interesting background on Wardn.)

"Worldguide: Enaaka" by William H. Keith Jr. is a look at a planet just over the border from the Spinward Marches (Deneb 0203) that's filled with fungus. It's very evocative and has a lot of good adventure ideas. Though it'd take more work to present, I think it provides a better basis for an adventure than his brother's complete adventure in the same issue.

That's all of the Denebian specific material. Everything else is more general background.

The most interesting piece is an article outlining the Rebellion timeline, called "A Concise History of the Rebellion". It covers the history of the Imperium from 1116-1120. That's the same time period that's covered in the Rebellion Sourcebook, but this is a better narrative.

Finally, "MegaTraveller Shareware" is an entirely out of date article about computer programs while "Dressed to Kill" talks about equipment that you should never let your players have: battle dress. Though I think the article is of limited utility because battle dress is nearly a game breaker, the article is nonetheless up to DGP's always high standards for equipment presentation, with great full-page sheets for several variants of the armor.

Overall, DGP tended to excel at making the Imperium feel like a real place. This was a good first shot at looking at Traveller's most iconic location, with all of the articles being of good quality other than the weaker feature adventure. I give the magazine overall a "4" out of "5" for Substance.

Applicability to Mongoose Traveller

So, how do you use a book set 16 years in the future in a 1105 Mongoose Traveller campaign? I think this volume actually has a fair amount of applicability, with maybe 50% of the content fully usable in a Mongoose Traveller game.

Specifically, the two worlds--presented in "The Wardn Enigma" and "Worldguide: Enaaka"--have nothing to do with the Rebellion. They could be run any time. The latter is over in the Deneb sector, but it's just a jump or two away from the Aramis subsector of the Marches. I think it gives you a nice excuse to not treat the sector lines as absolute borders. The map of the "Domain of Deneb" is useful for just the same reason (though Mongoose should be detailing the Trojan Reach sector in its upcoming Aslan sourcebook or you can pick up the Third Imperium fanzine if you want the details right now, and either of those could give you the same advantage as this map).

The interview with Norris has a bit of Rebellion-specific history, but is still intriguing to a 1105 GM for its background on Norris and the attitudes you can extrapolate. I only find the "Domain of Deneb" overview to be entirely useless for a non-Rebellion GM. Of course it's not entirely unreasonable for an 1105 game to move up through the early Rebellion era, in which case the Rebellion-era material will become more relevant.

Generally, The MegaTraveller Journal #1 would be a nice addition to the collection of a GM running a Spinward Marches campaign, but by no means a necessity. Unfortunately, the DGP products tend to be pretty rare compared to the rest of the professionally produced Traveller material, with most issues of the Journal running $30-50, and I don't think the content of The MegaTraveller Journal #1 is quite worth that--unless you are playing in the Rebellion Era.

Style & Design

Besides offer great realism for the Traveller universe, DGP also had a great knack with the then-emerging world of Desktop Publishing, and it shows in their books.

The overall layout and formatting of the book is clean and professional. There isn't much art, but what exists is all great quality. Where DGP excelled most, however, was in its tight, single-page information layouts. This issue includes world data for Wardn and Enaaka, plus equipment sheets for three different sorts of battle suits, plus the disNewsbriefs, each laid out on a single, attractive page.

Today their designs look somewhat plain, but they were top-quality at the time, and are still very attractive for a minimalistic design choice. I give them a "4" out of "5".

Conclusion

The most interesting aspect of the MegaTraveller Journal was that it opened up the traditional Spinward Marches campaign and made it into the entire Domain of Deneb, an area big enough to make you really feel like you're "travelling" without being excessive (as GDW's attempts at an Imperium-wide campaign were).

About half of this issue is useful to a GM running a campaign in 1105, and it's certainly all quite good if you've moved your campaign up through the Rebellion era.

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