Overview

History: 2003-2013

Signs & Portents magazine began publication in August 2003 under editor Matt Sharp as a print magazine focused on the d20 games that were the heart of Mongoose Publishing's original success. By that time Mongoose had moved beyond their generic fantasy beginnings to licensed publications, and thus the first issue highlighted their d20 take on properties such as Judge Dredd, Lown Wolf, Conan, ... and Babylon 5, the last of which gave Mongoose's magazine its name.

The print magazine lasted just more than two years, through Signs & Portents #25 (August 2005). By that time Mongoose was dabbling with miniatures and had also already published their first classic game from the '80s, Paranoia XP (2004), quickly renamed Paranoia under threat from the overly litigious lawyers at Microsoft.

With the publication of Signs & Portents #26 (September 2005), the magazine made two huge changes. First, it split in two, with Signs & Portents Roleplayer focusing on Mongoose's roleplaying work and Signs & Portents Wargamer concentrating on their miniatures games. In addition, it transformed from a commercial print magazine into a free online magazine. Editor Chris Longhurst took over editorship of Signs & Portents Roleplayer for the latter part of its bipartite run.

Meanwhile, Mongoose continued to pick up titles from the '80s. After a few months of teasers, a new edition of RuneQuest (2006) was covered starting in Signs & Portents Roleplayer #35 (August 2006). Then in Signs & Portents Roleplayer #53 (February 2008), also the final issue of the split magazine, an interview announced the coming of Mongoose's edition of Traveller (2008). More complete coverage began with designer's notes and adventures in Signs & Portents #55 (April 2008).

The 'zine continued as an electronic publication through its final issue, Signs & Portents #93 (June 2011), largely focused on what became Mongoose's three big properties: Paranoia, RuneQuest, and Traveller. Meanwhile, media licenses were transferred from d20 to the new games, thus Traveller, for example, was used as the foundation for a new edition of Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, and a few others.

Since their genesis, the electronic magazines had been produced in landscape mode for easy reading, a common flirtation for PDFs produced in the '00s, before tablets appeared. Signs & Portents #71 (August 2009) marked the change in that formatting. Sign & Portent's third editor, Charlotte Law worked with artist Will Chapman to produce a magazine format that was not just portrait oriented, but more attractive as well. This format would see the magazine through its finale (though editor Nick Robinson would take over as its fourth editor before the end).

The Traveller content in Signs & Portent was relatively generic for much of its run. Though setting information was occasionally provided within the Official Traveller Universe's Third Imperium, most often that was superficial. Articles that were more concentrated on setting tended to be offered instead for one of the licensed Traveller games. (This was a general trend with Mongoose's Traveller production in its first edition under them.)

There were a few exceptions here and there such as the "Starchild" adventure and some Aslan-focused content surrounding the releases of Alien Module 1: Aslan (2009) and later Supplement 12: Dynasty (2011). But content for the Third Imperium only picked up in the magazine's last year, and then it was primarily focused on updates of articles from the original Journal of the Travellres' Aid Society (1979-1985), such as Loren Wiseman's "SuSAG" article and Marc Miller's "Annic Nova" adventure.

(This would foreshadow Mongoose's volume 4 of JTAS, which led the way with piles of material reprinted from GDW's volume 1.)

Signs & Portents #93 was supposed to be followed by just a short hiatus, to give the Mongoose staff some time to catch up on other projects and to come up with a(nother) new format for the magazine, to appear in early 2012. But instead, it was the end of the road.

The Traveller Compendium was sort of a continuation of Signs & Portents in the final years of Mongoose's first-edition Traveller. It started out as a collection of the Traveller content in Signs & Portents, produced as a hardcover book. Traveller Compendium 1 (2010) came out during the run of the magazine and reprinted almost all the universal Traveller content from Signs & Portents #55 through Signs & Portents #78 (March 2010). Other than some previews, the main missing content was info on the planet "Zephnil" in Signs & Portents #64 (January 2009), most of the "Friends in Need" patrons from Signs & Portents #74 (November 2009) and Signs & Portents #75 (December 2009) and the Heavy SDB from Signs & Portents #74.

Traveller Compendium 2 (2011) was released a few months after Signs & Portents ended, and it contained content from Signs & Portents #79 (April 2011) through Signs & Portents #93, but somewhat less consistently than its predecessor. Its biggest focus was on adventures, including the "Annic Nova" adventure reprinted from JTAS and also "Death Station", originally a Double Adventure from GDW. The volume supplemented those shorter pieces with four adventures originally given away as part of the "Living Traveller" organized play program: "Of Dust Spice and Dewclaws", "Spinward Fenderbender", "A Festive Occasion", and "Rescue on Ruie".

When Traveller Compendium 3 (2013) appeared a year later, Mongoose was ailing a bit in large part due to problems in the larger roleplaying market. As a result, it wasn't a nice hardcover like its predecessor, but instead a PDF-only release. On the flipside, it was almost all new content, with just a few reprinted vehicles that had previously appeared in Signs & Portents. With its short articles, it could be seen as what might have appeared in Signs & Portents had the magazine continued.

Some years later, Mongoose did finally return to magazine-style publication when they kickstarted their volume four of Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society, which obviously was Traveller only.

Theme Issues

• #84: Special Ships Edition
• #92: Adventure Special

Obtaining the Magazines

Issues #56-93 of Signs & Portents, and a few others, are available from DTRPG, now for a small fee. That's basically the Traveller run indexed here. All three Traveller Compendiums are similarly available as PDFs from DTRPG, though the first two volumes can be obtained from secondary markets at slightly inflated prices. As noted, Traveller Compendium 3 was PDF-only: no legitimate hardcopy exists.

About the Contents

This index only lists the Traveller content in Signs & Portents (and the reprint and successor volumes of Traveller Compendium).

This index is © Copyright 2023 by Shannon Appelcline. It is released under a cc-by-4.0 license, allowing reuse with attribution.

Main Index

🎞️ Adventures: Misc

1. Based on the TV show QUATERMASS AND THE PIT (BBC, 1967).
2. Originally published as a LIVING TRAVELLER adventure (Mongoose, 2010).
3. An update of "Death Station" from TRAVELLER DOUBLE ADVENTURE 3 (GDW, 1981).
4. Intended as a prelude to ADVENTURE 2: PRISON PLANET (Mongoose, 2009).
5. Based on the much shorter Amber Zone, "Rescue on Ruie" in JTAS v1 #1 (GDW, 1979).
6. Originally appeared in JTAS v1 #1 (GDW, 1979).

🎞️ Adventures: Geographic, Imperium, Imperium Outskirts¹

1. The Imperium Outskirts are places lying near the Third Imperium and not claimed by another entity.
2. Based on the TV show QUATERMASS AND THE PIT (BBC, 1967).,

🎞️ Adventures: Geographic, Imperium, Domain of Deneb¹

1. Originally appeared in JTAS v1 #1 (GDW, 1979).
2. Originally published as a LIVING TRAVELLER adventure (Mongoose, 2010).
3. Based on the much shorter Amber Zone, "Rescue on Ruie" in JTAS v1 #1 (GDW, 1979).
4. Intended as a prelude to ADVENTURE 2: PRISON PLANET (Mongoose, 2009).
5. Intended as a prelude to ADVENTURE 2: RESEARCH STATION GAMMA (GDW, 1980) and the rest of the trilogy.
6. A follow-up to the adventures in SPINWARD ENCOUNTERS (Mongoose, 2011).

🎞️Adventures: Historic

🗣️ Adventures: Patrons

🌱️️️ Adventures: Seeds, Misc

💡 Advice

🛸 Aliens: Humaniti

🛸 Aliens: Major Races

1. Expanding on the rules in SUPPLEMENT 12: DYNASTY (Mongoose, 2011).
2. Expanding on the rules in ALIEN MODULE 1: ASLAN (Mongoose, 2009).
3. Originally appeared in JTAS v1 #21 (GDW, 1984).

🛸 Aliens: Minor Races

1. Expanding on the rules in SUPPLEMENT 12: DYNASTY (Mongoose, 2011).

🐾 Animals & Plants

📚 Background: Misc

1. Originally appeared in JTAS v1 #16 (GDW, 1983)
2. Originally appeared in JTAS v1 #24 (GDW, 1985)

🌌 Background: Geographic, Imperium, Domain of Deneb¹

1. The Domain of Deneb is the most Spinward of the Domains. It includes the Deneb Sector, the Reft Sector, the Spinward Marches, and the Trojan Reach. It is the most traditional location for adventure in the Imperium. It is also known as the region "Behind the Claw".
2. Originally appeared in JTAS v1 #16 (GDW, 1983)

🌌 Background: Geographic, Imperium, Domain of Sol¹

1. The Domain of Sol, formerly the Domain of Diaspora, contains the Solomani Sphere. It includes the Alpha Crucis Sector, the Diaspora Sector, the Old Expanses, and the Solomani Rim, and also administers the Hinterworlds and the Magyar Sector.
2. Originally appeared in JTAS v1 #16 (GDW, 1983)

🖊️ Campaign Design

🛠️ Equipment: Misc

⚔️ Equipment: Combat

🛰️ Equipment: Infrastructure

🚀 Equipment: Transport

1. Inspired by FOUR-DAY PLANET (H. Beam Piper, 1961)

🎤 Interviews, Memoirs & Notes

1. Design notes for an unpublished TRAVELLER setting from Mongoose.

⬆️ Meta

1. Originally Published in JTAS v1 #14 (GDW, 1982).

🗣️ NPCs

📜 Rules

1. A preview drawn from ALIEN MODULE 3: DARRIANS (Mongoose, 2010).
2. Expanding on the rules in SUPPLEMENT 12: DYNASTY (Mongoose, 2011).

⭐ Reviews: Misc

Appendix I: Other Traveller Settings

🌍 2300AD

🐙️ Chthonian Stars

🪖️ Hammer's Slammers

🦅️ Judge Dredd

🗡️️ Reign of Discordia

🐶️ Strontium Dog

🛰️ Universe of Babylon 5

Covers