Overview

History: 1986-1988

The Third Imperium fanzine, created by Mike Jackson, proudly proclaimed itself first as "The West's Own Traveller Magazine" and then as "The Canadian Traveller Magazine", due to its location in Vancouver, British Columbia. (The latter would be the more memorable slogan and the one used for the majority of the magazine's run.)

Jackson founded Third Imperium because of the "very low number of Traveller magazines being published today", which was somewhat ironic because 1986 was one of the best years ever for Traveller fanzine production. Not only was Between Worlds (1985-1986) still in production at the time, but The Imperium Staple got its start immediately before Third Imperium (1986-1987) in March, and The Security Leak (1986-1988) would be founded as a newsletter at the end of the year. By the end of 1986, there were four fanzines running! (But Jackson would only have perhaps known about Between Worlds when he decided to publish.) Fit into that chronology, Third Imperium is likely the sixth of the major Traveller fanzines (and the fourth of the wave in the mid '80s and the first from Canada).

Third Imperium was founded very much in the style of the official Traveller magazines, High Passage (1981-1982) and Travellers' Digest (1985-1990). Each issue tended to reveal a new subsector (in the Trojan Reach), to set an adventure in that subsector, and to include other articles relevant to those features. In fact, the content was often entirely regularized, with equipment appearing on page 5, a related starship on pages 6-7, the subsector on pages 8-9, and the adventure starting on page 10!

More even than most fanzines, Third Imperium was the product of one creator: Mike Jackson. He was not only a prolific author, filling almost the entirety of his 'zines with his articles, but also an accomplished artist — especially for technical drawings such as ships, weapons, and equipment — which later led him to professional work beginning in Thr Travllers' Digest #16 (1989). Some local support for Third Imperium came from Aaron van Berg, David New, and Paul Stoneman. Super fans Ed Edwards and Mike Mikesh also offered a few articles.

Third Imperium was one of a few fanzines that passed through the transition from Classic Traveller (1977) to MegaTraveller (1987). As was common in an era when new editions weren't seen as a big deal, the change was minimized, with updated content slowly phased in starting with issue #7 (1987). One issue's adventure even mixes MegaTraveller tasks with Classic Traveller starships! The only notable change in the magazine was a revamp of the starships column to also include vehicles, thanks to the new design possibilities of MegaTraveller.

With issue #9 (1988), which marked Third Imperium's second anniversary, Jackson noted that his magazine was the longest-running fanzine, which was technically true. In the end, Third Imperium totalled eleven issues over two and a half years. Though a number of fanzines have hit the eleven-issue mark, managing the interest (and effort!) to produce a magazine for more than two years has been much rarer, with several of the more casual HIWG zines being the few others to manage it — as well as the long-running internet-driven Freelance Traveller (2010-Present) in the modern day.

Jackson eventually brought Third Imperium to an end because of lack of time, in part because he was producing more official Traveller work. Part of that was through HIWG, but Jackson was also working on a scenario book called "Flashback" for GDW, full of historic adventures. (Sadly, it never appeared.) Third Imperium #11 (1988) was the last issue, with a planned twelfth issue and "Best of" volume both failing to materialize.

One problem with a fanzine detailing a sector one subsector per issue is that they never finish, and that was the case with Third Imperium and its Trojan Reach. Jackson clearly recognized the problem and intended to finish his Trojan Reach in the "Best of", but was unable to. Nonetheless, the Trojan Reach Jackson created largely remains canon, even in recent products such as Mongoose's The Pirates of Drinax (2017). As author Gareth Hanrahan said: "First, I must thank Mike Jackson, the author of the Third Imperium fanzine. My work on the Trojan Reach was built on his material written thirty years prior. The weight of history in Traveller can be a burden, but it is also a joy and honour to contribute to it."

Though a fanzine, Third Imperium has some of the better production and content for the category, with material that remains very usable today.

In the '00s, Jackson became a movie editor. He received an Emmy nomination for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Editing" for the documentary Beyond Top Secret (2006).

Trojan Reach Subsector Index

• A: Menorial [#11]
• D: Gazulin [#3]
• E: Yggdrasil [#8]
• F: Dpres [#7]
• G: Sindal [#1]
• H: Tobia [#5]
• J: Goertel [#10]
• K: Tlaiowaha [#2]
• L: The Borderland [#4]

Obtaining the Magazines

About the Contributors

Credits are somewhat problematic for Third Imperium because they're rarely listed. In Third Imperium #8 (1988), Mike Jackson said that was because the uncredited content was his own, and that he thought people would get tired of seeing his name. So, that statement is taken as fact in this index, with all uncredited articles listed as by Mike Jackson.

With that said, there were at least two poorly credited adventures in early issues, by Aaron van Berg, something only revealed in a later editorial. There may be other omissions of this sort, particularly in the first three issues. If you know of anything miscredited, please email me.

This index is © Copyright 2022-2024 by Shannon Appelcline. It is released under a cc-by-4.0 license, allowing reuse with attribution.

Main Index

🧰 Accessories

🎞️ Adventures: Misc

🎞️ Adventures: 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's the most traditional location for adventure in the Imperium. It is also known as the region "Behind the Claw".

🛸 Aliens: Humaniti

🛸 Aliens: Major Races

🛸 Aliens: Minor Races

📚 Background: Misc

1. The basis of the "Replacement Body Parts" articles in THE TRAVELLERS' DIGEST #12-14 (DGP, 1988)

🌌 Background: Geographic, Charted Space

1. This map is a few sectors wider and taller than the traditional multi-empire maps, potentially making it the largest printed map of Charted Space in existence. Also see

🌌 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's the most traditional location for adventure in the Imperium. It is also known as the region "Behind the Claw".

⌛ Background: Historic

1. Also appears in the IMPERIAL ENCYCLOPEDIA (GDW, 1987)

🖊️ Campaign Design

🛠️ Equipment: Misc

1. The basis of the "Replacement Body Parts" articles in THE TRAVELLERS' DIGEST #12-14 (DGP, 1988)

🤖 Equipment: Artificial Life

1. Robots designed using the BOOK 8: ROBOTS (1986) system.

⚔️ Equipment: Combat

🛰️ Equipment: Infrastructure

🚀 Equipment: Transport

1. Built using the system from JTAS #21 (GDW, 1984).

🧶️ Fiction

🗣️ NPCs

⬆️ Meta

📜 Rules

1. The basis of the "Replacement Body Parts" articles in THE TRAVELLERS' DIGEST #12-14 (DGP, 1988)

Appendix I: Other GDW RPGs

🌍 2300AD

Covers