By Gregg Giles

Greetings! First: an apology. This issue is out incredibly late – almost four months overdue. Things have since piled up, and we've gradually managed to hack our way through most of it. As you can tell, the next issue ought to be hot on the heels of this one, and we are working hard to ensure that it is!

Many of you will notice that you no longer receive the newsletter we have been publishing. As of this issue, our newsletter has ceased publication. The important parts of the newsletter have been incorporated into this issue. You will notice two new sections: "From The Wire" and a classified page. "From The Wire" carries game release information, convention dates, and more. The classified section is self-explanatory. Classified ads can be printed for free and are subject to space availability; no business ads will be accepted.

Several nights ago, a knock shook my front door. A semi-weary editor somehow managed to waltz across the living room to gaze upon the friendly UPS man and a package marked: GDW. My heart pounded – MegaTraveller was out! I spent the night tearing (well, looking with excitement, anyway!) through the three new rulebooks. My mind soon stuck on a single word to describe the new books: "hot"! Since that night, my view of Traveller has changed tremendously; I now see Traveller alive, and returning with a renewed vengeance. As a surfboard T-shirt says: "We've got the weapons." Well, now we really do! MegaTraveller is a beautiful boxed set filled with 10 years worth of gaming, fun, and hard work. I extend a hearty congratulations to the Game Designers' Workshop and the Digest Group for this job well done! Thanks for the guns!

With the release of MegaTraveller, we too will be making some changes in the way we do things. Beginning with the next issue, all MegaTraveller rules will be in effect. This issue will be the last in which the original rules are active.

To help you along, we will also try to sort out the changes to the rules and explain them to you in a serious called "Putting the 'Mega' in Traveller" (explaning changes such as the appearance of the Universal Task Profile, or UTP, and more.) Also with next issue, all articles and adventures are to be fast-forwarded into the new Traveller settings – the Great Rebellion. It is out hope that by that time, all of our readers will have had time to find the new MegaTraveller rules and have a few hours to at least glance at them.

You will notice that this issue has a few changes, also. We are now running in a 24-page format (double the size of our premiere issue), and are announcing new plans for the renamed Security Leak Publications. We no longer use the name of "SORAG Laboratories" for reasons we won't mention here.

This issue holds several articles we believe you will enjoy.

"Collace is Pending" (this issue's feature adventure) will take you into a war-torn Spinward Marches in an attempt to help the lonely world of Collace survive the new unrest in the sector and adjacent sectors. You will probably notice that the adventure takes place during the Rebellion, despite what was just said about waiting until the next issue. Oops? Well, yes. Oops. There are some things that you cannot plan for, and MegaTraveller's release date turned out to be one of them.

Michael Mikesh (in a supplement to the adventure) will take you on an inside look of pirate "sociology" in "Notes on Piracy", and he also unveils an article on the mysterious jump gates.

Jeff Swycaffer premieres "The Man in the Gold Sash" in this issue. Jeff has several novels already in print (such as "Become the Hunted" and "Not in Our Stars") and may soon have another.

I hope you enjoy this issue. It was not at all easy to make, and at times it was not at all fun, but here it is. You're the final judge of our work. It would be greatly appreciated if you send us a letter with your comments and even outlining what you'd like to see. We're always look for make it better!

To the stars!