Journal of the Travellers Aid Society
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Journal of the Travellers Aid Society is a role-playing game magazine devoted to Traveller, commonly abbreviated JTAS. The first issue was published by GDW in 1979 and the last of the first run was #24 in 1985. It was superseded by the magazine Challenge, which took up its numbering scheme and ran from issue 25 onwards with a broader role-playing game focus.
The magazine was revived by Imperium Games after GDW folded, and JTAS 25 and 26 were published before that publisher folded itself.
After Steve Jackson Games licensed the Traveller setting, JTAS was revived once again as a weekly, then bi-weekly subscriber-supported web magazine in February, 2000.
The Journal of the Travellers Aid Society takes its name from the fictional Travellers' Aid Society (TAS) that was first mentioned in the original incarnation of the Traveller game published by Game Designers Workshop [GDW]. In the original Traveller game, it was not too uncommon for characters to obtain membership in the TAS during character creation. The idea of the TAS is that it is an organization that exists to support what are basically 'transients,' or 'wanderers' ['Travellers' in the game's terminology] around the galaxy. It does so by maintaining low-cost hostels at many of the large starports, and, most importantly, by maintaining its 'rating system,' which warns of the dangers inherent in visiting certain worlds. Under this system, a world which should be approached with caution is denoted an 'Amber Zone,' and a world that should not be approached at all is denoted a 'Red Zone.'
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