Mongoose has done three sets of the Journals of the Travellers’ Aid Society now, and I have edited two slipcases’ worth of these books – there is always something interesting about JTAS! When we put out the call for fans to submit their own articles, we receive hundreds of emails from people, with submissions ranging from a half page to perhaps 15-odd pages, each covering something distinct and, often, something that honours a friend or family member, or their own Traveller group.
The third set of JTAS volumes is no different, with pieces on flora and fauna, vessels that scream ‘my Traveller group designed this with wanton disregard for Law Levels or Credits’, and vehicles that no sane member of society would buy. This is what makes JTAS as special as it is; fans of Traveller coming together to create something wholly their own. The Charted Space universe has thousands upon thousands of worlds, and the Journals of the Travellers’ Aid Society manages to bring them, and the Traveller community, together, all wrapped up in little 128 page books.
When we make the decision to start a new round of Journals, several things need to happen before we can put out the public call for more writers.
Our first job is to look at what we already have; some pieces could not be squeezed into previous volumes of JTAS, others were written for various reasons by ‘mainline’ Traveller authors but not published as standalone pieces, and more still were ideas that had been floating around in our heads but did not warrant entire books of their own.
Next comes the spreadsheet, which tracks each article, what category they fall under (Charted Space, High Guard, Bestiary, Aliens, and so on), who wrote the article, and whether it’s been edited, paid, or checked yet. This sheet also tracks the page count in MS Word, and their conversions into the sizing of the final JTAS books themselves. Yes, I’m very proud of my spreadsheet.
Once this is done, articles get sorted into specific volumes, which requires the estimation of final page counts, which can be inflated by the art I foresee Cassie putting in. Some pieces require deckplans, for which you can allot at least two pages (for the ‘stat block’, image and decks), others need space for ‘vibes’, where I can imagine a super cool piece of art that Cassie can commission for the article.
Then, the collated articles get handed over to Cassie, who begins the process of laying them out. When she puts them into InDesign, she leaves spaces for art, determining how big each piece should be depending on the content, and whether it is going to be a spot image or a scene. After laying the book out and getting dimensions, she will then write up an art spec, before sending it off to the team of very talented freelancers Mongoose works with to produce art for our books.
When all the art has been returned, and the book has been looked over by a proofreader in the meantime, it is all put into place and we make our final checks. Then, the books are released to you.
This is a slight oversimplification of the process, but should give you some idea as to how Mongoose makes our books, and continues to get Traveller into your hands!
On Friday the 15th of August, JTAS 3 (books 13-18) were put on general release, featuring over 100 articles on animals, vehicles, Charted Space, adventures, ships, rules, encounters and new equipment. You can grab your own copies here. This round of journals covers Imperial fashion trends, how to customise your piloting controls, Orca wrestling (and bathhouse bars), and numerous new ships, robots and locations for your Travellers to visit.
Thank you to all those who submitted articles, to Mongoose’s wonderful artists for bringing our visions to life, and to Cassie for diligently laying out each book.
