A Future Direction for Stellagama Publishing

2026 was a rough year so far for me, Omer Golan-Joel, owner of Stellagama Publishing. Apart from obvious horrible political events I prefer not to discuss here, I went through a lot of tough times. Across 2024 and 2025, I was in a deep marital crisis which almost led to a divorce. In December 2025, I broke my elbow and had my arm in a cast for a week. In January 2026, I had to go twice to a psychiatric ER due to a long hypomanic episode, which (among other things) involved me writing poetry obsessively and spending much money on publishing my poems (with no profit or compensation).

In May 2026, I had a (thankfully minor) stroke leading to three days of hospitalization at a neurological department. Then, again, in early July 2026, I had another suspected stroke, this time with six days of hospitalization and inconclusive results. As a result of this brush with death, I reconsidered my previously-hardcore secular worldview, which led to me (partially) observing Shabbat and eating Kosher food (I am Jewish).

On top of that, my financial situation turned to the worse, both due to the hypo-manic spending and to greatly disrupted work (both in my day-jobs and in Stellagama Publishing). My funds are now extremely tight and from having three bank accounts and several credit cards, I now have one account and two cards which I will soon replace with ATM or Debit cards to prevent improper spending.

Stellagama Publishing, along with my wife Einat, were my anchors in these turbulent waters. However, handling major medical and financial stress took its toll from my writing and publishing work. I had several projects slated for 2026, and only a very few came to fruition (such as Pocket Barbarian). Now that the hardship is (hopefully) subsiding, I want to return to full work on Stellagama Publishing with its wonderful team and many titles.

There are three main considerations here. First, I need to curtail spending to a bare minimum, which is paying royalties to partners and paying for an Adobe Stock subscription for affordable (only human-made) stock art. Second, I want to maintain Stellagama's identity despite recent years' changes in the small-press TTRPG market.  Third, I want to further dedicate our work to our customers and to the TTRPG community at large.

Thus, I have made the following decisions.

1. We will use color art (mainly human-made stock art) for book covers, and use exclusively black-and white art for book interiors. We will not use any AI art or text whatsoever (we never did!). We will use as much public-domain art as possible, as well as strategically-placed (human) stock art. We will not delve into "ArtPunk" directions of excessive (and expensive) art.
2. We will focus on PDF titles, which constitute the majority of our sales. Other than major-line core books, we will not publish print titles. When offering print, we will offer black-and-white softcovers for maximum affordability for our customers.
3. We will use Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) as much as possible, mainly for ethical reasons. I am using Linux (the distribution is Fedora KDE) on my main desktop computer and work laptop. We will do my writing on LibreOffice and much of our layout work in LibreOffice and Scribus.
4. We will continue to focus on the readability of our products. In technical terms, this means using the Atkinson Hyperlegible Next font, size 12 points, black text on a white background, for all body text and tables. This also means clearly separating art from text. We will be moving thicker books to A4 format, as it is easier to keep open on the table than the A5 format we used extensively in the past.
5. We will continue our commitment to the OSR and Cepheus communities. While I occasionally publish "Community Content" booklets for Traveller, almost of Stellagama Publishing's work would stay staunchly loyal to OSR and Cepheus titles and aesthetics.
6. We will reduce our book prices, for the benefit of our community and that of our loyal customers. In the past, we significantly increased our prices due to inflation, but I have reconsidered this and think gaming PDFs should be affordable. This will also be permitting our customers to enjoy our frugal art budget: we save money, and so you do! Today, we have cut the prices of many (though not all) of our titles across the board! Print prices will be somewhat higher due to the print cost itself, though our publisher margin will remain $10 or lower. Expect a major drop in prices HERE AND NOW, especially in print title prices!
7. We will redo the layout of some of our books following customer feedback. This will include, inter alia, a new B&W layout for Cepheus Deluxe, an A4 layout for The Sword of Cepheus, and a new Cepheus Deluxe version of The Space Patrol.

The Stellagama Publishing Vision and Brand Identity

1. We are proud members of the TTRPG community in general, and the Cepheus and OSR communities in particular. We publish TTRPG books for our community and fellow hobbyists who enjoy tabletop gaming.
2. Our games are intended for actual play around a table (physical or virtual). We consider gameplay and playability our top priorities.
3. Our games should be as useful as possible at the table. We insist on readability as an overriding visual design principle.
4. We believe in accessible and affordable games. Our prices are very reasonable. We believe charging a high price for a PDF misses the point of a hobby game and turns away many people in our community.
5. We believe in a clean, old-school aesthetic. We avoid excessive visual "noise" or expensive art. Older public-domain art is part of our product identity, as are readable black-and-white books with reasonable fonts.
6. We believe in quality editing. Our editors have no sacred cows and should criticize manuscripts irreverently and sharply.
7. We believe in old-school sensibilities and proven mechanics over flashy or overly-experimental game systems.
8. We provide excellent and responsive customer service to our communities.
9. At the end of the day, we write and publish the games we always wanted to play as kids, adolescents, and young adults. We believe in the sense of wonder, enjoyable play, and a welcoming gaming environment.

Together, with hard work and dedication, we will publish the best TTRPG books we can for the benefit and joy of our communities and customers!

The Competent Traveller

 I have written much about Classic Traveller skills in the past decade. However, a recent discussion on the Traveller Discord server took me back to this subject again. Not only discussing skills, but also raising the point that Travellers are competent, even regardless of formal skills. That is, a Traveller character should be able to do anything a competent interstellar adventurer would logically be able to do, even if it is not explicitly indicated on their character sheet.

This was typical to older TTRPGs. A good example of this comes from pre-2000 Dungeons & Dragons, like the Basic/Expert (B/X) and AD&D 2E I played in my youth (in the 1990s). While AD&D 2E had proficiencies, they were never construed (at least by people I played with) to be comprehensive abilities but rather interesting extra stuff the character could do. Other than explicit thief skills, we assumed a character can attempt, and often succeed at, anything logical for an adventurer to be able to do. Given surprise rules, a fighter or magic-user could definitely sneak; the thief simply gets an extra percentile roll to avoid detection even when not achieving surprise. A fighter or magic user can role-play to convince (or decieve!) NPCs to do their bidding, with risky attempts requiring a reaction roll at most. Everyone could climb reasonable walls; the theif can climb quite unreasonable ones as well! Outside of combat and spellcasting, much of the game was a relatively open conversation between the Dungeon Master and the players, always held under the assumption that characters are competent.

A starting Traveller character is at least as competent as a low-level D&D fighter: even at the formal level the Traveller can use any common weapon, drive vehicles, direct fire, perform various hospitality tasks, and use vacc suits without penalty (as per Book 1 rules - noted as "zero-level skills"). They can wear almost any armor and, with high STR and/or DEX, get much better bonuses to attack throws that a typical D&D character, even one with high ability scores! And that's just the "dry" rules - it was, and is, assumed that a Traveller can attempt anything logical for a character of their career background and characteristics to try!

Stealth? In risky situations, use the Surprise rules (Book 1). Skills can help, but are not mandatory. A military backgroudn helps. Persuation outside of specific contexts (as covered by the Admin or Streetwise skills)? Just role-play the conversaion, and if initial impressions may lead to danger, use the Reactions rules (Book 3). Again, military experience (in this case, long service) helps - and under the Book 3 rules, skills do not grant DMs for reaction!

And these are only two examples. You can solve riddles (by "player skill"), understand complex situations, recall general knowledge and education (at most, roll 2d6 under your EDU characteristic, but usually general knowledge is automatic); you can climb and jump as a competent adult; you can do a whole lot of things! Do not let your character sheet restrict you. See it as a springing board, not a comprehensive list of what your character can do.

Add skills to that. A skill is a vocation, and Skill-1 is sufficient to be employable. Skill-3 is a profession - such as a physician or proper engineer. You gain 2 skills in your initial career term, as per Book 1. You are a competent and employable character even if you are a 22-years-old freshly dischaged veteran. But skills are not everything your character is - you can do a whole lot of things by simply being a competent adult (usually) with a military background - try anything which seems logical to you and the Referee!

Simpler Living

Faced with a cluttered home, overwork, and financial insecurity, I have decide to simplify my life and drastically cut my expenses. This has a simple monetary component, namely cutting back on my cost of living to get out of debt and eventually reduce work. This also has a philosophical component, namely minimalism and reducing the effects of consumerism on my life. This will also affect my gaming expenditures and purchases, but fear not: Stellagama Publishing will only benefit from this.

I have already found 10 or so unused electronics in my (home) office, as well as over 50 books I have no interest in. I also discovered I have several sci-fi and fantasy literary gems I forgot I bought, and I intend to read them (I'll get to that in a moment). The excess electronics are being donated, as are the books I do not intend to read. I am now in the process of decluttering my wardrobe as well, getting rid of all stained clothes and clothes I do not really intend to wear. Anything stained goes to recycling, anything in good shape gets donated. Extra and unused kitchenware is next.

I have cut $400 (!!!) on monthly average in subscriptions, mostly unused and forgotten, including YouTube Premium (I have FreeTube for ad-free and algorithm-free YouTube), D&D Beyond, Roll20, and many more.

I am also cutting back consumption. Consumerism is a major issue most of us face. I intend to act as follows:

1. Before buying anything, I'll ask myself: do I really need it now (as in, within the next week or month)? If not, I won't buy it.
2. I'll plan my  meals ahead. I'll buy groceries exactly as I need for the next week. I will not fall for sales. My home is not a warehouse.
3. If possible, I won't buy clothes, shoes, electrical appliances, etc. until the old ones need replacement.
4. I won't fall for brands. I'll buy what I need, not what other people will be impressed by. For examle, my communication needs can be easily satisfied by a $200 phone. No need for a $1,000 one.
5. I will try not to buy online. Going to a physical store takes time and effort, and thus drastically reduces impulse purchases. Especially I intend to avoid buying from social media/search engine ads and promoted content!

In regard to video gaming - I noticed my video gaming declined from about 3 hours a day a decade ago to 1 hour every 3 or so days currently. I have enough indie and old games to play for severall lifetimes. Therefore, my next desktop computer will be a $400-$500 machine running Linux (which is much lighter than Windows in terms of system resource usage) and games with lower requirements. I no longer need a $2,000 desktop PC.

Regarding TTRPGs - I have several hundreds of PDFs and dozens of print books. I have no intention to buy further ones or back Kickstarters, other than books and Kickstarters by friends (such as Zozer Games). Once again, I have enough for several lifetimes!

The next part of my plan is cutting screen time. Especially on Shabbat and in evenings. Instead, I'll read books in bed and play solo TTRPGs - with pencil, paper, and physical books (I have enough of those), - at my dining table. Better on the eyes, and I have sadly neglected reading for several years.

As for Stellagama Publishing - I am working full speed ahead on it! I'm cutting back on custom art, and will mostly use stock art (Adobe Stock is about $30 a month and has great stuff) and public-domain art (which is even better). Expect lower prices on upcoming Stellagama books thanks to near-zero art costs!

Migrating the Dark Nebula to the Galaxiad

I am thinking about migrating my Dark Nebula variant-OTU setting to the Galaxiad milieu of the Official Traveller Universe. This would be a refreshing change, as well as a good setting with a wide-open future. Playing in the Far Far Future of the Galaxiad is liberating - I get a narrative license utilize any part of the vast OTU Canon while ignoring other parts. For example, I can easily tell players that the Dark Nebula boardgame map is the actual map and that the Dark Nebula subsector maps from Travellermap are inaccurate Antediluvian maps! (I can do this in any milieu, of course, but it's extra easy in the Galaxiad).

It is 1901 Old Imperial, known locally as 411 Postdiluvial. (PD 411).

You see, the local collective term for the various catastrophes surrounding "The Collapse" is the Deluge. 

The Deluge started on 1116 Old Imperial and ended with the passing of the Wave through Aslan space in 1489 Old Imperial.

So, three historical eras in Dark Nebula historiography and public discourse:

• Antediluvian Era, up to 1115 Old Imperial
• Deluge, 1116-1489 Old Imperial (Diluvial Years 1-273)
• Postdiluvian Era, 1489 Old Imperial and on (Postdiluvian Year 1 and on).

Solomani refugees came in the late Diluvial years, once the Wave passed the Dark Nebula and was still crossing Aslan space. They settled on abandoned, dead, or mostly-depopulated Aslan worlds. This gives us several human worlds in the region, who are now in conflict with the resurgent Aslan.

Max local TL in the Dark Nebula region is TL11. Anything higher is either an Antediluvian artifact or a rare import.

(Map by Gavin Dady, under my commission)