Stardate (magazine)

Stardate was a gaming magazine with an unusual publishing history.

FASA issues (Vol 1)
The magazine's first seven issues (two were "double issues", making the run five in total) were originally published by FASA. Its subtitle called it "The Magazine of Science Fiction and Gaming", even though it focused primarily on their Star Trek Role Playing Game and its supplements. Most of the articles were written by the same authors that worked on the game. The most notable columns in the magazine at this point were "Ask Starfleet Command" (the letters column, focusing on rule clarifications), "Making Your First Million" (an "active" supplement to Trader Captains and Merchant Princes) and "Jaynz Ships of the Galaxy" (new starship designs to use with the game, often relating to one of the new adventure modules published in each issue).

Associates International issues (Vol 2)
From issues 8 to 11 (of which 9 to 11 are referred to in the publishing notes as "Volume 2"), publication was taken over by Associates International, Inc. and the coverage expanded to other RPGs and table-top games, both by FASA (such as their Doctor Who RPG and Battletech games) and not. Additionally, the magazine expanded into professional and non-professional fan fiction and comic strips. The magazine's new subtitle, "The Multi-Media Science Fiction Magazine" reflected most of the changes. Various new columns tended to replace those in the FASA-published version of the magazine, although one that was maintained was "Jaynz Ships of the Galaxy", which added one to three new ships per issue.

Reluctant Publishing issues (Vol 3)
Volume 3 of the title's run was published by Reluctant Publishing, Ltd. The format slowly aimed more toward Battletech and only peripherally focused on the Star Trek RPG. The magazine began to refer to itself as "The Science Fiction Gaming Resource" to reflect its expanded coverage of role-playing and fighting games (and lesser amount of fan fiction), as well as its expanded size (usually over one hundred pages per issue). The Star Trek RPG was still featured, but no longer as much as previously.

StarDrive
After issue 6 of the third run, the next issue carried a new title, StarDrive and a re-start of both Volume and Issue at 1. This wound up being the last issue published, as Reluctant Publishing went out of business shortly thereafter.