Can you help these poor people?

[The scene is an ordinary street, with shops and nearby homes. Two young men
are walking down the street together, one tall and thin, one short and
scruffy-looking. A stern but sad narration is heard over the scene:]

VOX: These are a pair of ordinary-looking young gamers. That's Dow on the
left, in the leather jacket. He's from Minnesota, and he and his wife play
Tales of the Arabian Nights in their spare time. The little guy is Mike, from
upstate New York. He's been through the wringer since D&D was a three-book
boxed set costing ten dollars.

[The scene pans to a storefront: it says "Games" in big letters.]

VOX: They seem happy enough, don't they? Well, they don't quite have the sorts
of things that you and I take for granted....

[The pair walk inside, and go to the rear of the store, where they begin
browsing through the racks. As far as the eye can see: Shadowrun supplements,
Gurps modules, and the Nth edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.]

DOW: So, any luck then?

MIKE: Oy, gevalt. A GAME STORE they call this? What is this schmutz!

[The two look at each other and shake their heads dolefully.]

VOX: Yes, there's somthing missing in these young men's lives, something that
leaves them empty, aching, alone....

MIKE: [walking over to the sales clerk] Yo, Buddy! How's by you?

CLERK: [reading a DragonLance novel, not looking up] Mm.

DOW: [hands thrust in pockets, shoulders hunched] Listen, we, ah....

MIKE: [hopefully] We're looking for, um, well, YOU know---

BOTH: [eagerly and with desperate hope] The MegaTraveller Journal #1!

[There is a long silence. Slowly the clerk looks up from the book. Cut to a
close-up of Mike nodding and smiling hopefully. Cut to shot of Dow scratching
his chin. Cut back to the clerk.]

CLERK: Traveller? They still publishing that?

[Dow winces. Mike slaps his forehead.]

MIKE: Of COURSE they're still publishing it, you moron! The MegaTraveller
Journal! Number ONe, with the map and everything! The Spinward Marches!

DOW: [starting to look discouraged again] Body armor, new rules. You know.

CLERK: [going back to his book] Never heard of it. Try Shadowrun.

MIKE: [near tears] Oy, vai is mir!

DOW: [bleakly] Whatever.

[As the pair walk slowly out, mourning, the voice over continues:]

VOX: Yes, that's right. Dow and Mike are living in Pittsburgh, one of many
cities worldwide with Traveller-disadvantaged game stores. They have never
even SEEN a copy of the MegaTraveller Journal #1, though they hear regularly
from friends who have had them for weeks or months. Please--won't you help
them? Send your offers of support, specifically to find copies of MTJ#1, to
[email removed] or to [email removed].

"Don't let a friend go without the MTJ another day. What if it were YOU?"

A public service message of the Help We're In A Gaming Wasteland Society.

metlay (and rieder)