As we begin the second year of Other Hands' existence, I thought that a "state of the union address" might be appropriate. As of April, our journal has a total of thirty-five subscriptions (two of them complementary, four exchange-based). Our readers range throughout the US and Europe: twenty-six in America, four in England, and others in Germany, Sweden, Spain, Austria, and the Netherlands.

Our financial situation (and that of our publishers) has evened out somewhat since last issue, leaving us less dependent on sheer numbers of subscribers to keep us afloat. Although we are regularly noted in the pages of Estel and Beyond Bree, it never ceases to amaze me that Amon Hen has managed to remain oblivious to our existence for more than a year now (especially given the fact that copies of OH were sent to its editor for review many moons ago). Tolkien specialty shops fear to stock us (with the partial exception of Thornton's of Oxford, who promised to notice us in their next Tolkien catalogue). But we laugh in the face of adversity.

Continuing on our campaign theme from last issue, Anders Blixt has offered us two articles that expand upon themes hinted at in his earlier article "Beyond the Third Age" (OH 1: 7-19). The first presents an outline for a Second Age campaign set in Middle-earth before the foundation of Gondor, while the second gives more in-depth background material for his Fourth Age "Aelindur" campaign.

Pete Clark, a newcomer to Other Hands, has given us permission to reprint a narrative background to another pre-Akallabêth campaign which he has been running with the Oxford Tolkien Society. Normally, we don't publish purely "literary" pieces, but perhaps this will tempt Pete to tell us more about the campaign in a future issue. We are also joined by Scott Stanek, who has sent in a "bio" of a very interesting character—interesting, because his story proves that it's possible to set an engaging Middle-earth game even in so remote a setting as Valinor in the First Age.

I haven't been able to contribute much to this issue because of my work with the Kin-strife module, but I did manage to write a short piece on the history of Umbar. No adventure scenario for this issue, because no one sent me any. Start writing if you want to continue to see stuff like that, and see you in three months!

Chris Seeman

April 1, 1994