John Andrew Keith (August 31, 1958 – August 7, 1999)[2] was an American author and games developer.
Career
J. Andrew Keith, and his brother William H. Keith Jr., responded to ads in Journal of the Travellers Aid Society for authors to write for Game Designers' Workshop (GDW); Loren Wiseman started them with freelancing for GDW in the late 1970s and the three of them set up much of the early material for Traveller.[3]: 56 J. Andrew Keith wrote so much for the Journal of the Travellers Aid Society that he began to use the pseudonyms John Marshal and Keith Douglass.[3]: 56 The Keith brothers were making enough money that they were able to freelance full-time by 1979.[3]: 56 The Keith brothers then began working for FASA by the end of 1980.[3]: 119 FASA began publishing adventures for Traveller beginning with Ordeal by Eshaar (1981) by the Keith brothers, who then wrote the "Sky Raiders" trilogy (1981-1982) for FASA.[3]: 119 J. Andrew Keith briefly edited the magazine High Passage in 1982 before the High Passage Group told FASA that they could no longer publish material for High Passage; FASA replaced this magazine with a new magazine by J. Andrew Keith called Far Traveller beginning in October 1982.[3]: 119 FASA ended its support of Traveller in 1983, so the Keith brothers continued writing Traveller material with the new company Gamelords, but continued working for FASA on other games.[3]: 120 The Keith brothers wrote seven supplements for Gamelords, including The Mountain Environment (1983), The Undersea Environment (1983),[4]: 342 and The Desert Environment (1984).[3]: 131
Andrew was a rather prolific Science Fiction and Role-Playing Game author, and the bibliography presented below is in no way comprehensive. Several of these works were with various co-authors, most commonly his brother, William H. Keith Jr.[5]
A note regarding pen names in the words of William H. Keith Jr.:
"We shared several [pen names]: Keith William Andrews, Keith Douglass, and H. Jay Riker. Back in the Traveller days, when he was doing a ton of writing for the old Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society, he used several pen names, including Keith Douglass and John Marshall, so it wouldn't look like the journal was entirely an Andrew Keith production."
Science fiction novels
Wing Commander: False Colors
Wing Commander: Heart of the Tiger
The Fifth Foreign Legion: March or Die
The Fifth Foreign Legion: Honor and Fidelity
The Fifth Foreign Legion: Cohort of the Damned
Battletech: Blood of Heroes
Battletech: Mercenary's Star
Science fiction short stories
The Legacy of Leonidas
Rendezvous with Death
Orion Rising
Traveller RPG material
Books, Supplements, and Folio Adventures: Cargonaut Press, Digest Group Publications, FASA, Gamelords, GDW, Marischal Adventures, and Seeker.
Planetfall: Supplementary Material for MegaTraveller
Port Authority Handbook: Arrival In-System
Port Authority Handbook: Communications
Port Authority Handbook: Convoys
Port Authority Handbook: Interdicted Planets
Port Authority Handbook: Inward Clearance
Port of Call: Rejhappur
Port of Call: Roakhoi
Reavers' Deep Sector
Referee's Guide to Planet-building, Parts I and II
Religion in the Two Thousand Worlds
Ship's Locker: Flares and Signalling Devices
Ship's Locker: Torches and Welding Equipment
Ship's Locker: Vargr Corsair Bands
Small Cargoes and Special Handling
Small Cargoes: Three for the Road
Small Cargoes: Afeahyakhtow
Small Cargoes: Hkyadwaeh
Storm
Striking it Rich
Temperature in Traveller
Traveller: The Final Frontier
Traveller's Gear: Body Pressure Suit
Travelling Without a Starship
Umpire Strikes Back!, The
Vargr Grav Platforms
Vland!
Wardn
Wardn Enigma
World's of the Imperium: Fisher's World
appeared in Challenge, Far and Away, Far Traveller, High Passage, Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society, MegaTraveller Journal, Space Gamer, Traveller Chronicle, and Travellers' Digest.
^"United States Social Security Death Index," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/J21F-R6T : accessed June 25, 2014), null, August 7, 1999; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
