Mike Dawson joined the roleplaying hobby in 1977 with a copy of J. Eric Holmes' Basic D&D Set (1977). However, after he introduced his friend Dan Greenberg to the game, he "abandoned" it for a year. Fortunately by the time he was brought back into gaming, Steve Perrin had published RuneQuest (1978), which Dawson bought "when the ink was still wet on the first edition". Soon, Dawson was designing his own RuneQuest campaign, Rimwall, set in a huge circular valley with barrier peaks, and making adjustments to the RuneQuest rules, which he wrote about in correspondence with designer Perrin.

From early on, Dawson wanted to be a member of not just the hobby, but the industry. Around 1981, he started a mail-order business with Dan Greenberg selling fantasy t-shirts of "The Cleric", "The Mage", "The Thief", "The Halfling", and "The Elven Bowman". He also joined Greenberg in the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Gamemasters Club, a crucial early roleplaying organization focused on both play and design. Its members included not just Dawson and founder Greenberg, but also other young game designers such as Les Brooks, Sam Shirley, Phil Brucato, and Bill Bridges, resulting in it influencing both Chaosium and White Wolf; members praise Dawson as an "unsung hero" of modern RPGs, with his influential "Illuminated Champions" game being a highlight.

Meanwhile, Dawson was also participating in early fanzines such as The Necromancer (1981-1982) and The Oracle (1982-1983), where he revealed his increasing fandom with reviews of Chaosium's Stormbringer (1981) and Borderlands (1982). Dawson made the jump to professional writing a few years later with reviews and articles for Game News (1985-1986) and famously "The Ostrich Clan" for RuneQuest, which appeared in Heroes magazine (1984-1986).

When Avalon Hill began neglecting RuneQuest in the early '90s, Dawson joined the fandom online and contributed to Tales of the Reaching Moon (1989-2003). Simultaneously, he struggled to get Avalon Hill to commit to guidelines for submissions. Only after Ken Rolston took over the editing of RuneQuest was Dawson able to write for Avalon Hill's supplements, becoming a member of the RuneQuest Renaissance. He supported Oliver Jovanovic and company in working on the never-published "RuneQuest: Adventures in Glorantha" rules and also contributed to Avalon Hill's late RQ supplements, Shadows on the Borderlands (1993) and Strangers in Prax (1994). There should have been more, as Dawson largely became Avalon Hill's "Rune Czar" following Ken Rolston's departure from the role. He was contracted to develop Michael O'Brien's "Soldiers of the Red Moon" and was also supporting Harald Smith in producing his "Edge of Empire" book on Imther. Unfounately, these projects were lost as Avalon Hill collapsed once more in the late '90s.

In 1993, Dawson decided to create his own RuneQuest fanzine. As he wrote, "Most of us don't game as much as we used to, pressures of the real world being what they are. We make up for that by writing, so we can justify our time by earning a few dollars". Unlike the second modern RuneQuest 'zine, RuneQuest Adventures (1993-1998), Dawson intended Codex to be a more varied magazine, like Tales itself. In fact, when asked how it would be different, Virginian Mike Dawson's first answer was, "It will be American!" (He later supplemented that by saying that his editorial tastes would be different, with fewer rules, no reviews, no background written as fiction, and less concern about being contradicted.)

Codex #1 (January 1994) appeared in 200 numbered copies at RQ-Con 1 (1994), the first US RQ-Con, held by David Cheng in Baltimore. The success of RQ-Con encouraged Dawson to continue publishing, though when he had to actually mail out Codex #2 (1994), he was shocked by the cost. A third issue (1995) would close out the magazine.

Dawson was supported in the magazine by a who's who of RQ fandom at the time, drawn from online mailing lists and Tales writers, most notably including Martin Crim, also from the DC/Virginia area, who provided considerable support. Imther author Harald Smith was another of Dawson's contributors: Dawson introduced him to the non-electronic world in the third issue, which was an Imther special. Dawson was also fortunate to have a very notable piece courtesy of Greg Stafford: a map of the God Plane (redrawn by Dawson), which appeared in Codex #2. At the time, it was the first look at the home of HeroQuesting.

There were plans for a fourth issue focused on the East Isles. However it was delayed by missing cover art (a real issue, as Dawson had focused on high graphical quality for Codex, but at the same time was small enough press that he couldn't pay for art), and "Mike's other interests in life". A LARPish scenario called the "Galastar Peace Conference", by Martin Crim, was also planned as a non-magazine release. Codex instead closed down with that third issue.

Theme Issues

1. Pavis Special (January 1994)
2. West Special (Spring 1994)
3. Imther Feature (Winter 1995)

About the Game Systems

Codex was primarily a RuneQuest 3e Gloranthan magazine, with many articles being universal.

Obtaining the Magazine

Codex was a small-press magazine, with the original print-run of the initial issue only running 200 copies. There were reprints in UK officially produced by Colin Phillips, with white covers instead of the colored covers that Mike Dawson used, but it's likely they existed in pretty small quantities as well.

As a result, it's very hard to find Codex today, especially because the title is not very search-friendly.

This index is © Copyright 1994-2024 by Shannon Appelcline. It is released under a cc-by-4.0 license, allowing reuse with attribution. Map background is courtesy of Chaosium, used per their fan material policy.