Wyrm's Footnotes was Chaosium's premiere magazine, originally
focused on White Bear and Red Moon (1975), but by the end of its
first run had become the magazine for RuneQuest (1978). This index is
thus primarily focused on Gloranthan games from Chaosium, but there's also
a bit of attention to their other early releases such as Elric (1977),
King Arthur's Knights (1978), and Troy (1977).
A number of additional publications have returned to Wyrm's Footnotes
over the years, including the RuneQuest Companion (1983), Wyrms
Footprints (1995), and even a 15th issue of the magazine, published
decades after the rest of the run (2012). This index covers all of them.
Publisher: Chaosium
Type: Magazine
Issues: #1-15
Locale: USA (California)
Debut: 1976
Ye Booke of Tentacles was created by the German RQ
Society as a fundraiser for the Tentacles over Bacharach convention
in 1998. It was revived in five more incarnations through 2006 and also
spun off the Pavis & Big Rubble Companions. Though YBoT's biggest
focus was on Glorantha, it offered notable support for all
of Chaosium's games, especially Call of Cthulhu and Stormbringer.
YBoT has been succeeded by the Kraken Chapbooks, which are the newest fundraisers
for what's now The Kraken gaming retreat.
Publisher: RQ Society
Type: Fundraiser
Issues: #1-6
Locale: Germany
Debut: Early 1998
Bayt al Azif is a yearly-or-so periodical that covers all of Lovecraftian gaming, with Call of Cthulhu and Trail of Cthulhu getting the most attention. It's released under Chaosium's Small Publisher Limited License, but nonetheless if a fully professional magazine. Its annual publication schedule has made it one of the best places to find out about what was published for Lovecraftian games each year.
Publisher: Bayt al Azif
Type: Magazine
Issues: #1-5
Locale: Online
Debut: October 2018
When Mike Dawson originally described the Codex fanzine, he said that it would be an "American" Tales of the Reaching Moon. Like the UK's foundational magazine, Codex indeed was a generalist RuneQuest 3e magazine that covered a variety of topics. Special issues would highlight Pavis, the West, and the Lunar province of Imther. Codex also remains respected for its quality, at least by those who remember it, as its low print counts and its mere three-issue run mean that it's largely unknown in the modern-day.
Publisher: Self-published
Type: Fanzine
Issues: #1-3
Locale: USA (Virginia)
Debut: January 1994
Harald Smith carved out a little corner of Glorantha for himself: the Lunar Province of Imther. And he wrote about it, eventually leading to his publication of Edge of Empire (2022) for the Jonstown Compendium. This index focuses on his short-lived magazine about Imther, the New Lolon Gospel (1995-1996), but it also includes all of the other writing he did about Imther, Vanch, the Lunar Empire, and Solar myths across a variety of 'zines in the '90s. Some are even collected in an online publication, "Mything Links", which can still be downloaded today.
Publisher: Self-published
Type: Fanzine
Issues: #1-2
Locale: USA (Massachusetts)
Debut: January 1995
Pavic Tales was the first-ever RuneQuest fanzine, originating out of Basingstoke, England at the end of the '80s, during the early RuneQuest 3 period. The "RQ Boys" of Basingstoke produced a light, enjoyable 'zine focused on Prax (as much of RuneQuest was at the time). After managing nine issues in just two years, Pavic Tales passed on the torch, which was quickly picked up by Tales of the Reaching Moon.
Publisher: Self-published
Type: Fanzine
Issues: #1-9 (partial index)
Locale: UK (Basingstoke)
Debut: 1987
Tales of the Reaching Moon was the most important 'zine in Glorantha fandom.
Though it started off modestly as a fairly typical fanzine, by the end of its run it
had become a fully professional magazine. More importantly, Tales of the Reaching
Moon carried the torch for RuneQuest and Glorantha in a period when the
game was either not in print or might as well have been unavailable. A half-dozen or
so other fanzines continued directly in its footsteps.
In the modern-day, Tales of the Reaching Moon has taken over the world:
many of the current owners of Chaosium came up through the ranks of ToTRM, with
Rick Meints transforming his work on the 'zine into Moon Design Publishing, and later
the presidency of Chaosium.
Publisher: Reaching Moon
Type: Fanzine
Issues: #1-20
Locale: UK
Debut: Summer 1989
Tradetalk was the sixth magazine to arise during the great Reaching Moon
RuneQuest revival of the early '90s, but it would be the most long-lived besides
Tales of the Reaching Moon itself.
It was created by the RQ Society, the same German organization
who would later produce Ye Booke of Tentacles and it came
in the wake of their German-language 'zine, Free INT. The
first issue, which was subtitled "Broos in the East", was mostly
translated reprints from Free INT.
However, with the second
issue Tradetalk transformed itself,
and became filled with new material.
Free INT was theoretically a magazine for all of
Chaosium's games in the first half of its runs, but there was never more than
one article on other Chaosium gaming systems.
Publisher: RQ Society
Type: Fanzine
Issues: #1-17
Locale: Germany
Debut: Summer 1996
The Unspoken Word, created by Simon Bray and Mark Galeotti, was the first Gloranthan fanzine released specifically to support Hero Wars (2000), Robin Laws' indie-themed Gloranthan game. Its issues were so tightly focused on individual topics that each one was effectively a sourcebook. In fact, the magazine gave up its numbering after either issue number two or three, and the last few releases were simply supplements (but still in a magazine style). The major topics of the magazine were Tarsh, The Tarsh Exiles, Dragon Pass generally, and the Char-Un.
Publisher: Unspoken Word
Type: Fanzine
Issues: #1-5(ish)
Locale: UK
Debut: June 2001
Beaumains was founded in 1993 during the Golden Age of Chaosium fanzine production, but it was a rarity, focused on Pendragon rather than the Glorantha focus that so many 'zines of the era enjoyed. The magazine was available in the UK for its first few issues, then moved into the United States courtesy of Wizard's Attic. Though the magazine was released across the runs of Pendragon 3e and Pendragon 4e, it remains generally applicable to the Pendragon RPG of any version.
Publisher: Taupe Games
Type: Fanzine
Issues: #1-6
Locale: UK
Debut: Early 1993
