Butch (Wheeler), Jim (Mozley), and Mark (Corbett) of Basingstoke, in southern England, were the "RuneQuest boys". They came together when Jim ran Apple Lane (1978) after he'd learned the rules, created characters, and fought some baboons on his own. Mark and Butch were the only people to show up at Jim's game, because they were looking for new RuneQuest players.

Jim was probably the one who instigated the idea the idea of producing a fanzine so that the three could share their love of RuneQuest, but it was Mark who was the driving force behind the 'zine, in part because he worked at a printing company. Others joined such as Pete Cook, a friend from school who drew cartoons.

Pavic Tales was the first fanzine entirely dedicated to RuneQuest. Prior, Glorantha had been the heart of Chaosium's Wyrm's Footnotes (1976-1982+) house organ and RuneQuest had been an important element of Avalon Hill's Heroes (1984-1986) magazine, but both had also given attention to other games from the companies. RuneQuest had also appeared in individual articles for any number of fanzines, magazines, and APAs—of which the most important was likely Games Workshop's White Dwarf (1977-Present), which had its own "RuneRites" column starting with White Dwarf #30 (April/May 1982). However, never before had fans created a magazine all about Greg Stafford's Gloranthan game.

The debut of the fanzine in 1987 as a British publication coincided with Games Workshop's second big push on RuneQuest. They'd signed a deal with Chaosium in 1981 to reprint Chaosium's books in the UK. But by 1984, Avalon Hill was in the driver's seat and had published their own third edition of RuneQuest (1984). In 1987, GW started publishing attractive and full color (but poorly bound) editions of this new edition, starting with RuneQuest (1987) and Advanced RuneQuest (1987). It seemed like a great foundation for a British fanzine—and indeed, Pavic Tales immediately started playing with RQ3 systems in their "Nysalor's Niggles" column.

The first two issues of Pavic Tales were printed as solid, saddle-stitched, digest-sized fanzines at what's been described as a "Christian" printing press. This became relevant with the third issue because the press operator refused to print it due to Glorantha's gods and cults, which he'd decided were "devil worship". The issue was instead photocopied at Mark's work. It's the crudest of the three issues, just printed and stapled together on the left side.

Eventually, Pavic Tales was able to take full control of the process with its own "dilapidated" printing press. Quality increased: some of the later issues were printed two-color annnnd the last issue made the jump to full size.

The nine issues of Pavic Tales demonstrate the interests of UK RuneQuest fans in the late '80s. They're largely focused on adventures and background material for Prax and Pavis. There are a few cults too, of course, because you can't have a classic RuneQuest magazine without new, full-length cults. Perhaps most notably, the first few issues include articles on HeroQuests. From the start, heroquesting was a big gap in the RuneQuest rules, fixed in the day only by 'zines and alternative rule sets produced by fans. Arguably, the second Glorantha RPG, Hero Wars (2000) gave players the first "official" way to HeroQuest, but decades later RuneQuest players would still be waiting ...

By the time Pavic Tales #9 (Spring 1989) rolled around, Jim had moved to London, and Mark was carrying most of the load of the 'zine. It became too much, and so he brought it to an end. In many ways, the ending of Pavic Tales was just as appropriate as its beginning, for in 1989, Games Workshop published their last RQ3 book, a softcover of their RuneQuest rules (1989). by then their attention was turning to Warhammer Fantasy Battle (1983) and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (1986). Their RuneQuest books quickly faded from view, and RuneQuest became available in the UK only through the expensive Avalon Hill box, which was even more expensive after it was imported. The salad days of RuneQuest in the UK were quickly coming to an end.

Fortunately for RuneQuest fandom, Tales of the Reaching Moon (1989-2003) appeared a few months later. (ToTRM editor David Hall in fact made his first Gloranthan contribution to Pavic Tales: the "Unicorn Horn" plunder item found in issue #3.)

For more information on Pavic Tales, read the 2020 interview with Mark & Jim and see pages 131-132 of MIG III: The Meints Index to Glorantha.

Obtaining the Magazines

Pavic Tales was hard to get back during the height of Glorantha's fanzines in the '90s, but a few issues occasionally turned up at convention auctions. It's almost impossible to find today, likely because it predates the Gloranthan fanzine boom and so was presumably printed in smaller numbers than many later fanzines (though big enough to be sold through Esdevium).

About the Contributors

There are few credits on the articles in Pavic Tales, as reflected in the sparse credits in this index. Mark notes that he was writing the majority of the 'zine by the run's end. Contributors and playtesters credited in the issues indexed here include: Iain B., Mike C., Pete Cook, Mark (Corbett), Andy Cousins, Steve Davis, Karl F., Kevin, Martin, Jim (Mozley), Simon Phipp, Dean R., Paul Sturge, Peter, H. Vorder, and Butch (Wheeler).

About the Contents

This is a partial index because I don't have the remaining issues. But thanks to Graeme Murrell for sending me some duplicate issues so that I could work up a history of Pavic Tales and also index as much as I could. (A few other issues were were bought at conventions in the '90s.)

If you have any of the issues I am missing (currently #1, #6, #8, or #9) and are willing to sell, scan, photocopy, or photograph them for me for the academic purpose of extending this index, please drop me a line.

This index is © Copyright 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.