The story of Wyrm's Footnotes begins with White Bear and Red Moon (1975) a wargame created by Greg Stafford that was set in the mythical world of Glorantha. Though Stafford had originally hoped to find a publisher for his game, he eventually published it himself at a brand-new gaming company: Chaosium.

Stafford began publishing Wyrm's Footnotes (1976-1982+) the next year to support his new game. Wyrm's Footnotes #1 (1976) included not just new rules for White Bear and Red Moon, but also some of the fiction and myth that underlay the unique world of Glorantha. Stafford promised the 'zine would thereafter appear irregularly, and meanwhile work on the game continued with a second edition (1976) appearing prior to the publication of Wyrm's Footnotes #2 (1977).

In its original lifespan, which lasted seven years, Wyrm's Footnotes went through several changes. The first issue, edited by Greg Stafford, was a stapled fanzine, with a print run rumored to be as low as 25 copies. The mimeographed pages allowed the use of colored paper and ink, giving an extra dimension to the amateur publication. But, it wouldn't be amateur for long. Wyrm's Footnotes #4 (1978) had a real saddle-stiched binding, but at the cost of becoming digest sized. Wyrm's Footnotes #5 (Summer 1978) was again full sized, and circulation had clearly improved considerably. With Wyrm's Footnotes #8 (1980) Charlie Krank took over editorship of the magazine, for Chaosium was growing as well. Finally, Wyrms Footnotes #11 (Spring 1981) completed the march to professionalism. The 'zine now had a full-color cover and was marked as "Volume II, No. 1".

Perhaps more importantly, the content of Wyrm's Footnotes was changing as well, also due to the continued growth of Chaosium. In Wyrm's Footnotes #3 (1977), Chaosium began advertising other games they were producing, beginning with the Elric board game (1977), and even published an article on Dave Hargrave's Arduin Grimoire (1977), which at the time they expected to publish. (They never did, and Hargrave went his own way.)

In subsequent issues, articles proliferated on other Chaosium games such as Elric, Troy (1977), Lords of the Middle Sea (1978), and others. More importantly, material on Glorantha began to multiply as well. Some of this was material on the second Gloranthan game, Nomad Gods (1978), and some of it was more universal material revealing the background of the world, such as the "Gods & Goddesses of Glorantha" series that debuted in Wyrm's Footnotes #4.

However, the most important addition to Wyrm's Footnotes was material for Chaosium's brand-new Gloranthan roleplaying game, RuneQuest (1978). It began appearing in Wyrm's Footnotes #5 (1978) with "Geedunk Dungeon", the first adventure for the new game system. By Wyrms Footnotes #11 what had once been the White Bear and Red Moon 'zine officially became "The RuneQuest Magazine".

Shortly after the publication of Wyrm's Footnotes #6 (1979), Chaosium began publishing their second magazine, Different Worlds (1979-1987). Unfortunately by 1982 it had become too expensive for Chaosium to publish both magazines. Different Worlds continued on, while Wyrm's Footnotes' publication came to an end with Wyrms Footnotes #14 (April 1982), also labeled "Vol. III, No. 4" in reocognition of its second year of magazine-style publication.

Originally Chaosium planned to publish a series of RuneQuest Companions. These books were to be 96-page supplements that would contain assorted information on Glorantha, as Wyrm's Footnotes once had. The first RuneQuest Companion (1983) appeared as planned, but it would be the last Gloranthan supplement that Chaosium published for 9 years due to a failed licensing deal with Avalon Hill that resulted in the publication of RuneQuest 3 (1985) ... and later the death of the line.

Since the first RuneQuest Companion was, in many ways, "Wyrms Footnotes #15", it has been included in this index. It would turn out to be just the first of three epilogues to the magazine, which together would demonstrate the longevity of the Gloranthan setting.

The second epilogue came with the release of Wyrms Footprints (1995), an anthology produced & published by Reaching Moon Megacorp, also the publishers of the groundbreaking Gloranthan fanzine Tales of the Reaching Moon (1989-2002). It was printed with Chaosium's branding and ISBN, with 3,000 copies of the 4,500-copy running going to Chaosium for sale. Wyrms Footprints contained reprints of many old Wyrm's Footnotes articles, some of them newly annotated or expanded. It addition, they was a small amount of new material in that volume, as well as new art by Dan Barker. It too is included in this index.

The third epilogue came with the publication of an actual Wyrms Footnotes #15 (Summer 2012) by Moon Design Publications, a descendent of Reaching Moon Megacorp who would soon become the inheritor of the entire Chaosium legacy. It was labeled "Vol. IV No. 1". There was talk of more issues, but Moon Design eventually turned instead to the bigger task of resurrecting the entire RuneQuest game as RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha (2018).

Meanwhile, following the initial finale to Wyrm's Footnotes in 1982, Gloranthan periodical support continued first in Heroes (1984-1986), which was Avalon Hill's house organ, and then in a variety of Gloranthan fanzines, the first of which was Pavic Tales (1987-1989).

For more on Wyrm's Footnotes, see pages 33-37 of MIG III: The Meints Index to Glorantha, plus page 23 for Wyrms Footprints.

Theme Issues

• #14 Dragonewt Special (April 1982)

About the Game System

Originally, Wyrm's Footnotes was the fanzine of White Bear and Red Moon and Chaosium's other early games. However, as more issues were published, this emphasis began to change. By issue eleven, "The RuneQuest Magazine" was emblazoned on the cover of every issue of the magazine.

This index follows that later emphasis. It focuses in its main body on articles about roleplaying in Glorantha (mostly using the RuneQuest system) and on universally usable Gloranthan background material. Appendices following the main index cover "Other Gloranthan Games" (I), "Non-Gloranthan RuneQuest" (II), "Other Chaosium Games" (III), and "Other RPGs" (IV).

Issue #15 bears the HeroQuest logo, but all of the content is system-neutral.

About the Contents

Besides the 15 issues of Wyrm's Footnotes, this index also covers RuneQuest Companion (1983), which was a new compilation of Gloranthan content following the end of Wyrm's Footnotes, and Wyrm's Footprints (1995), which was largely a reprint of old content. They are labeled "RQC" and "WFP" in the index.

This index has been checked against the Wyrms Footnote Bundle which contains OCRed reproductions of the original issues. The pagination remains the same.

About the Title

Based on the contents and indicia, the official name of this magazine was "Wyrm's Footnotes" from issues #1-10 and then "Wyrms Footnotes" from issues #11-15. But, even for issues #1-10, the use of an apostrophe was inconsistent on the cover (and in fact issues #2-3 just call themselves "WF"). The apostrophe-less name was also used for Wyrms Footprints.

Obtaining the Magazines

Digital copies of issues #1-14 are available in a bundle, while a digital #15 or if you prefer a POD #15 is available standalone. The issues were all originally available hardcopy, but the early issues are now rare and the later issues are somewhat rare. The RuneQuest Companion also exists as a high-quality remastered PDF. Wyrms Footprints is thus the only item not available digitally, but it's easy to find on used marked for a reasonable price thanks to its large print run (though you may prefer the original 14 issues, which have much more content).

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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.