International RuneQuest fandom bloomed from two events: the publication of Tales of the Reaching Moon #1 (1989) and the debut of the first English-language RuneQuest convention, Convulsion of the Trillion Tentacles (1992). Many more magazines and conventions followed. Then the two trends came together, when fans began publishing fundraising books to support conventions, beginning with Questlines (1995), the fund-raiser book for RQ-Con Down Under (1996).

Enter the RuneQuest Society ("RuneQuest Gesellschaft e.V.") in Germany. They began running their own RQ-Cons even before Convulsions, in 1990. After many years of varied venues, in 1996 they found themselves at Castle Stahleck for RuneQuest Con VII. The location stuck and RuneQuest Con IX (1998) recognized something new was going on with its subtitle: "Tentacles over Bacharach". Tentacles soon became the official name for the Stahleck event, even retconning that title back to 1996.

Meanwhile, the German RQ Society was gaining experiencing publishing fanzines, starting with the German-language Free INT (1992-1999), then continuing on with the international Tradetalk (1996-2009). In 1998, the German RQ Society (and the associated international Chaos Society) decided also publish a fund-raiser book, for Tentacles over Bacharach.

They put out a call for contributions and then produced a hefty 112-page book, which they called Ye Booke of Tentacles (1998). When Ye Booke of Tentacles Volume 2 (1999) appeared the next year, to raise funds for Tentacles Reanimated (1999), it had the only full-color cover for the series, and it also made it clear that the fund-raiser had become a magazine of sorts. Four more volumes appeared, though they became erratic in the twenty-first century, with the two Scenario Specials both appearing in 2003, then the sixth and final issue in 2006.

The erratic publication of the later issues was in part due to the publication of Pavis & Big Rubble Companions as alternate fund-raisers, running from 2001-2004. However by 2004, a pending fan policy was hanging over the head of all of Gloranthan fandom, causing some magazines to be put on hiatus. It took until 2006 for the idea of a "Boldhome Press" to appear, which would allow then-Glorantha publisher Issaries to easily license official fanzines. Ye Booke of Tentacles Volume 6 (2006) was both the first magazine to appear under the new brand ... and the last issue of Ye Booke. (Boldhome Press and Issaries would both fizzle out around the same time.)

Fabian Küchler was the editor for almost the entire run of Ye Booke of Tentacles, with help early on from Christian Einsporn and in the last issue from John Hughes. All six issues were produced by the RuneQuest Society, but issues #4 and #5 additionally presented the logo of "Tentacles Press". #6 was instead credited to "The Chaos Society", the RuneQuest Society's branding for their international products; it also bore Issaries' new and short-lived "Boldhome Press" logo.

Tentacles too came to an end in 2009, to be replaced by the Kraken. The new convention has fund-raising books of its own, but they're singular chapbooks, the first of which was Sharper Adventures in HeroQuest Glorantha (2014), by Robin Laws. They continue to use the Tentacles Press brand.

For more on The Chaos Society, see pages 146-159 of MIG III: The Meints Index to Glorantha, with Ye Booke of Tentacles spotlighted on pages 149-152.

Theme Issues

1. "Tentacle over Bacharach" (1998)
2. "Tentacles Reanimated" (1999)
3. (2000)
4. "Scenario Special #1" (2003)
5. "Scenario Special #2" (2003)
6. "10 Years of Tentacular Mayhem" (2006)

Obtaining the Magazines

Though most of Tradetalk become available in PDFs around 2009, Ye Booke of Tentacles has not yet been digitized. Though it was well-distributed at the time (for a fanzine) it's rarely available for sale now.

About the Game Systems

Ye Book of Tentacles gave some attention to all of Chaosium's games at the time, but Glorantha (via RuneQuest, Hero Wars, or HeroQuest) was the main focus, just like in Tradetalk. Those entries are detailed in the main body of this index. Everything else appears in appendices, with Call of Cthulhu given special attention.

This index is © Copyright 2021-2024 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.