On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.
Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. As new fanzines have appeared, there has been an interest in the fanzines of the past, and as that interest has grown, they have become highly collectible, and consequently more difficult to obtain and write about. However, in writing about them, the reader should be aware that these fanzines were written and published between thirty and forty years ago, typically by roleplayers in their teens and twenties. What this means is that sometimes the language and terminology used reflects this and though the language and terminology is not socially acceptable today, that use should not be held against the authors and publishers unduly.
Subtitled ‘The RuneQuest Fanzine’, Pavic Tales was one of the first fanzines devoted solely to RuneQuest and Greg Stafford’s world of Glorantha. It ran for nine issues between 1987 and 1989 and bridged the gap between Chaosium, Inc.’s own RuneQuest II and RuneQuest III from Avalon Hill. Unfortunately, Pavic Tales Issue 1 and its other issues are not readily available, a limited release meaning that they are highly collectible. It would be interesting to see the contents updated and made available for every fan, not just the collectors. A full history and index of Pavic Tales can be found here.
With no contents page, the inaugural fanzine leaps straight into the heat of combat with Jim Mozely’s ‘FIRE!’. This suggests ways to counter the players tendency to use Multimissile 4 in combination with an arbalest or Fire Arrow Thrown Rock to blast their opponents to death. These include highlighting the dangers of firing into melee combat, making arbalests unavailable unless found as treasure since Dwarves are not simply going to give them away, using shields properly to cover hit locations, and using spells on missile weapons before they are fired. Thus, Glue to fix an arrow firmly in place, Ignite to burn the crossbow, and Conceal to make it disappear—and of course, let the NPCs do this, not just the Player Characters. Most of the options are obvious, but useful, whilst the spell suggestions are amusingly inventive.
The fire theme continues with Mark Corbett’s ‘The Fire Spirit’ which tells the rise and fall of Yelm’s grandson, hatched from the womb of a volcano, who looking for mischief threw himself into the fight alongside Stormball in the fight against Chaos and quite literally at Wakboth! Disappointingly, it foreshadows ‘The Cult of the Fire Spirit’ in Pavic Tales Issue 2, and so whilst an engaging piece of backstory, the reader has to wait for the follow up!
In ‘Nysalor’s Niggles’, ‘H. Vorder.’ discusses news, rules, and more about RuneQuest III. Again he laments the lack of support from Avalon Hill and Glorantha in particular, noting that this has left Game Masters to adapt their knowledge of the setting to the new edition of the rules or clinging to old rules and unfortunately an elitist outlook.* He summarises the issues with the rules—the Previous Experience tables not being sufficiently Gloranthan, the replacement of Defence value with the Dodge skill, and the numerous chances to magic and spellcasting. The author wonders whether it is worth reconciling the issues between the two editions, given that he feels that Glorantha is dead as a setting because of the lack of support from its current publisher which is making Glorantha inaccessible and thus less popular. He concludes by saying, “With no new material likely to appear for sometime this fanzine may be the only source of of information to develope [sic] comprehensive Gloranthian campaign background, Through this column the ideas presented should become accessible to RQ’ers both old and new.”
* Does anything ever change?
‘Praxian Population Statistics’ follow which breaks down the populations of the five great tribes—Bison, Impala, High Llama, Sable, and Morokanth—and the lesser clans to give an overall population of roughly 58,000. With an area of forty thousand kilometres, this gives a population of one-and-a-half per kilometre, which it equates to rough that of central Africa. These figures would have been estimated in 1987 and of course, have been updated since with more official figures.
‘A Scroll Written in Sartarite by Hershal Sometimes Known The Shadow, a Windlord of Orlanth’ by Butch Wheeler relates an expedition and heroquest out of Pavis across Prax to a tower in the Eritha Hills protected by Zorak Zoran-worshipping Trolls and get into caverns below which border the realm of the Troll god of war and death. From there he relates how he manages to cross the River Lief without falling asleep to an island where an ancient, winged hero is imprisoned all in search of the broken parts of the staff of Issaries. It is rip-roaring stuff that reads if it was actually played out in game and lays the groundwork for a campaign that begins in the issue and will continue in subsequent issues as the Player Character searches for the five separate parts.
The highlight of Pavic Tales Issue 1 is ‘Tower of the Necromancer’, a scenario located at the eponymous site in the hills between The Paps and The Head Aches in Prax. This is a Heroquest for a strong party of Rune level Player Characters from a variety of cults. It protects the prison of the aforementioned ancient, winged hero who in times was past was tricked into fight for Zorak Zoran and if freed, the Troll god fears he will take his revenge. The tower is protected by a cadre of veteran, highly trained and fanatical Zorak Zorani who view all outsiders—including non-Zorak Zorani-worshipping Trolls—as food and who are prepared to die to protect the tower. The aim is to provide an implacable foe and nearly unbeatable forces should the Player Characters decide on a straight assault, rather than using stealth, imagination, and wits.
The tower has been slighted such that only the ground level building remain and even they are ruined, whilst below that are the quarters and defences of the Trolls along with the remnants of the former occupant’s activities—libraries, secret storerooms with too much demonic magic, demonology work room, and more. There is no denying its dungeon-like design. Indeed, it feels not unlike Balastor’s Barracks from RuneQuest Scenario Pack 1: Balastor’s Barracks or something that Judges Guild might have published. This does not necessarily mean that it is bad, but rather that the design is old fashioned. However, the third level is where the adventure gets interesting as the Player Characters reach the cavern abutting Zorak Zoran’s realm. As ‘A Scroll Written in Sartarite by Hershal Sometimes Known The Shadow, a Windlord of Orlanth’ suggests, getting further is going to be a challenge for the Player Characters, but Fly or Teleport spells will be very useful.
If the ancient, winged hero is freed, there is the possibility that he will accept becoming the subject of a hero subcult for Orlanth and the Player Chaarcters be amongst his first worshippers, and also the possibility that the Player Characters will find one of the parts of Issaries’ staff. Well actually, they should, as it will kick off the rest of the campaign and it is the only major magical item to be found on the island. The Game Master will need to create stats for many of the monsters found in the scenario, but it does include those for the ancient, winged hero and for Densrata narl Sazdorf, 823-year old Mistress Troll and commander of the Troll forces at Necromancer’s Tower.
‘Tower of the Necroamncer’ is old-fashioned, but it works and it does not feel out of place. If there is an issue with the scenario it is that the Player Characters will need some motivations to go searching for it. The Game Master will need to create some using the description of the tower and dungeon and the preceding scroll relating a previous attempt to get into it as inspiration.
Butch Wheeler’s ‘Dear Spugh’ has one ‘Spugh Bloodenguts’—a seven-and-a-half Minotaur Stormbull priest and Zorak Zoran associate death priest—do a questions & answers session. This is a lifestyle, agony aunt (agony Minotaur Stormbull priest?) questions & answers column, not rules or setting questions & answers column. So, it is as silly as you would expect and strays about as close as it can to tasteless as it can without being unnecessarily unpleasant.
‘The Sisterhood of Jezzerissa’ by Mark Corbett is a Death cult that protects its members—all women—and crushes its enemies. It is not a cult in the classic RuneQuest sense, more of a sororal organisation prepared to take revenge upon those that wrong its members. This would be in addition any other religious cult that the members belong too. There are plenty of ways in which this could be used.
Pavic Tales Issue 1 comes to a close with some more silliness such as ‘Why Don’t Women Like RuneQuest?’ and anti-AD&D advert, and some introductions to the fanzine from its editors. Butch Wheeler’s gives the origins of the fanzine, whilst Jim Mozley’s is more controversial, disagreeing with Greg Stafford that any Player Character who achieves Rune Lord or Rune Priest status should be retired and suggesting ways in which he could continue to go on adventures, or in particular, heroquests. The point is also to give something for the readers to write in about and discuss in the proposed letters page for the next issue.
Physically, Pavic Tales Issue 1 is a rough, scruffy affair in keeping with its amateur status. It is unillustrated, but the cartography is servicable and the three-panel cartoons, including ‘Fumblethrow’ are not bad and mildly amusing to boot.
It would be easy to dismiss Pavic Tales Issue 1 as a first issue, given how rough it is in places and how the editors bemoan the state of the hobby in 1987. That would be unfair though, since it is a first issue and that it was done on typewriter (not everyone had access to the early Desk Top Publishing packages which were then becoming available, let alone a computer), and gamers are still bemoaning the state of the hobby four decades on… Pavic Tales Issue 1 is interesting to read for its nostalgia value and for the view that its editors did have of their hobby—and the fact that they did something about it. There is certainly no doubting their ambition and their love for Glorantha that shows in Pavic Tales Issue 1. The fiction which gives the backgrounds to ‘The Cult of the Fire Spirit’ and the campaign are still entertaining and the scenario is playable today, even though it would require a lot of tweaks and motivations to work with any ease. For those fortunate enough to have had access to Pavic Tales Issue 1 would have found its contents useful support for their RuneQuest campaign and an enjoyable read. Today, Pavic Tales Issue 1 is still an enjoyable read.
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