''Polymancer'' was a magazine covering

roleplaying games A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal ac ...

and related hobbies such as miniatures,

wargaming A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...

, and

LARP A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their characters.(Tychsen et al. 2006:255) "LARPs can be viewed as forming a distinct category of RPG because of two unique feature ...

s. The magazine was published in Canada by Polymancer Studios Inc. It was distributed across the United States, across Canada, in the UK, in Australia, and in New Zealand, as well as having hard copies archived with Archives Canada. The first issue was published in 2004 and it ran for 32 issues.

Nature and content

''Polymancers articles and scenarios were written without reference to any specific rules system - there were a few exceptions to this rule where specific roleplaying game rule systems were referenced. The magazine for the most part was “system-independent” so that “players of different game systems could make use of them” The magazine covered many gaming genres such as fantasy, science fiction, horror, modern day,

pulp Pulp may refer to: * Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit Engineering * Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture * Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper * Molded pulp, a packaging material * ...

. Most roleplaying game magazines at that time, just covered fantasy, in large measure due to

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

, a fantasy RPG that was (and continues to be) the most popular RPG of its kind. ''Polymancer'' was different from many magazines that covered RPGs by being

printed Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ea ...

. Many gaming magazines such as ''

Pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

'' were only available online. The April 19, 2007 announcement that

Paizo Publishing Paizo Inc. (originally Paizo Publishing.) is an American role-playing game publishing company based in Redmond, Washington, best known for the tabletop role-playing game ''Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Pathfinder''. The company's name is derived ...

's license to produce

Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

and

Dungeon A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period. An oubliette (from ...

magazines was to end in September 2007, without being renewed, left ''Polymancer'' as one of the few printed RPG hobby magazines geared towards consumers left (''see the Wikipedia roleplaying game magazines category for a list).'' (Wizards announced that the two magazines will be replaced by a yet-unspecified "online initiative".) There was a complete adventure scenario in every issue of the magazine, which remained for the life of the publication as being “playable right out of the box.” A scenario map was included in each issue's center spread. There was also downloadable material to aid the gamemaster available on the publisher's web site for most of the scenarios. Articles in ''Polymancer'' tended to be long (over four pages) and the black and white illustrations differed from the color artwork found in ''Dragon.'' ''Polymancer'' was comparable to how Dragon was in the 1980s. The articles in Polymancer were

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but they appeared under a few regular headings: *“Jousting With Words” was the editorial. An opinion piece by the editor. *“The Lich’s Niche” was a ranting opinion column written in the form of an interview with a

lich In fantasy fiction, a lich (; from the Old English , meaning "corpse") is a type of undead creature. Various works of fantasy fiction, such as Clark Ashton Smith's "The Empire of the Necromancers" (1932), had used ''lich'' as a general term fo ...

. *“Tech Talk” was about ways to use technology (especially computers) in gaming. It did not last beyond 2006. *“Gaming Digital” was about play by email games. *“The Gauntlet” was generally a column dealing with problems

gamemaster A gamemaster (GM; also known as game master, game manager, game moderator, referee, or storyteller) is a person who acts as an organizer, officiant for regarding rules, arbitrator, and moderator for a multiplayer role-playing game. They are m ...

s might face and how to solve them. They tended to be instructional in tone. *“

Mojo Mojo may refer to: *Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in voodoo Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * MOJO HD, an American television network * ''Mojo'' (play), by Jez Butterworth, made into a 1997 film * '' ...

” was Polymancer's own generic game rules system. Each article grew the rule system in a serialized manner, it also presented additional rules should a particular entry for that issue required them. Mojo was announced in issue #2 with the description that it was meant to be easy to convert to other game systems. Mojo was available for free from the magazine's website. *“Plot Fodder” was about creating adventure ideas or more importantly adventure seeds and threads from everyday or general topics.

Adventure scenarios

There was a full adventure scenario in every issue. During its run, Polymancer had horror, fantasy, post-apocalyptic, science fiction, pulp,

cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyber ...

, and

Espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...

scenarios. One scenario was written to be played as a set of linked miniatures wargame battles, as an RPG adventure, or both. Most Polymancer adventures were written for use with any RPG rules system, however, three adventures were written for specific RPGs: C.J. Carella's Witchcraft (by

Eden Studios Eden Studios was a commercial recording facility in west London. It opened in 1967, originally at 11 Eden Street in Kingston upon Thames (now under the Eden Walk shopping centre), before moving to 20-24 Beaumont Road in Chiswick in 1972. It was ...

Jovian Chronicles ''Jovian Chronicles'' is a science fiction game setting published by Dream Pod 9 since 1997. It introduces a complete universe for role-playing and wargaming space combat featuring mecha, giant spacecraft, and epic space battles. The ''Jovian ...

(by

Dream Pod 9 Dream Pod 9 (DP9), formerly Ianus Games, is a Montreal-based Canadian game publisher. Its most notable products are ''Heavy Gear'', ''Jovian Chronicles'', ''Tribe 8 (role-playing game), Tribe 8'', and ''Gear Krieg'', as well as the Silhouette role ...

), and

HARP The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...

(by I.C.E.). The latter two adventures had the statistics that were compatible with the rules for the games the adventures were written for side-by-side with Polymancer's own "Mojo" rules system (see below), which was written to be convertible into many other game rules systems. The Witchcraft adventure contained very few references to rules so it was hoped to be easily convertible into the rules for other horror RPGs.

Comics

More than one comic (or cartoon) appeared in ''Polymancer'' magazine during its publication run. There was a serial comic called “SideQuest” about a group of rolepayers that appeared in issues 1 through 8. As well as a one panel cartoon entitled "Quotable Quotes", that started in issue #8; this one panel cartoon was based on humorous quotes from games that were supplied the magazine's readership. There was also "Dice Quest" which began in issue #10, a 4 panel cartoon about the dice used by roleplayers; the characters being

anthropomorphized Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

polyhedral dice.

Games Published in Polymancer magazine

As of May 2009, three game rules systems had been published in Polymancer magazine as articles, ''Mojo,'' (a generic multipurpose rules system designed for the magazine) ''PUMMEL!,'' (a rules lite system designed for use by and inclusion in Polymancer during its initial publication run) and ''Space PUMMEL!.'' (a rules lite system designed for use by and inclusion in Polymancer during its initial publication run). Each of these game rules systems were implemented in Polymancer magazine in order to allow the content to contain usable game stats, while maintaining the publication's policy of being easily convertible to rules systems that the magazine's readers would prefer to use themselves. Each of these game systems was playable on its own, however.

Mojo

Mojo was a free

role-playing game system A role-playing game system is a set of game mechanics used in a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) to determine the outcome of a character's in-game actions. History By the late 1970s, the Chaosium staff realized that Steve Perrin's ''RuneQuest ...

designed to adapt to any

campaign setting A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A ''campaign'' is a series of individual adventures, and a ''campaign setting'' is the world in which such adventures and ca ...

. The Mojo rules system were created by Polymancer Studios, Inc. in 2004 and was first offered in the publication in 2004, and first serialized in Polymancer in January 2005.

Purpose of Mojo

Mojo was a roleplaying game rules system developed by Polymancer Studios, Inc.. Mojo was described in the pages of Polymancer magazine as a "percentile-based system" and in Polymancer Studios's

press releases A press release is an official statement delivered to members of the news media for the purpose of providing information, creating an official statement, or making an announcement directed for public release. Press releases are also considere ...

as "the infinitely convertible‚ roleplaying rules system". The Mojo RPG was created as an "ultrageneric, barebones RPG system" The publisher described this rules system as one that was designed so that game statistics for tasks, skills, items, magic spells, and so on could be easily converted to their equivalents in other RPGs. They did this so that adventure scenarios, equipment articles, and scenario based content could contain material with relevant stats, and still be useful to as many different kinds of RPG players as possible. It was stressed that Polymancer Studios did not intend to create another generic RPG as a ''product,'' but rather as a ''tool'' to make the magazine more relevant. This was repeatedly stated by people who worked for Polymancer Studios in the magazine itself, and also in

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

interviews

Format of publication

''Mojo'' was first introduced in ''Polymancer'' Volume 1, Issue #2."Introducing… Mojo! Polymancer's own infinitely convertible RPG system, the first of many installments." ''Polymancer.'' Vol 1 #2, pp 38–39. The rules have been published incrementally, in the pages of ''Polymancer'' magazine, one section of rules at a time, with each rules section being a magazine article. For example, the Mojo article in Volume 1 Issue #4 of Polymancer covered character generation, while the Mojo article in Volume 2 Issue #4 of ''Polymancer'' was a set of

psionics In American science fiction of the 1950s and 1960s, psionics was a proposed discipline that applied principles of engineering (especially electronics) to the study (and employment) of paranormal or psychic phenomena, such as telepathy and psychok ...

rules. As of May 2009, there were 16 published Mojo articles in ''Polymancer'' magazine.

Basic rules

Although based on

percentile dice Dice notation (also known as dice algebra, common dice notation, RPG dice notation, and several other titles) is a system to represent different combinations of dice in wargames and tabletop role-playing games using simple algebra-like notation such ...

, Mojo differed from other percentile-based games such as Call of Cthulhu and

Rolemaster ''Rolemaster'' (originally ''Role Master'') is a tabletop role-playing game published by Iron Crown Enterprises since 1980. Editions ''Rolemaster'' has a total of four editions. First edition (RM1): 1980–1982 This edition includes the or ...

. Basic task resolution was accomplished by rolling under the character's attribute + relevant skill + a modifier set by the

on an ''ad hoc'' basis. Combat used the same system. A free PDF of the Mojo rules system was available from the publisher's website.

Mojo history

*2002 - Mojo Rules set entered final playtesting. *2003 - Basic Mojo Rules available to public. *2004 - Mojo Advanced released to public. *2005 through 2009 *Polymancer magazine (Volume #1, Issue #2) - Introduction to Mojo. *Polymancer magazine (Volume #1, Issue #3) - Task Resolution in Mojo. *Polymancer magazine (Volume #1, Issue #4) - Character Creation I: Skills and Attributes in

. *Polymancer magazine (Volume #1, Issue #5) - Character Creation II: Education & Background in Mojo. *Polymancer magazine (Volume #1, Issue #6) - Fleshing out the Character in Mojo. *Polymancer magazine (Volume #1, Issue #7) - Equipping for Combat in Mojo. *Polymancer magazine (Volume #1, Issue #8) - Equipping Your Character II, Mojo. *Polymancer magazine (Volume #1, Issue #9) - Character Advancement in Mojo. *Polymancer magazine (Volume #1, Issue #11) - Combat Resolution in Mojo. *Polymancer magazine (Volume #2, Issue #1) - Mystical Casting in Mojo. *Polymancer magazine (Volume #2, Issue #2) - Schools of Magic in Mojo. *Polymancer magazine (Volume #2, Issue #4) - Psionics I:

. *Polymancer magazine (Volume #2, Issue #5) - Psionic II:

. *Polymancer magazine (Volume #2, Issue #6) - Martial Arts I:

. *Polymancer magazine (Volume #2, Issue #7) - Martial Arts II:

PUMMEL!

PUMMEL! (Pick-Up Multigenre Miniatures, Easy to Learn) was a set of quick

miniatures wargame Miniature wargaming is a form of wargaming in which military units are represented by miniature physical models on a model battlefield. The use of physical models to represent military units is in contrast to other tabletop wargames that use ...

rules, designed for adaptability to RPGs, so that RPG scenarios in Polymancer magazine could have large-scale combats.

Space PUMMEL!

Space combat Space warfare is hypothetical combat in which one or more belligerents are situated in outer space. The scope of space warfare therefore includes ''ground-to-space warfare'', such as attacking satellites from the Earth; ''space-to-space warfare ...

and ship design rules, based on PUMMEL!.

References

External links

Polymancer Studios
(publisher)
Polymancer Magazine
(magazine)
Polymancer Studios's MySpace page
* Podcasts about Polymancer magazine **3.5 Private Sanctuar

http://rcjrproductions.com/35ps/podcasts/057%20-%20episode%2057.mp3] **All Games Considered ***http://www.agcpodcast.info/2008/12/agc-94-december-30-2008-happy-new-year.htm

***http://www.agcpodcast.info/2007_05_01_archive.htm

***http://www.agcpodcast.info/2007/08/agc-56-august-4-2007-son-of-big-damn.htm

***http://www.agcpodcast.info/2005_11_01_archive.htm

**Pulp Game

DiceCast
(By Polymancer Studios) {{RPG systems Hobby magazines published in Canada Magazines established in 2004 Quarterly magazines published in Canada Role-playing game magazines Magazines published in Montreal