Polymancer
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Polymancer was a magazine covering roleplaying games and related hobbies such as miniatures, wargaming, and LARPs. 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 20041 and it ran for 32 issues.
Polymancer was a magazine covering roleplaying games and related hobbies such as miniatures, wargaming, and LARPs. 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.
Games Published in Polymancer magazine
As of May 20091, 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 designed to adapt to any campaign setting. 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 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 interviews
Format of publication
Mojo was first introduced in Polymancer Volume 1, Issue #2. 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 rules. As of May 2009, there were 16 published Mojo articles in Polymancer magazine.
Basic rules
Although based on percentile dice, Mojo differed from other percentile-based games such as Call of Cthulhu and Rolemaster. Basic task resolution was accomplished by rolling under the character's attribute + relevant skill + a modifier set by the gamemaster 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 Mojo. 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: Mojo. Polymancer magazine (Volume #2, Issue #5) - Psionic II: Mojo. Polymancer magazine (Volume #2, Issue #6) - Martial Arts I: Mojo. Polymancer magazine (Volume #2, Issue #7) - Martial Arts II: Mojo.
PUMMEL!
PUMMEL! (Pick-Up Multigenre Miniatures, Easy to Learn) was a set of quick miniatures wargame rules, designed for adaptability to RPGs, so that RPG scenarios in Polymancer magazine could have large-scale combats.
Space PUMMEL!
Space combat and ship design rules, based on PUMMEL!.
See also
Polygraff, a quarterly anthology of science fiction, fantasy, horror, pulp, and other genres of speculative fiction; also published by Polymancer Studios, Inc. Polyglot, a game and entertainment industry newsletter, also published by Polymancer Studios, Inc.
External links
(publisher) (magazine) Polymancer Studios's MySpace page Podcasts about Polymancer magazine 3.5 Private Sanctuary **All Games Considered http://www.agcpodcast.info/2008/12/agc-94-december-30-2008-happy-new-year.html [http://media.libsyn.com/media/tashkal/20081230AGC-64k.mp3 http://www.agcpodcast.info/2007_05_01_archive.html ***http://www.agcpodcast.info/2007/08/agc-56-august-4-2007-son-of-big-damn.html [http://media.libsyn.com/media/tashkal/20070804AGC-64k.mp3 http://www.agcpodcast.info/2005_11_01_archive.html **Pulp Gamer [http://www.pulpgamer.com/shows/pulp_011_051113.mp3 DiceCast (By Polymancer Studios)
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