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Polymancer

Canadian magazine

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionOct 17, 2025
Entity authorityQ7226523
Source-derived summary

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.

Nature and content

Polymancer's 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. Most roleplaying game magazines at that time, just covered fantasy, in large measure due to Dungeons & Dragons, 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. Many gaming magazines such as Pyramid were only available online. The April 19, 2007 announcement that Paizo Publishing's license to produce Dragon and Dungeon 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).

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Polymancer” is canadian magazine. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Polymancer, Canadian and magazine, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2004, 2007—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—2004-01-01, 2004-12—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, Polymancer, Canadian and magazine is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “canadian magazine” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 17, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7226523. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2004 and 2007.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Polymancer”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Polymancer primary sources, Polymancer archive and Polymancer research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Polymancer”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Polymancer” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.