Polyhedron

Greyhawk Source

Polyhedron
Cover of Polyhedron #149, illustrated by Tony Harris (Jan 2002).
Type:	Magazine
Code/Abbreviation:	Poly
Edition:	1e, 2e, 3e
Publisher:	TSR, Inc, Paizo Publishing
First Published:	May 1981
Class:	Officially published material

Polyhedron (formerly Polyhedron Newszine) was a magazine targeting consumers of role-playing games, and originally the official publication of the RPGA (Role Playing Gamers Association).

1981 to 2002

Publication of the Role-Playing Gamers Association magazine began in 1981, targeting players of D&D. Articles were written by gamers for other gamers in the style of the Dragon magazine, and information was included on RPGA membership and events. The magazine was nominally quarterly from May 1981 through February 1982; bimonthly from April 1983 through May 1991; and monthly from June 1991 through November 1996; publication then ceased until October 1997, and thereafter was bi-monthly (with some irregularity) through May 2003; finally, it was again monthly from June 2003 until the final issue in August 2004. For several years it was available only to RPGA members; for some, joining the RPGA essentially amounted to a subscription to Polyhedron. Polyhedron was produced by RPGA members (some of whom were professionals in the game industry) for RPGA members.

The masthead lists several formal publishers (occasionally omitting this information) including E. Gary Gygax (Issues 1-11); Kim Eastland (12-15); Mike Cook (irregularly 32-50); Jack Beuttell (51-68); Rick Behling (69-76 and 91-111); James Ward (77-90); TSR (112-141); Wizards of the Coast (irregularly 142-149); and Paizo (153 onward). Notable editors include Frank Mentzer (1-4); Mary Kirchoff (5-21); Penny Petticord (22-31); Skip Williams (33, 34, 37, 39); Jean Rabe (36, 38, 40-103); Dave Gross (104-107); Duane Maxwell (107-118); Jeff Quick (122-134); and Erik Mona (138 onward). Two special issues were also published—an Introductory Issue (Jean Rabe, 1989) that was sent thereafter to new RPGA members, and a Gen Con Issue (Sean Glenn, 1999) that was distributed only at that year's Gen Con. The magazine's publication was fairly erratic and the contents very uneven until Jean Rabe's period as editor where the magazine was put on a regular schedule and contents were developed into recurring topical columns and monthly themed materials. Rabe also strengthened the quality of content and applied more rigorous editing to articles which had previously tended to be somewhat amateurish and personal. During this time also, cover art improved markedly and, notably, focused on strongly presented (and fully clothed) female adventurers. Rabe also converted the magazine from bi-monthly to monthly.

Pagination of Polyhedron is problematic, because often (but not always) the mailing wrapper (generally containing printed matter) was counted in the pagination, and often (but not always) the cover was counted in the pagination as well. Given this, the magazine generally was 16-20 pages in length for issues 1-8; 32-36 pages in length for issues 9-128; and 32-48 pages in length for issues 131-143 (at this point, the magazine started to carry advertisements). From issue 144 onwards page counts became fairly variable but generally ran near to either 60 or 40 pages. Polyhedron featured several notable cover styles, including black and white art on issues 1-39; a single-colored left-hand stripe with hexes on issues 40-51; a single-colored cover (retaining the hex stripe) from issues 52-74; single color cover with a cluster of hexes in the top-left corner on issues 78-119; increasingly variable covers on 120-143; and full-glossy covers from 144 onwards. Collectors should note that the magazine was serially issued but also published in volumes and numbers for issues 1-148 and then again for issue 161. However, the volume and numbers printed in the magazine frequently were wrong (at least fifteen errors are known during the 148 issues); the issue number should be taken as authoritative.

2002 to 2004

In January 2002, Paizo Publishing was licensed publishing rights for Polyhedron by WotC and merged the Polyhedron magazine with its sister publication Dungeon.

Issue 90 of Dungeon and issue 149 of Polyhedron were contained in a single magazine issue, and this dual numbering continued throughout this period. Issues 149-171 were produced this way. The covers of each were seperately on the font and back of the magazine, so a reader would "flip" the magazine to read each issue.

This ended the association of Polyhedron with the RPGA. It also marked a major change in the magazine's focus, from a primarily Dungeons & Dragons-oriented magazine similar to Dragon to a general d20 system magazine that often featured entirely new, simple role-playing games based on this system, along with support for non-D&D d20 games such as d20 Modern. Eventually another formerly separate magazine, the Living Greyhawk Journal, briefly became a section in Polyhedron, as well.

Though this version of Polyhedron had many vocal supporters, sales were poor,^{[citation needed]} a situation many blamed on putting two magazines with distinct target audiences together in one higher-priced package.^{[citation needed]} The Polyhedron section was removed from Dungeon as part of a major revamp of the latter magazine in 2004 and Polyhedron is no longer published in any form.

2005

"From March 2005 through November 2005, Wizards of the Coast distributed an occasional e-mail subscription that was titled "Polyhedron Newsletter", with each e-mail being numbered 171-181. These never were physically published and contained principally URL links back to Wizards' web site. Content was almost entirely product announcements and product reviews for various Dungeons and Dragons hardback books. Wizards did not archive these e-mails and today they are apparently wholly unavailable." The newsletter also contained a cartoon^{[citation needed]}.

Reception

Polyhedron was awarded the Origins Award for "Best Amateur Adventure Gaming Magazine of 1987".

Gallery

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External links

Disclaimer:Any lore presented through the following links does not necessarily adhere to established officially published content, and the views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the editors of this wiki.

• Dungeons and Dragons FAQ.[1]

References

Bibliography

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