| Magia i Miecz | |
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| Publisher: | Wydawnictwo MAG (1993–2002) Kuźnia Gier Michał Stachyra (since 2014) |
| Country: | Poland |
| Language: | Polish |
Magia i Miecz (pol. "Magic and Sword") was a Polish magazine dedicated to RPG games. It was the first and longest existing magazine of this type in the country. It was published in 1993-2002 by Wydawnictwo MAG. It was a precursor of RPG in Poland and was influential in propagating and popularizing RPGs in the state. In 2014 the rights for the name was bought by Kuźnia Gier publisher and the magazine as again available for a few years.
The founders and first editors of the magazine were people related to Nowa Fantastyka - Jacek Rodek and Darosław j. Toruń. The graphics inside were a responsibility of Jarosław Musiał.
Because of a lack of Polish-language RPG games at the time, th first issues were dedicated to RPG system Kryształy Czasu (pol. Crystals of Time) - unpublished, but popular at the time in the community. It was created by Artur Szyndler.[1]
Beginning with the 3rd issue, the magazine had a section titled Clan of Strategic Games' Afficianados, edited by Wojciech Zalewski. Dedicated to people interested in strategic board games it offered explaining the rules, scenarios of battles and printed on the last page maps and tokens needed to play the issue's strategic problems. After WOjciech Zlaewski resigned because he became the editor in chief of "Staregia i Taktyka" magazine, since the issue 16 on the pages of the section appeared the promotional material for Polish fantasy wargame Verturia. The section disappeared beginning in issues 19-20.
The focus of the magazine was shifting with years, gradually extending to the news from RPG games market, wargames, collectible card games, LARPs, short stories, reviews of games and books, historical articles and contect loosely related to RPGs. The list of people related to Magia i Miecz includes Artur Szyndler, Andrzej Sapkowski and Tomasz Kołodziejczak, and it featured texts written by Krzysztof Piskorski, Anna Brzezińska, Jacek Komuda, Michał Studniarek, Ignacy Trzewiczek and others.[2] The position of editor in chief was taken by, among others, Tomasz Kreczmar, Tomasz Kołodziejczak, Andrzej Miszkurka and Rafał Nowocień.
Until the issue 71, the magazine was published in a format A4, since issue 72 in format C5. The most thick issue had 208 pages (nr. 91-92) and its cost was 15 PLN. Until 2002 there were 104 issues of Magia i Miecz (some of them double).
On 18 March 2014, Michal Stachyra, the owner of Kuźnia Gier Publishing, announced the reactivation of the magazine in cooperation with a crowdfunding platform Wspieram.to.[3] as part of the initiative Fajne RPG (pol. Cool RPGs). The crowdfunding ended on 18 June 2014 with 98 733 PLN, almost 4 times the minimum amount needed for the reactivation (25 000 PLN)). It was announced that the magazine would appear every 3 months, at lest in a number of 8 issues, each counting circa 130 pages in a b=B5 format. There were also electronic version of the magazine for E-book readers and tablets (formats .pdf, .mobi., .epub), and in a form of an audiobook.[4] There was also announced a special issue. The editor in chief position was given to Tomasz Chmielnik.
The first issue, planned at first for August[5] was finally availabe on 25 September 2014[6] as PDF and on 11 October 2014[7] in printed version.[8] [9]
Around 2018 there were at least 6 issues of the magazine[10] and next 2 were planned.[11]