IN THIS ISSUE: - Savagepedia

Roleplaying in Poland
Piotr Korys and Stopersson give us a peek into their world…
While not a complete novelty in Poland,
roleplaying games are a relatively new
phenomenon. The first articles concerning
these “strange games” were written by Jacek
Ciesielski and appeared in the magazines
Razem and Magazyn Razem in 1986. Bimonthly
articles continued to be published until
1989. Ciesielski wrote about the history of
roleplaying behind the Iron Curtain, explained
the concepts underlying the various games,
and provided reviews of the most popular
games. He hoped that someday, these games
would be readily available in Poland.
Unfortunately, his hope was not to be fulfilled
for quite some time.
During the late 80’s, a few companies
started to publish fantasy and sci-fi board
games and paragraph games such as Goblin
and Dreszcz. Reviews of new board games and
their connections to RPGs were first explored
in Fantastyka (1984)—a well known polish fantasy/sci-fi magazine. Issue #6 (1988) sported full-color pages and featured
a gallery of painted miniatures and dioramas. Fantastyka was the first magazine to publish RPG-related stories. The saga
of Gotrek and Feliks by William King being the most notable to see print.
After the fall of communism, the RPG market received more attention than it ever had in previous years. In March,
1990, the magazine Fenix published a shortened version of a role playing game by Andrzej Sapkowski. The expanded
version was published several years later as Magia i Miecz, and then as a book titled Oko Yrrhedesa. Unfortunately, this
was all that an RPG fan could get in those days as far as “locally authored” games were concerned. Local shops didn’t
sell many of the games that would have been popular with gamers outside of Poland, and the only way you could get
your hands on these much sought after items was to order them from foreign shops—an expensive option at the time.
Most of the RPG books available to the average Polish gamer were illegal photocopies. Besides availability, another
barrier standing between the intrepid gamer and his game was that of language—very few people could read English, let
alone translate it into Polish. The communist government had effectively banned the population from learning English for
nearly 50 years!
Everything changed on March 21, 1993. The first issue of Magia i Miecz (Sword and Sorcery) magazine was
published, making it the first periodical strictly dedicated to roleplaying games. The issue was dedicated to Kryształy
Czasu (Crystals of Time)—the first “official” Polish RPG. Kryształy Czasu was authored by Artur Szyndler, and based
heavily on AD&D. March 21st was also the day on which the publishing house, Mag, opened its doors. This company
worked very hard to increase public awareness of Polish RPGs. After Magia i Miecz, other RPG periodicals appeared on
the Polish market: Złoty Smok (Golden Dragon) died after four issues; Talizman and Nowy Talizman lasted a few issues
longer, and Legenda a magazine dedicated to Vampire: The Masquerade rounded out the first batch of magazines to hit
the streets.
Since 1993, more and more RPGs began showing up in Poland. With the increased availability of RPGs came the
inevitable public outcry from those who were less informed about what the hobby actually involved. In 1995, Słowo (a
Catholic journal), started an anti-RPG campaign. They used quotes and commentaries, taken from gaming sessions and
other sources, but reported them completely out of context. Gamers were accused of being witches, Satanists and
occultists. The article started a real witch hunt—to be honest, I was one of victims—I had trouble in school because of my
involvement with RPGs. A few other newspapers and magazines wrote bad things about both the games and those that
played them. The best known story was from a popular television program, in which a person who, by his own
admission, had never played an RPG, blamed roleplaying games for all his misfortunes! Now, eleven years later, things
are much better. However, in Poland, RPGs are still not readily available and the detractors still exist. I suspect, given
time, things will improve, but what’s a Polish Savage to do until then. Stay Savage, I guess! And, of course, we are still
waiting for Shane Lacy Hensley; he promised to take a vacation in Poland!
Shark Bytes #2 - October 2004 14