Publication date 2006 System(s) PUMMEL! | Genre(s) Universal | |
Designer(s) Polymancer Studios Inc. Publisher(s) Polymancer Studios Inc. | ||
PUMMEL! (Pick Up Multigenre Miniatures, Easy to Learn) is a miniatures wargame rules system created by Polymancer Studios, publisher of Polymancer magazine and Polyglot. PUMMEL! was first published in 2006.
Contents
History
PUMMEL! was first introduced in Volume 1, Issue #10 of Polymancer magazine as a set of generic miniatures wargame rules, designed to be used in roleplaying games. Like Polymancer's RPG rules system Mojo, PUMMEL's rules have been released in printed form as magazine articles in Polymancer magazine.
The original PUMMEL! article was in the same issue of Polymancer as a military science fiction adventure scenario, and the weapons list and specific rules in that article reflected this. However, subsequent issues of Polymancer magazine contained other adventure scenarios that featured large-scale battles, and Polymancer Studios made free PDF supplements available which included PUMMEL! statistics for the weapons used in those games.
Some of the genres for which PUMMEL! special rules and weapon stats were created include:
Usually, these supplements included Mojo stats for the same weapons.
In Polymancer magazine and in press releases, the game's name is spelled in all-caps and with an exclamation mark at the end of it (e.g. "PUMMEL!", not "Pummel").
Nature of rules
PUMMEL! uses a dice mechanic to resolve conflict. The rules abstract many things that are covered in other miniatures wargames for the sake of fast-paced play and ease of learning. Articles in Polymancer magazine containing or referencing the rules (see References below) are written in a way that encourages ease of use and flexibility. They stress the generic nature of the rules, that they can be used in many genres.
Polymancer Studios has made a basic version of the rules available as a free download through Scribd and Issuu (see External links below).
Space PUMMEL!
In Volume 2, Issue #7 of Polymancer magazine, a set of space combat rules based on PUMMEL!, called "Space PUMMEL!," were included. These rules had the same weapon and armor abstraction as basic PUMMEL!, with the addition of rules for damaging individual ship systems.
These rules were supplemented in Volume 2, Issue #8, with a set of ship design rules. These rules were entirely centered on combat, in that no rules were given for adding cargo space, passenger space, or other non-combat functionality to a vessel. The article containing these rules instructed the reader to "assume they are there."