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White Dwarf is a magazine published by British games manufacturer Games Workshop. Initially dedicated to all kinds of role-playing games, the magazine is now dedicated exclusively to the miniature wargames produced by Games Workshop, mainly the core systems of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warhammer 40,000 and The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game.

Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone initially produced a magazine called "Owl and Weasel" which ran for approximately twenty-five issues before being re-vamped into "White Dwarf".

First published in 1977 and focused on wargaming and role-playing, it received a strong boost when the first editions of the RPG Dungeons & Dragons, published in the UK by Games Workshop, referred to White Dwarf on its back page. This allowed people who had bought this game to order the magazine directly from Games Workshop, establishing its circulation.

The magazine was hugely influential in the 1980s when it helped to popularise RPGs, including those American RPGs for which Games Workshop had the UK licence. In addition to this a generation of writers passed through its offices and onto other RPG projects in the next decade, such as Phil Masters and Marcus L. Rowland.

Today the magazine focuses exclusively on miniature wargames and thoroughly covers the models, miniatures and hobby stuff created by Games Workshop. It often includes articles on rules updates, scenarios, campaigns, hobby news, photos of recently released miniatures and tips on building terrain and constructing or converting miniatures.

Grombrindal the White Dwarf is also a special character for the Dwarf army, whose rules are published only in certain issues of White Dwarf (being revamped for the most recent edition of the rules). It is never stated who exactly the White Dwarf is, but it is implied that he is the spirit of Snorri Whitebeard, the last king of the Dwarfs to receive respect from an Elf. The image of the White Dwarf has graced the covers of many issues of the magazine, and is regularly featured in the interior artwork as well. The image was also used on the character sheet for the Dwarf character in Hero Quest.

White Dwarf today

Recently, White Dwarf published its 300th issue in the United Kingdom and North America. Each issue contained many special "freebies" as well as articles on the history of the magazine and the founding of Games Workshop.

The magazines content is divided between the three core games (Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000 and The Lord of the Rings SBG), roughly equal amounts for the two Warhammers, and smaller amounts for Lord of the Rings SBG. Recent issues (April and May 2006) have seen a reduction in page count, and a decrease in the volume of written content in the magazine. Older issues of the magazine included features such as the satirical comic strip Thrud the Barbarian and Dave Langford's "Critical Mass" book review column, as well as the more rough and informal editorial style.

Now that the extremely popular Battle Games in Middle Earth magazine has finished its series, two members of its team (Mark Latham and Glenn More) have joined the White Dwarf team. As articles in Battle Games in Middle Earth are very good quality, it is hoped that White Dwarf's future articles will be improved to an even higher standard, as Steve Hammatt (who is currently forum moderator for the Games Workshop forum) said: "Hopefully this will mean good things for future LOTR content in White Dwarf." *. Future developments are awaited with interest.

Spinoffs

There is also a biweekly online supplemental e-zine Black Gobbo that is produced by Games Workshop's US studio. It includes two regular columns, "Rules of Engagement" and "Ask the Scenery Guy," to help answer gamers' questions. Similar to its printed counterpart, it is devoted to the games and hobbies created by GW.

In the late 1980s, mail-order subscriber copies of White Dwarf also received a small companion magazine 'Black Sun', written, illustrated and produced by Tim Pollard (with occasional contributions from other GW authors such as Andy Chambers). It contained very informal 'inside' information from the Citadel Mail Order Department, news, game reviews, articles and competitions as well as a short lived cartoon serial. Some new rules for then current GW products also debuted in 'Black Sun'.

UK White Dwarf Editors

  • Ian Livingstone: Issue 1 (June/July 1977) - (1986)
  • Ian Marsh
  • Paul Cockburn
  • Mike Brunton
  • Sean Masterson: Issues 94 (October 1987) - 107 (November 1988)
  • Phil Gallagher: Issues 109 (January 1989; there is no Editor credited in issue 108) - 116 (August 1989)
  • Simon Forrest: Issues 117 (September 1989) - 139 (July 1991)
  • Robin Dews: Issues 140 (August 1991) - 189 (September 1995); third longest-serving Editor
  • Jake Thornton: Issues 190 (October 1995) - 214 ("Orkvember": November 1997); the card section in the magazine comes and goes
  • Paul Sawyer: Issues 215 (December 1997) - 301 (January 2005); occasionally called "Fat Bloke"
  • Guy Haley: Issues 302 (February 2005) - 310 (October 2005)
  • Owen Rees: Issue 311 (November 2005) - present

Sources

White Dwarf 300 - The History of White Dwarf

See also

External links

Wargaming magazines | British magazines | The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game | Games Workshop

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "White Dwarf (magazine)".

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