DICE MEN

ALSO BY IAN LIVINGSTONE

THE ORIGIN STORY OF
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (with Steve Jackson)
The Forest of Doom
Adventures of Goldhawk: Ghost Road
Casket of Souls
GAMES WORKSHOP
City of Thieves Dicing with Dragons
Deathtrap Dungeon How Big Is Your Brain? (with Jamie Thomson)
Island of the Lizard King Hacking the Curriculum (with Shahneila Saeed)
Caverns of the Snow Witch Board Games in 100 Moves (with James Wallis)
Trial of Champions
Armies of Death ALSO BY STEVE JACKSON
Crypt of the Sorcerer The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (with Ian Livingstone)
Temple of Terror
Return to Firetop Mountain
Citadel of Chaos
Creature of Havoc
IAN LIVINGSTONE
Eye of the Dragon House of Hell WITH STEVE JACKSON
Legend of Zagor (with Carl Sargent) Appointment with FEAR
Freeway Fighter Starship Traveller
Blood of the Zombies Secrets of Salamonis (with Jonathan Green)
The Port of Peril Sorcery! 1: The Shamutanti Hills
Assassins of Allansia Sorcery! 2: Khare – Cityport of Traps
Shadow of the Giants Sorcery! 3: The Seven Serpents
Adventures of Goldhawk: Darkmoon’s Curse Sorcery! 4: The Crown of Kings
Adventures of Goldhawk: The Demon Spider The Trolltooth Wars
Adventures of Goldhawk: Mudworm Swamp The Tasks of Tantalon
First published in 2022

Unbound
Level 1, Devonshire House, One Mayfair Place, London W1J 8AJ
www.unbound.com
All rights reserved

© Ian Livingstone, 2022

The right of Ian Livingstone to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
form or by any means without the prior permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other
than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

All the trademarks referenced in this book are the property of their owners.
Dungeons & Dragons is a trademark of Wizards LLC, a division of Hasbro Corporation.
IN MEMORY OF GARY GYGAX
GW, Games Workshop, Warhammer, Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Citadel, White Dwarf and all associated logos, illustrations, images,
names, creatures, races, vehicles, locations, weapons, characters, and the distinctive likeness thereof, are either ® or TM, and/or © Games
Workshop Limited, variably registered around the world, and used under licence.

Fighting Fantasy is a trademark of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone.

Deathtrap Dungeon is a trademark of Ian Livingstone.

While every effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright material reproduced herein, the publisher would like to apologise for
any omissions and will be pleased to incorporate missing acknowledgements in any further editions.

Text Design by Amazing15

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-80018-052-9 (hardback)

ISBN 978-1-80018-053-6 (ebook)

Printed in Slovenia by DZS

987654321
 With thanks to the following people With special thanks to the following people
for their generous support of this book for their invaluable contributions
Nicholas Butta Bryan Ansell
Holt William John Hanna Diane Ansell
Tom Kirby-Green Richard Hale
Kevin Miree Danny Livingstone
David Preti Alan Merrett
Edwin Stahlnecker Rick Priestley
James Verdier Paul Stormberg
Phil Walter Jamie Thomson
Sean Williams
David Witts
 CONTENTS
FOREWORD.................................................................................................................................................. 11

1 GAMING GROUND ZERO ......................................................................................................................... 15

2 THE NAME OF THE GAME......................................................................................................................... 25
3 OWL & WEASEL..........................................................................................................................................35
4 DUNGEONS & DRAGONS.......................................................................................................................... 47
5 GAMES DAY................................................................................................................................................63
6 LAKE GENEVA OR BUST........................................................................................................................... 79
7 THE BREADBIN........................................................................................................................................... 91
8 WHITE DWARF..........................................................................................................................................101
9 CITADEL MINIATURES.............................................................................................................................113
10 WARHAMMER.......................................................................................................................................... 135
11 DALLING ROAD......................................................................................................................................... 149
12 THE BRITISH EMPIRE STRIKES BACK................................................................................................ 165
13 INDEPENDENCE DAY............................................................................................................................... 187
14 SHOP TALK............................................................................................................................................... 199
15 VIDEO GAMES WORKSHOP....................................................................................................................211
16 WARRIORS & WAREHOUSES................................................................................................................ 221
17 THE WARLOCKS OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN......................................................................................... 239
18 THE BATTLE OF THE BOARDROOM...................................................................................................... 259

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & IMAGE CREDITS....................................................................................... 269

MINIATURE FIGURE PAINTING CREDITS........................................................................................... 271
A NOTE ON THE AUTHORS..................................................................................................................... 273
INDEX......................................................................................................................................................... 275
SUPPORTERS.......................................................................................................................................... 283
FOREWORD
 12 13
GAMING GROUND ZERO

FOREWORD
A lot of time has passed since 1975. Piecing together all the events which happened
decades ago was an enjoyable trip down memory lane, albeit a challenging one. The
more we researched, the more we remembered, and so the project kept on growing.
I spent a lot of memory-jogging time reading old copies of Owl & Weasel and White
Dwarf, speaking to former colleagues and employees to validate some of my vaguer

G
recollections, and sourcing photographs and images. Then I had the daunting task of
collating all the notes, quotes, anecdotes and early drafts into chronological order and
writing up the whole story in a consistent style to produce a single volume. Whilst every effort has gone
ABOVE: Chicago, 1996:
in to cross-checking facts and dates, given the time elapsed since they happened, the chances are there the last time Gary Gygax
and I met.
might be one or two inaccuracies or omissions for which I apologise in advance.
ames Workshop Group PLC is listed on the London Stock Exchange We dedicate this book to the memory of Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons and
under the ticker of GAW, a FTSE 250 company with a market pioneer of role-playing games. Gary was a visionary and a legend, a creative genius whose impact on the
capitalisation of more than £3 billion pounds at the time of writing. games industry cannot be overstated. Had we not met him, Games Workshop would not have become
Who would have thought that a company which started out as a part-time mail order business selling the company that it is today. White Dwarf would never have been published, Citadel Miniatures might
obscure board games from a modest third-floor flat could be worth that much? never have been founded, Warhammer might never have been created, and our own Fighting Fantasy
With the increasing public awareness of Games Workshop’s extraordinary success, Steve Jackson gamebooks might never have been written. We owe Gary a huge debt of gratitude. We had a brilliant
and I are asked more and more about how it all began. We thought it was time we put our recollection working relationship with him and also enjoyed some fantastic times together. We are proud to have
of events on record and write the origin story of Games Workshop, a company founded by three known him as a friend.
school friends in 1975 who turned their unusual hobby into a business. Whilst we have not had any Games Workshop has grown from its humble beginnings to become the iconic global company
involvement in Games Workshop for the past thirty years, we have vivid memories of the early days, it is today. Dice Men is the story of the rollercoaster early years. I’d like to thank Jamie Thomson for
the highs and the lows, and how the company might have gone out of business at various points in his research work and major contribution to the first draft. I’d also like to thank Jonathan Green and
time. Fortune smiled on us early on. We were in the right place at the right time to secure the European Hayley Shepherd for their help in editing the second draft and Danny Livingstone for his help with
distribution rights for Dungeons & Dragons. A fantastic opportunity had come our way but staying photo and image reproduction. A big thank you must go to our friends and former colleagues who
in business wasn’t a simple matter since the fantasy games industry was only just beginning. Whilst provided quotes, information, photos and images for this book. And a big thank you must go to
we were happy to work round the clock and exist on a pittance, Games Workshop would have failed Anna Simpson and DeAndra Lupu from Unbound for their invaluable editorial help and guidance,
without the patronage of our faithful customers who gave us their support from the start. It might also not to mention their patience! Last, but not least, we’d like to thank everybody who pledged their
have failed but for the above-and-beyond contributions made by some incredibly talented people who support to enable the publication of Dice Men.
joined us along the way to help build the company; in particular Bryan Ansell, whose vision and single- Roll 3d6 to start!
minded determination took Games Workshop to the next level after we handed over the corporate
reins to him in 1986. Ian Livingstone, June 2022
 1
GAMING GROUND ZERO
 I
16 17
GAMING GROUND ZERO

GAMING GROUND ZERO

was born in December 1949 at St Mary’s Hospital in the leafy village of Prestbury in
Cheshire. My parents didn’t actually live in the affluent parish. St Mary’s was an overspill
hospital for Manchester, where my parents lived in a small ‘two-up, two-down’ terraced
house in Rusholme, close to Maine Road, the home of Manchester City football club,
where it was more cobblestone than gemstone. We moved to East Didsbury in the mid-1950s where I
went to Broad Oak Primary School. I played in goal for the school football team, learned how to play
chess and also passed the eleven-plus examination which meant I would be going to a grammar school.
Our next move was to Timperley in Cheshire, where I went to Altrincham Grammar School for Boys,
which was renowned for its academic success. The problem was that I was not particularly academically
inclined, and my early promise fizzled out.
Steve was born in Manchester in May 1951, but he and his family moved to Canada when he was four
years old. They returned to the UK when he was eleven, at which point he also enrolled at Altrincham
Grammar School, in the year below me. We were both board game enthusiasts, and after meeting
we forged a great friendship through our shared hobby, which was cemented by a mutual interest in
music, scooters and football. It all began in 1966 – the year England won the FIFA World Cup – with
long games of Subbuteo football at Steve’s house. He always played as Brazil, while I always played as
Manchester City.
The board games we enjoyed were family favourites such as Monopoly, Buccaneer, Formula 1 and
Risk. I played chess for the school team and also played Monopoly whenever there was a game going,
winning more often than not. Whenever I was winning a game, I’d make a point not to collect the rent on
lower value properties like Old Kent Road and Whitechapel just to wind up my fellow players. I’d dismiss
the low rents as ‘chicken feed’, boasting that they were not worth the bother of collecting. ‘Chicken feed’
was abbreviated by my friends to ‘Feed’, which became my nickname until I left school.

OUR GENERATION
As much as we were into board games and Subbuteo, we were also into Lambretta scooters and music,
especially live music. I was sixteen years old when I bought my Li125 Lambretta for £60. I probably spent
more money on front and rear racks, mirrors and spotlights than I did buying the scooter. Everybody did.
Steve owned an Li150. On Saturday nights, we sometimes drove into Manchester to go to the Twisted
Wheel club where blues and soul bands played loud live music to packed audiences. Everybody at school
used to talk about the ‘all-nighters at the Wheel’, not that any of us ever went to one. Our parents
wouldn’t let us.
In the 1960s, I enjoyed Tamla Motown artists like Marvin Gaye, The Temptations and Jr. Walker &
 18 19
GAMING GROUND ZERO

GAMING GROUND ZERO

The All Stars but I was mostly into the blues, especially John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Cream, Jimi to sit the third one. He went on to complete a four-year course in Biology and Psychology. Alas, my one
Hendrix and US blues artists like Muddy Waters. It was John Mayall’s music which inspired me to take grade E A-level in Geography wasn’t good enough to earn me a place at university. Instead, I went to
up playing blues harmonica. Steve liked Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave and Otis Redding. But as a guitarist Stockport College of Technology, where I played a lot of table tennis and card games. I also got an HND
himself, he was obsessed with the British blues boom, especially his guitar heroes Peter Green, Eric in Business Studies and a Diploma in Marketing which fortuitously gave me some business skills which I
Clapton and Mick Taylor and also Jerry Garcia of the US band The Grateful Dead. would put to good use at Games Workshop.
Another school friend of ours was John Peake, a fellow mod and Lambretta owner. The three of us
would always be out on our scooters or listening to music and playing board games. And that was how GAME ON
three school friends, the founders of Games Workshop, met. Despite going our separate ways – with John moving to Nottingham, Steve moving to Keele and me in
Stockport – we met up at our local pub whenever we were back in Altrincham. By now we were bored
by family board games. We wanted to play more challenging games and moved on to Diplomacy, a
SCHOOL'S OUT strategical game of negotiation and alliances in which players represent one of the seven ‘Great Powers of
Grammar school in the 1960s was not a good fit for me. Being a bit of a non-conformist, I was frustrated Europe’ in the years leading up to World War One. I remember one game we played when one of
BELOW: Ian’s student union
by the school’s petty rules and regulations and the vindictiveness of some of the teachers who dished our friends didn’t speak to another for a month after being double crossed. It was that kind of game. card for Stockport College.

out corporal punishment for the slightest of reasons. Lessons were dull and uninspiring, but much to
everybody’s surprise, I passed five GCE O-levels which meant I could go into the sixth form to study for
A-levels, which seemed preferable to getting a job. The headmaster – Mr Crowther – was less enthusiastic
about that idea. He stopped me in the school corridor and said in a lofty voice, ‘Livingstone, I know you
somehow scraped through your O-levels, but don’t you think you would be better off working in a garage
or something rather than studying for A-levels?’ His dispiriting words were indelibly etched into my
memory for ever. But at least it made me want to stay on at school just to spite him.
Sixth form wasn’t entirely a write-off. I finished school with one A-level, a grade E in Geography,
the lowest pass possible, and I only passed that thanks to an inspirational teacher by the name of Roy
Coleman. Roy was a larger-than-life character and always had time for people. He commanded respect and
demonstrated great empathy towards his pupils. He treated us as individuals and gave us all nicknames,
which was Ivan in my case. He always made the lessons interesting and enjoyable. We became friends
over time, and I visited him whenever I went up to see my parents. As a thank you to the best teacher a
disillusioned pupil could ever have hoped for, I raised the funding to buy the computers for the school’s
first ICT suite in 1996 by which time he was assistant head teacher. Why he was never made head teacher
is something I’ll never understand. Sadly, he died following a heart attack after coming home from a
school open evening in 2002. I was devastated by the news.
John’s, Steve’s and my time at Altrincham Grammar School produced very different outcomes. John
achieved good A-level grades which enabled him to take a degree in Civil Engineering at Nottingham
University. Steve left school with two A-levels. He was actually due to take three A-level exams, but
because he had already been accepted into Keele University on the basis of getting two, he didn’t bother
 20 21
GAMING GROUND ZERO

GAMING GROUND ZERO

Diplomacy was published by Avalon Hill, who also produced Stalingrad, a board wargame which quickly
became a favourite of mine and Steve’s. Avalon Hill games weren’t anything like Monopoly or Risk and
their ilk; they had long rule books and reference tables, hex-grid boards, hundreds of unit counters and
required complex strategies and tactical thinking to win. Setting up these games would take ages, but we
had lots of spare time back then.
We also got into tabletop wargaming, a branch of the hobby which involved painting armies of
miniature figures and fighting out tabletop battles using sophisticated rules such as those published by
Wargames Research Group. Early tabletop wargaming was entirely historical in theme. Napoleonics,
Ancients and World War Two wargaming were the most popular, as fantasy and science fiction wargames
had yet to be invented. It wasn’t until Dungeons & Dragons came along in the mid-1970s that miniature
figurine manufacturers started modelling fantasy figures.
I started building and painting my own ancient Macedonian army using miniatures made by one of
the first UK figurine manufacturers, Minifigs. The company was founded in 1964, more than a decade
before we founded Citadel, and is still manufacturing wargame figurines today. I was always useless at
painting miniatures, but my armies were still very dear to me. Sadly, I no longer have my Cretan archers
or Macedonian phalanxes.

THE WARLORD
Between studies, Steve founded the Keele University Games Society, the first university board games
society in the country. Many games of Diplomacy were played there, which was ideal for university
students since games could take weeks to play. Steve spent much of his time at Keele playing games, and
even his degree thesis was a game – on how to teach people to learn the Highway Code. It is also where
he first discovered what was to become his favourite game of all time, The Warlord.

BLESSED ALBION
After leaving college, I moved into a flat in Bowdon not far from my old grammar school and got a job as
a marketing assistant for Oxy Petroleum in nearby Sale. My next job was as a market research officer for
Linotype in Altrincham where I learned a lot about printing, which was to prove useful in the years ahead.
In my spare time, I sometimes helped the late Don Turnbull produce his postal games fanzine Albion and

ABOVE: The final issue of also drew illustrations for it. At the time, Don lived just down the road in Timperley. LEFT: Steve’s student card
Albion magazine, #50, with for the University of Keele,
Albion was one of the first magazines to feature play-by-mail games of Diplomacy, and Don would go
the back cover illustrated by and his Games Society
Ian Livingstone. on to publish fifty issues before calling it a day. card.
 22 23
GAMING GROUND ZERO

GAMING GROUND ZERO

QUEST FOR THE RED BOX WARLORD
PART 1
by Steve Jackson

T he year was 1970. I was a nineteen-year-old undergraduate student at the University

of Keele in Staffordshire. Though supposedly studying Biology and Psychology, in
practice much of my time was spent hanging round a table-football machine in the
Students’ Union, garbed in a long and very tatty fur coat from a local Oxfam shop. I wore gold-
rimmed John Lennon specs and shoulder-length hair, as was the fashion in the flower-power era.
Though my academic performance was unexceptional, my one proud achievement was as founder and
president of the University of Keele Games Society. It was the first board games society ever established
at a British university. Every Sunday afternoon the thirty or so members would meet to play Buccaneer,
Formula 1, Monopoly and Risk. At that time, Avalon Hill wargames had barely reached British shores.
And Gary Gygax was still mending shoes for a living. The game’s most innovative feature is the combat system, which is brilliant in its simplicity. Instead
One Games Society member, Peter Roberts (whose hair was twice the length of mine), published his of rolling the die, you secretly select a number, between one and the number of armies you’re attacking
own science fiction fanzine. He arrived one Sunday with a new zine he had just received from a fellow with. The defender must try to guess your chosen number. If he guesses wrong, you win. But if
amateur publisher named Don Turnbull. Albion was dedicated to a new game played by post. The game he guesses right, that’s the number of armies you lose. In addition, some territories have defensive
was called Diplomacy. advantages. When attacking a mountainous region, you can only pick a number between one and three.
Within weeks Diplomacy fever had taken over the Games Society. I was like some sort of evangelist, When attacking across sea, the defender gets two guesses. You can imagine the anguish this mechanic
spreading the word to anyone who would listen. One evening I cornered fellow biologist John Parker. is likely to generate.
John had a guru-like status within Keele’s hippy community. He was one of the few students to own a The game was designed by Mike Hayes, but I didn’t meet him until many years later. He had invented
stereo hi-fi with 20-watt speakers! Every night we would pile into his room to listen to Grateful Dead and the game and put a limited number of copies together to sell to friends and family. The copy I played at
Quicksilver Messenger Service albums at an unsociably high volume. John knew everything that was cool Keele was owned by one of the Keele fourth-year students who happened to be Mike’s nephew.
and ‘happening’ in music and underground culture. Whatever you told him about, he knew something Anyway, I managed to borrow the Keele heirloom for a weekend and set about making my own copy.
better. That evening I enthused about my new discovery. But John was unimpressed by Diplomacy. ‘You The map was hand-drawn on poster card, with wooden Risk pieces as armies. The Warlord quickly took
should play The War Game,’ he scoffed. ‘Now that’s a great game.’ over from Diplomacy as the Games Society’s obsession – everyone I played it with agreed it was the best
Another obscure new game to discover? My curiosity was ablaze. I insisted John show me this ‘War game they had ever played. But you needed a student lifestyle to be able to play; a typical game lasted all
Game’. Next day he took me round to visit some final-year students, who were the current guardians of night long.
a battered copy of a game which had been handed down around the campus over the years. It turned out I never lost my love of The Warlord and wrote to Mike Hayes in 1977 about distributing his game. We
John had got the title wrong. It was actually called The Warlord. began selling the red box version of The Warlord at Games Workshop via mail order in Owl & Weasel for
For me, The Warlord is the best game of all time. Think ‘Risk set in Europe’ as a vague reference point. A £8.95. This included postage and packaging. The box was two feet square in size and a nightmare to sell by
huge map comes in four sections, depicting Europe and North Africa, broken into regions of different colours. post. We only sold a dozen copies or so. But three years later, after signing a licence agreement with Mike
As in Risk, a turn consists of placing a number of new armies on the board and then launching attacks. Hayes, Games Workshop launched a cut-down version of The Warlord under the title of Apocalypse.

ABOVE: The original red

box edition of The Warlord.
 24
GAMING GROUND ZERO

2
ALL ROADS LEAD TO LONDON
Our tertiary education complete, the three of us headed south in pursuit of work and, in my case, so as
not to lose my girlfriend. John was the first to move to London. Having completed his degree, he got a job
in 1973 as a civil engineer on the Jubilee line, part of London’s growing Tube network. He rented a room
in a flat in Olympia which he shared with two other people in an apartment block called Palace Mansions.
I was the next to arrive, later the same year, having followed my girlfriend Liz south. She had enrolled
on a physiotherapy course in London and, not wanting to split up, I headed to the capital and moved
into the spare room in John’s flat. I’d managed to get a job as a marketing executive with the American oil
company Conoco. It was a means to an end rather than a career choice. However, it gave me the chance to
put my marketing knowledge learned in college into practice. I worked hard and even wrote a few articles
about games which were published in the company magazine.
Steve was the last to make it to the Big Smoke. After leaving university he took on a variety of jobs,
including working as a lab technician, which involved dissecting rats. In 1974, having finished a summer
job working on a beach for the Dorset Naturalists’ Trust as a warden watching over a breeding colony
of little terns, he headed to London, where John had found a job for him. Despite Steve’s model-making

THE NAME OF THE GAME

skills being close to non-existent, John had inflated them enormously, and Steve was hired to build a
model of a new building for the Department for the Environment. When that contract ended, he went
to work for Gallenkamp, a company which made surgical instruments. Much to his surprise, he found
himself in charge of sales to the Middle East. At this time, Steve was sleeping on the couch in our flat.
Understandably, our two other flatmates started to get a little weary of this arrangement, and so John,
Steve and I moved into a flat of our own. It was on the top floor of a house in Bolingbroke Road in
West London.
 I
26 27
GAMING GROUND ZERO

THE NAME OF THE GAME

t never seems like the right time to start a business. There’s always a good reason to
put off the big decision to go it alone. Jumping into the unknown in the 1970s during
a period of economic stagnation could be viewed as foolhardy, but we were too young
to worry about that. Steve, John and I had run-of-the-mill white-collar jobs. We were
small cogs in big machines on career paths we didn’t really want. The idea to start our own company
first cropped up during one of our many ‘beer and a board game’ sessions after work at our flat.

LEFT & BELOW: Bolingbroke

Road, where it all began.
 28 29
THE NAME OF THE GAME

THE NAME OF THE GAME

And when Steve began writing reviews of board games for Games & Puzzles magazine, we all got
even more interested in the idea.
The conversations in our flat would inevitably get back to the topic of starting our own games
company. So, one day, we did. It was January 1975. We agreed that the best way to go about it
without much money of our own was to stay in our jobs and do it part-time. Having no available With the name established, we needed letterheaded paper and a logo. I used the unwanted Letraset
cash, our starting capital was £389 which included a £50 loan to Steve from his mother. We invested dry-transfer lettering sheets which Steve had acquired whilst producing artwork for Games & Puzzles
£100 in buying a bandsaw since our first products were traditional wooden games hand-made by to make the words ‘Games Workshop’. Unfortunately, there were not enough letters on any of the
John. A civil engineer by profession, John was also a skilled craftsman who made our backgammon, sheets to make the full name, so I had to use the ‘G’ and the ‘W’ from a sheet of Old English lettering
solitaire, mancala and Go boards out of cheaply sourced wood. I remember buying ten circular and the rest of the name from a sheet with a different typeface. But the end result looked good
wooden bread boards in a sale which John fashioned into beautiful solitaire boards. I would sell his enough to us. I designed the first Games Workshop logo by drawing a funny-looking creature in the
finely crafted games boards to games shops, gift shops and even Harrod’s. Steve would follow up style of celebrated cartoonist and creator of Fritz the Cat, Robert Crumb. I was a big fan of Crumb’s
ABOVE: Some off-the-
wall suggestions from with the invoicing and bookkeeping. John’s bedroom looked like a workshop with piles of wood cross-hatched pen-and-ink art style at the time. In fact, it was more like copying his style than being
the company-name
brainstorming sessions. and tools littered about and everything covered in a thick layer of sawdust. This image ultimately ‘inspired by’ it, as some copycat artists might describe others who have influenced their work.

OPPOSITE: Left to right: Ian gave rise to the company name: Games Workshop. This was a good choice since there were some Thus armed with a company logo, letterheaded paper and a range of hand-crafted wooden
Livingstone, John Peake and
very bizarre suggestions coming out of our company-name brainstorming sessions such as Cosmic games, we were ready to take on the world. What we needed now was our own newsletter to let the
Steve Jackson in February
1975. Overflow Games and GASS Games (Games And Situation Simulations Games). world know about it.
 30 31
THE NAME OF THE GAME

THE NAME OF THE GAME

GAMES AND PUZZLES

S
teve recalls working for Games & Puzzles magazine: ‘In 1972, I saw an advert on TV that would
turn out to be a game-changer for me. It was for a glossy magazine called Games & Puzzles,
published by Edu-Games (UK) Ltd and edited by Graeme Levin, the company’s owner. Graeme
was a dapper, soft-spoken South African in his mid-thirties, whose dream was to publish the first
professional magazine devoted to games: from family games, to chess, to grand tabletop re-enactments
of historical events.
I trawled the shelves of local newsagents in search of the magazine but none of them had even heard
of Games & Puzzles. But two years later in August 1974, when I arrived in London having finished my
birdwatching job in Dorset, I called up Edu-Games Ltd on the off-chance that there might be a job going,
and to my delight I was invited for an interview.
I expected to find an office packed with busy staff and huge printing presses, but instead found
Graeme sitting alone at a desk covered with papers in his office-cum-warehouse-cum-mail-order-
department with the floor littered with piles of back issues of Games & Puzzles. The interview took about
half an hour and ended with Graeme inviting me to attend one of the Games & Puzzles games testing
sessions that were held every Thursday.
I joined the Games & Puzzles testing panel, which included card games expert David Parlett; the inventor
of the abstract board game Black Box, Eric Solomon; games enthusiast John Humphries; Graeme Levin
himself; and Guardian crossword compiler Albie Fiore. I was in my element and also began writing games
reviews for Games & Puzzles for which I was paid £25 each, which supplemented my meagre salary at
Gallenkamp.
I also drew crossword grids and black-and-white graphics
for many of the puzzles that appeared in the magazine. One
big bonus was that Graeme handed me a stack of Letraset
sheets (rub-down lettering used by graphic artists at the
time) to help me prepare the graphics. Letraset was quite
expensive, and I was allowed to keep the mostly used sheets,
which would prove to be very useful and a welcome cost-

RIGHT: Steve helping John saving for when we produced our first Games Workshop
produce wooden games. letterhead and periodical a few months later.
OPPOSITE: The first Games
Workshop newsletter
published in February 1975.
 32 33
THE NAME OF THE GAME

THE NAME OF THE GAME

LEFT: Our first
trade order!

OPPOSITE:
Games
Workshop’s
first accounts
prepared by
Steve’s mother.
 3
OWL & WEASEL
 W
36 37
GAMING GROUND ZERO

OWL & WEASEL

ith Steve being a regular contributor to Games & Puzzles
and knowing how well the magazine was doing, we
knew that in order to connect to the nascent gaming
community ourselves, we had to have our own magazine – or in our case, a fanzine.
Fanzines were the social media platform of the day and our newsletter would become
an important communication and sales tool for our new business. We didn’t have the
resources to launch a proper magazine, but we were able to publish our own fanzine
which, bizarrely, we called Owl & Weasel. We produced it using two old typewriters
with different typefaces and our stock of old Letraset sheets. With a cover price of
10p, the first issue of Owl & Weasel was published in February 1975. We were very
proud of our little publication, but looking at it today, I’m amazed anybody bought it
since it consisted of just four single-sided pages of miscellaneous content and looked
very amateurish.
Printing it was one thing – getting it into the hands of the gaming community was
another. My college course had taught me about the effectiveness of targeted marketing
and mailshots, and I suggested that we send out a free copy of Owl & Weasel to everybody
we could in games to let them know that Games Workshop had been set up by gamers
for gamers. We had the addresses of a few people, but this increased when Don Turnbull
kindly gave me his Albion mailing list when he ended its publication. In total, we had about
fifty names and addresses. Not a lot, but it was a start. For gamers who we couldn’t contact
directly, we placed a small advert in Games & Puzzles. Anybody who got in touch was
sent a copy of our introductory newsletter together with a copy of Owl & Weasel. People
remarked that the name was intriguing but not very relevant to board games. It did get
their attention though. Steve had come up with the name, reasoning it described the skills
necessary to be a good games player – wise like an owl and sneaky like a weasel.
Following publication of issue 1, enough people took out a subscription to give us
the encouragement we needed to produce a second issue. Over a period of two years, we
had a lot of fun putting it together and published some odd stuff at times. In issue 16 I
wrote a spoof review of a Japanese role-playing game I called Friday in Dundee in which
players could take on the role of a bank clerk, professional footballer, lorry driver or VAT
inspector. One reader actually wrote in to ask if we would be importing it.
 OWL & WEASEL
39
OWL & WEASEL
38
 OWL & WEASEL
41
OWL & WEASEL
40
 OWL & WEASEL
43
OWL & WEASEL
42
 44 45
OWL & WEASEL

OWL & WEASEL

Owl & Weasel’s circulation slowly grew over time, and we went on to publish twenty-five glorious
issues before bringing publication to an end. I added a postscript to the final editorial in April 1977:
‘For those of you who never knew, Owl & Weasel was conceived, written, typed and published
by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson of Games Workshop, a completely unknown West London
games company.’ Although Owl & Weasel ended with a circulation of just 200 copies, we were very
proud of our little zine. And the big cherry on top of the cake is that it was directly responsible for
presenting us with the business opportunity of a lifetime. One which we grabbed with both hands
and never looked back.
 4
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS
 I
48 49
GAMING GROUND ZERO

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS

n the late 1960s, a games designer by the name of David Wesely developed a Napoleonic
wargame called Braunstein which he ran at the Midwest Military Simulation Association
(MMSA) in Minneapolis-St Paul. To accommodate the many players who wanted to
play, he adapted his original rules to allow players to take on individual non-military roles such as a
mayor or banker. One of the players was a history student by the name of Dave Arneson who later
took over the running of Braunstein when Wesely joined the Army. In 1969, Arneson attended the 2nd
Gen Con games convention in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin where he met a little-known games designer
by the name of Gary Gygax. They shared a common interest in Napoleonic wargames and discussed
the prospect of future collaborations. In 1971, Gygax wrote a set of rules for medieval miniatures
wargaming in his basement in Lake Geneva with his friend Jeff Perren. They gave it the title of
Chainmail and it was published by Guidon Games. Interestingly for the time, Chainmail contained a
fantasy rules supplement. After reading Chainmail, Arneson added fantasy creatures, wizards, castles,
gold and dungeon exploration to his Braunstein campaign. The result was a new fantasy Braunstein
scenario which he called Blackmoor. In 1972, Gygax invited Arneson to Lake Geneva so he could play
Blackmoor. Playing as a wizard, Gygax enjoyed the experience so much that he asked Arneson for a
copy of the rules. But, apart from the Combat Results Table and a few notes, there weren’t any. The
game existed mostly in Arneson’s head to facilitate free-form role-playing, with Arneson making a lot
BELOW: Don Kaye
of it up for his players as the adventures progressed. He had opened the door to storytelling in games. and Gary Gygax.

Undeterred by the lack of material, Gygax set about

taking Arneson’s basic concepts and turned them into
fifty pages of rules and reference tables incorporating
Chainmail mechanics. He added a spell system and
alignment which he playtested and refined to create the
world’s first fantasy role-playing game. Gygax called it
Dungeons & Dragons. Whilst Arneson introduced
the concept of role-play into fantasy gaming, it was
Gygax who turned a great idea into a great product
and made it happen. Unable to find a publisher, Gygax
founded Tactical Studies Rules Inc. (TSR) in 1973 with
his business partner Don Kaye to begin publishing
Dungeons & Dragons by Gygax & Arneson in 1974.
They printed 1,000 copies. It was an event horizon in

© Paul Stormberg
gaming history.
 50 51
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS

OPPOSITE: The original
‘wood grain’ D&D box
launched in 1974.

LEFT: The ‘white box’

D&D set from 1975.
 52 53
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS

At the time still unaware of TSR, Steve and I attended a board games convention called Citicon I’ll never forget my first Dungeons & Dragons character – Anvar the Barbarian. Dragon-slayer
in May 1975. Run by Andrew Holt and Stephen Biggs, it took place at the City University Games extraordinaire, he navigated many a dangerous dungeon, killing monsters and finding legendary
Club in central London. It was a small gathering. People were playing Avalon Hill and SPI wargames, treasures before meeting an unfortunate end thanks to a deadly Beholder. In his memory, I featured
and tabletop games such as Diplomacy, Railway Rivals and Formula 1. Fun though they were, we him as a main character in the Legend of Zagor board game I designed in 1993 for Parker Brothers
were intrigued by another game that was being played. This unusual game involved a narrator and the Fighting Fantasy gamebook of the same name. Steve’s first Dungeons & Dragons character
relating the events happening inside a dungeon, mapped out on graph paper, to five players who was a magic user called Croo. His life was short-lived, ending abruptly when he fell into a pit of
were hanging on his every word. They were role-playing as heroic fantasy characters, exploring his poison-tipped iron spikes, but Son of Croo fared much better on his adventures. I still possess the
BELOW LEFT: D&D box signed
dungeon through conversation. The players spoke to each other in character, acting co-operatively first dungeons I designed on graph paper in 1975 called The Inner Temple of the Golden Skeleton and by Gary Gygax and Dave
on a seemingly dangerous mission to slay an evil Necromancer. Their alter egos were represented Sanctum of the Sixth Province. At the time, it never crossed my mind to publish them. That is probably Arneson, sent as a gift to
Games Workshop.
by cardboard figures of two fighters, a magic user, a thief and a cleric standing in formation on a good thing because today they would be described as random and illogical, but friends seemed to
BELOW RIGHT: Dave Arneson,
a hand-drawn dungeon floor plan laid out on the table. The narrator, or dungeon master as we enjoy battling their way through them at the time. D&D co-author.

later found out he was called, would occasionally plonk down random plastic figures on the table
in front of the dungeoneering party and tell them they were being attacked, whereupon he would
pull out a handful of dice. ‘Two slavering creatures with long fangs and sickly green skin emerge
from the shadows and attack you with spiked clubs!’ he yelled excitedly. ‘They are hobgoblins!’ The
players hastily agreed on how they were going to defend themselves. They told the dungeon master
what they wanted to do and moved their cardboard figures into position to fight the hobgoblins.
Combat ensued by rolling dice to determine the outcome of the battle. The hobgoblins were
quickly defeated, and the dungeon master then handed out loot and experience points to the
triumphant adventurers. It was like watching theatre on the fly. As the adventure continued, we
found out that the name of the game was Dungeons & Dragons. We were told it came from the
USA, but it was only available by mail order and you had to send US dollars in cash to a PO box
somewhere in Wisconsin. We were desperate to get hold of a copy to start playing it ourselves.
Back at our flat, Steve wrote a short note about the game we’d seen being played and published it
in the June edition of Owl & Weasel, promising ‘more news when I’ve played it’. By the strangest of
coincidences, we received a parcel from a gentleman in the USA a few weeks later. He wrote that
he’d been given a copy of Owl & Weasel which he’d enjoyed and asked if we would write a review
of the game he’d enclosed. The letter was signed by Gary Gygax and the game was none other than
Dungeons & Dragons. We couldn’t believe our luck.

berg
The game didn’t look like much – three basic-looking rule booklets in a plain box – and when we

© Paul Storm
first read the rules we weren’t much the wiser. But once we started playing, we were hooked. The
concept of creating an alter ego and taking on the role of a hero, wizard, cleric or thief to explore
a magic- and monster-filled dungeon operated by a dungeon master was genius. The game opened
up the imagination like no game had ever done before and I don’t think any game ever will again.
 54 55
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS

Whilst Steve and I were obsessing about Dungeons & Dragons, John was doing anything but. Ultimately there is no end to a game, as long as characters survive, nor will there be a winner or loser. Instead of
Role-playing just wasn’t his thing. However, we all agreed we should import the game to sell in the competing directly with other players, in most games players measure their success against some form of experience
UK. The problem was that we only had enough available cash to order six copies. Amazingly, that point system. Players gain satisfaction from progressing up the experience ladder and in simply staying alive. Indeed,
was enough to qualify for trade discount. The timing of our order could not have been better: Gary far from competing, the players have to co-operate to make the best use of the combined skill and abilities of their
Gygax’s company was also in its early stages and he welcomed the opportunity to have a European player-characters. This is an important difference from most other types of game, and it contributes considerably to
distributor. Incredibly, on the back of that tiny order, Brian and Kevin Blume, Gary’s new business the appeal of role-playing. During a gaming session an adventure will have taken place, and a series of connected
partners at Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) following the sudden death of Don Kaye, sent us a three- adventures forms a campaign game without end. The gaming sessions last as long as the players wish, and the
year exclusive distribution agreement for the whole of Europe. We could hardly believe our good adventures can continue next time. The rules of the actual games are used only to determine the outcome of a decision
fortune. We were all role-playing as businessmen engaged in the business of role-playing games. No – some degree of success or failure – and reflect the chances of that success or failure as realistically as possible. During
matter, we were now the official UK and European distributors for Dungeons & Dragons. We duly their adventure the players will inform the referee of their
received our six copies, and thus began its well-documented rise to fame on this side of the Atlantic proposed actions and the referee will inform them of the
in tandem with what was happening in the USA. outcome by reference to the rules.’
Although nobody, including us, realised it at the time, Dungeons & Dragons – or D&D as it became
known in its abbreviated form – would become a milestone in gaming history, the primordial soup of GAME CHANGER
role-playing games out of which all others would emerge, both analogue and digital. It was a genuine June 1975 was destiny-defining for our young
classic and deservedly achieved cult status. A commercial and cultural phenomenon, it is more popular company. Since receiving our copy of D&D,
now in its fifth edition than it ever was. Today, the term ‘role-playing’ is widely recognised, with Dungeons we had been playing it pretty much non-stop
& Dragons being virtually a household name. But back in 1974, when the game was first published, the in the evenings. Our first D&D session was
concept of RPGs was unknown. one of the most entertaining gaming sessions
we’d ever had. In July, we headlined issue 6 of
Owl & Weasel as the ‘Dungeons & Dragons
DICING WITH DRAGONS Special Issue’ with Steve writing on the front
In my book Dicing with Dragons, published in 1982, I described a role-playing game as: ‘a sophisticated page that ‘The Workshop has now had a
form of make believe in which each player creates a game persona, and verbally acts out the part of that persona in chance to play the game and we are obsessed
a specially designed game-world controlled by a referee. Game personas are usually referred to as player-characters, to with the thing.’ He wrote a special feature
distinguish them from the non-player-characters operated by the referee. about D&D which began with an extract
During a game, players will interact with other players to direct their characters as they see fit, playing the roles from the first game we played in which I
ordained for their alter egos as much as actors in a play, and it is this aspect from which the term “role-play” derives. was the dungeon master. He quoted the first
In the short term, players will act co-operatively in pursuit of some common objective, such as the accumulation of words I said to the dungeon party: ‘You are
wealth and power for their characters, in a risk-filled adventure run by the referee. Only the referee knows the content about to enter the abandoned smugglers’
and logistics of the game-worlds and it is up to the players to explore and discover. In so doing the players will attempt cave of Truenor.’ His article went on to
to improve their characters’ abilities and develop their personalities during the adventure, by performing certain actions praise D&D, enthusiastically describing it
and achieving certain goals. For example, a player whose character is a wizard would receive experience and reward as being ‘as tense as defusing a bomb, as
for, say, casting a spell which slays a creature guarding a treasure. scary as potholing and as much fun as a
 56 57
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS

ABOVE: Ian’s first D&D dungeon designed in 1975.
 58 59
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS

Monty Python gem’. He explained in detail how the game was played, concluding that ‘Dungeons & we paid for a game which retailed for $10 in
Dragons is a modern classic.’ He wasn’t wrong. The back page of issue 6 of Owl & Weasel featured the USA. Slowly our mail order sales began to
our advert for Dungeons & Dragons on sale for $10.00, which didn’t exactly make it easy for people grow as more people heard about the radical
to buy the game. It wasn’t until issue 8 came out in September that we quoted prices in pounds new role-playing game called Dungeons &

BELOW: The first Games sterling for Dungeons & Dragons, Chainmail, Greyhawk and other TSR games we imported. We set Dragons. We still had our day jobs but back
Workshop catalogue and the retail price for Dungeons & Dragons at £6.10 including postage and packing. Whilst this might at our flat we worked at ‘Workshop’ in the
sales sheet.
appear to be an odd price, it was arrived at with good intentions. We could have set the price at £7.00 evenings and at weekends.
OPPOSITE: Ian at an early
trade show. or more, but we set what we believed was a fair price based on the purchase price and import costs Sometimes if we were to look out of
our flat window on Saturdays, we would see
people milling around on the street below
holding copies of Owl & Weasel and looking
confused. They were looking for a shop,
which was fair enough given the company’s
name. We’d open the window and tell them
to come up to the third floor if they wanted
to buy copies of D&D. Many had travelled
from afar to visit us but didn’t appear too
disappointed when they found out the ‘shop’
was nothing more than an untidy living
room crammed with boxes. Some customers
would try to call us to place orders. Little did
they know that we didn’t have a phone in our
flat. Our phone was the public payphone on
the ground floor which we shared with our
landlord. We ran downstairs to answer it every time it rang. The frequent calls did not amuse our
landlord, who was known to hang up on our customers if we were out. He became increasingly fed
up, not only with the constant phone calls, but with people and parcels arriving at the front door.
You couldn’t really blame him.
 60 61
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS

LEFT: D&D Character Sheet.
 5
GAMES DAY
 I
64 65
GAMING GROUND ZERO

GAMES DAY
n the early days of Workshop, games conventions were mostly centred around
historical miniatures wargaming. Fantasy gaming was still in its infancy. Nevertheless,
Steve and I would make the effort to attend as many conventions as we could,
driving around the UK with a van full of games. This usually meant sleeping on the
convention hall floor or in Steve’s van, which he affectionately named Van Morrison, because we
couldn’t afford to pay for both a trade stand and hotel rooms.
There was one particular convention we went to which I will never forget. We were driving to
Southampton and stopped for a break at the motorway services. When Steve got out of the van, a
seagull chose that moment to empty its bowels overhead, covering him in poop. It was impossible
to clean all the poop off his clothes. The stench was so bad we had to finish the journey with the
windows open despite it being the dead of winter. This incident triggered a discussion we had
driving home as to why bird poop was mostly white. We didn’t know the answer. We later did a bit
of research and found out that the white part is actually an excretion of uric acid, their pee, and the
dark part is the poop. Apparently, birds release both at once as a sticky paste. This discovery made
Steve feel even worse. But I couldn’t stop laughing.
After attending another wargames convention, we began talking about holding our own event.
Games Workshop was ticking along as a fun sideline business, but we thought we could really put
the company on the map if we held our own convention. We briefly mentioned the idea of a ‘Games
Day’ in issue 4 of Owl & Weasel in May 1975 and put out a feeler in issue 5 in June asking people
and companies to contact us about getting involved in running demonstrations, tournaments, trade
stands and helping out. We were also trying to gauge the interest of people attending. The response
was good enough to give us the confidence to do it. With the decision made, we announced that our
first Games Day would be held on Saturday, 20 December 1975 at Seymour Hall in London. It was
a gamble since hiring a central London venue wasn’t cheap.
Steve, John and I began planning Games Day, making sure there would be something for
everyone who might be thinking of coming along. Lots of board games to play, demonstrations
to watch, trade stands to buy games from and competitions to enter. We were hoping to sell lots
of games on the day, and not just D&D. The December issue of Owl & Weasel doubled up as the
Games Day programme, and we announced that as well as everything else happening on the day,
‘The first British Organized Crime Championships’ would take place. We’d recently become the UK
distributors for Koplow Games, the Organized Crime’s US publisher. Unfortunately, with only two
days to go before the big day, our shipment of games was still stuck in customs. John volunteered
to drive up to Hull to sort out the problem. Battling red tape, he was obliged to stay overnight and
arrived back late the next day with the games, having had to pay an extortionate amount of import
 66 67
GAMES DAY

GAMES DAY
duty to have them released. But at least we had the games. The sad thing is, we didn’t sell any copies
at Games Day as nobody had heard of it. The British Organized Crime Championship was over
before it even started.
We arrived early at Seymour Hall on the big day and were quite relieved to see a long line of
gamers waiting for the doors to open. Admission was 30p for adults and 15p for children. The
day was a success, and whilst we didn’t sell any copies of Organized Crime, we did sell lots of
D&D and other TSR games. We also witnessed first-hand the passion and enthusiasm of gamers
taking part in the D&D exhibition games, which ran all day. There were plenty of other games and OPPOSITE: The flyer for our
first Games Day.
competitions running, but none came close to the excitement generated by people playing D&D.
BELOW: The crowd outside
We knew we had something special on our hands. Seymour Hall.
 68 69
GAMES DAY

GAMES DAY
The first Games Day was such a success that we decided we should hold another one as soon as it OPPOSITE: The poster for
Games Day 2.
made sense to do so. In the November 1976 issue of Owl & Weasel, we announced that 12 February 1977
ABOVE: The cover of the first
would be the date for Games Day 2. Again, Owl & Weasel doubled up as the Games Day programme. Dragonmeet programme.
The venue this time was Chelsea Town Hall as we’d left it too late to rebook Seymour Hall. We also
announced that D&D Day would be held on 12 March 1977 at Fulham Town Hall. We realised that
running two conventions within a month of each other was asking for trouble, but both events went
ahead without mishap save for them being overcrowded. Over 1,000 people attended Games Day 2, and
I wrote about the ‘sardine can-like conditions’ of Chelsea Town Hall as being a ‘really fun, albeit sweaty,
day’ in the editorial of the March issue of Owl & Weasel, which doubled up as the D&D Day programme.
I issued a warning in the programme that Fulham Town Hall had a crowd capacity of 250, which seemed
big enough when we made the booking six months earlier but was now looking too small given the rise
in popularity of D&D. Fortunately, the day went without a hitch. Nobody was turned away and luckily
nobody seemed to mind the crowds. I guess people preferred the atmosphere of a jam-packed hall to that
of an empty one. We changed the name D&D Day the following year to Dragonmeet.
 70 71
GAMES DAY

GAMES DAY
We announced our third convention of the year in issue 3 of White Dwarf, our successor to OPPOSITE: The Games Day
crowds, 1979.
Owl & Weasel. Games Day 3 was going back to Seymour Hall in London on 17 December 1977.
BELOW: Ian demonstrating his
I reported the day’s events in issue 5 of White Dwarf. There were over 1,500 attendees, of which Judge Dredd board game.
200 had put their names down for the D&D competition. Massively oversubscribed, we had to
run two preliminary knockout quiz rounds in the morning to get the numbers down. The quiz was
intentionally difficult and did the trick. The qualifiers certainly earned their place to battle their
way through the dungeon in the afternoon.
We held Games Day 4 at Seymour Hall in London on 28 October 1978 with special guests
Scott Bizar of Fantasy Games Unlimited and Glenn Kidd of Ral Partha coming over from the
USA. Some 2,500 people turned up on the day,
which was 1,000 more than attended Games
Day 3. We were now at a stage where we were
publishing D&D and Advanced Dungeons &
Dragons under licence, selling lots of our UK
softback editions of AD&D Player’s Handbook
and Monster Manual, which retailed for £4.50
each compared to the imported hardback
editions at £6.95. We were also adding new
US distribution partners to our catalogue,
including Chaosium, Judges Guild, Game
Time and Metagaming. Games Workshop
was on a roll.
By 1983, we were full-on games
convention organisers. We put on Northern
Games Day in Manchester in April,
Dragonmeet VI in Westminster, London
in July and Games Day ’83 in central
London in November. As its popularity
grew, Dungeons & Dragons occasionally
attracted negative publicity in sections of
the media which wrongly associated the
game with the occult, and we often had
to defend it against the moral outrage at
the time.
 72 73
GAMES DAY

GAMES DAY
ABOVE: Ian, Marc Miller of Our marketing manager at the time, Clive Bailey, recalls one such incident: ‘We held Dragonmeet
Game Designers’ Workshop,
and Steve.
VI at the Methodist Central Hall in Westminster. I had to explain to the secretary with whom we

OPPOSITE TOP: Peter Darvill- booked that Dragonmeet was not a meeting of cultists. People would be playing games of the
Evans manning the Games imagination that did not involve gambling. I further had to assure him there was nothing satanic
Workshop stand.
or anti-Christian about RPGs. I didn’t mention the demons and undead creatures encountered in
OPPOSITE BOTTOM: A packed
crowd at Games Day. games of D&D!’
 74 75
GAMES DAY

GAMES DAY
RIGHT: Programme for
Games Day 1979.

OPPOSITE: Programme
for Games Day 1985.
 76 77
GAMES DAY

GAMES DAY
ABOVE: Ian and Steve having
fun at Games Day and
Dragonmeet.
 6
LAKE GENEVA OR BUST
 F
80 81
GAMING GROUND ZERO

LAKE GENEVA OR BUST

ollowing the success of our first Games Day, in particular witnessing the
incredible popularity of D&D, we knew what had to be done: give up our jobs
and focus Workshop on role-playing games. It was a big decision to make, and
we put it off for a couple of months before handing in our notices. Sadly, when
we did decide to take the plunge, John chose not to join us. Whilst he enjoyed making wooden games, he
had little interest in an RPG-focused company, certainly not enough for him to give up his job. He told us
that he was going to leave Games Workshop, which was a big shock given we were still the best of friends
and had been in it together from the start. With sadness, we announced John’s departure in the January
1976 edition of Owl & Weasel.
Despite John’s decision to leave Games Workshop, there was no turning back for Steve and me.
We announced in the April 1976 edition of Owl & Weasel that we would be packing our bags and flying
off to the USA in July on an extended holiday-cum-business trip. Gen Con IX was due to take place
in August in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, the home of TSR. Gen Con was the premier convention for
fantasy and science fiction gaming in the world. It had originally been set up in 1968 by Gary Gygax as
a wargames convention long before he published Dungeons & Dragons. By 1976 the event was run by
his company, TSR, and Gen Con IX was going to be the highlight of the year for American role-playing
gamers. We had decided it was important we go to the USA to meet Gary and his business partners at
TSR, Brian and Kevin Blume, to consolidate our business relationship and explore new opportunities.
The USA was at the forefront of the new industry, and we wanted Games Workshop to be the market
leader in the UK and Europe for fantasy games.

LET’S PLAY, USA

America in the 1970s was where the hobby games industry really began to flourish. It was where all the
popular role-playing games – from Dungeons & Dragons and RuneQuest through to Tunnels & Trolls
and Traveller – were invented, along with many more besides. It was in the USA where in the 1960s
Avalon Hill and SPI began publishing war and science fiction board games. And it’s where most fantasy,
superhero, horror and science fiction role-playing games started their long journey from niche to the
mainstream popularity of today.
The June 1976 edition of Owl & Weasel was the last one put together at our flat in Bolingbroke Road
before we said goodbye to John and moved out; there would be no July or August editions. We flew to
New York accompanied by Steve’s sister Vicki and her best friend Jane Pownall and Jane’s friend, Barbara
Newman. We stayed in Brooklyn with Steve’s cousin, Ronnie Leonardi. Ronnie never stopped talking,
describing everything he saw and did in wildly exaggerated detail which had us crying with laughter a lot
 82 83
LAKE GENEVA OR BUST

LAKE GENEVA OR BUST

of the time. However, he had zero interest in games. His passion was baseball. He was a fan of the New
York Mets, and we enjoyed going to games with him just to hear him shout abuse at the players from the
stands. He even got us into collecting baseball cards, and I remember having to give him eighty swaps in
a trade for his Carl Yastrzemski card, the Boston Red Sox outfielder I so desperately needed to complete
my set. I still own my mint condition set of 1976 Topps Baseball cards.
We had an amazing time in New York but now it was time to begin our road trip. Our plan was to drive
to Los Angeles then up to San Francisco and drive back east with a stopover in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin,
to meet Gary Gygax et al at Gen Con IX. We invited Ronnie to come with us, but he was working at a
gas station and said that although he was sick of his job, he couldn’t afford to take two months off work.
Instead, he would fly to California in time to join us for the trip back east.
Inspired by Jack Kerouac’s classic novel On the Road, one of my all-time favourite books, we wanted on long into the night until finally stopping somewhere,
to discover the real America on our road trip. We would spend several weeks doing this, delivering cars who knows where, for a few hours of uncomfortable
for their owners who had moved across country and had flown out rather than drive. The car delivery sleep in the car. The next morning, we drove straight to
agency in New York told us that we had seven days to deliver a car to Los Angeles and we had to pay for the nearest McDonald’s for breakfast. Being on a limited

BELOW: On the road in Benny

our own gasoline. That was fine by us. We signed on the dotted line and went back to Brooklyn to pack budget, we tried to save money whenever possible. It was
the Buick Skylark. our bags. The next day, after collecting the Buick Skylark we called Benny, we filled up at the gas station an Olympic year and McDonald’s were running their
OPPOSITE LEFT: New York City, where Ronnie worked, bid our farewells and set off on our big adventure. generous ‘When the US wins, you win’ campaign. You
1976.
We left the skyscrapers of New York behind and sped west in our big shiny car, pointing at could pick up a ‘scratch and win’ card at their restaurants
OPPOSITE RIGHT: Ronnie
waves goodbye. everything we saw like excited kids on a school trip to the seaside. The miles rolled by and we drove if you bought a burger or fries. Sometimes the servers
would give you several cards if you asked nicely which,
of course, we did in our best English accents. There
was a foil-covered medal printed on the card which, if scratched off, would reveal an Olympic event.
If the US won a gold medal in that event, you would win a Big Mac. Silver would win you an order of
regular fries and bronze would win you a Coke. Perhaps not the most balanced diet for a week-long
journey across the USA, but McDonald’s certainly helped to keep us going. The USA won ninety-four
medals in 1976 and as a result we ate a lot of free burgers and fries. But being British, we felt a bit
disloyal for wanting the USA to win all the events for which we had scratch cards.
I was at the wheel as we approached Indianapolis. I’d been interested in motor racing since I was
a child, when my parents gave me a Cooper-Bristol Dinky Toy for my birthday. I proposed we stop
at the famous racetrack where the Indianapolis 500 took place. Steve, Vicki, Jane and Barbara weren’t
keen on the idea and wanted to carry on. I wasn’t having any of that, and when I saw the sign for the
racetrack, I turned off the highway and drove on to the entrance, ignoring their protests. We ended up
having a fantastic time at the track. We got to go round the racetrack and visit their incredible museum,
not to mention jumping in the fountain!
 84 85
LAKE GENEVA OR BUST

LAKE GENEVA OR BUST

for his money back when the last $100 bill was gone. A burly minder standing close by who had been
quietly watching him play suddenly moved in and escorted him out of the casino. He gave the man
$20 and told him to get a cab back to his hotel. And that was him gone. We left the casino to the sound
of somebody else whooping for joy when a distant slot machine began churning out a large quantity
of 25¢ coins.
It was now morning and we had less than 300 miles to go to LA. We were just about on schedule but
were forced to make an unscheduled stop somewhere unbearably hot in the Mojave Desert. We’d broken
down. We fumbled around under the bonnet for a couple of hours and somehow managed to get the
engine started again. We got back in the car and drove slowly to the next garage where Benny was fixed by
somebody who knew what they were doing. He was a kind man who took pity on his English visitors and
only charged us $25 to replace the cylinder head gasket. The parts probably cost that. It was now too late
to continue the drive to LA and we slept outside again. Jane recalls that night in the desert: ‘I remember
sleeping under a magnificent star-filled sky in the desert and waking up to find animal tracks over both
sides of my sleeping bag.’ We set off early the next day and arrived in LA without further drama. It had
been an amazing trip and in truth we didn’t want it to end. We’d seen a lot, done a lot and still had money
in our pockets.
With everybody happy again, we We had a day in hand before we were due to reunite Benny
were back on the road, speeding along with its owner, so Steve and I took the opportunity to visit
the highway, ready to plead ignorance Disneyland. It was a hot day and we parked in the official car
in fake posh English accents should park and thought it would be a good idea to down a couple
we get pulled over by the cops for of Miller Lites before going in. We’d only just cracked them
exceeding the 55mph speed limit. On open when Benny was surrounded by four security guards on
we drove, joining Route 66 in St Louis motor scooters who told us to get out of the car. We obeyed
which we would follow most of the and were then instructed to pour the beers out onto the floor,
way to Los Angeles over the coming ‘Because, sir, the good folk enjoying themselves inside the
days. We drove through the heat of park would not want to smell beer on your breath.’ Despite
New Mexico and were looking forward to seeing the Grand Canyon, but when we finally got there, it was the loss of two beers, we had a great time in the theme park.
raining. It was probably the only day it rained at the canyon all summer but it meant that we could hardly We dropped the Buick off early the next day at the car
see a thing because of the mist and low cloud. We ended up sleeping outside on damp ground but didn’t agency, where we got another car to deliver to San Francisco.

TOP: Breaking down in

have time to go back in the morning to wait for the clouds to go away. Taking the Interstate 5, we drove north along the stunning
the desert. Our next stop was the bright lights of Las Vegas where we spent a fun evening going around the coast road with its breath-taking views. We delivered the
ABOVE: Cooling off
casinos. We dared not risk losing our money at the gaming tables but watched quite a few people lose car and went to stay with friends in nearby Berkeley for a
in Indianapolis.
theirs. I vividly remember watching a Japanese tourist who was sitting at a Blackjack table on his own couple of weeks. We bought skateboards and also learned
OPPOSITE: The McDonald’s
Olympics. playing three hands at a time. His big stack of $100 bills went down very rapidly, and he began shouting to play softball on the university campus, as well as joining
 86 87
LAKE GENEVA OR BUST

LAKE GENEVA OR BUST

in on all the crazy Californian fun that was happening at street parties in the afternoon and house parties nothing special, but it was always worth it for the fun of it. Needless to say, we got behind schedule and had ABOVE: Dinner at the Gargoyle
Restaurant.
at night in Berkeley, or Berserkely as it was more affectionately known by the locals. It was in Berkeley to drive all through the night to arrive in Lake Geneva on Thursday 19 August in time for Steve and I to
BELOW: Miss Wisconsin
where, after one particularly mad party, I got to spend my one and only night sleeping on a waterbed. attend the Strategist Club’s dinner for Gen Con guests, hosted by Gary Gygax and the TSR Hobbies team. Teenager 1976.
At the end of our little holiday, we were reunited with the irrepressible Ronnie. He’d flown over to The drive that day was surreal due to sleep deprivation. I later wrote an account of our race against
join us for the drive back east. Jane and Barbara decided not to join us in what would have been a very time to get to Lake Geneva in issue 18 of Owl & Weasel, which began, ‘It’s two in the afternoon of
tight squeeze in the car. They went off camping in Yosemite before making their own way back to New Thursday 19th August, the road is hot and dusty, and the Dodge Coronet continues its unceasing purr
York. Meanwhile, Steve and I found a car share on a notice board at Berkeley University campus. It was across Interstate 80. The two men inside don’t seem to hear the rock music screaming at them from
to drive a Dodge Coronet to Philadelphia with its owner. It was the only trip east we could find on the WDND Chicago but stare blankly through red-rimmed eyes of 32 hours non-stop driving at
dates we wanted. We met the owner, Lloyd Melnick, whom you would best describe as dull. Lloyd had an the never-ending highway.
instant personality clash with Ronnie, who found him irritating. Lloyd moaned a lot on the trip, especially “How much further?” one grunts.
when Ronnie was in full flow. But to his credit, he agreed to us driving to Philadelphia via Lake Geneva, “’Bout a hundred and fifty.”
Wisconsin to attend Gen Con for a few days. It wasn’t exactly a small diversion. “We should make it.”
Our route took us through Reno and Salt Lake City all the way to Lake Geneva with Ronnie keeping “Huh?”
Steve, Vicki and I entertained with his never-ending stories. Even Lloyd chuckled on a couple of occasions. “I said we should make it in time.”
ABOVE: California dreamers
at a Berkeley street concert. Ronnie was always demanding to stop to see something he thought we should see. Most of the time it was “Oh… right.”’
 88 89
LAKE GENEVA OR BUST

LAKE GENEVA OR BUST

would not have been very happy if more boxes of games
arrived at her front door. Steve’s belongings and the rest
of the Workshop stock was stored in his van, which was
locked up in a garage belonging to a friend of mine. We
told the games companies that we would let them know
the shipping address in due course.
Mission accomplished, we were on the road again,
bound for Philadelphia. Lloyd seemed a lot happier when
we finally got there and dropped us off at the railway
station. We caught a train to New York where we enjoyed
a few more days in the city with Ronnie before we packed
our bags and flew home. We were sad to say goodbye
to Ronnie, but it was high time we got back to the UK.
Cartons of games would soon be arriving in London. We
had a business to run, and we urgently needed to find an
office and somewhere to live.

ABOVE: Gary Gygax with Walt We did make it in time to join Gary for dinner, along with the guest of honour, the legendary
Buchanan, editor, Diplomacy
World.
science fiction author Fritz Leiber, and others, one of whom was Miss Wisconsin Teenager 1976,

OPPOSITE TOP: Tim Kask, D&D which did seem a bit odd. She had never met a foreigner before and couldn’t quite believe we were
rules editor. from the UK. ‘Are you reeeeeeaaallly English?’ she kept asking the whole night.
OPPOSITE BOTTOM: Left to
After dinner we drank beer and talked D&D with Gary, Rob Kuntz and other Gen Con guests at
right: Fritz Leiber, Gary Gygax,
M.A.R. Barker, Ian Livingstone, the Next Door Pub long into the night, and needed pizza at some ungodly hour to save us from self-
Rob Kuntz, with Steve Jackson
kneeling front.
destruction. Somehow, we got back to our cheap motel where our travelling companions were out
cold. It was a weekend never to forget. We hung out and partied with Gary Gygax and became friends
with everybody at TSR. We also met the owners of several new US hobby games companies. We
boasted that we were the European distributors for D&D, which was true, and suggested they should
appoint us as their European distributors. It must have been difficult for them to take us seriously as
we looked like hippies after being in the USA for nearly two months. No doubt Gary Gygax was having
second thoughts about us too, but he didn’t show it. Luckily, we were the only Brits in town and had no
competition. We ordered lots of games and miniature figures but delayed telling the companies where
to ship the goods since we didn’t have anywhere to live, let alone have an office. Everything I owned
plus boxes of Games Workshop stock were stored at my then girlfriend Lizzie’s flat in London. She
 90
LAKE GENEVA OR BUST

7
TOP TO BOTTOM: Las Vegas Strip, Ian
and Ronnie messing about at GenCon,
M.A.R. Barker, Ian with backpack, desert
sky at night.

THE BREADBIN
 W
92 93
GAMING GROUND ZERO

THE BREADBIN
e arrived back in the UK at the beginning of September 1976, having BELOW: The door to the
courtyard and inside
missed one of the hottest summers on record. There’d been a drought, the Breadbin.
although a hosepipe ban was the least of our problems. We urgently
needed an office and somewhere to live. We went to the bank manager to try to get a loan to pay for
stock and to rent an office. Alas, the UK economy hadn’t recovered whilst we’d
been away, and the bank manager was dismissive of our business plan for Games
Workshop. He was polite at first but then began to look at us in the same way
a dog watches television. The meeting didn’t last long, and in his defence, we
hadn’t really prepared much for it. We just expected him to be as enthusiastic as
we were about role-playing games and give us a loan on the spot. Undeterred,
we found an office which cost just £10 a week. When we saw it, we knew why
it was so cheap. It was a small room at the back of John Granby estate agents in
St Stephen’s Avenue just off the Uxbridge Road in Shepherd’s Bush. At least it
had its own entrance, albeit via the small courtyard at the back. We took it since
we had no other choice.
 94 95
THE BREADBIN

THE BREADBIN
We still had nowhere to live, but there was always Steve’s van. Parked outside our tiny office, Van
Morrison became our home on and off for the next three months. We joined a local squash club which
opened early in the morning. We would go in as soon as it opened for a shave and a shower and got
pretty good at squash by default. The days were spent doing mail orders in the ‘Breadbin’, as it came to
be known, and around midnight we crawled into the back of the van for another uncomfortable night.
As winter closed in, the loud pitter-patter of rain on the roof would keep us awake at night, but we didn’t
care. I think we called it ‘living the dream…’
By December, we had enough money to move out of Van Morrison. We rented a run-down top-floor
flat on the Uxbridge Road not far from our office. It was nothing more than two bedrooms and a tiny
kitchen off an open landing area at the top of the stairs. It cost £6 per week, which was very cheap even
for 1976, but just like the Breadbin, there were good reasons for that. It was a dump and had a leaking
roof; water dripped down from my bedroom ceiling every time it rained. Despite this, two hundred
potential tenants had applied, but our landlord’s young daughter rather liked my Robert Crumb-style
Games Workshop logo, so we got the flat. We named it the Vomit Pit.
We didn’t have much money for food, and on more than one occasion it was a lime pickle sandwich for
an evening meal when the cupboard was bare. We had to share a bathroom on the half-landing below with
the old couple living on the second floor. They would always put a small tear in the end sheet of toilet roll,

so they’d know if we’d used it or not. I must admit that I occasionally used their toilet paper but always
tore the new end sheet to avoid suspicion. Whilst I was never found out, the guilt remains.
Since our flat wasn’t self-contained, anybody could come up the stairs and walk in. And one night,
somebody did. My long-suffering girlfriend Lizzie had come over, reminding me as usual that she would
never ever consider living with me in such a hovel. At about midnight we heard a loud banging sound
coming from downstairs. Somebody had kicked in the front door and was coming upstairs, shouting and
swearing: ‘I’m coming to get her! I know she’s in there with you!’ I jumped up, grabbed the baseball bat
I’d bought in New York, and opened my bedroom door, heart pounding. Below on the stairwell was an
angry-looking man propped up against the wall, his head lolling about. He was completely drunk, and
he hurled a barrage of expletives at me. With my baseball bat raised, I told him not to come any closer.
It was a stand-off, but for how long? ‘She’s coming back with me. Now!’ he snarled. I asked him who he
was looking for. ‘Susan!’ he screamed. ‘I know she’s in there with you!’ I told him that there was nobody
by the name of Susan in the flat. Wondering who Susan might be, Lizzie popped her head around the
bedroom door. The intruder stared at her, looking both puzzled and annoyed. ‘Who the fuck are you?’
RIGHT: Steve, his sister Vicki ABOVE: Steve (left) and Ian in
– and Van Morrison. he asked angrily. Without waiting for a reply, he continued, ‘What’s the number of this house?’ ‘161,’ I the ‘Breadbin’ office in 1976.
 96 97
THE BREADBIN

THE BREADBIN
ABOVE: Steve manning the replied. ‘Fuck, wrong house,’ he grunted before stumbling down the stairs and disappearing into the
Games Workshop stand at
the Military Modelling Show
night. I went downstairs to find the lock on the front door broken and closed it as best I could. On the
in 1977. way back up I passed by the old couple, who were peering nervously from behind their door. I told them
what had happened, and that the intruder had gone, but that didn’t seem to reassure them. I sometimes
wonder what happened to them.
By the end of 1976 the hobby games market was still relatively small. The industry was in its infancy
and for our part, we were making it up as we went along. We made plenty of mistakes, but we were
learning. The main thing holding us back was lack of working capital. Still unable to get a loan, we had to
finance the business out of cash flow, which restricted growth. All the profit we made from sales had to
be ploughed back into new stock. Despite our hard work and frugal lifestyle, we were always cash poor.
To supplement our meagre income, Steve was commuting back and forth to Brighton in Van Morrison to
help run his sister Vicki’s wholefood business, called Fodder. I managed to get a small grant for a one-year
Certificate in Education course at Garnett College in nearby Roehampton. We lived on virtually nothing
for a year, working without pay for Games Workshop whenever we could, which was most of the time.
We were effectively subsidising the company.
 THE BREADBIN
99
THE BREADBIN
98
 8
WHITE DWARF
 T
102 103
GAMING GROUND ZERO

WHITE DWARF
he April 1977 issue of Owl & Weasel was to be the last one. D&D sales
were increasing, and if we were to keep pace with the growth of the hobby,
we knew we had to up our own game. Our beloved newsletter had run its
course; a more professional, glossy magazine was required to improve both sales and the image of
Games Workshop in the role-playing games market. The standard had been set by TSR, who had
stopped publishing The Strategic Review and replaced it with Dragon magazine in the USA in 1976.
There were a number of crunch points in the history of Games Workshop which, had things not
worked out as they did, could have spelled the end for the company. The decision to publish White Dwarf
was one such crunch point. It was a big step up, going from a home-produced instant-print newsletter
to printing thousands of copies of a ‘glossy’ magazine without any certainty that it would sell. We would
have to commit a big chunk of the company’s cash to make it a success. It was a huge risk.
The vision for our new publication was to be the number one professional magazine for people
interested in all the popular science fiction and fantasy games, in particular D&D. We needed a
name for it which applied to both genres and settled on my suggestion of White Dwarf as it was
the name for a dying star while everybody knew what a dwarf was in fantasy games and literature.
With its distinct art nouveau Arnold Böcklin logo and priced at 50p, we published the first issue of
White Dwarf in June 1977. It went out to the London games stores – Just Games, Games Centre
and Knight Games – and by subscription, mostly to our old Owl & Weasel subscribers. Since Owl
& Weasel only had a circulation of 200, it was a monumental gamble to print 4,000 copies of White
Dwarf No. 1. But we needed to print that many copies to get the unit cost down to allow a 50p cover
price. Steve took a bit of convincing to print that many copies and made the valid point that if it
didn’t sell well, Games Workshop could go bust as a result.
After a long discussion, we decided it was a risk worth taking, and the way we arrived at that conclusion
was thanks to the strength of our friendship. I was more of a risk-taker than Steve, but we always reached
a consensus of opinion on any major company decision before going ahead. A compromise could always
be found. We worked well together and never fell out, and our complementary skill sets certainly helped
make Games Workshop a success.
Much to our relief, the first print run sold out. Emboldened by success, we printed an extra 1,000
copies and they sold out. So, we printed a final 1,000 copies and they eventually all sold too. The first
edition of issue 1 of White Dwarf has since become a collector’s item with mint copies selling for upwards
of £400.
Producing the early issues of White Dwarf was certainly challenging. The Breadbin was too small to
do it there; it was jammed floor-to-ceiling with games and miniature figures. Whenever a customer came
 104 105
WHITE DWARF

WHITE DWARF
in, either Steve or I had to go outside into the backyard as there wasn’t enough room inside for three
people to stand. In October we hired our first employee, Trevor Graver, and space became an even bigger
problem. Trevor didn’t so much work in the office as outside of it half the time; when an order had to
be packed up ready for posting, he would go out into the courtyard at the back, half sheltered against the
elements, and wrap everything up on a trestle table. It never bothered him, and his positive attitude always
kept our spirits high.

OPPOSITE: White Dwarf

issue 1.

LEFT: Iconic covers of White

Dwarf issues 2–5.
 106 107
WHITE DWARF

WHITE DWARF
Games Workshop benefitted in multiple ways from White Dwarf. First, to the outsider, the company
appeared to be far larger and more professional than it actually was. Second, its existence attracted more
people into the role-playing games hobby. Third, and most importantly at the time, it gave Workshop
a platform to increase sales. Whilst D&D and a few other games were advertised in Owl & Weasel, the
inside back page of White Dwarf became the focal point for Games Workshop’s products. Our advert in
issue 1 listed more than 100 games for sale from TSR, Fantasy Games Unlimited, Attack, Little Soldier,
Metagaming Concepts, Flying Buffalo, Game Designers’ Workshop, Avalon Hill, SPI and other US
companies whose products we were distributing in the UK. Issue 2 listed hundreds of miniature figures
that we stocked from Minifigs (including their official D&D figures), Greenwood & Ball, Conquest,
Lamming, Minot, Der Kriegspieler and Asgard Miniatures. Things were looking up. I finished my college

The lack of office space meant that I, as editor, designer and paste-up artist, had no option but to
produce White Dwarf at our flat. After getting the galleys of text back from the typesetter, I would begin
the task of laying out the pages. This was old-school analogue magazine production in the pre-Apple Mac
days. It was a fiddly and time-consuming task of cutting up the galleys by hand using a scalpel and steel
ruler, then, using Cow Gum, carefully pasting the blocks of text and artwork into place on art paper taped
ABOVE: Issue 6 of White to a home-made light box to produce the double-page spreads camera-ready for the printer. Anybody
Dwarf and issue 7 with
the first full-colour cover who used to do this for a living will no doubt remember the sharp smell of the solvent-based rubber
by John Blanche. solution glue that was Cow Gum, and the mild high that came with it. In my case, the long hours spent on
OPPOSITE: Ian working at
the light box combined with the cocktail of Cow Gum fumes and the damp caused by the leaking roof
his light box, producing
White Dwarf in 1978. in my bedroom resulted in the occasional chest infection. But deadlines had to be met.
 108 109
WHITE DWARF

WHITE DWARF
course in the summer of 1977 with the added bonus in Dalling Road. I started as an Editorial Assistant and finished as Assistant Editor, which was pretty
of a Certificate in Education and Steve left Fodder. much the same job to be honest… marking up articles, occasionally writing them to fill an unexpected
Why? Because Games Workshop was finally at a point gap, commissioning artwork, helping out in the shop and with manning stalls at conventions. Looking
where it could afford to pay us a modest salary. At back on it, I had a lot of leeway to do what I thought was best; I don’t think I appreciated that fully at the
long last we were able to go full-time – and get paid. time. Forty years later, I’m still meeting people who enjoyed reading White Dwarf and want to talk about
White Dwarf’s circulation steadily increased as we individual articles from back in the day… None of my other jobs have had that kind of impact.’
added to the page count to make room for more I hired Jamie Thomson in 1981 to become features editor on White Dwarf to replace Andy Slack. Jamie
content and space for advertising to increase the explains how his mother helped to get him the job: ‘I left university with a degree in Politics, but I’d spent
revenue. By the time Games Workshop had moved most of my time designing D&D scenarios, playing board games and painting miniature figurines. I had
to Dalling Road in Hammersmith, West London an ancient army of Seleucid Macedonians, just like Ian. I ended up moping around the house, reading
in early 1978, it was becoming too much work for fantasy novels and comics, painting figures, going out on the town and reading White Dwarf magazine. My
me to produce the magazine on my own. But with mother decided she’d had enough of her twenty-plus-year-old son hanging around the house. She found
room to expand production, we hired features editor an advert in White Dwarf for a Features Editor. “Must be expert in Traveller, RuneQuest and Dungeons
Albie Fiore, and later editorial assistant Andy Slack, & Dragons and be educated to degree level with good English, etc. You’d be perfect for this,” she said.
production artist Robert Owens and paste-up artist “Why don’t you apply?” “Oh, sure,” I said. “I’ll just apply for the best job I could possibly think of, my
Mary Common. dream job of all time, working for my gaming idols, and just waltz into it straight out of uni? Oh, come
Robert Owens joined us in late 1979. He was on, Mum!” I sneered, and didn’t even bother to send in my CV. Mum was not one to give up so easily
a quirky, funny and very personable young man. though. She actually rang Ian and told him about me, how I was obsessed with D&D, board games
He was always suggesting interesting ideas and and wargames. They got on rather well, so Ian invited me up for an interview! Up I went, met Ian, and
sometimes weird ones. When we were discussing the we got on rather well too, and amazingly, I got the job. And after that, I ended up writing gamebooks,
renaming of The Warlord for the Workshop edition, working for Ian at Eidos in computer games, starting my own computer games company, and writing
he dismissed our suggestion of Apocalypse and said comedy fantasy kids’ novels, all because my mum got me my first job at White Dwarf! Later, Ian discovered
‘Doom Out’ was a much better name for the game. I’d presented some “alternative facts” in my interview. While I was indeed expert in RuneQuest and
Tragically, Robert never got the chance to play the game after it was published. It was absolutely the worst Dungeons & Dragons, I’d never played or even read Traveller as I had claimed. That’s when Steve gave
day ever in Workshop history when we heard the shocking news that he had died in a road traffic accident me the nickname Jammie Dodger!’
whilst on a motorcycling holiday in France. He had only been at Workshop for nine months before the When Jamie joined the White Dwarf team to work on issue 28, circulation was around 15,000 copies.
accident happened. We were a small team and were all devastated by what had happened. Liz Lindars The magazine was bi-monthly at the time and went monthly with issue 33 in September 1982. Like Andy
was hired as Robert’s replacement, but it took a long while before things got back to normal in the office. Slack, Jamie rose to become the assistant editor. Naturally, the workload increased when the magazine
Andy Slack worked on White Dwarf from 1980 until 1981, having got the job after replying to an went monthly, and Jamie hired an assistant, Ian Marsh, to help out. By issue 46, White Dwarf’s circulation
advert in the magazine: ‘I had recently resigned from a boring IT job and I was looking for something was up to 20,000 copies a month and was even higher by the time Jamie left the company in 1985
different, which this definitely was. I had written some pieces for White Dwarf, so Albie Fiore and Ian following publication of issue 60.
Livingstone knew my name, which I think helped, as did the fact that I could talk knowledgeably about Whilst White Dwarf featured some fantastic articles and artwork, it was of course an important platform
ABOVE: Ian’s bedroom, where
wargames and board games, as well as role-playing games. to promote Games Workshop’s games and shops. In that capacity it brought a new fantasy miniatures
White Dwarf was produced
in 1977. ‘My career at Workshop lasted about a year and ended just after the company moved out of the shop company to the attention of our readers.
 111

WHITE DWARF
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: White
Dwarf editorial staff Ian, Jamie
Thomson, Mary Common, Jon
Sutherland and Marc Gascoigne.

OPPOSITE: Artwork by Alan Hunter.

 9
CITADEL MINIATURES
 N
114 115
GAMING GROUND ZERO

CITADEL MINIATURES
ow full time at Games Workshop, we were totally reliant on the
company for our income, and therefore very motivated to expand the
business and increase sales. Games Days always helped in that they
were great for direct sales, community engagement and networking. We had thirty-two trade stands at
Games Day 3, including Asgard Miniatures with their fantasy figure ranges which I had reviewed in
issue 2 of White Dwarf. We talked briefly to Asgard’s Bryan Ansell, himself a miniature figure sculptor
and games designer, who co-founded the company in Nottingham in 1976. He also published a
fanzine called Trollcrusher. Bryan requested a meeting with us and made the journey down to London
in January 1978. He started off by telling us how impressed he was by the number of Giant Rat
miniatures we had ordered from him since the review. We sold a lot of Giant Rats by mail order as
they were very popular with D&D players. But that wasn’t the reason for the meeting.
What Bryan really wanted to talk about was a collaboration whereby we would give him a contract
to design and manufacture an exclusive range of miniature figures for Games Workshop. He told us
he was the ‘solution’ to our miniatures problem. His proposal could not have come at a better time –
we were importing most of our miniatures from the USA, which was both a lengthy and expensive
business. We had just signed the UK rights for Archive Miniatures and were negotiating the rights
for Ral Partha miniatures. Bryan was a
confident, no-nonsense operator who
knew his stuff and got things done.
We liked his attitude and ambition and
agreed a deal. It was the beginning of a
long relationship, the ending of which
we would never have guessed at the
time. Bryan started off as he meant to
continue, and it didn’t take him long
to get our miniatures into
production. The Games
Workshop advertisement
in issue 9 of White Dwarf
in October 1978 featured
fifty Ral Partha miniatures LEFT: Bryan Ansell,
co-founder of Asgard
for sale which were manufactured under
Miniatures and Citadel
licence for us by Asgard. Miniatures.
 116 117
CITADEL MINIATURES

CITADEL MINIATURES
founder and designer of Asgard Miniatures.
Along with Bryan Ansell himself, many new
designers will be working on Citadel’s own ranges,
including the Fiend Factory range from the White
Dwarf feature of the same name and a Fantasy
Adventurers range, both designed for Fantasy
Role-Playing gamers. Citadel Miniatures will also
be manufacturing the complete Asgard range of
figures. Citadel Miniatures will not be limiting their
production to science fiction and fantasy figures.
Many new ranges of historical wargaming figures
are currently being planned. Watch this space for
further news.’
Operating out of the Newark Folk Museum
on Millgate in Newark, Citadel Miniatures began
The manufacturing arrangement trading in April 1979, launching a range of 100 Ral Partha miniatures together with its own ranges of
worked well. Sales were good, so good Fantasy Adventurers and Fantasy Specials, and a range of forty Fiend Factory miniatures from White Dwarf:
in fact that Steve and I wanted to start FF1 The Fiend
our own miniatures company. But FF2 Slime Beast with Sword
we couldn’t do that without help and FF3 Hook Horror
expertise. We called Bryan to talk about FF4 Crabman
it and he said that he was open to the FF5 Phantom Stalker
idea of a partnership. We came to an FF6 Giant Blood Worm
agreement whereby the three of us FF7 Death Worm
would be equal shareholders in a new FF8 Volt
company. Steve and I would be board FF9 Carbuncle
directors and Bryan would be managing director. With a deal agreed, Bryan officially left Asgard on FF10 Devil Dog
11 September 1978 and Citadel Miniatures Ltd was duly incorporated on 28 December 1978 with the FF11 Grell
registered office being at our Games Workshop address in Dalling Road, Hammersmith, West London. FF12 Assassin Bug
Bryan leased space at the Newark Folk Museum in Nottinghamshire for Citadel’s operations. FF13 Bonesnapper
We made the announcement in issue 11 of White Dwarf in February 1979 as being a collaboration FF14 Cyclops
TOP: Bryan Ansell checking between Games Workshop and Bryan Ansell. It read: ‘Games Workshop and Bryan Ansell are proud FF15 Hill Giant swinging Club
Citadel stock.
to announce the formation of Citadel Miniatures Ltd to manufacture and distribute the most exciting FF16 Giant Troll attacking with Spiked Club
ABOVE: Point of sale display
stands. new miniatures in the country, including Ral Partha. Citadel Miniatures will be run by Bryan Ansell, FF17 Minotaur
 118 119
CITADEL MINIATURES

CITADEL MINIATURES
With the advantage of editorial support and advertising in White Dwarf, Citadel Miniatures quickly
became well known and popular amongst role-playing and fantasy tabletop gamers. The figures were
liked because of their ‘chunky’ aesthetic, dynamic poses and fine detail, and offered gamers something
a bit different to the usual static-looking figures of Citadel’s competitors. Whilst most companies either
sold figures loose from trays or in plain cardboard boxes, Citadel launched with the advantage of selling
its miniatures packaged in plastic bags with branded cardboard headers which hung on spinning display
units standing on shop counters close to the point of sale. Not content with this, Bryan soon changed
the packaging to clear plastic blister packs which could be displayed on wall-mounted metal racks, which
boosted sales significantly.
Our relationship with Bryan worked really well for almost two years before we began having some
differences of opinion over resource allocation. Cash was tight. Bryan wanted us to invest more in Citadel
FF18 Wraith whereas Steve and I wanted to ensure that Games Workshop also had sufficient working capital for
FF19 Werewolf games production and retail expansion. It was difficult to keep both divisions happy with the limited
FF20 Goblins charging with Swords and Shields (3 figs.) funds available. The company was still without outside investment. It reached the point when in early
OPPOSITE: The first two
FF21 Goblins attacking with Axes (3 figs.) 1981 Bryan suddenly resigned out of frustration. This was not something we expected or wanted. Bryan ranges of Citadel Miniatures.

FF22 Goblins firing Bows (3 figs.) was the best in the business. Who else would run Citadel? We knew very little about manufacturing BELOW: The casting room.

FF23 Goblins advancing with Spears (3 figs.)

FF24 Half Orcs in Chainmail with Swords (3 figs.)
FF25 Half Orcs attacking with Swords (3 figs.)
FF26 Half Orcs in Plate Armour with Swords (3 figs.)
FF27 Half Orc with Spear mounted on Giant Tusker
FF28 Half Orc in Chainmail mounted on Giant Tusker
FF29 Half Orc in Plate Armour mounted on Giant Tusker
FF30 Zombie
FF31 Satanic Angel
FF32 Golem
FF33 Emperor Dragon
FF34 Chimaera
FF35 Manticore
FF36 Medusa
FF37 Stone Warrior
FF38 Giant Rats (3 figs.)
FF39 Amazon Berserker with Dagger
FF40 Berserker with Sword
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CITADEL MINIATURES
miniatures and the factory was 140 miles up the road. Nevertheless, whether it was pride or stubbornness to convince Diane to phone us,
on our part, Steve and I accepted his resignation and bought his shares. We consolidated the company reasoning that Bryan would look
and made Citadel Miniatures a wholly owned subsidiary of Games Workshop. On 1 April 1981, the entire after her if she was sacked. But
ordinary share capital of Citadel was acquired by Workshop for the princely sum of £10,500. sacking either of them would
Alan Merrett, Citadel’s production manager, stayed on, which at least ensured continuity. Bryan had have been the last thing we would
hired Alan as casting manager in the spring of 1980. Alan recalls with some amusement that he went for have done. We needed their help.
the interview having had no previous figure-making experience. ‘Bryan told me I looked like Graham Following Diane’s call, Steve
Parker of The Rumour and asked if I could start the following day. I said yes and was thrown in at the drove up to Newark the next
deep end with the responsibility for deciding which miniatures to cast on a daily basis. In the summer we day to find out what was going
kept the canal-side door wide open to try and keep the factory cool enough to work in. Many a miscast on. Diane suggested we talk to
figure was tossed into the canal and this became a game between the employees as to who could pitch the Bryan, which we did a few days
casting furthest.’ Alan quickly applied himself to the job and rose from casting manager to production later. It was an interesting conversation. Bryan said he would be happy
manager when Citadel moved premises. We gave the top job to Duncan Macfarlane, who’d been hired to come back to Citadel but needed assurances that Citadel would receive a larger share of Games
as a potential successor to Bryan in January. We made him Citadel’s general manager and he in turn Workshop’s working capital to invest in new ranges. After a bit of bargaining, we agreed a deal. It made
hired Diane Lane as office manager. This turned out to be stroke of good fortune since Diane was in a sense for both parties and was the right thing to do.
relationship with Bryan. Bryan was re-appointed as managing director of Citadel Miniatures in 1982 with the company now
Citadel performed to plan under Duncan’s stewardship until stock problems started to occur. Citadel owned by Games Workshop Ltd. Not entirely happy with the reorganisation, Duncan left in August to
had launched a range of boxed 15mm Traveller miniatures in 1981 and sales were poor. The whole of start Wargames Illustrated magazine. Back in charge, Bryan focused Citadel’s production on fantasy figures,
the upstairs at Citadel was stacked with unsold boxes, only we didn’t know about it. Alan was desperate to which was fine with us given our own commitment to fantasy games. His plan was to release monsters
tell us about the situation but was worried he might lose his job for being disloyal. He managed, however, and character class figures like wizards, fighters and clerics which were in high demand among D&D
players. Individual fantasy miniatures and boxed Dungeon Monsters Starter Sets sold well, and Citadel
was soon back in good shape. All was going well until March 1983 when Bryan made an offer out of the
blue to buy Citadel. After two months of haggling, we rejected his offer and he resigned for a second
time in May. Not wishing to lose him, we offered Bryan a salary increase, a four-year contract and a
performance-related bonus. This did the trick, and he withdrew his resignation.
Citadel dominated the fantasy miniatures market, not only because Bryan knew which miniatures
to make, but also because he hired the best figure sculptors in the business, including the Perry twins,
Michael and Alan, whom I could never tell apart; Jes Goodwin; Bob Naismith; Kev Adams; and Nick
Bibby. Citadel also bought out its competitors such as Chronicle Miniatures, owned by Nick Lund, and
RIGHT: The formidable team of Marauder Miniatures, owned by Aly and Trish Morrison.
Bryan Ansell and Diane Lane,
who drove the success of Bob Naismith joined Citadel in 1982 and remembers the good times the sculptors had there: ‘We had
Citadel and later married. a lot of fun at the studio in Low Pavement. I remember Jes getting upset with me because I wouldn’t
OPPOSITE: Bryan (middle,
stop singing, and how poor old Nick Bibby developed terrible allergies to Milliput and Greenstuff which
back row) and the Citadel
team. forced him into using Fimo. The creatures he made were just stunning even then. The Perry twins worked
 122 123
CITADEL MINIATURES

CITADEL MINIATURES
away from the studio but were always happy to come in and work on joint projects. Making model soldiers
TOP: Metal miniatures being
taken from two-part rubber
in the 1980s was a very fast and furious process. Citadel would publish several codes of miniatures per
moulds. month – sometimes 150+ masters. Even with a team of sculptors that was quite hard to achieve. The
ABOVE: Boxed sets assembly. main codes like fighters, wizards and the like were staples, and we would all end up specialising. I had a
OPPOSITE TOP: Bryan
dabble at most of them. Every now and then a sculptor’s style would “fit” with a specific code – the dark
overseeing the manufacturing
process. elves seemed to do that for me, and I made quite a few.’
 124 125
CITADEL MINIATURES

CITADEL MINIATURES
By 1987 Bob was sculpting some of the earliest Space Marines and was key to the look of the first The Fighting Fantasy figures were not a commercial success and were soon discontinued.
one. ‘Well, I remember that everybody was pleased when I made the first limited edition figure, the Marine Bryan Ansell recalls: ‘I remember them not selling terribly well. We found out a lot of interesting
advancing with the non-bolter weapon. After that the ball started to roll – metal marines then conversions, things by making them though, and the experience led to us selling vast quantities of much smaller plastic
then the plastic marines came along. This was a collaboration sculpting-wise between me, Jes (Goodwin), models for Warhammer. Before our Fighting Fantasy experiment, we made only metal models.’ BELOW: Painted Fighting
Fantasy Barbarian.
Aly (Morrison) and the twins (Alan and Michael Perry). We knew that Rogue Trader was on its way and all Ironically, they are very collectible today due to their scarcity. But one thing is certain – it was the
OPPOSITE: Packaged Fighting
the designers had a chance to input on the design of the game and its world. Enjoyable times.’ Fighting Fantasy range that began the plastic miniatures revolution at Citadel. Fantasy Barbarian.

White metal miniatures were expensive to manufacture because the rubber moulds didn’t last long.
That gave rise to another innovation introduced in 1985 – the plastic ‘slotta’ base into which a metal
miniature was inserted. Without the need for a metal base on a figure, the moulds lasted much longer.
Seeing the benefit of plastic, Bryan wanted to make Citadel Miniatures entirely out of plastic but was

BUILDING THE CITADEL

put off by the prohibitive cost of the metal moulds, which would make the figures too expensive
unless manufactured in large numbers. The problem

B
was solved by a chance meeting at a trade show where
Bryan met John Thornthwaite, an experienced plastic ryan Ansell recalls how Citadel Miniatures was founded and his time at the helm: ‘I first met
model manufacturer. John said he would be able to Ian and Steve when I was running Asgard with my two business partners. At Asgard, we
manufacture plastic figures at an affordable price for had already reached a point where my old business partners were content with what we had
Citadel. Bryan tasked him with producing a range of achieved, what we were earning, but I wanted to go to the next level. They were never going to commit
Fighting Fantasy figures which Steve and I were keen more time and effort or take any risks.
to see put into production. The range was launched ‘At that time, there were very few people doing toy soldiers or games systems in a serious, businesslike
in 1987 and consisted of twenty-seven different way, so it’s not surprising that Steve, Ian and I ended up working together. Shortly after we first met, we
figures divided into Heroes (Wizards, Barbarians, formed Citadel Miniatures as a separate company to Games Workshop.
Knights, Dwarfs, etc.) and generic Monsters ‘Each time that I resigned, it was about control and money for new projects. Steve was
(Skeletons, Goblins, Orcs, Ogres, etc.) which came very cautious, especially where money and expansion were concerned. I always sensed
with interchangeable heads, helmets, weapons that Ian would have taken more risks, but ultimately Steve and Ian had a business
and shields. Unfortunately, the figures were relationship that predated me. To them, Games Workshop was always going to be
disappointing for a number of reasons: more important than Citadel.
1. They bore little resemblance to the monsters ‘When Warhammer was produced by Citadel it changed everything.
and characters in our Fighting Fantasy books. ‘Working with early Citadel/Games Workshop was a very pleasant
2. The mould restraints resulted in the figure way to make a living. The company remained a nice size that allowed
poses being similar. us to get interesting things done without bogging down too much
3. The type of plastic used did not hold paint in bureaucracy or internal conflict. A benign Realm of Chaos even.
particularly well. I had the opportunity to be at the centre of things, witness those
4. Being 54mm scale, they were too large to exciting times of early growth close up, and work with many
use in gaming. stubbornly idiosyncratic, talented and good-hearted people.’
 CITADEL MINIATURES
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126
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 CITADEL MINIATURES
129
128
CITADEL MINIATURES
 CITADEL MINIATURES
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130
CITADEL MINIATURES
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132
CITADEL MINIATURES
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10
WARHAMMER
 B
136 137
GAMING GROUND ZERO

WARHAMMER
ryan believed that Citadel Miniatures should provide customers with a free set
of rules with their mail orders which would enable them to wargame with their
purchases. Being a wargamer himself, Bryan reasoned that skirmish rules would
promote the sale of regiments of fantasy miniatures rather than the sale of individual fantasy figures
which players bought for use with role-playing games. His vision was for a fantasy wargame that would
encourage players to use their entire collections to fight skirmish or mass battle games, and include a role-
playing element for character progression and game-to-game continuity. The game would require the use
of ordinary six-sided dice, because, as Bryan pointed out, they were what young players would already have
in their Monopoly sets. The rules would need to provide statistics for all the miniatures produced by Citadel
at the time, which included many D&D-type monsters that had been designed for role-playing games.
Bryan decided that the name of the game would also need to feature the term ‘role-play’ in the strapline.
Work began on the rules, but as the scope grew, the plan to give them away for free was dropped.
Bryan brought in Richard Halliwell to write the first draft and Rick Priestley to add content and edit it
into shape. ‘Hal’ and Rick were old school friends who had co-authored the fantasy skirmish battle game
Reaper, first published in 1978 by Tabletop Games. Working on Bryan’s initial concept, Hal worked on
the basic mechanics for the game, while Rick designed the spell-casting system and contributed stats and
rules for the bestiary elements. Bryan oversaw and directed the project and also worked on the rules,
giving feedback and making modifications such as incorporating the split move phase.
Rick Priestley recalls how he became involved with Warhammer: ‘Richard Halliwell and I had already
designed a number of wargames, including a set of fantasy battle rules called Reaper published by the
Nottingham Model Soldier Shop in 1978 and subsequently by Tabletop Games in 1981. We first met
Bryan Ansell when we were trying to find a publisher for Reaper. We had hoped that Bryan’s company
Asgard Miniatures would be interested, but instead, Bryan helped us find a publisher via his contacts in
the Nottingham wargames world.
‘Before I joined Citadel, I worked as a freelance model designer with aspirations to make models and
produce games for a living in some fashion. When the mail orders at Citadel got a little behind, Bryan
would phone me up and ask if I’d help out. Gradually, it got so that I was more or less working there full-
time, and Bryan offered me a job. Initially, I was reluctant to accept it because I didn’t want to abandon
my dream of making my own models and games. On the other hand, the money wasn’t bad compared
to what you could earn making models in those days. So, in the end, I took Bryan up on his offer and
became a fully paid-up staffer.
‘The idea of writing a set of fantasy wargames rules was something that was talked about right from
when I arrived at Citadel in 1982. This was conceived as a simple leaflet or flyer that would be given
 138 139
WARHAMMER

WARHAMMER
away with mail orders, with the intention of selling more toy soldiers – and specifically “regiments” of
troops rather than individual models. It was soon realised this would be impractical and the idea never
materialised, although I did put rules, stats and bits of background fiction into the monthly mail-order
flyers after Warhammer was published. Bryan would always emphasise that game rules, dealings with
customers and the whole presentation of Citadel should be “cheerful” and welcoming. I think the open,
cheery and helpful approach which characterised our early efforts made Warhammer so accessible and
owes a great deal to Bryan’s guidance and influence.’
The new game was given a working title of Rune Hammer, which stayed with the project throughout
its development. This was eventually changed to Warhammer so as not to be confused with Chaosium’s
RuneQuest which Games Workshop published in the UK under licence. Commenting on the name
change, Rick Priestley said, ‘I don’t know who came up with the Warhammer name. I recall it was a
conversation round a desk – and to be honest not a great leap of imagination either – and so the game
became Warhammer.’
With the design credited to Bryan Ansell, Richard Halliwell and Rick Priestley, and its iconic ‘Harry
the Hammer’ box cover art by John Blanche and internal art by Tony Ackland, Warhammer was
published with the lengthy sub-heading ‘The Mass Combat Fantasy Role-Playing Game’, copyright
1983 Games Workshop. Its launch was announced in a full-colour advertisement in issue 41 of White
Dwarf in May 1983.

RIGHT: Warhammer internal

art by Tony Ackland.

OPPOSITE: Warhammer
box with cover art by
John Blanche.
 140 141
WARHAMMER

WARHAMMER
WARHAMMER – FIRST EDITION
R
ick Priestley: ‘The first edition was produced in our Millgate office in Newark
– the first Citadel studio – which was in the downstairs front section of
an old pub. The building was owned by Bryan’s friend, Chris Healey, who was
gradually renovating it one part at a time. Having completed the front as “offices”, Chris
was keen to rent it out. The office had a coal fire… the smoke and soot played havoc with
the Rank Xerox. The engineer who came in to service the machine was in awe of the filth
and suggested we have a chimney sweep look at it. Tony and I once managed to set fire to
the chimney… but that’s another story.’

This was at a time when Games Workshop was in need of a marquee title of its own. With the D&D Whilst Warhammer did not have a direct antecedent, it did draw on Bryan’s published wargaming rules,
exclusive distribution rights lost in 1979, board games such as Talisman, Judge Dredd and Apocalypse, Laserburn, and Rick’s fantasy battle rules, Reaper. Reaper in turn drew elements from well-established
and licenced RPGs such as Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest and Traveller had helped Workshop through its historical wargame rules, most notably the Wargames Research Group Ancients rules which Rick and Hal
transition period. But Warhammer was the gamechanger around which our company would ultimately had played together for six years. They evolved their own fantasy versions set in Middle Earth, Robert E
pivot and scale its business to new heights. Howard’s Hyboria and eventually their own world inspired by the crossover fiction of Michael Moorcock
Only 3,000 copies of the first edition were printed and they quickly sold out despite several and Philip José Farmer. Fantasy with a large dollop of science fiction would go on to steer Warhammer
flaws in the rules, which Rick Priestley described as ‘numerous and entertaining’. Reacting quickly towards what would become Warhammer 40,000. It is remarkable just how influential science fiction and
to its success, Bryan instructed Rick and his production team to rewrite and reformat the rules. The fantasy authors were in inspiring games designers. Gary Gygax often talked about how the works of Jack
second edition was to not only improve and expand the rules but also have colour covers on the Vance, in particular The Dying Earth, Robert E Howard, Michael Moorcock, Philip José Farmer, Roger
three rulebooks, cardboard cut-outs for playing the scenario and a bookcase box the same as Games Zelazny and others had inspired and influenced him in designing Chainmail and ultimately D&D.
Workshop games. Steve and I were very supportive of Warhammer from the start because (a) it was a boxed game, (b)
The Rick Priestley-authored second edition featured an introductory scenario – ‘Magnificent Sven’ the intellectual property would be owned by the company, and (c) it would help make up for the loss
– which was conceived by Richard Halliwell. The new box art was again by John Blanche and the book of the D&D licence. However, our Games Workshop production staff in London were less impressed
covers were by Blanche and Tony Ackland. The internal illustrations were by Blanche, Ackland and Dave by the first edition because of the errors in the rules and the production values not being as high as in
Andrews and the cardboard characters were also by John Blanche. The design and layout was by Joanne Workshop products. But over time, Warhammer would evolve and improve thanks to Bryan’s personal
Podoski. Improving gameplay and production values as soon as a product became viable was Bryan’s way support for it and Rick Priestley’s writing skills. And when TSR (UK) closed down Imagine magazine,
of operating which is why we got on well with him. From the early days of Owl & Weasel transforming Jim Bambra, Mike Brunton, Phil Gallagher and Paul Cockburn left to join the design team working on
ABOVE: Warhammer internal ABOVE: Rick Priestley hard at
art by Tony Ackland. into White Dwarf, investing in success became our modus operandi. Warhammer Fantasy Role Play. There was no stopping Warhammer’s continued success now. work on Warhammer.
 142 143
WARHAMMER

WARHAMMER
ABOVE: Art by Tony Ackland. ABOVE: Art by Tony Ackland.
 144 145
WARHAMMER

WARHAMMER
WARHAMMER – SECOND EDITION
R
ick Priestley: ‘I produced updates to the rules which had
appeared in either the Citadel Compendium or Citadel
Journal, or which had been published as a separate erratum
sheet included in the box. The second edition was a tidied-up version of
the first edition. We dispensed with some of the role-playing elements
and concentrated on what had been perceived to be successful.
‘Whenever I wrote Halliwell in the credits for early Warhammer
material I always changed one of the ls in his name to an exclamation
mark. It was a private joke. Hal always complained I used too many
exclamation marks. He was entirely correct.’

Bryan describes his creative contribution to Warhammer: ‘The basic concepts behind the Warhammer
Worlds, the Realm of Chaos, the Orks and the Confrontation world of Necromunda were all mine.
I developed them sufficiently so that other people could fill in the gaps. I came up with enough of the basic
mechanics for the games systems to run on to get them off the ground. All the ideas took me a couple of
years of work to develop to bring them to a state where others could take over.’
Citadel moved to a new site at Eastwood, just outside Nottingham, in July
1984, and the second edition of Warhammer was released not long after.
Next came the supplements and the add-ons before the release of the all-
conquering Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader by Rick Priestley which was
released in 1987. Edited by Jim Bambra and Paul Cockburn, the contributors
to this epic publication were Bryan Ansell, Jim Bambra, Nick Bibby, John
Blanche, Jes Goodwin, Alan Merrett, Aly Morrison, Trish Morrison and Bob
Naismith. The awesome Space Marine cover was painted by John Sibbick
and there were another twenty superb artists used for the internal art and
design. Warhammer 40,000 would become the most important product ever
in the Games Workshop portfolio. It literally was a game changer. Such is the
importance and value of the brand today that Games Workshop retail stores
everywhere are being rebranded as Warhammer stores.
 WARHAMMER
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146
WARHAMMER
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DALLING ROAD
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GAMING GROUND ZERO

DALLING ROAD
usiness meetings at the Breadbin were always a bit of an embarrassment. It was
virtually impossible to sit down due to lack of space. I remember when Bryan
Ansell first visited us, we had to have the meeting in the courtyard. Our tiny
office was bursting at the seams with boxes of games and racks of miniature
figures. Whilst mail orders were good, trade sales were slow because few retailers were prepared to commit
to large orders. One reason they cited was that they thought role-playing games were a fad and they didn’t
want to be left with dead stock in their shops when the fad was over. Another reason given was that
they didn’t have the time to understand RPGs which required specialist knowledge about supplements,
miniature figures, additional rulebooks and playing aids. Frustrated by their lack of commitment, Steve and
I decided that rather than move to a larger office, we should open our own shop to act as a flagship store
for role-playing games. And since our landlords were estate agents, they would be able to find us a shop
with a rent we could afford.

ABOVE: Games Workshop’s

first retail outlet in Dalling
Road, West London.

LEFT: Top to bottom: Ian,

Albie, Steve and Vicki.
 152 153
DALLING ROAD

DALLING ROAD
McDonald, David Coast, John Pope, Jonathan Barrett, Stephen Nigel and Peter Coles. It was a fantastic
day, and everybody who came that day seemed to enjoy themselves and went home happy. Steve and I
were ecstatic.
Thankfully, our shop wasn’t just a five-minute wonder. More and more people travelled from far and wide
to pay us a visit. Trevor was a brilliant salesman even though he hadn’t had any previous retail experience or
formal training. His knowledge of hobby games was second to none, and sales steadily increased. We made
it company policy in future not to hire retail staff who had previously worked for traditional high street
stores unless they were knowledgeable about hobby games. We would try to hire gamers like ourselves
who were passionate about the games they were selling. They had to be able to talk enthusiastically about
the games and teach people how to play them, recommend miniatures to buy, give miniatures-painting
tips and organise game-playing sessions. The policy worked well. Whilst some of our retail staff might
have looked like Visigoths, their knowledge and passion kept the cash tills ringing. Customers loved the
Games Workshop ‘experience’ of being able to talk about their hobby with knowledgeable staff. Whilst
OPPOSITE: Ian, Steve and
Games Workshop Group plc is a much more professional entity than the Games Workshop of our era, staff outside their new shop.

the customer-focused hobby games experience is very much in evidence today. BELOW: Steve and GW staff.

We didn’t need to be on the high street or require passing trade. We were counting on a Games Workshop
retail shop being a destination, one which customers would be prepared to travel to even if it was slightly
inconvenient. The estate agents came up trumps with a shop at 1 Dalling Road in Hammersmith, West
London. It was a two-storey glass-fronted building located just off the high street and near a Tube station.
It was hardly modern, but it was perfect for what we wanted. The ground floor was a decent-enough size
for a shop, and the first floor was big enough to be our office, production studio and stock room rolled into
one. We took possession in March 1978 and got an unexpected bonus when we discovered that there was
a private school nearby with children armed with plenty of pocket money and a love of D&D.
We appointed Trevor Graver as temporary manager of the Dalling Road shop and advertised the
date of the official opening in issue 6 of White Dwarf : the big day was going to be Saturday, 1 April
1978. Even though we’d advertised several opening-day bargains on offer, including six copies of D&D
for 50p each and one copy of Empire of the Petal Throne for £1, we had no real idea what sort of
response the announcement would generate. We were concerned that the opening might turn out to be
a non-event with just a few customers turning up. We needn’t have worried. On that damp, grey April
morning, there was a queue of more than 100 enthusiastic gamers waiting patiently for the shop to open.
Some people had been waiting for many hours. It was a memorable day. I took down the names of the
people at the front of the queue to report on the opening in issue 7 of White Dwarf. They were Oliver
 154 155
DALLING ROAD

DALLING ROAD
ABOVE: Games Workshop’s Dalling Road shop official opening on 1 April 1978.
 156 157
DALLING ROAD

DALLING ROAD
PLAY TOGETHER, STAY TOGETHER
M
ore conventional role-playing sessions took place after work, as Andy Slack remembers:
‘For some reason I was never in Albie Fiore’s D&D game, though I was envious of
those who were; The Halls of Tizun Thane in issue 18 of White Dwarf was a throwaway
scenario he wrote to bring a few new players up to the same level as his regular group, and the troglodyte
caverns at the bottom of it led to the main dungeon in his game world. I was particularly intrigued by
the flooded level one had to navigate using magically propelled surfboards, and the clues scattered about
that could be decoded in multiple different ways depending on what else you knew. I did get to play in
Trevor Graver’s Traveller campaign though, and I look back on that fondly; a heady mixture of official
GDW products, ideas borrowed from the 2000 AD comic, and Trevor’s imagination. Good times.’

We used to run game sessions in the office after work, sometimes hosting journalists who wanted to
learn more about RPGs. Giving journalists a positive view of the hobby was helpful, and not just as a way
to promote our products. In the late 1970s and early 1980s there were people claiming that playing role-
playing games was a gateway to Satanism, later referred to as the ‘Satanic Panic’, and there were occasional
demonstrations against ‘war toys’ outside Dalling Road.
When Trevor opted to go back to doing trade orders in the autumn of 1978, we hired Peter Darvill-
Evans as interim manager of the shop. Peter recalls how it came about: ‘I was in charge of Games
Centre’s fledgling wholesale business and got to know Ian and Steve when they were delivered copies of
Dungeons & Dragons. I already knew Albie Fiore when he was the editor of Games & Puzzles and I was
a member of the panel of game testers and reviewers writing articles for the magazine. But when Albie
left Games Centre to join Games Workshop, I soon followed, effectively headhunted by Ian and Steve,
to manage the Dalling Road shop.’
We soon promoted Peter to be in charge of trade sales and hired Colin Reynolds as shop manager.
Colin remembers how he got the job: ‘I saw an advertisement for a manager for the Dalling Road shop in
White Dwarf 7 in 1978. I applied and was offered the position, but the salary being offered was less than I
was getting where I was (which was in the Harrow Civic Centre, a short walk from home) so I turned it
 158 159
DALLING ROAD

DALLING ROAD
down. A short while later I somehow found out that the position still hadn’t been filled, so I applied again
as I was really, REALLY bored where I was working. At the same time, I’d been for an interview with
British Telecom to work on their new-fangled teletext thingy… I was offered that job and was all set to
take it. But then I was invited to interview again for the Dalling Road position. I thought “what the heck”
and decided to go for it even if Steve and Ian couldn’t afford to increase the pay offer. On the day of my
interview, I was really sick with some dreaded lurgy. I phoned to say that I couldn’t attend and asked if
they could make a decision based on my earlier interview. I didn’t hear anything more until the Saturday
before the Monday on which I was supposed to start my new job at BT. A telegram arrived telling me
I’d got the job and could I start work on Monday. I decided I could. The very first week at my new job,
I managed to destroy the kettle by turning it on without checking if there was any water in it. I felt sure
I was going to get fired!’
On Saturdays, the shop was run by Tim Olsen, who took over as manager in 1979 when Colin
unfortunately had to take a few months off following a series of operations. Steve and I often worked in
the shop on Saturdays. We made it our business to talk to our customers to better understand their likes
and dislikes. It was also fun to listen to them recounting their D&D adventures, which were usually about
their much-loved player-characters perishing at the hands of some hideous monster or falling through a
BELOW LEFT: Colin Reynolds.
trap door and landing in a snake pit. I enjoyed talking about my D&D adventures too, but never in the magic user had had a narrow escape from a Beholder. We nicknamed him Mind Flayer after the D&D
BELOW RIGHT: Saturday staff.
detail that some of our customers did. There was one particular enthusiast whom we had to dodge for monster of the same name. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of every monster, character class and
OPPOSITE: Coverage in the
local press. fear of being trapped for half an hour listening to his minute-by-minute account of how his tenth-level item in the game and probably knew more about D&D than Gary Gygax himself.
However, my most memorable meeting with a customer was not with one looking to buy a copy of
D&D. While we stocked every RPG and supplement known to mankind, we also stocked board games
from Avalon Hill and other companies. On this particular Saturday, I recognised a famous gentleman
who was scanning the board games shelves. Unable to find what he was looking for, he came over to the
counter and politely asked, ‘Can you please tell me where I might find Source of the Nile?’ ‘I thought you
might know where that is,’ I replied, with a poor attempt at humour. The great man graciously smiled. It
was Sir David Attenborough, who had come in to buy the Source of the Nile board game by Discovery
Games. He bought two copies.
Having a retail outlet certainly helped with cash flow. I recall giving a magazine interview with a
journalist who praised our ‘vertically integrated’ business model, i.e. we published our own magazine
(White Dwarf) to promote the sale of our own products (games and miniatures) in our own shops (Games
Workshop stores), generating high-margin revenue upfront to pay our suppliers (print costs, alloy, etc.)
to facilitate cash-positive growth. I couldn’t bring myself to tell him that ‘vertical integration’ was a term
that meant little to me at the time. The truth is we wanted to open our own ‘flagship’ store because of
the reluctance of the retail trade to stock our products in a meaningful way. It was a case of needs must.
 160 161
DALLING ROAD

DALLING ROAD
TOP: The Commodore PET office computer.

MIDDLE: Albie, Steve and Vicki.

BOTTOM: Trevor Graver serving the first

customers on opening day of the Dalling
Road shop.

OPPOSITE TOP: Ian and Steve in the shop.

OPPOSITE BOTTOM: Customers browsing.

TREVOR GRAVER
T
revor Graver remembers how he got the job: ‘I
answered an advert in the classifieds in issue 3 of
White Dwarf. It was October 1977 and I applied
because it looked like a job I would love as I was a keen
wargamer and Dungeons & Dragons dungeon master. There
was an interview, but I think I got the job on the spot. I did the
mail orders, trade orders, White Dwarf subs, and sold stuff in the
Breadbin and Dalling Road.’
 162 163
DALLING ROAD

DALLING ROAD
ALL THE FUN OF THE FAIR
Whilst we advertised our games in White Dwarf, it wasn’t easy to make contact with potential trade
customers. So, we took a small stand at the British Toy & Hobby Fair when it moved to Earls Court in
London in 1979. We took the plunge and paid extra to be on the ground floor to be near all the big toy
and games companies. We had our trade show mascot Humphrey the dragon with us to help attract
customers to the stand. It worked, but it was often a long and fruitless task trying to explain what a
role-playing game was to toy shop owners who were more used to selling Monopoly and draughts. But
we picked up enough new customers to judge the toy fair a success and it became an important trade
show for us.
Even though the space on the ground floor was more expensive than on the first floor, we believed it
was worth paying more to be there. There were several ‘one man band’ companies upstairs manning small
booths, a line of which became known as ‘Death Row’. Their mission was to sell games that they had
self-published, and all spoke with absolute certainty that their game was going to be ‘the next big thing’.
They typically printed 5,000 copies of which 4,900 copies remained unsold in their garages for years. If
we hadn’t had D&D in our line-up, we might have suffered the same fate.
Boosted by our success at the Toy & Hobby Fair with imported and licensed products, coupled with
the increasing volume of trade sales overall, we felt that the time had come to launch our own range of
games, especially since we needed to replace D&D long-term. They were the incentives we needed to set
about commissioning our own range of board games to publish.

TOP LEFT: Steve at work.

TOP RIGHT: Albie Fiore and

Robert Owen. LEFT: Steve and the office cat.
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DALLING ROAD

12
THE BRITISH EMPIRE
STRIKES BACK
FUN IN THE SUN
A
lmost everybody who worked at Games Workshop in the 1970s enjoyed playing games
together, and not just RPGs and board games. Steve and I were baseball fans, having
developed a love of America’s national sport after going to games while we were in the
USA. After bringing back nine softball gloves, two bats and some softballs from the trip, we formed
two teams to play friendly games of softball in London’s Regents Park. I called my team The Rats after
Frank Zappa’s Hot Rats album, while Steve’s team was called The Warriors. Steve even made a set of
player cards using photos of Games Workshop employees and friends.
 S
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GAMING GROUND ZERO

THE BRITISH EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

teve and I worked upstairs at Dalling Road during the week, running trade
sales and publishing. The circulation of White Dwarf was increasing, and by
issue 7 it had more pages and a full-colour cover. I badly needed help with
production. We were fortunate to hire the former editor of Games & Puzzles magazine, Albie Fiore,
who joined us in the summer of 1978. He immediately made a big impact on issue 8 of White Dwarf.

LEFT: Games Workshop’s D&D

Character Sheets illustrated
by Alan Hunter.
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THE BRITISH EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

A jovial and charismatic personality, Albie was a brilliant D&D dungeon master. He was also a very
talented writer, creative designer and graphic artist. Not only did he manage the production of
White Dwarf, he also designed our D&D Character Sheets and Dungeon Floor Plans and produced
all the RPGs we published under licence, including D&D, AD&D, RuneQuest, Traveller and Call
of Cthulhu. He managed the mammoth task of producing the Fiend Folio and, thereafter, the first
four original Games Workshop board games: Apocalypse, Doctor Who, Valley of the Four Winds
and Warlock. Before we produced our own board games, most of the hobby games being played
in the UK in the late seventies came from the USA from companies such as Avalon Hill, TSR, SPI,
Steve Jackson Games (owned by Steve Jackson in the USA and not to be confused with Games
Workshop’s Steve Jackson), Mayfair Games, Fantasy Games Unlimited, Metagaming, Task Force
Games, Eon Products, West End Games, Games Designers’ Workshop, Chaosium and others.
We gained a lot of experience publishing games under licence, which made the decision to publish
our own games that much easier. We decided on an initial launch of four board games. We contacted
designer Mike Hayes about publishing The Warlord, Steve’s favourite game which he’d discovered
whilst at Keele University. We reached agreement with Mike to publish a smaller version of his
classic game and renamed it Apocalypse. The second game was Doctor Who, based on the famous
BBC TV series for which we were able to negotiate a licence to publish. The game was designed by
Derek Carver, who was a friend of mine and owner of a large collection of board games. The third
game was a two-player fantasy wargame called Valley of the Four Winds which was designed by Lew
Pulsipher and based on a range of miniature figures produced by Minifigs in 1978. To help promote
OPPOSITE: D&D Character
the game, we published a specially commissioned Valley of the Four Winds short story which we Sheet designed by Albie Fiore.

HUMPHREY THE DRAGON

T
he annual British Toy & Hobby Fair became the main trade convention
where Games Workshop could market its products to toy shop chains
and large high-street retailers. Humphrey, named after Humphrey
Leadbitter who made our papier-mâché dragon, became the company’s mascot
and always attended the show with us.
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THE BRITISH EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

QUEST FOR THE RED BOX WARLORD
PART 2
by Steve Jackson

A
As Games Workshop prospered, we expanded into publishing our own games. In 1980
we launched a range of four boxed titles, and one of them was Apocalypse, a rework
of the second blue box version of The Warlord. Mike Hayes had changed the game
considerably with the blue box version, introducing sea areas and super missiles. Personally, I always
preferred the pure-and-simple original design to the later versions. Albie Fiore, who was head of games
production, Ian and I had many arguments about which version of Warlord would become Apocalypse.
By now the red box version was long out of print. Foolishly, I had never kept a copy. It just didn’t
seem necessary at the time. After all, I still had my original hand-made version from Keele. But this was a
tragic mistake. I desperately tried to find the game to play with our Games Night group. It was then that
I remembered I had stored my hand-drawn Warlord boards in the loft of a previous house and forgotten
all about them during the move.
I was devastated. I called round all the second-hand dealers I knew. Theo and Paul at Games, Games,
Games ran a Help Wanted advert for me in the magazine. I tried Internet gaming sites and eBay. There discussion, Andy Ashcroft, owner of Second Chance Games, agreed to drop the price to £125 and we
were a few false alarms – people selling ‘Warlord’ games which weren’t the Mike Hayes one; or people shook hands.
offering the blue box version. I even phoned Mike himself. He searched the house but couldn’t put When Ian learned of my purchase, he was crestfallen. He already owned a copy of red box Warlord,
together a complete set from his remaining components. I was coming to the conclusion that this was a which he’d had the foresight to take from Games Workshop stock many years ago. No longer would he
hopeless pursuit. Until Spiel ’99 in Essen. be able to gloat about owning the only copy between us of my favourite game! But sadly, my good fortune
The Essen Game Fair is the largest board games show in the world. Spread over several vast halls, a had also ruined a nice little surprise he had been planning for me. Unknown to me, Ian had bought a
large area is set aside for second-hand games dealers. Ian and I regularly made the trip to Essen to buy red box Warlord from another dealer six months earlier which he was going to give me for my fiftieth
new German games for the Games Night group, and to indulge a little games nostalgia amongst the birthday. It would have been an amazing present.
second-hand stalls. It was Thursday, 21 October and I was browsing the used game stalls, ever hopeful of But at long last my quest was over. I had found my copy of the original red box Warlord. At £125, it
coming across that big red box… wasn’t cheap. But then this game holds so many personal gaming memories that I have to consider it a
Suddenly I stopped in my tracks. A UK games trader, Second Chance Games, had shelves packed with bargain. And, I hope, it gave Second Chance Games a tidy profit. So how much would I have paid for it?
obscure titles, many of which I remembered fondly from the Games Workshop days. But perched high Sorry, that’ll always remain a secret…
on a shelf in the corner was a large red box. The Warlord! There it was! As a postscript to this story, I must just relate one of Andy Ashcroft’s comments during the price
Trying to keep cool, I took the game down off the shelf. I anticipated a price of around 250–300 DM negotiations which made me chuckle. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I can’t go any lower than £125. This is a very rare
(£75–100). The price tag read 450 DM (around £150). I opened up the box. The contents were in pretty game. I’ve already been offered £115 by another dealer. And I’ve heard that Steve Jackson is looking for
good condition, but one set of counters was missing. Room for a little bargaining, perhaps? After some this game…’
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THE BRITISH EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

serialised in issues 8 to 12 of White Dwarf. The fourth title was a 2–6 Steve and I were proud of the fact that we had launched our own board games to compete with the
player arena spell battle card game called Warlock which was designed American imports. We advertised the range under the tongue-in-cheek banner headline ‘The British
by Bob Connor. The cards were illustrated by Russ Nicholson, whom we Empire Strikes Back’, a reference to the recently released second film in the original Star Wars trilogy.
made our first-choice artist for the internal illustrations of The Warlock of But the adverts in White Dwarf attracted the attention of another empire who took the matter a bit
Firetop Mountain. Russ’s line drawings in our book were incredibly detailed more seriously. Out of the blue, we received a cease-and-desist letter from legal representatives acting
and atmospheric, and set the standard for the Fighting Fantasy series for on behalf of Lucasfilm. What we thought was a bit of innocent fun had not amused the company’s
years to come. intellectual property guardians. However, by the time we received the letter, the advert had been running
for six months, and it was time for a change anyway. Not wishing to take on the lawyers of a US
corporation with deep pockets, we simply stopped printing the advert. We did think their approach was
a bit harsh, especially since we were instrumental in launching the career path of Iain McCaig who, after
his commissions at Workshop and Fighting Fantasy gamebook covers, went on to work for George Lucas
and created Darth Maul for The Phantom Menace. I like to think that Zanbar Bone, the main adversary in
City of Thieves so brilliantly painted by Iain for the Puffin Books cover, and Darth Maul are distant cousins.
BELOW: ‘The British Empire
While our plan was to increase the number of our Strikes Back’ advertisement.

own games, we still wanted to continue publishing

games under licence. But only the best games.
For example, we came to an agreement with Eon
Products in the USA to publish three of their most
popular games under licence: Cosmic Encounter,
Kings & Things, and Quirks.
Encouraged by having sold 5,000 copies of each
of the first four board games, we gave Albie the
green light to increase the range over the coming
years. These included Talisman, Warrior Knights,
Judge Dredd, Battlecars, Railway Rivals, Blood
Royale and The Warlock of Firetop Mountain.
Albie was absolutely key to making the Games
Workshop range of games a success, but not
wishing to move to Nottingham when Games
Workshop relocated its operations under the
management of Bryan Ansell in 1986, he left
the company to become a freelance games
and puzzles designer. Sadly, he passed away
in 2009 following a long illness.
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THE BRITISH EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

JUDGE DREDD BATTLECARS
The Judge Dredd board game was published by Games Workshop in 1982. Not only was it was a great After Judge Dredd, I designed Battlecars (published in 1983) with the help of our in-house artist and
licence to secure, I was also a huge Judge Dredd fan which is probably why I wanted to design the designer Gary Chalk, who recalls how he got the job at Workshop: ‘It was pretty rare in those days to be
board game in the first place. Having in-depth knowledge of Mega-City One and the world of Dredd an illustrator who knew something about games and role-playing. Games Workshop was really the only
inspired me to develop an authentic game which I hoped would appeal to Dredd fans. I concentrated on company in Britain which was producing and supplying the ever-growing army of fans with fantasy stuff.
capturing the characters and craziness of Mega-City One in an easy-to-play crime-fighting game where Hell, I’d bought my copy of Dungeons & Dragons and my peculiar dice in their very own shop! So, in a
you could even arrest Judge Death for littering.. It was an absolute pleasure to work with Brian Bolland spirit of “What have I got to lose?” I approached them for a job and, somewhat to my surprise, I got an
and Ian Gibson on the design of the board and the box as they were arguably the two most famous artists interview. “Why should we give you a job?” Ian Livingstone asked, and I said, “Because it would mean
working on the Judge Dredd strip in the weekly 2000 AD comic. that I wouldn’t end up working for one of your competitors, and you’d be able to use all my ideas.” After
some more chasing around the bushes, it was agreed that I would be taken on for a modest rate of pay
“on probation”. If I was productive and kept my nose clean, he would give me a proper contract and a
decent rate of pay. I accepted the offer. I started work on Ian Livingstone’s Battlecars game, helping with
the design and doing all the component art.’
Having great art on the covers of board game boxes and White Dwarf was always a priority for us,
and we went to great lengths to find talented UK fantasy artists. We commissioned some of the best in
Chris Baker (Fangorn), Chris Beaumont, Alan Hunter, Russ Nicholson, Iain McCaig, Les Edwards, Chris
Achilleos, Brian Bolland and John Blanche. But for Battlecars, I turned to renowned science fiction artist
Jim Burns to paint the box cover. Nobody paints vehicles like Jim. His work is incredible. It is beyond
belief how he paints chrome.

TALISMAN
Except for perhaps Blood Bowl, Talisman is probably the most well-known and popular of all Games
Workshop’s board games. The first edition, published in 1983, was designed by Bob Harris. It is still in
print today, although now under licence since Workshop stopped producing non-Warhammer themed
games in 2007, having continuously published Talisman in various editions for nearly twenty-five years.
In his teens, Bob created a board game set in his school, Morgan Academy in Dundee. Players started
off as ordinary teachers and had to work their way up to become Head of Department by collecting
prestige points. The ultimate aim of the game was to become Rector, or Head Teacher, of the school.
Bob recounts the background as to how his game came to be published: ‘The game was called Rectocracy
and was a huge hit among my friends at school although there was, of course, only one set which I made
by hand. The board consisted of an outer track of squares representing classrooms, and inside this there
was a smaller set of squares representing the rooms of the Heads of Department. In the centre was
the office of the Rector himself. The characters were all named after individual teachers and each had a
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THE BRITISH EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

His next step was to play the game with other people. ‘They took to it with wild enthusiasm, and we
played several times a week, with me constantly refining and fine-tuning the rules. After a year people
began to suggest that I try to get Necromancer published. I had only created it for my own entertainment,
but this did seem like a good idea.’
Leafing through a magazine, Bob spotted an advert for Games Workshop, which featured our first
four board games. ‘These looked like the blokes to target,’ Bob recalls thinking to himself. ‘Of course,
I could not send them a tatty-looking thing all done in pencil, so I set to work making as professional a
version as my modest artistic talents could achieve. I drew up a large full-colour board and illustrated all
the cards and playing pieces using felt pens. Finally, I laboriously typed up the rules on a typewriter.’
Having spent hours preparing his prototype, Bob packaged it up and mailed it to Games Workshop.
‘Within a couple of weeks, I received an enthusiastic reply saying they wanted to publish it and invited
me down to London to make a deal. Off I went to the big city, sought out the warehouse where these
chaps were lurking, and was rewarded with a cup of coffee and a biscuit. I had a good chat with Ian
Livingstone and Steve Jackson, and we played a few turns of Necromancer. I told them that I had
designed the game in such a way that new characters, cards and other elements could be added. This
special ability. The Geography teacher, who took us cross-country running, added 1 to his die roll because ambitious remark was greeted with some indulgent laughter.’
he could run so fast. The PE teacher in charge of our cadet force had a small squad of cadets he could
send ahead of him to protect him from various booby traps set in the rooms.’
Fast forward to the early 1980s. During his time as a postgraduate student at St Andrews University,
Bob’s American girlfriend (later his wife) suggested that a group of like-minded friends combine their
meagre funds to buy a copy of Dungeons & Dragons. ‘It sounded like a weird game with no board or
cards, just bits of paper to draw maps on,’ Bob recalls. ‘The first time we played it, however, we were all
instantly hooked. We played it with virtually no sleep for three days.’
From that point on the group would regularly play D&D, but naturally that meant that someone had
to put in time and effort designing and running each scenario. ‘It occurred to me what fun it would be if
there was a board game where you could just open the box and start playing. A board game which would
provide all the enjoyment of a fantasy RPG. Finally, it occurred to me to use Rectocracy as the basis for
ABOVE: The Talisman such a game.’
prototype, hand-drawn
Bob drew up the board, created some characters and made cards, all of this in pencil so he could
by Bob Harris.

OPPOSITE: Playtesting
change it as his ideas developed. Once he was happy that the movement system he had borrowed from
Necromancer, the game Rectocracy worked, and that the initial stage of the game ran smoothly, Bob added the two inner regions
that would be released as
Talisman, with (from left to and the centre which was now the Necromancer’s Isle. He called the completed game Necromancer, as
right) Bob McWilliams, Bob
the aim was to reach the Necromancer’s Isle and become ruler of the land by using a death spell to wipe
Harris (the designer), Albie
Fiore and Ian Livingstone. out the other players.
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THE BRITISH EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

After playing it, I was so impressed with the game that been working on it for about a week, I started getting visits from Ian and/or Steve asking me how long
we had a publishing agreement drawn up which Bob was it would take to complete. In order to speed up production, I had to draw the cards for the game as
very happy to sign. He seemed thrilled that his game was fast as humanly possible. I think I ended up doing the artwork at the rate of two or three pieces a day.
going to be published. He left his prototype with us, and Some of them never even had a preliminary rough.’
we gave our production team the fun job of turning ‘I travelled down to London on the eve of Games Day and stayed overnight with friends in Islington,’
his basic paper prototype into a glossy boxed Games Bob Harris recalls. ‘We went out to a pub where all the prices were in pre-decimal currency and I drank
Workshop game with atmospheric fantasy artwork and far too much. Consequently, I was somewhat hungover on the great day. This did not, however, mute
quality components. my delight at being handed my first copy of Talisman, and very grand it looked. I spent the day running
I thought that Necromancer was too dark a title for demo games and later eating out with my pals.’
its target market and changed it to Talisman, adding the Despite receiving a disappointing 6 out of 10 score by non-staff reviewer Allan E. Paull in issue
strapline ‘The Magical Quest Game’ as a nod to our first 52 of White Dwarf – and I like to think it was editorial integrity on my part for not pushing back on
Fighting Fantasy gamebook The Warlock of Firetop Mountain his score given I really liked the game myself – Talisman sold like the proverbial hot cake. The first
which began life with the working title Magic Quest. print run quickly sold out and there was an urgency to publish a new and improved second edition.
Gary Chalk was our in-house artist who, after The cards in the first edition were printed in black and white, but we decided that we would invest
playtesting the game, was given the job to illustrate the in making them full colour in the second edition. This edition is still much loved by its fans today
box, board and cards. It was a huge task. He recalls: and has become a collector’s item.
‘Bob’s hand-drawn board showed a bird’s-eye view Bob recalls the success of the second edition: ‘This encouraged me to create the Talisman
of each area rather like a simple map. I came up with the idea of turning the scene in each Expansion Set with a bunch of new characters and adventure cards. This sold well too and prompted
square on its side, so the players could see more detail, and running them together to make a continual Games Workshop to ask me to do another expansion. Perhaps, they suggested, I might design another
landscape. This gave the game much more flavour but made for a tricky piece of artwork. After I’d board to expand the playing area. This led me to create the Talisman Dungeon, the very first add-on.
In subsequent years, of course, the fact that the game could be expanded with multiple additions has
been one of the features of its global success.’
Talisman soon became our flagship board game and helped build the company’s expansion into
new markets. Bob concludes: ‘I still remember the thrill of receiving my copies of the French and
German editions. I certainly picked the right company to publish my game. I am delighted to have
produced a classic game that continues to bring pleasure to hundreds of thousands of people all over
the world.’
Gary Chalk comments on the choices he made: ‘In spite of Talisman going on to be Workshop’s
best-selling board game, I never did get that full-time job contract out of Ian and Steve. Instead, they
offered me a 1% royalty to illustrate their Fighting Fantasy books – an interesting offer! But Joe Dever,
ABOVE: Talisman with box
cover by Gary Chalk. who ran the mail order department at Games Workshop, persuaded me I’d be better off working

RIGHT: The first edition of with him on the Lone Wolf books he was writing in his spare time. So, we both left Workshop. Off
Talisman in the Games
we went, out on our own as freelancers once more. I often wonder what would have happened if I’d
Workshop warehouse in
Sunbeam Road. taken up the Fighting Fantasy offer.’
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THE BRITISH EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

RAILWAY RIVALS THE WARLOCK OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN
Railway Rivals was one of the first of the popular railway games. It was designed by David Watts In 1986, Games Workshop published Steve’s board game based on The Warlock of Firetop
whose own company Rostherne Games had previously published an amateur version of the game in Mountain Fighting Fantasy gamebook written by Steve and me in 1982. ‘The Warlock of Firetop
1973. Games Workshop published its boxed version in 1985. The board was laminated so that players Mountain was a board game design I had come up with some time before,’ says Steve. ‘The
BELOW: Games Workshop’s
could mark out their nineteenth-century rail networks with wax crayons and then erase them before Games Workshop production team did a really excellent production job. It was published in
games based on licenced
characters. the next game. French and German as well as English and sold well.’
Like the original book cover itself, the box art featured a superb painting of Zagor
the Warlock by Peter Andrew Jones, only this was a new painting of the Warlock which
replaced the original cover in later editions of the book. The interior illustrations and the
board were designed by Dave Andrews. The game was loosely inspired by Cluedo. In the
design, Steve made use of the three attributes used in almost all Fighting Fantasy gamebooks:
SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK. In the game, the players adventured through the tunnels beneath Firetop
Mountain, battling creatures and collecting treasures, with the winner being the first to reach the end of
the dungeon and open the Warlock’s treasure chest. The Maze of Zagor section still foxes a lot of people,
as it does in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain gamebook. The box set included six plastic playing pieces
which were used to represent the players in the game – a wizard, a fighter, a priest, a dwarf, an elven archer
and a barbarian – which have become collectable in themselves.

WARRIOR KNIGHTS
I met Derek Carver in the late 1970s and often joined him and his friends for board game evenings at
his home. Derek designed many board games, three of which I signed up for publication by Games
Workshop – Doctor Who, Warrior Knights and Blood Royale. Doctor Who was one of our first four
board games released in 1980. But the game I enjoyed the most of Derek’s creations was Warrior
Knights. It was a strategic game of conquering armies with an intriguing mix of combat, diplomacy and
economics. It also had an innovative mechanic whereby even though they might be at war with each
other, players would meet at the Assembly to vote on various motions drawn from a deck of cards. The
game did not sell as well as we had hoped, but to my mind it was a great game.

BLOOD BOWL
A steady flow of original Games Workshop board games came out even after the relocation to the new
head office in Nottingham to be under one roof with Citadel Miniatures. Released in 1986, Blood Bowl
was a fantastical parody of American football designed by long-serving staffer Jervis Johnson. It was set
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THE BRITISH EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

in a quasi-parallel universe to Warhammer and featured teams of elves, goblins, orcs and human warriors demonstrated Calamity! to us at his flat in Victoria, playing against Richard Stilgoe. The two of them
realised in the form of detailed Citadel Miniatures. Following his move to Nottingham, Marc Gascoigne hammed up the game as they played. It was an entertaining spectacle to watch but we felt the game itself
was appointed games editor and tasked with finding prototype game designs for possible publication. needed more design work.’
In his own words: ‘One of the most promising was suggested by a tall, smiley chap who worked in Despite our misgivings, we were won over by the promise of national publicity and a potential
the sales department. Channel 4 in the UK had started showing American football matches on TV on Christmas hit. I brought in Derek Carver, designer of our Doctor Who game, to work on the game
Sunday afternoons, and many of us were very taken with the game. In its first version, Jervis Johnson’s design. But he changed it a lot more than Andrew Lloyd Webber liked. We set up a review panel and
now-classic fantasy football game was rough and clunky, but it quickly became a favourite. I served as the everyone agreed Derek’s version was the better of the two, but understandably, Andrew lost interest since
game’s project developer, bringing Jerv’s fabulous game to publication, mostly by adding the jokey “Did he felt it wasn’t his game anymore.
You Know?” facts and taking out three-quarters of his commas.’ When Calamity! came out, there was little publicity due to Andrew’s lack of enthusiasm for the game.
He agreed to appear on a breakfast TV show to talk about the game but spent most of the time talking
about his latest musical. As such, the game never attracted the publicity it needed to grab the public’s BELOW: Steve Jackson,

DUNGEONQUEST attention, and we couldn’t afford to advertise it on TV. Consequently, we were unsuccessful in selling it to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ian
Livingstone playing Calamity!
1987 saw the release of DungeonQuest, a dungeon exploration game we published under licence from general retail, and it was unlikely to sell well in our Games Workshop stores. in 1983.

Swedish publisher Alga. It was designed by Dan Glimne and Jakob Bonds and the box featured another
fantastic piece of art by Peter Andrew Jones. Although sales were good, it was never considered a classic.

FURY OF DRACULA
1987 also saw the release of Fury of Dracula, a critically acclaimed board game designed by Stephen
Hand who worked at Games Workshop. It was seen by many as the best board game Games Workshop
ever published, even better than Blood Bowl, Talisman and Space Hulk. That is a matter of opinion, but
without doubt, Fury of Dracula was – and still is – a great game thanks to its unique and original gameplay.
Games Workshop published some excellent board games which were very popular with hobby gamers.
However, not all our games were a success. We tried on two occasions to publish titles that we thought
would have more mass-market appeal. And we failed on both occasions.

CALAMITY!
Whilst most Games Workshop games were based on fantasy or science fiction themes, we published
some that were outside of our usual genres. One was entitled Calamity!, a game about insurance designed
by music impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber, now Lord Webber.
Steve remembers how the opportunity came about: ‘Andrew Lloyd Webber had come up with a game
based on insurance. It turned out he was a big board game fan. His business manager got in touch with us
after seeing an article about Games Workshop in one of the national newspapers. Andrew Lloyd Webber
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THE BRITISH EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

THE BRITISH EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

Steve recalls the disappointing sales: ‘Perhaps Andrew was more upset about the redesign than we WAR IN THE FALKLANDS
realised. The game sold poorly. We were covered financially by sponsorship from an insurance company, Whilst we always welcomed publicity, there was one instance when it caused us considerable anxiety and
but it taught us a lesson. Stick to what you are good at.’ grief. It concerned a game which we didn’t actually import, publish under licence or sell – but a lot of
people believed we did.
Workshop was the UK distributor for US publisher Mayfair Games who published its War in the
TOWERBLOX Falklands board game in 1982, not long after the actual war had ended. As far as we were concerned, it
As far as Games Workshop collectors are concerned, one of the hardest games to find is Towerblox. Only was far too soon to simulate the events of that terrible conflict in a board game. It would have been totally
a few hundred copies were ever produced. Promoted with the tagline ‘The Suspense Building Game’, we inappropriate and insensitive to do so. Unfortunately, we were accused of doing just that.
launched it at the 1982 British Toy & Hobby Fair at Earls Court. However, our retail customers were less Steve explains how it happened: ‘We were the agents for Mayfair Games, who sent us a sample copy of
than impressed and we ended up licensing the game to another games company, who relaunched it as the game. I had a conversation with Mayfair about the sensitive issue of the Falklands War and they agreed
Pisa. It, too, failed. Ironically, a similar game entitled Jenga launched at the 1983 British Toy & Hobby Fair. that the game should be treated as a special case and we would not be required to import copies as per
Jenga also failed to catch on at first and was subsequently licensed to toy giant Hasbro, who launched it in our distribution agreement. But that didn’t stop Games Centre from finding another source for War in the
the USA in 1987 with a huge marketing campaign. It went on to become one of the bestselling games of Falklands and importing copies of the game directly. Hearing about this, a journalist from a Sunday newspaper
all time with sales of over 80 million copies. We still wonder what might have been if only we’d shown it decided to run a story. But the story was not about Games Centre – it was about Games Workshop.
to the right licensing agent at the time. ‘The truth is they were rogue imports. Games Workshop’s sample copy was in our trade sales manager’s
office. It was the only copy we had. The journalist called me up with an offer to feature Games Workshop
in the paper. She arrived at my house and, on the face of it, it looked like she was going to give Workshop
some excellent publicity. She brought up the subject of War in the Falklands, but I told her that although
we were Mayfair’s agents, we had not imported any copies of the game.
‘I was flabbergasted to see the upsetting front-page feature in the following Sunday’s paper which
claimed that “the game is being distributed in Britain by the London firm Games Workshop” when the
only copies for sale in the UK were grey imports. They had nothing to do with us. Next morning, I called
our solicitors. The advice was to leave it be and ride out the storm. We were told that suing the paper would
cost more than we would be awarded – even if we won – and that we were more likely to lose and go bust
in the process. Best to sit tight. So, we did.’
The next few weeks were quite worrying at times. People were understandably upset and angry after
reading the article. They believed that Games Workshop was distributing a war game which represented HMS
Sheffield, the first ship to sink in the war, as a mere cardboard counter. We received several threatening phone
calls, including one from an angry ex-commando who told us he was going to firebomb our warehouse.
Production artist Liz Lindars recalls the incident: ‘There was a big press backlash about this and whoever
was answering the phones at Sunbeam Road at the time got several abusive calls from the public saying we

RIGHT: Clive Bailey, Ian Bailey, were traitors for cashing in on the war even though we weren’t the actual publishers of the game!’
Bob Malin, Maurice Fieldhouse
The truth is that we hadn’t imported any copies of the game and never did. But there was very little we
and Peter Darvill-Evans
demonstrating Towerblox. could do to change public opinion. As they say, if it’s in the papers, it must be true.
 186
THE BRITISH EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

13
INDEPENDENCE DAY

ABOVE: Games Workshop at

the British Toy & Hobby Fair.
 W
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GAMING GROUND ZERO

INDEPENDENCE DAY
ithout doubt, 1979 was a critical year for Games Workshop. Dragonmeet
2 was set for 25 August at Chelsea Town Hall, and Games Day 5 was
set for 20 October at a larger venue, the Royal Horticultural Hall in
London. More and more shops around the country were selling D&D
and other games we were distributing. Always looking for new outlets, we even tried our hand at pop-up
shops at five branches of Topshop in December although that turned out to be a bad decision. For some
reason, their customers were not interested in D&D!
But the most important thing about 1979 was that it was the year our three-year exclusive distribution
agreement with TSR to publish and distribute D&D and AD&D in Europe would end. Technically our
agreement had expired in 1978 but TSR had let it run on into 1979. The AD&D Dungeon Master’s
Guide (DM’s Guide) was about to come out and we wanted to launch it in the UK at Dragonmeet 2. We’d
had several conversations with Gary Gygax about renewing the distribution agreement, but we weren’t
getting very far. Gary had other ideas. He sent his business consultant, Al Saunders, to London with a
proposition. Saunders told us that Gary acknowledged we had done a very good job as distributors for
TSR and he looked forward to a long-lasting relationship. And for Gary the best way for that to happen
was for our two companies to merge.
A merger proposal was the last thing we were expecting. We had been hoping that Saunders was in
town to negotiate new terms on behalf of TSR to renew our distribution agreement. He calmly talked BELOW: Gary Gygax in the UK.

about how the merged entity would operate and offered us a third of the equity in the new company. We
were in shock and told him we would have to think about it. He couldn’t believe we didn’t jump at the
offer right there and then and told us in the nicest possible way that he thought we would be foolish to
turn down the offer. We would lose our exclusive distribution agreement and TSR would have no choice
but to set up TSR UK. Whilst this put us in a bit of a quandary, what he didn’t understand was that we
were independently minded young Brits who were working round the clock to build our own business.
The last thing we had in mind was to sell Games Workshop, and we didn’t relish a life split between
London and Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. We called Gary that evening to see if there was an alternative
solution. There wasn’t. He told us that he wanted us on the board of directors of the TSR/Games
Workshop merged company since we were like-minded people with complementary skills and together
we would be unstoppable. We were flattered, and it was tempting, but we declined the offer. We told
Saunders the next day. He couldn’t believe it and told us we were mad before flying back to the USA
to report back. On the plus side, we’d bought a bit of time and TSR begrudgingly shipped the DM’s
Guide to us in time for Dragonmeet 2. It sold faster than the proverbial hot cake. Our stand was
besieged by customers, and I remember our staff saying that it felt like they were being beaten to death
with £10 notes.
 190 191
INDEPENDENCE DAY

INDEPENDENCE DAY
Still not convinced that we meant what we said, Gary Gygax flew to London in November to try one
last time to persuade us that the merger proposal would be the best outcome for our companies. But there
was no changing our minds. Whilst our future business relationship with TSR would become strained
because of the merger fallout, we were still good friends with Gary and went out for dinner with him that
night. I also took the opportunity to get him to sign my copies of the AD&D rulebooks. The next day
he visited us at Dalling Road to see how we were getting on with producing the AD&D Fiend Folio, the
compendium of AD&D monsters taken mostly from the Fiend Factory columns in White Dwarf. He was
delighted by the design work Albie had done on the production, particularly the art style.
The Fiend Folio project had come about following a conversation I’d had with Gary earlier in the year
about Workshop producing a sequel compendium to the hugely popular Monster Manual. After a deal
was agreed and a contract signed, I commissioned Don Turnbull to compile and edit the Fiend Folio
since he was already editing the Fiend Factory column. I’d introduced Don to D&D, and he became
an avid player and popular dungeonmaster, so much so that he even stopped playing Diplomacy. His FIEND FOLIO
epic ‘Greenlands’ dungeon achieved legendary status in his D&D circles. Don had a passion for maths TSR published the AD&D Fiend Folio in August 1981. It was an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

ABOVE: The parting of ways. and stats and had earlier designed the ‘Monstermark’ system, a complex formula for assessing monster bestiary primarily made up of monsters that had first been published in White Dwarf in the Fiend
From left to right: Gary Gygax,
combat strength in D&D which I published in the first issue of White Dwarf. I hoped it would impress Factory column edited by Albie Fiore and, later, Don Turnbull. The Fiend Folio was a personal project
Don Turnbull, Ian Livingstone
and Steve Jackson. our readers but I suspect nobody ever used it. for me since the original idea for it had been mine. I’d started the Fiend Factory column in White Dwarf
 192 193
INDEPENDENCE DAY

INDEPENDENCE DAY
and contributed many monsters to it. Witnessing the success of the AD&D Monster Manual, it seemed us and also to coincide the release with the opening of their UK office.
to me to make good commercial sense to publish a sequel. I called Gary Gygax who agreed it was a When I finally received a pre-release copy of the Fiend Folio, my excitement quickly turned to
good idea and a deal was done. Albie was put in charge of production, working with brilliant White Dwarf disappointment. In his foreword, Don wrote how the Fiend Folio came into being, saying, ‘Some
artists like Russ Nicholson, Chris Baker, Alan Hunter and others to illustrate every monster in the Fiend time ago, the editor of a UK magazine asked readers to submit their monster creations to a regular
Folio that was created in the UK. I commissioned Emmanuel to paint the famous Githyanki cover and feature which became known as the Fiend Factory.’ I was pretty annoyed that Don and/or TSR had
I’m still the proud owner of the original painting. Don Turnbull, as editor of the Fiend Folio, worked whitewashed us out of the credits. Not only was my name left out but there was also no mention of
with TSR in commissioning American artists for monsters created in the USA. Fifteen of my monsters White Dwarf or Games Workshop. When I called him to ask why not, Don awkwardly implied that it
featured in the Fiend Folio, including the notorious Hook Horror. Its name was only supposed to be had not been his decision. It was obvious that Don was uncomfortable with the whole episode. We’d
a temporary descriptive placeholder until I could think of something better. Only I never did, and the been friends for years, and I’d contacted him about the Fiend Folio editor role in the first place which
Hook Horror became firmly embedded in D&D lore and went on to become a collectible toy. in turn led to him getting the job as TSR (UK) managing director. But clearly the failed merger still
Not long after Gary returned to the USA, we received notice of termination of our TSR distribution rankled with the TSR hierarchy in the USA. We thought it was petty and unprofessional of them not
agreement from Brian Blume, Gary’s fellow director. In turning down the merger proposal we were to acknowledge our very significant contribution to the Fiend Folio. At least we had the satisfaction of
now on our own, and would go from being the exclusive European distributor of D&D to the non- TSR being contractually obliged to pay royalties on the sales of the Fiend Folio to Workshop, the sums
exclusive distributor. Fortunately for us, not a lot changed in the short term since we were still the of which were not were not insignificant. The royalties were a very nice bonus to Workshop’s revenues,
biggest distributor of TSR products in the UK and continued to be the exclusive UK distributor and we cheered every time a cheque arrived in the post from TSR. BELOW: The Githyanki
painting by Emmanuel,
of a wide range of US games and role-playing game supplements such as Judges Guild, publishers To help promote TSR (UK), Don launched Imagine magazine in April 1983 with Paul Cockburn
commissioned by Ian for
of the bestselling City State of the Invincible Overlord module which TSR gave permission to be as its editor. Having witnessed first-hand the success of White Dwarf, he decided to compete against the cover of the Fiend Folio.

sold as ‘approved for use with Dungeons & Dragons’. We continued to supply all the UK game and
hobby shops since retailers wanted the convenience of buying D&D, US imports, Citadel Miniatures,
Games Workshop games and White Dwarf from one supplier. So, despite losing exclusivity to D&D
distribution, it was business as usual for Workshop.
But we knew it was only going to be
a matter of time before TSR opened
a UK office and went direct to retail
themselves. Having introduced Gary to
Don Turnbull, it came as no surprise
that when TSR (UK) Ltd opened its
doors in Cambridge, Don was at the
helm. He got on well with Gary and
he’d done a great job editing the Fiend
Folio. It was actually ready to go to the
printers by the end of 1979, but TSR
delayed its publication until 1981 due
RIGHT: Ian with the Fiend Folio
cover painting by Emmanuel. to ongoing contractual wrangling with
 194 195
INDEPENDENCE DAY

INDEPENDENCE DAY
our magazine with what he referred to as ‘the UK AD&D magazine’. I wasn’t overly concerned as was a tragic turn of events since Williams had little interest in games. Devastated by the turn of events, Gary
White Dwarf by now had a large and growing circulation and the content was really good. Was there sold his remaining shares in TSR and went on to form a new company, New Infinities Productions, Inc,
enough room in the UK RPG market for two glossy magazines? Only time would tell. which Don Turnbull joined as CEO in 1987. Unfortunately it was not a success and was dissolved in 1989.
We kept in touch with Gary who remained a friend. Nevertheless, we were quite surprised when he Meanwhile, Games Workshop continued to expand and thrive, but TSR never regained its former market-
offered us a licensing opportunity. TSR wanted Citadel Miniatures to produce boxed sets of D&D and leading position. With crippling debts caused by overstocks of Dragon Dice and Endless Quest books,
AD&D miniatures. This caused us a dilemma. By then, our most important product was Warhammer, so Williams had no option but to sell the company to Wizards of the Coast in 1997.
why would we want to support D&D? But on the basis that we were still distributing D&D, the pros just
about outweighed the cons. The D&D miniatures were launched in 1985, much to the delight of Gary, who
wrote, ‘Citadel has brought life-like realism and monstrous magic to us all with its exceptionally fine series
of Dungeons & Dragons miniatures.’ But this was the last deal we ever did with Gary. Our relationship
with TSR quickly deteriorated after Gary was effectively ousted from the company later in 1985.
All was not well at TSR, and its domestic problems led in part to the early demise of Imagine in October
1985 after thirty-one issues. I wrote about this in the editorial of issue 70 of White Dwarf. Nobody likes to
see a games magazine fold, not even a competitor, but I wasn’t going to lose sleep over it after the Fiend
Folio affair. It was a wake-up call though, and we couldn’t afford to be complacent. I’d been editor of
White Dwarf since the Cow Gum days of 1977 and had always seen it as my ‘baby’. But with the demands
of managing Games Workshop coupled with the increasing demand for Fighting Fantasy books, I could no
longer give it the focus it deserved. The time was right for change.
I announced in issue 74 in February 1986 that Ian Marsh would become the editor, and I would take the
role of editor-in-chief. However, Ian’s time as editor only lasted three issues. Editorially he did a good job even
though he did not like the new direction he was being told to take White Dwarf, which was to focus the content
on Games Workshop and Citadel products. When we announced that we would be moving the production
of White Dwarf and all Games Workshop operations to Nottingham, he decided to leave. His parting shot,
however, was missed by everybody until it was too late. He snubbed Bryan Ansell in a coded message on
the contents page in issue 77 of White Dwarf in May 1986. It was his way of protesting against the change
of direction of the magazine, and the changes that were happening at Games Workshop. He was replaced
by former Imagine magazine editor Paul Cockburn, who was hired as editor from issue 78. With production
moving to Nottingham, I announced in issue 80 that it was to be my last issue as editor-in-chief.
Whilst the handovers at White Dwarf and Games Workshop went relatively smoothly, it was a time of
turmoil at TSR. Don Turnbull was instructed to close the doors of TSR (UK) Ltd due to the financial
problems of its parent company TSR, Inc. which had begun in 1983. And following Gary Gygax’s bust-up
over finances with the Blume brothers, his fellow directors at TSR, they sold their shares to Lorraine Williams,
a businesswoman whom Gary had hired in 1984 to manage TSR. Now with a majority shareholding in TSR,
the opportunity presented itself for Williams to force Gary out of the company he’d started and loved. It
 INDEPENDENCE DAY
197
196
INDEPENDENCE DAY
 198
INDEPENDENCE DAY

14
SHOP TALK
GARY AND GAIL GYGAX

I
have remained in contact with Gail Gygax since Gary sadly passed away in 2008 and had the
great pleasure of meeting her again in Chicago in 2018. She told me how our enthusiasm for
D&D helped convince the great man to appoint us as TSR’s European distributors all those
years ago. More recently I asked her for a quote for Dice Men and she kindly wrote back saying:
‘Gary was a true Renaissance man. He was a master of his craft and welcomed young artisans. Ian
Livingstone was a young man struck by Dungeons & Dragons who asked Gary to start him off with
six boxed sets to sell in England. Gary was so very proud when the young artisan became a master

ABOVE: Gary of his own craft.’

and Gail Gygax
meeting Ian in
New York.
 M
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GAMING GROUND ZERO

SHOP TALK
anaging the growth of Games Workshop trade and publishing
activities in the late 1970s was all-consuming and we didn’t have the
resources to open new shops as quickly as we would have liked. We’d
been delighted with the success of our Dalling Road shop since it opened in 1978, and though we talked
about it a lot, it wasn’t until 4 October 1980 that we opened a second shop in St James’s Square in Manchester.
Almost another year passed before we opened a third shop, on 5 September 1981 in the Birmingham
Shopping Centre. We relocated the Manchester shop to bigger premises in the Arndale Centre in April
1982, opened a fourth shop on The Moor in Sheffield in May 1982, and opened a fifth shop in October
1982 in the Broadmarsh Centre in Nottingham. Steve and I were also guests of honour at the grand
opening of the Nottingham shop, welcoming customers and signing copies of our first Fighting Fantasy
gamebook, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, which had been published in August and had become a
BELOW: The opening of
national bestseller. Two more shops were opened in Newcastle and York in April 1985 with Games
the Birmingham Shopping
Workshop taking over what were previously Gamesmaster shops. Centre shop.
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SHOP TALK

SHOP TALK
Ian Waddelow, marketing director at Games Workshop from 1982–
85, remembers travelling to the opening of the York store with Steve,
worrying all the way there about the potential turnout. ‘We caught a cab
from the station and had to walk the last five hundred yards because the
assembled crowds had brought traffic in York to a standstill. While he
signed books, I received a lecture from the police chief about our lack
of consideration, failing to liaise with them, not thinking about public
safety and traffic jams, etc. I explained that we had not anticipated an
army to arrive. Afterwards, Steve and I talked about the high turnout.
“Such is the power of the Dwarf,” said Steve. Nothing to do with my
marketing genius apparently.’
The Games Workshop retail chain now numbered seven
shops in total. They were Games Workshop London (Manager:
Tim Olsen), Manchester (Manager: Steve Lovell), Birmingham
(Manager: Laurence Miller), Sheffield (Manager: Pete Berry), Nottingham (Manager: Keith
Tate), Newcastle (Manager: Ian Henzell) and York (Manager: Colin Morris), all under the leadership of
Bob Malin. The next shop to open was Games Workshop Leeds in December 1986 followed by Games
Workshop Derby in early 1987.
‘I joined Games Workshop in early 1981 as Retail Operations Manager,’ recalls Bob Malin, ‘with the
brief to expand Workshop’s retail operations from the original shop in Dalling Road by first opening a
branch in Manchester. I spent my first couple of months with Tim Olsen in Dalling Road, while the lease
for the shop in Manchester was being sorted out, before moving to Manchester to get the shop in John
Dalton Street opened. Ahead of the official opening, we had a “soft” launch for the shop attended by the
Games Workshop dragon, Humphrey, named after Humphrey Leadbitter who made it.
‘I thought I would lose my job on that first day as the day’s takings – about £200 – were stolen due to
the door between the shop and the office not having been fitted. I had to call Ian and Steve to explain
this and, being the great human beings that they were, they said, “Okay, let that be a lesson to you but
don’t worry about it. Carry on.” So, I did, and Karl Hulme, Rod Beck and I opened the shop on the
grand official opening day with Ian and Steve cutting the ribbon and with what became a tradition of
long queues around the block.’
Whilst we wanted to increase the number of our own shops, we didn’t want to take trade away from our
independent retailers whose businesses might be affected by a Games Workshop retail outlet opening in ABOVE & OPPOSITE:
The opening of the
their catchment area. We maintained a good relationship with our trade customers and would sound them
Nottingham, Derby
out if we were thinking about opening a shop in their locality since most towns at the time would only and Sheffield shops.
 204 205
SHOP TALK

SHOP TALK
have been able to support one games shop. But our open This wasn’t our first encounter with Virgin. Sir Richard Branson, the founder and CEO of
approach didn’t work with Games Centre, whose owner Virgin Records, launched his video games company Virgin Games in 1983. Around the time of the
would plan to open new shops in towns before we did. announcement, he invited Steve and me for a meeting on his houseboat in Little Venice, St John’s Wood,
Games Centre was the largest chain of board games London. Flattered to receive a meeting request from such a well-known entrepreneur, we accepted the
shops in the UK in the early 1980s. Its owner was South invitation. Our accountant joined us for the meeting with Branson and one of his senior leadership team.
African board games inventor Graeme Levin, who, ironically, It was just the five of us and the gold discs that adorned the walls of his houseboat. The meeting was
was also the owner and publisher of Games & Puzzles, the surreal in that Branson expressed an interest in buying Games Workshop. The problem was that Branson
magazine Steve used to review games for, and Albie was wanted to include the intellectual property rights to Fighting Fantasy in the deal. We weren’t really interested
editor for. Our relationship with Levin was always strained in selling the company but the one thing we were never going to sell was the rights to our books. It was
due to the fact he preferred competition to co-operation. an easy decision to make to end the discussions.
Ultimately his business model around opening shops
in prime sites was not sustainable. Games Centre’s overheads were too high relative to the company’s
revenues and margins. The company overtraded, with the result that Games Centre went into liquidation BAGS OF HOLDING
in late December 1984. Before that happened, Levin had placed an unusually large Christmas order with Like most retailers back in the 1980s, we had our own plastic carrier bags made for our Games
us, offering to pay for it with a post-dated cheque. The cost of the order far exceeded his credit limit. Workshop shops in London and Manchester. The original bag design featured an illustration
Steve told Levin that he could only order up to his credit limit, which he promptly did. Games Centre’s of monsters and dice drawn by White Dwarf contributor Alan Hunter. However, ahead of the
bank called in the receivers the day before our post-dated cheque was due to be cashed. We lost £4,000 Birmingham shop opening and for no particular reason, we decided to change the design. The
but it could have been a lot worse. job went to an up-and-coming young artist, Iain McCaig, who had turned up at the Dalling Road
The Games Centre flagship store was on Oxford Street in central London and we began discussions shop to show us his portfolio in the hope of getting some work. He was living in Scotland at the
with the liquidator about buying the stock and acquiring the lease. However, we were not alone. Virgin time. It was his brother who had previously bought a copy of D&D from the Dalling Road shop
was also in discussion with the liquidator. We made a bid which was immediately beaten by Virgin. and introduced Iain to the game. I looked at Iain’s portfolio and immediately loved his gritty,
Steve and I had a rare difference of opinion about whether or not to continue bidding against Virgin, realistic fantasy art style. Iain had so much passion for the genre and there was so much detail and
a company with significant capital behind it. I was excited by the idea of having a flagship Games atmosphere in his work that I commissioned him on the spot. He was young in his career, but
Workshop store on Oxford Street in the centre of London, but Steve was rightly concerned about the there was no doubt that he was an artistic genius in the making. It turned out that the carrier bag
financial risk involved. We agreed on a compromise to make one more bid, which was trumped again, redesign was Iain’s first professional commission. I briefed him to illustrate a fantasy character
and so we pulled out of the bidding war. Thus, Virgin Games Centre was born. With the benefit of sitting at a table playing a fantasy game against a science fiction character. The finished illustration
hindsight, this was a good outcome for us. With the shop being in a prime location, we would have was perfect. He also surprised us by going to the trouble of adding a company logo beneath the
needed to have stocked a large range of lower margin general games for the passing trade as well as illustration. I hadn’t actually asked Iain to draw the words ‘Games Workshop’ as we already had
Games Workshop and Citadel products for the hobby gamers. We’d already had some bad experiences a company logo. But he’d drawn one anyway and had done so by creating an original typeface. It
dabbling in general games in our own shops. Our retail operations staff had misjudged the market and was amazing. We liked his logo so much that we decided to adopt it as the new company logo.
massively over-ordered general games the previous Christmas, which had left us with overstocks of Enthralled by his dynamic and detailed art style, I was delighted that Iain later agreed to paint the
Monopoly, Cluedo, Scrabble and the like. We were also only just recovering from the video game crash covers of four of my Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. It was to be the start of a spectacular career for
of 1983, when overstocks hurt us badly. The consolation prize for us losing out on Oxford Street was a hugely talented fantasy artist who went on to work with the likes of George Lucas and other
that Virgin Games Centre became an important trade customer. movie luminaries.
 206 207
SHOP TALK

SHOP TALK
IAIN MCCAIG
I
ain McCaig recalls getting the job: ‘Ian Livingstone commissioned me to design the carrier bag,
which led to assignments for White Dwarf and the box cover art for Games Workshop’s edition
LEFT: Iain McCaig’s
of RuneQuest. Ian told me he really like my art style and later asked me to paint the covers and painting for the box
cover of the UK edition
interior illustrations for some of his Fighting Fantasy books.’ of RuneQuest.

OPPOSITE: Iain McCaig’s

original design for the
Games Workshop carrier
bag.
 208 209
SHOP TALK

SHOP TALK
TOP: Retail Operations
Manager Bob Malin and his
wife Pam.
AMERICA CALLING
ABOVE: The first US Games John Olsen was one of three American brothers who were working at Games Workshop in 1984. We
Workshop store run by Tim decided to send John back to the States to open the company’s US office. Games Workshop US quickly
Olsen.
expanded its wholesale operations and two years later John opened our first US shop in Baltimore which
OPPOSITE: Manchester and
Sheffield shops. was run by John’s brother, Tim Olsen, who had previously managed the Dalling Road shop in London.
 210
SHOP TALK

15
VIDEO GAMES
WORKSHOP

ABOVE: Games Workshop shops.

 B
212 213
GAMING GROUND ZERO

VIDEO GAMES WORKSHOP

y 1980, Games Workshop was the biggest player in the UK hobby games
industry, but there was a new kid in town who had the potential to eat our
lunch. The new kid wasn’t a rival company, it was a new way of playing games
on computers and video game consoles at home. Computers were nothing new to us. Steve and I had been
playing computer games on the PET for some time, and we both owned Intellivision game consoles. We
bought a Commodore PET in 1979, all 8k of it, to use as a desktop workstation to handle correspondence,
mail order sales and trades sales invoicing at Dalling Road. And being fans of the sport following a business
trip to the USA, we used to play endless late-night games of Intellivision Baseball. Sales of the BBC Micro
and Sinclair ZX81 were booming in the UK after their launch in 1981, and they were followed by the Sinclair
ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 in 1982. New gaming consoles such as the Atari 2600 – first released in
the USA in 1977 – were taking off in a big way. Pong and Space Invaders had become household names.
We were personally very excited by computer and video games. In my editorial in issue 23 of White
Dwarf in February 1981, I attempted to describe the ‘metaverse’ future of computer role-playing games
being played in 3D, writing, ‘Imagine players with a hand controller walking down a dark corridor. Around
a bend and a party of vicious goblins in glorious 3D colour appear on the screen. There would be no
arguments about who is standing where or choice of opponent as the computer urges on its goblins
with axes swinging at the heads of your characters. Players would be screaming at each other, with sweat
dripping off their worried foreheads as fingers dart over the hand controllers to save their characters’ lives.’
As the market grew, we had to figure out if video games were a threat or an opportunity for Games
Workshop. Should we or should we not sell computer games in our shops? We decided to go for it. What
we hadn’t fully appreciated at the time was that whilst we were experienced and very much on top of the
hobby games market through our own magazine, products and shops, we were total rookies in the video
games market and had zero leverage in it. But not wanting to miss out on the boom, we jumped on the
bandwagon, eyes wide shut. Our mistake was to delegate the running of the video games department
internally without the proper budgetary checks and balances in place. Everything was fine to begin with.
Games Workshop began selling a range of popular computer game cassettes and cartridge games for
consoles in our shops in 1982. Activision cartridges for the Atari console were the mainstay, but we also
sold cartridges for the Intellivision, ColecoVision, Vectrex, and the Philips games console. We even sold
niche Apollo, CBS Electronics, Imagic and Spectravision cartridges. But it didn’t end there. There were
no end of individuals and companies springing up to develop computer games for the Spectrum and C64
– and Games Workshop bought a lot of them. Our 1982/83 Computer & Video Games catalogue listed
more than 500 titles for just about every games platform known to mankind. Massively overstocked with
games that nobody wanted to buy, when the crash came, Games Workshop was hit with a severe cash
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flow problem which threatened the future of the company. The bank was yet to be convinced that Games
Workshop merited a large overdraft and confirmed that in a phone call. In those days, banks would only
lend you money if you could categorically prove you didn’t need it. In hindsight, before speculating on the
video games market, we should have raised equity funding which in turn would have given the bank the
comfort it needed to increase our overdraft. We should have set up a separate company for video games
which could have been spun out or sold at a later date if successful. Either way, we should not have let
video games impact Games Workshop’s core business.
The console games crash began in 1983. There were simply too many video games for the market.
Huge numbers of game cartridges were sitting in warehouses and on shop shelves, left unsold.
Wholesale prices began to tumble as manufacturers tried to sell off their excess stock. Initially,
Games Workshop and other retailers thought it was good business to buy heavily discounted games.
But the problem was that consumers just weren’t interested in buying them at any price. The market
was flooded with lots of games that were not very good at all. Then there was the story of the
mass burial of hundreds of thousands of unsold E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial and other Atari games
cartridges in the New Mexico desert in 1983. It was a classic case of over-supply in the face of
lack of demand. Inevitably heavy discounting of video games continued which meant big losses
for everyone. Many retailers went out of business. Games Workshop survived thanks to our hobby
games sales and the determination of Retail Operations Manager Bob Malin to return a lot of
overstocks to their manufacturers.
Bob Malin recalls: ‘Christmas 1983 saw the video games market go from boom to bust, and early 1984
saw our warehouse in Sunbeam Road holding £200,000 worth of unsold games cartridges, which, had we
had to pay for them, may well have bankrupted the company. Fortunately, I managed to convince Mattel
to take the stock back.’

DOUBLING DOWN
Whilst we took an initial hit on video games, we were convinced that the market would rebound. In fact,
it took two years to do so.
As computer games players ourselves, Steve and I were determined to turn things around. Before the
crash of 1983, we’d set up the computer games publishing arm headed up by Angus Ryall to develop
and publish our own titles. Our first game was developed by Julian Gollop and Red Shift. Published in
1983 for the ZX Spectrum, it was a computer game version of our Apocalypse board game. Sales were
encouraging and we released two expansions. We released the computer game version of Battlecars in
1984, again coded by Julian Gollop, and followed that up with D-Day for the ZX Spectrum. LEFT: Angus Ryall.
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Jamie Thomson and Steve Williams wrote a text adventure game, Tower of Despair, which was coded
by Mike McKeown and Russell Clarke. All four were Games Workshop employees who worked on the
game in their spare time. It was quite innovative for the time and received critical acclaim. It was released
in 1984 on both the ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64.
Games Workshop released three games in 1985: Julian Gollop’s critically acclaimed Chaos, Journey’s
End and a version of the company’s highly successful board game Talisman. These games sold well
and put Games Workshop on the computer games map. Sadly, it wasn’t quite good enough. Success
would require significant capital investment and we weren’t prepared to do that. Despite the relative
success of our titles, we brought computer games development to an end. In the best interests of Games
Workshop, we decided to refocus on the company’s core IP and retail shops. Steve and I went back to
being just players. Video games continued to improve in terms of production values, processing power
and, most importantly, gameplay. I still remember the enjoyment in the late 1980s of playing classics like
The Secret of Monkey Island, Lemmings, Cannon Fodder, Defender of the Crown, Dune 2 and Mega-Lo-Mania on my
Commodore Amiga with all of its 16-bit processor and 256k of memory.

EUREKA!
As well as Games Workshop having its own range of computer games, I also got in on the act in a
personal capacity at a time when my Deathtrap Dungeon Fighting Fantasy gamebook was number 1 in the
children’s bestsellers list. The two partners of a start-up computer games company called Domark
had read about Deathtrap Dungeon and contacted me to ask if I would be interested in designing
their launch title. I agreed and set about working on a concept for a graphical adventure game
about solving a history-spanning mystery which I called Eureka! It was developed by Novotrade in
Hungary and published by Domark in October 1984. It was a move that would be instrumental in
my change of career post-Games Workshop in the 1990s.
Eureka! featured basic 8-bit graphics and consisted of five parts that had to be played separately.
The settings were Prehistoric Europe, Ancient Rome, Arthurian Britain, and Germany in World War
Two, while the final part took place in the present on a Caribbean island where the supervillain’s
base was located.
Domark’s owners, Dominic Wheatley and Mark Strachan, were ex-advertising executives who wanted
to differentiate Eureka! from other computer games by offering a prize of £25,000 to the first player to
complete it by solving the final puzzle. That person would discover a phone number to ring in order to OPPOSITE TOP: The computer
claim the prize. The game was programmed in Budapest to help keep the winning solution a secret. It was and video games catalogue.

OPPOSITE BOTTOM: The video

still the era of the old Iron Curtain, which helped, and I remember our trips to Budapest were interesting
games section in the Sheffield
to say the least. shop.
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The first person to find the answer was a teenager by the name of Matthew Woodley, who completed
the game in 1985. He dialled the phone number and was asked to leave a recorded message in a solicitor’s
office. I handed over the cheque for £25,000 to Matt on the TV show Splash. Matt’s computer game
skills impressed Domark’s management so much that they gave him a job! And after leaving the Games
Workshop board in 1991, I too joined Domark as Vice Chairman following my investment in the
company. Domark was one of four companies to merge in 1995 to create video games publisher Eidos
plc where I served as Executive Chairman, overseeing the launch of global blockbuster titles including
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Hitman and Deus Ex. Steve also moved into the computer games industry in 1996,
joining Peter Molyneux in founding Lionhead Studios, the studio famously responsible for developing hit
titles Black & White and Fable.

LEFT: Video Games Manager

Angus Ryall at the British Toy
& Hobby Fair.

OPPOSITE: Eureka! designed

by Ian Livingstone.
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WAREHOUSES
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y 1980, mail orders and trade sales were booming, causing us to run out of
storage space in Dalling Road. Stock was stuffed into every available nook and
cranny – behind the shop counter, the staircase and even the loo – and upstairs
was jammed from floor to ceiling with boxes. A warehouse was desperately
needed. The cheapest one we could find was located in Hythe Road in Harlesden, North West London.
It was not a suburb you would describe as ‘leafy’ by any stretch of the imagination. With few options
available to us, we took a short-term lease on the warehouse and hired John Chillingworth out of Avalon
Hill’s UK distributors, TM Games in North London, to run trade sales. He was joined by Trevor Graver
and a young man named Bradley. Even though he was a really nice guy, it worried me that John smoked
a pipe. Somebody once said to me: never hire anybody who smokes a pipe because if they have enough
time to mess around with a pipe all day, they wouldn’t have much time to do anything else! Whether or
not that was true was immaterial because John soon decided to leave and was replaced by Peter Darvill-
Evans who came over from Dalling Road. Steve moved into Hythe Road accompanied by Colin Reynolds
and John Olsen from accounts when the office was finally kitted out. That would leave me, Albie and
the small production team of Andy Slack, Mary Common and Robert Owens to carry on working on
publications upstairs at Dalling Road.
Located at the end of a run-down industrial estate, the Hythe Road warehouse was a sub-optimal
building in a grim location. In Steve’s words, ‘Hythe Road was horrible!’ The ground floor was occupied
by a glassware distributor and Games Workshop took over the first floor. It consisted of a long, irregular
space with dingy offices at one end and a larger area at the other end fitted out with crude metal
shelving. The larger area was naturally set aside for warehousing, while the smaller area was given over to
administration and handling the burgeoning mail order business.
Peter Darvill-Evans remembers how grim it was: ‘In the early days there were just the three of us
rattling around the place. At the end of the working day I often used to give Trevor and Bradley a lift in
my beaten-up, thirteen-year-old Ford Cortina Mk 1 down to Shepherd’s Bush. One summer’s evening
as I (with long hair and sandals) was driving Trevor and Brad through White City, I was stopped by a
policeman who wanted to know whether or not the car was mine. I’m not sure whether he thought we
had stolen it or whether he suspected I was being kidnapped by Trevor and Bradley. I was able to show
him my driving licence, but I think what persuaded him to let us continue on our way was my hyphenated
surname and BBC English accent.
‘My Cortina finally ended its days parked outside the Hythe Road warehouse. A roofer, employed by
the landlord to make repairs, had failed to secure his winch and pulley. Hearing a loud noise, the Games
Workshop staff peered down from the windows to see my car lying under a pile of scaffolding.’
Trevor Graver recalls: ‘Hythe Road was famous for its toilet which housed the boiler, hence the
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nickname “The Tropicana”. And I remember slipping a note in a box and relocated there in September 1981. Inconveniently located on another uninspiring industrial park,
we sent to Games Designers’ Workshop in the USA who had ordered at least the building met our needs. The only memorable thing about Sunbeam Road was, depending on
copies of Leviathan, a supplement for Traveller written by Bob which way the wind blew, the yeasty smell of fermenting beer which came wafting in from the Guinness
McWilliams which Workshop produced and published. I’d written, Brewery about a mile away. The lease at Hythe Road hadn’t expired, but we had outgrown the space, and
“Help! I’m a prisoner in the trade order department!” I forgot about everybody was desperate to leave there as soon as possible. In the end we had to buy ourselves out of the
it until Ian and Steve returned from the USA after attending Gen Hythe Road lease, but it was a price worth paying.
Con where GDW had told them about it. They thought it was funny.’ Dalling Road was now operating just as a Games Workshop shop with a stock room on the first floor.
Deliveries were always dreaded at Hythe Road, especially on a The production and publishing team from Dalling Road joined the accounts, warehousing and distribution
hot summer’s day, since the warehouse was on the first floor and staff from Hythe Road in the move to our new Sunbeam Road headquarters. The huge warehouse easily
OPPOSITE TOP: Ian, Humphrey
there was no lift. A chain of people was needed to carry the boxes accommodated all of our stock and left plenty of room for expansion. Steve and I ran Workshop from the Dragon and Steve!
of games up the narrow stairs to the warehouse space. our impressive new building as joint managing directors. We had adjacent offices on the first floor, both OPPOSITE BOTTOM: Steve,
But Hythe Road was only a short-term solution for our expanding business, and we of them much larger than the Breadbin. Steve was responsible for sales, operations, HR and accounts with John Chillingworth, Humphrey
and Ian.
quickly ran out of storage space once again. Steve and I agreed that our next warehouse had to be large Peter Darvill-Evans reporting to him and I had responsibility for production, publishing and marketing
BELOW: Steve and Ian in their
enough for us not to have to move again for years. We needed a large two-storey building which would with Albie Fiore reporting to me. It all worked well under one roof and Workshop continued to grow. offices.

be used as a warehouse on the ground floor and as offices on the first floor for operations, accounts and The cavernous warehouse proved to be more than big enough
production. We found what we were looking for in Sunbeam Road in Park Royal, North West London for our needs until the day we moved all Games Workshop
operations to Nottingham five years later.
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SUNBEAM ROAD REMEMBERED
PART 1

M
‘ oving from Hythe Road to Sunbeam Road felt like moving from a mud hut
to a palace,’ recalls Peter Darvill-Evans. ‘Sunbeam Road was huge. I seem to
recall the figure of 28,000 square feet was spoken of. Almost the whole of
the ground floor was one vast warehouse space, with a goods entrance with a sliding door
through which one could drive a ten-ton lorry – and indeed I did drive such a lorry, ferrying
the stock from the old warehouse to the new. The first floor had generously proportioned
suites of offices, a reception desk with a telephone switchboard, civilised toilet facilities,
a proper kitchen, and even a board room – and still there was space unused that in time
became the production line area for the assembly and shrink-wrapping of Workshop’s own
games and playing aids.
‘I inhabited a sales office that I shared with the sales and marketing staff. The accounts
department, headed by John Olsen, occupied an office larger than the sales office and
with more staff. Albie’s well-lit design studio was even larger and housed his team
of magazine and games designers. The White Dwarf editorial office, by contrast, was
relatively small and, I think, had no natural light – but then Jamie Thomson and Ian
Marsh did their best work in twilight
conditions… There was an office for
the personnel and payroll department.
There was of course the boardroom,
with its imposing boardroom table. Ian
and Steve each had an office sufficiently
large that one had to walk quite a long
way after coming through the door in
order to reach the desk.’

OPPOSITE:
Peter Darvill-Evans.

LEFT: Sales and Accounts

departments.
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SUNBEAM ROAD REMEMBERED
was always full of smoke as Albie (and others) chain-smoked throughout the day. White Dwarf was
done almost entirely in-house and we got very excited when we got an IBM typeball typewriter which

PART 2 meant we could do different typefaces in White Dwarf, as every ball was either a different font or was
the bold, italic or light version. God knows what they cost in those days, but it did seem like the height
of sophistication. The production artists spray-mounted the page layouts together. The fumes from
the spray mount and Cow Gum meant we were all high as kites by the end of a heavy production day

G
ary Chalk remembers that time with fondness: ‘Jamie Thomson had the most horrible just before White Dwarf went to press.’
office in the entire building. It had no windows! Despite this lack of outlook, the
White Dwarf features editor compensated by having lots of views of his own. In many
ways it was like a little creative hub in the middle of the company. No one could look out, but Trevor Graver remembers his time at Sunbeam Road: ‘When we moved to Sunbeam Road, I became the
then, no one could see in. Everyone turned up there at some time or another, tales were told, and computer room supervisor, did the invoicing and all computer-related IT stuff, ran games, collated games,
an enormous number of jokes and pranks were planned and put into action. This was largely due proofread White Dwarf and even proofread Ian and Steve’s first Fighting Fantasy gamebook, The Warlock of
to Jamie, whose bubbling brain and unquenchable sense of humour were never at a loss, despite a Firetop Mountain. I left Games Workshop in the mid-eighties after my role was re-structured. But still, it
lot of frantic last-minute scribbling. Authors and illustrators spend a lot of time working on their had been a lot of fun working there in the early days!’
own, which is odd, as they are usually gregarious fun-loving anarchists. I’ve never had so much fun
at work as I did in those days, while at the same time being extremely productive. I don’t think the
two things are unrelated.’

Credit controller Colin Reynolds describes his role at Sunbeam Road: ‘I think I did a good job as a
credit controller. The money flowed in, but if I’m honest, I put that down to the fact that our customers
wanted what we had to offer more than any particular finesse on my part. All I needed to do was remind
our customers that they owed us money, and lo and behold it turned up.’

Production artist Liz Lindars also has great memories of her time at Sunbeam Road: ‘I trained for a BA in
Graphic Design and my first proper job as a paste-up artist was working on White Dwarf above the shop
in Dalling Road. We then headed to Sunbeam Road and had a very glamorous office where we inherited
not just some terrible fitted furniture but also a drinks cupboard and a tank full of tropical fish. Guess
who got volunteered to look after the fish? Yes, me. Every time one died, I headed off to the pet shop in
Ealing Broadway (allegedly the one the Pet Shop Boys were named after) to replace them.
‘Albie was head of production and Mary Common was the designer on White Dwarf. Albie and I
bickered constantly about what music should be played in the office and I have to say he introduced
us to some great tapes from his collection. Back then, smoking everywhere was the norm. The office

LEFT: Albie Fiore

and Liz Lindars.
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SUNBEAM ROAD REMEMBERED
PART 3

C
live Bailey, who first joined the company as publicity manager and was later promoted to
marketing manager, recalls: ‘After going to art school I got a job at Barclays Bank, joining a
new department called Marketing Communications. In those days, many people at the bank
went on long “working” lunches and often didn’t come back in the afternoon.
‘One day, while I was the sole member of my department on site, I knocked up a dummy Games
Workshop catalogue. It was literally a sheet of A4 paper that I had folded to A5 onto which I pasted
copy I’d written on my typewriter and hand-drawn illustrations. Then I stapled the leaves together. I
calculated the costs of printing the catalogue, distributing it by various means and the likely return on
capital employed. I then wrote a letter of introduction to Ian Livingstone along the lines of “you should
do this, and I can do it for you” and sent it off.
‘To my surprise, Ian Livingstone contacted me and said he had been thinking along the same lines and
would I come in and meet him at the new Games Workshop warehouse at Sunbeam Road, Park Royal.
So, in the autumn of 1981, I exchanged working in the City of London for an industrial estate in Park
Royal. It seemed like the middle of nowhere. The highlight of lunchtime might be taking a stroll to what
was then a new supermarket called ASDA.
‘Initially, my work involved producing the Games Workshop catalogue, running Games Workshop
events and managing White Dwarf subscriptions. The catalogue was A5, as I had envisaged, and we
promoted it through flyers inside White Dwarf and Games & Puzzles magazine or inside Games Workshop
carrier bags in our shops. The catalogue wasn’t free; it cost 50p. Nevertheless, we quickly sold out the first
5,000 we printed.
‘White Dwarf subscriptions and circulation was the easiest publishing job I ever had. Subscriptions
came in a steady stream and hardly anyone dropped out at renewal time. And those that did almost
always renewed following the first of my renewal letters. A D&D acquaintance of Ian Livingstone
had a computer, a database and dot-matrix printer. You sent off a typewritten list of new and expired games under licence including Traveller and RuneQuest. My contribution to that was drafting a letter
subscribers to a private address near Heathrow, and a week before publication a pile of peel-off labels was which could be sent to US games companies to explain why a game that retailed for $10 in the US, if
delivered for addressing the subscription mailout and renewal letters. imported to the UK, could end up costing £30. If Games Workshop published their product in the UK
‘When TSR opened its UK office, it was obvious that Games Workshop needed to diversify and move under licence, we could charge a much lower price for it and sell more. That letter and Ian Livingstone’s
away from its reliance on expensive US product imports. The first step was to publish US role-playing smooth talking did the business.’

ABOVE: Sunbeam Road

warehouse and offices.
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WORK HARD, PLAY HARD football skills were learnt in games against Ian and Steve. The superfast wrist flick, the ball trapper and so
Being a games company, we naturally wanted everybody who worked for us to have game-playing be a on. And yes, the bosses would regularly come out at lunchtime to play games with their staff. They were
part of their day. Similar to technology companies of today which provide chillout and games areas for good guys to work for.’
their staff, we installed table tennis, a snooker table and table football. And of course, there were plenty Ian Waddelow remembers the game of Killer, which became a too much of a distraction:
of after-work role-playing and board games evenings. ‘Killer was a live action assassination role-playing game which ended up being banned at Sunbeam
Peter Darvill-Evans remembers the good times had at Workshop: ‘There were just so many games, Road because nobody could get any work done because of their general paranoia! Everybody
and the people had real affection for each other. Most people had their own particular ways of relaxing. was worried even to sit down on a metal chair in case a piece of string attached to it ran to a fake
Every lunchtime John Olsen, Colin Reynolds and I played a few rounds of a never-ending game of cardboard plug stuck on the wall in order to “electrocute them”. I still remember blowing Jamie
Apocalypse, although anyone who’s played it knows that it’s far from relaxing. And of course, there Thomson’s head off by sellotaping a piece of paper to the inside of his office phone that read
were Games Workshop’s two rival softball teams, the Rats – captained by Ian Livingstone – and the “Ka-boom!”’
Sharks – captained by Steve Jackson. There was also a blues band which played at parties at Sunbeam
Road! I played rhythm guitar with Steve on lead guitar and Ian on harmonica. This all helped to make
for a happy set of employees.’ DRAGONLORDS DEN
Jamie Thomson remembers the fun and games: The fallout from Games Centre going out of business gave us the opportunity to hire some of
‘One of the annoying things I remember is never its former employees. One of them was Marc Gascoigne who published his own games fanzine
being able to beat Ian Livingstone at table tennis. DragonLords with Ian Marsh and Mike Lewis. DragonLords often made barbed comments about Games
Even though I was younger and not bad at all, Ian was Workshop and I thought it would be better to hire Marc and have him inside the camp helping rather
really good at table tennis. I think I managed to win a than outside poking fun at us.
few table football games though. In fact, all my table Marc remembers joining Workshop: ‘Ian Marsh and I both left university in the summer of 1983. I
managed to land a job at Games Centre. For a few months I thoroughly enjoyed myself as the in-house
expert of their Regent Street branch on these funny new role-playing and fantasy board games, as well as
the first Spectrum and BBC computer games. Marshy, having no previous Saturday-job shop experience,
failed the interview spectacularly and ended up… getting a job in the Games Workshop warehouse. After
just a few months he was plucked from there by Jamie Thomson to be an editorial assistant on White
Dwarf… At the end of 1983, the Games Centre chain had closed down, leaving me on the dole, so before
Marshy’s warehouse role could even be advertised I was tipped the wink and trotted off to Sunbeam Road
for my own interview.
‘Sitting in Games Workshop’s reception, filling in some paperwork before the warehouse interview,
the mighty Ian Livingstone wandered past, clocked me sitting there, did a superb comedy double-take
worthy of Buster Keaton… and then suggested that after I’d spoken to the warehouse manager I
might care to swing by his own office, as he was looking for a new editor for role-playing games. I duly
did, and he gave me an early draft of some rules for a Judge Dredd skirmish battle system, by Citadel’s
ABOVE & RIGHT: Ian playing
Rick Priestley. Challenged to tell him what I’d add or change to make it work as a full role-playing game,
blues harmonica and Steve
playing lead guitar. I did just that, at some length.
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‘When as requested I telephoned him back a few days later, the great man got his revenge for all the order and discovered it was a young man who had only started work with us the previous day. I asked
the DragonLords sideswipes, by pretending to toss a coin at his end of the line… but thankfully offered him to explain. He showed me the trade order packing sheet he’d been given and casually pointed out that
me a job. ‘same as above’ were the words written in the ‘delivery address’ box. What he hadn’t noticed was that the
‘I started at Games Workshop in April 1984, but after three days I promptly came down with measles customer’s actual address was written in the ‘invoice address’ box above the delivery address box. I stayed
and was off work for the rest of the month, which wasn’t a great start. Once properly ensconced, I found calm and explained that the shipping company might not be able to deliver the boxes to ‘same as above’.
myself in a compact, windowless office with the White Dwarf team – namely the editorial assistant, my old From then on, we invested in more in-job training for our new warehouse staff.
school pal Ian Marsh, and the magazine’s assistant editor, Jamie Thomson. My job as Games Editor was
pretty simple: kick the Judge Dredd roleplaying game into shape by developing the rules and adding notes
on the famous Mega-City One setting so that it could be published, and also help Albie Fiore and the
White Dwarf team with anything as required.
‘Another outlet for all the creativity boiling over in us ex-fanzine editor types was the daft Games
Workshop mail order fanzine, The Black Sun. Expanding on some nasty-cute goblin characters that had
been invented by mail order staffer Steve Williams and artist Trevor Hammond to give life to the adverts in
each issue of White Dwarf, it was a monthly twelve pages of nonsense that went out solely to subscribers.’
Marc Gascoigne also recounts lunchtime fun at Games Workshop: ‘Although the building was fairly
distinctly divided between offices and warehouse, we’d hang with anyone. It was often the highlight
of a lunch hour to sit downstairs and watch the guys challenge each other to put more and more
outlandish items of food through the shrink-wrapping machine intact. All these years later, it’s a shame
that I can’t remember who won by perfectly wrapping a fried egg, yolk somehow perfectly unbroken,
but I salute you, sir.’

GOING NOWHERE
Always looking to expand our product offering to our trade customers, we agreed a distribution deal
with Stuart Dowsey, owner of Dowsey Games, for Games Workshop to act as the wholesaler for his
imported classic games such as Go and Chinese chess. As our overall business grew, we later employed
Stuart as warehouse manager. However, not all of the staff we employed to pick, pack and ship our
games were as productive as we would have hoped. There again, attracting warehouse workers to the
inconveniently located Sunbeam Road industrial estate was challenging. It was not as though we were
paying huge salaries.
Steve and I would often walk around the warehouse to see how things were going. One day, I was
looking at a pile of boxes containing trade orders in the loading bay that were waiting for collection. I was
puzzled to see three of the packed boxes with rather unusual wording on the address labels. The words
LEFT & ABOVE: Sunbeam
‘same as above’ had been written on the labels. Nothing else. I couldn’t believe it. I asked who had packed Road staff, 1983.
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THE GREAT LEAK
Everybody at Games Workshop remembers the day of the ‘Great Leak’. As Gary Chalk recalls, ‘I arrived
one morning to find the sliding doors of the warehouse wide open, and anyone who had got to work
early scurrying about like ants. It turned out that rainwater from the thunderstorm the night before had
leaked through the roof, poured down into the warehouse and was threatening the stock. Any stock that
could be saved was being moved away from the ever-growing lake on the floor. Nevertheless, quite a bit
of stock was destroyed. Fortunately, the company was saved by an insurance policy!’
It was thanks to Steve’s father, Ken, who was in the insurance business himself, that we’d taken out
a good insurance policy. Then there was the time when my old VW Beetle was stolen from outside the
warehouse. Whatever it was, there was always something to talk about at Sunbeam Road.

RIGHT & OPPOSITE:

The flooded warehouse.
 17
THE WARLOCKS OF
FIRETOP MOUNTAIN

ABOVE: Hythe Road and Sunbeam Road.

 B
240 241
GAMING GROUND ZERO

THE WARLOCKS OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN

y 1984, not only were Games Workshop, Citadel and White Dwarf taking up a
huge amount of our time, Steve and I had also become bestselling authors with
all the additional work that entailed. Following the publication of The Warlock
of Firetop Mountain in 1982, we were enjoying unexpected success writing
Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, which had become a global publishing phenomenon.
The opportunity to write Warlock came about following a chance meeting in 1979 at Games Day 5 at
the Royal Horticultural Hall in London. Penguin Books had taken a stand to promote a new book called
Playing Politics. We got talking to a Penguin Books editor, Geraldine Cooke, who was fascinated by people
playing RPGs with so much enthusiasm and excitement. Her best friend had told her about the D&D
craze and she asked if we would be interested in writing a book about role-playing games. We agreed, but
later suggested that rather than write a book about RPGs we should write a book that gave the reader an
RPG experience. She liked that idea better and asked us to send her a synopsis.

LEFT: Geraldine Cooke’s

commissioning letter.
 242 243
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THE WARLOCKS OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN

Playing D&D and designing dungeons had given us plenty of ideas for an interactive book set in a The deciding factor proved to be the Puffin Book Club, which operated in schools right across the
world of magic and monsters. Steve and I talked endlessly about the best way to distil the essence of a country. Tony Lacey, head of editorial at Puffin at the time, felt sure the sales potential of The Magic Quest
fantasy role-playing game into a single-player book format. Eventually we came up with the idea of a self- would be much higher if it was targeted at nine- to twelve-year-olds.
contained branching narrative adventure with a simple games system using dice for combat and determining Despite Tony Lacey’s support, Penguin sat on the proposal for another six months before making
the outcome of random encounters. Our concept was for an interactive book in which YOU, the reader, a formal offer. During this time, our frustrations grew. At one point, Steve went so far as to send the
were the hero who had to read and play your way through the adventure making choices, killing monsters synopsis to Allen & Unwin, publishers of The Lord of the Rings, in the hope of convincing them to let us
and finding treasure. The challenge was how to present choices in such a way that readers would never know write a ‘You are Gandalf ’ gamebook, but they politely declined in a short letter. With hindsight, that was a
what was coming next. We solved this by breaking up the text into numbered paragraphs and then jumbling blessing since we wouldn’t have owned the intellectual property in the book, whereas we did, and still do,
them up. For example, the choice of going east or west at the end of paragraph 1 would mean turning either own the IP rights in Fighting Fantasy. Penguin finally came through with an offer letter from Tony Lacey to
to paragraph 71 or paragraph 278. It could best be described as analogue hypertext. Rather like writing a publish, but only gave us six months to write the book, which was challenging since we were ridiculously
computer program flow chart, we had to draw a map of the adventure to record all the possible paths and busy running Games Workshop.
numbered choices, and also keep a careful record of all the monsters, items, objects, coins, spells, potions, To shorten the writing process, Steve and I decided we should write half the adventure each. The
armour, weapons, clues, etc., that could be found on the quest to make sure that (a) it was actually possible mid-point, where the two parts would join, was planned to be where the reader would cross over a
to get through the adventure, and (b) it was possible to adjust the balance of the adventure to make it easier river. I wrote the first half of the adventure up to the river creating three different crossing points. Steve
or harder where required. Although the manuscript would be written sequentially, each paragraph would be continued it from there, adding the infamous maze which some people are probably still trying to find
set down on a separate page and mixed up later once the adventure was completed, playtested and balanced. their way out of after all these years. The basic premise was a dungeon-based treasure hunt set deep inside
It was as much a game as it was a book, hence our decision to call it a ‘gamebook’. the cavernous Firetop Mountain, home to the powerful warlock Zagor. We changed the title from the
By early 1980, the synopsis for the book was finally finished. We gave it the working title of The Magic anodyne The Magic Quest to The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, which was more in keeping with established
Quest and sent it off to Geraldine at Penguin Books together with a detailed encounter from the adventure fantasy titles such as The Lord of the Rings and Dungeons & Dragons.
that demonstrated the gamebook mechanic. Her first question was whether it was a book for adults or Despite having submitted the finished manuscript and come up with a more engaging title for the
children. We honestly felt it was suitable for both. Geraldine loved the concept and suspected she had book, our work was not over. The book’s editor, Philippa Dickinson, diplomatically pointed out various
something special on her hands, but she found it hard to convince anyone else at Penguin that this was inconsistencies between the two halves of the adventure such as different terminology and choices being
the case. presented in different ways. And the first draft also included the words of a song that was protected under
Geraldine recalls: ‘The idea was thrown out on its ear at the Penguin editorial meeting. Senior management copyright.
roared with laughter at the idea, one laughing so much at the crazy idea of an interactive fantasy adventure ‘What I absolutely remember is sitting them down and saying, “You’ve written two different books
book combined with a dice game, that he lay his head on the table and howled with laughter. I managed to here,” because they had very different writing styles,’ says Philippa. ‘Ian’s was quite analytical, and Steve’s
keep the proposition on the agenda for months and kept on batting away at it. In the end I was so angry was full of exclamation marks… You cross the river and it’s a completely different voice. So, one of the
that I withdrew my proposal and went off to my room to brood. This all took about a year. things that I asked them to do was to even it up.’
‘And then, one day, inspiration struck. I phoned up Patrick Hardy, who was head of Children’s One major problem was that Steve and I had used different rules for combat for the two parts of
Publishing, and he agreed to take a look and came down to my floor. That was unexpected as Children’s the adventure. We had agreed on the three basic attributes of the adventurer – reflecting the hero’s
Publishing and Adult were entirely separate and it was completely unusual for a Penguin editor to take fighting ability, constitution and fitness, and how naturally lucky they were – but had labelled them
an idea to the Children’s side. He had the proposal in his hand and of course I thought he was going to differently: Steve used Skill, Stamina and Luck, whereas I used Combat, Strength and Luck. There were
reject it, but he said, “We’d like to take this on for Puffin.” I was overjoyed. At last someone who got it! also differences in how these attributes were determined. We knew the combat system was going to be
The rest, as they say, is history.’ critical to Fighting Fantasy’s success; this was what would transform the book from a simple multiple-choice
 244 245
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THE WARLOCKS OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN

adventure into a solo role-playing adventure game. Steve had combat occurring concurrently, with the After a slow start, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain was reprinted six times in three months. With sales that
player and their opponent striking together, always using two dice, whereas I had them taking turns, with strong, Puffin realised they needed new titles – and fast. Philippa Dickinson called us up to commission
combat requiring three dice. Sometimes Steve specified the number of combat rounds that had to be two more. Geraldine Cooke had been truly vindicated for her original belief in The Magic Quest.
fought, whereas I didn’t. We took elements from both approaches and the final design was an elegant Steve immediately began writing The Citadel of Chaos, while I started work on The Forest of Doom,
system which proved to be one of the things that set Fighting Fantasy apart from the many clones that thereby eliminating any problems around differences in writing styles. By March 1983 our three titles were
appeared following the success of the series. topping the Sunday Times children’s bestseller charts.
However, for Philippa Dickinson, the problem remained that the manuscript was still ‘a tale of two
halves’. There was an obvious difference in our writing styles which needed to be addressed. We’d typed
out our halves of the adventure on paper using old-fashioned typewriters. It wasn’t a simple matter to
change the text, so Steve kindly volunteered to redraft the entire manuscript to make it consistent, and
delivered the final draft in time for publication in August 1982.
With the writing done, we then had to convince Puffin’s design department that we should commission

BELOW: The Warlock of Firetop the artists. Puffin wanted safe covers with gnomes and toadstools whereas we wanted covers featuring
Mountain, published in hideous monsters which threatened to rip the heads off the readers. We argued that we had been playing
August 1982.
RPGs and commissioning fantasy game art for over six years and knew what people liked. To their credit,
OPPOSITE: Books 2 and 3 from
Steve and Ian. Puffin let us have our way and we were able to employ the same artists we used for White Dwarf. Peter
Andrew Jones was commissioned to paint the iconic cover for The Warlock of Firetop
Mountain with its fearsome dragon looming above the warlock Zagor. Russ Nicholson
was commissioned for the internal art and delivered stunning, highly detailed black-
and-white pen and ink illustrations which are still the benchmark today.
Puffin Books were initially cautious about the book’s sales potential, and for
the first few weeks their caution seemed justified. We were told that it wasn’t
selling well. However, we felt that was a self-fulfilling prophecy since The Warlock
of Firetop Mountain had been announced with very little publicity. We promoted

RADIO WARLOCK
it as best we could in White Dwarf, and the Puffin Book Club certainly helped
promote the book in schools. Sales remained slow, and we had to rely on word-
of-mouth in school playgrounds to get the message out there. That remained

W
the case until we appeared on BBC Radio 1 to run the adventure live with ‘ e didn’t have huge marketing budgets in children’s books in those days, but we
children phoning in to make the choices from the options we gave them. did a lot of work with the Puffin Club,’ recalls Barry Cunningham, the marketing
Almost overnight, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain became a nationwide craze. director at Puffin at the time. ‘And we did a lot of trucking around the country, at
Children were captivated by the story and excited by the tense decision- various events and so on.
making needed to navigate their way through the interactive adventure, ‘We got a slot on BBC Radio 1 on a Saturday morning show with Steve and Ian, and then we played
rolling dice to battle monsters, and poring over the highly detailed art to the first book on the phones, during the course of a programme, where you had kids ringing in and
ignite their imaginations. doing it. They actually invited us back to do it again. That was one of the biggest turning points.’
 246 247
THE WARLOCKS OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN

THE WARLOCKS OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN

RIGHT: Ian’s map of
the first half of Firetop
Mountain.

OPPOSITE: Steve’s map of

the Maze of Zagor.
 248 249
THE WARLOCKS OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN

THE WARLOCKS OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN

By now we were receiving a lot of media requests. I appeared on Saturday Superstore to be interviewed Forest of Doom, City of Thieves, Deathtrap Dungeon and Island of the Lizard King and also drew the internal
by John Craven to discuss the children’s books bestseller list. We started at number ten and worked up. illustrations for City of Thieves and Deathtrap Dungeon. The covers were all spectacular. I’m often asked
When we got to three, two and one, they were all Fighting Fantasy books. He didn’t seem very impressed which is my favourite of the four and I have to say that the Goblin metamorphosing into Shape Changer
though, his main question being, ‘When are you going to write a proper book?’ I replied that they were on the cover of The Forest of Doom wins it for me. But only just. What is so incredible about these covers
inspiring a whole generation of children to read, but he couldn’t find a good word to say about them. At is that Iain used watercolours to paint them, a tricky medium at the best of times.
least I got to sit on the Pop Panel with Alvin Stardust! Steve and I often did Fighting Fantasy signing sessions at our own Games Workshop stores, especially
Two more titles, Starship Traveller and City of Thieves, appeared later that same year. The sixth book when a new shop opened. Sheffield shop manager Peter Berry recalls one such day: ‘Games Workshop
was my dungeon crawler, Deathtrap Dungeon, which came out in April 1984. It was an immediate hit and Sheffield received a massive pile of shiny new paperbacks in advance of a well-advertised signing session
was the eighth bestselling book in the UK, including adult titles, which was phenomenal at the time for by the two esteemed authors. Come the day, Ian and Steve were given a signing table near the front till and
a children’s book. we had a slick system whereby the purchasers brought their books to them, got the two magic signatures
As the series grew, Puffin were happy to commission the artists we suggested. The gritty atmospheric and were passed on to the till where they stumped up the cash and walked away clutching their treasure.
detail found in the works of Iain McCaig, Martin McKenna, Ian Miller, Brian Bolland, Jim Burns, Russ One confused young lad went through this procedure, received his book, turned to his Mum and burst
Nicholson, John Blanche, Chris Achilleos, Peter Andrew Jones, Les Edwards, Terry Oakes and others into tears. “Those men,” he sobbed, “have just scribbled in my new book!”’
became the hallmark of Fighting Fantasy, giving it its uniquely powerful visual appeal. We were certainly
aware and very much appreciative of the part the artists played in making the original editions so appealing.
Millions of children around the world marvelled at the fine detail of the creatures and characters.
If I had to pick my favourite Fighting Fantasy artist, it would have to be Iain McCaig. Not only is he
technically brilliant, but he also captures a mood or a dramatic moment like few other fantasy artists can.
Having become a fan of the work he’d done for Workshop, I asked him if he would paint the cover for
the first Fighting Fantasy gamebook I wrote on my own, The Forest of Doom. He agreed, and the finished
painting was better than anything I could have imagined. He was always my first-choice artist and I
hounded Puffin to commission him whenever he was available. He ended up painting the covers of The

FIGHTING FANTASY FOREVER

S
teve: ‘After Warlock had done so well, Puffin wanted to know if we could turn this into a
series. And yes, we could. At a meeting in Philippa Dickinson’s office, she wanted to
know what we should call this series. Ian came up with the name “Fighting Fantasy”.
I think at the time it was just expected to be a working title. But it never got changed.’

LEFT: The big day when the

contract arrived.
 250 251
THE WARLOCKS OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN

THE WARLOCKS OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN

While children around the world loved our books,
they did not escape criticism. The Evangelical Alliance
published an eight-page warning guide about Fighting
Fantasy, describing the books as the gateway to devil
worship since readers had to interact with ghouls
and demons. Petitions were sent in to Puffin Books
by worried parents demanding they be banned.
Magazine articles warned of children using their
imaginations too much when reading our books. A
worried housewife in deepest suburbia phoned her local radio station to tell the
listeners that having read one of my books, her son levitated. It was insane. Frequently asked by the
media whether interactive stories of swords, sorcery and demons were suitable for a children’s publisher
like Puffin, Editorial Director Liz Attenborough defended Fighting Fantasy to the hilt, pointing out that
our books improved children’s literacy and problem-solving whilst also inspiring creative writing and art.
And for every critic there was also a supporter. Teachers reported how our books had been extremely
successful in getting boys to read – particularly those classified as ‘reluctant readers’. sent on publicity tours to Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Japan and all over Europe, which were
Running Games Workshop during the day and writing Fighting Fantasy gamebooks at night and amazing. At one point the demand became so great we had to split some of the tours between us. In
at weekends was tough and had its consequences. We did it for more than three years, but by late 1984, I remember taking on a whirlwind tour of Australia and New Zealand, giving eighty-four
1985 we no longer had the bandwidth or television, radio and newspaper interviews in just three days, while Steve visited South Africa, Canada
the energy to do both. Something had and the USA. It was mad.
to give. Should we stop writing books But the publicity tour to end all tours happened in 1986, when Shakaishisou Sha, the Japanese
or appoint a managing director for publishers of Fighting Fantasy, invited us to visit them in Tokyo. The series was hugely popular in Japan,
Games Workshop? We’d been running having sold over 3 million copies, and we were literally mobbed by fans, who turned out at the signing
Workshop for ten years. We were events in their hundreds.
emotionally attached to the company As Steve recalls: ‘Shakaishisou Sha was a small publisher of academic works on sociology and the like.
and we still loved it. However, being Penguin’s Japanese agent approached them with Fighting Fantasy. It wasn’t their thing at all. But the Japanese
bestselling authors was very exciting and editor gave a sample of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain to his teenage son who was studying English. His
the royalty cheques were most welcome son was so enthusiastic that they quickly signed a publishing deal for the Japanese rights. I have no idea
ABOVE: The range of Fighting since we didn’t pay ourselves much at what they did to bring the books into the public eye, but whatever it is they did, it worked. Fighting Fantasy
Fantasy gamebooks published
by Puffin.
Games Workshop. became a nationwide sensation. Shakaishisou Sha, who would normally sell 5–10,000 copies of one of

RIGHT: Steve and Ian in Tokyo By 1984, the Fighting Fantasy series their academic books, sold 250,000 copies of Warlock. We were told that if they sold two million plus books
on their author tour. was a nationwide craze in the UK and in Japan they would invite us over for a grand publicity tour. They honoured their promise.’
OPPOSITE: Steve and Ian in
overseas publishers were competing And so Steve and I flew to Tokyo to embark on a memorable publicity tour of the country, where
Penguin Books’ offices in
1982. to sign up the foreign rights. We were we were mobbed by fans wherever we went. When we got back to Tokyo, Shakaishisou Sha arranged
 252 253
THE WARLOCKS OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN

THE WARLOCKS OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN

Fantasy series. Steve Jackson US (as he was referred to) agreed and spent about twenty minutes or
so thinking about the story and mission before he sat down in the Games Workshop showroom in
Sunbeam Road to begin writing. Steve Jackson US explains: ‘They described their travails in creating
Fighting Fantasy books, and the difficulty of flow-charting. I sat down and wrote the first third of Scorpion
Swamp, and they liked it.’
When the adventure was published as the eighth book in the Fighting Fantasy series, most people
assumed Scorpion Swamp was written by the UK Steve Jackson. There are some people to this day who do
not realise that the Steve Jackson who wrote Scorpion Swamp, Demons of the Deep and Robot Commando, and
the Steve Jackson who wrote such classics as The Citadel of Chaos, House of Hell and Creature of Havoc, are
two different people. Steve Jackson US comments on the confusion: ‘Occasionally I am presented with
a copy of one of UK Steve’s books to sign. I always explain, and if they really want me to, I will sign it
“The wrong Steve Jackson”.’
Over time, Steve and I commissioned several ‘Present’ series authors, including Jamie Thomson, Paul
a special Fighting Fantasy event at which we were presented with beautifully made printing blocks of our Mason, Steve Williams, Marc Gascoigne, Peter Darvill-Evans, Jim Bambra, Stephen Hand, Dave Morris
names in kanji which they had had registered. We were treated to the finest Japanese food imaginable, and Jonathan Green, who were all Games Workshop staff or had worked for Workshop in some capacity.
hosted by the chairman of the company. The poor man looked totally bemused by his two guests from Jamie Thomson says: ‘I wrote three books in the Fighting Fantasy series. The first was Talisman of Death. My
England who wanted to talk to him about Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, which he clearly knew absolutely writing partner, Mark Smith, and I wrote it out long hand, and then I typed it up in the evenings in Ian
nothing about despite the best efforts of our interpreter. Livingstone’s office, using his brilliantly modern word processor.’
What we didn’t know at the time was that when Shakaishisou Sha signed the Fighting Fantasy licence,
the company was on the verge of going out of business. But after selling over 3 million copies of Fighting
Fantasy gamebooks, Shakaishisou Sha was saved.

STEVE JACKSON AND IAN LIVINGSTONE PRESENT…

Having seen how successful the series was, other publishers began jumping on the bandwagon, rushing
out competing gamebook series of their own. But Puffin were keen to maintain their market-leading
position and decided their best strategy would be to publish a new Fighting Fantasy book every month or
so. There was no way Steve and I could write a book a month, so we decided to commission other authors
for the ‘Jackson and Livingstone Present’ titles in the series.
I wrote Island of the Lizard King which was the seventh title in the series before the first ‘Present’ title
was published. It confused a lot of people at the time, and still does to this day. Scorpion Swamp was
written by the US games designer Steve Jackson of Car Wars fame, much of it during a business trip OPPOSITE: Ian and Steve on
tour in Japan.
to meet us at Games Workshop. Having discussed distribution and licensing terms for Steve Jackson
LEFT: The two Steve Jacksons
Games in the UK, we moved on to discussing the possibility of him writing a gamebook in the Fighting enjoying each other’s work.
 254 255
THE WARLOCKS OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN

THE WARLOCKS OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN

The unintended consequence of the success of Fighting Fantasy was that it inspired several of our
employees to start writing their own gamebooks. Joe Dever was running the Games Workshop mail
order department and he teamed up with our in-house graphic artist Gary Chalk to begin a gamebook
project for Games Workshop. However, they decided they would be better off leaving Workshop to write
Lone Wolf gamebooks for a rival publisher. That set a trend with Jamie Thomson, Peter Darvill-Evans, Ian
and Clive Bailey and others leaving over time to write their own gamebooks. You couldn’t really blame
them. Games Workshop became the primordial soup out of which new gamebook writers emerged.

WARLOCK MAGAZINE
With the publication of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain in 1982, sales of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks
had been so good that Penguin Books told us they would like to publish a magazine dedicated to the
series. Naturally we were all in favour of that happening. The first issue of Warlock: The Fighting Fantasy
Magazine was published in 1984 as a quarterly. White Dwarf had been so successful for Games Workshop
in promoting role-playing games, we hoped Warlock would do the same for Fighting Fantasy.
Under the Penguin imprint, it was edited by Philippa Dickinson with Tony Lacey’s help. Steve and I
were the magazine’s editors-in-chief. But after five issues, Penguin felt a Fighting Fantasy magazine was too
niche for them and offered to transfer ownership of it to Games Workshop in exchange for free adverts
for Fighting Fantasy books in the magazine. That seemed like a good deal to us, and we agreed.
We took over publishing Warlock from issue 6 onwards with our in-house staff taking on the editorial
duties. Peter Darvill-Evans put together issue 6, while Steve Williams and Paul Mason worked jointly
on issues 7 to 9. The last four issues were edited by Marc Gascoigne. We stopped publishing
Warlock in 1986 with issue 13 when the circulation started to dip. It had certainly done its
job, but now it was time for the company to focus all its magazine publishing resources on
White Dwarf.
By the end of the 1980s there were forty Fighting Fantasy titles in print and production
began to slow. The series was due to finish with the fiftieth title, Return to Firetop Mountain, but
sales were boosted by this revisit to the location of the very first book and Puffin published
a further nine titles.
When the fifty-ninth book, Curse of the Mummy, was published in 1995, the series had sold
over 17 million copies worldwide and had been translated into more than twenty languages.
As a postscript, Fighting Fantasy gamebooks have now been published in over twenty-five
languages in thirty countries and have sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. They
are still in print today.
 THE WARLOCKS OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN
257
 18
THE BATTLE OF THE
BOARDROOM

RIGHT: Elizabeth
Attenborough, Ian,
Geraldine Cooke,
Richard Scrivener
and Steve (front)
at the Fighting
Fantasy 10th
anniversary party.
 W
260 261
GAMING GROUND ZERO

THE BATTLE OF THE BOARDROOM

hile Steve and I were busy juggling life between running Games
Workshop during the day and writing Fighting Fantasy gamebooks at
night, Bryan Ansell decided in early 1985 that it was an opportune
moment to resign from Citadel again. It was for a different reason
this time. We asked him to come to London for a meeting and he turned up at our door in a brand-new
red Lotus Esprit Turbo. Bryan liked his sports cars. He told us he was finding it increasingly difficult to
work with the senior management team at Games Workshop head office. We pointed out to him that
if he left, he would be walking away from Citadel and the brands he’d spent years building, including
Warhammer. He said he didn’t care and would start all over again. It might have been brinkmanship, but
he knew he was in a strong bargaining position. It was as though we’d learned nothing from the last time
he resigned. We still had nobody else to run Citadel; succession planning was something we never got
around to. We also didn’t have a stand-out candidate to run the Games Workshop side of the business.
We knew we needed Bryan, but then, Bryan needed us too. It wasn’t too hard to convince him to stay on
by promising him we would back him when the time came for us to step down on condition that he was
willing to be part of an enlarged operating board in the short term.
Steve and I had been running Games Workshop for ten years and with the added pressure of having
to write more and more Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, we were working round the clock. It was exhausting.
We began thinking of ways to be more hands-off in the day-to-day running of our company but without
giving up control.
The day finally came when we announced our plans to pull back from day-to-day operations, which
came as a shock to some of our employees. We stated that the Games Workshop operating board would
be made up of Bryan Ansell (Managing Director, Citadel) together with Ian Bailey (Financial Director),
Ian Waddelow (Marketing Director) and Peter Darvill-Evans (Trade Sales Manager) from Workshop. We
didn’t announce that we were looking to appoint a group managing director, but most people knew it
would only be a matter of time. It soon became apparent that the company couldn’t work without one.
Running it by committee was never going to work long-term since the new board had strong differences
of opinion on priorities. Bryan wanted Citadel Miniatures, Warhammer and the shops to be the main
focus whilst the Workshop directors wanted to focus on the shops, trade sales, games production and
magazine publishing. The battle of the boardroom had begun, and we realised we would have to appoint
a group managing director sooner rather than later. It boiled down to a choice between Bryan Ansell
and a partnership of Ian Bailey and Ian Waddelow. Bryan was the clear favourite; we’d told him as much.
Apart from his annoying habit of resigning when we least wanted him to, he’d run Citadel successfully
and profitably because of his focused vision and no-nonsense management style. We liked his plan for
Games Workshop and Citadel to drill down even more on company-owned products. By comparison,
 262 263
THE BATTLE OF THE BOARDROOM

THE BATTLE OF THE BOARDROOM

Ian Bailey and Ian Waddelow, good as they were at their jobs, were inexperienced at running companies,
particularly in the context of Citadel, and their plan for the combined company was less focused. In the
end, it was a pretty straightforward decision.
Vertical integration was the term I first heard from a journalist years before. It was a business model
that Bryan was determined to pursue even further, and we were very supportive in this respect. We sent
a letter to Bryan on 21 May 1985 offering him the position of group managing director, which he quickly
accepted. Weird though it was to pass the baton, the deed was done, and the company’s future was
now in the hands of Bryan. Accepting the new world order, Ian Bailey and Ian Waddelow resigned in
December. At last Bryan had what he wanted. We had given him the mandate to be in charge of Games
Workshop with overall responsibility for the entire group, including Games Workshop retail, Games
Workshop productions, Games Workshop wholesale, Citadel Miniatures manufacturing, publications
and distribution, and White Dwarf magazine. A plan was drawn up to move Games Workshop’s head
office and operations to Citadel at its premises in Eastwood, Nottingham, to centralise all the group’s
activities under one roof. The relocation happened six months later.

Not wishing to move to Eastwood, some of our long-standing employees opted to take redundancy

END OF AN ERA
and leave the company. The reality of the move and staff leaving made it feel almost like a family break-
up, such had been the bond of team spirit and camaraderie at Sunbeam Road. To say we didn’t have
second thoughts is an understatement. But it was the right thing to do for the company. A skeleton staff

P
eter Darvill-Evans recalls the power struggle: ‘The London end of the Games Workshop remained at Sunbeam Road in the short term to carry on production of White Dwarf together with two
business was into all manner of things. As a trade customer, or as a member of the public buying warehouse staff to help transfer all the stock up to Nottingham.
by mail order or browsing in a Games Workshop shop, you had a vast choice of products; Peter Darvill-Evans reflects on those final days: ‘I was still there – because someone had to be. The
everything from classic games such as chess and Go, board games, role-playing games, miniature figures, premises still had fixtures and fittings; it still had to be kept secure; the phone lines were still operative and
magazines, sourced increasingly from Games Workshop’s own manufacture but also from a wide array very occasionally a Games Workshop customer would call. But then I, too, was made redundant. I had to
of other manufacturers and publishers in the UK and from overseas. hand back the company car that I had had for only a few months – a beautiful (if rather old) black Citroen
‘In Nottingham, however, a very different ethos prevailed. At Citadel, Bryan Ansell’s vision was of a DS – and as part of my redundancy package I was instead given the car that had been Ian Waddelow’s: a
vertically integrated business, hermetically sealed from outsiders at every level except at the final stage – Ford Cortina. It seemed appropriate. Steve and Ian asked whether I’d be interested in writing a Fighting Fantasy
the retail sale. He saw that in buying products from other manufacturers you provided them with a profit gamebook. I said yes and Beneath Nightmare Castle was published in 1987 as Fighting Fantasy book number 25.
margin that could be yours if you did your own manufacturing. Bryan’s fundamental business model was ‘It is safe to say that all in all my time at Workshop, these were not the happiest of my life. I had
to manufacture products to sell mainly through the company’s own retail outlets. grown perhaps too strongly attached to my employing company, its proprietors and its employees. I
‘For several years the two very different approaches had managed to co-exist; but when Ian and Steve was committed to the diverse, inclusive, all games for all people ethos that I perceived to be the guiding
decided to step back from the day-to-day running of the entire business it became apparent that the co- principle of the Sunbeam Road operation. I was not at all in tune with the highly focused, vertically
ABOVE: Steve and Ian handing
existence had run its course.’ aligned business model as exemplified by Citadel Miniatures in Nottingham. But we were all very young. over the keys to Bryan Ansell.
 264 265
THE BATTLE OF THE BOARDROOM

THE BATTLE OF THE BOARDROOM

‘Looking back from a distance of some thirty-five years it is clear that Games Workshop – and even the the top. His chance came when he led the private equity-backed management buy-out of Games
experience of the ending of its London period – provided me with opportunities and skills that have stood Workshop in 1991, when Bryan, Keith Pinfold (Chief Financial Officer), Steve and I sold our entire
me in good stead ever since. Over the years I have stayed intermittently in touch with Ian and Steve – to shareholdings in Games Workshop and resigned from the board. Bryan and Keith wanted out and
whom I will be forever grateful for the remarkable experience of working with them at Games Workshop were happy to sell their shareholdings. Steve and I, who were probably more emotionally attached
during the meteoric ascent of their business. It was a roller-coaster ride with many more laughs than screams.’ to the company, were less enthusiastic. As minority shareholders, there wasn’t much we could do to
On the plus side, most people who moved to Nottingham did not regret their decision and fared well stop the sale, but told Bryan and Keith that we only wanted to sell half our shares. Keith called us
for themselves as a result. One such person was Jervis Johnson from our sales department. Jervis honed both, insisting that the deal couldn’t go ahead unless we sold our entire holding. We agreed, albeit
his skills as a games designer and designed classic titles such as Advanced HeroQuest, Blood Bowl and reluctantly. The sale went through and suddenly we were all out. It was a strange feeling and hard to
Advanced Space Crusade. He was also a key contributor to Warhammer 40,000. come to terms with at first. It took a long time to adjust to a world without Workshop and I must
admit to feeling a deep sense of loss at the time. But there was no point in looking back. It was done.
With private equity backing, Games Workshop expanded profitably under Tom Kirby in his new
END GAME position as CEO. He restructured the company and floated Games Workshop on the London Stock
Consolidation proved to be the right decision to have made. We gave Bryan the authority to make major Exchange in 1994. With public capital behind it, the company’s growth was rapid, and despite the
company decisions subject to our support. He acted quickly. Games Workshop ended its relationship occasional hiccup, it went on to become a veritable giant in the games industry employing thousands of
with TSR, along with all the other games companies whose products it distributed. White Dwarf went staff worldwide.
from being a multi-game RPG magazine to featuring only Warhammer, Citadel Miniatures and Games
Workshop’s games and shops. Over time, Games Workshop stores would only stock the company’s
own products. It was a very bold move by Bryan, and not entirely without controversy, but it was the FAST FORWARD
right move for the company. Games Workshop forged a dominant position in the marketplace with a Games Workshop has survived the test of time and its cultural impact cannot be ignored. Its
chain of retail outlets selling only high margin company-owned products. And the company was no products enjoy a level of affection which few other companies can boast. It was a company born
longer exposed to the liability of losing distribution licences from US companies. out of a passion for board games by friends-turned-entrepreneurs who didn’t really know what
As part of the package offered to Bryan as group managing director, we agreed to sell him 10% of they were doing but gave up everything to do it. We made plenty of mistakes at first, but also made
Games Workshop, which he purchased in 1987. We also gave him an option to buy a majority stake in some very good decisions as the business grew and prospered. Whilst we stepped away a long time
the business if he completed the purchase by April 1989, which he duly did just before deadline day. ago, it is gratifying to know that we put the right foundations in place. The basic business model of
That transaction left Steve and me with a minority shareholding and a seat each on the board as non- Games Workshop remains essentially the same with the value creation coming from the company’s
executive directors. shops and the intellectual property ownership of its magazines, miniatures and games. Writing this
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader was released in October 1987 and quickly became the group’s most book about events which happened over forty-five years ago has been a sentimental, if not surreal,
important product. Citadel Miniatures sales were at an all-time high and the shops were busier than ever. experience. Getting in touch with old friends and colleagues was fantastic and, in many cases, long
Steve and I were working hard to keep up with the demand for new Fighting Fantasy books, secure in the overdue. Remembering former colleagues who are no longer with us was sobering. All of us at
knowledge that Bryan was doing a great job in running Workshop. Everything was working out according Games Workshop were united by our love of games and a set of shared values. We started out by
to plan. But then Bryan dropped a bombshell at a board meeting in 1990, telling us he wanted to sell the wanting to make games that we wanted to play ourselves and discovered that a lot of other people
company and leave. This time it was for real. wanted to play them too. But never in our wildest dreams did we ever think that Games Workshop
Tom Kirby, another former TSR (UK) Ltd employee, joined Games Workshop as sales manager would become the huge global corporation that it is today; a great British success story that has
when TSR’s future was in doubt. He was promoted to general manager and had ambitions to reach stood the test of time. But we are very pleased, and very proud, that it did.
 266 267
THE BATTLE OF THE BOARDROOM

THE BATTLE OF THE BOARDROOM

LEFT: Sunbeam Road for sale.

ABOVE: The remaining staff at

Sunbeam Road.

OPPOSITE: All under one roof.

 269

Acknowledgements & Image Credits

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & IMAGE CREDITS

We would like to thank all our friends, former colleagues and associates who kindly supplied anecdotes,
quotes, photos and images for Dice Men. Most of the photographs reproduced in this work were taken
by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson and are used with permission. In the case of other photographs,
the permission of the copyright holders was sought and obtained. There remain a very small number of
photographs whose copyright holders it has not been possible to identify despite best efforts; the holders
of the copyright in any such photographs are invited to make themselves known to the publishers.

Tony Ackland Trevor Graver Alan Merrett

Diane Ansell Gail Gygax Tim Olsen
Bryan Ansell Richard Hale of The Stuff of John Peake
Clive Bailey Legends Jane Pownall
Ian Bailey (http://www.solegends.com) Rick Priestley
Peter Berry Bob Harris Colin Reynolds
Gary Chalk Steve Jackson (US) Mike Siggins
Geraldine Cooke Vicki Jackson Andy Slack
Barry Cunningham Caius Jennison Paul Stormberg
Peter Darvill-Evans Danny Livingstone Jamie Thomson
Robin Dews Bob Malin Ian Waddelow
Philippa Dickinson Iain McCaig
Marc Gascoigne Oliver McNeil
 271

MINIATURE FIGURE PAINTING CREDITS

MINIATURE FIGURE PAINTING CREDITS

The Citadel Miniatures featured in Dice Men were painted by:

Richard Abbott Richard Facey Stephen Rochfort

John Blanche Richard Hale Roy Scorer
Giuseppe Chiafele Dale Hurst Adam Skinner
Jim Cockburn Caius Jennison Andrew Taylor
Paul Cubbin Martin Legg Rob Wheeler
Mike Curry Phil Lewis
Steve Dean Andy Mott
 272 273
A NOTE ON THE AUTHORS

A NOTE ON THE AUTHORS

A NOTE ON THE AUTHORS

SIR IAN LIVINGSTONE CBE co-founded Games Workshop in 1975, launching Dungeons &
Dragons in Europe. In 1982, he co-authored The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, the first Fighting Fantasy
gamebook in the series, which has sold 20 million copies worldwide. He has written 17 Fighting
Fantasy books and designed several board games including Judge Dredd, Battlecars and Boom Town. He
moved into video games in the 1990s as Executive Chairman of Eidos plc, launching Lara Croft: Tomb
Raider, Hitman and Deus Ex. In the 2000s he became an angel investor in video games studios and served
as Chairman of Sumo Group plc until 2022. He is currently a General Partner of Hiro Capital, a venture
capital fund investing in video games studios and technologies. His hobbies include board games, sailing
and playing blues harmonica.

STEVE JACKSON co-founded Games Workshop in 1975, launching Dungeons & Dragons in
Europe. In 1982, he co-authored The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, the first Fighting Fantasy gamebook in
the series, which has sold 20 million copies worldwide. He is the author of the epic Sorcery! series of
interactive books, which have sold over 1 million copies in digital formats. He is the designer of the
collectible card game Battlecards, former editor of the Daily Telegraph games page, and Professor of
Games Design at Brunel University. He entered the video games industry in the 1990s as a co-founding
Director of Lionhead Studios, developers of Black & White and Fable. His hobbies include board games,
travel and playing the guitar.
© Oliver McNeil
 275

index
INDEX

Achilleos, Chris, 175, 248 BBC Radio 1, 244–5

Ackland, Tony, 138, 140 Beaumont, Chris, 175
Adams, Kev, 121 Beck, Rod, 203
Advanced HeroQuest, 264 Beneath Nightmare Castle, 263
Advanced Space Crusade, 264 Berry, Peter, 203, 249
Albion, 20, 22, 37 Bibby, Nick, 121, 144
Alga, 182 Biggs, Stephen, 52
American football, 181–2 Bizar, Scott, 71
Andrews, Dave, 140, 181 Black & White, 219
Ansell, Bryan, 115–17, 119–21, 124–5, 137–8, 140–1, Black Box, 30
144, 151, 173, 194 Black Sun, The, 234
and boardroom battle, 261–2, 264–5 Blackmoor, 49
Apocalypse, 23, 140, 169–70, 214, 232 Blanche, John, 138, 140, 144, 175, 248
Archive Miniatures, 115 Blood Bowl, 175, 181–2, 264
Arneson, Dave, 49 Blood Royale, 173, 181
Asgard Miniatures, 107, 115–17, 137 Blume, Brian, 54, 81, 192, 194
Ashcroft, Andy, 171 Blume, Kevin, 54, 81, 194
Atari, 213–14 Böcklin, Arnold, 103
Attack, 107 Bolland, Brian, 174–5, 248
Attenborough, Sir David, 159 Bonds, Jakob, 182
Attenborough, Liz, 250 Boston Red Sox, 82
Avalon Hill, 21–2, 52, 81, 107, 159, 169, 223 Branson, Sir Richard, 204
Braunstein, 49
backgammon, 28 British Toy & Hobby Fair, 163, 169, 184
Bailey, Clive, 72, 230, 254 Brunton, Mike, 141
Bailey, Ian, 261, 261–2 Buccaneer, 17, 22
Baker, Chris, 175, 192 Burns, Jim, 175, 248
Bambra, Jim, 141, 144, 253
Barrett, Jonathan, 153 Calamity!, 182–4
baseball, 82, 164, 213 Call of Cthulhu, 140, 169
Battlecars, 173, 175, 214 Cannon Fodder, 217
276 277
index

index
Car Wars, 252 Cow Gum, 106, 194, 229 Dungeon Monsters Starter Sets, 121 Fantasy Specials, 117
card games, 19, 30, 172 Craven, John, 248 DungeonQuest, 182 Farmer, Philip José, 141
Carver, Derek, 169, 181, 183 Creature of Havoc, 253 Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), 21, 49, 52–5, 65, 67, 69, Fiend Factory miniatures, 117–18
Chainmail, 49, 58, 141 crosswords, 30 81, 103, 107, 109, 115, 121, 137, 141, 175–6 Fighting Fantasy series, 53, 172–3, 178–9, 194, 201, 205–6,
Chalk, Gary, 175, 178–9, 228, 254 Crumb, Robert, 29, 94 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D), 71, 169 229, 241–5, 248–54, 261, 263–4
Channel 4, 182 Cunningham, Barry, 245 AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide, 189 Fighting Fantasy figures, 124–5
Chaos, Journey’s End, 217 Curse of the Mummy, 254 AD&D Fiend Folio, 169, 190–4 Fimo, 121
Chaosium, 71, 138, 169 AD&D Monster Manual, 71, 190, 192 Fiore, Albie, 30, 108, 157, 167, 169–70, 173, 191–2, 204,
Chelsea Town Hall, 69, 189 Darvill-Evans, Peter, 157, 223, 225–6, 232, 253–4, 261–3 City State of the Invincible Overlord module, 192 225–6, 228–9
Chillingworth, John, 223 D-Day, 214 D&D Character Sheets and Dungeon Floor Plans, 169 Flying Buffalo, 107
Chinese chess, 234 Deathtrap Dungeon, 217, 248–9 D&D Day, 69 Fodder Wholefoods, 96, 108
Chronicle Miniatures, 121 Defender of the Crown, 217 and Fighting Fantasy series, 241–3 Forest of Doom, The, 245, 248–9
Citadel Compendium, 144 Demons of the Deep, 253 and merger proposal, 189–94 Formula 1, 17, 22, 52
Citadel Journal, 144 Department for the Environment, 24 ‘Monstermark’ system, 190 Fulham Town Hall, 69
Citadel Miniatures, 21, 116–17, 119–22, 124–5, 137–8, Der Kriegspieler, 107 and the occult, 71–2 Fury of Dracula, 182
141, 144, 181–2, 192, 204, 233, 241 Deus Ex, 219 and retail trade, 152, 157–60, 163
and boardroom battle, 261–4 Dever, Joe, 179, 254 UK licence, 54, 58–9, 71, 88, 198 Gallagher, Phil, 141
Citadel of Chaos, The, 245, 253 Dicing with Dragons, 54 UK licence ends, 140–1, 189, 192 Gallenkamp, 24, 30
Citicon, 52 Dickinson, Philippa, 243–5, 248, 254 gambling, 72, 84–5
City of Thieves, 173, 248–9 Dinky Toys, 83 Edu-Games (UK) Ltd, 30 Game Designers’ Workshop, 107
City University Games Club, 52 Diplomacy, 19–23, 52, 190 Edwards, Les, 175, 248 Game Time, 71
Clapton, Eric, 18 Discovery Games, 159 Eidos, 109, 219 Games & Puzzles, 28–30, 37, 157, 167, 204, 230
Clarke, Russell, 217 Disneyland, 85 Emmanuel, 192 Games Centre, 103, 157, 185, 204, 233
Cluedo, 181, 204 Doctor Who, 169, 181, 183 Empire of the Petal Throne, 152 Games Designers’ Workshop, 169, 224
Coast, David, 153 Domark, 217, 219 Endless Quest, 195 Games, Games, Games, 170
Cockburn, Paul, 141, 144, 194 Doom Out, 108 Eon Products, 169, 173 Games Workshop
Coleman, Roy, 18 Dorset Naturalists’ Trust, 24 Essen Game Fair, 170 beginnings, 18–19, 23, 28–30, 37, 45
Coles, Peter, 153 Dowsey, Stuart, 234 E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial, 214 boardroom battle and stock market flotation, 261–5
Common, Mary, 108, 223, 228 Dowsey Games, 234 Eureka!, 217, 219 Breadbin office, 93–4, 103, 105, 151, 160, 225
Connor, Bob, 172 Dragon, 103 Evangelical Alliance, 250 carrier bags, 205
Conoco, 24 Dragon Dice, 195 cash flow, 96, 159
Conquest, 107 DragonLords, 233–4 Fable, 219 early expansion, 71, 81, 88–9
Cooke, Geraldine, 241–2, 245 Dragonmeet, 69, 71–2, 189 Fantasy Adventurers, 117 Games Days, 65, 67, 69, 71, 81, 115, 179, 189, 241
Cosmic Encounter, 173 Dune 2, 217 Fantasy Games Unlimited, 71, 107, 169 ‘Great Leak’, 237
278 279
index

index
Hythe Road warehouse, 223–5 Green, Jonathan, 253 Inner Temple of the Golden Skeleton, The, 53 Knight Games, 103
launches board games, 169–70, 173 Green, Peter, 18 Intellivision Baseball, 213 Koplow Games, 65
launches Warhammer, 137–8, 140–1 Greenstuff, 121 Island of the Lizard King, 249, 252 Kuntz, Rob, 88
launches miniature figures, 115–22, 124–5 Greenwood & Ball, 107
launches White Dwarf, 103, 105–9 Greyhawk, 58 Jackson, Ken, 237 Lacey, Tony, 243, 254
logo, 29, 94 Guidon Games, 49 Jackson, Steve (UK), 17–19, 21, 24, 27–30, 37, 45, 65, 81, Lambrettas, 17
mascot, 163, 169, 203 Gygax, Gail, 198 83, 85–7, 89, 94, 96, 103, 105, 108, 116, 124–5, 141, Lamming, 107
merger proposal, 189–94 Gygax, Gary, 22, 49, 52, 54, 81–2, 87–8, 141, 159, 189– 153, 157, 167, 177, 181, 185, 203, 223–5, 234 Lane, Diane, 120–1
opens further retail stores, 201, 203 90, 192, 194–5, 198 and boardroom battle, 261–5 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, 219
opens retail store, 151–3, 156–9 and Bryan Aspell, 119–21 Laserburn, 141
opens US office, 208 Halliwell, Richard, 137–8, 140–1, 144 and Dungeons & Dragons, 52–4 Leadbitter, Humphrey, 169, 203
rebrands stores, 144 Hammond, Trevor, 234 and Fighting Fantasy series, 178–9, 205, 229, 241–5, Legend of Zagor, 53
rejects Virgin offer, 204–5 Hand, Stephen, 182, 253 248–54, 261, 263–4 Leiber, Fritz, 88
staff fun and games, 164, 232–4 Hardy, Patrick, 242 and red box Warlord, 170–1 Lemmings, 217
Sunbeam Road warehouse, 224–6, 228–35, 237, 263 Harris, Bob, 175–9 and staff fun and games, 164, 232–3, 232 Leonardi, Ronnie, 81–2, 86, 89
UK D&D licence, 54, 58–9, 71, 88, 198 Harrod’s, 28 and takeover proposals, 204–5 Letraset, 29–30, 37
UK D&D licence ends, 140–1, 189, 192 Hasbro, 184 and video games, 214, 217, 219 Leviathan, 224
US road trip, 82–6 Hayes, Mike, 23, 169–70 Jackson, Steve (US), 252–3 Levin, Graeme, 30, 204
and video games, 213–14, 217, 219 Healey, Chris, 141 Jackson, Vicki, 81, 83, 86, 96 Lewis, Mike, 233
Gamesmaster shops, 201 Henzell, Ian, 203 Jenga, 184 Lindars, Liz, 108, 185, 228
Garcia, Jerry, 18 Highway Code, 21 Johnson, Jervis, 181–2, 264 Lionhead Studios, 219
Garnett College, 96 Hitman, 219 Jones, Peter Andrew, 181–2, 244, 248 Little Soldier, 107
Gascoigne, Marc, 233–4, 253–4 HMS Sheffield, 185 Jubilee Line, 24 Lloyd Webber, Andrew, 182–4
Gaye, Marvin, 17 Holt, Andrew, 52 Judge Dredd, 140, 173–4, 233–4 Lone Wolf series, 179, 254
GDW, 157, 224 House of Hell, 253 Judges Guild, 71, 192 Lord of the Rings, The, 243
Gen Con, 49, 81–2, 86–8, 224 Howard, Robert E., 141 Just Games, 103 Lovell, Steve, 203
Giant Rat miniatures, 115 Hume, Karl, 203 Lucas, George, 173, 205
Gibson, Ian, 174 Humphrey the dragon, 163, 169, 203 Kaye, Don, 49, 54 Lucasfilm, 173
Glimne, Dan, 182 Humphries, John, 30 Keele University Games Society, 21–3 Lund, Nick, 121
Go, 28, 234 Hunter, Alan, 175, 192, 205 Kerouac, Jack, 82
Gollop, Julian, 214, 217 Hyboria, 141 Kidd, Glenn, 71 McCaig, Iain, 173, 175, 205–6, 248
Goodwin, Jes, 121, 124, 144 Killer, 233 McDonald, Oliver, 152–3
Grateful Dead, 18, 22 Imagine, 141, 194 Kings & Things, 173 McDonald’s, 83
Graver, Trevor, 105, 152–3, 157, 160, 223, 229 Indianapolis 500, 83 Kirby, Tom, 264–5 Macfarlane, Duncan, 120–1
280 281
index

index
McKenna, Martin, 248 Morrison, Trish, 121, 144 Pinfold, Keith, 265 Sanctum of the Sixth Province, 53
McKeown, Mike, 217 motor racing, 83 Pisa, 184 ‘Satanic Panic’, 157
McWilliams, Bob, 224 Podoski, Joanne, 140 Saunders, Al, 189
Malin, Bob, 203, 214 Naismith, Bob, 121, 124, 144 Pong, 213 Scorpion Swamp, 252–3
mancala, 28 Napoleonic wargames, 21, 49 Pope, John, 153 Scrabble, 204
Manchester City Football Club, 17 Necromancer, see Talisman Pownall, Jane, 81, 83, 85–6 Second Chance Games, 170–1
Marauder Miniatures, 121 New Infinities Production, 195 Priestley, Rick, 137–8, 140–11, 144 Secret of Monkey Island, The, 217
Marsh, Ian, 109, 194, 226, 233 Newark Folk Museum, 116–17 Pulsipher, Lew, 169 Seleucid Macedonians, 21, 109
Mason, Paul, 253–4 Newman, Barbara, 81, 83, 86 Seymour Hall, 65, 67, 69, 71
Mayall, John, 18 Nicholson, Russ, 172, 175, 192, 244, 248 Quicksilver Messenger Service, 22 Shakaishisou Sha, 251–2
Mayfair Games, 169, 185 Nigel, Stephen, 153 Quirks, 173 Sharks, The, 232
Mega-City One, 174, 234 Northern Games Day, 71 Sibbick, John, 144
Mega-Lo-Mania, 217 Nottingham Model Soldier Shop, 137 Railway Rivals, 52, 173, 180 Sinclair ZX Spectrum, 213–14, 217, 233
Melnick, Lloyd, 86, 89 Novotrade, 217 Ral Partha, 71, 115–17 Slack, Andy, 108–9, 157, 223
Merrett, Alan, 120, 144 Rats, The, 164, 232 Smith, Mark, 253
Metagaming, 71, 107, 169 Oakes, Terry, 248 Reaper, 137, 141 softball, 164, 232
Middle Earth, 141 Olsen, John, 208, 223, 226, 232 Red Shift, 214 solitaire, 28
Midwest Military Simulation Association (MMSA), 49 Olsen, Tim, 158, 203, 208 Redding, Otis, 18 Solomon, Eric, 30
Miller, Ian, 248 Organized Crime, 65, 67 Return to Firetop Mountain, 254 Source of the Nile, 159
Miller, Laurence, 203 Owens, Robert, 108, 223 Reynolds, Colin, 157–8, 223, 228, 232 Space Hulk, 182
Milliput, 121 Owl & Weasel, 23, 37, 45, 52, 55, 58–9, 65, 69, 81, 87, 103, Risk, 17, 21–2 Space Invaders, 213
miniature figures, 21, 88, 103, 107, 109, 115–22, 124–5, 107, 140 Roberts, Peter, 22 Space Marines, 124, 144
151, 169, 262 Robot Commando, 253 SPI wargames, 52, 81, 107, 169
see also Citadel Miniatures Parker, Graham, 120 role-playing games (RPGs) Stalingrad, 21
Minifigs, 21, 107 Parker, John, 22 concept, 54 Star Wars, 173
Minot, 107 Parker Brothers, 53 definition, 54–5 Stardust, Alvin, 248
Miss Wisconsin Teenager 1976, 88 Parlett, David, 30 and occult, 72, 157, 250 Starship Traveller, 248
Molyneux, Peter, 219 Paull, Allan E., 179 and retail trade, 151 Steve Jackson Games, 169, 252
Monopoly, 17, 21–2, 137, 163, 204 Peake, John, 18–19, 24, 27–8, 54, 65, 81 Rostherne Games, 180 Stilgoe, Richard, 183
Monty Python, 58 Penguin/Puffin Books, 241–5, 250, 252, 254 Royal Horticultural Hall, 189, 241 Strachan, Mark, 217
Moorcock, Michael, 141 Perren, Jeff, 49 Rune Hammer, 138 Strategic Review, The, 103
Morris, Colin, 203 Perry, Michael and Alan, 121, 124 RuneQuest, 81, 109, 138, 140, 169, 206, 231 Subbuteo, 17
Morris, Dave, 253 Pet Shop Boys, 228
Morrison, Aly, 121, 124, 144 Pickett, Wilson, 18 Sam & Dave, 18 table football, 232–3
282 283
index

SUPPORTERS
Tabletop Games, 137 Wargames Research Group, 21, 141
Tactical Studies Rules (TSR), 49, 52, 54, 58, 67, 81, 87–8, Warhammer, 125, 137–8, 140–1, 144, 182, 194, 261, 264
103, 107, 141, 169, 189–95, 230, 264 Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, 124, 144, 264
Talisman of Death, 253 Warlock, 169, 172
Talisman, 140, 173, 175–9, 182, 217 Warlock: The Fighting Fantasy Magazine, 254
Tamla Motown, 17 Warlock of Firetop Mountain, The, 172–3, 178, 181, 201, Unbound is the world’s first crowdfunding publisher, established in 2011.
Task Force Games, 169 229, 241, 244–5, 248, 251, 254 We believe that wonderful things can happen when you clear a path for people who share a passion. That’s why we’ve
Tate, Keith, 203 Warlord, The, 21–3, 108, 169–71 built a platform that brings together readers and authors to crowdfund books they believe in – and give fresh ideas that don’t
Taylor, Mick, 18 Warrior Knights, 173, 181 fit the traditional mould the chance they deserve.
Temptations, The, 17 Warriors, The, 164 This book is in your hands because readers made it possible. Everyone who pledged their support is listed below. Join
Thomson, Jamie, 109, 217, 226, 228, 232–4, 253–4 Watts, David, 180 them by visiting unbound.com and supporting a book today.
Thornthwaite, John, 124 Wesely, David, 49
TM Games, 223 West End Games, 169
Topps Baseball cards, 82 Westminster Central Hall, 72 Billy Abbott David Allen Paolo Andrighetto Steve Attwood
Topshop, 189 Wheatley, Dominic, 217 Angus Abranson Sally Allen Andrea Angiolino James Aukett
Tower of Despair, 217 White Dwarf, 71, 115–16, 119, 138, 140, 152, 157, 159–60, Loris Accaries Rob Alley William Angus Balthazar Auxietre
Towerblox, 184 163, 167, 169, 172–3, 179, 192, 203, 205–6, 213, 233, Matthew Ackerman Nicolas Allinckx Kirk Annett Derek Avery
Traveller, 81, 109, 120, 140, 157, 169, 224, 231 254 George Glenn A Adams Hamad Alnajjar Sorin Annuar Anthony Avila
Trollcrusher, 115 artists, 175, 192, 244 Jon-Paul Adams Sam Alonso Jerry Anthony Matthew Avis
Tunnels & Trolls, 81 and boardroom battle, 262–4 Terry Adams Paul Aloysius Murphy Pressard Antoine Mark Ayres
Turnbull, Don, 20, 22, 37, 190–5 and failure of Imagine, 194 Mark Addams Daniel Alpin Shannon Appelcline Alessandro Azzone
Twisted Wheel club, 17 Fiend Factory columns, 117, 190–3 Peter Adkison Andre Alves Garzia Robert Arcangeli Duncan Bailey
2000 AD comic, 157, 174 launch, 103, 105–9 Matt Adlard Omar Ameer Ragnar Arneson Graham Bailey
Sunbeam Road office, 226, 228–30 Ben Ahmady Robin Amlôt Dixon Arthur Jon Bailey
Valley of the Four Winds, 169 Williams, Lorraine, 194–5 Lari Ahokas Aaron Amorim Jamie Arthur Martin Bailey
Vance, Jack, 141 Williams, Steve, 217, 234, 253–4 Michael Aiken Justin Amphlett Richard Ashcroft Richard Bailey
vertical integration, 159, 262–3 Wizards of the Coast, 195 Alex Ainsworth Matias Ampiainen Simon “Darkson” Ashe John Baker
video games crash, 204, 213–14 wooden games, traditional, 28–9, 81 Gordon Aitken Asbjørn Andersen Stuart Ashen Stephen Baker
Virgin, 204–5 Woodley, Matthew, 219 George Albanis Tommy Kobberø Adrian Ashton Laurence Baldwin
Christian Albrecht Andersen John Ashton Paul Baldwin
Waddelow, Ian, 203, 233, 261–3 Yastrzemski, Carl, 82 David Aldridge Charlie Anderson Balder Asmussen Owain Bale
Walker, Jr., 17 Dan Algstrand Craig Anderson Michael Atkinson Gavin Ball
War in the Falklands, 185 Zappa, Frank, 164 Alistair Keith Anderson Peter Atkinson James Ball
Wargames Illustrated, 121 Zelazny, Roger, 141 Dave Allchurch Thomas Anderson Jonathan Attfield Tom Ball
 284 285
SUPPORTERS

SUPPORTERS
Tom Barbalet Harry Beet Andrew Blake Dave Braines Mark Buckley Dave Calleja and Kenny Chapman Richard Clyne
Jonathan Barmby Michael Beggs Paul Blakeley Thomas Brandstetter Turhan Buckley Daniel Schmidt Timothy Chapman Adam Coakley
Tom Barmby Jonathan Beighton Jamie Blakeman Richard Brass Joshua Buergel Justin Calvert William Chapman Richard Coates
Mark Barnes Adrian Belcher Kelvin Bland Mikael Brauer Stephane Buffat Devin Cameron Mark Chapple Baumann John Coats
Michael Barnes Graeme P. Bell Peter Blenkinsopp Federico Brausi James Bullock Chris Camomile Elwin Charpentier Brendan Cobb
Philip Barnes Gabriel Bendayan Steffen Blings Thiago Brazolin Geoffrey Bultot Phil Campbell Anthony Charrie Mark Cobbold
Geoff Barrall Gregory Benedicto James Bloodworth Abdulmassih Frederick Burbidge Alistair Canlin Leigh Chatfield Stephen Cochrane
Dan Barrett Pat Benic Matthew Bloomer Pat Breen Simon Burdett James Cann Joe Cheal Jim Cockburn
Dane Barrett Shaun Bennett Neil Blumfield Rupert Breheny Joseph Burge Glyn Cannon Kyle Cherry Edward Codling
Doug Bartholomew Jonathan Bentley Martyn Blundell Henrik Brenni Peter Burgess Working Capital Miles Cheverton Dave Cody
Chris Bartlett Danny Benyammine Oliver Bock Richard ‘Bat’ Brewster Ros Burgin Marco Cappellari Brydon Cheyney David Cohn
Gary Bartlett Ian Berger Stuart Bodman Ben Bridges Gordon Burnett Patricia Carden Carey Chico Penny and Rob Coke-
Nigel Bartlett Edwin Berkhout Dermot Bolton Adrian Briggs Andrew Burns Joe Carlson Robert Chilton Woods
Daniel Barton Mark Berkley Nic Bonczyk Daniel Bristow-Bailey Greg Buron Lee Carnell David Chilvers Kimberly Colas
Neal Barton Adam Berry Daniel Bond Struan Britland Charles Burrows Carmin Carotenuto Nicholas Chin Kevin J. Coleman
Michael Basc Julien Berry Adam Bone Nick Brooke Ben Burton Iain Carsberg John Christensen Robert Coleman
Richard Basey Peter Berry Mat Bone Tim Brooke Toby Burton Jason Carter Loyre Christophe Paul Coley
Steve Bass Tim Berry Paul Boobyer Alan Brookland Tony Burton Matthew Carter Nick Church S Colgate
Eddie Batcho Filippo Bertuzzi Charles Boot Jordan B Brooks Kate Bush Matt Casey Boris Cibic David Colin-Doiron
Andy Bate James Best Kyle Booth Matt Broom Richard Bush Marc Cashen Ben Clapperton Guillermo Coll Ferrari
Alex Bates Niall Best Daniel Borge Matthew Broome Redmond Busuttil Neil Castle Aron Clark Steve Collier
Rene Batsford Laurent Bettens Jacek Borkowski Claire Brotherton David Buswell-Wible Tom “scratch_eddie” Malcolm Clark Christian Collins
Laurent Batteix Dan Betts David Boston Matthew Broughton Andrew Butkus Castle Oliver Clark Andrew Cook
Jan Bauer Michael Beverland Arnaud Boudoiron Adam Brown Joe Butler Joshua Cathcart Sian Clark Ashley Cook
Ian Baumann Paul Biggs Pete Bounous Iain Brown Nik Butler Brandon Cating Adam Clarke Conan Cook
Charlie Baxter William Binns Alexandre Boureau Jim Brown Richard Butler Chris Catling Dean Clarke David Cook
Matt Baxter Zachery Bir Adrian Bowden Kaylee Brown Mark Butterworth Mark Cawley Simon Clarke Nic Cook
Jp Bayford Tim Birch Jon Bowen Liam Brown Ben Buxton Cédrick Chaboussit Theo Clarke Richard Cookson
Adam Baylis-West Simon Birks James Bowman Tim Brown Richard Byles Ian Chambers Martin Clausen Michael Cope
Bob Bayliss Jon Bissett Brett Bracalenti Steven Browning Paul Byrne Stewart Chambers David Clegg Richard A. Cope
Dominic Beal Brian Bjerregaard Bergh James Bracher Mikkel Bruun Conor Byworth Julian Champion Robert Clements Mark R Cordell
Peter Bebergal Jaakko Björklund Becca Bradford Christian Bryan Martin C Duane Chandler Louis Clerc Raphael Cornford
Chris Beddoes Artemis Black Pete Bradley A BS Sean Cable Christopher Chant Loressa Clisby Richard Cornish
Neilson Bedwell Wayne Blacklock Scott Bradley John Buck John Caboche Becky Chantry Claudius Clüver Fernando Correa
 286 287
SUPPORTERS

SUPPORTERS
Peter Corrigan William Davies Ava Dickerson Chris Dunn Ross Evans Jason Fisher James Gadbois Brian Gilkison
Kip Corriveau Alex Davis Christopher Dickinson Vivienne Dunstan Joshua Even James Fishwick Patrizio Gagliardi Chris Gill
Richard J. Cottam John Davis James Dickinson John Durrad Sean Eversole Ethan Fleischer Boris Gaiardo Jon Gillard
Alexander Coultas Rob Davis John Dickinson Fraser Dutch Charlie Evett Stewart Flitton Alan Gairey Kieron Gillen
Eddie Courtroul Tim Davis Colin Dicks Philip Dutré David Ewalt Richard Fogarty Arbitor’ Ian Galloway Greg Gillespie
Andrew Cousins Dominic Davis-Foster Nick Dickson Stephen R. Dutton Murray Ewing Nils Fohrbeck Christopher Galtenberg Richard Gillin
Andrew Cowie Andy Dawson David Dierks Richard Dwerryhouse Liam Eyers Nuno Folhadela Duarte Gama Nunes Andrew Gilmore
Alan Cowsill Phil Dawson Dan Dimitrescu Dave Dyer Richard Eyres Christian Fonnesbech Rodrigo Garcia Carmona Robert Gilmour
Ivan Cox Simon Day Joost Dirkx Tancred Dyke-Wells Federico Faenza Kevin Forcet Antonio Jorge García Matthew Ginnever
Robert Cox Chris de la Force Patrick Dixon Paul Eastabrook Harley Faggetter Adrian Ford Lentisco Alessandro Giovannucci
Jarrett Crader Michael de Plater John Dodd Martin Eastaugh Simon Faircliff Martin Ford Adolfo García Santos Marie-Barbe Girard
Findlay Craig Tim de Pooter Ian Dodds Mark Eatherington Lorenzo Fantoni Manu Forget Joshua Garland Tobias Gissler
Paul M. Cray Vin de Silva Nicholas Dodds Andrew Edney Andrew Farries Euan Forrest John Garlick J.R. Glas &
Ben Crean Colin Deady Samuel Dodson Nick Edwards Jacob Fathbruckner Johan Forssell James Garoutsos T.M. Pearson
Rob Creer Michael Dean Aaron & Laura Doherty Roger Edwards (Ral Partha/IWM) Dana Fortier Mars Garrett Martin Glassborow
Claudio Criscione Steven Dean Karl Donald Per Kristian Eilertsen Jules Fattorini Ian Foster William Garrood Gnaw
Daniel Crookes Corinne Dearn Stephen Donlan Johan Ekström Matthew Faulkner Mike Foster Patrick Garwood GNiko
Gavin Crosby Barclay Deeming Aarghal Doomangel Tomi Ellenberg Graham Faux Frederick Foulds Andrew Gaskell Gilles Gobron
Timothy Crosen Jon Deeming Derek Doran Jonathan Elliman Howard Fearnhead Phil Francis Annabel Gaskell P. Goddard
James Crosfield Brenden Delaney DnDCombat dotcom Christopher Ellis Charles Fecteau Ben Franck David Gaskin Geoffrey Goffin
Adam Crossingham Stefan Demmel Jackson Doud Simon Ellis Steven Feeney Pablo Franquet Sam Gawith Joshua Golding
Harold Crossley John Dennis Darren “SableDnah” Jerry Elsmore Tom Fendick Klemens Franz Matt Gebert Javier González Calvo
Martin Crosthwaite Philip Denton Douglas Matthew Emery James Ferguson Oliver Fraser Jens Geffert Martin Gooch
David Crowther Martin Derbyshire Paul Douglas Joseph Endris Luis Fernández Matthew Frederick Merijn Gelens Jack Good
Matthew Cunnington Joseph DeSimone Dave Dow epredator Peter Feuer-Forson Jason Freeman Randy Gelling Leon Goodbody
Michael Curtis John Devlin Russell Down Kenneth Erickson Jonathan Field Seth Freeman Cristian Gerhardt Paul Goodison
Rowan D’Albert James Dewes Louis Downs Sebastien Ermacore Juan Carlos Jesús Figueira Alexander French Verdasco Mark Goodman
Alek Dabrowski Matthew Ian Dewhurst Terry Draper Pirkka Esko De Abreu Stephan Freundorfer Nicholas Gersh Matthew Goodman
Rurik Dahlberg Alex Dewinter Dr. Jason Driver Pablo Estrada Paul Fillery Kjeld Froberg Russell Gibb Paweł Góralski
Jake Dale Robin Dews Robert Dryburgh Nick Evancich Darren Fillingham Felipe Augusto Froner Scott Gibbens Sean Gordon
Tom Dartnell Jamie Dexter Mark Duddridge Cath Evans Dan Findlay-Robinson Cavalcante Braga Jamie Gibson Paweł Górecki
Andrew Davidson Thibaud Di Natale Michael Duffy David Evans Rich Finn Jamie Fry Malcolm Gibson Matt Gorham
Brynley Davies Antonio M. Díaz Soriano Phil Duncan Eugene Evans Frédéric Fiquet Steven Fuller Chris Gidlow Patric Götz
Lewis Davies Jamie Dick James Dunk Jack Evans Andrew Fisher Guy Fullerton Peter Gifford Dylan Gould
 288 289
SUPPORTERS

SUPPORTERS
Colin Gourlay Allan T. Grohe Jr. Russell Hampson Philip Hayes Justin Hill Petter Ø Skybak Holmsen Mark Hunter John Jennings
Nick Gow (“grodog”) Laure Han Michael Hayrabedian Paul Hill Steve Holness Patrik Hurtig Nicholas Jennings
Duncan Graham Peter Grose Jon Hancock Russell Haywood Robert Hill Ross Holt Anthony Hyams N.R. Jenzen-Jones
James Graham Kevin Grover Matt Hancock Grant Hazelton Tom Hillenbrand Tyrone Homes Peter Hyde David A. Jepson
Andy Grant Andreas Gruber (Not the MP) Tom Healey Gareth Hills Kerenza Hood Julian Hynd Steve Jeyes
James Grave Grumpy Old Tin Matthew Hanlon Leo Healy Rob Hinchcliffe Nick “Goblin Ink” Anthony Hynes Erik Johansson
Caspar Gray Shawn Guarino Christopher Hannon Laurie Hedge David Hing Hopkins ian@fenris Tristan John
Steve Gray Ian Gullon Thomas Hanssen John Hegarty Jam Hirons Christian Horazeck Roddy Ide Ben Johnson
Jeremy Grayson Thomas Gunnarsson Jamie Hardi Michael Heilemann Titus Hjelm Simon Horner Jeff Imrie Colin Johnson
Simon Grayson Jason Guth Jon Hare Christopher Heim Svein Børge Hjorthaug Nick Horobin Tristan Inghelbrecht Darren Johnson
James D Green Stephanie Guy Michael Harker Thorbjørn Hein Derek Ho Angharad Horsey Tom Inglis Mark Johnson
Jordan Green Miguel Angel Guzmán Pat Harkin Lee Heise Matthew Hoagland Ralph Horsley Daniel Inman Martin Peter Johnson
Karen Green Espinosa Andrew Harmel-Law Kurt Heiss James Hoare Stu Horvath Alastair Irvine Zack Johnson
Mal Green Niki Gyoshev Darren Harmon Martin Helsdon Michael Hobbs Peter Hoskin Craig Irvine Chris Johnson (Toggo)
Mark Green Timothy Hacker Euan Harries Tom Hemingway James Hodden Jeroen Hostyn Suzanne Isaacs Aaron Johnston
Nick Green Andy Haddon Alastair Harris René Hempe Derek Hodge Adam Hough Christian Ittner Antony Johnston
Steven Green John Hagan Ed Harrison Jon Henderson Andrew Hodson Zach Howard David Jack Iain Johnston
Kenneth Greene Nick Hagan Paul Harrison Patrick Henderson Thomas Hoffmann Bryan Howarth Carl Jackson Alex Jones
Ian Greenfield Andrew Hage A.F. Harrold Casey Hendley Andrew Hogan Matthew Howlett Daniel Jackson Daniel Jones
William Greenslade Anthony Hajos Jamie Harrold David Hendrie Mick Hogben Heath Hoxsie David Jackson Gethin Jones
Mark Greenwell Andy Hall Chris Hart Clive Henry Richard Hoggett Jonathan Hoyle Tony Jackson Michael Jones
Andrew Gregg Ashley Hall Ned Hartley Paul Henry Troy Holaday Stefan Hoyle Bradley Jacobs Mike Jones
Martin Griesehop Charles Hall Carl Harvey Skye Herrick Nick Holder Tim Huckelbery Jack Jacobs Steve Jones
Stephen Griffin John Hall Colin Harvey Roger Herriott Alan Holdsworth Calder Hudson Jonas Jacobsson Sven Jonsson
Andrzej Griffith Matthew Hall George Harvey Chris Hibbins Dan Holland Liam Hudson Morgan Jaffit Tim Lund Jørgensen
Peter Griffith Bruce Hallman Phil Harvey Devon Hibbs Turan Holland Matthew Hudson Mikael Jakobsson Lukas Jötten
Dan Griffiths Peter Halls Sam Harvey Neil Hickton-Collins Andrew Hollos Chris Hughes Marcel Jakubec Matthew Jukes
David Griffiths Alan Halpin Michael Haspil Mark Hides Chris Holloway Gavin John Hughes Laurent “Warlock-Man” Scott Julian
Ian Griffiths Isaac Halstead Dave Hatton Ian Hidewell James Holloway Owen Hughes Jalicous Malcolm Junor
Mike Griffiths Steven Hamelin Stephen Haunts Ben Higginbottom Kevin Holloway Thomas Hughes Daniel James Kamarul Azmi
Ray Griffiths Alex Hamilton Jeremy Haupt Simon Hildreth Matt Holmberg Craig Hulkes Alexander Janaway Kamaruzaman
Stephen Griffiths Emily M Hamilton Richard Hawes Douglas Hill Jim Holmes David Hummel Alex Jans Daniel Kaseforth
Richard Griggs Damian Hammond Greg Hawkins Felix Hill Kevin Holmes Adam Humphrey Steve Jeffery Kathie & Mark
Pete Gritton Stephen Hampshire Michael Hay James David Hill Robert Holmes Michael Humphries Beth Jenkins Keisuke Katsuhara
 290 291
SUPPORTERS

SUPPORTERS
Mike Kavanagh Sergio Klinke Thomas Lanvin Adam Liptrot Joseph Lyne Brian Martel Joseph McGuire Robert Mills
Chris Kay Martin Klobouk Řehořík Simon Larner Konrad Lischka David Lynton Christian Martin David McIlmoyle Brett Mindrobber
Philip Kaye Filip Klofczynski James Laughton Jason Lissner Rob MacAndrew Ian Martin Graham McIntyre Miss Oatham’s D & D
Shad Keatinge Terry Knipe Benjamin Laurence Fernando Liste Azpeitia Colin Macdonald Kevin Martin Paul McLaughlin Club
Matt Keefe Ian Knope William J Laurie Markus Lithell Robbie Macdonald Robert Masella Sean McLaughlin Gary Arnold Mitchell
Daniel Kelleher James Knowling James lawrence Shelley Little Stefan Mach Matthew Masiello Alastair McLellan James Mitchener
Frank Kelly John Koch Chris Lawson Jordan Lloyd Duncan Mackay Riku Maskulin Chris McLeod John Mitchinson
Sean Kelly Chris Kohler Erwann Le Torrivellec Frazer Locke Scott Mackay Lauren Mastin Scott McManus Jesper Moberg
Chan Kenneth Harald Köhncke Elizabeth Eva Leach Charlie Lockhart Scott MacKenzie Matt Mastracci Simon McOwan Stefan Moelants
Charlie Kennett Masayuki Kojima Joshua Leak Eric Lofgren Robert Mackie Norbert G. Matausch Mike Mearls Justin Mohareb
Larry Kenney Hannu Kokko Alex Leatherland Andy Long Duncan Mackintosh Peter Matejtschuk Roberto Meglio Matthew Mole
Paul Kenney Ryuta Komaki Louise Lee James Long Gordon MacLeod Roger Mathew Rick Meints Antonello Molella
Jonathan Kenning Lé Kouzes Michael Lee Janne Lönnqvist Rob MacMahon David Mathieson Gabriel Meister Donagh Molloy
Steven Kennish John Kovalic Richard Lee Marcelino Lopez Richard Macpherson Louis Mathys Paul Mellor Tetley Molyneux
Andrew Kenrick Alex Krasnic Stuart Lee Marek Loskot Nick Madge Allan Matthews Rick Melvin Mike Monaco
Greg Kent Jordi Kroon Y. K. Lee Nicholas Lovell Christian Toft Madsen Leo Matthews Harry Menear Hugh Monahan
Alexander Kerber George Krstic David Lee Stone Guy Lovelock Antti Mäenpää Oliver Matzke Clément Menez Edward Monk
Paul J. E. Kershaw Thorsten Kübler Ben Legg Kevin Low Akira Magamo Edward Maxwell Daniel Mersey Peter Mons
Michael Kettlewood Mikko Kurki-Suonio Lary Lego James Lowder Terence Magennis Adam May Aurélien Merville Amílcar Monteiro
Jonathan Key Shujon & Bijal Kushari Forest Lehman Lee Lowe Hans E Magnusson Richard May Chris Metzen Steven Montgomery
Dan Kieran Kelly L’Roy Daniel Lehto Mattias Löwhagen Stu Maine François Mazen Karl Alexander Meyer Tom Moody-Stuart
Pat Kilbane Mark Lacey Andi Lennon David Loyd-Hearn Alex Mair Joseph Mazurek Adrian Mihai Zamfirescu Chris Mooney
Tom Killingbeck Grégory Lacroix Ville Lepistö Karl Lu Antti Mäkinen David McCann Pavle Mihajlovic Scott Moore
Andrew King Mark Lain Colin Lev The Ludoquist Bob Malin John McCardell Teis Anker Mikkelsen David Moratal
Ellie King Mark Lambert katherine Lewis William Lukash Oran Maliphant Ben McCool Tom Miles Albert Moretó Font
Robert King Mark Lancaster Phillip Lewis Andrew Lum Johan Malmström Peter McCowie Stephen Millar Geoffrey Morgan
Steven King Stephen Lancaster Ash Ley Carlos Manuel Luna Jeremie Mamo Joseph McCullough Paul Millard Luke & Hannah Morley
Will King Alex Landing Xander “Liquidus” Li Cuenca Muhammad-Isma’il David McCurdy Sean Millard Richard Morley
Jason Kingsley Gunnar Landqvist Mark Lifton Jan Lund Sandfeld Manjothi Justin McFarland Alexander Miller Morph
Anthony Kirby Matthew Langfield Mark Lilley Colm Lundberg Simon Manning Paul McFarlane Evan Miller Doomsdave Morris
Tim Kirk John S. Langley 林立人 Lin Liren Patrik Lundqvist Keith Mantell Richard McGain Iain Miller Robert Morris
Jim Kitchen Mark Langley Christian Lindke Fredrik Lybeck Christophe Marc Antony McGarry-Thickitt Richard Miller and Simon Morris
Kåre Kjær Vincent Langlois Jordan Linton Will Lybrand Emiliano Marchetti Peter McGinn Jacqueline Miller Matthew Morrison
Stuart Klatcheff Robert Langston Timothy Linward James Lynch Steven Marsh Mike McGuigan David Millington Dave Mortimer
 292 293
SUPPORTERS

SUPPORTERS
Alex Moseley Ben Newton Tom O’Sullivan Daren Parrwood David Pilling James Pryce Dr Mike Reddy Matt Rider
Richard Mosses Jack Newton Colin Oaten Ian Parry Mark Pilling Kevin Pryke Ian Redfearn Matthieu Rider
Ulf Mueller James Philip Newton Julian Oldfield Michael Parsons Rick Pillow and Sam Pillow Daniel Puddle Kevin Charles Redfern Utz Riehl
Rob Mukherjee Andy Nichol Philip Oliver Joe Partridge Andy Piper Jason Pugh Andy Reed Brian Riese
Beco Mulderij Bruce Nicholls James Olver Samuel Partridge Jon Place Robert Purchese Christian Reed Kevin Riese
Stephen Mullin Andrew Nicolaou Lord Chaotl Oml Kevin Pascoe Nicolas Planchard Iain “Mosh” Purdie Philip Reed Steve Riese
Jason Mumford Gary Nield Derek Orford Matthew Pateman Jens Ploug Andrew Purdy Stuart Reed Austen Rietveld
Javier Murillo Christian Nienhaus Original Oldhammer Sean Patterson Ralph Plowman Jas Purewal Carl Reeder Mark Riley
Justin Murphy Chris Nix Artwork Nicholas Payne George Poles Gabriele Quaglia Jamie Rees Sean Riley
Richard Murphy Timothy Nixon Efrem Orizzonte David Paz Casado Dave Polhill Lars Quante Owen Rees Tom Riley
Wayne Murphy Snuurg No-nose Kasper Ornstein Mark Pearce Justin Pollard Matthew Quy Peter Rees Marco Riva
Colin Murray Christopher Nobbs Mecklenburg Fabrizio Pedrazzini The Pondy-Upton Darren Rabick Robert Rees Rms
Ewen Murray Jonny Noble Santi Orozco Shawn Penrod Pookie Marc Racine David Reid Danny Roberts
James Murray Kenji Nonoshita Christopher Orr Anton Pepe James Portnow Graham Raddings James Reid Gareth Roberts
Matthew Muscat Chris & Ben Noon Olav Övrebö Matt Perdeaux Michael Potts Richard Radford Stephen Reid Matt Roberts
Brad Musson Jørn Nordli Charles Owen Neil Perrins Matthew Poulter Joshua Radis Hans Reifenrath Nick Roberts
Naab Jeppe Arnesen Nørgaard Elgan Owen Simon Perrins Nick Pournaras Stephen Radney- Richard Reilly Stephen Roberts
Tivadar György Nagy Sally Norris Emma Owen Darcy Perry Charles Powell Macfarland Mark Rein John Robertson
Craig Naples Johan Norrman Mark Kenneth Owen Dave Perry James Powell Darius Rafter Dirk Remmecke Joe Robins
Mo Nassar Arthur Noseda owljey Dominic Perry Simon Powell Kari Räisälä Neil Rennison Maisie-Jill Robinson
Todd Nation Andy Nuttall Chris Page Joseph Perry John Power Andrew Ramsden Charles Revello Matthew Robinson
Carlo Navato Charles Peter Nystrom John Palagyi Sean Pervin Chris Pramas Todd Ramsey Chris Revie Glyn Robinson-Byrne
Simon Neale Viktor Magnus Nyström Daniel Pallos Alec Peters Ivan Prentice Thomas Rasch Hansen Aaron Reynolds Graham Robson
Hal Neat Thomas O’Beirne Nicolai Palmblad Ross Petersen Liz Prescott Philip Rasmussen James Reynolds Pier Luigi Rocco
Tim Needham Gerard O’Brien Lord Marc Bourbonus Mark Petrick Simon Pretty Matt Ratcliffe Neil Reynolds Jean-Baptiste Roche
Neil @ SFandFantasy.co.uk Eric O’Dell Palmer David Petterson David A Price Stephanie Raubach Max Ribaric Daniel Rodriguez
David Nelson Brendan O’Donovan Steve Palmer Robert Pettet Jonathan Price Kurt Rauer Andy Ribaudo Friedrich Roehrer-Ertl
Klil H. Neori Fiacre O’Duinn Steven Pannell Andrew Phillips Lewis Price Tomas Rawlings Kevin Ricci Melissa Rogerson
Lasse Nevala Daniel O’Gorman Kostas Pappas Liam Phillips Rick Priestley Henry Rawlinson Jarrod Rice Andrea “Romanz”
Lars Nevalainen James O’Grady Adam Parfieniuk Simon Phillips Marco Prinzi Lee Rawnsley Daniel J Richardson Romano
Tom Neville Liam O’Hara Andrew Park Andy Phippen Michael Pritchard Stephen Ray Henry Richardson John Root
Jon New Bryan O’Neile Colin Parke Sylvestre Picard Jason Private Polina Razlivanova Iain Richardson Ian Rose
Paul Newrick Chris O’Neill Nick Parker Samuel Pickard Joseph Procopio Alexander Read Tim Richardson Sarah Rose
Gavin Newson Kieran O’Sullivan Richard Parker Thomas Pike Grauer Prophet John Read Sam Rickman Jack Rosen
 294 295
SUPPORTERS

SUPPORTERS
Richmond Rosen Stephen Salt Richard Shambrook Phil Sivills Thomas Smith Jim Stirrup John Tearle - Flix Peter Brask Tind
Rob Rosenthal Owain Salter Fitz-Gibbon Tim Shannon Skidge Adrian Smith David Stirzaker William Teeple Adam Tinworth
Wayne Rositer Jon Salway Martin Sharkey Andrejs Skuja (TheNinjaFinger) David W. Stockdale Tekwych Nagy Tivadar György
Andy Ross Alberto Sánchez Argüelles Glen Sharman James Slade Tom Snodgrass Julian Stodd William Tempest David Tobin
Iain Ross Darren Sandbach Christopher Sharp Donald Slater Michael Soares Dan Stone Steve Temple Richard Todd
Joshua Ross Robert Sandboge Sam Sharp Jeff Slaughter Sarah Soden Jez Stone Simon Teppett Bradley Tolhurst
Alex Ross-Shaw Justin Sarginson Matthew Shearn Keith Sleight Dan Sollis Joe Stone Daniel Termin Michael Tongue
Bernard Rosseel Abhilash Sarhadi Robeena Shepherd Ross Sleight Greg Spatuzzi Mark Stoneham David Tetlow Simon Tonkiss
Adam Rosser Sami Sarioglu Mark Shepherdson Brian Slinn Sam ‘Warmonger’ Spiteri Pamela Strachman Stefan Teucher Eric Topp
Nick Rotheroe Mike Sault Matt Sheriff Barney Sloane Caleb Spratt Strange Attractor Press Christopher Thacker Steve Townsend
Ben Rowe Rob Saunders Michael Sherwin Alan Slocum Dennis Spreen Tony Strongman Daniel Thaumiel Nerub Pete Tracy
Chris D Roy Warren Saunders Nicole Shewchuk Iain Smedley Jay Springett Andrew Sudbury Robert Thay Christopher Trapp
Michael Roy Drew Scarr Roy Shewry Adam Smith Robertjohn Sproule Takanori Sugiura The Shop on the Michael Travis
Robert Roy David Schaffner Atsushi Shimamoto Adam Michael Smith Chris Sprules David Sullivan Borderlands Barry Treen
Liam Royle Lars Schietzel Christopher Shingler Alistair Smith Paul Squires Craig Summers Clive Thomas triflingtricker
Manuel Rozoy Bernhard Schlaefli Mizuho Shiraishi Andrew Smith Tim Stables Stuart Sumner Martyn Thomas Joe Trigg
Jamie Lee Rudge Phil Schroeter Matthew Shirk Andy Smith Mark Stacey Christofer Sundberg Matt Thomason Gonzalo Trigueros
Sam Ruffle Coles Matthew Thomas Scibilia Matt Shoemaker Cameron Smith Lawrence Stagnetto Calle Sundstedt Chris Thompson Alan Triplow
Cindy Rusczek David Scott Robert Shooter Gavin Smith Jake Staines Gordon Sutton David Thompson DW Tripp
Gareth Rushgrove Lindsay Scott Blake Shrode Jared Smith lee staines Anders Svensson Jamie Thompson Michail Trofimov
James & Oliver Rushmer Richard Scott Jared Shurin Kieron Smith Robert Stallard Dave Swan Ross Thompson Ignacy Trzewiczek
ruskus Simon Scott Jon Shute Mark Albert Smith Paul Stanway Evan Switzer Doug Thomson Chris Tuck
Gary Russell Tim Scott Dan Sich Michael Smith Dave Starling Matthew Sylvester James Thomson Nicholas Tuczemskyi
Will Russell Chris Scruton Lleucu Siencyn Nic Smith David Starner Modern Synthesist Dominic Thoreau Graham Tuer
Erik Rutins Bob Seabold Jan Sijp Nick Smith Benedict Steele Wes Szmaglik Nigel Thornton Clark Edward Tumber
Daniel Ryan Matt Seaborn Andy Simcock Paul T Smith Alan Stephen Andrew Tabar Gav Thorpe Ian Turner
Mike Ryder Tom Sears Dr Alexander Simkin Peter Smith Edward Stephens Adam Tandy Marc Thorpe James Turner
Alex Rzem Marcin Segit Ash Simmons Quintin Smith Toby Stephens Aron Tarbuck Jon Thorvaldson Mike Turner
Ciro Alessandro Sacco Anthony Selley Simon Randy Smith Jason Stevens Willis Tawney Simon Threasher Paul Turner
Dee Saigal Keith Senkowski Peter Simpson Rick Smith Jon Stevens Dave Taylor Dan Tibbals Rob Turpin
Tomasz Sajewicz Gavin Service Alan Sims Russ Smith Hugo Stevenson Keith Taylor Ken Tidwell Carl Tuttle
Emma Saligari Richard Shackleton Peter Simunovich Sam Smith Mark Stevenson Matt Taylor Dr. Daniel Tietze Brian ‘Smidge’ Twomey
Brian Salisbury KJ Shadmand David Sinclair Scott Smith Andrew Stewart Paul Taylor Joe Tilbrook Ben Tye
Jake Salmonsmith Behrooz ‘Bez’ Shahriari Matt Sinclair Simon Smith Christian Still Peter Taylor Roger Tiley Dave Tyler
 296 297
SUPPORTERS

SUPPORTERS
Richard Tyndall Gregory Volz Richard Warnes Phil Wheatley Gareth Wilson John Wood Alex Wright Donald Young
UESM - Casa dei Giochi Martin von Hadel Stuart Warren Dave Wheeler Robbie Wilson Matthew Wood Barry Wright Jay Young
Stefan Unteregger Charles Wace Kevin Warwick Daniel Whelan Alex Wiltshire Nigel Wood Ben Wright Tom Young
David Upchurch Andrew Waite Jo Watkins Levin Wheller Cory Winn Shaun Wood Craig Wright Dawid Zadrożny
Dean Upton Julien Waite Iain Watson Nick Whitby Michael K. Winterling Thomas Wood David Wright Eric Zag
Simone Urbini Seb Wakely Keith Watson Benjamin White James Winward-Stuart Paul Woodgate Dominic Wright Jose Zagal
Jim LB Usher Bob Walker Michael Watson Paul White Jamie Wiseman Tom Woodhead Mark Wrynn Gershon Zamir
Christopher Valera Chris Walker Paul Watson Daniel Whitehead Richard Withers Ian Woodley Hugh Wyeth Fabio Zanicotti
Richard Vallat Ian Walker Tom Watson Gary Whitehorn-Cox Stuart Witts Miles Woolfenden Arek Wylegalski Alexander Zick
Diederik van Arkel Paul Walker Tim Watt Sadie Whitehorn-Cox Tomek Wojciechowski Alec Worley Gareth Wynn ZM
Patrick van den Berg Rich Walker Anthony Watts Peter Whitelaw Sean Wolfe Boris Worrall Denny Yan Stefan Znosko
Wim Van den Berghe George Walkley Bob Watts Nicholas Whitney Jimmy Wong Sanford Worth Nick Yates 雅丈 篠井
Chris van Gorder Christian Wall David Watts Roger Whittington Daniel Wood Glenn Wotherspoon Yedermann
Arjan van Olst John Wall Stu Watts Christopher Wickham David Wood David Wren Whit Yost
Tom Vananderoye Steven Wall Dan Webb Ben Wicks
James Vance Anthony Waller Paul The Mighty Webb Daniel Widdicombe
Carl Vandal Matthew Waller Jordan G Weber Lawrence Widdicombe
Remy Varannes Andrew Walsh Che Webster Michael Wieloch
Jason Varcoe Ben Walsh Peter Webster Sven Wiese
Miika Varis Ryan Walsh Tim Wegner Michael Wigert
Phil Vaughan Bryan Walton Eric Weissgerber Raymond Wiggins
Craig Vaughton Nicholas Walton CJ Toby Welch Alan Wijntje
Carlos Vazquez Damien Walz James Welford Tim Wild
Aidan Vella Matthew Wang Julien Wera Andrew Wild-Woods
Rune Vendler Weiyin Wang Iain Werry Robert Wilde
Péter Verebélyi Clemens Wangerin Jools West Thomas Wilkinson
Antoine Vernet Paul Warchuck Richard West David Willems
Steven Vest David Ward Ian Westbrook Lee Willett
Guillaume Vialet Glen Ward Bo Westergaard David J Williams
Vicci & Nick Lee Ward Niall Westland Gary Williams
Thomas Vie Mark Ward Luke Weston Jay Williams
Olivier Vigneresse Matthew Ward-Lambert Bradley Whale Martin Williams
Jason Vince a.k.a. Stephen Ware Steven Wharton Matt Williams
Dreamwalker Spirit Alex Wareham Katy Wheatley Dan Williamson