White Dwarf (magazine)
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White_dwarf_237.jpg
Cover of White Dwarf issue 237
White Dwarf is a magazine published by British games manufacturer Games Workshop. Initially dedicated to all kinds of role-playing games, the magazine is now dedicated exclusively to the wargames produced by Games Workshop, mainly the core systems of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warhammer 40,000 and Lord of the Rings.
Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone initially produced a magazine called "Owl and Weasel" which ran for approximately 25 issues before being re-vamped into "White Dwarf".
First published in 1977 and focused on wargaming and role-playing, it received a strong boost when the first editions of the RPG Dungeons & Dragons, published in the UK by Games Workshop, referred to White Dwarf on its back page. This allowed people who had bought this game to order the magazine directly from Games Workshop, establishing its circulation.
The magazine was hugely influential in the 1980s when it helped to popularise RPGs, including those American RPGs for which Games workshop had the UK licence. In addition to this a generation of writers passed through its offices and onto other RPG projects in the next decade, such as Phil Masters and Marcus L. Rowland.
Today the magazine focuses exclusive on miniature wargames and covers the models, minatures and hobby stuff created by Games Workshop throughly.
UK White Dwarf Editors
- 1977 - 1986 Ian Livingstone
- 1986 - Ian Marsh
- Paul Cockburn
- Mike Brunton
- Sean Masterson (around Issue 100)
- Phil Gallagher
- Simon Forrest
- 1991 - 1995 Robin Dews (Issue 140 - 190, third longest serving editior)
- 1995 - 1998 Jake Thornton (Issue 190 - 215, the card section in the magazine come and goes)
- 1998 - 2004 Paul Sawyer (Issue 215 - 301, occasinally called "Fat Bloke")
- 2004 - now Guy Haley (Issue 302 - and until now)
External links
- UK White Dwarf official website (http://uk.games-workshop.com/whitedwarf/)
- U.S. White Dwarf official website (http://us.games-workshop.com/news/whitedwarf/default.htm)
- White Dwarf Index (http://www.criticalhit.co.uk/whitedwarf/) — a searchable database of White Dwarf magazine articles from April 1988 to December 2003