Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 16:02, 27 June 2007

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

History

Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone initially produced a magazine called "Owl and Weasel" which ran for approximately twenty-five issues before it evolved 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.

The magazine changed over the years, making a move from being a general magazine on all aspects of roleplaying, tabletop and board games to one that focussed almost exclusively on Games Workshop's own products and publications - the changeover being obvious by issue 100. In this respect it took over some of the aspects of the Citadel Journal, an intermittent publication that supported the Warhammer Fantasy Battle game. The magazine has always been a means for GW to publish new rules and ideas for their games as well as a means to showcase developments. It often includes articles on rules updates, scenarios, campaigns, hobby news, photos of recently released miniatures and tips on building terrain and constructing or converting miniatures.

Today the magazine focuses exclusively on miniature wargames and thoroughly covers the models, miniatures and hobby stuff created by Games Workshop and White Dwarf has carried the tagline "Games Workshop's monthly gaming supplement & Citadel miniatures catalogue" for a long period.

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

White Dwarf today

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

The magazines content is divided between the three core games (Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warhammer 40,000 and The Lord of the Rings SBG), roughly equal amounts for the two Warhammers, with increasing amounts of space given over to the Lord of the Rings SBG.

Recent issues (April and May 2006) have seen a reduction in page count and a decrease in the volume of written content in the magazine. Older issues of the magazine (in the 80s) included features such as the satirical comic strip Thrud the Barbarian and Dave Langford's "Critical Mass" book review column, as well as the more rough and informal editorial style.

The monthly battle reports have arguably been White Dwarf's most popular feature for many years, as acknowledged during various White Dwarf editorials. Battle reports used to be blow-by-blow accounts of a battle between two or more forces, usually with their own specific victory conditions. The reports followed the gamers through their army selection, tactics and deployment, through the battle to their respective conclusions. Recently the format has changed to an extremely generalised sweep of the whole process.

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

On the the 26th of May 2007 White Dwarf celebrated it's 30th birthday with celebrations in Game workshop's around the world. A limited edition model was produced and was only available on the 26th and 27th of may.

Spinoffs

There is also a biweekly online supplemental free e-zine Black Gobbo that is produced by Games Workshop's US studio. It includes two regular columns, "Rules of Engagement" and "Ask the Scenery Guy," to help answer gamers' questions. Similar to its printed counterpart, it is devoted to the games and hobbies created by GW. Just like its printed counterpart, Black Gobbo also has its own character, published on the web with its own article, rules, and modelling tips. The name is a pun. Gobbo stands for Goblin, which is hated by the Dwarfs. Dwarfs are, likewise, hated by Goblins. Black is also the opposite of white, hence Black Gobbo is the exact opposite of White Dwarf; one being free, electronic, short, weekly, black and a Goblin while the other one cost something, printed, long(comparatively), monthly, white, and a Dwarf.

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

Criticisms

White Dwarf magazine has, like the hobby itself, attracted a share of criticism. In fact negative public sentiment caused the White Dwarf team to close their own internet forum, issuing a slightly contradictory statement that a public forum "is not necessarily the best way to get...feedback" from the public. The message in full is as follows:

THE WHITE DWARF FORUM IS NOW CLOSED

The White Dwarf forum was originally created to gather feedback on the issue from readers. However, we believe that a forum is not necessarily the best way to get this feedback and, as such, the decision has been reached to close it.

We would like to thank everyone for contributing to the forum over the last year. If you want to continue contributing feedback to White Dwarf, then please write to the address below.

As with other Games Workshop products the magazine has been criticised for its price, though at £4 per issue it is currently around the UK average.

Further criticisms have been levelled at the amount of catalogue space in each issue which remains unchanged despite the overall reduction in page count.

As a regular feature is example battles between armies, there has been suspicion that those where a newly released army list or model range is involved are "rigged". The new product is seen to win the battle - eg with the release of new Beastmen army and new Lizardman units. Though circa 1998 to 2002, the new army list would seem to lose versus an older army list (with the exception of the Blood Angel Codex, but that victory is down to the scenario special rules in a scenario specially made for the Blood Angels), after a while, White Dwarf starting showcasing new armies the month after its release, which changed the luck of the new army. It has only been since around the release of Warhammer 40,000 4th Edition that White Dwarf has reverted back to showcasing the same month of release.

UK White Dwarf Editors

• Ian Livingstone: Issue 1 (June/July 1977) - (1986)
• Ian Marsh
• Paul Mason
• Paul Cockburn
• Mike Brunton: Issues 84 (December 1986) - 93 (September 1987)
• Sean Masterson: Issues 94 (October 1987) - 107 (November 1988)
• Phil Gallagher: Issues 109 (January 1989; there is no Editor credited in issue 108) - 116 (August 1989)
• Simon Forrest: Issues 117 (September 1989) - 139 (July 1991)
• Robin Dews: Issues 140 (August 1991) - 189 (September 1995); third longest-serving Editor
• Jake Thornton: Issues 190 (October 1995) - 214 ("Orktober": October 1997); the card section in the magazine comes and goes
• Paul Sawyer: Issues 215 (December 1997) - 301 (January 2005); occasionally called "Fat Bloke"
• Guy Haley (UK editor from issues 302 to 310, international editor to present): Issues 302 (February 2005) - present
• Owen Rees (UK editor): Issue 311 (November 2005) - September 2007

Sources

• Haley, Guy (December 2004). "The History of White Dwarf". White Dwarf (300). Games Workshop: 6–11. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• gonding@cs.odu.edu. "A Brief History of White Dwarf". Retrieved 2007-03-31. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

See also

• Games Workshop
• Battle Games in Middle Earth
• Warlock (magazine)

Gallery

• Cover of White Dwarf issue #2. Cover of White Dwarf issue #2.
• Cover of White Dwarf issue #67, July 1985. Cover of White Dwarf issue #67, July 1985.
• Cover of White Dwarf issue #237, October 1999 Cover of White Dwarf issue #237, October 1999

External links

• UK White Dwarf official website
• U.S. White Dwarf official website
• Australian White Dwarf official website
• Canadian White Dwarf official website
• White Dwarf Indexes:
  • White Dwarf Database — searchable official UK index of all articles after #100
  • Neokaw: White Dwarf Article Index Database — searchable US index covering #317-254 (excluding Golden Deamon & Lord of the Rings)
  • Critical Hit: White Dwarf Index — searchable UK index #100-288 (April 1988 to December 2003)
  • The Improved and Expanded Exodite's White Dwarf and Fanatic Press Index — searchable and browsable (by game), covers #1-322 (mixture of UK and US editions)
  • Index to White Dwarf — browsable index by topic, covers #1-237

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