White Dwarf (magazine) - History

History

Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone initially produced a newsletter called Owl and Weasel, which ran for twenty-five issues from February 1975 before it evolved into White Dwarf.

Originally scheduled for May/June 1977 but first published one month later on a bimonthly schedule with an initial (and speculative) print run of 4,000, White Dwarf continued the fantasy and science fiction role-playing and board-gaming theme developed in Owl and Weasel but, owing to the increase in available space, began to produce reviews, articles and scenarios to a greater depth than had previously been possible.

The magazine was hugely influential in the 1980s when it helped to popularise role-playing games in the UK. This included material for the 'big three' role playing games of the time: (Advanced) Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest and Traveller. For a time White Dwarf also contained material for those American RPGs for which Games Workshop had the UK licence, competing directly with TSR's own UK publication, Imagine, and various other mainstream UK and imported fantasy and science-fiction gaming magazines.

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. One huge attraction of the magazine was its incorporation of mini-game scenarios, capable of completion in a single night's play, rather than the mega-marathon games typical of the off the shelf campaigns. This would often be in the form of an attractive and interesting single task for either existing or new characters to resolve. These could either be slipped into existing campaign plots, or be used stand-alone, just for a fun evening, and were easily grasped by those familiar with RPG rules.

During this period the magazine included lots of features such as the satirical comic strip Thrud the Barbarian and Dave Langford's "Critical Mass" book review column, as well as a comical advertising series "The Androx Diaries", and always had cameos and full scenarios for a broad selection of the most popular games of the time, as well as a more rough and informal editorial style.

In the mid-late 1980s, however, there was a repositioning from being a general periodical covering all aspects and publishers within the hobby niche to a focus almost exclusively on Games Workshop's own products and publications. The last Dungeons and Dragons article appeared in issue 93, with the changeover being relatively abrupt and 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 conduit for new rules and ideas for GW games as well as a means to showcase developments. It often includes 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 related paraphernalia created by Games Workshop. It 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 HeroQuest.