Editing White Dwarf

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White Dwarf is a magazine published by British games manufacturer Games Workshop. Initially covering a wide variety of fantasy and science-fiction role-playing and board 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 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[1] but first published one month later on a bimonthly schedule with an initial (and speculative[2]) 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 RPGs 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[citation needed], 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, also 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 and 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==

In December, 2004, 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 magazine's content is divided between the three core games (Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warhammer 40,000 and The Lord of the Rings SBG), with roughly equal amounts of page space devoted to each, although (The Lord of the Rings SBG) usually has the least amount of space with usually only 1/4 to 1/5 of the magazine.

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. The format has gone through several changes in recent years - ranging from a simplified, generalized style in the 2006-7 editions, to a return to a more detailed and visual style from October 2007.

Since the extremely popular Battle Games in Middle-earth magazine finished its series, two members of its team (Mark Latham and Glenn More) have joined the White Dwarf team; Mark Latham later became the editor of White Dwarf in July 2007. It was hoped that White Dwarf's future articles would be improved to the Battle Games in Middle-earth standard, as the then moderator of the Games Workshop official forum, Steve Hammatt, said: "Hopefully this will mean good things for future LOTR content in White Dwarf." [3]

On 26 May 2007 White Dwarf celebrated its 30th birthday with celebrations in Games Workshop stores around the world.

== Bibliography==
Haley, Guy (December 2004). "The History of White Dwarf". White Dwarf (Games Workshop) (300): 6–11.  
gonding@cs.odu.edu. "A Brief History of White Dwarf". http://users.visi.net/~templar/WD/WDhistory.html. Retrieved 2007-03-31.

^ Livingstone, Ian (April 1977). "White Dwarf". Owl and Weasel (Games Workshop) (25): 6.  
^ http://www.eidosinteractive.co.uk/ian_livingstone/biography/part4.html 
^ Post from Games Workshop forum

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