| abstract
| - 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 games (RPGs), the magazine received a strong boost when the first edition of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, 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 1980's when it helped to popularise RPGs in Great Britain and much of the English-speaking world, including those American RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons for which Games Workshop had purchased the UK license to distribute. In addition to this, a generation of talented fantasy 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 focusing on all aspects of roleplaying, tabletop wargames and board games to one that focused almost exclusively on Games Workshop's own products and publications - the changeover being obvious by the publication of Issue 100 in April 1988. 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 Games Workshop to publish new rules and ideas for their games as well as a means to showcase new Games Workshop products. 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 war games and thoroughly covers the models, miniatures and hobby material created by Games Workshop. White Dwarf has carried the tag line "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 faction in Warhammer Fantasy, whose rules are published only in certain issues of White Dwarf (being revamped for the most recent, 8th 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 in the Warhammer World. 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.
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)