Game_Designers'_Workshop

Game Designers' Workshop

Game Designers' Workshop

Wargame and roleplaying game publisher

Not to be confused with the unrelated UK-based Games Workshop.

Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) was a wargame and role-playing game publisher from 1973 to 1996.[1] Many of their games are now carried by other publishers.[2]

Quick Facts Company type, Industry ...

History

Game Designers' Workshop was originally established June 22, 1973. The founding members consisted of Frank Chadwick, Rich Banner, Marc Miller, and Loren Wiseman. GDW acquired the Conflict Games Company from John Hill in the early 1970s.

GDW published a new product approximately every twenty-two days for over twenty years. In an effort to bridge the gap between role players, board wargamers and miniature wargamers, the company published RPGs with fantastic settings alongside games with realistic themes including rulesets for 15mm and 20mm miniatures set during the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the modern era; and boardgames involving these eras such as the Air Superiority series and Harpoon.

The company disbanded February 29, 1996 after suffering financial troubles.

Products

Role-playing games

Board games

More information Year, Designer ...

Miniatures rules

  • Fire & Steel (Napoleonic Wars, 1978)
  • Harpoon (modern naval combat), later developed into a computer game
  • Johnny Reb (American Civil War)
  • Striker (science fiction, 1983), another Traveller based game.
  • Command Decision (20th century warfare, World War II. 1st and 2nd editions; a 3rd edition was written by Frank Chadwick and published in 1998 by EHQ and Old Glory)
  • Combined Arms (Cold War, post-WWII)
  • TacForce (20th century warfare)
  • Over the Top (20th century, WWI)
  • Star Cruiser (23rd century space warfare) a 2300AD-based game
  • Sky Galleons of Mars (Space 1889 aerial warfare, boxed board game with miniatures)
  • Cloudships and Gunboats (Space 1889 aerial Warfare, boxed board game with miniatures)
  • Soldier's Companion (Space 1889 land, air and sea warfare)
  • Striker II (science fiction, 1994), Traveller: The New Era–based game.
  • Volley & Bayonet (big battles in black powder era, 1994)

Grenadier Magazine

The Grenadier was the house magazine from 1978 to 1990, with 35 issues. It started off as a quarterly magazine, but towards the end was published sporadically. Although it covered games from all companies, it gave most of the magazine space to GDW games.

Journal of the Travellers Aid Society

Journal of the Travellers Aid Society was a magazine dedicated to Traveller published by GDW between 1979 and 1985.

Challenge

Challenge was a role-playing game magazine that replaced Journal of the Travellers Aid Society.[4] It covered all of GDW's role playing games, not just Traveller. It was published between 1986 and 1996.

Video games

Awards

References

  1. [1]
    Jason Weesner (January 11, 2007). "On Game Design: A History of Video Games". Game Career Guide. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
  2. [2]
    "Far Future Enterprises - Home". Far Future Enterprises. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
  3. [3]
    The Traveller Bibliography, page 25
  4. [4]
    "The top 10 RPG magazines of all time". The Shop on the Borderlands. January 12, 2013. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
  5. [5]
    "1976 List of Winners Presented at Origins 1977". Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Archived from the original on August 30, 2007. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
  6. [6]
    "1978 List of Winners Presented at Origins 1979". Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Archived from the original on August 30, 2007. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
  7. [7]
    "1979 List of Winners Presented at Origins 1980". Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Archived from the original on August 30, 2007. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
  8. [8]
    "1980 List of Winners Presented at Origins 1981". Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Archived from the original on August 30, 2007. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
  9. [9]
    "1981 List of Winners Presented at Origins 1982". Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Archived from the original on August 30, 2007. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
  10. [10]
    "1982 List of Winners Presented at Origins 1983". Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Archived from the original on August 30, 2007. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
  11. [11]
    "1984 List of Winners Presented at Origins 1985". Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Archived from the original on August 30, 2007. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
  12. [12]
    "1986 List of Winners Presented at Origins 1987". Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Archived from the original on August 30, 2007. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
  13. [13]
    "1987 List of Winners Presented at Origins 1988". Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Archived from the original on August 30, 2007. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
  14. [14]
    "1988 List of Winners Presented at Origins 1989". Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Archived from the original on August 30, 2007. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Game_Designers'_Workshop, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.