Warhammer has become a major UK-born pop-culture phenomena with its soon-to-be Hollywood ascension and millions of plays and fans worldwide. Dr Tomas Rawlings, currently writing a book on the early history of Warhammer 40,000, how it managed to create a world/setting/game that has drawn so many in and what lessons designers/creatives can learn from it for their own work. This talk will cover one of the key aspects that identifies Warhammer as its own unique setting – Chaos. While having inspirational roots in mythology and older cultures via more recent authors such as Micheal Moorcock and artists such as Frank C. Pape, the nascent Citadel Miniatures, led by Bryan Ansell developed a fantasy concept of ‘chaos’ which over time became a distinct flavour of its own setting. This take on chaos soon became unmoored from the mythological ‘chaos vs law’ battle that tended to play out in past takes on the concept and evolved into its own ‘grimdark’ setting. The original gaming concepts of chaos predated Citadel Miniatures/Games Workshop from Ansell’s previous company, Asgard Miniatures, but it was in Nottingham in the creative forges of Citadel Miniatures that the concept found its root and grew. Initially peppering releases of Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000, it would grow though Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay into the seminal two volume Realm of Chaos books. Complete with cultists, dark magic, ritual, seduction, corruption and anger – this new take on chaos would come to be a defining characteristic of the setting and be the stage for waves of innovation for the games. This presentation looks at that key timeline, what the concepts drew from and how it developed during that key 1983 to 1990 period of definition.
Author bio
Dr Tomas Rawlings is VP at Sumo Digital & co-founder of game studio Auroch Digital. He is an award winning game designer who has worked on digital & physical, original titles (e.g. Mars Horizon) and IP (e.g. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun and Dark Future). Also working on a book about 40K.
