Warhammer RPGs
Warhammer is fighting its way back into roleplaying with a fresh fourth edition of ‘80s classic Fantasy Roleplay and the first RPG set during the Age of Sigmar. Cubicle 7’s Dominic McDowall reveals his personal quest to bring back a tabletop icon
A NEW OLD WORLD
Words by Matt Jarvis
Dominic McDowall discovered Warhammer as a ten-year-old after finding his cousin, fellow game designer Simon Lucas, painting plastic skeletons. It was an encounter that would change his life. Soon, the young fan was seeking out every Games Workshop title he could get his hands on, from Warhammer 40,000 to Talisman and Adeptus Titanicus. Then came the game that would lead him to pursue a career in roleplaying game design and ultimately co-found RPG publisher Cubicle 7: 1986’s Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.
“It’s enormously important to me personally, and the first roleplaying game I played”, McDowall recalls today. “I didn’t know of anyone playing RPGs so I read it through and ran it for my friends, and that was that. The Rocky-style training montage of my adolescence would be sponsored by Games Workshop.”