We are pleased to announce that our second annual Games Workshop Research Day is taking place on Saturday 11th October 2025!
For its second outing the event will run all day from 9:30 until 20:30 and has three parts. The morning will be dedicated to talks about Games Workshop’s games, the afternoon will be a ‘playable exhibition’ in which we pair gaming with presentations, and the day will conclude with a social evening of sporting mayhem as we come together to watch Blood Bowl played live.
Join us at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in Manchester for a day of talks and gaming. This event is free and is open to everyone. Places are limited. Please book your ticket by clicking the link below:
Schedule
9:30-9:45 Registration
9:45-13:00 Talks (see call for papers below)
13:00-13:45 Lunch break
13:45-14:45 ‘Games Workshop’s Player Communities’ - roundtable discussion
15:00-17:30 Playable Exhibition (see call for games below)
Join us to play and discuss Games Workshop’s games at our playable exhibition.
18:00-20:30 – Blood Bowl live!
In collaboration with The Waterbowl, Manchester’s oldest and best Blood Bowl league, we’ll end the day by watching a Blood Bowl match, with commentary from RickWreckless and Caimh McDonnell, and filmed by Geek Pride’s Matt Geary.
Call for papers (morning talks)
We invite papers about topics connected to Games Workshop, including its history, games and miniatures, and the Black Library, from any disciplinary background. Possible themes could, for example, include:
·The use of global history and cultures in world-building;
Aesthetics and narrative design;
Gender, masculinity, and sexuality;
The history and development of particular games (analogue or digital);
Competitive gaming and gamer cultures;
The cultural impact of Games Workshop.
If you are interested in presented a paper at the event, send an abstract of up to 300 words to Jenny Cromwell (j.cromwell@mmu.ac.uk) and Paul Wake (p.wake@mmu.ac.uk) no later than 31st July 2025. Papers will be 20–25 minute in length. As a reminder, this event is open to everybody and so should be understandable to all members of the audience.
Call for games/posters (afternoon playable exhibition)
New this year is the ‘Playable Exhibition’ – a combination of demo games and research. We’re inviting proposals from people who are interested in running a Games Workshop game (tabletop or digital) that relates to a research topic of their choosing. The format will require you to run a game alongside a poster presentation on your chosen topic.
Games must be suitable for ‘drop in’ play (i.e. playable in a relatively short period of time by players who may be new to the system) and must be playable on a table of 3’x3.’
Posters should be prepared in A0 format in portrait orientation (height: 1189 mm, width: 841 mm). There is no template. Make sure the text is clearly readable and graphs and figures are complete with all the necessary labels.
We invite proposals that combine any game related to Games Workshop with a theme of your choice. Potential games/topics, for example, include:
Representations of historical periods in Games Workshop’s games (for example, representations of Ancient Egypt in the board game Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb;
The use of specific game mechanics in games (for example, push-your-luck in Blood Bowl);
Story telling across a range of media (for example, the development of the Warhammer universe in video games);
Aesthetics and narrative design (for example, the storytelling in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay);
Gender, masculinity and sexuality (for example, bodily representations in Necromunda).
If you are interested in presenting and running a game, send a proposal of up to 300 words to Jenny Cromwell (j.cromwell@mmu.ac.uk) and Paul Wake (p.wake@mmu.ac.uk) no later than 31st July 2025. As a reminder, this event is open to everybody and so should be understandable to all members of the audience.
