Warhammer World Space Marine. Photo by Julie Gibbons (CCBY2.0)
We are pleased to announce that the third annual Games Workshop Research and Play Convention (note the new name) is taking place on Saturday 19th September 2026 at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester. Games Workshop has been at the forefront of tabletop gaming for over five decades, producing some of the most culturally significant games, miniatures, and fictional worlds in the hobby’s history. GWRPC brings together researchers, players, and designers to explore Games Workshop's games and their wider legacies, welcoming contributions from all disciplinary backgrounds.
This event is free and open for all members of the public, staff and students to attend (under 18s must be accompanied by an adult). However, places are limited. Please book your ticket by clicking the link below:
SCHEDULE
9:20-09:50 Registration
09:50-10.50 Talks 1 (Chair Paul Wake)
Steven Dashiell (Morgan State University), ‘Bro Brushes: Examining discursive gender capital and gaming capital in miniature painting’
Emily Sullivan (Manchester Metropolitan University), ‘Gender Representation within Games Workshop’s Middle-earth™ Strategy Game: I Am No Man (but most are)’
10:50-11:00 Break
11:00-12:30 Talks 2 (Chair Jenny Cromwell)
Adam Edwards (Independent Scholar), ‘“Writing should be fun” - Ian Watson’s Space Marine, and his Impact on 40k’s Grimdark Beginnings’
Aasa Timonen (Tampere University), ‘Grimdark: The rotting carcass at the heart of the transmedia universe of Warhammer 40,000’
Jordan Sorcery (Independent Scholar), ‘The Six Ages of Games Workshop: Understanding Warhammer History Through the Products, People, and Decisions that Made It’
12:30-13:30 Lunch
13:30—14:30 Talks 3 (Chair Matteo Polato)
Noah R. Chapman (UCL Institute of Archaeology), ‘Through a Reflection Crack’d: Warhammer 40,000 as a model for Archaeological and Mythological reception’
Lukáš Lev Červinka (Charles University), ‘What can the Warhammer 40k Universe and its Subculture tell us about the Legitimacy of our Constitutional Systems?’
Break 14:30-15:00
15:00-16:00 Keynote: Tuomas Pirinen ‘Where angels fear to tread: Creation of a new Grimdark universe’ (Chair Paul Wake)
Tuomas Pirinen is a professional game with over 25 years of experience working on tabletop, console, PC and mobile games. His work for Games Workshop includes Mordheim and Warhammer Fantasy Battle 6th edition and his extensive video game credits include Resident Evil, Driver and Need for Speed. Among his many current projects are the tabletop skirmish game Trench Crusade and the fantasy dueling game En Garde.
16:00 Gaming commences
An afternoon/evening of gaming. Join us to play Tuomas Pirinen’s Trench Crusade and his new fantasy duelling game John Blanche’s En Garde.
Trench Crusade, Heretic Legions vs New Antioch
John Blanche’s En Garde
18:00 Pizzas
19:00 Music, socializing, networking
At seven we’ll have music from The Cacotopos, an experimental electronic music project whose hallucinatory mutagenic sound blends prismatic sludge, burning electronics, and deep subterranean thrums. The perfect accompaniment to gaming in the trenches of the Carcass Front!
20:00 Event Closes
Accessibility Statement
We subscribe to Manchester Metropolitan University’s statement on equality and diversity, which can be read in full here. Where we arrange events our aim is to ensure that they are accessible to all. Arrangements will be made in an awareness that people have a diverse range of needs due to ability, chronic health issues, or neurodiversity.
The International Anthony Burgess Foundation’s accessibility statement reads as follows: Accessibility: wheelchair-accessible | no steps on entry | accessible toilet facilities on ground floor | all-gender facilities.
If you are planning to attend the event and have any access, dietary or other requirements please email Paul Wake (p.wake@mmu.ac.uk)
This event organised by the Manchester Game Centre in collaboration with the Dark Arts Research Kollective and is cofunded by AHEAD, the public engagement programme of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Manchester Metropolitan University.
