Manchester Game Cenre is 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 now.

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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 (pictured) is a professional game designer 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.

Pictured above: Trench Crusade, Heretic Legions vs New Antioch

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

More information about speakers and accessibility here.