Activities
The society produces a journal, Ragnarok, featuring industry news, articles, and game and miniature reviews. A newsletter, Nastrond, was also circulated to members, and a number of specialist groups within the society have produced their own newsletters. The SFSFW's convention is called Bifrost, which has not been held since 2006.
The society operates an electronic mailing list and has a web site where more information and articles from past issues of Ragnarok can be found. In 2009, the society started to make issues of Ragnarok available to non-members as purchasable PDFs via Wargame Vault and to expand their online activities via a blog, Facebook, and Twitter.
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or fandom of people interested in science fiction in contact with one another based upon that interest. SF fandom has a life of its own, but not much in the way of formal organization.
A wargame is a type of strategy game that simulates warfare realistically, as opposed to abstract strategy games such as chess. Wargames may be miniature figurines on a tabletop, board games or video games. They typically use a map that depicts various battlefield terrain features such as woods, hills, fields and streams, with a grid or location system superimposed over this to regulate the movement and positions of the games' pieces, each of which represents a specific military formation, such as an infantry brigade or artillery battery. Many wargames recreate specific historic battles, and can cover either whole wars, or any campaigns, battles, or lower-level engagements within them. Many simulate land combat, but there are wargames for naval and air combat as well.
White Dwarf is a magazine published by British games manufacturer Games Workshop, which has long served as a promotions and advertising platform for Games Workshop and Citadel Miniatures products.
David Lance Arneson was an American game designer best known for co-developing the first published role-playing game (RPG), Dungeons & Dragons, with Gary Gygax, in the early 1970s. Arneson's early work was fundamental to the development of the genre, developing the concept of the RPG using devices now considered to be archetypical, such as adventuring in "dungeons" and using a neutral judge who doubles as the voice and consciousness of all other characters to develop the storyline.
Miniature wargaming is a form of wargaming in which players enact battles between opposing military forces that are represented by miniature physical models. The use of physical models to represent military units is in contrast to other tabletop wargames that use abstract pieces such as counters or blocks, or computer wargames which use virtual models. The primary benefit of using models is aesthetics, though in certain wargames the size and shape of the models can have practical consequences on how the match plays out.
Tolkien fandom is an international, informal community of fans of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, especially of the Middle-earth legendarium which includes The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. The concept of Tolkien fandom as a specific type of fan subculture sprang up in the United States in the 1960s, in the context of the hippie movement, to the dismay of the author, who talked of "my deplorable cultus".
The Charles S. Roberts Awards is an annual award for excellence in the historical wargaming hobby. It was named in honor of Charles S. Roberts the "Father of Wargaming" who founded Avalon Hill. The award is informally called a "Charlie" and officially called a "Charles S. Roberts Award". The Wargamer magazine called it "very prestigious". The Award is managed by the Charles S. Roberts Award Committee which has no commercial sponsorship, made up of designers, writers and hobbyists. It is a "people's award" with winners chosen through votes submitted by fans.
Ragnarök is a series of events in Norse mythology resulting in the fiery destruction and fertile rebirth of the world.
Chainmail is a medieval miniature wargame created by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren. Gygax developed the core medieval system of the game by expanding on rules authored by his fellow Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association (LGTSA) member Perren, a hobby-shop owner with whom he had become friendly. Guidon Games released the first edition of Chainmail in 1971 as its first miniature wargame and one of its three debut products.
The Wargamer was a magazine devoted to the hobby of board wargaming. It was founded by Keith Poulter and published six times a year by World Wide Wargames (3W), although initially it was only published four times a year.
John Edwin Scruby was a manufacturer of military miniatures whose efforts led to a rebirth of the miniature wargaming hobby in the late 1950s.
The Midwest Military Simulation Association (MMSA) is a group of wargamers and military figurine collectors active during the late 1960s and 1970s.
The International Federation of Wargaming (IFW) was a wargaming club operated from 1967 to early 1970s.
Donald F. Featherstone was a British author of more than forty books on wargaming and military history.
Tony Bath (1926–2000) was a British wargamer who favored the ancient period. He was the founder of the Society of Ancients.
Victory at Sea is a set of World War II naval wargaming rules published by Mongoose Publishing. They were a development of Mongoose's Babylon 5: A Call to Arms SF starship combat rules written by Matthew Sprange, with assistance from David Manley, Richard Bax, Erik Nicely and Agis Neugebauer, having been initially released through a series of articles in the Mongoose house journal Signs and Portents. A supplement to the rules entitled Victory At Sea - Order of Battle, including expanded ship lists and new rules, was written during 2007. It was rushed into print, unreviewed and with a large number of errors left uncorrected - an unofficial 28 page errata was available several days after its release was announced. The rules have spawned a number of unofficial period and scale variants including ironclad actions and World War II destroyer actions. An official World War I variant entitled Victory at Sea - Age of Dreadnoughts, written by David Manley was published in 2008.
Air wargaming, like naval wargaming, is a niche specialism within the wider miniatures wargaming hobby. Due to the relatively short time over which aerial combat has developed air wargaming periods tend to break down into three broad periods:
The Society of Ancients (SoA) is an international, non-profit organization based in the UK that aims to promote interest in Ancient & Medieval history and wargaming, covering the periods from 3000BC to 1500AD.
A board wargame is a wargame with a set playing surface or board, as opposed to being played on a computer or in a more free-form playing area as in miniatures games. The modern, commercial wargaming hobby developed in 1954 following the publication and commercial success of Tactics. The board wargaming hobby continues to enjoy a sizeable following, with a number of game publishers and gaming conventions dedicated to the hobby both in the English-speaking world and further afield.
Owl and Weasel was a newsletter for board gamers, role-playing gamers and wargamers, published in London, England, by Games Workshop. A total of 25 issues were published from February 1975 until April 1977; it was edited by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. It was superseded by White Dwarf, which was published on a monthly basis until February 2014, before switching to a weekly format.
