Graeme Davis (game designer)

• 1. Introduction

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  Graeme Davis took home three Gold ENNIE Awards in 2023 for Mythic Britain & Ireland, including Product of the Year. By that point, his career had already spanned nearly four decades. Davis was one of the original designers of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay in 1986. Before game design became his central work, his path had looked quite different. How he made that transition is a question with specific answers. His story begins in Isleworth, west London.

• 2. A Hobbyist Before the Industry

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  Dungeons & Dragons had only recently been imported into the United Kingdom when Davis first picked it up in the mid-1970s. After leaving school, he worked in banking. In 1979, he began a Bachelor of Arts degree in archaeology at the University of Durham. He graduated in 1982.

  That year, Davis earned his first payment as a game writer. Games Workshop's White Dwarf magazine published his debut article, which covered Dungeons & Dragons. More opportunities followed at both White Dwarf and TSR, Inc.'s Imagine magazine. His Fighting Fantasy gamebook Midnight Rogue, published by Puffin Books, arrived just five years after that first paid article.

• 3. Wide Range, Long Commitment

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  In 1989, Games Workshop transferred Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay to a new subsidiary called Flame Publications. Davis remained on staff.

  He returned to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay for its second edition in 2005. Blood and Honor, published in September 2006, was his first novel. It appeared as the fourth book in the Eberron series The War-Torn. Three years later, a historical horror game would give him a different kind of long-term commitment.

• 4. Mythic Britain & Ireland

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  Since 2009, Davis has served as line editor for Colonial Gothic, a historical horror role-playing game published by Rogue Games. He has contributed to multiple titles in the series.

  Published by Free League Publishing in 2022, Mythic Britain & Ireland is an expansion for Vaesen, a role-playing game set amid Scandinavian folklore. Gold ENNIE Awards for Best Setting and Best Interior Art went to the book in 2023.

  Davis told Wargamer that he had worked hard to honor the full diversity of British and Irish traditions within the book. His stated strategy for writing adventures was "not to overthink, trust yourself, and always keep the players in mind."