Jervis Johnson (born 12 June 1959) is an English

tabletop Tabletop may refer to: Mountains *Table Top Mountain in Rangeville, Queensland, Australia * Table Top Mountain (New York) * Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa * Tepui, flat top mountains in South America Places * Tabletop, New South Wa ...

game designer Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...

. He worked as a designer and manager for

Games Workshop Games Workshop Group (often abbreviated as GW) is a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England. Its best-known products are '' Warhammer Age of Sigmar'' and '' Warhammer 40,000''. Founded in 1975 by John Peake, ...

for over 38 years, and was the head of its Specialist Games studio. In addition to his work on

Warhammer Fantasy Battles ''Warhammer'' (formerly ''Warhammer Fantasy Battle'' or just ''Warhammer Fantasy'') is a tabletop miniature wargame with a medieval fantasy theme. The game was created by Bryan Ansell, Richard Halliwell, and Rick Priestley; it was publis ...

and

Warhammer 40,000 ''Warhammer 40,000'' is a miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop. It is the most popular miniature wargame in the world, and is particularly popular in the United Kingdom. The first edition of the rulebook was published in September 1987 ...

, he created the fantasy football game

Blood Bowl ''Blood Bowl'' is a miniatures board game created by Jervis Johnson for the British games company Games Workshop as a parody of American football. The game was first released in 1986 and has been re-released in new editions since. ''Blood ...

, and co-created Epic 40,000,

Necromunda ''Necromunda'' is a skirmish tabletop war game produced by Games Workshop since 1995. It has been relaunched as ''Necromunda: Underhive'' in 2017. In ''Necromunda'', players control rival gangs battling each other in the Underhive, a place of ...

, and Age of Sigmar.

Career

Johnson joined Games Workshop as a Trade Sales Assistant in 1982. In 1986, he began writing rules for the company's own games, writing the first edition of

in his spare time. He was a playtester for Rogue Trader, the first version of

. In 1988 Johnson co-created Games Workshop's first 6mm miniature game,

Adeptus Titanicus ''Adeptus Titanicus'' is a tabletop science fiction mecha game published by Games Workshop (GW) in 1988 for use with the rules of ''Warhammer 40,000''. Several revised and expanded edition were released from 1994 to 2018. Description ''Adeptus T ...

and its spinoff Space Marine - the beginnings of the Epic 40,000 system. In 1989 he developed Advanced Heroquest, a new version of Milton Bradley's

HeroQuest ''HeroQuest'', sometimes written as ''Hero Quest'', is an adventure board game created by Milton Bradley in conjunction with the British company Games Workshop. The game was loosely based around archetypes of fantasy role-playing games: the g ...

board game. In the 1990s, Johnson helped develop Advanced

Space Crusade ''Space Crusade'' is an adventure board game produced by Milton Bradley together with Games Workshop and was first made in 1990. It was produced in the UK and available in some other countries including Finland, Ireland, France, Spain, Denmark, ...

, and was one of the Games Workshop staff who designed games for the first iteration of

The Crystal Maze ''The Crystal Maze'' is a British game show devised by Jacques Antoine, based upon his format for the French game show '' Fort Boyard'', and produced for Channel 4. The programme focuses on teams of contestants, a mixed group of men and women, ...

. He began working on Warhammer Fantasy Battles in 1992, as a developer for the 4th edition rules, and began writing army books for the game's various factions. In 1993 he did the same for Warhammer, 40,000's 2nd edition. Johnson continued to work on Blood Bowl in addition to his new responsibilities, and the third edition of the game won the 1994

Origins Award The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so (for example) the 1979 a ...

for ''Best Miniatures Rules''. In 1995 he also co-created Necromunda with Andy Chambers. In 1995, Johnson organised Games Workshop's first worldwide community campaign, the Battle for Ichar IV, as well as hosting the first International Warhammer Tournament at Nottingham University. In 1996 he began his first column in Games Workshop's magazine

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes ...

, 'The J Files'. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s he continued to write for White Dwarf, as well as working on Epic 40,000, Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000. By 2003 he was the head of Games Workshop's Specialist Games studio, overseeing the development of new version of Necromunda and Space Hulk. In 2006, 'The J Files' was replaced by his new column 'Standard Bearer', which was in turn replaced with a semi-regular column in 2012. Johnson was a key developer of Age of Sigmar, the replacement for Warhammer Fantasy Battles, the first edition of which was released in 2015. He continued to design specialist games, including 2017's Shadows Over Hammerhal and 2018's Blackstone Fortress, as well as designing new editions of Age of Sigmar. In July 2021, Johnson announced his retirement from Games Workshop after more than 38 years.

Personal life

Johnson is the son of actor

Richard Johnson Richard or Dick Johnson may refer to: Academics * Dick Johnson (academic) (1929–2019), Australian academic * Richard C. Johnson (1930–2003), professor of electrical engineering * Richard A. Johnson, artist and professor at the University of ...

and his first wife Sheila Sweet. His younger sister is actress Sorel Johnson.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Jervis 1959 births Living people British game designers Games Workshop