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Warhammer co-creator Bryan Ansell passes away at 68

Ansell reportedly passed away at home with family at the end of December 2023.

TJ Denzer

January 4, 2024 10:15 AM

Image via Andrew Hallsworth/Nottinghamshire Live

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The Warhammer community is mourning the passing of one of the game’s creators in the start of 2024. Warhammer is perhaps one of the most popular tabletop and fantasy-fiction IPs in the world, trailing up there with the likes of greats such as Pathfinder and Dungeons & Dragons, and Bryan Ansell helped create and launch the first iterations of the game in 1983. Unfortunately, Ansell was reported to have died at the end of December 2023.

Bryan Ansell’s passing was reported by loved ones via his Instagram account on December 30, 2023. According to the post, Ansell passed away at the age of 68 on the same day. He passed in the comfort of his home, surrounded by family. Joined by fellow creators Richard Halliwell, and Rick Priestley, Bryan Ansell helped create the Warhammer tabletop gaming system, which was then published by Games Workshop. By 1985, Ansell became a managing director of Games Workshop and focused its efforts on the Warhammer franchise, expanding it and leading to its booming popularity throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

One of Ansell’s biggest moves was relocating the Games Workshop company from London to Nottinghamshire, England. Eventually, the region would become the focal point of British wargame development and tabletop game design for quite a long time, even garnering its own nickname, the Lead Belt. Even still, it’s easy to look around today and see how much of an impact Ansell had. Games Workshop still continues to ride high, producing numerous video games, comics, boardgame spinoffs, and other entertainment in the Warhammer universe. That’s not even including the Warhammer 40K sci-fi spinoff, which has its own massive following and wealth of media.

Ansell arguably had a massive impact on the gamin industry, both in physical tabletop games and video games. For all of the fun that has come out of his creation, Shacknews wishes the best to his family and friends following his passing.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.