Cubicle 7
Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd is an Irish games company that creates and publishes tabletop games. Best known for its Doctor Who and Lord of the Rings games, Cubicle 7 offers titles covering a range of licensed and self-developed properties.
Type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Game publisher |
Founded | 2006[1] |
Founder | Angus Abranson and Dominic McDowall-Thomas[1] |
Headquarters | , |
Key people | Dominic McDowall-Thomas, TS Luikart |
Products | Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition, The One Ring Roleplaying Game, Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space, Doctor Who: The Card Game, Soulbound |
Website | https://www.cubicle7games.com |
History
Angus Abranson and Dave Allsop formed the role-playing game company Cubicle 7 with the aim of publishing new material for Allsop's role-playing game SLA Industries. Abranson brought on his friend, Dominic McDowall-Thomas, in January 2004 to edit the books, but later in 2004 production was halted and Allsop left Cubicle 7 for other opportunities. In late 2006, Abranson and McDowall-Thomas formed Cubicle 7 Entertainment Limited, as its partners.[3]: 427 In 2006, Cubicle 7 purchased the British small-press publisher Heresy Games and published a new edition of their 2003 role-playing game Victoriana in 2009. The company's first licensed game was obtained in 2006, with Starblazer Adventures published in 2008.[3]: 428 Cubicle 7 then licensed the French game Qin: The Warring States in 2007 and also got the license to produce their 2009 Doctor Who Roleplaying Game.[3]: 429 In 2008, Cubicle 7 began partnering with small-press publishers to do the publishing and distribution for them, including Adamant Entertainment, Alephtar Games, Arc Dream Publishing, Cakebread & Walton, Arion Games, John Wick Presents, Khepera Publishing, Monkey House Games, Postmortem Studios, Savage Mojo, and Triple Ace Games.[3]: 430–431
Cubicle 7 relocated from Oxford, United Kingdom to Stamullen, Ireland in 2018.[4]
Games
Role-playing games
Cubicle 7 designs, develops and publishes the following role-playing games:
- Doctor Who Roleplaying Game (role-playing game based on the TV series)
- Won an Origins Award for Best Card Game in 2013.[5]
- Primeval (role-playing game based on the TV series)
- The Laundry (role-playing game based on the Laundry Files series of novels)
- Cthulhu Britannica (a series of supplements and adventures set in historical England, for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game)
- Victoriana (roleplay in an fantasy alternative Victorian era). The game published by Heresy Games in 2003, with second and third editions by Cubicle 7 in 2009 and 2013.[3]: 428 It was reviewed by Black Gate #15 (Spring 2011)
- World War Cthulhu (a fantasy World War II and Cold War setting for the Call of Cthulhu RPG - it requires the Call of Cthulhu rulebook to play)
- Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play - the 4th edition of the venerable fantasy rpg[6]
- Soulbound: Warhammer Age of Sigmar Role-Play - a separate game from Fantasy Role-Play[7]
- Wrath & Glory - A Warhammer 40,000 role-playing game, transferred from Ulisses Spiele.[8] Cubicle 7 published an updated version of the core rulebook in April 2020.[9]
Cthulhu Britannica
Cthulhu Britannica is a series of role-playing game supplements produced by the British game company Cubicle 7 Entertainment for use in the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game produced by Chaosium. The series allows for games to be set in the United Kingdom. Cubicle 7's Call of Cthulhu license resulted in the Cthulhu Britannica (2009) core book,[10][3]: 432 which included five scenarios. Additional books were then released every year until 2012, including Shadows over Scotland.[10] In 2013 a Kickstarter campaign was run in order to produce a boxed set and series of supplements set in London, with the London Boxed Set set being released in the following year.[11]
Card, dice and board Games
Cubicle 7 designs, develops and publishes the following card, dice and board games:
- Doctor Who: The Card Game (based on the TV series)
- Hobbit Tales (story telling card game set in Middle-earth)
- Dalek Dice (A Doctor Who push your luck dice rolling game)
Translations of non-English Language Games
See Former licences
Publishing partners
Cubicle 7 also works with a select group of publishing partners to bring their games to a wider market:
- Hot War (Contested Ground)
- Cold City (Contested Ground)
- 3:16 - Carnage Amongst the Stars (Box Ninja Games)
Former licenses
- Rocket Age (a retro-pulp space opera role-playing game, set in an alternative 20th century where Einstein, Tesla and Ray Armstrong rode the first rocket ship to Mars, entering in a new space opera era).
Cubicle 7 announced they were returning the rights to the game's designer on 30 June 2017. It is now published by Why Not Games, including reprints of books originally published by Cubicle 7. [12]
- Adventures in Middle-earth (a licensed OGL compatible Middle-earth setting for 5th Edition)
- The One Ring Roleplaying Game (the current Middle-earth licensed official role-playing game)
Cubicle 7 announced on 27 November 2019 that they would cease publishing The One Ring and Adventures in Middle-earth properties.[13] Cubicle 7 had published The One Ring for eight years at that time.[13]
Cubicle 7 announced on 2 July 2021 that they would cease publishing the Lone Wolf Adventure Game property.[14]
- Qin (a wuxia role-playing game, set in China during the Warring States period)
- Yggdrasill (roleplay in the Viking Age)
- Kuro (a horror-cyberpunk role-playing game, set in Japan in the year 2046)
- Keltia (roleplay in the post-Roman Britain, during the 5th century)
Cubicle 7 published English-language translations of the above 4 role-playing games from the French publisher "Le Septième Cercle" until the licence was ended June 30 2017.[15]
Awards
Cubicle 7 has won 12 ENnie Awards,[16] 2 Origins Awards,[17] Best in Show, Lucca 2012[18] and a Golden Geek.[19]
Notable events
In June 2009, Cubicle 7 announced[20] that it had joined the Rebellion Developments group of companies.
In November 2011, Angus Abranson left Cubicle 7 to form Chronicle City.[21]
In December 2014, Cubicle 7 announced that it had left the Rebellion Developments group of companies, following a successful management buy out led by CEO Dominic McDowall.[22]
In December 2017, Dominic McDowall and Cubicle 7 announced that they would be producing a new RPG in the Warhammer universe, Warhammer: Age of Sigmar. This game has been part of a personal quest of McDowall to bring back the style of play with Warhammer he had played in his youth.[23]
References
- GamesIndustry International (2009-06-02). "Cubicle 7 acquisition". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 2017-05-08.
- "Cubicle 7 makes clever games for awesome people". Cubicle 7. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
- Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
- Appelcline, Shannon (January 1, 2019). "Advanced Designers & Dragons #24: 2018: The Year in Review". RPG.net. Dyvers Hands. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
- "39th Origin Awards". Archived from the original on 2013-12-27. Retrieved 2014-01-04.
- "Cubicle 7 and Games Workshop announce new edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay | Cubicle 7". cubicle7.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2017-05-30. Retrieved 2017-05-30.
- "Warhammer Age of Sigmar Roleplaying Game Announced! | Cubicle 7". cubicle7.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2017-05-30. Retrieved 2017-05-30.
- "Cubicle 7 to publish Warhammer 40,000 Roleplaying". cubicle7games.com. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
- "Wrath & Glory Pre-Order Now Live". cubicle7games.com. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
- Stuart Boon. "New Treasures: Cthulhu Britannica: Shadows Over Scotland".
- "A Spot of Tea with Yog-Sothoth: 'Cthulhu Britannica London Boxed Set' Reviewed - The Gaming Gang".
- "Cubicle 7 bids farewell to Qin, Rocket Age, Yggdrasill and more..."
- "Unexpected Tor2 Update". Archived from the original on 2019-12-23. Retrieved 2019-11-27.
- "Lone Wolf Update – Cease to Publish – Cubicle 7". Cubicle 7 Games. Cubicle 7 Games.
- "Cubicle 7 bids farewell to Qin, Rocket Age, Yggdrasill and more..."
- "ENnie Awards". ENnie Awards.
- "The 39th Annual Origins Awards Winners". Archived from the original on 2013-12-27. Retrieved 2014-01-04.
- "Lucca Games Best of Show - Wiki - BoardGameGeek". boardgamegeek.com.
- "2012 Golden Geek Awards Winners! | Geekdo". BoardGameGeek.
- "Cubicle 7 Joins Rebellion Group" Archived 2010-01-24 at the Wayback Machine, June 2, 2009
- "The Angus Abranson interview: A look inside Chronicle City". www.geeknative.com. 8 February 2012.
- "cubicle 7 leaves rebellion group - Cubicle 7". www.cubicle7.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2014-12-19. Retrieved 2014-12-19.
- Jarvis, Matt (December 2017). "A New Old World". Tabletop Gaming Magazine. Warners Group Publications Plc.