International Women's Day on Tabletop

Women in Tabletop Gaming

Whilst it remains a mostly male industry, we're spoiled for choice on women pioneering across the board, whether in huge companies like Wizards of the Coast, or as independent businesses. In honour of International Women's Day, we're shining a spotlight on some incredible women in the tabletop gaming hobby to watch.

Sophie Williams

Sophie Williams began her tabletop career in and across Games Workshops, coordinating artists, archiving and managing thirty years of artwork, and working with licensing partners. She is one half of Needy Cat Games, but is also now Head of Game Development at Modiphius. Her credits include the likes of Hellboy: The Board Game, League of Infamy, Sea of Thieves: Voyage of Legends, Robot Fight Club, and some truly exciting projects ahead.

Ellie Dix

Ellie Dix, game designer (and previous contributor to Tabletop Gaming magazine) is the award winning lead behind The Dark Imp Board Game Studio, a company motivated by helping families introduce board games into their every day life, and as such writing the book “The Board Game Family: Reclaim your children from the screen”. Although she has reduced the self publishing aspect of Dark Imp, she now designs games for others and offers consultancy. You may recognise her Dark Imp games such as Uranus!, or Cracker Games: The Imp Box, or can look out for the like of Digsaw, Skullduggery, Bangarang and more.

Read Fortunes, not Feuds: 7 Essential tips for playing Board Games with family by Ellie Dix

Nicole Amato

Nicole Amato is the Games Outreach lead at Kickstarter, and a game designer herself. Co-founder of Cardboard Fortress Games, which published several games starting with RESISTOR_, (aptly funded on Kickstarter), as well as Lazer Ryderz, Spin Me Right Round and Atari Centipede, and winning Game of the Year at the Philly Geek Awards. She went on to win the Iron Design Challenge at GenCon, and now spends her time helping others bring their projects to life on Kickstarter.

Lynne Hardy

Lynne Hardy is the associate Editor for Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu line, and line editor for the Rivers of London RPG, and seems constantly busy at the next epic adventure. From her work on The Children of Fear, to Regency Cthulhu, and her own Cogs, Cakes & Swordsticks RPG, she’s an ENnie award winning writer with an impressive  RPG history.

Cynthia Williams

President of Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Gaming, the likes of Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons fall under Williams’ perview. She spent more than a decade at Amazon, before stepping into gaming with Xbox as General Manager and Vice President of the Gaming Ecosystem Commercial Team, before her current role, where Hasbro once commented: “from being told she couldn’t play Dungeons & Dragons as a kid, to becoming President of Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Gaming, Cynthia Williams is a true force”.

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