Trans People are Wargamers Whether the Fandom Likes it or Not
Wargaming, a traditionally masculine-coded hobby, has, in recent years, become a home to many trans and queer players.
photo by cerberusxt_figurines
by Adelaide Kung
Warhammer 40,000 is the world’s most popular tabletop wargame. In the popular imagination it’s a hyper-masculine affair with power armor, evil aliens, and demons roaming outer space. However, one lesser known corner of the fandom is distinctly queer. French miniature painter CerberusXt exemplifies queer Warhammer with space marine models based on the colors of Pride flags. Trans space marines with bold pink armor are a mascot and a meme for queer wargaming fans.
How could something so masc-coded attract such a large trans following? Despite the macho gloss, this is a hobby centered around role-playing, imagination, and self expression. Perhaps it’s natural for gender norms to become subject to customization as well.
A tabletop wargame is a game between two or more people which simulates a battle of some type. They’re played with miniatures, dice, a table, and sometimes terrain, measuring tools or other equipment. It is generally competitive to some degree with gameplay centered around strategic decisions, but also around storytelling.
Wargaming hasn’t quite broken into popular culture the way tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons has, but if you know of one wargame it’s almost certainly Warhammer, a British wargame and media franchise by Games Workshop known for its darkly satirical lore.
Aasa Timonen, a trans woman and doctoral researcher at Tampere University in Finland, researches Warhammer from an academic perspective, spoke with Assigned Media about the game. Timonen explained that the roots of tabletop wargaming can be traced back to chess and similar games of strategy, but the real nucleus of the current genre can be found in the 19th century, with games intended to train military officers. The first designed truly for leisure emerged in the early 1900s, including one made by HG Wells in 1913 called “Little Wars”.
Games can range from a casual match played alongside beer and pretzels to competitive play modeled after professional sports. The hobby can be expensive, with a standard Warhammer 40,000 army costing about $600, though smaller scale games called “skirmish games” can cut down the price dramatically.
Although most people who play tabletop wargames are cis, a sizable contingent of transgender people who play tabletop wargames, particularly transfemmes. Several high level Warhammer players have been transgender, with analogous achievements in various other wargames.
Assigned spoke with three trans women wargamers about their experiences in the fandom. Dakota, from Virginia, predominantly plays BattleTech. Serena, from New York, plays BattleTech, Infinity, Firestorm Armada, and Starfleet Battles. Vali, from Ohio, plays Marvel Crisis Protocol and Warhammer 40,000.
These gamers described the groups they typically played with as inclusive. Dakota plays with a group of ten that includes three other trans people, Vali mentioned that her wargaming community in Ohio has several other trans women within it, and Aasa Timonen, also a trans woman, mentioned attending explicitly trans inclusive meetups in the United Kingdom.
When Assigned Media inquired about how trans people became associated with wargaming, Timonen shared her personal theories on why. She said that in the 2010s, trans hobbyists became increasingly visible due to the rise of social media, and the increasingly online trans community spread some of their in jokes as memes. Timonen believes the reclamation of machismo and militant imagery can be an act of radical self-expression for many trans wargamers.
During roughly the same time Warhammer 40,000’s storylines became less gendered and were no longer marketed almost exclusively to a male audience. These developments helped new audiences join the fold. Although early wargaming tended to cater to a white male audience wanting to reconstruct historical European stories including gender essentialist biases (something the University of Alberta scholar Dr. PB Berge calls “fantasy realism”, according to Timonen), this became significantly less of a factor as the games became more popular and more accessible to general audiences. “Nowadays, there have been attempts to balance things out, with nonbinary characters appearing in various transmedia products,” Timonen noted. “In this way, Games Workshop is signaling towards trans & nonbinary people that the hobby is welcoming them.”
However, all is not rosy for trans people in wargames. The wargamers Assigned spoke with each described experiences with transphobic harassment in some form. Dakota described having been referred to with slurs from players she’s shared spaces with. Serena mentioned receiving an online death threat from a wargaming space, and Timonen became the target of an online harassment campaign.
Several major tournaments have also been held in areas that are dangerous for trans people to travel to, for instance, the World Championships of Warhammer (commonly known as Warhammer Worlds) are held in Atlanta, Georgia and Gen Con, one of the largest tabletop gaming conventions in the world, is held in Indianapolis, Indiana. Last year, Emma Hallinan, a trans woman who won a major tournament in Australia, referenced transphobia in the US in a public statement explaining why she was boycotting the most recent iteration of Warhammer Worlds.
Despite this, there is still a great degree of enthusiasm for wargaming among trans players. Interviewees were eager to share their favorite gaming moments, with one quipping “Roll boxcars and play Purple Bird”, a reference to BattleTech’s Free Worlds League faction.
For numerous transfemmes, tabletop wargaming is a vital lifeline to social connections, something that is both life-giving and scarce not only for trans people but all people in a digital age. Dakota summed this up nicely, saying “Wargaming itself is not inherently magical. It is the way that everyone who plays it comes together, appreciates each other just for being there, and the communities that grow around the game. If you find one, treasure the people in it. If you can't, build one, and you won't regret it.” For trans wargamers, community will always be the biggest draw.
Adi Kung is a journalist, writer and poet. She currently resides in New York.