Rowan, Rook and Decard workers unionize with IWGB Games Worker Union

Employees at the UK-based tabletop RPG publisher Rowan, Rook and Decard (RRD) have successfully unionized their workplace under the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) Games Worker Union. Management at the company responsible for the upcoming Hollows and Children of Time RPG, which includes co-founders Maz Hamilton, Grant Howitt, and Chris Taylor, voluntarily recognized the IWGB’s purview and made it a first of its kind union within the UK.

The new union will cover all seven full time members of RRD’s team, according to producer and now IWGB union representative, Elaine Lithgow. She will advocate on behalf of the small team alongside fellow representative Alex Levene. The three founders and directors are the only permanent employees not joining the union but maintain membership with the UK's Federation of Small Businesses. Relationship manager Matt Sanders told Rascal that one US-based contractor is not an official part of the union due to the exorbitant cost of incorporating international employees, but Lithgow assured via email that securing alternative affordances for such workers was always part of the plan.

“An important aspect of our agreement is that we’ve also carved out some allowances that let us extend support to freelancers and other contractors who work with us, wherever possible, including negotiations around their use, rates, and credits,” she said. “Anyone who's worked TTRPGs knows that it’s an industry held aloft by a vast pool of freelance artists, writers, editors, and more who are rarely afforded the benefits and support of full time staff. It's important to us as a union, and a community, that we can honour and support them as much as we can.”

Workers at RRD first started chatting with IWGB representatives back in May 2024, when the UK-based body announced that it would expand its membership to include tabletop workers. Lithgow and several coworkers immediately joined and spent the next two years learning and spreading awareness among their industry. Staff requested voluntary recognition on July 7 of this year, and IWGB contacted RRD management on July 22. A signed agreement was negotiated by August 10 — a blindingly quick turnaround compared to other recent tabletop industry union efforts. Lithgow attributed the ease and speed to RRD leadership’s pro-union sentiments.

Workers at Rowan, Rook and Decard have secured the first union recognition agreement in the UK table top games industry! 🙌 iwgb.org.uk/en/post/tabl... Work in the UK games industry? Join our union today!

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— IWGB Game Workers Union (@gameworkers.co.uk) August 12, 2026 at 3:08 PM

“We're pleased and proud to recognise the IWGB as Rowan, Rook and Decard's union,” Hamilton said in a press release. “Historically, being in a union gives workers better pay, more job security, and stronger rights at work — all things we believe in very strongly, and want to support for our staff. We want to thank the IWGB, our newly minted union representatives, and the whole team for engaging in this process: we believe it will make us stronger as a team and as a business.”

IWGB’s trade union offers members and member units avenues for negotiating and arbitrating worker’s rights with management, similar to their counterparts in the US. It currently represents over 2,000 workers across 80 studios, including ZA/UM staff and an ongoing bid by workers at Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar. 

What differs in RRD’s case is the issue that precipitated this push: there was none. Lithgow told Rascal that this is a proactive measure to preserve what she and her coworkers feel is a charmed, healthy environment from future spoilage. “As a whole, we’re a progressive team with a unified belief in strong workers rights,” she said. “We already had some amazing benefits in our contracts, such as flexible working hours, an Employee Assistance Programs that provides free confidential counselling, and even allowance for taking protest leave days! Establishing our union was done with the mentality of ‘fix the roof while it’s sunny’.”

She continued by saying that it’s “tragic” when workers only think to organize in response to abuse or malfeasance from leadership, conditions that make the long, complex process of unionization all the more difficult. She believes this pattern perpetuates the “ugly stereotype” that unions are “a negative reaction to poor working conditions, instead of a positive and preventative act of worker solidarity.”

It will surprise absolutely nobody who has spoke to me in the last -checks notes- 10 years, I'm delighted do announce that I'm one of the elected representatives of the newly founded RRD workers union! 🌱

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— 🌱Elaine Lithgow - New Workers Union Era🌱 (@elainelithgow.bsky.social) August 12, 2026 at 3:10 PM

The workers and IWGB do explicitly call out protections against future use of generative AI and LLMs, pay and benefits equity, and treatment of freelance and contract workers as chief concerns in the overall tabletop industry. That last point will be the focus of wider awareness and union evangelism: Lithgow said she wants to recruit freelancers from a wide range of established companies and boost IWGB’s representation amongst analog game makers. 

Hamilton admitted that they and the company had been aware of a likely unionization effort “for several months” and believes it’s a generally wise decision for any workplace. “Collective bargaining is a way to even out the balance of power, so that these rights aren't something that can be simply removed on a whim — this structure gives our team more confidence that if things get tough, if we make a mistake, or if all three of the founders have full personality transplants and become the evil shadow versions of ourselves, they will still be able to retain their rights and fight for what they're owed,” they said.

By securing collective power during a season of tall metaphorical cotton, Lithgow doesn’t expect much to change either about working at RRD or the kinds of RPGs they create. “We’re going to keep making games that people love and trying to be the best we can be,” she said. “The entire team already had a lot of say in the games we make and people we work with, so now those privileges we’ve enjoyed previously are simply protected going forward.”

Update August 12, 5:42pm BST: Added names of RRD co-founder and second union rep, along with clarification of Matt Sanders' correct title.