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131-499: Crystal Spheres is a Spelljammer scenario in which the player characters encounter a unique ship, called the Hummingbird , and its captain asks them to help save his homesphere from a mysterious bard called T'Lann . SJA3 Crystal Spheres was written by J. Paul LaFountain , with a cover by Brom , and was published by TSR in 1990 as a 64-page booklet with a poster and an outer folder. This Dungeons & Dragons article

262-457: A Dungeons & Dragons -themed CCG competitor that would be a response to Magic . The result would be Spellfire , released in April 1994. Spellfire was produced on a shoestring budget, and re-used art that TSR had already commissioned for other projects; Lorraine Williams was not a fan of the project. Its financial results are contested; some TSR insiders say that Spellfire sold well considering

393-501: A boxed set with multiple paperbacks and a map as their core product, and would produce tie-in supplements such as pre-made adventures (usually called "modules"), guides to regions within the world, and novels. Also in 1987, a small design team began working to develop a second edition of the AD&;D game. In 1988, TSR released the Bullwinkle and Rocky Role-Playing Party Game , complete with

524-495: A needle craft business, was one particularly criticized acquisition; it was owned by a cousin of the Blumes. Sales of D&D-themed needlecraft were abysmal, and the acquisition was criticized as nepotism . The company was similarly accused of favoring friends and relatives of the Blumes and Gygax in hiring. The management also used company funds to raise a shipwreck from Geneva Lake for no clear financial benefit. The company acquired

655-497: A preliminary injunction , Wizards of the Coast wrote that TSR's Star Frontiers: New Genesis game is "despicable" and "blatantly racist and transphobic", and that the publication of such content would inflict reputational harm on Wizards of the Coast. Charlie Hall, for Polygon , commented that "Wizards' filing also seeks to undermine LaNasa's most powerful argument — that Wizards abandoned TSR and other related trademarks, thus opening

786-493: A black "race is classified as a 'Subrace' and having 'average' intellect with a maximum intelligence rating of 9, whereas the 'norse' race has a minimum intelligence rating of 13". In September 2022, Wizards of the Coast sued TSR Games—helmed by Ernie Gygax and LaNasa—and the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum to enjoin these companies from publishing games under the "Star Frontiers" and "TSR" trademarks. In its motion for

917-516: A comic book caused the potential audience to either not know of its existence at all, or to be confused as to its nature. TSR West eventually published four comics modules: a Buck Rogers comic, a sci-fi comic Intruder , a time travel comic Warhawks , and a horror comic called R.I.P. They were not commercially successful. TSR West closed around 1991, although TSR would continue to work with Flint Dille on film-adjacent products made in California such as

1048-646: A comic book, and a role-playing game based on the AD&D 2nd Edition rules. TSR's Buck Rogers projects were commercial failures. In the late 1980s, TSR opened a new West Coast division in Southern California to develop various projects in the entertainment industry, similar to how Gygax had sought deals in Hollywood in the early 1980s. However, the efforts of the division would come to "less than nothing" according to TSR historian Ben Riggs, despite initial promise. TSR had an arrangement with DC Comics to produce

1179-502: A crowdfunding campaign in December 2021 to raise money to sue Wizards of the Coast for "Trademark Declaratory Judgement of Ownership"; the company then filed and voluntarily dismissed the complaint that month. Wizards of the Coast, also in December 2021, sued LaNasa's TSR for trademark fraud over the use of the TSR logo which is owned by Wizards of the Coast. In July 2022, TechRaptor reported on

1310-448: A crystal sphere by any known means up to and including the direct will of deities. Every crystal sphere floats in the phlogiston, very slowly bobbing up and down over time. Travel between Crystal Spheres is facilitated by the formation of "Flow rivers" — sections of the phlogiston which have a current and greatly reduce travel time. Travel through the "slow flow" (i.e. off the Flow rivers)

1441-485: A crystal sphere. Portals can spontaneously open and close anywhere on the sphere wall. Magical spells (or magical items that reproduce their effects) can allow a portal to be located. Other magic can open a new portal or collapse an existing one. Ships or creatures passing through a portal when it closes may be cut in two. Note that unlike the Ptolemaic system , the crystal spheres are not nested within each other. Wildspace

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1572-456: A fee of several million dollars. Random House returned around $ 14 million of product between 1995 and 1997. TSR found itself in a cash crunch. With no cash, TSR was unable to pay their printing and shipping bills. J. B. Kenehan, the logistics company that handled TSR's pre-press, printing, warehousing, and shipping, refused to do any more work. Since the logistics company had the production plates for key products such as core D&D books, there

1703-573: A few years. They may have been cannibalizing their own sales through excessive production of books or supplements too." Ben Riggs agreed that TSR was factionalizing the AD&;D audience by continually releasing competing new settings (Forgotten Realms, Al-Qadim, Dragonlance, Planescape, Dark Sun, Birthright, Karameikos, etc.), a strategy intended to lure in new customers, but that actually divided its own core customers. TSR's products essentially competed with themselves, requiring more development effort to reach

1834-520: A force equal to the standard gravitational attraction on the surface of an Earth-sized planetary body. Gravity in the Spelljammer universe is also an exceptionally convenient force, and almost always works such that "down" orients itself in a manner most humanoids would find sensible. All bodies of any size carry with them an envelope of air whenever they leave the surface of a planet or other stellar object. Unlike real-world astrophysics, this air envelope

1965-478: A full-time employee of the partnership in order to take them over from Donna Kaye. Arneson also entered the partnership in order to coordinate research and design with his circle in the Twin Cities. Brian Blume and Gary Gygax reorganized the business from a partnership to a corporation called TSR Hobbies, Inc. At first, it was a separate company to market miniatures and games from other companies, an enterprise which

2096-402: A host of new campaign settings published by TSR. It was created by Jeff Grubb and "introduced a universe of magical starships traversing the 'crystal spheres' that contained all the earthbound AD&D campaign worlds. It suggested a method to connect together all of TSR's settings and at the same time introduced fun new Jules Verne-esque technology that had never before been seen in the game. It

2227-423: A jury to determine if that is, in fact, the case". In December 2022, a federal magistrate judge denied the preliminary injunction Wizards of the Coast filed. The judge said that Wizards had not yet shown enough evidence to demonstrate continuous use of the TSR brand; she also noted that the defendants disclaimed the racist version of the game and had promised not to release any version of Star Frontiers at all until

2358-458: A leaked Star Frontiers: New Genesis (a reboot of the 1982 Star Frontiers role-playing game) playtest created by LaNasa's TSR; the content contains "blatantly racist" descriptions of character races and the race design "plays into Nazi eugenics ". The content also contains "homophobic, transphobic, and anti-semitic content, as well as additional material of a discriminatory nature". IGN Southeast Asia highlighted that in this playtest game

2489-410: A mythology has developed about the ship that is similar to the legends surrounding The Flying Dutchman . As a living thing (although it does not consume any matter, it does absorb heat and light through its ventral (or under) side and uses them to produce air and food for its inhabitants), the Spelljammer has a complex life cycle and means of procreation. Normally the ship has no captain and wanders

2620-598: A new world-spanning setting and Slade Henson came up with the answer by suggesting a new setting built on Jeff Grubb's first-edition Manual of the Planes (1987). [...] Unlike Spelljammer this new setting had a strong geographical centre, the City of Sigil, resolving a flaw in the Spelljammer setting that denied players a good home base". The Spelljammer line of products was discontinued by TSR before they were acquired by Wizards of

2751-483: A novel series. The novel series was written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman . The Dragonlance trilogy of novels was a colossal hit; Dragons of Autumn Twilight , the first novel in the series, reached the top of The New York Times Best Seller list , encouraging TSR to a launch a long series of paperback novels. TSR's Books Department would go on to launch novels on its other D&D settings as well, and be one of TSR's most profitable divisions. In 1984, TSR

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2882-676: A number of competitors and unofficial supplements to D&D published, arguably in violation of TSR's copyright, which many D&D players used alongside the TSR books. Among these were the Arduin Grimoire , the Manual of Aurenia , and variants such as Warlock and Tunnels & Trolls . TSR regarded these very warily, and in cases where they felt their trademarks were being misused, they issued cease-and-desist letters. More often than not, this legal posturing resulted in only slight changes to competitors' works, but caused significant animosity in

3013-479: A place to set an entire campaign, rather than a place to pass through. TSR also released Karameikos: Kingdom of Adventure in 1994, which detailed one of the kingdoms in the setting of Mystara . As an innovation, it included an audio CD with tracks of dialogue and sound effects. In 1995, TSR released Birthright , a campaign setting that mixed D&D with strategy games. The intent was for players to play noble characters empowered by divine blood which gave them

3144-455: A possible merger, so the company created the subsidiary TSR Hobbies UK Ltd, in 1980. Gygax hired Don Turnbull to lead the subsidiary, which would expand into continental Europe during the 1980s. TSR UK published a series of modules and the original Fiend Folio . TSR UK also produced Imagine magazine for 31 issues. The first-published campaign setting for AD&D , the World of Greyhawk ,

3275-586: A powerless figurehead CEO, with Brian Blume as president of creative affairs and Kevin Blume as president of operations. In 1981, TSR Hobbies had revenues of $ 12.9 million and a payroll of 130. TSR Hobbies diversified by purchasing or starting new commercial ventures such as producing miniatures, expanding into toys and gifts, and adding an entertainment division to explore getting into films and television. Many parts of this expansion were later criticized as bad investments and over-extension. Greenfield Needlewomen,

3406-458: A preorder arrangement with Babbage's was continued despite Babbage's becoming financially insolvent. TSR's old deal with Random House, which had been mutually beneficial in the 1980s, began to be used by TSR in ways that would paper over short-term financial problems. Since TSR was paid up front on the assumption that shipped goods would ultimately sell, TSR began shipping overstock to Random House to generate loans on demand. This caused people in

3537-423: A second batch of 1,000 copies of D&D , which took only another five or six months to sell out. Also in 1974, TSR published Warriors of Mars , a miniatures rules book set in the fantasy world of Barsoom , originally imagined by Edgar Rice Burroughs in his series of novels about John Carter of Mars , to which Gygax paid homage in the preface of the first edition of D&D . However, Gygax and TSR published

3668-531: A separate article for The Gamer , in February 2022, Paul DiSalvo commented that "while D&D's second edition was home to a wide range of Spelljammer books including several adventure modules, the setting has since faded into obscurity, with it not being prominently featured within the game's third, fourth, and fifth editions". In his 2023 book Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground , RPG historian Stu Horvath called

3799-520: A single license for what later became the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon . This series was the lead program in its time slot for two years. TSR, Inc. started publication of the Dragonlance saga in 1984 after being in development for two years. The series was both a set of modules and supplements designed for running campaigns in an entirely new game world, starting with Dragons of Despair , as well as

3930-431: A spinner and hand puppets. That same year, TSR released the wargame The Hunt for Red October based on Tom Clancy's novel The Hunt for Red October , which became one of the all-time biggest selling wargames. In 1989, AD&D 2nd edition was released, which saw a new Dungeon Master's Guide , Player's Handbook , and the first three volumes of the new Monstrous Compendium . A new campaign setting, Spelljammer ,

4061-679: A subsidiary specifically for them called Victory Games . TSR published a few wargames created by their own in-house designers, and had a hit with The Hunt for Red October , but ten years after the SPI takeover, TSR abandoned the wargame market. In 1983, the company was split into four companies: TSR, Inc. (the primary successor), TSR International, TSR Ventures, and TSR Entertainment, Inc. Gygax left for Hollywood to found TSR Entertainment, Inc., later Dungeons & Dragons Entertainment Corp., which attempted to license D&D products to movie and television executives. His work would eventually lead to only

Crystal Spheres - Misplaced Pages Continue

4192-626: A way to travel between different campaign settings; it's a simultaneous fulfillment of sci-fi and fantasy dreams of exploration, venturing deep into unknown depths and contending with the strange and otherworldly". Spelljammer was #3 on The Gamer 's 2022 "The 8 Best Dungeons & Dragons Settings Ever" list — the article states that "Spelljammer is one of the most unique settings on this list, with endless possibilities brought up in its planet-hopping realms. The Spelljammer setting can almost best be surmised as 'pirates meets sci-fi fantasy' with its blend of magical worlds and galaxy-traversing galleons". In

4323-484: A wide array of gaming accessories such as its Dragon Dice ". Part of this overexpansion included publishing twelve hardcover novels up from the usual two novels per year. Shannon Appelcline, in Designers & Dragons: The 90s , commented that the books were sold at a loss and the "TSR warehouse" was "truckloads" full of Dragon Dice . By 1996, TSR was experiencing numerous problems, as outlined by various historians of

4454-518: A year of the departure of the Blumes, the company posted a net loss of US$ 1.5 million, resulting in layoffs of approximately 75% of the staff. Some of these staff members went on to form other prominent game companies, such as Pacesetter Ltd and Mayfair Games , or to work with Coleco 's video game division. Gygax searched for financing. Flint Dille , one of his contacts he made in his time in Hollywood, suggested his sister Lorraine Williams might be interested in investing money into TSR. Williams

4585-478: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Spelljammer Spelljammer is a campaign setting originally published for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ( 2nd edition ) role-playing game , which features a fantastic (as opposed to scientific ) outer space environment. Subsequent editions have included Spelljammer content; a Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition setting update

4716-523: Is generally considered the first tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG), and established the genre. When Kaye died suddenly in 1975, the Tactical Studies Rules partnership restructured into TSR Hobbies, Inc. and accepted investment from Blume's father Melvin. With the popular D&D as its main product, TSR Hobbies became a major force in the games industry by the late 1970s. Melvin Blume eventually transferred his shares to his other son Kevin, making

4847-516: Is located in the first office building of the original TSR. Elliot's TSR Games then announced on social media that while they have owned the trademark since 2011, they missed a filing date in 2020 and were considering various options. However, after Ernie Gygax's "troubling comments about race, gender identity, and gun violence, as well as his company's reaction", Elliot announced that his company would not have "any form of working relationship" with Ernie Gygax's TSR. Ultimately, Elliot's TSR Games

4978-403: Is not dispersed by the vacuum of space. These bubbles of air provide breathable atmosphere for varying lengths of time, but 3 months is considered "standard". A crystal sphere (also known as a crystal shell) is a gigantic spherical shell which contains an entire planetary system . Each sphere varies in size but typically they are twice the diameter of the orbit of the planet that is farthest from

5109-700: Is possible, but very dangerous. The Spelljammer is a legendary ship which looks like a gigantic manta ray , and houses an entire city on its back. All spacefarers (people who live in wildspace) have heard of the Spelljammer but very few have ever seen it themselves. It is this ship that gives its name to "spelljamming", "spelljamming helms" and anything else connected with spelljamming. The ship has been reported to have been seen in countless spheres for as long as records go back. Even some groundlings (people who live on planets that have very little or no commerce with spelljamming communities) have legends about it. There are hundreds of conflicting legends about this ship, and

5240-403: Is similar to the outer space of science fiction, with planets, asteroids and stars, but with different physics. Gravity is either none or the same as that of Earth, and is directed towards the center of planet-sized bodies; on large objects in space like spacecraft and enormous creatures gravity is directed towards a flat plane running through the object's long axis, allowing characters to stand on

5371-465: Is skeptical Gygax was truly unaware, however. Gygax returned to Wisconsin from Hollywood. In the spring of 1985, Gygax exercised an option to buy seven hundred shares of TSR stock, which combined with shares given to his son Ernie gave him 51.1% of all stock, up from around 30% before. Gygax also says he had a confrontation with the board of directors, and had the Blumes removed. Gygax now controlled TSR. Financial difficulties continued, however. Within

Crystal Spheres - Misplaced Pages Continue

5502-553: The Monstrous Compendium series, Spelljammer Appendix in 1990 and Spelljammer Appendix II in 1991. In 1993, Space Lairs and The Astromundi Cluster were the final products of the line. Appelcline commented on the end of the setting in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons era: "TSR's fifth second-edition campaign world, Planescape (1993), was released to replace Spelljammer, which had just then ended. TSR wanted

5633-669: The 5th Edition adventure module Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage (2018). In the adventure, a spelljamming ship and its illithid captain appear stranded in level 19 of the titular dungeon. Then in October 2021, Wizards released the PDF Travelers of the Multiverse which is part of the " Unearthed Arcana " public playtest series. Of the six player races it included, four races (autognome, giff, hadozee, and plasmoid) are closely associated with

5764-764: The Forgotten Realms , Krynnspace for Dragonlance , and Greyspace for Greyhawk . Along with the new sphere - Clusterspace - they were known as the "Big Three and Astromundi". Dark Sun , Ravenloft and Mystara weren't included, as the first two did not fit with the setting and the Mystara only used the D&;D rules, not the AD&D rules. The product line would be expanded with a number of boxed sets and accessories such as Lost Ships (1990), Realmspace (1991) and The Astromundi Cluster (1993). Appelcline commented that The Astromundi Cluster acted as "a soft reboot of

5895-555: The Mars book without permission from (or payment to) the Burroughs estate . Warriors of Mars was quietly dropped from the catalog and never reprinted. When Don Kaye died of a heart attack on January 31, 1975, his role was taken over by his wife Donna Kaye, who remained responsible for accounting, shipping, and the records of the partnership through the summer. By the summer of 1975, those duties became complex enough that Gygax himself became

6026-574: The Planescape setting, Spelljammer unifies most of the other AD&D settings and provides a canonical method for allowing characters from one setting (such as Dragonlance ) to travel to another (such as the Forgotten Realms ). However, unlike Planescape, it keeps all of the action on the Prime Material Plane and uses the crystal spheres, and the "phlogiston" between them, to form natural barriers between otherwise incompatible settings. Though

6157-549: The Spelljammer line" and was more of setting focused sourcebook than previous Spelljammer books which acted more "as a conduit between all of the other AD&D settings". The first adventure module, titled Wildspace , was released in 1990; four connected adventure modules followed it. A longer campaign module, Heart of the Enemy , was then published in 1992 followed by an adventure anthology, Space Lairs , in 1993. The monsters of Spelljammer were detailed in two installments of

6288-671: The Spelljammer setting. Both Polygon and Bleeding Cool highlighted that this playtest could indicate a future Spelljammer reboot . Wizards of the Coast released a new boxed set titled Spelljammer: Adventures in Space on August 16, 2022; this release updates the Spelljammer setting for the 5th Edition. The box set includes a Dungeon Master's screen, a double-sided poster map and three 64-page hardcover books: Astral Adventurer's Guide (a Dungeon Master guide), Boo's Astral Menagerie (a bestiary), and Light of Xaryxis (an adventure module). A special edition, with cover art by Hydro74,

6419-470: The Thri-kreen insectoids, and bumbling tinker gnomes . Illithids were another major race, but were presented as more mercantile and less overtly evil than in other D&D settings. The Monstrous Compendium series added many more minor races. The simian Hadozee were also introduced into the setting, and later incorporated into the 3.5 rules in the supplemental book Stormwrack . Spelljammer has acted as

6550-411: The cosmology is derived largely from the Ptolemaic system of astronomy , many of the ideas owe much to the works of Jules Verne and his contemporaries, and to related games and fiction with a steampunk or planetary romance flavor. A strong Age of Sail flavor is also present. Shannon Appelcline, in the book Designers & Dragons (2011), highlighted that in 1989 Spelljammer was the first of

6681-458: The 1990s. Gygax granted exclusive rights to Games Workshop to distribute TSR products in the United Kingdom, after meeting with Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson . Games Workshop printed some original material and also printed their own versions of various D&D and AD&D titles in order to avoid high import costs. TSR was unable to reach an agreement with Games Workshop regarding

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6812-530: The Blumes and then worked under Lorraine preferred working under Lorraine... I never met a single person who was under both who didn't prefer being under her." Jeff Grubb said that she "pretty much saved the company," as the company was weeks away from total collapse when she took over. TSR released the Forgotten Realms campaign setting in 1987, which would go on to become one of the most popular settings for D&D . TSR's settings would generally include

6943-660: The Coast in 1997. In May 2002, Paizo published an article for Spelljammer in Dungeon #92 titled "Spelljammer: Shadow of the Spider Moon". Using the D20 system , it provided new rules for firearms and spelljamming, as well as skills, feats and prestige classes. Spelljammer monsters such as neogi and giff were not used. Instead, it featured creatures from the Monster Manual such as drow , formians and yuan-ti. In May 2005, Wizards of

7074-519: The Coast updated the neogi to the 3.5 edition rules in the supplement Lords of Madness (2005). The book included a chapter with a sample map of a crashed Spelljamming vessel, cultural habits of the neogi, and the monster's stat blocks. A Spelljammer homage appears in the 4th edition Manual of the Planes ; the sourcebook highlights Spelljammer ships as one method of traveling between planes and provides information for in-game use of Spelljammer vessels. Spelljammer content also appears in

7205-574: The Forgotten Realms. In 1993, a revised version of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting for 2nd edition was released; TSR had published a sourcebook on upgrading the 1st edition material to 2nd edition in 1990 earlier. In 1993, DragonStrike was released as an introductory product aimed to recruit new role-players, including a half-hour video which explained role-playing concepts; a similar introductory product, First Quest ,

7336-453: The January 1990 edition of Games International (issue #12), James Wallis was not a fan of the initial release, Spelljammer: AD&D Adventures in Space , finding inconsistencies in the combat rules, saying that the cumulative effect of these inconsistencies is to make space combat unplayable. He did find the background "imaginative and consistent", but very little of it. Although he admired

7467-645: The Spelljammer Campaign setting. Legends of the Multiverse is an official actual play streaming series broadcast on the Dungeons & Dragons channels which premiered on April 27, 2022 and is set in the Spelljammer campaign setting. It stars Deborah Ann Woll , B. Dave Walters, Gina Darling, Meagan Kenreck, and Todd Kenreck. It will also feature guest stars such as Brennan Lee Mulligan , Aabria Iyengar , Ginny Di, Anna Prosser, Deejay Knight, Emme Montgomery, Travis McElroy , SungWon Cho , and Jim Zub . In

7598-482: The TSR name for D&D products, but by 2000, the TSR moniker was dropped, coinciding with the release of the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons . WotC allowed the TSR trademark to expire in the early 2000s. Two other companies have since used the TSR trademark commercially. Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) was formed in 1973 as a partnership between Gary Gygax and Don Kaye , who collected together $ 2,400 for costs related to startup, to formally publish and sell

7729-574: The area of role-playing games. Williams saw potential for rebuilding the debt-plagued company into a highly profitable one. However, she also acquired a reputation as a non-gamer who played the "villain" in retrospectives of TSR. Gary Gygax grew particularly disdainful of her; Williams' habit of threatening lawsuits and legal action against perceived foes was criticized as unwise and turning potential allies into enemies. However, her tenure has also been defended. John D. Rateliff said that "Every single person I talked to who worked under Gary [Gygax] and

7860-756: The biggest seller for 1985. TSR published a game based on the All My Children daytime drama on ABC , with over 150,000 copies sold. In 1986, TSR began publishing the bi-monthly Dungeon Adventures magazine, featuring only adventure scenarios for D&D . Sales of the core rule books and boxed sets crested in 1983 and fell in 1984 and 1985, largely due to market saturation ; customers who wanted rulebooks largely already had them. There were bright spots in 1983–1985 such as Dragonlance novel sales, Unearthed Arcana , and Oriental Adventures , but TSR's finances were in bad shape due to high expenses and costs that had assumed rule book sales would remain strong. The result

7991-498: The classic settings Wizards of the Coast brings back for the 5th Edition. Sowa wrote that "players have been asking for Spelljammer to be introduced to 5e since the release of the first setting sourcebook. Wizards tossed them a bone with the Dream of The Blue Veil spell added in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything , but it's not a replacement for the niche Spelljammer previously filled. It's not just

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8122-496: The comics Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Forgotten Realms , which sold well and were profitable for both DC and TSR. Sensing an opportunity, TSR decided to produce comics themselves as a stepping stool to television and film, as comics were cheaper to produce and start with. However, they had already sold the rights to their own A-list product in AD&D . TSR attempted to not enrage DC Comics by calling their new product "comics modules" and including game-related material at

8253-437: The community. In 1979, TSR signed a contract with Random House with unusual terms. In most deals between publishers and distributors, publishers are paid directly based on books sold downstream by the distributor to bookstores. In TSR's contract, however, Random House would loan money to TSR as an advance upon shipment of product from TSR to Random House, a loan equivalent to 27.3% of the suggested retail price. The arrangement

8384-599: The company and the division of royalties, including several lawsuits against Gygax. This included the company threatening to sue individuals supplying game material on websites. In 1984, there was an incident involving Lucasfilm that led to a legend that TSR had trademarked the term " Nazi ". TSR published a supplement for the Indiana Jones RPG , Raiders of the Lost Ark Adventure Pack , in which some figures were marked with "Nazi™". This trademark notation

8515-543: The company in 2016 when the magazine ended. The company operated as TSR Games, producing the Top Secret: New World Order role-playing game. In June 2021, a new, separate TSR company was launched by a group including Ernie Gygax, Justin LaNasa and Stephen Dinehart. The company is based out of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin; they announced plans to release tabletop games and operate the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum, which

8646-444: The company in October 1985. TSR saw prosperity under Williams, but encountered financial trouble in the mid-1990s. While their overall sales and revenue were healthy, TSR's high costs meant the company nevertheless became unprofitable and deeply in debt. TSR was left unable to cover its publishing costs due to a variety of factors. Facing insolvency, TSR was purchased in 1997 by Wizards of the Coast (WotC). WotC initially continued using

8777-442: The company. Shannon Appelcline wrote: "Distributors were going out of business. TSR had unbalanced their AD&D game through a series of lucrative supplements that ultimately hurt the long-time viability of the game. Meanwhile, they had developed so many settings—many of them popular and well received—that they were both cannibalizing their only sales and discouraging players from picking up settings that might be gone in

8908-657: The constraints on it, while others indicate it sold poorly. Spellfire was discontinued in 1996, although one final release occurred in late 1997. Another collectible competitor to Wizards of the Coast that TSR produced was Dragon Dice , which was released in 1995. Dragon Dice was a collectible dice game where each player started with a random assortment of basic dice, and could improve their assortment by purchasing booster packs of more powerful dice. The first sets of Dragon Dice sold well at games stores, and TSR produced several expansion sets. However, interest in Dragon Dice

9039-632: The cosmos seemingly aimlessly. When the Spelljammer has a captain, obtained through another complex process, it will create Smalljammers (miniature versions of the Spelljammer ) that go forth as its spawn. Apparently there can only be one Spelljammer at any one time. One Smalljammer will mature into a full Spelljammer ship if its predecessor is ever destroyed. Alien races inhabiting the Spelljammer universe included humans , dwarves , xenophobic beholders , rapacious neogi , militant giff (humanoid hippopotami ), centaurlike dracons, hubristic elf armadas, spacefaring orcs called "scro", mysterious arcane ,

9170-544: The court case concludes, hence there was no need for a preliminary injunction. In June 2023, LaNasa's TSR declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy , which triggered an automatic stay of the lawsuit. TSR's main products were role-playing games, the most successful of which was D&D . However, they also produced other games such as card games , board games , and dice games , and published both magazines and books. In 1984, TSR started publishing novels based on their games. Most D&D campaign settings had their own novel line,

9301-623: The creation of the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons . It was released in 2000 under the Wizards of the Coast brand only. In 1999, Wizards of the Coast was itself purchased by Hasbro, Inc . In 2002, the Gen Con convention was sold to Peter Adkison , the founder and CEO of Wizards of the Coast. After its initial success faded, the company turned to legal defenses of what it regarded as its intellectual property . In addition, there were several legal cases brought regarding who had invented what within

9432-475: The decks of ships. The phlogiston is essentially a big ocean of a unique element that is neither air, fire, water, or earth. The phlogiston (also known as "the Flow") is a bright, extremely combustible gas-like medium that exists between the Crystal Spheres. A signature property of the substance is that it does not exist within the boundaries of a crystal sphere, to the degree that it cannot be brought into

9563-447: The direct cost of losing 18 pennies on every dollar of revenue, factoring had the other downside of not being flexible to changing market conditions, as TSR was essentially locked into its budgeting from January. It was partially why Spellfire was made on a tiny budget, as TSR was attempting to take on a new initiative in the middle of the year, and led to a fiasco with its Advanced Dungeons & Dragons CD-ROM Core Rules product where

9694-423: The door to his usurping of the brand and its games. [...] Here's where things get complicated. Wizards admitted that it failed to file paperwork for the registration of TSR, Star Frontiers, and other related marks in a timely fashion as required under federal law. But through continued sales of related products and use of the related IP, the company claims ownership via ' common law trademark rights.' It will be up to

9825-416: The end of each issue; additionally, TSR largely sold the comics modules through bookshops rather than comic shops. The compromise failed in both directions: DC, feeling betrayed that their partner was moving to become a competitor, immediately stopped production of both the AD&D and Forgotten Realms comics, and canceled an in-production Ravenloft work. However, the changes to present the product as not

9956-411: The eventual sales of the product. This financial innovation allowed TSR to be essentially "paid in advance", less fees from the banks and from discounts given to suppliers, which worked out to keeping about 82% of the revenue. Getting all of the money in January allowed TSR to budget with more certainty and potentially fund projects with a long lead time immediately, rather than waiting on sales. Other than

10087-655: The first game company to publish a hardbound book. The next year, the AD&D Players Handbook was published, followed by a series of six adventure modules . Due to the inclusion of the word "Advanced" in the title, TSR did not pay Dave Arneson any royalties on AD&D products, saying his co-creation rights extended to the base D&D name only. In late 1978, TSR Hobbies and the Dungeon Hobby Shop moved from 723 Williams Street into downtown Lake Geneva , to 772 West Main Street, with its offices once again located above

10218-430: The first half of 1997. With no viable financial plan for TSR's survival, Lorraine Williams sold the company to Wizards of the Coast in 1997 in a deal brokered by Five Rings Publishing Group (FRPG). Wizards of the Coast settled TSR's debts as part of the acquisition. This included unwinding TSR's deal with its printer, enabling the products TSR had worked on in the first half of 1997 to be printed and distributed, such as

10349-497: The fiscal year of 1976. TSR started hosting the Gen Con Game Fair in 1976, and the first D&D open tournament was held at the convention that year. D&D supplements Eldritch Wizardry and Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes were released in 1976. Also in 1976, the company opened The Dungeon Hobby Shop at 723 Williams Street and TSR Hobbies moved out of Gygax's home and into the building, with its offices upstairs from

10480-456: The form of a helm . Any spellcaster may sit on a spelljammer helm to move the ship. The mysterious race known as the Arcane is the sole manufacturer and distributor of spelljamming helms. Within the Dungeons & Dragons universe, they are a method of converting magical energy into motive power. All bodies of a sufficiently large size have gravity . This gravity usually (but not always) exerts

10611-493: The game "gloriously bewildering." Horvath also noted the new edition being launched for the 5th edition of D&D , commenting "I can't imagine something so weird as the original coming out today — the new version already seems different, a little less odd, a little more formulaic." TSR, Inc. TSR, Inc. was an American game publishing company, best known as the original publisher of Dungeons & Dragons ( D&D ). Its earliest incarnation, Tactical Studies Rules,

10742-443: The hobby shop. TSR also began to branch the Dungeons & Dragons product into two: Dungeons & Dragons as a general audience product intended for novices, and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ( AD&D ) for a more complicated product aimed at hardcore fans. In 1977, the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set was released for D&D , and the Monster Manual was released as the initial product for AD&D , making TSR

10873-576: The hobby shop. In 1979, the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide was published, and radio ads featuring "Morley the Wizard" were broadcast, a figure created "as the poster child for the softer, child-friendly image" promoted at that time. All of these core books would go on to be major hits; the D&;D Basic Set sold well in 1977 and 1978, would sell over 100,000 copies in 1979, and would continue to be updated and re-released for years. During this era, there were

11004-402: The hundred fastest-growing privately held U.S. companies. That same year, TSR Hobbies moved its offices again, into a former medical supply building with a warehouse attached. In 1982, TSR Hobbies broke the 20 million sales mark. TSR Hobbies terminated Grenadier Miniatures 's license in 1982 and began to directly manufacture an AD&D miniatures line , followed by a toy line. Part of

11135-516: The introductory video for Dragonstrike and a 1995 interactive video game series called Terror T.R.A.X. In 1994, TSR signed an agreement with Sweetpea Entertainment for rights to make a D&D movie. This would eventually result in the 2000 Dungeons & Dragons movie . TSR continued to own and operate the Gen Con role-playing game convention. Gen Con grew beyond its initial focus on D&D and wargames to role-playing fans in general. Gen Con

11266-502: The know at TSR to call it the "Banco de Random House". It also dulled TSR's internal sense of which products were selling, leading to overprinting of niche products. Ben Riggs cites the introductory product DragonStrike as an example, which sold well but was vastly overprinted. The extra copies were still sent to Random House to generate loans, however. The result was a steadily expanding "debt bubble" with Random House as returns of product soared. Random House eventually noticed something

11397-461: The largest shareholder, Melvin Blume the second largest, and Gary Gygax the third largest. Gygax served as president of TSR Hobbies, and Blume as vice president and secretary. The Dungeon hobby shop would become the effective headquarters of the company, including the offices of Blume and Gygax. TSR Hobbies subcontracted the printing and assembly work in October 1975, and the third printing of 2,000 copies of D&D sold out in five months. Tim Kask

11528-565: The lead characters. Six novels set in the Spelljammer universe were published by TSR , before TSR was incorporated into Wizards of the Coast . The novels were interconnected and formed "The Cloakmaster Cycle". The novels tell the story of Teldin Moore, a 'groundling' farmer on Krynn who has a powerful and apparently cursed magical cloak that was given to him. He then ends up on a quest, which takes him first into wildspace and then away from his home sphere to distant crystal spheres. The series showcases

11659-531: The licensing of the AD&D toy line went to LJN . Also that year, TSR introduced the Gangbusters and Star Frontiers role-playing games. TSR established exclusive distribution for the D&D game in 1982 in 22 countries, with the game being translated first into French, followed by many other languages. In 1982, TSR established an educational department with the intention of developing curriculum programs for reading, math, history, and problem solving, with

11790-423: The long-term was a financial arrangement known as "factoring." Factoring worked like this: TSR first arranged contracts with retailers in the hobby trade (gaming stores, comics stores, and so on) to preorder their products and offered a discounted rate for contracts signed in January. TSR then took these contracts to investment banks, and was advanced money immediately by the banks, with the banks to be paid off from

11921-494: The majority shareholder of TSR, and used her voting power to depose Gygax as CEO and president on October 22, 1985. Gygax unsuccessfully challenged the sale in court; Gygax's supporters considered the Blumes' sale an act of retaliation. Gygax eventually sold his remaining stock to Williams and used the capital to form New Infinities Productions . On TSR's side, they would pepper Gygax with legal threats long after he left in an attempt to deter him from competing with his old company in

12052-400: The mid-1970s under the TSR logo, including Air War , Blue & Gray , and Napoleon's Last Battles . But TSR soon learned that the main reason for SPI's large debt was that the wargame market had collapsed. When their wargames failed to sell, TSR halted all new game projects; in reaction, most SPI game designers resigned and moved to rival company Avalon Hill , lured by the formation of

12183-511: The money to pay off its debts, leaving it cash-poor but debt-free. Less than two weeks later, TSR called in the note; with no cash on hand, SPI was forced to hand over their operation to TSR. Believing the wargame market to be a lucrative opportunity, TSR immediately released several SPI titles that were ready for publication but had been stranded by a lack of money for printing, such as Battle Over Britain and A Gleam of Bayonets . TSR also reboxed and republished several popular SPI titles from

12314-782: The most successful of which were the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms lines, with dozens of novels each. TSR also published the 1995 novel Buck Rogers: A Life in the Future by Martin Caidin , a standalone re-imagining of the Buck Rogers universe and unrelated to TSR's Buck Rogers XXVC game. TSR published a large number of fantasy and science fiction novels unconnected with their gaming products, such as L. Dean James ' "Red Kings of Wynnamyr" novels, Sorcerer's Stone (1991) and Kingslayer (1992); Mary H. Herbert 's five "Gabria" novels ( Valorian , Dark Horse , Lightning's Daughter , City of

12445-537: The most successful program among these the Endless Quest series of game books. Melvin Blume's shares were later transferred to his son Kevin Blume. After this, the leadership of TSR consisted of Kevin Blume, Brian Blume, and Gary Gygax. In contemporary articles from the early 1980s, Gygax said that the three worked as a team, and only proceeded with unanimous consent and buy-in. In interviews years later, Gygax downplayed his role, and described his position as primarily

12576-413: The new company with assistance from early TSR/D&D contributors including Luke and Ernie Gygax, sons of the deceased D&D co-creator Gary Gygax, and Tim Kask , former editor of Dragon magazine. Their first product was Gygax Magazine , announced along with the TSR company revival in December 2012. Wired reported that "Elliot stressed that his 'TSR is a new company'." Both Gygax brothers left

12707-461: The official campaign setting for multiple Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying adventure modules, sourcebooks and accessories. Fifteen comics set in the Spelljammer universe were published by DC Comics between September 1990 and November 1991 with the creative team of Barbara Kesel , Michael Collins and Dan Panosian . Spelljammer comics also uses Jasmine, a winged human character originally introduced from Forgotten Realms comics , as one of

12838-506: The original versions of art they had made for TSR. Wizards eventually closed the TSR corporate offices in Lake Geneva. Some TSR employees accepted the offer of transferring to Wizards of the Coast's offices in Washington, and a few others continued to work remotely from Wisconsin. Wizards of the Coast continued to use the TSR name for D&D products for three years. Wizards also set about

12969-478: The paperback bestseller lists. TSR eventually moved into publishing hardcover novels as well with Salvatore's The Legacy , published in 1992. It made the top of The New York Times Best Seller list weeks after its release. The Dille Family Trust, of which Lorraine Williams was a part, held the rights to the Buck Rogers license. Williams personally encouraged TSR to produce Buck Rogers tie-in material. TSR would end up publishing Buck Rogers board games, novels,

13100-431: The power to rule domains; players could expand their domains and divine powers with a mixture of war and diplomacy. In 1996, Dragonlance: Fifth Age was released, a "diceless" role-playing game that departed from the roots of Dragonlance in AD&D . Under Williams' direction, TSR solidified its expansion into other fields, such as magazines, paperback fiction, comic books, and collectible games. TSR's book division

13231-513: The production values of the components, he found the book disorganized to the point of "disarray and confusion". He concluded by giving the game a poor rating of only 2 out of 5, saying that " Spelljammer may score well physically but fails mentally [...] Scavenging AD&D players who enjoy stripping tasty ideas from the carcasses of dying games may find it of interest, but I cannot recommend it to anyone else". Alexander Sowa, for CBR in October 2021, commented that Spelljammer should be one of

13362-433: The rules of Dungeons & Dragons , the creation of Gygax and Dave Arneson and the first modern role-playing game (RPG). The first TSR release, however, was Cavaliers and Roundheads , a miniature game , to start generating income for TSR. The partnership was subsequently joined by Brian Blume in December 1973. Blume was admitted to the partnership to fund further publishing of D&D , as Cavaliers and Roundheads

13493-497: The same number of total customers. Ryan Dancey and Lisa Stevens , who examined TSR's finances for Wizards of the Coast, found that many of the AD&D settings products were never profitable, and more worryingly never could have been profitable—the cost of production was simply too high compared to the price they sold for. David M. Ewalt writes that Spellfire and Dragon Dice "were both expensive to produce, and neither sold very well". Another factor that hobbled TSR in

13624-495: The ships have open decks and tend not to resemble the spaceships of science fiction , but instead look more like galleons , animals, birds, fish or even more wildly fantastic shapes. The Spelljammer setting is designed to allow the usual sword and sorcery adventures of Dungeons & Dragons to take place within the framework of outer space tropes. Flying ships travel through the vast expanses of interplanetary space, visiting moons and planets and other stellar objects. Like

13755-440: The space opera game Alternity . More generally, Wizards was cash-rich, which solved some of the problems TSR had faced that had caused it to resort to the rolling loans and financial trickery that had cut into TSR's profits, such as factoring. Wizards of the Coast also moved to mend relations with some of TSR's former employees and contractors who had been alienated. This included allowing artists to take back personal ownership of

13886-486: The sun or planet at the center of the sphere (the system's primary). The surface of the sphere is called the "sphere wall" and separates the void of "wildspace" (within the sphere) from the "phlogiston" (that surrounds and flows outside the sphere). The sphere wall has no gravity and appears to be impossible to damage by any normal or magical means. Openings in the sphere wall called "portals" allow spelljamming ships or wildspace creatures to pass through and enter or exit from

14017-503: The trademark and copyrights of the magazine Amazing Stories , although it had only ten thousand subscribers. Another acquisition was the 1982 takeover of Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI), one of the major publishers of wargames and wargaming magazines in North America. SPI was heavily in debt, and TSR agreed to give them a promissory note for several hundred thousand dollars, using SPI's assets as collateral. SPI immediately used

14148-495: The two Blume brothers the largest shareholders in TSR Hobbies. TSR Hobbies ran into financial difficulties in the spring of 1983, prompting the company to split into four independent businesses, with game publishing and development continuing as TSR, Inc. (TSR). After losing their executive positions, the Blume brothers subsequently sold their shares to TSR Vice President Lorraine Williams , who in turn engineered Gygax's ouster from

14279-452: The wonders and perils of the Spelljammer universe. The novels are now out of print. The only Spelljammer computer game ever produced was Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace , published by SSI in 1992. In 2002 a team of freelance game modification developers created "The Arcane Space Tileset" for Neverwinter Nights . This tileset included Spelljamming ships, space and atmospheric terrains, along with monsters and NPCs, all set within

14410-480: Was a cycle of layoffs and contractions in 1983–1985, as well as the Blumes negotiating a $ 4 million loan from American National Bank . The struggle for financing led to board room shake-ups at the top level. TSR's line of credit was stopped by its bank, and the company was in debt to over US$ 1.5 million . Gygax would later say that he was in the dark as to the extent of the financial difficulties due to being in Hollywood; Ben Riggs, an author who studied TSR's history,

14541-456: Was a growing and successful convention; in 1992, it broke every previous record for attendance to game conventions in the United States, with over 18,000 attendees. In 1993, Wizards of the Coast released the game Magic: The Gathering at Gen Con, which was an immediate smash hit that established the collectible card game (CCG) genre. TSR's Jim Ward led a development effort to create

14672-413: Was a traditional powerhouse for the company, especially due to the comparatively low costs in producing novels compared to role-playing supplements which required commissioning art and play-testing. The most notably successful novel series of the era was R. A. Salvatore 's Drizzt series , set in the Forgotten Realms. Starting with The Crystal Shard in 1988, many of Salvatore's books would go on to reach

14803-489: Was able to make licensing agreements that allowed the company to publish the Marvel Super Heroes , Indiana Jones , and Conan role-playing games. In 1985, Gen Con moved out of Lake Geneva which had given it its name, and relocated to Milwaukee , Wisconsin where the game convention would have more badly needed additional space. The Oriental Adventures hardback for AD&D was released that same year, becoming

14934-457: Was also connected to the opening of the Dungeon hobby shop in Lake Geneva. TSR Hobbies then moved to buy out the old TSR partnership's assets. Brian's father, Melvin Blume, invested $ 20,000 in the nascent company which enabled it to buy out Donna Kaye's share of the original TSR partnership. On September 26, 1975, the assets of the former partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies. Brian Blume became

15065-525: Was also released in 1989, which allowed characters from one D&D world to travel to other worlds via space galleons in an Age of Sail themed setting. TSR would go on to produce many expansions for 2nd edition, such as a series of class handbooks that began with The Complete Fighter's Handbook . In 1990, the Ravenloft setting was released, a horror-themed setting for AD&D . Ravenloft had been introduced in an acclaimed 1983 adventure module , and

15196-549: Was also released. A prequel adventure module, titled Spelljammer Academy , was released for free on the Wizards of the Coast website and on D&D Beyond in July of the same year. Monstrous Compendium Vol 1: Spelljammer Creatures introduced ten creatures from the Spelljammer setting to the 5th Edition in April 2022. Spelljamming helms are the central setting concept which allow interplanetary and interstellar space travel for vessels which would otherwise not be spaceworthy, in

15327-502: Was amiss, and began demanding TSR shrink its debt load with them—around $ 11.8 million in June 1995. Random House sued TSR in April 1996 for repayment. Despite total sales of around $ 40 million in 1995, TSR ended 1996 with little in cash reserves, and the company was deep in debt. Random House returned an unexpectedly high percentage of unsold stock, including the year's inventory of unsold novels and sets of Dragon Dice , and charged

15458-554: Was because of a list of trademarked character names supplied by Lucasfilm's legal department; they had indiscriminately marked all figures with a trademark symbol, and the Nazi figures were likewise marked accidentally. In 2011, a new company taking the name TSR was founded by Jayson Elliot, who co-founded the Roll for Initiative podcast. Elliot found that the TSR trademark had expired around 2004 so he registered it himself. He then decided to launch

15589-452: Was founded in October 1973 by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye . Gygax had been unable to find a publisher for D&D , a new type of game he and Dave Arneson were co-developing, so he founded the new company with Kaye to self-publish their products. Needing financing to bring their new game to market, Gygax and Kaye brought in Brian Blume in December as an equal partner. Dungeons & Dragons

15720-605: Was given a position of general manager at TSR and attempted to fix TSR's precarious financial situation. This led to clashes between Williams and Gygax, who resisted some of Williams' suggestions. Meanwhile, the Blumes, out of power at the company and worried about its financial strength in the long-term, sought to cash out their shares. They offered to sell their shares to Gygax, but he refused. They exercised their own options to buy seven hundred more shares, then sold their entire holdings to Lorraine Williams instead. Williams herself bought fifty shares. With these purchases, Williams became

15851-526: Was hired in the autumn of 1975 as Periodicals Editor, and the first employee that TSR hired for full-time work. Empire of the Petal Throne was the first game product released by TSR Hobbies, followed by two D&D supplements, Greyhawk and Blackmoor . Also released in 1975 were the board game Dungeon! and the Wild West RPG Boot Hill . The company took $ 300,000 in revenues for

15982-476: Was innovative and popular". Appelcline commented that Spelljammer "offered a way to connect every single D&D fantasy world, was thus one of the first true crossovers" in role-playing games. The Spelljammer: AD&D Adventures in Space space fantasy boxed set was released in 1989. Several of TSR 's other campaign worlds had their own sections in the Spelljammer Boxed Set - Realmspace for

16113-559: Was introduced in 1980. The espionage role-playing game Top Secret came out in 1980; reportedly, a note regarding a fictitious assassination plot on TSR stationery, as part of the playtesting of the new game, prompted the FBI to visit TSR's offices. That same year, the Role Playing Game Association was founded to promote skillful roleplaying and unite players around the country. In 1981, Inc. magazine listed TSR Hobbies among

16244-422: Was mutually beneficial at first: TSR could acquire money up front to fund their work, and not have to worry about immediate sales. Many of TSR's products had consistent sales over time, and the loans allowed the company to recoup the investment immediately and use the funds to make more books. Returns were generally low, leading to Random House's confidence in TSR. However, the arrangement would cause trouble later in

16375-585: Was no means of printing or shipping core products to generate income or secure short-term financing. The company laid off thirty staff members in December 1996, and other employees including James M. Ward quit over disagreements about how the company managed the crisis. In large part due to the need to refund Random House, TSR began 1997 more than $ 30 million in debt. TSR was threatened by lawsuits due to unpaid freelancers as well as missing royalties, but TSR made sufficient earnings from products already shipped to stores to keep their remaining staff paid through

16506-406: Was not a commercial success. In the original configuration of the partnership, Kaye served as president, Blume as vice-president, and Gygax as editor. In January 1974, TSR—with Gygax using his basement as a headquarters—produced 1,000 copies of D&D , selling them for $ 10 each (and the required extra dice for another $ 3.50). This first print sold out in 10 months. In January 1975, TSR printed

16637-566: Was now expanded into an entire setting. In 1991, TSR released the Dark Sun campaign setting, which was more dark fantasy in genre, and set on a post-apocalyptic desert world threatened by evil life-draining wizards and psionicists. In 1992, TSR released the Al-Qadim setting with a Middle Eastern flavor similar to a fantasy version of the Arabian Nights , although its world was also connected to

16768-575: Was rebranded as Solarian Games in July 2021. Dinehart then rebranded as Wonderfilled Games. Dicebreaker reported that "TSR Games never officially announced its rebranding as Wonderfilled Games" and most of its "Twitter accounts had been locked down or nuked, and the company's old website simply redirected to a new page that — interestingly — listed Dinehart's GiantLands as an in-development title. [...] How much of TSR Games exists in Wonderfilled Games isn't clear". LaNasa's TSR Games then launched

16899-486: Was released in 1994. Also in 1994, the Planescape campaign setting was released, featuring the city of Sigil as the "City of Doors" that connected to the various planes of existence in AD&D . Spelljammer had not been considered a success by TSR as players perceived it as mainly a way to move characters from one world to another rather than its own setting; Planescape attempted to remedy this by focusing on Sigil as

17030-453: Was released on August 16, 2022. Spelljammer introduced into the AD&D universe a comprehensive system of fantasy astrophysics , including the Ptolemaic concept of crystal spheres. Crystal spheres may contain multiple worlds and are navigable using ships equipped with "spelljamming helms". Ships powered by spelljamming helms are capable of flying into not only the sky but into space . With their own fields of gravity and atmosphere ,

17161-555: Was waning. In addition, TSR tried to aggressively market Dragon Dice in mass-market book stores through Random House . However, the game did not catch on through the book trade. TSR's book division ran into troubles in the mid-1990s. TSR engaged in disputes with some of its most successful authors over terms and remuneration. Weis & Hickman had been driven off in the mid-1980s; a new dispute with R. A. Salvatore happened in 1994–1995. TSR suffered "the effects of overexpansion" in 1996 with an "expanded number of hardcover novels and

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