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Dungeon Master

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In the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) role-playing game , the Dungeon Master ( DM ) is the game organizer and participant in charge of creating the details and challenges of a given adventure, while maintaining a realistic continuity of events. In effect, the Dungeon Master controls all aspects of the game, except for the actions of the player characters (PCs), and describes to the players what their characters experience. Regular Dungeons & Dragons groups consist of a dungeon master and several players.

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142-599: The title was invented by Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) for the Dungeons & Dragons RPG , and was introduced in the second supplement to the game rules ( Blackmoor ) in 1975. To avoid infringement of trademarks by the publishers of Dungeons & Dragons , and to describe referees in role-playing genres other than sword and sorcery , other gaming companies use more generic terms, like Game Master (GM), Game Operations Director (a backronym of GOD ), Judge, Referee or Storyteller . Some use more esoteric titles related to

284-457: 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

426-501: 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

568-484: A cameo appearance in the Dungeons & Dragons movie as one of many mages throwing fireballs at a dragon , although the scene was deleted from the completed movie. Arneson married Frankie Ann Morneau in 1984; they had one daughter, Malia, and two grandchildren. Arneson died on April 7, 2009, after battling cancer for two years. According to his daughter, Malia Weinhagen, "The biggest thing about my dad's world

710-495: 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

852-497: 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

994-493: 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

1136-516: 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

1278-646: 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

1420-564: A corporation called TSR Hobbies, Inc. At first, it was a separate company to market miniatures and games from other companies, an enterprise which 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

1562-502: 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

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1704-521: A demonstration of Blackmoor and Dungeon! While meeting at Gygax's house, Dave Arneson ran the Lake Geneva gamers through their first session of Blackmoor . Rob Kuntz describes Dave Arneson as the referee, and the Lake Geneva players as being Gary Gygax, Ernie Gygax, Terry Kuntz , and himself. Kuntz describes Dave Megarry as the de facto leader of the group, as he understood the Blackmoor game and campaign world. In Wargaming magazine, Rob Kuntz wrote

1846-456: 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

1988-573: 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

2130-423: 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

2272-426: A land inhabited in part by fantastic monsters. As the game quickly grew and characters developed, Arneson devised scenarios where they would quest for magic and gold, escort caravans, lead armies for or against the forces of evil, and delve into the dungeons beneath Castle Blackmoor (which was represented by a Kibri kit model of Branzoll Castle ). To explain his inspiration for the game, Arneson said: I had spent

2414-458: 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

2556-765: A manner similar to "what if" scenarios recreated in wargames. In the late 1960s Arneson joined the Twin Cities Military Miniatures Group , a group of miniature wargamers and military figurine collectors in the Minneapolis - St. Paul area that included among its ranks future game designer David Wesely . Wesely asserts that it was during the Braunstein games he created and refereed, and in which other Twin Cities Military Miniatures Group members participated, that Arneson helped develop

2698-471: A map to sixteen ogres and destroyed them with a wish from a sword we had procured from the hapless troll earlier. After playing in the Blackmoor game Arneson refereed, Gygax almost immediately began a similar campaign of his own, which he called " Greyhawk ", and asked Arneson for a draft of his playing-rules. The two then collaborated by phone and mail, and playtesting was carried out by their various groups and other contacts. Gygax and Arneson wanted to have

2840-521: A neutral judge who doubles as the voice and consciousness of all characters aside from the player characters . Arneson discovered wargaming as a teenager in the 1960s, and he began combining these games with the concept of role-playing . He was a University of Minnesota student when he met Gygax at the Gen Con gaming convention in the late 1960s. In 1971, Arneson created the game and fictional world that became Blackmoor , writing his own rules and basing

2982-525: A new edition of his own Adventures in Fantasy role-playing game (1981). The company also published several Tékumel related books, owing to Arneson's friendship with author M. A. R. Barker . Adventure Games was profitable, but Arneson found the workload to be excessive and finally sold the company to Flying Buffalo . Arneson sold the rights to Adventure Games to Flying Buffalo in 1985; because Arneson owned part of Flying Buffalo, he wanted to let them handle

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3124-483: 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

3266-510: A place named 'Blackmoor'." On October 30, 2010, Full Sail University dedicated the student game development studio space as "Dave Arneson's Blackmoor Studios" in Arneson's honor. Since the release of the history of Braunstein in 2008 and Playing at the World in 2012, a scholarly work by Jon Petersen, the role of Dave Wesely and Dave Arneson was restored in the broad conversation on the origins of

3408-479: 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

3550-538: 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,

3692-458: 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

3834-538: A role-playing game that attempted to recapture the "original spirit of the Role Playing Fantasy Game" that Arneson had envisioned in the early 1970s, instead of what D&D had become. In the early 1980s he established his own game company, Adventure Games – staffed largely by Arneson's friends, most of whom were involved in an American Civil War reenactment group – that published the miniatures games Harpoon (1981) and Johnny Reb (1983), as well as

3976-500: A short summary of their first Blackmoor session: Gary, myself and a few other local wargamers were the first "lucky" fellows from Lake Geneva to experience the rigors of Blackmoor. This idea caught on deeply with Gary after an exciting adventure in which our party of heroes fought a troll , were fireballed by a magic-user, then fled to the outdoors (being chased by the Magic-user and his minions), fought four (gulp!) Balrogs , followed

4118-471: 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

4260-582: A single volume in 1972 by Guidon Games with a revised edition by TSR Hobbies in 1975. Following the departure of David Wesely to service in the Army Reserves in October 1970, Arneson and his fellow players in the Twin Cities began to imagine alternate settings for "Braunstein" games. Arneson developed a Braunstein in which his players played fantasy versions of themselves in the medieval Barony of Blackmoor,

4402-431: 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 ,

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4544-679: 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

4686-538: A thorough understanding of the game rules. Since the inception of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons system in 1977, these rules have been contained in three hardbound books: the Player's Handbook , Dungeon Master's Guide , and Monster Manual . Many other rulebooks exist as well, but these are not required for conducting the game. The DM is responsible for narrative flow, creating the scenario and setting in which

4828-598: A toy line. Part of 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

4970-419: A type of decision tree that is followed by the players, and a customized version can require several hours of preparation for each hour spent playing the game. The DM serves as the arbiter of the rules, both in teaching the rules to the players and in enforcing them. The rules provide game mechanics for resolving the outcome of events, including how the player's characters interact with the game world. Although

5112-450: A variety of factors. Facing insolvency, TSR was purchased in 1997 by Wizards of the Coast (WotC). WotC initially continued using 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)

5254-484: 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

5396-518: 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

5538-551: Is he wanted people to have fun in life." Arneson received numerous industry awards for his part in creating Dungeons & Dragons and other role-playing games. In 1984 he was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design's Hall of Fame (also known as the Charles Roberts Awards Hall of Fame ) and in 1999 was named by Pyramid magazine as one of The Millennium's Most Influential Persons , "at least in

5680-516: 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

5822-465: 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

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5964-475: The Monster Manual was released as the initial product for AD&D , making TSR 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

6106-745: The Blackmoor setting. Goodman Games published and distributed Dave Arneson's Blackmoor in 2004, and Goodman published additional products for Blackmoor over the next year. Code Monkey Publishing released Dave Arneson's Blackmoor: The First Campaign (2009) for 4th edition D&D . In 1988, Arneson stated his belief that RPGs, whether paper or computer, were still "hack and slash" and did not teach novices how to play, and that games like Ultima IV "have stood pretty much alone as quirks instead of trend setters" as others did not follow their innovations. He hoped that computer RPGs would teach newcomers how to role play while offering interesting campaigns and said that SSI 's Gold Box games did not innovate on

6248-456: 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 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 ,

6390-605: 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 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

6532-565: The World of Greyhawk , 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

6674-411: The board wargame Gettysburg by Avalon Hill . After Arneson taught his friends how to play, the group began to design their own games, and tried out new ways to play existing games. Arneson was especially fond of naval wargames . Exposure to role-playing influenced his later game designs. In college history classes he role-played historical events and preferred to deviate from recorded history in

6816-572: The original Dungeons & Dragons set in 1974, with the initial print run of 1,000 selling out within a year and sales increasing rapidly in subsequent years. Further rules and a sample dungeon from Arneson's original campaign (the first published RPG scenario in a professional publication) were released in 1975 in the Blackmoor supplement for D&D , named after the campaign-setting. Blackmoor presented new character classes for monks and assassins , additional new monsters, and "The Temple of

6958-431: The "Dungeon Master". Tactical Studies Rules 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, 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

7100-498: The 1990s, he was invited to Brazil by Devir, a game publisher. He became friends with the owner of the publishing company and he gave him his D&D woodgrain box and some of his books as a gift. In 1997, after Wizards of the Coast purchased TSR, Peter Adkison paid Arneson an undisclosed sum to free up D&D from royalties that were still owed to Arneson; this allowed Wizards to retitle Advanced Dungeons & Dragons to simply Dungeons & Dragons . Around 2000, Arneson

7242-448: The Blume brothers subsequently sold their shares to TSR Vice President Lorraine Williams , who in turn engineered Gygax's ouster from 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

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7384-530: 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

7526-706: The Braunsteins after Wesely was drafted into the Army, and he often ran these scenarios using different eras and settings. Arneson had also become a member of the International Federation of Wargamers by this time. In 1969 Arneson was a history student attending the University of Minnesota and working part-time as a security guard. He attended the second Gen Con gaming convention in August 1969 (at which time wargaming

7668-574: 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 ,

7810-586: The Frog", the first published role-playing adventure scenario intended for other people to run. Arneson formally joined TSR as their Director of Research at the beginning of 1976, but left at the end of the year to pursue a career as an independent game-designer. In 1977, despite the fact that he was no longer at TSR, Arneson published Dungeonmaster's Index , a 38-page booklet that indexed all of TSR's D&D properties to that point in time. TSR had agreed to pay Arneson royalties on all D&D products, but when

7952-487: The Sorcerers , and Winged Magic ); and humorous fantasy fiction, including Roy V. Young 's "Count Yor" novels Captains Outrageous (1994) and Yor's Revenge (1995). However, such projects never represented more than a fraction of the company's fiction output, which retained a strong emphasis on game-derived works. Dave Arneson David Lance Arneson ( / ˈ ɑːr n ɪ s ən / ; October 1, 1947 – April 7, 2009)

8094-509: The Stick #644, and Dork Tower for April 8, 2009. Video game publisher Activision Blizzard posted a tribute to Arneson on their website and on April 14, 2009, released patch 3.1 of the online role-playing game World of Warcraft , The Secrets of Ulduar , dedicated to Arneson. Turbine's Dungeons and Dragons Online added an in-game memorial altar to Arneson in the Ruins of Threnal location in

8236-574: 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

8378-667: 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 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;

8520-756: 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

8662-626: The board game Dungeon! and the Wild West RPG Boot Hill . The company took $ 300,000 in revenues for 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

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8804-402: The building, with its offices upstairs from 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

8946-470: The class "Rules of the Game", a class in which students learned how to accurately document and create rule sets for games that were balanced between mental challenges for the players and "physical" ones for the characters. He retired from the position on June 19, 2008. Arneson continued to play games his entire life, including D&D and military miniature games, and regularly attended an annual meeting to play

9088-496: 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

9230-599: 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

9372-441: The company came out with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ( AD&D ) in 1977, it claimed that AD&D was a significantly different product and so did not pay him royalties for it. In response, Arneson filed the first of five lawsuits against Gygax and TSR in 1979. In March 1981, as part of a confidential agreement, Arneson and Gygax resolved the suits out of court by agreeing that they would both be credited as "co-creators" on

9514-543: 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

9656-442: 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

9798-657: 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

9940-448: The country. In 1981, Inc. magazine listed TSR Hobbies among 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

10082-544: 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,

10224-623: 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

10366-447: 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

10508-425: 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 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

10650-423: 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

10792-408: The early to mid-1970s in the original campaign and parallel and intertwined games run by John Snider , whose ruleset developed from these adventures and was intended for publication by TSR from 1974 as the first science fiction RPG. Arneson described Blackmoor as "roleplaying in a non-traditional medieval setting. I have such things as steam power, gunpowder, and submarines in limited numbers. There

10934-416: 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

11076-534: The end of the year. In 1979 Arneson filed suit to retain credits and royalties on the game. He continued to work as an independent game designer, including work submitted to TSR in the 1980s, and continued to play games for his entire life. Arneson also did some work in computer programming, and he taught computer game design and game rules design at Full Sail University from the 1990s until shortly before his death in 2009. Arneson's role-playing game design work grew from his interest in wargames . His parents bought him

11218-461: 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

11360-600: The fantasy material in the Chainmail rules, written by Gygax and Jeff Perren and published in the spring of 1971, but after a short and unsatisfactory trial of the Fantasy Combat table found therein, he developed his own mix of rules, including adapted elements from his revision of Civil War Ironclad game. The gameplay would be recognizable to modern D&D players, featuring the use of hit points , armor class , character development, and dungeon crawls . This setting

11502-430: 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

11644-650: The first time. When Gygax was forced out of TSR, Arneson's projects were dropped from the company before a planned fifth module could be published. Gygax and Arneson again went their separate ways. In 1986 Arneson wrote a new D&D module set in Blackmoor called "The Garbage Pits of Despair", which was published in two parts in Different Worlds magazine issues #42 and #43. Arneson and Dustin Clingman founded Zeitgeist Games to produce an updated d20 System version of

11786-531: The foundations of modern role-playing games on a 1:1 scale basis by focusing on non-combat objectives—a step away from wargaming towards the more individual play and varied challenges of later RPGs. Arneson was a participant in Wesely's wargame scenarios and, as Arneson continued to run his own scenarios, he eventually began to include ideas from sources such as The Lord of the Rings and Dark Shadows . Arneson took over

11928-419: The game published, but Guidon Games and Avalon Hill rejected it. Arneson could not afford to invest in the venture. Gygax felt that there was a need to publish the game as soon as possible, since similar projects were being planned elsewhere, so rules were hastily put together, and Arneson's own final draft was never used. Despite all this, Brian Blume eventually provided the funding required to publish

12070-459: The game takes place, maintaining the pace and providing dynamic feedback. In storyteller role, the DM is responsible for describing the events of the D&D game session and making rulings about game situations and effects based on the decisions made by the players. The DM can develop the adventure plot and setting in which these PCs participate or use a preexisting module . This is typically designed as

12212-514: The game. They also created an in-game item named the "Mantle of the Worldshaper" that is a reward for finishing the Threnal quest chain that is narrated by Arneson himself. The Mantle's description reads: "A comforting and inspiring presence surrounds you as you hold this cloak. Arcane runes run along the edges of the fine cape, and masterfully drawn on the silken lining is an incredibly detailed map of

12354-540: The genre as much as he had hoped. Arneson stepped into the computer industry and founded 4D Interactive Systems, a computer company in Minnesota that has since dissolved. He also did some computer programming and worked on several games. He eventually found himself consulting with computer companies. Arneson wrote the 1989 adventure DNA / DOA , the first adventure published for the FASA fantasy/cyberpunk game Shadowrun , which

12496-407: The genre or style of the game, such as the "Keeper of Arcane Lore" from Call of Cthulhu and the "Hollyhock God" from Nobilis . The Dungeon Master (DM) assumes the role of the game master or referee and describes for other players what they perceive in the imaginary world of the game, and what effects their actions have. That person is responsible for preparing each game session, and must have

12638-467: 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

12780-502: 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

12922-531: The line between the creative utilization of resources (e.g. firing wooden arrows into a dragon, then using a spell that warps wood at a distance) and an exploit (e.g. "horse bombing" - using a non-combat spell that creates a temporary mount, several dozen feet above an enemy). In the Faiths and Pantheons Dungeons & Dragons campaign, the Faerunian Overgod Ao answers to a superior entity, insinuated to be

13064-627: 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 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

13206-423: 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

13348-494: 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

13490-400: 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

13632-511: 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

13774-782: 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

13916-537: 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

14058-590: 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 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

14200-413: 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

14342-547: 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 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

14484-543: The original Blackmoor in Minnesota. Arneson wrote for Computer Gaming World magazine in the 1980s and early 1990s. He wrote columns on his opinion of the role-playing game genre and reviews of computer games such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms (1985), Zork Zero (1988), Citadel: Adventure of the Crystal Keep (1989), Uncharted Waters (1990), and Renegade Legion: Interceptor (1990). During

14626-410: The original TSR partnership. On September 26, 1975, the assets of the former partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies. Brian Blume became 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

14768-452: 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

14910-583: The packaging of D&D products from that point on, and Arneson would receive a 2.5% royalty on all AD&D products. This provided him with a comfortable six-figure annual income for the next twenty years. This did not end the lingering tensions between them. Arneson wrote a new version of the Blackmoor setting for publication by Judges Guild in The First Fantasy Campaign (1977). In 1979 Arneson and Richard L. Snider , an original Blackmoor player, co-authored Adventures in Fantasy ,

15052-478: 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,

15194-554: 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 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,

15336-431: 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

15478-499: The preface of the first edition of D&D . However, Gygax and TSR published 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

15620-435: The previous two days watching about five monster movies on channel 5's 'Creature Feature' weekend, reading several Conan books (I cannot recall which ones, but I always thought they were all pretty much the same), and stuffing myself with popcorn, doodling on a piece of graph paper. At the time, I was quite tired of my Nappy ( Napoleonic ) campaign with all its rigid rules and was rebelling against it. Arneson drew heavily upon

15762-469: The realm of adventure gaming". He was honored as a "famous game designer" by being featured on the king of hearts in Flying Buffalo's 2008 Famous Game Designers Playing Card Deck. Three days after his death, Wizards of the Coast temporarily replaced the front page of the Dungeons & Dragons section of their web site with a tribute to Arneson. Other tributes in the gaming world included Order of

15904-466: The records of the partnership through the summer. By the summer of 1975, those duties became complex enough that Gygax himself became 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

16046-457: The required extra dice for another $ 3.50). This first print sold out in 10 months. In January 1975, TSR printed 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

16188-430: The rest of his company's stock and intellectual property after shutting down Adventure Games. While Gary Gygax was president of TSR in the mid-1980s, he and Arneson reconnected, and Arneson briefly relinked Blackmoor to D&D with the "DA" (Dave Arneson) series of modules set in Blackmoor (1986–1987). The four modules in the series, three of which were written by Arneson, detailed Arneson's campaign setting for

16330-450: The rules exist to provide a balanced game environment, the DM is free to ignore the rules as needed. The DM can modify, remove, or create entirely new rules in order to fit the rules to the current campaign. This includes situations where the rules do not readily apply, making it necessary to improvise. An example would be if the PCs are attacked by a living statue. To destroy the enemy, one PC soaks

16472-497: 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

16614-449: The setting on medieval fantasy elements. Arneson took the game to Gygax as the representative for game publisher Guidon Games , and the pair co-developed a set of rules that became Dungeons & Dragons ( D&D ). Gygax and Donald Kaye subsequently founded Tactical Studies Rules in 1973, which published Dungeons & Dragons the next year. Arneson moved to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin to work for TSR Hobbies in 1976, but left before

16756-440: 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

16898-463: The statue in water, while the second uses his cone of cold breath to freeze the water. At this point, he appeals to the DM, saying the water expands as it freezes and shatters the statue. The DM might allow it, or roll dice to decide. In the above example the probability roll might come up in favor of the players, and the enemy would be shattered. Conversely, rules do not fit all eventualities and may have unintended consequences. The DM must ultimately draw

17040-503: 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

17182-480: 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,

17324-456: 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

17466-413: 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

17608-489: 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

17750-525: 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

17892-502: 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

18034-478: Was an American game designer best known for co-developing the first published role-playing game (RPG), Dungeons & Dragons , with Gary Gygax , in the early 1970s. Arneson's early work was fundamental to the role-playing game (RPG) genre, pioneering devices now considered to be archetypical, such as cooperative play to develop a storyline instead of individual competitive play to "win" and adventuring in dungeon , town, and wilderness settings as presented by

18176-554: 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

18318-733: Was even a tank running around for a while. The emphasis is on the story and the roleplaying." Details of Blackmoor and the original campaign, established on the map of the Castle & Crusade Society 's "Great Kingdom", were first brought to print briefly in issue #13 of the Domesday Book , the newsletter of the Castle & Crusade Society in July 1972, and later in much-expanded form as The First Fantasy Campaign , published by Judges Guild in 1977. In November 1972, Dave Arneson and Dave Megarry traveled to Lake Geneva to meet with Gary Gygax, to provide

18460-503: Was fleshed out over time and continues to be played to the present day. Many of the fantasy medieval foundations of D&D , as well as the concept of adventuring in "dungeons" originated with Blackmoor , which also incorporated time travel and science fiction elements. These are visible much later in the DA module series published by TSR (particularly City of the Gods ), but were also present from

18602-430: 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 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

18744-605: 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

18886-585: 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

19028-566: 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

19170-575: 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

19312-486: 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

19454-564: Was released the same year. Living in California in the late 1980s, Arneson had a chance to work with special education children. Upon returning to Minnesota, he pursued teaching and began speaking at schools about educational uses of role-playing and using multi-sided dice to teach math. In the 1990s, he began working at Full Sail , a private university that teaches multimedia subjects, and continued there as an instructor of computer game design until 2008. At Full Sail University he taught

19596-568: Was still the primary focus) and it was at this event that he met Gary Gygax , who had founded the Castle & Crusade Society within the International Federation of Wargamers in the 1960s at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin . Arneson and Gygax also shared an interest in sailing ship games and they co-authored the Don't Give Up the Ship naval battle rules, serialized from June 1971 and later published as

19738-460: 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 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

19880-446: Was unable to reach an agreement with Games Workshop regarding 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 ,

20022-555: 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

20164-470: Was working with videographer John Kentner on Dragons in the Basement (unreleased), a video documentary on the early history of role-playing games. Arneson describes the documentary: "Basically it is a series of interviews with original players ('How did D&D affect your life?') and original RPG designers like Marc Miller ( Traveller ) and M.A.R. Barker ( Empire of the Petal Throne )." He also made

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