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 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 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.
123-574: 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 the company in October 1985. TSR saw prosperity under Williams, but encountered financial trouble in
246-501: 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
369-495: 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
492-493: 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
615-488: 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
738-511: A cash crunch. With no cash available, TSR was unable to pay their printing and shipping bills, and 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 was no means of printing or shipping core products in order to generate income or secure short-term financing. Bob Abramowitz of Five Rings Publishing Group met with Williams and he
861-476: A cash flow squeeze, and Williams sold TSR to Wizards of the Coast in 1997. Williams inherited the rights to Buck Rogers and a large collection of Buck Rogers memorabilia. She sold the memorabilia at auction in 2010. Lorraine Williams is the granddaughter of John F. Dille who, while president of the National Newspaper Service syndicate in the 1920s, arranged for Buck Rogers to be turned into
984-515: 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
1107-643: 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
1230-498: 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
1353-454: 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
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#17328522529101476-571: 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
1599-477: 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
1722-507: A game than as a sourcebook ... As a generic fantasy setting, Empire is without peer, a richly developed, exhaustively detailed treatment of a truly alien setting." He also warned " Empire of the Petal Throne is not for beginners, and even experienced referees may have trouble negotiating Professor Barker's dense, scholarly text." Swan concluded by giving this game a rating of 3 out of 4, saying, "The role-playing rules don't amount to much, but
1845-422: 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
1968-456: 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
2091-481: 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
2214-510: A novel way with Dragon Dice , a game that used packs of collectible dice instead of cards. In addition, despite a history of publishing only one or two hardcover novels each year, TSR also decided to publish twelve novels in 1996. Sales of Dragon Dice through the games trade started strongly, so TSR quickly produced several expansion packs. In addition, TSR tried to aggressively market Dragon Dice in mass-market book stores through Random House . However, Dragon Dice did not catch on through
2337-676: 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
2460-477: 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
2583-454: 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 ,
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#17328522529102706-533: 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,
2829-457: 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
2952-607: A professor at the University of Minnesota and a scholar focusing on ancient languages, had been crafting his fantasy world that known as Tékumel for decades, writing out its history, culture and languages on thousands of pages. He assisted the wargaming club at the university as an adviser, where a club-mate and role-playing game player Michael Mornard introduced him to the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Barker first self-published 50 copies of his own role-playing game, Empire of
3075-466: 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 the constraints on it, while others indicate it sold poorly. Spellfire
3198-422: A result, the product was more expensive and thus less profitable. In 1981, Judges Guild acquired the license to publish an EPT adventure, The Nightmare Maze of Jigrésh , a 16-page booklet written by Michael E. Mayeau, with illustrations by Ken Simpson. In Issue 42 of The Space Gamer , William A. Barton gave a favorable review, saying, "if you have character of at least level 5 in your EPT campaign, and
3321-460: A rumored ban by Williams on playing games in the company during his time in TSR, but does go on to say that the vast majority of the products were not playtested. Upon leaving TSR, Gygax had founded New Infinities Productions , Inc., and subsequently developed a new fantasy role-playing game, spanning multiple genres, called Dangerous Journeys . When the product was released by Game Designers' Workshop , Williams immediately sued, claiming that
3444-422: 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
3567-462: A series of choose-your-own-adventure-type novels and a script for an unmade Dungeons & Dragons film. In 1984, Gygax was alerted to the fact that TSR was $ 1.5 million in debt and the Blumes were looking for a buyer. In an attempt to bring new investment money into the company, Gygax asked Flint Dille to arrange a meeting with his sister, Lorraine Williams. Although Williams turned down Gygax's invitation to invest in TSR, Gygax did hire her, on
3690-518: 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
3813-431: 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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3936-677: 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
4059-582: A syndicated comic strip . After Dille's death in 1957, ownership of Buck Rogers and other works passed into the Dille Family Trust through the Dille family trust, making Williams one of the beneficiaries of the Buck Rogers franchise. The Dille family retained the licensing of Buck Rogers, as well as a collection of Buck Rogers memorabilia that John F. Dille had accumulated over thirty years. Williams attended
4182-542: A trademark lawsuit between the Dille Family Trust and the Nowlan Family Trust (who represented the estate of Philip Francis Nowlan , the creator of "Buck Rogers") over who owned the rights to the "Buck Rogers" character. In February 2019 the Dille Family Trust (DFT) entered into a Settlement Agreement with the Nowlan Family Trust selling the Trust's assets and assigning all their intellectual property rights to Buck Rogers to
4305-479: 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
4428-518: 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
4551-506: 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
4674-459: 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
4797-553: 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
4920-633: The University of California at Berkeley , where she earned a B.A. in history. After graduating, she worked at the National Newspaper Syndicate. She then became an assistant administrator at the Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center. Later, she joined the National Easter Seal Society, where she worked as an administrator. Gary Gygax , co-inventor of the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons and partner in
5043-605: 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
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5166-457: 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
5289-528: 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
5412-574: 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 ,
5535-528: The Nowlan Family Trust; US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Civil Action NO 15-6231 case dismissed with prejudice on March 4, 2019. Empire of the Petal Throne Empire of the Petal Throne is a fantasy role-playing game designed by M. A. R. Barker , based on his Tékumel fictional universe. It was self-published in 1974, then published by TSR, Inc. in 1975. It
5658-559: The Petal Throne in 1974, the same year that Dungeons & Dragons was published. This version is now referred to as "Manuscript edition". "Empire of the Petal Throne" is a synonym for the Tsolyáni Empire in game. Barker also wrote the combat-focused War of Wizards board game, another game based in Tékumel, which TSR published in 1975. Empire of the Petal Throne influenced Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax , who were impressed with
5781-534: The Petal Throne introduced the concept of critical hits with a 20-sided die. Using these rules a player who rolls a 20 on a 20-sided die does double the normal damage, and a 20 followed by a 19 or 20 counts as a killing blow. According to M. A. R. Barker, "this simulates the 'lucky hit' on a vital organ". Rick Mataka reviewed Empire of the Petal Throne in The Space Gamer No. 4 (1976). Mataka commented that "So, if you have enjoyed Dungeons and Dragons in
5904-463: 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. Lorraine Williams Lorraine Dille Williams is an American businesswoman. She
6027-568: 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
6150-533: The basis of her management experience, to manage TSR. Williams successfully worked with creditors of TSR to get money coming back into the company again. Gygax subsequently engineered the removal of Kevin Blume as CEO due to fiscal mismanagement. However, Kevin's brother Brian had a longstanding stock option which he triggered; both brothers then sold their stock to Williams, making her the majority shareholder. Gygax considered trying to fire Williams in order to replace her with his future wife, Gail Carpenter, but
6273-755: 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
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#17328522529106396-419: The book trade, and sales of the expansion sets through traditional games stores sold poorly. In addition, the twelve hardcover novels did not sell as well as expected. Despite total sales of $ 40 million, TSR ended 1996 with few cash reserves. When Random House returned an unexpectedly high percentage of the year's inventory of unsold novels and Dragon Dice for a fee of several million dollars, TSR found itself in
6519-496: 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
6642-436: 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
6765-459: The company TSR , had been sent to Hollywood in 1982 to work on licensing the Dungeons & Dragons brand, leaving the day-to-day operations of TSR to his fellow board members, Kevin and Brian Blume . While in Hollywood, he was involved in the making of the Dungeons & Dragons animated television show and exploring the possibility of a film adaptation of the game. In the course of his work, Gygax met Flint Dille , with whom he collaborated on
6888-597: 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
7011-536: 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
7134-442: 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
7257-540: 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,
7380-447: 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
7503-423: 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
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#17328522529107626-416: 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
7749-461: 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
7872-455: The family for their use of the character. During the 1980s, TSR was the top games company in North America. However, in the early 1990s, TSR fell behind both Games Workshop and Wizards of the Coast in terms of sales volume. Seeing the profits being generated by Wizards of the Coast with their collectible card game Magic: The Gathering , TSR attempted to enter this market in 1996 in
7995-653: 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
8118-427: 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
8241-493: 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
8364-620: The game infringed TSR's intellectual property. The suit was eventually settled out of court, with TSR buying the complete rights to the Dangerous Journeys system from New Infinities and then permanently shelving the entire project. With no product to sell, Gygax's new company was driven out of business. Under Williams's direction, TSR initially maintained its leadership position in role-playing games, and solidified its expansion into other fields, such as magazines, paperback fiction, and comic books. Through her family, Williams personally held
8487-578: The game system as Gardásiyal: Deeds of Glory in 1994. In 2005, the Canadian publisher Guardians of Order produced Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne . The game uses a variation of the Tri-Stat dX system. In 2015, James Maliszewski launched the fanzine The Excellent Travelling Volume for Empire of the Petal Throne . Empire of the Petal Throne' s setting, Tékumel, used a mixture of fantasy, science fantasy and science fiction backgrounds. Empire of
8610-604: The game was a creation of M.A.R. Barker, Freeman believed "That is both a strength and a weakness: an adventurer can experience something more novel and bizarre than is usually the case in the somewhat predictable fantasy version of the Middle Ages, but there is probably no one other than Barker who can adequately run a campaign." Freeman concluded by giving the game an Overall Evaluation of "Fair game but overpriced." In his 1990 book The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games , game critic Rick Swan thought this game "has less value as
8733-420: The game. Barker made his commercial game-design debut at TSR, Inc. , the publishers of Dungeons & Dragons , with Empire of the Petal Throne boxed set in 1975. TSR published Barker's game and setting as a standalone game, rather than as a "supplement" to the original D&D rules. The game brought a level of detail and quality to the concept of a campaign setting which had previously been unknown in
8856-497: 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
8979-571: 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
9102-400: 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
9225-514: 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
9348-500: 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
9471-458: 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
9594-530: 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
9717-423: 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
9840-493: 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
9963-400: 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
10086-409: 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 the TSR name for D&D products, but by 2000, the TSR moniker
10209-509: 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
10332-782: 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
10455-536: 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
10578-415: The nascent RPG industry's publications. The game was the subject of articles in early issues of Dragon magazine, but factors such as inconsistent support from TSR led to its decline in popularity. TSR was locked into a deal that made the financial end of the game unpalatable to them. They had agreed to pay a "finder's fee" on sales in addition to royalties as well as to certain expensive overrides. As
10701-408: 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
10824-521: 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 the creation of
10947-476: 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,
11070-430: The past, then this is the game of the future. Empire of the Petal Throne is the 'now' game for all fantasy gamers." In the 1980 book The Complete Book of Wargames , game designer Jon Freeman found that :"This game is incredibly detailed, well thought out, and self-consistent. Although it uses the same basic framework as Dungeons & Dragons , the framework is better presented and put together." Noting that
11193-547: The players aren't the sort who lose interest quickly, The Nightmare Maze of Jigresh may prove to be an interesting change of pace for your Tekumelian excursions." Empire of the Petal Throne was reprinted later as a single book by Different Worlds Publications in 1987. Theatre of the Mind Enterprises began publishing supplements in 1992, including Adventures on Tekumel Part 1 . Adventures on Tekumel, Part 2, Vol 1 , and The Tékumel Bestiary , and then published
11316-429: 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
11439-567: The rights to the Buck Rogers license and encouraged TSR to produce Buck Rogers games and novels. In 1988 she edited Buck Rogers: The First 60 Years in the 25th Century . TSR also published a Buck Rogers board game, a Buck Rogers XXVC role-playing game based on the AD&D 2nd Edition rules, over a dozen supplements for the role-playing game, comic books (1990–1991), a line of 11 novels and graphic novels (1989–1993), and two computer games produced by SSI (1990–1992). The family of Lorraine Williams owned Buck Rogers , so TSR paid royalties to
11562-432: 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
11685-495: 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
11808-488: The sourcebook material ranks among the hobby's best." James Davis Nicoll in 2020 for Black Gate said "one of or possibly the first complex, non-faux Medieval European settings for an RPG. Professor Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman Barker's world of Tekumel predated roleplaying games by decades. The synergy between a complete game world and early RPGs was obvious; as a result TSR was one of many, many companies to try their hand at publishing it. While it had (and has) its avid fanbase,
11931-440: 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
12054-445: 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
12177-479: 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,
12300-517: 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 a Dungeons & Dragons -themed CCG competitor that would be
12423-413: 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
12546-489: 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
12669-425: Was able to negotiate with her to secure an option for the purchase of TSR, using funding from Wizards of the Coast . With no viable financial plan for TSR's survival, Williams sold the company to Wizards of the Coast in 1997. In August 2010, Williams announced that she was selling what she described as the world's largest collection of Buck Rogers original comic art, prototypes, toys, books, and collectibles. This
12792-550: Was advised against this. Gygax did go to court to have the sale of stock declared illegal, claiming he had a verbal agreement with the Blume brothers to buy their stock. When the judge ruled against him, Gygax sold his remaining stock and left TSR. Williams was a financial planner who saw the potential for transforming the company into a highly profitable one. However, she was described as supposedly disdained towards gaming, viewing herself as superior to gamers. Former TSR employee Mike Breault has stated that he does not recall
12915-455: 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
13038-524: 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
13161-499: 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
13284-552: 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
13407-578: 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
13530-416: 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
13653-605: 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
13776-466: Was hired as manager of TSR, Inc. by company co-founder Gary Gygax in 1984, and was in charge of the table game company from 1986 to 1997. Williams gained control of TSR in October 1985 when the Blume brothers sold her their controlling shares of the company. In 1996, an unexpectedly high cost of returned (unsold) fiction books and an expensive, unsuccessful foray into the collectible card game market caused
13899-468: 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
14022-557: 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
14145-402: Was material she had helped her father to catalog and pack up many years before. She said at the time of the announcement that her instinct had been to hold on to everything, but she had come to realize that it was more important to get the collection out into the public. The pieces of the collection were subsequently sold at auction on August 28, 2010. In 2017, Williams advanced $ 250,000 to fund
14268-422: 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
14391-581: 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
14514-402: 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
14637-566: 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
14760-432: Was one of the first tabletop role-playing games , along with Dungeons & Dragons , and was the first published RPG game setting. Over the subsequent thirty years, several new games were published based on the Tékumel setting; however, to date, none have met with commercial success. While published as fantasy , the game is sometimes classified as science fantasy or, debatably, as science fiction . M. A. R. Barker ,
14883-617: 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
15006-485: 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
15129-551: 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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