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TSR, Inc. was a game publishing company most famous for publishing the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

History

The company was formed as Tactical Studies Rules in 1973 by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye (and others later) to publish the rule set for Dungeons & Dragons. When Don Kaye died of a stroke in 1975, Brian Blume and Gary Gygax, the remaining owners, formed a new company, TSR Hobbies, Inc. The assets of the original company were transferred to the new one, and Tactical Studies Rules was dissolved. In 1983, the word "Hobbies" was dropped from the name to form just TSR, Inc.

The company was the leading developer of the modern Role Playing Game. Its flagship product, Dungeons and Dragons, served as the model for the new field. More importantly, it served as the focus of a national fad. Within a few years, kids, collegians, and adults were all playing this new form of game.

TSR's games proved extremely popular and profitable. At its height, TSR had a million dollar profit and a staff of 400. But success sowed the seeds for failure. Gygax left for Hollywood to found Dungeons & Dragons Entertainment to try and sell licenses for movies and television. His work would eventually lead to a single license for the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. Gary Gygax Interview - Part 2 on Gamespy. URL accessed on 2006-07-05 Brian Blume and his brother Kevin were left in charge of the company. The Blumes were accused of misusing funds and running up debt while promoting bizarre spinoffs such as latchhook rug kits. Within a year, the company's finances had dropped to a net loss of half a million dollars and 75% of the staff were let go. Some of these people formed a new game company, Pacesetter Games, while others moved to other companies such as Mayfair Games and Coleco's video game unit.

In the early 1980s TSR developed the Dragonlance series consisting of a new game world, a series of adventures, and a trilogy of novels that mirrors those adventures. The trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman became the first game company fiction to hit the Best Seller list.

Lorraine Williams was hired to replace the Blumes and restore the company to viability. Williams bought the 49% of TSR stock owned by the Blume brothers. Gygax initially retained control with the remaining 51%. However when his wife sued for divorce, she took half the stock as community property and promptly sold it to Williams. Gygax later sold his remaining stock to her and used the capital to form New Infinity Productions. Williams was a financial planner who saw the potential for transforming the debt-plagued company into a highly profitable one. Williams disdained the gaming field, viewing herself as superior to gamers. gygaxfaq: What Happened to Gygax - TSR?, originally on gygax.com, archived on 1999-01-28 by archive.org. URL accessed 2006-07-04. Magic & Memories: The Complete History of Dungeons & Dragons - Part III: Tyrants & Wizards, by Allen Rausch on GameSpy. URL accessed on 2006-07-04.

Under Williams, TSR solidified its expansion into other fields, such as magazines, paperback fiction, and comic books. Williams controlled the Buck Rogers license and encouraged TSR to product Buck Rogers games. TSR would end up publishing a board game and a role-playing game. Magic & Memories: The Complete History of Dungeons & Dragons - Part II: Mazes & Monsters, page 5, by Allen Rausch on GameSpy. URL accessed on 2006-07-04.

Under Williams TSR lost money. To try and compete with the new Collectible Card Game, TSR released several new collectable game lines: Dragon Dice and Spellfire. Neither succeeded. TSR's hostile treatment of fan creations being posted online drove some fans away. The large number of new fantasy worlds fragmented the player based. These and other factors lead to TSR eventually ending up with over $30 million in debt in 1996. There were multiple rounds of layoffs.

Meanwhile Wizards of the Coast, publishers of the first collectible card game The Gathering was flush with money. With this money Wizards of the Coast purchased TSR and its intellectual properties in 1997. TSR employees were given the opportunity to transfer to Wizards of the Coast's offices in Washington; some accepted the offer. The Lake Geneva office was closed down. Over the next few years various parts of the company were sold to other companies. In 2002 Gen Con was sold to Peter Adkison's Gen Con, LLC Biography, Peter D. Adkison on gencon.com. URL accessed 2006-07-04.. Also in 2002 TSR's magazines were transferred to Paizo PublishingWizards of the Coast Signs Exclusive Publishing Agreement With Paizo Publishing, LLC To Produce Top Hobby Industry Magazines on wizards.com. URL accessed 2006-07-04.. The TSR name survived for several years as a brand name, then was retired. The TSR trademarks have since been allowed to expire. In 1999, Wizards of the Coast was itself purchased by Hasbro, Inc.

Products

TSR's main products were role-playing games, the most successful of which was Dungeons & Dragons. However, they also produced other games like card, board and dice games, and published both magazines and books.

Role-playing games

Wargames

Other games

Magazines

Fiction

In 1984, TSR started publishing novels based on their games. Most D&D campaign settings had their own novel line, the most successful of which were the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms lines with dozens of novels released in each.

Criticism

After initial success faded, the company would often turn to legal defenses of what it regarded as its intellectual property. In addition to this there were several legal cases brought regarding who had invented what within the company and the division of royalties. These actions reached their nadir when the company threatened to sue individuals supplying game material on Internet sites (illegitimately, as US copyright law holds that guidelines and rules may not be copyrighted). In the mid-1990s, this lead to frequent use of the nickname "T$R" in discussions on RPG-related Internet mailing lists and Usenet, as the company was widely perceived to be attacking its own customers. Increasing product proliferation in TSR's line didn't help matters: many of the product lines overlapped in interest and were separated by what seemed like minor points (even the classic troika of Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance suffered in this regard).

In addition, TSR's corporate culture tried to convince its creative staff that the company was their only refuge for employment. In response, ex-employees banded together in a loose organization called "CTHULHU" (Confederation of TSR Hirelings Undaunted by Leaving the Hideous Uglyheads).

Trivia

The company was the subject of an urban myth stating that it tried to trademark the term "Nazi". This was based on a supplement for the Indiana Jones RPG in which some figures were marked with "NAZI(tm)". This notation was in compliance with the list of trademarked character names supplied by Lucasfilm's legal department. Later references to the error would forget its origin and slowly morph into stories of TSR's trying to register such a trademark, possibly aided by TSR's own reputation late in its existence as a "trademark Nazi" company.

Marvel Comics also supplied a list of trademarked Marvel characters which included the term "NAZI(tm)".

See also

External links

References

Hasbro subsidiaries | Role-playing game publishing companies | 1972 establishments | TSR, Inc.

Tactical Studies Rules | Tactical Studies Rules | TSR | TSR, Inc. | TSR, Inc. | TSR

 

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