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TSR, Inc.

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

File:TSR logo, 1998 BG1.JPG

History

The company was formed as Tactical Studies Rules in 1972 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 in a fruitless attempt to produce a Dungeons & Dragons movie. Brian and 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.

Lorraine Williams was hired to replace the Blume brothers 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. Despite her disdain for the gaming field, Williams was a cool-headed financial planner who saw the potential for transforming the debt-plagued company into a highly profitable one.

Under Williams, TSR solidified its expansion into other fields, such as magazines, paperback fiction, and comic books. The Dragonlance series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman became the first game company fiction to hit the Best Seller list.

Ironically TSR had a blind spot in regards to the new concept of the Collectible Card Game. While TSR suffered with poorly selling game lines like Buck Rogers (which Williams championed), the new company Wizards of the Coast had created a new, even more profitable fad with Magic: The Gathering. TSR staffers privately dismissed Magic as "Crack the Addiction" and the game was barely tolerated at TSR's annual show, GenCon, with card sales between players initially banned. Wizards of the Coast, now flush with cash, sought to expand their own limited product line and was able to give Williams a sizable profit on her investment. They bought TSR and its intellectual properties, including the Dungeons & Dragons game and its various campaign settings, in 1997. Many of TSR's diverse functions such as GenCon or the magazine division were sold off to other companies. Shortly thereafter, some of the TSR staff were transferred to the Wizards of the Coast offices, and TSR ceased to exist as a separate entity. 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

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.

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

See also

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