Games - TSR, Inc.

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	Games - TSR, Inc.

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 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.

After several missteps, the company became debt-laden and Gygax lost control. However the new management failed to reverse the situation and the company's debt continued to increase. When combined with other problems such as poor sales in new lines and lax stock control the company came to the brink of insolvency.

Wizards of the Coast purchased the remainder of the company and its intellectual properties, including the Dungeons & Dragons game and its various campaign settings, in 1997. Shortly thereafter, the former TSR staff was integrated into 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

Alternity
Amazing Engine
Boot Hill
Buck Rogers XXVC
Conan the Barbarian
Dungeons & Dragons
DragonLance: Fifth Age (Saga System)
Gamma World
Gangbusters
Indiana Jones
Marvel Super Heroes
Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game (Saga System)
Metamorphosis Alpha
Top Secret
and Top Secret/S.I.
Empire of the Petal Throne
Star Frontiers

Other games

Spellfire
collectible card game
Dragon Dice
collectible dice game
Endless Quest gamebooks
Divine Right
fantasy wargame
Sniper!
wargame

Magazines

Amazing Stories
Dragon
Dungeon Adventures

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).

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