The story
Founded by Don Kaye and Gary Gygax in 1973, in Lake Geneva.1
History
Tactical Studies Rules (1973–1975)
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 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 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 - equivalent to about $88 in 2025). 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 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 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.
TSR Hobbies, Inc. (1975–1983)
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 the 1990s.
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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 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, 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 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 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 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 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, 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 the trademark and copyrights of the magazine Amazing Stories, although it had only ten thousand subscribers.
Wargames
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 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 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 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.
TSR (1983–1985)
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 eventually led to only 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 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 was able to make licensing agreements that allowed the company to publish the Marvel Super Heroes, Indiana Jones, and Conan role-playing games. In an attempt to diversify away from role-playing games and find a wider audience, TSR published several family board games, including All My Children, which was based on ABC's daytime soap opera, and sold over 150,000 copies; Crosscheck, a combination of Scrabble and crossword puzzles; and Spy Ring, a party game.
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 the biggest seller for 1985.
In 1986, TSR began publishing the bi-monthly Dungeon Adventures magazine, featuring only adventure scenarios for D&D.
Management turmoil
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 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, 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 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 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 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 the area of role-playing games.
Lorraine Williams era (1985–1997)
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 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.
Tabletop and board gaming in the Williams era
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 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 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, 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.
TSR Games/Solarian Games (2011–2021)
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 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 the company in 2016 when the magazine ended. The company operated as TSR Games, producing the Top Secret: New World Order role-playing game.
TSR Games (2021–2023)
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.
From Wikipedia’s article on TSR, Inc., shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7