46 Facts About TSR Inc

TSR Inc saw prosperity under Williams, but encountered financial trouble in the mid-1990s.

TSR Inc was left unable to cover its publishing costs due to a variety of factors.

The first TSR release was Cavaliers and Roundheads, a miniature game, to start generating income for TSR.

However, Gygax and TSR Inc published the Mars book without permission from the Burroughs estate, and soon after, a cease and desist order was issued, and Warriors was pulled from distribution.

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 connected to the opening of the Dungeon hobby shop in Lake Geneva.

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Also in 1978, TSR Inc Hobbies moved out of Gygax's home and into downtown Lake Geneva, above the Dungeon Hobby Shop.

TSR Inc regarded these very warily, and in cases where they felt their trademarks were being misused, they issued cease-and-desist letters.

In 1979, TSR Inc signed a contract with Random House with unusual terms.

The arrangement was mutually beneficial at first: TSR Inc could attain money up front to fund their work, and not have to worry about immediate sales.

Many of TSR Inc'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.

TSR Inc UK published a series of modules and the original Fiend Folio.

That same year, TSR Inc Hobbies moved its offices again, this time to a former medical supply building with an attached warehouse.

Also that year, TSR Inc introduced two new roleplaying games, Gangbusters and Star Frontiers.

TSR Inc Hobbies sought diversification, acquiring or starting several new business ventures.

TSR Inc was similarly accused of favoring friends and relatives of the Blumes and Gygax in hiring.

TSR Inc acquired the trademarks and copyrights of SPI and Amazing Stories magazine, despite Amazing Stories having only ten thousand subscribers.

TSR, Inc released the Dragonlance saga in 1984 after two years of development, an entirely new game world.

In 1984, TSR Inc signed a license to publish the Marvel Super Heroes, Indiana Jones, and Conan role-playing games.

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 Inc's history, is skeptical Gygax was truly unaware, however.

Williams was given a position of general manager at TSR Inc and attempted to fix TSR Inc's precarious financial situation.

TSR Inc's saw potential for rebuilding the debt-plagued company into a highly profitable one.

TSR Inc 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 1991, TSR Inc 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 Inc released the Al-Qadim setting with a Middle Eastern flavor similar to a fantasy version of the Arabian Nights, although its world was connected to the Forgotten Realms.

In 1993, a revised version of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting for 2nd edition was released; TSR Inc had published a sourcebook on upgrading the 1st edition material to 2nd edition in 1990 earlier.

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TSR Inc released Karameikos: Kingdom of Adventure in 1994, which detailed one of the kingdoms in the setting of Mystara.

Under Williams' direction, TSR Inc solidified its expansion into other fields, such as magazines, paperback fiction, comic books, and collectible games.

TSR Inc's book division 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.

TSR Inc eventually moved into publishing hardcover novels as well with Salvatore's The Legacy, published in 1992.

TSR attempted to not enrage DC Comics by calling their new product "comics modules" and including game-related material at the end of each issue; additionally, TSR largely sold the comics modules through bookshops rather than comic shops.

TSR Inc continued to own and operate the Gen Con role-playing game convention.

Spellfire was produced on a shoestring budget, and re-used art that TSR Inc had already commissioned for other projects; Lorraine Williams was not a fan of the project.

TSR Inc engaged in disputes with some of its most successful authors over terms and remuneration.

TSR Inc ramped up the number of novels published, but the expanded roster saw disappointing sales.

TSR Inc decided to publish twelve hardcover novels in 1996, despite a previous history of publishing only one or two hardcover novels each year, but they did not sell as well as expected.

TSR Inc then took these contracts to investment banks, and was advanced money immediately by the banks, with the banks to be paid off from the eventual sales of the product.

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.

TSR Inc was threatened by lawsuits due to unpaid freelancers and missing royalties, but TSR Inc made enough money from products already on the shelves to pay remaining staff through the first half of 1997.

Some TSR Inc 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.

In 2011, a new company taking the name TSR Inc was founded by Jayson Elliot, who co-founded the Roll for Initiative podcast.

Elliot found that the TSR Inc trademark had expired around 2004 so he registered it himself.

TSR Inc 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.

TSR Inc 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.

Ultimately, Elliot's TSR Inc Games was rebranded as Solarian Games in July 2021.

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TSR Inc 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 Inc's Buck Rogers XXVC game.