His sons Luke and Ernie. Gary has been dead since 2008. He was doing Q&As on ENWorld and Dragonfoot up until his death, and he went by Col_Pladoh on those forums in case you are interested in some of his reminiscing.
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RPGs Turn 50 - Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary
- Thread starter Zed Duke of Banville
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S.torch
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I meant to say if you got the opportunity to talk to him before he passed away - or get an autograph.
Gandalf
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In the 90's. Lot's of other RPG stuff got novels too.
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The humble adventure module continued to have an important presence in D&D/AD&D, even as TSR's focus expanded to include campaign setting material, novels, AD&D 2nd edition rulebooks, and unconventional campaign settings. Ultimately, TSR would publish, by my count, 153 adventure modules for AD&D 2nd edition versus 101 for AD&D 1st edition (and 63 for non-advanced D&D, whether Holmes Basic, Moldvay/Cook B/X, or mostly Mentzer BECMI); moreover about half of the AD&D 1st edition adventure modules were published in the fairly short period between Gygax's ouster from TSR and the advent of AD&D 2nd edition. This excludes compilations of older modules; in 1981 TSR had published two smaller compilations of modules but in the early post-Gygax era published five lengthier compilations, including the entire seven-module GDQ series, and the original 12 Dragonlance modules would be republished in three volumes in the early '90s. Campaign settings were explicitly tied to the overwhelmingly majority of AD&D 2nd edition adventure modules, but in 1993 TSR returned in force to the concept of generic adventures, amenable to any conventional fantasy setting including home-brewed ones, with the GA series and the Dragon Mountain box set, followed by the Night Below: An Underdark Campaign box set in 1995 and The Rod of Seven Parts box set in 1996, among various smaller adventures. Still, the 20 non-specific adventure modules for AD&D 2nd edition were outnumbered by Ravenloft (27) or the Forgotten Realms (26) alone, and nearly so by Greyhawk (17).
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DnD Now: Genderfluid Trans Elfs
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I mean, we always knew elves are degenerate faggots.DnD Then:
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The post-Gygax, Lorraine Williams era of TSR seems to have been one of relative corporate stability, at least for its first 8 years. While TSR expanded D&D/AD&D into new areas, it avoided the careless overexpansion that had precipitated TSR's 1983 crisis, but by the mid-90s there were strong headwinds threatening the company. Tabletop role-playing games in general were increasingly threatened by computer/console RPGs; TSR had attempted to exploit this field via its license with SSI, but the results had been financially disappointing. More abruptly, collectible card games made a splash in the hobby games industry with the appearance of Magic: The Gathering in 1993, luring many players (or potential future players) away from tabletop RPGs; TSR attempted to compete here as well, but MtG would remain dominant. Nonetheless, TSR ostensibly maintained solid financial circumstances, with Dragon Magazine #227 (March 1996) noting that its revenues for 1995 had increased by 20% "as they have for the last six years", while TSR's 175 employees meant that its staffing level had more than doubled the 75 employees remaining when Williams acquired TSR in October 1985. This was a contrast to news about layoffs and shutdowns elsewhere in the tabletop RPG industry, as well as to information reported in the previous issue of Dragon Magazine about Wizards of the Coast firing 30 employees and cancelling its RPG and book publishing lines, as it had been making expensive but unsuccessful attempts to break into those markets, funded by its lavish profits from Magic: The Gathering.
In late 1979, following the surge of public interest in D&D/AD&D that resulted from the erroneous linkage to a university student's disappearance, publishing giant Random House reached a distribution deal with TSR, and this deal remained through TSR's expansion, crisis, and change of ownership. As part of this arrangement, TSR had the option of deferring payments to Random House regarding stock that went unsold and was eventually returned, instead owing a debt to Random House that would remain on TSR's books. Details on TSR's financials remain murky, but it seems this debt had increased substantially by 1995 and consequently Random House began pressuring TSR to draw it down. In better circumstances, TSR would have pulled through, but its sales deteriorated markedly in 1996, whether from a crash in sales of its novels, failure of ill-considered ventures such as Dragon Dice, or the general impact of the collectible card game craze on RPGs. Around the end of 1996 or beginning of 1997, TSR was no longer able to print new products and therefore had no means of reversing its situation. Wizards of the Coast, still flush with cash from Magic: The Gathering, was able to acquire TSR before its otherwise inevitable bankruptcy, though WotC in turn would be purchased by toys giant Hasbro just two years later. A brief existence of TSR under WotC was soon terminated, and Dungeons & Dragons passed fully from Lake Geneva to WotC's headquarters in Seattle.
A 3rd edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was published in 2000 (dropping "Advanced" from the name), influenced by later developments in AD&D 2nd edition optional rulebooks to have more complex combat and character customization; however, the new rules were clunky enough to require a "D&D 3.5" edition, released in 2003, that corrected some of the problems. This version of D&D maintained a solid, if diminished presence, but sales were considered disappointing by Hasbro corporate leadership, which led to the next version being released in 2008, just 8 years after the previous. This "D&D 4th edition" was an attempt to emulate MMORPGs, meaning an imitation of an imitation of an imitation of Dungeons & Dragons, riddled with dissociated mechanics and other issues; sales of this version were worse than those for a new RPG called Pathfinder that was based on "D&D 3rd edition". As a consequence of this failure, "D&D 5th edition" appeared in 2014, just 6 years after the previous, and attempted to appeal to fans of all earlier versions; sales seem to have surpassed those of "D&D 3rd edition" and certainly far exceeded those of "D&D 4th edition", though references to success often seem to dwell more on social media presence and video-watching rather than actual playing and sales of the game.
In late 1979, following the surge of public interest in D&D/AD&D that resulted from the erroneous linkage to a university student's disappearance, publishing giant Random House reached a distribution deal with TSR, and this deal remained through TSR's expansion, crisis, and change of ownership. As part of this arrangement, TSR had the option of deferring payments to Random House regarding stock that went unsold and was eventually returned, instead owing a debt to Random House that would remain on TSR's books. Details on TSR's financials remain murky, but it seems this debt had increased substantially by 1995 and consequently Random House began pressuring TSR to draw it down. In better circumstances, TSR would have pulled through, but its sales deteriorated markedly in 1996, whether from a crash in sales of its novels, failure of ill-considered ventures such as Dragon Dice, or the general impact of the collectible card game craze on RPGs. Around the end of 1996 or beginning of 1997, TSR was no longer able to print new products and therefore had no means of reversing its situation. Wizards of the Coast, still flush with cash from Magic: The Gathering, was able to acquire TSR before its otherwise inevitable bankruptcy, though WotC in turn would be purchased by toys giant Hasbro just two years later. A brief existence of TSR under WotC was soon terminated, and Dungeons & Dragons passed fully from Lake Geneva to WotC's headquarters in Seattle.
A 3rd edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was published in 2000 (dropping "Advanced" from the name), influenced by later developments in AD&D 2nd edition optional rulebooks to have more complex combat and character customization; however, the new rules were clunky enough to require a "D&D 3.5" edition, released in 2003, that corrected some of the problems. This version of D&D maintained a solid, if diminished presence, but sales were considered disappointing by Hasbro corporate leadership, which led to the next version being released in 2008, just 8 years after the previous. This "D&D 4th edition" was an attempt to emulate MMORPGs, meaning an imitation of an imitation of an imitation of Dungeons & Dragons, riddled with dissociated mechanics and other issues; sales of this version were worse than those for a new RPG called Pathfinder that was based on "D&D 3rd edition". As a consequence of this failure, "D&D 5th edition" appeared in 2014, just 6 years after the previous, and attempted to appeal to fans of all earlier versions; sales seem to have surpassed those of "D&D 3rd edition" and certainly far exceeded those of "D&D 4th edition", though references to success often seem to dwell more on social media presence and video-watching rather than actual playing and sales of the game.
I had conversations with Gary on ENWorld before he died. I'm also known as Deuce Traveler on ENWorld, so you can see my discussions with him about a year before he passed. I never met him in person. He also posted some on Dragonfoot, which is a grognard D&D site I recommend.
Great thread Zed Duke of Banville . I already read about D&D history but this one is both comprehensive and to the point. Thank you for these valuable posts.
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