TSR history

Heh, 1981 is pretty early in absolute terms, especially for gamers who got started only in the last ten years or so - it was 28 years ago.. Man, I feel old ; )

Obviously not pretty early as far as origin of the hobby though. Steve Winter was en editor IIRC, think I remember him in the Star Frontiers credits among other stuff.

 

Ernie & I went to school together, where I often heard of 'GREAT' battles in the family basement. That's early TSR history. It's also what got me into this wonderful hobby.

 

Thats when I got started in 1981 (I was 12-13?) with PHB, MM and a basic set (ten tons of minis that I had already, I liked toy soldiers prior to that), but I didn't DM until 1982 and even though I had bought the DRAGONs as they came out in 81 (til around mid-90's [94?]) I only received the DM's guide, DM's screen & Rogues gallery as gifts in 1983. I dare say for the rest of the decade there was not a D&D group ever that was as intense as the one that had I formed (and I still forward the challenge. ).

Steve Winter? Along with some of the more prominent names of Lorraine Williams' TSR his name I still associate with a lot of stuff that angered the tar out of me. Its still hard not to blame the messengers in this case as they didn't even seem to be trying to serve the fans and seemed to be serving themselves with "story time" page counts rather than "book to table" ideas. The carry over with these familiar names during "the time of Gary" (Winter for example was involved in some fine products involving Gary) really misled me into believing that these TSR holdouts were of the same cloth. It was hard not knowing what happened to Gary Gygax (my favorite name on paper) for 10 years for me and even then I still thought that he would return or someone would step up to the plate and deliver again from "the gang" that still seemed to be there... unfortunately no one ever did again at the D&D franchise and "the gang" was an illusion. It still makes me clench my teeth sometimes thinking about the expectation of a turnover for the game that never came.

However, having talked with the actual Gary Gygax about a great deal of things it seems he was not as into what was going on in D&D publications after they stole if from him as I ever was.

"GARY! I've been in the dark ages forever what do you think of what they've done?"

"I don't follow it..."

"Noooooooo!!"

 

When I met your Dad before the panel at GenCon in '07, I had the opportunity to talk with him (and have a bit of lunch) I asked if he was going to write an autobiography. He told me that he really wanted to but the only companies that gave him offers just wanted him to write about D&D and TSR and he pointed out that he was so much more than just the time he spent doing those things. From what I gathered, if he wrote such a book it would have been about his whole life...not just the D&D years.

Me, being just a fan of his work, told him that I thought there would be a lot of publishers interested in his life story and the way he wanted to tell it. I honestly think there would have been great interest and would have loved to have seen him write such a book.

I really enjoyed the articles that he wrote for Troll Lord's Crusader magazine that talked about his life and gaming from his years as a child. It was really amazing to see that glimpse and to come tot he realization that we were all roleplaying long before there was a system. I played my share of cowboys and indians, cops and robbers and a wide variety of other things. It's nice to know that most of us have something like that in common.

 

Any chance you could list which issues those articles were in? This post was the first I've heard of them; would be interested in hunting some copies down for myself..

Andy

 

I can hunt them down for you this evening. There are only 20 issues out so far and I think Gary contributed to a few in the first 1-10 or less. I don't have issue #1 but it is available on PDF. All the rest you can still get straight from the Troll Lords.

 

Perhaps the Gygax family will write a biography of Gary? <hint, hint>

 

Who will play your Dad? Can I play Ernie? (wait, does he get the hot chicks in the end?)

 

If they make a movie, I know that Hollywood would want to add all the religious controversy that popped up in the 1980s. It would be my hope that the other side of the story would be told. (i.e. The fact that numerous people within the RPG industry were/are people of faith.)

FWIW,

GP

 

I know that I can attest to that fact. Quite a few ministers play and have played D&D. It was also interesting to find out that Bob Bledsaw, founder of Judges Guild, was also a person with a strong faith.

The reason I point this out, of course, is because I still come across so many people that seem to have a negative view of RPG's and especially D&D.

 

Hey, Luke, I called first dibs on the hot chicks! :x

I happen to be a person of faith in Christ (though I do not go to church...) and absolutely love AD&D. I think, somehow, somewhere along the line, people got the notion that being a Christian meant that you couldn't be a normal human being. Well, I can tell you that it isn't the case. I like beer (particularly, a wide assortment of yummy micro-brews), women (especially my wife, the heathen tree-hugger that she is ), and playing D&D, among other things.

One of my closest friends got caught up in the religious anti-D&D fervor back in the late 80's and burned all his stuff. He regrets it now and has come to the realization that playing D&D is no different from playing canasta- It's a game, folks! He has since dumped Catholicism (one of the driving forces behind the hysteria) in favor of a more non-denominational approach to Christianity- and is playing D&D again (well Marvel Superheroes at the moment, but we know where his heart lies)!

All is once again right with the world.

 

You know what? You really can't argue with certain types of religious people regarding D&D, eating a certain way even drives some nuts (somebody once smacked my face for eating a hamburger in my own house), so they expect you to trim the fun off your game to please some sensibility of theirs regarding sex, violence and monsters? I say "there is the door" if they want to "cap blast" my game into a fugue of unthoughtful "homilies" (read: rants). They don't walk into a party and expect partygoers to take their hats off and have every drink "in the name of", right? So why D&D? Because they're so bored that anything that says demon is up for grabs? Well, you know what? Start with bikers first. Hell's Angels predates D&D so go down to their bars and tell them what to do with their deviltry first then you can come pick on the dice rolling folks. Not before though, gotta work this shit out in order!



Seriously, its hard to play in big mixed family events (Thanksgiving, etc) because of the jeers of the uninvolved either "nerd this" or "the devil that". Its weird though because in the early 80's you would never here those remarks at all and more people were interested in playing "Conan" straight up "tits and all". I blame it on the management of TSR after Gary they just let it all fall to the wolves and adjusted it to make it less offensive (read: nerdier).

Thats why you don't have hoowah charts anymore!

 

I don't remember the anti-D&D hysteria being denomination specific? I have been to a three-day game convention and game days held at Creighton University in Omaha. Creighton is a large Jesuit University. The only friend I have ever know to have his books burned by an over zealous parent was a Methodist. So he started playing "Traveller". I guess his Mom thought that was ok because her minister didn't tell her specifically that it was evil. :twisted:

 

You're quite right. The hysteria is _not_ denomination specific. It often depends on the individual congregation, the ministers and the parents.

I was one of those people that felt the need to get rid of my books after coming to faith and, while it was a good learning experience in the long run, I still wish someone had been there to guide me through that transition time in my life.

I've met people from a wide variety of church backgrounds who have had both positive and negative experiences so I don't think we should label one group as the perpetrators of the problem though I have my own personal biases about some of the ones that were behind it in the South.