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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. The company was the leading developer of the modern Role Playing Game . Its flagship product, Dungeons And Dragons , served as the model for the new field. More importantly, it served as the focus of a national fad. Within a few years, kids, collegians, and adults were all playing this new form of game. TSR's games proved extremely popular and profitable. At its height, TSR had a million dollar profit and a staff of 400. But success sowed the seeds for failure. Gygax left for Hollywood in a fruitless attempt to produce a Dungeons & Dragons movie. Brian Blume and his brother were left in charge of the company. Within a year, the company's finances had dropped to a net loss of half a million dollars and 75% of the staff were let go. Some of these people formed a new game company, Pacesetter Games , while others moved to other companies such as Mayfair Games . Lorraine Williams was hired to replace the Blume brothers and restore the company to viability. Williams bought the 49% of TSR stock owned by the Blume brothers. Gygax initially retained control with the remaining 51%. However when his wife sued for divorce, she took half the stock as community property and promptly sold it to Williams. Gygax later sold his remaining stock to her and used the capital to form New Infinity Productions . Under Williams, TSR solidified its expansion into other fields, such as magazines, paperback fiction, and comic books. The Dragonlance series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman became the first game company fiction to hit the Best Seller list. Ironically TSR had a blind spot in regards to the new concept of the Collectible Card Game . While TSR suffered with poorly selling game lines like Buck Rogers , the new company Wizards Of The Coast had created a new, even more profitable fad with Magic The Gathering . TSR staffers dismissed Magic as "Crack the Addiction" and the game was barely tolerated at TSR's annual show, GenCon. WIth TSR now stable, Williams decided to sell her stock. Wizards Of The Coast , now flush with cash, recognized the need to expand their limited product line and so bought TSR and its intellectual properties, including the Dungeons & Dragons game and its various Campaign Setting s, in 1997 . Shortly thereafter, some of the TSR staff were transferred to 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
Other games
Magazines Fiction In 1984 , TSR started publishing Novel s 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 , the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance suffered in this regard). TRIVIA The company was the subject of an Urban Myth stating that it tried to trademark the term " Nazi ". This was based on a supplement for the Indiana Jones RPG in which some figures were marked with "NAZI(tm)". This notation was in compliance with the list of trademarked character names supplied by Lucasfilm 's legal department. Later references to the error would forget its origin and slowly morph into stories of TSR's trying to register such a trademark. Marvel Comics also supplied a list of trademarked Marvel characters which included the term "NAZI(tm)". SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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