History Creator / TSR

TSR ('''T'''actical '''S'''tudies '''R'''ules) was an American game-publishing company first founded as Tactical Studies Rules in 1973 by Creator/GaryGygax and Don Kaye to publish TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons. When Kaye died in 1975, the company was restructured into TSR Hobbies, which became a gaming juggernaut led by its popular flagship title.

* SelfFulfillingProphecy: After their initial troubles with Dave Arneson, TSR became reluctant to hand out stock options as it would possibly bring in people who would work against the company. Of course, promising then rescinding a stock offer is a perfect way to then turn people against you.

* BadBoss: A lot of the higher management at TSR had issues with those underneath them. Gary Gygax, having equated TSR's success with providing for his family became extremely defensive when others in the company deviated from what he expected, and was particularly petty towards Dave Arneson despite creating [[Franchise/DungeonsAndDragons a game changing product]] together. The Blooms were highly self enriching to their entire extended family, and almost were caught changing records to cover their tracks, which lead to several long time partners quitting in disgust. And as for Loraine Williams, while she was in part brought in to bring stability after a downturn in the 80's, her micromanagement and reckless greenlighting of new products eventually lead to the downfall of TSR as an independent company.

TSR ('''T'''actical '''S'''tudies '''R'''ules) was an American game-publishing company first founded as Tactical Studies Rules in 1973 by Creator/GaryGygax and Creator/DonKaye to publish TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons. When Kaye died in 1975, the company was restructured into TSR Hobbies, which became a gaming juggernaut led by its popular flagship title.

* FromRagsToRiches: From a business existing on paper and a tiny shop in a basement to one of the largest hobby game companies in the US.

!!Tropes relating to TSR

!!Tropes relating to TSR

* BreakthroughHit: ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' launched TSR into popularity and remains its most popular title today, albeit under a different publishing company.
* CreatorKiller: Financial difficulties in the 1990s, plus the overwhelming success of collectible card games like ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' and the overwhelming lack of success of the ''Buck Rogers'' projects, failed attempts to get on the collectible gaming bandwagon with ''TabletopGame/DragonDice'', and a whole pile of unsold novel series, led to TSR selling to Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast.
* PopCultureUrbanLegends: The Copyright symbol appeared next to the word "Nazi" on some of the cut-out cardboard tokens used in the ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' RPG, sparking the rumor that TSR and/or Lucasfilm had [[DisneyOwnsThisTrope tried to copyright]] "Nazi" (actually, the copyright symbol is for the artwork).
* ScrewedByTheNetwork: In the 1990s, ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' was at the peak of its popularity, and TSR had Lorraine Williams as its CEO. Williams made no secret of her disdain for gamers and the people who worked under her, and made a number of decisions that ultimately ran TSR into the ground before it was bought out by Wizards of the Coast, including:
** Suing people left and right, including people who ran message boards for talking about ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' on the internet on the basis that it was their intellectual property. This prevented new people from discovering the game through Internet word-of-mouth, gave their competitors who were using the new medium to promote their products an edge, and disenchanted fans.
** Devoting a great deal of company resources to publishing and promoting ''TabletopGame/BuckRogersXXVC'' and its tie-ins, which failed pretty spectacularly. The Dille Family Trust got royalties for every ''Buck Rogers'' novel, computer game, and RPG supplement published and sold. The heiress to that trust? Lorraine Williams.
** Publishing new settings in response to declining sales. The problem was that the settings, modules, and rules that governed them were so incompatible with each other that the player base became fragmented. For instance, a ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' fan would have no use for modules meant for the ''TabletopGame/{{Birthright}}'' setting.
** Licensing terrible games, with ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' being a notable exception and becoming the string holding the franchise together. It probably could have gotten more people into the hobby if message boards about the game didn't have to censor comments about the tabletop version for fear of lawsuits (see above).
** Allowing nepotism to run rampant in the company, which resulted in unqualified managers.
** Forbidding game designers from using company time to playtest products, on the reasoning that playtesting was just an excuse for the peasants to get paid to play games.

In 2021, a new company using the TSR name was co-founded by Ernie Gigax, son of Gary Gigax (it should be noted that this is one of two companies named TSR Hobbies to honor Gary Gygax, with the other TSR being founded by Jayson Elliot) -- alongside some Tabletop games veteran designers with the tabletop game ''Giantlands.'' This was meant to be their first product, until some statements by Ernie that were perceived as anti-progressive and transphobic by many people, which led to a huge backlash that caused the people behind ''Giantlands'' to cut ties with Ernie's TSR Games. TSR has stated that they will still look for products to publish.

In 2021, a new company using the TSR name was co-founded by Ernie Gigax, son of Gary Gigax (it should be noted that this is one of two companies named TSR Hobbies to honor Gary Gygax, with the other TSR being founded by Jayson Elliot) -- alongside some Tabletop games veteran designers with the tabletop game ''Giantlands'' meant to be their first product until some statements by Ernie that were perceived as anti-progressive and transphobic by many people led to a huge backlash that caused the people behind ''Giantlands'' to cut ties with Ernie's TSR Games but TSR has stated that they will still look for products to publish.

In 2021, a new company using the TSR name was co-founded by Ernie Gigax, son of Gary Gigax (it should be noted that this is one of two companies named TSR Hobbies to honor Gary Gygax, with the other TSR being founded by Jayson Elliot) -- along some Tabletop games veteran designers with the tabletop game ''Giantlands'' meant to be their first product until some statements by Ernie that were perceived as anti-progressive and transphobic by many people led to a huge backlash that caused the people behind ''Giantlands'' to cut ties with Ernie's TSR Games but TSR has stated that they will still look for products to publish.

In 2021, a new company using the TRS name was founded by Ernie Gigax, son of Gary Gigax (it should be noted that this is one of two companies named TRS Hobbies to honor Gary Gygax, with the other TRS being founded by Jayson Elliot) -- along some Tabletop games veteran designers with the tabletop game ''Giantlands'' meant to be their first product until some statements by Ernie that were perceived as anti-progressive and transphobic by many people led to a huge backlash that caused the people behind ''Giantlands'' to cut ties with Ernie's TRS Games.

TSR was an American game-publishing company first founded as Tactical Studies Rules in 1973 by Creator/GaryGygax and Creator/DonKaye to publish TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons. When Kaye died in 1975, the company was restructured into TSR Hobbies, which became a gaming juggernaut led by its popular flagship title.

* ''TabletopGame/BuckRogersBattleForTheTwentyFifthCentury'' (board game, 1988)

* ''ComicBook/AgentThirteenTheMidnightAvenger''