D&D General Ed Greenwood's $5K Contract To Sell The Forgotten Realms

D&D historian Ben Riggs has a copy of Ed Greenwood's original Forgotten Realms contract and spends a few words covering it, calling it "The best $5,000 D&D Spent". The setting was sold to TSR for $4,000 in 1987, with another $1,000 for comsulting services.

Ed Greenwood, the creator of the Realms, said he never regretted the decision to sell the property to TSR, the first company to make D&D. The five grand he made was $4,000 for the Realms itself, and then $1,000 for services as a design consultant. (That’s $13,000 in 2022 dollars).

The Best $5000 D&D Spent: Buying the Forgotten Realms — Ben Riggs

How did D&D manage to snag its flagship setting for the price of a car?

www.writerbenriggs.com

 

[sevenbastard]

I'm not a proponent of working for exposure, but in the late 80s getting your setting picked up by TSR was like winning the lottery.

TSR was taking a risk back then. A unknown setting in a time when settings were not a thing. They did some smart marketing with shoehorning some novels into the realms and lots of promotions behind it.

 

[billd91]

Ed is too nice, his setting has to to be worth $100s of millions of dollars by now, and he git screwed out of his novel deal, he should have sued WotC for millions.

On what grounds? There would have to be something more than just "I should have set a higher price back in the day". It would have to be something like a retained right that was infringed in some way. But if he sold the whole thing outright, publication in print, game, and all other media, there's not much he can do.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

You have to remember that Ed's FR and the whole FR we have now (well, before the 5e over-focus on the Sword Coast) are two different beasts. It did not have the huge backlog of lore and adventures, many regions weren't even there.

Though I agree that 5k $ is kinda cheap, even with the conversion rate. But it was a deal with TSR, not WotC. And to be worth billions, the FR would need to be leveraged way more than they are now: cross-media production, 2-3 movies per year, merch, etc

As of now, we dont even have a boxed set setting for the FR

That is certain to change in 2024, they will want a FRCG book or box set to go with 1D&D & to milk the possibly increased fandom caused by the D&D movie.

 

[David Howery]

I have to admit, when the 1E boxed set came out, I didn't find the setting all that fantastic, didn't see any real advantages of it over Greyhawk. But when the novels started appearing, it started to pique my interest. And in the 2E days, when it went multicultural with a bang, I really started to like it....

 

[LordEntrails]

That is certain to change in 2024, they will want a FRCG book or box set to go with 1D&D & to milk the possibly increased fandom caused by the D&D movie.

Yea, I don't think the reasoning there is very strong.

I could see a starter set based off the adventure in the movie, but no need for an entire setting book/product.

 

[LordEntrails]

Another thing to note, yes $5k isn't much. But it put Ed on the map so to speak. Had he not sold them the Realms, it is unlikely any of us would know Ed's name. He would not be a celebrity, would not be able to sell books or anything else based upon his name. He would just be a librarian somewhere with a homebrew setting that a few folks would have played in at his home games or at cons.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah, the opening line pretty much says it all. TSR made the best investment it possibly could have.

Out of curiosity, I wonder how much WotC paid for Eberron?

They paid Keith Baker like 6 figures, IIRC.

 

[DorkForge]

I'm not really sure that 5k in 87 was unfair at all, it sounds like an awful lot of money, but it was also before I was born. A quick Google put the average US salary in 87 at $18,426, getting almost a 3rd of a yearly salary for something you never intended to sell sounds pretty good to me. The financial value of the realms is presumably much higher, with the Dragon articles before the deal and the books afterwards, how many people would even know who Ed Greenwood is today had he not sold it?

I'm more surprised/impressed that Keith Baker won $100k for Eberron, that's a monumental amount of money and he's still making money off of Eberron today in various ways.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

The 1e grey box maps had vast swathes of empty spaces to write your own adventures and locales into. Of course, as the Realms became more detailed, that could change. My PCs at one point had a castle that suddenly found itself placed smack dab in an area that was infested with trolls and ettins.

My pal had the 1e boxed set. We were intrigued because it seemed “less populated” than other settings!

Decades later you leave your keep and stumble over a 15th level wizard and and encampment of “good drow.”

Interesting OP! But I have to no lover count myself a fan of the realms for a growing number of reasons…

But indeed, what bargain for the company!

One thing Riggs is right to point out is that beyond the money (which, yeah, TSR could've done better by Ed Greenwood), the deal gave his creation immortality. The Realms has been a part of gaming for decades and will continue to be a part of it for decades to come. It's certainly been inspiring me from the 80s to today.

 

[This Effin’ GM]

I thought I heard him getting a favorable deal but I can’t find source