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

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

As silly and fluffy as those pieces were, I always enjoyed them and how they could showcase the lighter side of the Realms (see also the perhaps even more fourth-wall-breaking "Everybody Wants to Run the Realms" issue of the Forgotten Realms comic).

I believe it was in the last "Wizards Three" article in Dragon #359, so, yes, right before 4E.

 

[Parmandur]

It’s kinda weird that folks in this thread think $5k was any kind of a good deal or anything more than a pittance considering the kind of gross revenue TSR was doing in that period.

Nah, TSR made a steal here. But Greenwood has done fine.

 

[Zaukrie]

Man I miss his Dragon articles. Sigh.

Maybe we'll get a new online 'zine?

 

[billd91]

?

I think people are saying it was a good deal for TSR.

And honestly, I'm not sure it was that terrible a deal for Greenwood either considering he initially thought they'd already effectively have rights for it based on his prior writings for them. That $5000 must have felt like gravy at the time.

This isn't really that surprising with creatives in relative early stages of media (like with Siegel and Shuster for Superman) or when they're shifting around (like buying an outside campaign setting for D&D). There wasn't a lot of precedent for setting the value of the work a creative was doing for or selling to a corporation. And rarely any way of gauging how valuable that property could eventually become with a corporation's resources marketing it. So, yeah, of course early cases always look like the creative is being screwed when there might not have been much sense of it at the time.

 

[darjr]

And honestly, I'm not sure it was that terrible a deal for Greenwood either considering he initially thought they'd already effectively have rights for it based on his prior writings for them. That $5000 must have felt like gravy at the time.

This isn't really that surprising with creatives in relative early stages of media (like with Siegel and Shuster for Superman) or when they're shifting around (like buying an outside campaign setting for D&D). There wasn't a lot of precedent for setting the value of the work a creative was doing for or selling to a corporation. And rarely any way of gauging how valuable that property could eventually become with a corporation's resources marketing it. So, yeah, of course early cases always look like the creative is being screwed when there might not have been much sense of it at the time.

He obviously thought it was a good deal, he took it, and later, after knowing more he holds to that.

Still I see the point, TSR could have afforded better.

 

[Jaeger]

While you're probably right, it does bear mentioning that it was Greenwood's popular articles in Dragon Magazine detailing new spells/magic items or further elaborating on monsters through "Ecology of. .. ." articles using the Realms as context that caught the eye of folks at TSR. Some of us had already heard of the Realms when the 1E setting was announced and it was a way cool thing, because it represented "the fan who made it."

Something like that will never, ever, be allowed to happen again.

You will also never ever see a module written by just one author with their name on the front ever again.

Even when they had the setting contest, they made sure to buy out the top three - ensuring that the really good stuff will never wind up in a competitors portfolio.

Not that WotC has done the lawsuitish things that torqued people off about TSR. But they have made other quiet moves that have had a stifling aspect to them.

 

[el-remmen]

Something like that will never, ever, be allowed to happen again.

There were also a handful of folks who wrote adventures for Dungeon back in the day who created a kind of default setting of their homebrew by setting them all there.

 

[DorkForge]

It’s kinda weird that folks in this thread think $5k was any kind of a good deal or anything more than a pittance considering the kind of gross revenue TSR was doing in that period.

Okay, why do you think it was a pittance for what they bought? Bearing in mind the work that was needed to actually make anything of it in terms of products.

I think the burden is more on proving $5k at the time was unreasonable given what they were actually buying, and that they were capable of churning out plenty settings on their own.

 

[Mercador]

TSR purchases were better than WotC purchases

 

[Rabulias]

It’s kinda weird that folks in this thread think $5k was any kind of a good deal or anything more than a pittance considering the kind of gross revenue TSR was doing in that period.

TSR was taking a bit of a risk at the time. Neither they nor Ed knew how popular and profitable the Forgotten Realms would be. If FR had flopped big time, today we would be saying how Ed made out like a bandit.