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There were individual products that were not priced out correctly, but overall, the game products made money. Overprinting was an issue, but one complicated by the Random House distribution deal and general upper management irrationality and unwillingness to listen to the line and product...

Ryan Dancey described seeing all the returns in the TSR warehouse, especially novels. But you have to view that image in context. The returns were not there simply because no one wanted the products. When Ryan toured the TSR warehouse, it was after Random House had flushed all TSR products out...

Yes, that's my understanding of the situation. The fiction continued to make money for Wizards, especially the Salvatore Drizzt books, right up until the fiction line stopped. In fact, Wizards still makes money off all the TSR/WotC fiction they keep in print. A couple times a year I receive...

The novels did not cause TSR's downfall. The company borrowed a lot of money and overproduced product because they were getting paid on ship to Random House, not sale at the bookstore level. The fiction continued to make the company money right up until the sale to Wizards. --James Lowder

In 1992, all the Realms books were still selling at a very high level. Same with Dragonlance, Ravenloft, and so on. Over the years, Bob pulled away in sales from the rest of the Realms line, for a variety of reasons, but in the early 1990s, most of the Realms novels sold over 100,000 copies in...

Absolutely! :) --Jim Lowder

Absolutely! :) --Jim Lowder

I did indeed. Thanks for the kind words! --Jim Lowder

I did indeed. Thanks for the kind words! --Jim Lowder

I suspect Jim means the 1980s for getting the catalog material done further in advance. In 1988, when I started with TSR, the company was already working with advance catalog copy and cover art. Editors and line heads had to provide summaries of content for each product, along with cover art...

I suspect Jim means the 1980s for getting the catalog material done further in advance. In 1988, when I started with TSR, the company was already working with advance catalog copy and cover art. Editors and line heads had to provide summaries of content for each product, along with cover art...

The US copyright of Lovecraft's works is a complicated matter. Whether Lovecraft's works were or were not in copyright in 1980, when Deities was published, would have hinged upon the valid renewal of their copyrights 28 years after their initial publication. (The works would have been in...

The US copyright of Lovecraft's works is a complicated matter. Whether Lovecraft's works were or were not in copyright in 1980, when Deities was published, would have hinged upon the valid renewal of their copyrights 28 years after their initial publication. (The works would have been in...

No. Chaosium had the contracts they claimed to have with Arkham House and Michael Moorcock. They still exist in the company files, the last I heard. (I work with Chaosium a lot these days.) Pretty much everyone in publishing at the time--including both TSR and Chaosium--believed Arkham House...

No. Chaosium had the contracts they claimed to have with Arkham House and Michael Moorcock. They still exist in the company files, the last I heard. (I work with Chaosium a lot these days.) Pretty much everyone in publishing at the time--including both TSR and Chaosium--believed Arkham House...

At the time Deities was being put together, Arkham House was the claimant to the Lovecraft/Mythos copyrights. That claim seemed legitimate and did not fall apart in court until the mid-1980s, long after Deities was out. While Arkham House may have given TSR some permission, as Jim describes...

At the time Deities was being put together, Arkham House was the claimant to the Lovecraft/Mythos copyrights. That claim seemed legitimate and did not fall apart in court until the mid-1980s, long after Deities was out. While Arkham House may have given TSR some permission, as Jim describes...

A little additional perspective on Jim's comments: TSR legal may have blamed Chaosium for removing the Cthulhu and Eternal Champion material from Deities & Demigods, but Chaosium offered to let TSR continue using the material, with the sole condition being the new printings acknowledge Chaosium...

A little additional perspective on Jim's comments: TSR legal may have blamed Chaosium for removing the Cthulhu and Eternal Champion material from Deities & Demigods, but Chaosium offered to let TSR continue using the material, with the sole condition being the new printings acknowledge Chaosium...

Paradox/White Wolf has made several notable and highly public missteps in their entry into the RPG market, so they may not have any idea who they are dealing with beyond the credits MacKinnon presented them. And the credit lines in the press release do not automatically mean endorsement...