1997 TSR Documentary

[Mark CMG]

There's a neat 1997 TSR documentary that has been formatted to go up on YouTube -

Masters of Fantasy - TSR: The Fantasy Factory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq8G-gjpWM8

 

[Nikosandros]

That's very interesting, thanks for the link. Rather cheesy at times and more of a promo than a true documentary, but extremely fascinating. I also enjoyed seeing the faces of some the folks. Some I had never seen, others I only saw recently and it was nice seeing them in '97.

It is a bit strange that they indicate Lorraine Williams as former CEO, but they don't talk at all about the fact that WotC (a huge and popular company in '97) had bought them.

 

[pedr]

My guess is they filmed it before the sale was finalised, and then added the mention of change in ownership to the voice-over script before broadcast. I've not tried to track down other episodes of the series - there appear to have been ones on various authors etc - but the promotional nature strikes me as something which may have been designed or prompted by Lorraine Williams and the pre-WotC TSR as an attempt to counter some of the company's problems of the time!

Was Chris Perkins one of the players in the game in the middle segment? I don't recognise any of the un-named people :-(

 

[Nikosandros]

My guess is they filmed it before the sale was finalised, and then added the mention of change in ownership to the voice-over script before broadcast.

It's a reasonable explanation.

Was Chris Perkins one of the players in the game in the middle segment? I don't recognise any of the un-named people :-(

Yes, I think it was Chris. I'm not 100% sure, but I'm fairly confident about it.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

It has definitely been recorded before the take over. Time and again they tell us how big and successful TSR is. In the context of 1997 this sounds very cheesy.

Great to see some guys actually playing Alternity, btw.