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

 

[el-remmen]

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.

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."

While clearly it would never be of the level of popularity it had with TSR's support and expansion, my guess there were people out there building out their own versions of the Realms based on those articles - which leads me to think that with the proper marketing a kickstarted version of the setting in today's market could have been successful with that tradition/pedigree behind it. Lesser settings have done fine with marginal folks attached.

 

[el-remmen]

Also in Ben Riggs' book, when [I forget who] was told to make the offer to Greenwood, Ed said "Oh, I thought you already owned it!" (or something like that) based on those Dragon articles, and the person (again I forget who) was kind enough to say, "I am going to forget you said that and recommend you never say it again, so you get paid." So EG was willing to give it up for a lot less!

 

[Parmandur]

Also in Ben Riggs' book, when [I forget who] was told to make the offer to Greenwood, Ed said "Oh, I thought you already owned it!" (or something like that) based on those Dragon articles, and the person (again I forget who) was kind enough to say, "I am going to forget you said that and recommend you never say it again, so you get paid." So EG was willing to give it up for a lot less!

That was Jeff Grubb.

 

[DorkForge]

Also in Ben Riggs' book, when [I forget who] was told to make the offer to Greenwood, Ed said "Oh, I thought you already owned it!" (or something like that) based on those Dragon articles, and the person (again I forget who) was kind enough to say, "I am going to forget you said that and recommend you never say it again, so you get paid." So EG was willing to give it up for a lot less!

So they could have probably screwed him, and deliberately chose not to, at least one guy did.

 

[darjr]

I really do think that if TSR hadn’t bought it we still would have heard of it. Realizing that success involves a lot of luck.

 

[el-remmen]

That was Jeff Grubb.

Thanks. My brain was shooting blanks.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Also in Ben Riggs' book, when [I forget who] was told to make the offer to Greenwood, Ed said "Oh, I thought you already owned it!" (or something like that) based on those Dragon articles, and the person (again I forget who) was kind enough to say, "I am going to forget you said that and recommend you never say it again, so you get paid." So EG was willing to give it up for a lot less!

The trouble with so many people is that they don't understand the value of themselves, and of what they produce.

This disparity is often exploited by others, especially in creative fields.

 

[Burnside]

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.

 

[DorkForge]

The trouble with so many people is that they don't understand the value of themselves, and of what they produce.

This disparity is often exploited by others, especially in creative fields.

I think this is underpinned with most people not understanding how their ownership rights work, the thought of giving up ownership of stuff is the only reason I've not used the DM's Guild yet.

 

[darjr]

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.

?

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