D&D General Lorraine Williams: Is it Time for a Reevaluation?

[Ralif Redhammer]

Systemic bias is a heck of thing.

This to me is the most glaring double standard. Lorraine was 'rude to gamers", while Gary could write off half of the population as being unable to appreciate the game because of (completely false) biological reasons. A lot of women are gamers, who do you think alienated more gamers?

Having run open tables, yeah, the vast majority of people that show up don't really consider the behind-the-scenes people or deep history of gaming anymore than someone would consider the history or maker of Monopoly. I totally love gaming history, both within the games and of the games, but there's something kinda freeing about knowing that the younger generations are not beholden to it, are free to bring their own new stories to life. To make their own histories.

I don't think it is heresy. I'm not convinced the vast majority of people who play D&D even today actually care too much about how the sausage is made or who is doing the cooking. I'm willing to wager the majority of the controversies surrounding names like Orion Black and Zak S. pretty much went unnoticed by the vast majority of D&D enthusiast. Back in the late 80s and early 90s the only people I associated with gaming were Gary Gygax, Kevin Siembieda, Mike Pondsmith, and Steve Jackson (that's Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson Games not Games Workshop for our British viewers).

My FLGS has had a copy of Cyborg Commando sitting on the shelves for months now. I did pick up Lejendary Adventures and quite liked that, though I think it's hindered in places by trying to be deliberately anti-D&D, making for some odd mechanics.

Admittedly, I might have picked up a game based on Gygax's name. But that game would have been Cyborg Commando putting to rest my desire to pick up any other game related to Gygax.

Trying to imagine what Middle-Earth as a D&D setting in the 90s would've been like just boggles the mind. Would they have removed the classes and races that didn't fit, or shoehorned them into the world? About all I can say for sure would be that Aragorn would've 100% had a ponytail.

I guarantee you that Gandalf would have been higher than level 5

Until the internet really came to prominence in the form we know now, gaming history existed in fragments and rumors. Dr. Fine's Shared Fantasy would've probably been the earliest study, but I wouldn't have even known to look that one up.

Yeah, I was in much the same boat. Until the arrival of the internet, the names Gygax, et al. mean nothing to me except as far as listing in the credits section. I had no idea who these people were, what TSR was like or who was running it. The names only concerned me in as far as I'd look for products of the authors of other products I liked. Hell, I didn't even know that TSR had crashed and burned and was bought up by WotC until a website by some cat named Eric Noah started posting teasers about 3e.

 

[MoonSong]

*which an ironic thought just occurred to me. TSR was cursed with horrible leadership and management from day 1 to the day of sale, so I suppose it's fitting LaNasa and crew are desperately trying so hard to be the current "leadership" of the TSR name, because their business acumen and morals would be a natural progression of TSR leadership....

TSR was born tainted. The seeds of its own destruction were planted from the moment Gygax lacked the means to publish it on his own, and its fate was sealed with David Don Kaye's unexpected passing. These two facts opened the door for the Blumes to get involved and from that point onward there was never a time where it wasn't being mismanaged. During the early days it was uncontrolled and unfocused diversification made worse by nepotism. (Edit: I'm not saying Gary on his own wouldn't have mismanaged the company, but with the Blumes on board there were three more people to take bad decisions and twice the number of relatives in the payroll. And well, I don't think TSR would have bought a needlework company under Gygax alone!) Under Loraine, it was explosive unsustainable growth, with future expected returns being used to fuel current production and competing product lines cannibalizing each other while splitting the consumer base. Eventually it overextended into unprofitability and the business collapsed.

Or maybe it isn't that important. I mean, businesses fail all the time, and what is a soulcrushing tragedy for one is just another day in the office for another. It's unfair and, honestly, unsmart to expect a hired manager to care about the product as if it was her baby. Welcome to capitalism, I guess.

Yeah. I don't doubt Lorraine was devoted to TSR, after all, it was her company. However, she wasn't on it for the love of the game. From her actions it is evident she approached it as a publishing gig first. If she had had the opportunity to save the company by getting rid of D&D, she would have. Because her baby was the company, not D&D itself. In the end the company fell, but I'm sure she made her money back by a tenfold. So, still a win?

--------------------------

In general, I hold no strong emotion towards Lorraine. She evidently mismanaged TSR and could have done an effort to understand her product and her market better. Are the tales about her true? I don't know, all we have is incomplete fragmentary hearsay. Is she seen in a worse light due to misogyny? I don't doubt there is a component to it. In general society punishes women who aren't all-kind-all-nurturing at all times. And being in a managing position demands taking harsh actions and doing power moves. While men do take heat for acting in these ways, women receive far more of it when they do it.

Was she a snob who resented her own customer base? I hope not. Was she an early advocate of feminism by denouncing the misogyny in the hobby? I hope so. Whatever the case, we don't have enough hard data to know with any certainty and even less to make an informed judgment of her actions. But, do we really need to judge her actions let alone her person?

What I know is that under her, TSR produced a huge catalog of books, novels and supplements that are beloved by many. I mean I still consider 2e and RC the best editions of the game to date. Yes, she didn't know how to handle an RPG publisher in the long run, but it seems nobody did back then. It would take a long time before anybody had any idea how to manage one. And yet, many seem to have taken lessons from TSRs failure, so not even that is a net negative. TSR went under, but the game is still around and in good hands -and in a better spot than ever before-. We even got the OGL out of the deal!

 

[Grazzt]

TSR was born tainted. The seeds of its own destruction were planted from the moment Gygax lacked the means to publish it on his own, and its fate was sealed with David Kaye's unexpected passing. These two facts opened the door for the Blumes to get involved and from that point onward there was never a time where it wasn't being mismanaged.

Except Brian Blume was involved while Don Kaye was still alive. Gygax and Kaye both signed off on him becoming a 1/3 partner in the business because he had much needed capital at the time to actually publish their game.

 

[MoonSong]

Except Brian Blume was involved while Don Kaye was still alive. Gygax and Kaye both signed off on him becoming a 1/3 partner in the business because he had much needed capital at the time to actually publish their game.

Notice I mentioned "the Blumes" in plural. Yes, Brian was part of it. It was fine until Don died and they had to find cash to buyout his widow. Which meant Brian's father and brother got into the society. At which point it became a defacto family business for the Blumes with Gygax share being diluted. (Before that, Brian had meant to join TSR as a side gig, a hobby within his hobby) . And remember the part before that sentence: TSR's original taint was that Gygax didn't have the means to publish it on his own so he'd be forever forced to share a company with one ore more business partners.

 

[darjr]

I do wonder what if Don hadn’t passed or Gary could have raised the funds without giving away so much control.

 

[Bolares]

I do wonder what if Don hadn’t passed or Gary could have raised the funds without giving away so much control.

With all his "excentricities" and lack of interest in running the company in the 80's, I don't know if TSR would have survived that.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

With all his "excentricities" and lack of interest in running the company in the 80's, I don't know if TSR would have survived that.

Any evidence Don Kaye and Gary would have been good at running a company together or wouldn’t have fallen out either?

 

[darjr]

Any evidence Don Kaye and Gary would have been good at running a company together or wouldn’t have fallen out either?

Dunno. Just thinking out loud about the what if.

I think Gary would have had more control for longer and I think Don was a business man before.

 

[MichaelSomething]

I think D&D would have turned out a lot like Rifts did. I'm not sure if that is a preferred outcome.

With all his "excentricities" and lack of interest in running the company in the 80's, I don't know if TSR would have survived that.

 

[Parmandur]

Dunno. Just thinking out loud about the what if.

I think Gary would have had more control for longer and I think Don was a business man before.

All due respect to Gygax, but I'm not sure that would have necessarily worked out so well in the end, either.

 

[darjr]

All due respect to Gygax, but I'm not sure that would have necessarily worked out so well in the end, either.

Probably. Maybe. It definitely would have been different.

 

[MoonSong]

This Gygax tangent got me thinking on something more aligned to the thread. The very public "reconciliation" that WotC had with the creators made players hyper aware of the names and early history of the game. This inevitably brought Gygax departure from TSR to the public eye. Which coupled with the recent C&Ds and TSR failure on recent memory created a narrative of "ding dong the witch is dead" that maligned and vilified Lorraine Williams. In an effort to be seen as the rightful keepers of the game, WotC ended up casting Lorraine as the evil corporate villain that had kept the game hostage and it was now being rescued by the true gamers!

At least it seems to be a possible reading of the situation.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

This Gygax tangent got me thinking on something more aligned to the thread. The very public "reconciliation" that WotC had with the creators made players hyper aware of the names and early history of the game. This inevitably brought Gygax departure from TSR to the public eye. Which coupled with the recent C&Ds and TSR failure on recent memory created a narrative of "ding dong the witch is dead" that maligned and vilified Lorraine Williams. In an effort to be seen as the rightful keepers of the game, WotC ended up casting Lorraine as the evil corporate villain that had kept the game hostage and it was now being rescued by the true gamers!

At least it seems to be a possible reading of the situation.

I don‘t know how to respond to this. That’s a thesis!

So I will just give you my most profound, Keanu, WOAH.

 

[darjr]

That is interesting. It at least gave room for it anyways.

 

[Blue Orange]

This Gygax tangent got me thinking on something more aligned to the thread. The very public "reconciliation" that WotC had with the creators made players hyper aware of the names and early history of the game. This inevitably brought Gygax departure from TSR to the public eye. Which coupled with the recent C&Ds and TSR failure on recent memory created a narrative of "ding dong the witch is dead" that maligned and vilified Lorraine Williams. In an effort to be seen as the rightful keepers of the game, WotC ended up casting Lorraine as the evil corporate villain that had kept the game hostage and it was now being rescued by the true gamers!

At least it seems to be a possible reading of the situation.

So they made Lorraine the fall gal so they could smooth over the natural suspicion anyone would have toward the new owners of D&D?

Sounds plausible at least! Of course, the only people who would know are the WotC management team back then, and they probably wouldn't admit it. You'd have to find some 'smoking gun' email, and if they were at all smart about something like that they wouldn't have left records.

 

[darjr]

I doubt very much it was on purpose or targeted. For instance they didn’t reach out to business only folks at TSR but creatives, specifically THE creators of D&D. That would leave her out altogether.

Also to her credit she did make the sale instead of doing something spiteful and refusing to and ending up selling to the banks piecmiel, which was an actual fear. That very fear in part helped bring the OGL.

 

[Blue Orange]

Also to her credit she did make the sale instead of doing something spiteful and refusing to and ending up selling to the banks piecmiel, which was an actual fear. That very fear in part helped bring the OGL.

So that's what that was all about? I was wondering why anyone would do that. I'm pretty happy they did--I enjoyed reading all the wild and wooly d20 stuff out there--but it didn't seem to make any sense as a business model.

 

[MoonSong]

So they made Lorraine the fall gal so they could smooth over the natural suspicion anyone would have toward the new owners of D&D?

Sounds plausible at least! Of course, the only people who would know are the WotC management team back then, and they probably wouldn't admit it. You'd have to find some 'smoking gun' email, and if they were at all smart about something like that they wouldn't have left records.

Not saying it was intentional. More like she was collateral damage in WotC's attempt to legitimate their ownership of D&D, which helped canonize st Gygax in the player base and put a face on the failure of TSR: "They are paying homage to Gygax" ->"Wait, why is the creator of D&D not producing D&D?"-> "Oh, they sacked him."-> "wait isn't this Williams person that sacked him the same that ran TSR into the ground?"-> "Oh, the same that kept sending those C&Ds to fan forums."-> "Then f*** this Williams woman!". In a way Lorraine became the personification of everything that led to the demise of beloved TSR.
(I mean, are we even sure she personally ordered every single C&D? couldn't have that been the work of an overzealous legal department?)

So that's what that was all about? I was wondering why anyone would do that. I'm pretty happy they did--I enjoyed reading all the wild and wooly d20 stuff out there--but it didn't seem to make any sense as a business model.

From what I read, it was part of it. Adkinson had a real fear of D&D getting stuck on a legal limbo should things go sour. But the OGL served more than one purpose; it also helped to mend the relation with the community as it was a way to have a strong fan policy after years of C&Ds and it cushioned the blow of WotC cutting many product lines and supplements. It also served as a way to concentrate the 3P publishers under WotC's ecosystem, they would support D&D by doing low profit supplements for free instead of creating competing systems that way.

 

[darjr]

So that's what that was all about? I was wondering why anyone would do that. I'm pretty happy they did--I enjoyed reading all the wild and wooly d20 stuff out there--but it didn't seem to make any sense as a business model.

Yup, it was close at one point. If TSR had went to the banks the fear was that D&D would get carved up and sit as a list items in vaults never to see publishing.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Yup, it was close at one point. If TSR had went to the banks the fear was that D&D would get carved up and sit as a list items in vaults never to see publishing.

Remember as well that TSR was wary of a buyout from WoTC. In effect, the company hid behind a bogus offer from the makers of the Legend of the Five Rings.