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

[Neonchameleon]

Gary gets a free pass up to a point. He was t in the driver's seat like Lorraine was.

And this I'd call another example of double standards. Gygax was the President and CEO of TSR. He was legally, ethically, and morally at least as responsible for anything done by his company as Williams was by hers.

Once he took the money from the Blumes he didn't have that much power.

He came back from Hollywood and TSR was going down the gurgler.

He wasn't responsible for TSRs worst financial decisions as he wasn't there both times.

You're saying that like not being there and not having read the financial reports when he was both President and CEO and taking the salary for both somehow completely exonerates him from responsibility. If he "wasn't there" then this is a strong criticism of him.

As for "worst financial decisions" I'd be interested in seeing how the financial decisions round TSR's e.g. needlework business compared in profitability to those when Gygax went to Hollywood and had a vanity cartoon made while not getting any other licenses. This in the era when Saturday Morning cartoons were starting to become toy commercials after Reagan had changed the head of the FCC.

For the level of success of the D&D cartoon we can compare it with its direct rivals that were coming out at the same time (1983-1985). These included He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983-1985), GI Joe/Action Force (1983-1986), Inspector Gadget (1983-1986), Transformers (1984-1987), My Little Pony (1984-1985) and others. And it almost certainly cost almost exactly as much per episode as G. I. Joe, Transformers, My Little Pony, and He-Man because all four shows were actually animated by Toei Animation. Even the biggest fan of the D&D cartoon would be hard-pressed to claim it had remotely the level of success of those four. Four series which among other things were giant animated toy commercials so they didn't have to make direct profits; the toys sold incredibly well.

I would be entirely unsurprised if TSR's worst financial decision by a significant margin wasn't the D&D cartoon which was something Gygax emphatically was there for - and indeed was the only one there for.

He inherited a crap situation and was out in a year or so.

Blumes and Lorraine were in the driver's seat.

Ah yes. He inherited the position of CEO and President from the CEO and President who was checks notes E. Gary Gygax. And if the Blumes were in the driver's seat that wasn't because that was the seating plan. It was because Gygax had disappeared to Hollywood despite being the designated driver. Gygax of course had the power to have the board of directors remove the Blumes; we know this because he did that.

You can pin Gary's adventures, game design and Hollywood adventures on him though.

Or maybe his handling of the situation once he got back but TSR was already screwed by then.

It's that "once he got back" when he was CEO and President all along that's one part of it. Another part is how badly screwed TSR was by those Hollywood adventures. How much he spent trying and failing to get licensing deals, how much he spent on partying on the company dime, and how much he spent on the cartoon series.

 

[MGibster]

The fact she has remained silent for 20+ years is an interesting point. Perhaps she felt so ashamed about the TSR ship going down on her watch and being forced to sell to TSR's biggest competitor (WoTC) that she wanted to bury everything that happened. The past is too painful to dredge up.

Or perhaps Williams has the good sense to realize she gains nothing from going public and involving herself in something that's sure to be a crap show. There are tons of people out there who have no desire to be in the limelight.

Or maybe she didn't give a $h*t about TSR's destruction. She took her money and ran. I've read about corporate types like that.

She ran the company for eleven years and made a concerted effort to save TSR when it was failing. When TSR was sold they were out of options.

 

[Zardnaar]

And this I'd call another example of double standards. Gygax was the President and CEO of TSR. He was legally, ethically, and morally at least as responsible for anything done by his company as Williams was by hers.

You're saying that like not being there and not having read the financial reports when he was both President and CEO and taking the salary for both somehow completely exonerates him from responsibility. If he "wasn't there" then this is a strong criticism of him.

As for "worst financial decisions" I'd be interested in seeing how the financial decisions round TSR's e.g. needlework business compared in profitability to those when Gygax went to Hollywood and had a vanity cartoon made while not getting any other licenses. This in the era when Saturday Morning cartoons were starting to become toy commercials after Reagan had changed the head of the FCC.

For the level of success of the D&D cartoon we can compare it with its direct rivals that were coming out at the same time (1983-1985). These included He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983-1985), GI Joe/Action Force (1983-1986), Inspector Gadget (1983-1986), Transformers (1984-1987), My Little Pony (1984-1985) and others. And it almost certainly cost almost exactly as much per episode as G. I. Joe, Transformers, My Little Pony, and He-Man because all four shows were actually animated by Toei Animation. Even the biggest fan of the D&D cartoon would be hard-pressed to claim it had remotely the level of success of those four. Four series which among other things were giant animated toy commercials so they didn't have to make direct profits; the toys sold incredibly well.

I would be entirely unsurprised if TSR's worst financial decision by a significant margin wasn't the D&D cartoon which was something Gygax emphatically was there for - and indeed was the only one there for.

Ah yes. He inherited the position of CEO and President from the CEO and President who was checks notes E. Gary Gygax. And if the Blumes were in the driver's seat that wasn't because that was the seating plan. It was because Gygax had disappeared to Hollywood despite being the designated driver. Gygax of course had the power to have the board of directors remove the Blumes; we know this because he did that.

It's that "once he got back" when he was CEO and President all along that's one part of it. Another part is how badly screwed TSR was by those Hollywood adventures. How much he spent trying and failing to get licensing deals, how much he spent on partying on the company dime, and how much he spent on the cartoon series.

And that's a perfectly legit criticism of Gary. I understand his titles were mostly ceremonial in nature similar to producer credits on movies.

He wasn't there for the day to day running of the business. Lorraine was.

 

[Zardnaar]

Or perhaps Williams has the good sense to realize she gains nothing from going public and involving herself in something that's sure to be a crap show. There are tons of people out there who have no desire to be in the limelight.


She ran the company for eleven years and made a concerted effort to save TSR when it was failing. When TSR was sold they were out of options.

Lorraine has nothing to gain and probably doesn't care in any event.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

And that's a perfectly legit criticism of Gary. I understand his titles were mostly ceremonial in nature similar to producer credits on movies..

So … you know there’s a book about all of this, right?

Not to give anything away … but no, Gygax wasn’t “ceremonial.”

 

[Willie the Duck]

So … you know there’s a book about all of this, right?

Oh, that made me giggle!

Like, that's the entire point of all this, right? We have a new primary source-derived review document on the topic (specifically this part of the story) and it doesn't paint the same picture we've been telling each other back and forth for a quarter century.

 

[Bolares]

Oh, that made me giggle!

Like, that's the entire point of all this, right? We have a new primary source document on the topic (specifically this part of the story) and it doesn't paint the same picture we've been telling each other back and forth for a quarter century.

Well, a book I didn't read vs decades of preconceived notions? That's a hard fight for the book to win

 

[Zardnaar]

So … you know there’s a book about all of this, right?

Not to give anything away … but no, Gygax wasn’t “ceremonial.”

Haven't read the book but anyone can write them. Has the author got an agenda, who did they interview, did they interview Lorraine and Gary isn't here to put his perspective in with any new information.

The few things that are clear are TSR was never run will, there's a lot of bad blood there and people involved are still salty decades later and the two main characters ones dead the other is silent.

 

[Zardnaar]

Oh, that made me giggle!

Like, that's the entire point of all this, right? We have a new primary source document on the topic (specifically this part of the story) and it doesn't paint the same picture we've been telling each other back and forth for a quarter century.

What's the new primary source?

 

[BrokenTwin]

As someone who started ttrpgs in the D&D 3.5 era, I eventually got a vague idea as to who Gygax and Williams were, but that was mostly due to online threads talking about how she stole the company from him and tried to ruin D&D. And I kinda just accepted that narrative because I didn't honestly care enough about what to me felt like ancient history.
Given how hyperbolic gamers can be about... everything...I'm not surprised the situation was more complicated than the Gynax-saintly/Williams-sinister narrative I was originally exposed to.