D&D General Not the Wicked Witch: Revisiting the Legacy of Lorraine Williams

[David Howery]

Al Qadim two boxed sets and twelve supplements.

IIRC, AQ was a bit odd in that it was designed to be exactly a 3 year line and no more...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

IIRC, AQ was a bit odd in that it was designed to be exactly a 3 year line and no more...

They extended it after that, presumably as part of the "we'll make it up in volume" strategy.

 

[Velderan]

No kidding. There were 15-16 books published for the Complete Book of... series produced from 1989-1995. And that's just crazy when you consider everything else they were publishing for 2nd edition. Despite owning a ton of AD&D 2nd edition products, even now I'll hear something mentioned that I didn't remember existing at all. They were publishing books and other supplements like they were going out of style.

You're definitely not the only one. I remember having the "Arms and Equipment" supplement, which was awesome for actually showing what the different weapons and armor actually looked like. I never realized there was a bunch of other books in the DMGR series because my FLGS at the time never had them. Some of them are things people on this forum have highly recommended as being great products that I probably would have bought and enjoyed back then, like the "Creative Campaigning" guide.

 

[Clint_L]

I'm on Chapter 8 (Tomb of Horrors) of When We Were Wizards, and the creatives are talking about the production standards the Blume were setting in the early 80s, expecting a creative team of 8-10ish(?) people to pump out fifty or sixty products a year, with mandatory 48 hour work weeks, for a while.

Yes, at extremely low salaries. It was quite a bit shocking to learn how extremely exploitative TSR was of its workers. Unless you were a family member.

 

[Mannahnin]

Yes, at extremely low salaries. It was quite a bit shocking to learn how extremely exploitative TSR was of its workers. Unless you were a family member.

If you were a designer they'd be happy to give your wife or girlfriend a job too! (Which would also be low-paying, presumably unless she had sales & marketing credentials and could get a non-secretarial position).

 

[DarkCrisis]

No kidding. There were 15-16 books published for the Complete Book of... series produced from 1989-1995. And that's just crazy when you consider everything else they were publishing for 2nd edition. Despite owning a ton of AD&D 2nd edition products, even now I'll hear something mentioned that I didn't remember existing at all. They were publishing books and other supplements like they were going out of style.

I had most of them. Realize I hated what it added to the game. "Keep it simple" and sold them all.

 

[Staffan]

Dang, they cranked it out back then

Check the Collector's Guides around here to get some perspective on just how much they cranked out. At some points, it was over a dozen books a month (though to be fair, some of those were just 32 pages).

IIRC, AQ was a bit odd in that it was designed to be exactly a 3 year line and no more...

They extended it after that, presumably as part of the "we'll make it up in volume" strategy.

Other way around, I think: planned for two years, extended to three.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Yes, the amount of stuff that TSR was putting out was mind-boggling. Even as an enthusiastic player, I felt swamped and, judging by the reports of massive unsold inventory, so where many others at the time.

We have been in this business a long time. With our experience, we’re gonna have ideas for change combinations that probably haven’t occurred to you. If you have a fifty-dollar bill, we can give you fifty singles. We can give you forty-nine singles and ten dimes. We can give you twenty-five twos. Come talk to us. We are not going to give you change that you don’t want. If you come to us with a hundred-dollar bill, we’re not going to give you two-thousand nickels.. – unless that meets your particular change needs. We will give you.. the change.. equal to.. the amount of money.. that you want change for!

The tried and true business model!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I had most of them. Realize I hated what it added to the game. "Keep it simple" and sold them all.

There was some good color stuff in the Complete Wizard (same with Tome and Blood in 3E), but for the most part, yeah, cruft that didn't really improve the game.

 

[Eric V]

They extended it after that, presumably as part of the "we'll make it up in volume" strategy.

Was it unpopular? I don't know that I've heard anyone say anything bad about the Al-Qadim line.