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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 8992899" data-attributes="member: 8461">Having had some unexpected free time this morning, I finished up Dice Men: The Origin Story of Games Workshop. It effectively covers the company's founding in 1975 to when authors Livingstone and Jackson (though the former wrote most of this history, with the latter chiming in on various topics) left the company in 1985. A few thoughts come to mind with regard to the book:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I wasn't expecting it to be as big or as heavy as it was! Being 8.5" by 12", this was the size of your typical RPG supplement more than your typical hardcover history book. And with its roughly three hundred pages all being glossy and having quite a few pictures, it weighs more than you'd expect to look at it!</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I had no idea that Gary Gygax pitched a merger between Games Workshop and TSR! His plan was for the two companies to combine (with TSR being the one to absorb GW, naturally) and Ian and Steve earning a combined 33% share in the new company, with the two of them joining the board of directors. One wonders how the <a href="https://medium.com/@increment/the-ambush-at-sheridan-springs-3a29d07f6836" target="_blank">Ambush at Sheridan Springs</a> would have unfolded if they'd said yes!</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The original hand-drawn flowcharts for the first Fighting Fantasy gamebook, Warlock of Firetop Mountain, are shown here for what I think is the first time!</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Apparently the American Steve Jackson (or "Steve Jackson US," as they call him here) wrote several Fighting Fantasy books, causing quite a bit of confusion for fans as to which titles were written by him and which were written by his British counterpart!</li> </ul>One other thing I'm struck by is how little discord is present compared to the history of TSR. There's no huge split between Jackson and Livingstone, and even when they left the company the waves were comparatively smaller. Maybe that's just an issue of presentation, or maybe it's the proverbial stuff upper lip on display, but the sense I took away from it was that there really was less drama all around, and so it makes for a much more pleasant, and heartening, tale.</blockquote>

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