What if... WotC hadn't bought TSR?

[MerricB]

What if... WotC hadn't bought TSR?

Would the "Dungeons and Dragons" game be produced in any form? Would the lawyers have killed the trademark?

Cheers!

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

What if... WotC hadn't bought TSR?

Would the "Dungeons and Dragons" game be produced in any form? Would the lawyers have killed the trademark?

No. Yes.

 

[francisca]

I'd still be playing 1E. Hey wait. I'm still playing 1E. I guess I'd probably be playing 1E or 0E with the current group I DM, instead of 3E.

I'd be having fun, regardless.

 

[diaglo]

What if... the US hadn't dropped the bomb on Japan?

play all the what ifs you want. it did happen so what's the point?

 

[Mark CMG]

What if... WotC hadn't bought TSR?

Can you say "TSjgR"...?

 

[Drawmack]

Dungeons and Dragons had to much marketability to die. Someone would have bought it.

 

[Golandrinel]

Re: Re: What if... WotC hadn't bought TSR?

Can you say "TSjgR"...?

Spot on ... they'd never have stayed afloat on their own for long, the RPG market was near meltdown at the time.

 

[WayneLigon]

I suppose we might have seen it in some form after a couple years in limbo. It seems from the things Gygax and others have written that you probably had to have had some pretty deep pockets to buy TSR, even foundering as it was. Wizards had those deep pockets but I doubt anyone else could have come close.

I suppose the company would have gone under, then parts would be sold off to pay creditors. Whoever ended up with the D&D rights might have sold them, or sat on them. TSR did that with SPI, if I remember correctly. Maybe some other game company or group of people would have bought those rights but it would then depend on how much the creditor wanted for them. If they were willing to wash their hands of the affair, they might have been sold cheap enough.

As to who would have purchased the rights, and what would have happened afterwards, who knows?

 

[BOZ]

Dungeons and Dragons had to much marketability to die. Someone would have bought it.

right, most likely.

 

[trancejeremy]

It's my understanding that when a company goes bankrupt, the intellectual property goes back to the creator/author. (Unfortunately, we've seen it happen to all to many RPG companies over the years)

So, if no one bought them out, and TSR had gone bankrupt, I would guess Dave Arneson & Gary Gygax would have gotten back the rights to D&D, and Gygax would have gotten Greyhawk back.