D&D General When We Were Wizards: Review of the Completed Podcast!

[Clint_L]

Lorraine Williams is hard to root for because she's...well, she's a manager. Not a creative. It's not like she had the vision and drive that produced the stuff I love. And nobody wants to root for the boss. So it's not like I'm going to join the Lorraine Williams fan club or anything, but I do appreciate that she successfully shuffled things around well enough to keep TSR solvent long enough for the WotC deal to happen.

I agree that the way Williams has often been vilified is unfair and inaccurate, and typically comes from ignorance about what was actually happening at TSR. Plus a lot of misogyny. This podcast does a great job of documenting the sh*tshow that was TSR in the early 80s, and makes it pretty clear that Gygax and the Blumes ultimately caused their own downfall. If it hadn't been Williams buying the company, it would have been the bank foreclosing.

 

[Parmandur]

Lorraine Williams is hard to root for because she's...well, she's a manager. Not a creative. It's not like she had the vision and drive that produced the stuff I love. And nobody wants to root for the boss. So it's not like I'm going to join the Lorraine Williams fan club or anything, but I do appreciate that she successfully shuffled things around well enough to keep TSR solvent long enough for the WotC deal to happen.

I agree that the way Williams has often been vilified is unfair and inaccurate, and typically comes from ignorance about what was actually happening at TSR. Plus a lot of misogyny. This podcast does a great job of documenting the sh*tshow that was TSR in the early 80s, and makes it pretty clear that Gygax and the Blumes ultimately caused their own downfall. If it hadn't been Williams being the company, it would have been the bank foreclosing.

I think the one big thing I learned from this podcast, was how Gygax unconsciously maneuvered everyone else into a corner where they needed to oust him or their livelihoods and families were on the line.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeah, without Lorraine Williams, whom the bank would have sold the rights to -- if anyone -- is hard to know. It's entirely possible that D&D would have died before there was a second edition of AD&D, if other game companies thought it'd be cheaper to just promote their own games rather than to buy the D&D brand atop their existing expenses.

Also, "Dragonlands" is a very dumb name for a house, and I'm someone who generally thinks naming fancy houses can sometimes be cool, with the right name. (Although "Dragonlance" would be an even dumber name for one.)

 

[Mannahnin]

Also, "Dragonlands" is a very dumb name for a house, and I'm someone who generally thinks naming fancy houses can sometimes be cool, with the right name. (Although "Dragonlance" would be an even dumber name for one.)

I thought it was ok, when I first heard it. It was a sizable property, with a stable for their Arabian horses, right?

 

[humble minion]

Lorraine Williams is hard to root for because she's...well, she's a manager. Not a creative. It's not like she had the vision and drive that produced the stuff I love. And nobody wants to root for the boss. So it's not like I'm going to join the Lorraine Williams fan club or anything, but I do appreciate that she successfully shuffled things around well enough to keep TSR solvent long enough for the WotC deal to happen.

I agree that the way Williams has often been vilified is unfair and inaccurate, and typically comes from ignorance about what was actually happening at TSR. Plus a lot of misogyny. This podcast does a great job of documenting the sh*tshow that was TSR in the early 80s, and makes it pretty clear that Gygax and the Blumes ultimately caused their own downfall. If it hadn't been Williams being the company, it would have been the bank foreclosing.

Admittedly, the podcast really only covers the part of the story where Williams is (arguably) at her most sympathetic. And yeah, her actions DID probably save D&D/TSR from immediate destruction due to Gygax's mismanagement.

Her tragedy is then that having done that, and then having kicked off something of a new creative boom with greenlighting Forgotten Realms and a bunch of the other classic D&D settings etc, she turned around and proceeded to make pretty much all the same mistakes that Gygax did, and added a few of her own for good measure, and brought the company to exactly the same point.

But that's something for a (hopefully) sequel podcast to cover? D&D/TSR, the Williams to Adkinson years. Probably less personal drama, Greek tragedy etc, but it'd be very interesting nonetheless.

 

[Zardnaar]

Admittedly, the podcast really only covers the part of the story where Williams is (arguably) at her most sympathetic. And yeah, her actions DID probably save D&D/TSR from immediate destruction due to Gygax's mismanagement.

Her tragedy is then that having done that, and then having kicked off something of a new creative boom with greenlighting Forgotten Realms and a bunch of the other classic D&D settings etc, she turned around and proceeded to make pretty much all the same mistakes that Gygax did, and added a few of her own for good measure, and brought the company to exactly the same point.

But that's something for a (hopefully) sequel podcast to cover? D&D/TSR, the Williams to Adkinson years. Probably less personal drama, Greek tragedy etc, but it'd be very interesting nonetheless.

Blumes, Gyfax, Williams all kinda sucked.

I like Lorraine's era products better. Innovation wasn't rewarded unfortunately.

 

[Marc Radle]

Is there a link to this podcast somewhere?
I tried to find it in this thread but came up snake eyes

 

[billd91]

Is there a link to this podcast somewhere?
I tried to find it in this thread but came up snake eyes

Looks like there are some good links in here including to a trailer and the podcast via apple podcasts and maybe more: Release - When We Were Wizards

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Is there a link to this podcast somewhere?
I tried to find it in this thread but came up snake eyes

Your podcast app of choice should turn it up in the search function, since they all index off of Apple iTunes' directory.

 

[mamba]

Is there a link to this podcast somewhere?
I tried to find it in this thread but came up snake eyes

Just google ‘when we were wizards’ and the first two entires are the below links, at least for me

When We Were Wizards

Documentary Podcast · 15 Episodes · Weekly Series

podcasts.apple.com