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Message no. 1
From: Randy Nickel <RANNIC@****.COM>
Subject: OT: WotC bought TSR (was Gen-Con SR3 Hardback Request)
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 10:06:00 -0700
Bull wrote:

>Oh, and TSR is actually still TSR... They are now just a subsidiary of
WOTC... :]

Are you sure about that? I know some of the head honcho's at WotC here,
I used to run Talislanta for Peter Adkinson at conventions here when
that was one of the few games they had, and I had heard nothing about
them owning buying up TSR.

I must admit though that I have been out of the loop for a while, and
that I do not keep track of what is going on with TSR.

Otter

PS - I just got back from Canada and had a most excellent time. If you
ever get the chance to go camping in British Columbia I highly recommend
it. :-)
Message no. 2
From: Erik Jameson <erikj@****.COM>
Subject: Re: OT: WotC bought TSR (was Gen-Con SR3 Hardback Request)
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 14:00:19 -0400
At 10:06 AM 7/15/98 -0700, you wrote:
>Bull wrote:
>
>>Oh, and TSR is actually still TSR... They are now just a subsidiary of
>WOTC... :]
>
>Are you sure about that? I know some of the head honcho's at WotC here,
>I used to run Talislanta for Peter Adkinson at conventions here when
>that was one of the few games they had, and I had heard nothing about
>them owning buying up TSR.

Essentially correct. About a year ago or so, TSR got into major financial
difficulty. Was looking at the grim possibility of filing for Chapter-11
and the possibility of shutting down (at least temporarily) the entire
D&D/AD&D product lines.

Wizards of the Coast came in and snapped up TSR and paid off that debt
(which was almost certainly a condition for purchase).

So WotC owns TSR and I *believe* they have moved the entire TSR operations
back to their Seattle location. There were some glitches the first few
months or so, but TSR seems to be back on course.

And as much as I despise WotC and loathe TSR, it would have been a shame
for the game that we all know and nearly all of us started out RPGing with
had gone the way of the dinosaur.

Details differ, rumors still abound, but the above is at least mostly correct.

Erik J.


http://www.fortunecity.com/rivendell/dungeon/480/index.html
The Reality Check for a Fictional World
Message no. 3
From: The Bookworm <Thomas.M.Price@*******.EDU>
Subject: Re: OT: WotC bought TSR (was Gen-Con SR3 Hardback Request)
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 16:05:49 -0500
On Wed, 15 Jul 1998, Erik Jameson wrote:

> At 10:06 AM 7/15/98 -0700, you wrote:
> Essentially correct. About a year ago or so, TSR got into major financial
> difficulty. Was looking at the grim possibility of filing for Chapter-11
> and the possibility of shutting down (at least temporarily) the entire
> D&D/AD&D product lines.

It wasnt their choice. THe printers would not print anything more for TSR
untill it had paid the major back payments it owed the printer. Nothing
got printed for about 3 or 4 months.

> So WotC owns TSR and I *believe* they have moved the entire TSR operations
> back to their Seattle location. There were some glitches the first few
> months or so, but TSR seems to be back on course.

The big move was right after GenCon 97. I think the RPGA staff is down in
California though, or atleast thats where my RPGA stuff has its return
address even though the phonenumber is for Seattle.

> And as much as I despise WotC and loathe TSR, it would have been a shame
> for the game that we all know and nearly all of us started out RPGing with
> had gone the way of the dinosaur.

Oh not ALL of AD$D is bad. Just most of it. Personaly i really like the
Planescape setting but then again having a good GM for it helps :).

Thomas Price
aka The Bookworm
thomas.m.price@*******.edu
tmprice@***********.com
Message no. 4
From: "M. Sean Martinez" <ElBandit@***.COM>
Subject: Re: OT: WotC bought TSR (was Gen-Con SR3 Hardback Request)
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 21:26:25 EDT
In a message dated 7/15/98 5:06:49 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
Thomas.M.Price@*******.EDU writes:

> It wasnt their choice. THe printers would not print anything more for TSR
> untill it had paid the major back payments it owed the printer. Nothing
> got printed for about 3 or 4 months.

Geez, can you really blame the printers? If I was the printers I would never
had extend them that much credit, afterall buisness is business.

> The big move was right after GenCon 97. I think the RPGA staff is down in
> California though, or atleast thats where my RPGA stuff has its return
> address even though the phonenumber is for Seattle.

When I ran RoundCon 98 the return addresses were based in Washington at least
that is what they gave me.

-El Bandit

http://members.aol.com/elbandit/index.html

Reason #173 to fear technology:

() () () () () <() <()> ()> ()
.I. \|. \|/ // X \ | <| <|>
/\ >\ /< >\ /< >\ /< >\
/<

The ASCII Macarena
Message no. 5
From: Wordman <wordman@*******.COM>
Subject: Re: OT: WotC bought TSR (was Gen-Con SR3 Hardback Request)
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 23:25:25 -0400
Erik J.
>And as much as I despise WotC and loathe TSR, it would have been a shame
>for the game that we all know and nearly all of us started out RPGing with
>had gone the way of the dinosaur.

Not really. TSR hasn't produced anything worthwhile for years. The last cool
thing they did was the Encyclopedia Magica, and even that was just reprints
of stuff.

Wordman
Message no. 6
From: MC23 <mc23@**********.COM>
Subject: Re: OT: WotC bought TSR (was Gen-Con SR3 Hardback Request)
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 00:52:55 -0400
Once upon a time, Erik Jameson wrote;

>So WotC owns TSR and I *believe* they have moved the entire TSR operations
>back to their Seattle location. There were some glitches the first few
>months or so, but TSR seems to be back on course.

IIRC, duplicated business/management positions were also eliminated
in that move. From my friends that still keep up with Magic: The
Addiction, WotC bought TSR to get GenCon (opinion or generalization, I
cannot say). We can see what they've done to it. B>[#

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Ancient cultures believed that names held great power, personal names
more so and they were guarded very closely. To protect themselves, they
answered to another name, because if another discovered their real name,
it could be used against them.
History repeats itself.
Welcome to the Digital Age.
I am MC23
Message no. 7
From: Brett Borger <bxb121@***.EDU>
Subject: Re: OT: WotC bought TSR (was Gen-Con SR3 Hardback Request)
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 09:44:08 +0000
> >And as much as I despise WotC and loathe TSR, it would have been a shame
> >for the game that we all know and nearly all of us started out RPGing with
> >had gone the way of the dinosaur.
>
> Not really. TSR hasn't produced anything worthwhile for years. The last cool
> thing they did was the Encyclopedia Magica, and even that was just reprints
> of stuff.

Who cares if they make new stuff? It's if they stopped printing the
old stuff that matters. I mean, granted, the system is unbalanced,
highly arbitrary, encourages munchkinism and hack-and-slash, but it's
still one of the most important founding games of RPing.

-=SwiftOne=-
Brett Borger
SwiftOne@***.edu
AAP Techie

Further Reading

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