Editing TSR, Inc. (section)

===Tactical Studies Rules (1973–1975)===
{{Infobox company
| name = Tactical Studies Rules
| logo = Tsr logo GK.png
| logo_caption = Original logo of Tactical Studies Rules: the entwined initials of founders Gary Gygax and Don Kaye
| fate = dissolved
| successor = TSR Hobbies, Inc.
| foundation = 1973
| defunct = 1975
| location = [[Lake Geneva, Wisconsin]], United States
| industry = [[Role-playing game]] publisher
| key_people = [[Gary Gygax]], [[Don Kaye]], [[Brian Blume]]
| products = ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''
| num_employees = 
| parent = 
| subsid = 
}}

Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) was formed in [[1973 in games|1973]] as a partnership between [[Gary Gygax]] and [[Don Kaye]], who collected together $2,400 for costs related to startup, to formally publish and sell the rules of ''Dungeons & Dragons'', the creation of Gygax and [[Dave Arneson]] and the first modern [[role-playing game]] (RPG).<ref name="Wired">{{cite news | last = Kushner | first = David | title = Dungeon Master: The Life and Legacy of Gary Gygax | work = Wired.com | url = https://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/news/2008/03/ff_gygax | access-date = 2008-10-16 | date=2008-03-10 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081226233225/https://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/news/2008/03/ff_gygax|archivedate=December 26, 2008}}</ref> The first TSR release, however, was ''[[Cavaliers and Roundheads]]'', a [[miniature wargaming|miniature game]], to start generating income for TSR. The partnership was subsequently joined by [[Brian Blume]] in December 1973. Blume was admitted to the partnership to fund further publishing of ''D&D'', as ''Cavaliers and Roundheads'' was not a commercial success.<ref>{{harvnb|Witwer|2015|loc=+21: The Art of Making Art}}</ref><ref name="ODD009">{{cite web |url =http://www.dragonsfoot.org/files/pdf/ODD09.pdf |title = An Interview with Gary Gygax, Part I |access-date =2007-11-09 |last = Sacco |first = Ciro Alessandro |date=February 2007 |work = OD&Dities issue 9 |publisher = Richard Tongue |pages =7 }}</ref> In the original configuration of the partnership, Kaye served as president, Blume as vice-president, and Gygax as editor.<ref name="peterson78">{{harvnb|Peterson|2012|pp=78–79}}</ref>

In January 1974, TSR—with Gygax using his basement as a headquarters—produced 1,000 copies of ''D&D'', selling them for $10 each (and the required extra dice for another $3.50). This first print sold out in 10 months.<ref name="Wired"/> In January 1975, TSR printed a second batch of 1,000 copies of ''D&D'', which took only another five or six months to sell out.<ref name="peterson496">{{harvnb|Peterson|2012|p=496}}</ref> Also in 1974, TSR published ''[[Warriors of Mars (game)|Warriors of Mars]]'', a miniatures rules book set in the fantasy world of [[Barsoom]], originally imagined by [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]] in his series of novels about [[John Carter of Mars]], to which Gygax paid homage in the preface of the first edition of ''D&D''. However, Gygax and TSR published the ''Mars'' book without permission from (or payment to) the Burroughs [[estate (law)#Inheritance|estate]].  ''Warriors of Mars'' was quietly dropped from the catalog and never reprinted.<ref name="peterson477">{{harvnb|Peterson|2012|pp=477-479}} Peterson notes that TSR never gave a reason for the lack of a reprint and thus did not directly corroborate this, but the claim from later sources that TSR never had a license to make such a Barsoom spinoff work is credible enough.</ref>
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At its inception, TSR sold its products directly to customers, shipped to game shops and hobby stores, and wholesaled only to three distributors that were manufacturers of [[miniature figure (gaming)|miniature figurines]]. In 1975, TSR picked up one or two regular distributors.  The next year, TSR joined the Hobby Industry Association of America and began exhibiting at their annual trade show, and began to establish a regular network of distributors.{{citation needed|date=September 2018}}-->

When Don Kaye died of a heart attack on January 31, 1975, his role was taken over by his wife Donna Kaye, who remained responsible for accounting, shipping, and the records of the partnership through the summer.<ref name="peterson522">{{harvnb|Peterson|2012|pp=522–523}}</ref> By the summer of 1975, those duties became complex enough that Gygax himself became a full-time employee of the partnership in order to take them over from Donna Kaye. Arneson also entered the partnership in order to coordinate research and design with his circle in the Twin Cities.<ref name="peterson522"/>