Editing Gary Gygax (section)

=== 1985–1989: New Infinities Productions, Inc. ===
[[File:Throne of Reading, Lake Geneva Public Library.jpg|thumb|right|Members of the Gygax family pose on the Throne of Reading at the Lake Geneva Public Library.]]

Immediately after leaving TSR, Gygax was approached by a wargaming acquaintance, Forrest Baker, who had done some consulting work for TSR in 1983 and 1984.<ref name=witwer />{{rp|188}} Tired of company management, Gygax was simply looking for a way to market more of his Gord the Rogue novels, but Baker had a vision for a new gaming company. He promised that he would handle the business end while Gygax would handle the creative projects. Baker also guaranteed that, using Gygax's name, he would be able to bring in one to two million dollars of investment.<ref name=witwer />{{rp|188}} Gygax decided this was a good opportunity, and in October 1986, [[New Infinities Productions]], Inc. (NIPI)<ref>{{cite news | title = It's Only a Fad| last = Cobb| first = Nathan| date = April 19, 1987| newspaper = [[The Boston Globe]]| page = 77 | issn = 0743-1791| id = {{ProQuest|294411624}}}} (Registration required)</ref><ref name="designers" /> was announced publicly.<ref name="designers" />{{rp|237}} To help him with the creative work, Gygax poached [[Frank Mentzer]] and ''Dragon'' magazine editor [[Kim Mohan]] from TSR.<ref name="Dragon122" /> But before a single product was released, Forrest Baker left NIPI when the outside investment he promised of one to two million dollars failed to materialize.<ref name="designers" />{{rp|237}}

Against his will, Gygax was back in charge again; he immediately looked for a quick product to get NIPI off the ground. He had been able to keep the rights to Gord the Rogue as part of the severance agreement he made with TSR, so he made a new licensing agreement with TSR for the Greyhawk setting and began writing new novels starting with ''Sea of Death'' (1987); novel sales were brisk, and Gygax's Gord the Rogue novels kept New Infinities operating.<ref name="designers" />{{rp|237}}

Gygax brought in [[Don Turnbull (game designer)|Don Turnbull]] from [[Games Workshop]] to manage the company, then worked with Mohan and Mentzer on a science fiction-themed RPG, ''[[Cyborg Commando]]'', which was published in 1987.<ref name="designers" />{{rp|237}} But sales of the new game were not brisk. As game historian Shannon Appelcline noted in 2014, the game was "seen as one of the biggest flops in the industry."<ref name="designers"/>{{rp|329}} Mentzer and Mohan wrote a series of generic RPG adventures, ''Gary Gygax Presents Fantasy Master'', and began working on a third line of products, which began with an adventure written by Mentzer, ''The Convert'' (1987). He had written it as an RPGA tournament for ''D&D'', but TSR was not interested in publishing it. Mentzer got verbal permission to publish it with New Infinities, but since the permission was not in writing TSR filed an injunction for a period to prevent the adventure's sale.<ref name="designers"/>{{rp|238}}<ref name=witwer/>{{rp|190}}

During all this drama, Gygax had a romantic relationship with Gail Carpenter, his former assistant at TSR. In November 1986, she gave birth to Gygax's sixth child, Alex. Biographer Michael Witwer believes Alex's birth forced Gygax to reconsider the equation of work, gaming and family that, until this time, had been dominated by work and gaming. "Gary, keenly aware that he had made mistakes as a father and husband in the past, was determined not to make them again&nbsp;... Gary was also a realist, and knew what good fatherhood would demand, especially at his age."<ref name=witwer />{{rp|189}} On August 15, 1987, on what would have been his parents' 50th wedding anniversary, Gygax married Carpenter.<ref name="telegraph" />

During 1987 and 1988, Gygax worked with [[Flint Dille]] on the ''[[Sagard the Barbarian]]'' books,<ref name="Sullivan" /> as well as ''[[Role-Playing Mastery]]'' and its sequel, ''Master of the Game''.<ref name=witwer />{{rp|191}} He also wrote two more Gord the Rogue novels, ''City of Hawks'' (1987), and ''Come Endless Darkness'' (1988). But by 1988, TSR had rewritten the setting for the world of Greyhawk, and Gygax was not happy with the new direction in which TSR was taking "his" creation. In a literary declaration that his old world was dead, and wanting to make a clean break with all things Greyhawk, Gygax destroyed his version of [[Oerth]] in the final Gord the Rogue novel, ''Dance of Demons''.<ref>Q: "After you left TSR, you finished the Gord the Rogue books. At the end of the cycle, Oerth bites the bullet. Was this your way of saying that Greyhawk is dead and that fans should turn away from TSR's version with disdain?" Gygax: "More my way of saying that since T$R had killed the setting with trash releases, it was time to wipe out the shame by obliterating the setting."{{cite web| title = Gary Gygax: Q & A (Part VII, page 2)| publisher = EN World| date = November 19, 2004| url = http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/104817-gary-gygax-q-part-vii-2.html| access-date = March 15, 2009| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120319233448/http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/104817-gary-gygax-q-part-vii-2.html| archive-date = March 19, 2012| url-status = dead}}</ref>

With the Gord the Rogue novels finished, NIPI's main source of steady income dried up. The company needed a new product. Gygax announced in 1988 in a company newsletter that he and Rob Kuntz, his co-Dungeon Master during the early days of the Greyhawk campaign, were working as a team again. This time they would create a new multi-genre fantasy role-playing game called "Infinite Adventures", which would receive support through different gamebooks for each genre.<ref name="designers" />{{rp|61}} This line would explore the original visions of the Castle and City of Greyhawk by Gygax and Kuntz, now called "Castle Dunfalcon". Before work on this project could commence, NIPI ran out of money, was forced into bankruptcy, and dissolved in 1989.<ref name="designers" />{{rp|239}}