Editing TSR, Inc. (section)

===Lorraine Williams era (1985–1997)===
Williams saw potential for rebuilding the debt-plagued company into a highly profitable one. However, she also acquired a reputation as a non-gamer who played the "villain" in retrospectives of TSR. Gary Gygax grew particularly disdainful of her; Williams' habit of threatening lawsuits and legal action against perceived foes was criticized as unwise and turning potential allies into enemies.<ref name="witwer171"/><ref name="Gygax-GygaxFAQ">{{cite web | url=http://www.gygax.com/gygaxfaq.html#What%20Happened%20to%20Gygax%20-%20TSR?| title=What Happened to Gygax – TSR? | publisher=gygax.com | access-date=2006-07-04| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990128161605/http://www.gygax.com/gygaxfaq.html#What%20Happened%20to%20Gygax%20-%20TSR? | archive-date=1999-01-28}}</ref><ref name="Gamespy-MagicMemories3">{{cite web| url=http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/539/539628p1.html| title=Magic & Memories: The Complete History of Dungeons & Dragons – Part III: Tyrants & Wizards| pages=1| publisher=Gamespy| date=2004-08-17| access-date=2006-07-04}}</ref><ref name="riggs61">{{harvnb|Riggs|2022|pp=61; 65–70}}</ref> However, her tenure has also been defended. [[John D. Rateliff]] said that "Every single person I talked to who worked under Gary [Gygax] and the Blumes and then worked under Lorraine preferred working under Lorraine... I never met a single person who was under both who didn't prefer being under her."<ref name="riggs61"/> [[Jeff Grubb]] said that she "pretty much saved the company," as the company was weeks away from total collapse when she took over.<ref name="riggs61"/>

====Tabletop and board gaming in the Williams era====
TSR released the ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' campaign setting in 1987, which would go on to become one of the most popular settings for ''D&D''. TSR's settings would generally include a [[boxed set]] with multiple paperbacks and a map as their core product, and would produce tie-in supplements such as pre-made adventures (usually called "modules"), guides to regions within the world, and novels. Also in 1987, a small design team began working to develop a second edition of the ''AD&D'' game. In 1988, TSR released the ''[[Bullwinkle and Rocky Role-Playing Party Game]]'', complete with a spinner and hand puppets. That same year, TSR released the wargame ''[[The Hunt for Red October (board game)|The Hunt for Red October]]'' based on Tom Clancy's novel ''[[The Hunt for Red October]]'', which became one of the all-time biggest selling wargames. In 1989, [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition|''AD&D'' 2nd edition]] was released, which saw a new ''Dungeon Master's Guide'', ''Player's Handbook'', and the first three volumes of the new ''[[Monstrous Compendium]]''. A new campaign setting, ''[[Spelljammer]]'', was also released in 1989, which allowed characters from one ''D&D'' world to travel to other worlds via space galleons in an [[Age of Sail]] themed setting. TSR would go on to produce many expansions for 2nd edition, such as a series of class handbooks that began with ''[[The Complete Fighter's Handbook]]''.<ref name="history"/>

In 1990, the ''[[Ravenloft]]'' setting was released, a horror-themed setting for ''AD&D''. ''Ravenloft'' had been introduced in an acclaimed [[Ravenloft (module)|1983 adventure module]], and was now expanded into an entire setting. In 1991, TSR released the ''[[Dark Sun]]'' campaign setting, which was more [[dark fantasy]] in genre, and set on a [[post-apocalyptic]] desert world threatened by evil life-draining wizards and psionicists. In 1992, TSR released the ''[[Al-Qadim]]'' setting with a Middle Eastern flavor similar to a fantasy version of the ''[[Arabian Nights]]'', although its world was also connected to the Forgotten Realms. In 1993, a revised version of the ''[[Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting]]'' for 2nd edition was released; TSR had published a sourcebook on upgrading the 1st edition material to 2nd edition in 1990 earlier. In 1993, ''[[DragonStrike (board game)|DragonStrike]]'' was released as an introductory product aimed to recruit new role-players, including a half-hour video which explained role-playing concepts; a similar introductory product, ''[[First Quest]]'', was released in 1994. Also in 1994, the ''[[Planescape]]'' campaign setting was released, featuring the city of [[Sigil]] as the "City of Doors" that connected to the various planes of existence in ''AD&D''.<ref name="history"/> ''Spelljammer'' had not been considered a success by TSR as players perceived it as mainly a way to move characters from one world to another rather than its own setting; ''Planescape'' attempted to remedy this by focusing on Sigil as a place to set an entire campaign, rather than a place to pass through.<ref>{{harvnb|Riggs|2022|pp=185–191}}</ref> TSR also released ''[[Karameikos: Kingdom of Adventure]]'' in 1994, which detailed one of the kingdoms in the setting of [[Mystara]].<ref>{{harvnb|Riggs|2022|pp=208–209}}</ref> As an innovation, it included an audio CD with tracks of dialogue and sound effects. In 1995, TSR released ''[[Birthright (campaign setting)|Birthright]]'', a campaign setting that mixed ''D&D'' with strategy games. The intent was for players to play noble characters empowered by divine blood which gave them the power to rule domains; players could expand their domains and divine powers with a mixture of war and diplomacy.<ref name="history"/> In 1996, ''[[Dragonlance: Fifth Age]]'' was released, a "diceless" role-playing game that departed from the roots of ''Dragonlance'' in ''AD&D''.<ref name="history"/>

====Expansion into other products====
Under Williams' direction, TSR solidified its expansion into other fields, such as magazines, paperback fiction, comic books, and collectible games. TSR's book division was a traditional powerhouse for the company, especially due to the comparatively low costs in producing novels compared to role-playing supplements which required commissioning art and play-testing. The most notably successful novel series of the era was [[R. A. Salvatore]]'s [[The Legend of Drizzt|Drizzt series]], set in the Forgotten Realms. Starting with ''[[The Crystal Shard]]'' in 1988, many of Salvatore's books would go on to reach the paperback bestseller lists.<ref>{{harvnb|Riggs|2022|pp=83–90}}</ref> TSR eventually moved into publishing hardcover novels as well with Salvatore's ''[[The Legacy (Forgotten Realms novel)|The Legacy]]'', published in 1992. It made the top of [[The New York Times Best Seller list|''The New York Times'' Best Seller list]] weeks after its release.<ref name="history" />

The Dille Family Trust, of which Lorraine Williams was a part, held the rights to the [[Buck Rogers]] license. Williams personally encouraged TSR to produce Buck Rogers tie-in material. TSR would end up publishing Buck Rogers board games, novels, a comic book, and a role-playing game based on the ''AD&D'' 2nd Edition rules.<ref name="magicnmemories2"/> TSR's Buck Rogers projects were commercial failures.<ref>{{harvnb|Riggs|2022|pp=69–70; 108}}</ref>

In the late 1980s, TSR opened a new West Coast division in Southern California to develop various projects in the entertainment industry, similar to how Gygax had sought deals in Hollywood in the early 1980s. However, the efforts of the division would come to "less than nothing" according to TSR historian Ben Riggs, despite initial promise.<ref name="riggs103">{{harvnb|Riggs|2022|pp=103–123}}</ref> TSR had an arrangement with [[DC Comics]] to produce the comics ''[[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (comic)|Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]]'' and ''[[Forgotten Realms (comics)|Forgotten Realms]]'', which sold well and were profitable for both DC and TSR. Sensing an opportunity, TSR decided to produce comics themselves as a stepping stool to television and film, as comics were cheaper to produce and start with. However, they had already sold the rights to their own A-list product in ''AD&D''. TSR attempted to not enrage DC Comics by calling their new product "comics modules" and including game-related material at the end of each issue; additionally, TSR largely sold the comics modules through bookshops rather than comic shops. The compromise failed in both directions: DC, feeling betrayed that their partner was moving to become a competitor, immediately stopped production of both the ''AD&D'' and ''Forgotten Realms'' comics, and canceled an in-production ''Ravenloft'' work. However, the changes to present the product as not a comic book caused the potential audience to either not know of its existence at all, or to be confused as to its nature. TSR West eventually published four comics modules: a Buck Rogers comic, a sci-fi comic ''Intruder'', a time travel comic ''Warhawks'', and a horror comic called ''R.I.P.'' They were not commercially successful.<ref name="riggs103"/> TSR West closed around 1991, although TSR would continue to work with Flint Dille on film-adjacent products made in California such as the introductory video for ''Dragonstrike''<ref name="riggs164"/> and a 1995 interactive video game series called ''Terror T.R.A.X.'' In 1994, TSR signed an agreement with Sweetpea Entertainment for rights to make a ''D&D'' movie. This would eventually result in the 2000 [[Dungeons & Dragons (2000 film)|''Dungeons & Dragons'' movie]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Gardner|first=Eriq|title=Hasbro Sues to Stop Warner Bros. 'Dungeons and Dragons' Film|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/hasbro-sues-stop-warner-bros-522262|access-date=August 8, 2015|work=The Hollywood Reporter|date=May 14, 2013}}</ref>

TSR continued to own and operate the [[Gen Con]] role-playing game convention. Gen Con grew beyond its initial focus on ''D&D'' and wargames to role-playing fans in general. Gen Con was a growing and successful convention; in 1992, it broke every previous record for attendance to game conventions in the United States, with over 18,000 attendees.<ref name="history"/>{{better source needed|date=September 2022}}   

In 1993, [[Wizards of the Coast]] released the game ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' at Gen Con, which was an immediate smash hit that established the [[collectible card game]] (CCG) genre. TSR's Jim Ward led a development effort to create a ''Dungeons & Dragons''-themed CCG competitor that would be a response to ''Magic''. The result would be ''[[Spellfire]]'', released in April 1994. ''Spellfire'' was produced on a shoestring budget, and re-used art that TSR had already commissioned for other projects; Lorraine Williams was not a fan of the project. Its financial results are contested; some TSR insiders say that ''Spellfire'' sold well considering the constraints on it, while others indicate it sold poorly.<ref name="riggs211">{{harvnb|Riggs|2022|pp=211–214}}</ref><ref name=ODaM/> ''Spellfire'' was discontinued in 1996, although one final release occurred in late 1997.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Braid |first=Davi Nonato |date=April 4, 2021 |title=10 Card Games No One Remembers |url=https://www.thegamer.com/forgotten-card-games/ |access-date=June 4, 2024 |website=The Gamer |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Duelist-16">{{cite magazine |date=April 1997 |title=Game news & updates |magazine=[[The Duelist (magazine)|The Duelist]] |publisher=[[Wizards of the Coast]] |page=76 |issue=16}}</ref> Another collectible competitor to Wizards of the Coast that TSR produced was ''[[Dragon Dice]]'', which was released in 1995.<ref name="history" /><ref name=":2">{{harvnb|Appelcline|2011|p=29}}</ref> ''Dragon Dice'' was a collectible dice game where each player started with a random assortment of basic dice, and could improve their assortment by purchasing booster packs of more powerful dice. The first sets of ''Dragon Dice'' sold well at games stores, and TSR produced several expansion sets. However, interest in ''Dragon Dice'' was waning.<ref name="30years" />{{rp|216}} In addition, TSR tried to aggressively market ''Dragon Dice'' in mass-market book stores through [[Random House]]. However, the game did not catch on through the book trade.<ref name=":2" />

TSR's book division ran into troubles in the mid-1990s. TSR engaged in disputes with some of its most successful authors over terms and remuneration. Weis & Hickman had been driven off in the mid-1980s; a new dispute with [[R. A. Salvatore]] happened in 1994–1995.<ref>{{harvnb|Riggs|2022|pp=71–76; 177–184}}</ref> TSR suffered "the effects of overexpansion" in 1996 with an "expanded number of hardcover novels and a wide array of gaming accessories such as its ''Dragon Dice''".<ref name="arts-arcana" />{{rp|277}} Part of this overexpansion included publishing twelve hardcover novels up from the usual two novels per year.<ref>"TSR: 1973–1997" {{harvnb|Appelcline|2011|p=30}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Meadows |first=Chris |date=August 8, 2014 |title=Review: Designers & Dragons Vol. 1: The ‘70s |url=http://teleread.com/review-designers-dragons-vol-1-the-70s/ |access-date=June 4, 2024 |website=TeleRead News |language=en}}</ref> Shannon Appelcline, in ''Designers & Dragons: The 90s'', commented that the books were sold at a loss and the "TSR warehouse" was "truckloads" full of ''Dragon Dice''.<ref>"The TSR Purchase: 1997", {{harvnb|Appelcline|2011|p=281}}</ref>

====Final years: Financial trouble and sale (1995–1997) ====
By 1996, TSR was experiencing numerous problems, as outlined by various historians of the company. Shannon Appelcline wrote: "Distributors were going out of business. TSR had unbalanced their ''AD&D'' game through a series of lucrative supplements that ultimately hurt the long-time viability of the game. Meanwhile, they had developed so many settings&mdash;many of them popular and well received&mdash;that they were both cannibalizing their only sales and discouraging players from picking up settings that might be gone in a few years. They may have been cannibalizing their own sales through excessive production of books or supplements too."<ref name="appelcline30">{{harvnb|Appelcline|2011|p=30}}</ref> Ben Riggs agreed that TSR was factionalizing the AD&D audience by continually releasing competing new settings (Forgotten Realms, Al-Qadim, Dragonlance, Planescape, Dark Sun, Birthright, Karameikos, etc.), a strategy intended to lure in new customers, but that actually divided its own core customers.<ref name="riggs272">{{harvnb|Riggs|2022|pp=272–275}}</ref> TSR's products essentially competed with themselves, requiring more development effort to reach the same number of total customers. [[Ryan Dancey]] and [[Lisa Stevens]], who examined TSR's finances for Wizards of the Coast, found that many of the AD&D settings products were never profitable, and more worryingly never ''could'' have been profitable&mdash;the cost of production was simply too high compared to the price they sold for.<ref name="riggs272"/> [[David M. Ewalt]] writes that ''Spellfire'' and ''Dragon Dice'' "were both expensive to produce, and neither sold very well".<ref name=ODaM>{{cite book | first=David M. | last=Ewalt | author-link= David M. Ewalt | year=2013 | title= Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It | publisher=Scribner | isbn=978-1-4516-4052-6 |page=174 }}</ref>

Another factor that hobbled TSR in the long-term was a financial arrangement known as "factoring." Factoring worked like this: TSR first arranged contracts with retailers in the [[Hobby shop|hobby trade]] (gaming stores, comics stores, and so on) to preorder their products and offered a discounted rate for contracts signed in January. TSR then took these contracts to investment banks, and was advanced money immediately by the banks, with the banks to be paid off from the eventual sales of the product. This financial innovation allowed TSR to be essentially "paid in advance", less fees from the banks and from discounts given to suppliers, which worked out to keeping about 82% of the revenue. Getting all of the money in January allowed TSR to budget with more certainty and potentially fund projects with a long lead time immediately, rather than waiting on sales. Other than the direct cost of losing 18 pennies on every dollar of revenue, factoring had the other downside of not being flexible to changing market conditions, as TSR was essentially locked into its budgeting from January. It was partially why ''Spellfire'' was made on a tiny budget, as TSR was attempting to take on a new initiative in the middle of the year, and led to a fiasco with its ''[[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons CD-ROM Core Rules]]'' product where a preorder arrangement with [[GameStop#NeoStar_Retail_Group_(1994–1996)|Babbage's]] was continued despite Babbage's becoming financially insolvent.<ref name="riggs204">{{harvnb|Riggs|2022|pp=204–209; 212}}</ref>

TSR's old deal with Random House, which had been mutually beneficial in the 1980s, began to be used by TSR in ways that would paper over short-term financial problems. Since TSR was paid up front on the assumption that shipped goods would ultimately sell, TSR began shipping overstock to Random House to generate loans on demand. This caused people in the know at TSR to call it the "Banco de Random House".<ref name="riggs164"/> It also dulled TSR's internal sense of which products were selling, leading to overprinting of niche products. Ben Riggs cites the introductory product ''[[DragonStrike (board game)|DragonStrike]]'' as an example, which sold well but was vastly overprinted.<ref name="riggs164"/> The extra copies were still sent to Random House to generate loans, however. The result was a steadily expanding "debt bubble" with Random House as returns of product soared. Random House eventually noticed something was amiss, and began demanding TSR shrink its debt load with them&mdash;around $11.8 million in June 1995. Random House sued TSR in April 1996 for repayment.<ref name="riggs196">{{harvnb|Riggs|2022|pp=196–202}}</ref>

Despite total sales of around $40&nbsp;million in 1995,<ref name="riggs196"/> TSR ended 1996 with little in cash reserves, and the company was deep in debt.<ref name="appelcline30"/> Random House returned an unexpectedly high percentage of unsold stock, including the year's inventory of unsold novels and sets of ''Dragon Dice'', and charged a fee of several million dollars. Random House returned around $14 million of product between 1995 and 1997.<ref name="riggs215"/> TSR found itself in a cash crunch. With no cash, TSR was unable to pay their printing and shipping bills. J. B. Kenehan, the logistics company that handled TSR's pre-press, printing, warehousing, and shipping, refused to do any more work.<ref name="riggs215">{{harvnb|Riggs|2022|pp=215; 220–223; 231}}</ref> Since the logistics company had the production plates for key products such as core ''D&D'' books, there was no means of printing or shipping core products to generate income or secure short-term financing.<ref name="30years">{{cite book |last=Stark |first=Ed |author-link=Ed Stark |title=30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons |publisher=Wizards of the Coast |year=2004 |isbn=0-7869-3498-0 |location=Renton WA |page= |pages=55, 216}}</ref> The company laid off thirty staff members in December 1996, and other employees including [[Jim Ward (game designer)|James M. Ward]] quit over disagreements about how the company managed the crisis.<ref name="appelcline30"/><ref name="riggs215"/> In large part due to the need to refund Random House, TSR began 1997 more than $30&nbsp;million in debt.<ref name=ODaM/> TSR was threatened by lawsuits due to unpaid freelancers as well as missing royalties, but TSR made sufficient earnings from products already shipped to stores to keep their remaining staff paid through the first half of 1997.<ref name="appelcline30"/> With no viable financial plan for TSR's survival, Lorraine Williams sold the company to Wizards of the Coast in 1997 in a deal brokered by Five Rings Publishing Group (FRPG).<ref name="Gygax-GygaxFAQ"/><ref name="believer"/>