by Gary Gygax
 

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Dragon #35	-	1st Edition AD&D	-	Dragon magazine

The course of TSR Hobbies’ development has been rather like a
D&D campaign. When we finished our first fiscal year back in 1975, we
were pretty much a low-level-character sort of company, with gross
sales of only about $50,000. We had excellent experience the next
year, with a $300,000 figure, and in 1977 we doubled that to
$600,000. TSR didn’t quite double again in fiscal 1978, ending the
year at a gross of near $1,000,000, but in ’79 we did a bit better,
finishing at a gross of well over $2,000,000.

From the way 1980 is shaping up, there is no reason to doubt that
we’ll at least double in size once again. It is possible that we’ll be the
largest hobby game company—and ready to start toward the really
high-level game producers such as Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers—
by 1982. (To those who doubt, think about the relative size of
TSR and Avalon Hill, for example, in 1975 . . . .)

There is no question but that we owe most of our success to
Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced D&D too, of course. The Basic
Set of D&D is now a best-selling game—and that means it is competing
with Monopoly, Scrabble, and the rest of the mass market games! The
other games in the line are generally keeping pace, but it is a one-horse
race as of now. There are some 500,000 or more D&D players busily
converting their friends to the game. All we can do is say “Thank you”
and try to keep producing good games in hopes of matching the
success of D&D. Of course, we aren’t ignoring D&D and AD&D
meanwhile; don’t misunderstand. In fact, that’s what this column is all
about!

It was just over a year ago when Kindly Editor Kask and I sat down
and discussed the possibilities for more D&D and AD&D features in
The Dragon. My contribution was to be this column, and the project
was given the green light, on the condition that I provide at least three
articles initially and always stayed at least one ahead of publication. I
tend to work in spurts, and it was no problem to dash off a couple of
batches of articles, and then a couple of fill-in pieces, during the first few
months. All of my pieces for this column were actually written well over
six months ago, all save this very one you now read.

Why? Well, those dozen-plus months seem more like a decade, so
many things have happened since “Sorcerer’s Scroll” began. (Even
this article was delayed a few days when my faithful old clickbox, the
elderly machine which has seen me through Tractics, Chainmail, and
all the rest down to date, suddenly refused to perform!)

So as I relate to you what has and will happen with D&D and
AD&D, I’ll also fill you in on some of the things taking place at TSR and
my own activities. Meanwhile, please take note, Gentle Reader, that
this column does invite the contributions of others. Failing some such, it
will most assuredly be missing from these pages more often than not
from now on, for my schedule is, shall we say, crowded.

TSR has a reasonable share of long range plans. Some involve the
corporation, some consider products. We anticipated a growing demand
for our games, and a gradual expansion of the corporation and
its products accordingly. We began working toward the establishment
of subsidiaries in Canada and the United Kingdom early last year. We
also moved toward expanded distribution. Last, but not least, we laid
firm plans for development of different forms of existing games as well
as new games.

Things were moving apace, not at all unlike what we had planned,
when news of the missing university student began to break. It was
given nationwide coverage, and D&D was prominently mentioned in
most of the stories. All hell broke loose at our offices—a veritable
barrage of phone calls and personal calls from reporters from newspapers,
radio stations, TV and magazines. When the chap turned up
relatively safe and sound, the stories on D&D didn’t stop; they just no
longer mentioned him. Hectic, but great. It did things for sales you
wouldn’t believe. It also took up about 75% of my time, and in the
meanwhile, our long-range planning was beginning to bear fruit.

The Canadian operation began to take shape, and I took a trip to
England and the Continent in order to help frame that subsidiary. Talks
with several major New York publishers grew serious, and after several
visits to that city, and a sojourn to Bermuda for a sales conference, TSR
signed an agreement appointing Random House as the exclusive
distributor to the book trade for D&D, AD&D and certain playing aids.
There have been trips for TV and radio interviews. There has been a
series of meetings with entertainment media people. And, at long last,
some really serious interest from a couple of reputable firms who think
the concept of adventure games is right for TV games and home
computers after all! (Aren’t you all surprised to hear that?)

All of this has pretty well conspired to keep me from doing some of
the things I should be-such as this column, modules like The Temple
of Elemental Evil, and some half a dozen other manuscripts piled away
in various stages of incompleteness. Luckily, we do have a great Design
Department at TSR. More about their efforts later.

Dave Sutherland is at work with Tim Jones to bring you the
long-overdue Queen of the Demonweb Pits (soon, I trust). Rob Kuntz
is helping me with a revision of The Lost Caverns of Tsojacanth, a
WinterCon tournament scenario which I based in part on one of his
dungeon levels). The two new game designs I was fooling around with
will have to be set aside for a time, but there is a long-desired and
oft-worked-on project which I am desperately trying to save. This is
what goes with the World of Greyhawk campaign map and gazetteer
(Feb.-Mar. release date), a huge map of the City of Greyhawk, modules
based on the original Castle Greyhawk, and a series of offerings
which depict the Elemental Planes of Greyhawk. Parts of some of this
have been done by me.

Stalwart Steve Marsh also sent me reams of absolutely superb
conceptual material for the Elemental Planes, and in a moment of
weakness, I proposed a collaboration, melding his and my ideas into a
whole campaign series “Approved For Use With Advanced D&D”!

Connected to the World of Greyhawk project is a set of miniature
rules for large-scale battles there, and to get ready for that, I had to
complete rosters for the “Armies of Greyhawk.” It is all in the capable
hands of Steve Carpenter of Miniature Figurines now. Steve is going to
do an excellent set of rules, I know, and MiniFigs will do a special line of
Armies of Greyhawk miniature figurines soon. This brings me back to
D&D and our Design Department.

Most of the personnel at TSR took part in design and development
in years past As we realized that "Original" D&D (the first three
booklets and the supplements) wasn’t anywhere near adequate for the 
needs of the readership it was attracting, it was decided that a simplified,
clarified, introductory piece was needed. Shortly after this was decided,
as if by divine inspiration, J. Eric Holmes got in touch with us and
actually volunteered his services for just such an undertaking. All of you
know the result, of course.

All of you also know why something had to be done. The "Original"
work had been aimed at a small audience, one (wrongly) assumed
to be highly conversant with military miniatures and basically non-critical.
The booklets were hastily put together in late-night and spare-time
hours, by and large, with little or no editing. Each supplement furthermore
reflected development and evolution of the game, so there was
contradiction, duplication, and vast areas of ambiguity and nondirection.

I saw this as a second problem, one well known to you also. D&D
was too flexible and unlimited, in my opinion. The game was actually
unrecognizable as played from group to group in the same locale, let
alone different regions of the country! As plans of reorganizing and
rewriting D&D were developed, I began my own work on Advanced D&D, 
and this kept me busy for some three years, more or less. By the
time the final manuscript from Eric was in our hands, the rough of the
Monster Manual was also finished, rough outlines of Players Handbook
and Dungeon Masters Guide were typed up, and several portions of
both works were likewise in manuscript form. We had two choices to
consider with the new Basic Set: As it took players only through three
experience levels, they could thereafter be directed to the “original”
works, or we could refer them to AD&D. This put us on the horns of a
real dilemma. Sending them into the morass of “Original” D&D put us
back on square one, with all the attendant problems of rules questions,
misinterpretations, and wildly divergent play. Yet there was no time to
undertake a revision of the remainder of the “Original” works immediately—
that was a project to take place sometime in the distant, dimly
perceived future, when TSR could actually afford the luxury of a staff of
designers!

On the other hand, Advanced D&D, even then obviously a different
game system, could be offered as a stop-gap measure. Its classes,
races, characters, monsters, magic, spells, and so forth were similar to,
but certainly not the same as, those of D&D. Was it better to send
enthusiasts into the welter of the “Original” material and let them
founder around there? Or would it be better to direct them to AD&D,
even if it meant throwing out what they had begun with the Basic Set
and making them start afresh? Faced with a choice between chaos and
a clean slate, we opted for the latter. (Although there are occasional
letters from irate D&Ders who refuse to move into the new system, that
is far preferable to what would have happened had we directed readers
to the “Original” volumes!) After we selected what was actually the
lesser of two evils, things went into high gear.

Pieces and parts of the various components of AD&D were grafted
into the Basic Set rules manuscript so that D&D would be more
compatible with the Advanced game. Readers were directed to AD&D
throughout the Basic Set, with muttered prayers accompanying these
directions, I am sure, as our production people had no idea then just
how well it would all work out in the end, because much of the AD&D
system was still on rough notes or in my head at the time. It turned out
to be relatively acceptable as an interim measure, too.

With the usual stream of new designs submitted, the manuscripts
for Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide, and the many modules
needed to help new players to get into the game, even our rapidly
expanding Production Department and the brand new Design staff
were bogged down. The usual series of deadlines, foul-ups, delays, and
disasters kept all concerned working to the limits on what was immediately
at hand or needed immediately. D&D had languished as first PH,
then the series of modules, then DMG, and then more modules were
demanded. Other new games were in the works also, and for a time it
seemed that outside of an occasional module, D&D would remain on
the back burner for many months to come.

Then the publicity hit, and as Basic Set sales soared, so did our
plans. D&D moved into the forefront once again. Design is now hard at
work on the second boxed D&D game, the Expert Set. It will take
players through at least 12th level of experience, tie in the best of the
“Original” material, and actually add some new classes, spells, magic,
monsters and so on. That should satisfy all those fans who prefer the 
complete flexibility and open form of D&D over the more controlled
and formalized structure of AD&D. In addition, Design is working on a
number of modules for D&D —and I recently finished a new one for the
Basic Set, as sales demand that we change the module every six or so
months. Finally, we are investigating the possibilities for foreign-language
versions of the game.

This is not to say that Advanced D&D has been abandoned. It is an
excellent game in its own right (ahem!). TSR has developed a rating
system for those who play in AD&D tournaments, and we will publish
standings regularly. This should not only help to improve the quality of
tournament offerings, but it is also a major step towards those national
tournaments with big prizes I wrote about in a past column. AD&D is
also being edited and revised from time to time, and if any meaningful
new ideas or systems come up, new editions will reflect such material. A
second book of monsters is probable soon, and an eventual third
volume of monsters is possible. Deities & Demi-Gods will be released at
GenCon 80, thus virtually completing the whole of AD&D. There will
certainly be more new modules done in the months to come. Troubador
Press is doing a licensed Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
Coloring Album, complete with a simple game to introduce the
uninitiated into the mysteries of fantasy gaming. What more could be
asked?! Well, there’s a Masters Set of D&D, perhaps, to take play from
12th level all the way to at least 36th (remember, this is D&D, not
AD&D), and how about some modules with real variation which can
be played solo? How about a truly introductory D&D or AD&D game
for the totally uninformed novice? Wouldn’t AD&D adapt well to home
computers? Then a movie or TV series about fantasy adventuring
might be fun....

Wherever D&D and AD&D eventually go, you can be sure that
TSR has considered the possibility, discussed what it presents, and
made plans to exploit it in a way which will offer the most and the best to
our fans and customers. After all, planning is necessary, but without
you, Dear Reader, TSR would be going nowhere. We recognize and
appreciate your loyal support and will do our best to justify your
continued patronage! We can’t actually tell what awaits us behind the
next door, but as long as you’re in our party we’ll advance, bust it in,
and take a look! We’re ready, how about you?