TSR Games
 | This article or section is about something oldschool - and awesome. Make sure your rose-tinted glasses are on nice and tight, and prepare for a lovely walk down nostalgia lane. |
The company that started the hobby. The name was, at least at first, an initialism for Tactical Studies Rules. Famous for creating Chainmail, Dungeons and Dragons, Gamma World, Empire of the Petal Throne, Alternity, and a host of others. Founded by one E. Gary Gygax and Don Kaye back before most of you were a glimmer in your fathers' eyes.
In 1974, they released the White Box, which consisted of 3 books with rules to play as heroes. These were based on the fantasy wargame Chainmail.
They took the concept and made proverbial bank, garnering licenses for Indiana Jones, Marvel Comics and such as their popularity grew.
When the company started getting too big for its britches, it put a horrendous she-bitch in charge. Her idea was to get rid of Gygax (actually, Gygax smelled the imminent failure and sold her his shares) and make a second edition of AD&D. While the second edition did fix a few issues with the first game and introduced a bastardload of awesome fluff and setting material, the horrendous she-bitch that ran the company decided that playtesting was a bad idea (Dohohoho) and TSR put out the OPTION series (or D&D 2.5 as it's sometimes referred to by butthurt people that got screwed over by WotC) which were broken and eventually led to the company's demise shortly after their 25th anniversary.
Fuck You, Lorraine Williams.
TSR.games
In June 2021, TSR is back as TSR.games under the control of Gygax's son E. Gary Gygax Jr. and someone name Justin LaNasa. They have one game in the queue called GiantLands. Sadly it sounds like this new TSR is on the fast track to failure because GiantLands is designed to also be used for LARP since the new company is apparently wanting to open a GiantLands themepark. Seriously, what the fuck?
The company also reportedly has another game lined up called Tales & Tots, though no one seems to have a clue what this is which appears to be a guide and system meant to help get kids apparently as young as two years of age into roleplaying. LaNasa has also said that the company is seeking a licensing agreement with WotC so that the company can begin making new adventures and supplements for AD&D (whether this includes both Advanced editions as well as the Basic line is unknown at this time).