The Compiled Wisdom of Gigi D’Arn

In case you missed the news, Designers & Dragons will appear in a new 4-book edition from Evil Hat, divided by decade. You can keep up to date with all the latest news on the books’ production by liking the Designers & Dragons Facebook page.

As it happens, many of the articles you’ve seen here since the start of the year has been new work intended for the ’70s book, including the Midkemia history and the Grimoire Games history. You should also see an article like my The Top 10 Things You May Not Know Roleplaying in the ’70s for each of the decades.

Since I’ve now given you a pretty deep look at the sort of material you’ll see in Designers & Dragons: The ’70s, this month I’m going to jump ahead to some material of relevance to Designers & Dragons: The ’80s. —SA, 9/28/12

This article was originally published as Designers & Dragons: The Column #20 on RPGnet. Its publication followed the publication of the original Designers & Dragons (2011) and preceded the publication of the four-volume Designers & Dragons (2014).

Different Worlds was one of two magazines that really captured the essence of the gaming industry in the ’80s — the other being Steve Jackson’s Space Gamer. Part of this was thanks to its great connections with folks all across the industry. Thus you got adventures by roleplaying legends, folks talking about how they got into the industry, and more. Right in the middle of all of that you had “A Letter from Gigi D’Arn”, which was a page of industry news and gossip that appeared in every issue but the first one.

You might ask: “Who is Gigi D’Arn?”. That’s actually one of the great mysteries of the ’80s roleplaying industry. The name was definitely a pseudonym. According to the official story, D’Arn was a roleplaying fan who met future Different Worlds editor Tadashi Ehara while he still worked at The Gambit gaming store in San Francisco. She supposedly sent regular letters about industry news to Different Worlds, and the Chaosium staff then added in their own bits of news before publication.

A lot of folks think that D’Arn was actually Ehara. However, I think Christian Lindke makes a good argument for Gigi D’Arn being a real person, and that’s my preference (whether it’s true or not). If so, I’d like to believe her identity is hidden in her pen name, which I read as “Gossip Girl (G.G.) of (de) A.R.N.”, with the latter letters being someone’s initials. In which case there’s an Abby, Annette, Anna or such behind the facade. I even believe “Gigi” lived in Los Angeles, as advertised, because her Arizona gossip (for Flying Buffalo) and her Texas gossip (for Heritage Models) seemed as strong as her California Bay Area gossip.

In any case, back to Gigi’s letters …

In the original edition of Designers & Dragons, most of my information came from very specific articles and interviews about the games, designers, and companies that I was writing about. For the new Evil Hat edition of the book, I’m going back to more general industry columns like Gigi’s and reading them front to back, hoping to find hidden details that my more focused information expeditions might have missed.

Usually when I do this sort of work, I write really rough notes. For Gigi’s column, I’ve instead decided to write a more coherent listing of all the information of note (excluding most information on publications that actually appeared), so that I can share with you the big picture of gaming from 1979 to 1987.

As usual, I’ve divided everything up by publisher. You’ll find items that relate to multiple publishers repeated among them. Note that dates are when the article was published in Different Worlds. The actual event probably happened 2-6 months earlier.

General:

• Poor sales ongoing, with company death predicted for the next year (#17, December 1981).
• Christmas sales looking up, perhaps due to the bad economy driving people to gaming (#18, January 1982).

Adventure Gaming:

• Dave Arneson removes his Adventures in Fantasy game from consideration by Heritage (#2, early 1979).
• Private financiers pay for Adventures in Fantasy, to be distributed by Excalibre Games (#5, October/November 1979).
• Dave Arneson is working on two Blackmoor supplements: Egg of Coot and Land of the Skandaharian (#8, June/July 1980).
• Dave Arneson buys his Adventures in Fantasy game from Excalibre Games (#10, October/November 1980).
• John Snider gets rights to Star Probe and Star Empire from TSR, plans reprint with Adventure Gaming (#10, October/November 1980). This never actually occurs.
• Rumor mill suggests Dave Arneson is buying Operational Studies Group, a Napoleonic wargaming publisher that had shutdown a shot time previous (#13, August 1981).
• Dave Arneson trades inventory of Adventure Games for stock in Flying Buffalo, effectively closing down his company (#39, May/June 1985).
• Dave Arneson moves to California (#41, January/February 1986).

Adventure Simulations:

• Adventure Simulations of Australia’s Super Squadron is said to be very derivative of Villains & Vigilantes (#38, January/February 1985).

Archaeron Games:

• Wilf K. Backhaus severs relationships with Ed Simbalist and FGU; goes to form own company, Archaeron Games (#11, February/March 1981).

Archive Miniatures:

• Dave Hargrave becomes lead developer for Archive Miniature’s Star Rovers (#2, early 1979). Apparently it doesn’t take as Neville Stocken is given the same position a few months later (#4, August/September 1979).
• Rumors arise of Archive Miniatures, Grimoire Games, and Dave Hargrave’s Multiversal Trading Co. game store forming a “game cartel” (#6, December/January 1980).
• Archive Miniatures moves to Eureka, California (#11, February/March 1981).
• Star Rovers released, after 2 years of waiting (#14, September 1981).
• Archive is likely up for sale (#16, November 1981).

Avalon Hill:

• Eric Goldberg is working on a basic FRPG for Avalon Hill (#10, October/November 1980).
• Greg Costikyan sells his High Fantasy FRPG — which was being talked about throughout 1979 and 1980 — to Avalon Hill (#10, October/November 1980).
• Avalon Hill purchases Operational Studies Group (#14, September 1981).
• Richard Snider joins Avalon Hill’s RPG department (#19, February 1982). His Perils & Plunder is scheduled for release at Origins and its cover is said to include naked nipples, “an industry first” (#28, April 1983). Nipples later removed (#29, June 1983).
• Bruce Shelley leaves SPI for ICE (#18, January 1982). Shortly afterward he moves on to Avalon Hill where he’s working on a fantasy game (#21, June 1982). Who isn’t nowadays?
• Sale of SPI to Avalon Hill falls through; next prospective buyer is TSR (#20, March 1982).
• Avalon Hill sets up ex-SPIers John Butterfield, Mark Herman, Gerry Klug, and Eric Smith in New York as Victory Games, offers them “complete design freedom” (#21, June 1982).
• Tom Moldvay takes $10,000 advance for a new fantasy RPG (#26, January 1983).
• Avalon Hill rumored to be trying to buy Adventures in Fantasy, DragonQuest, The Fantasy Trip, and RuneQuest (#28, April 1983).
• John Butterfield leaves Victory Games for Coleco (#29, June 1983).
• Tom Moldvay’s is writing Lords of Creation as Avalon Hill’s 4th RPG (#31, November 1983).
• James Bond 007 sales pass 100,000 (#34, May/June 1984).
• RuneQuest sales said to be best since Squad Leader (#37, November/December 1984).
• In first four months, RuneQuest sells more than Powers & Perils and Lords of Creation did, in the first year. Combined (#39, May/June 1985).
• Avalon Hill rumored to be thinking about closing New York Victory Games office (#43, July/August 1986).

Chaosium:

• Dave Arneson is working on a Samurai RPG for Chaosium (#2, early 1979). He’s still working on it a year later (#8, June/July 1980).
• Chaosium licenses rights for H.P. Lovecraft RPG, to be called Dark Worlds and designed by Kurt Lortz (#6, December/January 1980).
• Chaosium has an incorporation party (#7, April/May 1980). Public records show the incorporation happened on February 7 1980.
• Chaosium releases limited edition of HeroQuest rules (#9, August/September 1980).
• Chaosium and TSR exchange letters (#11, February/March 1981). This presumably had to do with the Elric and Cthulhu content in Deities & Demigods.
• Paul Jaquays seeks monsters for the RuneQuest Gateway Bestiary Two (#11, February/March 1981).
• Yurek Chodak comes on board as assistant editor to Different Worlds, while Steve Perrin joins Chaosium to do development work (#12, July 1981).
• FASA plans to release two RuneQuest modules, including Vengeance of Maksheesh set in Questworld (#24, September 1982). It’s later said to be scheduled for Christmas (#26, January 1983).
• Ken St. Andre and Greg Stafford rumored to be working on Pendragon RPG (#15, October 1981). Ken St. Andre gets out of gaming, removing himself from the Pendragon project (#27, March 1983).
• Reston publishes a hardcover RuneQuest to sell into bookstores (#17, December 1981).
• Chaosium picks up Fritz Leiber Fafhrd & Gray Mouser license, and plans to publish Lankhmar as a follow-up to Thieves’ World (#21, June 1982). A year later, they’re still planning it, with lots of game companies involved, just like Thieves’ World (#27, March 1983). Then word comes out that TSR has rights (#31, November 1983).
• Chaosium sells rights to RuneQuest movie (#23, August 1982).
• TSR pulls Cthulhu and Elric mythos from Deities & Demigods, allegedly so they don’t have to credit Chaosium (#24, September 1982).
• Chaosium sells Elric and Dragon Pass board games to Avalon Hill (#25, November 1982).
• Chaosium has several cultural RQ supplements on way: Samurai by Bob Charrette; Hindu by William Hamblin; Aztec by Ken St. Andre and Ernest Hogan; and Celts by Kit Kerr (#38, January/February 1985).
• Tadashi Ehara leaves Chaosium for Sleuth; Steve Perrin leaves for freelancing (#39, May/June 1985).
• Chaosium licenses Midkemia’s RPG supplements; Gigi snarks about their quality (#43, July/August 1986).
• Chaosium discontinues Ringworld due to “sluggish sales” (#45, March/April 1987).

Coleco:

• Mike Stackpole and Paul Jaquays head off to Hartford, Connecticut to work for Coleco (#11, February/March 1981). Mike Stackpole later returns to Flying Buffalo while Paul Jaquays stays at Coleco. Meanwhile, Coleco is working on a T&T computer game (#12, July 1981).
• Lawrence Schick of TSR joins Paul Jaquays at Coleco (#19, February 1982).
• Dennis Sustare joins Coleco too (#25, November 1982).
• The Tunnels & Trolls game still isn’t out, but Coleco is hiring more game design staff to work under Paul Jaquays (#26, January 1983).
• John Butterfield leaves Victory Games for Coleco (#29, June 1983)
• David Ritchie and his wife quit TSR to work for Coleco (#33, March/April 1984).
• Arnold Hendrick leaves Coleco for Avalon Hill; Lawrence Shick also leaves (#40, July/August 1985).
• Coleco confirmed to have closed down computer division. Arnold Hendrick, Paul Jaquays, Dennis Sustare, and Lawrence Schick all move elsewhere as computer game designers (#41, January/February 1986). The Tunnels & Trolls computer game is never published.

Diverse Talents, Inc.:

• DTI merges with Strategicon, buys Five & Movement and The V.I.P. of Gaming and forms Strategicon Adventure Gamer’s Association (SAGA).
• DTI buys The Space Gamer from Steve Jackson Games and merges it with their V.I.P. magaine (#43, July/August 1986).
• DTI splits V.I.P. into wargaming Battleplan and RPG Space Gamer / Fantasy Gamer, the latter edited by Anne Jaffe (#46, May/June 1987).

Excalibre Games:

• Private financiers pay for Adventures in Fantasy, to be distributed by Excalibre Games (#5, October/November 1979).
• Dave Arneson buys his Adventures in Fantasy game from Excalibre Games (#10, October/November 1980).

Dragontooth:

• Tom Loback incorporates his miniatures company as Dragontooth (#21, June 1982).

FASA:

• FASA plans to release two RuneQuest modules, including Vengeance of Maksheesh set in Questworld (#24, September 1982). It’s later said to be scheduled for Christmas (#26, January 1983).
• FASA announces end of High Passage magazine and start of Far Traveller magazine (#26, January 1983).
• FASA picks up licenses for upcoming Star Trek TV show and The Devlin Connection (#26, January 1983).
• FASA reannounces Star Trek license, suggesting some confusion about previous announcement (#30, September 1983).
• Forest Brown and others from Martian Metals join FASA to create miniatures for Star Trek and other games (#30, September 1983).
• Aaron Allston resigns from Space Gamer to edit Stardate for FASA (#32, January/February 1984). Shortly afterward, he resigns from Stardate to go freelance (#33, March/April 1984).
• Major investor/relative plans to take bigger role in company and make it more profitable. Stardate magazine staff may be among casualties (#38, January/February 1985). This was presumably Mort Weisman.
• FASA picks up licenses to Doctor Who and Masters of the Universe; the latter is planned as a game for 6-12 year-olds with a comic book game manual (#39, May/June 1985).
• Reluctant Publishing of Utica, MI buys Stardate magazine (#45, March/April 1987).

FGU:

• Wilf K. Backhaus severs relationships with Ed Simbalist and FGU; goes to form own company, Archaeron Games (#11, February/March 1981).
• FGU purchases Aftermath!, Bushido, and Elementary Watson from Phoenix Games (#12, July 1981).
• FGU works on a new edition of Elementary Watson with roleplaying elements (#14, September 1981).
• FGU considers two magazines, one for Space Opera and a generalist magazine called Role-Playing Guidebook (#17, December 1981).
• Adventure Simulations of Australia’s Super Squadron is said to be very derivative of Villains & Vigilantes (#38, January/February 1985).
• FGU receives licenses for DNAgents, THUNDER Agents, and Elementals comics, all for use with V&V.
• Scott Bizar moves to Arizona (#47, Fall 1987).

Flying Buffalo:

• Liz Danforth replaces Ken St. Andre as editor for the Sorcerers Apprentice magazine (#8, June/July 1980).
• Flying Buffalo raises price on all T&T products (#10, October/November 1980).
• Mike Stackpole and Paul Jaquays head off to Hartford, Connecticut to work for Coleco (#11, February/March 1981). Mike Stackpole later returns to Flying Buffalo while Paul Jaquays stays at Coleco. Meanwhile, Coleco is working on a T&T computer game (#12, July 1981). Sadly, it never comes out.
• Flying Buffalo produces a computerized program for generating T&T characters (#18, January 1982).
• Larry DiTillio leaves Flying Buffalo to return to Southern California (#20, March 1982).
• Reston wants to publish Tunnels & Trolls; Flying Buffalo is uninterested (#20, March 1982).
• Paul O’Connor leaves Flying Buffalo (#21, June 1982).
• Flying Buffalo announces that “Blade” is their new game division (#26, January 1983).
• New T&T solo appears a year after last (#35, July/August 1984).
• Blade is financially troubled. Liz Danforth and Mike Stackpole are freelancing. French editions of Tunnels & Trolls and Grimtooth’s Traps may help revenues (#37, November/December 1984).
• Arneson trades inventory of Adventure Games for stock in Flying Buffalo, effectively closing down his company (#39, May/June 1985).
• Flying Buffalo cancels Sorcerers Apprentice magazine (#41, January/February 1986).
• A New Hampshire publisher buys Sorcerers Apprentice and plans to publish it monthly (#43, July/August 1986).
• The Source joins Flying Buffalo to create a “computer bulletin board for wargamers and role-players” (#45, March/April 1987).

Gamelords:

• Gamelords is working on campaign adventures for TFT (#17, December 1981). First two TFT campaign adventures are printed together, with the plan being for Metagaming to distribute one and Gamelords the other … except Gamelords’ name accidentally gets left off their book! Metagaming stickers it(#23, August 1982).
• Kevin Hardwick’s Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory Civil War RPG is scheduled for Origins and Kery Lloyd’s Fantasy System is scheduled for Gen Con (#19, February 1982).
• Gamelords is working on science-fiction scenarios (#28, April 1983).
• Sleuth acquires right to Gamelords lines (#45, March/April 1987).

Gamescience:

• Rights to Empire of the Petal Throne pass from TSR to Gamescience (#5, October/November 1979). It apparently takes a few months to get the associated product passed over.
• Superhero: 2044 is being revised and a new game called Nuclear Survivors is due out soon (#6, December/January 1980).
• M.A.R. Barker is working on a new draft of Empire of the Petal Throne which will be more “stare of the art” (#8, June/July 1980). This is presumably Swords & Glory (1983-1984).
• Zocchi is working on glow-in-the-dark polyhedral dice (#8, June/July 1980).
• Martian Metals merges with Gamescience (#8, June/July 1980). The merged Martian Metals / Gamescience company is to be called ZocMarZ Corporation (#9, August/September 1980).
• Microhedral d20 released, just .5″ tall (#13, August 1981).
• Work continues on “EPT second edition”. Work is being done by Barker, Gamescience and Adventure Games (#17, December 1981).

Games Workshop:

• Games Workshop loses TSR exclusive in England (#8, June/July 1980).
• TSR closes up miniature figures shop, licenses figure rights to Games Workshop [Citadel] (#39, May/June 1985).
• Three millionth Fighting Fantasy book sold (#39, May/June 1985).

GDW:

• GDW moves to a new, bigger warehouse (#13, August 1981).
• GDW sends Edu-Ware a cease-and-desist over their Space games, which infringe on Traveller (#19, February 1982).
• GDW settles with Edu-Ware, with Edu-Ware admitting infringement, offering a cash settlement, assigning copyright of the Space games to GDW, and turning over existing copies to them (#23, August 1982). Ouch!
• Prentice-Hall starts distributing The Traveller Book. Deal appears to include upcoming books as well: The Traveller Adventure, The Traveller Alien, The Traveller Encyclopedia, The Traveller Starfleet, and The Traveller Software (#23, August 1982). Of those, only the Adventure saw print.
• GDW forms GameSoft to produce computer software for Traveller and other games, initially for the Apple II (#25, November 1982).
• Grenadier plans to produce Traveller miniatures as soon as they can get molds from Martian Metals (#28, April 1983). They can’t get molds, so back out of deal (#29, June 1983).
• Tarsus is the first boxed module for Traveller (#30, September 1983).

Genesis Gaming Products:

• Genesis Gaming Products acquires Texas Miniatures (#33, March/April 1984).

Grenadier:

• Grenadier gets license for AD&D miniatures (#6, December/January 1980).
• Female miniatures pack is Grenadier’s slowest seller (#19, February 1982).
• Cash flow problems rumored at TSR. This may have led to TSR not acquiring Grenadier (#23, August 1982).
• TSR unsuccessfully tried to take over Grenadier with a no-cash bid. After the failure, Grenadier loses its AD&D license, going forward with “Fantasy Lords” instead (#26, January 1983).
• Grenadier plans to produce Traveller miniatures as soon as they can get molds from Martian Metals (#28, April 1983). They can’t get molds, so back out of deal (#29, June 1983).

Grimoire Games:

• Dave Hargrave becomes lead developer for Archive Miniature’s Star Rovers (#2, early 1979). Apparently it doesn’t take as Neville Stocken is given the same position a few months later (#4, August/September 1979).
• Rumors arise of Archive Miniatures, Grimoire Games, and Dave Hargrave’s Multiversal Trading Co. game store forming a “game cartel” (#6, December/January 1980).
• The Arduin Trilogy has sold 40,000 copies to date (#8, June/July 1980).
• Basic Arduin planned for Christmas (#10, October/November 1980).
• Basic Arduin is set back by typesetters refusing to lay out all of the game’s tables (#11, February/March 1981).
• Hargrave submits Arduin, Bloody Arduin to Grimoire Games (#43, July/August 1986).

Heritage Models:

• Rumor says that Steve Peek and Craig Taylor of the Battleline division are fired from Heritage Models, then SPI’s Howard Barasch is brought in to operate Battleline (#2, early 1979).
• Dave Arneson removes his Adventures in Fantasy game from consideration by Heritage (#2, early 1979)
• Arnold Hendrick becomes manager of publishing at Heritage (#3, June/July 1979).
• Michael Matheny is to author Heritage’s Lord of the Rings RPG (#3, June/July 1979). Steve Perrin takes over a short time later (#4, August/September 1979).
• Jim Oden sells interest in Heritage to a Texas millionaire. Many lines are dropped including Star Trek. Hinchliffe USA is spun-off, headed by Cleve Burton. (#5, October/November 1979).
• Rumors say that Duke Seifried and the millionaire aren’t getting along (#6, December/January 1980).
• According to rumors, talks for a merger between Heritage Models and Martian Metals collapse (#6, December/January 1980).
• Heritage is rumored to be publishing Dennis Sustare’s Fantasy Adventures RPG (#13, August 1981). This probably became Swordbearer, which is announced a short time later (#16, November 1981).
• Heritage is rumored to be in bankruptcy (#15, October 1981). This appears to have been not true (yet).
• Duke Seifried may quit Heritage before January (#16, November 1981).
• Heritage is probably up for sale; Duke Seifried has left Heritage for TSR (#20, March 1982).
• Heritage is talking to Mayfair Games and Avalon Hill about a sale, asking price is the high hundreds of thousands (#27, March 1983).
• Heritage is now being liquidated in bankruptcy court (#28, April 1983).

Hero Games:

• Aaron Allston becomes full-time editor of Adventurers Club (#37, November/December 1984).
• ICE takes over marketing and distribution for Hero as of February 1986, will continued to publish Adventurers Club. Steve Peterson and George McDonald stay aboard, but Ray Greer heads to Steve Jackson Games (#42, May/June 1986).

ICE:

• Bruce Shelley leaves SPI for ICE (#18, January 1982). Shortly afterward he moves on to Avalon Hill where he’s working on a fantasy game (#21, June 1982).

Judges Guild:

• Judges Guild takes over Chuck Anshell’s The Dungeoneer; Anshell also becomes editor of Judges Guild Journal (#2, early 1979)
• Paul Jaquays, original publisher of The Dungeoneer, joins Judges Guild as staff artist and designer (#2, early 1979)
• Paul Jaquays resigns from Judges Guild to go freelance (#5, October/November 1979).
• Rudy Kraft joins Judges Guild as design and development staff (#6, December/January 1980).
• Rudy Kraft resigns, something to do with Judges Guild’s belief in “firearms and heroic deeds” (#8, June/July 1980).
• Judges Guild’s contract with TSR to expire in September (#9, August/September 1980).
• Bryan Hinnen and Chuck Anshell leave Judges Guild (#12, July 1981).
• Gigi notes low quality of Judges Guild products, especially their fake-color covers (#14, September 1981).
• Judges Guild begins asking for “projects usable with any FRP system” (#16, November 1981).
• Judges Guild puts $400 gift certificates in 3000 copies of Valley of the Road of Parth (#26, January 1983).
• Rumors say Judge Guild is doing poorly (#35, July/August 1984).

Manzakk Publishing:

• Tim Kask starts his own non-TSR magazine, Adventure Gaming (#12, July 1981). He manages to take the famous Fineous Fingers comic from Dragon (#16, November 1981).
• Adventure Gaming magazine stops publication as Ral Partha’s support ends, but Tim Kask raises $12,000 to continue independently (#24, September 1982).

Martian Metals:

• According to rumors, talks for a merger between Heritage Models and Martian Metals collapse (#6, December/January 1980).
• Martin Metals wins settlement with Hollywood over Dragonslayer movie, as they had the rights to the Dragonslayer trademark (#12, July 1981).
• Martian Metals loses RuneQuest license due to limited miniatures production and non-payment of royalties (#27, March 1983).
• Martin Metals loses Traveller license and has warehouse burn down (#28, April 1983).
• Grenadier plans to produce Traveller miniatures as soon as they can get molds from Martian Metals (#28, April 1983). They can’t get molds, so back out of deal (#29, June 1983).
• Though insured Martian Metals appears to have closed up house (#29, June 1983).
• Forest Brown and others from Martian Metals join FASA to create miniatures for Star Trek and other games (#30, September 1983).

Mayfair:

• Mayfair acquires DC Heroes game rights from Parker Brothers(!), who opted out of using them (#35, July/August 1984).
• Dispute between TSR and Mayfair over AD&D usage for Role Aids end with Mayfair allowed to use it AD&D trademark certain ways (#37, November/December 1984).
• Mayfair licenses Dray Prescott series (#39, May/June 1985).

Metagaming:

• Steve Jackson buys Space Gamer from Metagaming (#6, December/January 1980).
• Legal battle between Steve Jackson Metagaming over copyrights on some of Steve Jackson’s games (#9, August/September 1980).
• Metagaming announces Silver Dragon treasure hunt (#9, August/September 1980).
• Thomas Davidson, a chemical physics student at University of Texas, finds the Silver Dragon near a solar research facility in Sunspot, New Mexico (#11, February/March 1981).
• Metagaming starts new magazine, Interplay, to replace Space Gamer (#12, July 1981).
• Kevin Hendryx, a victim of the “Great Purge” at TSR becomes Product Development Manager for Metagaming (#16, November 1981).
• Gamelords is working on campaign adventures for TFT (#17, December 1981). First two TFT campaign adventures are printed together, with the plan being for Metagaming to distribute one and Gamelords the other … except Gamelords’ name accidentally gets left off their book! Metagaming stickers it(#23, August 1982).
• Metagaming is now claiming trademarks on Ogre and G.E.V., after returning the games to Jackson, saying that they plan to publish more Ogre games of their own. Jackson and Thompson issue press releases about each other (#18, January 1982).
• Kevin Hendryx and Norman Royal are laid off from Metagaming (#21, June 1982).
• Prentice-Hall starts distributing The Fantasy Trip (#24, September 1982).
• Howard Thompson retires from gaming. Interplay sold to a group in Texas. The Fantasy Trip fails to sell for (reportedly) $500,000 (#30, September 1983).

Midkemia Press:

• Midkemia gets out of the publishing business, to design games for other companies (#32, January/February 1984).
• Chaosium licenses Midkemia’s RPG supplements; Gigi snarks about their quality (#43, July/August 1986).

New Infinities:

• Gary Gygax forms own game company, Infinity Games (#44, November/December 1986). Infinity Games to be split between Lake Geneva (creative) and Chicago (executive offices). Gary to be be joined by Frank Mentzer and Kim Mohan (#45, March/April 1987).
• Gygax’s Sea of Death novels makes it to the Walden Books bestseller list on the week of its release (#47, Fall 1987).

Operational Studies Group:

• Rumor mill suggests Dave Arneson is buying Operational Studies Group, a Napoleonic wargaming publisher that had shutdown a shot time previous (#13, August 1981).
• Avalon Hill purchases Operational Studies Group (#14, September 1981).

Pacesetter:

• Five ex-TSR employees start new company, Pacesetter. They already have three RPGs planned for summer (#34, May/June 1984).
• Chill screen play is under development (#40, July/August 1985).
• $10,000 prize offered for the identity of the Sandman (#40, July/August 1985).
• Pacesetter is rumored to be down to one part-time worker filling orders (#44, November/December 1986).

Palladium:

• Palladium licenses The Justice Machine and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (#40, July/August 1985).
• Palladium sells 7000 TMNT in three weeks (#41, January/February 1986).

Paranoia Press:

• Paranoia Press goes out of business (#25, November 1982).

Ral Partha:

• Glenn Kidd exits as Ral Partha president, amid unhappy workers and low sales (#22, July 1982).

Reluctant Publishing:

• Reluctant Publishing of Utica, MI buys Stardate magazine (#45, March/April 1987).

Reston:

• Reston publishes a hardcover RuneQuest to sell into bookstores (#17, December 1981).
• Reston wants to publish Tunnels & Trolls; Flying Buffalo is uninterested (#20, March 1982).

Sleuth:

• Tadashi Ehara leaves Chaosium for Sleuth (#39, May/June 1985).
• Sleuth acquires right to Gamelords lines (#45, March/April 1987).
• M.A.R. Barker bargains with Sleuth for rights to 3e EPT (#45, March/April 1987).

SPI:

• SPI editorial goes upscale, heading to Park Avenue, while shipping is sent to New Jersey (#3, June/July 1979).
• A fantasy RPG called Dragonflayer (#6, December/January 1980) is announced, which becomes Dragonslayer (#7, April/May 1980). It’s learned that the latter conflicts with a Martian Metals trademark (#8, June/July 1980). DragonQuest is finally picked as the release name (#9, August/September 1980).
• Eric Goldberg leaves SPI (#9, August/September 1980).
• Pre-orders for Dallas RPG rumored to be 20,000 (#10, October/November 1980).
• James Dunnigan resigns from SPI due to “general dissatisfaction and profound differences of opinion”. Christopher Wagner takes over (#11, February/March 1981).
• David Ritchie resigns from SPI (#12, July 1981). Except it turns out he was fired (#14, September 1981).
• DragonQuest is to be supplemented with a “World Generation Supplement” by Steve Jackson and an “Enchanted Wood” adventure by Paul Jaquays (#13, August 1981).
• SPI is apparently losing money. There may have been bids for them by Avalon Hill and Heritage (#14, September 1981).
• Gerry Klug takes over SPI role-playing development. Plans supplements for Universe and DragonQuest; the Steve Jackson world-generation system is again referenced (#17, December 1981).
• Bruce Shelley leaves SPI for ICE (#18, January 1982). Shortly afterward he moves on to Avalon Hill where he’s working on a fantasy game (#21, June 1982).
• Bantam Books licenses rights from SPI for trade-paperback versions of DragonQuest and Universe, intended for the book trade. Plans are for a 50,000 print run each (#19, February 1982).
• Sale of SPI to Avalon Hill falls through; next prospective buyer is TSR (#20, March 1982).
• SPI is now a division of TSR (#21, June 1982), but New York SPI office to remain. Other than Redmond Simonsen, all SPI R&D staff leave (#21, June 1982). A few months later, almost all of New York office of SPI under TSR has quit (#23, August 1982).
• Avalon Hill sets up ex-SPIers John Butterfield, Mark Herman, Gerry Klug, and Eric Smith in New York as Victory Games, offers them “complete design freedom” (#21, June 1982).
• TSR makes their infamous claim that they bought SPI’s assets but not its liabilities. TSR wants to reprint 40 SPI games, but can’t because printers won’t release printing plates until SPI’s debt is paid (#23, August 1982).
• Initial plans are for TSR to continue DragonQuest and Universe from SPI because Gygax thinks they’ll be complementary product lines to D&D (#23, August 1982).
• Redmond Simonsen of SPI has left TSR and Brad Hessel has been fired (#23, August 1982).

Steve Jackson Games:

• Steve Jackson buys Space Gamer from Metagaming (#6, December/January 1980).
• Legal battle between Steve Jackson Metagaming over copyrights on some of Steve Jackson’s games (#9, August/September 1980).
• Steve Jackson Games founded (#10, October/November 1980).
• Metagaming starts new magazine, Interplay, to replace Space Gamer (#12, July 1981).
• Metagaming is now claiming trademarks on Ogre and G.E.V., after returning the games to Jackson, saying that they plan to publish more Ogre games of their own. Jackson and Thompson issue press releases about each other (#18, January 1982).
• Baron Publishing sells Fire & Movement to Steve Jackson Games for $24,000 (#19, February 1982).
• Forrest Johnson leaves as editor of Space Gamer for a California software company (#21, June 1982).
• Aaron Allston resigns from Space Gamer to edit Stardate for FASA (#32, January/February 1984). Shortly afterward, he resigns from Stardate to go freelance (#33, March/April 1984).
• Steve Jackson Games forms American Autoduel Association for Car Wars tournaments (#36, September/October 1984).
• TSR licenses Car Wars from Steve Jackson Games for solo gamebooks (#43, July/August 1986).
• DTI buys The Space Gamer from Steve Jackson Games and merges it with their V.I.P. magaine (#43, July/August 1986).

TriTac:

• Stalking the Night Fantastic features a disclaimer: “does not support witchcraft, devil worship, or the people who practice belief in such things.” (?)

TSR:

• Dave Arneson sues TSR for $300,000 in back royalties on Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set and AD&D Monster Manual, neither of which TSR credited him in (#2, early 1979).
• Rights to Empire of the Petal Throne pass from TSR to Gamescience (#5, October/November 1979). It apparently takes a few months to get the associated product passed over.
• Hal Landers and Bobby Roberts plan to make a movie about the disappearance of James Egbert III and call it Dungeons & Dragons (#5, October/November 1979). Rumor says that TSR is financing a Dungeons & Dragons movie, which may or may not be the same one (#7, April/May 1980). Movie name is changed to Dragon Maze (#10, October/November 1980).
• Grenadier gets license for AD&D miniatures (#6, December/January 1980).
• Random House agrees to distribute D&D into the book trade (#6, December/January 1980).
• Tim Kask resigns as editor of The Dragon and sells his TSR stock (#7, April/May 1980).
• Jeff Dee goes full-time in TSR’s art department (#7, April/May 1980).
• Work continues on the AD&D Companion for release at GenCon XIII (1980). It’s to be a collection of game variants (#7, April/May 1980). Or perhaps a book of information on weapons and armor (#9, August/September 1980). It of course never appears,
• Judges Guild’s contract with TSR to expire in September (#9, August/September 1980).
• Chaosium and TSR exchange letters (#11, February/March 1981). This presumably had to do with the Elric and Cthulhu content in Deities & Demigods.
• Rumor says a dozen employees are fired from TSR for “bad attitude” (#12, July 1981).
• Dave Arneson settles with TSR. Rumor says settlement was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars (#12, July 1981).
• Tim Kask starts his own non-TSR magazine, Adventure Gaming (#12, July 1981). He manages to take the famous Fineous Fingers comic from Dragon (#16, November 1981).
• Kevin Hendryx, a victim of the “Great Purge” at TSR, becomes Product Development Manager for Metagaming (#16, November 1981).
• Michael Grey, formerly of Milton Bradley, is on the way up in TSR’s product development department, despite little experience with RPGs (#16, November 1981).
• Rumors surface of Rona Jaffe’s Mazes and Monsters, a book exploiting the James Egbert incident (#17, December 1981).
• Lawrence Schick of TSR joins Paul Jaquays at Coleco (#19, February 1982).
• Duke Seifried has left Heritage for TSR (#20, March 1982).
• Sale of SPI to Avalon Hill falls through; next prospective buyer is TSR (#20, March 1982).
• TSR purchases Amazing magazine and a needlework company (#21, June 1982).
• SPI is now a division of TSR (#21, June 1982), but New York SPI office to remain. Other than Redmond Simonsen, all SPI R&D staff leave (#21, June 1982). A few months later, almost all of New York office of SPI under TSR has quit (#23, August 1982).
• Avalon Hill sets up ex-SPIers John Butterfield, Mark Herman, Gerry Klug, and Eric Smith in New York as Victory Games, offers them “complete design freedom” (#21, June 1982).
• TSR makes their infamous claim that they bought SPI’s assets but not its liabilities. TSR wants to reprint 40 SPI games, but can’t because printers won’t release printing plates until SPI’s debt is paid (#23, August 1982).
• Initial plans are for TSR to continue DragonQuest and Universe from SPI because Gygax thinks they’ll be complementary product lines to D&D (#23, August 1982).
• Redmond Simonsen of SPI has left TSR and Brad Hessel has been fired (#23, August 1982).
• Cash flow problems rumored at TSR. This may have led to TSR not acquiring Grenadier (#23, August 1982).
• TSR pulls Cthulhu and Elric mythos from Deities & Demigods, allegedly so they don’t have to credit Chaosium (#24, September 1982).
• Tom Robertson, president of the RPGA, said to be a fictitious person intended to act as a scapegoat while the vice-president runs things (#25, November 1982).
• Gangbusters said to be better production quality than previous RPG releases (#25, November 1982).
• TSR drops 30% in sales(!) but still recruiting new staff (#25, November 1982).
• TSR unsuccessfully tried to take over Grenadier with a no-cash bid. After the failure, Grenadier loses its AD&D license, going forward with “Fantasy Lords” instead (#26, January 1983).
• TSR still in the market for a miniatures company — or to start their own (#26, January 1983).
• Jake Jaquet resigns as publisher of Dragon due to articles by Gary Gygax attacking the rest of the industry. He plans to start up Gameplay magazine while Dave Cook will replace him at Dragon (#26, January 1983). Gameplay lasts for 13 issues and hits a circulation of 3000 before Jaquet is fired by the venture capitalists running things (#36, September/October 1984).
• The Office of Consumer Protection in Madison, Wisconsin is considering a class-action lawsuit against TSR due to their not honoring subscriptions to SPI’s Strategy & Tactics, Ares, and Moves.
• Wall Street Journal (December 1982) reports TSR sales of $14 million in 1981 and $22 million in 1982. Plans at TSR are to hire 100-150 people in 1983 (#28, April 1983).
• TSR adds clause to Gen Con contract allowing them to confiscate and destroy any products that make unauthorized use of TSR trademarks (#29, June 1983).
• TSR wins license to Marvel heroes, beating out Avalon Hill, Chaosium, FGU, Hero Games, Ideal, Mayfair Games, and Steve Jackson Games (#29, June 1983). However, later word says that Marvel is having problems with TSR lawyers, and Mayfair may get it (#31, November 1983). Secret project emerges called “The Boot Hill Revision” (#32, January/February 1984). Marvel and TSR conclude deal for five figures, including miniatures rights. Jeff Grubb will write “Boot Hill Revision”, which is of course Marvel Super Heroes (#33, March/April 1984).
• TSR reorganizes into four companies, fires 40 employees (including Duke Seifried, before he got any miniatures going) and Ernie Gygax. Gary Gygax is sent to Beverly Hills. Troy Denning’s game design department is initially intact (#30, September 1983). Until a month later or so, when a new series of firings includes game designers like Tom Wham (#31, November 1983). Then Gen Con staff is fired (#32, January/February 1984).
• David Ritchie and his wife quit TSR to work for Coleco (#33, March/April 1984).
• TSR announces end of SPI’s Ares magazine (#33, March/April 1984).
• Five ex-TSR employees start new company, Pacesetter. They already have three RPGs planned for summer (#34, May/June 1984).
• According to rumor, TSR’s bank has placed an operations man under Kevin Blume as response to continued financial problems. Low sellers Boot Hill and Gangbusters are to be cut (#37, November/December 1984).
• Dispute between TSR and Mayfair over AD&D usage for Role Aids end with Mayfair allowed to use it AD&D trademark certain ways (#37, November/December 1984).
• Kevin Blume resigns as president of TSR (#39, May/June 1985).
• TSR up for sale for $6 million, The Dragon for 1 million (#39, May/June 1985).
• TSR closes up miniature figures shop, licenses figure rights to Games Workshop [Citadel] (#39, May/June 1985).
• Rose Estes rumored to be taking TSR to court for reneging on a stock purchase plan; Dave Arneson due to unpaid royalties for several months (#39, May/June 1985). A few years later, TSR loses a $1,450,000 suit over a stock purchase plan, though it’s not explicitly said this was the Estes case (#45, March/April 1987).
• Gary Gygax elected President and CEO of TSR. Unearthed Arcana is scheduled for June; Temple of Elemental Evil and Isle of the Ape for August; and Oriental Adventures and Saga of Old City for Fall (#40, July/August 1985).
• Gygax gets Arneson to publish The Blackmoor Campaign with him, though Mayfair had already announced it (#41, January/February 1986). Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax seen having lunch at Origins, for the first time in years (#47, Fall 1987).
• Gary Gygax removed as CEO of TSR (#41, January/February 1986).
• TSR reports one of the worst D&D Christmas seasons ever (#42, May/June 1986).
• TSR licenses Car Wars from Steve Jackson Games for solo gamebooks (#43, July/August 1986).
• TSR is rumored to be unhappy with AD&D and considering dropping it (#44, November/December 1986). This was probably confusion over the upcoming 2e.
• TSR sells Strategy & Tactics to World Wide Wargamers (3W) who will merge it with their own The Wargamer (#46, May/June 1987).
• TSR signs letter of intent with SSI to develop AD&D computer games (#47, Fall 1987).

West End Games:

• West End Games acquires license to Star Wars (#46, May/June 1987).
• Eric Goldberg and Greg Costikyan decide they can’t work with the owner installed during the company’s recent changeovers and resign (#47, Fall 1987).

World Wide Wargamers (3W):

• TSR sells Strategy & Tactics to World Wide Wargamers (3W) who will merge it with their own The Wargamer (#46, May/June 1987).

Yaquinto:

• Rumor says that Steve Peek and Craig Taylor of the Battleline division are fired from Heritage Models, then SPI’s Howard Barasch is brought in to operate Battleline (#2, early 1979).
• Yaquinto publishes an impressive 8 games for Origins ’79 … but that may be less impressive as Steve Peek is married to the printer’s daughter ((#4, August/September 1979).