Mordenkainen is a fictional wizard from the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game . He was created by Gary Gygax as a player character , only months after the start of Gygax's Greyhawk campaign and is therefore one of the oldest characters continuously associated with Dungeons & Dragons .
171-502: Once Gygax was forced out of TSR, Inc. , he lost creative control of Mordenkainen. TSR then made Mordenkainen a powerful wizard with strong convictions against moral absolutes, and the leader of the Circle of Eight , a cabal of eight powerful wizards . In fiction associated with the World of Greyhawk , he has played diverse roles as both protagonist and antagonist. Official publications for
342-461: 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
513-593: A Mac OS X port in August 2003. Neverwinter Nights is set in the fantasy world of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, with the game mechanics based on the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition rules. The game engine was designed around an Internet-based model for running a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG), which would allow end users to host game servers. Up to 64 players could connect to
684-511: 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
855-499: A needle craft business, was one particularly criticized acquisition; it was owned by a cousin of the Blumes. Sales of D&D-themed needlecraft were abysmal, and the acquisition was criticized as nepotism . The company was similarly accused of favoring friends and relatives of the Blumes and Gygax in hiring. The management also used company funds to raise a shipwreck from Geneva Lake for no clear financial benefit. The company acquired
1026-501: A preliminary injunction , Wizards of the Coast wrote that TSR's Star Frontiers: New Genesis game is "despicable" and "blatantly racist and transphobic", and that the publication of such content would inflict reputational harm on Wizards of the Coast. Charlie Hall, for Polygon , commented that "Wizards' filing also seeks to undermine LaNasa's most powerful argument — that Wizards abandoned TSR and other related trademarks, thus opening
1197-695: A "Silver" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association , which indicates sales of at least 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom. Combined global sales of Neverwinter Nights and its expansion packs surpassed 2.6 million units by early 2005; by August 2006, the games totaled 1.3 million sales in the United States alone. Discounting its expansions, the original Neverwinter Nights ultimately sold 2.2 million copies, as of 2007. In general, Neverwinter Nights
1368-504: A black "race is classified as a 'Subrace' and having 'average' intellect with a maximum intelligence rating of 9, whereas the 'norse' race has a minimum intelligence rating of 13". In September 2022, Wizards of the Coast sued TSR Games—helmed by Ernie Gygax and LaNasa—and the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum to enjoin these companies from publishing games under the "Star Frontiers" and "TSR" trademarks. In its motion for
1539-522: 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. TSR West closed around 1991, although TSR would continue to work with Flint Dille on film-adjacent products made in California such as
1710-660: A comic book, and a role-playing game based on the AD&D 2nd Edition rules. TSR's Buck Rogers projects were commercial failures. 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. TSR had an arrangement with DC Comics to produce
1881-579: A corporation called TSR Hobbies, Inc. At first, it was a separate company to market miniatures and games from other companies, an enterprise which was also connected to the opening of the Dungeon hobby shop in Lake Geneva. TSR Hobbies then moved to buy out the old TSR partnership's assets. Brian's father, Melvin Blume, invested $ 20,000 in the nascent company which enabled it to buy out Donna Kaye's share of
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#17327798602802052-510: A crowdfunding campaign in December 2021 to raise money to sue Wizards of the Coast for "Trademark Declaratory Judgement of Ownership"; the company then filed and voluntarily dismissed the complaint that month. Wizards of the Coast, also in December 2021, sued LaNasa's TSR for trademark fraud over the use of the TSR logo which is owned by Wizards of the Coast. In July 2022, TechRaptor reported on
2223-433: A cult that is behind the spreading of the plague. As the cure is being made, Castle Neverwinter is attacked by the minions of Desther, who betrays the heroes. Desther takes the completed cure and escapes the castle, with the hero and Fenthick in pursuit. When they catch up to Desther, he surrenders after a short battle. Desther is sentenced to burn at the stake, and Fenthick, despite being unaware of Desther's true intentions,
2394-456: A dream world". Peter Suciu of Newsweek magazine called Neverwinter Nights "possibly the richest fantasy PC experience ever created." According to GameSpy, " Neverwinter' s contribution to D&D gaming is always a hot topic and a source of argument." During the 6th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards , Neverwinter Nights was awarded with " Computer Role-Playing Game of the Year " by
2565-456: A fee of several million dollars. Random House returned around $ 14 million of product between 1995 and 1997. 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. Since the logistics company had the production plates for key products such as core D&D books, there
2736-577: A few years. They may have been cannibalizing their own sales through excessive production of books or supplements too." 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. TSR's products essentially competed with themselves, requiring more development effort to reach
2907-444: A healer ( cleric ), then choose skills and feats that would work well with that class in the game. Following a small prelude, there are four chapters in the original game, with each chapter following part of the general storyline. Within each chapter, there are many quests, subquests, and mini-storylines provided to the player. Depending on the specific quests completed, and the unique items kept, some storylines are continued throughout
3078-423: A jury to determine if that is, in fact, the case". In December 2022, a federal magistrate judge denied the preliminary injunction Wizards of the Coast filed. The judge said that Wizards had not yet shown enough evidence to demonstrate continuous use of the TSR brand; she also noted that the defendants disclaimed the racist version of the game and had promised not to release any version of Star Frontiers at all until
3249-458: A leaked Star Frontiers: New Genesis (a reboot of the 1982 Star Frontiers role-playing game) playtest created by LaNasa's TSR; the content contains "blatantly racist" descriptions of character races and the race design "plays into Nazi eugenics ". The content also contains "homophobic, transphobic, and anti-semitic content, as well as additional material of a discriminatory nature". IGN Southeast Asia highlighted that in this playtest game
3420-472: A long history with BioWare. According to BioWare, the change of developer was due to BioWare's business with other titles, such as Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins . Neverwinter Nights 2 shipped in November 2006. On August 23, 2010, Atari announced Cryptic Studios would be developing Neverwinter , an online role-playing game based on the book series of the same name by R.A. Salvatore . It
3591-645: A means of delivering key skills and of showing IT designers how to understand the coding in the game. The Synthetic Worlds Initiative at Indiana University has used it as a basis for the creation of Arden: The World of Shakespeare , where Shakespeare's dramatic history of Richard III and The War of the Roses can be interactively explored. The game and the Aurora toolset were also used at Macquarie University in Australia. The University of Alberta has offered
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#17327798602803762-473: A new prestige class (the Purple Dragon Knight), and extensive new art, creatures, and tilesets. Premium modules were eventually discontinued. Three premium modules were known to be in development before cancellation. Two of them ended up being free downloads, while the third, a planned sequel to Witch's Wake , was never released. Hex Coda by Stefan Gagne, the first cancelled premium module,
3933-483: A novel series. The novel series was written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman . The Dragonlance trilogy of novels was a colossal hit; Dragons of Autumn Twilight , the first novel in the series, reached the top of The New York Times Best Seller list , encouraging TSR to a launch a long series of paperback novels. TSR's Books Department would go on to launch novels on its other D&D settings as well, and be one of TSR's most profitable divisions. In 1984, TSR
4104-479: A place to set an entire campaign, rather than a place to pass through. TSR also released Karameikos: Kingdom of Adventure in 1994, which detailed one of the kingdoms in the setting of Mystara . As an innovation, it included an audio CD with tracks of dialogue and sound effects. In 1995, TSR released 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
4275-538: A powerless figurehead CEO, with Brian Blume as president of creative affairs and Kevin Blume as president of operations. In 1981, TSR Hobbies had revenues of $ 12.9 million and a payroll of 130. TSR Hobbies diversified by purchasing or starting new commercial ventures such as producing miniatures, expanding into toys and gifts, and adding an entertainment division to explore getting into films and television. Many parts of this expansion were later criticized as bad investments and over-extension. Greenfield Needlewomen,
4446-458: A preorder arrangement with Babbage's was continued despite Babbage's becoming financially insolvent. 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
4617-479: A request made by Atari. On June 16, 2011, the Neverwinter Nights digital rights management (DRM) authentication server was temporarily taken down as a reaction by Electronic Arts to the Neverwinter Nights store being hacked and customer data stolen. Premium modules which were purchased via BioWare's store could not be played during that time because they could not connect to the server to validate
4788-477: A single license for what later became the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon . This series was the lead program in its time slot for two years. TSR, Inc. started publication of the Dragonlance saga in 1984 after being in development for two years. The series was both a set of modules and supplements designed for running campaigns in an entirely new game world, starting with Dragons of Despair , as well as
4959-475: A single server. The intent was to create a potentially infinite massively multiplayer game framework. This game was named after the original Neverwinter Nights online game, the first graphical massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), which operated from 1991 to 1997 on AOL . The original release of Neverwinter Nights includes the game engine, a game campaign that can be played as single player or in multiplayer mode, and on Windows releases,
5130-431: A spinner and hand puppets. That same year, TSR released the wargame 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, 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 ,
5301-496: A story about a train accident that causes a toxic chemical spill. Neverwinter Nights has also been used as an interface for some Moodle activity types. Atari released subsequent editions of the game following its first release in 2002. These editions are: Atari also re-released the game and both expansion packs in the following collections: Beamdog announced the upcoming release of Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition on November 20, 2017. This version includes fixes made by
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5472-682: A subsidiary specifically for them called Victory Games . TSR published a few wargames created by their own in-house designers, and had a hit with The Hunt for Red October , but ten years after the SPI takeover, TSR abandoned the wargame market. In 1983, the company was split into four companies: TSR, Inc. (the primary successor), TSR International, TSR Ventures, and TSR Entertainment, Inc. Gygax left for Hollywood to found TSR Entertainment, Inc., later Dungeons & Dragons Entertainment Corp., which attempted to license D&D products to movie and television executives. His work would eventually lead to only
5643-431: A theory based on power balance and Neutrality , trying to keep neither Good nor Evil from getting the upper hand; he operates very much from the shadows. Mordenkainen was #9 on Game Rant 's 2020 "10 Must-Have NPCs In Dungeons & Dragons Lore To Make Your Campaigns Awesome" list — the article states that "As an NPC, players might search for Mordenkainen for his expertise in the magical arts. After all, Mordenkainen heads
5814-608: A toy line. Part of the licensing of the AD&D toy line went to LJN . Also that year, TSR introduced the Gangbusters and Star Frontiers role-playing games. TSR established exclusive distribution for the D&;D game in 1982 in 22 countries, with the game being translated first into French, followed by many other languages. In 1982, TSR established an educational department with the intention of developing curriculum programs for reading, math, history, and problem solving, with
5985-450: A variety of factors. Facing insolvency, TSR was purchased in 1997 by Wizards of the Coast (WotC). WotC initially continued using the TSR name for D&D products, but by 2000, the TSR moniker was dropped, coinciding with the release of the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons . WotC allowed the TSR trademark to expire in the early 2000s. Two other companies have since used the TSR trademark commercially. Tactical Studies Rules (TSR)
6156-425: A variety of genres and themes, including persistent worlds (which are similar to MUD ), combat arenas ( player versus player modules), whole servers dedicated to sexually oriented roleplay, and simple social gatherings similar to a chat room . BioWare requires that these persistent worlds be free of charge, primarily for reasons of copyright law. Because Neverwinter Nights lacks a global chat function aside from
6327-501: A video game design course which uses Neverwinter Nights and the Aurora Toolset as the platform for teaching and course projects. The University of Minnesota has used the game to teach journalism students how to gather facts and information for news events with a modified modern setting for the game that involves interviewing witnesses and doing library research; in a modified game, students would work in pairs putting together
6498-489: A wide array of gaming accessories such as its Dragon Dice ". Part of this overexpansion included publishing twelve hardcover novels up from the usual two novels per year. 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 . By 1996, TSR was experiencing numerous problems, as outlined by various historians of
6669-518: A year of the departure of the Blumes, the company posted a net loss of US$ 1.5 million, resulting in layoffs of approximately 75% of the staff. Some of these staff members went on to form other prominent game companies, such as Pacesetter Ltd and Mayfair Games , or to work with Coleco 's video game division. Gygax searched for financing. Flint Dille , one of his contacts he made in his time in Hollywood, suggested his sister Lorraine Williams might be interested in investing money into TSR. Williams
6840-402: Is based on Wizards of the Coast 's global property Dungeons & Dragons rules and feature the titular city Neverwinter . It was scheduled for an early 2013 release, and was ultimately released on June 20, 2013. Neverwinter Nights has been used by colleges and universities for a variety of educational purposes. It has been used at West Nottinghamshire College in the United Kingdom as
7011-453: Is based on the C programming language , to run cut scenes , quests, mini-games and conversations. Third party utilities allow builders to create custom content for most aspects of the game, ranging from new playable races and character classes to new tilesets, monsters and equipment. Custom content is added to the game in the form of hakpaks. Builders have used the Aurora toolset in combination with hakpaks to create playing experiences beyond
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7182-399: Is based on the Neverwinter Nights community's fan-made material. This freely downloadable expansion was compiled by members of the community. It combines a selection of previously released custom content into one group of hakpaks. In late 2004, BioWare launched its online store and started selling what it called "premium modules" as part of its digital distribution program. This initiative
7353-516: Is located in the first office building of the original TSR. Elliot's TSR Games then announced on social media that while they have owned the trademark since 2011, they missed a filing date in 2020 and were considering various options. However, after Ernie Gygax's "troubling comments about race, gender identity, and gun violence, as well as his company's reaction", Elliot announced that his company would not have "any form of working relationship" with Ernie Gygax's TSR. Ultimately, Elliot's TSR Games
7524-490: Is not available for the Linux and Macintosh versions of Neverwinter Nights . The open source project neveredit aims to port the toolset features to these platforms. The game's module-making legacy was continued by Neverwinter Nights 2 . The story begins with the player character (PC), the protagonist of the story, being sent to recover four creatures (dryad, intellect devourer, yuan-ti, and cockatrice) known collectively as
7695-624: Is sentenced to hang. The protagonist meets up with Aribeth and Neverwinter's spymaster, Aarin Gend, to begin searching for the cult responsible for the plague and the attack on Neverwinter. The PC retrieves the diaries of dead cultists and letters from a person named Maugrim Korothir, which convince Aribeth that the cult's headquarters are in Luskan . Aribeth goes ahead to Luskan, and the hero follows after speaking once more to Gend. After arriving in Luskan,
7866-465: Is skeptical Gygax was truly unaware, however. Gygax returned to Wisconsin from Hollywood. In the spring of 1985, Gygax exercised an option to buy seven hundred shares of TSR stock, which combined with shares given to his son Ernie gave him 51.1% of all stock, up from around 30% before. Gygax also says he had a confrontation with the board of directors, and had the Blumes removed. Gygax now controlled TSR. Financial difficulties continued, however. Within
8037-546: Is the Dungeon Master Client: a tool that allows an individual to take the role of the Dungeon Master, who guides the players through the story and has complete control of the server. Previous games such as Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption , based on the printed gamebooks by White Wolf Publishing , utilized this feature to a limited extent. When it was released, Neverwinter Nights was viewed as
8208-601: The AD&;D to ensure the game framework was faithful to the tabletop game. A posting at the Neverwinter Nights 2 Vault on June 4, 2008 contained information from what appeared to be original Neverwinter Nights documentation. At the BioWare forums, Neverwinter lead designer Rob Bartel confirmed that the "series of excerpts from the game's design doc" were not a hoax. When asked if the plans were altered due to time constraints, Bartel referenced various legal difficulties that
8379-482: The Monster Manual was released as the initial product for AD&D , making TSR the first game company to publish a hardbound book. The next year, the AD&D Players Handbook was published, followed by a series of six adventure modules . Due to the inclusion of the word "Advanced" in the title, TSR did not pay Dave Arneson any royalties on AD&D products, saying his co-creation rights extended to
8550-460: The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS); it also received a nomination for "Computer Game of the Year". The game also won role-playing game of the year awards from PC Gamer US and GameSpot . RPG Vault declared it "Product of the Year", while Computer Games Magazine ranked it the year's second-best computer game across all genres. The latter publication's editors wrote that
8721-612: The Aurora toolset used for creating custom content that would run in the same engine. Three expansion packs were subsequently released for the game: Shadows of Undrentide in June 2003; Hordes of the Underdark in December 2003; and Kingmaker in November 2004. BioWare began selling premium modules through an online store in late 2004. The game's success led to a sequel, Neverwinter Nights 2 , released on October 31, 2006. The game
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#17327798602808892-701: The Canadian Red Cross complained to BioWare about the appearance of the Red Cross symbol on the in-game item "Healer's Kit", as part of a long-running attempt to discourage outside usage of the symbol. This resulted in the Red Cross symbol being removed from the Healer's Kit through patches. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic , a role-playing video game based in the Star Wars universe,
9063-463: The D&D Basic Set sold well in 1977 and 1978, would sell over 100,000 copies in 1979, and would continue to be updated and re-released for years. During this era, there were a number of competitors and unofficial supplements to D&D published, arguably in violation of TSR's copyright, which many D&D players used alongside the TSR books. Among these were the Arduin Grimoire ,
9234-609: The Manual of Aurenia , and variants such as Warlock and Tunnels & Trolls . TSR regarded these very warily, and in cases where they felt their trademarks were being misused, they issued cease-and-desist letters. More often than not, this legal posturing resulted in only slight changes to competitors' works, but caused significant animosity in the community. In 1979, TSR signed a contract with Random House with unusual terms. In most deals between publishers and distributors, publishers are paid directly based on books sold downstream by
9405-401: The Neverwinter Nights is the campaign. It comprises approximately sixty hours of gameplay . The gameplay centers on the development of a player character (PC) through adventuring, who ultimately becomes the hero of the story. The PC is tasked with defeating a powerful cult, collecting four reagents required to stop a plague, and thwarting an attack on the city of Neverwinter , located along
9576-527: The Silver Marches , moving toward the desert of Anauroch and the old Netherese city of Undrentide. A second expansion Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark was released in December 2003. The story continued where Shadows of Undrentide ended, with a character of at least 15th level, and led into the vast subterranean world known as the Underdark . The first chapter of the story took place in
9747-622: The Sword Coast of Faerûn , in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of Dungeons & Dragons . The first and final chapters of the campaign deal with the city of Neverwinter itself, but the lengthy mid-story requires the player to venture into the surrounding countryside and travel northward to the city of Luskan . Along the way, many optional side quests are made available. As in the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop game,
9918-571: The World of Greyhawk sometimes contradict each other regarding Mordenkainen. It is clear, however, that he is an important figure in the fictional history of the Flanaess . In late 1972, Gary Gygax created Castle Greyhawk and the dungeons beneath it. After a few months of almost non-stop play as the Dungeon Master , Gygax asked one of the players, Rob Kuntz , to become co-Dungeon Master, which would allow Gygax an opportunity to experience
10089-533: The World of Greyhawk , was introduced in 1980. The espionage role-playing game Top Secret came out in 1980; reportedly, a note regarding a fictitious assassination plot on TSR stationery, as part of the playtesting of the new game, prompted the FBI to visit TSR's offices. That same year, the Role Playing Game Association was founded to promote skillful roleplaying and unite players around
10260-552: The "Waterdhavian creatures" under the guidance of Lady Aribeth de Tylmarande. The Waterdhavian creatures are needed to make a cure for the Wailing Death, a plague that is sweeping the city of Neverwinter and forcing a quarantine. With the help of Fenthick Moss, Aribeth's love interest, and Desther, Fenthick's friend, the PC is able to retrieve the creatures. As they collect the creatures, they are attacked by mysterious assassins from
10431-548: The "single-player game is merely passable", but they highly praised Neverwinter Nights ' content-creation tools, and argued that the game is "what computer role-playing games should have been all along". The game won special awards for its technology from Computer Games , the Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) and RPG Vault, the latter two for its network programming and Aurora Neverwinter Toolset, respectively. The Aurora Neverwinter Toolset
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#173277986028010602-510: The 18th. It debuted at #1 on The NPD Group 's computer game sales chart during the June 16–22 period, and held the position for two weeks, before being displaced by Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos . However, Neverwinter Nights continued to place in the chart's top 10 consistently for its first three months of release. By July 23, the game's global sales had surpassed 200,000 units. NPD reported North American sales of 330,000 copies by late December, which brought in revenues of $ 18 million. It
10773-412: The 8th level. The module includes a cinematic intro (like the main campaign) and a world map. Darkness over Daggerford's status as a quasi-official expansion pack was supported by the next release of the team, this time a fully official one: Mysteries of Westgate for Neverwinter Nights 2. A sequel to Neverwinter Nights , Neverwinter Nights 2 , was developed by Obsidian Entertainment , a company with
10944-405: The Aurora engine of Neverwinter Nights . BioWare used Neverwinter Nights and its toolset to develop prototypes and mock-ups of various areas and scenarios for Dragon Age: Origins . Neverwinter Nights received an expansion pack , Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide , in June 2003. Its story line concerns a student sent out to recover some stolen magical objects. The story begins in
11115-458: The BioWare store require an active Internet connection to play, even when played in single player mode. The modules in the Kingmaker expansion were stripped of this requirement, but are only available for Windows systems. The modules included with Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition do not require Internet access to play. In August 2009, BioWare discontinued its selling of premium modules due to
11286-503: The Blume brothers subsequently sold their shares to TSR Vice President Lorraine Williams , who in turn engineered Gygax's ouster from the company in October 1985. TSR saw prosperity under Williams, but encountered financial trouble in the mid-1990s. While their overall sales and revenue were healthy, TSR's high costs meant the company nevertheless became unprofitable and deeply in debt. TSR was left unable to cover its publishing costs due to
11457-473: 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." Jeff Grubb said that she "pretty much saved the company," as the company was weeks away from total collapse when she took over. 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
11628-590: The Circle of Eight, a group of Wizards and prolific spell inventors. Campaigns planning on adapting Curse of Strahd may also include Mordenkainen as an NPC they need to save– or face, depending on the circumstances." Writer Aubrey Sherman called Mordenkainen one "of Dungeons & Dragons's most famous wizards" and found similarities with both Elminster and Gandalf with respect to appearance, demeanor, outlook and importance in their respective worlds. Backstab magazine contributor Kaneda considered Mordenkainen one of
11799-595: 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 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 ,
11970-529: The Sorcerers , and Winged Magic ); and humorous fantasy fiction, including Roy V. Young 's "Count Yor" novels Captains Outrageous (1994) and Yor's Revenge (1995). However, such projects never represented more than a fraction of the company's fiction output, which retained a strong emphasis on game-derived works. Neverwinter Nights (2002 video game) Neverwinter Nights is a role-playing video game developed by BioWare . Interplay Entertainment
12141-520: The Source Stone, where Morag and the other Old Ones sealed themselves long ago to avoid extinction during a primordial ice age. The protagonist confronts Aribeth, and depending on how the meeting is handled, she either surrenders to the PC or they are forced to kill her. The hero battles Maugrim for the final Word, then uses the Words to enter the Source Stone and battle with Morag. After Morag's death,
12312-502: The Undermountain dungeon beneath the city of Waterdeep . Neverwinter Nights: Kingmaker was released in November 2004, and features three premium modules: the award-winning Kingmaker , Shadowguard , and Witch's Wake . Atari and BioWare helped to promote and release free downloadable hakpaks, models, and tileset expansion packs, which greatly expanded the possibilities of mod-making. The Players Resource Consortium ( PRC )
12483-535: The ages", and said that its "storyline [is] as persuasive as any I’ve encountered in a fantasy roleplaying game". Chris Chan of New Straits Times said, " Neverwinter Nights is every role-playing gamer's dream". Allgame found that the game's story was "humdrum" and "mediocre". Mark Meadows of The Wisconsin State Journal agreed, saying the game was too focused on technical details. Victor Godinez of Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service did not care for
12654-574: The area of role-playing games. 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. However, her tenure has also been defended. John D. Rateliff said that "Every single person I talked to who worked under Gary [Gygax] and
12825-683: The base D&D name only. In late 1978, TSR Hobbies and the Dungeon Hobby Shop moved from 723 Williams Street into downtown Lake Geneva , to 772 West Main Street, with its offices once again located above the hobby shop. In 1979, the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide was published, and radio ads featuring "Morley the Wizard" were broadcast, a figure created "as the poster child for the softer, child-friendly image" promoted at that time. All of these core books would go on to be major hits;
12996-763: The biggest seller for 1985. TSR published a game based on the All My Children daytime drama on ABC , with over 150,000 copies sold. In 1986, TSR began publishing the bi-monthly Dungeon Adventures magazine, featuring only adventure scenarios for D&D . Sales of the core rule books and boxed sets crested in 1983 and fell in 1984 and 1985, largely due to market saturation ; customers who wanted rulebooks largely already had them. There were bright spots in 1983–1985 such as Dragonlance novel sales, Unearthed Arcana , and Oriental Adventures , but TSR's finances were in bad shape due to high expenses and costs that had assumed rule book sales would remain strong. The result
13167-644: The board game Dungeon! and the Wild West RPG Boot Hill . The company took $ 300,000 in revenues for the fiscal year of 1976. TSR started hosting the Gen Con Game Fair in 1976, and the first D&D open tournament was held at the convention that year. D&D supplements Eldritch Wizardry and Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes were released in 1976. Also in 1976, the company opened The Dungeon Hobby Shop at 723 Williams Street and TSR Hobbies moved out of Gygax's home and into
13338-402: The building, with its offices upstairs from the hobby shop. TSR also began to branch the Dungeons & Dragons product into two: Dungeons & Dragons as a general audience product intended for novices, and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ( AD&D ) for a more complicated product aimed at hardcore fans. In 1977, the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set was released for D&D , and
13509-496: The comics Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and 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
13680-468: The community since the last release, graphic improvements, premium modules, and the return of a multiplayer server list that was lost when GameSpy shut down. A digital deluxe version includes the soundtrack and the rest of the premium modules. A pre-release version was made available to purchase on November 21. Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition launched on Steam on March 27, 2018, and on Google Play for Android on December 4, 2018. Skybound Games,
13851-617: The company and the division of royalties, including several lawsuits against Gygax. This included the company threatening to sue individuals supplying game material on websites. In 1984, there was an incident involving Lucasfilm that led to a legend that TSR had trademarked the term " Nazi ". TSR published a supplement for the Indiana Jones RPG , Raiders of the Lost Ark Adventure Pack , in which some figures were marked with "Nazi™". This trademark notation
14022-558: The company in 2016 when the magazine ended. The company operated as TSR Games, producing the Top Secret: New World Order role-playing game. In June 2021, a new, separate TSR company was launched by a group including Ernie Gygax, Justin LaNasa and Stephen Dinehart. The company is based out of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin; they announced plans to release tabletop games and operate the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum, which
14193-568: The company was working through. The game was released for Windows in North America on June 18, 2002, in Europe on June 28, and in Australia on July 3. Sega released the game as its publisher on March 20, 2003. A Linux client for the game was made available on June 19, 2003. A Mac OS X port published by MacSoft was released in North America on July 30, 2003, and in Europe later the same year. The original scenario supplied with
14364-442: 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—many of them popular and well received—that they were both cannibalizing their only sales and discouraging players from picking up settings that might be gone in
14535-663: The constraints on it, while others indicate it sold poorly. Spellfire was discontinued in 1996, although one final release occurred in late 1997. Another collectible competitor to Wizards of the Coast that TSR produced was Dragon Dice , which was released in 1995. 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
14706-516: The core rulebooks of the game's 3rd edition 's as one of the few elements from Greyhawk , even though that was designated as the core setting. Spells named after Mordenkainen also appear in D&;D-based computer games like Neverwinter Nights . Mordenkainen is described as tall, with a greyly streaked Van Dyke beard , wearing long boots and carrying a staff . Mordenkainen keeps his own counsel and does not tolerate fools. He operates according to
14877-448: The country. In 1981, Inc. magazine listed TSR Hobbies among the hundred fastest-growing privately held U.S. companies. That same year, TSR Hobbies moved its offices again, into a former medical supply building with a warehouse attached. In 1982, TSR Hobbies broke the 20 million sales mark. TSR Hobbies terminated Grenadier Miniatures 's license in 1982 and began to directly manufacture an AD&D miniatures line , followed by
15048-544: The court case concludes, hence there was no need for a preliminary injunction. In June 2023, LaNasa's TSR declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy , which triggered an automatic stay of the lawsuit. TSR's main products were role-playing games, the most successful of which was D&D . However, they also produced other games such as card games , board games , and dice games , and published both magazines and books. In 1984, TSR started publishing novels based on their games. Most D&D campaign settings had their own novel line,
15219-633: The creation of the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons . It was released in 2000 under the Wizards of the Coast brand only. In 1999, Wizards of the Coast was itself purchased by Hasbro, Inc . In 2002, the Gen Con convention was sold to Peter Adkison , the founder and CEO of Wizards of the Coast. After its initial success faded, the company turned to legal defenses of what it regarded as its intellectual property . In addition, there were several legal cases brought regarding who had invented what within
15390-404: The damage dealt, with powerful weapons assigned to dice with a greater number of sides, due to their ability to do more damage. Although the outcome of nearly all actions is determined by dice rolls, the player does not see them, with the results calculated in the background. However, the player has the option to display the outcomes of these rolls. The player can control the game almost entirely via
15561-447: 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
15732-425: The distributor to bookstores. In TSR's contract, however, Random House would loan money to TSR as an advance upon shipment of product from TSR to Random House, a loan equivalent to 27.3% of the suggested retail price. The arrangement was mutually beneficial at first: TSR could acquire money up front to fund their work, and not have to worry about immediate sales. Many of TSR's products had consistent sales over time, and
15903-423: The door to his usurping of the brand and its games. [...] Here's where things get complicated. Wizards admitted that it failed to file paperwork for the registration of TSR, Star Frontiers, and other related marks in a timely fashion as required under federal law. But through continued sales of related products and use of the related IP, the company claims ownership via ' common law trademark rights.' It will be up to
16074-416: 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
16245-480: The entire game, such as the Henchman's or Aribeth's tales. Completing many of the side quests will give the player's character more experience and special items, making them improve more rapidly and continue to make the game easier as the player progresses. These improvements come in the form of levels earned through experience points , with each level providing the protagonist with a set of enhancements as selected by
16416-466: 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
16587-430: The first half of 1997. 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). Wizards of the Coast settled TSR's debts as part of the acquisition. This included unwinding TSR's deal with its printer, enabling the products TSR had worked on in the first half of 1997 to be printed and distributed, such as
16758-467: The first successful implementation of the feature. The DM Client allows players to participate in regular campaigns , while also allowing persistent world servers to flourish by permitting the DMs of those servers to take control of non-player characters (NPCs) in mid-game for added realism and flexibility. The Dungeon Master Client also permits the user to spawn and control masses of monsters and NPCs much in
16929-512: The first thing a player must do is create a new character. The game provides a set of ready-made characters, or the player may create one from scratch. A series of panels are presented for selection of the character's gender, race, character class , alignment , ability scores (such as strength and intelligence), specialized abilities called skills and feats, in-game appearance, and name. This process grants significant allowance for customization; one can be, for example, an outdoorsman ( ranger ) or
17100-422: The first to implement them so well". GameZone said that the Aurora Toolset was one of the "best features" of the game. John Breeden II of The Washington Post said including the tool set was "smartest thing Bioware did". He went on to say that giving such tools to the players became more commonplace, but was a bold move at the time of the game's release. Chan commented, "you could use the Aurora tools to create
17271-536: The following publications: Mordenkainen also figured prominently in the parody adventure Castle Greyhawk (1988), in which he runs a film studio, possibly a reference to Gary Gygax's work at the time as TSR's liaison to Hollywood while he was developing the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon and other projects. Mordenkainen appears in material for the fifth edition of D&D , including Curse of Strahd (2016), and Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus (2019). Mordenkainen's name appeared in certain spells within
17442-514: The forces of good and evil. Mordenkainen is one of the famous mages whose spells were included in the 1988 Greyhawk Adventures hardbound. His name has been associated with various spells published in the Dungeons & Dragons system of magic. Mordenkainen's AD&D statistics were first published in The Rogues Gallery (1980), although Gary Gygax was later emphatic that he never gave author Brian Blume any information about
17613-495: The game #4 on his list of "The 10 Greatest Dungeons and Dragons Videogames" in 2015. The game has inspired a number of fan-made films made using machinima techniques of synchronizing video footage from a game to pre-recorded dialogue and other audio, such as BloodSpell , and Neverending Nights . Since the original release of Neverwinter Nights , several in-game portraits have been modified in patches due to their having been copied from outside sources. In another instance,
17784-474: The game as a player. Gygax subsequently created several characters, including a 1st-level wizard in early 1973. Gygax was interested in Finnish mythology , and named the wizard Mordenkainen, a portmanteau of the mythical heroes Mordecai and Lemminkäinen . Kuntz started a role-playing campaign in his Kalibruhn setting in 1973, in which Mordenkainen and Yrag developed as player characters of Gary Gygax . He
17955-446: The game. By the end of 2002, there were over 1,000 custom adventures available. Custom content creators are known as builders in the Neverwinter Nights community. The Aurora toolset allows builders to create map areas using a tile system ; the appearance and surface textures of the area are defined by the area's selected tileset. Builders can overlay placeable objects onto areas, and use the built-in scripting language NWScript, which
18126-511: The greatest magicians from the Greyhawk campaign setting. TSR, Inc. TSR, Inc. was an American game publishing company, best known as the original publisher of Dungeons & Dragons ( D&D ). Its earliest incarnation, Tactical Studies Rules, was founded in October 1973 by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye . Gygax had been unable to find a publisher for D&D , a new type of game he and Dave Arneson were co-developing, so he founded
18297-653: The hero must defeat the evil at the Keep of Cyan and win the throne. Others include Neverwinter Nights: ShadowGuard , created by community member Ben McJunkin; Neverwinter Nights: Witch's Wake , a remastered version of a module by Rob Bartel; Neverwinter Nights: Pirates of the Sword Coast ; Neverwinter Nights: Infinite Dungeons , a BioWare module taking place in the Undermountain area below Waterdeep ; and Neverwinter Nights: Wyvern Crown of Cormyr , which features fully ridable horses, flowing cloaks, tabards and long coats,
18468-521: The introductory video for Dragonstrike 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 movie . 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
18639-502: The know at TSR to call it the "Banco de Random House". 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 as an example, which sold well but was vastly overprinted. 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
18810-570: The loans allowed the company to recoup the investment immediately and use the funds to make more books. Returns were generally low, leading to Random House's confidence in TSR. However, the arrangement would cause trouble later in the 1990s. Gygax granted exclusive rights to Games Workshop to distribute TSR products in the United Kingdom, after meeting with Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson . Games Workshop printed some original material and also printed their own versions of various D&D and AD&D titles in order to avoid high import costs. TSR
18981-423: The long-term was a financial arrangement known as "factoring." Factoring worked like this: TSR first arranged contracts with retailers in the 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
19152-494: The majority shareholder of TSR, and used her voting power to depose Gygax as CEO and president on October 22, 1985. Gygax unsuccessfully challenged the sale in court; Gygax's supporters considered the Blumes' sale an act of retaliation. Gygax eventually sold his remaining stock to Williams and used the capital to form New Infinities Productions . On TSR's side, they would pepper Gygax with legal threats long after he left in an attempt to deter him from competing with his old company in
19323-400: The mid-1970s under the TSR logo, including Air War , Blue & Gray , and Napoleon's Last Battles . But TSR soon learned that the main reason for SPI's large debt was that the wargame market had collapsed. When their wargames failed to sell, TSR halted all new game projects; in reaction, most SPI game designers resigned and moved to rival company Avalon Hill , lured by the formation of
19494-511: The money to pay off its debts, leaving it cash-poor but debt-free. Less than two weeks later, TSR called in the note; with no cash on hand, SPI was forced to hand over their operation to TSR. Believing the wargame market to be a lucrative opportunity, TSR immediately released several SPI titles that were ready for publication but had been stranded by a lack of money for printing, such as Battle Over Britain and A Gleam of Bayonets . TSR also reboxed and republished several popular SPI titles from
19665-796: The most successful of which were the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms lines, with dozens of novels each. TSR also published the 1995 novel Buck Rogers: A Life in the Future by Martin Caidin , a standalone re-imagining of the Buck Rogers universe and unrelated to TSR's Buck Rogers XXVC game. TSR published a large number of fantasy and science fiction novels unconnected with their gaming products, such as L. Dean James ' "Red Kings of Wynnamyr" novels, Sorcerer's Stone (1991) and Kingslayer (1992); Mary H. Herbert 's five "Gabria" novels ( Valorian , Dark Horse , Lightning's Daughter , City of
19836-544: The most successful program among these the Endless Quest series of game books. Melvin Blume's shares were later transferred to his son Kevin Blume. After this, the leadership of TSR consisted of Kevin Blume, Brian Blume, and Gary Gygax. In contemporary articles from the early 1980s, Gygax said that the three worked as a team, and only proceeded with unanimous consent and buy-in. In interviews years later, Gygax downplayed his role, and described his position as primarily
20007-416: The mouse. A robust multiplayer component separates Neverwinter Nights from previous Dungeons & Dragons games, as this allows players to play on many different servers hosting games. Depending on hardware and bandwidth , each server can support up to ninety-six players on the same server application, plus Dungeon Masters (DM) to run the games, if desired. Neverwinter Nights game modules are run in
20178-417: The multiplayer options "great". GamePro thought that Neverwinter Nights is the closest that any video game has come to accurately representing the full Dungeons & Dragons rules, a statement further reinforced by Greg Kasavin of GameSpot , who said that "Neverwinter Nights isn't the first Dungeons & Dragons game for the computer to make use of the pen-and-paper game's 3rd Edition rules, but it's
20349-606: The new company with Kaye to self-publish their products. Needing financing to bring their new game to market, Gygax and Kaye brought in Brian Blume in December as an equal partner. Dungeons & Dragons is generally considered the first tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG), and established the genre. When Kaye died suddenly in 1975, the Tactical Studies Rules partnership restructured into TSR Hobbies, Inc. and accepted investment from Blume's father Melvin. With
20520-413: The new company with assistance from early TSR/D&D contributors including Luke and Ernie Gygax, sons of the deceased D&D co-creator Gary Gygax, and Tim Kask , former editor of Dragon magazine. Their first product was Gygax Magazine , announced along with the TSR company revival in December 2012. Wired reported that "Elliot stressed that his 'TSR is a new company'." Both Gygax brothers left
20691-553: The offices of Blume and Gygax. TSR Hobbies subcontracted the printing and assembly work in October 1975, and the third printing of 2,000 copies of D&D sold out in five months. Tim Kask was hired in the autumn of 1975 as Periodicals Editor, and the first employee that TSR hired for full-time work. Empire of the Petal Throne was the first game product released by TSR Hobbies, followed by two D&D supplements, Greyhawk and Blackmoor . Also released in 1975 were
20862-447: The only, glaring flaw in the game, is its graphics. You can tell that this game has been in development for five years[...]"; however, they praised its voice acting and music. Godinez agreed, and also liked the game's audio, noting in particular the scraps of conversation that can be heard in the background throughout the city. Allgame praised Neverwinter Night ' s DM tools, calling the game's level creation options "impressive" and
21033-410: The original TSR partnership. On September 26, 1975, the assets of the former partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies. Brian Blume became the largest shareholder, Melvin Blume the second largest, and Gary Gygax the third largest. Gygax served as president of TSR Hobbies, and Blume as vice president and secretary. The Dungeon hobby shop would become the effective headquarters of the company, including
21204-458: The original versions of art they had made for TSR. Wizards eventually closed the TSR corporate offices in Lake Geneva. Some TSR employees accepted the offer of transferring to Wizards of the Coast's offices in Washington, and a few others continued to work remotely from Wisconsin. Wizards of the Coast continued to use the TSR name for D&D products for three years. Wizards also set about
21375-478: The paperback bestseller lists. TSR eventually moved into publishing hardcover novels as well with Salvatore's The Legacy , published in 1992. It made the top of The New York Times Best Seller list weeks after its release. 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,
21546-404: The player. The game's mechanics are based on the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition rule set; the outcome of most actions, such as combat and skills usage, are randomly determined by dice rolls. For example, when a fighter attacks, the computer would digitally "roll" a 20-sided die (called a d20 in-game) to determine if he hits the target. On a success, another die is rolled to determine
21717-560: The popular D&D as its main product, TSR Hobbies became a major force in the games industry by the late 1970s. Melvin Blume eventually transferred his shares to his other son Kevin, making the two Blume brothers the largest shareholders in TSR Hobbies. TSR Hobbies ran into financial difficulties in the spring of 1983, prompting the company to split into four independent businesses, with game publishing and development continuing as TSR, Inc. (TSR). After losing their executive positions,
21888-431: The power to rule domains; players could expand their domains and divine powers with a mixture of war and diplomacy. In 1996, Dragonlance: Fifth Age was released, a "diceless" role-playing game that departed from the roots of Dragonlance in AD&D . Under Williams' direction, TSR solidified its expansion into other fields, such as magazines, paperback fiction, comic books, and collectible games. TSR's book division
22059-508: The preface of the first edition of D&D . However, Gygax and TSR published the Mars book without permission from (or payment to) the Burroughs estate . Warriors of Mars was quietly dropped from the catalog and never reprinted. When Don Kaye died of a heart attack on January 31, 1975, his role was taken over by his wife Donna Kaye, who remained responsible for accounting, shipping, and
22230-592: The protagonist escapes the Stone as the world inside it implodes. For the launch of Neverwinter Nights , publisher Infogrames shipped 1 million copies to stores, with half allocated to North America and the rest to international markets. In an experimental move, the company priced the game at $ 55, an increase over the $ 50 typical of computer games at the time. CNN Money columnist Chris Morris reported that "gamers complained loudly about" this decision. The game proceeded to sell 125,000 copies by June 27, after its release on
22401-411: The protagonist hears rumors that Aribeth has defected and joined the cultists. These fears are confirmed when she is found meeting with Maugrim and Morag, Queen of the reptilian Old Ones . They seek a group of magical relics called the Words of Power. The protagonist retrieves all of the Words of Power except for one held by the cult. The hero discovers that the Words open a portal to a pocket world inside
22572-475: The purchase, though DRM-free modules were unaffected. The modules Kingmaker , Shadowguard , and Witch's Wake were sold as part of the Diamond Edition package. Premium modules include Neverwinter Nights: Kingmaker , BioWare's flagship premium module, which later received the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences " Computer Role-Playing Game of the Year " award. In the module's story,
22743-472: The records of the partnership through the summer. By the summer of 1975, those duties became complex enough that Gygax himself became a full-time employee of the partnership in order to take them over from Donna Kaye. Arneson also entered the partnership in order to coordinate research and design with his circle in the Twin Cities. Brian Blume and Gary Gygax reorganized the business from a partnership to
22914-457: The required extra dice for another $ 3.50). This first print sold out in 10 months. In January 1975, TSR printed a second batch of 1,000 copies of D&D , which took only another five or six months to sell out. Also in 1974, TSR published Warriors of Mars , a miniatures rules book set in the fantasy world of Barsoom , originally imagined by Edgar Rice Burroughs in his series of novels about John Carter of Mars , to which Gygax paid homage in
23085-497: 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—the cost of production was simply too high compared to the price they sold for. David M. Ewalt writes that Spellfire and Dragon Dice "were both expensive to produce, and neither sold very well". Another factor that hobbled TSR in
23256-448: The same way as units would be controlled in a real-time strategy game. Neverwinter Nights ships with the Aurora toolset , which allows players to create custom modules for the game. These modules may take the form of online multiplayer worlds, single player adventures, character trainers or technology demos . Additionally, several third party utilities have further expanded the community's ability to create custom content for
23427-508: The scope of the original campaign. Additionally, the Aurora toolset has allowed for the creation of a number of ongoing persistent worlds modules. Despite the game's age, the Neverwinter Nights custom content community remains active. The community, mostly centered on the Neverwinter Vault, has created over 4,000 modules for the game, among them, many award-winning adventures and series such as Dreamcatcher . The Aurora toolset
23598-440: The space opera game Alternity . More generally, Wizards was cash-rich, which solved some of the problems TSR had faced that had caused it to resort to the rolling loans and financial trickery that had cut into TSR's profits, such as factoring. Wizards of the Coast also moved to mend relations with some of TSR's former employees and contractors who had been alienated. This included allowing artists to take back personal ownership of
23769-444: The supported GameSpy , players typically join pickup games through the game's multiplayer interface, or schedule games in advance with friends. Matchmaking sites can facilitate scheduling of games, and the experience is much like traditional pen-and-paper role-playing games . Persistent worlds do this work for them by inviting players to visit their website and continue to roleplay there. An important feature of Neverwinter Nights
23940-447: The trademark and copyrights of the magazine Amazing Stories , although it had only ten thousand subscribers. Another acquisition was the 1982 takeover of Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI), one of the major publishers of wargames and wargaming magazines in North America. SPI was heavily in debt, and TSR agreed to give them a promissory note for several hundred thousand dollars, using SPI's assets as collateral. SPI immediately used
24111-429: The turn-based combat system, preferring to have direct control. He also said the controls were difficult to use occasionally. GamePro noted the game's graphics as being "gorgeous" and its sound as "untouchable", and GameZone likewise praised its visuals, specifically mentioning its combat animation and spell effects as being well done. GameSpy was not as impressed by the graphics, saying "The biggest, and arguably
24282-518: The wizard, and insisted that Blume had been forced to make up the published statistics. Variations on Mordenkainen's AD&D statistics were also published in Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure (1984), The City of Greyhawk (1989) and Epic Level Handbook (2002). The "legendary Mordenkainen" was featured as a card in the Spellfire trading card game in 1994. He was also mentioned in
24453-480: Was a cycle of layoffs and contractions in 1983–1985, as well as the Blumes negotiating a $ 4 million loan from American National Bank . The struggle for financing led to board room shake-ups at the top level. TSR's line of credit was stopped by its bank, and the company was in debt to over US$ 1.5 million . Gygax would later say that he was in the dark as to the extent of the financial difficulties due to being in Hollywood; Ben Riggs, an author who studied TSR's history,
24624-400: 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. 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
24795-409: Was a runner-up for the "Role-Playing Game of the Year" awards of Computer Gaming World , IGN , GameSpy and RPG Vault, all of which went to The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind . The editors of Computer Gaming World wrote that Neverwinter Nights "gave gamers a fabulous toolset for creating their own adventures—too bad the single-player campaign prompted a staffwide shrugging of shoulders." It
24966-413: 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 Drizzt series , set in the Forgotten Realms. Starting with The Crystal Shard in 1988, many of Salvatore's books would go on to reach
25137-498: Was able to make licensing agreements that allowed the company to publish the Marvel Super Heroes , Indiana Jones , and Conan role-playing games. In 1985, Gen Con moved out of Lake Geneva which had given it its name, and relocated to Milwaukee , Wisconsin where the game convention would have more badly needed additional space. The Oriental Adventures hardback for AD&D was released that same year, becoming
25308-872: Was also a nominee in the AIAS's " Computer Simulation Game of the Year " category. RPG Vault's staff hailed the tool as "an unprecedented combination of power, flexibility and ease of use." Neverwinter Nights received further nominations in the AIAS's special categories for "Outstanding Innovation in Computer Gaming" and " Outstanding Achievement in Game Design ", and in RPG Vault's categories for music and writing, but lost these to other titles. However, it did win RPG Vault's "Outstanding Achievement in Community Building" prize. Neverwinter Nights
25479-461: Was also nominated as the overall best computer game of 2002 by GameSpot, PC Gamer US and the AIAS, and as the year's best game on any platform by the GDCA. These prizes went variously to Warcraft III , Battlefield 1942 and Metroid Prime . IGN ranked Neverwinter Nights No. 4 on their list of "The Top 11 Dungeons & Dragons Games of All Time" in 2014. Ian Williams of Paste rated
25650-559: Was also released by BioWare using a modified version of the Aurora engine of Neverwinter Nights , called the Odyssey Engine . The sequel, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords , also used it. Because of this, modders have been able to modify these games using some Neverwinter Nights modding tools. The Witcher , a role-playing video game by CD Projekt Red , is also based on
25821-530: 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 . In 1990, the Ravenloft setting was released, a horror-themed setting for AD&D . Ravenloft had been introduced in an acclaimed 1983 adventure module , and
25992-455: Was amiss, and began demanding TSR shrink its debt load with them—around $ 11.8 million in June 1995. Random House sued TSR in April 1996 for repayment. Despite total sales of around $ 40 million in 1995, TSR ended 1996 with little in cash reserves, and the company was deep in debt. 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
26163-562: Was because of a list of trademarked character names supplied by Lucasfilm's legal department; they had indiscriminately marked all figures with a trademark symbol, and the Nazi figures were likewise marked accidentally. In 2011, a new company taking the name TSR was founded by Jayson Elliot, who co-founded the Roll for Initiative podcast. Elliot found that the TSR trademark had expired around 2004 so he registered it himself. He then decided to launch
26334-549: Was developed by 65 people. Development time was more than a year and the project had a multi-million dollar budget. The game was announced to use the Omen engine as a replacement for the Infinity engine which was not good enough for the new game. BioWare intended to create a game system which emulated the interactions in a pen-and-paper version of Dungeons & Dragons including the role of Dungeon Master . They worked alongside
26505-526: Was forced out of TSR in 1985, he lost the rights to most of the characters he had mentioned in TSR publications, including Mordenkainen. TSR subsequently changed Mordenkainen in ways unforeseen by his creator. When the Greyhawk campaign world was reset in 1991's From the Ashes , Mordenkainen was refashioned as the world's most powerful wizard. The Circle of Eight was now described as a cabal of eight wizards supervised by Mordenkainen, who together sought to balance
26676-430: Was formed in 1973 as a partnership between Gary Gygax and Don Kaye , who collected together $ 2,400 for costs related to startup, to formally publish and sell the rules of Dungeons & Dragons , the creation of Gygax and Dave Arneson and the first modern role-playing game (RPG). The first TSR release, however, was Cavaliers and Roundheads , a miniature game , to start generating income for TSR. The partnership
26847-605: Was given a position of general manager at TSR and attempted to fix TSR's precarious financial situation. This led to clashes between Williams and Gygax, who resisted some of Williams' suggestions. Meanwhile, the Blumes, out of power at the company and worried about its financial strength in the long-term, sought to cash out their shares. They offered to sell their shares to Gygax, but he refused. They exercised their own options to buy seven hundred more shares, then sold their entire holdings to Lorraine Williams instead. Williams herself bought fifty shares. With these purchases, Williams became
27018-429: Was led by BioWare's Live Team Lead Designer, Rob Bartel. These smaller-scale adventures introduced new storylines and gameplay, and include new music and art that BioWare integrated into later patches to the core game. According to BioWare, the revenue generated by sales of the premium modules would be used to support their fan community and provide ongoing updates and improvements to the game. The modules that are sold in
27189-446: Was met with positive reviews, receiving "universal acclaim" according to Metacritic . GameSpot referred to it as "one of those exceedingly rare games that has a lot to offer virtually everyone, even if they aren't already into RPGs", and praised it for its campaign, its Aurora toolset, and its graphics. The publication later named it the best computer game of June 2002. PC Gamer US called it "a total package—a PC gaming classic for
27360-585: Was no means of printing or shipping core products to generate income or secure short-term financing. The company laid off thirty staff members in December 1996, and other employees including James M. Ward quit over disagreements about how the company managed the crisis. In large part due to the need to refund Random House, TSR began 1997 more than $ 30 million in debt. 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
27531-583: 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
27702-482: Was originally set to publish the game, but financial difficulties led to it being taken over by Infogrames , who released the game under their Atari range of titles. It is the first installment in the Neverwinter Nights series and was released for Microsoft Windows on June 18, 2002. BioWare later released a Linux client in June 2003, requiring a purchased copy of the game to play. MacSoft released
27873-634: Was rebranded as Solarian Games in July 2021. Dinehart then rebranded as Wonderfilled Games. Dicebreaker reported that "TSR Games never officially announced its rebranding as Wonderfilled Games" and most of its "Twitter accounts had been locked down or nuked, and the company's old website simply redirected to a new page that — interestingly — listed Dinehart's GiantLands as an in-development title. [...] How much of TSR Games exists in Wonderfilled Games isn't clear". LaNasa's TSR Games then launched
28044-492: 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 . 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
28215-517: Was released in early December 2003, and is a group of hakpaks adding classes, races, skills, and spells to the game. The PRC has roughly three times the number of prestige classes the original game had. It also adds dozens of epic spells, and many normal spells that make better use of BioWare's Aurora engine. Psionic powers have also been included. The Community Expansion Pack ( CEP ), originally released in March 2004 (last updated in January 2017),
28386-696: Was released to Neverwinter Vault in May 2005. The story was a mix of fantasy and science fiction and involved the protagonist dealing with the machinations of a multinational corporation called Cathedral. A sequel was in development, but was cancelled. In August 2006, Ossian Studios Inc., headed up by Alan Miranda , a former producer at BioWare, released the second canceled premium module to the Vault: Darkness over Daggerford . The story takes place in and around Daggerford and has been compared favorably to Baldur's Gate 2 in terms of its scope. Characters start at
28557-460: Was subsequently joined by Brian Blume in December 1973. Blume was admitted to the partnership to fund further publishing of D&D , as Cavaliers and Roundheads was not a commercial success. In the original configuration of the partnership, Kaye served as president, Blume as vice-president, and Gygax as editor. In January 1974, TSR—with Gygax using his basement as a headquarters—produced 1,000 copies of D&D , selling them for $ 10 each (and
28728-508: Was to become Gygax's most famous character, and also his favorite to play. Over several years of gameplay, mainly from 1973 to 1985, Gygax developed the character traits and adventures with which Mordenkainen would become associated, as well as raising the wizard to "twenty-something levels". During this period, Gygax united Mordenkainen with seven of his other characters to form the Circle of Eight. During his lifetime, Gygax never disclosed any of Mordenkainen's original game statistics. When Gygax
28899-440: Was ultimately the region's 11th-best-selling computer game of 2002. Greg Zeschuk remarked in June 2003 that Neverwinter Nights had sold above 1 million copies, before the release of its first expansion pack. In the United States alone, the game sold 510,000 copies and earned $ 23.2 million by August 2006. At that time, Edge declared it the country's 26th-best-selling computer game released since January 2000. It also received
29070-446: Was unable to reach an agreement with Games Workshop regarding a possible merger, so the company created the subsidiary TSR Hobbies UK Ltd, in 1980. Gygax hired Don Turnbull to lead the subsidiary, which would expand into continental Europe during the 1980s. TSR UK published a series of modules and the original Fiend Folio . TSR UK also produced Imagine magazine for 31 issues. The first-published campaign setting for AD&D ,
29241-555: Was waning. 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. 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. TSR suffered "the effects of overexpansion" in 1996 with an "expanded number of hardcover novels and
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