Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Gary Gygax’s Post-TSR Career

Mr. Gygax and TSR parted ways in the mid-eighties due to the poor and erratic way that he was running the company.

 After leaving TSR, Gygax immediately created the gaming company New Infinities Productions with the idea of gaining revenge against TSR. Gygax wrote the outline for what became the game Cyborg Commando. Published in 1987, the game garnered poor reviews and sold poorly. New Infinities was poorly run and it went out of business in 1989.

 Following this setback, Gygax next tried to get revenge on TSR by partnering with Games Designer Workshop to create a game to compete with Dungeons & Dragons D&D). At first, this project was known as Dangerous Dimensions, however TSR threatened to sue over the initials being DD, almost the same as that for Dungeons & Dragons. The new role-playing game was now renamed Dangerous Journeys, but TSR sued anyways. Eventually, TSR gained ownership of the new game and Gygax was out in the cold yet again.

 In 1999, Gygax took another stab at creating a game to gain revenge upon TSR with. This was Lejendary Adventure (LA) that was published by two companies thaat were run by friends of Gygax, Hekaforge Productions and Troll Lord Games. LA has fared better than Gygax's previous non-TSR games, but it still has not been much of a rival to D&D.

 In 2004, Gygax had a hand in the creation of the RPG Castles & Crusades. Its not known how important this role was, but his name was used in promoting the game. This game has only been a limited success.

 Additionally, after leaving TSR, Gygax wrote two books, "Master of the Game" and "Role-Playing Mastery." He also wrote some fictional works as well. None of these books sold well. Gygax's books were of generally poor quality. They were derided by the hard core gamer members of the Little Rock Science Fiction Society of which I was a member during the years 1997-2000.

 Gygax spent the last three decades of his life in Lake Geneva, WI, where he led a quiet life marked by being a frequent guest at gaming conventions. He passed away in 2008.

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