The game that created the role-playing genre, Dungeons and Dragons, emerged in 1974 as a self-published set of three folded and stapled pamphlets in a wood-grained box. Authored by Gary Gygax and financed by his childhood friend, Don Kaye, the world’s first role-playing game was distributed by the company they called Tactical Studies Rules, or TSR.
This unauthorized corporate history, based on interviews with key participants and some anonymous sources, is an epic tale of magic and deceit, heroes and villains, great victories and humiliating defeats.
“TSR’s failure is a tale of misfortune and mistakes kept secret for decades, here given up to the light,” writes author and podcaster Ben Riggs. “It is the story of an unemployed insurance underwriter, an heiress, a preacher’s son, and a game like no other.”
