Table of Contents
Part 1 The Rise and Fall of Gary Gygax
1 The Warden's Tale 3
2 The Birth of TSR, and the D&D Phenomenon 9
3 Satan! Suicide! And Sales! 29
4 TSR's Near-Death Experience 35
5 D&D and Living the Riot Life in LA 53
Part II The Williams Era
6 Sympathy for Lorraine 65
7 The Departure of Weis and Hickman 71
8 Lost Realms Found Again 77
9 How to Find a Bestselling Author 83
10 D&D, Now Advanced and 2.0! 91
11 The Saga of TSR West 103
12 The Fish-Bait Strategy 125
13 Salvation Sales in the Book Department 135
14 TSR and Tolkien, or the Game That Was Not 147
Part III Slapping a Band-Aid on Failures
15 Can VHS Teach D&D to Eight-Year-Olds? 155
16 Departures 173
17 TSR's Greatest Setting Can't Stop Sales Slide 185
18 Random House Wants Its Money Back 195
19 The Giant with Feet of Lead 203
20 Magic Competition 211
21 The Warden Departs 217
22 Existential Absurdity in 1997 231
23 The Tomb 237
Part IV The Preacher's Son Performs a Resurrection
24 Peter Adkison 243
25 The Deal That Saved D&D 249
26 Healing the Wounds 263
Acknowledgments 281
Selected Bibliography 285
Index 287