Don Kaye - Formation of TSR

Formation of TSR

In the fall of 1972, Dave Arneson, a wargamer from nearby Minneapolis-St. Paul, demonstrated a new type of role-playing game to the LGTSA. Gygax immediately set to work creating a similar game set in the imaginary Castle Greyhawk, and invited his children, Ernie and Elise, "to create characters and adventure". The next evening, Kaye joined the game along with Gygax's friends Rob Kuntz and Terry Kuntz. Kaye created the character Murlynd, Rob Kuntz created Robilar and Terry Kuntz created Terik. Sensing the potential popularity of the game, Kaye and Gygax each invested $1000 in October 1973 to found the publishing company Tactical Studies Rules, Kaye borrowing his share from his life insurance policy. They immediately published Cavaliers and Roundheads, a miniature game based on the English Civil War, planning to use the revenue from this game to print and publish D&D. However, by 1974, worried that other companies were developing similar projects, they decided they couldn't wait any longer, and convinced a gaming acquaintance, Brian Blume, to invest in TSR as an equal one-third partner. In January 1974, they printed a thousand copies of the game and hand-assembled them in the basement of Gygax's house. Warehousing and shipping was done from Kaye's home. The first printing sold out before the end of 1974, and sales of a second printing began to increase exponentially. In late 1974, Kaye also helped develop some of the rules for a new Western-genre game to be called Boot Hill.