Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons by Michael Witwer

Author:Michael Witwer [Witwer, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9781632862044
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2015-10-06T04:00:00+00:00

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The Dictator

“I don’t care what Gary said. I own controlling interest in this company and it will be done the way I say!”1 a voice bellowed from down the hall, spoken deliberately loud enough for all to hear.

The voice was that of Brian Blume, who was reacting to an instruction Gary had delivered earlier that day. Gary was, after all, still the president and CEO of the company, but without a controlling interest, he was little more than a figurehead. Unfortunately, by 1982 raucous displays such as this had become commonplace among all of TSR’s leadership. “Philosophically we [TSR’s leadership] run in different directions,”2 Brian had said in a recent interview, with a certain amount of understatement.

Brian’s brother, Kevin, for his part, had recently stopped playing D&D and was now interested in “playing a much larger game called business. That’s why we’re intuitively good businessmen—because games are a great way to learn,”3 he would say in the same Inc. magazine article. This “game” evidently included firing a dozen employees in April 1981 for having a bad attitude, in what was known to employees as “the Great Purge.”4

In Gary’s mind, the Blume brothers, perhaps emboldened by their newfound power and wealth, seldom missed an opportunity to remind him, or anyone else for that matter, who was in charge. According to Gary, this included a proposed policy where “Kevin [Blume] was going to use his ‘medical training’ to examine employees for drug use and fire them if he found they were using … When one of their relatives was discharged for lack of capacity, though, she was allowed plenty of time before having to leave.”5 Later it was discovered that TSR was “paying for her college tuition.”6 According to employees, Kevin Blume’s “medical training” amounted to being a military medic.

Gary had become callused and found ways to deflect the growing authoritarianism of the Blumes, but these defense mechanisms had left him brooding and inaccessible. He often exhibited a disconnected and indifferent demeanor, punctuated by intense fits of anger. His experience with and under the Blumes for the last several years had taken its toll and left the otherwise jovial and childlike man broken, bitter, and occasionally ruthless.

Gary could hear what he thought was the anxious scamper of staffers’ feet rushing up and down the hallway, eager to fulfill the demands of of his partner and now adversary down the hall. His blood began to boil, but then he remembered there was recourse.

Maybe today is the day, he thought. Gary drew a blank piece of letterhead from his overflowing desk and quickly scrolled it into his typewriter. He hurriedly lit a cigarette, as to not disrupt his momentum. He was moving with purpose. The hum of his IBM Selectric typewriter seemed to beckon him, as it had done so many times in the past. He knew this sound. It was the sound of creation—the sound of action.

The snap of the keys was slow and sporadic at first but soon grew in frequency and fluidity.

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