Lorraine Williams
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Lorraine Williams
Lorraine Dille Williams is an American businesswoman. She was hired as manager of TSR, Inc. by company co-founder Gary Gygax in 1984, and was in charge of the gaming company from 1986 to 1997. Williams gained control of TSR in October 1985 when the Blume brothers sold her their controlling shares of the company. In 1996, an unexpectedly high cost of returned (unsold) fiction books and an expensive, unsuccessful foray into the collectible card game market caused a cash flow squeeze, and Williams sold TSR to Wizards of the Coast in 1997. Williams inherited the rights to Buck Rogers and a large collection of Buck Rogers memorabilia. She sold the memorabilia at auction in 2010. Early life Lorraine Williams is the granddaughter of John F. Dille who, while president of the National Newspaper Service syndicate in the 1920s, arranged for Buck Rogers to be turned into a syndicated comic strip. After Dille's death in 1957, ownership of Buck Rogers and other works passed into the Dille F ...
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TSR, Inc
TSR, Inc. was an American game publishing company, best known as the original publisher of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D''). Its earliest incarnation, Tactical Studies Rules, was founded in October 1973 by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye. Gygax had been unable to find a publisher for ''D&D'', a new type of game he and Dave Arneson were co-developing, so founded the new company with Kaye to self-publish their products. Needing financing to bring their new game to market, Gygax and Kaye brought in Brian Blume in December as an equal partner. ''Dungeons & Dragons'' is generally considered the first tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG), and established the genre. When Kaye died suddenly in 1975, the Tactical Studies Rules partnership restructured into TSR Hobbies, Inc. and accepted investment from Blume's father Melvin. With the popular ''D&D'' as its main product, TSR Hobbies became a major force in the games industry by the late 1970s. Melvin Blume eventually transferred his shares to his ...
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New Infinities Productions
New Infinities Productions was an American game company that produced role-playing games and game supplements. History Immediately after leaving TSR, Gary Gygax helped form New Infinities Productions, Inc. (Registration required) Wargamer and accountant Forrest Baker had worked as a consultant for TSR during 1984 and 1985, and wrote up a business plan that convinced Gygax to try again with the business side of roleplaying; New Infinities was the results, with Baker as CEO and Gygax as chairman of the board. In October 1986, the company was publicly announced. Frank Mentzer and Kim Mohan were design executives and with Gygax formed the creative committee.Gygax, Gary 1987. "From the Sorcerer's Scroll", ''Dragon'' 122:40 (Jun 1987) Before a single product was released, Baker disappeared when his promised outside investment of one to two million dollars failed to come through. In February 1987, Don Turnbull was brought on as the new CEO of New Infinities. Gygax had retained the rights ...
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The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly Wide-format printer, large-format print magazine with a revamped website. As of 2020, the day-to-day operations of the company are handled by Penske Media Corporation through a joint venture with Eldridge Industries. History Early years; 1930–1987 ''The Hollywood Reporter'' was founded in 1930 by William R. Wilkerson, William R. "Billy" Wilkerson (1890–1962) as Hollywood's first daily entertainment trade newspaper. The first edition appeared on September 3, 1930, and featured Wilkerson's front-page "Tradeviews" column, which became influential. The newspaper appeared Monday-to-Saturday for the first 10 years, except for a brief period, then Monday-to-Friday from 1940. Wilkerson used caustic articles ...
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Philip Francis Nowlan
Philip Francis Nowlan (; November 13, 1888 – February 1, 1940) was an American science fiction writer, best known as the creator of Buck Rogers. Biography Nowlan was born on November 13, 1888. While attending the University of Pennsylvania, Nowlan was a member of The Mask and Wig Club, holding significant roles in the annual productions between 1907 and 1909. After attending the University of Pennsylvania he worked as a newspaper columnist. Nowlan was married to Theresa Junker, and they had ten children. He moved to the Philadelphia suburb of Bala Cynwyd and created and wrote the Buck Rogers comic strip, illustrated by Dick Calkins. He remained a writer on the strip until 1939. The comic strip ran from 1929-1967. Spin-offs included a radio-serial series '' Buck Rogers in the 25th Century'' (sporadically aired from 1932-1947), a 1939 movie serial ''Buck Rogers'', a brief 1950-51 television series, and a 1979-1981 television series '' Buck Rogers in the 25th Century''. Nowlan ...
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Five Rings Publishing Group
The Five Rings Publishing Group (FRPG) was formed as a spin-out of Alderac Entertainment Group and ISOMEDIA. History In 1996, Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) and ISOMEDIA divested themselves of their joint operating venture, and created Five Rings Publishing Group. Using the joint venture the two companies had co-created the ''Legend of the Five Rings Collectible Card Game'' in 1995, and realized that in order to continue to successfully publish the game that a stand-alone company focused on the game-publishing business was the best solution. FRPG was incorporated in the spring of 1996, and was funded by a pool of investors recruited in the Seattle area by Robert (Bob) Abramowitz, who became the CEO of the new company. John Zinser, CEO of AEG took the additional role of VP of Sales, and Ryan S. Dancey of ISOMEDIA left the company to become the full-time VP of Product Development for FRPG. Other initial staff at FRPG included Mindy Sherwood-Lewis, Philip Lewis, Arnold Koppel, ...
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Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. History Random House was founded in 1927 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, two years after they acquired the Modern Library imprint from publisher Horace Liveright, which reprints classic works of literature. Cerf is quoted as saying, "We just said we were going to publish a few books on the side at random," which suggested the name Random House. In 1934 they published the first authorized edition of James Joyce's novel ''Ulysses'' in the Anglophone world. ''Ulysses'' transformed Random House into a formidable publisher over the next two decades. In 1936, it absorbed the firm of Smith and Haas—Robert Haas became the third partner until retiring and selling his share back to Cerf and Klopfer in 19 ...
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Dragon Dice
''Dragon Dice'' is a collectible dice game originally made by TSR, Inc., and is produced today by SFR, Inc. It is one of only a handful of collectible dice games produced in the early 1990s. The races and monsters in ''Dragon Dice'' were created by Lester Smith and include some creatures unique to a fantasy setting and others familiar to the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game. The game simulates combat between armies of fantasy races for control of a young world named Esfah. ''Dragon Dice'' classifies magical power by element: air, earth, fire, water, and death. Nearly every race in the game is composed of two of these elements. In the original edition, dragons and dragon-related dice (Dragonkin) were all composed of a single element each. However, SFR has since released "hybrid" dragons representing each two-element combination, in addition to white and ivory dragons (where ivory represents no elemental affinity and white represents affinity with all elements). ''Dragon ...
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The Gathering
The Gathering may refer to: Film and television * ''The Gathering'' (1977 film), an American television film directed by Randal Kleiser * ''The Gathering'' (2003 film), a British thriller/horror film directed by Brian Gilbert * ''The Gathering'' (miniseries), a 2007 American thriller starring Peter Fonda * ''The Gathering'' (audio drama), a 2006 audio drama based on the television programme ''Doctor Who'' * The Gathering, a contest among immortals in the Highlander franchise * '' Babylon 5: The Gathering'', the 1993 pilot movie for ''Babylon 5'' TV episodes * "The Gathering" (''Gargoyles'') * "The Gathering" (''Ghost Whisperer'') * "The Gathering" (''Highlander: The Series''), pilot * "The Gathering" (''Outlander'') * "The Gathering" (''Star Wars: The Clone Wars'') * "The Gathering" (''Torchwood'') Literature * ''The Gathering'' (Armstrong novel), a 2011 novel by Kelley Armstrong * ''The Gathering'' (Carmody novel), a 1993 novel by Isobelle Carmody * ''The Gath ...
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Games Workshop
Games Workshop Group (often abbreviated as GW) is a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England. Its best-known products are ''Warhammer Age of Sigmar'' and ''Warhammer 40,000''. Founded in 1975 by John Peake (game designer), John Peake, Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson (UK), Steve Jackson, Games Workshop was originally a manufacturer of wooden boards for games including backgammon, mancala, nine men's morris and Go (board game), Go. It later became an importer of the U.S. role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'', and then a publisher of wargames and role-playing games in its own right, expanding from a bedroom mail-order company in the process. It expanded into Europe, the US, Canada, and Australia in the early 1990s. All UK-based operations were relocated to the current headquarters in Lenton, Nottingham in 1997. It started promoting games associated with The Lord of the Rings (film series), ''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy in 2001. It al ...
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Strategic Simulations, Inc
Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) was a video game developer and publisher with over 100 titles to its credit from its founding in 1979 to its dissolution in 1994. The company was especially noted for its numerous wargames, its official computer game adaptations of ''Dungeons & Dragons'', and for the groundbreaking ''Panzer General'' series. History The company was founded by Joel Billings, a wargame enthusiast, who in the summer of 1979 saw the possibility of using the new home computers such as the TRS-80 for wargames. While unsuccessfully approaching Avalon Hill and Automated Simulations to publish wargames, he hired programmers John Lyons, who wrote ''Computer Bismarck''—later claimed to have been the first "serious wargame" published for a microcomputer"Titans of the Computer Gaming World"''Computer Gaming World'', March 1988 p.36.—and Ed Williger, who wrote '' Computer Ambush''. Both games were written in BASIC as were many of SSI's early games. Although Billings e ...
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Buck Rogers XXVC
Buck Rogers XXVC (sometimes written as Buck Rogers in the 25th Century) is a game setting created by TSR, Inc. in the late 1980s. Products based on this setting include novels, graphic novels, a role-playing game (RPG), board game, and video games. The setting was active from 1988 until 1995. History Buck Rogers is a fictional character created in 1928 by Philip Francis Nowlan. A Buck Rogers comic strip written by Nowlan was syndicated by John F. Dille (who may have contributed the nickname "Buck" to the character). Ownership of Buck Rogers and other works passed into the hands of the Dille Family Trust. In the 1980s, John Dille's granddaughter, Lorraine Williams, was the president of TSR. In that decade, business for TSR was booming, mainly as a result of their popular RPG, ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons''. Lorraine Williams decided to merge Buck Rogers and ''D&D'' to make the XXVc game setting. First, a board game came out in 1988, later followed by a role-playing game in ...
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Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large national audience. Daily broadsheet editions are printed for D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The ''Post'' was founded in 1877. In its early years, it went through several owners and struggled both financially and editorially. Financier Eugene Meyer purchased it out of bankruptcy in 1933 and revived its health and reputation, work continued by his successors Katharine and Phil Graham (Meyer's daughter and son-in-law), who bought out several rival publications. The ''Post'' 1971 printing of the Pentagon Papers helped spur opposition to the Vietnam War. Subsequently, in the best-known episode in the newspaper's history, reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein led the American press's investigation into what became known as the Watergate scandal, ...
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