Preface
notes on scale and movement, so the DM
could keep track of how long it would take
the players to move from region to region,
royal and noble precedence, so the DM
could ensure the players addressed heads
of state properly
Orders of knighthood, for players who
desired to join one, a glossary of runes and
glyphs that the DM could use to create
puzzling messages, mysterious omens
and vaguely worded portents.
The first edition covers less than
a quarter of the landmass of Oerth,
concentrating on the eastern part of the
continent of Oerik, giving only the most
basic descriptions of each state; DMs
were expected to elaborate on these areas
in order to make them an integral part of
their own individual campaigns.
Three years later, TSR released the World
of Greyhawk box set, which included all of
the material from the earlier release, as
well as information taken from articles
that had been published in Dragon, brand
new material, and more maps.
Publication of the World of Greyhawk
was the first step in Gygax’s vision for
Oerth. Over the next few years, he planned
to unveil other areas of the continent of
Oerik, giving each new area the same in-
depth treatment of history, geography,
and politics as had been accorded the
Flanaess.
By the time the 1983 edition was
published, Gygax was in Hollywood on a
semi-permanent basis, approving scripts
for the Saturday morning Dungeons &
Dragons cartoon series and trying to land
a deal for a D&D movie. Without his day-
to-day guidance, many of these projects
never appeared.
Because he was occupied with getting a
movie off the ground in Hollywood, Gygax
had to leave the day-to-day operations of
TSR to Kevin and Brian Blume. In 1984,
after months of negotiation, he reached
an agreement with Orson Welles to star in
a D&D movie, and John Boorman to act
as producer and director. But almost at
the same time, he received word that back
in Lake Geneva, TSR had run into severe
financial difficulties and Kevin Blume was
shopping the company for US$6 million.
Gygax immediately discarded his movie
ambitions—his D&D movie would never
be made—and flew back to Lake Geneva.
There, he discovered to his shock that
although industry leader TSR was grossing
US$30 million, it was barely breaking
even; it was in fact US$1.5 million in debt
and teetering on the edge of insolvency.
After investigating the reasons why,
Gygax brought his findings to the five
other company directors. Gygax claimed
that the financial crisis was due to
mismanagement by Kevin Blume: excess
inventory, over-staffing, too many
company cars, and some questionable
(and expensive) projects.
Gygax demanded that Kevin Blume be
removed as company president, and the
three outside directors agreed with him.
However, the board still believed the