The Kingdoms of Kalamar is a fantasy role-playing game campaign setting published by Kenzer & Company in 1994 that is compatible with the second edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons published by TSR. Several other editions of the game were subsequently released as new editions of Dungeons & Dragons were published.
The Kingdoms of Kalamar is a fictional fantasy role-playing game setting that describes the Kingdoms of Kalamar on the planet Tellene, providing details of its inhabitants, flora and fauna, geography, religions, and nations. [1]
David Kenzer and his friends Brian Jelke and Steve Johansson, who played AD&D, decided to start the game company Kenzer & Company in 1994 to produce material for the 2nd edition of AD&D. Their first project was The Kingdoms of Kalamar, an unlicensed fantasy world created without permission of TSR. Kalamar specifically did not mention AD&D, and was advertised as a generic setting that could be adapted to any role-playing game system but was designed to be compatible with the second edition of AD&D. [2] : 242 A note on the back cover clarified that the setting was "suitable for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" with a disclaimer "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is a registered trademark of TSR Hobbies, Inc. Use of this trademark is NOT sanctioned by the holder." [2] : 241
The Kingdoms of Kalamar was packaged in a ziplock bag (and later as a box set) [3] and included:
Kenzer & Company produced two more expansions for The Kingdoms of Kalamar in 1997, then went into hiatus for two years. When the company returned to business, it produced what game historian Shannon Appelcline called "a set of cheap and small Kalamar Quest adventures (1999–2000)." [2] : 242
In Issue 16 of Shadis (November 1994), Scott Johnson liked the quality of the maps, writing, "The maps are beautiful and rival those of any other company on the market, including TSR. You will also appreciate the fact that they are printed on a heavy, durable stock which should survive all the abuses that gamemasters and players will likely subject them to over the years." Johnson was "pleasantly surprised" by the book about religion, commenting, "While the book does detail information about the many gods of the world, it does much more, detailing the religions and how they affect the political and social structure of the world as well as detailing the priests of each religion. I came away from the read with hundreds of ideas for adventures." Johnson concluded, "If you are a game master looking for a good world setting to run your game in or a world builder with your own campaign already going, The Kingdoms of Kalimar offers you a refreshingly generic view and more than your money's worth. I highly recommend it." [4]
In the December 1996 edition of Dragon (Issue #236), Rick Swan especially liked the religion section, and called the color maps "lush". Swan concluded with a recommendation to buy, saying, "the mountain of campaign fodder should be enough to keep your players busy until they're ready for the rest home." [5]
In the 2014 Designers & Dragons: The '90s, game historian Shannon Appelcline noted that "Though small press, [Kalamar] was lauded for its colorful maps and its attention to details — making it in some ways like a more fantasy-oriented version of Columbia Games' classic Hârn." [2] : 240
In the late 1990s, as Wizards of the Coast (WotC) developed a Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition, Kenzer & Co. negotiated with them to produce a licensed version that would use the new rules. On November 1, 2000, WotC announced via press release that Kingdoms of Kalamar, produced by Kenzer & Company, would become an official Dungeons & Dragons world using the Third Edition rules. [7]
The Sourcebook of the Sovereign Lands and the Mythos of the Divine and Worldly were combined, and nearly 100,000 words of new material were added to create a hardcover book retitled Kingdoms of Kalamar Campaign Setting that was published in 2001. [2] : 245 Shannon Appelcline noted that this campaign setting was the first Third Edition licensed product to market, even beating out WotC's own Forgotten Realms campaign setting. [2] : 245 Appelcline also noted that, due to its "first to market" position, "the new Kalamar line did much better than its first incarnation." [2] : 245 Kenzer & Company subsequently released 30 licensed products to support it. [2] : 245
This edition was nominated for the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Game.
In 2005, the last Kalamar products were released as hardcover books sporting the D&D logo. Subsequent products were released by Kenzer & Company as PDFs with no D&D logo. [2] : 247
On July 11, 2007, Kenzer & Company announced that their license with WotC would expire in August of that year. [8]
In Issue 31 of the French games magazine Backstab, Michaël Croitoriu compared this edition to watching Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal , saying, "After half an hour, you're sound asleep. In fact, it took me no less than ten days to digest this game world." Croitoriu blamed this on the strategy of simply reprinting all of the old material from the 1st edition and adding some new material rather than starting from scratch and rewriting the entire setting. Croitoriu also was not impressed with the interior art, calling it "worthy of an eight-year-old child." He also noted that there were no new races, character classes, or significant new rules in this edition. Croitoriu recommended that any other rival campaign setting for the Third Edition would be a better alternative to this product. [9]
Pyramid found that while the original edition of The Kingdoms of Kalamar originally had numerous game stats relating to 2nd edition Dungeons & Dragons, once the Kingdoms were made an official Dungeons & Dragons setting in third edition, it had very few D&D specific references. [10]
In 2006, Kenzer & Company announced that Kingdoms of Kalamar would be the official setting of the second version of their HackMaster roleplaying game. [11]
In 2008, WotC released Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition. In the summer of 2008, Kenzer & Company released a compilation of the Campaign Setting and Atlas as a new PDF updated to Fourth Edition rules. [2] : 179
This release was not published under the terms of WotC's Game System License (GSL), becoming the first third-party publication to do so. Company president David Kenzer, a lawyer specializing in Intellectual Property, posted on the internet, "Copyright infringement is basing your work on someone else's creative expression. Rules are not creative expression. Also, it is not ‘based’ on their rules. It happens to 'work with' their rules." [2] : 179
Like many products created by various publishers using Fourth Edition rules, this edition of Kalamar was unsuccessful, and Kenzer and Company did not produce any supplements. [2] : 251
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TSR). It has been published by Wizards of the Coast, later a subsidiary of Hasbro, since 1997. The game was derived from miniature wargames, with a variation of the 1971 game Chainmail serving as the initial rule system. D&D's publication is commonly recognized as the beginning of modern role-playing games and the role-playing game industry, and also deeply influenced video games, especially the role-playing video game genre.
Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories. Several years later, it was published for the D&D game as a series of magazine articles, and the first Realms game products were released in 1987. Role-playing game products have been produced for the setting ever since, in addition to novels, role-playing video game adaptations, comic books, and the film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Spelljammer is a campaign setting originally published for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, which features a fantastic outer space environment. Subsequent editions have included Spelljammer content; a Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition setting update was released on August 16, 2022.
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 he 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 other son Kevin, making the two Blume brothers the largest shareholders in TSR Hobbies.
HackMaster is a fantasy role-playing game produced by Kenzer & Company. It began as a fictional game, a parody of Dungeons & Dragons played by the characters of the Knights of the Dinner Table comic strip by Jolly R. Blackburn. The characters in the comic began playing fictional HackMaster 3rd Edition, which was updated and published in 2001 as a numerously revised 4th edition. It has been hinted the name of the game was originally changed for copyright reasons.
Richard Baker is an American author and game designer who has worked on many Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings.
The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting is a role-playing game sourcebook first published by TSR in 1987 for the first edition of the fantasy role-playing game Advanced Dungeons & Dragons that describes the campaign setting of the Forgotten Realms. It contains information on characters, locations and history. Various revised and updated editions have been produced over the years.
Kenzer & Company (KenzerCo) is a Waukegan, Illinois based publisher of comic books, role-playing games, board games, card games, and miniature games.
The flexibility of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) game rules means that Dungeon Masters (DM) are free to create their own fantasy campaign settings. For those who wanted a pre-packaged setting in which to play, TSR, Wizards of the Coast (WotC), and other publishers have created many settings in which D&D games can be based; of these, the Forgotten Realms, an epic fantasy world, has been one of the most successful and critically acclaimed settings. Many campaign settings include standard sword and sorcery environments, while others borrow Asian, Central American, swashbuckling, horror and even space-travel themes.
Return to the Keep on the Borderlands is a 1999 adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It is a sequel to the original The Keep on the Borderlands module (B2) from 1979. Both modules were published by TSR, Inc.
Ptolus, subtitled "Monte Cook's City by the Spire", is a fantasy role-playing game campaign setting published by Malhavoc Press in 2006 that details a single city and the dungeons that lie beneath it. Ptolus uses the rules of the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons — the d20 System — under the terms of Wizards of the Coast's Open Game License. At 672 pages, it was the largest D&D supplement that had been published up to that time.
Lenard William Lakofka was an American writer of material for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Although never a formal employee of TSR, the company that published Dungeons & Dragons, Lakofka was an influential voice in the development of the game. He was one of the playtesters of the game as it was being developed, an editor of early manuscripts, wrote a widely-read monthly D&D magazine column and two official D&D adventures, and had his home campaign setting of the Lendore Isles incorporated into Gary Gygax's World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting.
Castle Greyhawk is a comedic adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game set in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting. The module bears the code WG7 and was published by TSR, Inc. in 1988 for the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules.
The Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia is a 1991 book published by TSR, Inc., as a continuation of the basic edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, which ran concurrently with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Its product designation was TSR 1071.
Dark Sun is an original Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) campaign setting set in the fictional, post-apocalyptic desert world of Athas. Dark Sun featured an innovative metaplot, influential art work, dark themes, and a genre-bending take on traditional fantasy role-playing. The product line began with the original Dark Sun Boxed Set released for D&D's 2nd edition in 1991, originally ran until 1996, and was one of TSR's most successful releases.
Ravenloft: Realm of Terror is a boxed set accessory published in 1990 for the Ravenloft campaign setting for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.
Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms is an accessory and campaign setting for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.
David S. Kenzer is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.
The Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set is a category of companion accessories across multiple editions of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. In general, the Starter Set is a boxed set that includes a set of instructions for basic play, a low level adventure module, pre-generated characters, and other tools to help new players get started.