Troll Lord Games

Last updated
Troll Lord Games
TypePublisher
Industry RPGs, magazine & other assorted media.
Founded2000
Headquarters Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
Key people
Stephen Chenault: C.E.O.
Davis Chenault: Chief Strategy Officer
Todd Grey: Chief of Distribution and Sales
Products Castles & Crusades , Rings of Brass , The Crusader Magazine
Website trolllord.com

Troll Lord Games is an American publisher of role-playing games (based on fantasy and swords & sorcery themes), The Crusader magazine and other board/dice/card games.

Contents

They are best known for the Castles & Crusades role-playing game. They served as Gary Gygax's primary publisher from 2001–2008, publishing Lejendary Adventure , Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds and other book lines.

History

TLG's first published products were a series of adventures designed for the Swords and Sorcery RPG. This RPG was developed by Davis Chenault and Mac Golden. [1] TLG debuted these three adventures, the game system and Stephen Chenault's The After Winter's Dark campaign world at Gencon in 2000. These releases coincided with the release of d20 Dungeons & Dragons . Within a very short while TLG republished the books under the d20 license. At about this time they signed Gary Gygax and committed to the Gygaxian Fantasy World series. The series was launched with The Canting Crew, by Gary Gygax, in 2001.

Shortly thereafter TLG published the Codex of Erde [2] (later Aihrde), a fantasy world campaign setting and sourcebook for RPGs. It saw release in 2001 and was written by Stephen Chenault and Mac Golden with contributions by Davis Chenault and Gary Gygax.

Stephen Chenault recounts the origins of the Codex of Erde and how they were enmeshed with the founding of TLG as a company, in The Crusader Magazine. [3]

In this book, Gary Gygax wrote an introductory adventure, Search for a Lost City. It was a prelude to another TLG RPG book also released in 2001, called The Lost City of Gaxmoor, written by Ernie Gygax and Luke Gygax.

On June 11, 2001, Stephen Chenault and Davis Chenault announced that Gary Gygax would be writing books for Troll Lord Games. [4] :378 Gygax's early work for Troll Lord included a series of hardcover books that eventually came to be called "Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds"; the first was The Canting Crew (2002), a look at the roguish underworld. He also wrote World Builder (2003) and Living Fantasy (2003), generic game design books usable in many different settings. After the first four books in the series, Gygax stepped down from writing and took on an advisory role, though the series logo still carried his name. [4] :379 Troll Lord also published a few adventures as a result of their partnership with Gygax, including The Hermit (2002) an adventure intended for d20 and also for Lejendary Adventures. [4] :379

TLG also produced and published a string of RPG adventure modules taking place in the fantasy campaign world of Erde.

Another module written for the world of Erde was called Dark Druids written by Robert J. Kuntz, RPG author and ex-employee of TSR, Inc. It was released in 2002.

Also in 2002, Gary Gygax and TLG continued to work together to produce the Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds series of RPG “world builder” books.

Gary Gygax at Gen Con in 2003. He is sitting in the Troll Lord Games booth with Stephen Chenault. Gary Gygax and Stephen Chenault at Gen Con 2003.jpg
Gary Gygax at Gen Con in 2003. He is sitting in the Troll Lord Games booth with Stephen Chenault.

In 2004 TLG broke away from D&D/d20 related titles to publish their own game Castles & Crusades, named after Gary Gygax's original gaming club. [5]

In 2005 TLG took over the publishing of Gary Gygax’s Lejendary Adventure products and produced a boxed set with a scaled down version of the rules and monsters called Essentials. Following this, came the release of Living the Legend, a LA module written by Gygax.

2008 saw a new hard cover release and reprinting of the Greyhawk Adventures book Saga of Old City , [6] a Gord the Rogue novel by Gary Gygax.

Castles & Crusades

The Castles & Crusades RPG Collector’s Box Set was produced in 2004. It contained a Players Handbook, a Monsters & Treasure booklet and an introductory adventure booklet; all were digest size like the original Dungeons & Dragons boxed set.

The year 2005 proved to be a busy and productive year for TLG:

Gary Gygax continued to work on the next Castle Zagyg volume (at that time Volume II) into 2006 and 2007.

At Gen Con 40 in 2007, Gary Gygax was the Guest of Honor at the TLG booth. It would be his last Gen Con. The long-awaited Castle Zagyg: The Upper Works [8] made its debut at the TLG booth the following year, 2008.

In 2007 TLG published an update of the fantasy campaign World of Erde, changing the name to Aihrde and releasing a 48-page gazetteer called After Winter’s Dark [9] which established Aihrde as the official Castles & Crusades adventure setting.

A collection of alternate rules and guidelines for modifying the system, the Castle Keepers Guide, was released in February 2011.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Gygax</span> American game designer and author (1938–2008)

Ernest Gary Gygax was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with Dave Arneson.

Greyhawk, also known as the World of Greyhawk, is a fictional world designed as a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. Although not the first campaign world developed for Dungeons & Dragons—Dave Arneson's Blackmoor campaign predated it by about a year—the world of Greyhawk closely identified with early development of the game beginning in 1972, and after being published it remained associated with Dungeons & Dragons publications until 2008. The world itself started as a simple dungeon under a castle designed by Gary Gygax for the amusement of his children and friends, but it was rapidly expanded to include not only a complex multi-layered dungeon environment, but also the nearby city of Greyhawk, and eventually an entire world. In addition to the campaign world, which was published in several editions over twenty years, Greyhawk was also used as the setting for many adventures published in support of the game, as well as for RPGA's massively shared Living Greyhawk campaign from 2000–2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Arneson</span> American game designer (1947-2009)

David Lance Arneson was an American game designer best known for co-developing the first published role-playing game (RPG), Dungeons & Dragons, with Gary Gygax, in the early 1970s. Arneson's early work was fundamental to the role-playing game (RPG) genre, pioneering devices now considered to be archetypical, such as cooperative play to develop a storyline instead of individual competitive play to "win" and adventuring in dungeon, town, and wilderness settings as presented by a neutral judge who doubles as the voice and consciousness of all characters aside from the player characters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blackmoor (campaign setting)</span> Dungeons & Dragons fictional campaign setting

Blackmoor is a fantasy role-playing game campaign setting generally associated with the game Dungeons & Dragons. It originated in the early 1970s as the personal setting of Dave Arneson, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, as an early testing ground for what would become D&D.

Gord the Rogue is the protagonist in a series of fantasy novels and short stories written by Gary Gygax. Gygax originally wrote the novels and short stories to promote his World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. After he left TSR, Gygax continued to write Gord the Rogue novels for several years. In all of these works, the plot revolves around the adventures of a young man named Gord who rises from humble origins in the slums of a large city on the planet Oerth to become a powerful force trying to stave off the takeover of Oerth by demons.

<i>Castles & Crusades</i>

Castles & Crusades (C&C) is a fantasy role-playing game published in 2004 by Troll Lord Games based upon a stripped-down variant of the d20 System by Wizards of the Coast. The game system is designed to emulate the play of earlier editions of the Dungeons & Dragons game while keeping the unified mechanics of the d20 System.

<i>Lejendary Adventure</i> Tabletop role-playing game

Lejendary Adventure is a role-playing game created by Gary Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and creator of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Castle Greyhawk</span>

Castle Greyhawk is one of the central dungeon settings in the fictional World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. The Castle was originally developed by Gary Gygax, for his own campaign and later detailed for publication. Castle Greyhawk is also the name of a 1988 Dungeons & Dragons adventure module that created a treatment of the Castle for the public to use. In 2005, Gygax announced the release of "Castle Zagyg," his new treatment of the dungeon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judges Guild</span> Role playing game publisher

Judges Guild is a game publisher that has been active since 1976. The company created and sold many role-playing game supplements, periodicals and related materials. During the late 1970s and early 1980s the company was one of the leading publishers of Dungeons & Dragons related materials. Its flagship product, City State of the Invincible Overlord, was the first published RPG supplement to feature a fully developed city environment. The supplement was followed closely by numerous ancillary cities, maps, and other materials published by Judges Guild.

<i>Mordenkainens Fantastic Adventure</i> Dungeons & Dragons adventure module

Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure by Robert J. Kuntz and Gary Gygax is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, published by TSR, Inc. in 1984. It originally bore the code "WG5" and was intended for use with the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition rules. Because it is one of the WG modules, it is a module intended for the World of Greyhawk campaign setting. It was later updated in 2004 to the Third Edition Revised rules in Dungeon magazine, issue #112, as Maure Castle. There were subsequently two additional installments in issues #124 and #139.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iggwilv</span> Fictional wizard in Dungeons & Dragons

Iggwilv is a fictional wizard from the Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. She was created by Gary Gygax.

James Michael Ward is an American game designer and fantasy author who worked for TSR, Inc. for more than 20 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert J. Kuntz</span> Game designer

Robert J. Kuntz is a game designer and author of role-playing game publications. He is best known for his contributions to various Dungeons & Dragons-related materials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tabletop role-playing game</span> Form of role-playing game using speech

A tabletop role-playing game, also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a classification for a role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a set formal system of rules and guidelines. Within the rules, players have the freedom to improvise; their choices shape the direction and outcome of the game.

Darlene Jean Pekul, now just known as Darlene, is an American artist and calligrapher whose artwork appeared in early Dungeons & Dragons works published by TSR. Her best-known piece, the full-colour map of the Flanaess that accompanied the 1980 folio edition of the World of Greyhawk by Gary Gygax, was used as the basis of all subsequent Greyhawk publications and maps until Greyhawk publications were discontinued by Wizards of the Coast in 2008.

Free RPG Day is an annual promotional event by the Tabletop role-playing game industry. The event rules are fairly simple: participating publishers provide special free copies of games to participating game stores; the game store agrees to provide one free game to any person who requests a free game on Free RPG Day.

Stephen Chenault is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games. He is also the co-founder and CEO of Troll Lord Games.

Davis Chenault is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.

This is a bibliography of American game designer and author Gary Gygax.

References

  1. A&E FEATURE (2015-08-06). "Dungeon masters: Little Rock's Troll Lord Games is still going strong after 15 years". Arkansas Times . Retrieved 2018-07-13. but co-founder and CEO Stephen Chenault said Troll Lord has weathered the rise of digital video gaming by adapting and embracing the Internet rather than trying to fight against it.
  2. Chenault, Stephen; Mac Golden (November 2001). The Codex of Erde. Diamond Comic Distributors. ISBN   1-931275-05-X.
  3. Chenault, Stephen (December 2008). "The Codex of Erde". The Crusader. 4 (14): 23.
  4. 1 2 3 Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN   978-1-907702-58-7.
  5. Don Parsons (2015-08-15). "Interview with Stephen Chenault of Troll Lord Games on Mythos". TechRaptor. Retrieved 2018-07-13.
  6. Gygax, Gary (January 2008). Saga of Old City . Troll Lord Games/ Chenault & Gray. ISBN   978-1-931275-99-6.
  7. Gygax, Gary (November 2005). Castle Zagyg: Yggsburgh. ISBN   1-931275-68-8.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  8. Gygax, Gary; Jeffery P. Talanian (August 2007). Castle Zagyg, The Upper Works. Diamond Comic Distributors. ISBN   978-1-931275-38-5.
  9. Chenault, Stephen; Mac Golden (2007). After Winter's Dark Aihrde: A Fantasy Adventure Setting. ISBN   978-1-931275-46-0.