Don Kaye
Don Kaye | |
---|---|
Born | [1] | June 27, 1938
Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. |
Occupation | game publisher[2][3] |
Nationality | United States |
Genre | role-playing games |
Donald R. Kaye (June 27, 1938 – January 31, 1975) was the co-founder of Tactical Studies Rules (TSR), the game publishing company most famous for their Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) role-playing game. He and TSR co-founder Gary Gygax had been friends since childhood,[4] sharing an interest in miniature war games. In 1972, Kaye created Murlynd, one of the first D&D characters, and play-tested him[4] in Gygax's Castle Greyhawk campaign. Kaye and Gygax were convinced that D&D and similar games were an excellent business opportunity, and together they founded Tactical Studies Rules in 1973. However, only two years later, just as sales of D&D started to rise, Kaye unexpectedly died of a heart attack at age 36.
Early life and early gaming
Don Kaye was born on June 27, 1938.[5] He grew up in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where at age 6, he became friends with Gygax, who had visited and later moved there from Chicago, Illinois in 1946.[2] They began playing miniature war games in 1953.[6] Gygax and Kaye designed their own miniatures rules for toy soldiers, with a large collection of 54 mm and 70 mm figures, and used "ladyfinger firecrackers" to simulate explosions.[2][7] In 1965, Kaye, Gygax, Mike Reese, and Leon Tucker created a military miniatures society, Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association (LGTSA),[7] with its first headquarters in Gygax's basement,[6] and later held meetings in Kaye's garage.[8]
Formation of TSR
In the fall of 1972, Dave Arneson, a wargamer from nearby Minneapolis-St. Paul, demonstrated a new type of role-playing game to the LGTSA. Gygax then created a similar game set in the imaginary Castle Greyhawk, and invited his children, Ernie and Elise, "to create characters and adventure".[9] The next evening, Kaye joined the game along with Gygax's friends Rob Kuntz and Terry Kuntz.[4][2] Kaye created the character Murlynd, Rob Kuntz created Robilar and Terry Kuntz created Terik.[10] Kaye observed with interest as a very enthusiastic group played the prototype Dungeons & Dragons game at Gen Con VI (1973), and suggested to Gygax that they form a company to publish the game themselves.[11] Sensing the potential popularity of the game, Kaye and Gygax each invested $1000 in October 1973 to found the publishing company Tactical Studies Rules;[12] [13][2] Kaye borrowed his share from his life insurance policy.[7][14] TSR was initially run out of Kaye's dining room.[11] They immediately published Cavaliers and Roundheads, a miniature game based on the English Civil War, [15] and planned to use its revenue to print and publish D&D.[14] However, in 1974, after worries that other companies were developing similar projects, they decided not to wait,[16] and convinced a gaming acquaintance, Brian Blume, to invest in TSR as an equal one-third partner.[17] In January 1974, they printed a thousand copies of the game and hand-assembled them in the basement of Gygax's house.[6] Warehousing and shipping was done from Kaye's home.[2] The first printing sold out before the end of 1974, and sales of a second printing began to increase exponentially.[18] In late 1974, Kaye helped develop some of the rules for a new Western-genre game to be called Boot Hill.[19]
Death and legacy
Although only 36 years old at the start of 1975, Kaye needed heart surgery, a fact that he did not disclose to his partners.[14] Gygax and Blume were therefore unprepared when Kaye suffered a heart attack before the scheduled date for surgery and died on January 31, 1975.[5][7]
Kaye had not made any specific provision in his will regarding his one-third share of the company, so his share of TSR passed to his wife, who was not interested in having any part of TSR. Gygax stated "After Don died [Kaye's wife] dumped all the Tactical Studies Rules materials off on my front porch. It would have been impossible to manage a business with her involved as a partner."[20] Neither Gygax nor Blume had the money to formally buy the share owned by Kaye's wife, but Blume persuaded Gygax to allow his father, Melvin Blume, to buy it.[21] The company was re-formed as TSR Hobbies, Inc, with the Blume family owning controlling interest.[17][22][21]
In 1975, Gygax and Blume published Boot Hill in memory of Kaye.[2] Gygax highlighted Kaye's character Murlynd in the March 1983 issue of Dragon magazine.[23] The following year, Gygax paid further tribute to Kaye when he used Murlynd's name for two spells (Murlynd's Ogre, Murlynd's Void) and an item (Murlynd's Spoon) in Unearthed Arcana.[24]
References
- ↑ "United States Social Security Death Index," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/V9C6-64X : accessed 12 Feb 2013), Donald Kaye, January 1975; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Kaye's primary occupation has not been publicized, but he was planning on quitting that job to work for the upstart TSR.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. - excerpt notes from Paul Stromberg, with Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz debating the location and organization of LGTSA meetings.
- ↑ Gygax: "It was in the late fall of 1972 when I completed a map of some castle ruins, noted ways down to the dungeon level (singular), and invited my 11-year-old son Ernie and nine-year-old daughter Elise to create characters and adventure. This they did, and around 9 pm ... they had to come back from such imaginary derring-do, put their index card character sheets aside, and get ready for bed. They had had a marvelous time and wanted to keep playing." Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Gygax: "In a couple of days time Don Kaye (Murlynd), Rob (Robilar, Otto) and Terry (Terik) Kuntz joined the gang." Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. - "Gary: Well, yeah, I founded Tactical Studies Rules with Don Kaye - he and I were equal partners. We founded that in October of 1973 and published D&D in January of 1974."
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. - "After being turned down by all major game manufacturers of the time, Gary Gygax and Don Kaye formed a partnership, which operated out of Kaye's dining room in Lake Geneva. It was named Tactical Studies Rules after their local wargaming club called Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association. Kaye covered the $1,000 they needed to publish Cavaliers and Roundheads, a miniature game of the English Civil War."
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. - "Gygax: Don and I wanted to get the D&D game out as soon as possible. If we had waited until sales of our one set of military miniatures rules, 'Cavaliers & Roundheads', generated sufficient funds, it would have been 1975 before we could publish."
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Kuntz: "Don was a great fan of the Western and an avid supporter of the Boot Hill rules." Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Gygax, Gary. Unearthed Arcana (TSR, 1985)