Troll Lord Games is an American publisher of

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

s (based on

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and drama ...

and

swords & sorcery Sword and sorcery (S&S) is a subgenre of fantasy characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent adventures. Elements of romance, magic, and the supernatural are also often present. Unlike works of high fantasy, the tale ...

themes), ''The Crusader'' magazine and other board/dice/card games. They are best known for the '' Castles & Crusades'' role-playing game. They served as

Gary Gygax Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s, Gygax created an ...

'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 Davis Chenault is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career Davis Chenault and his brother Stephen Chenault wanted to publish a 300-page leather bound campaign setting. When Stephen learned that Mac Golden was thi ...

and Mac Golden. TLG debuted these three adventures, the game system and

Stephen Chenault 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. Career Stephen Chenault and his brother Davis Chenault wanted to publish a 300-page leather bound campa ...

's The After Winter's Dark campaign world at Gencon in 2000. These releases coincided with the release of d20

Dungeons and Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

. Within a very short while TLG republished the books under the d20 license. At about this time they signed

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'' (later Aihrde), a fantasy world

campaign setting A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A ''campaign'' is a series of individual adventures, and a ''campaign setting'' is the world in which such adventures and c ...

and sourcebook for RPGs. It saw release in 2001 and was written by Stephen Chenault and Mac Golden with contributions by Davis Chenault and

. 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. 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,

and

announced that Gary Gygax would be writing books for Troll Lord Games. 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. 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''. 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 RPG may refer to: Military * Rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-launched anti-tank weapon **''Ruchnoi Protivotankoviy Granatomyot'' (Russian: ''Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт''), hand-held anti-tank grenade laun ...

author and ex-employee of

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 bee ...

. 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. 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. 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'', 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 and Dragons'' boxed set. The year 2005 proved to be a busy and productive year for TLG: * They released Gary Gygax’s 256 page, RPG campaign setting/adventures book called ''Castle Zagyg: Yggsburgh'' for the ''Castles & Crusades'' game. A large double-sided fold out color map of the city and environs was rendered by Darlene, the former TSR, Inc artist who drew the ''World of

Greyhawk 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 ...

'' hex map that was included with the WoG boxed set. * The first module written for ''Castle Zagyg: Yggsburgh'' was another one from Robert J. Kuntz, called ''Dark Chateau''. * Davis Chenault wrote and TLG published the first full RPG module in the ''A'' series of adventures, for Castles & Crusades set in the fantasy world of Erde. It is titled ''Assault on Blacktooth Ridge'' (A1). (A2 through A5 have been released of the total 13 planned). Gary Gygax continued to work on the next ''Castle Zagyg'' volume (at that time Volume II) into 2006 and 2007. At

Gen Con Gen Con is the largest tabletop game convention in North America by both attendance and number of events. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, live action role-playing ...

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 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'' 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.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite book, author=Shannon Appelcline, title=Designers & Dragons, publisher=Mongoose Publishing, year=2011, isbn= 978-1-907702-58-7 {{cite news , url = https://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/dungeon-masters/Content?oid=3998574 , title = Dungeon masters: Little Rock's Troll Lord Games is still going strong after 15 years. , work =

Arkansas Times ''Arkansas Times'', a weekly alternative newspaper based in Little Rock, Arkansas, is a publication that has circulated more than 40 years, originally as a magazine. Founded as a small magazine on newsprint in 1977 by publisher Alan Leveritt, it ...

, author = A&E FEATURE , date = 2015-08-06 , access-date = 2018-07-13 , quote = 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. {{cite news , url = https://techraptor.net/content/interview-with-stephen-chenaul-of-troll-lord-games-mythos , title = Interview with Stephen Chenault of Troll Lord Games on Mythos , work = TechRaptor , author = Don Parsons , date = 2015-08-15 , access-date = 2018-07-13

External links

Troll Lord Games website
Role-playing game publishing companies