Tuesday, November 1, 2011

TSR publication dates through 1981

From the copyright registration records in the Office of Copyright searchable database. The electronic database starts in 1978, so any product registered earlier is not included (possibly OD&D; Geomorphs Set 1). I stopped at 1981; in 1982 there's a big increase in licensed products, and I have declining interest in the dates at that point. : )

These come with the caveat that the publication dates are self-reported by TSR and may not be accurate. Many were registered years after the publication date. Please comment on any inconsistencies with any other evidence of known printing dates. 

Edit: I just corrected one typo. The original printing of the Monster Manual should be 12/28/77 per the database, not 12/18/77. The 12/28/77 date is consistent with a Gygax column in Dragon where he wrote that the MM wasn't available until after Xmas that year. 

Edit #2: I realized yesterday that the formatting for the table is not showing up correctly on a PC (I created it in Excel on a Mac and simply copied and pasted it here). I'll try to fix it. You can see the same info in an image (rather than text), here.

Title
Publication Date
Registration Date
Greyhawk
1/15/75
9/12/83
Blackmoor
8/15/75
9/12/83
Eldritch Wizardry 1/15/76
9/12/83
Swords & Spells
8/15/76
9/12/83
Metamorphosis Alpha RPG 12/1/76
8/14/78
Suspicion (mystery boardgame) 1/15/77
8/14/78
Monster & Treasure Assortment, Sets 1 & 2 (2 sets) 2/15/77
12/30/82
D&D Character Record Sheets 4/25/77
3/7/83
Outdoor Geomorphs 6/12/77
12/30/82
D&D Holmes Basic Set 7/10/77
6/21/78
Modern Armor (wargame rules) 7/15/77
6/21/78
Cordite & Steel wargame 7/15/77
8/14/78
Star Empires game 7/20/77
8/14/78
Warlocks & Warriors boardgame 7/25/77
8/14/78
Legions of the Petal Throne 8/20/77
8/14/78
Geomorphs, Sets 2 and 3 (2 sets) 9/21/77
12/30/82
Cohorts (Roman Checkers) 12/21/77
8/14/78
Monster Manual 12/28/77
6/21/78
Gamma World RPG
1/24/78
3/3/83
Monster & Treasure Assortment, Set 3 5/10/78
1/27/83
G1, G2, G3 monos (3 modules) 5/12/78
1/12/83
S1 Tomb of Horrors 6/29/78
1/27/83
Player's Handbook 8/15/78
3/19/80
D1, D2, D3 monos (3 modules) 9/26/78
1/27/83
AD&D Permanent Character Folder 3/7/79
2/8/83
B1 In Search of the Unknown 3/13/79
3/24/83
Official AD&D Coloring Album 4/10/79
7/17/80
Boot Hill RPG
4/15/79
3/19/80
Divine Right boardgame 5/24/79
3/19/80
AD&D PC Record Sheets 6/11/79
3/7/83
AD&D NPC Record Sheets 6/12/79
3/7/83
AD&D DM Screen 7/2/79
1/27/83
T1 Village of Hommlet 7/14/79
3/7/83
Dungeon Masters' Guide 8/1/79
3/19/80
Awful Green Things from Outer Space 8/1/79
2/16/82
Monster Manual, 4th printing 8/15/79
5/3/83
S2 White Plume Mountain 8/21/79
3/4/83
Rogues Gallery
1/23/80
2/8/83
S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks 2/5/80
3/24/83
Top Secret RPG
2/19/80
3/19/80
C1 Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan (mono) 5/7/80
3/4/83
World of Greyhawk Folio 5/7/80
2/8/83
Days of the Dragon Calendar 1981 5/15/80
8/29/83
Monster & Treasure Assortment Sets 1-3 5/21/80
7/19/83
Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits 6/12/80
3/24/83
B2 Keep on the Borderlands 7/2/80
1/27/83
Dragontales fiction collection 8/1/80
4/6/83
Best of Dragon, Vol I 8/15/80
4/6/83
A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity 10/14/80
3/4/83
Deities & Demigods 11/1/80
10/15/85
GW1 Legion of Gold 11/19/80
7/19/83
TS001 Operation: Rapidstrike! 12/15/80
2/8/83
AD&D DM Adventure Log 12/30/80
2/8/83
Finieous Treasury 1/1/81
4/6/83
Dungeon! Boardgame 1/29/81
11/8/82
D&D Moldvay Basic rulebook 2/16/81
3/25/81
D&D Moldvay Basic Set 2/16/81
4/29/82
D&D Cook Expert rulebook 2/16/81
3/25/81
D&D Cook Expert Set 2/16/81
4/29/82
Hexagonal Mapping Booklet 2/18/81
2/8/83
BH1 Mad Mesa
2/20/81
1/12/83
C1 Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan (color) 2/22/81
5/6/83
Awful Green Things from Outer Space (revised) 2/26/81
2/12/82
G1-2-3 Against the Giants 3/4/81
4/6/83
4 minigames (Antares, SAGA, Vampyre, Pleasantville) 4/3/81
9/7/82
Dungeon Geomorphs: Set 1-3 4/15/81
4/25/83
X1 Isle of Dread 4/22/81
4/13/83
A3 Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords 5/4/81
2/8/83
Fantasy Forest boardgame 5/24/81
8/19/82
A4 In the Dungeon of the Slave Lords 5/27/81
1/12/83
B3 Palace of the Silver Princess 6/10/81
2/8/83
AD&D DM Screen (revised) 6/10/81
4/6/83
C2 Ghost Tower of Inverness 6/17/80
4/25/83
L1 Secret of Bone Hill 6/22/81
1/12/83
A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade 7/7/81
4/13/83
X2 Castle Amber 10/6/81
2/8/83
U1 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh 10/14/81
8/25/83
Best of Dragon, Vol II 11/1/81
4/6/83
I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City 11/18/81
4/13/83
Fiend Folio
12/15/81
5/21/84
Boot Hill Referee's Screen 12/3/81
3/24/83
Gamma World Referee Screen 12/15/81
1/27/83
Top Secret Administrator's Screen 12/15/81
1/27/83

2 comments:

  1. Your caveat is astute. :)
    A good line of research and while some of the "publication" dates are useful/accurate, others are out by a large margin. To start with, the "15th of the month" repeating pattern dates on the supplements belongs to a parallel universe; Blackmoor being barely "published" by Christmas 1975, if that, for a start.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was hoping you would comment, since I know you've spent some time researching publication dates. :)

    In The Story of TSR, Ryan Dancey wrote that the TSR records from back in those days are "not as clear as they could be"...

    ReplyDelete