Don Kaye

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