TSR products found there way into a number of different countries. Obviously Dungeons and Dragons was a hit in its home country United States but it had a very large representation in the UK shortly after its inception. Australia saw a very large and early following as well. Soon after those big three, TSR slowly penetrated into various countries through out Europe from Germany to Italy to France to every other country in between and abroad. This page will attempt to highlight some of the most collectible products from abroad and give a brief overview of the processes that led to these variations on some of TSR's most popular products.
TSR approached these new markets a number of different ways. Games Workshop in the UK was at first licensed to print and distribute all of TSR's popular titles there. Games Workshop actually produced some of the most unique variations on these titles. Eventually, they set up a whole subsidiary in the UK called TSR, UK. This outfit functioned on its own with a design team, distribution system and convention support. Ultimately, TSR USA housed the corporate offices and, for better or worse, made all of the business decisions for the UK division. Not all of but nearly everything produced in the UK's design division was printed in the US and often released there before the bulk was shipped back to the UK for distribution. TSR UK produced a number of unique and interesting items for the company and thus has the largest representation within this Foreigns select department.
TSR licensed Australia's Jedko Games to distribute their items and print some of their more popular gaming products produced stateside. Jedko Games was founded by John Edwards in the early seventies as a small wargame publisher. He was actually a guest of honor at TSR's Gen Con XI. Soon after Jedko Games began printing TSR titles and distributing them throughout Australia.
1983 marks the year that TSR revamped their basic D&D edition in the United States. 1983 is probably the apex of the companies business success in terms of sales and market penetration. TSR made the decision to build on this success by reprinting some of the most popular D&D titles in different languages for distribution in those countries. This is the most expansive global effort which produced some interesting variations on the most widely printed TSR titles. These sets do not necessarily command the kind of auction figures that other items featured throughout the TSR Gems department but shall be shown here for reference purposes.
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UK
Games Workshop Basic Rulebook
Australian
G1 G2 G3
D1 D2 D3
AD&D Players Handbook
1983 Basic set Abroad
Denmark
France
Germany
Israel
Italy
Netherlands
Norway
Japan
Spain
Sweden
UK
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