Very interesting tale.<p>> “But why not just let TSR go bankrupt, and then buy it without assuming all that debt?” Adkison asked.<p>That would have saved Adkinson $30 million of a $55 million purchase; it seems that must have been significant money to his tabletop gaming company.<p>The answer in the OP is that Adkinson might lose the <i>Dungeons & Dragons</i> trademark, which had been pledged to Random House as collateral. I expect Random House would have been happy to sell it to Adkinson - in return for paying off TSR's debt, though maybe Adkinson could get a discount. The question is, how much was that trademark worth on the market?<p>Still, I wonder if Adkinson made that decision with head or heart.<p>> Peter Adkison held an all-hands meeting with the understandably nervous remaining staff of TSR on June 3. At it, he told them that he had bought the company for two things: for Dungeons & Dragons, yes, but also for the very people who were gathered in that room, the ones who made the game. TSR’s Lake Geneva offices would be closed, marking the end of Wisconsin’s unlikely tenure as the center of the tabletop-RPG universe, but most employees would receive an offer to move to Seattle and work in Wizard’s headquarters. With Magic doing such gangbusters business, Wizards of the Coast had the time and money to rebuild the Dungeons & Dragons brand carefully and methodically, even if it took years. They would soon begin work on a third edition of the rules, the most sweeping revision ever, intended to make the game understandable and appealing to a whole new generation of players without losing the core of what had made it such a sensation in the first place. The future of Dungeons & Dragons was bright, Adkison insisted.<p>Most acquisitions seem to begin with these assurances and then a year later it's all forgotten. Adkison seems to have actually meant it, at least somewhat. Did almost everyone get job offers in Seattle?