That's a pretty cool pic.

Very Nice!

The stranger thing is that they used the font from Strombringer books to write "oserez vous ouvrir les portes de l'aventure". I wonder if it is not an add for a convention or something like that. French modules have been distributed in France by Transecom, I don't remember "TSR France" ever exists...

According to Gary, he and Francois Marcela Froideval agreed to a creation of a French TSR subsidiary like TSR UK (with its own magazine - Casus Belli I'm sure - and its own products) but the Blume Brothers squashed the project. FMF went to work along Gary, Casus Belli went to Excelsior that launched Jeux Descartes and a chain of franchised game shops....

Quoting from my interview with Gary:

Outside the UK, continental Europe started to be receptive to D&D. I remember seeing articles on the game in a now defunct Italian magazine, "Pergioco", published (I think) in 1981-82, similar articles in the French magazine "Jeux & Strategie" during the same period and I have heard of similar articles in Germany too. Publishing in a foreign language is of course a difficult operation. What was the first foreign (for English speakers...) language in which D&D was translated and why?

Copies of the D&D game and then the AD&D line were sent to various Continental game dealers from about 1976 onwards, some by TSR, some by its distributors. There were strong followings for the games in many European nations, D&D being the established one, AD&D not as popular. As far as I can recall, the first translation was into French, that because of the very large audience for the game in that country and because of my relationship with Francois Marcela Froideval, who could oversee the checking of the translated product. Of course even as that was going forward we were working towards other translations - German, Spanish, Swedish, Italian, etc. A little later the arrangement was concluded for translation into Japanese.

And...

I suppose TSR UK was charged to develop not only the British market but the European one too. How important was Europe, United Kingdom included, for TSR Hobbies operations? Were there any plans to open further TSR branches in Europe along the TSR UK model? I have heard rumours about an aborted TSR France to be lead by Francois Marcela Froideval.

First, no, TSR UK was not given charge of the Continental market. They were to facilitate export of English language products to the Continent, but the management of business there was in the hands of TSR, Inc., and then TSR International. There was some resistance to this arrangement from TSR UK, but that did not change the nature of its mission statement. When I visited the UK to set up the basis for that branch, I also visited Paris, met with Francois Marcela Froideval and set up the beginnings of TSR France. We had been in correspondence prior to my visit and Francois had already done well in my view. He had found an excellent location for a TSR game shop, was ready to launch a magazine, made contact with translators and printers and I approved. This process went forward with great resistance from the Blumes. They soon hired a brother-in-law of theirs, Dick Gleason, to head up international business. With their approval, Gleason quashed the French subsidiary. I was absolutely beside myself upon hearing this, but there was nothing I could do except to hire Francois on to my personal staff at TSR, for I valued his business ideas and creative talent. Gleason's tenure at TSR was thankfully brief, as he was an embarrassment and I somehow managed to prevail in regards the hiring of Andre Moullin to fill the vacancy. Francois' creative talent has since proven to be rather considerable and I am certain had he been allowed to head up and form the French subsidiary, it would have been a success. We agreed that a model based around company - owned or franchised game shops was the best way to develop and support the market. Here the success of Games Workshop supports this concept. I also visited Switzerland to meet with someone there in regards the German-language market. We set up a distribution arrangement with him, but that proved less successful than was hoped for and the arrangement was changed in relatively short order.

I still wonder how things could have evolved if TSR France had been launched - I'm sure it would have been very successful. I like to think that, sometimes, TSR Italy could have been launched too. Sadly, this is just a big "what if"  

PS: as you could guess, I'm always interested in knowing what happens to our cousins    and I'm proud owner of the AD&D first edition books translated into French (still looking for the Monster Manual   ).

lokiwookie wrote:
The "Manuel des Monstres" is the rarest one and of course the most HTF. Most of time it is sold in poor condition, or when it is in excellent condition, prices go far higher than what I think it should cost.

Yes, I know. But I'm not in a hurry. I managed recently to buy a nice copy of Les Annees Folles for CoC (fron an Italian seller!) at just 35 euros - a real bargain price! With time, I will wind a MM francais too

Do you have the Maraninchi Donjons et Dragons book?
http://myvyrrian.free.fr/DDMaraninchi.html
It is the 1st D&D related book ever published in french, and the 1st french RPG book!
It is a non official translation of D&D, without permission of TSR, and with a lot of modifications in the rules.

I had it a couple of times and I sold it every time