The Story of Trolls 7

The jumbled ramshackle heap of collective memory is like a crowded bar; its loud, obnoxious, filled with confusion and happenstance, misdirection, waylaid thoughts, sounds with peculiar meaning lost in the cacophonous turmoil of inebriated humanity. Somewhere there is a universal truth, but no one much cares about it.

This continues the Story of Trolls 6.

The nascent company hobbled itself together over the course of several months. Gencon loomed and with it the debut of the product line, now four books and a map: The Mortality of Green, The Fantastic Adventure, Vakhund Into the Unknown (or fortuitous title as it turns out) and The After Winter's Dark Campaign Setting & Map.

Communication was done largely via email at the old Aristotle.net address. Both Mac and Steve paid next to no money for the accounts and shot a flurry of emails back and forth every day discussing this aspect or that. Davis possessed the first of many scores of yahoo email accounts whose passwords were derived from the various female names such as Jasmine, Divine, Mercedes and so on. Though contact with him was flighty as he was in the field more often than not, and drunk as often as not.

As Steve assumed the task of assembling the books (though Mac culled the net for artists and rounded up a few more next to Jason Walton), Mac took up the business side. He gathered a host of information on retail shops, distributors and how the two interacted. He contacted Alliance Distribution, amongst many and received a warm welcome.It was about this time that he discovered a small company in California called Wizard's Attic, a consolidator. He contacted Eric Rowe of the Attic and discussed with him the possibility of carrying TLG products. A meeting was scheduled at Gencon and an emergency meeting called for at Vinos. Of course Davis could not attend the meeting so the meeting was consisted of Mac and Steve and far too much beer.

This meeting opened a long running discussion inside the company; how much to rely upon and or work with other entities. In this case why allow Wizard's Attic a cut of the money to sell to distributors? Wouldn't TLG make more if they did it themselves? And for that matter, why not cut them all out and push right into the retail market? The discussion roamed over many and various topics and Mac slowly wore down Steve's natural 'circle the wagons' mentality and it was at last agreed to meet with Eric and see what he could do for them. At the very least it was hoped that if WA took over that aspect of the business then TLG could produce more books. Davis was informed via email, and the two heard distant rumbles as the wagon trait is apparently a Chenaultism.

While the rambling work continued Mac stumbled on a small program run by an online bookstore both he and Steve frequently used, Amazon. He signed the company up with the promise of books to come. It seemed like a trifling matter, but in the long run proved the most resilient, continuously productive and lucrative moves of those early days.

The books were falling together, writing, editing, formatting, art, covers and so on. Mac had pried open a door into the broader market and this created a sudden problem, that needed immediate attention. It was one of thousands of sudden problems that would need immediate attention, some of which linger to this day.

Next up: the website, the first Trollish email, and what to do at Gencon. EDIT: The website did not come about until after Gencon, first registered in December of 2000. So the story goes on to Gencon.

This picture was one of the first from Jason Walton. It instantly inspired the crew to put stories with their adventures, setting the tone in a fictional manner and not just straight up adventures. It led to man of the early poems, short short stories and the general feel of the early adventures.