Carl Smith was an editor at
TSR when
Tracy Hickman got
Harold Johnson, then
Jeff Grubb, Smith and
Larry Elmore in on the idea of
Dragonlance before
Margaret Weis and
Douglas Niles joined them. Between 1983 and 1984, approximately 200 people left TSR as a result of multiple rounds of layoffs; because of this Smith joined CEO John Rickets, as well as
Mark Acres,
Andria Hayday,
Gaye Goldsberry O'Keefe, Gali Sanchez,
Garry Spiegle,
Stephen D. Sullivan and
Michael Williams in forming the game company
Pacesetter on January 23, 1984. In 1985, Smith announced that Pacesetter was developing a "totally new concept in gaming", that he referred to as the "instant adventure roleplaying game"; this project was published in the summer as
Sandman: Map of Halaal (1985). ==References==