TSR TSR3 Blames Widespread Pushback On WotC

In an unexpected turn of events, the primary individuals behind TSR3 have claimed the pushback they've received on social media and elsewhere was orchestrated by .... D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast (a company which has thus far remained completely silent on recent events).

TSR3 is run by Justin LaNasa, Stephen Dinehart, and Ernie Gygax. The controversy has been raging for over a week, since TSR3 announced itself with a press release.

TSR - Companies & Freelancers Distance Themselves From The New TSR

The new TSR (which I refer to as TSR3 to avoid confusion) has doubled down on its stance--which has been widely condemned online--via an ongoing series of tweets and replies from its TSR Games, Giantlands, and Dungeon Hobby Museum social media accounts (possibly operated by Justin LaNasa) in an...

www.enworld.org

Stephen Dinehart and Ernie Gygax have since deactivated their Twitter accounts; Justin LaNasa doesn't appear to have one, but it is believed he is the person operating TSR3's Twitter account. A couple of days ago, Ernie Gygax posted about recent events on Facebook (note that he edited the post, but the original can be seen here).

I wish to state in the strongest terms that I never meant to hurt anyone of any race, creed or color. My video From the Bunker caused some to feel that they would not be welcome or would be looked down upon. That was never the intent, I was reacting to focus of modern role play into a more background and Role Play rather than the wargame that so made so many lives happy over 40 years ago.

As a gamer it meant that most of us were not worthy of any attention from others of our own age. We were Nerds. We were brainy-acks and others would snicker. Older classmen would ask to "borrow" something of ours to then pass back and forth a game of keep away. I used to receive some special attention from about 4 Juniors in my Freshman year. I played the Violin and often I began to wish that I had Super Powers, perhaps become a Giant.. I was far to shy and then embarrassed as attractive ladies would just lower the eyes while the jocks or other socially vibrant fellows had some fun at another geeky nerds expense. Thank goodness I grew 4 inches my junior year.

The only real comfort zone we all could share was a table in the lunch room. At least the fledgling TSR found fertile minds in those who had only those like us - gamers. Rather than have to risk embarrassing myself, since Phy Ed was going to force us to dance with those wonderful and yet scary girls. Well to get my Diploma I had to slave for a month to Mr. Gerber the head of the Phy Ed department. Fortunately I knew all about janitorial work as before D&D and TSR dad only made $5,000 as a Cobbler (five children) and we had food stamps and even free school lunches. Yes you had to go to the councilors office every week to collect your free lunch passes. Obviously you could feel all the eyes on you and the talk about....

Everyone has been welcome at my gaming table and multitudes of new friends have been created by the time spent playing the games we Love. Look at pictures of gaming on my site or anywhere I run games. Everyone is welcome, just like a Boot Hill game leave your guns at the bar until you leave town. If you come to the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum Jeff R. Leason will show you courtesy and a smile and you will see that gaming with elder gamers is a safe and entertaining environment.

TSR - Ernie Gygax on New TSR, WotC Beefs, Trademarks, Licensees, 5E, & More

A YouTube channel, 'Live From the Bunker', interviewed Ernie Gygax about the new TSR. I've watched and decided to try to transcribe the most relevant parts of it, but the full hour-long video is below if you want to see the whole interview and full context. Ernie Gygax is one of D&D...

www.enworld.org

 

[Yaarel]

It's possible. But that would require a lot of stretching credulity. It would mean that LaNasa actually approached Wizards of the Coast about licensing the logos, that Wizards of the Coast agreed, and that LaNasa paid whatever fees are involved and there's paperwork backing it up. Considering LaNasa filed trademark registrations attempting to claim several of the 70s/80s era logos for themselves, I have serious doubts that's what happened.

LaNasa owns the TSR trademark, not Ernie, or is it the corporation, and both own it?

 

[GreyLord]

In an unexpected turn of events, the primary individuals behind TSR3 have claimed the pushback they've received on social media and elsewhere was orchestrated by .... D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast (a company which has thus far remained completely silent on recent events).

TSR3 is run by Justin LaNasa, Stephen Dinehart, and Ernie Gygax. The controversy has been raging for over a week, since TSR3 announced itself with a press release.

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Stephen Dinehart and Ernie Gygax have since deactivated their Twitter accounts; Justin LaNasa doesn't appear to have one, but it is believed he is the person operating TSR3's Twitter account. A couple of days ago, Ernie Gygax posted about recent events on Facebook:

I wish to state in the strongest terms that I never meant to hurt anyone of any race, creed or color. My video From the Bunker caused some to feel that they would not be welcome or would be looked down upon. That was never the intent, I was reacting to focus of modern role play into a more background and Role Play rather than the wargame that so made so many lives happy over 40 years ago.

As a gamer it meant that most of us were not worthy of any attention from others of our own age. We were Nerds. We were brainy-acks and others would snicker. Older classmen would ask to "borrow" something of ours to then pass back and forth a game of keep away. I used to receive some special attention from about 4 Juniors in my Freshman year. I played the Violin and often I began to wish that I had Super Powers, perhaps become a Giant.. I was far to shy and then embarrassed as attractive ladies would just lower the eyes while the jocks or other socially vibrant fellows had some fun at another geeky nerds expense. Thank goodness I grew 4 inches my junior year.

The only real comfort zone we all could share was a table in the lunch room. At least the fledgling TSR found fertile minds in those who had only those like us - gamers. Rather than have to risk embarrassing myself, since Phy Ed was going to force us to dance with those wonderful and yet scary girls. Well to get my Diploma I had to slave for a month to Mr. Gerber the head of the Phy Ed department. Fortunately I knew all about janitorial work as before D&D and TSR dad only made $5,000 as a Cobbler (five children) and we had food stamps and even free school lunches. Yes you had to go to the councilors office every week to collect your free lunch passes. Obviously you could feel all the eyes on you and the talk about....

Everyone has been welcome at my gaming table and multitudes of new friends have been created by the time spent playing the games we Love. Look at pictures of gaming on my site or anywhere I run games. Everyone is welcome, just like a Boot Hill game leave your guns at the bar until you leave town. If you come to the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum Jeff R. Leason will show you courtesy and a smile and you will see that gaming with elder gamers is a safe and entertaining environment.

Wait...WHAT!!!

I think they are actually trying to pick a fight right now with WotC....at least that feels like it.

Are they serious!?

You gotta be kidding me.

Okay, I don't know what they are playing here. This has had nothing to do with WotC overall...WotC has basically just stood back and watched the embers fly up until this point.

Hard calls on next steps. I imagine WotC does not want to give more views to this new company right nows so inaction may have been the best action, but with callouts like what it appears is being pointed out above...I'm not sure just watching is an option anymore.

This is a dumb situation, and I don't know why anyone would want to try to bring a fight to a major corp like this.

 

[LordEntrails]

I think they are actually trying to pick a fight right now with WotC....at least that feels like it.

Of course they are. It's a very common means to deflect from one's own behavior. Start yelling and shouting that someone/thing else is doing you harm. Especially in this case where so many gamers already think of WotC as the Evil Empire. So of course they (WotC) must be involved in trying to harm these simple Americans who are trying to bring back the good ol' days of TSR (at least the bad parts of it).

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Something that I learned about trans experiences. I knew about the term "deadname", but I thought it was a figure of speech, to politely not use the name anymore. I didnt know that saying a deadname was painful for a trans person.

Like a lot of other painful stuff, I would guess that the more private someone is, the more painful it is. Someone like Caitlyn Jenner (formerly Olympic athlete Bruce Jenner, for those not following reality TV) probably deals a lot better with references by her old name, than a non-celebrity would.

And there are a lot of people out there who are totally clueless about who is transitioning or has transitioned. Before the threads here over the past few days, I would have never known Jennell and Paul were the same person. If you had shown me two RPG books, one in each name, I would have just thought it was a brother and sister, or husband and wife, writing team. Her official wikipedia entry still refers to her old name, but I had never looked at it before today.

 

[Campbell]

I get that for many the hobby was a refuge, somewhere they belonged when they felt they did not belong anywhere else. However, we all need to make an effort to get past the idea that roleplaying games or even Dungeons and Dragons belongs to us. It does not. Roleplaying games are for everybody. D&D is for everybody. It does not make us special. It's a game we play (as Gary Gygax often said) as a diverting past time.

 

[DM Magic]

Sometimes I wonder if I’m doing okay in life and then I see posts like this.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Did Ernie Gygax just blame his intolerance on being a nerdy incel?

That's not helping, dog.

That’s the edited version. The previous version talked about how he wished he had

Spoiler: Trigger Warning: Violence

a gun to become a school shooter

instead of the edited version which talks about becoming a giant.

Spoiler: Trigger Warning: Violence

 

[Abstruse]

Weird Al spends a great deal of effort on getting permission from the people whose music and videos he parodies precisely because "It's parody/satire!" is not a magic defense against intellectual property lawsuits, and the test for whether something is fair use involves weighing of factors - in other words, you could end up being right but you'd have to go through getting sued first to find out. Better to ask permission than forgiveness.

Weird Al considers it a professional courtesy to ask permission from the artist. He doesn't ask the label - which likely owns the legal rights to the song in question - but the person who actually wrote/performed the song. It's come up a couple of times where permission was denied and the song was released anyway. Weird Al has not released his Prince parodies because Prince personally objected. A few songs like "Chicken Pot Pie" (parody of Paul McCartney's "Live or Let Die") and "Snack All Night" (parody of Michael Jackson's "Black or White") have only been performed live due to artist objections to recording them (McCartney because he's a vegetarian and Jackson because he felt the material too serious to joke about). He's also released videos and songs for free after the artist approved the parody but not the record label, such as "Perform This Way" (parody of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way") and "You're Pitiful" (parody of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful"). And of course, there's the whole "Amish Paradise" fiasco where the label gave permission, Coolio didn't, Weird Al didn't find out until Coolio was doing interviews slamming him for it, and eventually Coolio agreed he was being "cocky" and "stupid" (his own words) and gave his blessing.

Either way, Weird Al doesn't need permission to do his parodies. He does so anyway because he feels he should. He doesn't care about who owns the legal rights (because he doesn't have to), but the artists whose work he's satirizing.

 

[CleverNickName]

@Olaf the Stout I hadn't read the unedited version until now. That is...incredibly disturbing, to put it lightly.

(Would I be out of line to suggest a trigger warning or Spoiler tag on that?)

 

[Abstruse]

LaNasa owns the TSR trademark, not Ernie, or is it the corporation, and both own it?

The filings are under the name of the LLC, so the company "owns" them (the trademark registrations are still open and have not had final approval last time I checked). I haven't checked the registration personally on the LLC to see who is named as owners/executives, just that LaNasa is apparently in charge and likely President, with Dinehart as Chief Creative Officer and Ernie Gygax as Executive Vice President (though this is according to what LaNasa/Dinehart/Ernie themselves have said and considering their relationship with he truth the past week and change...)