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 astonishing PR campaign which makes the original interview which sparked off the controversy look mild in comparison. Various entities are moving to distance themselves from the company and its activities, including TSR2, the company founded in 2011 by Jayson Elliot, which has now declared that it will not be using the name TSR any longer. Other companies including Gen Con and freelancers such as Jeff Dee have also made statements.

For reference -- TSR1 is the (no longer existing) company which launched D&D in 1974, TSR2 is the company founded by Jayson Elliot in 2011 to create Gygax Magazine and which currently publishes the Top Secret RPG, and TSR3 is the newly launched company.

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Catch up on my previous coverage of this story:

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

TSR - TSR (2) Confirms TSR (3)'s Acquisition of Trademark (Updated!)

Jayson Elliot registered the TSR trademark back in 2011 and used it to launch Gygax Magazine along with Ernie and Luke Gygax. The two Gygax's left the company a few years later after Gary Gygax's (co-founder of TSR (1) back in the 1970s) widow, Gail Gygax, forced the closure of Gygax Magazine...

www.enworld.org

A TSR Announces a Star Frontiers Reboot

One of the new TSRs (yes there are now two TSRs!) has announced a reboot of Star Frontiers, the sci-fi game made by the original TSR back in the 1980s. Star Frontiers was a percentile dice roleplaying game set in a galaxy with four races (Human, Dralasite, Vrusk, and Yazirian) which were re-used...

www.enworld.org

TSR - TSR Is Back.... Again!

TSR is back... again! A new company, using the name and logo of the original publisher of Dungeons & Dragons has just been launched, along with a limited edition new game called Giantlands, and a theme park! But first, some history! Because this isn't the first time TSR has been resurrected...

www.enworld.org

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TSR3's social media accounts initially sought to distance the company from Ernie Gygax's statements, but within a few hours had reversed course and doubled down on his stance. Note that there have been dozens of social media posts from the company over the last few days, and still continuing as I type this, and I don't intend to share them all here.

(Thanks to Daniel Fox for sharing screenshots below via Twitter).

TSR2 -- "Update to our earlier tweet - we will NOT be licensing anything from the new company claiming rights to the TSR logos. We are not working with them in any fashion."

Gen Con -- "Gen Con is not associated with TSR Games and we don't support their recent statements. While the foundation of Gen Con is tied with the history of TTRPGs, our goal is to build off the good, acknowledge the bad, and work toward a present free from racism, misogyny, and homophobia."

Gen Con has also indicated that they do not intend to allow TSR3 at the convention.

GAMA (the Game Manufacturers Association) -- "We’re aware of the appalling statements published by TSR Games and their founder - GAMA does not condone nor agree with any part of it. We pride ourselves on supporting and promoting inclusivity always. Our motto is “A game at every table, a table for everyone”. Transphobia, racism, and sexism will not be tolerated. That means that TSR is not welcome at Origins Game Fair, GAMA Expo or any event affiliated with our organization."

Jeff Dee -- "There is a rumor going around that I am part of this new TSR company. That is not accurate. I have done some work for them as a freelance artist. That’s how I make my living, and spreading the misinformation that I’m now employed full-time by one particular client could stop other clients from approaching me and hurt my business. So, please do not spread that rumor. If I ever become a full-time employee anywhere again, I will announce that myself. Thanks. UPDATE: After investigating reports about statements made by representatives of this new TSR, I have determined that I can no longer do business with them in good conscience. I've returned their downpayment on the next piece of art I was scheduled to do for them. And yeah, I could sure use some new commissions to make up for this big hit on my cashflow"

Jim Ward, an original TSR alumnus and who wrote Giantlands, TSR3's flagship product -- "At the present time I know little or nothing about the relaunch of TSR. Right now I don't see how anyone could pick up where the old company left off. Yes it's a name with some logos, that is all I know."

Luke Gygax -- "FYI- I am not involved with any TSR company nor is Gary Con nor anyone else in my family outside of Ernie. Full stop. That is all ... I have reasons for distancing myself. The way TSR treats people online in their public exchanges is rude. The museum is a for profit business and was asking for donations. Using names of people to promote without their knowledge. Going out of the way to talk gender/woke stuff ... Also basically jacking the TSR logo from Jayson Elliot. The bombastic press releases and claims to old IP. Making a quick nostalgia money grab based on my fathers name and not much else. So I’m making it clear I don’t like this style and I have ZERO to do with TSR"

TSR3 responds to Luke Gygax​

Tim Kask, an original TSR alumnus who worked at the company until 1980, spoke at length on this topic in a YouTube video (below). I've transcribed some bits, but he says a whole load more (ellipses represent sections I have not included, for reasons of brevity), so check out the video for the whole thing.

"There has been bandied about in social media over the last several days several claims about what's going on in Lake Geneva right now. Ernie Gygax made a most egregious mistake in an interview he did on a podcast. He basically waved his bare ass in front of everybody that's concerned about pronouns, and woke, and all that right now in the industry and thumbed his nose at them. The transcript of his podcasts are there for everyone to read. That they were men, and they didn't give a sh*t, and la la la.

But right there they alienated three quarters of the gaming industry. Probably more than that, I don't believe that there's a quarter of the gaming industry that still are the neanderthals that he would make us out to be.

That's another thing. This whole thing has brought the OSR (the old school revival) into serious disrepute. Now there are some little Karens going on some of the social media and painting with the same brush all of us that were there back then based on the stupid ass sh*t that Ernie just said. No. We weren't all like that. And we aren't all like that now. He's a troll, a troglodyte, a neanderthal, if he really means that. It's a foolish person that doesn't wet his finger once in a while and feel the wind shift.

Now there've been claims in a couple of posts, one of which is by Ernie, about how the stalwarts, the old TSR are flocking to the banner. Bullsh*t....

... There is no one of the creative side of TSR from the early days involved with the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum. No one. Not one creative person. No matter who might be claiming what, they simply do not have the credentials. Being named DiMaggio does not mean you can hit a lot of home runs. Or that you even hit any home runs ....

... Just because you say you're TSR doesn't mean you are."

​

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Not sure why people think the brand has been abandoned. While the one narrow trademark for a magazine has expired, the Gygax Trust has several others, including one that's pretty comprehensive and pretty much involves RPGs in enough capacity that anybody who tried to create an RPG magazine with that name would come into conflict.

TSR - Guess what other trademark has recently lapsed?

With all this talk of the TSR trademark, guess what else appears to have lapsed? The trademark for the word GYGAX has related to roleplaying and board games was held by the late D&D co-creator Gary Gygax's wife, Gail Gygax, but was abandoned in early 2019.

www.enworld.org

I think Morrus dug up that the word Gygax in reference to TTRPGs actually has been abandoned. It's not just a narrow magazine, I don't think.

 

[Gradine]

Sort of a side trek from the topic, but today starts the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. If you don't know about them, go and educate yourself.

Everyone here who is LBGT+ be extra watchful the next few days and stay safe.

A great reminder that equity and justice was never won by asking nicely

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Not sure why people think the brand has been abandoned. While the one narrow trademark for a magazine has expired, the Gygax Trust has several others, including one that's pretty comprehensive and pretty much involves RPGs in enough capacity that anybody who tried to create an RPG magazine with that name would come into conflict.

Also even when a US federal trademark registration (the thing that gets you the ® symbol) lapses the registrant may still be using it sufficiently to have common law trademark rights or trademark rights in another country. US Federal registrations are an important part of securing trademark rights but they are never the whole show by any means.

People love the idea of lapsed trademarks to once valuable brands just being up for grabs, but if you want to use someone's old trademark and actually be secure in your rights you'd better cut them or their heirs in interest a check if you intend to actually use the trademark in a field where that brand was ever valuable. Courts want to keep words open for usage in commerce but they have no particular desire to help some rando profit off of someone else's brand goodwill.

 

[Gradine]

For what it's worth, a hesitancy to share bigoted opinions on this message board is solid evidence that the ostracization of bigots is successful in making this a safer place for people like me

 

[pming]

Hiya!

Nobody will ever get a blank cheque to post whatever they want on this forum. The rules apply at all times.

Got it.

So... "Politics Ruins Everything" is where I'm gonna leave it then.

Thanks for clarification.

I won't be posting anything more to this thread, just FYI. (oh, and I haven't read every single page, so if I missed some Moderator stuff, sorry for that).

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[LordEntrails]

Strong disagreement here. Him not being better known is what allows him to fly under the radar like he does, living an idyllic life in the French countryside with his family and continuing to spread his poison on the low key.

His game was up for an ENnie three years ago until someone pointed out who he was and it was removed. You disinfect with sunlight, not by ignoring it.

If every vile person was brought to the attention of every person in the world, there would simply be sensory overload and desensitization. Plus the world would come to a crawl while everyone was educated. Sunlight would no longer be effective or mean anything, everyone would already either be sunburned or live in a impermeable shelter.

Sunlight has to be used in a targeted manner. Exactly like was done with the ENnie game you mentioned.

If you expect everyone to be aware of every wolf in the world, even the ones they will never run across, then you will make the cry of wolf meaningless/ineffective.

 

[Steampunkette]

If every vile person was brought to the attention of every person in the world, there would simply be sensory overload and desensitization. Plus the world would come to a crawl while everyone was educated. Sunlight would no longer be effective or mean anything, everyone would already either be sunburned or live in a impermeable shelter.

Sunlight has to be used in a targeted manner. Exactly like was done with the ENnie game you mentioned.

If you expect everyone to be aware of every wolf in the world, even the ones they will never run across, then you will make the cry of wolf meaningless/ineffective.

You make bigots uncomfortable by making it difficult to be a bigot at all. Sunlight is one method to do that, more direct action is another option such as boycotting, but it doesn't matter how many bigots you take down in public unless their rhetoric is also destroyed or at least debased to a point where everyone recognizes it for what it is and comes to hate it.

When bigots feel like they can't be bigoted in front of their own family you have succeeded in large part.

The idea that people will be desensitized to recognizing evil is a bit of a cop out. It's a call to fear for the future that if we are too strong in our repudiation of evil we will somehow make evil acceptable. A ridiculous claim, and an argument to ridiculousness based on the idea that somehow every person in the world must be warned of every other person in the world who is not a good person. That is not the case.

Even the people who are ridiculously bigoted today largely try to avoid being identified as bigots. They use coded language and things of that nature in an attempt to go under the radar. This means we have largely succeeded at making their level of bigotry, specifically violent bigotry, untenable in greater society.

This will continue to be achieved by pointing out problems, getting other people to recognize them, and continuing to ostracize bigots from society until they self reform.

 

[Faolyn]

Why don’t we own it and just say we want to cancel this person because of what was said?

It's called "consequences."

People like to call it "cancel" because then they can say "other people cancelled me," not "I'm suffering the consequences of my actions."

The difference between what's going on now and McCarthyism is that McCarthyism was based on almost nothing but fear. For the most part, the people who were blacklisted never actually did anything wrong but not fit a very specific definition of being a Proper American(TM). (And unsurprisingly a lot of people specifically targeted by McCarthyism were gay--the "lavender scare"--simply because as "perverts," they'd be pro-Communism.) And McCarthyism was also engaged in other completely unsubstantiated conspiracy theories, like vaccines were a commie plot.

In other words, there was absolutely nothing behind what McCarthy was doing but fear.

Right now, people are actually, on record, saying actually and doing terrible things about other people, simply because those people are different in one way or another.

There's a huge difference between arresting someone because of a crime you made up, and calling someone out and refusing to work with someone who has actually and publicly been a bigot.

 

[OblivionDrive]

Sunlight has to be used in a targeted manner. Exactly like was done with the ENnie game you mentioned.

Weird how all the targeted sunlight folks have been shining over in the threads on Twitter hasn’t gotten their social media dude to even unfollow him, much less say “hey sorry we didn’t know about this guy prior to now - problem rectified and also to reiterate, racism has no place in our big happy gaming tent!”

Nobody is expecting everyone to know everything about every bad person all at once. But it’s also not like this just happened yesterday. V was sent to prison in 94 and has been out since 2009. Movies and documentaries have been made about him, what happened and the scene he was a part of.

 

[This Effin’ GM]

I don’t remember the quote being “all it takes for evil to prevail is for good people to keep speaking up.”

But I have been wrong once or twice.