TSR The Full & Glorious History of NuTSR

Because the Saga of TSR3 has been ongoing for a while, with many landmarks, I thought I'd do a quick timeline for those who haven't had the time (or, frankly, inclination) to keep up with the whole palaver.

As multiple entities refer to themselves as TSR, I will use the nomenclature (1), (2) etc. to distinguish them. However, all the companies below simply use the term "TSR".

The principle people involved with this story are Ernie Gygax (one of Gary Gygax's children), Justin LaNasa (a tattooist, weapon designer, and briefly a politician who refers to himself as Sir Justin LaNasa*), Stephen Dinehart (co-creator of Giantlands with James Ward), and -- later -- Michael K. Hovermale, TSR3's PR officer.

Also linked to TSR3 is the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Much of TSR3’s commercial business appears to be conducted via the museum.

• 1974. TSR1 creates D&D.
• 1997. TSR1 is bought by WotC (WotC is bought by Hasbro in 1999).
• November 2012. Jayson Elliot registers the TSR2 name as a trademark to launch Gygax Magazine. Luke and Ernie Gygax are involved.
• November 2015. Gail Gygax sues TSR2. Luke and Ernie Gygax are forced to leave. Gygax magazine is forced to close by Gail Gygax. The company continues to sell the Top Secret RPG under the name TSR2.
• October 2020. The Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum claims ownership of various TSR logos and tries to license them to OSR publishers.
• June 19th 2021. TSR3 announces itself with a press release. It claims to be the original TSR1 back again, under the leadership of Ernie Gygax, Gary's son, announcing that "the band is back together". Also involved are Justin LaNasa and Stephen Dinehart. Their flagship product is "GIANTLANDS" by James Ward and Stephen Dinehart.
• June 22nd 2021. TSR3 announces it is rebooting Star Frontiers, a game which WotC owns and is currently selling online. They registered the trademark back in April 2021.
• June 24th 2021. Ernie Gygax does a YouTube interview, and I transcribe it. The interview begins a controversy which rages online and includes digs at newer gamers, WotC, and trans people.
• June 25th 2021. It transpires that TSR2's Jayson Elliot forgot to renew the trademark registration, at which point his former partner Ernie Gygax, along with Justin LaNasa & Stephen Dinehart, swept in and grabbed it before notifying him. They offer to let him use it for a nominal fee.

• Late June 2021. TSR3 embarks on an astonishing social media campaign where they tell people who don't like Gary Gygax not to play D&D, call a trans person on Twitter 'disgusting', thank the 'woke' because sales are up, insult Luke Gygax, and more. They also block or insult those who question them on Twitter.
• Late June 2021. Various companies distance themselves from TSR3, including Gen Con, TSR2 (who rebrand themselves Solarian Games), GAMA, and various individuals such as Luke Gygax, Tim Kask, Jeff Dee, and more. TSR3 responds to being banned from Gen Con by claiming that they created the convention.

• June 30th 2021. TSR3 blames the widespread pushback it is getting on WotC, accusing it of mounting a coordinated assault on them. In the same tweets they claim that they created the TTRPG business. Ernie Gygax and Stephen Dinehart then deactivate their Twitter accounts. Months later it transpires that this is the date they received a C&D from WotC regarding their use of their IP.

• July 2nd 2021. TSR3's Twitter account claims now to be run by a new Public Relations Officer called Michael.
• July 6th 2021. TSR3's Michael has not been heard of since he announced himself prompting a widespread online search for him.
• July 7th 2021. TSR3 rebrands its website 'Wonderfiled'(sic) as Stephen Dinehart publicly blocks WotC and Hasbro on Twitter and announces he is "breaking up with them" because of politics.

• July 9th 2021. Yet another TSR website appears! This one we call TSR 3.5. TSR3 has split into two -- Wonderfiled (later Wonderfilled), and TSR Hobbies. Stephen Dinehart runs the former, which features the GIANTLANDS project, while Ernie Gygax and Justin LaNasa run the latter.
• July 9th 2021. With the new TSR3.5, the company claims that an unnamed individual was running the Twitter accounts of the company, it's affiliate companies, and the individuals involved with the company, and that all posts on any of those social media accounts should now be considered "invalid".
• July 26th 2021. TSR3.5 announces TSR CON to be held on the July 4th weekend in the Horticultural Hall at Lake Geneva, WI, the name location as Gen Con launched in 1968. TSR announces that "TSR CON will always be here" (it never takes places there).

• September 27th 2021. TSR3's Michael K. Hovermale shows up here on EN World.
• October 14th 2021. Michael Hovermale announces that their Star Frontiers game became available and then sold out before they could announce it. Nobody can find anybody who bought this product.
• October 15th 2021. LaNasa calls EN World a 'very big company' and publicly accuses me of making all this up. I publicly ask TSR's representative, Michael K. Hovermale, three times what I've allegedly made up, but get no reply.
• October 20th 2021. TSR Con is moved from the July 4th weekend to March 24-27, the exact same dates as Gary Con. The venue is moved from the Horticultural Hall to the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum. A graphic on its website promises that they will not be checking vaccinations or asking people to wear face masks.

• December 6th 2021. A record is found showing that WotC is taking action against TSR3.5 - an administrative procedure to cancel its registration of the trademarks it is using, citing - among other things - fraud.
• December 7th 2021. After a long quiet period, TSR3.5 launches an IndieGogo campaign to "stop Wizards of the Coast". It files for a court declaration of its ownership of the TSR trademarks. The crowdfunding campaign will go to fight the legal battle, with any left over being donated to the Gygax Memorial Fund.
• December 9th 2021. TSR3.5 voluntarily dismisses the suit it filed two days before. The IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign is still running.

• December 11th 2021. The president of the Gygax Memorial fund publicly declares that they were never consulted, and would refuse any donation from TSR3's crowdfunding campaign. TSR3 quietly removes the references to the GMF from the IndieGoGo page.
• December 29th 2021. TSR3.5 refiles its lawsuit, this time in the correct jurisdiction. LaNasa and TSR ask for a trial by Jury.

• January 8th 2020. Wonderfiled[sic]'s Stephen Dinehart threatens to sue Twitter user David Flor for his negative review of Giantlands on the platform.
• January 10th 2022. TSR3's Justin LaNasa sends TSR alumn Tim Kask a profane message, telling him to "Go suck Lukes/wotc/balls you f*****g coward" and accusing him of having been fired from TSR for stealing.
• January 11th 2022. Michael K Hovermale claims that the first edition of TSR3's Star Frontiers: New Genesis game was released and has sold out. He says “It was a very small limited run released and sold on the DHSM [Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum] website. It is no longer available, and probably won’t be reprinted.” As yet, nobody has publicly revealed that they bought a copy.
• January 14th 2022. Michael K. Hovermale resigns as TSR3's Chief Creative Officer and Public Relations Officer after 6 months in the position.
• March 4th 2022. WotC strikes back with a lawsuit naming TSR, Justin LaNasa personally, and the Dungeon Hobby Shop museum. WotC seeks a judgement that TSR hand over all domains, take down all websites, pay treble damages and costs, hand over all stock and proceeds related to the trademarks, and more. TSR has 21 days to respond.

• March 22nd 2022. TSR gets an extension on that WoTC suit. Two waivers of service of summons granted to both Justin LaNasa and the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum. He now has 60 days from March 4th to serve an answer or motion, or suffer default judgment.
• March 26th 2022. TSR CON takes place at the same time as Gary Con. TSR claims " lol, actually we asked just about every one of the 800 people stopping by, TSR CON, and about 60% had no idea Gary con was going on, and we tried pushing them to go over and attend."
• March 28th 2022. TSR3 posts images of 'rebound' copies of AD&D 1E books it is selling for $650 each.
• May 17th 2022. Evidence emerges of Nazi connections via TSR3's Dave Johnson. Public Twitter posts include concentrated hateful imagery and messages over a long period of time.
• May 17th 2022. DriveThruRPG removes all Dave Johnson Games titles from the platform.
• May 17th 2022. A jury trial date is set for the TSR/WotC lawsuit for October 2023 (few suits like this actually make it to trial in the end).

• July 19th 2022. A leaked version of a beta version of TSR's 'Star Frontiers: New Genesis' game emerges on the internet. The content includes racist and white-supremacist propaganda, including character races with ability caps based on ethnicity, and various homophobic and transphobic references. Justin LaNasa immediately threatened to sue blogger Eric Tenkar, who shared the information publicly ('Mario Real' is one of LaNasa's online pseudonyms). Various evidence points towards the document's genuine nature, including an accidentally revealed Google drive belonging to NuTSR.
• July 22nd 2022. A video shows a Google Drive that appears to be owned by nuTSR, which contains a list of enemies of the company, usually with the word "WOKE" in caps being used as a pejorative.

(screenshot courtesy of the @nohateingaming Twitter account)​

• August 30th 2022. Wizard Tower Games announces that they have received a subpeona from WotC regarding TSR and Justin LaNasa. Former NuTSR employee Michaal K Hovermale confirms that he has also received a subpeona.
• September 5th 2022. Justin LaNasa sends out customer data, including addresses and credit card numbers. LaNasa responds by publicly claiming the evidence is photoshopped and slandering those who revealed it as liars.
• September 8th 2022. WoTC files an injunction to prevent LaNasa or his companies from “publishing, distributing, or otherwise making available Star Frontiers New Genesis or any iteration of the game using the Marks”.
• June 8th 2023. NuTSR files for bankruptcy. The case between WotC and NuTSR is postponed until March 2024.

Have I missed anything important? I'll continue updating this as I remember things, or as people remind me of things!

To the best of my knowledge, TSR3 is not actually selling any type of gaming product.

*if anybody has any link to LaNasa's knighthood, please let me know!

---

Websites
Various websites have come and gone. I'll try to make some sense of it here so you know what site you're actually visiting!

• TSR.com is the original TSR website. For a long time it redirected to WotC. The URL is no longer in use. (WotC)
• TSRgames.com was TSR2 until summer 2021. The site is still running, although TSR2 is now called Solarian Games. (Jayson Elliot)
• TSR.games was TSR3 until summer 2021. It now goes to Wonderfiled(sic)'s website. (Stephen Dinehart)
• TSR-hobbies.com is TSR 3.5, launched summer 2021 by Justin LaNasa and Ernie Gygax. (Justin LaNasa)

 

[Ancalagon]

Most NFTs are not scams. But because some are, and it involves new tech, it's getting painted with a broad brush right now as "all scams".

As Josh Gilbert, finance expert and market analyst for global multi-asset investment platform eToro, the risks associated with NFTs follow a familiar pattern. “Scams are not unique to NFTs, we see them in most areas of financial services, and many other parts of life. Unfortunately, there will always be people looking to take advantage of new trends and emerging technologies,” Gilbert says. “It goes without saying that they are casting a negative light on the space. However, I don’t believe it jeopardizes all NFT projects since NFTs are transforming industries and will have a profound impact on creators, collectors and brands.”

Name a new tech, and scammers took advantage of it at some point. In fact we're having a conversation on a platform which at one point some scammers used to their own advantage. That doesn't make "message boards" all scams because scammers used them.

Sure, some are not. But most? doesn't look good


Or you know, from that article you quoted?

“Cryptocurrency markets work in essentially the same manner. For existing investors to profit, new buyers have to be drawn into the market. So too NFTs, with something illusory attached to the digital assets,” Hawkins said. “There’s virtually nothing humans can’t turn into a market. But increasingly there are speculative bubbles in things with absolutely no fundamental value. NFTs have joined Bitcoin and celebrity meme-based cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin and Shiba Inu as examples of tokens with no intrinsic worth, which speculators just buy in the hope the price will keep rising.”

 

[Mistwell]

Sure, some are not. But most? doesn't look good


Or you know, from that article you quoted?

Yes, and I think the "no intrinsic worth" concept isn't a negative. You don't either, but you probably still think it is because it's an NFT. Your paper money has no intrinsic worth anymore. It used to be backed by the gold standard, and then the silver standard, but now it's backed purely on faith in the underlying Government backing a credit claim. Much like NFTs are backed based purely on the faith in the blockchain. And does artwork which hangs on your wall have intrinsic worth beyond the value of the frame, the paper and the ink on it? Does a Magic, the Gathering card truly have "intrinsic value" beyond what someone else will pay for it? ALL collectibles and most monetary systems work on a basis of "no intrinsic worth" but faith in an underlying system powering demand.

To me, the hate for NFTs is the first clear sign of Millennials hitting the anti-new-tech wall most humans hit as they age. I am not calling you a Millennial (in fact I seem to recall you're Gen-X) or that your reasons are purely anti-new-tech. But I think that's what is driving that biased video you posted, and the viral spread of that video, knowing full well the author isn't very well versed in the topic and isn't drawing from genuine experts in crypto. And it's telling that the generations which come after Millennials on average are much more accepting of Crypto.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Yes, and I think the "no intrinsic worth" concept isn't a negative. You don't either, but you probably still think it is because it's an NFT. Your paper money has no intrinsic worth anymore. It used to be backed by the gold standard, and then the silver standard, but now it's backed purely on faith in the underlying Government backing a credit claim. Much like NFTs are backed based purely on the faith in the blockchain. And does artwork which hangs on your wall have intrinsic worth beyond the value of the frame, the paper and the ink on it? Does a Magic, the Gathering card truly have "intrinsic value" beyond what someone else will pay for it? ALL collectibles and most monetary systems work on a basis of "no intrinsic worth" but faith in an underlying system powering demand.

No, this is the type of simplified nonsense that fraudsters peddle.

Just try and think about this for a second-
Paper money has no intrinsic worth, other than the issuing government. That's a pretty big, "other than," isn't it? "Other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?"

Fundamentally, units of exchange are based on trust- even gold-backed currencies require that the person holding the currency trust that the issuing authority (whether it's a government or a bank) be able to exchange the currency for the gold.

But yes, it's true that things are only worth what people are willing to pay for them. But most things have some value independent of a speculative value; for example, platinum and gold have industrial and product uses; art can be appreciated on your wall, and even a tulip is a pretty flower for a while.

Stocks, while they can be bid up in a speculative bubble, have an underlying value (as ownership in a corporation).

From there, you come to two issues-

First, that you are conflating cryptocurrencies, which have their own major issues but, fundamentally, can operate as both a means of exchange as well as a speculative investment, with NFTs.

Second, NFTs have no value because they aren't ... anything. They aren't an underlying right.

To me, the hate for NFTs is the first clear sign of Millennials hitting the anti-new-tech wall most humans hit as they age. I am not calling you a Millennial (in fact I seem to recall you're Gen-X) or that your reasons are purely anti-new-tech. But I think that's what is driving that biased video you posted, and the viral spread of that video, knowing full well the author isn't very well versed in the topic and isn't drawing from genuine experts in crypto. And it's telling that the generations which come after Millennials on average are much more accepting of Crypto.

This is not right and, more obviously, offensive.

If you paid any attention to this, you'd see that there is MASSIVE pushback from young people and real tech people. As has been well documented, the demographics of those going into this now are not, in fact, tech-savvy, but tend to be older men that don't have a lot of disposable income and are hoping to get one big score. Most of them couldn't explain real crytptography to you if you gave them half a year and a copy of any of Bruce Schneier's books.

....and this is before getting into the real issues with crypto. But sure, why not just hit every thread and keep saying, "Yeah, the problem is that the OLDS don't get it."

Because if you understand it so well, why is it that you haven't actually made any kind of compelling case for it?

 

[Umbran]

Yes, and I think the "no intrinsic worth" concept isn't a negative. You don't either, but you probably still think it is because it's an NFT. Your paper money has no intrinsic worth anymore. It used to be backed by the gold standard, and then the silver standard, but now it's backed purely on faith in the underlying Government backing a credit claim. Much like NFTs are backed based purely on the faith in the blockchain.

I agree with Snarf on this one - you are implying that faith in a nation state that's been around for centuries and faith in a technology that's been around since 2008 are the same.

They really aren't. The highly volatile value of cryptocurrency in comparison to other currencies rather proves that. Reliable things, that one should have faith in, typically have fairly stable values.

The persistent value of NFTs is even more suspect than that of cryptocurrency in general, for reasons noted below.

ALL collectibles and most monetary systems work on a basis of "no intrinsic worth" but faith in an underlying system powering demand.

For the majority of collectibles, there's a population that aquires or collects them for purposes other than achieving monetary value. Like, people who buy Magic cards because they like playing the game, or folks who buy Funko Pops because they are memorabilia of their favorite media, or Beanie Babies being popular because kids happen to like small plush toys. Or folks who buy art because it is pretty.

Whether it is "intrinsic" isn't relevant, but whether there's any reason to have it other than the sale value is relevant.

 

[Shakeshift]

nu tsr living rent free in a lot of people minds.
reminds me of a tic tok channel owned by Michael Jamin (https://twitter.com/MJaminWriter) a tv writer/showrunner.
every video there are so many mad angry comments by writers who are enraged that they can't get their scripts into hollywood.

As someone already pointed out earlier, they're not jealous of nu-TSR, because they haven't released anything worthwhile. They didn't do their own module (which is on permanent backorder), they didn't release Star Frontiers (which was never created in the first place), they only have nine signups for their convention later this month, and people can't be jealous of a company that never made a single gaming product in the first place. Jealousy? That would imply they've done something to be jealous of.

Every day for a year we've been exposed to a person in the TTRPG industry who has no street cred but managed to acquire a domain name. That's it, just a domain name. Worse, he's KNOWN to stealing domain names from other people and then co-opting the domain, even though he's not creative enough to produce anything himself, he tells people that they can use his domain name to sell their products.... for a price.

This person comes on like a bully, threatening everyone around him. He threatens them with lawsuits, yet obviously has no money to sue them. He calls them names, but has the thinnest skin when people swing back at him. He makes a few alliances, but eventually his toxicity runs them all off one by one. Stephen Dinehart, Wizard Tower Games, Wonderfilled, Michael Hovermale, Venger Satanis, and many others. He can't even work with people without randomly biting them, then banning or blocking them when they get mad at him. The Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum can't even allow comments on their Facebook and Discord because they get so many negative comments and inquiring questions that they have to suspend all free speech on their forums and then complain with a conspiratorial note that people are "out" to get them. This, by the way, is a company that falsely steals honor and pretends to be the original gaming company from the 1970's, and also falsely pretended to be the creators of GenCon.... at least until everyone called them out on their lies.

Eventually, in a move so stupid that they'll tell stories of it twenty years from now, the imposter company gets greedy and actually tries suing the original company who bought the rights to the product over twenty-five years ago, trying to acquire some of their IP for themselves in a moment of unvarnished greed and jealousy. They try suing the company, and when it's clear that they're going to go down in flames, instead of trying to explain themselves or to issue an apology to the loyal fans (all eight of them) that are still with them after they've chased everyone else off, they decide to go silent... and sulk.

Fake-TSR isn't living rent free in my head, I just want to eat popcorn and laugh while the bully who has been attacking, trash-talking, and blocking everyone for the last year gets the painful beatdown he truly, rightfully deserves.

NOW that they woke up the billion-dollar corporation, and it's going to burn Justin Lanasa flat to the ground, an anonymous person (who didn't have an account a week ago) on this forum says, "You're letting this nu-TSR live rent-free in your heads. You all seem very petty and jealous of them."

If this isn't Justin Lanasa himself posing under a fake account, I'll eat my hat.

 

[Sacrosanct]

As an Indie publisher, you can bet I'm paying attention and not pleased with LaNasa. Because depending on how all this shakes out, WoTC very well could say, "You know what, we tried to be nice by releasing an OGL and SRD. But y'all just had to go try and ruin the intent behind it, so we're pulling it. Done. This is why we can't have nice things."

so yeah, there is a chance LaNasa can be ruining it for everyone, and that absolutely deserves attention and discussion.

 

[Umbran]

As an Indie publisher, you can bet I'm paying attention and not pleased with LaNasa. Because depending on how all this shakes out, WoTC very well could say, "You know what, we tried to be nice by releasing an OGL and SRD. But y'all just had to go try and ruin the intent behind it, so we're pulling it. Done. This is why we can't have nice things."

You know they literally cannot do that, right? They can choose to develop a system that is sufficiently different from d20 that a 3rd party couldn't publish compatible things using the old SRD materials, but those old materials can't be pulled back. That is, in fact, the explicit point of the license - to make sure that D&D, in some form, cannot be closed off by any particular publisher.

 

[darjr]

Oh that crafty LeNasa! Look at the boons he’s reaped out of our willing participation in his wiley schemes.

 

[Deset Gled]

Looks like Star Frontiers: Not Genuine is back as Tsar Frontiers on DriveThruRPG: Tsar Frontiers NG - OSR Games | DriveThruRPG.com

 

[Umbran]

Oh that crafty LeNasa! Look at the boons he’s reaped out of our willing participation in his wiley schemes.

Well, one boon he's reaped is that his name is apt to go down (far, far down) in gaming history.

I think it was about time we got a solid example of what not to be as a small games publisher, at least. and he's likely to be touted out for that for a decade or more, no?