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)

 

[Jer]

So LaNasa has reportedly reserved Horticultural Hall in Lake Geneva next year for a gaming event.

View attachment 255019

I thought that LaNasa's thing was "TSRCon" - what is FFA? (I can't see the acronym FFA without thinking "Future Farmers of America" but I'm assuming that they're not sponsoring this.

 

[MNblockhead]

My guess is they will extend their lawsuit to include David Johnson, Ernie Gygax, and anyone else involved with nuTSR.

The only issue I see with trying to sue for damages is that they have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the documents were in fact created by nuTSR. I don't think a private Google drive is admissible as evidence, nor a copy of the playtest materials.

Oh it certainly is admissible. Knowing these idiots, however, they'll likely try to delete or change evidence after legal hold was triggered and end up getting sanctioned for spoliation of evidence. Now where did I put that bag of pop corn?

 

[adamantyr]

Oh it certainly is admissible. Knowing these idiots, however, they'll likely try to delete or change evidence after legal hold was triggered and end up getting sanctioned for spoliation of evidence. Now where did I put that bag of pop corn?

Deleted files can always be retrieved from back-ups by Google, so that won't help them.

 

[Mannahnin]

Deleted files can always be retrieved from back-ups by Google, so that won't help them.

But that's the exact sort of thing we can expect LaNasa to be unaware of before he commits fraud.

 

[Steampunkette]

I thought that LaNasa's thing was "TSRCon" - what is FFA? (I can't see the acronym FFA without thinking "Future Farmers of America" but I'm assuming that they're not sponsoring this.

Personally I read it as "Free For All". As in either a mass PvP Encounter or just a buncha gaming tables and you can sit down at any of them you like.

 

[GraphPaper Architect]

Wow, I was busy this weekend, and I missed a lot of great discussion. I did manage to grab some files and screenshots along the way, and I've started to analyze some of the files from the data dump NuTSR provided. So far, it looks like everything they "leaked" makes NuTSR look worse.

Let's consider NuTSR's claims about the leaked SFNG playtest PDF (which I like to call the N&N version). They claimed it was faked, then they claimed it was written by either Michael or Logan Hovermale (@Graph Paper Architect). Here's the metadata that shows both those claims are false. First, we have the metadata from the PDF, as shown by @tenkar:

View attachment 255127

This shows that the author is one "George Johnson" and the date from the last mod was 2022-02-12. I previously told you that George D Johnson Jr is Dave's legal name. I can back that up with some links, but it would be tantamount to doxing him (the pages that show it also include his address, phone number, family members, etc). Luckily, NuTSR has provided the proof for us.

One of the files in the Google Drive that NuTSR shared with the world includes the file "Star-Frontiers-capital ship data.docx". This file says it was written by Dave Johnson. But, the .docx revision history shows that the authors username was, you guessed it, "George Johnson" on 2021-12-10:

View attachment 255128

For comparison, all of the Word docs created or edited by Logan Hovermale correctly attribute their work to their proper name. Here's an example from the file "organizations.docx" on 2022-01-07:

View attachment 255129

Now, I chose to use the file "organizations.docx" for two reasons. First, it shows the different metadata IDs. Second, this file shows how the New Genesis material changed after the Hovermales left NuTSR. Here's a list of space organizations in Logan's version, all written before Michael left in January:

• Accord Government:
• Mercenary’s Guild:
• Explorer’s Guild:
• Settler’s Guild:
• Craftsman's Guild:
• Merchant’s Guild:
• Zereria Tech Industries (Zindy):
• Shield Service Central (SSC):
• Military Supply Depot (The Despot):
• Bruce and Betty’s Armory (B&B):
• Huliwan Galactic (Huliwang):
• Korrnicus Enterprises (Corn-Cob):
• Herkimer-Battle (Herkimer):

And here's a list of space organizations from Dave Johnson's version in Alarms & Journeys 13, published in May:

• United Confederation of Planets and systems (UCPS)
• Pan-Galactic Mega-Corps
• Confederation of Civilized Peoples
• Herkimer Labs
• Seldon Bio-Techniques

Simply put, "Herkimer" is the only organization that appears in both versions of SFNG. But, all of the "organization" information shown in the N&N PDF matches what Dave Johnson published in A&J, not what Logan Hovermale wrote. As proof, here's a screenshot from A&J:


View attachment 255130

And here's a screenshot from the Truth Sucks PDF leak video:

View attachment 255131

Combined, I consider all of this to be extremely strong evidence that the N&N version of Star Frontiers New Genesis was made by Dave (aka George) Johnson, and not by Michael or Logan Hovermale. Not that I ever really believed NuTSR, of course. But it's nice to be able to back it up with a lot of evidence that NuTSR provided for us. I have additional metadata to review, but so far nothing as important as this is jumping out. Just a lot of proof that everything the Hovermales did ends by Jan 12th.

And, just to end the weekend with some good old fashioned Facebook drama, here's my favorite back-and-forth (now deleted) with Justin on this whole debacle, from the "Oerth - Adventures in Gary Gygax's Greyhawk" FB group, late Saturday night (sorry, 3 screenshots due to size):

View attachment 255132View attachment 255133View attachment 255134


I think this is just the epitome of Justin acting unprofessional. Arguing with bizarre animated gifs. Using sexist non-sequitor comebacks like "ask your girlfriend". And literally ending an argument by posting "last word" before the thread is deleted. He's like a 12 year old, but with worse grammar.

Thank you Deset!

I did start to get very irritated and wanting to post back, but after talking with friends/family I took a step back and realized I was just giving him more air. I've decided to go full Grey Rock with NOTSR, & Justin.


It is a cute confused doggo though eh?

 

[GraphPaper Architect]

To be clear: someone at NuTSR did that. Then Stephen Dinehart quit. Then NuTSR claimed the person that did that quit, but never directly said it was Dinehart.

At this point, I say Dinehart, LaNasa, Ernie Gygax, and Jeff Leason are all equally responsible for those tweets. Anyone could be honest, but they aren't. The behavior continues. They are all culpable.

Hi I'd like to add,

It's true NuTSR official never said, however, I wrote the press releases with Justin's approval that way because we'd hoped Jim Ward could salvage something from Giantlands even with this whole mess.

Stephen Dinehart was in charge of the Giantlands account and wrote that Tweet to Meg before I came onboard. I never had access to that, or any Wonderfilled accounts.

This is further corroborated by Luke Gygax on Tik Tok.

My reply to the question why I stayed with NOTSR so long.

The simple answer is I did not know. I was working with him/them (Justin) remotely and he was very careful not reveal to me his nature until January, then I left.

When I began working with NuTSR(NOTSR) LaNasa part of my initial questions of them were:

1. Who is in charge of the social media - they, Justin, Jeff, and Ernie, assured me they were not, and in fact told me it was Stephen Dinehart IV. That did turn out to be true, and while it was Stephen that was the IT and PR manager that tweeted to Meg the Sorceress and also hijacked NuTSR's URL's attempting to sell them on Twitter, it was in fact a coordinated effort between Justin, Stephen & Ernie to manage the PR. The PR and IT was turned over to me initially but then quickly reverted back to Justin making posts and me behind him with the fire extinguisher. They were inflammatory and needed much correction, but he did not make any overtly prejudice etc posts or comments, that I was aware of, while I was with them. I still don't know everything he posted.

((Edit)) I believe Kim Wincen on Twitter has records of the tweets from Stephen Dinehart and WFD accounts stating that Dinehart claims ownership and responsibility for the TSR.Games URL's, accounts, and tried to sell them on Twitter.

2. I specifically asked (Justin & Ernie) if any of the allegations of bigotry, prejudice, and other heinous ideals were true, and I was assured they were not. I was assured that they were in fact inclusive and that "anyone/everyone is welcome at their tables".

In conversations with Justin we did not discuss the issues after this initial assurance I received from Justin, Ernie and Jeff. Justin also did not attempt to push the agendas he is now, instead he sold me on the idea that we would be bringing back TSR alumni, which proved to be another fabrication.

When I was brought to Lake Geneva by Justin, there was no discussion about it, we only talked about business or gaming. No discussion about any personal topics were had. Ernie, Donna & Jeff were wonderful and gracious hosts to me, and I had a fantastic time at Victoria Con meeting Mike Carr and much more. There was nothing to indicate any problems, and all discussions were about business and gaming with them.

Slowly that changed after I came home, Justin's comments in person and posts became more and more erratic. He and I had many discussions and arguments regarding the things he was posting and their meaning until finally in January he made himself clear to me, and I resigned.

It is not in my nature to go in public and make statements, and you are the first to ask me with genuine sincerity so thank you for giving me this opportunity to make things quite clear as Don already has in his video, which I will be responding to in kind. It is unpleasant to have to do things like this, but I look at this as a much needed opportunity to clear out bad apples, just like the reporting on Satine and Jamison's behavior so we can rid our community of people that are causing harm. Thank You for asking Waibeir.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Hi I'd like to add,

I answered this on Tenkar's video. I wrote the press releases with Justin's approval that way because we'd hoped Jim Ward could salvage something from Giantlands even with this whole mess.

Stephen Dinehart was in charge of the Giantlands account and wrote that Tweet to Meg before I came onboard. I never had access to that, or any Wonderfilled accounts.

This is further corroborated by Luke Gygax on Tik Tok.

My reply to the question why I stayed with NOTSR so long.

The simple answer is I did not know. I was working with him/them (Justin) remotely and he was very careful not reveal to me his nature until January, then I left.

When I began working with NuTSR(NOTSR) LaNasa part of my initial questions of them were:

1. Who is in charge of the social media - they, Justin, Jeff, and Ernie, assured me they were not, and in fact told me it was Stephen Dinehart IV. That did turn out to be true, and while it was Stephen that was the IT and PR manager that tweeted to Meg the Sorceress and also hijacked NuTSR's URL's attempting to sell them on Twitter, it was in fact a coordinated effort between Justin, Stephen & Ernie to manage the PR. The PR and IT was turned over to me initially but then quickly reverted back to Justin making posts and me behind him with the fire extinguisher. They were inflammatory and needed much correction, but he did not make any overtly prejudice etc posts or comments, that I was aware of, while I was with them. I still don't know everything he posted.

((Edit)) I believe Kim Wincen on Twitter has records of the tweets from Stephen Dinehart and WFD accounts stating that both He claims ownership and responsibility for the TSR.Games URL's, accounts, and tried to sell them on Twitter.

2. I specifically asked (Justin & Ernie) if any of the allegations of bigotry, prejudice, and other heinous ideals were true, and I was assured they were not. I was assured that they were in fact inclusive and that "anyone/everyone is welcome at their tables".

In conversations with Justin we did not discuss the issues after this initial assurance I received from Justin, Ernie and Jeff. Justin also did not attempt to push the agendas he is now, instead he sold me on the idea that we would be bringing back TSR alumni, which proved to be another fabrication.

When I was brought to Lake Geneva by Justin, there was no discussion about it, we only talked about business or gaming. No discussion about any personal topics were had. Ernie, Donna & Jeff were wonderful and gracious hosts to me, and I had a fantastic time at Victoria Con meeting Mike Carr and much more. There was nothing to indicate any problems, and all discussions were about business and gaming with them.

Slowly that changed after I came home, Justin's comments in person and posts became more and more erratic. He and I had many discussions and arguments regarding the things he was posting and their meaning until finally in January he made himself clear to me, and I resigned.

It is not in my nature to go in public and make statements, and you are the first to ask me with genuine sincerity so thank you for giving me this opportunity to make things quite clear as Don already has in his video, which I will be responding to in kind. It is unpleasant to have to do things like this, but I look at this as a much needed opportunity to clear out bad apples, just like the reporting on Satine and Jamison's behavior so we can rid our community of people that are causing harm. Thank You for asking Waibeir.

As the person who initially asked that question, I feel you more than adequately explained yourself and more importantly, it sounds plausible and probable based on what we know from Justin and crew. I'm sorry that you're in a position where you have to keep explaining yourself; I'm sure that has to get old and tiresome. I sincerely wish you the best on your future projects, as my impression (and I could be wrong) is that you just want to create gaming stuff (preferably old school style) and keep all the drama out of it. As a fellow Oregonian, if I can help, let me know. I happen to have had a...regrettable association of my own years ago.

 

[GraphPaper Architect]

As the person who initially asked that question, I feel you more than adequately explained yourself and more importantly, it sounds plausible and probable based on what we know from Justin and crew. I'm sorry that you're in a position where you have to keep explaining yourself; I'm sure that has to get old and tiresome. I sincerely wish you the best on your future projects, as my impression (and I could be wrong) is that you just want to create gaming stuff (preferably old school style) and keep all the drama out of it. As a fellow Oregonian, if I can help, let me know. I happen to have had a...regrettable association of my own years ago.

Thanks Sacrosanct,

Yep, I just want to make games, films, shows, and good stuff. Old school or New, but my first publications will be OSR, with easy conversion methods to make them newer.

That sounds awesome, I am always up for good collaboration.

 

[Deset Gled]

Hi I'd like to add,

I answered this on Tenkar's video. I wrote the press releases with Justin's approval that way because we'd hoped Jim Ward could salvage something from Giantlands even with this whole mess.

Stephen Dinehart was in charge of the Giantlands account and wrote that Tweet to Meg before I came onboard. I never had access to that, or any Wonderfilled accounts.

This is further corroborated by Luke Gygax on Tik Tok.

Thanks for clarifying all this. It's great that you're coming clean with everything now. I wish NuTSR would make a statement being as honest, but I suppose it's long enough ago that even a legitimate company wouldn't want to dredge it up again.