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)

 

[Steampunkette]

So the event is doomed, then.

It very much might be. I sent this to the Director of the Horticultural Hall.

I apologize for intruding in your day, however I feel compelled to inform you that a group of Nazi Sympathizers, and I do not use that term lightly, have booked the Horticultural Hall under the guise of a gaming event. I shall first point you to their official advertisement on Tabletop Events, and then better explain myself.

FFA Gaming Event (Lake Geneva)

tabletop.events

"Sponsors & Vendors Will be kept Confidential until the day of the Event. To keep Retaliations down" can be found in the middle of the advertisement. Retaliations for what, you might ask? Well.

George David Johnson (Who commonly goes by Dave, Dave Johnson, or DaveUSFilms online) is the current Lead Writer and Designer of TSR's "Star Frontiers: New Genesis".

He is also a deeply bigoted person who has previously, and over the course of many years, posted simply ridiculous quantities of hatred toward women, racial and ethnic minorities, and the LGBTQIA+ community. Shortly after April 22nd of this year, he deleted all of the posts and shuttered his social media accounts after people looked into his background when they learned he would be working at the new TSR.

A large number of the posts can be found at the following website. I should warn you that in addition to harsh and bigoted language, he routinely posted Nazi imagery and symbols, and suggested that a violent Nazi uprising would or perhaps 'should' occur once enough "White People" were angry.

https://www.nohateingaming.com/

Justin Lanasa and his compatriots at TSR have done their best to deny, deflect, and create elaborate conspiracy theories to excuse this behavior. Up to and including the idea that Wizards of the Coast (WotC) have paid people to harass and create lies about TSR. Dave Johnson, himself, has largely gone into hiding over the matter in the hopes of the issue dying down... And yet.

Dave Johnson publishes Alarms and Journeys, a poor misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the prestigious Alarums and Excursions magazine of old. In issue 13 of his magazine he included material to be used in the Star Frontiers New Genesis story background.

In the Alarms and Journeys Article, he invents a race of aliens who are tall, blond blue eyed, and perfected humanoids with slender and muscular builds and great beauty. He calls these humanoids the "Nordics". And it is they who save humanity from our greatest folly: Cybernetics. Cybernetics, of course, oft depicted in media as being equivalent to high-functional prosthetics for people with degenerative diseases, missing limbs, and the like.

Truly, I say "Invents" but the "Nordic Aliens" are actually a long running neonazi and white supremacist conspiracy theory about Aryan Aliens who will bring peace and prosperity to Earth by wiping out everyone who isn't 'pure'.

Here is a Southern Poverty Law Center article on this racist belief that started in the 1950s.

Close encounters of the racist kind

The modern far right is crisscrossed with pseudo-scientific research into lost Aryan super-civilizations, biblical giants, ancient astronauts and the occasional inter-dimensional alien.

www.splcenter.org

Months later, a leaked manuscript of the Alpha Playtest of Star Frontiers New Genesis confirmed the Nordics and the timeline that Dave Johnson outlined in his article. And also added in a new race of particularly strong people whose maximum Intelligence value on a scale of 3 to 18 is 9.

Brace yourself.

These large dark-skinned brutes (Often so black as to appear almost purple) are known as the "Negroes".

Beautiful, powerful, highly intelligent, technologically advanced Blonde Haired and Blue Eyed white people. And brutish, ignorant, and often slave-labor for their more advanced cousins, the Negroes. Yes, the Nordics and the Negroes are from the same planet, and the Negroes are the slaves of the Nordics.

You can watch a Video of a member of the gaming community scrolling through the document to show the offending material, here:


Note both that the document was Written by and Edited by both Dave Johnson and Justin Lanasa. Which means Justin Lanasa read this horrible and racist material and approved of it, rather than removing it, during the editing phase.

Further highlights from those who have paused the video frame by frame to learn as much about the game as possible from this peek:

1) Attractiveness is an abstract dice roll attribute however it is modified to be lower based on whether you have a "Large nose and Small eyes". Clear reference to antisemetic artwork and tropes.
2) The statement that "Races" are often good at some things and worse at others "just like in real life" With the addendum that "Some races are superior to others"
3) All obese characters automatically get asthma.
4) There are no Transgender characters in the Universe. Though Dave did write a note that maybe they should make a "Trans Race" which makes little enough sense, but then suggested they also be robots...
5) Heterosexuality is not only default, but explicitly outlined in some flaws and characteristics that imply homosexuality does not exist within the setting that includes Earth.

Shortly thereafter, the TSR Employee who leaked the Star Frontiers New Genesis alpha playtest posted a video response to Lanasa claiming it was fake. In the video the Leaker goes to the Google Documents folder TSR uses and highlights various items, including the Alpha Playtest to confirm it is there. He also opens a slide for a power point presentation created by Justin Lanasa which puts both the Nordics and the Negroes front and center.

You can watch the video, here:
The TSR you are working with is not the Tactical Systems Rules that Gary Gygax created in the 70s. It is a work of fraud and intellectual property theft in order to attempt to leverage a civil suit settlement from Wizards of the Coast who own the IP for Star Frontiers. Lanasa merely sniped the Trademark for the names "TSR" and "Star Frontiers". They're also illegally using old TSR artwork as part of their company image and materials. This is why they are in a legal battle with WotC, who owns the Star Frontiers IP as well as the use rights to those images.

In the process they have, and will continue to, defame everything great about the old TSR by usurping that institution's title and legacy while pushing hate-filled rhetoric and courting controversy for no purpose other to enflame and enrage the very community they routinely claim to be fighting for.

You can see some such bigoted material on their official business Facebook page, here:

TSR Hobbies

TSR Hobbies, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. 966 likes · 108 talking about this. An American Game Design Company

www.facebook.com

If you scroll back to earlier this month, in fact, you'll see Lanasa praise "Nasty Naughty Nazi Ninja Nudnik Elves" as a good candidate "Reboot" for a TTRPG. The attached image involves, of course, elves dressed in Nazi Fetish clothing. An "Explanation" of why they posted an image of a parent "Protecting his children" from a rainbow. And my personal favorite, the "Anti-Woke Unclaimer".


In which they claim to not be biased, sexist, racist, or otherwise... yet will intentionally shoehorn in such material to games with the express intent of offending people who would obviously be offended by that material.

Forgive my crudeness, but if a man has sex with a donkey as a joke, he's still had sex with a donkey at the end of the day. If they claim to promote these racist, sexist, overall bigoted ideas out of a desire to offend people, there's little enough difference between them and someone who promotes these bigoted ideas to a brutal end.

The ideas are promoted, in either case, and we trundle onward toward that brutal end. And considering society's current trundling over LGBT and Women's Rights... well.

I have long held a special place in my heart for the Horticultural Hall due to it's past in providing a place for people to gather during the earliest days of my hobby, and now profession as I am a TTRPG writer.

Seeing this Nazi, and the people who defend him and outright approve of him putting clear Nazi Propaganda into their games, occupy the Horticultural Hall will break my heart. And the heart of countless other gamers. Yes. They make claims of neutrality. They make claims of grand conspiracy against them. But these claims are hollow, as shown by which side they stand on, routinely. As shown by the fact that they added the word "Retaliate" to their official advertisement on Tabletop Events.

Because they know why someone might retaliate against Nazi Propaganda being presented as wholesome TTRPG content. They know someone might show their sponsors all of this information. That those sponsors might not wish to support this new TSR if they knew what it's values were.

Please stand up for what is right. Please cancel their reservation and make a public statement refuting their disgusting and dangerous ideology, before the Horticultural Hall gains a terrible black mark in the hearts of gamers everywhere.

Cordially, and with great hope,
Rachel Williamson

While I hope her business email inbox isn't utterly flooded to the point of white noise, it can be found here:

Home

Just in case anyone wants to cover anything I've left out, or share their own thoughts and feelings about nuTSR using the Horticultural Hall at Lake Geneva.

 

[DLIMedia]

"I don't know how to answer that question nicely" is peak Justin.

 

[LordEntrails]

Here is the contact page for Future Farmers of America. Just in case anyone wants to contact them about a bunchnof racists using their initials. As a former member, I will be emailing them this weekend. I may even call them.

Contact us - FFA Help Center

National FFA Center & Headquarters 6060 FFA Dr., Indianapolis, IN 46278 Hours: Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Eastern Time 1-888-332-2668 Call our toll-free phone number and select the appropriate option. Or, send us an email (if applicable). When calling… Press 1 to check on Shop FFA...

help.ffa.org

Yea, nothing Future Farmers can do about it. It's three letters. An acronym. Not something that can be protected unless someone where trying to infringe upon any trademark and trying to pass themselves off as Future Farmers.

Here are just some of the legal uses of FFA: FFA

Just because you want to hassle NuTSR, don't waste the Future Farmers time and be annoying.

 

[DLIMedia]

It very much might be. I sent this to the Director of the Horticultural Hall.


While I hope her business email inbox isn't utterly flooded to the point of white noise, it can be found here:

Home

Just in case anyone wants to cover anything I've left out, or share their own thoughts and feelings about nuTSR using the Horticultural Hall at Lake Geneva.

Actually, part of wants them to proceed with this event... there's absolutely no way I can see that will make it profitable for them. Let them burn the little cash they have left; Horticultural Hall can certainly use the money.

 

[Steampunkette]

Yea, nothing Future Farmers can do about it. It's three letters. An acronym. Not something that can be protected unless someone where trying to infringe upon any trademark and trying to pass themselves off as Future Farmers.

Here are just some of the legal uses of FFA: FFA

Just because you want to hassle NuTSR, don't waste the Future Farmers time and be annoying.

When Did WWF Changed Name to WWE? - ITN WWE

The World Wrestling Federation (WWF) had to change its name to the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) due to the lawsuit initiated by the World Wildlife Fund over the initials back in 2002.

www.itnwwe.com

 

[adamantyr]

It very much might be. I sent this to the Director of the Horticultural Hall.


While I hope her business email inbox isn't utterly flooded to the point of white noise, it can be found here:

Home

Just in case anyone wants to cover anything I've left out, or share their own thoughts and feelings about nuTSR using the Horticultural Hall at Lake Geneva.

Well done! I hope they get back to you.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I suspect that conversation would've finished up quicker:

"People might retaliate if we list our sponsors."
"Why would they do that?"
"Well you know, all that bigotry and hate we've been cultivating."
"Why not just get rid of the bigotry and hate?"
"...<insert horrible comment about your spouse or children>."

"People might retaliate if we list our sponsors."
"Why would they do that?"
"Well you know, all that bigotry and hate we've been cultivating."
"Why not just get rid of the bigotry and hate?"
"...I don't understand the question."
"You could just apologize for the bigotry and hate, and do better."
"...still not understanding you."
"Issue an apology. Pledge to do better. Break ties with problematic people."
"I seriously don't understand. What language are you speaking? Is it Latin?"

All joking aside, "Sponsors & Vendors Will be kept Confidential until the day of the Event. To keep Retaliations down" is a very weird way of saying "Sponsors and Vendors needed. Click HERE for more information."

I don't think there's any chance where they need the overhead of a 160 person space. While there aren't that many rental halls in Lake Geneva, I suspect the biggest reason they chose it is to continue to sponge off of nostalgia and blur the lines between Not-TSR and TSR.

The Horticultural Hall is a really nice venue. A bit small, but the ivy and hardwood make it look really intimate and cozy. From their website, the space can accommodate up to 160 people, so it'll be a manageable sized crowd. And it has some good gamer history attached to it too, being the location of the first several GenCon events. All of that is good, IMO.

 

[DLIMedia]

I don't think there's any chance where they need the overhead of a 160 person space. While there aren't that many rental halls in Lake Geneva, I suspect the biggest reason they chose it is to continue to sponge off of nostalgia and blur the lines between Not-TSR and TSR.

It's worth mentioning that the location is rated to hold 160 people in a wedding format... which means rows upon rows of chairs and no tables. So, given how much table space is needed for any game, an RPG venue would have significantly less capacity.

 

[CleverNickName]

It's worth mentioning that the location is rated to hold 160 people in a wedding format... which means rows upon rows of chairs and no tables. So, given how much table space is needed for any game, an RPG venue would have significantly less capacity.

Building capacity is determined by the Fire Marshall, the number of exits, and the local building codes, it doesn't really have much to do with how the space will be used.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Building capacity is determined by the Fire Marshall, the number of exits, and the local building codes, it doesn't really have much to do with how the space will be used.

a little behind the curtain magic here... I am looking for a wedding venue, and there is an old building on the second floor that has HUGE open spaces with a capacity about 2/3 of a smaller 1st floor venue due to exists.