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)

 

[Deset Gled]

I've been re-reading the legal docs from the latest filing, and I keep getting hung up on another classic NuTSR lie.

Lanasa says multiple times that SFNG was never a real book. These are his words:

-----
"28. The SFNG Game was never sold by any Counterclaim Defendant. While a
digital mockup photo of it (the photo was prepared by Mr. Semora) appeared on the
Museum’s website, it was at all times listed as “Out of Stock.” Mr. Semora also prepared a
digital mockup photo of a stack of SFNG Game books."

"44. Neither I or the other Counterclaim Defendants ever gave Mr. Semora or anyone
else permission to publish, release, or distribute the SFNG Game, especially not a version that had
been modified to include offensive and inflammatory content (such as Exhibit E)."

"48. The SFNG Game was never sold by any of the Counterclaim Defendants. Although
the SFNG Game appeared on the Museum’s website, it was at all times listed as “Out of Stock.”
The SFNG Game has never been available for sale to consumers in the marketplace, and the
Counterclaim Defendants have not sold (or attempted to sell) a single copy of the SFNG Game to
anyone.

49. The image of the SFNG Game depicted on the Museum and TSR websites (as seen
in Exhibit P below and in paragraph 7 of the Rainwater Declaration, which I have reviewed) was
merely a digital mockup of a book showing what the future game book might look like. It does
not show an actual product that is currently in existence and available for sale. There is not one
page of text between the digital covers. The book does not exist.

50. The SFNG Game has never been available for sale to consumers, and no
Counterclaim Defendant has sold or attempted to sell a copy of it to anyone. A consumer who
visited the website could not click on the item, add it to a shopping cart, pre-order it, or in any way
interact with the photo of the digital mockup."
-----

Here's the big problem: it was almost a year ago exactly that NuTSR first claimed that they had sold out their first printing of Star Frontiers New Genesis. Here's the link to my first post about it in this thread: TSR - The Full & Glorious History of NuTSR. This is the short version of what @Graph Paper Architect reported in Discord at the time:

-----
"Michael K.H. — 10/14/2021
Hi Everyone,
We had a very small limited release of Star Frontiers New Genesis that came out last night. Before I was able to post about it, it already sold out.
I will make certain that going forward you hear about it much more in advance.
Apologies
Michael"
-----

After people like Kim Wincen and @Jedion357 called this out as fake, Lanasa went on a campaign to try and prove it was real. Here are screenshots from a TheEvilDM video where Lanasa sent Vince Florio photos of himself holding the SFNG "product":

Now, I'm fairly sure that the book was never really sold, and the photos he's showing are either empty or gibberish inside. But everything he's saying in court now contradicts his earlier statements. And it gets stupider. In the legal declaration, Lanasa also says this:

-----
"45. The only versions of the SFNG Game that represent the transcript co-written by
me/TSR and Mr. Johnson are the draft transcript that was provided to Mr. Semora by Google Doc
and the version that TSR reviewed in the three-ring binders provided to it by Wizard Tower Games.
Neither of these versions contained offensive content.

46. To the extent that it was possible, I took on behalf of TSR prompt action to have
unauthorized versions of the transcript removed where they appeared online. These postings were
entirely unauthorized by and outside of the control of me or my companies."

But here is a copy of an SFNG character sheet!

I literally got it from the NuTSR Discord months ago, predating anything Lanasa talks about in the filing. Lanasa never mentions this version of SFNG anywhere in his declaration. He talks about the Star Frontiers Not Genuine spoof, but never even acknowledges his own earlier product. It's ridiculous.

This is the problem with NuTSR's continual lies on top of lies that are build on a bed of lies. I think Lanasa is in so deep it's impossible to not contradict himself.

 

[Staffan]

This is the problem with NuTSR's continual lies on top of lies that are build on a bed of lies. I think Lanasa is in so deep it's impossible to not contradict himself.

Liars need good memories, as the saying goes.

 

[Umbran]

Not accurate... The documents say it was written by George Johnson, but in Justin's statement on record he states that George Johnson really is Dave Johnson.

Use of a pseudonym is fine, so long as it isn't done with intent to deceive. So, if they ever try to claim, in court, "No, it wasn't Dave. It was this George dude..." then they are perjuring themselves.

If they ever try to make that claim out of court, with money on the line, it becomes potential fraud.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Out of curiosity, I checked the local rules for the W.D. Washington, and they are a jurisdiction that allows a reply as of right.

Which means (assumedly, I haven't actually reviewed the motion and response because I don't think they were posted?) that WoTC will likely file file a reply shortly.

 

[Umbran]

"28. The SFNG Game was never sold by any Counterclaim Defendant.

So... if anyone finds the place where he uses the sale of the product to bolster contributions to crowdfunding or the like... you then have him on fraud?

 

[Parsec]

The content of this video: got me thinking about how much time is left before Johnson and Lanasa will turn onto each other. I wonder who will accuse the other one of something first, after all from a certain point of view seem that Johnson is starting to distance himself a bit from this mess.

 

[DLIMedia]

The content of this video: ... got me thinking about how much time is left before Johnson and Lanasa will turn onto each other. I wonder who will accuse the other one of something first, after all from a certain point of view seem that Johnson is starting to distance himself a bit from this mess.

It is my impression that DaveJ is the weaker of the two and can be easily manipulated. Heck, for who knows what reason he agreed to make their flagship product for free, which is quite honestly insane.

I think the only reason Justin hasn't thrown Dave under the proverbial bus yet is because Dave's the only one doing any actual work. Justin is incapable of creating a game, and Dave is more than happy to take that task on on free of charge. Justin is decidedly not a designer; DaveJ technically is, albeit a bad one.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I've been re-reading the legal docs from the latest filing, and I keep getting hung up on another classic NuTSR lie.

Lanasa says multiple times that SFNG was never a real book. These are his words:

-----
"28. The SFNG Game was never sold by any Counterclaim Defendant. While a
digital mockup photo of it (the photo was prepared by Mr. Semora) appeared on the
Museum’s website, it was at all times listed as “Out of Stock.” Mr. Semora also prepared a
digital mockup photo of a stack of SFNG Game books."

"44. Neither I or the other Counterclaim Defendants ever gave Mr. Semora or anyone
else permission to publish, release, or distribute the SFNG Game, especially not a version that had
been modified to include offensive and inflammatory content (such as Exhibit E)."

"48. The SFNG Game was never sold by any of the Counterclaim Defendants. Although
the SFNG Game appeared on the Museum’s website, it was at all times listed as “Out of Stock.”
The SFNG Game has never been available for sale to consumers in the marketplace, and the
Counterclaim Defendants have not sold (or attempted to sell) a single copy of the SFNG Game to
anyone.

49. The image of the SFNG Game depicted on the Museum and TSR websites (as seen
in Exhibit P below and in paragraph 7 of the Rainwater Declaration, which I have reviewed) was
merely a digital mockup of a book showing what the future game book might look like. It does
not show an actual product that is currently in existence and available for sale. There is not one
page of text between the digital covers. The book does not exist.

50. The SFNG Game has never been available for sale to consumers, and no
Counterclaim Defendant has sold or attempted to sell a copy of it to anyone. A consumer who
visited the website could not click on the item, add it to a shopping cart, pre-order it, or in any way
interact with the photo of the digital mockup."
-----

Here's the big problem: it was almost a year ago exactly that NuTSR first claimed that they had sold out their first printing of Star Frontiers New Genesis. Here's the link to my first post about it in this thread: TSR - The Full & Glorious History of NuTSR. This is the short version of what @Graph Paper Architect reported in Discord at the time:

-----
"Michael K.H. — 10/14/2021
Hi Everyone,
We had a very small limited release of Star Frontiers New Genesis that came out last night. Before I was able to post about it, it already sold out.
I will make certain that going forward you hear about it much more in advance.
Apologies
Michael"
-----

After people like Kim Wincen and @Jedion357 called this out as fake, Lanasa went on a campaign to try and prove it was real. Here are screenshots from a TheEvilDM video where Lanasa sent Vince Florio photos of himself holding the SFNG "product":

View attachment 263835

View attachment 263836

Now, I'm fairly sure that the book was never really sold, and the photos he's showing are either empty or gibberish inside. But everything he's saying in court now contradicts his earlier statements. And it gets stupider. In the legal declaration, Lanasa also says this:

-----
"45. The only versions of the SFNG Game that represent the transcript co-written by
me/TSR and Mr. Johnson are the draft transcript that was provided to Mr. Semora by Google Doc
and the version that TSR reviewed in the three-ring binders provided to it by Wizard Tower Games.
Neither of these versions contained offensive content.

46. To the extent that it was possible, I took on behalf of TSR prompt action to have
unauthorized versions of the transcript removed where they appeared online. These postings were
entirely unauthorized by and outside of the control of me or my companies."

But here is a copy of an SFNG character sheet!

View attachment 263837

I literally got it from the NuTSR Discord months ago, predating anything Lanasa talks about in the filing. Lanasa never mentions this version of SFNG anywhere in his declaration. He talks about the Star Frontiers Not Genuine spoof, but never even acknowledges his own earlier product. It's ridiculous.

This is the problem with NuTSR's continual lies on top of lies that are build on a bed of lies. I think Lanasa is in so deep it's impossible to not contradict himself.

WoTC Lawyers: Oh, we know all of these discrepancies....

I gotta figure that they have all of these timelines and metadata already prepared to show the judge.

The content of this video: got me thinking about how much time is left before Johnson and Lanasa will turn onto each other. I wonder who will accuse the other one of something first, after all from a certain point of view seem that Johnson is starting to distance himself a bit from this mess.

It is my impression that DaveJ is the weaker of the two and can be easily manipulated. Heck, for who knows what reason he agreed to make their flagship product for free, which is quite honestly insane.

I think the only reason Justin hasn't thrown Dave under the proverbial bus yet is because Dave's the only one doing any actual work. Justin is incapable of creating a game, and Dave is more than happy to take that task on on free of charge. Justin is decidedly not a designer; DaveJ technically is, albeit a bad one.

I find it plausible from what I know of Justin and Dave that if Dave starts anything, Justin has threatened to turn him in for disability and SSI fraud....er..."expose his gaming of the system by using other people and names for his income."

Man, I almost want to beg to be an intern at WoTC's lawfirm just to be in the courtroom for this.

 

[Parsec]

It is my impression that DaveJ is the weaker of the two and can be easily manipulated. Heck, for who knows what reason he agreed to make their flagship product for free, which is quite honestly insane.

Don’t know about that, in this whole affair according to the rumors there were a lot of verbal promises about various forms of compensations ex. shares made by Lanasa to others, it’s not inconceivable that they are turning a possible lack of written contracts into some possible advantage by claiming to be volunteers (maybe thinking that gives them less legal responsibility). Btw some people still think exposure is a viable form of payment, and not all of them are the ones who want to use it to buy something.

 

[LordEntrails]

I find it plausible from what I know of Justin and Dave that if Dave starts anything, Justin has threatened to turn him in for disability and SSI fraud....er..."expose his gaming of the system by using other people and names for his income."

Curious if any of the lawyers in the crowd could comment If illegal behavior is revealed during a lawsuit that does not apply to the lawsuit, is their an obligation to report such to the appropriate authority?