TSR Companies & Freelancers Distance Themselves From The New TSR

The new TSR (which I refer to as TSR3 to avoid confusion) has doubled down on its stance--which has been widely condemned online--via an ongoing series of tweets and replies from its TSR Games, Giantlands, and Dungeon Hobby Museum social media accounts (possibly operated by Justin LaNasa) in an astonishing PR campaign which makes the original interview which sparked off the controversy look mild in comparison. Various entities are moving to distance themselves from the company and its activities, including TSR2, the company founded in 2011 by Jayson Elliot, which has now declared that it will not be using the name TSR any longer. Other companies including Gen Con and freelancers such as Jeff Dee have also made statements.

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

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Catch up on my previous coverage of this story:

TSR - Ernie Gygax on New TSR, WotC Beefs, Trademarks, Licensees, 5E, & More

A YouTube channel, 'Live From the Bunker', interviewed Ernie Gygax about the new TSR. I've watched and decided to try to transcribe the most relevant parts of it, but the full hour-long video is below if you want to see the whole interview and full context. Ernie Gygax is one of D&D...

www.enworld.org

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

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

www.enworld.org

A TSR Announces a Star Frontiers Reboot

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

www.enworld.org

TSR - TSR Is Back.... Again!

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

www.enworld.org

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TSR3 responds to Luke Gygax​

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

​

 

[Mannahnin]

Jeff Leason's apt. He sold his house in N. WIsc, and moved into the apt is is the de facto curator. He also is invested in the LLC.

Thanks! That makes perfect sense.

IIRC someone was saying Jeff had donated a bunch of stuff to the museum. If he's a heavy investor in that side, then being physically on top of it would be logical too.

 

[MGibster]

What in the world does that even mean, ya know? So if the DM has nasty gas issues and it gets offensive go away? (of course that's not what they mean but still)

That's kind of what I'm wondering. Looking back from my days of playing "old school fashion," I can't recall anything overly offensive. I was a teenage boy, so, yeah, I'm not going to say I didn't do or say anything that would embarrass me today. But so far as actual game play went I can't think of anything that would cause many people to clutch their pearls.

 

[Willie the Duck]

I mean.... yeah, but I don't think the "dark skins = evil" motif is as prevalent as some do in D&D, or at least in old school D&D. Drow, absolutely- but... orcs started off green and piggy. I think that's less problematic than their later depiction- it's farther from human so it's harder to see them as a pastiche of any given ethnicity. And at least in their original depiction, goblins are red and hobgoblins yellow. Duergar are pale compared to other dwarves, derro are sallow-skinned, etc.

I think some of the problem has been with the artists just going with white looking demihumans even if that didn't match the lore. IIRC the 1e Monster Manual describes dwarves as generally darker than they are actually shown in the art.

Which isn't to say that what you're talking about isn't a problem. Perception matters, and since Drow have become one of the most iconic bad guy races in D&D, putting them up front in a lot of the art and the like, it's easy to see how that can paint the wrong picture.

Orcs certainly got more problematic as time went on*. As having them as a playable race gained traction, (say, 2e AD&D's Complete Book of Humanoids) they increased the 'noble savage' tropes by an order of magnitude, making the linkages to people also described in such fashion all the more straightforward.
*Caveat: Obviously all the baggage they got from Tolkien certainly was there from the beginning.

I'm sick of "old-school" gaming (which isn't as easy to pin down as people think it is) being lumped in with offensive behavior.

Tell me about it.

 

[Mannahnin]

"Most role playing games will be played in old school fashion so if you're easily offended DO NOT PLAY"

This implies two things to me.

1. They consider making offensive jokes or including offensive content (sexist? racist? who knows?) to be a more important element of running their games than including the widest possible range of gamers who are interested in visiting and playing at the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum.

2. They consider including offensive material to be synonymous with old school.

Which are both pretty disappointing and honestly a little insulting to me as part of the old school scene.

 

[CleverNickName]

Not terribly relevant, but I just thought this little notice on their official museum site was telling:

View attachment 139395

Oh for crying out loud, I give up.
Good luck, best wishes, whatever, you pile of jerks.

-flips table, storms out-

 

[Malmuria]

Oh for crying out loud, I give up.
Good luck, best wishes, whatever, you pile of jerks.

-flips table, storms out-

But but..."everyone is welcome" at their tables

 

[Sacrosanct]

Which are both pretty disappointing and honestly a little insulting to me as part of the old school scene.

You and me both. In fact, it's one of the reasons I'm doing Chromatic Dungeons in the first place. Well, not so much that I feel insulted, but more that it irks me to no end that a version of the game I love is being co-opted to exclude gamers, because we should we welcoming everyone and bigotry has no place.

 

[Retreater]

My first dice bag was stitched by a good friend of mine who later told me he was gay on the day he moved off to college. He said I was the last of his friends he told because he thought I would make fun of him and exclude him. This was back in the mid 1990s, and I think back to what I could've done to support him, especially after learning that over the years he was excluded from his family and had suicidal thoughts.
That's when I started to grow, and I hope others will do the same. And even though I'm a (sometimes) pessimistic grognard, none of us are "level-capped" to stay at our current understanding.

 

[Sacrosanct]

My first dice bag was stitched by a good friend of mine who later told me he was gay on the day he moved off to college. He said I was the last of his friends he told because he thought I would make fun of him and exclude him. This was back in the mid 1990s, and I think back to what I could've done to support him, especially after learning that over the years he was excluded from his family and had suicidal thoughts.
That's when I started to grow, and I hope others will do the same. And even though I'm a (sometimes) pessimistic grognard, none of us are "level-capped" to stay at our current understanding.

I have a similar experience. Man, when I look back at what I said and did 20 years ago? I often think back and wish I would have been a better person and better ally. It just reminds me that growing never stops.

 

[Sir Brennen]

"Most role playing games will be played in old school fashion so if you're easily offended DO NOT PLAY"

This statement is so... reactionary, exclusionary and deeply flawed in understanding of the criticisms of early D&D.

I started with Basic D&D ("blue box" before it was a blue box!) and quickly moved on to the AD&D 1E hardcovers at the end of high school. I've played every edition/version of the game since. (Okay, never had group buy-in for more than a couple games of 4E, and none for Essentials. Anyway...)

As the TTRPG world evolved, I noticed the changes to sexist language and rules, the criticisms of racist depictions, and said "Yeah, I get it", or "I see that now." looking back on earlier editions. (I've posted the links many times, but google James Mendez Hodes and his two-part blog post about Orcs is an excellent read that is very eye-opening).

Maybe because I was lucky enough to have some players other than all white cis-het males even since my early games, I knew growing up everyone should be having fun and not feel excluded.

It's easy to do even in an OSR game today. The criticisms are against certain game elements, not a specific style, or "fashion", of play. You can completely avoid the racist/sexist elements of the game and it won't change the style of play at all.

The changes in modern games are not an attack on players or even creators in that earlier era, despite recent interviews and tweets trying to depict things otherwise.

So this statement seems nothing but an extension of that. "If you are offended by racist/sexist rules and content, go away. We don't know any other way to play."