Does TSR3 Have Nazi Connections?

Evidence has been compiled by an anonymous website which suggests that TSR3's Star Frontiers: New Genesis (Star Frontiers being one of the trademarks under legal 'dispute' with WotC right now) is written by an author with extreme Nazi sympathies.

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)...

www.enworld.org

I'm not going to directly post the hateful images and tweets here because the content is extreme. It's one of the most focused outpourings of hate that I've personally seen.

But there is a website [CONTENT WARNING -- I need to post the link as evidence but I honestly do not recommend that you click on it] where somebody has anonymously and comprehensively compiled screenshots which indicate that a Twitter feed called 'DaveFilmsUS' (that they allege belongs to New Genesis author Dave Johnson) is filled with hate speech and Nazi imagery. These tweets include racist, homophobic, and transphobic content, along with Nazi and white supremacy memes. There are images of swastikas, and messages about the 'replacement' of white people. The tweets cover a long period of time, going back to at least 2017. They are extreme.

Star Frontiers: New Genesis is a book whose existence many doubt. It shows up as 'sold out' on TSR3's webstore on Dungeon Hobby Shop. Earlier this year, TSR3 posted manipulated images of piles of books (below) made to look like they were Star Frontiers stock. To the best of my knowledge, nobody has seen this book. The game was announced in June 2021.

Meanwhile, Star Frontiers owner Wizards of the Coast continues to sell the game on DriveThruRPG. TSR3 attempted legal action against WotC last year with the goal of claiming ownership of some of WotC's IP; WotC responded with a countersuit which is still ongoing.

Johnson, who runs Dave Johnson Games, also publishes an ezine called Alarms & Journeys, a name presumably 'inspired' by the the well-known zine Alarums and Excursions by the award-winning game designer Lee Gold. Alarums and Excursions has been running since 1975, and is still published to this day.

TSR3 is run by Justin LaNasa (a tattooist, weapon designer, and briefly a politician who refers to himself as Sir Justin LaNasa), who sent (real) TSR alumnus Tim Kask profane messages in January of this year. TSR3 is the third company to bear the name, and is in no way connected to the TSR which published Dungeons & Dragons from the 1970s to the 1990s.

WotC's countersuit against TSR3, which names the company and Justin LaNasa personally, currently remains ongoing.

​

 

[Mistwell]

Why not go on and look into it, and then get back to everyone with your results, instead of throwing around rhetorical questions?

They're definitely not rhetorical questions. Not sure why you thought they were? I am looking for actual feedback, and not trying to convince anyone of anything. I am getting pretty good answers. Pretty clear I am not asking rhetorical questions here.

 

[Athiev]

Given how awful the stuff on that Twitter feed is, I'm surprised it hasn't been shut down entirely. Surely it violates all sorts of Twitter's TOS?

This is worth keeping in mind when people go off about Twitter censorship --- they didn't even bother to ban this Nazi.

How many broken stairs are there, actually? Hundreds or what?

 

[billd91]

I'm not seeing how it is within EnWorld's TOS, either. Which means the staff has to give Morrus some Red Ink for bringing it up?

Give it a rest. Blatant racists in the gaming industry is news, particularly when they post hate of this magnitude. Or do think there’s something wrong about exposing that?

 

[DLIMedia]

Wait, this is your proof of nearly 100% certainty it's the same person? That a meme going around that day was posted by both, near the same time? Isn't that an indication they both read the same source for that meme, or that one read the others post and liked it so re-posted it? I mean, that is the entire purpose of memes and how they spread. I see you say they kept location tracking on, are you saying there is some indication they are in the same location?

1) According to the Twitter location tracking, whoever posted on Twitter is in the same CITY as DaveJ... Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

2) If you go to the reference website, you'll see a Twitter post made on September 8th, 2017 that includes DaveJ's actual photo. It's obviously photoshopped in, sure (tweet's positional info is still in Tennessee), but like I said earlier... unless the poster has a time machine or knows how to hack Twitter, it's in the past.

I admit I'm not 100% sure, but given the above and given all the other things we've seen from DaveJ (including some reasonably glaring red flags in his writings), it's pretty likely. I see no evidence to the contrary.

 

[Mistwell]

1) According to the Twitter location tracking, whoever posted on Twitter is in the same CITY as DaveJ... Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

That's pretty damning I'd say. Pretty good evidence it's likely the same person.

2) If you go to the reference website, you'll see a Twitter post made on September 8th, 2017 that includes DaveJ's actual photo. It's obviously photoshopped in, sure (tweet's positional info is still in Tennessee), but like I said earlier... unless the poster has a time machine or knows how to hack Twitter, it's in the past.

Also good evidence (I don't want to go to that site but I appreciate you summarizing that for me).

I admit I'm not 100% sure, but given the above and given all the other things we've seen from DaveJ (including some reasonably glaring red flags in his writings), it's pretty likely. I see no evidence to the contrary.

Yeah both of those are pretty solid. Seems likely.

OK, I'm convinced.

 

[Flamestrike]

The fact you are posting nazi content on this website in order to
1) Create controversy
2) Promote racists and anti-LGBT views
is digusting.
3) Drive traffic to sell products.
You call yourself a "news" site, but the reality is that you are just a site promoting your own products.
Reposting racist content for the sole purpose of driving traffic to fill your coffers.
At least when they post it, it is in a small tiny bubble that nobody sees.
When you repost it, you reach way more including young nazi wannabes.

You are just as bad and I am going to work on videos to tell everyone to stay away from this site since you are reposting disgusting content and then profiting off of that disgusting content.

Wut?

It's being shared so we know to avoid TSR3, and as a condemnation of the views they express. I would never have known about these Nazi flogs if it hadnt been for this site.

News sites and Social media sites that call out or report racists, homophobes, bigots, Nazis, #Metoo perpetrators and so forth, and identify them for others so we know to steer clear, are clearly not condoning those Nazis, any more than Ralph Fiennes was condoning the Holocaust when he portrayed a Nazi in Schindlers list.

How you can interpret this thread to be 'promoting' racist and anti-LGBTI views is utterly beyond me. It's doing the exact opposite.

 

[jdrakeh]

@Mistwell Dave Johnson has also posted "lite" versions of this same hate on his [multiple] Facebook accounts*. The red flags were there, so I wasn't surprised to learn of his turbo bigot Twitter account. It seems that he just feels more free to post this kind of thing on Twitter.

*He's had multiple Facebook accounts under multiple names over the past year or so. Some for his publishing imprint, Dave Johnson Games, and some personal.

 

[jdrakeh]

How you can interpret this thread to be 'promoting' racist and anti-LGBTI views is utterly beyond me. It's doing the exact opposite.

He joined 34 minutes ago and this was his first post. I'm going with "probably a sock puppet of a banned nuT$R supporter" here.

 

[Deset Gled]

OK, I'm convinced.

We'll, I'm late to the game here, but I have found some cross posting between the very problematic Twitter account and Dave's public FB account (which is 100% Dave: it matches up with his posts on Discord, and his A&J business work). Here's a good example of said cross posting:

For bonus proof, I can confirm the pics match other photos of Dave from that time period.

So, yeah, I'm pretty convinced the Twitter account is his.

 

[Faolyn]

Never mind, @jdrakeh ninja'd me.

 

[Imaculata]

Well, if the last few years have taught us anything... it is that apparently we are surrounded by nazis. So, I really can't be all that surprised.

 

[Mistwell]

Never mind, @jdrakeh ninja'd me.

He's sneaky like that.

 

[Scarlet.Knight]

He joined 34 minutes ago and this was his first post. I'm going with "probably a sock puppet of a banned nuT$R supporter" here.

Very alt-right-fly-by-night-social-media-account-like... common shayte spewing stratagem

 

[Vaalingrade]

Unsurprised. I knew where this was going the second they deployed the same playbook we've seen all over the place over the past decade plus: drop into a community bend tradition and fear of change into a fear outsiders to their hobby, splinter off and isolate the people who buy it, radicalize them not just against outsiders to their hobby but to... well at this point every non-evil person by feeding a persecution complex and somehow every time a severe misunderstanding of copyright, pick a fight with a corporation as cover, blame the people they attack. Later, rinse, repeat.

All we need now is a twisted lie forged into a slogan. Heritage not hate, ethics in games journalism, something catchy like that, and I'll fill my bingo card.

 

[Maxperson]

I'm not going to look at the twitter feed. Has anyone seen any real evidence of the allegation made by the anonymous person on that website?

 

[jdrakeh]

I'm not going to look at the twitter feed. Has anyone seen any real evidence of the allegation made by the anonymous person on that website?

Yes. The Twitter feed is full of said evidence, but I've also seen similar posts on Dave Johnson's multiple Facebook accounts, as I mention above. Not quite as virulent as the dozens of tweets, but the red flags were definitely there (especially with regard to homophobia and transphopia).

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Given how awful the stuff on that Twitter feed is, I'm surprised it hasn't been shut down entirely. Surely it violates all sorts of Twitter's TOS?

Twitter isn’t going to get rid of the Nazis. If they had any intention of doing so, they’d have done it already.

But that shouldn't be the end of it. Out of sight, out of mind shouldn't be the end goal for people like this. I don't want them gone from the small circle that is tabletop gamers and creators; I want them, and their hateful kind removed from mainstream society as a whole. I don't want them influencing or being influenced by others like them to commit heinous crimes like those in Buffalo or Laguna Woods in the past few days. As someone who is of Native heritage, who is pansexual, who is overweight, who is an outspoken liberal, I am among several of his and his kind's targeted groups, as are many of my family members and friends, and the way this jackwagon and others like him think terrifies me.

Damn right.

Scratch a lie, find a thief. Thinks like this are why being ambivalent about White Supremacy can just be a public cover for good old fashioned enthusiastic endorsement.

Yep. This is why WSs need to be publicly called out, exposed, shut down, and then deplatformed.

Making fun of them, arguing with them, all that stuff that works with normal people, doesn’t work. The Nazi Bar Rule applies to all social spaces, not just bars. You can kick them out, by physical force if necessary, or you can watch your space become their space.

 

[OakenHart]

Well that's just gross.

I don't understand that "replacement" nonsense. Where the hell do they think white people are going to go? It's just weird and gross.

 

[bonchon]

The fact you are posting nazi content on this website in order to
1) Create controversy
2) Promote racists and anti-LGBT views
is digusting.
3) Drive traffic to sell products.
You call yourself a "news" site, but the reality is that you are just a site promoting your own products.
Reposting racist content for the sole purpose of driving traffic to fill your coffers.
At least when they post it, it is in a small tiny bubble that nobody sees.
When you repost it, you reach way more including young nazi wannabes.

You are just as bad and I am going to work on videos to tell everyone to stay away from this site since you are reposting disgusting content and then profiting off of that disgusting content.

Since you just joined today to post this silly attack on Morrus, I gotta wonder if this is a sockpuppet account from one of the NuTSR people.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The fact you are posting nazi content on this website in order to
1) Create controversy
2) Promote racists and anti-LGBT views
is digusting.
3) Drive traffic to sell products.
You call yourself a "news" site, but the reality is that you are just a site promoting your own products.
Reposting racist content for the sole purpose of driving traffic to fill your coffers.
At least when they post it, it is in a small tiny bubble that nobody sees.
When you repost it, you reach way more including young nazi wannabes.

You are just as bad and I am going to work on videos to tell everyone to stay away from this site since you are reposting disgusting content and then profiting off of that disgusting content.

Mod Note:

Morrus is perfectly capable of fighting his own fights, but... You really need to be able to discern the difference between warning against something and promoting it. Especially online.