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.

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[JThursby]

I really just don't want to hear any more news about TSR3. They are consistently pathetic, asinine losers that have no real relevance to the industry aside from having this brief possession of a recognizable trademark. Their lame attempts at confidence schemes and rage bait haven't produced any real products (or revenue, I assume). It looks like they're mostly a group of disgruntled alt-rigthers that vastly overestimated how many people in the TTRPG space sympathize with them (exceedingly few), and as someone who is not an alt-righter and actually runs and plays games instead of just whining about games they have nothing to offer me except more rage bait to doom scroll past. I'll be that much happier never having to see their dumb antics and garbage ideology posted about on the front page again.

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.

That's an unhealthy tract. Advocating or implying imprisonment or government censorship for bad thought is overplaying your hand, as you have no way to actually make it happen and anyone with even the slightest sympathy for them will view them as slightly more reasonable for receiving such comments. Making this an existential "it's us or them" issue is what these bastards want, don't give it to them.

 

[Eltab]

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?

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?

 

[Bill Zebub]

my god this goes so far beyond the game...this is true evil

Probably. But like most real world evil it’s also…pathetic.

 

[Sacrosanct]

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?

It also begs the question about DTRPG's TOS. I couldn't find anything about what kind of person you are as a publisher, just not to commit copyright violations. I don't know if they even care if someone selling goods on their site is a nazi, with material with clear white supremacist dog whistles (which A&E has).

 

[MGibster]

It's like a Russian nesting doll filled, but every doll revelaed is just smaller and nastier than the doll in was inside. Seriously, if I were to make TSR3 up as a fictional bad guy and asked you to critique it you'd say, "Tone it down, mgibster, this is unbelieveale."

 

[DLIMedia]

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?

It's hard to report on something when you can't really show what you're reporting on. Heck, I'm one of the people who found the link and even I'm not posting it on Facebook because it could get me banned from there.

But it needs to be seen... Maybe not by everyone, but by those who won't accept it any other way than to see it with their own eyes.

 

[J.Quondam]

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?

That might be a question best PMed to a mod rather than discussed in-thread. (At least that's how I read ENWorld's TOS.)

 

[Mistwell]

I have a few of questions before reading this stuff. Not because I want to defend NuTSR (they are horrible and I hope they go down in flames in the WOTC lawsuit) but because anonymous accusations should meet a very high standard before they're spread around in my opinion, regardless of who is being accused.

1) The person making the accusation is anonymous. Is there any indication this person actually is reliable, or knows the people in question, or was there when anything happened, or there is good reason to think they have access to private information concerning this?

2) They claim the person who posted all the things at the website is the person behind NuTSR (or one of them). Is there any decent evidence to think that? Is is just supposition that it's the same person, or are we just relying on the anonymous person for this?

3) Could the anonymous person be their former employee, who has gone to some bizarre steps to get back at his former employers including some strange claims previously and whose posts are sometimes a bit nutty themselves?

 

[DLIMedia]

1) The person making the accusation is anonymous. Is there any indication this person actually is reliable, or knows the people in question, or was there when anything happened, or there is good reason to think they have access to private information concerning this?

The person's anonymity is irrelevant; they're posting direct screenshots of a publicly visible Twitter feed. There's no question the images were posted.

2) They claim the person who posted all the things at the website is the person behind NuTSR (or one of them). Is there any decent evidence to think that? Is is just supposition that it's the same person, or are we just relying on the anonymous person for this?

Although I admit it's not 100% iron clad (the Twitter feed is at least four years old), we have already shown evidence that it is pretty close to 100% sure that Dave Johnson is the owner of that Twitter account. See the image proof on the website and my own post on page two.

And Dave Johnson is by no means "behind" NuTSR... but he's the primary author of their flagship product, Star Frontiers: New Genesis.

3) Could the anonymous person be their former employee, who has gone to some bizarre steps to get back at his former employers including some strange claims previously and whose posts are sometimes a bit nutty themselves?

Unless he has a time machine, I don't see how. Like I said, the Twitter posts are at a minimum over four years old and span at least two years of constant posting. It's not something they created overnight out of spite.

 

[Obryn]

I have a few of questions before reading this stuff. Not because I want to defend NuTSR (they are horrible and I hope they go down in flames in the WOTC lawsuit) but because anonymous accusations should meet a very high standard before they're spread around in my opinion, regardless of who is being accused.

1) The person making the accusation is anonymous. Is there any indication this person actually is reliable, or knows the people in question, or was there when anything happened, or there is good reason to think they have access to private information concerning this?

2) They claim the person who posted all the things at the website is the person behind NuTSR (or one of them). Is there any decent evidence to think that? Is is just supposition that it's the same person, or are we just relying on the anonymous person for this?

3) Could the anonymous person be their former employee, who has gone to some bizarre steps to get back at his former employers including some strange claims previously and whose posts are sometimes a bit nutty themselves?

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