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!

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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)

 

[adamantyr]

NuTSR is claiming that they have now fullfilled all orders of Dungeon Crawl and Cult of Abaddon. I haven't seen confirmation from anyone who ordered, one way or the other. Both products are still listed as "backordered" on the TSR website, but I'm beginning to suspect that's because Michael was the one who handled the site and LaNasa doesn't know how to update it.

NuTSR has a couple of new business partners. Someone named Jason Schattner may be working at the DHSM part time. He has definitely been talking with LaNasa and has started defending NuTSR across FaceBook. Also, a small gaming business called Mick Art Productions, ostensibly owned and run by Mick Art, is selling NuTSR products online and at Grand Rapids Comic Con. I think their website perfectly shows why NuTSR is destined to lose the lawsuit. From mickartproductions.com/tsr:



They are literally claiming that NuTSR and the DHSM is the same TSR that was founded in 1976. It's a textbook case of intentionally causing market confusion. You can't infringe trademarks much more than that.

Well the one package who's tracking number could be discerned on their images was actually shipped, so Dungeon Crawl is, I think, getting fulfilled.

I'm not so sure about Cult of Abbadon. While we saw shots of packaged items, they never bothered to show a photo of one. Plus all of those packages appeared to lack USPS tracking labels, they only had address labels. But I could certainly be wrong. For those who wanted to pay for such a mediocre product, I certainly hope they get what they paid for. (Funny how no explanation was given for the two month delay, or the false image of the finished product.)

 

[Faolyn]

They are literally claiming that NuTSR and the DHSM is the same TSR that was founded in 1976. It's a textbook case of intentionally causing market confusion. You can't infringe trademarks much more than that.

See, that just doesn't make sense to me. TSR got bought out, and even if it totally legally somehow got away from WotC after so many years, like LaNasa et al bought it from WotC, I can't imagine how you can claim it's the same TSR. TSR Rebooted (Rerolled, perhaps). TSR, 2nd edition. But the same company? Is this a thing that actually happens? Can you have the Business of Theseus?

I feel like they've seen too many TV shows and movies where the plucky small business owners have their property seized by the Big Bad Company but manage to buy it back and have a grand re-opening at the end, possibly with the help of a group of heroic children, or maybe cute aliens.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

See, that just doesn't make sense to me. TSR got bought out, and even if it totally legally somehow got away from WotC after so many years, like LaNasa et al bought it from WotC, I can't imagine how you can claim it's the same TSR. TSR Rebooted (Rerolled, perhaps). TSR, 2nd edition. But the same company? Is this a thing that actually happens? Can you have the Business of Theseus?

I’ve seen several companies rise from the ashes and reappear on the market after someone bought out their IP and possibly even physical plant. A high percentage of those use the same name as the moribund company, some use a variant of it, and some don’t really recognize their pasts unless directly queried.

I can’t think of a single one (outside the restaurant biz) that asserted it was the same company as before. And the restaurants that did so? None that I know of lasted very long.

The ones that do best don’t run from their pasts, but also don’t hew so closely to them that they’re confused in the marketplace.

Two guitar makers spring to mind: Leo Fender and Dean Zelinsky. Leo founded Fender, one of the two biggest guitar makers in the world. He sold out to CBS. He cofounded Music Man as a silent partner, and after his 10 year non-compete clause expired, became its president. The products were similar, but not the same. Music Man got bought by Ernie Ball, and Leo came back a little later with G&L guitars, which further altered Leo’s original designs.

Dean Zelinsky had a similar career arc. He founded Dean Guitars, DBZ Guitars (renamed Diamond after his departure) and Dean Zelinsky’s Private Label.

All 6 of these companies were successful- some more than others- and all are still in existence. But NONE of the subsequently founded companies claimed to be the same as their predecessors. In fact, they were very clear about what made them distinctly different.

 

[adamantyr]

See, that just doesn't make sense to me. TSR got bought out, and even if it totally legally somehow got away from WotC after so many years, like LaNasa et al bought it from WotC, I can't imagine how you can claim it's the same TSR. TSR Rebooted (Rerolled, perhaps). TSR, 2nd edition. But the same company? Is this a thing that actually happens? Can you have the Business of Theseus?

I feel like they've seen too many TV shows and movies where the plucky small business owners have their property seized by the Big Bad Company but manage to buy it back and have a grand re-opening at the end, possibly with the help of a group of heroic children, or maybe cute aliens.

That's what really angers me, honestly. When Ernie dismisses WotC as a "corporate raider" who "stole" the game from his father. No. Just, no. They SAVED the IP from being chopped up and sold off to anyone who bid on it after it was mishandled and driven to bankruptcy. Peter Atkitson and his crew cared about D&D. They cared about the legacy. And they have managed it better than Gary ever did. And Lorraine? She just out-mauveured Gary, who had demonstrated he was equally as morally bankrupt and inept as the Blumes.

The audience that LaNasa's TSR is drawing in is the ignorant and deliberately obtuse faction that seems to think the game BELONGS to them and anyone who doesn't play it the way they say so aren't "doing it right". Or worse, "allowing people to play who shouldn't be allowed to play because they offend me." I'm glad that faction is small and irrelevant.

I get the feeling that someone on their team's been watching way too much Law & Order or NCIS. Real-life court isn't that way. If anything, the focus is on getting it sorted out as quickly as possible. They prefer the two parties reach a settlement long before it gets to court. And if LaNasa is stupid enough to push it that far, he will lose everything. There is NO case for them. Even if they produced some (definitely faked) documentation that TSR could never be sold to Lorraine or WotC because of this or that, possession is 9/10's of the law. WotC/Hasbro has published D&D for years. The time for this kind of lawsuit was at the point of sale.

 

[Deset Gled]

The audience that LaNasa's TSR is drawing in is the ignorant and deliberately obtuse faction that seems to think the game BELONGS to them and anyone who doesn't play it the way they say so aren't "doing it right". Or worse, "allowing people to play who shouldn't be allowed to play because they offend me." I'm glad that faction is small and irrelevant.

I think the real audience that LaNasa is counting on are the ones that simply aren't aware of the story. And, unfortunately, that's actually most people. Sure, we know the history of TSR, because we're the type of fans who hang out on message boards and talk about D&D. But the vast majority of people just see "Dungeons and Dragons", "TSR" and a lot of things that look exactly like what they remember RPGs looking like. And for people who are interested in buying causally, the way they would pick up a board game or video game at Walmart, there's no reason to look any deeper.

And, sadly, it looks like it may be working (at least a bit). If you hang out on Star Frontiers forums there are still a few people who say they'll wait to judge SFNG when they see it; if you don't know about the rest of the internet drama, that seems like a very reasonable take. The DHSM recently got name-dropped in an article on forbes.com. I'm sure the author doesn't know about the saga with LaNasa, he just googled a few tourist attractions in Lake Geneva and found one that looked quirky. Madison.com has a brief blurb where they completely conflated GaryCon and TSRCon. And they've got listings on plenty of tourist websites like visitlakegeneva.com and TripAdvisor. That's what makes these guys to dangerous to WotC.

I'm not so sure about Cult of Abbadon. While we saw shots of packaged items, they never bothered to show a photo of one.

A copy of Cult of Abaddon can be seen on a table in one or two of the pics from TSR Con. It's easy to miss because it's so thin.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

The DHSM recently got name-dropped in an article on forbes.com.

Though forbes.com isn't in any way the decades old respected business publication that Forbes the magazine was. It's just the new Livejournal.

(Of course, Grits is aiming for an audience that doesn't know that.)

 

[Ancalagon]

That's what really angers me, honestly. When Ernie dismisses WotC as a "corporate raider" who "stole" the game from his father. No. Just, no. They SAVED the IP from being chopped up and sold off to anyone who bid on it after it was mishandled and driven to bankruptcy. Peter Atkitson and his crew cared about D&D. They cared about the legacy. And they have managed it better than Gary ever did. And Lorraine? She just out-mauveured Gary, who had demonstrated he was equally as morally bankrupt and inept as the Blumes.

Yeah, it's not always that we see an argument (Ernie's position) have two fatal flaws - interestingly, in this case both of them have to do with time. Saying that WotC is a "corporate raider" might have been a reasonable take over 20 years ago when they acquired D&D, but there is a track record here. Whatever one may think of the game since, I think it's 100% clear that WotC was not just "a corporate raider". Second, his father had lost TSR about 10 years (not 100% on the timing) before WotC showed up.

A bit troubling when you think about it, that is very sloppy thinking.

 

[Maxperson]

Oh, I know it isn't likely at all (ie, astronomically unlikely) but that does seem to be the only hope they would have at this point, doesn't it? The hope that they can find 12 Angry Grognards who will hand them the trademarks (even though that does nothing in regard to copyright but I expect that NuTSR still thinks those are the same thing).

Just out of curiosity, @Snarf Zagyg what happens if there is a hung jury on this?

 

[lingual]

Just out of curiosity, @Snarf Zagyg what happens if there is a hung jury on this?

I don't think hung jury matters in civil cases. But I can barely spell "law".

 

[Faolyn]

Two guitar makers spring to mind: Leo Fender and Dean Zelinsky. Leo founded Fender, one of the two biggest guitar makers in the world. He sold out to CBS. He cofounded Music Man as a silent partner, and after his 10 year non-compete clause expired, became its president. The products were similar, but not the same. Music Man got bought by Ernie Ball, and Leo came back a little later with G&L guitars, which further altered Leo’s original designs.

Dean Zelinsky had a similar career arc. He founded Dean Guitars, DBZ Guitars (renamed Diamond after his departure) and Dean Zelinsky’s Private Label.

All 6 of these companies were successful- some more than others- and all are still in existence. But NONE of the subsequently founded companies claimed to be the same as their predecessors. In fact, they were very clear about what made them distinctly different.

Thanks! At least Fender and Zelinsky were involved in making each of their own companies. Neither LaNasa nor Ernie were involved in the creation or running of the original TSR, or even worked for them (unless Young Ernie counts as being a presumably volunteer playtester).

The audience that LaNasa's TSR is drawing in is the ignorant and deliberately obtuse faction that seems to think the game BELONGS to them and anyone who doesn't play it the way they say so aren't "doing it right". Or worse, "allowing people to play who shouldn't be allowed to play because they offend me." I'm glad that faction is small and irrelevant.

Man, I hate that mindset. There have been a lot of people that I've seen online who have talked about their gaming styles that have made me think that I wouldn't want to play with them, but I'm still glad they're playing. The more people who buy the game, the more money the company makes that can go into producing more material for me!