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...

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.

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  • 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.
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  • 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.
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  • 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.
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  • 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.
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  • 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).
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  • 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.
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(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)
 

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pantsorama

Explorer
Maybe I read too much into it, but is it a red flag that the example date the questioner uses for a hypothetical end date is Hitler's death?
I noticed that too. I took it for the end of WWII in Europe, but you could be right. I ain't gonna Google it tho.
 
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Maybe I read too much into it, but is it a red flag that the example date the questioner uses for a hypothetical end date is Hitler's death?

I think this is Poe's Law in action. I want to think that the FB questioner was using it to try and make fun of Justin for the recent accusations against Dave Johnson. But it's also possible it was some kind of weird dog whistle. I don't care enough to dig any further.
 

pantsorama

Explorer
I think this is Poe's Law in action. I want to think that the FB questioner was using it to try and make fun of Justin for the recent accusations against Dave Johnson. But it's also possible it was some kind of weird dog whistle. I don't care enough to dig any further.
I took it for a dig at NuTSR, but now that you point out there are other interpretations, I am not so sure.
 

Can you answer any of the following questions? I'll understand if you can't, but I appreciate any information you are free to give.

- Can you tell us what your business relationship with NuTSR was for the Dungeon Crawl board game? We know you were involved in parts of it, but that some of the art and cards came from NuTSR. Obviously they own the end product. Did you do just the base game design, or were you also involved in the art, manufacturing, or any other aspects of the project? Does the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum sell any other WTG products?

- Can you clarify what work you did for Cult of Abaddon, and if you were paid for it?

- Did you attend TSR Con, or sponsor it?

- At least one of the articles I read about 2 Moon Press made a bit of a deal about you having a previous legal record. Do you care to share any information about that (how long ago it was, your side of the story, etc)?

Any details you can give are appreciated.

For the record, here is the response Don at WTG sent me (with permission):

I am now on post approval for some reason. So I will not be posting anymore, my response to you I think was polite, I guess the admins feel I need to be monitored, so I am not playing that game on this site. However happy to answer here your questions.

1. Dungeon Crawl once sold was their property. I provided them with 3 test copies, and all design files, artwork, etc. The direction they took it in was their own, including art changes, card changes, and cards added. Once they purchased it, they did their own thing.

2. I have no products at the DHS. I did not attend their convention.

3. I donated my cover design work for Cult of Abaddon like Vince donated the module itself. No payment was ever made to me. Not sure about Vince.

4. My past is just that, 20 years ago. I made a dumb mistake, I paid for it. I made full restitution and moved on. I know many love to bring up my past of 20 years ago, it is what it is. It does not define me, and I think I am a decent person and I work hard to act as such to others.

I am on Twitter and Facebook, if you ever want to chat, message me on Facebook and I am happy to talk. I have nothing to hide.

It all sounds legitimate to me, and matches up with other info we have. Also, it looks like the NotMari65931952 twitter account is now gone completely. The MorganYarto account is still around, but it's been more reserved than the Mario accounts ever were (so far), so we'll see what happens. Obviously the NuTSR drama will continue, but WTG can claim they got two toxic sources of hatred taken down. Good job, Don.

On Youtube, Jedion (Tom Verrault, Table Top Taproom) has posted a semi-conclusion to his series, with his interpretation about NuTSR's motives. Sounds believable to me:

 

Ancalagon

Dusty Dragon
The more this goes on, the more it feels to me like Chad Revenge and Mario (whoever they are) have some serious cognitive issues where they can't help it.

I don't know whom this Chad Revenge is, but it's a great illustration why opposing someone shouldn't be a free for all. Should NuTSR be called out for their dodgy business moves or strange statements or transphobia? ABSOLUTELY. But this "going to war/all out" by Chad Revenge is not helping.
 

Sacrosanct

Legend
I don't know whom this Chad Revenge is, but it's a great illustration why opposing someone shouldn't be a free for all. Should NuTSR be called out for their dodgy business moves or strange statements or transphobia? ABSOLUTELY. But this "going to war/all out" by Chad Revenge is not helping.
Yeah, and I don't know who Mercury in Retrograde is, but they have crossed several lines as well. Just as bad as what Justin has done.
 

Faolyn

(she/her)
Maybe I read too much into it, but is it a red flag that the example date the questioner uses for a hypothetical end date is Hitler's death?
It could be more of a gotcha than a red flag. It could be that they know of LaNasa's association with Dave Johnson and are mocking him for it.
 

Levistus's_Leviathan

5e Freelancer
For the record, here is the response Don at WTG sent me (with permission):



It all sounds legitimate to me, and matches up with other info we have. Also, it looks like the NotMari65931952 twitter account is now gone completely. The MorganYarto account is still around, but it's been more reserved than the Mario accounts ever were (so far), so we'll see what happens. Obviously the NuTSR drama will continue, but WTG can claim they got two toxic sources of hatred taken down. Good job, Don.

On Youtube, Jedion (Tom Verrault, Table Top Taproom) has posted a semi-conclusion to his series, with his interpretation about NuTSR's motives. Sounds believable to me:

Quick clarifying question, who is this "Vince" person that Don is referring to in answer #3?
 


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