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)

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

So the guy has the job you give to grunts no even able to dig latrines

He had the job you give grunts who can't lift the barrels out of latrines, pour gasoline into them, set them on fire, stir the contents so everything burns, then put them back.

 

[JackMann]

Well, I guess I am not surprised to hear that.
It is a little sad - it means that folks being allowed to continue to operate as a screw up, in ignorance. That means they are unlikely to improve.

But, I suppose in the armed forces, you do have to pick your battles.

If they actually screwed up, they'll have been told. More frequently, they just aren't stellar at their job. Not bad enough to discipline, but not good enough to be worth holding onto. To be clear, commander's driver (and similar special duties) isn't something you give to someone who's completely worthless. You don't want someone who isn't even going to show up, or will make you look bad for having sent them. But you're also not sending someone who's performing well. In my career field, you'd send someone who has weak technical knowledge or poor flight skills.

It's a sign of mediocrity rather than outright incompetence, typically.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Wait.

So the guy has the job you give to grunts no even able to dig latrines, then sucessfully screw even thing as basic as that by making terrorist threat?

I have no idea if Justin actually made terrorist threats and I wouldn't personally make that accusation unless I knew for a fact. Also, while I did plenty of mocking of the ground pounders when I was in*, Infantry aren't idiots who do nothing but dig latrines (Everybody gets that duty at some point, not just infantry). You've got to be in a really good physical shape, perform well under high pressure, be halfway smart to know tactics, and most importantly, be reliable and have all of your buddies know they can count on you when things get bad. Does that last part sound like Justin?

If they actually screwed up, they'll have been told. More frequently, they just aren't stellar at their job. Not bad enough to discipline, but not good enough to be worth holding onto. To be clear, commander's driver (and similar special duties) isn't something you give to someone who's completely worthless. You don't want someone who isn't even going to show up, or will make you look bad for having sent them. But you're also not sending someone who's performing well. In my career field, you'd send someone who has weak technical knowledge or poor flight skills.

It's a sign of mediocrity rather than outright incompetence, typically.

Yep. if someone was truly awful, they'd be Article 15'd out or something by then. It's the mediocre people or whiners or brown nosers that usually get those jobs.


*my biggest gripe is having to clean out the puke from my helicopter every time we gave them a ride

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I have no idea if Justin actually made terrorist threats and I wouldn't personally make that accusation unless I knew for a fact. Also, while I did plenty of mocking of the ground pounders when I was in*, Infantry aren't idiots who do nothing but dig latrines (Everybody gets that duty at some point, not just infantry). You've got to be in a really good physical shape, perform well under high pressure, be halfway smart to know tactics, and most importantly, be reliable and have all of your buddies know they can count on you when things get bad. Does that last part sound like Justin?

Its no dig at the infantry personel. I meant it as an image of a pretty staightforward job that would be hard to fail.
I personnaly think that the whole ''terrorist threat while on the job'' thing seems a little far-fetched, even for such a character. I honnestly have doubt about that and I try hard to resist the basic temptation of painting the guy as Satan himself.

 

[John Dallman]

Yep. if someone was truly awful, they'd be Article 15'd out or something by then. It's the mediocre people or whiners or brown nosers that usually get those jobs.

And if they think it's a high-grade position, that increases the odds of them doing it acceptably?

 

[Wincenworks]

Its no dig at the infantry personel. I meant it as an image of a pretty staightforward job that would be hard to fail.
I personnaly think that the whole ''terrorist threat while on the job'' thing seems a little far-fetched, even for such a character. I honnestly have doubt about that and I try hard to resist the basic temptation of painting the guy as Satan himself.

Well, I've been digging into this for the past few days... and... it's weird man!

According to the record in the lawsuit against Tenkar, he was finger printed in April 1989, and "victim was in the army" so presumably he was arrested and finger-printed by the civilian police while off base and then eventually MPs investigated and decided that it would be handled by the military. This seems to have happened in his home town of York.

As a side note, if I were trying to argue that I was not a criminal - "it got dismissed because the victim was in the army" - is one of the least compelling arguments you could put forward, armies around the world are infamous for victim blaming and sweeping things under the rug. I would be much less concerned by someone who admitted to "injury to real property" as the extent of their criminal history, than someone who went "nah... you're confused, I got charged with simple assault and terroristic threats... but it got dismissed 'cause the victim was in the army...". But maybe that's just me.

According to his Facebook, Justin graduated 20 April 1990.

This apparently would have been at Fort Benning, Georgia.

So, according to his (old) LinkedIn, 18 months after graduating as an infantryman - he joined the Coast Guard for four years... presumably a single enlistment. So, based on that, the charitable assumption would be had a skirmish with someone in the Army, then joined for a two year enlistment and then shifted to the Coast Guard... right?

In his 2006 interview about his stupid armoured vehicle that he incorrectly describes as a tank, he claims he drove tanks and Humvees.

Now, I have never served (I was in cadets) but I cannot imagine that they would assign any meaningful driving duties of actual tanks to someone who had only graduated less than two years ago But it gets weirder.

According to his Class of 1989 bio on Classmates.com, he served three years as an Infantryman... then a tank driver... but also only graduated school in the year he got fingerprinted (1989) around age 19... so somehow he either folded time or from Oct 1991 until sometime in 1993 he was in both the Army and the Coast Guard.

His certificates of service, thanks to the lawsuit against Tenkar, show his discharge dates as September 1992, and December 1997...

But he blocked out his position in the army. but it was PV1 so he never got promoted past BCT!? ... and um... the Coast Guard says "reserve"... which I suppose could explain how he supposedly started the business in 1995 - 1996 depending on which bio you use. But like... 1992 - 4 is... 1988... so he was in training when he got finger printed? Also he enlisted and finished high school at the same time?

But it gets weirder... because like he used to brag about being in the Perfect Storm of 1991... until it was pointed out the vessel he claimed membership of was in dry dock during that time... so now he says it was the Great Nor'easter of December 1992...

But like... if he enlisted for four years in the Coat Guard and he was discharged in December 1997.... then he enlisted sometime in 1993? But, okay, charitable... my understanding is you can like do four years then stay on as deserve, so maybe he enlisted at the end of 1992 immediately after discharge and then done his four then done a year reserve while he set up his business?

But... someone with military background correct me if I'm wrong: That means at the time of the The Great Nor'Easter of Dec 1992... he'd have to had already completed his eight weeks of basic training for the Coast Guard, which takes place in Cape May, NJ - then been assigned as a Seaman Recruit.

So assuming the day after he was discharged from the Army, he got on the bus to Cape May, did his eight weeks and showed up for duty that'd be... the start of Dec 1992... two weeks before the The Great Nor'Easter of December 1992. Even if he got to skip basic training, that'd be like ten - twelve weeks maximum?

So like... he's definitely dishonest, and definitely got charged for assaulting and threatening someone in the military when he was (nearly) 19... but beyond that the timeline of his actual involvement with the military is difficult to puzzle out beyond that the definitely was not the hero he claims to be.

 

[LordEntrails]

if I were trying to argue that I was not a criminal - "it got dismissed because the victim was in the army"

and definitely got charged for assaulting

How does this make Lanasa a criminal? Last time I took 6th grade civics class (or whatever) I'm pretty sure you have to be convicted to be a criminal and everyone is assumed innocent, even if charged with a crime, until convicted.

So yea JLN is obviously a lot of things, but none of what you cite seems to indicate he is actually a criminal...

 

[Wincenworks]

So yea JLN is obviously a lot of things, but none of what you cite seems to indicate he is actually a criminal...

Well no, if you want to go by the Letter of the Law approach, what makes him a criminal is he was found guilty of Injury to Real Property back in 2002, as was submitted by Tenkar's lawyers in August.

Justin's defence to this was to claim it was confusion, that yes he was fingerprinted so his fingerprints are in the database... but he has never been found guilty of a criminal offence. Which:

1. Raised the issue of him having being charged for terroristic threats, as well as simple assault, against someone in the Army; and
2. Did nothing to address the presence of a court certified record for a criminal misdemeanour (which apparently NC does not take prints for).

Hence why I say if I was Justin, I would have just copped to the misdemeanour 20 years ago rather than dragged up the time I got arrested for threatening and attacking someone in the Army.

Like generally the goal of combatting defamation is prevent other people from making you look bad... not volunteering more terrible stuff about yourself.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

Like generally the goal of combatting defamation is prevent other people from making you look bad... not volunteering more terrible stuff about yourself.

Well, generally the goal of incorporation is to shelter one set of assets from another in the case of a business going kablooie, but here we are.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Well, I've been digging into this for the past few days... and... it's weird man!

According to the record in the lawsuit against Tenkar, he was finger printed in April 1989, and "victim was in the army" so presumably he was arrested and finger-printed by the civilian police while off base and then eventually MPs investigated and decided that it would be handled by the military. This seems to have happened in his home town of York.
View attachment 316728
As a side note, if I were trying to argue that I was not a criminal - "it got dismissed because the victim was in the army" - is one of the least compelling arguments you could put forward, armies around the world are infamous for victim blaming and sweeping things under the rug. I would be much less concerned by someone who admitted to "injury to real property" as the extent of their criminal history, than someone who went "nah... you're confused, I got charged with simple assault and terroristic threats... but it got dismissed 'cause the victim was in the army...". But maybe that's just me.

According to his Facebook, Justin graduated 20 April 1990.

View attachment 316746

View attachment 316729

This apparently would have been at Fort Benning, Georgia.

So, according to his (old) LinkedIn, 18 months after graduating as an infantryman - he joined the Coast Guard for four years... presumably a single enlistment. So, based on that, the charitable assumption would be had a skirmish with someone in the Army, then joined for a two year enlistment and then shifted to the Coast Guard... right?

View attachment 316732

In his 2006 interview about his stupid armoured vehicle that he incorrectly describes as a tank, he claims he drove tanks and Humvees.
View attachment 316741

Now, I have never served (I was in cadets) but I cannot imagine that they would assign any meaningful driving duties of actual tanks to someone who had only graduated less than two years ago But it gets weirder.

According to his Class of 1989 bio on Classmates.com, he served three years as an Infantryman... then a tank driver... but also only graduated school in the year he got fingerprinted (1989) around age 19... so somehow he either folded time or from Oct 1991 until sometime in 1993 he was in both the Army and the Coast Guard.

His certificates of service, thanks to the lawsuit against Tenkar, show his discharge dates as September 1992, and December 1997...

View attachment 316742

But he blocked out his position in the army. but it was PV1 so he never got promoted past BCT!? ... and um... the Coast Guard says "reserve"... which I suppose could explain how he supposedly started the business in 1995 - 1996 depending on which bio you use. But like... 1992 - 4 is... 1988... so he was in training when he got finger printed? Also he enlisted and finished high school at the same time?

But it gets weirder... because like he used to brag about being in the Perfect Storm of 1991... until it was pointed out the vessel he claimed membership of was in dry dock during that time... so now he says it was the Great Nor'easter of December 1992...
View attachment 316743
But like... if he enlisted for four years in the Coat Guard and he was discharged in December 1997.... then he enlisted sometime in 1993? But, okay, charitable... my understanding is you can like do four years then stay on as deserve, so maybe he enlisted at the end of 1992 immediately after discharge and then done his four then done a year reserve while he set up his business?

But... someone with military background correct me if I'm wrong: That means at the time of the The Great Nor'Easter of Dec 1992... he'd have to had already completed his eight weeks of basic training for the Coast Guard, which takes place in Cape May, NJ - then been assigned as a Seaman Recruit.

So assuming the day after he was discharged from the Army, he got on the bus to Cape May, did his eight weeks and showed up for duty that'd be... the start of Dec 1992... two weeks before the The Great Nor'Easter of December 1992. Even if he got to skip basic training, that'd be like ten - twelve weeks maximum?

So like... he's definitely dishonest, and definitely got charged for assaulting and threatening someone in the military when he was (nearly) 19... but beyond that the timeline of his actual involvement with the military is difficult to puzzle out beyond that the definitely was not the hero he claims to be.

Some clarification. Justin couldn’t have joined as an 11B (Infantryman) and drove tanks without first reclassifying as a 19K. And that would mean he would have had to re-enlisted and gone to tanker school first.

The fact he was discharged as an E1 (PVT) tells me he screwed up and got in trouble where he was demoted to an E1. Which isn’t unusual if you get busted for things like assault, DUI, etc.


We know he’s lied about a lot of things about his service. This is just one more thing. The thing that gets me, and I see this really often, is people who lie about their service but then still surround themselves with veterans. I mean, we catch it immediately because it doesn’t pass the smell test. But they keep trying to hang around us. As if they are desperately trying to get military cred that they couldn’t earn. It’s weird. And strangely more common than you’d think.