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)

 

[seebs]

But they will have to produce evidence to demonstrate that "reckless disregard", yes?

If he counts as a public figure, which... I don't know, but the usual standards for that are moderately high?
But truth is still a defense, and opinions are protected, so my intuition (disclaimer: not a lawyer) is that this is gonna be very hard to win.

 

[J.Quondam]

If he counts as a public figure, which... I don't know, but the usual standards for that are moderately high?

I'm not sure what constitutes a "public figure" legally, but, in addition to running several businesses, he has run for public office several times in the last 15-ish years (including mayor of Wilmington NC in 2011; NC state senate in 2014; and NC state house primary in 2020).

 

[SAVeira]

Tenkar's reply to being sued by LaNasa.

 

[Rabulias]

- Justin is filing on behalf of himself as a private citizen, but also on behalf of TSR LLC (NuTSR) and the DHSM. He is not treating himself as a public figure. Lanasa also claims damages to his family, but does not name any of his family as defendants.[emphasis mine]

<pedantic>I am guessing you meant plaintiffs here.</pedantic>

 

[bedir than]

Tenkar's reply to being sued by LaNasa.

Things I wouldn't do while being sued -- the stuff I'm getting sued for, even if I expect to win the case.

Word of advice: Actually listen to the lawyers you hire.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It will be extremely difficult for JLaN to win this case, seeing as how most of what’s harming him is the discussion of and reaction to his own actions.

I suspect the court appearance will go much like the meme:

“Stop calling us (bad name) !”

“Stop doing (bad name) things!”

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Sigh... I really can't say whether he thought this would fly under the radar, or thought something like "they were only talking about the RPG, the playing cards don't count."

NuTSR apparently hasn't gotten the memo about the injunction...

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That the Geek Nation Tour incident wasn't mentioned is an odd thing, since that should be a concrete instance of loss of funds. My assumption is that the lawyer didn't think that they had enough evidence to tie it on Tenkar.

But this is going to be an uphill battle for LaNasa. There is evidence all over the place of him doing the things that Tenkar says he did.

The idea of LaNasa going to therapy seems at odds with the LaNasa we've seen on display this past year or so. Don't get me wrong, I certainly think he would benefit greatly from therapy. It's just the picture of him that's emerged doesn't seem like a person that is into things like self-assessment and empathy.

Ultimately, I think that this is more of the same bullying and arrogant behavior we've seen, trying to tie up a person's time, money, and spoons in court (see also Zak S.'s behavior). It's the same arrogance that led him to sue Wizards of the Coast in the first place.

Probably not. (IANAL)

In order to win a libel case, you have to prove publication, identification, harm, and fault (and sometimes malice).

Publication means you have to prove it was published. It's trivial in this case; it's all over the internet. Links are included in the filing.

Identification means you have to show that you are the person being libeled. This is mostly trivial. There is a little bit of gray area to be played with here. The first is that some of the things the lawsuit references are Tenkar's reaction to the various Mario twitter accounts, and it's unclear who those are. The second weird thing is that Lanasa is including NuTSR and the DHSM along with himself. I don't know enough about the law to understand the intricacies of how this works. But I'm guessing that because Lanasa is sole owner of both LLCs, it won't make a difference.

Harm means you have to prove that actual damage was done. IMNHO, this is a major problem for Lanasa. He makes vague claims of emotional distress, but he'll need to do more. Most of the time, you need to show actual money was lost. This could be proof that sales were lost, or that you had to spend money fixing things. This is where the Geek Nation Tour thing is important; Lanasa claimed earlier in his C&D that he could prove he lost money by not getting the tour. But it's not listed in the lawsuit. He also really can't claim lost revenue from NuTSR, because they have no real product. If he's serious about the therapy claim, he'll have to show how much was spent on it for the claim to be substantiated.

Fault means you have to prove the libel is, well, lying. This is another major problem for Lanasa. Opinions are covered as free speech. If Tenkar has reason to believe the things he said, it's not lying. I'd have to go line by line through the links in the lawsuit, but at a quick glance I can't find any place where Tenkar was openly or blatantly lying about anything. There may be a hyperbole or ad hominem attacks, but that's well below the bar that Lanasa needs to prove.

Lastly, if Lanasa is considered a "public figure", he also has to prove malice. That means that even if Tenkar was lying, Lanasa would have to prove Tenkar lied for the express purpose of causing harm. If I were Tenkar, one defense I would be making is that Lanasa is a public figure (both from his history as a politician, and his public actions on the internet). It would signficantly raise the bar of what Lanasa needs to prove.

I don't think Lanasa has enough proof about damages or actual lies to make anything stick. I also have a strong feeling that this is a SLAPP. And if Tenkar can prove that, he can file an anti-SLAPP suit in retaliation.

 

[CleverNickName]

Justin LaNasa of NuTSR has filed a "personal injury" lawsuit against Erik Tenkar.

Lanasa et al v. Stiene

On 09/23/2022 Lanasa filed a Personal Injury - Other Personal Injury court case against Stiene in U.S. District Courts. Court records for this case are available from New York Eastern District Court.

unicourt.com

(This was originally posted by Ryan Palmer, then echoed on the DHSM page three hours ago)

ETA: In the filing, Justin states that Tenkar caused him so much "emotional distress and mental anguish" that he and his family had to seek therapy.

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I'm not sure what Justin's endgame is, but this...seems like a bad idea to me.

It's one thing to air out your dirty laundry. But is there any scenario where he doesn't end up with his underpants scattered all over the neighborhood?

 

[Steampunkette]

I'm not sure what Justin's endgame is, but this...seems like a bad idea to me.

It's one thing to expect having to air out your dirty laundry. But is there any scenario where he doesn't end up with his underpants scattered all over the neighborhood?

Lanasa seems like the kinda guy who thinks shouting "He's lying!" is proof positive that someone is lying. That simply saying that in court will see Tenkar financially ruined.

I don't think he understands that he's got to prove Tenkar was lying.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

Lanasa seems like the kinda guy who thinks shouting "He's lying!" is proof positive that someone is lying. That simply saying that in court will see Tenkar financially ruined.

I don't think he understands that he's got to prove Tenkar was lying.

I also think it hasn't sunk in yet that discovery goes both ways.