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)

 

[LordEntrails]

why can't so-and-so who has health issues/children/a sick parent/etc. work just 40 hours a week and only draw 1/2 the salary of the person who can do 80 hours

I'm sure you know the reason, but it's culture. Because the people at the top who make the rules had to do it, so they think everyone under them should have to do the same. A right of passage or such. And yes, it's crap. And in other professional (such as medical doctors) it is changing. Slowly, but change will come.

 

[Stormonu]

I am just sad that we have created systems so complex that we have to consult specialists to get anything done (having to deal with probate for my Dad, who had no will - Law is frustrating to interact with). This crap with Justin should be an open/shut case that should have long ago been dealt with.

 

[seebs]

One thing that's worth knowing: We've done a lot of research on human productivity, and the fact is, people doing 80 hours a week are getting less work done than people doing 40 hours a week. Lawyers don't work long hours because it gets stuff done; they work long hours because hours are billable.

 

[Steampunkette]

One thing that's worth knowing: We've done a lot of research on human productivity, and the fact is, people doing 80 hours a week are getting less work done than people doing 40 hours a week. Lawyers don't work long hours because it gets stuff done; they work long hours because hours are billable.

Similarly: I've known defense attorneys who say that whenever they see some frivolous or pointless charge on a client's case, often something that is going to be thrown out as soon as the judge sees it, if they check the time of arrest it's always right at the end of a cop's shift. 'Cause booking, processing, and paperwork takes minimal effort for the cop in question but adds a lot of time on the end of their shifts since they can't clock out 'til everything is finalized.

I've known a lot of people who milk the clock... but there's some roles that can destroy people's livelihoods off milking clocks. Lawyers and Cops are two of the worst about it.

While I'd love to go into a side-discussion of how to fix that through economic changes (Salary Retainer, for example, rather than hourly payment) it'd be a heck of a side-track!

 

[Wincenworks]

I am just sad that we have created systems so complex that we have to consult specialists to get anything done (having to deal with probate for my Dad, who had no will - Law is frustrating to interact with). This crap with Justin should be an open/shut case that should have long ago been dealt with.

It's pretty much the number one issue discussed with Access to Justice is that the system is largely impenetrable to regular people because of the complexity and the procedural issues. In the Common Law system, it becomes particularly frustrating when you see how many of these systems were simple but ran into arguments about what was exploitation, and what was just fair use of the system.

It also hasn't been helped by the detail that back in ye olde days when it was "simple" some judges used to make very... interesting decisions. My favourite being Stilk v Myrick where there were two, equally interesting reports of the judge's decision (judges used to simply give verbal judgements back then, and they would be recorded by barristers who were attending either as reporters... or representing a party):

1. He concluded that a crew agreeing to continue working short-handed when the captain could not replace missing/deserting members was, in no way different to them agreeing to have worked with a full crew... so there was no consideration - it was just a regular part of their job and everyone understood that; or
2. He concluded that a captain would only agree to split the wages that would have been paid to the missing/deserting members was that a captain clearly feared if he did not agree to they'd scuttle the boat in the middle of the freezing ocean (it was the middle of winter and the destination port was in London) just to spite the captain for making them work short handed.

It will probably not surprise you to learn this judge was known for being extremely classist, in favour of the mercantile and aristocrats - thus had a habit of reaching for literally any doctrine that secured them the decision against a worker. This didn't stop his decision becoming a cornerstone of English contract law for 200 years though because it was very simple and convenient.

 

[Steampunkette]

This tangent has reminded me of a Farscape Episode... Season 2, Episode 8, "Dream a Little Dream"

They wound up on the planet Litigara which has so many pointless laws and side-ways interpretations throughout it's thousands of years of existence that 90% of the population are lawyers and the remaining 10% are "Utility Workers".

 

[Wolfram stout]

I am just sad that we have created systems so complex that we have to consult specialists to get anything done (having to deal with probate for my Dad, who had no will - Law is frustrating to interact with). This crap with Justin should be an open/shut case that should have long ago been dealt with.

I feel your pain. I am dealing with my dad's probate and he had a will. But I still have to spend about $3k. To be able to sell his car and cash his life insurance check because my mom predeceased him by a couple of weeks (so no real time to get my name or sister's name on accounts)

 

[Willie the Duck]

I'm sure you know the reason, but it's culture. Because the people at the top who make the rules had to do it, so they think everyone under them should have to do the same. A right of passage or such. And yes, it's crap. And in other professional (such as medical doctors) it is changing. Slowly, but change will come.

I don't want to seem like I am pushing back, because, fundamentally, you are correct. Working in the intersections of Medicine, Law, and Data Science, I see plenty enough old-guard niche protection. However, I think a lot is made of that portion, and not nearly enough of something I see all over the work-space. That's what I'll call the 'not my responsibility' factor. Any given hiring manager is tasked with filling their positions, not figuring our why certain people aren't making it into their positions (much less fixing the industry such that people who do not generally make it into the positions can potentially do so in the future). The tools they're provided by HR work for potential employees who fit a certain mold, and they have no incentive* go to bat for the exceptions (if the hiring process even has them see their applications at all). You would think that the one institution that puts in the effort to accommodate nontraditional workers would reap the benefit of a larger employee pool to draw from. However, there needs to be a critical mass of highly-qualified individuals not getting hired elsewhere but still acquiring the qualifications and applying before it will pay off. This results in an industry that knows it is hamstringing itself, but no one (person or corporation) willing to put in the effort that will not benefit themselves to change things. *and theoretical risks, if the times you do stick your neck out can be seen as favoritism (or just becoming known as 'the guy who makes extra work for the higher-ups').

One thing that's worth knowing: We've done a lot of research on human productivity, and the fact is, people doing 80 hours a week are getting less work done than people doing 40 hours a week. Lawyers don't work long hours because it gets stuff done; they work long hours because hours are billable.

Haven't had my eye to that literature since I started working extensively with lawyers, but in healthcare the time and motion and error rate studies are pretty conclusive in that regard. The less time you have a clinician working, the better their results per hour become. Two people working 40 hour weeks best one person working 80 (and nations where that is more the norm have better healthcare results).

 

[Riley]

Two people working 40 hour weeks best one person working 80 (and nations where that is more the norm have better healthcare results).

I worked as a half-time physician for years! It was great, and I highly recommend it as an essentially-full-time, about 40-hr-per-week, job. Most importantly, I had a home life, and I never burned out in the way that most of my “full-time” partners eventually did.

There are more disincentives to such a path though, than I realized going in. A big one was that officially, I was only ever a 0.5 FTE employee - and therefore excluded from all job, tax, and legal benefits that only accrue to officially-full-time workers.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It also hasn't been helped by the detail that back in ye olde days when it was "simple" some judges used to make very... interesting decisions.

That, unfortunately, has not changed. I have seen some egregiously bad decisions in the American court systems the past 10 or so years, and most of them don’t make national news unless the story goes viral.

The appeals process helps, but it’s not a panacea. Certain decisions, once made, cannot be undone.