TSR TSR3.5 Launches IndieGogo Campaign to "Stop" WotC

The latest in the TSR3 saga, which has gone quiet for a while, is a new IndieGoGo campaign launched to "stop Wizards of the Coast". They cite wrongful bullying of TSR, and refusal to answer requests that WotC show TSR "proof of their claims" (although the campaign page doesn't mention what those claims are).

The IndieGoGo campaign was launched yesterday and has so far raised $675 (at the time of writing).

The action TSR seeks is a "Trademark Declaratory Judgement of Ownership" which is a court declaration about the status of something in dispute.

TSR has launched a campaign to stop Wizards of the Coast

Become a Champion of TSR and Support TSR’s campaign against Wizards of the Coast!

TSR is taking a stand against Wizards of the Coast (“WOTC”) and its wrongful bullying of TSR, our trademarks, and its public libeling and slander of all those who helped create TSR based Dungeons & Dragons and products.

Wizards of the Coast has continually bullied TSR regarding TSR’s legally owned Trademarks. Wizards of the Coast has refused to answer all of TSR's repeated requests that they show any proof of their claims. Wizards of the Coast has the vast resources behind them and is implying to bring them to bear down on TSR.

The new TSR suffered widespread pushback when it launched, which they blamed on WotC, claiming that they were under a "coordinated assault across various channels being mounted.... by [WotC]" The company announced itself earlier this year, having acquired the TSR trademark after the previous holder accidentally let it lapse. It was run by Ernie Gygax, Justin LaNasa, and Stephen Dinehart. After several weeks of controversy, the company split into two -- Wonderfilled (Stephen Dinehart), and TSR (Ernie Gygax and Justin LaNasa).

TSR - TSR3 Blames Widespread Pushback On WotC

In an unexpected turn of events, the primary individuals behind TSR3 have claimed the pushback they've received on social media and elsewhere was orchestrated by .... D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast (a company which has thus far remained completely silent on recent events). TSR3 is run by...

www.enworld.org

The page also indicates an intention to "fight to have WotC's legacy product disclaimer removed" from older products (that's the disclaimer on the older books available on DMs Guild which indicates that those books are products of their time) by claiming that the disclaimer portrays the creators of those older products as "as supporting those alleged prejudices, stereotypes and bigotry, wrongfully claimed to be part of those products".

TSR will also Fight to Have the WOTC Legacy Disclaimer Removed

TSR is suing WOTC for Trademark Declaratory Judgement of Ownership . TSR will also pursue in the near future having WOTC remove the legacy content disclaimer placed on TSR based Dungeons & Dragons and other products, and retractions of any other libel and slander which alleges that racism and other heinous beliefs are incorporated into those products.

This disclaimer attempts to make a statement of fact argument, and therefore paints all of the writers, editors, artists and consumers of those products as supporting those alleged prejudices, stereotypes and bigotry, wrongfully claimed to be part of those products. This statement by Wizards of the Coast opens the possibility for the producers and players of these "Legacy Products" to face ridicule, and face the labeling as "bigots", "racists", "misogynists", and worse Cyber & Physical Attacks!

Wizards of the Coast legacy content disclaimer.

"We (Wizards) recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website does not reflect the values of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise today. Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice that were commonplace in American society at that time. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. This content is presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. Dungeons & Dragons teaches that diversity is a strength, and we strive to make our D&D products as welcoming and inclusive as possible. This part of our work will never end".

TSR3's Justin LaNasa spoke about the campaign in a YouTube video.

TSR - Companies & Freelancers Distance Themselves From The New TSR

The new TSR (which I refer to as TSR3 to avoid confusion) has doubled down on its stance--which has been widely condemned online--via an ongoing series of tweets and replies from its TSR Games, Giantlands, and Dungeon Hobby Museum social media accounts (possibly operated by Justin LaNasa) in an...

www.enworld.org

 

[Orius]

I wouldn't count on Ernie having any real input on the "general actions". While I don't know either of them, the whole thing strikes me as to likely be LaNasa driving, with Ernie as a figurehead to drag out when there's need to look like a "legitimate heir" to the original TSR. Ernie might be considered complicit, but his role may speak more to economic hopes than any personally held beliefs.

And that makes it worse. It's not good to see the TSR legacy get dragged through the sewer by a third-rate grifter like LaNasa.

Like Bolares said, even if Ernie says nothing, it comes off as tacit approval, and associating with LaNasa is just going to get him burned.

 

[J.Quondam]

And that makes it worse.

And that makes it worse. It's not good to see the TSR legacy get dragged through the sewer by a third-rate grifter like LaNasa.

C'mon, give credit where credit is due.
LaNasa's at least a fourth-rate grifter. Maybe even fifth!

 

[Umbran]

Well... the more he chooses to stay in business with LaNasa, and let LaNasa speak for the company, the easier I think it is to assume Ernie agrees and stands behind everything TSR does.

When it comes to what amounts to accusations of being a bad actor, "easy to assume" should not be the bar we aspire to.

 

[overgeeked]

It would be nice (but completely against brand) if these people would stop punching themselves in their own reproductive organs.

 

[Orius]

C'mon, give credit where credit is due.
LaNasa's at least a fourth-rate grifter. Maybe even fifth!

I admit I was being generous.

Exceedingly so.

Must be the Christmas season.

 

[Ancalagon]

WotC should simply ignore this as much as possible. Just use the legal team to fend off nuisance lawsuits. TSR has two main problems here: they haven't produced anything and there are serious doubts they will, and it's not even certain they have legal use of the TSR name. WotC doesn't have to do anything against them.

Ernie's making the huge mistake of thinking the entire old school crowd is also seething mad about wokism and is looking for a champion. Woke and old school really don't intersect; the old school crowd is more about rules systems than the current cultural zeitgeist. All he's doing is damaging a brand that once again hasn't produced anything and what fan base he does have doesn't have confidence he'll deliver.

I don't even want to get into LaNasa. Anyone who thinks judging female employees' worth for promotions by wrestling in grits is a good thing shows a complete lack of judgement. Ernie never should have partnered with that clown.

Agreed on all 3 paragraphs.

On Ernie's mistake, I think that his thinking is that old school = older demographic, and that older demographic = "anti-woke". I don't think that it's a completely insane line of reasoning, but I think that the correlation is FAR weaker than he believes. There are quite a number of "old-school interested" players who are quite young, and nowhere every older person is anti woke.

 

[Orius]

Agreed on all 3 paragraphs.

On Ernie's mistake, I think that his thinking is that old school = older demographic, and that older demographic = "anti-woke". I don't think that it's a completely insane line of reasoning, but I think that the correlation is FAR weaker than he believes. There are quite a number of "old-school interested" players who are quite young, and nowhere every older person is anti woke.

Yeah, I think that's exactly the case and that he may be assuming the views of his own social circle extend to the old school crowd.

 

[Ibrandul]

Their argument seems to be, "I really like Kanye West, and these people said Kanye did bad things, so that means they are saying I do bad things."

There's a world of difference between passive appreciation of an artwork, or even actively "singing along," on one hand, and on the other hand the sort of deeply individual, creative appropriation that happens when a game group plays an RPG.

So a better analogy might be "I spent decades doing frequent freestyle improv karaoke riffing on Kanye's lyrics, and these people say that rapping those lyrics constitutes doing a bad thing, which implies rather strongly that my riffing also constituted doing a bad thing. And, however imitative it might have been, my riffing really was my own, not Kanye's."

The upshot of this distinction is that I feel more sympathy toward someone who gets defensive about moral criticism of a beloved RPG than I would feel toward the rather sillier person in your example, because it seems to me that to some extent players really are implicated by such criticism in a way that the music listener is not.

I feel sympathy, that is, for their humanity—I don't mean that I agree with them or have the same response, but I can put myself in their shoes and understand why they are taking it so personally and feeling hurt and threatened and angry and afraid (in a word, defensive).

That doesn't change the basic state of affairs, which is that defensiveness about such criticism, while an understandable human reaction, really ought to be worked through and transcended as quickly as possible (and, in the main, privately) in order to move on to more productive responses to the criticism; and that this particular "funding campaign" is nothing more than a shameful and transparent grift that even the all-too-many angry old rubes within RPG fandom are unlikely to fall for in any meaningful numbers.

 

[Bolares]

When it comes to what amounts to accusations of being a bad actor, "easy to assume" should not be the bar we aspire to.

Well, sure, but we shouldn't forget this all started with Ernies statements...

 

[Willie the Duck]

I mean, nuTSR hasn't actually published any D&D-compatible products yet, so.... yeah.

Fundamentally yeah, but I think there's an layer underneath the obvious bit. I think nuTSR thinks they can skip the clear and obvious work* part. I mean, it isn't like 'being a big deal because they are a big deal' hasn't worked at various times and places. Celebrities like the Kardashians** have made their career out of it, but closer to home Cons are lined with booths of various people tied to Star Trek, Star Wars, the Whedonverse, and so forth that are mostly being paid to let people remember their past, rather than a specific thing they are doing right now.
*oftentimes this ends up being just as much, if not more, work overall.
**that this site's spell-check underlined my misspelling of this kinda supports my point.

My suspicion is that nuTSR thinks that if they can get WotC to pay attention to them (make them take legal action against them, or really acknowledge their existence at all in a public way) that will 'prove' that they are a big deal and that will... something something profit. Seems really marginal in terms of how much money there is to be made by being 'angry anti-WotC semi-public personalities #432-436,' but it's not clear what they think their other options are. I'm still not sure if Ernie's actions were spontaneous or planned. In other words, did they plan on this strategy and simply overestimated how popular it would be, or was this an accidental self-sabotage of an attempt to be a more mainstream 3rd part producer.