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 Justin LaNasa, Stephen Dinehart, and Ernie Gygax. The controversy has been raging for over a week, since TSR3 announced itself with a press release.

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

Stephen Dinehart and Ernie Gygax have since deactivated their Twitter accounts; Justin LaNasa doesn't appear to have one, but it is believed he is the person operating TSR3's Twitter account. A couple of days ago, Ernie Gygax posted about recent events on Facebook (note that he edited the post, but the original can be seen here).

I wish to state in the strongest terms that I never meant to hurt anyone of any race, creed or color. My video From the Bunker caused some to feel that they would not be welcome or would be looked down upon. That was never the intent, I was reacting to focus of modern role play into a more background and Role Play rather than the wargame that so made so many lives happy over 40 years ago.

As a gamer it meant that most of us were not worthy of any attention from others of our own age. We were Nerds. We were brainy-acks and others would snicker. Older classmen would ask to "borrow" something of ours to then pass back and forth a game of keep away. I used to receive some special attention from about 4 Juniors in my Freshman year. I played the Violin and often I began to wish that I had Super Powers, perhaps become a Giant.. I was far to shy and then embarrassed as attractive ladies would just lower the eyes while the jocks or other socially vibrant fellows had some fun at another geeky nerds expense. Thank goodness I grew 4 inches my junior year.

The only real comfort zone we all could share was a table in the lunch room. At least the fledgling TSR found fertile minds in those who had only those like us - gamers. Rather than have to risk embarrassing myself, since Phy Ed was going to force us to dance with those wonderful and yet scary girls. Well to get my Diploma I had to slave for a month to Mr. Gerber the head of the Phy Ed department. Fortunately I knew all about janitorial work as before D&D and TSR dad only made $5,000 as a Cobbler (five children) and we had food stamps and even free school lunches. Yes you had to go to the councilors office every week to collect your free lunch passes. Obviously you could feel all the eyes on you and the talk about....

Everyone has been welcome at my gaming table and multitudes of new friends have been created by the time spent playing the games we Love. Look at pictures of gaming on my site or anywhere I run games. Everyone is welcome, just like a Boot Hill game leave your guns at the bar until you leave town. If you come to the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum Jeff R. Leason will show you courtesy and a smile and you will see that gaming with elder gamers is a safe and entertaining environment.

TSR - Ernie Gygax on New TSR, WotC Beefs, Trademarks, Licensees, 5E, & More

A YouTube channel, 'Live From the Bunker', interviewed Ernie Gygax about the new TSR. I've watched and decided to try to transcribe the most relevant parts of it, but the full hour-long video is below if you want to see the whole interview and full context. Ernie Gygax is one of D&D...

www.enworld.org

 

[Staffan]

I don't think WOTC really cares enough to mount a campaign against TSR3, but Ernie and company are blind if they did not see how the gaming world has changed in the last 20 ... or even in the last 2 years.

It sounds more to me like he does see recent changes in the gaming scene, and wants none of that.

 

[Stephen Shomo]

It's wearisome weird how the "I don't get the big deal" crowd get it well enough to all be aligned against those that clearly support trans rights.

 

[Emperor_Norton]

Hey there, long time RPGer, first time commenter

The one thing to keep in mind when you start pointing out your own minority status (for instance, my own as a bisexual person) is that being a minority does not stop you from then being bigoted, even unintentionally, and harming other types of minorities.

I've known blacks who are bigoted towards LGBT people, gay people who are bigoted towards bi people, and in one especially interesting case, a Trans woman who was incredibly bigoted towards gay men and lesbians (like, actively, aggressively bigoted). And it doesn't stop there. There are people in every minority that are bigoted towards people in every minority. It would be nice if we all reacted to having faced it with wanting to help everyone escape discrimination, but that isn't the case.

We would like to think that facing discrimination would let us understand what it is like to face other types of discrimination, but it doesn't. Not really. I may know what it is like to face discrimination as a bisexual man, but I'll never know what it is like to face discrimination as a black man. And I'm not going to pretend that I do. I can have sympathy because I understand the general ideas of what it is like to be discriminated against, but I can never know the specifics of what they face.

What that means is that when a group is facing discrimination, we need to listen to what THEY say about it. I as a bisexual man don't get to tell a trans woman what to feel about this. Just like a straight trans woman wouldn't get to tell me what to feel about discrimination against bisexual people.

 

[MGibster]

As a general rule I like to think that politics don't really come into play during my games. But then I remember in 2017 I ran an adventure called "Liberty's Pride." Liberty was was a Paladin whose mount, a rainbow colored griffin named Pride, was stolen by the evil archduke whom I modeled after President He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. Beside himself with grief, Liberty couldn't function properly and the most popular Paladin in the land was put out of commission. So Liberty's husband hired the PCs to go find his Pride and return it to him. Nah, you're right. That adventure wasn't political at all.

In all seriousness, I guess it's how you define politics. I'd be turned off by a D&D campaign revolving around the idea of bourgeoisie adventurers ignoring the true monsters, capitalist overlords, in favor of acquiring wealth from the proletariat "monsters" who are not the people's true enemies. But if someone wanted their character to be LGBTQ+ or have a particular phenotype then I don't think of that as a political choice. Making sure someone feels welcome isn't a political issue to me.

 

[the Jester]

As a general rule I like to think that politics don't really come into play during my games. But then I remember in 2017 I ran an adventure called "Liberty's Pride." Liberty was was a Paladin whose mount, a rainbow colored griffin named Pride, was stolen by the evil archduke whom I modeled after President He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. Beside himself with grief, Liberty couldn't function properly and the most popular Paladin in the land was put out of commission. So Liberty's husband hired the PCs to go find his Pride and return it to him.

I hope you don't mind if I steal that and run it in my game at some point.

 

[MGibster]

Oh, and this is Lavender Reign. My non-binary asexual half-elf Celestial Warlock from a campaign I played a few years back. I played Lavender straight (editor's note: word choice), and they weren't the butt of any jokes at the table. At least not the butt of any jokes surrounding their identity. It's hard not to poke a little fun at a warlock who made a pact with a unicorn, whose magical effects involve rainbows and sparkles, and whose verbal spell components involving rhyming. Imagine them casting Eldritch Blast while shouting, "Because you will not act so nice, you're going to have to pay the price!" I didn't think of Lavender as a political choice. I made a character who was as kawaii as possible, totally unlike me, and incredibly fun to play.

 

[MGibster]

I hope you don't mind if I steal that and run it in my game at some point.

I'd be honored!

 

[OakenHart]

Well, Morrus due in no small part to my race/ethnicity I am most definitely all for suppressing bigotry and hatred (of all sorts). I also play DnD (and other games) specifically to escape real world issues. So, please tell me how to word it so that statement that meets whatever the standard is and I assure you I am not dogwhistling to any group(s) on the Right LOL

As someone who is not black such as yourself, but who is a POC: our simply being a POC doesn't make us immune to believing or spreading bigoted views, or having blinders to the experience/plight of others. I am certainly not saying this is what you are doing, but I'm saying that it is good to be mindful of our possible blinders and to not assume that we're being open-minded simply for being typically "on the left" or "on the right".

I hope I'm wording this correctly.

 

[Neonchameleon]

His Christian value tweet I saw a screen shot of. If I recall correctly, was he not saying he was raised with Christian values and thus he was taught not to discriminate against anyone for various reasons?

If someone says they don't discriminate against people why do they have to list every possible demographic. If I say, I don't discriminate against people due to race, gender, religion, etc. and someone says, "Well you didn't say you you don't discriminate against married people or against people with X disease" I would honestly think that person is either a) stupid or b) looking for confrontation for whatever reason.

OK. Let's try an analogy here because it might make things easier for you.

Someone is interviewed and says a few dogwhistles about "the blacks". When asked to clarify what they mean their business partner jumps in with a couple of n-bombs. It also turns out that both of them are following a famous neo-Nazi with a murder conviction (this part is not analogy; the neo-Nazi in question is Varg Vikernes).

He then makes an "apology" saying that he was raised with Christian values and taught not to discriminate against people on the grounds of religion or gender, pointedly missing race off the list of things he doesn't discriminate about despite the fact that it's his comments on race that started this whole fiasco. Do you think that apology and statement that didn't mention race covers things?

And if you don't what do you make of people jumping in to the conversation saying "he said he doesn't discriminate. Why should it matter that he didn't say he doesn't discriminate about race"?

 

[Malmuria]

I am all for WOTC's direction of showing different sexual orientation in the game (like in Ravenloft), showing more women in the game, increasing diversity in hiring in gaming but there is a difference in saying something exist and should be acknowledged and then demanding a social issue be addressed in the game.

I think that's all we are talking about here? In-game, products should not reproduce cultural stereotypes and should include a diverse set of characters, and out-of-game, we try to ensure that the hobby and tables are inclusive (which in part means factoring in a creator's viewpoints when considering whether to purchase their products or support their position in the hobby). No one is talking about Giantland does or does not address in-game, but rather the views of its ostensible creator (*game doesn't exist yet and EG didn't create anything)

For context, what EG seemed to be referencing was this disclaimer for some TSR products on Dm's guild (right? or is there some other way wotc "dissed" old school gamers?). It reads

We recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website, does not reflect the values of the Dungeon & 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.

My emphasis. Here is a tweet thread on the topic: