In September of 2020, a conspiracy began to dig up the corpse of TSR Inc and parade it around for profit. This villainous act of vile necromancy continues to this day.


So, nuTSR is supposedly, for real this time.. truly honest to the gods... going to release this game of unclear name, origins, purpose, quality and future.

Name?

Behold... the names as declared... the I have found... since first announcement.

So clearly nobody knows what it's actually titled... least of all Justin LaNasa... the guy who.. well one of the guys who created it... maybe?

Origins?

Justin LaNasa is definitely one of the creators... but its unclear what others have contributed.

Co-creator?

Initially it seems it was a collaborative with John Richard N. Norris III who may be a reverend of some sort, and also goes by "Ulfblood Berzerk". He's an... eccentric fellow who runs a silk screening and art business "Goblin's Grotto" and once submitted his step-by-step instructions on building a "viking hut" to Off Grid Quest (which seems to now be offline). I don't know what kind of game he would have made, but I doubt it would have been boring.

Uncredited creators?

According to Michael Hovermale, and the materials visible at the time, the initial playtest was basically just Original Dungeons & Dragons but with goblins.

By the looks of the character sheet, the only innovations have been the addition of "pivot points" and slaves (a topic that seems to be an obsession for LaNasa and his inner circle... by which I mean Dave Johnson).

So, that would me... they should probably also credit: Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson and since Justin almost certainly did not learn off or limit himself to White Box set... Tom Moldvay and/or Frank Mentzer. It's unclear if they're not crediting these people (and others because) Justin doesn't want to share credit or because all that work is now owned by... Wizards of the Coast. Keep that in mind.

Also this game is marked "Ernie Approves" but Ernie isn't marked as a creator like he is on Dungeon Crawl and The Cult of Abaddon. Weird how when it's other people's work Ernie will definitely "improve" it with his ideas, but when it's Justin's baby it's just his and nobody else's. No input wanted.

Artists

Get ready for straight up fuckery.

The original art is by someone who signs their work QWERTY. No information about this person has ever been volunteered, they do the cute, children's style drawings of goblins. They are credited on the store page. As a side note, these goblins do look an awful lot like the original D&D goblins as drawn by David A. Trampier...

Then it looks like JohnUlfblood was going to do the art... unclear if any of that remains... he doesn't appear on the store credits. He seems to have just... quietly faded away from the project while... loudly doing everything else.

Jesse Hansen did the YouTube videos, facilitated shamelessly ripping off David A. Trampier's work with the signature piece the nuTSR uses to promote... everything, and is also likely the one who did the "totally not Pathfinder" goblins on the character sheet, and is credited on the store page. (As a side note, I doubt these rise to the level of copyright infringement but do definitely rise to the level of "point and laugh"... though I'm sure they knew that already).

The original by David A. Trampier: A picture of a bearded person, a wizard archetype figure, sitting upon a giant six-sided dice in the forest, reading a book.

nuTSR's nonsense: The gaming event poster which has essentially the same image but with a goblin in place of the wizard, and a mushroom with a face instead of the dice, even some of the details of the trees are identical.

Dean Spencer is credited... but it's not clear if it's this artist who sells stock art on DriveThruRPG... and if so if they will credit him properly (I have my doubts) But if they did... I suppose that's legit but kinda misleading.

William McAusland is a Canadian artist who also seems to sell stock art packs. Again, unclear if they will meet the licensing requirements etc, but possibly legit but again, kinda misleading.

So for a guy who brags about being rich... Justin LaNasa seems to be penny pinching on this one and avoiding working with people... but there are two pretty much completely unknown commodities (they don't seem to appear on the giant list of people who allegedly work with/for Jesse):

  • Josh Pinero (also on Star Frontiers: New Genesis)
  • Joe Ernst (complete newcomer)
  • Kylie Jones (who is the only artist credited on Google Books, and has been since the start)

And now the epic fuckery.

They have listed it as having art by [Jim Holloway].

Yes, it seems as well as putting his name on Star Frontiers: New Genesis... without consulting his estate, Justin has added the iconic 80s TSR Inc artist to the credits of this piece of shit as well... for no apparent reason other than when he spammed The Art of Jim Holloway group with the AI Art piece of shit cover (19 December 2022) they were not welcoming to him or impressed with his extremely dubious justification.

I mean Jim did draw goblins, but given the estates are likely to be less than happy with him it seems likely that all the released goblin art he did was for TSR Inc... and all their stuff is now owned by... lemme check my notes... Wizards of the Coast. So even if they're not published, they give yet another possible claim to the people he's currently suing.

Also in case you're wondering, no there is no token credit for David. A. Trampier... who was clearly extremely influential in the look and feel of the goblins.

Publisher

So, Justin has a history of suspicious use/abuse of limited liabilities to try to silo off his liability while he attempts stupid bullshit. He registered Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum LLC while he was suing Wizards of the Coast, for example. A move that was promptly defeated by Wizards of the Coast naming that company and Justin himself in the counter-suit.

On the shop it indicates that the game will be published by TSR LLC, but on Google Books it just lists Justin LaNasa. This is bad not just because it means Jim Holloway's estates could go after him but also because it can be used by Wizards of the Coast as evidence that there is not suitable separation of interests, and thus the corporate veil should be pierced and Justin LaNasa left naked to them. That is actual legal terminology, lawyers love weird drama.

Purpose

It's not really clear what the point of the product.

At this point TSR LLC has failed to launch anything resembling a flagship product.

And this is not going to help them given that all their other attempts have earned nothing but bad will, except from a very small demographic of reactionaries (most of the other reactionaries don't want to play with them) and this product has pretty much no talent of any concern and no basis for hype or getting involvement. You've been able to play D&D as goblins with just core books and a little creativity since the game came out.

You could argue that it's to keep the trademarks in play, but they only seem to be using the Diesel Lizard Man... which is not the trademark that they registered, but a much better drawing with more mark up... and they only need one product every five years for that.

You could also propose that this is for Justin's ego, to show that he can make a great RPG product... but like he already tried that with Tales & Tots... and for that to work, it'd have to be a good game.

Quality?

So you're probably wonder... could this be a good game?

No, no it could not. Based on the footage of the playtest, it is a terrible game, a much worse version of Dungeons & Dragons that is basically Justin's attempt to be a teenage edgelord (over the age of fifty) by writing a bunch of tables.

That's right, players don't choose the type of goblin they're going to be, he's getting them to roll on it and giving them extraordinary abilities such as spikes, obesity due to ravenous hunger, or being "pure white" who is smart & has magic but everything wants to eat you... I am not making this shit up, it was in the video.

Still not convinced, check out this writing sample on the Google Books entry.

INTRODUCTION RPG=Role Playing Game Goblins are a tribal society. They often dwell in deep dark dismal places. Deep underground places (dungeons) are their domain. They hate daylight and attack at a -1 while in sunlight. Goblins have an infravision of 60' range. Goblins have a racial hatred for gnomes & dwarves and will attack them at any opportunity. Some goblins may also be found in deep dark forests, jungles, and forgotten ruins. Goblins have been used as servants or minions by hobgoblins, orcs, gnolls, ogres, and trolls for as long as memories exist. You are playing the anomaly of your goblin kind. You are Bigger stronger and able to gain levels & abilities with their limits in maximum levels you may attain, unlike humans. Goblins, while evil, still have an orderly or honorable sense of being but only to other goblins and will steal cheat or lie to any other non- goblinoids. Goblins love silver & gold and any type of jewels. Goblins love to eat raw food found underground or in forests like insects & grubs are their favorite natural delicacies. Goblin's love raiding villages at night to steal supplies of whatever they can get their hands on. Goblins would even resort to eating members of other races including other goblinoids like kobolds, orcs, ogres, and trolls. Trolls are a treat to have in the icebox they keep regenerating to produce more food but need to be kept a close eye on not to allow Mr. Troll to regenerate fully and make a meal of you. Goblins will only eat other goblins as a last resort. What Goblins FEAR the most is HORSE BLOOD and Dogs are much disliked, but goblins seem to get along well with Wolves & Worgs. Goblin's life span. Adulthood by age 8 lives to approximately 50 years of age if lucky. Female goblins are known as Goblette

Now it's possible that he put more work into it since this, and that maybe he even tried doing more editing than just using Grammarly... but I doubt it, particularly given that he's doing his usual level of marketing of just announcing a thing like everyone already knows and cares what it is.

Also given that the game seems to want to make keeping slaves a thing... and the previous history (see Nazi writers)

Future?

So the game is supposed to "release" on 17 February 2023... but what he really means is he will update the listing from "Out of Stock" to "Backordered" so people can pre-order on that date and he intends to ship it sometime in March.

But like, why announce a "opening to pre-order" date that far in advance, and then a ship date so close? If the game is definitely ready why not start taking pre-orders now? If the idea is to use pre-orders to assess volume, why not set a longer period so you can be confident the printers will be ready?

I mean, for a new company like this the obvious thing would be to do a Kickstarter, but historically those haven't gone well for Justin and it would put the pre-order figures available to the public... but that raises the question.

What will Justin do if only a handful of people pre-order?

Print products are much more expensive when you do them in small runs, and he already has a reputation of just not fulfilling orders - if not enough people buy it is he just going to do like he's done with The Cult of Abaddon and just... bother with the orders?

Is this game even ready for release? Or is it like Star Frontiers: New Genesis where they announced they'd sold all the first printing, and an release date that was going to be one month after they just got around to asking someone to print and beta and after they posted mock ups and claimed it a pile of real books? The Star Frontiers: New Genesis poster that promises it'd be released in 03/22/22

Will it be released properly, or like Dungeon Crawl will Justin sell a few copies to people who visit the store then promise to "remaster" it... leaving pre-orders dangling for unspecified times?

Only time will tell... but like...



So, we've covered that Justin is currently trying to steal valor (military and social) via Wikipedia, and that he's announced a "new" game by outted-Nazi-and-known-sicko-fuck Dave Johnson, but what else is TSR LLC, the company that will save the OSR, working on?

Well a few things it turns out!

Goblinz: Those Pesky Goblinz

According to Google Books, this was released in June 2022 and had an artist Kylie Jones who presumably did the charming cartoon imagery that is visible on the Google Books listing - that would indicate that it is a whimsical game for children. A screenshot of the Google Book listing: "Goblinz: Those Pesky Goblinz" "Author: Justin LaNasa" "Artist: Kylie Jones" "Release: June 2022" and the black and white pen sketch cover art version of the cover.

But as of December 2022, the status is "YES, IT IS" with the terrible AI Art that looks like its been marked up with MS Paint but someone who just discovered BlamBot.

It seems to be going for a much darker and scarier feel, and the choice to go with AI Art is particularly hilarious given the "artists" for it so far have been (in order):

  1. Someone who signs their work "QWERTY" who we have not real info on
  2. John Richard Norris, (of Goblin Grotto), they seem to have deleted off their Facebook posts but forgotten about the Official TSR LLC Twitter account.
  3. Kylie Jones, who there is little information on
  4. Jesse Hansen (1, 2, 3) ComicsGate bro who drew the artwork that is a ripoff of the Trampier artwork.
  5. Unspecified AI Art generator (someone tested)

So this project, which is transparently a rip-off of Kobolds Ate My Baby but with weird racism (you roll for your goblin type and Pure White goblins can work magic, but everyone wants to eat them...).

Free for All Gaming Event (Not Free To Attend)

No updates on this, there are still 2 "Vendor Hull" booths available, and one of the "anonymous" booths is still announced as "Mick" so we can safely say that they're taking the "we won't do any work until more people spend money" approach that always bodes well for small events.

Dungeon Crawl (2nd Edition)

Despite having promised it's totally read for the printers, they've been doing sneak peeks (1, 2) of the product... which have included samples of cards... allow us to confirm.

They still have the card which is an attack at Tenkar (who, reminder, Justin is attempting to sue for defamation). Screenshot of the Tenkarian Gibberer card, cropped from the promotional image The card with the implied profanity. Screenshot of the "WTF is it?" card, cropped from the promotional image And the card which is attacking Luke Gygax by... depicting him as a cool, powerful and sexy demon prince... (Luke loves this FYI, worst dis attempt ever). Screenshot of the Lucion the Demon Prince card, cropped from the promotional image Despite claims that they're updated... the cards are still a shit show... and there's been no meaningful update since the "Coming very soon" announcement in September 2022 so it's unclear if they're only working on the shit they think is fun... or this is a "work on when there's no one home, nobody online and I can't decide on anything to watch on Netflix" type project. Based on this timeline.



Guess who's back! Back again.

That's right, George "Dave" Johnson, who fled the Internet shortly after announcing Alarms & Journeys would be a monthly magazine, and was the true successor to Gygax Magazine... because it turns out his online history is so hateful it warranted an entire web site and online identity to document and call out. (Dave is also a well documented sicko-fuck who inflicts his sexual fetishes on people, pretends to be a woman online to write weird stories about women wanting to fuck his imaginary spy persona and randomly included weird shit about lactating boobs and women having power to put men under spells if they wear some makeup in the Star Frontiers: New Genesis version they admit to.

And yeah, he's back with this atrocity that could be used as a test for editors, proofreaders and graphic designers/typesetters alike.

The image posted of "TSR-Hobbies Presents ABSOLUTE SPACE coming 2023 the post-apocalyptic space opera role-playing game" with a generic promo image promising "D30 System" then a tile of "Summery" then "The Setting:" then "It is just after the EARTH and its moon is hit by a vast interplanetary asteroid the size of Texas. the first impact occurred on the moon, cause the asteroid to break apart into smaller chunks that showered the Earth's northern hemisphere over twenty-four hours, making the plant almost uninhabitable for a while. The devastation was so bad it took months for the governments to gather enough resources to organize a rescue and global assessment of the damage. The only country not hit was Australia, but they were in bad shape due to tsunamis, and the total disruption of the global weather. The United Nations said "This is truly climate change." because nothing has been seen like this. The moon broke apart and now is two pieces that cause unpredictable tidal surges."  Next paragraph: "Over the next two years, the weathe became severe, making farming more complex. the U.N. Science and Environmental agencies have detected a severe reduction in the Van Hallen radiation belts that"

You may notice a trademark claim on Absolute Space there... there is none, which is probably good because at this point they would clearly have no evidence of use in commerce. It also of course, promised the D30 System as though this were a real system and not a bunch of gibberish Dave Johnson spouts out randomly from time to time. Also Dave, a far superior D30 system than anything you can imagine has already been created:

Now, call me cynical, but the combination of "post-apocalyptic" and "space opera" makes me suspect that since Justin caved in and agreed not to make Star Frontiers until at least the end of the trial - this seems like they're trying to recycle a lot of the same material.

After all Justin and Dave's vision for Star Frontiers had pretty much nothing to do with the original 1982 role-playing game but instead was some ramble about how humanity as it is today would decline, and would need to be saved by eugenics, Nazi aliens and "slavery by custom" - so it seems likely Dave is just copy-pasting a lot of it but blaming an asteroid for humanity discovering the need to become Nazis.

Predictably, there is no meaningful information put out or anything to suggest that there is anything beyond this one page that Dave seems to have thrown together after a lot of cough syrup, so it's been very well received on the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum.

A screenshot of the post on Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum, with comments all ridiculing it... except for one "Interesting" by Jason Schattner.  Someone asks what system is used, no answer, someone else makes a Star Wars joke, there is a discussion about "editing is for the woke" and someone else links to an article about what would happen if a asteroid the size of Texas hit the planet (spoiler, we all die... like right away)



It has recently been revealed that Justin, or someone claiming to be Justin, has been attempting to alter a variety of Wikipedia articles - initially it was in relation to TSR Inc, and specifically trying to erase his business partners in the venture and more recently attempted to put a version of the injunction verdict that was, more flattering to himself.

This quickly snowballed as he continued to try to edit the article to be entirely in favour of TSR LLC by removing the facts about the allegations of fraud (and Ernie) and the contents of the leaked version of Star Frontiers: New Genesis.

Justin also ventured into Jeff R Leason's entry to again, try to erase the contributions of the people who's names he exploited to establish his credibility early on - which is where he starts identifying himself (rather than just referring to mentioning of inconvenient facts as slanderous - and while this confession isn't proof undeniable - as we'll get to later, the worst parts of this are things Justin has claimed in the past to the press).

A screenshot of the comment in the edit which reads "This is a lie I removed it. I own TSR Justin LaNasa google it"

Oh did I write that in past tense... I mean the people who Justin continues to use in order to maintain credibility after he has abused, exploited and discarded them.

A screenshot of Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum's Facebook page sharing a YouTube video where the thumbnail is Jeff R Leason standing in the shop.

Which brings us to the most incredible part, the bit where Justin departs from the petty attempts to change facts of the world over small business matters, and tries to substantiate a very old lie he used in his political campaign. One that is incredibly easy to disprove.

A screenshot from the article, which reads: "LaNasa was born and raised in York, PA. He served in the Army for three years, and then joined the Coast Guard. LaNasa says in his first month aboard the Diligence in the North Atlantic Ocean, he was part of the rescue mission that later became the basis for the book and movie “The Perfect Storm.” “We saved six that month, but there was one we couldn’t save,” LaNasa said. “That was the ship the Andrea Gail.” LaNasa says the Coast Guard brought him to Wilmington in 1991. He later opened his own tattoo studio. LaNasa says his interest in public office has grown since becoming a business owner."

Yes, while attempting to get elected he claimed to be one of the heroes from the iconic Perfect Storm of 1991... the same year he joined the Coast Guard. Specifically he always has to cite the vessel that he served on part of this - including when he vandalized the Wikipedia article.

A screenshot of the edit in Wikipedia, which reads; "USCGC WMEC-616 Diligence and her crew saved three fishing vessels during the perfect storm. Many other coast guard cutters were enduring that severe storm and monstrous waves."

This is almost certainly because, since ship crews are intimately familiar with each other and there are logs etc, if he claimed another vessel - he would not only be publicly roasted by a collection of people who served on that vessel would drive around to his house to take turns punching him in the dick.

But, the thing with the Coast Guard (and the Navy) is that the treat their vessels with great reverence, including giving each of them their own web page which includes a tab for the history of vessel(s) (they often go through multiple incarnations). Let's have a look at what they say about USCGC WMEC-616 Diligence.

A screenshot from the history tab with the following highlighted: "Originally home ported in Key West from 1964-1983, then  Cape Canaveral, Florida from 1983-1990, DILIGENCE was temporarily decommissioned for modernization at the Coast Guard Yard from 1990-1992.  Following a $28 million refurbishment, a rebuilt DILIGENCE was placed back in commission and once again Wilmington, North Carolina-a designated Coast Guard City-was home to a Coast Guard Cutter DILIGENCE."

That's right, not only was the Diligence not stationed at Wilmington, North Carolina in 1991, it wasn't even operational. It was having its entire insides replaced so that it could function to modern standards, it was not being deployed anywhere until 1992 - at bare minimum, two months after the Perfect Storm.

On his own web site, Justin claims that he was initially stationed at the US Coast Guard Station Wrightsville Beach first, then on the Diligence during her service during the Nor'easter of December 1992... which was hugely destructive... to Connecticut. In Wilmington, North Carolina, it's noteworthy impact was record rainfall.

A screenshot from the Wikipedia article, higlighted: "In Wilmington, North Carolina, the storm dropped 1.79 in (45 mm) of rainfall, which broke the daily rainfall record set in 1888."

A far cry from a the Perfect Storm, which Justin sat in a Coast Guard base during.

Now, while I personally consider it highly likely, I don't know for a fact if it's definitely Justin editing Wikipedia articles on IP 107.134.17.7, it's possible it's an elaborate troll or someone very misguided acting on his behalf. But I do know that Justin has - like this IP, lied about his service in the Coast Guard to connect himself to a tragic event purely because it was made famous by a book and a movie.

That's the kind of person he is.