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...


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