nuTSR/Wonderfilled? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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News to me too, but apparently WotC/Hasbro let the trademark on the TSR name expire years ago, since they weren’t using it anymore, so some of the old Wisconsin gang registered it and started a new company. They don’t appear to have produced much yet.
 
Their revival of Top Secret was met with a lot of criticism.
 
I saw somewhere their trademark on TSR is limited to the state of Wisconsin. Odd but I guess possible. I wonder if WotC sees it as worth it to press the claim. Most of their newer customers won't care and older customers aren't likely to enjoy seeing them beat up on Gygaxs son.
 
Huh, I wonder if this is why WotC had that survey on Monday asking questions about old school rules and such. I didn't get a chance to see it (it's closed) but heard it questioned on which editions one played in the past year, do you know about THAC0, etc.
 
Huh, I wonder if this is why WotC had that survey on Monday asking questions about old school rules and such. I didn't get a chance to see it (it's closed) but heard it questioned on which editions one played in the past year, do you know about THAC0, etc.
What survey?
 
WotC does their survey's to find out what they should sell & supposedly one came out Monday that asked questions on rules (even older edition rules) that people knew about. I didn't see the survey myself because it's closed (people complaining about gate keeping i think) so I don't know first hand.
 
Their twitter says Ernest is on TSR now. Wasn't he part of Gygax mag?
 
WotC does their survey's to find out what they should sell & supposedly one came out Monday that asked questions on rules (even older edition rules) that people knew about. I didn't see the survey myself because it's closed (people complaining about gate keeping i think) so I don't know first hand.
They've always asked about older edition content in those surveys, but not as specifically as "do you remember this particular rule:".

IMO I'd rather see WotC carry on looking at things through their current lenses rather than just retread old content; thanks to DTRPG, the old content is mostly all still available and in print for anyone who wants it, so simply slapping 5e mechanics in and calling it a day seems a waste to me.
 
They've always asked about older edition content in those surveys, but not as specifically as "do you remember this particular rule:".

IMO I'd rather see WotC carry on looking at things through their current lenses rather than just retread old content; thanks to DTRPG, the old content is mostly all still available and in print for anyone who wants it, so simply slapping 5e mechanics in and calling it a day seems a waste to me.
Yes but alot of that stuff has the old TSR logo on it. I would assume that marketing would be at least worried about the 'mistaken identify' of those items for those entering the hobby. And i'm sure conversations of, "Well what happens if someone buys TSR stuff on DM Guild and google's the name. It will direct them away from WotC," have occurred in one form or another.
 
So, what is Giantlands?
iu
 
I like the elevator pitch for Giantlands

A radiant golden Sun rises over a devastated planet Earth of the 5th Age. Emerging from the destruction is a planet born anew where giants, tribes, mutants, androids and odd creatures from a multitude of worlds clash in an attempt to reclaim the Earth as their own!

You would think this sort of thing would be right up my alley but the Larry Elmore art kills it for me. It's not metal, it's not weird fantasy, and his art does not turn my crank at all. Selecting this artist for the cover tells me this project is going to be about as metal as Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms.

Now if these guys had got Erol Otus for the cover I would say "Take my money now!" because then they are speaking my language and probably know a thing or two about weird fantasy.
 
I asked on their Facebook page. I’ll get to the bottom of this. Gygax Magazine was made by “TSR” years ago (2012) and Ernie was with them too. My initial feeling is that they are trying to re-brand their re-brand.
 
I like the elevator pitch for Giantlands



You would think this sort of thing would be right up my alley but the Larry Elmore art kills it for me. It's not metal, it's not weird fantasy, and his art does not turn my crank at all. Selecting this artist for the cover tells me this project is going to be about as metal as Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms.

Now if these guys had got Erol Otus for the cover I would say "Take my money now!" because then they are speaking my language and probably know a thing or two about weird fantasy.

I guess I'm somewhat the opposite. For me the Elmore art is a draw. I'll admit that the cover shown is looking pretty bad. It's not as bad as some of his immediate post stroke pieces, but it's certainly not as good as some of his post recovery stuff. Still, it conveys that 80s Elmore magic for me, even if it is a reminder of the deterioration of time.

The gist of it sounds good, as I'm interpreting it as a less silly version of Gamma World. But most of the other stuff I've been finding makes my interest just sort of drift away. What little has been described of the system doesn't sound interesting or even appealingly retro. There's also this kind of strange focus here and there about LARP with the tabletop version of the game being secondary?
 
I asked on their Facebook page. I’ll get to the bottom of this. Gygax Magazine was made by “TSR” years ago (2012) and Ernie was with them too. My initial feeling is that they are trying to re-brand their re-brand.
The TSR page hyping Top Secret: NWO has posts up as recent as the end of May...while “TSR 2.0” started posting a couple of weeks before that.

I suspect someone didn’t do due diligence somewhere on paperwork and two groups are trying to lay claim to TSR.
 
From what I understand about it, this is what happened.

WoTC / Hasbro let the original Trademark lapse.

The first TSR was created by Jayson Elliot. He was the owner of the company. That company was the one that did Gygax Magazine, Top Secret, and a few other games.

After Top Secret, the company I guess Jayson let his trademarks lapse, so a guy named Justin Lanasa registered them. Unlike Jayson, Justin has actually taken most of the old logos (The Wizard, The TSR with the Face, the square TSR, and the ornate TSR with the dragon), and formed a TSR company. He's actually the guy who also owns the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum in Lake Geneva. He had actually talked about licensing the Trademarks to other people who would pay him a fee.

Interestingly enough, Wizards doesn't seem to care about the old logos, as they left Jayson alone, and the appear to be leaving Justin alone. My guess is Hasbro doesn't care about the old name since they own the IP and the actual game name trademarks like Dungeons and Dragons.
 
I like the elevator pitch for Giantlands



You would think this sort of thing would be right up my alley but the Larry Elmore art kills it for me. It's not metal, it's not weird fantasy, and his art does not turn my crank at all. Selecting this artist for the cover tells me this project is going to be about as metal as Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms.

Now if these guys had got Erol Otus for the cover I would say "Take my money now!" because then they are speaking my language and probably know a thing or two about weird fantasy.
Yeah. I LOVE Larry Elmore, maybe more than almost any other D&D artist, but this isn't doing it for me.
 
Probably the most information I can see about the "new new" TSR is here.


Basically, the guy who owns the Trademarks also bought or leased the "Gygax House" (the one where he created D&D in) and formed a museum. This other thing (TSR as a publisher) looks like yet another new endeavor.
 
I don’t think the TSR name means anything at all to Hasbro. It’s been over 20 years since that logo was attached to D&D, and it didn’t have a lot of positive connotations for a while before that (hence why WotC dissolved it in the first place). IP changes hands all the time, and I don’t think they’re bothered about what logos happen to be on the old PDFs they sell. It’s the D&D-related trademarks they really care about.
 
I don’t think the TSR name means anything at all to Hasbro. It’s been over 20 years since that logo was attached to D&D, and it didn’t have a lot of positive connotations for a while before that (hence why WotC dissolved it in the first place). IP changes hands all the time, and I don’t think they’re bothered about what logos happen to be on the old PDFs they sell. It’s the D&D-related trademarks they really care about.

And the people most likely to be drawn to the TSR name alone? They cross over with the group that hate modern D&D anyway.
 
And the people most likely to be drawn to the TSR name alone? They cross over with the group that hate modern D&D anyway.
And those of us who both like the TSR and don't hate WotC can figure out the difference between the two without getting confused at all. That's kind of the thing really. I doubt some judge is going to buy that anyone is confused by this. WotC is the official owner of D&D. TSR is a new company interested in looking at the past and keeping it alive. Yes they both operate in RPGs and deal with products called Dungeons & Dragons but no ones confused who's the owner of D&D.
 
In both cases of "new TSR" though, the Gygaxes seem like participants rather than the driving forces. This newer one just seems to have Ernie involved in some limited capacity. Luke doesn't appear involved with this one at all.

I find the whole business model of just buying up an old Trademark not a smart investment. It gets a little short term appeal based on sheer nostalgia, but I don't think it shows a strong creative streak or solid business ideas. Why not actually create new products people want without depending on a gimmick? I think there's a lot of other smaller publishers out there who have a better track record of producing products people want, as well as creative people who have a much stronger resume of publishing.
 
I'm not a hater and I legit wish them the best of luck but if I am being honest the nu-TSR thing feels gimmicky and lacking in substance. There is a ton of excellent OSR content out there which has set the bar pretty high. I hope to be proven wrong but so far I don't think they have the chops to succeed in this highly competitive market.
 
In both cases of "new TSR" though, the Gygaxes seem like participants rather than the driving forces. This newer one just seems to have Ernie involved in some limited capacity. Luke doesn't appear involved with this one at all.

Ernie shouldn't be doing anything until he gets his Kickstarter ducks in order - it's getting to the point of a Far West situation.
 
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