The New TSR is just a bunch of narrow minded money grabbers

This is a hot topic right now in the TTRPGs community. But for many reasons, it's the same, old argument. It happened that some guys brought TSR (the original publisher of D&D) back from the grave. Not only this, they also had the wonderful idea of sharing with us their views and ideas on gaming today versus gaming yesterday. Guess what? Today bad, yesterday good!

I have some problems with how this reborn company is presenting itself to the public. My main concern is that in 1986 Gary Gygax left TSR for a bunch of reasons and, consequentially, AD&D development. He later lost in a legal dispute almost all the rights to D&D names, settings and so on. So claiming to "bring back the RPGs to their home in Wisconsin" (where D&D was created) while choosing to be called TSR is confusing for two reasons. First: why should a game be better if it is made in Wisconsin? And second: I don't think Gary Gygax would really appreciate. It's as if the first Pope had called himself Judas.

Role-playing games were born in the Midwestern USA and have since gone on to change the world. We're bringing role-playing games back home to Wisconsin.

From their site. Why? What does it even mean?

So, nah, this new TSR is sad. Like, really sad. They try to appeal to "old school gamers" because they are, in fact, old people with old mindsets. Who used to play some specific iterations of RPGs and never really changed. I understand the desire to play what you love, in the form that is most dear to you; and I understand why one would like to keep social/political matters out of a fantasy game: escapism is an important part of the magic of RPGs. But this new TSR is embracing this attitude to appeal to a specific following of narrow minded individuals (aka the bigot gatekeepers), who constantly whine about how "woke people ruined their hobby", and at the same time incite the "woke crowd"'s ire to further promote themselves. "If it pisses off the wokes, then it's good" seems to be the codephrase among their public. Don't believe me? Check out their twitter account and see for yourself: passive aggressive statements, plain mistakes, outright insults, playing the victim...

We're producing good old fashioned TSR TTRPG products with a new take. Our first two role-playing games GiantLands® and Tales & Tots ™ are just the beginning!

From their site. As you can see, I was not joking. Good old fashioned.

This new TSR is already a mess. They don't seem professional, they are not even mature enough to respond with courtesy to criticism on twitter (or, to respond at all, as I've experienced). To me, it seems like a really bad idea to put faith&money in any of their upcoming products, which right now is just a preorder for a game they are only licensing, GiantLands, which online page is poorly written. It is already evident that thay are planning on making this ruleset obsolete one day, as the complete title is GiantLands 1st edition. Maybe you should put it out into the world and make players explore its ruleset, before even considering a 2nd edition? Also, see if it sells well enough first?

Let me explain it in another way: there is not a known, somewhat respected company resurecting an old brand to develop OSR games behind all of this. These are literally just a bunch of dudes, one of which is a son of Gary Gygax, and that's it. THAT'S IT. They are walking the "we are that TSR you knew and loved" line, but in fact they are not. They are preying upon nostalgia. This is an indie company who bought the trademark of TSR logo when the previous owner forgot to renew it. But owning a trademark doesn't mean that you are (or were) that company. And surely doesn't give you any entitlement on RPG history or whatever.

In a time not so long ago we rocked TTRPG so very hard that it shook the galaxy. It's time to start again. Just might save the world, role-playing games gods willing.

Again, from their site. This is the work of a young teenager at best.

Obviously they have no claim over D&D, so they will create clones or stuff with and old school feeling. Which is totally fine. Everyone should make games as they like. Of course one would hope for this to be just a wrong foot start, but it seems difficult for things to change in this case. In fact, it's been very clear that this is right away this enterprise founders' mentality. And, while they might say the contrary, there is no market anymore for such ideas. They will never achieve the status of the old TSR; probably in up to three years they will disappear.

Whew, this post was a long one! I usually don't like to rant, but I felt this was necessary. Sometimes I still buy old TSR material, original or reprinted, and I have a huge collection of AD&D 2e books, which I inherited from my uncle. So, as I aknowledge that the origins of D&D are imbued with controversial figures which ideas should not be condoned, the original TSR is a topic near and dear to me. Not these...scammers.

Stay safe.

Daniele

P.S.

I would also point out that there is already a ton of OSR/OD&D retroclones out there and that some of them are even free and/or slightly different/improved version of old RPGs (mostly OD&D) rulesets; so if you want to play a new game with that specific feeling, maybe you should let this new TSR end like the first one: fail its last death saving throw and die.