Dungeon Crawl, TSR Cons & Meltdown

It’s tricky to talk about the other antics that nuTSR got up to directly afterwards, because I don’t have access to the primary sources. I didn’t get access to a copy of Dungeon Crawl, I didn’t got to TSR Con (I’ve never even been to Wisconsin).

But, they were products of TSR LLC and well, they’re more interesting to talk about that the weird rebinds of classic books that they had made,

A collection of 5 generic hardback rebinds of 1st Edition D&D books - the are gold on black, looking very generic with the only flare being the inclusion of the TSR Game Wizards trademark.

These were not a terrible idea but:

  1. Featured the infringing trademark (as well as typos); and
  2. Only available by “making a pilgrimage” to the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum (and hoping that it happened to be open on that day); and
  3. Were massively overvalued by the shop who wanted $650 US a piece for them1Justin LaNasa as Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum (29 March 2022) Facebook <www.facebook.com/RPGANONYMOUS> 📸

Now, just to be clear – it is perfectly legal to rebind old books and sell them in the USA, it’s called the First Sale Doctrine. Ordinarily, including the trademark of the original publisher would also be mostly viable. It is not, however a good idea to do this while also trying to pass yourself off as the owner of said trademark, and the divine heir to all its good will.

To the best of my knowledge they never sold a single one of these.

I. Dungeon Crawl (2023)

Originally created by Donald (Don) Semora of Wizard Tower Games, Dungeon Crawl is a tricky topic for me to talk about since I wasn’t willing to pay triple the value of the game – particularly when it was looking like vaporware for long time. Don may have developed the original game, but there’s little reason to believe what Justin released was any reflection on his original product.

The original seems to have been set in Don’s own setting, but the product that nuTSR would release was more focused on including novelty cards towards Justin’s imagined enemies (like Luke Gygax), critics (Tenkar), and artist Larry Elmore (who doesn’t look anything like the card).

A photo of the laid out Dungeon Crawl game with the signed Elmore cards on display, along with the Lukeion the Demon Prince and Tenkarian Gibberer cards.

A. Probably a failure of a game

The premise is pretty simple and one pretty familiar to most people who experienced dungeon crawl D&D games or Munchkin or… there’s a bunch of games with the premise. A bunch of adventurers end up in a dungeon and essentially compete to be the one who leaves first with the most gold, or something to that effect.

Based on the pre-nuTSR marketing material, the hook for this one was that it was an actual board game (rather than a novelty card game) and the configuration was supposed to supply limitless variation.

The nuTSR version seemed to be re-written with the same level of competence that brought you the TSR Rating Meter, Goblinz: Those Pesky Goblinz. A Role-playing Game By Justin LaNasa and Cult of Abaddon. I’ve yet to see a single person review it, or talk the actual experience of playing it.

The closest is Jayson Elliot took one look at the photo above and immediately broke out the digital red pen.2 Jayson Elliot (25 March 2022) X née Twitter <x.com/JaysonElliot/>

A faded out copy of the image, which has extensive editorial notes by Jayson Elliott, ranging from basic grammar, kerning and font sizing to questions about what areas are supposed to indicate.

B. Borderline insulting marketing

Okay, so we know what marketing Don was going to try and break into the established market, but how was Justin planning on doing it? Well, obviously there was abusing the TSR name, and Ernie Gygax’s name, but they also decided to license some old Larry Elmore art.

A poster Dungeon Crawl which has strong Elmore Art but is otherwise a disaster of graphic design and promises that it would be coming January 2022.

This artwork, Usurper by Larry Elmore, not only was not commissioned for the product but essentially had no connection to dungeon crawling or Dungeons & Dragons. It was a piece commissioned for the Angus Wells novel The Usurper: The Second Book of Kingdoms.

Mr Wells passed away in 2006, so at at least he never had to see this – but based on the fact that these books don’t have a strong modern presence, and that nobody got sued – it seems the exclusivity of the license of the artwork expired, and Larry was able to re-license it to TSR LLC to use with Dungeon Crawl.

This is all to say that Justin and his minions showcased how they do not have the faintest understanding of what the appeal of Larry Elmore’s art was, they only conceive of it as something with inherent value. This, of course, an insult to Larry’s work at capturing the spirit of a particular game, the way he brought fantasies to life through composition, colour and details.

Basically if you actually loved Larry’s artwork, Justin thought you were a sucker to be exploited rather than a fellow gamer of fine taste.

C. Utterly deranged production

To say that once Dungeon Crawl was sold by Don it was made by amateurs who did not have the first clue what anything involved is irrational kindness with no basis in reality. The publicly visible issues were beyond clueless and into staggering incompetence.

First, when it was announced that they would not be using the licensed artwork that Wizard Tower Games had acquired, and instead would be using a Larry Elmore work, the demo prints showed the “Elmore” watermark across it – indicating they had not acquired a high definition from Larry, and instead just grabbed the sample image off his web site.3Justin LaNasa as Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum (9 January 2022) Facebook <www.facebook.com/RPGANONYMOUS> 📸 If you have any experience in any kind of publishing at all, avert your eyes. Avert your eyes!

The zoom in of the printing of the Dungeon Crawl boxes, on soft paper with no marks for cuts, folds or bleeds, and the "Elmore" watermark clearly visible.

Sharp eyed observers may notice that these are not stiff card print outs with accommodations to allow cutting and folding into a box and ask, did they ever actually do that? Allegedly yes. If you have any experience in physical publishing… get ready for the ultimate “spot all the mistakes” test.4Justin LaNasa as Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum (9 January 2022) Facebook <www.facebook.com/RPGANONYMOUS> 📸

A screenshot of a Facebook post by Dungeon Hobby Shop on 11 October 2022. "The updated box ready for print!!!!" Below is an image of the Dungeon Crawl box layout that has been hacked into the vague shape but has numerous issues including alignment and inconsistent measurements.

Of course there were also other issues with design of the product itself, ranging from basic typos to issues that can best be summed up with the meme phrase “graphic design is my passion”.5Justin LaNasa as Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum (19 January 2022) Facebook <www.facebook.com/RPGANONYMOUS>

The "Lady Betty the Brace" card, which has numerous issues with formatting, overlapping images, poor extracting Lady Betty from the main image and questionable writing. "Lady Betty wields a powerful magical amulet that amplifies her nature magic power. Allowing her to cast a death ray once per attack killing any foe on an attack roll of 1, 5, 10, 15 or 20."
“Lady Betty” is a reference to Larry’s wife, Betty Elmore, if you’re familiar with Larry’s artwork, particularly his cheesecake artworks, you have a good idea what she looks like.

Also it used meeples for the figures… which, y’know, definitely brings the full feel of fantasy dungeon crawling. Gaze upon them and tremble.

A screenshot from Ali Expression showing various packs of meeples available for a a few dollars, including sets of 100 for $5.20 NZ.

D. Ongoing disasters with simple fulfilment

In a now deleted video, Justin promised that those who had pre-ordered before the Larry Elmore art was announced would be able to choose which version they received, and could choose to buy one of each. This did not happen.

In fact, people who pre-ordered didn’t even get the opportunity to receive the first edition of the game – that honour fell to people who attended the original TSR Con, ran into Ernie (who apparently gave away some at Gary Con) and people who stumbled across Mick McArt at their local county fair.

Mick McArt is a fundamentally mediocre man who was initially understood to be selling generic spice mixes with fantasy names and artwork (mostly at county fairs, but he did also set up at TSR Con). Since then its become clear he is also a bad writer who self-publishes with great grandiosity, a grifter who runs Kickstarters for potentially infringing merchandise and a general terrible person.

After TSR Con he would post photos of people at various fairs buying Dungeon Crawl and seems to be the one who disposed of the majority of the first round of product. This edition of Dungeon Crawl would be the only one that I could find a review for, done by libertarian weirdo and nuTSR fanboy Wolf Photo Tech in which he reviews the experience of looking at and in the box.6 TableTop Gaming with Wolfphototech “Unboxing & my 1st impression of Dungeon Crawl board game by TSR Hobbies with Ernest G. Gygax jr.” (18 April 2022) <www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUswYHEApgc>

Eventually, nearly a year after this first edition was released – the Elmore cover version would be produced and released. Pre-order customers would finally get what they were promised, kind of…

E. Of course there was a data breach

In order to facilitate the fulfilment of pre-order, Justin reached out to the man he’d been harassing, vilifying, etc and who also seemed to be the only physical publisher who would return his calls – Don.

Notably, in order to get the fulfilment going – he emailed him the pre-order customer list but… not in the ideal way. See, industry practice in this case would be to supply the publisher with the minimal information they need to do their job: Name, Address for Delivery, number of units, and email/phone number if it’s expected for notification. That’s it.7Tenkar’s Tavern “Has Your Data Been Breached by nuTSR? My Straw Buyer’s Info Has! No Encryption for You!” (5 September 2022) Youtube <www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtUjKoQGbeg>

According to Don, and never disputed by Justin, he was emailed the full output from the payment processor – all he needed plus billing addresses, other contact details, dates, amounts, and redacted credit card details. Don, understandably, made a huge deal out of this – and the response from nuTSR was basically – crickets.

Eventually, the copies were mailed out and people received. I have looked, and I am yet to come across a person who is genuinely happy about it – aside from the people who are thrilled that they got cards ineptly mocking them.

F. Conclusion

Whatever Dungeon Crawl was when it was a Wizard Tower Games product, it was warped by nuTSR into something completely unplayable and that would be embarrassing to be associated with.

I’m pretty sure even Justin agrees, just look at the face he’s making when he was on the road trying to get it played at a mid-sized convention in order to try to give it a crumb of credibility.8 Justin LaNasa as Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum “#jeffcon “The Final mace” What a Great bunch of gamers” (13 November 2022) <www.facebook.com/RPGANONYMOUS> 📸

A selfie taken by Justin LaNasa, attempting to showcase his stand at JeffCon, which has very minimal display for Dungeon Crawl and appears to be a very small table. Justin himself looks uncertain and embarrassed as he takes the the selfie.
Look how embarrassed he is to be associated with his own product, then remember what a tolerance for public humiliation this guy seems to have built up.

II. TSR Cons

For the purposes of absolute clarity, “cons” here refers to conventions, not confidence games. They are are a series of stories about hubris that all come together into an epic saga of failure.9 TSR Con (24 – 27 March 2022) Tabletop Events <tabletop.events/conventions/tsr-con>

A. In the (primordial) beginning

From the beginning, this convention had a few major issues.

The original TSR CON poster which promises Seminars, Dealers, Auctions, Celebrity Guests, More Miniatures, More Tournaments, More Fantasy RPGs and More Boardgames. "The Nation's Primordial Gaming Convention" and is sponsored by "OSR Games" "Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum" "TSR: The Gaming Wizards" "Wizard Tower Games" and "Smugglers Coffee".

The first and most entertaining was that 3 of 5 sponsors were Justin LaNasa. Documents submitted and then recalled from the TSR LLC bankruptcy, and 1 of my copies of Those Pesky Goblinz, indicates OSR Games was a company that may have been raised purely to allow TSR to unload assets and avoid obligations incurred through the ridiculous lawsuit over trademarks.

Second was that nobody knows what “Primordial” means in this context, give that modern miniature gaming began in 18th century Prussia, and while Gary Gygax gets credited with making the first “major” US convention in 1968 – that qualifier is there because nobody knows who first got a bunch of people together to play games. We know H. G. Wells used to get his friends together the play the game he invented, Little Wars. Even if we narrow it to mean only conventions with role-playing games, the first one of those was in Twin Cities in 1969, and the first formal at Gen Con.

Third is that the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum was a facility where you could expect to host any of this. It is a suburban house which was partially converted into a business with a residence upstairs that was – at this time – where Jeff “Duck” Leason was living. There was no way you could fit a convention worth of people into it.

Fourth was they had to put all this vague nonsense up because by this point nuTSR was radioactive and thus couldn’t really expect to have anyone want to have their name associated with it. The only person who really was eager to be seen as a celebrity guest was Ernie.

Oh yeah, there was another issue.

B. Save the date…

The dates on the poster just happened to match up with another convention. As luck would have it, it was a convention that was regularly frequented by the late Ernie Gygax. It was a convention specifically about Ernie’s dad.

Gary Con. The weekend in March that they selected for the convention was the same one as Gary Con 2022.10 Gary Con 2022 (24-27 March 2022) Fan Cons <fancons.com/events/info/18863/gary-con-2022> Not just any Gary Con either, the first that would be running after the Covid 19 lockdowns cancelled the 2020 event.

So what is Gary Con? Gary Con is an event which is run primarily by Luke Gygax (Ernie’s little brother), and the other Gygax siblings in order to celebrate their father – Gary Gygax. It has massive community support not just because people like the idea of giving back to Gary’s family, but because they make a lot of effort to put on a good event and a good show.

Keeping in mind that nuTSR had justified this whole venture with “Gary would want his family to benefit from his creation” this was an incredibly scummy decision. There was some discussion that the date was initially accidental, having been picked because March is the off season in Lake Geneva and since it is the playground of Chicago’s 1%, that was the only month where hotels are affordable etc.

But I personally have my doubts given that Gary Con has been running since 2009, with Ernie regularly showing up to run his game there. And oh yeah, the year before Gary Con had generously agreed to allow Ernie to give Larry Elmore his lifetime achievement award within the Dungeon Hobby Shop. It does not seem possible that they were not aware of this, and it only got worse when they started proposing ideas like that the two events were essentially equal.

Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum would later go on to share an article about Gary Con with a disparaging comment which could only be understood to be directed at Luke.

C. The line up

As mentioned, there was a severe shortage of people who wanted to be associated with the event. Some noteworthy people like David Wesley and Darlene would make a visit to see the old building and talk about the old days – but they weren’t going to be booked. So, they had to book… less impressive people.

1. Venger Satanis

Pro-free speech, anti-weed prohibition, anti-trans, pro-porn, anti-sex-outside-of-marriage, anti-LTBQ, pro-lesbian porn11 Darrick Dishaw as Venger Satanis (11 August 2022) X née Twitter <x.com/VengerSatanis> and occasionally posting about the games which are allegedly his work on his otherwise reactionary social media – Venger is difficult to talk about because frankly he is so erratic and inflammatory that accurate reporting on him comes across as exaggeration and childish tall tale telling.

He’s the kind of guy who claims Stan Lee, a Jewish man who was alive at the time of the Holocaust and used a pen name to avoid racism and antisemitism,12Roy Thomas How Stanley Lieber Wrote His First Comic Story and Became ‘Stan Lee’ (13 November 2018, Time Magazine) <time.com> wrote X-Men to talk about how conservatives are oppressed by “radical leftists”.13 Darrick Dishaw as Venger Satanis (20 February 2024) X née Twitter <x.com/VengerSatanis/> During the build up to the convention he decried “radical leftists” forced the removal of his blog from the TSR Con site14 Darrick Dishaw as Venger Satanis (5 February 2025) X née Twitter <x.com/VengerSatanis/>
Darrick Dishaw as Venger Satanis “TSR Con forced to remove Venger’s old-school gaming blog” (5 February 2025) YouTube <www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDwc3CGbsRU> (the reality is his blog is explicitly R-18/adults only, and you’re not allowed to link to adult only sites via the Tabletop Events terms and conditions – an extremely mild centrist stance).

His main contribution to the small corner of tabletop game where he is not ostracised is his own “setting” Cha’alt – if you can call his tendency to attribute random ideas and concepts to a setting, and his explicitly porny game Alpha Blue.

The reason he’s generally ostracised is his anti-abortion gibberish (In May 2022 he made a “module” about this that almost immediately banned from DriveThruRPG), selective homophobia (On he also made a “Pride” themed module, but again he likes the idea of lesbian porn for men), plagiarism (back in 2009 he released the “Cthulhu Bible” which was largely copy-pasted from Wikipedia),15Daniel Harms “Darrick Dishaw’s Cult of Cthulhu Bible and Wikipedia: The Similarities” (7 January 2007) Papers Falling From An Attic Window <danharms.wordpress.com> posting of Nazi dog-whistles after they’re publicly known to be Nazi dog-whistles, etc.16Darrick Dishaw as Venger Satanis (12 March 2022) X née Twitter <x.com/VengerSatanis/>
Taylor Lane as Taylor Lane Games (13 March 2022) X née Twitter <x.com/ForestedDepth/>

Naturally Justin saw him as a perfect fit for a family friendly convention like TSR Con, who wouldn’t want him running a game where a random encounter can involve a gang-bang in at their convention where they are explicitly wanting children to be welcome? Venger would tell you the only people who don’t want that are “radical leftists” though he also seems to avoid bad enough behaviour to get banned at various conventions (unlike Justin).

2. Dave Johnson

While his crimes against decency are no well documented and easily available to everyone, at the time of nuTSR all Dave was really known for was his incredibly subpar and actively ignored TTRPG Zine “Alarms & Journeys”.

A screenshot from a thread in EN WOrld, where "AlarmsJourneys" announces it on 12 Jan 2020. The first update is 15 April 2022 when user "bonchon" provides an update that it "got itself in hot water" and linking to Tenkar's Tavern.
A cover from Alarms & Journeys #3, Spring 2021 - the cover is a graphic design nightmare with the table of contents being on the cover, with black text on 50% opacity white on complex imagery, making it difficult to read them and including Dave Johnson's home address on it for some reason.

So responses to his inclusion ranged from “Who is this clown?” to “Oh, that guy…”

Not exactly the kind of guy who draws in the big crowds.

And his reputation has only gotten worse since, but he did have the dubious honour of having the most professional and informative event summary of the crew. Unfortunately he gets no points for this since the game he was doing to run was Star Frontiers: New Genesis and it was never going to happen.

3. Mick McArt

What do you think of buying when to go to a museum dedicated to, and the original Dungeon Hobby Shop? Is it mediocre spice mixes with generic fantasy labels?

Well that’s all we knew about Mick at the time, but it turns out he also does extremely mediocre attempts at comedy in the form of poorly written fantasy novels. His most successful is Journal of an Outlaw which seems to be him recounting fantasies of being the worst player in a bad tabletop role-playing group.

Let’s look at part of the free sample available on Amazon.

A page from the Amazon look inside, which is marked up with extensive red lining to show that it is poorly written, the story itself being nonsense with his Gary Stu rogue getting to a free cloak of invisibility because all better adventurers have no self-preservation instincts.

I know there are not a lot of transferrable skills between spice mixing and writing, but due care and attention to detail are 2 of them so I personally would not put anything this guy created into my body.

D. We don’t need no stinkin’ masks (or guests)

If you’ve been following this story, you’re probably not surprised to hear that Justin is specifically opposed to Covid precautions so proudly advertised that masks would not be required at TSR Con. A convention that would take place entirely in a cramped building designed to be a small but comfortable house.

This was a particular concern for those who genuinely loved Ernie, since Ernie refused to wear a mask when he ran games. This was a minor issue when he ran them at his home on the outer edges of Lake Geneva, because they would generally be outdoors with tables spread out – but would be a huge issue in a tightly packed room. Ernie also had ongoing health issues that could have easily made a Covid infection fatal.

Truly nothing says a love of the people who were there when D&D began than needlessly endangering them as part of ideological chest puffing.

As the dust settled over an issue in Tenkar’s Facebook group where an account that would later be connected to Michael Yach (more on him later) doxed Tenkar, Venger Satanis had a moment of clarity and decided he probably didn’t want to be associated with things like that. According to him, he reached out to Justin to ask about it.

The immediate outcome was he was immediately dropped from TSR Con and anonymous abusive comments on the blog post.17 Darrick Dishaw as Venger Satanis “Disinvited from TSR Con” (22 February 2022) Blogspot https://vengersatanis.blogspot.com/2022/02/disinvited-from-tsr-con.html

Dave Johnson caught Covid, and made a public video about it but never announced he wouldn’t be attending etc.18David Flor as Brainclouds (27 March 2022) X née Twitter <x.com/BrainClouds/> It was only confirmed during the event that Dave Johnson had failed to show.

None of this really mattered, Ernie was the only one who people wanted to play with. Neither Venger, nor Dave, had anyone pay to attend their events – even though one of Dave’s was supposed to be the fabled debut of Star Frontiers: New Genesis and attendants would get a free copy (so in hindsight, good for everyone that nobody wanted it).

E. Press vs Reality

So, naturally the nuTSR crowd insisted this had been a huge success. Over 800 guests, bigger than Gary Con, and they’d had a barbeque with tomahawk steaks. I guess whether the owner of the convention is buying tomahawk steaks is a standard metric of success in the culture of tattoo shop owners who have their desk staff wrestle in grits for YouTube clout.

A Facebook comment exchange. Michael Schroeder: "It just looks like the store had people stopping by from Gary Con. Doesn't look like any of the things promised on the flyer. Where was Star Frontier?" TSR CON: "Michael Schroeder, lol, actually we asked just about every one of the 800 people stopping by, TSR CON, and about 60% had no idea Gary con was going on, and we tried pushing them to go over and attend."

But, more objectively, the only people talking about it were hate commentators who noted that the various guests in photos seemed to only be there to take advantage of the museum actually being open while they were in town. There’s some evidence of people receiving their “Justin LaNasa” badges to play with Ernie, but no sales, etc.

A screenshot of the a Facebook post by TSR CON "TSR con 2022. What a success (recap)" Below are photos showing Duck, Ernie, Jeff Easely and a handful of anonymized visitors - indicating the shop has only a few people at a time. A comment from Michael Schroeder: "It just looks like the store had people stopping by from Gary Con. Doesn't look like any of the things promised on the flyer. Where was Star Frontier?"
An image of a man who is not Justin LaNasa, wearing a "Justin LaNasa" name tag - his face has been pixelated for anonymity.

III. TSR Con 2 – More pathetic boogaloo

The following year they hosted another TSR Con… which was, notably more pathetic as:19 “TSR CON 2” (24-26 March 2023) Tabletop <tabletop.events/conventions/freeforall-gaming-event>

  • They rented the Horticultural Hall, so you couldn’t even look at the exhibits like you could in the shop; and
  • The primary attraction, Ernie Gygax, was running his game at Gary Con instead
The poster for TSR CON 2 "$10 Admission $20 Weekend Pass Just like the old Days Cheap and fun" (Underlined for no clear reason) The graphic design is a mess of images tossed on, the poster uses 5 different fonts and combines formatting elements in a way that it's chaotic and difficult to read. The main legible part being "Gaming by the Seat of Your Pants"
“Free as-in Free to play!” after you pay your admission fee, so not free.

The marketing for it also reeked of desperation with the most hideous and kitch prizes imaginable advertised, a tagline that suggested incompetence (“Gaming by the seat of your pants.”) and vendor names suppressed to prevent retaliation. However, vendors (real and prank entries) were advertised.

It also claimed to offer prizes for an event that was looking to have maximum attendees in the double digits.

A screenshot of a Facebook post by TSR CON "Game Master of Lake Geneva Award 2023 Ring / Crystal ? Or Both? for" Below is junk metal ring, a skull with a crown, and an ultra generic glass trophy.

Ultimately even the footage of it showcased it was a non-event, with the main attendee being an unknown man in a cassock who showed up with his children and gave dirty looks to other attendees.

Larry Elmore visited the venue, to deliver a painting that Justin purchased off him. So the one silver lining to this is Larry got paid.

IV. General meltdowns

Throughout all this, there were other meltdowns going on which generally seemed to involve additional parties, but the common thread of which was Justin showcasing that he was a terrible man who drowns in insecurity, has no backbone, no morals and no bottom.

A. The Yach Attack (Thing)

So, as mentioned, LaNasa’s primary enforcer was a man named Michael Yach. Like Justin, he is a Yankee (specifically a Cheesehead) who cosplays as a Confederate (specifically Jefferson Davis) to try launder his deplorable politics (and personality). It’s pretty clear he knew his politics were deplorable too, given his handle in the Discord was for a long time: RancidLord

A screenshot of a Facebook update from 10 July 2022. Michael Yach updates his cover photo to the final confederate flag. An anonymized person comments: "That flag is flown by those who supported not only treason but the violent oppression of Black people... of course, that made them white supremacists too." Michael Yach replies: "that's your opinion and of course there's only one opinion that is valid right? I'd say that you're a bigoted dumb ass nothing of a fool. Go add more tears to the woke river buddy."
Again, Yach is from Wisconsin, an entirely Union state that opposed the Confederacy and slavery.

Like many people who engage in deplorable politics and essentially lie about their identity, Yach was not in a great position to throw stones at others. His own situation was not one of grandiose success, but rather of having failed to get any previous attention in the TTRPG space, moving to Costa Rica so he could be with his deported wife (and their daughter), and having a conviction for human trafficking when he tried to get his wife’s mother permanently in the USA.

Yach’s biggest move as an enforcer appears to be cowardly doxxing Tenkar via alt account on Facebook, but mostly was his banning people for questioning misinformation on the Discord server, and the occasional meltdown where he would post gay porn at people on Twitter (it was still called Twitter back then).

Ultimately it seems he eventually realized he was getting nothing out of it aside from grief and humiliation, so he distanced himself but still drops in to like posts etc.

B. Dad says leave me alone

A screenshot from a YouTube premier chat: "Mario Real: Dad make sure y ou share this in the gaming groups."
For legal reasons, I’m going to restate Justin insists this account is not him or connected to him, etc.

There has been a lot of gossip and speculation about Justin’s early life, etc, and I don’t want to engage with it. Most of it is very personal, and should remain private, and none of it really affects how funny it was when Justin’s father started rushing to his defence midway through and trying to help.

A screenshot of a YouTube Premier exchange: William G: "See if you can get a record of who is watching now." Dungeon Hobby Shop : "We Can; these guys are Terrified of the truth, much the Vampires of the Light." Dungeon Hobby Shop: "wow, cant make this shit up, oh DON CAN!!!" GamersOnGames: "We've been watching. Thanks" William G: "Whoever watched this needs to be closely watched if they weren't one of us."

Obviously, having a man in his fifties, who claims to be a badass in every way, tag in his father to defend him is inherently funny; Having your father tags into a meme without understanding it and posts racist rants at Democrats on Gettr (📸) while using Columbo images directed at… no one.

A screenshot of William Gentry's cover photo updates: 18 October 2022 he posts a watermarked Columbo still frame which breaks the the format with the question being "...we are not on to your shit?" 28 December 2022 the phot is a "Anxiety Companion Honey Badger" which William declares "Not only my emotional support animal but my spirit animal as well."

And in case you wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, no William did not engage in honey badger ferocity, his biggest contribution was writing a review for Goblinz: Those Pesky Goblinz: A Role Playing Game by Justin LaNasa pretending to be an old school gaming guy, but mostly ranting against political correctness (he had to remove the rants after it was reported).

An Amazon review by William G: In The Tradition of OLD School RPG (5 stars) 23 February 2023: "It may as well have been published and written by Gary Gygax himself and the original TSR. Good fun and adventure dealing with those Pesky Goblins. Caution if you are a woke cancel culture player you may get your little feelings offended from something you imagined in which case you probably don't need to be playing any fantasy games with anyone above the age of 4. This game is created in the tradition of original old school D&D with a different spin."

The review’s gone now so I guess he read as far as the foreword to realize the book says he participated in the Satanic Panic and burned Justin’s books.

C. I have touched a gun!

So at this point Justin has proven that he can’t make a game, can’t run a convention, can’t run a games store, doesn’t know or care about the history of the hobby, and essentially operates in a constant state of childish tantrums. How can he fix this?

If you answered therapy, then you absolutely do not understand this guy. Justin is heavily invested in toxic masculinity and thus decided to go to a range, rent an automatic weapon and show that he had… no idea how to handle it.

This is particularly funny when you remember that Justin likes to brag about his military service like he was some sort of hardcore operator, but the LaNasa v Tenkar case confirmed he left the Army as an E-1 (the default rank assigned after basic training for an enlisted soldier) and was a reservist in the Coast Guard.

Also he had just posted a rant about how game companies should limit their social media content etc to games related stuff, and definitely no politics.

D. My wife says I’m cool

So Justin had tried hiding behind hilariously bad marketing, other reactionaries, his aged father and toxic masculinity performed in the most clownish manner possible. None of it had worked, it was time to rope in his (previously completely uninvolved) wife, to post on his behalf and stand up for him.20 TSR CON (16 June 2022) Facebook <now deleted>

A screenshot of a Facebook post by TSR Con which starts by trying to define a grifter (as per Merriam-Webster) and then claiming it wants to set the record straight - below is a heavily pixelated and artifacted image of a generic fantasy girl, clearly a low res image was used.
We all thought this was Ernie initially, I’ve left the rest of it out because it wasn’t really worth reading and I doubt it reflects the current beliefs of the poster. No I don’t know why they used a super low res image.

Again, this is a man in his fifties who tells people he’s a hardcore veteran, self-made man and a pillar of society.

This would take a dark turn as it is my understanding that Justin is currently going through a nasty divorce, which has involved ownership of the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum being transferred to his wife and her selling it. The divorce documents apparently lay out numerous claims by her that he wasted money and let the assets diminish due to negligence, so it seems this is his modus operandi.

E. Stolen valour

Perhaps the most funny event during this was when a Wikipedia update went semi-viral for pointing out that Justin LaNasa had engaged in stolen valour through claiming he and the vessel he was assigned were a particularly noteworthy participant in rescue of the Andrea Gail, the events that inspired the 2000 film The Perfect Storm.

A screenshot of a post by WPTC Reverts: "New revert by (ip v6 address) on "1991 Perfect Storm": "Personal aggrandizement by Justin LaNasa attempting stolen valor." (link)"

This was clearly not possible, as the vessel in question was in drydock for repairs and updates at the time.21United States Coast Guard Atlantic Area “USCGC Diligence (WMEC 616) <atlanticarea.uscg.mil> Justin had also only transferred to the Coast Guard less than a year before the perfect storm, he was not being deployed on any high risk anything.

Justin’s web page currently states that this was just a little mix up, he got confused with The Great Nor’easter, a storm he says was just as dramatic but never got a movie made about it. This is absurd, since he had, during his political campaign, claimed he vividly remembered the explicit event and the Andrea Gail,22Ramon Herra “Candidate Profile: Justin LaNasa” (3 November 2011, WWAY3, Wilmington NC) <wwaytv3.com> and the December 1992 Nor’easter was in way comparable, particularly in his area. It certainly was not “just as bad, if not worse”.

About 120,000 people were left without power in the state due to high winds. Along the Maryland coast, the storm was less severe than the Perfect Storm in the previous year, although the strongest portion of the storm remained over New Jersey for several days.

The Wikipedia article that Justin cites on the page where he makes this claim.

So after that, you’re probably getting the impression that Justin is the kind of loser who simply lies about his achievements, and possibly resents people who actually achieve in the areas he wanted to. He is, much, much worse than that.

V. Extra Transphobia

On 10 January 2024, game design innovator who first published a module (The Caverns of Thracia) with multiple approaches (jaquaysing), Jennell Jaquays, passed away. While she is was not as widely known as some other figures, Jennell left behind an amazing portfolio of work, moving into video games after TTRPGs.

The above mentioned Goodman Games has posted a touching memorial to her, 23Bob Brinkman “Remembering Jennell Jaquays (October 14, 1956 – January 10, 2024)” (14 October 2025, Goodman Games) <goodman-games.com> and created a 5E adaptation of The Caverns of Thracia which includes interviews and tributes to her.

She wrote the manual and did design work for the very first Lord of the Rings game, level design for Quake II and Quake III, and level design for ports of Wolfenstein 3D and Commander Keen. She did art for Age of Empires II. Her passing made the New York Times. 24Daniel E. Slotnik “Jennell Jaquays, 67, Dies; Unlocked Fantasy Dungeons for Gamers” (1 February 2024, New York Times, New York NY) <nytimes.com>

Jennell was a titan in the hobby. She was also a trans woman, so when she passed, Justin went looking for articles that deadnamed her (📸) and allegedly referred to her by slurs in private messages.

This went over spectacularly badly with people in the hobby, with people coming forward to volunteer to contact the authors of the old posts and ask them to update them to remove the deadname.

VI. The war on Don

When Justin initiated proceedings against Wizards of the Coast in federal court, he gave them the opportunity to gather evidence and call witnesses. Don, being a disgruntled former associate with all his own records and experience in the industry was an ideal witness to call, and Justin did not like that.

Now, full details on the ongoing harassment that Don endured are not mine to go into, but suffice to say that a lot of it was truly awful and vile.

Ongoing, repeat, issues included:

  • Posting accusations that Don had some shocking criminal past, accompanied with utter nonsense that did nothing to substantiate it; and
  • Posting weird claims that Don owed him varying amounts of money ($7,000 – $27,000) for unspecified reasons; and
  • posting Don’s face on the Facebook page with statements like “known thief”; and
  • resharing old drama between Don and some people in the 3D printing hobby; and
  • contacting venues and authorities (ie police) with false claims against Don.

Other events, which routinely happened but cannot, explicitly be tied to Justin LaNasa but happened in ways that were only for his benefit and felt very suspiciously like him to people included:

  • Taunted Don about a child that he had tragically outlived, specifically by threatening to send autopsy photos; and
  • Accused Don of lying about his military service, even after Don had showed the world his Veteran’s card; and
  • Made weird announcements Don had been arrested, which were easily disproved by Don showing up in streams with ; and
  • Claimed Don was involved in serious and/or vile crimes, etc; and
  • Bought a similar URL to Don’s personal site, and used it to propagate the above (which Justin did post a link to).

Obviously, this is unconscionable and while other figures such as Tenkar, Tom of Tabletop Taproom and Michael Hovermale got bursts of the same – for Don who received the vast majority of it. So much so that eventually Wizards of the Coast went to the court to enforce the protection order, specifically over Don. 25 TSR LLC v. Wizards of the Coast LLC, 2:21-cv-01705, (W.D. Wash.), Document #58, 16 November 2023

Justin’s lawyer made numerous arguments in his defence, but ultimately the judge (despite having some misgivings about Don’s own public statements) agreed that it had been a breach of the protective order.26 TSR LLC v. Wizards of the Coast LLC, 2:21-cv-01705, (W.D. Wash.), Document #64, 18 December 2023 Mysteriously after this, there was a long break in all the completely anonymous harassment that Justin insisted he had nothing to do with and no control over.

Funny that.

But by this time, TSR LLC had already gone bankrupt.

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