wincenworks

nuTSR declares BANKRUPTCY!

So, at this point in the saga, the situation was:

Justin LaNasa (LaNasa) had taken out multiple lapsed trademarks, and was claiming his new company TSR LLC was the divine heir to them, and was now having to throw money into a bottomless pit due to having taken Wizards of the Coast to court over it.¹

This was, not sustainable given that is its products were generally bad and it’s convention failed to generate any buzz for obvious reasons. 16 months in, Justin had clearly noticed it wasn’t going great – hence the numerous meltdowns.²

So naturally, in May of 2023, he decided TSR LLC should just go bankrupt, and it was very funny. Yes, normally bankruptcies are tragic and heart breaking but this one was very funny. Bankruptcy was filed for on 8 June 2023.³

The first area of hilarity was Stephen Erin Dinehart IV, (Dinehart) of GiantLands infamy, immediately jumped into try to blame Wizards of the Coast for nuTSR putting themselves into bankruptcy.⁴

It should be noted that the courts never had to decide who owned TSR, but the answer is Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary (not a Doing Business As) of Hasbro.

LaNasa himself chose to amplify this message, but decided to make no effort in doing so – leaving it open to speculation if he’d agreed with Dinehart – a man who he’d previous branded a traitor and put on his haters list – should basically resume his old job as nuTSR’s public relations.

A screenshot of Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum re-sharing the post by Wonderfilled.

TSR original Tim Kask had a much less sympathetic response to it.⁵

A text on image post by Tim Kask, 16 June 2023, "NuTSR bankrupt? Oh my, waht is the world coming to? Ah, it's senses. Big surprise when you are headed by a slimeball."

Rest in peace Tim, you were rough around the edges but you were an entertaining man of integrity right until the very end.

1
TSR LLC v. Wizards of the Coast LLC, 2:21-cv-01705, (W.D. Wash.)
2
Kim Wincen “Dungeon Crawl, TSR Cons & Meltdowns” (9 January 2026) A gentleman with opinions <blog.wincenworks.com>
3
TSR, LLC, 23-01577, (Bankr. E.D.N.C.)
4
Stephen Erin Dinehart IV (8 June 2023) Wonderfilled Facebook <now deleted>
5
Tim Kask (Kaskoid) (16 June 2023) Facebook <www.facebook.com/tim.kask.9>

I (re)played: Splinter Cell: Conviction

Released in 2010 as a kind of disruptive reinvention of the Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell games (collectively Splinter Cell), my relationship with this title was largely always in comparison to Hitman games. The era of gaming was one where many properties that were shifting from a slow, clunky engagement to faster, smoother and more intuitive approaches to gameplay.

While extremely polarizing at the time, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction (Conviction) has largely been forgotten – not even getting mentioned when people bring out their nostalgia for Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (Chaos Theory). It is, however, oddly relevant to the politics of today.

So, in my opinion, it’s also an interesting case where Capital-G Gamers were right that a game was bad… but they got the explanations backwards wrong. That’s, interesting but a lot to unpack.

I played: Last Message

This¹ free walking simulator that takes, generously an hour to play properly, is many things. It is a exploration into the experience of a non-heroic survivor in a zombie apocalypse, a meditation on the anxiety of the aftermath of the world’s mediocre response to Covid-19 pandemic, and a fantastic example of how walking simulators can offer amazing immersion in a role.

As its only a short game with a very linear story, I’m not going to go into the plot or characters – I’m instead going to recommend you play it yourself (it’s free, its a small install and a short play). Rather I wanted to put in the context of a conversation I saw a friend having about being over traditional Computer Role-Playing Games,² and how it ties to Robert Yang’s thoughts on the recurring deaths of immersive sims.³

1
James Veugelers Last Message (25 June 2021) JamesGamesNZ on Steam <store.steampowered.com/app/1141030/Last_Message/>
2
Duke Revier (3 January 2026) BlueSky <bsky.app/profile/dukerevier.bsky.social>
3
Robert Yang “The second death of the immersive sim (2007-2017) and a dark prophecy for a third-wave immersive sim” (12 October 2017) Radiator Blog <www.blog.radiator.debacle.us>

Dungeon Crawl, TSR Cons & Meltdowns

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:

Featured the infringing trademark (as well as typos); and
Only available by “making a pilgrimage” to the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum (and hoping that it happened to be open on that day); and
Were massively overvalued by the shop who wanted $650 US a piece for them¹

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.

1
Justin LaNasa as Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum (29 March 2022) Facebook <www.facebook.com/RPGANONYMOUS> 📸

Vale Peggy

You were such a sweet mouse, always so social with Kathy and I, and so kind to the other mice (even when Daisy bullied you). You will be missed.

The Broken Road (2025)

Released at the same time as Wonderfilled Presents: GiantLands: Tuskaloosa’s Reckoning: The Sun Sword: Part One, (Tuskaloosa’s Reckoning)¹ this is the long awaited introductory module for GiantLands² and allegedly the final work of James M. Ward. (Jim or Jim Ward)

I say allegedly because from my observations it seems Jim stopped working on it in 2022 at latest, the product I read didn’t really mesh with the way it was described by Jim (videos now deleted) or the session he did on a video call, supposedly covering the opening of the module.

Much like Tuskaloosa’s Reckoning it seems the primary authors are Stephen Erin Dinehart IV,(Dinehart) and a collection of video cards running a Large Language Model. Almost none of it is connectable to Jim’s video call playthrough, and that which is has been re-written to become unrecognizable for those familiar with Jim’s work.

The product seems to be an attempt to do a soft re-launch of GiantLands, but to make it focused around the co-released Tuskaloosa’s Reckoning with no real connection to the events, characters or ideas in that novel. There are surface level references, but nothing about the core plot of aliens invading, destroying sacred places to steal the Ley energy or even Gaea and her champions.

In fact, it creates a weird alternative version where characters like Dinehart’s own self-insert can only be understood as having just idly sat by and watched it all happen from their ivory tower, and undermines the significance of the Jim Ward insert.

This review is from the hardback copy of GiantLands: The Broken Road (The Broken Road)³ I ordered on 30 November 2025. It is, hopefully, the final part of the GiantLands Saga.

1
Stephen Erin Dinehart IV “Tuskaloosa’s Reckoning: The Sun Sword: Part One” (Wonderfilled Inc via Amazon Print-On-Demand, Lake Geneva WI, 2025)
2
Stephen Erin Dinehart IV & James M. Ward “GiantLands” (Wonderfilled Inc, Lake Geneva WI, 2021)
3
James M. Ward & Stephen Erin Dinehard IV “GiantLands: The Broken Road” (Wonderfilled Games via Amazon Print-On-Demand, Lake Geneva WI, 2025)

I read: Tuskaloosa’s Reckoning: The Sun Sword

On or about 29 November 2025, the long overdue The Broken Road adventure for GiantLands was announced on X née Twitter,¹ making up 50% of the current front facing posts and having the singular like on the posts. Also on Facebook.

A screenshot of the GiantLands feed on X, aka Twitter: 19 November "Two new epics Launch today!
THE BROKEN ROAD (adventure)
TUSKALOOSA'S RECKONING (novel)
Old school RPG x Ancient pyramids x crashed starships x Thunderbirds x alien tech
Avaiable now (links)
#GiantLands #IndigenousFuturism #TTRPG"
(Beneath it is a very busy and difficult to parse AI generated image featuring Aztec Pyramids,
11 September: "Race is a myth."

It was accompanied with an announcement of a book, Tuskaloosa’s Reckoning, full title: Tuskaloosa’s Reckoning: The Sun Sword : Book One… or I suppose:²

Wonderfilled Presents Tuskaloosa's Reckoning The Sun Sword: Book One GIANTLANDS By James E. Ward & Stephen E. Dinehart A GiantLands (registered) Novel — Nothing says close friend and collaboration by changing Jim’s middle initial to match Dinehart’s… or something. Also, mandatory “graphic design is my passion” joke.

Now, predictably after years of Dinehart bragging that his products would never be digitized, and would only be sold via master craftspeople using American products he picks himself etc… it seems they are just being sold via Amazon print-on-demand and the novel is available on Kindle. So, while I wait for The Broken Road to be delivered, I figured I’d read the book.

At the time I purchased it, it has 1 review giving it 5 stars.

Customer Review
(five stars) Classic Pulp Goodness
Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2025
Format: Paperback (Verified Purchase)
A compelling entry into the Giantlands universe. Classic really.

This reviewer gave the same rating but more effort into explaining Those Pesky Goblinz, so I’m not convinced they’re entirely unbiased.

I however, am, at this stage—the foremost GiantLands scholar alive. So, let’s get into what is is, and is it worse than the AI slop nuTSR put out. Spoilers ahead.

1
Stephen Erin Dinehart IV as “GiantLands” (29 November 2025, X née Twitter) <x.com/GiantLands/>
2
Stephen Erin Dinehart IV Tuskaloosa’s Reckoning: The Sun Sword (15 November, Wonderfilled Inc, Amazon Print on Demand) (Tuskaloosa’s Reckoning)

ORC 2-ish years later

It’s been 2-ish years since Paizo “finished”¹ their Open RPG Creative License (ORC)² (more on that in a bit) so it seems like a good enough time to see how the new license is coming along, what sort of momentum has it built, what was the overall outcome. Did it revolutionize tabletop role-playing games (“TTRPGS”)? And what was the overall significance and involvement of Azora Law?³

Tell me you want to be the premier law firm for TTRPGs without telling me you want to be the premier law firm for TTRPGs.

Azora Law is, according to a publication in the Washington State Bar News – June 2021, it is “one of Seattle’s oldest virtual law firms”.⁴ This seems to be the singular instance of it claiming to be a virtual law firm, which is an odd claim since if they’re all in Seattle and they have a registered office address… that means they just let staff work from home if they want? Pretty sure that was the standard in mid 2021.

Unless they also had a presence in the Metaverse at some stage.

Anyway, I thought ORC sucked… but I’ve been known to be wrong.⁵

My name is Kim. I am not a lawyer, certainly not a US lawyer specializing in copyright and most importantly I am not your lawyer. I am a law graduate in New Zealand who has a passion for role-playing games, and you should not consider anything I post to be legal advice (or take legal advice from blogs or social media posts in general). Also please, understand – absolutely nothing you say to me falls under lawyer-client privilege – especially if you do it in the comments.

Okay, now that’s done, let’s look at this.

1
“ORC License: The Final Version is Here!” (29 June 2023) Paizo <paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6sico>
2
“Open RPG Creative License” Paizo <paizo.com/orclicense>
3
Azora Law <azoralaw.com/>
4
Brian Lewis “Three Big Developments in Soft IP Law” Washington State Bar News (Washington US, June 2021) at 30
5
Kim Wincen “The ORC has landed. It kinda sucks” (2 June 2023) A gentleman with opinions <blog.wincenworks.com/2023/07/02/the-orc-has-landed-it-kinda-sucks/>

What is GiantLands? Is it… a theme park? A bimonthly snack box, or phat beats?

So, after GiantLands 1st Edition¹ (also known as “GiantLands, the only edition”) was released, it only had 1,000 units (again, 1,000% of the amount promised in the Kickstarter).

What next for this exclusive limited edition?

As a note, this has gotten trickier to report on as in June 2025, Dinehart had another meltdown – this time provoking the far-right audience he’d cultivated and ended up nuking most of his public facing posts and accounts. So I’ll have to be relying on screenshots, notes and memory from here on.

Is GiantLands: A Theme Park?

Well the first thing was a paid press release “article” about how Wonderfilled intended to make a nightmare of a theme park in Wisconsin.²

A drafts diagram of an Inca/Mayan/Aztech "theme park" which mostly seems to consister of huge, inexplicable sculptures and buildings - with farms and shrubbery, a river on one side and an aquaduct. Also, agraian animals wandering about. — “A project of remarkable vision” according to the project proposer.

Wisconsin receives an average of 40+ inches of snow per year, with higher snowfalls in particular areas – not exactly a place that’d be create for pseudo-Mayan/Aztec/Inca fusion architecture that was designed for the tropics.

But, by far the weirdest thing about this is its not clear what the vision is. This doesn’t seem to be a specific location, so the overall layout etc isn’t really clear if its a proposed layout, or a sort of conceptual depiction. There’s also no way to know what the attractions are supposed to be. Is the arena for shows or do you go to fight?

Largely the reason that’s not clear is there’s no real thought beyond it other than he assumes that native american themed Evermore would be a license to print money for no particular reason. Evermore closed it’s doors permanently in April 2024, and this seems to have gone unnoticed by Dinehart.³

1
James M. Ward & Stephen E. Dinehart GiantLands 1st Edition (Wonderfilled Inc, Wisconsin USA, December 2021)
2
Stephen E. Dinehart “GiantLands Theme Park Will be a Game Park Built on a Groundbreaking Vision” (1 January 2022) PressRelease <https://www.pr.com/press-release/852171> Archive: <https://web.archive.org/web/20220101122718/https://www.pr.com/press-release/852171>
3
Darienne DeBrule “No fantasy: Evermore Park closes its gates for good” (10 April 2024) FOX News Utah <https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/no-fantasy-evermore-park-closes-its-gates-for-good>

I played: Adios

Adios¹ intriguingly obscure arthouse game by Mischief (that’s the American one, not the French one – which seems to be dabbling in Horse games),² so obscure that it doesn’t have a Wikipedia page and only received 9 professonal reviews on Metacritic.³

In the tradition of many arthouse games, the events of the game are largely pre-determined, with the focus being on how the player chooses to interact with them and inhabit the viewpoint. How well it achieves this seems to vary wildly, but I remain confident that its worth examining for how it reflects upon gaming trends in the 2000s & 2010s, the role of interaction in games and building emotion.

Adios is not a conventional game in how many people define it. The residents of r/TwoBestFriendsPlay feel that it was probably better as a short movie,⁴ and Rob Zacny of VICE felt it was a great story but not “a great game”.⁵ I disagree, I think is a rare example of a game that achieves immersion through cartoony graphics and emotional fidelity.

If you haven’t played it, and are interested in the idea of video game immersion as an opportunity to inhabit a complex character – I highly recommend it.

Spoilers ahead as I overthink a unique indie game and gaming in general.

1
Doc Burbank Adios (Mischief, Kanas USA, 17 March 2021)
2
Rattle “It’s a mess” (4 February 2025) Youtube <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRpgTIyyj48>
3
“Adios PC Critic Reviews” metacritic <https://www.metacritic.com/game/adios/critic-reviews/?platform=pc>
4
LostHuaun “So, I’ve played Adios after seeing Woolie’s first video and… good story… I probably would’ve liked better as not a videogame” (9 December 2021) Reddit <https://www.reddit.com/r/TwoBestFriendsPlay/comments/rbz13k/so_ive_played_adios_after_seeing_woolies_first/>
5
Rob Zacny “‘Adios’ Has a Great Story to Tell, But Isn’t a Great Game“ (25 March 2021) VICE <https://www.vice.com/en/article/adios-has-a-great-story-to-tell-but-isnt-a-great-game/>