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

To date, there has been no progress on this idea – but you know what, we’ll get to it later. The point is this is a terrible idea and despite the claim of “remarkable vision” there’s not really any vision here, or anything new. It’s “Gamma World, but make it Native American”. One the biggest problems with GiantLands is that it lacks both immersive quality, but also a unique pitch that will appeal to normies.⁴

Particularly since the connection to Native Americans is tenious at best. There’s not connection to a particular group or organization, the use of mythology is arguably appropriation and the only related cause Dinehart seems to support is Friends of Aztalan State Park (which, seems to me to mostly be white people taking care of abandoned ruins so they don’t have to deal with actual natives except as performers).⁵

I will restate yes, that Dinehart claims to be Cherokee and given how complex and fraught the validity of that claim is, I’m not here to decide whether he is or is not. What I am happy to do is point out that Aztec, Inca and Mayans are not Cherokee.

In a publicly shared, but now deleted, video called with Dinehart, the late Jim Ward proposed that the theme park should about the gaming system and each setting have its own region -similar to how Disneyland works. But this also relies upon the idea that Dinehart will somehow secure talent who can create material that will rise to being a monolithic victor in the already hyper-saturated market of TTRPGs.

As a side note, it is genuinely sad that so many artifacts of Jim’s final work and ideas have been deleted due to Dinehart’s calousness and carelessness.

The plan is absurd at just every level, but is still actively promoted on the GiantLands web site⁶ and in the “GiantLands” podcast (which has not really spoken about GiantLands since the release, rather the other career elements of Larry Elmore and Penny Williams).⁷

Is GiantLands: Sick tunes, phat beats

For reasons that I suspect will remain unclear to mere mortals until Judgement Day, Dinehart decided that the real thing that his sales busting limited edition TTRPG required was 3 wildly different soundtracks.

Now I need to stress, as a guy who regularly plays with a DM who plays background music to add to the atmosphere – I understand how it definitely can contribute to a session. But the thing is, that DM uses Spotify because the idea is to set the scene – not the setting – and there’s a lot of types of scenes.

You may also be wondering if these albums were a sneaky way for Dinehart to vertically integrate by say, making you buy the albums if you wanted more GiantLands lore the same way TSR Inc and Wizards of the Coast release novels, comics, video games, etc. The answer is no.

GiantLands – The Album

In true Dinehart fashion, he would release the first album right away and with the name of one of the musicians misspelled. This has since been corrected, but its absurd that it happened in the first place since all he had to do is literally copy-paste.

A screenshot of the summary, with the surname of Steven Giacolmelli mispelled as Giocolmelli.

A screenshot of a Google search that asks if I meant the correct spelling of "Giacomelli" and shows that the only result for the mispelling is the GiantLands album/page on Bandcamp.

Of course, no apology was ever issued for this, the (apparently unique) typo was never corrected and he would go on to forget them soon as the album didn’t make him a fortune.

Sure, some people may think that it was probably undermined by the fact that almost nobody who bought GiantLands seems to have played it (possibly due to it being unplayable), but I have to think if this album had the unique juice the pitch claims it’d be noteworthy to someone.

Anyway, the good news is Lantz & Giacomelli⁸ put out pretty good tunes, and you can go listen to them independently.

GiantLands – The Other Album

What’s the perfect pairing with soothing electronica? If you answered with Stoner Doom Metal – then you may be Stephen Dinehart.

The second album was by Singaporean band Marijannah,⁹ who Dinehart referred to as a Malaysian band – but its worth noting that drugs are extremely harshly policed in both areas so simply by being openly pro-stoner these guys are fucking punk.

Dinehart, cares nothing for this and just seems to think their sound belongs with/to GiantLands – having used it in the weird trailer with where the woman has a gas mask and speaker titties (2 elements not in GiantLands).¹⁰This makes it even weirder given the title of the album is Music Inspired From & Inspired By GiantLands 1E.

I am confident they didn’t play it or care about it beyond some funding during a period where it was particularly hard to get a gig. After all, there’s not really anything in GiantLands to inspire anyone.

I’ll be straight up here, this is not my kind of music but I just want to share their links because I respect the balls it takes to be a stoner band in Singapore, these guys know the risk of being counter culture there.¹¹

GiantLands – One More Album

The last album is more enigmatic, no credits are provided. Also it’s very helpfully labelled GL1 The Broken Road: Science Fantasy Adventure Album – but has nothing really to do with the module its named after (which has not yet been released). ¹²

The album is also only 15 minutes long, with the tracks being noticeably shorter and suspiciously within the time frames where one might become suspicious that it was generated procedurally, or that it was intended as one piece and then broken up into small pieces to avoid having to work out how to manage transitions.

Weird that Dinehart didn’t even credit himself. Almost like, nobody made this.

Is GiantLands: AI generated “old school”

After years of bragging he was all about old masters using old master techniques (ie buying physical paintings off Larry Elmore) he did what everyone expected from an NFT bro and pivoted hard into AI art.

How hard? Well, he replaced the kind of charming cover for The Broken Roads with an AI artwork, he keeps using AI art and AI generated videos for promotions – none of which seem to have any input from the GiantLands illustrations.

Yo umay notice that yes, Dinehart signssome of these as though they were actual artwork he created – behold is respect for old school masters.

So all that masterpiece by Larry Elmore is looking more and more like its whole purpose was just to be a brag item in Dinehart’s personal collection. He didn’t even try to sell it as an NFT (though that could just be Larry not allowing it in the license, I understand he got roped into some NFT nonsense in 2022).

Naturally he is no more concerned about the harm that AI does to the environment than he was over the harm that NFTs do. In fact, he loves it so much he’s outsourced the design of the park to Midjourney.

Is GiantLands: Getting a job?

At some point, Stephen did the inevitable – he bought a PO Box in Lake Geneva so he could continue to claim it was the official registered office of Wonderfilled and moved to Florida to get a job. A job with a steady salary, a job where he gets to shape young minds and inflate his book sales.

Stephen Erin Dinehart III is, at time of writing, an Associate Professor at University of Tampa.

A screenshot of The University of Tampa directory, "Meet Stephen Dinehart. Assistant Professor, Film, Animation and New Media"

It’s not going great – at the moment he has a 1.9 rating on Rate My Professor, and that’s including the 2 suspicious 5.0 reviews that appeared telling people not to hate – he’s actually a great professor.

A screenshot showing that over 11 ratings, Stephen Dinehart rates 1.9/5
He has 2 ratings of 5, 2 of 2 ("OK") and 7 of 1 ("Awful").

19% would take again, 4.2 difficulty.

Equally alarmingly, these ratings seem to indicate that Dinehart has made his own “textbook”¹³ mandatory reading for the course.

FMX-210 - 28 March 2023
For Credit: Yes
Attendence: Not Mandatory
Grade: A
Textbook: Yes
Quality: 2.0
Difficulty: 4.0
One textbook wasn't really needed and the other was written by him but never used. Really big in the AI art scene without addressing the ethical ramifications of the tool. Tended to ramble a lot on unrelated topics. Really poor email response time and effort. Feedback given wasn't really helpful and really poor teaching effort.

His profile at the university also contains numerous questionable credentials, which I’ve been doing my best to try to verify – and thus far this is what I’ve got:

THEA Awards are theme park awards, these are very industry specific awards which are handed out annually – and come with specific credits.

THEA – Outstanding Achievement in a Theme Park Land (2022)
This appears to refer to the award during the 28th round, for Super Nintendo World in Japan – which seem to recall he listed himself working on in 2017 – 2018 on Linked In. Certainly he didn’t work on it during that year. Dinehart’s name does not appear in the credits.¹⁴
THEA – Outstanding Achievement in a Technical Innovation (2022)
This is from the same round, and specifically for Mario Kart: Koopa’s Challenge. Again, Dinehart seems to have only worked on it 2017 – 2018 and does not appear in the credits and there is no reason for him to for an award issued 4 years later.¹⁵
THEA – Outstanding Achievement – Water Theme Park (2019)
Again, I can’t find any mention of him in the credits of this but it seems to be taking credit for Universal Volcano Bay Water Theme. Now, all evidence suggests Stephen did work at Universal Orlando in 2017 & 2018. The award was specifically for the Tapu Tapu bracelets, which were first released when the park opened in 2017, and credit seems to that pre-release group (“Team 533”). So… I dunno… maybe he got screwed on credits or maybe this is stolen valor. 🤷🏻¹⁶

I also feel the need to point out that since this all seems to relate to 2017 – 2018, according to his LinkedIn – during this time Dinehart was:

Manager of Software Development at NBC Universal (which was the Super Nintendo World work)
Game Attraction Designer at Universal Orland Resort
Executive Producer for Boomtown Festival (aka “Boomtown Fair” in the UK)
Exectutive Producer for PsychFi
Independent Game Devleoper with Nintendo
Operating “Narrative Designer” which Dinehart had converted into a click through link that described him as an “Writer, Director, Artist & Serial Entreprenuer”.¹⁷

Honestly I genuinely feel sorry for his students since I can only imagine that any discussion of his experience and insights simply leads to extremely awkward rambles and misdirections.

Is GiantLands… anything?

Dinehart’s personal portfolio claims that GiantLands is a Park & Roleplaying game, that is “many years off” but he is never the less proud to say he registered trademarks for.¹⁸ Trademarks are not supposed to be registered until you can demonstrate use in commerce.

It’s definitely dying.

One thing that has become clear is that GiantLands has entirely run out of momentum. In late June 2025, Dinehart admitted that he hadn’t made a sale in 2 years¹⁹ – but even before then it was pretty clear nothing was coming out.

Andrew Spohn, host of Amusement Sparks (a podcast which I think is about ideating on ideas for amusement parks) sub-hosts the GiantLands podcast. Since the release he has talked to Larry Elmore and Penny Williams, and neither of them has had anything to say about GiantLands. Also the hosting service seems to be going under as it keeps reporting bad security certificates.

Penny has hosted games of GiantLands at Gary Con.²⁰ Dinehart was going to run a game at Arne-Con 2, and now promises to run a couple at GenCon 2025 – no evidence anyone bought a ticket for either though.

The only demonstrations of play available to the wider public are the videos where the late Jim Ward tells people things won’t work until he gets bored and kills everyone’s characters… at the time of watching those have 307 views total.

In June 2025, Dinehart, during another public meltdown, burned his bridges with the last YouTuber who was vaguely supportive of him (but had also been telling him to just finish the module he’d presold).

A screenshot of X posts,
Mildra quote posts Dinehart's anti-Trump rant with a question where is the promised module.
This does not go over well with Dinehart, and ends with him stating that he doesn't even know who Mildra is.

It’s gotten so bad that, while he’s apparently still trying to run tests of the game at conventions… including Gen Con, he’s going to actually run it himself.

A post on X by Wonderfilled, 2 July
"After a six-year hiatus, #GiantLands is making its triumphant return to #GenCon this August—and this time, it comes with a new dimension.

#Wonderfilled is proud to announce that two live sessions of The Broken Road, the first official GiantLands adventure module, will be run Professor Prism (Wonderfilled founder Stephen E. Dinehart IV) at Gen Con 2025.

Originally announced at Gen Con in 2019, GiantLands now returns with new stories, new energy, and a bold new voice. This marks not only a return to the convention floor, but the public debut of Professor Prism as the official in-world host of the GiantLands experience.

It's a new age of immersive storytelling, sacred play, and mythic adventure.

Who will you become?"

I can’t find any evidence anyone bought a ticket.

It’s also horrifyingly pushy.

Of the 2,000 total units which seem to have been made, it looks like Dinehart still has a few hundred units left over – and he was forcibly giving them away.

I do meant forcibly, when he had a falling out with YoDanno (over him explicitly saying he threw out GiantLands when it arrived due to a hard stance against transphobia): Dinehart used the shipping data to first try to call YoDanno and then to mail 2 more copies that YoDanno explicitly did not want. This resulted in YoDanno getting a text message that he was being sent a package, followed by an abusive email.²¹

As you can imagine, YoDanno was upset and frankly concerned about what else Dinehart might be doing or planning to do—Dinehart just whined about how he thought he was doing something nice for a friend.

So apparently, he knows better than you whether you want his game or not.

And as for The Broken Road, the “quick intro” adventure that was supposed to come out shortly afterwards… has been still under revision since Jim’s passing () and continues to miss deadlines even when invoking that event.

An X post by Wonderfilled (@WFDgames) 29 April
"We had a wonderful review session of The Broken Road from our junior designers today. it's a beautiful thing to see the seeds of James M. Ward's imagination, continue to grow and grow.

This adventure module is likely to be more like 120 pages when its done.

Shipping in two months for Jim Ward's birthday.

We'll also be running it at a couple cops this summer. (wizard emoji and sparkle emoji)"
A YouTube link

Note: 120 pages. That’s nearly twice the page count Light of Xarysis, the module you get to introduce you to 5E Spelljammer – aka Dungeons & Dragons IN SPACE! There is no justifiable reason to keep expanding it, reworking it and diluting the James Ward appeal of the time.

Also, oddly, not long after Jim passed away, Dinehart referred to his last work as an 8.5 that he, Stephen Erin Dinehart IV was going to take to an 11.

A X post by Wonderfilled (@WFDgames):
"Well, the team wants to sit on "The Broken Road" adventure module for @giantlands. After running it at EGGcon they want to spend more time finessing it before letting it into the wild. It's an 8.5 & we want an 11. As masters of the craft they deserve the time they need. So we'll push it out to launch at Arnecon in October."
Below it is the Spinal Tap gif: "The numbers all go to 11."
2 August 2024

Now, you may be thinking – what about the people who pre-ordered the module? Did they ever get their product they’ve been waiting >2 years for and that is becoming less and less what they ordered at every turn?

Well according to Dinehart they’re all very understanding a supportive.

A post on X by Wonderfilled (@WFDgames) "You mean the 25 people that preordered it? They've been really supprotive actually."
17 September 2024

This may or may not be due to him blocking anyone did order the module and does not support him unconditionally. He also hates when people focus on that he hasn’t delivered the product that he promised, rather than just supporting him unconditionally.

Now I want to be clear, small team projects running well past deadline or even never appearing isn’t uncommon and often there are good reasons for it. But this was meant to be a quick introductory module, that keeps balooning out and is never ready for release.

Also, despite the fact it has completely derailed, he still kept asking people to buy more:

A post on X by Wonderfilled (@WFDgames)
"Wow! This book is almost done. (wizard emoji) (sparkle emoji) "The Broken Road", our first official supplement for @GiantLands 1E, & James Ward's last, is well, almost done! Currently clocking in at 65+ pages, and way to many original illustrations by Larry Elmore, Xan Holt, Jeff Dee, @joshdiffey, @ more. We'll start printing draft copies in the next few days, and will be sending a PDF to our preorder customers for review & feedback prior tot he final version of the 8.5'x11" book. You only have about 48 hours to get your name in the book!" A URL follows, and below there is a GiantLands header with credits for James M. Ward & Stephen E. Dinehart.

At time of writing, the site is still taking pre-orders.

When Ernie got married, he wanted you to promote his game in order to try to win a free album of his game’s music – including doing a cosplay.

A screenshot an X post by Wonderfilled (@WFDgames) - first bragging that they are 35 followers short of 7777 on X.

It then announced Ernie is getting married, then that they're going to give away some vinyl copies of the 2nd GiantLands album (by Marijannah) and it'll come with a preview copy of the module, download codes for the album, etc.

All you need to do is respond with a description of whom you would like to become in the future age of GiantLands, and you get bonus points if your response is PG-13, and you show a cosplay and/or mask. Then use the hashtag,

If you don't claim it within 48 hours of announcement, they'll pick a new winner... then there's an AI generated image of a woman in absurd metal bikini armour and some bad graphic design promoting it... "Warning: This game might kill you!"

Indeed, Dinehart demands you give him something at every turn.

Those games he’s going to run himself? He wants $56.00 a ticket to attend for six hours and play a module which is unfinished, at can’t possibly be covered in full even in six hours (20 pages per hour).²²

That’s insisting if you want to beta test a module that only 25 people wanted to buy, you need to pay him the cost if you had wanted to buy it for yourself.

Low priority

The first GiantLands module, The Broken Road, has had countless release dates over the past 2 years and double in page count since it’s primary author passed away. Recently, another release date was announced with much fanfare for items that are pretty standard in every module.

A Facebook post by GiantLands, where it promises that The Broken Road has 3 authors: James M. Ward, Penny Williams and Stephen E Dinehart.
"Within its page you shall find a bold expedition throught he wilds of the 5th Age Earth - a future time after our own - from the desperate village of Mot, in New Ohio to the gamma-rich ruins of the ancients in Indy, where strange energies stir and forgotten powers awaken.

The module marks the beginning of a new era of GiantLands adventures and is designed for use with the GiantLands 1st Edition Core Rules. Spirits who tread this road will encounter dangerous foes, magical moments, powerful relics, and choices that may echo vibes through all of creation.

Highlights include:
- Over 100 pages of richly illustrated 8.5x11 material with full-color maps
- Step-by-step instructions for new game masters and plaeyrs alike
- Randomized and procedural encounter systems
- Table galore and dozens of new creatures never seen before
- Inconic NPCs, factiosn, and locations from the GiantLands mythos

Prepare your dice, gather your gems, and call your fellow adventurers, The Broken Road awaits! Designed for enw and experienced Spirits alike, we can't wait to share it with you all."
What follows is an AI generated image of a powerful black man in golden armour, with a huge sword that has a blade made of flame.

Yes, it will have drawings (including drawings of maps), text to tell you how to play the module, random encounters via tables, and the lore that you were promised in the core materials. The equivalent of promising you that a new car will come with windows, tyres, headlights, upholstery and be painted.

During the same time that he’s been creating this, he’s released 2 albums that have.. nothing to do with GiantLands.

The first was an album which appears to be generated entirely using AI and pretends to be inspired by ancient Mesopotanian mythology. Being the genius he is, Dinehart announced this one while he was also melting down over Elon Musk for being… the sort of person Dinehart was doing business and seeking clout with.

AI music. AI graphics. AI video At the time of writing, the combined play count of all 26 songs in YouTube album have less than 500 views combined.²³

He later doubled down on the absurdity of that he doubled down by timing the release of his next album where he had a meltdown on ended up with him changing the Wonderfilled name and referring to the people on X as Nazis.²⁴ The people marketed to.

Overall, it seems now that he’s personally being impacted by the radical right – he’s trying to reinvent himself as progressive by… appropriating blackness.

A post by Wonderfilled, 1 July
":: FINAL BREACH SIGNAL ::"
Then follows a promo for Professor Prism's Detroit Booty Temple, Temple of Booty — Yes he does consistently mispell “professor”, which is also supposed to be his day job, consistently through all the marketing, amazingly even when abreviating too.

At time of writing, the YouTube playlist for this one has just over 200 collective views for the 32 songs in the album.²⁵ Again, seems to be all AI music with AI graphics and AI videos.

Honestly not familiar enough with the genre of music to be able to judge it, nor do I want to listen to it. I wondeer though: given his history of making comically bad knockoffs and his marketing, including terms like “ghettotech” and AI video to create black performers—I have to wonder if there is a meaningful difference between this and a minstrel show.²⁶

It's difficult to think a way to demonstrate you're not insensitive than rushing to commodify black people.

Maybe it’s half-way between minstrel show and Vanilla Ice.

Either way, it’s a glaring insight into the values and principles of the guy who has been taking Jim Ward’s last work from an 8.5 to an 11 by doubling the length of it. A man who rants about how race doesn’t exist, while he prepares to release an album that is a (poor) attempt to appropriate Black American music and imagery.

I guess when you make big deal of not seeing race, it makes it easy for you to exploit and commodify black americans for your AI slop projects.

Conclusion

GiantLands is entirely unremarkable, for their will never be a shortage of dream projects that people profess to be determined to bring to reality but are unwilling to do the real effort. The Internet is littered without countless half-baked ideas for games that amount to little more than brain farts.

This one just has a claim to crediting James M. Ward and Penny Williams as involved, but no clarity to how much influence they really had.

Even Dinehart seems to realize that, so instead of releasing the module (and the other one that apparently exists in some capacity), and expanding on the project, he’s spent years working on anything but it – then come back and (despite having more commitments) diluted all the work of Jim with his own.

Given Dinehart’s refusal to allow the sale of electronic copies, and that his fan base is 25 people, I doubt that I’ll get the chance to assess The Broken Road. Nor do I think it will warrant close scrutiny for all the impact it will have on the work. Even Dinehart knows that, he’s just dragging out getting pretend credibility as long as he can.

Fortunately for the rest of the world, it hasn’t been working.

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>
4
Kim Wincen “GiantLands (2021)” (30 March 2024) A gentleman with opinions <https://blog.wincenworks.com/2024/03/30/giantlands-2021/>
5
“Friends of Aztalan State Park” <https://www.aztalanfriends.org/>
6
“Welcome to GiantLands” <https://giantlands.com/>
7
“GiantLands | Amusement Sparks” <http://amusementsparks.blubrry.com/tag/giantlands/> Archive: <https://web.archive.org/web/20250213064929/http://amusementsparks.blubrry.com/tag/giantlands/>
8
“Music | Lantz & Giacomelli” Bandcamp <https://lantzgiacomelli.bandcamp.com/>
9
“Music | Marijannah” Bandcamp <https://marijannah.bandcamp.com/>
10
Stephen E. Dinehart “GiantLands: Edition Zero: Kickstarter Promo Trailer” (4 December 2019) YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRyumHBMkTA>
11
Zoe Camp “Stoner Metal in Singapore: Weed and Doom in country with “strictest” drug laws” (20 April 2018) Revolver <https://www.revolvermag.com/culture/stoner-metal-singapore-weed-and-doom-country-strictest-drug-laws/>
12
“Music | GL1 The Broken Road: Science Fantasy Adventure Album” Bandcamp <https://giantlands.bandcamp.com/album/gl1-the-broken-road-science-fantasy-adventure-album>
13
Stephen E Dinehart IV Narrative Design: Fabulator Ludus (23 January 2023, Independently Published, USA)
14
“The 28th Annual TEA Thea Awards Program” (23 April 2022) Themed Entertainment Association <https://issuu.com/themedentertainmentassociation/docs/28th_thea_program_issuu>, at 67
15
Above, at 51
16
“25th Annual TEA Thea Awards Program – April 2019” (13 April 2019) Themed Entertainment Association <https://issuu.com/themedentertainmentassociation/docs/thea_program_2019_for_issuu_high_re>, at 98
17
Stephen E. Dinehart “Narrative Designer” (4 March 2016) Archive: <http://narrativedesigner.com/>
18
Professor Stephen Erin Dinehart IV “Portfolio of Recent Works” (2024) <https://narrativedesigner.com/Stephen%20E.%20Dinehart%20Portfolio%202024.pdf>
19
Tenkar’s Tavern “Wonderfilled Admits To NO SALES IN LAST TWO YEARS!” (26 June 2025) YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV2DXhKKqbI>
20
Stephen E. Dineart “GiantLands at EGG Con I – A Celebration of Gary Gygax with Penny Williams” (11 July 2024) Press Release <https://www.pr.com/press-release/915466>
21
YoDanno (19 September 2022) X née Twitter <https://x.com/YoDanno/status/1571668081570729984>
22
Gen-Con <https://www.gencon.com/events/293011> <https://www.gencon.com/events/293012>
23
Stephen E. Dinehart “Throne of Ninurta & the Tablet of Destinies” YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mUlE1eU9Qy37WEm6m2-d8c9sCugCKR8Yc>
24
Stephen E. Dinehart as “EATME” @derloserbrigade (10 July 2025) X née Twitter <https://x.com/derloserbrigade/status/1943265662362616129>
25
Stephen E. Dinehart “Detroit Booty Temple” <https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lBIkjhnS2tF_6uXzrjE3rDdi_-fXA-uhE>
26
Temple of Booty (22 June 2025) X née Twitter <https://x.com/templeofbooty/status/1936638956877095057/video/1>

TSR Rating Meter

As part of his quest to try to prove that he was someone who should be listened to and treated as an authority in table top role-playing games (“TTRPGs”), and push the owner’s deplorable politics into the space, TSR LLC and associates (“NuTSR”) tried to create a rating system. They way he did it was a very funny chapter in the TSR Saga.

Game Rating in the USA

Justin is a yankee who cosplays as a southerner, which is to say that he is an American who seems to only really be aware of systems and politics within the USA. To what degree he is aware of these is highly debatable, but he wanted a career in politics and so it seems intuitive that he’d base a rating system off those in the USA.

As much as fans of various TTRPGs love to talk about the Satanic Panic of the 80s, the real impact on media in the US came from the video games scares in the early 90s. In response to see growing pressure for a legal solution, major players in the video game space formed the Entertainment Software Rating Board (“ESRB”) and committed to having their games rated through it.

The ESRB is a non-profit that relies upon fees for doing the rating to continue to sustain itself, and the expectation is they will maintain consistent standards and retailers will promote these and handle the products appropriately. It is legally recognized in Canada, but there’s no real interference. This is in contrast to places like Australia where a government board issues ratings, and can refuse to classify a product – thus barring it from retail sale or requiring it to be altered in ways that are frequently baffling.

As above, the S in ESRB stands for “software”, so they don’t really do board games etc Thus the TTRPGs space has generally just operated on people being up front about their content and retailers using their own judgment. Remember, most places that sell them also sell things like Pokémon cards so they have a vested interest in not having to deal with angry parents yelling about their child having seen a boob.

The nuTSR solution

Unsurprisingly the approach by nuTSR was to emulate the ESRB’s model, if you can call copy-paste then vandalizing emulating. Quality was not a priority, as showcased by this hilariously janky images for the ratings:¹

An animated gif of the various ratings, the ratings on the right hand side jump about as they are not consistently aligned, and the dot in the i in "Hobbies" disappears in one frame. — Graphic Design Is My Passion (Yes, he managed to lose the dot in the “i” in one fo them)

1
TSR LLC “The TSR Rating Meter” TSR Hobbies (Wisconsin USA, Archived: 30 May 2023) <https://web.archive.org/web/20230530023350/https://tsr-hobbies.com/tsr-hobbies-rating-meter>

The Cult of Abaddon (2022)

So, nuTSR is essentially dead and buried at this point. They’ve settled with Wizards of the Coast,¹ the web site is gone,² and all their products are gone.

The iconic "The evil is defeated" GIF from Cabin in the Woods.

Let’s talk about their, now historic, “products”, or at least the ones I have access to. Starting with The Cult of Abaddon (2022) by Vincent “The Evil Dungeon Master” Florio with “input and ideas from” Ernie Gygax (credited as Ernest G. Gygax Jr, a truly baffling representation).³

The front cover for The Cult of Abaddon, including all the general markup to try to make it look like a classic module and the TSR LLC trademark... well the Diesel artwork they started using in lieu of the Justin LaNasa artwork.

It proclaims to be an Old School Renaissance (“OSR”) adventure module published by TSR Hobbies (and “TSR-Hobbies”), suitable for entry level characters. It is one of the few products to few the TSR Rating Meter which specifies it as suitable for ages 10+. ⁴

As is customary for these kind of products, it doesn’t specify a particular system that it works for – but there is generally an assumption that it’s for Basic Dungeons & Dragons (“BXD&D“), Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (“AD&D“), AD&D Second Edition or some system adapted to replicate this. So you’re not actually saying it’s Dungeons & Dragons (“D&D“) but everyone knows that’s what you mean.

I obtained my copy via Lulu during the brief window when Vincent was selling it as a pdf – making it direct competition with nuTSR’s print only (which never seems to have shippped). So, I guess that makes me one of the foremost scholars on this work, and that’s probably for the best.

The post about that has been scrubbed of Vincent’s blog, but one post that is left up makes it pretty clear the module was originally going to be part of his Mazes & Perils (2012) game, but that he evidentally lost interest in.⁵ Evidentally, he ultimately decided it was not good enough for his own system, but was a perfect fit for the stuff nuTSR were wanting to push out.

First Impressions

While nowhere near as bad a the Star Frontiers: New Genesis “beta”, its extremely amatuer in content and design – reading very much like an early draft by a hobby creator who normally is the only one to read their own work, and assures themselves they’re too genius to need second drafts.

The first paragraph has run on sentences, random use of ampersand (“&”) instead of typing “and”, and random capitalization. It then goes on to explain, with this level of sloppiness and inconsistency, that the title is quite misleading as the party will not have any meaningful interactions with Abaddon or really learn anything meaningful other than they’re bad and doing bad things.

When this was first announced, I noted there it was kind of worrying that they’d decided to use Abaddon, a name from Jewish folklore, in a story about a cult poisoning water supplies, particularly when combined with the less well known “red hand” symbols. Naturally the author denied he was anti-semitic, volunteered his wife was jewish, etc and while I’m personally not convinced but will concede that nothing in the work or his response indicates he was aware of these. Rather he seems just ignorant and too lazy to check anything. Of course, you can be lazy, ignorant and antisemitic so – I encourage you to use your own judgement.

Then it gets worse. Also spoilers ahead, but I sincerely doubt anyone reading this will ever be interested in playing it anyway.

1
TSR LLC v. Wizards of the Coast LLC, 2:21-cv-01705, (W.D. Wash.), Document #66
2
Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum <https://tsrmuseum.com> Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20240627031048/https://tsrmuseum.com/
3
Vincent Florio The Cult of Abaddon (TSR LLC, Lake Geneva WI, 2022)
4
Vincent Florio The Cult of Abaddon, above n 3, at back cover
5
Vincent Florio Mazes & Perils Artifact: The Gemstone of Abaddon (The Evil Dungeon Master, 10 January 2017) <https://www.theevildm.com/p/mazes-perils-artifact-the-gemstone-of-abaddon>

Star Frontiers: New Genesis (Unreleased Beta)

Disclaimer: The unreleased Star Frontiers: New Genesis product written by Justin LaNasa and Dave Johnson is not sanctioned by Wizards of the Coast (“WotC”) or any person involved with the original TSR Inc. It is entirely the product of hate monger grifters with no noteworthy connection to the history of Dungeons & Dragons (“D&D”) and role-playing games in general. The trademark that was registered for it has been cancelled.¹ and ownership purchased by WotC through the bankruptcy proceedings. The game itself was not listed as an asset, so theoretically still belongs to someone. However it is, in all likelihood, never going to be released beyond the “playtest” versions.

Also, this is will be heavily cited in all matters relating to the product, specifically because Justin LaNasa initiated at least two legal actions against his critics (including a Harmful Digital Communication Act complaint against me)

Content warnings: This is a deplorable product made by deplorable people, to do the discussion justice requires the discussion of slavery, sexism, anti-black racism, white supremacy, Nazi ideologies such as eugenics and truly terribly bio-essentialism.

Before TSR LLC went into bankruptcy, and the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum closed, thus essentially guaranteed that WotC would prevail in court – it had a product in the works that was baffling on so, so many levels it defies simply summary.

It was a product that got them noticed and invited into communities for one of TSR Inc’s classic but less well known games. It was a game that initially led people to believe they must have obtained all the proper licensing etc.

That game was Star Frontiers: New Genesis, a game which was announced both as a reboot, and as a spiritual successor, and as a sequel, and so, so many things. Initially it was pitched as being completely legitimate – then as a sort of protest product that seemed to go against everything the original stood for.

It was never released, and as the fate of nuTSR becomes both clearer, and darker – it becomes evident that it never will be – all we have to go off is rumours, and court filings. So, let’s have a look at what (allegedly) might have been:

1
US Trademark #90276506 <https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=90276506&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch>

LaNasa v. Tenkar – Dismissed with Prejudice

Throughout out the TSR Saga, there have been many reporting on it – doing varying avenues and degree of investigating. One of those was the proprietor of the Tenkar’s Tavern web presence… who we’ll refer to as Tenkar (who is an old D&D character of his, of course).

Background

Tenkar is a long time player of D&D who has a general interest in role-playing games, which he primarily expresses through his website, Tenkar’s Tavern and the connected YouTube Channel. He is also a former Internal Affairs officer with the New York Police Department and a big advocate for OSR. He also (like everyone) injects his politics and his personal opinions in there, but for the most part here’s what you need to know:

Tenkar did a lot of videos covering the various mistruths and questionable claims of the nuTSR crowd, sometimes with accompanying blog posts writing things up and linking to relevant information.
Tenkar has a lot of opinions on old school games styles, often making videos to discuss the idea of playing now vs then, talking about the principles of OSRIC, etc.
Tenkar also made a consistent effort over the years to expose people trying to grift or otherwise exploit the nostalgia for old school gaming. Ken Whitman, for example, has featured frequently and generally in an unflattering manner since at least as far back as October 2014.¹
Tenkar is wary of the pitfalls of commentary, and takes steps to prepare his receipts and evidence in advance – and to always show the material he’s using to substantiate his opinions.
Tenkar’s long involvement with the hobby, conventions and the history of the hobby have made him quite well networked within the niche hobby.

Naturally this did not bode well for Justin LaNasa, the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum or the nuTSR crowd in general.

1
Tenkar A WTF are They Thinking!?! Kickstarter – Castles & Crusades: Blacktooth Ridge (T.V. Pilot) (3 October 2014) <www.tenkarstavern.com>

Giantlands (2021)

Edit: Apologies to those who struggled through the initial release, and thank you to those who pointed out the many issues in it, will continue to try to tighten them up and cut back on my ellipses addiction.

Touted by Stephen Erin Dinehart IV as his role-playing game based on his unique vision of the world, but also written entirely by James M Ward (“Jim”)¹ as a kind of Native American themed, spiritual successor to Gamma World² – the original release of GiantLands was also modelled off the White Box³ release of Dungeons & Dragons.⁴

Dinehart regularly claims (incorrectly) to be the inventor of Narrative Design and a great master in game design space, but routinely avoids taking responsibility for not working to smooth out any issues in his game.

If you’ve found this via my write up of the GiantLands Saga, or anything connected to that – then you’re most likely already aware that the game is bad – but curious as to all the ways it is and if there’s tiny gems of goodness among the rotting debris. Also, since the game comes in three booklets I’ll be citing them separately.

Jim passed away on 18 March 2024,⁵ with his final work widely ignored and panned, but apparently still optimistic that it could result in a theme park one day.

The Premise

The basis for the setting is that the upon re-awakening or reaching her breaking point, the spirit of the world as we know it ends the world as we know it – killing everyone as punishment for our misdeeds toward nature and creating a fresh start known as “The Great Reset”. It encourages the Spirit Keeper (who runs the game) to imagine how their world might look after such an event, but also with underground bunkers and alien spacecraft.⁶

This results in the return of giants, not simply big humanoids but beings of immense supernatural power. As well as a new kind of human… and also robots, aliens, star ports… and all kinds of wild nonsense that never really gets explained. It’s also weirdly inconsistent – Sapiens are introduced to the players a new type of humanoid (capable of living 200 years)⁷ but in the Keepers Guide says they were created in the 1st Age “to rival the Giants” and appear to have been present as “humans” in every age since.⁸

1
Wikipedia James M Ward <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_M._Ward>
2
James M Ward & Gary Jaquet Gamma World (TSR Inc, Lake Geneva WI, 1978)
3
Wikipedia Dungeons & Dragons (1974) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_(1974)>
4
Gary Gygax & Dave Arneson Dungeons & Dragons (TSR Inc, Lake Geneva WI, 1974)
5
Haase-Lockwood & Associates Funeral Homes Obituary for James “Jim” Michael Ward III <https://www.haaselockwoodfhs.com/obituary/JamesJim-WardIII>
6
James M Ward & Stephen E Dinehart GiantLands: Keepers Guide (Wonderfilled Inc, Lake Geneva WI, 2021) at 4
7
James M Ward & Stephen E Dinehart GiantLands: Spirits Guide (Wonderfilled Inc, Lake Geneva WI, 2021)
8
Keepers Guide, at n 6, at 16 – 17

GiantLands – The Release

So Wonderfilled Inc’s 2022 effectively started with the release of their flagship game, GiantLands, a time of celebration and one that sets the standard for any new game publisher.

It didn’t go very well.

Issues seemed to include that overseas and Kickstarter orders go low priority, that there was a some bad weather which jeopardized delivery windows for the first rounds and… well, the reception was not great.

Also yeah… do not expect any consistency in capitalization of Giantlands vs GiantLands from Wonderfilled… the branding experts. It drives me nuts too… but this is just how they are.

TSR LLC vs Wizards of the Coast LLC – FIGHT!

During 2022 and 2023 there were numerous disasters engaged in by nuTSR, most of which are pending a final resolution – but the most spectacular and all reaching was the lawsuit of TSR LLC against Wizards of the Coast LLC. Many of these aspects were not easily understood by someone without a background in law or intellectual property.

Prelude

It can be safely assumed that once the intention to use the old TSR Inc trademarks became public, Wizards of the Coast would have instructed legal counsel to write polite, but firm, letters to TSR LLC advising them that they did not have the right to do so. The exact details provided etc are not available to the public, but it is an all but mandatory courtesy in these situations.

This seems to have worked to a certain degree, as the following trademarks were surrendered/abandoned without a fight:

Diagonal TSR (Surrendered commenced 7 September 2021)
The TSR Wizard (Surrendered commenced 7 September 2021)
TSR Seal (Abandoned 28 July 2021)

But well… for the rest…. they decided to fight…

GiantLands – The road to finishing a “finished” RPG

So, having burned countless bridges and decided that he no longer needed to partner with TSR LLC to publish his game that he previously couldn’t publish – Dinehart had a whole bunch of issues to deal with:

A bunch of people had pre-ordered to support the nuTSR group – so were not happy about the money going elsewhere; and
A bunch of them were reactionaries who were angry as fuck to find Dinehart supported the notion of being non-binary (in a way that he finds interesting and approves of, only); and
It was now, according to the Kickstarter, 15 months overdue; and
According to the same Kickstarter, the product was ready to print in June 2020 (twelve months prior); and
According to writer James M. Ward, his part was late 2019;¹ and
It was also “Almost there” according to the Kickstarter in December 2020 (six months prior); and
One of the key flaws of the Kickstarter was that it promised a maximum of 100 1st Edition boxes only – which was never going to be profitable or something you could launch a theme park off; and
It was only available in hard copy, which meant that if you wanted to order it to say… New Zealand, it’d more than double the considerable cost of $79.99;² and
While the project web site and credits of the books that were eventually released boast a huge team of titans, if we consider the people doing the actual work and being part of Wonderfilled Inc… the team considered entirely of Dinehart. (Mandatory side note: Jeff Dee has requested he not be associated with the project, explaining it was artwork-only and work for hire,³ if you think Dinehart is going to respect this – you’re in for a lot of disappointment).

It was not an ideal situation – particularly given that Dinehart had no clout in the TTRPG industry before he started this fiasco, and somehow managed to have even less at this point and he is… not the best at diligent attention to detail, as demonstrated by the first version of the transfer from TSR Games to Wonderfilled Games site showcased.⁴ ⁵

A screenshot of a mobile device showing the "tsr.games" url.
It is for WFD, "Wonderfiled, Inc" (yes, one L).

A screenshot of the bottom of a page in mobile display. "Creating new Experiences"
"We're producing good old fashioned TSR TTRPG products with a new take. Our role-playing games GiantLands in just the beginning!"
At the bottom is "Add Wonderfilled, Inc. to Home screen"

He also seemed to keep the TSR shirts on his online store for an awkward amount of time.⁶

1
James M. Ward, 2 October 2021, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/james.m.ward.7/posts/pfbid035DPDVGNb76bSF7bnDzb3DMAjX5JBTeTpMi1oogABop2bQZZ1pZ6qXAGTGNxiiXUEl?comment_id=4335357853215823&reply_comment_id=4335363659881909&cft[0]=AZXobOYNBDuofMWcszevsM5lvfcERikty_bsRikPxpgAMKnTNlTi3WGFJOD-feRF30M3JpdZXjElKZkghZtX5L44dRtxWCdEELnJ9S2LadAsDf_uerQj6eBiVhGRLyQK7WVuaTQ4SBtMNLP8BFaMaXpP&tn=R]-R
2
My Twitter, 16 July 2021 https://twitter.com/wincenworks/status/1415946235509305348
3
David Flor, 29 September 2021 https://twitter.com/BrainClouds/status/1442852326168010758
4
My Twitter, 8 July 2021 https://twitter.com/wincenworks/status/1412872199174643714
5
My Twitter, 8 July 2021 https://twitter.com/wincenworks/status/1413027319589924873
6
My Twitter, 8 July 2021, https://twitter.com/wincenworks/status/1413074953193213963

Those Pesky Goblinz by Justin LaNasa

Hot off the presses, the nuTSR group (TSR LLC, Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum LLC, Justin LaNasa) has released a “new” product… weeks ahead of the opening for pre-order date, by listing it on Amazon via their Print On Demand service. It is unclear why they opted to do both print-on-demand and a pre-order bulk print system… but that’s the least of the problems.

The product is, in summary: an playable mess of useless gibberish that radiates contempt for creators of role-playing games, for people who enjoy role-playing games and that mostly showcases the inadequacies and insecurities of the creator. It’s also an interesting study in when a rip-off reaches the point of copyright infringement through being an unauthorized derivative work.

David Flor has done a great job in breaking down many of the failings in a Twitter thread here, and Tom has done a feature.

So I wanted to talk about some of the more complex issues that don’t fit into 280 characters or reasonable sized videos (let me know if you think I should do a Noah Caldwell-Gervais style essay).

Category: RPG Disaster Tourism