By now it’s a fact of history that eventually, Justin LaNasa(LaNasa) came to a confidential settlement with Wizards of the Coast(WotC) over the lawsuit he started over trade marks he poached for culture war nonsense and profit.1TSR LLC v. Wizards of the Coast LLC, 2:21-cv-01705, (W.D. Wash.), [nuTSR v. WotC] Document #66, 29 May 2024 This effectively ended his crusade to try to usurp the history to the table top role-playing game(TTRPG) hobby as well as Dungeons & Dragons(D&D).
I think its worth examining the final outcome in order to understand how absurd it was, how many lies it required to keep the campaign going, and how much waste it resulted in for a wet fart of an ending.
The settlement means there’s not really any fascinating statements on trade marks, since we never got to an actual trial and hence a decision by the courts.
Before we commence, I want to clarify that I will not be naming LaNasa’s counsel during these proceedings as – based off what I can see – she was simply doing her job. While I find some of the decisions questionable, based on the rest of the nuTSR ordeal I think she was just doing the best she could.
We’ve seen what she was working with, and a fundamental pillar of law in a free society is even terrible people deserve competent representation. There’s also good odds that she helped him realize he needed to settle.
I’ve been catchup on my Slovenly Trulls episodes, now that I once again have time to listen to slay feminists Dungeons & Dragons lore podcasts. Recently I listened to Gnoll & Beholder1 Shardae & Lyssa Episode #53 “Gnoll & Beholder” (1 August 2025) The Slovenly Trulls and was entertained by Shardae and Lyssa puzzling over the oddity that gnolls are, in all other lore, misogynistic patriarchal assholes… but in Monster Manual IV (2006)2 “Monster Manual IV” (July 2006, Wizards of the Coast, Seattle WA), at 67-71 and Dragon Magazine #367 (2008),3 Keith Baker “Playing Gnolls” in Dragon Magazine #368 Editor-in-Chief: (September 2008, Wizards of the Coast, Seattle WA), at 47-54 it seems to claim it’s a matriarchy, and specifically explains that the female gnolls are indistinguishable form the males?
What happened around 2006 – 2008 that inspired this fascination with the ideas of gnolls being a reverse patriarchy with reverse dimorphism… that seemed unsourced and faded away?
Or to put it another way, why we all briefly agree that female gnolls had massive alpha male big dick energy? What was the “magic” element?
Allow me to offer my not so humble theory as a wise old man who was active in a bunch of online communities at the time.
This is not about how the tragedy of Ernie’s death impacts me, or sharing memories I had about him. I didn’t know him. I feel a certain amount of empathy to those he left behind, and for that reason I encourage them not to read this post. This post isn’t about memories or feelings about Ernie Gygax.
Rather it’s about the heartless exploitation of the memory of his public presence now he’s dead, and how traditional “be polite” moderation methods fail in these situations.
And, it’s rough – I don’t wish dealing with it on anyone.
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 Vincent Florio The Cult of Abaddon (TSR LLC, Lake Geneva WI, 2022)
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+. 4Vincent Florio The Cult of Abaddon, above n 3, at back cover
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.
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.
Okay, I covered the stuff in Baldur’s Gate 3 is mixed and complicated. Let’s talk about an objectively well executed character and visually designed – Minthara.
From a general writing perspective, she’s exactly what I mean when I say it’s not enough to support, women’s rights – we need to support their wrongs. She is complicated, ruthless and villainous in a way we rarely get to see female characters – and every aspect of her design supports and conveys it.
So in the recent Slovenly Trulls episode,1 Lyssa & Shardae Slovenly Trulls # 39: The Devil’s in the Details (1 June 2024, Podcast) <slovenlytrulls.com> Shardae asks (screams really) “3.5 E why you gotta be like this!?” in regards to its strange love of adding terrible content that barely qualifies as “edgy” and just pushing it out there like it’s cool.
So, after 29 years of growth, why did Dungeons & Dragons (“D&D”) slip back into being a socially awkward, edgy teenager for 5 years in the way that only product owned by a mega corporation can? Why did Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Edition (“3.5E“) seem to do a complete 180 from its previous approach of trying to be horny yet accessible to everyone? What was Wizards of the Coast thinking?
Despite the mind-breaking, eldritch incomprehensibility of it we can solve this, we can make it make sense – but to do that we need to go on a journey. So, strap on your Armour of Protection from Evil and grab your Vomit Bag of Holding. It’s history time.
It’s a great time to be an old school Dungeons & Dragons player, you get to smugly observe millions of people realizing the game is good actually… or at least that the game can facilitate heart touching romances with imaginary, terrible people.
(To be clear, I’m not judging you – these two are, but I’m not)
As one of the biggest AAA games of 2023, it’s unsurprising that it’s big and complicated – and there’s a lot that can be talked about with many aspects of it – including female armour and costumes. Indeed, there’s already a lot of commentary on it and community activity, from the confusing, to the life affirming.
And of course, both Dungeons & Dragons and Larian Studios have histories that we’ve touched on before – and I can confidently say it represents a huge improvement in quality, style and attitudes. Plus sometimes their advertising is just gay.
Published by Wizards of the Coast as part of their 3.5 Edition Dungeons & Dragons (“3.5E“) promotion materials, Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress (2007)1 Shelly Mazzanoble Confessions of Part-Time Sorceress: A Girl’s Guide to the Dungeons & Dragons Game (September 2007, Wizards of the Coast, Seattle WA) (“Confessions“) by Shelly Mazzanoble is a modestly sized book which enjoyed limited success following a very odd release by Wizards of the Coast. It hasn’t generated enough nerd buzz to get it’s own Wikipedia page, and my “new” copy has stickers indicating it has been sold and resold among distributors at least three times.
I vividly remember being on the official Dungeons & Dragons (“D&D“) forums at the time and a thread being created in this book’s honour, with the bold declaration “This thread is a safe space for women.”
Naturally the thread was immediately hijacked by weird Mens Rights Activists (“MRAs”) types who wanted to fight over the whether women were allowed to have a safe space, spewing the theorized projections from The Myth of Male Power (1993)2 Warren Farrell The Myth of Male Power: Why Men are the Disposable Sex (1993, Simon and Schuster, USA) as though they were long established facts. Moderators dealt with this by periodically reposting “This thread is a safe space for women.”
Largely though, the release was overshadowed by other issues relating to the changes to the Forgotten Realms, such as the thread on The Orc King (2007)3 R. A. Salvatore The Orc King (25 September 2007, Wizards of the Coast, Seattle WA) which was released at roughly the same time and raised the issue of impact of both the Spellplague, and how would kill off the protagonist Drizzt Do’Urden’swoman-as-rewardwife Catti-brie (until she comes back). Oh and it seemed to reinvent orcs as Emancipation Era African Americans right down to marrying above their race and having their own version of the Ku Klux Klan, the “Casin Cu Calas“.
It’s different because it’s in elven so let’s not think too hard about the implications.
2007 was a wild time for people who played D&D and had any sense of social sensitivity or awareness at all. Weird none of the nerds writing the Wikipedia articles want to talk about that. What’s up with that? Anyway.
So, I never read it during that time but recently decided I should do so to see if it could purge those memories from my memory and my conclusion is – I understand the reason for it less than I did when my only knowledge of it was a bad thread. Only time will tell if scrutinizing and externalizing my observations changes that.
So recently the Slovenly Trulls (who I love) did an episode where they tried to puzzle out the purpose of and general role of prestige classes in 3E/3.5E, and why they might have some caveats like “only if your DM approves” and “must stay in x region”.1 Lyssa & Shardae Episode 36: Rashemen Gynarchy & Other False Promises (Slovenly Trulls, Podcast, 2 March 2024)
As an old white man who spent too much of his youth reading shit for nerds, I naturally had to rush in and write way too many words. But hey, they like sources and explanations… I hope.
Gary Gygax was famous for his love of filling books with tables, specifically tables where you would roll a dice (or two) to find an outcome or a prompt.
This summary on Futurama was both brutal but indisputable.
Tables for random encounters, tables for treasure hoards of the recently slain monsters, tables for magic items in the treasure hoards and even tables for sex workers to spend the treasure on. Indeed, long before procedurally generated video games were a trend, Dungeons & Dragons was a game where you could leave huge parts of the story in the hands of the RNG gods through dice rolls.
They’re an inescapable part of the hobby, and many people spend no small amount of time making their own tables for their own campaigns. Now, that includes me, so I’m not about to tell you that they’re inherently bad – but rather that a classic mistake is to rely on them – up there with relying on “a rare roll must always have an extraordinary result”.
Both are symptoms of assigning too much authority to dice, usually out of insecurity about one’s ability to perform their role – so instead outsourcing it to an inanimate object or two.
