The unsettling legacy of what’s become known as NuTSR continues to make headlines as the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum goes on sale with an asking price of $5,000,000.
A lightning-quick recap is that some rights to the TSR brand were snapped up by a rival RPG publisher, who caused controversy with an aggressive anti-inclusion rhetoric, promised no politics dug deep into politics, and in the course of its life, left backers wondering whether any promised crowdfunding books would be delivered at all.
Furthermore, NuTSR tried to sue Wizards of the Coast for upsetting them. In particular, NuTSR did not like that old D&D books that reflected the cultural norms of the 70s and 80s, which aren’t always aligned with modern understanding, were on sale digitally with warnings that the books were thusly dated. They argued that their new TSR brand was being tarnished.
The legal attack went wrong; after crowdfunding money to pay for lawyers, the company filed the claim in the wrong courts, and once everything was running, Wizards of the Coast promptly countersued. In particular, to secure whatever legal rights to the brand ‘TSR’ they had, NuTSR had to confirm in writing they did not know a previous TSR that they might be confused with.
As this is supposed to be a quick summary, NuTSR then filed for bankruptcy. However, while all this was happening, the owners, or some of the original owners of NuTSR, had set up the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum in Lake Geneva. If there’s already too much reading here, Tenkar, who helped break the news has a video.
The DHSM was either set up as a tribute to Gary Gygax and D&D or, as some suggest, a nostalgia-fueled and hardnose commercial enterprise.
Zillow shows the property has an estimated value of $298,100, and the AT Properties auction site lists the $5,000,000 asking price. That’s a 2800% markup.
It’s unclear how trying to raise $5m on a property worth $298,1000 plus an unknown business value might affect NuTSR’s bankruptcy. Asset inflation is a political issue in the United States, where all this is happening as a former high-profile politician has been found guilty of inflating the value of their properties so that larger loans can be secured against them.
Even if it is completed, the sale of the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum is unlikely the last the RPG community will hear from the current owner, who is understandably passionate about gaming and seems intent on being noticed.
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