By Robert Romano
The newly minted TSR LLC, which Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro are attempting to have its recently registered TSR trademark cancelled at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, says in an Indiegogo campaign raising money for its lawsuit it has plans to have Wizards “remove the legacy content disclaimer placed on TSR based Dungeons & Dragons and other products, and retractions of any other libel and slander which alleges that racism and other heinous beliefs are incorporated into those products.”
On Wizards’ online store, digital products like the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook, First Edition, originally authored by D&D co-creator Gary Gygax in 1978, contain a disclaimer alleging D&D’s creators had engaged in “ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice”.
The disclaimer appears below a thorough history of the product by author Shannon Appelcline, who wrote a definitive, four-part history of role playing games, Designers & Dragons. The history on the product description covers the production of the first edition of the game, including quotes from Gygax and how the rules were changing.
Then the disclaimer states, “We (Wizards) recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website does not reflect the values of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise today. Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice that were commonplace in American society at that time. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today.”
But neither Appelcline’s product history nor his book include any allegations of “ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice” at TSR during D&D’s inception in the 1970s and 1980s. If there were allegations of prejudice by TSR when the game was created, as Wizards’ claims, then why doesn’t Appelcline’s history that Wizards’ uses as an authority say that?
In fact, contradicting Wizards’ claims in the product description, a 1982 TSR Code of Ethics, in effect while the first edition was in distribution throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, explicitly barred ridicule or attack of any religious or racial group and against certain types of sexual content in the creation of TSR products.
According to the Code, under the heading, “STANDARDS FOR WRITTEN MATERIAL,” it states, “Ridicule or attack of any religious or racial group is never permitted… Nudity in any form is prohibited. Suggestive and salacious scenes are unacceptable… Illicit sex relations are not to be portrayed or discussed and sexual abnormalities are unacceptable… Rape or seduction are never to be portrayed or discussed… Sex perversion or any inference to same is strictly forbidden.”
Appelcline was aware of the Code when he wrote his history, noting in part three of his book, “WotC also replaced TSR’s positively antiquated Code of Ethics (based on the 1953 Comics Code!) with a much less restrictive Code of Conduct.”
Federal law requires that commercial advertising be truthful, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, which if it finds a violation can go after a business. Did Wizards and Hasbro lie about “ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice” by the creators of D&D? It sure looks that way.
Throughout TSR’s history, the negative media coverage had to do with the Satanic Panic and the 1982 Mazes and Monsters television movie w/ Tom Hanks, followed by the 1985 60 Minutes hatchet job alleging absurd links between the game and teenage suicides.
As it turns out, by 1989, the CDC had come to a much different conclusion: Media sensationalism of teenage suicides (such as exhibited in the 1982 and 1985 CBS offerings) had increased the risk of what it called “suicide contagion”.
Funny, that in the post-civil rights movement era, and as women were entering the labor force at the fastest rate in U.S. history, and at the height of TSR’s popularity in the 1980s, of all the absurd things TSR was accused of by the media, neither racism nor sexism registered.
Consider, too, that 60 Minutes, one of the most prestigious press organizations in the world, did a thorough examination of TSR in 1985, but did not turn up allegations of “ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice”.
I have no idea if a lawsuit like this can succeed, but I think it sends an important message. Trademarks aside, I do think longtime D&D and TSR fans have an interest in fighting against Hasbro’s legacy disclaimers accusing D&D’s creators of “ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice”.
According to TSR’s Twitter handle, the company is “[h]eaded by Justin LaNasa & Ernie Gygax Jr.” Gygax, Jr. is the son of D&D co-creator Gary Gygax, and so a big part of this appears to be defending and recovering the reputation of not only his father, but also everyone who worked with him to create and build D&D and TSR.
TSR’s website, www.tsr-hobbies.com, also shows product offerings from Gygax, Jr. who was there at the game’s inception and worked with his father for years, and who the First Edition book names as a contributor in the special thanks section.
As a lifelong fan of particularly TSR and SSI’s products, including the games and novels, I can say there isn’t anything hateful in them. They are Tolkienesque fantasy stories are about heroes who fight evil wizards, dragons, monsters and gods, and save the world.
In fact, the only reason for these legacy disclaimers on D&D or classics like Gone With the Wind, are ESG-driven so-called “stakeholder capitalism” initiatives, to be included in pamphlets for woke investors, like Hasbro’s diversity & inclusion objectives.
ESG funds currently total about $38 trillion, about a third of all assets under management, according to Bloomberg News.
These ESG objectives, thanks to federal regulatory incentives and federal and state government pension contributions, are designed to help publicly traded companies raise billions of additional capital, not to make a profit per se, but to change the world.
It doesn’t even have to be grounded in the actual history of these brands. Just pretend that racism “may” have been involved in the creation of D&D — ESG investors often complain of “greenwashing” and “diversity washing” where companies try to appear woke to qualify for funds — and Hasbro can use that false allegation to mislead investors and deceive consumers, raising billions. Maybe that’s how much the Gygaxes should sue for.
Robert Romano is the Editor in Chief of Comicsgate.org.
Edited for clarity.
