TheDiceMustRoll posted:

I am not making this about me, I am asking that you give me time to finish before you start slamming me. You may do so after I've posted it.

amenbrotep posted:

I’ve seen this Zack S thing on twitter but have little engagement with the community in general. Apparently he has a history of this sort of thing and it looks like people have spoken up before without anything being done. Is there something accessible for an outsider that covers the whole saga?

Loomer posted:

https://tabletopsmissingstairs.blogspot.com/2019/02/zak-s-and-other-horrible-tabletop-people.html

Haven't had a chance to read that through myself yet but Strix is passing it around as a convenient resource for new people on the problem.

Pollyanna posted:

Who the gently caress are you?

potatocubed posted:

Then two days ago we all found out that he's also been physically, emotionally, and sexually abusing basically every woman he's come into contact with, and serial raping his way through his local BDSM scene.

Sooooo... gently caress that guy.

Loomer posted:

https://tabletopsmissingstairs.blogspot.com/2019/02/zak-s-and-other-horrible-tabletop-people.html

Haven't had a chance to read that through myself yet but Strix is passing it around as a convenient resource for new people on the problem.

potatocubed posted:

Short answer? No.

The whole mess covers almost a decade of disconnected blog posts, forum threads, Twitter conversations, emails, G+ threads, and God only knows what else -- at least some of which were deliberately kept secret for one reason or another. Significant chunks of it have been memory holed by Zak himself, who at least once Kramered into a conversation about logic, got owned, then flounced out and deleted all his posts. Also when he harassed e.g. Terra Frank clean off the internet (for the crime of not liking LotFP) she deleted all her social media presences and so no evidence of the incident remains.

As a slightly longer answer: He has performed every lovely internet act one can perform, including but not limited to harassing multiple people out of gaming and offline completely, serial stalking anyone who says a bad word about him, wielding his loyal minions like a loving battleaxe, maintaining secret G+ groups where he posts harassment targets, insinuating sockpuppets into the follows of people he dislikes, impersonating people, and naming paintings after the games of someone he didn't like in a half-assed attempt to break their SEO.

As a reward he got a namecheck as a consultant in D&D 5e, hired to work on nuWW, was something of an eminence gris behind Contessa, and became a big name writing for LotFP -- because this hobby is loving trash.

Then two days ago we all found out that he's also been physically, emotionally, and sexually abusing basically every woman he's come into contact with, and serial raping his way through his local BDSM scene.

Sooooo... gently caress that guy.

Liquid Communism posted:

IIRC this is a dude who got one of his hangers-on to email a guy who was criticizing him a picture of his kid's school, taken that afternoon.

PST posted:

Something's happened with the 'Demon City' kickstarter he was co-sponsor of as dozens of people are now asking for their names to be removed and even not to be sent the product when it's finished. It was going on beforehand, but there's a hidden 'backer only' update, since which the numbers have swelled with a bunch asking for their book to be sold and money donated to charity.

quote:

Dear Backers,

I apologize for the delay providing an update or response to the recent disclosures by Mandy Morbid alleging abuse and sexual assault by Zak Smith, the author of Demon City.

Zak has announced he will release his own statement but it is my responsibility as the publisher of Demon City and owner of DIY RPG Productions to make a statement.

These allegations against Zak are disturbing and have weighed heavily on me and on my involvement with the project—along with what to do about a project that contains many freelancers and individuals in the middle of delivering this project to print.

I do not condone sexual violence, coercion, assault, or violence of any kind especially against women.

Transparently: the money has been spent in the process of delivering a book on the timeline established on the Kickstarter—Shawn has been hard at work on layout and the end was in sight before this news broke. It is a devastating disclosure and I can understand why people would want their name removed from any aspect of this book and will work to honor that. However, I cannot unpay freelancers or printers. The money is simply not there.

If any backers do not wish to accept their copy of Demon City, I will flag those books to be sold first and if/when they do, the entire amount of that purchase will go to one of two charities: The National Domestic Violence Hotline or Futures Without Violence.

In accordance to Kickstarter’s Terms of Use and rules, I am contractually and legally obligated to fulfill the project. I will continue to push Demon City forward and fulfill pledges as I, and my company, committed to do.

Refunds cannot be issued, as this project has moved quickly, and the funds have gone directly into the project’s full development. Thank you for your understanding in this regard and know that I fully realize the frustration and anger this situation has generated. I am attempting to do as right by people’s decisions as I can. If you have any further questions or concerns you can reach me directly at REDACTED.

Finally, I want to say thank you to everyone who has reached out and offered support, compassion, and understanding for myself and DIY RPG Productions through this.

Thank you,
Mike Evans

PST posted:

Zak claimed he'll be posting a response to Mandy today or tomorrow. I won't be surprised if he's paused that because of Vivka adding her testimony about his abuse. Raggi's refusing to say anything 'until Zak has responded' so I'll also not be surprised to learn they're crafting it together.

Jimbozig posted:

Why would we even believe that he had an accomplice email Olivia that picture? Isn't it much more likely that he did it himself through one of his many email accounts? If there is one thing we know Zak loves, it's sock puppeting. (Sock puppeteering?)

Or is the accomplice a known individual?

Liquid Communism posted:

IIRC this is a dude who got one of his hangers-on to email a guy who was criticizing him a picture of his kid's school, taken that afternoon.

gradenko_2000 posted:

Taken from someone at RPG.net:

MadScientistWorking posted:

Gal not dude

andrew smash posted:

He stridently and semi-frequently defends the grosser portion of the OSR in the OSR thread. I'm not sure why he thought anyone would care about his ludicrously drawn out non-apology.

Loomer posted:

Nor will he be able to meaningfully argue that this is just people who hate sex workers again, with half of the allegations coming from extremely visible sex workers.

gradenko_2000 posted:

A while back, Olivia wrote about an encounter she had with someone, not Zak S, who she immediately suspected of being not-who-they-claimed to be. They spoke, they had lunch, and she deliberately dropped a piece of information that she knew to be expressly untrue, but detailed enough to be specifically identifiable.

Those details then immediately started filtering back through her as people started harassing her again.

So that's a pretty good indicator that there are people who really go out of their way to be accomplices for Zak.

BrainParasite posted:

Aw gently caress, I still follow her. What did she do?

PST posted:

That's a pretty good response

Rand Brittain posted:

A girl (that was Olivia Hill).

Kurieg posted:

Look at his posts in just this thread. It's mostly mocking us for taking offense to things like OSR people trying to sell an expensive set of dice that were overcosted because they were rubbed though the afro of their one black friend and had inherited some of their majyycks.

Brother Entropy posted:

what

Kurieg posted:

TheDiceMustRoll posted:

You got a problem with representation?


Guys, it's a joke, reacting this angrily to a joke...what do I even need to say?
These people do not take themselves this seriously.
They embrace new players.
They self deprecate themselves all the time.
Your image of an angry grouchy Goodman Games filled with assholes who gatekeep is mind boggling. I've met these guys. They're not that.

MachineIV posted:

Don't know if it matters, but that person was Kirin Robinson. He made a game called Old School Hack a number of years ago.

Brother Entropy posted:

lmao, what the hell kind of person thinks this is a good idea

Brother Entropy posted:

lmao, what the hell kind of person thinks this is a good idea

Libertad! posted:

Matthew Mercer tweeted about the Zak S stuff recently as of this posting. This link should contain the entire twitter convo.

Brother Entropy posted:

lmao, what the hell kind of person thinks this is a good idea

dwarf74 posted:

Wow, that's a good statement. I only just started watching the show, and I would have been sad if they were secretly awful people.

Also he's shouting this to a pretty huge audience, so no putting that back in the bag now.

dwarf74 posted:

Wow, that's a good statement. I only just started watching the show, and I would have been sad if they were secretly awful people.

Also he's shouting this to a pretty huge audience, so no putting that back in the bag now.

Mors Rattus posted:

Dungeon Crawl Classics is not good.

Arthil posted:

I think one reason I'm trying to watch this situation closely is that Zak managed to twist and manipulate Mandy into thinking he was worth protecting. And that was with him being abusive towards her directly. The thought that the man could have easily manipulated a lot of people who were not so directly linked to his personal life would come as no shock to me whatsoever. I've been keeping an eye on the responses to the original post myself, Facebook hasn't turned anything up but I'm just hoping I don't end up seeing people throwing further abuse at her simply for the association she once had with him. Because quite frankly some people are that cruel.