D&D Celebrity Satine Phoenix & Husband Jamison Stone Accused Of Abuse Towards Freelancers

D&D influencer Satine Phoenix, and her husband Jamison Stone, who run tabletop gaming company Apotheosis Studios, have been accused of abusive behavior towards freelancers and contracted workers. Satine Phoenix is a well-known D&D personality and creator, and was the D&D Community Manager for about a year back in 2018. Both she and Stone have appeared in many events and streaming shows, and...

Status
Not open for further replies.
D&D influencer Satine Phoenix, and her husband Jamison Stone, who run tabletop gaming company Apotheosis Studios, have been accused of abusive behavior towards freelancers and contracted workers.

Satine Phoenix is a well-known D&D personality and creator, and was the D&D Community Manager for about a year back in 2018. Both she and Stone have appeared in many events and streaming shows, and have worked with WotC, Geek & Sundry, and other companies. Recently their Kickstarter campaign Sirens: Battle of the Bards raised over $300,000. At GaryCon, a US gaming convention, the couple held a public wedding.

sirens.jpg

Accusations were initially leveled last week against Stone by tattooist Chad Rowe, who tweeted about the abusive way in which Stone, as his client at the time, treated him. The artist was "insulted, berated, and talked down to as if I was a lesser person". Other reports started to roll in as people shared similar experiences, with people revealing how they had been bullied by them, and how the pair frequently portrayed themselves as 'better' than those they worked with. At the time of writing there have been many such reports including one from voice actress and designer Liisa Lee who was subjected to underhanded business practices by Phoenix and her then partner Ruty Rutenberg. Others indicated difficulties in getting paid for work done for Stone and Phoenix or their company.

Lysa Penrose reported on problematic interactions while Phoenix worked at WotC, who was the primary point of contact regarding a report of abuse. Penrose reports that Phoenix failed to pass on the reports of abuse, and continued to publicly associate with the abuser.

Jamison Stone has since resigned as CEO of Apotheosis Studios (though the pair do own the company) and issued a long apology which has been widely criticized. Phoenix released a statement about a week later. Screenshots leaked from a private channel indicate that they have adopted a strategy of shifting the blame onto Stone, so that Phoenix's public image remain intact, with Stone writing “I also am ensuring behind the scenes ... we shield Satine as much as physically possible from damage.”

D&D In A Castle, which is an event which hosts D&D games run by professional DMs in a weekend break in a castle, has dropped the pair from its lineup, as has Jasper's Game Day, an organization which works to prevent suicides. Origins Game Fair, at which the couple are celebrity guests, removed Stone from its guest list, but not Phoenix, stating that "staff assessed that there was no immediate risk of physical harm".

According to ComicBook.com. former collaborator of Phoenix, Ruty Rutenberg, is suing Phoenix, alleging misappropriation of $40,000 of stream network Maze Arcana's money.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

Accusations fly and lives are destroyed. Cancel culture denies people anything resembling due process. We should at least use a ducking stool to ascertain their guilt or innocence like a good civilized mob.
Would really be great if you took these boo-hoo-cancel-culture talking points somewhere else. There are plenty of fronts in the bad faith culture war--no need to bring that to a gaming forum.
 

log in or register to remove this ad



vostygg

Explorer
Would really be great if you took these boo-hoo-cancel-culture talking points somewhere else. There are plenty of fronts in the bad faith culture war--no need to bring that to a gaming forum.
Nah! Your opinion of what constitutes valid discussion on these forums is no more valid than mine. I am not going to be censored by you since you are not a moderator. In fact, you should take your attempts to enforce ideological conformity elsewhere--no need to bring that to a gaming forum.
 
Last edited:

vostygg

Explorer
And how do you feel about their victims, and the consequences they've face
While I sympathize with anyone who was mistreated, I don't see anything like a balanced presentation of facts here. It's akin to a court case in which the prosecution gets to present a whole host of witnesses, and the defense is entirely absent. That's the very definition of mob justice.
 

Mort

Legend
Supporter
While I sympathize with anyone who was mistreated, I don't see anything like a balanced presentation of facts here. It's akin to a court case in which the prosecution gets to present a whole host of witnesses, and the defense is entirely absent. That's the very definition of mob justice.

That's not quite right though. Both Phoenix and Stone HAVE presented their side of the story.

But the accusers have brought evidence and receipts and they were NOT contradicted or refuted.

Stone and Phoenix have been reduced to "we're really sorry..." (That we got caught and called out) and "please give us an opportunity to do better."

I will say Stone SAYS all parties finally got compensated. So hopefully the aggreived parties really were made whole.

This isn't a case of poor little celebrities getting piled on. This is a case of a grift(and horrible behavior) getting exposed and consequences being suffered as a result. Huge difference.
 

vostygg

Explorer
That's not quite right though. Both Phoenix and Stone HAVE presented their side of the story.

But the accusers have brought evidence and receipts and they were NOT contradicted or refuted.

Stone and Phoenix have been reduced to "we're really sorry..." (That we got caught and called out) and "please give us an opportunity to do better."

I will say Stone SAYS all parties finally got compensated. So hopefully the aggreived parties really were made whole.

This isn't a case of poor little celebrities getting piled on. This is a case of a grift(and horrible behavior) getting exposed and consequences being suffered as a result. Huge difference.
While I respect your opinions, you and I are not drawing the same conclusions from the body of evidence presented. Any public figure whose livelihood is being threatened on social media is generally counseled to issue a public apology in order to limit the damage. I don't give much weight to that at all. It's just part of the PR playbook.
 
Last edited:

mythago

Hero
Maybe we are talking past each other. I am not acting for social interactions to be legislated. I don't know how you would even begin to do that. I just think we should be more compassionate and resist the online rage. Especially when it centers justice on taking away peoples ability to work or to exist. By extrajudicial I just mean that online campaigns of anger directed at individuals (justified and not justified) are yielding consequences that rise to de facto legal outcomes: people losing work, having their lives ruined, being excused from events, from spaces, etc. This is why I think people mention due process. It just feels rather chaotic and cruel sometimes, and like it can easily be directed by bad actors.

Yes, it is literally "extrajudicial" because it is not in the courts. Nobody is "taking away" S&J's ability "to exist", or to work, or anything else. People do not want to associate with them because they behaved in a chaotic, cruel manner to many people, sometimes for no reason other than sheer egotism. That's what parents refer to as natural consequences: if you hit other children and grab their toys, the other children won't want to play with you anymore.

The reason people throw out "due process" is because they're anxious about a sotiatopm and they want to drag in some Higher Principle to back them up. Nobody in real life, not even the people complaining about "due process", runs their personal lives by demanding "due process" in social interactions.
 


doctorbadwolf

Heretic of The Seventh Circle
Meh! I'll stick to the unpopular stance that everyone can be an a-hole on their worst day and that social media vastly exacerbates the problem by ensuring that we never have to face the people whose lives we so blithely destroy.

I do not know Jamison or Satine, but if they are like anyone else, there are likely any number of people who would testify to their good character if they did not fear being shouted down and canceled themselves.
The mindset described herein enables abusers.
 

Status
Not open for further replies.

Split the Hoard


Split the Hoard
Negotiate, demand, or steal the loot you desire!

A competitive card game for 2-5 players
Remove ads

Split the Hoard


Split the Hoard
Negotiate, demand, or steal the loot you desire!

A competitive card game for 2-5 players
Remove ads

Top