Harassment At PaizoCon 2017

In our post-Harvey Weinstein world, more and more people in the various entertainment industries are coming forward with allegations of abuse and harassment, both sexual and psychological. The tabletop gaming industry isn't isolated from this wave of revelation as incidents surface, and will likely continue to surface about professionals, and fans, within the gaming communities.

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Stories of harassment within tabletop gaming, at conventions and stores, and even in local gaming groups are nothing new. That is probably the saddest fact of this whole thing: that despite stories being brought to light, not only does harassment continue to happen but the existence of it continues to be denied by some. This denial is one of the factors that allows abuse and harassment to continue within tabletop RPGs.

Allegations of improper behavior at the 2017 PaizoCon by Frog God Games CEO Bill Webb were brought to life by Pathfinder content creator Robert Brookes. Brookes was attending PaizoCon and has written for Paizo and Legendary Games, among others. In an incident involving alcohol, Webb allegedly sexually harassed another guest at the convention and when a staffer attempted to intervene and injury occurred with the staffer.

In a thread about harassment and abuse on gaming forum RPGNet, Frog God Games partner Matt Finch, creator of the Swords & Wizardry retroclone, confirmed that the incident with Webb occurred, and revealed some details about an internal investigation that the partners of Frog God Games conducted into the incident:

"I am Matt Finch, the partner of Frog God Games appointed by the partners to investigate a sexual harassment complaint filed against Mr. Webb at PaizoCon 2017. Mr. Webb was not consulted by the partners on this decision. Due to recent accusations made on Twitter by a third party, I will outline the aspects of the situation to the extent that they do not compromise the confidentiality of the person who filed the report, I will describe the nature of our internal investigation, and will also address the recently-raised tweets by Robert Brookes on his twitter feed. This report will not necessarily be updated; it stands for itself at the time of posting, based on the knowledge I currently have.

"First, it is correct that a complaint was filed with Paizo at PaizoCon against Bill. I was made aware of this by phone on the day it happened (I was not present at the convention). Frog God is aware of the identity of the person who made the complaint, because they spoke to three of our partners at the convention after the event. We have not been invited to share that person’s identity, and although we are not under legal obligation to protect that confidentiality we have elected to respect that person’s desire not to have the event brought into the spotlight.

"Gathering information in a situation like this is necessarily limited due to Paizo’s own confidentiality obligations. To assemble information, I spoke to the three partners who had talked with the person who filed the complaint, and obtained their accounts of what they were told. Secondhand accounts are not perfect, and I had to weigh that against the fact that an attorney making direct contact with someone who has filed such a report can be seen as a threat or intimidation, and weighing those two issues, I chose to rely on a comparison of the conversations between the individual and our partners, plus Paizo’s own resolution of the matter at the time, plus a necessarily-cautious review of Bill’s account. There has been contact between the person who filed the complaint and Frog God partners since the event, and I will provide a screenshot of one such communication with the name redacted. I believe the screenshot provides a great deal of clarification.

"Reducing the event to a level that will maintain confidentiality, my understanding based on my investigation was that Bill Webb took an action and engaged in speech that could be construed as a sexual advance or as gender-dismissive.

"In consequence of this finding, I and another senior partner of the company had a meeting with Mr. Webb about expectations, standards of behavior, and future protocol. We addressed that one’s lack of bad intentions does not excuse problematic behavior.

"Some people have asked that Mr. Webb acknowledge and apologize for the situation. Bill does deeply regret his actions, and understands that they were inappropriate and upsetting. I have told Mr. Webb not to contact the person directly, for the same reason that I have not done so myself: the potential for that contact to appear intimidating or threatening. However, at whatever time the person lets us know that a direct apology from Mr. Webb would be welcomed, that apology will be immediately forthcoming. Mr. Webb is also under instruction not to discuss this matter in public, in case peripheral details were to be inadvertently disclosed that might allow the identification of the person by another party. This is also the reason we chose to have me, as the investigating partner, write the public report, given that a report has become necessary in response to a recent description of the event on Twitter."

We reached out to Webb for comment upon this incident, and we were directed to the RPGNet post by Finch. This is the company's official statement on what happened at PaizoCon. Whether or not there will be further repercussions within Frog God Games due to this incident and Webb's actions remain to be seen.

Paizo CEO Lisa Stevens has released an official statement on the incident on the Paizo forums. When EN World reached out to Paizo for official comment, we were directed to this statement:

"My name is Lisa Stevens and I am the CEO and owner of Paizo Inc. Events of the past few weeks have compelled me to make this statement.

"My company will never condone any sexual harassment or assault against any of our employees, male or female. We will never condone any sexual harassment or assault against any of our customers on paizo.com or at sanctioned organized play activities. Whenever I hear any allegations of sexual harassment or assault related to Paizo’s activities, I always immediately drop whatever I'm doing and I make getting to the bottom of these issues my top priority. We have banned people from paizo.com. We have banned people from participating in our organized play activities. We have stopped doing business with individuals. And we will continue to do so.
"As a woman and a survivor of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape, I know what it is like to be on the receiving end of these attacks. I know what it is like to feel the shame, the terror, how it changes your life forever. And because of this, I will never stand for my company to condone this behavior.

"Paizo’s employees are encouraged to come forward with any allegations of sexual harassment or assault and let a manager know as soon as possible. If criminal activities have taken place, they are encouraged to report it to the police and take legal action against the perpetrator. We have asked our employees to not engage in explosive and angry dialogue on paizo.com. We want our website to be a place where our customers feel safe and among friends. If there is problem on paizo.com, then our community team will handle it and, where appropriate, ban the perpetrator.

"In closing, you have my word that I have zero tolerance for sexual harassment and assault, and the same is true of Paizo. Please be aware that we treat these issues with tremendous sensitivity, and only disclose the specifics and resolutions of any such incidents on a need-to-know basis, even within Paizo or with our legal counsel. We do not and will not discuss these matters publicly. Every instance that I am aware of has been thoroughly investigated, and appropriate actions have been taken or are in the process of being taken. You have my word on this."

Unrelated to the PaizoCon incident, Brookes also revealed an incident of harassment within the Pathfinder Society organized play program. When a volunteer staffer reported this incident, their supervisor informed them that an NDA they had signed to be part of the program would not allow her to discuss this incident. Paizo has not officially commented on this incident or commented on whether or not there is an investigation into it.

If tabletop role-playing games are truly going to be an inclusive, we have to be better about not just reporting incidents of abuse and harassment but being dedicated to creating spaces that are safe and free of harassment of our fellow gamers. We also need to shine a spotlight onto the incidents of harassment that occur, it is the responsibility of journalists, bloggers and gamers to do this and let people know that their actions will come to light and that they will be held responsible. It is also important to not just talk about those parts of the gaming communities that we don't agree with, but to also bring to light the improper actions of those companies and communities with whom we do agree, because unless every act of harassment is revealed there will be no change within our communities.

Remember that EN World is an inclusive community.

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[evilref]

Just because what?

How about innocent until proven guilty? Is that a good enough reason. In this specific situation enough information is out there to make a pretty intelligent decision but that is not every situation.

Well, no, because it's not a court of law. Are you saying this about all of Harvey Weinstein's accusers?

At no point has Bill Webb denied it, in fact via a terrible, terrible attempt to downplay what happened, he's admitted it, in no way has he claimed 'no I did not sexually harass someone', he's admitted it, he's sort of somewhat, in a roundabout way, apologised for it.

So, no 'innocent until proven guilty' has nothing to do with it, because this isn't a court.


And no, the attitude should be to believe the victim - why do you automatically assume the victim is lying? If a friend of yours says they were mugged, do you automatically assume they were lying? If you read a bad restaurant review, do you automatically assume that the reviewer is lying?

I'm just going to go with saying no, of course you don't. But here we go, woman complains of sexual harassment and you hope they're lying, you think that we shouldn't believe them because...ohh, wait, it's a woman complaining of sexual assault, we can't go believing them. Where would that lead to...

This isn't a court, it's basic human decency. And, again, in this case Bill Webb has admitted it, so you know, maybe stop with the rubbish trying to discredit all victims?

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Well, no, because it's not a court of law. Are you saying this about all of Harvey Weinstein's accusers?

At no point has Bill Webb denied it, in fact via a terrible, terrible attempt to downplay what happened, he's admitted it, in no way has he claimed 'no I did not sexually harass someone', he's admitted it, he's sort of somewhat, in a roundabout way, apologised for it.

So, no 'innocent until proven guilty' has nothing to do with it, because this isn't a court.


And no, the attitude should be to believe the victim - why do you automatically assume the victim is lying? If a friend of yours says they were mugged, do you automatically assume they were lying? If you read a bad restaurant review, do you automatically assume that the reviewer is lying?

I'm just going to go with saying no, of course you don't. But here we go, woman complains of sexual harassment and you hope they're lying, you think that we shouldn't believe them because...ohh, wait, it's a woman complaining of sexual assault, we can't go believing them. Where would that lead to...

This isn't a court, it's basic human decency. And, again, in this case Bill Webb has admitted it, so you know, maybe stop with the rubbish trying to discredit all victims?

This is a forum and my rubbish is no less important than your rubbish so dont dare try to tell me to shut up.

No you do NOT automatically believe the victim. Does the Duke Lacrosse Team ring a bell? When someone makes an accusation you can sympathize, you can offer to help them. You do NOT automatically that them at their work with no evidence and effectively destroy another persons like which is what a rape accusation will do.

And to follow up on your point it is basic human decency to never destroy a persons life based purely on the word of another person.

 

[Sunseeker]

This is a forum and my rubbish is no less important than your rubbish so dont dare try to tell me to shut up.

No you do NOT automatically believe the victim. Does the Duke Lacrosse Team ring a bell? When someone makes an accusation you can sympathize, you can offer to help them. You do NOT automatically that them at their work with no evidence and effectively destroy another persons like which is what a rape accusation will do.

And to follow up on your point it is basic human decency to never destroy a persons life based purely on the word of another person.

Ah yes here we go: the victim in your eyes is Bill Webb, it's his career on the line, it's his life on the line, it's his destruction you're concerned about.

You're not disbelieving the victim because you lack evidence, that's complete BS, especially since there is plenty of evidence, far more than a good deal of sexual-crimes ever have, you're disbelieving because you don't believe BJ Hensley is actually the victim. You see Webb as the "potential victim" of her "rape accusation" and that is where you place your concern.

Noone is asking you to white-knight Hensley and destroy Webb's life. All they're asking you to do is believe her. That's IT. Nothing else. You don't have to write an angry forum post at Webb. You don't have to make an angry phone call to Paizo. You don't have to do anything at all other than believe that Hensley is telling the truth.

But you don't care, because you don't think Hensley actually is the victim here. You think Webb is the potential victim and that's who you care about. A man being falsely accused of rape, that's your soap box. That's your concern: "false rape". All because in the tens of thousands of sexual crimes that happen in the USA, one or two of them turn out to be false. Yeah, that sucks, it really does. But this is the classic play of mens-rights-ists whenever a woman wants to talk about issues facing women it's "OH BUT WHAT ABOUT THOSE POOR POOR MEN!!???"

Sorry Doc, you can't distract us that easily.

My own PERSONAL opinion is that any time I hear about a sexual assault my "hope" is that the victim is lying. Because I automatically side with the attacker? No, not at all, because it is 1000% a much less horrible thing to find out someone was a liar as opposed to find out someone truly was sexually assaulted.

As noble sounding as the second couple of lines are, they are garbage and lies.

Because this:

My own PERSONAL opinion is that any time I hear about a sexual assault my "hope" is that the victim is lying.

leads directly to this:

No you do NOT automatically believe the victim. Does the Duke Lacrosse Team ring a bell? When someone makes an accusation you can sympathize, you can offer to help them. You do NOT automatically that them at their work with no evidence and effectively destroy another persons like which is what a rape accusation will do.


And to follow up on your point it is basic human decency to never destroy a persons life based purely on the word of another person.

You HOPE the victim is lying because you want to stand on your soapbox and preach about the dangers of "false rape". And THAT is disgusting.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Ah yes here we go: the victim in your eyes is Bill Webb, it's his career on the line, it's his life on the line, it's his destruction you're concerned about.

You're not disbelieving the victim because you lack evidence, that's complete BS, especially since there is plenty of evidence, far more than a good deal of sexual-crimes ever have, you're disbelieving because you don't believe BJ Hensley is actually the victim. You see Webb as the "potential victim" of her "rape accusation" and that is where you place your concern.

Noone is asking you to white-knight Hensley and destroy Webb's life. All they're asking you to do is believe her. That's IT. Nothing else. You don't have to write an angry forum post at Webb. You don't have to make an angry phone call to Paizo. You don't have to do anything at all other than believe that Hensley is telling the truth.

But you don't care, because you don't think Hensley actually is the victim here. You think Webb is the potential victim and that's who you care about. A man being falsely accused of rape, that's your soap box. That's your concern: "false rape". All because in the tens of thousands of sexual crimes that happen in the USA, one or two of them turn out to be false. Yeah, that sucks, it really does. But this is the classic play of mens-rights-ists whenever a woman wants to talk about issues facing women it's "OH BUT WHAT ABOUT THOSE POOR POOR MEN!!???"

Sorry Doc, you can't distract us that easily.

I dont know Bill, have never met him, never will meet him, do not care to meet him.

I was very clearly responding to the GENERAL STATEMENT that ALL victims must automatically be believed as soon as they say something with is completely and utterly wrong.

If you and other posters was to fail at basic reading comprehension and assume I was speaking on this specific incident that is your problem and says far more about your agenda here than anything else.

 

[Morrus]

I want to make it clear that if you’re looking for a place to tell everybody about how you don’t believe the victim here, you are in the wrong place. I am not going to condone or facilitate victim blaming on this website, or tolerate its presence.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Ah yes here we go: the victim in your eyes is Bill Webb, it's his career on the line, it's his life on the line, it's his destruction you're concerned about.

You're not disbelieving the victim because you lack evidence, that's complete BS, especially since there is plenty of evidence, far more than a good deal of sexual-crimes ever have, you're disbelieving because you don't believe BJ Hensley is actually the victim. You see Webb as the "potential victim" of her "rape accusation" and that is where you place your concern.

Noone is asking you to white-knight Hensley and destroy Webb's life. All they're asking you to do is believe her. That's IT. Nothing else. You don't have to write an angry forum post at Webb. You don't have to make an angry phone call to Paizo. You don't have to do anything at all other than believe that Hensley is telling the truth.

But you don't care, because you don't think Hensley actually is the victim here. You think Webb is the potential victim and that's who you care about. A man being falsely accused of rape, that's your soap box. That's your concern: "false rape". All because in the tens of thousands of sexual crimes that happen in the USA, one or two of them turn out to be false. Yeah, that sucks, it really does. But this is the classic play of mens-rights-ists whenever a woman wants to talk about issues facing women it's "OH BUT WHAT ABOUT THOSE POOR POOR MEN!!???"

Sorry Doc, you can't distract us that easily.


As noble sounding as the second couple of lines are, they are garbage and lies.

Because this:
leads directly to this:

You HOPE the victim is lying because you want to stand on your soapbox and preach about the dangers of "false rape". And THAT is disgusting.

The only person here that is disgusting.

But I will do my best to use small words and simple example.

You have a choice. You can be a LIAR or you can be a RAPE VICTIM.

Which one do you chose?

Pretty simple choice isnt it.

THAT IS THE ONLY BASIS OF MY STATEMENT. Stop being stupid and assuming more. I would rather know someone has to get over the shame and embarrassment of having lied than have them having to potentially go through years of therapy and inability to have normal relationships because they were the victim of a rape.

I am out of this conversation. There are too many agendas here that have nothing to do with intelligence of decency and I want no part of it.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

I want to make it clear that if you’re looking for a place to tell everybody about how you don’t believe the victim here, you are in the wrong place. I am not going to condone or facilitate victim blaming on this website, or tolerate its presence.

Never said it, never had any reason to say it.

All I ever said is you should never automatically believe the words of one person and based on those words alone condemn another person. This has nothing to do with this case and everything to do with another poster who implied that anyone who make any accusation should automatically be believed which means you are condemning another person based on nothing but one persons words.

 

[fantasmamore]

My own PERSONAL opinion is that any time I hear about a sexual assault my "hope" is that the victim is lying.

If someone tells me that his loved one got murdered, I believe him. Someone that has been robbed? The same. Strangely I believe what I hear and I sympathize with the person telling me his story. I don't ask "did your loved one said something to his killer before the shooting?". But that's one thing. The crime happened. Who is the murderer? I don't know and I am still going to doubt until the trial ends.

 

[evilref]

If you and other posters was to fail at basic reading comprehension and assume I was speaking on this specific incident that is your problem and says far more about your agenda here than anything else.

No, I understood that point

So, let me understand, if you phone the police and report an intruder, you want them to say 'but really, can we believe that, should we you know, wait for more evidence?' or do you want them to come out and investigate your intruder?

If you go to the police and say you've been mugged, do you want them to believe you when you turn up with a broken nose and blood streaming down your face, or should they say 'maybe they just did that themselves to blame someone'.

Because what you're advocating is that some crimes get believed, and others don't, and amazingly the crimes that don't get believed are the ones that primarily (but not exclusively) happen to women.

And yes, men who are harassed face the same problems, and the same issues, and there's a whole other subject about how they have even less priority, and as an abuse survivor I know the struggle of 'do you say anything, can you say anything, what do you say, how will you tell other people about it, what will they say, will i be believed, what will my friends/family think'.

And to use your logic, they'd all have thought I was lying, because apparently no one should believe any victim - you know, if it's a sexual abuse victim, but not someone who got served undercooked scallops, or got mugged, or anything else, just that, because...err...why is that exactly?

 

[Morrus]

Never said it, never had any reason to say it.

All I ever said is you should never automatically believe the words of one person and based on those words alone condemn another person. This has nothing to do with this case and everything to do with another poster who implied that anyone who make any accusation should automatically be believed which means you are condemning another person based on nothing but one persons words.

You know better than to argue in-thread with a moderator. Don’t post in this thread again, please.