How to avoid RPG dumpster fires like the Far Verona controversy

[Hussar]

While he may have phrased it more nicely than I would, mostly because I've watched @Celebrim turn, or try to turn, every single one of these discussions into nonsensical semantic hair splitting, @Matthew Perkins has the exact right of it.

Treat everyone with respect and all these problems go away. Frankly, @MGibster , you have said that you take your player's views into consideration. Fantastic. Then there's no problem. Why then go on and talk about how it's not "inherently dangerous" or whatever?

 

[Imaculata]

Good video, sensative subject.

I run a campaign with my players that includes some adult content. During our session 0, I made absolutely sure that the bounderies were clear to my players, and that they were comfortable with those bounderies. It is very important to me to never break the trust that they have in me.

I defined the bounderies of the campaign content as such:

-Yes, there is sex. No, we don't play it out. We fade to black.
-Yes, there is violence. But no, we don't go into gross details.
-Yes, there is torture and slavery. But again, we don't go into details, and I don't subject the pc's to any of this.
-And finally, no sexual assault of any kind.

So when one of my players (who is trying to become a saint) decided to have his character have sex with a nun, I described in a humorous way how that night the nun yelled out the names of many saints, including his. And then we move on to the next morning. We all have a big laugh. We can all fill in the blanks. But no need to get into uncomfortable details. Keeping things light-hearted, and humorous, is most important I feel for keeping our D&D sessions a fun hobby. Nothing ever happens without player consent, and we never go over those bounderies that I mentioned earlier.

 

[Darth Solo]

Eh.

Fine publicity-stunt, mostly.

A (co) game-designer (Koebel), Europe's most popular D&D streaming GM (hulmes), director of creative commons@twitch (djwheat), a Geek & Sundry & Twitch partner (vana), and a voice actress (elspeth).

Sure.

Get everyone talking about the episode. Hype-train jumps to MACH 2. All the RPG forum talking heads are clutching their pearls and shaking fists at the monitor.

Adam's not any thing close to an idiot who burns money. This was planned and probably coordinated by the group.

Clever.

 

[Mort]

Eh.

Fine publicity-stunt, mostly.

A (co) game-designer (Koebel), Europe's most popular D&D streaming GM (hulmes), director of creative commons@twitch (djwheat), a Geek & Sundry & Twitch partner (vana), and a voice actress (elspeth).

Sure.

Get everyone talking about the episode. Hype-train jumps to MACH 2. All the RPG forum talking heads are clutching their pearls and shaking fists at the monitor.

Adam's not any thing close to an idiot who burns money. This was planned and probably coordinated by the group.

Clever.

All of the players quit and the stream is cancelled.

Koebel has now stated he is stepping away from the hobby (and his MANY streams) to seek counseling. I'm sure this will severely negatively impact his income stream.

Further, if you think a sexual assault is a great PR stunt - well there's really nowhere to go from that statement!

 

[Hussar]

Wow. Someone is actually videotaped being an ass hat as a DM, the entire group publicly quits the project in the middle of the season, and it's brushed off as a "publicity stunt"? Good grief.

See, this is why I start off so half cocked whenever these conversations come up. Inevitably, it's always the same. Folks will excuse ANYTHING. Any behavior. It doesn't matter how bad it is, you will always get the people standing up and claiming that it's fake, or not true, or never really happens, or "clutching at pearls" or reinventing the comic book code, on and on and on.

It just grinds my gears so much.

 

[Aldarc]

Wow. Someone is actually videotaped being an ass hat as a DM, the entire group publicly quits the project in the middle of the season, and it's brushed off as a "publicity stunt"? Good grief.

I guess that for some people it's easier to rationalize a conspiracy theory denial than admit that a wider problem exists before their eyes.

 

[Mort]

I don't mean to be dismissive of the topic, but I do not believe that anyone in the year 2020-- any internet celebrity-- does not understand that what he did was wrong, or does not understand why. Nobody needs help navigating the calm blue ocean to avoid this "mistake", because it isn't a mistake and framing it as one prevents us from understanding the nature of the problem.

The problem is that he made a conscious decision, sustained over a period of time against the objections of everyone whose objections should have mattered, and then "apologized" for being just too goddamned cool for everyone who had a problem with it.

The problem is not that gamers don't know not to do this, the problem is that gamers don't know what to do with people who do it anyway.

Yeah, The DM very clearly set up the scene to force the encounter.

Sadly, it also seems the DM was just playing the whole thing as a throw-away joke.

The fact that it went over so badly is actually encouraging - people need to see that this behaviour is just not ok.

 

[DammitVictor]

Now he just needs to keep getting the same reaction until he issues an apology that actually includes admitting that he was wrong. Sadly, people keep giving non-apologies, because they keep working.

 

[Mort]

Now he just needs to keep getting the same reaction until he issues an apology that actually includes admitting that he was wrong. Sadly, people keep giving non-apologies, because they keep working.

Koebel actually did that, the full apology appears a bit after the boxed text shown here:

 

[DammitVictor]

Koebel actually did that:

Did he, then? (The Tweet won't load right now.) In that case... I hope he gets the help he needs, and I hope that he finds as much forgiveness as he's willing to earn.