Jamison Stone & Satine Phoenix's Apotheosis Studio To Wind Down [UPDATED]

After being accused of abusive behaviour towards freelancers and co-workers, the game company run by D&D influencer Satine Phoenix and her husband Jamison Stone, is to enter a 'reduced capacity' mode.

After the accusations were made, Jamison Stone resigned as CEO; after a couple of weeks he was added back to the company's staff page, saying that he was never actually removed but merely taking personal time while Apotheosis Studio conducted an investigation.

In a draft of a recent statement obtained by Dicebreaker, Stone indicated that the results of this investigations were that the 'vast majority' of the accusations made were 'factually inaccurate'. He went on to discuss the ramifications of 'cancel culture', although the statement was updated to rephrase that as 'extreme changes'. Other than the initial apology to tattooist Chad Rowe, Stone has indicated that no further apologies will be forthcoming.

“The rest of the team now has completed those investigations and found that while some individuals had legitimate complaints, the vast majority of the allegations to date levelled against Jameson and others on our team have been proven to be factually inaccurate. We believe that people should be shown compassion, given the opportunity to write their wrongs and grow as individuals.”

As for the company itself, it will finish fulfilling existing Kickstarter projects. It will not be accepting requests to cancel and refund pledges for existing funded Kickstarters, and noted that most of the freelancers and contributors have been paid. When asked about the company's future, Stone said "As it stands - and I don’t know what the future will hold - it’s just a company that is there. It just exists and sells books. Some of my books, some books by other people. It will sell The Red Opera and eventually sirens. All of the people who are there are just contracted at this point."

A statement is expected to come soon from Apotheosis.

UPDATE -- Apotheosis Studio's statement has arrived:

Thank you for your patience. We have had a lot of questions about the future of Apotheosis Studios, its team, and our projects. While Jamison Stone did step down as CEO to take personal time while Apotheosis Studios did an internal investigation on the allegations brought forth by numerous individuals, we in no way claimed that we were removing Jamison from the company. Having completed our internal investigation, we have found that while some individuals had legitimate complaints, the vast majority of the allegations to date levied against Jamison and others on our team have been proven to be inaccurate. Jamison will directly address major allegations and misinformation within the month.

We at Apotheosis Studios do not support abuse in any form. We believe in accountability and the ability for everyone to reflect, learn from their mistakes, grow, and be given the opportunity to show what they’ve learned by actively being better through action. We encourage everyone to stand up for themselves in compassionate ways with the hope to make things better so no one has to live in fear. It is in this honesty that we can learn from one another and each be better for ourselves, our families, and our communities while not furthering abuse, bullying, harassment, and other dehumanizing behaviors.

Sirens: Battle of the Bards will be delayed while those who are still working on the project deal with the ramifications of the extreme changes that we have had to make due to this situation. We will be sending out merchandise that we already have in hand for US backers first. Sirens: Battle of the Bards is 90% finished and its contractors have been paid, therefore refunds will not be issued. We will provide additional updates on fulfillment as we know more.

Because there seems to have been some confusion regarding the nature of our operations, we wish to state again that payments to writers started in March 2022 and as new invoices were received, we processed them promptly. All artists and contractors who have completed their work and were authorized for billing have been paid. The only remaining work is rewrites, editing, and layout. This, as stated above, will take longer than originally planned.

For reference: we had the following number of contractors working on this project:

• Writers - 22 writers. Paid 10 cents per word
• Artists - 4. Paid monthly or per image
• Graphic Designer - 1. Paid monthly
• Layout artist - Paid monthly, even when not working on a project
• Musicians - 2. Paid promptly per song
• Sculptor - 1. Paid promptly per sculpt

The Sirens writing Deadline was Oct 31. Approval passes started in November. Unfortunately, the approval passes took longer than expected which pushed out approval for the contractors to bill by 3-4 months. Billing authorization was issued in March of 2022 and we promptly paid all invoices properly submitted to our accountant.

For this project, we provided templates for Adventure Chapters with an 8,450 words max budget. 9 of 22 chapters were over word count

• 4 over by 1000 words
• 1 over by 3700 words
• 2 over by 4750 words
• 1 over by 7000 words

Despite the fact that many chapters were over the word counts outlined the writers were paid for the overages after appropriate approval. Writers whose writing was not used were still authorized to bill us and were paid 10 cents per word.

For those of you who have reached out with constructive feedback, we greatly appreciate your support and patience. We will have further updates as more information becomes available.

Sarah Urfer

 

[Staffan]

Pretty sure that a contract creates rights and obligations, not necessarily guarantees. As in, there is no guarantee that the obligations will be fulfilled. If an obligation goes unfulfilled there is no guarantee that you can enforce your rights. Claimants in an insolvency rarely recover the full amount of their claim, for example.

I think there's a difference in how people use the word "guarantee". To me, a guarantee is a promise. "If you let him go, I guarantee that you will leave this place unharmed." It has as much weight as the trust I put in the guarantor. The main difference between a guarantee and a promise is, I think, that there is a nuance of a guarantee coming with an obligation to see it come true despite the efforts of third parties. E.g. if I guarantee that a person will leave unharmed, I am obliged to protect them from any hostile third parties.

What you are talking about is certainty. Certainty never exists in a contract, only promises, obligations, and guarantees that are as good as the word of the person giving them.

 

[Jd Smith1]

The question then becomes:
If the payer in question realizes that their contractors are unaware of their legal rights and uses that knowledge to take advantage of their contractors, is the payer acting morally or ethically?

Definitely not. But it helps keep overhead down.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Several have noted that defending a contract takes resources - they won't be a solution for anyone who hasn't got the resources to take it to court. Do you deny seeing these, or do you deny that they constitute "evidence"?

It takes a couple hundred dollars to get a 'fill in the blanks' contract drawn up by a lawyer, suitable for repeated use. If you can't afford something as basic as that, contracting is not a wise choice . So yes, that's not evidence. If you can't afford a life vest, don't go boating.

And, you haven't seen evidence? Earlier this morning (about 6:45 AM), you yourself wrote about how out-of-state contractors could be particularly vulnerable. You have deleted that since, but it amounts to recognition that contracts aren't all that reliable as a solution. That rather belies this statement, so maybe you'd like to retract it?

I deleted that because I discovered that there are statues in place that closed many of the cross-state issue. My civil law is a tad rusty.

This thread isn't, "Solutions for contractors who get screwed," so folks didn't think that was a requirement.

Because providing a solution is a bad thing?

They aren't against normalizing the industry to have better contracts.

They are against you 1) speaking of contracts as if they were a silver bullet, when they are not, and 2) insulting people who you've never met, and whose situation you know in only the barest of sketches.

Sounds very much like they are 1) embarrassed because they came up with nothing to help and 2) looking for a argument.

To be clear - sure, normalizing better contracts in the industry would be a good idea. But as a practical matter, contractors can only demand them when they are unified, and in a position with a bit of power. We, the consumers, can be part of that power. But that requires we know the situation too - that "casual conversation" you refer to is part of the process.

That's just an excuse used to do literally nothing, while claiming to 'fight the good fight'.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Pretty sure that a contract creates rights and obligations, not necessarily guarantees. As in, there is no guarantee that the obligations will be fulfilled. If an obligation goes unfulfilled there is no guarantee that you can enforce your rights. Claimants in an insolvency rarely recover the full amount of their claim, for example.

The biggest thing about a contract in this sort of situation is that it will give an unethical hirer pause.

 

[John Lloyd1]

Just to clarify, do we know if there wasn't a valid contract in place?

 

[Gradine]

Definitely not. But it helps keep overhead down.

Is it justified, then?

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Because providing a solution is a bad thing?

Earlier you implied that empathy may be a dump stat for yourself, so I'm saying this to help you out, not be condescending or rude.

There are times where a person mentions a problem to you....and they are looking for you to help with a solution.

There are times where a person mentions a problem to you....and they are looking for you to commiserate with them.

Since, to my knowledge, none of the involved parties in this fiasco are actually in this thread, then offering advice to the uninvolved is perhaps less appropriate than commiserating along side of them.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Is it justified, then?

I would say definitely not. Aside from the ethical and moral issues (which are IMO plenty reason enough), I would think that it would be a bad long-term business practice.

But I'm not a businessman by training or inclination.

 

[Umbran]

Sounds very much like they are 1) embarrassed .

Mod Note:
Okay, you were warned to not get personal. You've chosen to ignore that, right to the face of the person who warned you.

So, enough is enough, and you're done in this discussion.

 

[JediSoth]

Queen of D&D Satine Phoenix and Jamison Stone have deigned to update their Kickstarter backers.

TL;DR: They are working on it alone, but aren't starting until Dec. Their estimated completion is at least year after that. None of the backer questions regarding funds, refunds, the self-insert art, or removing of backers' names from the book have been addressed.

‐---------------------------

Dear Backers,

Satine Phoenix and Jamison Stone here. Thank you for your patience. This has been a very challenging time. We are excited to update you about this project in a transparent way and relay the path forward to finishing Sirens: Battle of the Bards.

The following are the major items that still need to be completed for our campaign and setting book. Our main chapters and side quests need to resume their first round of playtesting and then go through their second round. Once these two rounds are completed, they will undergo another series of re-writes, mechanic tweaks, and developmental editing. After those are completed, proofreading for these sections can commence. That will then be followed by layout, where we combine our text, art, and music and place them into our chapter templates.

Due to the size of this book and the amount of editing and re-writes which still need to be done, this will not be a quick process. Additionally, our estimated timeline has been extended because we (Satine and Jamison) are now finishing this project by ourselves on weekends with minimal external help.

Estimated Timeline
Playtesting: 2-3 months.
Re-writes, mechanic tweaks, and developmental editing: 3-4 months.
Proofreading: TBD, 1-3 months estimated.
Layout: 3 months.
PDF version estimated completion in 12 to 13 months.
Printing and shipping timelines will then be based on external partners.

Due to the profound changes our lives have undergone, this work will be started in December 2022. This means we are looking at a rough date for our Draft PDF to be released in December 2023. We know this is not what people wish to hear, but this is a realistic timeline for what two people can accomplish on their days off work for a 300,000-word book. Starting December 2022, we (Satine and Jamison) will re-commence monthly updates that include relevant info such as merchandise, playtesting, art, music, layout samples, timeline updates, etc.

Based on recent Kickstarter comments and personal messages, we wish to reiterate the Kickstarter Community guidelines, which can be found here Community Guidelines — Kickstarter.

Although this timeline is sad for us, we are very excited to have a viable path forward to finishing this beautiful book and getting it and our awesome Sirens: Battle of the Bards merchandise into everyone’s hands.

Satine and Jamison