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

 

[mythago]

Or that they pay attention in the first place. I'm thinking most people in the hobby don't really take a keen interest in how the sausage is made.

Sure, but those folks won't be focusing on 'freelancers claimed they didn't get paid' while ignoring 'freelancer claims she was lured to an isolated area and then propositioned', which was @Oncewasbenji 's point.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

To be honest it's not the accusations about pay that troubled me. It was the one about him driving a defenceless woman out into the woods with no way back under the pretence if business then propositioning her for s*x in a place she couldn't escape. So saying 'most are baseless but not saying which ones, that's the one they need to clarify independently before I'd ever choose to value their output again.

That accusation is the reddest of red flags to me.

The rest is just noise in the background in comparison.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

One thing I want to point out is that the listed deadline for product fulfillment was December 2021. If their writing deadline was the end of the October, there was never any way they were going to make that date.

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.

 

[darjr]

Red Opera and Sirens RPG writer Rick Heinz discusses the tribulations of working at Apotheosis.

Author and Apotheosis writer Rick Heinz describes his fraughtexperience working with Jamison Stone's Apotheosis Studio

www.dicebreaker.com

 

[darjr]

 

[Umbran]

I thought civil claims court was the venue for pay disputes, not Twitter.

Wage theft amounts to about $8 billion annually in the US. The courts, clearly, are not handling the issue.

So a boss talked ugly to a subordinate? What is the world coming to? What a terrible thing!

I recall, so long ago, one of my bosses saying "JD, what the (bleep) is wrong with you? Did your mother have any kids weren't (bleep)? Give Patrick his pants back, and knock the (bleed) (bleep-Bleep) off!" Back then, we called that Monday.

That you accept abuse is not a reason for anyone else to do so.

But to the issue at hand, if these people were such Dickensians to work with, the problem should swiftly sort itself out, shouldn't it?

Only if there is widespread communication about them, such that others know to avoid them in the future. You are witnessing that process as you read this thread. Basically, you are pooh-poohing the very thing you say should happen.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I find it ironic that for all his threats of "You're done in the industry. I'm gonna cancel you. You're out," it is likely that Stone is the one getting drummed out of the industry.

Red Opera and Sirens RPG writer Rick Heinz discusses the tribulations of working at Apotheosis.

Author and Apotheosis writer Rick Heinz describes his fraughtexperience working with Jamison Stone's Apotheosis Studio

www.dicebreaker.com

When I think about the bosses that I learned the most from, and the bosses that were toughest, I guarantee the circles of that Venn Diagram barely touch, if at all.

That you accept abuse is not a reason for anyone else to do so.

 

[dragoner]

I think there is a divide between products that make money and those that do not, where for a lot of this, it is the expectation that the product will make money.

 

[Sacrosanct]

When I think about the bosses that I learned the most from, and the bosses that were toughest, I guarantee the circles of that Venn Diagram barely touch, if at all.

Indeed. There was a phrase I heard years ago: People don't quit their jobs. They quit their bosses.

I think there is a lot of truth there. As someone who has been in leadership positions for nearly 30 years now in various manifestations (coaching, teaching, military NCO, corporate supervisor/manager), you absolutely cannot mistreat your staff unless you want a disaster. Even if you somehow manage to avoid an HR nightmare, people won't want to work for you if they don't respect you or feel respected by you. Sure, some people will work because they need the job, and will do well in spite of you because of their own career goals, but you'll never maximize your team if you aren't a fair leader.

• Lead by example (never ask someone to do something you aren't willing to do yourself)
• Be present for them
• Recognize everyone is an individual with individual motivations (tailor your leadership style to each person, rather than take blanket approaches)
• Stand up for them and fight for them
• Do what you can to set them up for success and their future. This is a big one I see leaders fail at the most often. Too many leaders I see want to keep high performers on their team for their own stats. That builds resentment. If I have high performers, I want to know what their goals are and the best way I can support them because they are the kind of people you want higher up.
• Make sure everyone has the tools and information to the best of your ability to provide it to do their jobs.
• Do your best to remove hurdles to their success (recognizing how everyone may have different hurdles).
• Recognize the diversity/strengths/weakness of your team and use that to build cohesion and strong partnerships.

That's just a start. You can go a long way by being nice, being informative, and being honest.

 

[dragoner]

I think I got as about the same respect washing dishes at steak and shake as I did being lead engineer retrofitting an elevator into a structure in a mud slide, earthquake, and fire zone in California. Often about the best was getting put with the other engineers from China or India in the international teams.