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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WhatLiesBeyond" data-source="post: 9405401" data-attributes="member: 7043363">Alright, so it looks Andrew is trying muddy the waters on the Manual of the Planes 5e page with private messages, so it's high time that I get the full story out. I have confirmed with my lawyer that all of this is above-board and that Andrew cannot touch these statements with accusations of defamation, so there is no reason to hold this back anymore.As I mentioned previously in various places, there have been issues going on behind the scenes of Manual of the Planes (5e) on DMsGuild ever since the beginning of the project. The primary issues pertain to Editor Andrew Welker and his self-aggrandizing and hostile behavior towards other members of the development team.TLDR: Andrew Welker has sabotaged the project and driven away the team to try and control the book and I believe he is stopping the print release out of spite against the team. Andrew now refuses to negotiate or explain anything unless I bring a lawyer into the conversation with him and has consistently insisted on escalating this to legal arguments rather than try to negotiate or settle matters in good faith. In light of this behavior, we are releasing the print edition of the book using a separate DMsGuild page as is our right under the book’s Collective Ownership.I should clarify that Manual of the Planes (5e) is currently available digitally on DMsGuild, but up until May of 2024 we had been working on numerous additional sections to add to the book for its print-on-demand release. We have nicknamed the unreleased updated version "The Fourth Draft", and among the updated materials were set to be new spells, monsters, areas, and advice sections for DMs. I can attest that Afroakuma and I have collectively written over 19,000 words of material which was planned to be added in the Fourth Draft.On April 10th, 2023, George Loki Williams and I had a discord voice call in which we discussed an outline for what would become Manual of the Planes 5e. Later that night, I contacted a colleague asking for help with assembling a team for such a project (specifically, I requested an editor and publisher, which in my mind did not entail a project lead or someone attempting to exercise directive guidance over what goes in the book).Over the next few weeks, both Andrew and myself set out recruiting additional writers for this project, with the most important one to this story being Afroakuma. Fro (as he is often known) is best known for his exhaustive Planar Questions threads on Giant in the Playground, where he has displayed a combination of impressive writing volume, immense passion for the setting and history of Planescape, and a strong desire to educate players and DMs. Fro was willing to join the team and proved a valuable member throughout the pitching and writing phases of the book. His willingness to take on additional writing responsibilities when needed ended up being crucial to the book's completion, with all sixteen of the Outer Planes being mostly Fro's work alongside Ken Marable and other contributors.I won't deny that Andrew's work on the book was invaluable. I certainly appreciate his editing work on the monsters I wrote for the book in addition to the monster adaptations of his own. HIs cover art is spectacular and his layout work is gorgeous. That said, this does not excuse his treatment of several other team members.None of the material done for this book was under contract, a mistake that I regret and that I aim to rectify in any of my future projects.One thing that I would like to say before any discussion begins is that the appointment of a sensitivity reader for this book was my proposal. Andrew put me in contact with Eleanor Tremeer and was willing to implement her suggestions, although I cannot say that his perceptions towards the hiring of a sensitivity reader were anything beyond ambivalent. I do not believe that discussions around sensitivity reading in Planescape should have any bearing on this discussion, but I have seen enough vehement opinions about Eleanor's involvement on this book that I feel the need to add this disclaimer.</blockquote>

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