#TTRPG – On Satine Phoenix and Jamison Stone

There’s yet another kerfuffle in the RPG Twitterverse, but when isn’t there? This time it’s around various alleged behaviour and unprofessionalism from Satine Phoenix and Jamison Stone. Now, I don’t know Jamison from Adam, but Satine I do know – at least a bit – and these allegations do not sound like her.

Of course, finding professionalism in the RPG industry is like finding stripes on a leopard. It’s a hobby industry and runs on goodwill and handshakes, for the most part. It’s low pay, low appreciation and – increasingly – a very hostile place to work. You do it for the love and, like many creative industries, you’re lucky to be paid at all, let alone on time.

The initial issue seems to have been over tattoos, and the intellectual property involved, along with the related contract. Having been boned by contracts in the past (Munchkin) and having seen how people freak out over the wording of Facebook’s terms of service: “THEY’RE GOING TO STEAL YOUR CONTENT!” it’s hard to get worked up about this one.

A lot of the rest seems to be down to mismatched expectations between the RPG industry and the rest of the entertainment industry. Someone involved seems to have higher expectations of the hobby in terms of celebrity treatment and someone else seems to have lowered expectations.

Some of the behaviour seems to be truly assholish, but a lot of these claims are coming from people who I know to be proven arseholes. The kinds of people purity-spiralling the RPG industry into oblivion and finding any excuse to ‘cancel’, berate and be horrible to anyone – yours truly included. None of them have ever cared about what’s true in the past, so I find that I ‘haz a suspicious’ whenever they turn on anyone.

Like I said, I don’t really know Jamison at all, but Satine I do.

Back during the ‘I Hit it With My Axe’ days, Satine – and the others involved – were frequently attacked by both social conservative types and so-called progressives due to their involvement in adult/sex work. This always struck me as obviously wrong and regressive and I felt that the whole group were doing a lot of positive things for the image of RPGs and the creativity involved.

Later, in 2013, I offered Satine work on Machinations of the Space Princess, doing the cover and much of the interior art. I couldn’t pay very much (being an indie creator) but Satine was nothing but professional, grateful and accommodating throughout the process of doing the work. Her celebrity and brand took off after that and we didn’t really get the opportunity to work together again, but I would have had no hesitation in doing so and would do so again.

Some years later we had the opportunity to meet up when Satine travelled to London on a whistle-stop your while working for Wizards of the Coast as their community liaison. I felt a little like a tag-along through the whole thing, but people weren’t coming to the meet-ups to see me and during the whole visit, Satine was nothing but gracious, thankful and compassionate with me and her many fans who turned up to meet her. Satine and her companions covered my lunch, seemed glad of the company and I was made to feel welcome and wanted – even if it was just to hang out.

The only fly in the ointment of our friendship was following the UK Games Expo controversy a couple of years back when I stood up for someone else being spuriously accused of various terrible things. For the awful crime of giving an accused man a platform to defend himself I was – again – subjected to attack, and amongst those attacks was a concerted effort to get various friends to disown me. Satine was amongst those targeted by the mob and she, sadly, gave in to the pressure.

I can understand why. It is a lot of pressure to be put under, but the people doing that were many of the same people going after her now. It doesn’t seem like they can ever be appeased, and trying to do so seems like a fool’s errand. Little wonder then, that I’m suspicious of these accusations now, though they do seem to be undeniably consistent and profligate, so I’m beginning to wonder.

Whatever the case, in this feeding frenzy that’s going on it’s worth noting that Satine was never anything but professional, grateful and compassionate with me – or anyone else I saw her interact with. If anything has changed, it’s recent. Everyone deserves a chance, and I’d rather be trusting and forgiving than the alternative.

Whatever anyone has done or hasn’t done, it’s not acceptable to drag them for their past or their tattoos. Be better.

Zang.

#RPG – Postmortem Studios Update

Hello all,

It’s time for a little update, just to let you know what’s going on.

I’m a bit rammed with work, having agreed to help out a bunch of people, or to layout and publish their material. I love doing it – helping people get their ideas out there and focussing more on presentation – but it does take time away from my own projects. As usual, I’ve over-promised when I’ve felt well, and as such am over-obligated when I don’t feel well.

You’d think I’d learn!

My Patreon has rolled over the amount where I’m committed to daily videos again, and I’m going to try to get back into that habit, but directly paying work has to come first and I’m reasonably sure that my patrons want me to produce work, over meeting that commitment.

Next publication is Welcome to St Cloud, by Miguel Ribeiro, who wrote our well-received systemless/AFM Giallo trilogy. This time it’s a Lynchian investigative horror location, drawing on the style and aesthetic of Twin Peaks.

After that it’s *Punk (Splatpunk), which is an Action!/Interlock retroclone, designed to be coupled with sourcebooks like Cyber*, Bio*, Clock* etc for different types of genres in the ‘x-punk’ genre umbrella, and to preserve accessibility to an important ‘heritage’ game system. There’ll be hardcopy available, but the main rules will either be free or PWYW.

Then we have another book by Mr Ribeiro, called Postcards from ZOA, which will draw thematically on Burroughs’ Interzone and other surrealistic sources.

After that, a medieval bestiary by Neil Coates, who wrote ‘A Lapidary of Won’drous Stones‘ for us, and who seems to specialise in making some sort of sense out of medieval nonsense so it can be used in games.

All this time I am still working on Wightchester, and we have about half the baseline art complete already. Hopefully we’ll still be good to go with the Indiegogo fundraiser at some point this summer. Provided I can get the baseline writing complete in time with everything else going on.

All that and I’m still running weekly 5th Edition D&D games as part of Tabletopless, all for a very adult audience on Manyvids and Chaturbate, and monthly Cyberpunk RED games on the same services.

Given my recent loss of some of my disability funding, focussing on the paying work with what effort I can muster takes even greater priority. I hope you’ll forgive me if anything slips down the line, I have another relapse or something else goes pear-shaped. If you want to help out while I try and get these issues sorted out you can sub to my Patreon for as little as $1 a month, for discounts and priority access.

Podcast: Narrative Attack

Full launch Tuesday.

Narrative Attack is a podcast, hosted by Rachel Haywire (futurist, writer, artist, musician and presidential candidate), alongside James ‘Grim’ Desborough (author, publisher, videographer, analogue game designer and cynical old gothabilly).

Together they’ll be offering interviews and commentary on modern culture, politics, technology and esoterica, with a cynical and jaundiced eye.

Join them!
Anchor
RadioPublic
Spotify
Google Podcasts

Postmortem Studios Update 1st March 2019

It’s March, and that means mad March hares, aggressive duck sex in the back garden and the feeling that the year has finally, actually started and one should get on with things. So it goes.

There’s a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ stuff going on that is already interfering with the projects I had planned, albeit in the best way. There’s a possible new computer game project I might be writing for, a couple of guest writers for the few Gorean Adventures and the new store continues to gain traction. Actual Fucking Monsters continues at a reasonable pace in spite of the interruption – I’m currently working on a nice big section of suggested monster powers. I’m also looking to get Alice Through the Garbage Grinder edited late spring/early summer – so there’s some new fiction to look forward to.

In addition to all that I am (slowly) creating an audio version of the 5th Edition D&D SRD, which will be hosted first on my Youtube channel, and then made available as an mp3 audiobook.

Things are productive, even if they don’t necessarily look it.

First things first, do be sure and go and check out our new online store. I’d love to see the majority of our sales shift to that channel, where I’ll also be offering a limited number of ’boutique’ items, physical products, second-hand gaming material and more.

There’s a mailing list you can sign up to there too, to hear when we have something new out, like our new Metacard, roleplay encouragement system. You can also get cheeky discounts by signing up.

• 

• 

The ever-lovely Anna Cherry of Erinyes Angels has modelled some of our t-shirts, so look forward to seeing more of that coming along! I’d love to work with more cosplayers and nerdosphere models of all genders, so if you’d like to model or pose for other products, get in touch.

If you like the shirts, you can get them at Teespring. Anna Cherry’s not included, separate purchase necessary.

So where does that leave various projects?

• Unfortunately, the person I had pegged for the Zelart Scholarship had to drop out and couldn’t deliver a final piece due to an injury. I’ll be doing a separate update on this for you.
• Actual Fucking Monsters should be written by the end of the month, I’m not sure if I need more art for it or not, so it may be out at that time.
• I have to devote some time and energy to this potential computer game project.
• The SRD will be recorded as and when I have the time, but I do intend to see it through to the end.

#RPG – A Thank You to my Fans

The recent nonsense directed at White Wolf/Onyx Path and the new edition of Vampire has made me step back a little and think about the situation this hobby, and I, find myself in. It’s my hope that the sheer ludicrousness of what’s been done to them, and especially the absurd accusations levelled at Mark Rein•Hagen, will wake a few people up. He’s a sweet, nice guy who – while a little naive – is the very opposite of what they accuse him of being.

I look back at everything that’s happened to me since 2010, but especially since 2012, even more so during Gamergate, and it seems incredible; beyond parody. There’s been a slow slide into insanity and while I noticed it creeping into my political and artistic home on the left first, the insanity is now on all sides.

Finding any kind of peace or comfort, creating anything in this kind of atmosphere, is difficult. It’s difficult, even without the other struggles and issues I’ve faced in that time and, thankfully, overcome.

Now I find myself at a bit of a loose end, not quite sure what I want to do with myself creatively – and how or why to go about doing it. Completing the Gor project was exhausting, not just in terms of the work and the (anticipated) negativity, but because I was acutely aware of how late it was every single day, and did everything I could to get it out sooner.

Now I’m aware that I have a rod I have made for my own back, the necessity of supporting a successful game, acclaimed by fans of the series, but knowing it’ll never get any recognition outside of that, not that I particularly seek it. Finding the energy to start or complete another project is also tough, and my hard drive is littered with drafts of short stories, another novel and a half dozen abortive game projects.

On the one hand, it’s heartening, in a way, to see that nobody is safe from these spurious accusations. On the other, it’s depressing to exist in such a stifling, judgemental, censorious and puritanical atmosphere, let alone to create anything in it. I find myself self-censoring (believe it or not) and hating myself for it. After all, if anything you do is going to be considered problematic (or degenerate) then what is the point of holding back? Yet still that pressure is there, and I hate it.

I value, more than I adequately have words to express, the people who have stuck with me throughout this journey. Professional and personal friends, customers, players, artists, writers. Your support and appreciation mean the world to me, and I’m sure it has been a crazy ride this past half-decade for you too.

I don’t know what the future holds. I don’t know – for the first time in a long time – what I actually want to do next. I don’t know where to go next, whether we’ll ever get back to just having fun, sharing stories and creating worlds in our imaginations. I do know that wherever I end up going, whatever I end up doing, there are good people out there still, who appreciate the principle, honesty and integrity I try to bring to my work. Even, even especially, when it costs me.

Love to you all.

G

#RPG #TTRPG – Inappropriate Characters Vodcast Launches

#RPG #TTRPG – Postmortem Studios May Update

The art on the left is by Brad McDevitt, who sells a ton of stock art through us. Perfect if you’re starting out making your own games or need something cool for a handout. This art isn’t only for use in RPGs, you can use it in any of your personal or professional projects, subject to the license.

First things first! If you don’t already follow me everywhere, please make sure you do! It’s the only way to ensure you get all our updates and information. You can find me on Youtube, Twitter, Gab, Minds, Instagram, Steemit, Facebook, Bookface, FookBace, GooglePlus and Bitchute. If you’re looking for new social media or blogging support, I can highly recommend Minds and Steemit. It’s well worth setting up a Bitchute account if you have a Youtube account, as it can be set to automagically back up your videos from Youtube and publish them on there. A useful safeguard in this censorious age!

You can support me by buying products at RPGNOW, Lulu.com, Amazon and TheGamecrafter, or go one better and subscribe to support me on Patreon.

MakerSupport has been having some issues of late, but those who follow and support me for $1 a month on Patreon or 1 token a month on Minds.com will get discounts, articles, exclusive access and more.

If you’ve got no money, you can still follow on all these platforms and provide support by upvoting and especially resharing content as algorithms on Facebook and Youtube are choking creators’ exposure.

I also recently added a Teespring store, where you can currently purchase two different T-shirt designs. Check it out! This will be replacing the old Cafepress store, which just can’t compete on quality or exposure.

If you’re a Gor fan, there are now communities for Gor on Facebook, Minds and Googleplus.

Personal Update

I am doing a hell of a lot better, having had my cocktail of brain drugs adjusted. Now, if I could only also get a prescription for Modafinil, I think I might become a Delphi Juicer (RIFTS). This means my output has gone up a lot – as you may have noticed – in terms of blogs, Youtube videos and, behind the scenes, work. I’m slowly getting back into routine and becoming more productive. I’m by no means ‘better’, just more capable. I have a tendency to run myself into the ground with work the moment I’m capable of it, so I’m watching for that.

Youtube and Facebook make raising awareness of product so very difficult it sometimes barely seems worth trying. Recent changes have also led to videos being suppressed on Youtube and followers and subscribers not seeing posts on Facebook, or people leaving Facebook due to privacy concerns. All social media is suffering in this way, save the Alt Tech platforms (like Minds and Gab) which have their own problems since, being free expression havens, their first ‘settlers’ have often been politically or socially unsavoury.

I think we’ve turned a corner on this socially, but the wheels of government and corporatocracy move much slower so it is now Terms of Service and regulation that we now find ourselves battling and when it comes to companies there’s a balance between the rights of the consumer and the rights of the owner that needs to be struck. The public square is in private hands and that presents all sorts of problems for our social and political institutions and our understanding of the right to free speech. The Count Dankula trial is probably the best example of how bad this can get and how important it is.

This is the environment in which I find myself working on more Gor material. Making a rod for my own back I suppose! I don’t intend to self-censor at all. We’ll see how bad things get I guess.

I’m currently working on regular blogs and other content, trying to drive people to subscribe and support on Patreon to help push up a regular income, as well as a fantasy setting for Machinations of the Space Princess (odd, I know) and more Gorean supplements.

I massively appreciate your feedback, even if you don’t like something. So please don’t forget to rate, review, share and if you would like me on a podcast or stream to chat or be interviewed/interrogated, let me know. Questions and suggestions are always welcome any format, any where.

ZANG!

#RPG – Roll Up! Roll Up! Welcome to The Carnival of Grimness!

Genties, Ladymen and children of all genders!

Cast your functioning sensory organs in something approximating this direction and gaze in awe and wonder at the cavalcade of entertainment and dysfunction on show!

Step this way, and for the low, low fee of your attention you will find diversions most deviant, entertainments most exciting and writings most wicked. We practically (but not actually) guarantee your satisfaction and amusement!

Behold, the hall of Social Media! What distractions and horrors may lie inside these darkened halls?

Perhaps you seek the cheap thrill of voyeurism to be found in the unblinking gaze of Madam Narcissist!

Will you test your mettle and your patience in the Blue Bird Arena?

Perhaps one of our fabulous freaks, Bookface will entertain you with his mind reading tricks, targeted advertising and most diverting groups?

There are new attractions too, wild and untamed creatures from the furthest reaches of the internet, untouched by Amazon or Google. Dare you risk the Tent of Bulbs, it’s burlesque titillations or its house of games?

Try your luck against the Honest Interlocutor to see if you have the gift of the Gab, win yourself a stuffed frog.

Away from the hoi polloi are the caravans, offering delectations to our more discerning visitors.

If you are of a more cerebral nature, our players will entertain you with dice-based diversions or play out stories for your entertainment. There are books too, but the odds are you already Reddit…

Perhaps marvellous mechanisms will better meet your motivation, in which case sign up for a ride on our Steem-powered rollercoaster? It rises and falls with the speed and terror of a cryptocurrency’s value!

Finally, at the centre of our little circus, you will find the Astounding Arena of Audiovisual Announcement, where your eyes and ears will be tickled by recordings from The Great Beardini!

Don’t forget to visit our concession stands on your way out.

Here you can buy your own versions of our games and books.

Apparel to clad your fragile bodies and protect them from the elements.

Boards, cards, dice and devices to distract you from your imminent mortality.

Not to mention other, miscellaneous junk and tat we’re trying to get shot of.

Finally, can I perhaps tempt you with a season ticket?

For as little as a single of your Earth dollars, you can gain access to the carnival and the ringmaster as much as you may care to spend your time here, not to mention getting plenty of discounts on our other diversions.

We accept Many, Forms of Currency.

Failing that, please leave a tip in the jar on your way out.

And failing that… well… the trolls always need to be fed.

#AprilTTRPGmaker Who are you?

There’s a ‘thirty-day challenge’ (these are popular in the TTRPG community) aimed towards tabletop game designers. I need content and am trying to recover from a long and nasty bout of depression, so this seems like a good way to try and get back on track.

The first question is ‘who are you’? Which is either a really deep or a really shallow question, depending which way you take it.

I’m James ‘Grim’ Desborough. The ‘Grim’ was originally an insult, directed at me at college where I was a mopey goth kid with a dark and sick sense of humour. The slang of the time was ‘that’s Grim’ for anything disgusting or awful, so with typical contrarianism, I adopted it as my nickname. Hence ‘Grim Jim’.

I’m a rapidly-ageing, semi-notorious game designer, known better for a rather thin gruel of supposed transgression than my work in game design and independent publishing – which is unfortunate.

I’ve had my toe in the game design waters since the early 90s, but my career really took off in 1999-2000, with the publication of The Munchkin’s Guide to Powergaming (which kicked off the whole Munchkin phenomenon and lead to a lot of freelance work).

Since around 2005 I’ve primarily been working on my own material, but I’ve been suffering from bouts of depression since 2007-2008 which have made work and freelancing rather difficult. Still, I struggle on and while my work is informed by my interest in history, old-school left-wing politics and my struggles with mental illness, it rarely dominates my work – with the exception of one or two projects such as ImagiNation and The Little Grey Book.

I occupy a design/writing space somewhere between the OSR and Indie scene, and most other sociopolitical armed camps, which means I end up pleasing nobody and being a filthy centrist! My work is also informed by my commitments to free expression, controversial (meaning, interesting) subjects, sexual freedom and the implications of science (and fantasy) on society.

Hopefully, that sounds interesting 🙂

Where to find me

I’ve had a bit of a spring clean and a re-brand of all my sites. So it seems like a good time to show you where you can find me, contact me, talk to me, bother me with questions and so on.

This is just my social media/website presence, but from this site – at least – you should be able to find everywhere that you can buy something of mine – should you be so inclined.

 

• My main ‘hub’ website is this one, where you can find most of my links, stores and so on as well as the most regular updates.ch as
• Community support is necessary to make things viable for creators such as myself these days and as such, please consider donating a buck a month to my Patreon.
• My writing/stories website can be found here. Here I talk about stories, writing and issues around it such as censorship.
• I have a Youtube channel where I provide game reviews and discussion, social and political commentary, humour, stories, ‘choose your own adventure’ poll games and more.
• On Facebook I can be found at Postmortem Studios, JGDGames and JDWriter as well as, as myself.
• G+ is still surprisingly active in a lot of ways, you can still find me there.
• There’s a Machinations of the Space Princess group over on G+ as well.
• Of the New Media alternatives, I find Minds.com to be the better one, you can find me there.
• I also run a roleplaying oriented group on Minds which you’re welcome to join.
• If you want to send me questions and queries, I have an Ask.fm.
• If you like random pictures of cats, countryside and me, then Instagram is here.
• My Twitter remains active and can be found here.