Zak S and other Horrible Tabletop People

This is a repost of information that I originally collected in a Google Plus post. Since Google Plus is going away soon, I figured I'd make a new home to keep all this information available so that it doesn't get lost. It's important that we keep people informed of these harassers in tabletop space, and the best way I can help is to keep the information alive.

* * *

To do my part, I'm collecting all the different stories and blogs about Zak S I can find, and linking them all right here, for easy reference. If you have something to add, link it in the comments, and I'll throw it on the pile.

A good place to start, talking about Zak S and RPGPundit, the other awful gamer who 'consulted' for 5E.

A firsthand account of Zak S's tactics from one of his targets.

Revealing Zak S as the force behind the 'satire' (Read: harassment) blog the Dongion, by Ettin.

Pictures of how Zak S sics his followers on harassment targets.

A_Man_In_Black talking about Zak on Twitter.

A post about the time Zak tried to use a charity to make his harassment victims engage with him.

More on Zak S from A_Man_In_Black.

A post in three parts from Tracy Hurley, who has experienced Zak's bullshit firsthand. Special guest appearance by the Pundit, everyone's other least favorite D&D consultant and general horrible person.

Another instance of Zak S calling on his fanbase to harass someone, this time because the target wasn't a fan of Star Wars. Notice how there's at least 4 goddamn years of tweet and post history there, searched and saved just for an occasion like this.

Screenshots of Zak fucking up his use of sockpuppets on Reddit.

Zak got banned from Wikipedia for sockpuppeting, too.

Some words from Shannon Appelcline, the man who Zak was pretending to be in the above screenshot.

Olivia Hill weighing in on some of what she's gone through.

A link to a screenshot of the trans character in the VtM Prelude game Olivia mentions above.

Yet another example of Zak being a weird, debate-rules asshole, this time to Brian Yaksha.

A long and heartbreaking post from Zak's former girlfriend, Mandy Morbid. Content Warning on this one, it's ugly.

https://www.facebook.com/VivkaCriesWolf/posts/2478145012257909
Another one of Zak's exes, Vivka Grey, speaks out. Content warning still in full effect.

Okay, buckle up. This bit isn't pretty. Content warning is very much in effect here, I cannot stress this enough, do not read the court decision if sexual assault is triggering for you. First link is Vivka's tweet and a link to her Gofundme, second link is the court decision, third and fourth links are Tracey Hurley talking about the court decision. Summary follows.

So, after Mandy and Vivka spoke up, and people finally started realizing how awful Zak really was, he started suing people left and right to scare them into silence. Mandy's court case is still ongoing, but Vivka's recently ended. The court ruled against her in one count of defamation, because Zak did not actually use physical violence to force Vivka to move in with him. However, the court also ruled that her other 6 statements were found to be true. These other 6 statements are, in large part, about Zak forcing Vivka to have sex with him.

-----<<<>>>-----

Zak S isn't the only horrible person in our hobby, though. Another major bigot haunting RPGs is James Desborough, who has been trying his hardest to bring GG into the tabletop realm.

Here's Ettin with a good overview of Des's antics.

Des deserves special mention for achieving something that was heretofore unheard of: making a game so vile and unpleasant that DriveThruRPG refused to carry it. This 'game' was a card game about GG versus the people it targets, and while he claimed it was 'fair and unbiased', everything from the sample cards to the product blurbs clearly paint the GGers as noble defenders of gaming against the horrid, inhuman social justice squad. It's the Fox News of card games.

-----<<<>>>-----

This is a blog that covers a lot of the problematic elements in tabletop. Zak S and Des come up quite a bit, of course, but they're not the only ones.

* * *

Please feel free to share this far and wide, and make sure everyone knows exactly who these people are.

Comments

Post a Comment