My name is Rob Vaux and I was the brand manager for 7th Sea 1E about 20 years ago. The Paizo situation has opened up trauma about the abuse @wickedthought inflicted on myself and other people while he was developing 7th Sea 1E.
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First, read this.
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Back? Okay, here we go.
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@wickedthought quit our company in 1999. Before that, he had gone from golden boy to active liability in a shockingly fast period.
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@wickedthought bullied other staff members on a daily basis, in ways that went beyond verbal abuse. He engineered whisper campaigns, made open threats behind closed doors, and would actively sabotage projects in order to make others look bad.
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When pressed on uncomfortable topics, @wickedthought could fly into sudden, violent rages. He once shoved the knickknacks off of my office shelf while telling me how badly he’d like to physically hurt another writer whom he had authority over.
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Twice @wickedthought was credibly accused of plagiarism, and when I confronted him on one of them, he didn’t deny it. He simply said, “no one will believe them.”
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There were numerous other examples and they increased in frequency the less he was held accountable.
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Other writers had to pick up the slack. An L5R module he was assigned called "The Code of Bushido" was written by 3 other writers in 12 hours -- 25,000 words -- after he announced on deadline day that he hadn't written anything. Not one word.
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Editing times would be cut to zero because he couldn't complete basic writing commitments. Management never punished him, and the rest of us were simply expected to get the games out regardless.
10/25
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When @wickedthought quit, he left 7th Sea 1E in a precarious state. The company was on the verge of collapse and the game was a mess. Along with some better people than John, we managed to pull the game and the company back from certain collapse.
11/25
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I knew @wickedthought got the game back in 2015, but I wasn't following it beyond that. I looked at the 7th Sea page after reading @jessicaprice's account of Paizo
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@wickedthought had effectively produced nothing for it in 4 years.
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Looking at contrast between the last four years of 1E and the last four of 2E is an object lesson in the industry's systemic double standard for unqualified white boys who are fun at parties.
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When we got 7th Sea 1E, we had to produce nine books a year, on time and under budget or the company would go under. That was the state
@wickedthought had brought it to with his mismanagement, just before he quit to let us face the music.
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We worked weekends and long nights and 80+ hour weeks for years on end. We produced 46 books in that time.
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@wickedthought sold 35 of them, none of which he worked on, as part of his 2E Kickstarter game. He has never acknowledged our contribution to his million-dollar payday.
A "thank you" would have been free, John.
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In the same period of time, @wickedthought has produced exponentially less, despite being paid seven figures in advance and having @Chaosium_Inc ride to his rescue in the middle of it: something the rest of us were never afforded when we cleaned up this mess the first time.
18/25
He’s currently blowing his third chance on a game where he never should have had a second. He’s ghosting customers on the Kickstarter page. Flying monkeys are attacking commenters frustrated with the lack of response.
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A few words on narcissism here. If @wickedthought's flying monkey up there sounds like the tone and approach of a Donald Trump supporter, that's no mistake. Insult. Belittle. Change the topic to avoid a hard question.
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@wickedthought is smarter than Donald Trump and he's not racist, but once you clear those very low bars, the similarities start adding up.
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Ignore the politics for the next two sets of images. Look at the semantics and the tone.
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Narcissists like inserting themselves into issues that aren't necessarily about them.
They also like making idle threats that they aren't prepared to follow up on.
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Narcissists like referring to themselves in the third person too.
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I found these examples with a 10-minute look at his feed. I promise you there are more. And like Trump, the nastiest stuff takes place out of public view.
THREAD CONTINUES
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All of this starts at places like Gen Con. Fans and industry professionals interact with movers and shakers with an eye on having fun.
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No one wants to think about who that fun guy they hang out with twice a year is exploit and abuse when they get home. Abusers take advantage of that by grooming character witnesses and greasing skids among industry management.
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No one wants to think about who that fun guy they hang out with twice a year is exploit and abuse when they get home. Abusers take advantage of that by grooming character witnesses and greasing skids among industry management.
2/19
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Those of you going to Gen Con need to think long and hard about people there like John and like the people at Paizo, who you might otherwise interact with without a second thought.
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Letting them be charming and fun without pushback enables the abuse they inflict on others after everyone goes home.
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Letting them be charming and fun without pushback enables the abuse they inflict on others when everyone goes home.
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Don’t dismiss. Don’t downplay. Don’t do any self-soothing about the people you’re talking to because they seem charming and friendly, and have maybe too easy an explanation as you shouldn’t worry your pretty little head about their hiring practices.
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I’m telling my story, but the point of all of this is that isn’t about me or John or 7th Sea or any one single thing. It’s the whole industry. From stem to stern.
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There are dozens of @wickedthought 's standing behind booths at Gen Con right now, most of them in positions of authority and all of them happy to screw over anyone and everyone in the name of their own entitlement.
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In the light of Paizo, no industry figure has earned the benefit of the doubt on anything.
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There is no company, no individual, no president, lead designer, name artist or anyone with any influence at all who has the moral authority to duck hard questions from their customers about how they do business.
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So instead of asking them about the next exciting game, ask them about their work practices.
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Ask them what their policy is towards hiring more women and POC. Ask them how they intend to address the fallout from Paizo in their own workforce.
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If they’ve had production problems, ask them why. If there’s troubling content in their games, call them on it.
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Ask them, specifically, what their company policy is towards treating credible accusations of sexual harassment or similar abuse.
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Start caring about how the games you want to see are being put together. And be prepared to drop some if it turns out you’re enabling awful people.
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You might get pushback. You might get snapped at. You might make the whole thing awkward. But if you shrug and ignore it, nothing changes.
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Don’t let your good time at a convention enable bad people to do shitty things when you aren’t around.
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Also, I don't doubt that @wickedthought has an ear infection, but I guarantee you he'll use it to avoid asking any questions he doesn't like this weekend. Narcissists do that too.
19/19
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#PaizoAccountability #GenCon #GenCon2021
Or and one more question for both @wickedthought and @Chaosium_Inc , should they deign to read this.
John was in lockdown for the whole of 2020, just like the rest of us.
What, exactly, had a higher priority on his time than finishing the game he was paid $1 million to write?
I'm going to add any other corroborating here.
Apparently, @wickedthought destroyed an entire convention.
How is it that this man was given $1 million and protection from @Chaosium_Inc ?
Third-party confirmation via rpg.net. Thank you poster!
#PaizoAccountability #GenCon
As an employee of AEG at the time, I'm embarrassed by this. I am so, so sorry to anyone treated this way.
@Chaosium_Inc , please talk to any employees in contact with @wickedthought, and give them safety. I guarantee you, this behavior is taking place in your offices right now.
Another post on the rpg.net thread. I stand corrected on the "he's not a racist" statement. @wickedthought ... shame on you.
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And confirmation on the same thread.
Another update. In 2006, @wickedthought was banned from RPG.net for perpetrating a hoax.
@Chaosium_Inc: this is systemic, decades-old behavior, and it's the kind of thing that would turn up in a standard background check.
forum.rpg.net/index.php?thre…
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