Quick Check-In

Just wanted to stop in. Work on 'Goblins, Part 1: The D&D Official Take' continues.

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As an aside, I've been reading up on Zak Sabbath/Smith, the once-popular porn star who also made D&D stuff before being accused of sexually assaulting his then-girlfriend. He consulted with WOTC, in addition to working on some of the best modules out there in the OSR, and many today still regularly cite their work in forums and so on.

I'd long held the opinion, one which has not changed, that based on the available evidence, we'll likely never know the exactitudes of what happened; that the guy definitely was an asshole for a long period of his life and needed to work on themselves; and ultimately that the vast amount of internet dog-piling that took place heavily distorts the ability to get at the truth of things. I will say that continuing evidence does not support either an assault claim, or the various claims that Zak is anti-LGBTQ. Evidence does, however, support that the guy was confrontational, blunt, and abrasive in a ton of interactions with strangers in forums/on Twitter as well as with individuals they knew personally whether professionally or in passing due to their popularity online. Evidence supports that they, at one point, used an individual's name (who had previously made themselves an enemy of Zak's) as a false identity on Reddit to post in their own favor; and evidence suggests a great many people were hurt by their behavior, sometimes justified, sometimes not, since Zak was being regularly attacked and spoken ill of, and would defend themselves aggressively.

Working in the industry I do, I think it's reasonable to assume the guy had his own issues with mental health.

If this all sounds like a lot of internet drama bullshit, it is. But it's one I regularly check in on, and try to keep up on the facts, because there are ongoing legal battles, and because the specifics are important to me as a member of the LGBTQ and sex-positive communities, as well as D&D as a hobby. I encourage listening to, and believing, women. I encourage taking accusations of this nature seriously, which is exactly what I'm doing when I look into this stuff for evidence and context. Furthermore, I believe in Occam's razor as a decent measuring stick for this kind of thing, and I'm led to believe that while the guy was definitely an asshole, its just that. He was just an asshole, not a rapist, not a serial abuser, not an internet harasser (at least not intentionally anyway).

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Anyway, rant done. Mostly, as a D&D blogger myself, I guess I'm part of that world now and I felt like I should have a take. And as with any asshole who is still skilled at what they do professionally, I will take the good and leave the bad, until such a time as I find evidence of actual intense wrongdoing to the degree that I would rather vomit than interact with their work.

Complicated topic, but if you end up as a fan of my blog, don't harass people who disagree with me, for fuck's sake. It just makes ME look bad, and they literally won't be affected in any way that turns them positively towards my opinions. Let me respond to what I think warrants a response, and let me ignore people who are ultimately trivial to me. Which is a philosophy that would have saved Zak S. ass many times over.