Zak Smith Sues Gen Con / Peter Adkison for Defamation, Interference with Business Expectancy, Violation of the Washington Consumer Protection Act, and More

Let me say straight off the bat, my personal opinion of Zak Smith, based on my interactions with him online over the years, is that he is a wannabe bully. He is also extremely talented as an adventure writer and when he is on target he has few that can match him. I still think he's a POS.

All that being said, I suspect that Gen Con / Peter Adkison will be paying out on this lawsuit. As was pointed out to me, the filing was likely timed as the statute of limitations to file such a suit is 2 years from the date of the incident, and it's likely there were attempts to negotiate a settlement prior. Now, it's all public and NOT the kind of publicity Gen Con needs less than six months prior to - hopefully - going back to an in-person convention this year.

I personally think the major allegation is Interference with a Business Expectancy, as my understanding is that the bar that needs to be met to prove such is relatively lower in the State of Washington than other jursidictions.

I shared this news on the podcast last night, for those that aren't excited about reading a 13-page lawsuit:

https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/episodes/Zak-Smith-is-Suing-GenCon-for-Defamation-and-More-er8e7c

https://youtu.be/k-3HX1-wrlQ

Still Trying to Get That Intro Game Going

 

I'm not sure I've mentioned that I'm currently unemployed....long dumb story, but in the end I'm just killing time waiting for my old job to re-hire me under a new employer. The end result is I have way too much time on my hands.

I don't do that great with a lot of time on my hands. I'm one of those people that are more productive when I'm already busy doing other stuff. If I have a week with nothing to do (or should I note, a week where I don't have anything I *have* to do) then nothing will get done. Oh I have a work project bleeding into my time at home? I'll probably work out some time to hit the gym and maybe even start some writing. While I'm at it, let's start panting those minis.....

.....ok, that's a stretch. We all have minis that aren't getting painted! Kind of a gaming maxim.....

One of my only true goals during this expected two-month "staycation" in between employers was to get some dice rolling for one of my buddy's daughters who "wanted to learn to game". I've written about that here before so I'll not delve into the fine details.

I'm thinking I should have dropped off physical copies of my game books for her to read and some dice. Now I did drop off PDFs of rulebooks and have since acquired dice. Thanks to Erik's post I found out about that Dollar Tree RPG dice set and I scooped up enough for a full group. I put a couple sets into an OG Dice Bag (Crown Royal bag), along with some cheap d6's.....I like to have dedicated d6's for character creation, but I'm odd that way.

I'm thinking I'll make a second pass at this and drop off my physical books (lending!) and the dice, along with some PC sheets. If they want to throw down while I'm there we'll make PCs and I can easily run an intro adventure off the top of my head...'cause I wrote one for HackMaster which will work for other systems. If you follow that link.....it is PWYW, but please put in $0.

I have been working on some modular terrain as well. I figure if I use some terrain instead of "theater of the mind" or a basic battlemap it might go over better.

Of course, I know I can only do so much and in the end, it doesn't matter. If she wants to game, it'll happen, and if not......well then I have some more dice and terrain. Win/Win for me either way!

Special Note:

I wrote all this stuff yesterday (Saturday) and went over today for brinner and no dice (pun intended). Will have to circle back around later in the week and see if there is still any interest.

I Backed 27 Projects During ZineQuest - Holy Sh!t

I backed 27 projects during ZineQuest month over on Kickstarter, and I literally thought I had backed more. Like 27 isn't already a huge number ;)

My initial budget for spending on ZineQuest - a "soft" budget, and more like a suggestion and not a hard limit, was $250. In the end, it wound up just north of $525. Holy shit.

I could easily have backed more, but my spending was already out of control, so I stopped looking for new projects as the month went on, and for that, I am sorry. I'm sure there were some Zines that were notably released later in the month, but my cup had runneth over.

I'm not going to list the ones I backed, because I know there were some I wanted to back and never did. Again, it was a matter of quality or lack of interest, it simply came down to a lack of available funds. Suffice to say, I'll be enjoying the zines I did back for months to come.

If you haven't checked out ZineQuest, there are still some projects that are funding and could use more backing. Here's your ZineQuest link.

A huge "thank you" to all of the Zine creators, past, present, and future. The light you shine keeps this hobby alive and vibrant.

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