RPGG

RPGG 

2024.12.18

"I hit it with my instaban-hammer." 

Moderators of RPGG deleted my account for posting evidence supporting Zak. 

[q="dysjunct"]

Maybe some are legit people with an interest in RPG discussion though, so who knows. What’s his goal here?[/q]

I have legit interests in RPGs. This is verifiable. 

I’m not here to advertise my web links or rpg products, however. 

Please do not instantly assume I am a bad person for saying the following opinion. I have a right to an opinion of my own. I believe I am using reasonable logic here. Also, you did ask. 

I believe Zak also has legit interests in RPG. The fact he is an RPG designer with awards for his products it is not something to ignore. He probably has more legit interest than most people as it’s his income, his career - while most gamers are consumers. 

What are his goal here? 

Have you seen ReadyPlayerOne? There is a competition in it. Zaks ‘agenda’ to run a competition for people to win a copy of his book for engagement with the RPG community on the forums, seems altruistic. 

It has revealed a panic reaction from certain specific people who are part of a witch-hunt against him. This has escalated to hysteria levels. It is the satanic panic of this generation. Zak is being publicly persecuted, his followers are being publicly persecuted. 

That’s really weird behaviour from the community. Is Zak truly that bad? I’ve read his blogs and seen his work. He’s an autistic savant, often misunderstood, as autistic savants are. 

So I dug deeper to find out what is going on here. I decided to get to know Zak for myself. I started working with him. I opted in for the competition.

It is because I want to get to the bottom of things and find out what’s really going on. Rather than to ‘fit in’ with people passing judgement to character-assassinate somebody who I respect as an artist.

This is what I discovered. 

Zak has been outcast from a community which has damaged his reputation and his career. That community did not ask to see evidence before scape-goating him. That is not Zaks bad. It is public persecution. 

The autistic trait of wanting Truth to prevail, plus defending himself against allegations, motivated Zak to run a campaign of debunking the allegations with actual evidence.

IMO that is a sane thing to do. 

I have seen the evidence. It is real. 

Zak asks people to see the evidence. 

Many people refuse to. People showing the evidence are being banned from forums and doxxed by people who do not believe in evidence based truth. 

That is all this is.

Zak has presented evidence to show that he has cleared his name, repeatedly. The people accusing him of things have been exposed as liars. There are confessions of this. 

In the interests of humanitarianism, and to answer questions asked on this thread, I will risk being banned and doxxed by presenting the evidence here. 

Not because I want a book. It is because Zak is being witch-hunted by liars. It’s that black and white. Truth is still truth even if nobody believes in it. I do.

“All it takes for evil to win is for good men to stand by and do nothing.” 

Except those are not good men. Good men fight for justice. What is happening to Zak is unjust. 

[q="dysjunct"]What’s his goal here?[/q]

In response to a question asked in this forum, a question I also asked, I did some research. 

The complete text of "Get at him" is here.

https://www.tumblr.com/armsinthewronghands/157572020868/complete-text-of-the-get-at-him-post

The complete text of the Destroy post

https://www.tumblr.com/armsinthewronghands/157572086858/complete-text-of-the-destroy-post

Those are responses to people lying on the internet.

Excerpts from a defamation case Zak won:

The claims that those statements are "true" are lies.

The Most Recent court result:

"sock puppet allegations" 

re: sappelcline are here:

https://www.tumblr.com/armsinthewronghands/167447123123/timeline-of-the-zak-wars

Before I get banned for defending justice, I might as well drop these links to:

https://archive.is/0Nv3c

And the audio confessions: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GJAJNbF2Tg

The Cam Banks case:

Civ-2021-044-169

District Court North Shore Registry

“All it takes for evil to win is a good men to standby and do nothing.”

Except those are not good men. 

Good men fight for justice. 

Bad men call that spam.

Many people don't understand how legal language and court processes work, and that can cause confusion. In legal terms, the phrase "false claim" doesn't mean someone is lying. Instead, it means the court has decided that a specific point isn't relevant to the case and won't be considered. The terms "true" and "false" in this context are just tools to decide which facts the court will focus on, not a judgment about whether something is honest or truthful.

Courts don't deal with absolute truth—they operate based on rules and procedures to make decisions. It's frustrating to see people misunderstand these terms and use that misunderstanding to fuel personal agendas. When a court says something is "false," it only means the judge has ruled it doesn't belong in the case. It has nothing to do with whether it's honest or true in the broader sense outside of the courtroom.

The points you cherry-picked are taken out of context and show a misunderstanding of due process. The judge's decision to consider her statements "true" for inclusion in due process was based on the sheer number of such statements she made, not their accuracy in reflecting real events. Fewer statements might have led to a different decision. This reflects how the court system operates. Notably, the same document also acknowledges instances where she was found to be lying. Despite manipulation of the proceedings, Zak still prevailed (see conclusion).

A thoughtful and fair-minded individual would consider all these facts before forming judgments or cherry-picking things out of context.

The actions of those directly involved in the case are their responsibility. However, third parties who engage in harassment or defamation campaigns bear responsibility for their own actions—a separate matter entirely.

ZakGate

 

Although the situation has been ongoing for some time, 

the event of Zak Sabbath announcing by form of a competition 

the availability of his latest book, and what people can do to get a copy of it,

initiated a multi-platform collective psychosis and group hysteria 

as people who have a history of being abusive to Zak went into overdrive.

This marks a calendar event for what ZakGate has come to represent.

ZakGate occurred during December of 2024.

At time of writing, it is still going on.

What is ZakGate?

ZakGate is when internet rpg forum hosts entrenched in the gaming industry were exposed for generating a smear campaign, which involved hundreds of people being misinformed through their forums. 

A manipulation of peoples fear-reflex to entice them to attack anyone who disagrees with their campaign of character-assassinating and defaming Zak Sabbath, without asking for any evidence to prove their malicious claims. The repression of evidence supporting Zak by insta-banning anyone who posts evidence supporting Zak or who speaks up for him. 

It has been likened to the Satanic Panic of the 1980s in that it involves a witch-hunt and the debunking of it. 

Some of the forums involved in the targeted abuse, as I have experienced myself first-hand, include:

Facebook OSR RPG 

RPG net

Strangely, these are forums which have (at time of writing) the LGBT flag as their banner; a community which historically has stood for inclusivity.

How do I know about ZakGate?

My philosophy is to 'work with what works'. 

I know about ZakGate because in I am working with Zak. He’s an autistic savant who is misunderstood as autistic savants usually are. 

The anti-Zak hate-mob are describing people such as myself as ‘human bots’ alleging Zak has created an army of human bots to …

Well, they’re not exactly sure. They have ignored statements of explanation by Zak and his supporters explicitly stating what they are doing. They have invented things, to tell people Zak and his supporters are doing things which they are not doing. Zak and his supporters have 1) posted a very clear description of precisely what they are doing and 2) asked for any evidence to the contrary, which does not exist. 

The response from the anti Zak hate mob is to block Zak and anyone supporting him from their personal accounts and from their forums, and to show off about it.

There is no use attempting to use reason with people who have been proved to be unreasonable. 

… promote his book. 

Fans of a book want to promote it. They are being subjected to targeted harassment and defamation by people who are on a vendetta.  

… clear his name.

People who have seen the evidence and who care about truth and justice are presenting it to people who have ignored the evidence and do not care about truth and justice. They are instead subjecting people to targeted harassment, and encouraging others to do likewise. 

Why would they be doing this? 

They possibly believe they are morally right. 

They possibly are malicious people by nature. 

They possibly have been manipulated. 

This is why debunking their attacks by presenting evidence is necessary. For the greater good of the community, is call to realign it with truth and justice. 

What Started ZakGate? 

Zakgate started when Zak Sabbath set a challenge to the community to win a free copy of his new book, by helping him. 

The specifics are two items in this request for help. 

1) interact with social media rpg forums to create a less toxic community. 

2) defend Zak against false allegations by presenting evidence which clears his name of smear campaign, whenever anyone posts defamatory remarks and repeats the debunked lies about him. 

There is nothing suspicious about that, in my opinion. 

Zak has presented evidence to prove he is not manipulating anyone, but rather that he is the victim of a defamation campaign, of targeted harassment. I bear witness to this. The names of the individuals doing that are identifiable and known. They occupy positions of social responsibility as they host popular RPG web forums. They are mismanaging that by creating a toxic community, misinformed about the truth of the situation. They are doing this knowingly. 

That is what ZakGate is. 

Several collectors who have funds but not time to use the forums in this way have paid $1000 per copy of Zaks book, in private deals. It contains the complete of his CubeWorld campaign. I have seen photos of the books interior. I have not held the book. I am not doing this for a copy of the book, much as I would treasure it if I had one. I failed the criteria of attaining it through Zaks competition because the forums outright banned me from posting there. They did that after I posted evidence on a totally different forum which supports Zak. By ‘evidence’ I refer to a range of items where the courts have supported Zaks claims that he is target of a harassment and defamation campaign. 

See link, here.

The Orphanage

The Orphanage 

The Orphanage has three rooms. Its only enter/exit door is a stable-door to the kitchen. Directly in front is a shelf for shoes, brushes and for brooms to lean on. A fireplace in the far wall to the left, past a table, shelves of jars, chests of foods. A stable-door to the right leading to the general room. 

Above the general room up a set of stairs which can be described equally as accurately as a ladder, is the children bedroom. This room is full of bunk-beds three cots tall, a small window and a large window, a, eaves high overhead containing cobwebs and spiders. If any child complains about the spiders they are reprimanded thats he spiders are better than the rats. In this way the children are encouraged to be more terrified of rats than they are of spiders. There are no rats in the building. 

The Orphanage is run by the local coven of witches who run several other facilities in the village, including a second-hand items shop and a potions shop. The witches are generally mean, cruel, bitter, controlling, narcissistic old crones, with the exception of Maryllis who runs the potions store. Maryllis is young, beautiful, tender-hearted, kind and is a very repressed nymphomaniac. She is said to have elven blood, the source of her magical powers. This is not so far from the truth. 

The Orphans are set to work doing all the horrible but necessary jobs required for the coven to turn a tidy profit and to keep the children out of trouble. They are ruled by fear. Occasionally one of the children will disappear, sometimes the same day as one of the witches mysteriously acquires a new rat for the rat cage, a large facility kept at the back of one of the cottages, a necessity for the feeding of the village cats. Of course the village is overrun by cats. Occasionally one of the children will disappear having managed to escape and set out into the world of their own devices. Occasionally the children are taken to the market wharf to be sold aboard the ships as cabin-boys or scullion-maids. 

On Wicca

I was raised in the shadowed hills of South Wales, a place where whispers of the old ways persist and where Wicca has quietly yet unmistakably blossomed into a cultural force. Here, it is not uncommon for women to self-identify as witches. Half do so openly, while the other half maintain a reticence that speaks volumes. 

The power of the covens, of sisterhood bound by unseen threads, permeates the community, shaping its undercurrents with both enchantment and discord. Where there is power, inevitably, there is envy, and where there is sisterhood, there are games played in shadow. 

One cannot live in such a place and remain untouched. Even the skeptic finds themselves compelled to ask: does magic work? Is it real? And if so, to what end?

To that question, I will offer a measured answer, one that reveals but does not expose. While I do not name myself Wiccan, I am proficient in one specific branch of the craft: protective magic. It is the only kind I perform, and it is not undertaken lightly. My practice is rooted in reversal magic, a discipline aligned with the Wiccan Rede, which teaches:

"What be done unto others,

Comes back upon ye,

To the power of three,

So mote it be."

This tenet is a cornerstone, a cautionary tale that vibrates with an ancient truth: the energy we send into the world returns to us, magnified. Belief is not a prerequisite for magic. It operates without our permission, answering only to the currents of intention and will. Respect, therefore, is essential. One must not work magic upon others without their consent. 

For this reason, I safeguard myself with protective spells, woven with a focus on reversal. It is a simple premise: what malice is directed toward me shall return to its source, amplified by the laws of the universe. I have seen the consequences of this practice, and they are not to be taken lightly. For both our sakes, I urge caution.

At present, the crescent moon ascends in the sky, a week removed from the dark moon’s embrace. This is a time of renewal and subtle growth, a time when energies align with quiet purpose. 

I find myself turning my attention to certain endeavors, projects that glimmer with potential yet draw the inevitable gaze of envy. To these, I extend the shelter of protection, a veil cast with care and intention. 

There is purpose in my speaking of this now. After a period of silence and introspection, I am returning to the world’s stage. To internet forums and shared spaces of thought. I do so with the hope that those connected to my work may feel the solace of this protective umbrella. Some will read these words and know they are included in this circle of care.

The magic I work is rooted in harmony, in a desire for balance and betterment. It is not wielded for dominance or petty quarrels but for the preservation of what is right and whole.

To some, all of this may seem strange, an echo of myths best left to games or stories. And yet, we have come far enough from the era of Satanic Panic to speak more openly, to share without fear of undue judgment. Have we not? 

The worlds of imagination. Dungeons & Dragons, fantasy tales, and beyond, intertwine with our lived experiences in ways both playful and profound. They remind us that there is power in belief, and there is beauty in mystery.

I write these words from a place of conviction and curiosity, knowing that to speak of magic is to speak of something beyond the boundaries of logic and language. It is to touch, however fleetingly, the infinite. 

And so, I extend my protection outward, into the world, from the highest harmony and for the good of all.

May it be so.

Gunk The Goblin

IT BEGGINNETH HERE

More Mild Misadventures of Gunk the Goblin

If you missed the previous episode, here is a recap: 

Outside the Goblin Cave

Guard Goblin: Halt! Who goes there? You know the rules—no cave for hillside riffraff!

Hillside Goblin: It’s me, Gunk! I came to warn you lot—there’s a band of adventurers on their way to slaughter every goblin in this cave! You’ve gotta let me in!

Guard Goblin: Oh, sure, Gunk. Just like last week when you said the cave was haunted, and it turned out to be you under a sheet moaning, “OoOoOo, I’m the Goblin King”?

Hillside Goblin: That was funny, though. C’mon, Glint, I’m serious this time!

Guard Goblin: Serious? Like the time you swore there was gold in the stream, and when we checked, it was just a pile of yellow pebbles you painted?

Hillside Goblin: They looked convincing in the sunlight!

Guard Goblin: Or that “magic wand” you sold to Snork, which turned out to be a stick covered in glitter?

Hillside Goblin: Snork still can’t get over that sparkle curse. Look, this is different—adventurers are real! They’ve got swords and fireballs and—one of them’s got a book! You know nothing good comes from a book!

Guard Goblin: Nice try. Next you’ll tell me they’ve got a wizard who’s allergic to goblins but came anyway out of pure spite.

Hillside Goblin: THEY DO! How did you know that?! He sneezed and vaporized a tree on the way up here!

Guard Goblin: Uh-huh. And I suppose they’re riding a dragon that just happened to stop for tea in the valley?

Hillside Goblin: No, just a giant bear—wait, do you hear growling?

Guard Goblin: You’re not fooling me, Gunk. Go back to your hill and—hey, what’s that shadow?

Hillside Goblin: Oh, no! It’s the bear! I told you! RUN!

Guard Goblin: …Why is it holding a teacup?!

(Chaos ensues as the adventurers and their tea-loving bear charge the cave, and Gunk smirks in the background, muttering, “Told ya.”)

To Be Continued…

He Warned ‘Em

The tree wasn’t comfortable, but it was safe. Well, safer. Gunk clung to the highest branch that would hold him, peering through the leaves as the chaos erupted in the goblin cave below.

“Ha! I warned ’em,” he muttered to himself, ducking slightly as a fireball whooshed out of the cave entrance. The light from the blast lit up the forest around him, and he could just make out the forms of adventurers charging in. There was the wizard—his sneeze echoed even louder than his spells—and the bear, which was somehow even bigger in person and still clutching that ridiculous teacup.

“Adventurers and tea? What kind of world is this?” Gunk muttered. He watched the bear swat away a goblin, who went flying into a nearby tree like a sack of turnips. “Oof. Sorry, Grinkle. You deserved better.”

Inside the cave, he could hear the clanging of swords, the screech of goblins, and an alarming number of shouts like, “WHO LEFT THESE MARBLES EVERYWHERE?” That’d be Tunk’s idea of defense. Typical cave goblins, always thinking too small.

The wizard sneezed again, and a blast of magic made the ground quake. A moment later, Glint the guard came scrambling out of the cave, his helmet on backward, yelling, “Gunk! GUNK! You were right! Help us!”

Gunk crossed his arms. “Oh, NOW I’m worth listening to? Didn’t seem to matter when I was warning you about certain doom!”

Glint tripped on a root and sprawled face-first into the dirt. He popped up again, sputtering, “You could’ve tried harder to convince us!”

“I was very convincing!” Gunk shouted. “You’re just a terrible listener!”

Another fireball exploded, and Gunk felt the heat even up in his tree. He glanced back at the cave entrance, where the adventurers were driving goblins deeper inside like frightened bats. The bear roared and charged in after them, splintering the main support beam with one swing of its paw.

The cave groaned ominously.

“Oh, that’s not good,” Gunk muttered, shifting uncomfortably as a large chunk of rock tumbled from the entrance. He could already hear the goblins inside panicking, yelling things like, “Save the mushrooms!” and “This is all Gunk’s fault!”

The whole cave was caving in. Gunk winced as a plume of dust erupted, the adventurers and goblins alike scrambling out just before the entire entrance collapsed.

“Well,” Gunk said, watching as Glint stumbled toward him, covered in dirt and mushroom bits. “Looks like you’re all hillside goblins now.”

Glint scowled up at him. “You could’ve warned us the cave would collapse too!”

Gunk leaned back against the tree trunk, grinning. “Guess I just wasn’t convincing enough.”

To be continued…

Spoons 

The surviving goblins, dusty, battered, and thoroughly demoralized, gathered in a ragged group on a rocky outcrop above the wreckage of their former home. They watched as the adventurers marched triumphantly down the hillside, their bear companion plodding along behind them, now carrying what looked suspiciously like a sack of stolen goblin loot.

“Unbelievable,” muttered Glint, slumped against a boulder with his helmet still on backward. “They didn’t even need the bear. That thing was just overkill.”

“I told you it was overkill!” Gunk piped up from where he sat cross-legged on a fallen log, smirking smugly. “But noooo, Gunk’s just the ‘lying hillside goblin.’ Can’t trust a word outta his mouth!”

The other goblins glared at him, though they were too tired to argue.

“They took everything,” moaned Grinkle, who was nursing a bruised arm and cradling a single, slightly squished mushroom. “The shiny rocks, the mushroom barrels, the cursed spoon collection…”

“Oh, come on,” Gunk said, rolling his eyes. “The spoon collection cursed us more than anyone else. You should be thanking them for taking it.”

Grinkle sniffled. “But I liked the spoons.”

As the adventurers grew smaller in the distance, the goblins’ grumbling turned into murmured complaints.

“What’re we supposed to do now?” someone muttered. “The cave’s gone.”

“And all our stuff!”

“And the mushrooms!”

“You’ve got the whole hillside!” Gunk said brightly, throwing his arms wide. “Plenty of trees, rocks, nice open skies—fresh start for all you former cave-dwellers.”

The goblins turned to glare at him again, and Glint stood, wincing as he brushed dirt off his armor. “You think this is funny, Gunk? If you hadn’t been such a troublemaker, we’d never have kicked you out, and maybe we’d have taken you seriously for once.”

“If you’d listened to me for once, we might still have a cave!” Gunk shot back, standing up on his log. “But nooo, I’m the bad guy for thinking ahead.”

Glint growled, pointing an accusing finger. “You’re not the bad guy. You’re the annoying guy!”

“Better to be annoying than flattened under a bear!” Gunk retorted. “Besides, I saved you all in my own roundabout way!”

“Saved us?” screeched Grinkle. “We’re homeless and broke!”

“And alive!” Gunk yelled, arms flailing. “You’re welcome!”

The goblins grumbled and muttered, but no one had the energy to argue anymore. They sat in sullen silence as the adventurers finally disappeared into the trees below.

“Well,” said Gunk after a long pause, “if it makes you feel any better, they didn’t take everything.”

“What’re you talking about?” Glint asked suspiciously.

Gunk grinned and pulled a sack out from behind his log. “While you lot were busy getting flattened and fireballed, I snagged some stuff from the supply nook. Look! Mushrooms! Some shiny rocks! And… uh… one spoon.”

The goblins’ eyes widened as they crowded around the sack.

“Gunk,” Glint said slowly, “you might be the most annoying goblin alive…”

“…but we’ll take it,” finished Grinkle, snatching the mushroom.

Gunk smirked as they rifled through the sack, muttering among themselves. “See? Stick with me, and we’ll rebuild. Hillside goblins! New name, new beginnings. Maybe even a new cave someday!”

“Don’t push your luck,” Glint muttered, but Gunk could tell his heart wasn’t in it.

Above them, the sun was setting over the hillside, and the goblins settled in to regroup, a little battered but still standing. For now, that was enough.

To Be Continued… 

Junk 

The adventurers trudged down the hillside, their armor clinking and boots crunching over loose rocks. The wizard sneezed loudly, nearly toppling over under the weight of his spellbook.

“For the love of the gods, Merrick,” said the fighter, a burly woman with a scar running down her cheek. “How many times are you going to sneeze today? You’re worse than the bear.”

“Not my fault!” Merrick said indignantly, adjusting his crooked glasses. “The goblins reeked of mold and… I don’t even know what else. Do they roll in swamp muck for fun?”

“Probably,” the rogue said with a smirk, flipping a shiny dagger between his fingers. “But hey, it’s a small price to pay for this haul. I mean, look at this stuff! I didn’t know goblins had a taste for fine silverware.”

Behind him, the bear lumbered along, the enormous sack of loot slung over its back. Every now and then, it glanced at the rogue as if contemplating whether to eat him.

“Goblins don’t have a taste for it,” the fighter said. “They steal it from travelers. We’re just… repossessing it.”

The rogue shrugged. “Loot’s loot.”

The cleric, walking a few paces behind the group, cleared her throat. “We’re losing focus. Shouldn’t we be talking about what we actually accomplished here? The goblin problem is dealt with, for now. But did anyone else think it was weird how quickly we found that cave?”

“Not weird,” Merrick said, adjusting his hat. “We had help. That goblin, what was his name? Skunk? Junk?”

“Gunk,” said the fighter. “Yeah, that was suspiciously easy. He gave us the exact location, told us about their defenses. If you can call marbles and sticks defenses. And then just… disappeared.”

The rogue snorted. “I told you, he probably ran off to loot the cave while we were fighting. Goblins are greedy little bastards.”

“Or,” said the cleric, narrowing her eyes, “he used us to wipe out his rivals. What if he wanted the cave for himself?”

The group fell silent, considering this. Even the bear looked contemplative, though that might have just been the sunlight hitting its teacup.

“Well,” the fighter said after a moment, “if that’s the case, I hope he enjoys it. Because we left that cave in shambles. Did you see how it collapsed? There’s no way anyone’s moving back in.”

“Maybe,” said the rogue. “But goblins are crafty. If Gunk survived, he’ll come up with something.”

Merrick sneezed again, startling the bear. “He’d better not. If I have to smell another goblin-infested hole in the ground, I’m going to lose it.”

The cleric sighed. “Either way, we should keep an eye out. If Gunk’s still alive, he might come looking for us. You know how goblins are with grudges.”

The rogue chuckled. “You’re worried about a single goblin with no cave, no weapons, and no loot? I think we’ll be fine.”

As they disappeared into the trees, none of them noticed the small figure perched on a distant rock, watching them with a toothy grin.

“Come looking for you?” Gunk muttered to himself, clutching his sack of scavenged loot. “Nah. You’ll be back soon enough. And when you are…” He glanced over at the ragged group of goblins behind him, already bickering over the single spoon.

“…we’ll be ready.”

To Be Continued…