Drew Gotobed

Lover of Tabletop games. Massive geeky man-child. Co-Owner of Meeple Perk. Personal Account.

[Off Meta @OffMetaTweets]

Just leaving it here for people to take a read of Matt's thoughts about No Rolls Barred and Adam Blampied.

[Off Meta @OffMetaTweets]

What follows is going to be recorded as a video but we felt we couldn't wait any longer to give our voice to this issue.
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Hi Folks, Hayley here. This won’t be a fun one today, but we feel it’s imperative that we use our voice to address something going on in the gaming community. For some context and background, Off Meta’s leadership are all Fabled Storytellers for The Pandemonium Institute, which is the company that publishes Blood on the Clocktower – we call them TPI for the sake of brevity.

That ‘Fabled Storyteller’ title just means that we are official volunteers whose main objective is to promote the game, support play-testing, and be ambassadors for the inclusivity that this game purports. It's a sign that TPI trusts us as individuals and so we feel it would be a disservice not to talk about this topic, despite any discomfort. Even so, we want to be clear that we are not speaking on behalf of, or for, The Pandemonium Institute in what we say next.

On to the topic at hand: there are public comments that suggest systems exist within the content creation group that is No Rolls Barred, which allow abuse and predatory behaviors to go unchecked. The community became aware of this a little under a month ago via comments on a YouTube video. NRB’s only official response to this was posted on August 21st on their Patreon, where only their paying fans can respond. The post is public so we encourage you to read it, but it states they are still in the fact-finding part of their internal investigation. It has been over two weeks since that statement, leaving people within the board game industry to speculate whether NRB has known about this problem for several months prior to the statement.

We don’t know what has happened, who anything might have happened to, if any guilty party or parties exist. But here is a summary of what we have seen in the public domain; the founder of NRB’s marked absence from their content; his own admission of a history of sexual harassment; YouTube comments suggesting flaws in NRB’s organization and a more or less copy paste of previous problematic behavior; is reason enough for us to bring attention to it within both our own and the wider Blood on the Clocktower community.

We here at Off Meta, and as individuals who are currently featured on the Clocktower website as ambassadors for this game, believe this is important to talk about for a few reasons:

1) Abuse is not only disgusting and inexcusable, but it’s something each of us have at least witnessed, if not experienced ourselves, in one way or another.

2) This particular instance hits a personal level because the comments came from a fellow Fabled Storyteller and content creator. We trust her and have no reason not to believe her.

3) The founder of NRB is arguably one of the most well known faces within the Clocktower and board gaming world. He also has a very public history of sexual harassment and exploiting his celebrity to get what he wants. There is BBC news coverage, and his written apology for earlier transgressions are available on the Independent’s website.

4) NRB and TPI have worked together in creating Blood on the Clocktower content, and a recently funded Kickstarter indicates that they had planned to work together again.

It is important to us to always do what we can to keep our local and online community safe. We believe that inaction and remaining silent when others are abused causes further harm, so for these reasons we won’t be silent on this. We will not associate with known predators, abusers, harassers, or bigots.

Additionally, because it is likely that many players’ gateway to Clocktower was via NRB, we call on The Pandemonium Institute, and all other communities within the niche of a niche that is the Blood on the Clocktower gaming sphere, to arm your players with information and reaffirm that the spaces you have created for them are safe. Abusers should know they are not welcomed nor tolerated by you, and everyone else should feel that they can trust you to create a space in which rule four, Play Nice, is enforced.

We don’t know what our collective or individual future with Blood on the Clocktower looks like, but we have always said that we are a collectivist venture so we take our players' concerns into consideration first and foremost. Having listened to our players, gained their input, and engaged with the community at large, Off Meta and several prominent content creators are undergoing a Blood on the Clocktower content blackout. This means we will not post any more Clocktower focused videos or livestreams on YouTube and Twitch until such a time that our community feels that they have been heard and considered. We know that sounds nebulous; that’s because it is. Humans all have different expectations and boundaries and Off Meta takes the voices of our community into account when we choose the content we create; we will lift the blackout when our players are ready to do so. If that time never comes for some folks, then so be it; we will work through that together, collectively and with care.

We’ve been asked what viewers and players can do to support this; we know that there are people out there with better ideas than us so we'll share a few.

1) For example, one of Off Meta’s players, Malashaan, has collaborated with other community leads and written an open letter to TPI for community members to sign you can find here: https://t.co/snVwVUC3pH. If you'd like to add your name to it, we encourage you to do so.

2) One thing we'd suggest, that you can help with, is for the top result on the YouTube search results for “Blood on the Clocktower” to not feature the face of someone who has previously admitted to causing harm to women. Find and watch other Clocktower content, like it, subscribe to it, and help boost the algorithm to favor other creators. There are so many excellent Clocktower videos out there, and with a bit of effort you can elevate other voices.

3) Another thing that we can all take action on is being mindful of where you spend your money; this really speaks the loudest due to the capitalist system we exist within.

Those are just three ideas, you might have better ones, go ahead and share them in the comments. But remember that we do not encourage nor tolerate the harassment of anyone, regardless of any perceived or real misgivings there might be about them. If we get wind of anything like that we will act to remove those who are operating in bad faith, or hurting the wellbeing of others, from the spaces we hold dear. There is enough hurt caused by this situation; there is no need to cause more.

All too often the status quo is to make excuses, sweep things under the table, and move on with no real consequences for the aggressors; we get that it’s difficult for fans to reconcile that someone who made content that you enjoyed might not be what they appeared. It makes you question yourself, your judgment, and how you view the world. There’s grief and guilt and a whole host of other really complex emotions to work though. But avoiding that discomfort enables abusers to exist, while victims are left picking up the pieces of their lives having experienced something they didn’t ask for.

To reiterate, Off Meta does not tolerate predators, harassers, abusers, nor bigots of any kind within our small corner of the internet nor within our physical spaces in the world.

So with that, we thank you for your time and we hope you stay safe out there in your communities and with the friends you’ve made along the way.

-HAT
Tyler
Adam
Hayley

[Drew Gotobed @SirDrewbles]

@SDRgames_studio That I do believe is true...

[Drew Gotobed @SirDrewbles]

View my coolest stats in August season!

https://t.co/qhv3NtP8He

[Drew Gotobed @SirDrewbles]

@beardmeatsfood Just means my wife, @Rhibles will love you even more than they already do! They are jealous of your lechuck t-shirts :p

[Drew Gotobed @SirDrewbles]

@beardmeatsfood quick question after watching a bunch of your videos and noticing something...

Are you a fan of Monkey Island?

[Drew Gotobed @SirDrewbles]

Going to have a chill Sunday stream playing some #MarvelSnap Infinite Conquest!

Come say hi and chill with me.

https://t.co/Qbupz8x6zX

#snap #streamer #Streaming #twitch #twitchstreamer

[Geek Network @GeeksAZ]

Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegredo team up to pit Hellboy against some kaiju in the upcoming limited series at Dark Horse Comics. @artofmmignola @duncanfegredo @DarkHorseComics

https://t.co/vhPNqpGxHf

[🐾 Mosey - Lord of Owlbear Milk @MoseyDm]

Never forget that this happened and was glorious.

[Drew Gotobed @SirDrewbles]

I think I won...

#MarvelSnap

[Drew Gotobed @SirDrewbles]

@infernalfire29 @bungeeman17 @yogscast While I appreciate that, we are talking about the Blood on the Clocktower game that they did (Social deduction game) in which they ignored/plain got wrong, a few of the key rules that make the game so different from others of its type, and ignored the main win condition.

[Drew Gotobed @SirDrewbles]

@Rhibles @bungeeman17 It was one of the Anbernic consoles, of which this seems to be their latest model: https://t.co/opb7rvgGwz

And a review of it: https://t.co/MS0Dh3GPc9

[LegoMe_TheOG @FG_Artist]

"Maybe get off the kids as-"

[Drew Gotobed @SirDrewbles]

I hit Infinite for the first time, I did on stream & in the Spider-Verse season!

Thanks to @The_Gerks and @Rhibles and everyone else for the support.

#MarvelSnap #TwitchTv #CardGames

[Drew Gotobed @SirDrewbles]

All the way to the TOP! Can I hit Infinite? SNAP!

Come join me for this random stream to see if I can hit infinite in Marvel Snap?

https://t.co/Qbupz8x6zX

#smallstreamer #marvelsnap #Streamer #Twitchtv #LiveNow

[Hellboy Web of Wyrd @HellboyTheGame]

Shout out to our parents at @DevolverDigital for featuring us during their direct!

Wishlist the game on Steam and get updates on all things Hellboy Web of Wyrd from @UpstreamArcade and @GoodShepherdEnt

[Drew Gotobed @SirDrewbles]

The Legend off SirDrewbles! TOTK!

Come hangout with me on stream as I play some Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom!

https://t.co/Qbupz8x6zX

#TearsoftheKingdom #livenow #smallstreamer #twitchtv

[Drew Gotobed @SirDrewbles]

Playing more Final Girl by @VanRyderGames. Panic at Station 2891 against The Organisms is TOUGH! The bloody THINGs keep getting me!

Fantastic game though, still loving it.

#boardgames #BGG #horror #tabletopgaming #FinalGirl