An interesting as well as sad post was put up on the rpg subreddit today and highlighted another bad actor in the TTRPG industry walking away with $100,000 in Kickstarter funds and delivering no tangible product.
I suggested, as this list gets longer every year, pinning a message at the top of the subreddit listing bad actors in the TTRPG industry cause these punks never go away. They ghost the gaming world for a few years and then pop back up. And I'm not thinking so much of the consumer, when it comes to Kickstarters backers seem all to willing to let failure slide, no I'm thinking of the freelance folks. The artists and writers who sign on and eventually get stiffed when the jig is up and the money is gone. This where the real shit lies. Stiffing subcontractors is a matter of course in any industry which operates this way. Sure there are disagreements on whether a sub has met obligations for full payment or not, but the TTRPG industry smells of one of the places where it is part of the "business" model. The person handling the cash flow has little to fear when they pay themselves first, even if it means failing on the project and hired help.
A freelancer has little recourse but to know as much about the people they intend to do business with and make a judgement call. But this kind of information is not easily found.
So if you have dreams of making it big in the shallow pool of TTRPG's add Jim McLure and Emily Reinhart to your list of poisoned pills.
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Lay it on the Line