Summary: <figure></figure>In this episode, Keeper Murph returns from his yearly sabbatical to speak with Keepers Jon & Dave about diversity in the RPG market-space and how we can affect change by voting with our dollars. Huge thanks should be given to Jo Kriel and Dean Englehardt for recording a different episode 203 twice before that was lost due to technical issues on our side. This episode was recorded on July 5th, 2020. More trouble is brewing at Dark Onyx Press and DriveThruRPG as yet another employee has been accused of sexual misconduct. Matt McElroy the operations manager at Onyx Path and an employee at DriveThruRpg had been accused of grooming, gaslighting, and abuse. This is coming just days after his predecessor, Shane DuFreest (not employed with Onyx Path), at DTRPG was accused of rape.This is a tragedy for Jaym, the accuser. And it appears that Onyx Path is in CYA mode. They have stopped the sale of the Vampire line of books which contains art from DuFreest from the White Wolf days. And they are suspending McElroy and doing an internal investigation, while also asking him to attend sensitivity training. In an article in GeekNative, it appears that the accuser attempted to tell Onyx Path of the abuse before going public, but it fell on deaf ears. They mention hiring a new HR manager to make sure that doesn’t happen in the future.Needless to say, these are extremely disturbing allegations stemming from actions that should never have taken place. All of us here at MUP stand with the accusers and demand that this sort of systemic abuse, and the abusers that cause it, be removed from the hobby that we all love.Jacym’s accusation: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/mornara/posts/10157255496355753" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/mornara/posts/10157255496355753</a>McElroy’s Response: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/matt.m.mcelroy/posts/10157540571638443" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/matt.m.mcelroy/posts/10157540571638443</a>Fans of Berlin: The Wicked City have a resource available to them, it’s a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_the_Weimar_Republic?fbclid=IwAR20MuZUFsy9lMyX6etTyL9AQ7IN_DqGwJCoiDe599ySM4XtfHSOTzappy8" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">wikipedia article</a> with terms, concepts and ideas that are useful to understanding the political situation in the Weimar Republic. Comic book writer (and super-cool dude), Cullen Bunn is about to write an illustrated sequel to H. P. Lovecraft’s Re-Animator. Bunn’s project is titled, “<a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cullen-bunn-s-reanimator-the-eternal-lie/coming_soon?fbclid=IwAR1f2Z131CZTs1mDsDiGFS9WO3PLhYQzhe9RjEkqVNExN4uRSqIjYLLH-_U" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Reanimator: The External Lie.</a>” The graphic novel is soon to be available for pre-order through IndieGoGo. The link in the show notes opens a sight for interested fans to sign up for a newsletter so they can be informed once the IndieGoGo funding site goes live. For your quarantine listening pleasure, the nearly 3 ½ hour long BBC 4 radio drama of Steven King’s story, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di_NzCK5KLM&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR2HiOyHWN89dyLcUPkmwMJ-kZlF3LxB-KZijs-pN5WpCn7u1RRs4kgBTiY" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Salem’s Lot</a>, is available for free on YouTube. Indie game designer Orion D. Black (them/their), known for “plot Armor” and “Mutants in the Night” has quit Wizards of the Coast citing racism, plagiarism, and generally crap behavior on Wizard’s part. Their struggle with WotC culminated as the BLM movement forced the company to make a recent statement that they valued their employees’ diversity and will be redesigning the races within D&D to eliminate the presence of “evil races,” a move that while lauded, many say should have come about years ago.
