Rocky Mountain PFS Inclusivity

[WhiteMane]

Pathfinders...
Starfinders...

Many of you may have read a recent article that has been making the rounds on the web about a young ladies negative experience in a Pathfinder Society sanctioned game. If you haven't read the article, you can do so here... https://aspiringhalfling.com/2018/02/20 ... mers-play/.

If you have just now read the article, then you are no doubt feeling the same feelings of outrage that we felt when we read it. Let us start by saying this type of action has NO place in Society play whatsoever. The fact that the GM in the article was allegedly a Venture Lieutenant makes it all the worse and is something that we take personal offense to. There are a couple of points that we would like to make regarding this article.

First, Tonya is aware of the article and is following up with it. She has reached out to the author of the article as well as the RVC to investigate and will take appropriate actions once she has finished investigating the incident.

Second, we do not tolerate this type of behavior in any of our events. If anyone has a problem with a GM or a player treating them with anything less then respect, they should know that they always have the option of reporting the incident to the nearest Venture Officer and we will investigate it and take appropriate actions. If you don't feel comfortable talking to your Venture Agent, feel free to talk to your Venture Lieutenant. If you don't feel comfortable talking to your Venture Lieutenant, feel free to talk to your Venture Captain. And if you don't feel free talking to your Venture Captain, feel free to talk to the other Venture Captain or to our RVC Eric Brittain or to Tonya. The email addresses of the Venture Officers in the Rocky Mountain PFS can all be found by following this link... http://rockymountainpfs.com/http://test ... ic.php?t=1 and the email addresses for Eric and Tonya can be found at paizo.com.

We have always been proud of the community that all of us have built which tries to be inclusive of everyone. If there is ever anything that we can do to make it more so, please let us know. Also, if something ever happens which hampers this, please let us know. We can only fix problems when we are made aware of them.

Explore, Report, Cooperate!

O.J. Pinckert and Chris Mabbut
Venture Captains-Rocky Mountain Pathfinder Society

[CDragos]

Lol! Fake news.The first paragraph is worse than a Darker Shades of Grey fan fiction article. C'mon, really?

Don't believe this. Lame.

[CDragos]

"The game was a Tier 2 table... I only had a level 3 wizard/rogue... DM gave me a stack of pre gens several levels higher."

Those darn meddling Pathfinder's Society.

[Pogie]

I don't know if it's real or not but I have to question someone who describes 'mid to late forties' as 'older'. Quite clearly that age is the peak of human vigor.

[Sean Clark]

Wow, what a horrible experience for a young lady at a PFS table.

I can't believe anybody would respond to that experience with an accusation that it didn't happen. Drag yourself into the 21st century and take a look at what's happening in the world around us. Our society as a whole - and individual asshats specifically - have been harassing women for a long time. It seems pretty obvious to me that this is the RPG version of "Me, too" - lets see what we can do to fix it.

To paraphrase Edmund Burke: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.

[Pogie]

I wasn't trying to infer it didn't happen. I have no way of knowing. I was making a joke about how the author called someone my age 'old'. Ugh 50 next year.

[WhiteMane]

I am not going to comment on the accuracy of the article except to say that Tonya is reaching out to all parties concerned to try to determine what happened and take appropriate actions based on that investigation.

What I am going to say, and what I hope everyone will take away from this, is that this type of behavior is not tolerated in any form in Pathfinder Society.

If you, or anyone you know, ever feels demeaned or belittled at a Society event... Please, please, please contact your local VO. We want Pathfinder Society to be a safe place where anyone can come and enjoy themselves. If someone comes to us with a concern, we will look into it and we will take action as appropriate.

In any case, if someone has a concern but does not come to us with it, we can't address it. We can't fix it if we don't know it's broken.

[CDragos]

I will never tolerate that kind of behavior at my table, of course, but the story just seems extremely exaggerated. I do hope then that the GM involved is acted upon.

[Ray]

Whether the article or story is real or not, the PFS leadership is proper in sending out this notice and I thank them for posting it. Such behavior should be intolerable at any gaming table. We've all seen very young players attempt to be marginalized by an experienced player who just wants to get on with it, or is tired of harmless immaturity getting in the way of that old guys fun. BTW - I AM and old guy whose been playing for 35 years since my first character Zole the gnomish thief left the safety of the Keep and ventured into the Borderlands. Because I love D&D almost as much as my wife, I want to keep this game alive until the day I die, so I do all I can to encourage young players to learn and keep coming back so I have people to play with. The D&D gaming world is a community, a subset of geeks within the nerd population. Communities only grow if nurtured. It takes a village to raise a child, and the same adage is true in D&D.

The practicalities of growing a vibrant D&D community aside, there is a more important thing at stake here. It is not enough that an oppressed person has the option to report their oppression to an authority who will handle the issue later. This is the mentality that allows criminals and bullies perpetrate their evil deed to completion and MAYBE get punished later. There is no guarantee the system in place will provide justice, which makes the oppression worse. I am NOT referring to the PFS leadership in Colorado, I am speaking in general truth. We've all seen multiple examples in our life where the right thing fails to be done by an organization.

I firmly believe that when we, as human beings, see evil being done we MUST act to stop it in its tracks - not defer that duty to someone with a uniform or other authority granted them by a system or organization. This goes hand in hand with following the procedures for reporting and punishment under the given system. EVERYONE has authority to defend themselves AND OTHERS from wrong-doing. Evil can only flourish when good men stand by and do nothing. I use the word "evil" on purpose, not as hyperbole but rather to point out that any act however small that is aimed at making another person "less than" the perpetrator is an evil act.

If I witnessed such behavior at a table, I would sternly warn the perpetrator(s) to stop or be reported to the game organizer. I would also explain to them why their behavior is unacceptable. If it continued, I would report it, stop the game, invite the oppressed person to come away with me and play somewhere else. I could never sit there and do nothing about it, and I would hope no one else could either.

[Pogie]

I can't believe anybody would respond to that experience with an accusation that it didn't happen.

So because someone blogged about something we're not allowed to question it? CDragos' remarks were maybe a little flippant but he's well within his rights to wonder if it really happened. The behavior described in the blog was so far removed from anything I've witnessed at a table that I questioned it as well. I strongly disagree with someone on these boards being called out, not for being wrong, but for daring to offer an opinion that differed from someone else's.

I am in no way endorsing the behavior described in the blog. It was terrible to treat anyone that way and I would not sit by and let it happen or be a party to it. I can be reasonably confident in saying that I think everyone I play with feels the same way. I've never seen anything like this at a RMPFS table and I hope I never do.

That said, is every accuser right until proven wrong, and is every accused guilty until proven innocent?

That is not how it is supposed to work.

[CDragos]

Yes. It just seemed so far-fetched and fictional. That's why I didn't, well, couldn't believe it. I am shocked about that kind of behavior happening at a table. In my 40 years of playing D&D & PF, I have never witnessed anything like that.