Let's keep innocent parties out of it this time, please.

Also, HOLY CRAP. The language in the latest Kickstarter update is getting stronger:

FAQ

What's the current status of the Dwimmermount project?
Dwimmermount’s creator James Maliszewski signed a contract with Autarch that transferred the money we raised on Kickstarter and the responsibility for delivering the promised rewards to him. We understand that James is grieving for his father, but we have to confront the fact that he is currently not living up to this responsibility and discuss what Autarch can do for backers to make good on our own responsibility to you.

When will rewards be delivered?
When Autarch started talking with James about helping him use crowdfunding to publish his megadungeon, he told us to set the estimated delivery dates as June 2012 for the PDF and August for the physical items. After it was clear he would not be able to meet his original date, I worked with him to project a revised schedule for delivery of the PDF in March 2013 with hardcovers due in April. We agreed on a structure of weekly conference calls to create accountability and transparency for his progress toward that goal. As of today, it has been three months since James has taken part in these conference calls. The March date is now past and it has not been possible to establish a new schedule because James has been avoiding direct communication with us since his last email on 12/19/12. We still have faith that his honor and integrity will lead him to address his responsibilities on this project, but we can’t predict when that will be.

What is Autarch doing to make things right for the project’s backers?
We understand that what you’d most like to have is the Dwimmermount rewards you selected in exchange for pledging to this Kickstarter. Fulfilling the key rewards depends on James, but there are many good options he could take to complete the project with little further effort on his part. Autarch's role at this point is to keep making progress on those areas we can without James, while continuing to make efforts to communcate with him. The goals of this communication will to be sure he understands his options, the urgency of taking action, and the potential consequences of inaction.

We also understand that you would have liked to have these rewards on the date they were promised to you. Since that’s no longer possible, we recognize the need for restitution. I’ll discuss how we’ll be doing that below.

Ongoing Efforts

In update #45, Autarch decided to give the backers a bonus goal we didn’t reach in the original campaign, a mass-combat scenario for Dwimmermount using our Domains at War rules. The first installment toward that goal – a look at how the fortress of Muntburg could resist a siege if the denizens of the mega-dungeon rose up against it – is now available for download at this link if you’re a backer with an Autarch account configured for access or through the webform. The scenario will be playable with the Domains at War starter edition, which is free for anyone to download at this link.

Working on the Domains at War scenario has also generated progress on an aspect of the basic Dwimmermount project that can be worked on in James’ absence, the Adventurer Conqueror King System conversion. The ACKS spreadsheet has been updated to include information on Muntburg’s garrison and economics, as well as corrected stronghold construction values; it’s available to backers at this link or via webform.

Autarch Discount Offer

As a further way to make things right, Autarch is planning to give Dwimmermount backers a discount on any of our products based on the value of your pledge to this Kickstarter. You’ll be able to use this discount on our existing Adventurer Conqueror King System and ACKS Player’s Companion in PDF or hardback; apply it to any of the reward levels in our upcoming Domains at War campaign; or use it for the Auran Empire Campaign Setting or any of the other releases we have in the pipeline, which we’ll let you know about ahead of their release. We started Autarch to create cool stuff for your gaming table, and want this offer to be a way to get back to doing what we love.

We know that because many of you already have everything Autarch has put out so far, or contributed more to Dwimmermount than we currently have to give you in return, you may need to wait to take full advantage of this offer. To make up for that delay we’d like to give you twice as much in discounts as your original pledge, rounded up. If you put in $25, you’ll get coupons worth $50; if you were in for $132, you’ll get $270 in coupons. We’re expecting to get these to backers via individual email by the end of the month, after taking some time to answer questions about the plan and make adjustments based on your feedback or factors we haven’t considered yet.

Each coupon will be redeemable for a $10 discount. Initially, we’re going to limit it to one coupon per product. Planning to cover costs as a publisher is always difficult, and we need to keep the coupons from being an unpredictable factor that breaks the bank. Knowing that each single product won’t be discounted for more than $10 lets us be certain we can afford to honor this offer. Once a project reaches the point where we can replace projections with real numbers, we may be able to accept more of your coupons for the specific thing you want. If it turns out we’ve got nothing on the shelves or on the slate that interests you, you’ll be able to trade or sell your coupons to other people looking to get a good deal on Autarch’s current and future catalog.

Using these coupons in no way affects your right to receive the Dwimmermount rewards you pledged for. Fulfilling those is James’ responsibility, and only he has the funds to do so or to offer a refund if he can’t. We remain eager to help him do that. Autarch is not washing our hands of this project, just making the discount offer as something we can do for the backers with our own resources.

Potential Next Steps

Many of us have experienced how grief and stress can make it difficult to muster any sustained mental effort. Fortunately, James has a range of options that would quickly restart progress on fulfilling the Dwimmermount rewards.

His work in writing the draft is done, and from our weekly conversations I have a good understanding of his vision of how the draft should be developed and polished into a final product. If he transferred the remaining funds to Autarch and licensed us the copyright to Dwimmermount’s text and art, I’m confident we could complete and release his megadungeon in a form he could be proud of, incorporating as much or as little of his further effort as he wants to invest. We’ve made this offer to James and prepared a simple contract that we think requires little review or discussion.
If he mistrusts his own judgement under his current circumstances, he could just as quickly appoint a trusted representative who could take all the time necessary to negotiate an arrangement that addressed James’ interests and concerns.
If James doesn't want to work with Autarch for whatever reason, I’ve offered to put him in contact with other publishers wanting to pursue a similar transfer of funds and copyright so that they could release the rewards.
If he wants to release Dwimmermount through his own Grognardia Games, James could minimize the weight on his shoulders by hiring an editor, developer, and/or project manager – or accepting the help of volunteers like myself - who could keep the delivery of the Kickstarter rewards on track.

Why Hasn't James Taken Action On These Options?

Speaking plainly, when people do things that hurt themselves and others and contradict their normal values we say they are out of their mind. When we add that someone is out of their mind with grief or out of their mind with stress, it helps us understand and sympathize with where they’re coming from while still recognizing that they are being irrational. We can also use the opposite language to talk about when people have been or will be in their right mind.

In the period of taking stock after James stopped returning my calls or emails, it became clear that he never paid cartographers Rob Conley and Chris Hagerty for their freelance contributions to Dwimmermount. Rob's maps were completed in the fall of 2012, Chris's in December. James' failure to pay artists for their work harms them and their families; harms his reputation and ability to undertake future projects; and goes against the values he demonstrated when we started planning this project.

All of us had worked as freelancers, although he had a much longer list of credits than everyone else put together and had even worked for Alex before in his role as publisher of the Escapist. That went smoothly, but every freelancer hears about or encounters jobs that don’t. Prior to launch, I recommended that James should commission some art done to use in the campaign. He was concerned that commissioning work before the money was there could lead to artists not getting paid, so I fronted their payment out of pocket in the confidence that the campaign would be successful, and he repaid me personally once he had the funds from Autarch.

The James I knew then was concerned with making sure fellow freelancers were treated well. I feel it's not like him to withhold payment from his artists indefinitely, given that he has the backers' funds in hand and a mandate to turn it into awesome stuff to give to them in return. When I say that I trust in his honor and integrity, I mean that sooner or later James will be in his right mind again and will do the right thing.

Over the last three months Autarch has been seeking advice from other publishers, lawyers, gamers, and friends; we're lucky to know some people who are all of these at once! Based on this input, we believe that the best next step is for me to visit James and see if meeting in person will help resolve the impasse.

As always, we welcome your feedback and input. In addition to leaving comments and sending messages through the Kickstarter site, you can request an invitation to the Mages of the Mountain community on G+ if you're not already a member; send me an email at tavis@autarch.co; or call me at [REDACTED]. I will be leaving for GaryCon tonight, and although I may get the chance to talk to some of you there I may not respond to online communication until after the weekend. If you'd like to send a letter to James, you can mail it to me at  [REDACTED]  and I will forward it to him unopened:

Yours,

Tavis

Wow, just wow...

Sounds like someone is bending over backwards for a mess someone else created.

And the moral of the story is, never ever do business with someone based on trust, handshake deals, or verbal contracts. Especially if they aren't in the same jurisdiction.

Tavis sounds like a real stand-up guy. Regardless of this incident, I'm excited to see what Autarch has coming down the pipeline and will remain a customer of theirs.

I am assuming JMal will never finish Dwimmermount. He's pretty much given up, from what I can see here. I figure that money is gone.

I am very impressed by Tavis's commitment and sacrifices to solve this for the backers.

Quote from: Benoist;636790I am very impressed by Tavis's commitment and sacrifices to solve this for the backers.

Yeah.  Guy has my respect, and I wasn't even one of the backers

Quote from: danbuter;636788I assuming JMal will never finish Dwimmermount.

You're almost certainly right.

Thing is, even if he does finish it, his name is shit in the hobby. I do not see him being able to write RPG's again. (Certainly not getting paid for it.)

Tavis, OTOH, has come out of this with a reputation boost, IMHO. At least from my perspective, he's been a stand-up guy. It makes me more likely to patronize Autarch in the future.

(I didn't have any money in Dwimmermount, so I'm less likely to be pissed, however.)

Quote from: Benoist;636790I am very impressed by Tavis's commitment and sacrifices to solve this for the backers.

Me too, I certainly won't be 'punishing' Autarch by using the discount vouchers on offer.

Quote from: Zachary The First;636778In the period of taking stock after James stopped returning my calls or emails, it became clear that he never paid cartographers Rob Conley and Chris Hagerty for their freelance contributions to Dwimmermount. Rob's maps were completed in the fall of 2012, Chris's in December. James' failure to pay artists for their work

RWS called it early & it looks like he called it right.

Quote from: Machpants;636796Me too, I certainly won't be 'punishing' Autarch by using the discount vouchers on offer.

Nor would I. Nice gesture, though. No one can say Autarch isn't trying.

Quote from: Machpants;636796Me too, I certainly won't be 'punishing' Autarch by using the discount vouchers on offer.

:rotfl:

Forgive me for not jumping on the beatification of Tavis Allison bandwagon, but let's remember that it was Autarch's incredibly bad business decisions that put them in this circumstance, and that what they're offering is their own brand of discounted birdcage liner to make up for it.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;636825:rotfl:

Forgive me for not jumping on the beatification of Tavis Allison bandwagon, but let's remember that it was Autarch's incredibly bad business decisions that put them in this circumstance, and that what they're offering is their own brand of discounted birdcage liner to make up for it.

Yeah, I agree. They put a lot of stock in trying to sell something that didn't exist, and then got burned for it.

I commend them for trying to do right by the customer after the fact, but let this be a lesson to others in the future.

Live and learn.

Hmmm, let's see here.

QuoteWe understand that James is grieving for his father, but we have to confront the fact that he is currently not living up to this responsibility and discuss what Autarch can do for backers to make good on our own responsibility to you.

I imagine "James is grieving for his father" is something Tavis had to remind himself of a lot when writing this. And even then this comes across as "We understand that James is grieving for his father, but we refuse to have our good name fucked over on that account."

QuoteWe still have faith that his honor and integrity will lead him to address his responsibilities on this project, but we can’t predict when that will be.

I guess they have to say this because if they don't have that faith there's no rational reason for them not to declare the thing a wash at this point.

QuoteAutarch's role at this point is to keep making progress on those areas we can without James, while continuing to make efforts to communcate with him. The goals of this communication will to be sure he understands his options, the urgency of taking action, and the potential consequences of inaction.

Translation: "If someone who knows James IRL could please print out this update and hand it directly to him we'd be grateful, because literally every other form of communication has failed at this point".

QuoteWe know that because many of you already have everything Autarch has put out so far, or contributed more to Dwimmermount than we currently have to give you in return, you may need to wait to take full advantage of this offer. To make up for that delay we’d like to give you twice as much in discounts as your original pledge, rounded up.

I half-suspect a lot of those coupons will end up being used by backer's buddies to get cheap copies of Autarch stuff if they get used at all, but even then I have to give Autarch the thumbs-up for this. It may be ass-covering, but it's ass-covering which is going to have to factor into their budgeting decisions for a heinously long time.

QuoteMany of us have experienced how grief and stress can make it difficult to muster any sustained mental effort. Fortunately, James has a range of options that would quickly restart progress on fulfilling the Dwimmermount rewards.

Translation of this and the following section: "Really, someone please bring this shit to James's attention, because if he really wants to sit in his gloom hole and do nothing all he needs to do is take up one of these nice easy options and the whole world will leave him alone forever".

QuoteSpeaking plainly, when people do things that hurt themselves and others and contradict their normal values we say they are out of their mind. When we add that someone is out of their mind with grief or out of their mind with stress, it helps us understand and sympathize with where they’re coming from while still recognizing that they are being irrational. We can also use the opposite language to talk about when people have been or will be in their right mind.

Woah, holy fuck this is harsh. The second two sentences of the paragraph might soften the blow but the first sentence is still a bone-shattering punch to the jaw, what on Earth could justify thi-

QuoteIn the period of taking stock after James stopped returning my calls or emails, it became clear that he never paid cartographers Rob Conley and Chris Hagerty for their freelance contributions to Dwimmermount. Rob's maps were completed in the fall of 2012, Chris's in December.

Oh.

That's it, it's finished, there's no repairing this situation. If the timeline Autarch are giving us is correct James straight-up flaked on paying Rob and Chris, and in Rob's case flaked months before he dropped off the radar. The dying father is a hell of a thing and it makes it understandable that James might get depressed and cut off contact with people, but if we're to believe what we're told here James was taking part in weekly conference calls right up to December 2012, and if he was still regularly attending those I can't see how he could be simultaneously unable to write Rob a damn cheque.

Equally, I can't see any way James' reputation is going to come back from this. If this wasn't some sort of scam like RWS claimed, then the circumstances surrounding it have aligned to make it look alarmingly like one.

Quote from: The Traveller;636785And the moral of the story is, never ever do business with someone based on trust, handshake deals, or verbal contracts. Especially if they aren't in the same jurisdiction.

Reread the update, first section: Autarch had a written contract with James from the get-go. He still's still left them high and dry.