A few things are all going here on, so let’s start with a summary;
- Mark Rein-Hagen created the iconic RPG Vampire: The Masquerade.
- Mark Rein-Hagen has founded a new RPG publisher called Lostlorn Games.
- Lostlorn Games have a Kickstarter due this month called Badlander: A Fury of Thorns.
- There’s a Pay What You Want with a suggested $0.00 Badlander RPG quick start bundle.
- Even with all this going on, Lostlorn is supporting an employee with allegations against Jamison Stone.
- There are other allegations, more screen grabs, against Stone, who is married to Satine Phoenix and now stepped down as CEO of Apotheosis Studios.
Let’s start at the bottom, and tackle the allegations from the anonymous employee. Lostlorn have used their professional space to help their team mate deal with their emotional turmoil. The new publisher also shared the statement with The Fandomentals.
The write-up begins;
This will be [a] catharsis to type this out, as it’s something that I’ve just been sitting on since GenCon 2021. I never even gave all the details to my team, burying it instead.
At one point, the Lostlorn employee notes;
So at GenCon I was surprised when he pulled me aside from my teammates (director of marketing and project lead) to light me up and cuss me up one way and down the other. “You guys are fucking amateurs and we’re inches away from just walking away from this project. What a shit-show you guys are. Look at her! She is a big deal, and you guys are nothing. This is beneath us.”
Screenshots from some screenshots of related conversions with (what appears to be) Jamison on Discord.
While some might call piling on a backlash a publicity move, it isn’t best media practice, and Lostlorn is taking a risk by giving their employee the space they asked for. A Kickstarter not only requires focus but thrives on unity and dies on division, and going public risks the latter.
Badlander: A Fury of Thorns
What do we know about Badlander? The Kickstarter is due this month and has been described as a mashup of The Three Musketeers and The Witcher. It’s dark but dashing.
Rein-Hagen, of course, knows darkness from the World of Darkness.
Lostlorn say;
Lostlorn is a world shaped by storytelling, faerie tales, and epic quests. It is a world of the uncanny and the arcane, of immortal soul motes traveling between the sacred and the profane. Badlanders are the famed heroes who guard the safe and tranquil lowland kingdoms who must venture into the most dangerous reaches of the nine realms in search of truth and purpose.
Badlander will be based on 5e mechanics but has a storyteller twist. Lostlorn suggests you’ll be able to start playing in minutes and learn as you go.
Others are involved, and in the quick start bundle, alongside Mark Rein-Hagen we see both Jenna Scmitt and Roque Lattro Neto co-created.
The bundle includes preview page spreads, the character sheet and a deep dive on character generation.
Quick Links
- Badlander RPG quick start bundle.
- Jamison Stone allegations statement.
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