Rob Donoghue, Evil Hat, and the Dead Baby and 6 Million Jews Want An Apology

I'm Jewish.

As some of you might know, I have a longstanding interest in researching how Nazis dealt with art and culture and how they used the theory of "Degenerate Art" to lock up artists and destroy their work.

I asked my dad a long time ago about this--I asked him if anyone in the family knew anything about that, from the war.

He said he'd ask around, maybe, then said "You know about the Vilnius story right?"

"Nah what's that?"

"Well, when the family was in Lithuania and the SS came, they were hiding in a false basement or something..."

"Yeah?"

"And they could hear them upstairs knock down the door and walk around. And down in the basement the baby was crying...so they had to keep their hands over the baby's mouth--and..."

"Fuck."

"...yeah, they smothered the baby. But...they got out."

That's my family. That's the kind of stories I grew up with.

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So imagine my surprise when me, the Jew, and my (three queer and one genderfluid, hard-lefty) players finished playing D&D last night...

...and found an article by a guy who writes teenage vampire erotica with a cartoon dog avatar was calling me a gamergater and a Nazi.

Ok, fine, you guys have been on the internet, this is not a surprise: since 2004, probably every one reading this has been called a Nazi by a some dude who writes teenage vampire erotica with a cartoon dog avatar.

But then imagine my somewhat more genuine surprise when I saw that a grown-up man with a job as a game designer was promoting it, as if it was a real thing:

See that little "Rob Donoghue retweeted"?

Rob Donoghue is co-founder of Evil Hat, who makes Fate. He affects a feckless bearded dad pose. Who me? I am just a harmless smiling gamefellow!

After sharing the cartoon dog's hatespeech, he then started a very pious thread ...

"It's damning"?

The cartoon dog teenage vampire erotica writer's accusation that Jews are Nazis is "damning"?

Why is a man in charge of one of the biggest indie RPG publishers throwing in with this shit?

Could it possibly be that the work I write this year got nominated for more awards than any other RPG book this season and not only did Evil Hat get nominated for almost nothing it gets recognized less and less each year? Or that the head writer on Vampire was likewise showered in nominations while Evil Hat's star sinks lower and lower?

I get it, Rob. You never swear and never talk about sex and you look like a bearded dad while we look like ...what we look like, but this is so far past the line of any human decency I can't even imagine what was in your head.

There no way you can possibly see yourself as a good person after this.

People in my family were baked in ovens and smothered alive on account of these people. I've personally had to deal with their shit almost as much as I've had to deal with yours:

You're a person. I'm a person. We make games for fuck's sake.

I want a public apology from you, Rob Donoghue. I want a public apology from Evil Hat. I want you to apologize to every member of my family and everyone in my game group for what you just pulled in the name of your declining sales figures.

This is beyond anything--if you can't even slow down whatever is going on in your head long enough to see the wall of red lights you just ran through...

ps due to the uptick in harassment we may be hiring some security for the Gencon booth, if you've got any suggestions, go here.

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Addendum, this was Evil Hat's first response:

On July 11, they were prevailed upon to admit their shittiness:

The people you're resisting will never approve your form of resistance. 

Anyway, Ennie voting is live, please vote Frostbitten & Mutilated.

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