Okay, got a lot more to say about this, so buckle up. https://twitter.com/Delafina777/status/1245872924411617280

First off, yes, he "apologized," sort of, except not really, and the "apology" didn't own up to the actual problems with what he did, and he's only apologizing in obscure threads, so he's attempting to minimize his loss of face, not actually make things right. 100% ego.

Second, the situation was actually worse (I know, hard to imagine) than it looks from just watching the video of the stream.

Big ol' content warning: rape for the rest of this thread. In case you don't want to watch it, that video above is from the player of the character that got raped. Turns out she and Adam discussed the scene ahead of time.

She thought her character was going to get upgrades.

So, he had the scene planned and *discussed it with her* and *hid that it was going to be sexual*, not to mention nonconsenting.

He knew it wasn't okay, otherwise why hide what he was planning to do? (His inane giggling throughout the scene is also a pretty big tell that he knew he was crossing a boundary.)

But like, look, I could talk forever about how scummy this behavior is, but we've seen it before.

We saw it with Tyler Carpenter, for example, and countless other examples.

Men in TTRPGs who know the language of advocacy & allyship & use it to get people to drop their guard.

It's deeply harmful, it's deeply egotistical, it's deeply sordid and pathetic, and unfortunately, it's also deeply commonplace in this industry.

So let's talk about safety tools and game mechanics.

First off, safety tools are a distraction here. They might have stopped this after the bulk of the harm was done, but they wouldn't have *prevented* it.

Safety tools can't preemptively stop your GM from springing a rape scene on you/your character out of nowhere.

And also, people freeze up when they're shocked. It can take time to process what happened.

*Especially* when you're live on camera, and your whole shtick has been keeping things going so the audience is entertained and rolling with what's happening.

Like, look, in a way, streamers are an especially vulnerable group to do this to, because their success has largely depended on a The Show Must Go On mindset, and it's hard enough to stand up and say "stop this NOW" to a small group of friends, let alone a large audience.

TTRPG safety tools are largely designed to stop your housemates (regular group) from storing stuff in your room or strangers on the bus (convention games) from spreading out onto your seat. They're not really well-designed to stop them from suddenly whacking you over the head.

So again, safety tools are a distraction here, because they wouldn't have prevented this, and they don't even provide a uniquely helpful way to stop something this egregious.

They're best for "hmm, I don't think I'm comfy with this," rather than "HOLY SHIT WHAT."

Because in a HOLY SHIT WHAT situation, *most* of us are going to be too stunned to respond in time at all, so having a graceful way to respond is... not really helpful.

But I want to talk about what really made this *particularly* terrible.

And that actually has to do with mechanics and the relationship of the GM to player characters.

So, first off, a disclaimer: I'm not sure if I've ever played Dungeon World; I've definitely never GMed it. So I don't know the mechanics. I've only GMed PF, D&D, and Call of Cthulhu.

But in those games, at least as I've ever played them or GMed them, there's a pretty clear line around how a character's *reactions* and *feelings* and *thoughts* work.

And that is: with a few exceptions, those are 100% under the player's--not the GM's--control.

There are occasions when the GM can dictate some sort of internal cognitive or emotional activity, e.g.:
-on a Knowledge check, the GM can tell you, "you remember XYZ,"
-if an NPC's using some sort of charm/enchantment, the GM might tell you, "you don't know why, but you trust X"

And don't get me wrong, the latter can be abused, which is why any GM worth their salt uses it minimally.

And any GM worth playing with will give you, the player, *information* about it and let you decide how your PC *expresses* it.

Any responsible GM is *not* going to use any sort of mind-control magic or technology for sexual encounters because

WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU

There is NO WAY that is fun for everyone at the table.

There's no good reason to do it. Ever.

Like, look, mind-control magic/tech in TTRPGs is ethically iffy at the best of times, but "my character let the nymph take the key because she charmed me into trusting her" isn't going to fucking traumatize people the way, you know, mind-control-magic *rape* is.

And make no mistake: rape happening in a TTRPG, to a player character, is *not* the same as rape happening in a movie.

Games are participatory. That character is, in some sense, *you* in a way that a character onscreen isn't.

And the one small saving grace in all of this was at *least* they were describing it all in the 3rd person, so it was "Johnny," this was happening to and not "you."

Hopefully that made it a little less terrible for the target.

Still fucking *awful.*

But either way, the GM *describing* to a player how their character *feels* and *responds* internally to what is happening to them is a giant violation, especially in a sexual scene, especially in a non-consensual sexual scene.

Because like, look, we all know that orgasming during a sexual assault doesn't actually mean the victim is enjoying/complicit in it, right? Physiological reactions happen. Let's be clear about that, for actual, real-life rape.

Nevertheless, for a GM describing an in-game rape, there's a deeply ugly additional violation in them informing the player that their character had an orgasm.

It very much seems like an attempt to force the *player* to feel like they're complicit.

Basically, it's "look, your character [who is, in some sense, *you*] is enjoying it."

It's basically a multi-layered removal of agency from, and gaslighting of, both the character and the *real person playing that character.*

It's deeply manipulative and ugly.

So, I don't know how the player felt about it, and none of us have a right to her reactions. Everyone has their own ways of reacting, what's deeply affecting to one person might not bother another.

I hope it didn't affect her too deeply, and that she's able to be ok soon.

What I'm talking about here is what the GM's actions were likely to do. Yes, it was a character in a game that was raped, not the player.

Doesn't change that this was also a deeply abusive, gaslighting assault on the player.

In conclusion, if you want to play out rape scenarios, write fiction or roleplay with your sexual partner. They have no place in TTRPGs, because given the dynamics of social pressure with these sort of groups, enthusiastic consent can't be assured.

And as a GM, any time you have to go into a PC's head via mind-control magic or tech, do it as sparingly as possible, with as much control as possible remaining in the *player's* hands, and don't make it sexual.

Ever.