Adam Koebel has been forced to resign from his position as a writer for Modiphius Entertainment following a Dungeons & Dragons campaign run by the Dungeon World Co-Creator which featured a depiction of sexual assault.
Previously, Koebel had been the host and Dungeon Master of Far Verona, a regularly livestreamed D&D campaign hosted and produced by the RollPlay network.
During a March 24th session, Koebel surprised his players by inserting an act of sexual assault into that day’s campaign scenario.
This scene saw Johnny Collins, a synthetic human played by streamer and voice actor Elspeth Eastman, “getting his brain stimulated” in a reproduction of sexual feeling by a NPC mechanic, played by Koebel himself.
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Koebel received a massive wave of backlash following this session, with many upset that the seasoned dungeon master had failed to maintain ‘player safety’ at the table.
While Koebel would later apologize for the discomfort he had caused, this episode resulted in the immediate cancellation of Far Verona.
On July 27th, nearly four months after the incident, Modiphius Entertainment announced that “After a discussion with Adam Koebel, all parties involved have decided that it is best he resign his ongoing projects with Modiphius Entertainment.”
In their statement, the tabletop game publisher explained that they felt Koebel’s “journey toward rectifying the situation isn’t yet complete,” and noted that they would be “replacing his work using a small team of diverse writers that include women and PoC.”
Their statement began, “After a discussion with Adam Koebel, all parties involved have decided that it is best he resign his ongoing projects with Modiphius Entertainment. We have been following the events of Far Verona and Adam’s conduct on the show, and we feel his journey toward rectifying the situation isn’t yet complete.”
It continued, “Adam’s work for us was written over the winter of 2019 and was specifically about best practices for gamemasters, and we feel it pertinent that the work not be included and his participation in ongoing projects suspended. We are replacing his work using a small team of diverse writers that include women and PoC — writers who were already members of the team who have or will be creating material for our games.”
Finally, it concluded, “Consent and safety in roleplaying games is an absolute necessity, and all of our roleplaying games in the future will contain advice and guidance on those aspects for everyone at the table. The safety of our fans is of prime importance to us.”
During his tenure with Modiphius Entertainment, Koebel had contributed writing to the upcoming official Dune role playing game, Dune: Adventures in the Imperium.
Despite its citation as reason for his resignation, Far Verona was unrelated to Koebel’s work for Mophibius Entertainment.
Koebel would later comment on this announcement on his personal blog, asserting that “this is a decision made after considerable thought and, I think, reflects the best possible choice given the situation at hand,” and stating that “it doesn’t feel like the right choice to publish it.”
He wrote, “In 2019, I was invited to join the team of writers at Modiphius Entertainment working on Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, a new roleplaying game set in Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi universe. It was a dream project I’d been overjoyed to be a part of and I submitted work that I felt captured the spirit of the setting and provided game masters advice and tools for running games set in it.”
He continued, “After reflecting on the past few months, and in conversation with the team at Modiphius, I’ve decided to resign that contract. Modiphius will no longer be including any of my work in the final version of Dune: Adventures in the Imperium.”
Koebel concluded, “This is a decision made after considerable thought and, I think, reflects the best possible choice given the situation at hand. While I am proud of the work I submitted for the game, it doesn’t feel like the right choice to publish it. Ultimately, what matters most to me is that the game is something that everyone involved can be proud to release, and I believe that this is the best path to that goal. Iif [sic] you’re interested in learning more about Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, please visit Modiphius’ website.”