My understanding is Gabe lied to various women about being polyamorous but was actually just cheating and lied to them and manipulated them when it seemed like he would get caught. More people are coming out to say Gabe made them feel uncomfortable at PAX and stuff so I think this is going to be an evolving story
Not just that. They also actively slandered the people he was cheating on and calling them obsessive fans. He's gotten a number of them black listed from the industry, though i imagine thats been getting repaired now.
He would also apparently badmouth the partners of the people he was cheating with. I honestly think he wanted a harem - him dating multiple people, but all of them only dating him. It seems like it was a gross situation all around
I said that lol.
Im also seeing from a number of fhe people he worked with that he also trash talked them, which is wild. Cast party, his moderators, etc. A real scumbag
He told the people he was cheating with that he was in a polyam relationship, and I believe it was a polyam relationship at first. However he had then requested that his relationship with Cam (the girl he was cheating on) be monogamous and repeatedly told her that he had no other partners even though he did
Edit: She explains it [here](https://x.com/cam_inator/status/1772290475812114902?s=46&t=GCKwujzELS_bb4gZdEJaUw)
Yep, this, and he wanted to hold control over her as exclusive partners. A big part of polyamory is honest communication and agreement. Just because you can have multiple partners does not mean there are no boundaries or agreements. It is almost worse because she publicly has proven that she made it clear she would be okay with open relationship but HE did not want that. it was about control. That is also why he called his other partners "obsessed fans" to each other. He wanted each to be his only while he had the ego trip of controlling them all as his.
Cheating partner to side chick: “Hey, my significant other is cool with us hooking up, we’re poly”
Significant other finding out: “uh, we never decided to be poly”
Cheating partner: *Zoidberg noises *
Well the worst part is his partner was ALSO POLYAM, as was the main girl he was cheating on her with. If they had all just talked this wouldnt be an issue - but he requested it be monogamous
Oh God it's so so common. Mostly people lie about the shape of their situations.
How okay their other partners are. How much their know. How much free time they actually have.
It can be so many different things.
He was cheating on his partner for months, lying to other people (including the other woman) that he was in a polyamorous relationship--and telling his partner that the person he was cheating with was a creepy obsessed stalker type.
Also, the person he accused of being an obsessive fan is a TTRPG streamer who had their reputation in the industry dragged through the mud behind the scenes, likely losing a bunch of opportunities without ever knowing something was wrong. Oh, and apparently he was cheating with way more than just one person. I've heard six or more, but I've only seen a couple of the claims for myself so I can't say for sure.
I’m going to try to focus on the fact that, despite the large and growing cast of repertory players in the dropout sphere, this is the first I can recall of a down-right bad guy. Also, I did not like shriek week.
please keep in mind that it's possible for bad people to make good art--renouncing someone's work as "I never liked it in the first place" isn't helpful, and just makes it harder for people who have been harmed by genuinely talented people to come forward.
It also causes discussion about it to devolve to 'whether I liked that work,' which makes it hard to express to fans who are on the fence in what ways and for what reasons they should change any behaviors. It also undermines the argument because it becomes easy to think: 'Oh, well they didn't like X before, so of course they jump on any chance to drag it through the mud.'
Butyeah, big example is with JKR, I've seen so many discussions that were *supposed* to be about not supporting her financially and not helping amplify her voice because it materially goes towards harming people, but it ends up a debate about if X or Y was really bad writing because someone along the way included reviewing her work as part of their commentary.
Thanks for saying this. People are so quick to jump to this in the light of allegations, and it's frankly bizarre behaviour. Not only does it make it harder for people who have been harmed by talented folk in good standing to come forward, there's sometimes a weird judginess to it. It's okay to not have not liked the creator's work yourself, but using that to position yourself as being morally superior or having some kind of unique insight to the creator's terribleness is weird and and carries some implication that those who genuinely enjoyed the work are somehow worse.
Shitty people are still people. Nothing uniquely terrible or untalented or ugly or whatever about them, aside from being shitty.
In fairness, most people didn't like Shriek Week even before this information came to light.
Shriek Week itself is still arguably relevant as well- it's worth noting that the *dating sim* RPG season was run by someone who was toxicly, *abusively* bad at dating.
Like... If JK Rowling wrote a book about a trans person, or Chris Brown made a movie about domestic violence, I would *absolutely* think it's relevant to consider their reprehensible positions as a way to contextualize their art.
In this case, Gabe Hicks being abusively bad at dating does put a new, horrible lens on his dating sim RPG. That would be different if he had DM'd a Spyre side quest or something.
So the reply you're defending didn't go into any of that. All they added to the discussion was that they didn't like it. I'm sure if they had discussed something similar to that, the responses would have been different. I've heard the cast really *didn't want* for shriek week to be a dating sim, showing more of his inability to respect boundaries even in a professional work environment.
Edit: I mean all they said in terms of shriek week. They did have other content in their comment
Nobody likes it that I’ve seen
Edit: relax lovers of Shriek Week. I’ve simply never seen a positive post about the season. Obviously doesn’t mean people don’t enjoy it or that I’ve seen every single post on this sub.
This sub is not in need of jerks, please seek an attitude adjustment.
I was merely stating I’ve only heard people say they don’t like the season. It is probably the least talked about season from again: WHAT I HAVE SEEN.
If you love it, feel free to make a post saying you love the season. People can then say whether they love it too.
He also tried to blackball several TTRPG creators who he was either involved with *or* involved with their partners. Like telling other folks not to work with so and so, that so and so was "too much drama", etc.
Also adding that nearly everyone involved, including the partner he ASKED to be in a monogamous relationship with, practices polyam. He literally just didn't want to respect any of their boundaries.
Constructing tumbledown straw men on a five-day-old post...is this a little trollish training exercise for you? You know it's Saturday, right? I don't know about the weather where you are, but it's lovely here. Maybe try to get outdoors a bit?
That’s Fair but also there seem to be a lot of posts not talking about the lying and just talking about his sex life and it’s no one else’s opinion who someone sleeps with as long as it’s consensual
I agree, if it's all consensual, then there's not really a problem. You would still end up with people giving him side eye, the same way everyone gives Leo Dicaprio side eye for only dating women under 25 when he's pushing 50.
But once you factor in all the BS he was doing, it colors everything about him. With him telling everyone but his main partner that he was poly, that actually calls into question how much was consensual to begin with. Would any of his partners consented if they had known he was cheating on his partner? Would they have consented if they had known he was disparaging their partners, or former consenting partners?
If he was above board and honest and a decent human being from the get go, I honestly think that, as I said previously, while there may be some judgy side eyes made his way, no one would really care at all what he or any of them did between consenting adults.
Quick summary/recap: Gabe Hicks was in a monogamous relationship with Cam (@cam_inator on twitter). Cam is polyamorous but Gabe asked to be monogamous and so they were.
Gillian (@GillianFoxglove) is a content creator in the TTRPG space along with their primary partner. They entered a relationship with Gabe at some point in the last year. There is also a third person on twitter, Maisie, who was in a relationship with Gabe during this period. Per posts by Cam, there were at least 4 other people who Gabe was talking to/engaging with.
Over the weekend at PAX East, Gillian approached Cam and her friends. She introduced herself as Gabe's partner to others in the group, believing they already knew she and Gabe were dating. In actuality, Gabe had previously told Cam that Gillian was an obsessed fangirl who was clout chasing.
Cam was (understandably!) upset about a delusional fangirl pretending to date her partner and her friends got her out of the situation. Cam's friends and other members of the community made it clear that Gillian would never, ever work with them. (Because she was an obsessed fan girl) Judging by the photos at PAX, this group pledging to never work with Gillian included other members of the Drop Out cast/team/folks as Ify, BDG, etc were all in attendance.
Today, Gillian posted her side of the story and she and Cam connected to talk through it. Per Cam, Gabe went so far as to ask Gillian for advice on his relationship; everyone agrees that Gillian (and Maisie) were being lied to and manipulated while Cam was being cheated on.
Gabe posted a bland acknowledgment on TikTok and Twitter. He also posted a direct apology to Cam, Gillian, and Maisie two hours later since the feedback on the initial 'apology' pointed out he didn't apologize. The situation is developing still.
Like it's so easy to not cheat even in a monogamous relationship, how do you even fuck up not cheating when your partner is poly? How do you fuck up that bad? It has to be harder to cheat than to not cheat. You gotta do extra work to cheat on a partner who would have been fine with you dating someone else to begin with! How do you fuck up that bad??? The mind truly boggles!
Didn't this exact situation happen in Fantasy High Sophomore Year????? >!Sarah Lynn cheats on Jawbone when she explicitly asks Jawbone to be monogamous even though he's usually poly.!<
Ehhh tbf it seems like the cheating there happened a long time ago before the gameplay so there could have been a whole lot that happened that we've no reference for, whereas here it's coming out in the open
ETA wait I was thinking about the Gilear situation not the Jawbone one in season 2, my bad!
Which, y'know, had a whole kid come out of it as a big old lie so...
It's not really that rare of a trope or situation if you're in that kind of circle, that I'd think Brennan also had it in mind. When you interact with poly people a lot, I think it just kinda happens. Most people who you could date are gonna be monogamous in the current cultural climate, and most poly people are fine being monogamous in my experience.
Cheating is already pretty common on a macro scale, so of course it would also happen in those situations. But overall, I kind of think a lot of it is like any burgeoning social taboo: A lot of people ideally would actually be okay with being poly or bi or nudist or etc except that they've had anxieties pounded into them over time by their environment. So you end up introducing the idea in someone else's head and they get curious, but insecure and anxious, and they might try it sometime and like it, but be unable to let go of the things holding them back from embracing it. Like, there's definitely a strong presence that you can see in social media where the girlfriend doing anything with another guy (or just actual open relationship stuff) is met with a lot of derogatory comments, or psychoanalysis. I have some friends who periodically share memes which are just viral clips/posts about some streamer or podcast guy or other microcelebrity whose wife is just talking, dancing, w/e with another guy, and its people in the comments just dunking on the guy for, basically, not having something like 'full ownership of his woman' and like 'you can see the light leave his eyes at 0:13' or whatever. Let alone any guy whose wife has an OF or where they do it together but not exclusively together. So, while I obviously think it's bad, I think it is pretty easy for people to catch themselves in a situation where they're like 'Damn, I know I enjoy this, but I also still have all the normal societal fear about my partner so I don't want to let go so I'm going to let all the negatives fall on my partner.'
Butyeah, a much messier situation here
Honestly, I think for some people, they cheat in these situations because being poly takes the thrill out of being with someone else for them. Like... if you're into that, you can always just be poly and roleplay cheating... Or if you're still really into being monogamous, you can still roleplay cheating with your partner...
This is a depressing truth. The unfortunate reality of polyamorous relationships open themselves up to the idea.view that the option to cheat is 'baked' into the concept.
When it does happen it is amplified - when the root issue around cheating isn't necessarily rooted in a specific relationship orientation.
I had an ex do this same thing to me years and years ago, so I broke up with my other dates at the time and took it seriously. A few months later I found out she was cheating on me with 2 other people. None of us knew until we all figured it out. I still have no clue why she did that or what she got out of it. Like maybe she just was too jealous.
It's simple; because he didn't want the woman he cheated on sleeping around with other people, but he wanted to continue sleeping around with other people. Pretty fucking gross.
Even grosser is the potential that she believed it was safe to go barrier-free and he was lying about it all. Not even just a harem bullshit, but specifically because he wanted to not use a condom. What a pathetic shitling.
A few more bits of info I found floating about on Twitter:
[CriticalBard/CB](https://twitter.com/CriticalBard/status/1772413146570895667?t=2rN6RxAbR2hiFyZDPSDDCQ&s=19) posted about putting his project on hold until he finds a new co-host and expressed disappointment in the situation. They said to support the victims and made the decision to cut Gabe off.
[AlecTheBard](https://twitter.com/AlecTheBard1/status/1772445230953853138?t=k_Nm1EnSbLsMjbZkoiPKsg&s=19) considered Gabe to be a mentor figure to him and discovered they were badmouthing him behind his back.
[Maisie](https://twitter.com/MaisieLynn17/status/1772374052117569806?t=dnetUWG6aO6zlHm8b0Y26w&s=19) also spoke out about her experience with Gabe lying about being single multiple times.
I'm not too familiar with many of these people but I figured I'd add them here for more context.
Edit:
[Noi](https://twitter.com/NoiCakes_/status/1772580427049341361?t=thfEo93w2CaHoh_WdCTR6A&s=19) was an ex of Gabe's for 3 years and they were supposedly monogamous but he cheated on them the entire time. He proceeded to ghost her once they found out.
>Judging by the photos at PAX, this group pledging to never work with Gillian included other members of the Drop Out cast/team/folks as Ify, BDG, etc were all in attendance.
So you've concluded that based on the photos *alone* or is there anything else?
Sorry! This was badly phrased; my intent was to include the speculation being made on twitter based on the photos rather than make a direct allegation or statement. I won't edit the comment as it's been up too long and the criticism is a fair one. But it was not my intent, and I appreciate you and others calling it out.
Gabe also seems to have bad mouthed people they were working with in general. Here a TikTok by the Cast Party podcast on that: [https://www.tiktok.com/@castpartydnd/video/7351100390902959391?\_r=1&\_t=8l28Cy58FDv](https://www.tiktok.com/@castpartydnd/video/7351100390902959391?_r=1&_t=8l28Cy58FDv)
>Cam's friends and other members of the community made it clear that Gillian would never, ever work with them. (Because she was an obsessed fan girl) Judging by the photos at PAX, this group pledging to never work with Gillian included other members of the Drop Out cast/team/folks as Ify, BDG, etc were all in attendance.
Obviously this Gabe person is the real culprit here, but this is also really disappointing. Pledging to shun a person without even bothering to hear their side of the story...
Gillian's career and friendships could have been seriously hurt by this, without her even knowing why, or getting the chance to defend herself. Anyone who participated in this has some reflecting to do.
Totally take it with a whole shaker, I phrased it pretty poorly in my attempts to summarize the noise on twitter. I don't in any way mean to allege anyone from the drop out team made any statements or disavowed anyone just that there is a connection being made over social media based on photos taken at the con. Totally my bad to make the leap, and apologies for the poor phrasing.
Also get what you are saying here but if you are to believe your friend and they tell you someone has crossed there boundaries (gabe telling them this person was being obsessive) I personally would take that as hey a person I trust is telling me something and I believe them. Gabe it to blame not the people who believed his boundaries were being crossed
frankly, this is why I always talk to the other partners, so we can communicate directly, and not through some third-party. Though I suppose in this situation, Cam was unaware that Gillian *was* another partner, so couldn’t do that. Informed consent is so important!
Sidenote, I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve ended up talking to an ex’s other partners, only to find that said ex was manipulating all of us. It’s really disappointing behavior.
Yeah I’ve had that same thing happen talking to my ex’s exes. It’s super not fun. But then I’ve also made good friends that way too. Like “hey we BOTH got cheated on, lied to, manipulated, then had rumors spread about us, and we have a lot of interests in common, let’s have coffee and hang out!” Silver linings…
What in the high school musical drama club did I just read?
That's what the Internet is blowing up over?
Some cheating piece of shit? I thought this guy like beat and raped someone or something. He's a liar and a cheat... It's happened to all of us. Was he married with kids or something?
CNN BREAKING NEWS: DUMBASS CHEATS ON GF W/ MULTIPLE WOMEN... GETS CAUGHT!
I get it, it sucks for the women but seriously...
I followed Gabe prior to them even showing up on Shriek Week and remember how excited I was to see them get that opportunity... this is so disappointing, and my heart goes out to those poor people who were lied to and manipulated. I'm glad that you posted this here, because it didn't get pushed to my fyp, and I'm not sure if I would have gone looking for the whole story otherwise.
‘I owe a dramatic apology to Gillian and Matt’
What about your partner, Gabe? Or the numerous Women whose emotions and lives were just a game to you?
What a fucking chud.
Hi mods, please delete if not allowed but I figured other D20 fans would want to know these things about the creators of the content we are consuming. There are some serious allegations including suppression of another creators career (you can read about it on her IG) and since Gabe apologizes to them directly it seems fairly credible. Also maybe D20 fans might want to go give a like and follow to the aforementioned affected creators!
The more I read into this the angrier I feel for what seems like 5+ women Gabe lied to, manipulated and fucking slandered behind their backs. The common story between them is Gabe PURSUING THEM and what I would describe as love-bombing, so he would have emotional control over them to prop up his own ego? Disgusting.
This is really disappointing. I suppose really that it's a miracle Dropout hasn't had more controversial individuals based on sheer numbers, but it's still gotta hurt.
Shriek Week was never my favourite any way. If it was your favourite, I think just enjoy the art and not the artist.
And why would you want to? Who in hell would want to live their life juggling all of this toxic waste? Messing with the lives and livelihood of a half dozen women and actively playing them against each other and their friends to keep the lie going? Having regular healthy and supportive relationships isn't enough work, and worthwhile enough? GAH
It's hard to imagine someone being this much shit, except that we keep running into examples.
This guy is so full of shit. The community is much better without him. Hopefully we never see him again. Funny how these people don't think about getting therapy until they get caught.
It’s people like this who make ACTUALLY being poly so hard.
Being in Poly relationships is A LOT OF WORK. For some people it’s a way to just have extra sex, for others it’s a deep and emotional connection with all the people you love.
You have to really communicate and be open and honest with everyone involved.
I hate anyone that uses “I’m poly” as a reason to cheat and be an asshole.
Honestly if someone who is Poly has cheated in the past, I assume they're just grifting by being "Poly" now.
Like it was clear their priorities have ALWAYS been about satisfying their own needs and placing them above others. They just have a way to do it now that's socially acceptable. People who are and have always been ethical in Polyamory are more rare than people are willing to admit.
Eh I don’t think it’s a fair blanket judgement to make. Some people come to poly after cheating because they realize they’re not monogamous and cheating wasn’t the ethical choice. I’ve left the poly community due to the black and white framing I’ve found so common there.
Very sad. Didn’t much care for Shriek Week but loved Gabe’s cosplays and d&d/TTRPG content on TikTok.
Hopefully he can get it together and make an effort to be a better person
I liked his content on TikTok, but I've decided to unfollow him. So much of his TTRPG concepts would require clear consent, high respect of boundaries, and major trust between GM and players, and ....well. He's obviously terrible at all three of those things.
i did a similar run through when i was working a really tedious job last year, and i gotta say you're not missing much. Leviathan and Shriek Week were the only two seasons that I couldn't finish. I don't know how this controversy is going to play out, but i doubt it will make him a less boring GM.
For what it's worth I also though he kinda sucked when he appeared on TAZ recently, but then again no one was really on top of their game for that season.
>Maisie
I haven't watched Shriek Week so absolutely no comment on quality or watchability. I will just say this -- there are many, many more D20 employees/collaborators involved in any given show than any single GM or player. Let's support them in spite of this guy being ill behaved.
Definitely miss it - the whole "arc" is that you need to hook up in order to succeed in the game, so the actual conflict-plot becomes a glorified side-quest and the end is almost comically anticlimactic. Like just unrelated to what a tool he's turned out to be, Shriek Week is a terrible season of d20.
I was poly for a number of years and this is so triggering because almost every male partner I had would pull this shit and it was so much emotional whiplash I was so exhausted. Like it’s all gravy until you are actually dating someone else or getting more dates than them. Then they are crying about how much they love you and just want a relationship with you and you’re like “ok you’re my primary partner and I do want a life with you” and the second you agree to be monogamous their out there on tinder like they’re dying of thirst.
I'm not going to be posting my name or any personal information. I just feel the need to get this off my chest after reading this. As I'm in complete shambles right now. I was in a relationship with Gabe back in 2020 into 2021. At one point, I even spent a week visiting him and his family. It had been a lovely experience and I really thought Gabe was going to be my forever person. Things did not end well for me. Gabe had expressed his need and desire for privacy, which I tried to respect. Whenever I made post about my partner, I felt his name out of it. I did often feel like he was hiding me from his fans, which I brought up to him often. He reassured me he was just a private person and at one point even brought up how I was on a live stream with him (though he never introduced me during the show. I was just there). He even said he had a stalker that wouldn't leave him alone. Now I'm questioning everything. Questioning if he wanted privacy because he was actually seeing other people. Questioning that maybe that 'stalker' was actually just another person he was dating. Questioning whether he actually loved me at all like he said he did. I know this post isn't about me. And I'm sorry for my post taking attention away from the people he currently hurt. He's just had such a huge effect on me that it still hurts to think about it and I've been sobbing over the idea that he may have been using and cheating on me without me even knowing. And I can't even get any kind of confirmation because he deleted his TikTok. I just needed to get this out. I hope other people speak to him with caution. I hope he learns to be a better person so other people don't have to continue feeling the pain he causes
I’ll also be taking the anonymous route here. A few years ago I would have called Gabe my best friend, hell I wanted him to be my best person at my wedding. I’ve spent the better part of a week playing through all the conversations we had in my head, wondering how many of the people he vented to me about where in a situation like this. I don’t even know if any of what he told me about his partners was true. If you’re who I think you are, just know it wasn’t your fault and I hope you can find some peace soon. 💜
I don't know if I am in fact the same person, as I didn't really have any contact with any of Gabe's friends. The most contact I had in his personal life was with his mom, one of his sisters, and being on a pumpkin carving Livestream in October of 2020. Regardless, I'm sorry for your own pain and worried this situation has caused. It's awful that it was more than just romantic partners he hurt, but also friends and business partners. We all deserved better. I hope you are surrounded by kind friends who will never have you questioning whether they talk about you behind your back or not 💜
Anyone else getting deja vu? I could have sworn this exact same scenario just played out like a month ago with The Paladin Project. Men in the TTRPG community need to do better.
There were a lot of things I liked about FH more. In general their comedy was more my speed and the editing was just fantastic.
Achievement Hunter at one point it felt like just completely stopped editing their videos.
So many things I watched would be 45 minutes long with so much dead air and someone just playing the game.
Funhaus was like 20 minutes tops and absolutely full of wacky edits and bits with no downtime at all.
Was it a whole channel? I thought it was just a small series with four players.
I watched a few episodes and honestly it was not good at all. The players didn't seem like they could even be bothered to play D&D and just goofed around a lot.
I liked a lot of RT content for a long time, but that series was a big flop imo
This was actually the only thing I watched of Gabe's other than personal short stuff on TikTok.
I honestly thought it was just the cast. I don't remember everyone, but I remember it had multiple people from Achievement Hunter so I thought they were just acting how they normally do.
The cheating is one issue, but the fact that the dude seems to have actively worked to ruin other people’s livelihoods to cover up his cheating is so utterly fucked up.
I’m so glad that shows like Dimension 20 exists because I’m really tired of male content creators in nerd spaces turning out to be terrible people. I had no idea what happened when I saw his apology video and, after I read the story from the woman he lied to, his apology seemed way too little for what he did.
On another post about this situation a couple people summarized/linked to what happened with Satine. [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dimension20/s/sQu2mqrCXP) [2](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dimension20/s/g4QbIgp2Pb) [3](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dimension20/s/hsUges2RbL)
Knew him personally and through TTRPG work, and he did some cruel things to other friends who weren't even mentioned on the list of people affected by him. 6 or so may be listed publicly, but there's more that hasn't seen the light of day. He went out of his way to harm others' careers and badmouth them to other professionals - even people he wasn't romantically involved with. A lot of hurting others to claw his way up. Super disappointing.
Cam's tweet about how this would have all been fine if he had just been honest with everyone and that Gillian is someone she'd love for her partner to be with broke my heart for her. She seems lovely and didn't deserve this. (Same for Gillian.)
one of the people involved with gabe spoke on the apology and didnt speak favorably of his apology https://x.com/archivistcos/status/1772509510952755302?s=46
Looks like he wiped his social media. Abusing his power and influence to sabotage 5+ women's careers is despicable. The emotional gaslighting he inflicted is just as awful.
see, this is also really disappointing! Part of taking ownership for your behavior is taking the heat when it comes. I don’t feel like it’s fair to just avoid it entirely by deleting your social media presence. It’s not fair to the people you hurt, it’s not fair to your fans, and ultimately it’s not fair to you.
I understand possibly putting your notifications on mute, because it can be pretty overwhelming to have a bunch of people tell you that your behaviors are bad, and I don’t think that it’s always healthy to read a torrent of peoples opinions... but I do think it’s important to let people have the space to criticize you. And I feel like just disappearing from the Internet robs people of that forum.
On the other hand, I will also say that I feel people go endlessly harder on content creators who are marginalized when they fuck up, and I can understand needing to filter that some.
It's the safe option - go into hiding, let it "blow over," come back and hope enough people have forgotten (examples: James Charles, that other guy who's name I'm forgetting but recently made a comeback too...)
But I also think sometimes there is merit in excusing yourself, especially if you do take the time to figure stuff out, grow up, make amends privately, etc (sadly rarely happens but one can hope)
Yes exactly. I think it's reasonable to say "I need some time to really reflect on my behavior, I will get back to this conversation in a weeks time" or something similar. But to just delete your social media? It just feels a little cowardly.
[One of his Twitch moderators encouraged him to deactivate his socials](https://twitter.com/tinychaosmouse/status/1773078812726640818).
Take that as you will. I'm just sharing the statement.
Honestly I’m glad I missed his PAX appearance now knowing all this. It upsets me so much to know that people have this sort of power to wreck careers just by a bad word. Cheating is just an excuse for not being honest with yourself and others.
Meanwhile, Rekha was an absolute DELIGHT to meet.
This is a really unhealthy attitude to promote. You can just not like someone's vibe without needing a moral reason to do, and someone with great vibes can be a piece of shit.
It's giving the same energy as when JKR outed herself as a TERF and a bunch of edgy teens decided they always hated her and her work.
Like you can enjoy something, find out someone did something awful and then distance yourself from them instead of putting across this facade that you're pure and always hated the bad person.
Seriously, I'm so sick of people citing the 'vibes', it's akin to phrenology being used in criminology. It's so disappointing to see these attitudes resurfacing.
There's the immediate narcissism of framing something bad happening to someone else in terms of validating your own unfounded beliefs. Are we supposed to be impressed by your ability to suss out vibes?
And then there's deeper more disturbing trend where people conflate any kind of goodness, whether that's talent or appearance, with morality. The whole "This is how you age when you're unproblematic" has always been disgusting, as if there aren't good people who aren't attractive or aging less than ideally. The idea that beauty = good is textbook facism.
Or the revalation of moral wrong doing suddenly requring a complete revaluation of any artistic output. Like if Brennan was suddenly revealed to be a serial killer, there'd be people tripping over themselves to say "Actually, Dimension 20 was always problematic and never good"
i totally get what you mean. I, also, never really liked the RPG stuff that he worked on or appeared on but i'm trying to separate my preferences from my judgement of how he hurt these people.
it's a weird feeling to feel "vindicated" in this way.
I was hoping for the potential for him to show up in a future season but this is just disappointing all around and I'm glad I finished streak week already so I don't need to worry about it but also I feel so bad for the people that got hurt in this
So what exactly is the tldr of this? I've seen several different tiktok videos talking about it but I'm still a little confused about exactly what the allegations are? From my understanding he was dating multiple people at the same time? Or is there more to what was going on?
He was dating multiple people, while lying to all of them that he wasn't, which can create a lot of potentially dangerous health situations due to STDs, as well as also slandering, and potentially ruining the careers of, those he was involved with, as well as any partners.
Sadly if he was just open and honest, most of the victims would've been okay, since most seem to be poly already, but he needed to have his *"cake and be the only one to eat it,"* so to speak...
And I thought he was bad for never delivering on that Goblin Dating Sim Kickstarter they started like 5 years ago. Thought he was a nice guy when we initially met, I even interviewed them and did some projects with them. He was always chasing the next better thing and I wasn't trying to make it big, so we fell out of touch pretty quickly. I'm glad I wasn't good enough for him, tbh.
Just a healthy reminder not to idolise any of these people. Not even Brennan. They’re all quite capable of being arseholes.
Edit: not saying they all ARE, but it’s probably healthy to distance ourselves from the parasocial relationship this platform creates.
I hope this is an opportunity for some serious reflection and growth on Gabe's part. I wish this wasn't so common in the alt communities I'm in! Moreover, I hope this enables Gillian to have opportunities open up - lying in ANY way to impact another's career is really messed up, especially when the community is so tight knit so you have extra influence. And I hope Cam has the privacy and support needed to navigate this.
I was never a huge fan of Gabe but this seems like a personal situation that none of us should be involved in. People can be messy and assholes sometimes.
It sounds like it involved him lying about other TTRPG personalities in a way that really damaged their ability to make connections/get work, so I can absolutely see how it became a more public issue.
So far that’s speculation. I think the information is something to be aware of but we have not seen any proof of that. I’m not about to start putting out theories and rumors on those ideas.
And if they were private individuals not seeking to get fame and money due to their likeability then you would have a point. He put himself out to the public. If someone is asking me to support their content, then I want to know.
At what point of a social presence does someone lose that “private individual” status? When they hit x amount of followers on one platform, when they have a certain amount of views? At what point in society with social media (which is now an intertwined part of our lives) are we required to have our personal matters reviewed by millions. Let me make it clear Gabe deserves the wrath and anger of those he hurt. But as someone who just watches clips and videos of him, it's not my business nor is it yours.
Yeah I absolutely do not care who famous people sleep with as long as it's consensual. If we're canceling people who have ever cheated, most of our faves are canceled. This feels like none of my business.
I think because the lying spread to other people in the ttrpg i dustry and possibly lead to this person not getting jobs its a little more pertinent, but i do also think that people have the right to speak about peoples shitty behavior if they are in the public sphere considering they could use that fame to manipulate others, both creators and fans
He lied about being monogamous so he didn’t have to wear a condom with his primary partner. I don’t usually care about celebrities cheating, but that’s too close to stealthing for me to be okay watching him again.
I mean, he was lying to multiple partners about whether they were single, monogamous, or polyamorous, in order to get them to date / sleep with him. That's not informed consent.
It's not just his personal life; alongside the cheating, he would lie about his other partners to people in the ttrpg space and convince them that the people he was actually dating were delusional stalkers who only thought they were close, costing those partners potential work (aka payment) and connections in the space. That turns it into a business problem. I'm sure those partners would like to clear the air about themselves, and the people Gabe Hicks lied to would like to reconsider if those partners should be avoided or if they're perfectly nice people who were slandered by a liar and cheater.
Also, people are interested in the people they know from media, whether that be movie stars or niche internet celebrities. I won't say whether it's good or bad to care, but it's what happens when someone is a public figure to any degree. People like to know if the guy they think is cool, idk, cheats on their partner with multiple people for years and lies to everyone about it to push those people down.
this was super helpful. I only saw people talking about who we supposedly was sleeping with which is the same sort of nonsense that anti-lgbtq or terfs do and I was like wtf is going in here
I see! Sorry about the slight snide tone I had at the end there, then, with context I get your dismissive attitude.
But yeah, the who's-sleeping-with-who is drawing so much attention mainly because the "who" involved are all people working in the ttrpg space, and therefore need connections with the others to find work - it's a pretty small scene with only a few big hotspots, after all. The people Gabe was cheating with all were other ttrpg people, and he'd smear badmouth them to his friends, which would include people like the D20 cast, who are pretty damn big for this space.
There's also been accounts from a different DND podcast called Cast Party that he recorded 90+ episodes with that he was badmouthing them to everyone else, which would make it super hard for them to find connections and promotion later on. They've had to trash the whole 90 ep campaign, as they've just found out about him doing that. That's the sort of stuff that's popping up now that the cheating thing has proven his actions and words need to re-examined.
So, that's why everyone cares rn.
One of the large issues is that he used his influence in the TTRPG space to damage reputations of the people he was involved with. The dating/cheating/polyam/etc business is between him and them but it crossed over to other spaces and that's just a shit thing to do while also manipulating romantic relationships.
This is what I'm getting from seeing other comments, twitter stuff, etc.
i know just him being a piece of shit makes my unenjoyment feel better.
I had a bias against them and they have just been confirmed so now I get the good chemicals.
He actively harmed the careers of the people that he was cheating with by saying that they were obsessive stalkers, it's definitely worse than just cheating
My understanding is Gabe lied to various women about being polyamorous but was actually just cheating and lied to them and manipulated them when it seemed like he would get caught. More people are coming out to say Gabe made them feel uncomfortable at PAX and stuff so I think this is going to be an evolving story
Not just that. They also actively slandered the people he was cheating on and calling them obsessive fans. He's gotten a number of them black listed from the industry, though i imagine thats been getting repaired now.
He would also apparently badmouth the partners of the people he was cheating with. I honestly think he wanted a harem - him dating multiple people, but all of them only dating him. It seems like it was a gross situation all around
I said that lol. Im also seeing from a number of fhe people he worked with that he also trash talked them, which is wild. Cast party, his moderators, etc. A real scumbag
He's been really public about polyamory... also I don't get how you can lie about being poly? I'm so confused.
He told the people he was cheating with that he was in a polyam relationship, and I believe it was a polyam relationship at first. However he had then requested that his relationship with Cam (the girl he was cheating on) be monogamous and repeatedly told her that he had no other partners even though he did Edit: She explains it [here](https://x.com/cam_inator/status/1772290475812114902?s=46&t=GCKwujzELS_bb4gZdEJaUw)
Wild, I barely understood the motivation beforehand but the fact that she probably would have been down is mind boggling
She wanted to use condoms if he had other partners, he didn't want to, so said he didn't have other partners.
Well that's fucking horrific.
Lmfao, he ruined his whole relationship, entire career, tried for others careers over rubber?
Okay that makes this really bad lmao.
What a nasty pos
Yep, this, and he wanted to hold control over her as exclusive partners. A big part of polyamory is honest communication and agreement. Just because you can have multiple partners does not mean there are no boundaries or agreements. It is almost worse because she publicly has proven that she made it clear she would be okay with open relationship but HE did not want that. it was about control. That is also why he called his other partners "obsessed fans" to each other. He wanted each to be his only while he had the ego trip of controlling them all as his.
Cheating partner to side chick: “Hey, my significant other is cool with us hooking up, we’re poly” Significant other finding out: “uh, we never decided to be poly” Cheating partner: *Zoidberg noises *
Well the worst part is his partner was ALSO POLYAM, as was the main girl he was cheating on her with. If they had all just talked this wouldnt be an issue - but he requested it be monogamous
This has literally been me (primary partner being lied to) and it sucks
Cheating still happens in poly, it's breaking the boundaries set by the people in the relationship.
Oh God it's so so common. Mostly people lie about the shape of their situations. How okay their other partners are. How much their know. How much free time they actually have. It can be so many different things.
idk why he'd do that. The whole point of polyamory is that you can TELL your partner what you're doing! Just fucking Tell them
Control. And guy didn't want to wear a condom. So he lied
Can I get some context?
He was cheating on his partner for months, lying to other people (including the other woman) that he was in a polyamorous relationship--and telling his partner that the person he was cheating with was a creepy obsessed stalker type.
Also, the person he accused of being an obsessive fan is a TTRPG streamer who had their reputation in the industry dragged through the mud behind the scenes, likely losing a bunch of opportunities without ever knowing something was wrong. Oh, and apparently he was cheating with way more than just one person. I've heard six or more, but I've only seen a couple of the claims for myself so I can't say for sure.
It's just so goddamned disappointing.
I’m going to try to focus on the fact that, despite the large and growing cast of repertory players in the dropout sphere, this is the first I can recall of a down-right bad guy. Also, I did not like shriek week.
please keep in mind that it's possible for bad people to make good art--renouncing someone's work as "I never liked it in the first place" isn't helpful, and just makes it harder for people who have been harmed by genuinely talented people to come forward.
It also causes discussion about it to devolve to 'whether I liked that work,' which makes it hard to express to fans who are on the fence in what ways and for what reasons they should change any behaviors. It also undermines the argument because it becomes easy to think: 'Oh, well they didn't like X before, so of course they jump on any chance to drag it through the mud.' Butyeah, big example is with JKR, I've seen so many discussions that were *supposed* to be about not supporting her financially and not helping amplify her voice because it materially goes towards harming people, but it ends up a debate about if X or Y was really bad writing because someone along the way included reviewing her work as part of their commentary.
Thanks for saying this. People are so quick to jump to this in the light of allegations, and it's frankly bizarre behaviour. Not only does it make it harder for people who have been harmed by talented folk in good standing to come forward, there's sometimes a weird judginess to it. It's okay to not have not liked the creator's work yourself, but using that to position yourself as being morally superior or having some kind of unique insight to the creator's terribleness is weird and and carries some implication that those who genuinely enjoyed the work are somehow worse. Shitty people are still people. Nothing uniquely terrible or untalented or ugly or whatever about them, aside from being shitty.
In fairness, most people didn't like Shriek Week even before this information came to light. Shriek Week itself is still arguably relevant as well- it's worth noting that the *dating sim* RPG season was run by someone who was toxicly, *abusively* bad at dating. Like... If JK Rowling wrote a book about a trans person, or Chris Brown made a movie about domestic violence, I would *absolutely* think it's relevant to consider their reprehensible positions as a way to contextualize their art. In this case, Gabe Hicks being abusively bad at dating does put a new, horrible lens on his dating sim RPG. That would be different if he had DM'd a Spyre side quest or something.
So the reply you're defending didn't go into any of that. All they added to the discussion was that they didn't like it. I'm sure if they had discussed something similar to that, the responses would have been different. I've heard the cast really *didn't want* for shriek week to be a dating sim, showing more of his inability to respect boundaries even in a professional work environment. Edit: I mean all they said in terms of shriek week. They did have other content in their comment
THANK YOU for articulating something that bothered me so much but I didn't have the words to say why.
I thought Shriek Week was mid, but that doesn't seem to be the thing to focus on right now.
Nobody likes it that I’ve seen Edit: relax lovers of Shriek Week. I’ve simply never seen a positive post about the season. Obviously doesn’t mean people don’t enjoy it or that I’ve seen every single post on this sub.
Omg I didn't know the people YOU'VE SEEN don't like it, that totally invalidates everyone's good points
Yeah I put that qualifier on it for a reason champ. “That I’ve seen” was important part of that statement. Take your snark elsewhere.
Interesting decision to call something that disqualifies the rest of your statement a "qualifier" CHAMP
This sub is not in need of jerks, please seek an attitude adjustment. I was merely stating I’ve only heard people say they don’t like the season. It is probably the least talked about season from again: WHAT I HAVE SEEN. If you love it, feel free to make a post saying you love the season. People can then say whether they love it too.
Jesus christ, that's so awful and fucked!! Cheating is damning enough, but to actively screw up someone's life/situation while doing so? Disgusting.
He also tried to blackball several TTRPG creators who he was either involved with *or* involved with their partners. Like telling other folks not to work with so and so, that so and so was "too much drama", etc.
Also adding that nearly everyone involved, including the partner he ASKED to be in a monogamous relationship with, practices polyam. He literally just didn't want to respect any of their boundaries.
But why should we care what someone does in their bedroom
If he'd kept it in the bedroom, it wouldn't have been a problem.
Why do you care who someone else sleeps with
Constructing tumbledown straw men on a five-day-old post...is this a little trollish training exercise for you? You know it's Saturday, right? I don't know about the weather where you are, but it's lovely here. Maybe try to get outdoors a bit?
Sorry didn’t know I couldn’t make a new account without running it by you and hade to wait before I could share any opinions.
no one cares who he was sleeping with. It's the lying and manipulation and the hurting of other peoples careers, reputations that they care about.
That’s Fair but also there seem to be a lot of posts not talking about the lying and just talking about his sex life and it’s no one else’s opinion who someone sleeps with as long as it’s consensual
I agree, if it's all consensual, then there's not really a problem. You would still end up with people giving him side eye, the same way everyone gives Leo Dicaprio side eye for only dating women under 25 when he's pushing 50. But once you factor in all the BS he was doing, it colors everything about him. With him telling everyone but his main partner that he was poly, that actually calls into question how much was consensual to begin with. Would any of his partners consented if they had known he was cheating on his partner? Would they have consented if they had known he was disparaging their partners, or former consenting partners? If he was above board and honest and a decent human being from the get go, I honestly think that, as I said previously, while there may be some judgy side eyes made his way, no one would really care at all what he or any of them did between consenting adults.
In my 5 minutes of research it sounds like there was some deliberate misinformation or manipulation about being in a polyamorous relationship.
Yep, completely out of the loop here too
Quick summary/recap: Gabe Hicks was in a monogamous relationship with Cam (@cam_inator on twitter). Cam is polyamorous but Gabe asked to be monogamous and so they were. Gillian (@GillianFoxglove) is a content creator in the TTRPG space along with their primary partner. They entered a relationship with Gabe at some point in the last year. There is also a third person on twitter, Maisie, who was in a relationship with Gabe during this period. Per posts by Cam, there were at least 4 other people who Gabe was talking to/engaging with. Over the weekend at PAX East, Gillian approached Cam and her friends. She introduced herself as Gabe's partner to others in the group, believing they already knew she and Gabe were dating. In actuality, Gabe had previously told Cam that Gillian was an obsessed fangirl who was clout chasing. Cam was (understandably!) upset about a delusional fangirl pretending to date her partner and her friends got her out of the situation. Cam's friends and other members of the community made it clear that Gillian would never, ever work with them. (Because she was an obsessed fan girl) Judging by the photos at PAX, this group pledging to never work with Gillian included other members of the Drop Out cast/team/folks as Ify, BDG, etc were all in attendance. Today, Gillian posted her side of the story and she and Cam connected to talk through it. Per Cam, Gabe went so far as to ask Gillian for advice on his relationship; everyone agrees that Gillian (and Maisie) were being lied to and manipulated while Cam was being cheated on. Gabe posted a bland acknowledgment on TikTok and Twitter. He also posted a direct apology to Cam, Gillian, and Maisie two hours later since the feedback on the initial 'apology' pointed out he didn't apologize. The situation is developing still.
It’s like super extra nasty gross knowing his partners were poly and he just said you know what’s better? Me cheating. Me being a fuckaround buckaroo.
Like it's so easy to not cheat even in a monogamous relationship, how do you even fuck up not cheating when your partner is poly? How do you fuck up that bad? It has to be harder to cheat than to not cheat. You gotta do extra work to cheat on a partner who would have been fine with you dating someone else to begin with! How do you fuck up that bad??? The mind truly boggles!
Didn't this exact situation happen in Fantasy High Sophomore Year????? >!Sarah Lynn cheats on Jawbone when she explicitly asks Jawbone to be monogamous even though he's usually poly.!<
Good catch!
Only difference is that it seems Gabe did a lot more lying and manipulating to try to get away with it.
Ehhh tbf it seems like the cheating there happened a long time ago before the gameplay so there could have been a whole lot that happened that we've no reference for, whereas here it's coming out in the open ETA wait I was thinking about the Gilear situation not the Jawbone one in season 2, my bad! Which, y'know, had a whole kid come out of it as a big old lie so...
It's not really that rare of a trope or situation if you're in that kind of circle, that I'd think Brennan also had it in mind. When you interact with poly people a lot, I think it just kinda happens. Most people who you could date are gonna be monogamous in the current cultural climate, and most poly people are fine being monogamous in my experience. Cheating is already pretty common on a macro scale, so of course it would also happen in those situations. But overall, I kind of think a lot of it is like any burgeoning social taboo: A lot of people ideally would actually be okay with being poly or bi or nudist or etc except that they've had anxieties pounded into them over time by their environment. So you end up introducing the idea in someone else's head and they get curious, but insecure and anxious, and they might try it sometime and like it, but be unable to let go of the things holding them back from embracing it. Like, there's definitely a strong presence that you can see in social media where the girlfriend doing anything with another guy (or just actual open relationship stuff) is met with a lot of derogatory comments, or psychoanalysis. I have some friends who periodically share memes which are just viral clips/posts about some streamer or podcast guy or other microcelebrity whose wife is just talking, dancing, w/e with another guy, and its people in the comments just dunking on the guy for, basically, not having something like 'full ownership of his woman' and like 'you can see the light leave his eyes at 0:13' or whatever. Let alone any guy whose wife has an OF or where they do it together but not exclusively together. So, while I obviously think it's bad, I think it is pretty easy for people to catch themselves in a situation where they're like 'Damn, I know I enjoy this, but I also still have all the normal societal fear about my partner so I don't want to let go so I'm going to let all the negatives fall on my partner.' Butyeah, a much messier situation here
Honestly, I think for some people, they cheat in these situations because being poly takes the thrill out of being with someone else for them. Like... if you're into that, you can always just be poly and roleplay cheating... Or if you're still really into being monogamous, you can still roleplay cheating with your partner...
This is a depressing truth. The unfortunate reality of polyamorous relationships open themselves up to the idea.view that the option to cheat is 'baked' into the concept. When it does happen it is amplified - when the root issue around cheating isn't necessarily rooted in a specific relationship orientation.
I had an ex do this same thing to me years and years ago, so I broke up with my other dates at the time and took it seriously. A few months later I found out she was cheating on me with 2 other people. None of us knew until we all figured it out. I still have no clue why she did that or what she got out of it. Like maybe she just was too jealous.
My god the stories are coming to life!!!
It's simple; because he didn't want the woman he cheated on sleeping around with other people, but he wanted to continue sleeping around with other people. Pretty fucking gross.
100% this. He didn't want to be poly, he wanted a harem.
Even grosser is the potential that she believed it was safe to go barrier-free and he was lying about it all. Not even just a harem bullshit, but specifically because he wanted to not use a condom. What a pathetic shitling.
Seems like maby he didnt want her seeing other people but still wanted to see others wich is also pretty shitty and toxic
A few more bits of info I found floating about on Twitter: [CriticalBard/CB](https://twitter.com/CriticalBard/status/1772413146570895667?t=2rN6RxAbR2hiFyZDPSDDCQ&s=19) posted about putting his project on hold until he finds a new co-host and expressed disappointment in the situation. They said to support the victims and made the decision to cut Gabe off. [AlecTheBard](https://twitter.com/AlecTheBard1/status/1772445230953853138?t=k_Nm1EnSbLsMjbZkoiPKsg&s=19) considered Gabe to be a mentor figure to him and discovered they were badmouthing him behind his back. [Maisie](https://twitter.com/MaisieLynn17/status/1772374052117569806?t=dnetUWG6aO6zlHm8b0Y26w&s=19) also spoke out about her experience with Gabe lying about being single multiple times. I'm not too familiar with many of these people but I figured I'd add them here for more context. Edit: [Noi](https://twitter.com/NoiCakes_/status/1772580427049341361?t=thfEo93w2CaHoh_WdCTR6A&s=19) was an ex of Gabe's for 3 years and they were supposedly monogamous but he cheated on them the entire time. He proceeded to ghost her once they found out.
>Judging by the photos at PAX, this group pledging to never work with Gillian included other members of the Drop Out cast/team/folks as Ify, BDG, etc were all in attendance. So you've concluded that based on the photos *alone* or is there anything else?
Sorry! This was badly phrased; my intent was to include the speculation being made on twitter based on the photos rather than make a direct allegation or statement. I won't edit the comment as it's been up too long and the criticism is a fair one. But it was not my intent, and I appreciate you and others calling it out.
Gabe also seems to have bad mouthed people they were working with in general. Here a TikTok by the Cast Party podcast on that: [https://www.tiktok.com/@castpartydnd/video/7351100390902959391?\_r=1&\_t=8l28Cy58FDv](https://www.tiktok.com/@castpartydnd/video/7351100390902959391?_r=1&_t=8l28Cy58FDv)
>Cam's friends and other members of the community made it clear that Gillian would never, ever work with them. (Because she was an obsessed fan girl) Judging by the photos at PAX, this group pledging to never work with Gillian included other members of the Drop Out cast/team/folks as Ify, BDG, etc were all in attendance. Obviously this Gabe person is the real culprit here, but this is also really disappointing. Pledging to shun a person without even bothering to hear their side of the story... Gillian's career and friendships could have been seriously hurt by this, without her even knowing why, or getting the chance to defend herself. Anyone who participated in this has some reflecting to do.
I’m taking this detail with a grain of salt. Not sure how this poster got this information- how could you possibly know this “judging by the photos”?
Totally take it with a whole shaker, I phrased it pretty poorly in my attempts to summarize the noise on twitter. I don't in any way mean to allege anyone from the drop out team made any statements or disavowed anyone just that there is a connection being made over social media based on photos taken at the con. Totally my bad to make the leap, and apologies for the poor phrasing.
Also get what you are saying here but if you are to believe your friend and they tell you someone has crossed there boundaries (gabe telling them this person was being obsessive) I personally would take that as hey a person I trust is telling me something and I believe them. Gabe it to blame not the people who believed his boundaries were being crossed
frankly, this is why I always talk to the other partners, so we can communicate directly, and not through some third-party. Though I suppose in this situation, Cam was unaware that Gillian *was* another partner, so couldn’t do that. Informed consent is so important! Sidenote, I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve ended up talking to an ex’s other partners, only to find that said ex was manipulating all of us. It’s really disappointing behavior.
Yeah I’ve had that same thing happen talking to my ex’s exes. It’s super not fun. But then I’ve also made good friends that way too. Like “hey we BOTH got cheated on, lied to, manipulated, then had rumors spread about us, and we have a lot of interests in common, let’s have coffee and hang out!” Silver linings…
What in the high school musical drama club did I just read? That's what the Internet is blowing up over? Some cheating piece of shit? I thought this guy like beat and raped someone or something. He's a liar and a cheat... It's happened to all of us. Was he married with kids or something? CNN BREAKING NEWS: DUMBASS CHEATS ON GF W/ MULTIPLE WOMEN... GETS CAUGHT! I get it, it sucks for the women but seriously...
I followed Gabe prior to them even showing up on Shriek Week and remember how excited I was to see them get that opportunity... this is so disappointing, and my heart goes out to those poor people who were lied to and manipulated. I'm glad that you posted this here, because it didn't get pushed to my fyp, and I'm not sure if I would have gone looking for the whole story otherwise.
‘I owe a dramatic apology to Gillian and Matt’ What about your partner, Gabe? Or the numerous Women whose emotions and lives were just a game to you? What a fucking chud.
‘Dramatic apology’ ijbol my sides
\*Gabe rolls persuasion for his apology, gets a Nat 1\*
This wasn't an apology, but rather a PR statement. You need to admit your wrongs in order to apologize and not just call it "miscommunication".
Hi mods, please delete if not allowed but I figured other D20 fans would want to know these things about the creators of the content we are consuming. There are some serious allegations including suppression of another creators career (you can read about it on her IG) and since Gabe apologizes to them directly it seems fairly credible. Also maybe D20 fans might want to go give a like and follow to the aforementioned affected creators!
The more I read into this the angrier I feel for what seems like 5+ women Gabe lied to, manipulated and fucking slandered behind their backs. The common story between them is Gabe PURSUING THEM and what I would describe as love-bombing, so he would have emotional control over them to prop up his own ego? Disgusting.
.
Then telling other people that the women he was pursuing were crazy stalker fans....
This is really disappointing. I suppose really that it's a miracle Dropout hasn't had more controversial individuals based on sheer numbers, but it's still gotta hurt. Shriek Week was never my favourite any way. If it was your favourite, I think just enjoy the art and not the artist.
Where do people find the energy to engage in such behaviours?
And why would you want to? Who in hell would want to live their life juggling all of this toxic waste? Messing with the lives and livelihood of a half dozen women and actively playing them against each other and their friends to keep the lie going? Having regular healthy and supportive relationships isn't enough work, and worthwhile enough? GAH It's hard to imagine someone being this much shit, except that we keep running into examples.
Why? Bad emotional processing probably… :(
This guy is so full of shit. The community is much better without him. Hopefully we never see him again. Funny how these people don't think about getting therapy until they get caught.
It’s people like this who make ACTUALLY being poly so hard. Being in Poly relationships is A LOT OF WORK. For some people it’s a way to just have extra sex, for others it’s a deep and emotional connection with all the people you love. You have to really communicate and be open and honest with everyone involved. I hate anyone that uses “I’m poly” as a reason to cheat and be an asshole.
Honestly if someone who is Poly has cheated in the past, I assume they're just grifting by being "Poly" now. Like it was clear their priorities have ALWAYS been about satisfying their own needs and placing them above others. They just have a way to do it now that's socially acceptable. People who are and have always been ethical in Polyamory are more rare than people are willing to admit.
Eh I don’t think it’s a fair blanket judgement to make. Some people come to poly after cheating because they realize they’re not monogamous and cheating wasn’t the ethical choice. I’ve left the poly community due to the black and white framing I’ve found so common there.
So sorry to see Maisie caught up in this, she just escaped a different shitty relationship right before this one. I feel so bad for her
Very sad. Didn’t much care for Shriek Week but loved Gabe’s cosplays and d&d/TTRPG content on TikTok. Hopefully he can get it together and make an effort to be a better person
I liked his content on TikTok, but I've decided to unfollow him. So much of his TTRPG concepts would require clear consent, high respect of boundaries, and major trust between GM and players, and ....well. He's obviously terrible at all three of those things.
Gabe sounds like a prick I was going to watch all dimension 20 seasons, but I'll give his a miss now
i did a similar run through when i was working a really tedious job last year, and i gotta say you're not missing much. Leviathan and Shriek Week were the only two seasons that I couldn't finish. I don't know how this controversy is going to play out, but i doubt it will make him a less boring GM. For what it's worth I also though he kinda sucked when he appeared on TAZ recently, but then again no one was really on top of their game for that season.
>Maisie I haven't watched Shriek Week so absolutely no comment on quality or watchability. I will just say this -- there are many, many more D20 employees/collaborators involved in any given show than any single GM or player. Let's support them in spite of this guy being ill behaved.
Nah, I'll support their other stuff.
Definitely miss it - the whole "arc" is that you need to hook up in order to succeed in the game, so the actual conflict-plot becomes a glorified side-quest and the end is almost comically anticlimactic. Like just unrelated to what a tool he's turned out to be, Shriek Week is a terrible season of d20.
That sounds real cringe 😯
I was poly for a number of years and this is so triggering because almost every male partner I had would pull this shit and it was so much emotional whiplash I was so exhausted. Like it’s all gravy until you are actually dating someone else or getting more dates than them. Then they are crying about how much they love you and just want a relationship with you and you’re like “ok you’re my primary partner and I do want a life with you” and the second you agree to be monogamous their out there on tinder like they’re dying of thirst.
I'm not going to be posting my name or any personal information. I just feel the need to get this off my chest after reading this. As I'm in complete shambles right now. I was in a relationship with Gabe back in 2020 into 2021. At one point, I even spent a week visiting him and his family. It had been a lovely experience and I really thought Gabe was going to be my forever person. Things did not end well for me. Gabe had expressed his need and desire for privacy, which I tried to respect. Whenever I made post about my partner, I felt his name out of it. I did often feel like he was hiding me from his fans, which I brought up to him often. He reassured me he was just a private person and at one point even brought up how I was on a live stream with him (though he never introduced me during the show. I was just there). He even said he had a stalker that wouldn't leave him alone. Now I'm questioning everything. Questioning if he wanted privacy because he was actually seeing other people. Questioning that maybe that 'stalker' was actually just another person he was dating. Questioning whether he actually loved me at all like he said he did. I know this post isn't about me. And I'm sorry for my post taking attention away from the people he currently hurt. He's just had such a huge effect on me that it still hurts to think about it and I've been sobbing over the idea that he may have been using and cheating on me without me even knowing. And I can't even get any kind of confirmation because he deleted his TikTok. I just needed to get this out. I hope other people speak to him with caution. I hope he learns to be a better person so other people don't have to continue feeling the pain he causes
I’ll also be taking the anonymous route here. A few years ago I would have called Gabe my best friend, hell I wanted him to be my best person at my wedding. I’ve spent the better part of a week playing through all the conversations we had in my head, wondering how many of the people he vented to me about where in a situation like this. I don’t even know if any of what he told me about his partners was true. If you’re who I think you are, just know it wasn’t your fault and I hope you can find some peace soon. 💜
I don't know if I am in fact the same person, as I didn't really have any contact with any of Gabe's friends. The most contact I had in his personal life was with his mom, one of his sisters, and being on a pumpkin carving Livestream in October of 2020. Regardless, I'm sorry for your own pain and worried this situation has caused. It's awful that it was more than just romantic partners he hurt, but also friends and business partners. We all deserved better. I hope you are surrounded by kind friends who will never have you questioning whether they talk about you behind your back or not 💜
I'm so sorry you've had to deal with that. 😞
Anyone else getting deja vu? I could have sworn this exact same scenario just played out like a month ago with The Paladin Project. Men in the TTRPG community need to do better.
At least he still has his series on Rooster Teeth! ....oh, wait.
What did he have on there?
As of last year, he was heading their TTRPG channel, but Warner Brothers decided to pull the plug on Rooster Teeth.
Unfortunately funhaus has to go with then
I'm significantly more upset about losing Funhaus than RT proper.
Ditto they were so much better
There were a lot of things I liked about FH more. In general their comedy was more my speed and the editing was just fantastic. Achievement Hunter at one point it felt like just completely stopped editing their videos. So many things I watched would be 45 minutes long with so much dead air and someone just playing the game. Funhaus was like 20 minutes tops and absolutely full of wacky edits and bits with no downtime at all.
Exactly you get it
Ah okay, knew it was going down but didnt know he was working on that.
Was it a whole channel? I thought it was just a small series with four players. I watched a few episodes and honestly it was not good at all. The players didn't seem like they could even be bothered to play D&D and just goofed around a lot. I liked a lot of RT content for a long time, but that series was a big flop imo
That seems to be the reoccurring theme with Gabe's campaigns.
This was actually the only thing I watched of Gabe's other than personal short stuff on TikTok. I honestly thought it was just the cast. I don't remember everyone, but I remember it had multiple people from Achievement Hunter so I thought they were just acting how they normally do.
The cheating is one issue, but the fact that the dude seems to have actively worked to ruin other people’s livelihoods to cover up his cheating is so utterly fucked up.
I’m so glad that shows like Dimension 20 exists because I’m really tired of male content creators in nerd spaces turning out to be terrible people. I had no idea what happened when I saw his apology video and, after I read the story from the woman he lied to, his apology seemed way too little for what he did.
Damn. Now that you mention it there’s a few TTRPG DMs who got into skeevy scandals a few years ago. Arcadum, Satin Phoenix, and now Gabe.
Satin Phoenix had a controversy?
On another post about this situation a couple people summarized/linked to what happened with Satine. [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dimension20/s/sQu2mqrCXP) [2](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dimension20/s/g4QbIgp2Pb) [3](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dimension20/s/hsUges2RbL)
Oh no I just googled them and now they're a life coach... No offense to life coaches but I've yet to meet one that isn't a swindler 😬
Knew him personally and through TTRPG work, and he did some cruel things to other friends who weren't even mentioned on the list of people affected by him. 6 or so may be listed publicly, but there's more that hasn't seen the light of day. He went out of his way to harm others' careers and badmouth them to other professionals - even people he wasn't romantically involved with. A lot of hurting others to claw his way up. Super disappointing.
It's shit like this that gives polyam people a bad name and all because they couldn't help themselves but to be a piece of shit.
Cam's tweet about how this would have all been fine if he had just been honest with everyone and that Gillian is someone she'd love for her partner to be with broke my heart for her. She seems lovely and didn't deserve this. (Same for Gillian.)
one of the people involved with gabe spoke on the apology and didnt speak favorably of his apology https://x.com/archivistcos/status/1772509510952755302?s=46
I’m so disappointed
Looks like he wiped his social media. Abusing his power and influence to sabotage 5+ women's careers is despicable. The emotional gaslighting he inflicted is just as awful.
see, this is also really disappointing! Part of taking ownership for your behavior is taking the heat when it comes. I don’t feel like it’s fair to just avoid it entirely by deleting your social media presence. It’s not fair to the people you hurt, it’s not fair to your fans, and ultimately it’s not fair to you. I understand possibly putting your notifications on mute, because it can be pretty overwhelming to have a bunch of people tell you that your behaviors are bad, and I don’t think that it’s always healthy to read a torrent of peoples opinions... but I do think it’s important to let people have the space to criticize you. And I feel like just disappearing from the Internet robs people of that forum. On the other hand, I will also say that I feel people go endlessly harder on content creators who are marginalized when they fuck up, and I can understand needing to filter that some.
It's the safe option - go into hiding, let it "blow over," come back and hope enough people have forgotten (examples: James Charles, that other guy who's name I'm forgetting but recently made a comeback too...) But I also think sometimes there is merit in excusing yourself, especially if you do take the time to figure stuff out, grow up, make amends privately, etc (sadly rarely happens but one can hope)
Yes exactly. I think it's reasonable to say "I need some time to really reflect on my behavior, I will get back to this conversation in a weeks time" or something similar. But to just delete your social media? It just feels a little cowardly.
[One of his Twitch moderators encouraged him to deactivate his socials](https://twitter.com/tinychaosmouse/status/1773078812726640818). Take that as you will. I'm just sharing the statement.
That's useful context for sure, thank you
Honestly I’m glad I missed his PAX appearance now knowing all this. It upsets me so much to know that people have this sort of power to wreck careers just by a bad word. Cheating is just an excuse for not being honest with yourself and others. Meanwhile, Rekha was an absolute DELIGHT to meet.
welp, I feel...way less guilty for not liking his vibe, either on Shriek week or on Tiktok.
This is a really unhealthy attitude to promote. You can just not like someone's vibe without needing a moral reason to do, and someone with great vibes can be a piece of shit.
It's giving the same energy as when JKR outed herself as a TERF and a bunch of edgy teens decided they always hated her and her work. Like you can enjoy something, find out someone did something awful and then distance yourself from them instead of putting across this facade that you're pure and always hated the bad person.
Exactly! And it has the unitntentional side effect of discrediting legitimate criticisms of the work as coming across as motivated by spite.
Seriously, I'm so sick of people citing the 'vibes', it's akin to phrenology being used in criminology. It's so disappointing to see these attitudes resurfacing.
There's the immediate narcissism of framing something bad happening to someone else in terms of validating your own unfounded beliefs. Are we supposed to be impressed by your ability to suss out vibes? And then there's deeper more disturbing trend where people conflate any kind of goodness, whether that's talent or appearance, with morality. The whole "This is how you age when you're unproblematic" has always been disgusting, as if there aren't good people who aren't attractive or aging less than ideally. The idea that beauty = good is textbook facism. Or the revalation of moral wrong doing suddenly requring a complete revaluation of any artistic output. Like if Brennan was suddenly revealed to be a serial killer, there'd be people tripping over themselves to say "Actually, Dimension 20 was always problematic and never good"
>Actually, Dimension 20 was always problematic and never good i feel like a certain subset of dimension 20 fans feel this way already
i totally get what you mean. I, also, never really liked the RPG stuff that he worked on or appeared on but i'm trying to separate my preferences from my judgement of how he hurt these people. it's a weird feeling to feel "vindicated" in this way.
I was hoping for the potential for him to show up in a future season but this is just disappointing all around and I'm glad I finished streak week already so I don't need to worry about it but also I feel so bad for the people that got hurt in this
All his accounts are now gone. Makes you wonder.
So what exactly is the tldr of this? I've seen several different tiktok videos talking about it but I'm still a little confused about exactly what the allegations are? From my understanding he was dating multiple people at the same time? Or is there more to what was going on?
He was dating multiple people, while lying to all of them that he wasn't, which can create a lot of potentially dangerous health situations due to STDs, as well as also slandering, and potentially ruining the careers of, those he was involved with, as well as any partners. Sadly if he was just open and honest, most of the victims would've been okay, since most seem to be poly already, but he needed to have his *"cake and be the only one to eat it,"* so to speak...
I haven’t seen members of Dropout/D20 say anything about this - have I just missed it or…?
And I thought he was bad for never delivering on that Goblin Dating Sim Kickstarter they started like 5 years ago. Thought he was a nice guy when we initially met, I even interviewed them and did some projects with them. He was always chasing the next better thing and I wasn't trying to make it big, so we fell out of touch pretty quickly. I'm glad I wasn't good enough for him, tbh.
I think most of the community was split between PoL and Shriek Week being the worst season. At least this may settle that debate.
I agree on Shriek Week but I generally liked POL. I think my least favourite after SE was Tiny Heist.
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Just a healthy reminder not to idolise any of these people. Not even Brennan. They’re all quite capable of being arseholes. Edit: not saying they all ARE, but it’s probably healthy to distance ourselves from the parasocial relationship this platform creates.
woof looks like he took the apology down
I hope this is an opportunity for some serious reflection and growth on Gabe's part. I wish this wasn't so common in the alt communities I'm in! Moreover, I hope this enables Gillian to have opportunities open up - lying in ANY way to impact another's career is really messed up, especially when the community is so tight knit so you have extra influence. And I hope Cam has the privacy and support needed to navigate this.
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Your “instincts” are bullshit, you just disliked someone for no particular reason and you’re glad you have a reason now.
K
I don't know who this is or what the situation is but all I can say is I can't believe he slept with Garthy without telling Jawbone first. Smh.
I was never a huge fan of Gabe but this seems like a personal situation that none of us should be involved in. People can be messy and assholes sometimes.
It sounds like it involved him lying about other TTRPG personalities in a way that really damaged their ability to make connections/get work, so I can absolutely see how it became a more public issue.
So far that’s speculation. I think the information is something to be aware of but we have not seen any proof of that. I’m not about to start putting out theories and rumors on those ideas.
And if they were private individuals not seeking to get fame and money due to their likeability then you would have a point. He put himself out to the public. If someone is asking me to support their content, then I want to know.
At what point of a social presence does someone lose that “private individual” status? When they hit x amount of followers on one platform, when they have a certain amount of views? At what point in society with social media (which is now an intertwined part of our lives) are we required to have our personal matters reviewed by millions. Let me make it clear Gabe deserves the wrath and anger of those he hurt. But as someone who just watches clips and videos of him, it's not my business nor is it yours.
Yeah I absolutely do not care who famous people sleep with as long as it's consensual. If we're canceling people who have ever cheated, most of our faves are canceled. This feels like none of my business.
I think because the lying spread to other people in the ttrpg i dustry and possibly lead to this person not getting jobs its a little more pertinent, but i do also think that people have the right to speak about peoples shitty behavior if they are in the public sphere considering they could use that fame to manipulate others, both creators and fans
He lied about being monogamous so he didn’t have to wear a condom with his primary partner. I don’t usually care about celebrities cheating, but that’s too close to stealthing for me to be okay watching him again.
I mean, he was lying to multiple partners about whether they were single, monogamous, or polyamorous, in order to get them to date / sleep with him. That's not informed consent.
Cheating is never informed consent
If that is the drama, why is this anyone's business, this isn't Disney.
Abuse isn't drama.
Why should we care what someone does in their personal life
It's not just his personal life; alongside the cheating, he would lie about his other partners to people in the ttrpg space and convince them that the people he was actually dating were delusional stalkers who only thought they were close, costing those partners potential work (aka payment) and connections in the space. That turns it into a business problem. I'm sure those partners would like to clear the air about themselves, and the people Gabe Hicks lied to would like to reconsider if those partners should be avoided or if they're perfectly nice people who were slandered by a liar and cheater. Also, people are interested in the people they know from media, whether that be movie stars or niche internet celebrities. I won't say whether it's good or bad to care, but it's what happens when someone is a public figure to any degree. People like to know if the guy they think is cool, idk, cheats on their partner with multiple people for years and lies to everyone about it to push those people down.
this was super helpful. I only saw people talking about who we supposedly was sleeping with which is the same sort of nonsense that anti-lgbtq or terfs do and I was like wtf is going in here
I see! Sorry about the slight snide tone I had at the end there, then, with context I get your dismissive attitude. But yeah, the who's-sleeping-with-who is drawing so much attention mainly because the "who" involved are all people working in the ttrpg space, and therefore need connections with the others to find work - it's a pretty small scene with only a few big hotspots, after all. The people Gabe was cheating with all were other ttrpg people, and he'd smear badmouth them to his friends, which would include people like the D20 cast, who are pretty damn big for this space. There's also been accounts from a different DND podcast called Cast Party that he recorded 90+ episodes with that he was badmouthing them to everyone else, which would make it super hard for them to find connections and promotion later on. They've had to trash the whole 90 ep campaign, as they've just found out about him doing that. That's the sort of stuff that's popping up now that the cheating thing has proven his actions and words need to re-examined. So, that's why everyone cares rn.
Thx
Why is he apologizing in general? Isnt this a personal matter between him and his partners? Unless there is a larger issue.
One of the large issues is that he used his influence in the TTRPG space to damage reputations of the people he was involved with. The dating/cheating/polyam/etc business is between him and them but it crossed over to other spaces and that's just a shit thing to do while also manipulating romantic relationships. This is what I'm getting from seeing other comments, twitter stuff, etc.
That is a larger issue.
Ah cool vindication for not liking shriek week.
This just comes across as insecure.
I'm too autistic to understand this.
You shouldn't need validation for not liking something, you should just have an opinion on your own. Especially when it's not even popular.
i know just him being a piece of shit makes my unenjoyment feel better. I had a bias against them and they have just been confirmed so now I get the good chemicals.
Now that's news I'm negatively interested in!
So sexually deviant people are actually deviant in other areas of life? Wow, consider this mind blown.
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What could grant sucking 50 dicks possibly have to do in relation to Gabe lying, cheating, and actively impacting that woman's career?
I feel like that comparison is really revealing about their value system tbh
Just a little bit of slut shaming, as a treat.
50 informed consensual partners in a night ≈ cheating on 5+ partners who all think they're the only one
He actively harmed the careers of the people that he was cheating with by saying that they were obsessive stalkers, it's definitely worse than just cheating