2026.04.07 Ken Whitman Vs. Erik (Tenkar) Suit Dismissed

NAD got word the other day that the Kentucky Lawsuit Ken Whitman filed against Erik (Tenkar) has been dismissed due to jurisdiction issues. Of course we do not have access to the court paperwork, so we cannot verify this information, but it was discussed briefly in yesterday's "The Vlog of Many Things: Free Speech in Gaming", so that should be good enough.

We did a quick search of the appropriate Kentucky Website and did see the only active action regarding Ken Whitman is his ongoing (as of our check) suit brought on by Wyckoff Film Company LLC.

2026.03.26 Kenny Complaining Because GAMA Denied Him Membership

Looks like Kenny was definitely not elected to GAMA's Board of Directors because he was denied membership, and he's been bitching about it on Facebook.

"Should the Tabletop Game Industry's Only Trade Association Have Published Membership Criteria? by Whit Whitman

GAMA — The Tabletop Game Association — is the sole trade organization for game manufacturers, publishers, creators, retailers, and media professionals in the tabletop industry. There is no alternative. Membership provides access to the industry's primary trade show (GAMA Expo), retail distribution networks, Origins Game Fair, professional development, and the business relationships that drive this industry forward.

Here's what most people don't know: GAMA's bylaws contain no published eligibility criteria for membership. The Membership Committee has "sole authority" to approve or deny applications, but there are no written standards defining what qualifies or disqualifies an applicant. No checklist. No published policy. No transparency.

The bylaws do include detailed protections for members who are suspended or expelled — written documentation, two-thirds Board vote, formal notice, and an independent Appeals Committee. But those protections only apply after you're a member. At the application stage, the Membership Committee can deny anyone, for any reason, with no explanation and no appeal.

This matters because of federal antitrust law. Under Section 1 of the Sherman Act, a sole trade association that controls access to resources necessary for industry participation has a legal obligation to apply neutral, consistently published membership criteria. The Supreme Court addressed this in Northwest Wholesale Stationers v. Pacific Stationery, 472 U.S. 284 (1985) — trade association membership decisions trigger antitrust scrutiny when the organization controls access to markets, facilities, or resources essential to competition.

GAMA controls that access. And right now, there's no published standard governing who gets in.

This isn't about any one applicant. It's about whether the industry's sole trade body operates with the governance transparency that federal law expects. Every applicant — current and future — deserves to know the rules before they apply.

I've formally requested that GAMA's Board of Directors adopt and publish specific, written membership eligibility criteria. I believe that's a reasonable ask and one that strengthens the organization.

A game on every table, a table for everyone. That's GAMA's own vision statement. The bylaws should reflect it."

Click to enlarge

By the looks of it, this was posted maybe 3 times (crossposted?), and as one would expect, no accountability from Mr. Whitman. Feels like he's crying fowl because a professional (industry) organization doesn't want him as a member due to his past behavior/actions within said industry. Now this is our read on the subject, obviously highly biased, but it makes sense with the rationale posted on SaveGAMA.org.

"Jolly Blackburn I'm 100% ok with the ruling. What I'm not ok with is the lack of transparency. GAMA has no published criteria for who can and cannot be accepted as a member. Without those rules posted, they're exposed to antitrust regulation that could be devastating to the organization. I'm not asking to be let back in. I'm asking for something transparent — rules that apply to everyone equally. That's all."

We cannot see the full interaction due to Facebook settings, but apparently Jolly Blackburn chimed in. For the uninitiated, Jolly Blackburn was arguably one of Kenny's first Kickscammer victims because it was his creation of Knights of the Dinner Table that Ken pitched a Live Action Series Kickstarter for and led directly to the creation of Not Another Dime because Kenny completely failed to deliver upon.

Now saying Ken, or "Whit" Whitman is a Kickscammer is 110% legally protected opinion, but please judge for yourself. Read this blog, the comments over at Kickstarter (you'll naturally get a lot of posts directing you back here), and let's just look at the $450 he got from my family. I did cover some of this over at Tenkar's Tavern before starting this blog:

GEN CON 2015 THEATRICAL PREMERE & AFTER PARTY PACKAGE -- You will receive the MOVIE POSTER PACKAGE and two tickets to the world premiere live screening of the KODT LIVE ACTION SERIES at GEN CON 2015 (transportation, entrance to the Con and lodging not included). Actors and the D-Team will stick around after the screening to answer as many of your questions about the film as they can. Afterwards, you get to hang out at the after party with the actors and the D-Team.

• While we kind of got two "tickets" to the GEN CON 2015 screening, we didn't *actually* get promised front-row tickets. Instead the convention staff allegedly had a list of names, but they had no idea who was supposed to be seated where and we basically sorted ourselves out. It is important to note that this also wasn't the premiere since he already showed what he had finished at an earlier convention! FAIL
• While there were some of the actors present and they did have a bit of a Q&A, their appearance had nothing to do with Ken Whitman and he had made no arrangements. From what I recall, that was a combined effort of Zombie Orpheus Entertainment (ZOE), LLC, KenzerCo, and some added help from Peter Adkison. FAIL
• There was not an after party with the actors.....well at least not one being held by Ken. He never reserved the party space. I personally checked with the hotel's business manager, in person, and was told he applied for the space but did not present a valid credit card and did not answer calls/emails to remedy that. I did ask for written proof, which the hotel (understandably) would not share. Just assume I'm lying about this since I cannot provide proof (you won't hurt my feelings). Ken tried to claim that the after-party was not promised and was an added expense, although this $450 pledge level literally was a promised, and paid for, party. ZOE did step in and throw together a last-minute party and Ken threw together a last-minute (26 hours prior) late-night shindig at Slippery Noodle Inn, but he did not have any of the actors as promised.....and he considered that as the party commitment being "filled as promised". FAIL

MOVIE POSTER PACKAGE -- You will receive the BLU-RAY KODT BLOOPERS & EXTRAS PACKAGE, the WEB SCREENING PACKAGE, and a print of the KODT 24"x36" movie poster painted by Larry Elmore. Backers of this level and higher will also be acknowledged in a special "Thank You" section in the movie credits.

• There was no poster and Kenny shifted to saying it would be an electronic file on the disc. He had not gotten permission for Larry Elmore's involvement, as told to me by Larry Elmore in-person. FAIL
• There was a "Thank You" section in the movie credits FULFILLED

KODT BLOOPERS & EXTRAS PACKAGE -- You will receive the BLU-REY DVD PACKAGE and the WEB SCREENING PACKAGE, as well as an additional DVD of Bloopers and Extras. Backers of this level and higher will also be acknowledged in a special "Thank You" section in the movie credits.

• No bloopers or extras seen or provided. FAIL

BLU-RAY DVD PACKAGE -- You will receive the KODT:LAS DOWNLOAD PACKAGE, and the KODT LIVE ACTION BLU-RAY DVD featuring cover art by Larry Elmore. Backers of this level and higher will also be acknowledged in a special "Thank You" section in the movie credits.

• Ken Whitman never produced a Blu-Ray or DVD. DVD copies of footage salvaged by ZOE was made available, but it was not produced by Ken Whitman, although he did try to take credit for it. FAIL

KODT:LAS DOWNLOAD PACKAGE. You will receive the WEB SCREENING PACKAGE – and the KODT:LAS SD Download (480p .mp4) a few days after the movie’s theatrical debut.

• Ken Whitman never finished the editing/production, much less provided for download of the finished product. FAIL

WEB SCREENING PACKAGE -- You will receive the PRODUCTION DIARY PACKAGE, and be part of a first of its kind live group movie screening across the world. d20E and Kenzer will host at least three live online screenings of the KODT LIVE ACTION SERIES. Watch from your computer or mobile device, and after each screening the D-Team and actors will stick around to answer as many of your questions about the film as they can via online Q&A.

• There was no web screening with actor Q&A. FAIL

PRODUCTION DIARY PACKAGE -- You're now a part of this movie-making club, and you will be shown the process from start to finish. Each week throughout this summer's shoot you will receive the KODT LIVE ACTION Production Diary. This will include a video memo with cameos from the cast and crew detailing the process of making the movie. You'll also get casting and production news first, before anywhere else. You will also recive ten (10) screensavers from the KODT Comic and the Live Action Series.

• None of this was provided. FAIL

The only actual Kickstarter Pledge Promise fulfilled by Ken Whitman was getting a name added to the credits. At $450 I think that qualifies as a scam. Others stepping in to help assist those that gave money to Ken Whitman does not qualify as Kickstarter Fulfillment.

We know that's a lot of exposition for a post about Ken Whitman being denied membership from GAMA, but we're pretty sure KenzerCo is still a GAMA member, and clearly there were other members that feel they were scammed by Ken Whitman (as expressed in that SaveGAMA.org website). It all goes to the underlying reason that is likely the cause for that membership denial. These multiple posts do not seem to be about the process and we doubt that Mr. Whitman is "100% ok with the ruling" denying him membership and seems much more like an attempt to gain sympathy to coerce GAMA into allowing him an attempt to "plead his case" and regain membership.

We could be wrong, but it's hard to see this any other way. The only question I have is that if Mr. Whitman was so prolific as a game designer/publisher, why is he just now trying to join GAMA? He could've joined before his actions that have given GAMA a cause to deny membership.......just saying. 

2026.03.28 EDIT:

 We had this sent to us:

"I was not accepted even though I have created and published over 50 games"

"Whit Whitman well...., let's be honest. There's some trouble history there, Ken."

2026.03.24 Looks Like Kenny Might be Causing a Stir with His GAMA Candidacy

We had some GAMA Facebook Group discussion(s) forwarded that were allegedly about Ken Whitman running for the Board of Directors. We're told (mostly likely 3rd hand) that he showed up at the recent GAMA Expo, which was held pretty much in Kenny's back yard (Louisville KY, less than 2 hours away) March 1st -5th, in a suit passing himself off as a "successful filmmaker". We were also told he was bragging not only about his successes, but that he had money stashed away in "various trusts".  

That's all hearsay, but in our opinion that leads credence to our speculation back more than a year ago that Kenny was lying about money because he claimed he "only" paid himself $18K a year. If he's limiting his income down to $18K then he has means above that number.....

.....fortunately that's all our thoughts on the subject and worth about the same amount of money you paid NAD to type this out ($0.00).

Getting back to the internalized GAMA discussion, we were told that there were members discussing Kenny ever since the Expo, but not always using his name. Some members were concerned, which is human nature, that all this discussion might be baseless rumormongering. Allegedly Not Another Dime (for Ken Whitman) was quoted at least once, which makes our efforts here worthwhile. Believe us, don't believe us, not really the purpose behind the last 127 months(?!) of posts.

It's important to restate that please (PLEASE) assume we're completely biased against Ken, or Whit, Whitman (because we are). Read these posts with that particular grain of salt in mind. Read the comments, follow the links, and make your own informed opinion. Ken's issues within this industry started long before August 2015, but good luck finding all those threads. NAD exists specifically to have some documentation....

Now on to the shared discussion at hand:

"What are the code of conduct limits before someone is removed from gama? I don't want to bring up specifics, because there is more than 1 individual or company that I am surprised can be members, especially board members or people running for the board."

Good question?

"It's always such a fine line to walk as a board member and someone who believe in transparency (not that as a whole we are discouraged from talking about things, but sometimes we just have privileged information that duty dictates we can't share publicly. And the time it takes to dot our Ts and cross our Is (sic), things may move slower than we all like.) ALL OF THAT BEING SAID, in regards to some recent concerns that arose due to what amounted as a clerical issue, and prospectus members ending up on the roster, that has been taken care of.

An unfortunate side effect of the board of director election process, which I learned last night, is we cannot remove any names once the ballot has gone live; otherwise we'd have to negate the whole election and do it over (at a cost to GAMA as well).

Thank you all who wrote, message, and voiced their concerns to board members. We heard you, and will work with the membership committee on their processes to make sure incidents like this, and others, don't repeat. And really, thanks to the membership committee for being on top of this. Not gonna throw them under the bus here, because like I said, this really was a mistake that took longer to untangle due to policies and processes."

"What makes someone a Prospectus member. Either you are a paying member or you are not. I am sure there is a nuance to that but what is that nuance."

"I believe there is a time frame from when you apply and pay to when you are an accepted member. I believe there was a time frame between when I applied and paid and when I was welcomed as a new member."

"all companies are prospectus members until they are approved by the Membership Committee. Then they are full members. The Membership Committee was created in the bylaws for exactly this reason- to have a group of folks from each division who know folks and can determine if there have been historical events that would make them bad members of the organization"

2026.03.19 GAMA Elections Are Starting Today-SAVE GAMA!

 

Electronic ballots for the Game Manufacturers Association's (GAMMA) Board of Directors should have gone out today for the election of the 2026-2028 Board of Directors. The election starts today and runs through next Wednesday (2026.03.25). 

There is also an effort to "Save GAMA" with a website at, fittingly enough, SaveGAMA.org. The expressed reason behind Save GAMA: "a coalition of concerned members of the tabletop gaming industry working to restore accountability and member representation within GAMA: The Tabletop Association."

You know what....they have opinions regarding this election, although they generally are refraining from "supporting or opposing any current candidate" they have tried reaching out to most candidates to get some information on them, with limited success. To nobody's surprise, they do have a very specific stance on our main man Ken Whitman: "One candidate, Ken Whitman, was not emailed this questionnaire. Until every retail member of this collective receives refunds for PencilDice we support his removal from the organization, not his election to the Board."

Hmm.....

.....looks like your own "peers" don't want you around Kenny. Maybe you should've used "Whit Whitman" when running for office......but at least whoever is behind savegama.org gave a very specific path to redemption, "refund every GAMA member you ripped off with the Pencil Dice Kickstarters". Now that's clearly an opinionated rephrasing of the words on the website, but we're giving them the benefit of the doubt that they meant both Kickstarters, even though RPG Pencil Dice didn't have a Retail level. Wish they would've added the KoDT:LAS and Castles & Crusades because we're reasonably sure KenzerCo and Troll Lord Games are GAMA members too and would like a piece of the action (and/or his removal, but this is all speculation/opinion).

We're still wondering what GAMA Member Company is employing Kenny so he could be eligible for the Board in the 1st place......

2026.03.19 Edit:

Got a screenshot of the appropriate ballot:

Hmm...that's interesting. "Ken Whitman Games".......Ken Whitman Games does not exist as a legal entity.....at least not in Kentucky as of the time of this post. We checked.....to make certain we just searched for active companies with the word "Games" in their title. For the record we also looked for "Whitman" and "Game". There are a lot of "Game" companies listed and four "Whitman", but none are even close to "Ken Whitman Games". We did look up the four Whitman companies, not our guy.

So, if you have to be employed by a "GAMA member company", and said company doesn't exist.....wouldn't that mean it's a fraudulent registration as a candidate for office? That logic seems to pan out, but maybe there is an angle we're not aware of.....it just seems like "Ken Whitman Games" literally only exists on this GAMA ballot.....

2026.03.20 EDIT: We got word today that the original wording about having to be employed by a "GAMA member company" is a bit misleading. Ken is 100% eligible to run for the Board of Directors because "Any freelancer/self-employed game designer/self-publisher, etc., that has paid their $300 annual dues to be a Voting member, is equal to any business with two or tens of thousands of employees."

As a bit of an aside, thanks to GAMA for responding to our inquiry and resolving that particular issue for us.

2026.03.12 Vote for Ken Whitman, Seriously?

So we got this graphic sent to us regarding Mr. Whitman and while we cannot currently verify this information, it is a time-sensitive and the background details pan out:

"Today is the last day to apply to be considered for election to the GAMA Board of Directors or Team Retail? 

As per our bylaws we are required to hold an election for our Board of Directors. Each of the six voting membership groups has two representatives on the board, each serving a two-year term. Directors who were elected or appointed to the 2024-26 term will expire on March 31, 2026. As such, we will be holding an election for a new two-year term, which will run from April 1, 2026, to March 31, 2028. 

If you would like to be considered for election to the GAMA Board of Directors or Retail Board, please fill out the application by clicking the link below. Candidates must be employed by a GAMA member company. "*

As much damage that has been attributed to Ken/Whit Whitman over the years from within the gaming industry, at least from the consumer side of things, why would any organization think it would be a good idea to have him on a Board of Directors?

According to the Facebook (was also in Instagram) post, this seems to be a vote for volunteers for these positions, which would mean Ken would have to thrown his hat in the proverbial ring. At this point we'd have but on clarifying question: What GAMA member company is employing Ken Whitman?

2026.03.19 Edit:

Got a screenshot of the appropriate ballot:

Hmm...that's interesting. "Ken Whitman Games".......Ken Whitman Games does not exist as a legal entity.....at least not in Kentucky as of the time of this post. We checked.....to make certain we just searched for active companies with the word "Games" in their title. For the record we also looked for "Whitman" and "Game". There are a lot of "Game" companies listed and four "Whitman", but none are even close to "Ken Whitman Games". We did look up the four Whitman companies, not our guy.

So, if you have to be employed by a "GAMA member company", and said company doesn't exist.....wouldn't that mean it's a fraudulent registration as a candidate for office? That logic seems to pan out, but maybe there is an angle we're not aware of.....it just seems like "Ken Whitman Games" literally only exists on this GAMA ballot.....

*2026.03.20 EDIT: We got word today that the original wording about having to be employed by a "GAMA member company" is a bit misleading. Ken is 100% eligible to run for the Board of Directors because "Any freelancer/self-employed game designer/self-publisher, etc., that has paid their $300 annual dues to be a Voting member, is equal to any business with two or tens of thousands of employees."

As a bit of an aside, thanks to GAMA for responding to our inquiry and resolving that particular issue for us.