They have an email at support@flatrivergames.zendesk.com that says it’s about emailing for updates on products, so, this seems like it falls under that rubric.
I’ve sent them an email asking for updates, pointing out that the tariff excuse rings hollow for also pausing the RPG and podcast since neither of those have any connection to any tariffs, and pointing out none of us want any Spirit Island or Sentinels content that isn’t made by Eric Reuss or C&A.
I’m not sure that’s the right email. Flat River Group is the one that owns GtG not Flat River Games. Flat River Group doesn’t have an email address on their site but they do have a Contact Us page Contact Us - Flat River Group
I know, but that contact form seemed to be intended for companies contacting them, while the Flat River Games page I got the email from: Game and Hobby Distribution and Publishing - Flat River Group seemed to mention GTG specifically and said the email was for “For any customer service inquiries, including requests for replacement parts or assistance with our products”, so I figured it might be the better option.
That’s very weird. Hopefully an email sent to that goes upward towards Flat River Group.
And no rule, really, that people can’t try both. But I think contacting FRG directly in some fashion might possibly be a bit of a push.
I sent one to their Facebook account, too: Redirecting... or Flat River Group
Games division seems the place to start. If there’s no Backerkit update Tuesday, does someone more familiar with it than me know how to request project update through platform? I think Kickstarter had an option like that.
If you click on Manage Pledge there is an option on the right side that say “Contact us for help”. It’ll open up a new email to support@backerkit,com with “ [Sentinels of the Multiverse: Disparation Expansion] I have a question about my pledge” filled in a the subject line.
Did anyone get a response back?
I haven’t beyond an automated reply.
I also have not gotten anything beyond an automated reply.
Someone in the Backerkit comments in turn emailed about refunds specifically and noted this as the response:
I’ve reached out to Flat River Games multiple times about a refund (even citing the “refund guarantee” from this project. After an initial response email saying: “The Disparation Expansion crowdfunding projects is not canceled it is on hold. As Flat River navigates the current challenges, including shifting trade conditions and capacity changes, we are reassessing our fulfillment strategy across all active projects. These global developments have impacted our production schedule and timelines. We are committed to revisiting and updating our fulfillment plans as soon as conditions stabilize.” I have not been able to elicit any response about initiating a refund. They simply seem to be ignoring any and all requests with the word “refund” in them.
Somebody in the Realm of Discord server also dug up government filings that showed immediately after FRG initially bought GTG, they turned around and used GTG’s various trademarks to secure a bank loan.
So yeah, uh… I’m feeling kind of like FRG gave GTG a load of hooey.
On further research, it turns out that that filing was actually just a transfer of a loan that GtG had taken out against its own trademarks back in 2019. So nothing nefarious there. But the lien does still exist, so if FRG decided to default on it, those trademarks would become owned by the bank.
Then I just give up, why is FRG giving all of us the runaround?
I don’t know enough about legal business specifics to say, but my genuine assumption is that they just have no idea what to do. They don’t want to cancel things because Trump could wheel back around and get bored of tariffs at any point, and they don’t want to commit to anything because Trump could decide that China has grievously offended him and impose a thirty trillion percent tariff tomorrow. Business talks move slowly and require a lot of bureaucracy, the system isn’t designed for rapidly changing conditions. They also probably don’t want Christopher and Paul to say anything because they know that the public will take any small nod and extrapolate it out to its logical extreme through a giant game of internet telephone, so they’ve cut off any avenue where FRG news could slip through accidentally. They can’t shut down the Discord servers because Christopher/Braithwhite personally own them, but they can restrict the other avenues. I don’t think it’s some crazy conspiracy, I think they just have no plan.
Honestly, I’m shocked they let Christopher post on Tuesday, and even more shocked that they let him say “we’re absolutely commited to delivering Disparation to you” in any context.
is that they just have no idea what to do
So why not just admit that? As they’re not even telling the GTG employees anything if reactions I’ve seen from Adam and his family are anything to go by.
And the best cure to people playing internet telephone is to be up front and honest with those people.
I should also note here: Before I stepped back to care for my mother, I worked as an administrative assistant, and before that I worked in retail. I have basically 15 years of experience in customer service on some level. So I’m not just being a cranky customer, I’m saying… none of this feels right based on my professional experience either.
Certainly I worked once in a business that had to downsize specifically due to national market issues, and they were up front with me. There was no surprises or vagueness or sneaking it up on me or anything.
If you some of you don’t feel bothered by springing unsuspected surprise layoffs on your employees, refusing to honor refund guarantees, and completely ghosting your customers, that is your choice, but that is not how I would have operated in any of my professional jobs, and it doesn’t sit well with me as a customer either.
Honesty would be better but I’ve rarely seen companies do that. Especially private companies that don’t have stockholders they have to disclose information to.
While I’m sure they had their worries because of the tariffs, it seems like GtG employees were blindsided by the layoffs as well even though they work for them and it just seems FRG at the top is not being fully transparent even to their own employees. I’ve experienced similar myself where others I worked with got laid off and there was no hint from higher up it was coming.
Yeah, same. 
The people who have to make these decisions were already at 100% doing their day-to-day jobs, now they have to do the analysis and make these challenging decisions on top of doing all of that. Plus, dealing with the excessive stress of the current reality, which makes all of that (including the day-to-day stuff) sooooo much harder. 
Add in that much of this is complex, these folks haven’t had to deal with anything like this before, and – based on my admittedly limited exposure to the FRG folks – their management seems to have a very micromanagement way to approach things, this is about what I was afraid we would see: No information for a long time, allowing the community to stir in our grieving. 
I sincerely wish they would communicate something, anything, to help us work through this process, but I don’t think that’s their priority, so I’m assuming we will have a lot longer to wait… 