D&D General Companies Cut Ties With Judges Guild After Owner's Racist Posts

Several game publishers, including Bat in the Attic, have said that they will no longer do business with Judges Guild after its owner posted a number of racist and anti-semitic statements. They don't need to be repeated here; but there are several examples.

Judges Guild has been around since 1976, producing products compatible with Dungeons & Dragons; the current owner, Bob Bledsaw II, is the son of its co-founder, Bob Bledsaw, and has run the company since 2008. The company is well known for 1976's City State of the Invincible Overlord, amongst other classics. Bat in the Attic and Frog God Games both license Judges' Guild properties.

Rob Conley of Bat in the Attic stated yesterday that the company would no longer do business with Judges Guild, or its properties. "Sunday evening, I called Robert Bledsaw II and discussed the issue. I notified him that I will no longer be doing future Judges’ Guild projects and will only continue to sell what I have currently listed. I stated that I will be calling the other Judges Guild licensee and inform them of the situation and of my decision."

Frog God Games, which has been working with Judges Guild for nearly 20 years, followed suit. "Recently the owner of Judges Guild made a series of racist and anti-semitic posts on Facebook. We will not reproduce them here; they are shown on Rob Conley's Bat in the Attic blog, and we are convinced of their authenticity. Rob wrote his post because, as a licensee of Judges Guild property, he felt he needed to state clearly that he would not be doing business with Judges Guild in the future. We have also licensed property from Judges Guild in the past, and we are seconding Rob's example by cutting off all future business with Judges Guild. The posts made on Facebook were completely unacceptable."

UPDATE — DriveThruRPG has severed ties. “The Judges Guild publisher account has been closed and they are no longer available on DriveThruRPG.”

A few years ago, Judges Guild ran a Kickstarter to bring back City State of the Invincible Overlord, with nearly a thousand backers raising $85K. The Kickstarter has not yet been fulfilled. The latest update was in October 2019.

 

[Zarithar]

Michael Jackson (RIP)
R. Kelley (ouch)
Louis C.K. (attempting comeback, much lower profile)
John Lassetar (although now controversially with Skydance)
Charlie Rose
Matt Lauer
Bill Cosby (and jailed)
Kevin Spacey
Les Moonves

etc.

But as a general rule, if you're high profile and have a lot of money, you have a better chance of riding it out. It's the mid-tier execs you don't hear about in the major news (the local news) that don't bounce back.

Add Chris Hardwick to that list as well.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Disappointing.

At least it’s not coming from the people who did the original products.

 

[Birmy]

Also, respectfully I think for fairness we need to close this thread. If this board is supposed to be RPG related only, no politics, and even Morrus is talking politics, general politics, but politics nonetheless, then I think we owe it to the Board Rules as written to end this.

I am against this, as I had picked page 12 in the pool to see when this thread got locked.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Add Chris Hardwick to that list as well.

He got rehired after he was cleared though, right?

in RPG industry contexts, what about Ken Whitman? He seems to be cancelled a few times, but always pops up with a new project (one that usually ends up with lots of people out of money)

 

[Retreater]

Also, respectfully I think for fairness we need to close this thread. If this board is supposed to be RPG related only, no politics, and even Morrus is talking politics, general politics, but politics nonetheless, then I think we owe it to the Board Rules as written to end this.

I agree. Attempts to guide the discussion back to the games industry just bring us back to political discussion.

 

[CleverNickName]

I don't know how I missed this "being cancelled" phenomenon. I didn't know it was associated with the alt-right, and how they used it to complain about The Big Bad World making them feel bad for spreading their hatred. But it's true. @Morrus taught me something new today.

The thing is: In light of his bigotry and anti-Semitic commentary, I no longer want to do business with Bob Bledsaw III. I don't want to do business with anyone else who is willing to continue to support him, either. I don't suffer fools, and I don't excuse bigotry...where I come from, we call it "taking our business elsewhere."

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Mistwell]

I don't know how I missed this "being cancelled" phenomenon. I didn't know it was associated with the alt-right

It isn't. They may use it also, but it was created by black activists on the left as a Twitter hashtag. You can look that up in Webster's dictionary. That's how mainstream the concept has become - it's in the dictionary

 

[numtini]

People need to go read the posts. We're talking about nazis. Real nazis. There's no "neo-" here. He's grinding axes and slagging on how then-General Eisenhower treated the nazis in 1945.

 

[RogueRonin]

It isn't. They may use it also, but it was created by black activists on the left as a Twitter hashtag. You can look that up in Webster's dictionary. That's how mainstream the concept has become - it's in the dictionary

This is true. The right uses it derisively when groaning about political correctness, much like the term SJW, which was also created by activists as a label for themselves.

As to Bledsaw II & III, we can add Nazi to the list of apt descriptors for them. Right after incompetent, dishonest, and grifter.