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.

 

[Lanefan]

Wow, I'm quite upset about this and have several Judges Guild products created for the d20 System.

As in, things you created for them on contract? Or on spec?

I've already purged my hard drive and now I'm going to have to dump my print products at a used bookstore or game shop for whatever I can get.

Not much you can do about what's already in print but too bad you already nuked your hard drive; were it me I'd have revisited the material to see if I could de-Judge-ify it (as in, remove any of their IP etc.) with an eye toward re-releasing it through another avenue.

 

[Zardnaar]

Nobody is immune to being blindsided.

There were a bunch of C&W fans here in Texas who were STUNNED when (pot-smoking, LGBT-ally, etc.) Willie Nelson threw his weight and gave a concert in support of the Democrat who was looking to unseat an incumbent Republican senator. Clearly, they’d missed several decades of his life.

I, OTOH, was surprised in my 30s when my paternal grandfather insisted I had to marry a black woman. (Nevermind that I lived in the least integrated/most caucasian suburb of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.)

Yeah Willie was fairly upfront. Smoked pot on the roof of the White House.

Dixie Chicks when they said it mattered. See Jane Fonda in North Vietnam as well.

 

[Panda-s1]

I did. It was in the post you quoted. Here it is again. Scroll down to "The Origin of Cancel Culture".

...dude. that's an article. that hardly (if it all) qualifies as "being in the dictionary".

and as @doctorbadwolf said that only states where the that use of "cancel" came from, in this case black twitter. the only time "cancel culture" appears in the body of that article is "—and as some have labeled it, cancel culture—" which can be removed entirely and still make a coherent sentence. also note that even they say "as some have labelled it", I wonder who those "some" might be

 

[mach1.9pants]

Wow, I'm quite upset about this and have several Judges Guild products created for the d20 System. I've already purged my hard drive and now I'm going to have to dump my print products at a used bookstore or game shop for whatever I can get.

I won't throw them in the trash. As a writer, I can't do that.

Why? That was from Judges Guild pre B2 and B3. B1 owned and ran it, prior to his death in 2008, and should not be tainted by what his son and grandson do. To quote someone on RPG.net who knew/worked with Bob Senior

"No, Bob Sr. wasn't like that at all. We only discussed race, religion, and politics about theWilderlands Campaign setting. He was from that generation that lived right after WWII so he knew the holocaust was true. In 2001 he took a wargamers tour with Bill Owen to France and Germany, and toured all the WWII sites including Normandy Beach and the Ardennes to pay his respects, and of course gather firsthand knowledge of battlefields."

Older JG products should not be tarred by those that inherited the company, in my opinion

 

[Knightfall]

As in, things you created for them on contract? Or on spec?

Not much you can do about what's already in print but too bad you already nuked your hard drive; were it me I'd have revisited the material to see if I could de-Judge-ify it (as in, remove any of their IP etc.) with an eye toward re-releasing it through another avenue.

No, I meant PDFs and books I'd purchased.

 

[Knightfall]

Why? That was from Judges Guild pre B2 and B3. B1 owned and ran it, prior to his death in 2008, and should not be tainted by what his son and grandson do. To quote someone on RPG.net who knew/worked with Bob Senior

"No, Bob Sr. wasn't like that at all. We only discussed race, religion, and politics about theWilderlands Campaign setting. He was from that generation that lived right after WWII so he knew the holocaust was true. In 2001 he took a wargamers tour with Bill Owen to France and Germany, and toured all the WWII sites including Normandy Beach and the Ardennes to pay his respects, and of course gather firsthand knowledge of battlefields."

Older JG products should not be tarred by those that inherited the company, in my opinion

Thanks for that information. I'll have to think about it and decide for myself. I still might get rid of them. I haven't used them in quite a while, and I could try to trade them for something else. I'm really into Traveller right now.

 

[Zardnaar]

Thanks for that information. I'll have to think about it and decide for myself. I still might get rid of them. I haven't used them in quite a while, and I could try to trade them for something else. I'm really into Traveller right now.

May as well keep them.

Dude from Frog God Games got drunk a few years ago, haven't bought anything from them since but not gonna dump my old stuff no point.

 

[Morrus]

That is more controversial than you think. A lot depends on whether you're a seller or a buyer. If you do business in public, you can't simply discriminate because you think your customer might have values that do not align with your own - depending on those values. For example, the gay wedding cake issue.

Very true; I was thinking in terms of companies I wish to buy from as a customer. You're correct in that companies cannot discriminate against customers for similar reasons.

 

[Blacksad]

Very true; I was thinking in terms of companies I wish to buy from as a customer. You're correct in that companies cannot discriminate against customers for similar reasons.

In terms of companies customers wish to buy from, keep in mind that call to boycott are forbidden in some countries (the last conviction I have in mind were for call to boycott Israeli companies with huge smells of antisemitism).

Different cultures I guess (Tontine are forbidden in your country yet a common system in others)

 

[Sadras]

I, OTOH, was surprised in my 30s when my paternal grandfather insisted I had to marry a black woman

This ask becomes increasingly more common in 1st and 2nd generation families of immigrants and one may sympathise why - the minority group is attempting to preserve itself.