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.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

No one is preventing Judges Guild from selling their products. DriveThruRPG just doesn't want to be involved in doing so.

Did you actually read what I wrote or did you just jump to react to one thought?

I very clearly said that there is a difference between DTRPG not selling JG because they are morally opposed to it's ownership and DTRPG not selling JG because they don't want to deal with the hassle of the outspoken few.

I'm fine with the first reason and feel that the second reason opens itself up to rule by mob.

I don't want "the mob" to dictate to sellers what is OK for me to purchase, I want the freedom to make that decision for myself.

 

[Panda-s1]

Did you actually read what I wrote or did you just jump to react to one thought?

I very clearly said that there is a difference between DTRPG not selling JG because they are morally opposed to it's ownership and DTRPG not selling JG because they don't want to deal with the hassle of the outspoken few.

I'm fine with the first reason and feel that the second reason opens itself up to rule by mob.

I don't want "the mob" to dictate to sellers what is OK for me to purchase, I want the freedom to make that decision for myself.

DTRPG: makes a sound decision to drop a publisher from their store
you: "but what if they did it because a few people complained?! D:"


tbh I feel in this case they go hand in hand, if only because JG isn't a well known company, though it doesn't address the fact that other associated publishers decided to cut ties with JG as well.

 

[Ancalagon]

Ironically, this claim would seem to vindicate the video that he linked to (which, is long, so I'm still making my way through it, but this maneuver you just pulled is pretty much on point).

Contrapoints is a treasure.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

are we really gonna compare D&D relabeling demons and devils to calling someone out for actual naughty word behavior?

Yes, there is a very legitimate comparison. A small number of very vocal people are trying to effect change on a product to make it fit their opinion on how it should be done (or not done at all).

If BADD had modern social media access there very well might not be a D&D still today. They certainly would have liked it that way and there were plenty of people who deferred to their opinions at the time despite not having much knowledge bout how the actual games worked.

 

[FrogReaver]

We are being kind of vague, so, I can perhaps only mention this: Statistics.

To say, "everyone gets abused at some point" rather misses the statistics - within the US, some groups are given more abuse than others. This doesn't speak to any individual person's experience, but is still highly relevant in considering the impact of abuse, in a cultural sense.

Say I am a cis-het-white-male. I probably have picked on for something in my past. I should not, however, pretend that gives me anything like the perspective of an African American man, or anyone transgendered, or most other groups we might choose to name.

I can use my experience to extrapolate ("Geeze, what must it be like to get that, every day, for decades?"), but that doesn't mean I really know.

Are you denying the ability of human beings (particularly the straight white male variety) to be able to empathize and understand and have perspective about what happens to those in groups outside their own?

I think that if that is what you are saying and if it is true then there is no hope. Have you ever really sit down and thought about the implications of such a position?

 

[FrogReaver]

I don't understand the references to "cancel culture" and "boycott" upthread. Afaik no one has called for a boycott. Those who are choosing not to do business with Bob Bledsaw II or not to buy his products are doing so entirely of their own volition, not from any pressure, social or otherwise, from others.

Oh there is pressure...

 

[Panda-s1]

Yes, there is a very legitimate comparison. A small number of very vocal people are trying to effect change on a product to make it fit their opinion on how it should be done (or not done at all).

If BADD had modern social media access there very well might not be a D&D still today. They certainly would have liked it that way and there were plenty of people who deferred to their opinions at the time despite not having much knowledge bout how the actual games worked.

dude, TSR changed devils and demons on their own volition. yes they had a PR crisis (???) on their hands, but it was still a decision they made (and possibly an unnecessary one? idk by the time changes were enacted with 2nd Ed. BADD was starting to lose the argument against roleplaying games). also any legal action against them in this regard was not at all successful. it's not like some federal judge told them they needed to change the game if they wanted to continue selling it. if anything if we didn't have D&D today it probably would've been their own damn fault; I'm sure most of us know now that TSR was badly mismanaged for most of its life.

more importantly, though, while BADD might technically have been "a minority" they were an activist group. their whole point was to convince others that D&D might be bad because it has demons, and hey the majority of Americans in the 80's were wary of things involving demons. but by the 90's that all changed. shows like Buffy were fairly successful, and simply having demons wasn't cause for alarm. D&D still suffered, but that little to do with the satanic panic and everything to do as it's status as a game for losers.

this is all a very far cry from what this thread is about. JG has given a very public and legitimate reason against associating with them. it doesn't matter if a minority or majority called out Bledsaw and decided not to deal with him anymore, what he did was objectively terrible. but the worst thing happening to him now is he can't sell his product on a popular website. it's not like some federal judge told him he can't sell his pdf's, he still can! he just has to find a different avenue to do so.

 

[FrogReaver]

"Cancelled" isn't really a thing. It's an alt-right buzzword ...

While it is your site and all.... this seems a bit hypocritical - especially just a few posts after multiple posts about no US Politics.

 

[Panda-s1]

Are you denying the ability of human beings (particularly the straight white male variety) to be able to empathize and understand and have perspective about what happens to those in groups outside their own?

I think that if that is what you are saying and if it is true then there is no hope. Have you ever really sit down and thought about the implications of such a position?

I know plenty of straight white cis male people who'd be appalled by Bob Bledsaw's behavior, so yeah I think we're good.

Oh there is pressure...

well yeah, that's what usually happens when someone does something objectionable. it's like people's opinions and the opinions of the DTRPG are in alignment or something O:

 

[billd91]

Yes, there is a very legitimate comparison. A small number of very vocal people are trying to effect change on a product to make it fit their opinion on how it should be done (or not done at all).

You‘re acting like there’s no difference in the justice or morality in the two cases, and frankly drawing that kind of moral equivalence is out of place. There’s a pretty big moral gap between shunning racists bordering on Nazis and persecuting a game company out of misdirected grief.