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.

 

[FrogReaver]

What is your basis for believing it's a small number of people? (I assume that's what's meant by "minority" here.)

In case you missed the rest of his post - he made it clear he was talking in general and not about this particular case.

 

[Aaron L]

Well, if you mean instantly change their views the moment you say something - then probably not. But you really have no idea the impact your words will have on someone down the road.

While it is possible that some kind of seeds may be planted in their minds by an opposing argument that could potentially bloom into an epiphany that they are mistaken, every genuine believer in conspiracy theories whom I have ever known of has resisted any and all attempts to dissuade them through argument and debate. Since many of them are prone to paranoia this is possibly due to mental problems. The father of my nephew sincerely believes that he was secretly implanted with microchips by government Illuminati scientists, and that those microchips allow alien spirits from Atlantis to control his mind. (I am not joking; a few years ago he was in our kitchen and started cackling like the Joker as he ranted about the alien ghosts controlling his mind. It was terrifying. He is in a mental health institution now.) And I have a very good idea of what impact people's words will have, based on scientific studies proving that people are resistant to changing their minds. Especially those who are prone to believing in conspiracy theories, who, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, will instead become more intractable the more they are argued with.

And unfortunately, racist conspiracy theory beliefs like the ones espoused by Bob Bledsaw Jr. seldom develop in isolation, are generally just one part of a larger web of similarly awful interlinked ideas, and are usually learned during childhood and adolescence from parents and other members of the family. You don't often find a racist kid who developed those kinds of ideas independantly without a racist parent. Judging by the comments mentioned about Bob Bledsaw Sr. it seems likely that this was the case here, as well.

 

[Aaron L]

I did my best. You write less clearly than I suspect you believe you do.


Why do you assume it's a few people? Do you work for OBS? Do you have access to all the communications they've received?

I just can't take these guys seriously anymore, can you? Those who keep making contrarian and obfuscatory arguments like this because they apparently don't think anyone should suffer any consequences for anything they say, no matter how monstrous their ideas are or how much the offend and hurt people. And yet, like clockwork, every time something like this happens and we get another racist/sexist/fascist person exposed by their online words or deeds, we always get two or three of these guys popping out of the woodwork, wringing their hands and saying "I just don't understand why everyone is being so judgemental about all this, it's just so unfair to judge him based only on what he believes/said/did... "

 

[S'mon]

"Cancelled" isn't really a thing. It's an alt-right buzzword to describe natural social consequences of behaviour.

You must think half the newspapers in the UK are alt-right, then.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I just can't take these guys seriously anymore, can you? Those who keep making contrarian and obfuscatory arguments like this because they apparently don't think anyone should suffer any consequences for anything they say, no matter how monstrous their ideas are or how much the offend and hurt people. And yet, like clockwork, every time something like this happens and we get another racist/sexist/fascist person exposed by their online words or deeds, we always get two or three of these guys popping out of the woodwork, wringing their hands and saying "I just don't understand why everyone is being so judgemental about all this, it's just so unfair to judge him based only on what he believes/said/did... "

I will also call you out for not actually reading what I am saying. I have not once on this entire conversation talked about JG dude (who's name I couldn't tell you) and what should happen to him. I even specifically said I am discussing the general concept of censorship by mob unrelated to any specific case.

I don't thinkany care to discuss anything like that, though. They just want to prove that their opinion is right and whoever has a different one is wrong and also bad.

So, with that in mind, I'll just tell you you're right, he's a bad man, and all products he touched (regardless of how much or little he had to do with them) should never again see the light of day.

I award myself no points and may God have mercy on my soul.

 

[Panda-s1]

I even specifically said I am discussing the general concept of censorship by mob unrelated to any specific case.

if Bob Bledsaw was justifiably called out for his behavior and you agree with that, then why are you even bringing this up here?

if someone starts a thread about whether or not wizards are overpowered in 5e it'd be weird of me to come in and just start talking smack about powergamers ruining d&d, and then get upset when people start pointing out the class itself is a problem.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

The title of this thread is "Companies Cut Ties With Judges Guild After Owner's Racist Posts" and I am (failing at) trying to discuss the consequences and ramifications of small groups being able to influence companies to cut ties.

It's a related discussion.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

But you do agree that certain tools have a high bar in order to justify their use?

Certainly!

i don’t think this one qualifies, though, sorry.

 

[Panda-s1]

the consequences and ramifications of small groups being able to influence companies to cut ties

the "Companies" came to their own decisions after they saw for themselves what Bob Bledsaw was posting on his personal Facebook page (which he left open to the public). if you actually read the blog in question you'd see that Rob Conley 1) made a personal private decision to cut ties with the JG and 2) was himself unsure if he wanted to make a public post about it because of "mob mentality". like damn, the guy who brought it to the public's attention is as weary as you about "small groups being able to influence companies", and even then others have revealed they knew about his behavior and made their own personal decisions to not buy JG products, like if people knew where was the "small group" trying to behead Bob Bledsaw II before all this?

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I did, in fact, read that entire post. I believe that both Bat and Frog both chose to drop JG because on personal moral beliefs. I then believe the story got traction and "the mob" formed and began to exert influence on DTRPG to follow suit.

I think DTRPG did some quick math and determined the little income they received from the JG material they hosted wasn't worth the backlash of saying they wouldn't stop selling it, so it became a sound business decision to dump JG

I believe that in the next couple days Goodman Games is going to follow suit and find a way out that costs them the least.

I believe that all 4 of these companies are going to be negatively impacted (but maybe only slightly) by the decision to drop JG but that they really don't have much choice.

I also believe that any vendors on Amazon and eBay selling JG product won't be affected because "the mob" angry at this one person isn't large enough to influence those sales channels.

I have little proof for my opinions, they are just my opinions.