Goodman Games Revives Relationship With Anti-Semitic Publisher For New City State Kickstarter [UPDATED]

City State of the Invincible Overlord was a 1976 game setting from Judges Guild--indeed, it was the first game setting for D&D, albeit from a third party. It features a dwarven stronghold called Thunderhold, which operates as a base of operations for D&D campaigns.

• UPDATE--Scroll down to the end of this post to see the statement posted by Goodman Games.

Judges Guild, founded by Bob Bledsaw and Bill Owen, sold City State until it was licensed to Mayfair Games in the 1980s, before returning to Judges Guild with a new printing in 1999, and collectors editions via a partnership with Necromancer Games in the early 2000s. All in all there have been over a half-dozen editions of the setting, ranging from small booklets to boxed sets to 300-page hardcovers.

Fast forward to 2020, when Judges Guild owner Bob Bledsaw II (the son of the co-founder, Bob Bledsaw) posted a variety of racist and anti-semitic statement online. The statements referenced topics such as 'Jewish media', disappointment at the outcome of the American civil war, and holocaust denial, as well as lengthy posts where he describes himself as 'pro-life, anti-gay, and against self-mutilation' and speaks proudly of his family's history in the Crusades, which he 'considers a calling'. Additionally, he made references to 9/11 'truth', his family's history of slavery, and defends his 'racial humor'.

It should be noted that these statements were all made by Bob Bledsaw II, not by Bob Bledsaw Snr, who co-founded Judges Guild and passed away in 2008.

As EN World reported at the time, various game publishers, including Bat in the Attic, and Frog God Games, cut ties with Judges Guild, and DriveThruRPG stopped selling the company's products, saying "The Judges Guild publisher account has been closed and they are no longer available on DriveThruRPG."

Rob Conley of Bat in the Attic stated at the time 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 had been working with Judges Guild for nearly 20 years at the time, 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."

Amongst those cutting ties with Judges Guild, notably, was Goodman Games, who made a statement in February 2020:

Following up on our recent video, this statement is to confirm the following points regarding Goodman Games and our former relationship with Judges Guild.

To start with, we are disgusted and disheartened by the antisemitism, bigotry, racism, homophobia, and transphobia exhibited by the current owners of Judges Guild.

Goodman Games has stopped selling our previous Judges Guild products through all distribution channels.

Judges Guild will no longer receive income from Goodman Games products now that sales of their titles have ceased.

We have one remaining product to release, which is a collector’s edition focused on the works of Jennell Jaquays. Jennell’s story is one quite different from the views espoused by Bob Bledsaw Jr. Judges Guild and Bob Bledsaw Jr. have agreed to receive no royalties of any kind from this title. To say it bluntly: Bob Bledsaw Jr. and Judges Guild will not profit from the Judges Guild Deluxe Collector’s Edition Vol. 2 focused on the works of Jennell Jaquays. Goodman Games will match 20% of the proceeds of this title with donations: 10% to the Anti Defamation League and 10% to GLAAD. The funds that would have been used for a Judges Guild licensing fee will be included in this donation, as requested by Bob Bledsaw Jr.

After this final volume, we have no plans to release future Judges Guild titles.

We are deeply saddened and frankly horrified by the views espoused by Bob Bledsaw Jr.

In early 2014, Judges Guild ran a Kickstarter to bring back City State of the Invincible Overlord, with nearly a thousand backers raising $85K. A decade later, the Kickstarter has not yet been fulfilled. The latest update was in May 2020.

Goodman Games this week announced a new version of City State of the Invincible Overlord, coming to crowdfunding this summer, for 5E and its own in-house DCC RPG. It appears that the property is still owned by Judges Guild, and is being licensed from them by Goodman Games, as a comment from Aaron James Bledsaw on Facebook indicates [sic]:

Goodman games does had a license to do this and other Wilderlands products, It has been in the works for a long while and I'm glad it's finally seeing the light of day.

- Aaron James Bledsaw​

The current crowdfunding page also confirms that the project is being undertaken under license from Judges Guild.

Based on the original City State of the Invincible Overlord by Bob Bledsaw, Sr. as published by Judges Guild. This product is produced under license from Judges Guild.

In their announcement video, Goodman Games did not directly reference the situation, but CEO Joseph Goodman commented. It should be noted that the incidents previously referenced are not mentioned specifically, and this was not a response to a question about them.

Yeah I keep coming back to the fact that so many of the things that I do with Goodman Games whether it's content-wise or business practices was really established in the 70s by Bob Bedslaw Snr and Bill Owen, it's kind of amazing but I think it's important to point out that nothing is changing about Goodman Games. We've done things in a certain way for 24 years. A large part of our fan base has grown up to appreciate that. And those of us who have seen behind the curtain as to what we are producing whether it's Mike and Chris on this call or Doug and his announcements at Dungeon Con and his enthusiasm for doing the cover, I think all you know Doug, all you know me, all you know Mike and Chris, and you know what we're about and that's what we'll bring to City State of the Invincible Overlord. We intend to publish this the Goodman Games way, the way we've done it for 24 years and the way we will hopefully do it for many years to come and my personal opinion is I like to build bridges rather than walls. I think there's been a lot of experiences in the last couple years in America of people building walls amongst each other. I'd rather encourage dialogue, encourage conversation, get people talking and have people converge on what I hope is a unified perspective for how we can all go forward together in a collaborative way.

- Joseph Goodman​

Additionally, of note, is that the Judges Guild products on Goodman Games' website had--at least until 2023--a note which said "A portion of the proceeds from sales of this title will be donated to charitable causes." That note is now absent on those products.

​

We have reached out to Goodman Games for comment and will update you if we hear anything further.

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UPDATE (same day) -- Goodman Games Posts Statement

Goodman Games has not responded to our email, but Joseph Goodman has just posted a statement regarding The City State of the Invincible Overlord. 

• The project was an outstanding project dating back to before 2020 when Goodman Games cut ties with Judges Guild.
• Judges Guild has promised Goodman Games that all proceeds from their share of the project's revenue will go towards refunding backers from their older unfulfilled Kickstarter.
• Backers of that older Kickstarter will get a discount on the new one.

Hi everyone,

It’s Thursday afternoon and I’ve just spent part of the morning driving and thinking about the amazing weekend we had with Dungeon Con I at our warehouse in Indiana. It was great to see so many people, staff and customers, come together to celebrate the DCC community we’ve tried so hard to build over the last 15 years. It was exhausting, exhilarating, and more fun than any of us imagined.

One of the things that we announced at Dungeon Con was our next Original Adventure Reincarnated series, The City State of the Invincible Overlord. (Check out our announcement here.) We were originally going to wait to announce it, but in the excitement of Dungeon Con we couldn’t wait to share the news.

Normally with something like this we try to do a series of posts and videos highlighting the project. Because I was so focused on Dungeon Con, we didn’t address everything about the announcement that I should have, and that’s on me.

Since Saturday, we have had several questions concerning the project coming from in and outside of our community. I wanted to address some of those questions and concerns today.

Goodman Games has long been a company taking older roleplaying game products and bringing them forward to new audiences. One of our earliest successes was with Jim Ward’s Metamorphosis Alpha, seeing Goodman Games publish both old and new adventures in what was the very first Science Fiction roleplaying game.

One of the other great successes we had was bringing the work of Judge’s Guild to modern audiences. We published two colossal, archival quality volumes documenting the early work of Bob Bledsaw Sr., Bill Owens and Jennelle Jaquays.

In 2020, we and the entire gaming industry were made aware of comments and postings by the current owners of Judge’s Guild. We addressed this in a video, as well as a statement on our website where we said the following: “we are disgusted and disheartened by the antisemitism, bigotry, racism, homophobia, and transphobia exhibited by the current owners of Judges Guild.”

It’s hard to express how upset I was personally and professionally by the events of 2020. I don’t discuss my family, but the posts and comments that came to light affected all of us, including my children. What I saw was repugnant and vile.

Unfortunately, the 2020 revelations also left several pending projects in limbo. Legally, we can’t discuss specifics, but one of those was our adaptation of the City State of the Invincible Overlord for OAR.

The City State of the Invincible Overlord is an important work in the history of roleplaying games. It’s the first richly developed setting for fantasy roleplaying games. It launched thousands of campaigns. Bob Bledsaw Sr. and Bill Owens, honorable and decent men, created something that was an important milestone and one that projects are still being measured by today.

Our OAR of the City State of the Invincible Overlord faced one of two paths: We could simply choose to shut down our work and let the project end or proceed knowing that the monies going to Judges Guild would be supporting something that all of us at Goodman Games found reprehensible.

In 2010, Judge’s Guild had a Kickstarter campaign to publish an updated version of the City State of the Invincible Overlord that saw it backed by 965 backers who pledged over $85,000. For several years, Judge’s Guild has offered backers the option to receive a refund if they contact Judge’s Guild through their website and request one.

Judge’s Guild has committed to Goodman Games that any funds received by them from our moving forward with the OAR City State of the Invincible Overlord will be used to fund refunds from the 2010 Kickstarter. With that commitment, we agreed to move forward with the project as we felt it was the only way for original backers to receive their funds in a timely manner.

We hope this will be seen as a positive development for backers of the original Kickstarter. We encourage those backers to contact Judge’s Guild via this page and request instructions for receiving a refund. (You should be ready to have screen captures of your backer information available.)

These were the only terms that were acceptable to Goodman Games. We want to see the original backers of the 2010 Kickstarter made whole. We also want to bring an updated version of the City State of the Invincible Overlord forward into the 21st century and give new audiences a chance to explore what made it so compelling almost 50 years ago.

At the same time, we want to announce that when our City State of the Invincible Overlord goes live we will be offering a special discount to verified backers of the original Judge’s Guild Kickstarter. You have waited for over a decade, and we don’t want you to wait any longer.

Thanks,
Joe Goodman

 

[Morrus]

As an aside, I have backed 59 kickstarters (plus some crowdfunders on other platforms but I can't be bothered to check on those), and there's only one that actually turned out to be vaporware (Lasting Tales skirmish minis game + minis Fantasy Set 1 and 2). Others may have struggled with delays, but have either shipped or are more-or-less on track. Kickstarter failures tend to be highly publicized by irate backers, but IME most work out fine.

Yeah similar numbers here. 95% of those I backed I got the stuff without any issues, and I’ve backed a lot (and created nearly 60, every one of which has been fulfilled pending a couple we’re waiting on tariff situations for).

 

[Autumnal]

I don’t find a delay of 6-24 months anything like innately “unacceptable”. The lower end of that is and always has been commonplace in gaming and in many other kinds of niche publishing. For that matter, the upper end is too, including venerable companies like Chaosium and larger players of later decades like White Wolf and Palladium.

How much such a delay bugs me in crowdfunding generally comes down to communication and what the reasons are. The one currently active Kickstarter I have in gaming (for Kult supplements) and two fiction projects are all paused right now because the publishers need to see if and how tariffs will stabilize and what shipping rates are going to do in response. This strikes me as entirely acceptable - none of the publishers had anything to do with the mess, since my politics set boundaries on the projects I’ll even consider backing, and this is info both they and we the customers need.

Smaller scale complications also routinely hit my “this is entirely acceptable” threshold. A natural disaster wipes out a creator’s home or place of business. A loved one dies, a family member or a creator goes through protracted painful illness, creative partners break up, some other venture or job a creator is involved in fails catastrophically and sets off a scramble to avoid ruin, on and on. Reasonable complications, communicated reasonably clearly, don’t get me waxing wroth. (Which is good. Too much waxing is bad for Wroth’s pores.)

I don’t find that kind of threshold realistic. It’s not one that decades- and centuries-old publishing houses in and out of the mainstream can meet all the time. Even stunningly reliable authors like John Scalzi, with whom Tor has a contract covering the next twenty years because he’s reliable enough to make it a good investment on their part, has projects get delayed past that six-month threshold of unacceptability. (He moves another one up and the publication schedule shifts to cope, then he finishes the stalled one when he can. It remains an excellent deal for Tor.) It doesn’t seem justifiable in light of observable creating and publishing history. It’s like judging fast food outlets in terms of their vegan qualities. Of course you’re going to find failure after failure, but it’s ridiculous to expect anything else.

 

[The Sigil]

Yeah similar numbers here. 95% of those I backed I got the stuff without any issues, and I’ve backed a lot (and created nearly 60, every one of which has been fulfilled pending a couple we’re waiting on tariff situations for).

So full transparency - my experience has been that I eventually got most (not all) of the stuff I backed, but only one was delivered in what I would consider a timely manner (the study quoted used "within 6 months of the promised date" as their cutoff, which I think is fair).... all of the others fell into the 6-24 months delayed category (or didn't deliver at all).

To me, crowdfunding isn't just about "delivering the product" - the product is only PART of your commitment... the full commitment includes the date you give for fulfillment.

If I set the bar at "I eventually got the product I backed" and ignore the date, yes, I have received over 90% of what I backed.

However, I have received 0% of what I backed as originally committed (including fulfillment date).

If I were to allow 6 months as a "reasonable delay" on the original commitment... I have still only received less than 10% of what I backed as "fulfilled more or less as promised."

In other words, over 80% of the stuff I've backed has been delayed by would I consider an "unreasonable amount" and I am of the opinion that the date you give is an important part of the commitment. Yes, when the product finally shows up it feels good to get it, but that does NOT offset months to years of "feels bads" while hearing reasons (excuses, if you are less generous) for why you haven't met your original commitment.

Clearly, Kickstarter delivery does not match my expectations of what is "reasonable." Rather than demand everyone else meet my definition of "reasonable" I am simply withdrawing from participation to save myself the heartburn of misaligned expectations.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm always baffled at Kickstarter projects -- however fast or slow they are -- not communicating clearly and often with backers. Communication is essentially free! If this month, you completed this milestone, talked to these printers and received art from those artists, tell us!

(That said, folks who just put out ads for their next things in their updates when they haven't fulfilled their previous campaigns should probably pump the brakes a bit.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Clearly, Kickstarter delivery does not match my expectations of what is "reasonable." Rather than demand everyone else meet my definition of "reasonable" I am simply withdrawing from participation to save myself the heartburn of misaligned expectations.

I am just below the (scary to me) threshold of being considered an official Kickstarter superbacker and my experience has been very different than yours.

We're clearly picking different campaigns to back. I'm not sure whose experience has been more typical.

I will say that I pull out of any project that seems like it's got too much feature creep (my one exception is Obojima, which is still working on physical fulfillment as a result) or has a creator who seems shaky on either creating the product or the fulfillment end.

 

[The Sigil]

How much such a delay bugs me in crowdfunding generally comes down to communication and what the reasons are. The one currently active Kickstarter I have in gaming (for Kult supplements) and two fiction projects are all paused right now because the publishers need to see if and how tariffs will stabilize and what shipping rates are going to do in response. This strikes me as entirely acceptable - none of the publishers had anything to do with the mess, since my politics set boundaries on the projects I’ll even consider backing, and this is info both they and we the customers need.

Smaller scale complications also routinely hit my “this is entirely acceptable” threshold. A natural disaster wipes out a creator’s home or place of business. A loved one dies, a family member or a creator goes through protracted painful illness, creative partners break up, some other venture or job a creator is involved in fails catastrophically and sets off a scramble to avoid ruin, on and on. Reasonable complications, communicated reasonably clearly, don’t get me waxing wroth. (Which is good. Too much waxing is bad for Wroth’s pores.)

I don't dispute these are good examples of "reasonable causes of delay." I've rarely been annoyed at the CREATORS when delays like this have been announced, but I have been annoyed at the SITUATION (other causes of delay, such as, "I didn't realize X would take so much time" have annoyed me, but they're out of my control).

In order to keep my blood pressure down, I just choose not to get involved with KS now. By only purchasing a product when I can get it immediately, I never have to be annoyed at a delay situation, which is probably a "me" problem to begin with.

 

[Morrus]

So full transparency - my experience has been that I eventually got most (not all) of the stuff I backed, but only one was delivered in what I would consider a timely manner (the study quoted used "within 6 months of the promised date" as their cutoff, which I think is fair).... all of the others fell into the 6-24 months delayed category (or didn't deliver at all).

To me, crowdfunding isn't just about "delivering the product" - the product is only PART of your commitment... the full commitment includes the date you give for fulfillment.

If I set the bar at "I eventually got the product I backed" and ignore the date, yes, I have received over 90% of what I backed.

However, I have received 0% of what I backed as originally committed (including fulfillment date).

If I were to allow 6 months as a "reasonable delay" on the original commitment... I have still only received less than 10% of what I backed as "fulfilled more or less as promised."

In other words, over 80% of the stuff I've backed has been delayed by would I consider an "unreasonable amount" and I am of the opinion that the date you give is an important part of the commitment. Yes, when the product finally shows up it feels good to get it, but that does NOT offset months to years of "feels bads" while hearing reasons (excuses, if you are less generous) for why you haven't met your original commitment.

Clearly, Kickstarter delivery does not match my expectations of what is "reasonable." Rather than demand everyone else meet my definition of "reasonable" I am simply withdrawing from participation to save myself the heartburn of misaligned expectations.

That’s an essay! Yes, I got them timely.

 

[Autumnal]

I haven’t formalized my thoughts about this, but just as it’s good practice to have a manuscript complete or nearly so before launching, it’d probably be good practice to have at least one person who has no other duties on a project but who can be backup communications.

@The Sigil : I am 100% in favor of dropping something that just isn’t going to feel satisfying. Knowing yourself and the situation are so important and so weirdly rare. Good job, with no sarcasm at all. I wish a lot more people would recognize when it’s time to give up and do something else. Um, including me, more often that I like to admit.

 

[Belen]

As an aside, I have backed 59 kickstarters (plus some crowdfunders on other platforms but I can't be bothered to check on those), and there's only one that actually turned out to be vaporware (Lasting Tales skirmish minis game + minis Fantasy Set 1 and 2). Others may have struggled with delays, but have either shipped or are more-or-less on track. Kickstarter failures tend to be highly publicized by irate backers, but IME most work out fine.

I have 2 out of over 100. E20 and Dragoneye Dice.

The e20 guy had a breakdown, which is fine. I hope he got better but he has spent the years since attacking and banning people who ask him about the failed project.

Dragoneye dice by Spidermind. Just stay away from that company.

 

[mamba]

However, I have received 0% of what I backed as originally committed (including fulfillment date).

If I were to allow 6 months as a "reasonable delay" on the original commitment... I have still only received less than 10% of what I backed as "fulfilled more or less as promised."

that heavily depends on what you back. ENWorld is on time, Kobold Press generally is too, or certainly within a month of it, smaller 3pps / single persons are far less reliable in that regard. Digital is also easier to get on time than the printed books