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

 

[mamba]

Because moving forward with the new effort, with folks out money on the last one, is/looks like a jerk move to some.

more like JG gets money for the license and this is the closest to JG not actually getting any money from it

 

[Umbran]

more like JG gets money for the license and this is the closest to JG not actually getting any money from it

I saw enough complaint about folks getting shafted on the last kickstarter, and how it would be unfair for Goodman to profit while that stood, that it seems a consideration all on its own, even if JG weren't otherwise objectionable.

 

[Cruentus]

Not everything needs to be a video, Goodman!

Sure it does. Making it a video means you get to make more money on the announcement, and since it has people following it on both sides...

What happens with leftover funds?
Any funds left after the claim process is complete are contractually obligated to be paid to Judges Guild. Goodman Games is committing that we will match any amount owed to Judges Guild and make donations to charitable organizations supporting our goals of diversity and inclusivity.

This part has me concerned though. Previously he said that they would limit the campaign to effectively limit funds going to JG, but here he says that anything left over will go to JG, and they'll donate a like amount to charity. That sounds to me like there is a possibility of a sizeable non-zero sum that might go to JG. Seems contradictory to his prior statements. And while the donation offer is nice, funds going to JG still helps JG.

Yeah, the more that gets put out, the more I feel like I'm being yanked around. I'm definitely avoiding Goodman Games.

And I remember Invincible Overlord being advertised everywhere when I was younger (in Dragon, etc.), and I've been playing DnD for 40+ years. It holds zero nostalgia for me as a product, as do most mega city products, they're just too much to get through, and the older they are, the less useful I find them.

 

[Voadam]

Anybody know how much it was for the PDF only of OAR 7 or any of the OARs in prior kickstarters?

DriveThru has the OAR 7 Dark Tower PDF at $77. If the kickstarter PDF is anything like that then even with a 10% off discount it will be a just no for me. It would have been nice to get the new PDF after all this (I would have loved to have a PDF of the new one instead of a refund for the PDF of the old one, or even the d20 version) but I expect I might just end up with only a partial refund on the old one. And with the PDFs limited to the kickstarter only I don't expect to even pick this up years later in a humble bundle or bundle of holding deal the way I did with OAR 7 or new potential fans to have access in the future at all. That's too bad for a project with a preservation goal.

 

[Deset Gled]

This part has me concerned though. Previously he said that they would limit the campaign to effectively limit funds going to JG, but here he says that anything left over will go to JG, and they'll donate a like amount to charity. That sounds to me like there is a possibility of a sizeable non-zero sum that might go to JG. Seems contradictory to his prior statements.

I don't think this is contradictory as much as it's fuzzy numbers.

My understanding is that GG doesn't know how much they will have to pay out to the previous Kickstarter folks. There are also some costs (production, shipping, etc) that can change from now to when everything is done. Because of the possibility of changing numbers, it's impossible to guarantee that there won't be extra profit that contractually requires them to payout to JG.

Obviously, people should decide for themselves how much of a problem this is to consider before backing. But in general, I think GG is attempting to be open about all possibilities. YMMV.

 

[Voadam]

This part has me concerned though. Previously he said that they would limit the campaign to effectively limit funds going to JG, but here he says that anything left over will go to JG, and they'll donate a like amount to charity. That sounds to me like there is a possibility of a sizeable non-zero sum that might go to JG. Seems contradictory to his prior statements. And while the donation offer is nice, funds going to JG still helps JG.

As an unrefunded backer of the original who signed up to be put on the JG list for refunds, the way GG have it set up to limited copies and PDFs and from the numbers mentioned for their prior successful kickstarters, I am expecting the 10% royalty not to cover everything from the original. I am expecting a pro-rated partial refund. There is a chance that it does spectacularly and exceeds expectations or that lots of prior backers were refunded and just not me (I only signed up for the refund recently when the original CSIO this year said work was not just slow and ongoing but ended completely so there could potentially be, but from the original Bledsaw's financial situation was not good and he was still working through refunding people who asked for refunds years ago in order of request date) and there is enough to cover all the original backers fully plus some left over, but I think that chance is low.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Sure it does. Making it a video means you get to make more money on the announcement, and since it has people following it on both sides...

You are more optimistic than I am about Goodmans' technical sophistication. I read it as "well, we figured how to do this one thing, let's just keep doing that indefinitely."

Previously he said that they would limit the campaign to effectively limit funds going to JG, but here he says that anything left over will go to JG, and they'll donate a like amount to charity.

That was said before, FYI.

 

[Deadstop]

Yeah, that’s not a change or waffling, that was the stated backup plan for “despite our limits and the likely math, this thing blows up and we can’t avoid having to send some money to the licensors.” It’s unlikely the project will make that much and they’ve deliberately tried to make it even less likely, but if money is raised that legally has to go to the terrible people, GG will symbolically counter that by donating the same amount to causes supporting the kinds of people the Bledsaws hate.

 

[Baron Opal II]

This part has me concerned though. Previously he said that they would limit the campaign to effectively limit funds going to JG, but here he says that anything left over will go to JG, and they'll donate a like amount to charity. That sounds to me like there is a possibility of a sizeable non-zero sum that might go to JG. Seems contradictory to his prior statements. And while the donation offer is nice, funds going to JG still helps JG.

He can't absolutely guarantee that the royalties generated are equal to or less than refunds claimed. He's just stating the "what if".

 

[Riley]

“We’re really excited to release a new version of this Classic Adventure very few people remember! But we’re gonna be sure not to make too much money overselling this product, because the guy who owns it is pretty much a Nazi. So you’ve gotta see this adventure! But only some of you should actually buy it, or we will have to stop selling it before we sell too many….”

That’s quite a sales pitch.