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

 

[Faolyn]

One of three things happened in that moment.

Either: 1) Goodman was lying about never working with Bledsaw again, or; 2) Goodman was lying about having no other projects in the works with Bledsaw, or; 3) Goodman was lying about finding Bledsaw's views reprehensible.

Butting in with pedantry: these were probably not lies. He may truly have meant he would never work with him, and he may have, at that point, either not had any projects with him or been unaware of any projects due to weird contractual issues (look, I don’t get the legalities of it all; I’ve mostly been skimming this thread). He may even still think Bledshaw’s views are reprehensible (hopefully). But some time between then and now, he also decided that printing CSIO is worth dealing with a terrible person and that he’s ameliorated the grossness with the way he’s going about it. That doesn’t mean that he lied then; it means he went back on his word now.

</pedant>

Personally, I don’t know why he just doesn’t make a Legally Distinct version of the product on his own—but then again, I have no nostalgia for CSIO; I hadn’t even heard about it until this thing happened.

 

[Nightfly]

Maybe a better question is--for your camp, suppose the KS goes off as GG expects and Bledsaw gets nothing -- would that change your opinion? And for my camp, suppose GG fouls it up and Bledsaw gets some royalties; say 10 grand. And of course Bledsaw doesn't make good on giving it to charity. Would that make me reconsider GG decision making?

I'm not sure that the word "camp" is ideal in this context.

 

[Staffan]

Sure, my point was trying to explain why Goodman was still doing this. You may not feel that way about CSIO, but clearly Goodman and Curtis do. It's their Sistine Ceiling. To them it's the seminal, groundbreaking work that changed the whole industry. It's as important and foundational as Giotto or Bach to them. So, even if I don't necessarily agree (I've never played around with CSIO in any capacity), I can at least understand where they're coming from.

The Sistine Chapel is a bad comparison, I think. The Sistine Chapel is an amazing work of art, and is the peak of its genre, but it's not groundbreaking. There were plenty of similar fresco paintings before it, just not of that scale and quality. By comparison, I don't think I've ever heard anyone claim that CSIO is the best RPG city ever, but it was the first. If we translate them both to movies, CSIO is the Jazz Singer, and the Sistine Chapel is the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Jazz Singer is a movie of historical interest because it was the first talkie, but LOTR is by far a more impressive work.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

 

[The Firebird]

There are several comments about whether we can trust Bledsaw, if Goodman is lying, etc. I think these have been discussed previously so I won't go into it again; just noting the previous comments.

I know that, but the way everyone's using it makes it sound as if Bledsaw, Curtis, and Goodman are all hanging out, sitting next to each other in the bullpen drawing the whole thing up together. And they're not. Michael Curtis is working on it. Without Bledsaw.

Regarding "working with", I'll be pedantic here, because I think it is important. The language we choose matters. "Working with", "licensing from", and "contracting with (while cutting out of the royalties)" are all factual statements. Why choose one rather than the other? Maybe 'working with' is just nice and concise. But I think there is also a rhetorical choice being made to use a term with particular connotations rather than an alternative.

I wouldn't use 'working with' because I think it misleads in this scenario. I don't think the folks using it want to mislead, but they don't see the same distinction I do, so 'working with' seems ok to them.

Anyway, the fact that it's narrowly accurate doesn't imply it's the best term to use or that it's devoid of rhetorical content.

 

[The Firebird]

If we are being divided into camps, I would like to note that the camp I'm personally in does not work with, endorse or elevate the opinions of bigots, white supremacists, holocaust deniers or Nazis.

Your own camp may feel differently about such dealings, but my own position is intractable.

Do you think that accurately describes what I am doing?

 

[The Firebird]

EDIT: And if WotC's not it... and if CSIO and Goodman Games are not it...., then where is it? Who is producing the "art?"

Imo this is a really interesting question. I think that CSIO has one of the stronger arguments because of its early position. Those early rpgs are just so influential, well beyond tabletop--I mean to video games, to pokemon, and so on. There's just no comparison to the influence current 5e will have.

I think the strongest case would have to be one where the mechanics and the 'game' status actively add to the experience. I.e., Mork Borg is perhaps not, because while it has great artwork that's experienced as well by looking.

 

[The Firebird]

It's relatively simple. If a publisher decides to collaborate with a creator who is a Nazi or a racist or a bigot in order to bring about a piece of art (or Art) in whatever form that takes, then what you have there is two Nazis (or racists, or bigots, or whatever).

Is the claim here that Joseph Goodman and Michael Curtis are Nazis or racists or bigots? That seems overblown imo even if one holds that what they're doing is very wrong.

He may even still think Bledshaw’s views are reprehensible (hopefully).

Indeed he does, and has said this repeatedly in his statements.

 

[mamba]

Imo this is a really interesting question. I think that CSIO has one of the stronger arguments because of its early position. Those early rpgs are just so influential, well beyond tabletop--I mean to video games, to pokemon, and so on. There's just no comparison to the influence current 5e will have.

sure, CSIO was early, which helps it being remembered, had it come out 10 or so years later, no one would remember it. That does not mean it was hugely influential however, I don't think it had a huge impact beyond the product itself. We had plenty of city settings after it, and I do not think they would have turned out vastly different without CSIO

 

[Drake2000]

Do you think that accurately describes what I am doing?

I did not turn the conversation towards a division of camps. You did. I merely pointed out for clarity which one I belonged in. You're welcome to join that one as well, but that's up to you.