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.

 

[Mistwell]

would you like to point out where exactly this is?

I did. It was in the post you quoted. Here it is again. Scroll down to "The Origin of Cancel Culture".

 

[billd91]

Haha, oh man, I'd forgotten about the Dixie chicks. Talk about not knowing your audience.

OR, knowing your audience but standing up to speak your peace anyway. Gutsy move on their part. They got a lot of respect from me for doing it.

 

[Mistwell]

To be clear, “cancelling” and “cancel culture” are quite distinct.

Cancelling someone is a warning to the rest of a culture or community that they aren’t “safe”, in some way or other. It was invented by black women and black queer activists to keep each other safe and call out bad actors within or peripheral to the community, but most notably false allies.

“Cancel Culture” is a BS right wing propaganda term that has been successfully propagandized into the mainstream, that creates hysteria about calling out bad actors and bringing social consequences to those who deserve it, and is used as a dog whistle, much like SJW, and other such buzzwords.

Again, I posted multiple links. Ignoring them and just re-stating the (wrong) position previously stated isn't helpful. Merriam Webster did an article on the origin of the phrase "cancel culture" (that specific phrase) and it was black activists on Twitter who used it as a hash-tag. NOT the alt-right originally. As referenced by KnowYourMeme, the NYT also had an article early on where they also described "cancel culture" (and the alt-right isn't mentioned once). It's now used mainstream by even President Obama. That the alt-right may also use a term everyone these days in ways you object to, however that is not compelling evidence it is or ever was owned by the alt-right.

If you disagree, show me a legit article on the origin of the phrase coming from the alt-right. Because all the evidence I've seen is it started as a legitimate description on the left, and I think the right got upset about it and started to mock the phrase some of the left were using at the time.

 

[cbwjm]

OR, knowing your audience but standing up to speak your peace anyway. Gutsy move on their part. They got a lot of respect from me for doing it.

Maybe, but from memory they seem to have been a little surprised at how quickly their fan base deserted them.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Again, I posted multiple links. Ignoring them and just re-stating the (wrong) position previously stated isn't helpful. Merriam Webster did an article on the origin of the phrase "cancel culture" (that specific phrase) and it was black activists on Twitter who used it as a hash-tag. NOT the alt-right originally. It's now used mainstream by even President Obama. That the alt-right may also use a term everyone these days in ways you object to, however that is not compelling evidence it is or ever was owned by the alt-right.

If you disagree, show me a legit article on the origin of the phrase coming from the alt-right.

You did not show that “cancel culture” originated in black twitter activist circles, you showed that “cancelling” does.

as for Obama, he is not some paragon of leftist activism. He is not immune to the Overton window.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Maybe, but from memory they seem to have been a little surprised at how quickly their fan base deserted them.

Oh, they definitely were.

 

[Zardnaar]

Oh, they definitely were.

Clues in the name, guess where their fans probably are.

People live in bubbles.

 

[mach1.9pants]

As an aside there stuff done by Rob Conley under Bat in the Attic publishing dies not have money going to the Bledslaws, he has a unique arrangement to try and sort out the Kickstarter that JG trashed

"For now, I will keep up my Judges Guild related products up for sale. I currently have a unique situation in regards to the royalties I pay. Given the state of the Kickstarter finances, Robert Bledsaw II suspended the royalty payments in lieu of paying me for finishing the last nine maps. This has been going on since November of 2017 when I released the CSIO map. Since then, all revenue after taxes and expenses have gone to me. This will not last indefinitely, at which point I will have to revisit having these products listed based on how things have progressed. I will make an announcement accordingly"

In addition, as far as I am aware from when it was started, three Frog God Games Tegel Manor 5e money is to go towards completing the CSIO Kickstarter, but maybe Bledslaws could gain from it, but I hope not

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Clues in the name, guess where their fans probably are.

Nobody is immune to being blindsided.

There were a bunch of C&W fans here in Texas who were STUNNED when (pot-smoking, LGBT-ally, etc.) Willie Nelson threw his weight and gave a concert in support of the Democrat who was looking to unseat an incumbent Republican senator. Clearly, they’d missed several decades of his life.

I, OTOH, was surprised in my 30s when my paternal grandfather insisted I had to marry a black woman. (Nevermind that I lived in the least integrated/most caucasian suburb of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.)

 

[Knightfall]

Wow, I'm quite upset about this and have several Judges Guild products created for the d20 System. I've already purged my hard drive and now I'm going to have to dump my print products at a used bookstore or game shop for whatever I can get.

I won't throw them in the trash. As a writer, I can't do that.