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.

 

[Celebrim]

yes, destructive, Bill Cosby didn't do anything wrong, he just happened to get called out on it

Ironically, this claim would seem to vindicate the video that he linked to (which, is long, so I'm still making my way through it, but this maneuver you just pulled is pretty much on point).

 

[billd91]

I have no 'inside baseball' knowledge, but I hope you are wrong about that.

I suspect he's probably right or reasonably close to it. I don't think they had any products out between about 1985 and 2010. And since then? Not that much - probably most stuff done by free lancers working contracts rather than employees. If they had employees, I'd have expected their 6-year long CSIO Kickstarter odyssey would have been completed by now.
And if they had anyone at Gen Con 2016, they may have been volunteers rather than employees. Or it's entirely possible they had everyone there working shifts at the booth.

 

[CleverNickName]

There will always be consequences for poor behavior when it's made public. That's not a "culture." And consequences can be dangerous indeed--which is why we need to not behave poorly.

Unfortunately, some people can't resist the urge to behave poorly. So they try to cover it up, and then act shocked and victimized when it's exposed.

None of this is new; it's as old as civilization.

 

[Maxperson]

The basic principle of a boycott is to not announce one unless you represent an important customer base of that company, and you know that you can actually make the boycott stick.

Unless you have real economic leverage, it's pointless to threaten a boycott. It's very important to understand why the actions undertaken by figures like MLK worked, and why he advocated for them. They were not street theater, but carefully considered and well planned actions. The Civil Rights movement could not have been successful had not the black community had developed economic power. Nor could it have been successful if the majority was indifferent - witness how little traction MLK got in say Albany. The majority had to either care or it had to persecute, but nothing could be done against indifference. Now days we see tons of "protest movements" in the USA - from both ends of the political spectrum - which ape the forms of the Civil Rights era, but lack any of the substance. They exist mostly to give the participants feelings of affirmation and belonging, but they don't accomplish anything and eventually fade away as if they had never been.

Well said. The only thing I would change is that I disagree that they don't accomplish anything. They tend to accomplish giving the target of the boycott a boost in income, making it counterproductive before fading away. Otherwise I think what you said was spot on.

 

[jedijon]

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.

View attachment 118273

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.

Both sides or no sides please. If you care a whit about my perspective that is—and you certainly don’t need to!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well said. The only thing I would change is that I disagree that they don't accomplish anything. They tend to accomplish giving the target of the boycott a boost in income, making it counterproductive before fading away. Otherwise I think what you said was spot on.

There are ALWAYS unintended consequences. The only question is whether you achieve the desired results in the long run.

Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

It's hard to weigh in on topics like this when you are really avoiding politics warnings, but I think it's important.

I do believe Cancel Culture is a thing, and I think it refers to a need to "shut-down" what your group doesn't like at the expense of another group who might like it the way it is, by weight of outrage u proportional to the number of voices.

In this case, as mentioned earlier, DrriveThruRPG has pulled the plug on JG product. I can't speak for them, however I believe that was done in response to public outcry to Cancel JG, not necessarily as a personal choice by the staff of DTRPG. They probably make so little off of JG product it's easier to stop selling and keep customers happy rather than keep selling so the voiceless customers who just want the product (divorced from the artist) can be served.

The fact a small vocal minority can make things like this happen is Cancel Culture.

Now to bring this back to RPGs and DnD in specific...remember the changes to DnD because of the minority outrage during the Satanic Panic of the 80s? Those changes were Cancel Culture in action, but from a different base.

Point is, you should force your opinion on what is OK to consume on others who might not share your opinion. I haven't heard one person say the JG product itself was racist, so how about we target the individuals and not just things they touched.

BMW made a lot of Nazi warplanes, but we divorce the product from the individuals who once worked there.

 

[Gradine]

Maybe let's not let Nazis profit?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I haven't heard one person say the JG product itself was racist, so how about we target the individuals and not just things they touched.

No one is preventing Judges Guild from selling their products. DriveThruRPG just doesn't want to be involved in doing so.

 

[Panda-s1]

The fact a small vocal minority can make things like this happen is Cancel Culture.

Now to bring this back to RPGs and DnD in specific...remember the changes to DnD because of the minority outrage during the Satanic Panic of the 80s? Those changes were Cancel Culture in action, but from a different base.

are we really gonna compare D&D relabeling demons and devils to calling someone out for actual poopy behavior?

also, maybe I'm wrong, but I think Dungeons & Dragons is still around?

BMW made a lot of Nazi warplanes, but we divorce the product from the individuals who once worked there.

also, nitpick, but BMW didn't make "Nazi warplanes", they made engines for Nazi warplanes. they also made engines for airplanes before Nazi Germany, and last I checked they don't really espouse Nazi imagery or ideology as part of their corporate profile. Volkswagen has even more dubious origins as far as Nazism is concerned, and even they scrubbed themselves of that.

Germany itself still tries to scrub themselves of their former Nazi identity to this day, even when people within Germany have tried to do otherwise since WW2 ended. I'm not sure anyone made any real attempt at getting all German people executed after the war because they were residents of Nazi Germany either (not a 100% idk what sort of ideas the allies had after Germany surrendered).

Language!