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.

 

[Panda-s1]

But you do agree that certain tools have a high bar in order to justify their use?

you know what? tell me, what is this "high bar"? for you, in this specific case about Bob Bledsaw II, what would he have had to do that would "justify" people telling DTRPG not to sell his books anymore?

 

[FrogReaver]

That's a wonderful sentiment, and an idea that a lot of people cling to... but the cold hard reality is that the vast, vast majority of the time it just doesn't work that way. Like 99.9% of the time. In real life most people by far don't change their opinions very much after they reach adulthood, and it isn't simply a matter of intelligence, either; in fact, the more intelligent a person is the more they will use their smarts to rationalize their pre-existing beliefs, rather than change them. This is all the worse with people who are already prone to buying into conspiracy theories, as is the case with this guy (claiming that a certain small human group secretly controls the entire world media from behind the scenes.) Conspiracy theory-mongers are wrapped up in an awful combination of arrogance, confirmation bias, and circular logic, so that anything you present to them as evidence against their beliefs they will simply turn around and use as evidence in favor of their beliefs:

(Person A: "There's simply no evidence that any of this secret stuff you've claimed has ever happened." Person B: "See, I was right! That just shows you how good they are at covering their tracks!")

No one like that is ever going to come into the light through being exposed to the truth by other people. It's a very sad thing, but he's basically a lost cause at this point. The only way he'll ever change is if he realizes his delusions on his own and alters his own mind. And since he's already well into adulthood something like would be as rare as finding an uncut diamond in a block of processed cheese.

People let go of conspiracy theories all the time.

 

[FrogReaver]

you know what? tell me, what is this "high bar"? for you, in this specific case about Bob Bledsaw II, what would he have had to do that would "justify" people telling DTRPG not to sell his books anymore?

I can't because your not asking me a question about my actual position, you are asking me a question about some position you've stereotyped into me.

 

[Panda-s1]

I can't because your not asking me a question about my actual position, you are asking me a question about some position you've stereotyped into me.

eh screw it, I actually don't like dealing with concern trolls, and oh look I've ignored you. have fun.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

You‘re acting like there’s no difference in the justice or morality in the two cases, and frankly drawing that kind of moral equivalence is out of place. There’s a pretty big moral gap between shunning racists bordering on Nazis and persecuting a game company out of misdirected grief.

My argument has nothing to do with the specifics of any one individual case. My argument is only concerning the generality of social censorship.

I don't, personally, give two shifts about Judges Guild product. I have never read it , don't care to, and have no plans to.

I don't, personally, give two shifts about the owners of JG and what they believe and what they espouse on a public forum.

I have ZERO personal interest in the particulars.

What I do care about is my desire to not have my options limited by a small vocal minority.

How many people that publicly called for DTRPG and other entities to stop selling JG products are hammering on Amazon to have them stop selling Mein Kamph (sp?). I heard the author of that book may have been a racist also.

 

[Sacrosanct]

okay I hate to be That Guy™ (except when I do, like right now), but I went through the comments of the original blog post I found this unfortunate gem:
View attachment 118353
I don't Bob Bledsaw Sr. too well, or Judges Guild, but I figured given his age he wasn't perfect, and well it turns out that's the case. maybe he wasn't anywhere near as bad as his son and grandson, but he probably didn't help much either.

well, kids learn it from somewhere. Rarely are there bigoted children and the parents aren’t. So this is unsurprising

 

[Aaron L]

People let go of conspiracy theories all the time.

Really? I have to say that I've never heard of anyone who seriously believed in conspiracy theories to have ever abandoned it, especially not through argument with others. Argument just makes them get more entrenched.

 

[FrogReaver]

Really? I have to say that I've never heard of anyone who seriously believed in conspiracy theories to have ever abandoned it, especially not through argument with others. Argument just makes them get more entrenched.

Well, if you mean instantly change their views the moment you say something - then probably not. But you really have no idea the impact your words will have on someone down the road.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Did you actually read what I wrote or did you just jump to react to one thought?

I did my best. You write less clearly than I suspect you believe you do.

I very clearly said that there is a difference between DTRPG not selling JG because they are morally opposed to it's ownership and DTRPG not selling JG because they don't want to deal with the hassle of the outspoken few.

Why do you assume it's a few people? Do you work for OBS? Do you have access to all the communications they've received?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What I do care about is my desire to not have my options limited by a small vocal minority.

What is your basis for believing it's a small number of people? (I assume that's what's meant by "minority" here.)