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.

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

History seems to have a slow general direction towards acceptance and freedom. It is not monotonic - there are rises and falls, steps forward and back. But there is overall progress. People are slowly... painfully slowly.. changing.

Too bad the people who need those changes the most won't be able to benefit from them because they'll be dead.

 

[jaycrockett]

What gets me is not that he post something racist, it's that seven people liked it. His facebook is a bubble where that kind of talk is completely normal.

 

[collin]

One thing I never understand about things like this. I intellectually understand that there are people who hold strong racist (or other equally objectionable) views; that's clear and apparent. What I don't get is why they post them publicly; surely they know what will happen? Or do they literally just not care about the consequences?

If they are mentally challenged enough to be racists in the first place, then it follows they are stupid enough to declare it to the world.

 

[Panda-s1]

If they are mentally challenged enough to be racists in the first place, then it follows they are stupid enough to declare it to the world.

yo let's not throw the mentally challenged under the bus here. you can be of very sound mind and choose to be racist. some people are just that openly self-serving.

 

[Weiley31]

So basically, I can't buy Tegel Mansion 5E edition now can I?

 

[AriochQ]

So basically, I can't buy Tegel Mansion 5E edition now can I?

That is a complicated issues. The two companies that hold JG licenses have stated they are disengaging, but there are things in the pipeline and current stock that they will likely need to complete and sell for both financial and legal reasons.

I hate to see any more money go to JG, but I also don't want to penalize the companies that are making the right decision. Personally, I would be comfortable supporting those companies until they can disengage from JG.

 

[Rikka66]

One thing I never understand about things like this. I intellectually understand that there are people who hold strong racist (or other equally objectionable) views; that's clear and apparent. What I don't get is why they post them publicly; surely they know what will happen? Or do they literally just not care about the consequences?

Others have made very good points about this, so I'll note my addition is more speculative in nature.

As a (relatively) younger person who saw the death of myspace and near complete ubiquity of facebook take place while I was a teenager, I sat through a lot of presentations warning us that everything we said online could be found by prospective employers, could never be entirely erased, and anything controversial would follow us the rest of our lives and would ruin our chances of ever getting a job.

Fast-forward to today, and while things like cancel culture are controversial among all demographics, its seems like only the older folks, the ones organizing and giving those lectures years ago, that express surprise when it happens. Almost as if some of them thought getting in trouble on social media was something that only happened to kids, not people their age.

Again, never seen any real research on this, so just a personal observation.

 

[Jimmy Dick]

What gets me is not that he post something racist, it's that seven people liked it. His facebook is a bubble where that kind of talk is completely normal.

The Internet is a double-edged tool. It enables folks like us who enjoy RPGs and gaming in general to meet up digitally, play games digitally, and share our love and passion for this great hobby. At the same time it also allows for mentally challenged people to do the same with people who share their beliefs. Unfortunately, we have political leaders who encourage the behavior of the mentally challenged people solely for the purpose of earning their votes so these political leaders can cling to power.

The good news is these political leaders are losing that power as more and more people reject them. Take a look at Virginia where people ran on the Confederate Lost Cause platform as well as opposing all kinds of progressive change for the last several state elections. The people of the state solidly rejected that platform and swept out those politicians. Now, the duly elected leaders are following up on their campaign promises and of course the losers are screaming.

Last week, Virginia eliminated Lee-Jackson Day. The Lost Causers reject the historical facts that Robert Lee and Thomas Jackson were traitors who fought against the United States in support of a rebellion that rejected the legal results of a national election so that the secessionists could continue to force slavery to exist in the United States. People like Bledsaw II are the minority who reject facts so they can maintain their delusions. They band together on the Internet in their bubble communities which simply reinforce their delusions. When confronted by facts they cry, "FAKE NEWS!"

The good part about this is that they are the minority. We do not support these mentally challenged people as a community. It is shown in these posts and in how we spend our money on our hobby. That's probably the best way to fight these mentally challenged people. Deny them money. Deny them support. Ignore them and move on from them. Let them exist in their bubbles of evil.

 

[Racegamer]

Dear World...
Please understand that these ignoramuses DO NOT represent Americans as a whole. Although our political climate appears to approve of, or even encourage, this line of thought/behavior - it really isn't so!

Even though they try their hardest to sound like they represent the majority of thinking and belief in the U.S., they don't. I'll quote from Jimmy Dick, because this really needs to be re-stated again, and again, and again:

"The good part about this is that they are the minority. We do not support these mentally challenged people as a community. It is shown in these posts and in how we spend our money on our hobby. That's probably the best way to fight these mentally challenged people. Deny them money. Deny them support. Ignore them and move on from them. Let them exist in their bubbles of evil."

Well Said Jimmy D.

 

[Uller]

Others have made very good points about this, so I'll note my addition is more speculative in nature.

As a (relatively) younger person who saw the death of myspace and near complete ubiquity of facebook take place while I was a teenager, I sat through a lot of presentations warning us that everything we said online could be found by prospective employers, could never be entirely erased, and anything controversial would follow us the rest of our lives and would ruin our chances of ever getting a job.

Fast-forward to today, and while things like cancel culture are controversial among all demographics, its seems like only the older folks, the ones organizing and giving those lectures years ago, that express surprise when it happens. Almost as if some of them thought getting in trouble on social media was something that only happened to kids, not people their age.

Again, never seen any real research on this, so just a personal observation.

I think you are making the mistake of generalizing. Individuals are not their demographics but demographics are comprised of those individuals. I am nearly 50. So gen-x. The internet was becoming a thing available to the masses as we became adults. It was the wild west. You could say anything without consequences because most people older than you were not on the internet at all. But some of us started to notice the change...enworld was founded on some very good advice: don't say anything you wouldnt say in front of Eric Noah's grandmother. That is advice I passed on to my kids in modified form...dont say anything on social media you wouldn't say in front of your friends' parents.

Some of gen-x figured it out enough to warn your generation...but that doesn't mean everyone did. And there are plenty of examples of millennials and younger saying and doing dumb stuff to make the case that a nontrivial portion of them have not learned the lesson either.