Goodman Games: Our Efforts Have Been Mischaracterized

Goodman Games' CEO Joseph Goodman made a statement via YouTube over the weekend*. The video itself focused on the content of the controversial upcoming City State of the Invincible Overlord crowdfunding product, but was prefaced by a short introduction by Joseph Goodman, in which he reiterates his company's commitment to inclusivity and diversity and its opposition to bigotry, something which they say they "don't want to be associated with".

Goodman goes on to say that the company's efforts have been "mischaracterized by some folks" but does not go so far as to identify the mischaracterization, so it's not entirely clear what they consider to be untrue other than the "inaccurate" statements made by Bob Bledsaw II of Judges Guild about Goodman Games' plans, which Goodman mentioned last week.

For those who haven't been following this story, it has been covered in the articles Goodman Games Revives Relationship With Anti-Semitic Publisher For New City State Kickstarter, Goodman Games Offers Assurances About Judges Guild Royalties, and Judges Guild Makes Statement About Goodman Controversy. In short, Goodman Games is currently licensing an old property from a company with which it claimed to have cut ties in 2020 after the owner of that company made a number of bigoted comments on social media. Goodman Games has repeatedly said that this move would allow them to provide backers of an old unfulfilled Judges Guild Kickstarter with refunds, but there are many people questioning seeming contradictions in both the timelines involved and in the appropriateness of the whole endeavour.

Despite the backlash, the prospects of the crowdfunding project do not seem to have been harmed. The pre-launch page has over 3,000 followers, and many of the comments under the YouTube videos or on other social media are not only very supportive of the project, but also condemn those who question its appropriateness. In comparison, the original (failed) Judges Guild Kickstarter had only 965 backers.

The video is embedded below, followed by a transcript of the relevant section.

Hi everybody, I'm Joseph Goodman of Goodman Games. We recently announced our City State of the Invincible Overlord crowdfunding project for 5E and DCC RPG.

In the video you're about to see, some of our product development team is going to tell you about what makes the City State so amazing and why we're bringing it back to 5E and DCC audiences nearly 50 years after it was first released. It really is an amazing setting.

But we could have rolled this project out with a lot more clarity. Now, to be clear, Goodman Games absolutely opposes any sort of bigotry, racism, anti-semitism, homophobia, transphobia. We don't want to support it. We don't want to be associated with it.

Our well-intentioned effort to launch this project in a way that refunds backers of a former failed Kickstarter from another publisher kind of backfired in the way we announced it. Rest assured, the funds from this crowdfunding will actually fund refunds to backers of the original City State crowdfunding for the Pathfinder edition from 2014.

Unfortunately, our efforts have been—you know, I didn’t clarify them perfectly when we rolled it out—and they've been mischaracterized by some folks since then. But please rest assured, we stand for inclusivity and diversity.

You can read a lot more detail in the post that's linked below, and there's another video linked below where we talk about this in even more detail. But for now, we hope you will sit back and enjoy as some of the product development team tells you about really what makes the City State of the Invincible Overlord so amazing, and why you might want to check it out when it comes to crowdfunding soon.

Thanks, and I'll turn it over to them now.

The statement refers to a post about this that is supposed to be linked below, but at the time of writing no post is linked below the video, so it's not clear if that refers to a new post or one of Goodman Games' previous statements on the issue.

I reached out to Joseph Goodman last week to offer a non-confrontational (although direct and candid) interview in which he could answer some ongoing questions and talk on his reasoning behind the decision; I have not yet received a response to the offer--I did, however, indicate that I was just leaving for UK Games Expo, and wouldn't be back until this week.

*Normally I would have covered this in a more timely fashion, but I was away at UK Games Expo from Thursday through to Monday.

 

[Argyle King]

Ben used Winter’s Daughter as an example

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/270795/winter-s-daughter

I'm looking at the OSE version now.
My initial thoughts are that I don't like it.

I understand the intent of the giant divider lines that go across the page to seperate each section, but it causes some of the pages to be spaced out oddly (such as section 14's random table being pushed to the top of the page for section 15).

From what I can tell, it seems that they took the keyword concept from D&D 4th Edition powers and have applied it to flavor text. I can appreciate brevity and trying to get me to the information I need. That worked pretty well for helping me to understand encounter powers. I'm not convinced it works as well for trying to describe a scene. In my head, it's what I imagine it would sound like if Jonah Hill's character from 22 Jump Street tried to DM an adventure as part of his slam poetry performance.

 

[timbannock]

Yeah. Looks like. I went through the comments and there's not a single negative one about Goodman or any mention of Judge's Guild. Looks like Bob knows and is running interference. Or his team is. Either way. Scratch another person off my list of people I thought were decent.

Samesies; my comment's gone.

He's now got a permanent spot on my Do Not Support list.

 

[mamba]

I'm looking at the OSE version now.
My initial thoughts are that I don't like it.

I understand the intent of the giant divider lines that go across the page to seperate each section, but it causes some of the pages to be spaced out oddly (such as section 14's random table being pushed to the top of the page for section 15).

I certainly see a benefit in having some kind of visual divider over everything just flowing together in one long text.

The monsters do not really stand out much either, which was one of Ben's complaints, along with having the same stat block four times on about as many consecutive pages. He said the adventure could be half as long if not for all the bloat of repetition (not that he did want no repetition at all, he sees the value of having all relevant information on two pages)

 

[Parmandur]

Samesies; my comment's gone.

He's now got a permanent spot on my Do Not Support list.

He has been clearly a cynical grifter for years.

 

[Argyle King]

I certainly see a benefit in having some kind of visual divider over everything just flowing together in one long text.

View attachment 426719

The monsters do not really stand out much either, which was one of Ben's complaints, along with having the same stat block four times on about as many consecutive pages. He said the adventure could be half as long if not for all the bloat of repetition (not that he did want no repetition at all, he sees the value of having all relevant information on two pages)

I will agree that what I've seen of Caverns of Thracia leaves a lot to be desired. It's a DCC product that I don't own.

More generally speaking, there typically are things (like the bold text in your photo) to denote a new section. I feel the the writing of similarly sized DCC adventures flows and stops better than the choppy keyword delivery of the OSE adventure.

I agree that the monsters stat blocks are nicer in the OSE adventure.

I can agree that Goodman Games could improve the layout of their larger products (such as Thracia). I can also agree that there are things than DCC could do better. However, personally, I don't care for the OSE layout; I would be less inclined to buy DCC products if they were that layout.

Edit: I could maybe see how the OSE layout would be good for a tablet or reading in a way that requires more vertical scrolling. I don't get the sense that it's better when using a physical product.

 

[zakael19]

I'm looking at the OSE version now.
My initial thoughts are that I don't like it.

I understand the intent of the giant divider lines that go across the page to seperate each section, but it causes some of the pages to be spaced out oddly (such as section 14's random table being pushed to the top of the page for section 15).

From what I can tell, it seems that they took the keyword concept from D&D 4th Edition powers and have applied it to flavor text. I can appreciate brevity and trying to get me to the information I need. That worked pretty well for helping me to understand encounter powers. I'm not convinced it works as well for trying to describe a scene. In my head, it's what I imagine it would sound like if Jonah Hill's character from 22 Jump Street tried to DM an adventure as part of his slam poetry performance.

As someone who has run Winter's Daughter multiple times by sitting down and opening the book, I can assure you that at the table it's the most usable "written by somebody else" adventure I've personally used. I was able to consistently share the vibe the author wanted to paint for each room and the place as a whole, based on how easy the bold (amplification) was to understand; and how much it facilitates the OSR information principles of landmark->hidden->secret through good presentation.

Edit: some people don't like the house style, and presentation is a matter of taste, but it's incredibly usable.

 

[mamba]

More generally speaking, there typically are things (like the bold text in your photo) to denote a new section. I feel the the writing of similarly sized DCC adventures flows and stops better than the choppy keyword delivery of the OSE adventure.

The flow may be better, but finding the thing you need in the moment while running the game, not so much.. That is the advantage Ben saw in the OSE approach, that it presents the information in a way that is easy to look up rather than as a novel with interspersed stat blocks

I agree that having some amount of evocative text is good, but it is all in service of being easy to run, not in making an entertaining read

 

[Lanefan]

The biggest complaint I have with DCC/Goodman modules is their awful, terrible, unreadable maps.

 

[Argyle King]

The flow may be better, but finding the thing you need in the moment while running the game, not so much.. That is the advantage Ben saw in the OSE approach, that it presents the information in a way that is easy to look up rather than as a novel with interspersed stat blocks

I agree that having some amount of evocative text is good, but it is all in service of being easy to run, not in making an entertaining read

I can see the appeal of a few quick blurbs. Like I said previously, that worked really well for D&D 4E Power mechanics. I'm not sure that I would necessarily find that easier for conveying information about what the characters see around them. Though, to be fair, I don't have much experience with their products, so maybe I would feel differently if I had more familiarity with their products.

I'm not opposed to DCC improving their layout. There are things that could be done better. From where I'm at right now, wholly embracing the OSE style wouldn't be "better" for me.

I'm interested in seeing a better comparison than a shorter OSE adventure against Caverns of Thracia. Portal Under the Stars is the first adventure that a lot of people who play DCC will experience. Is there an example of what that (or one of the other funnels) may look like in the OSE style? That would be a better way to contrast the two styles.

 

[thirdkingdom]

We don't carry Goodman Games products in store anymore, and I also don't promote DCC products as part of the News Roundup.