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.

 

[Deset Gled]

If he did, he didn't publicly share them. In fact, the beliefs he shared publicly were the polar opposite of Bob's beliefs. I was friends with Tim Kask on Facebook where his posts frequently criticized bigots of all stripes.

Just to back this up, having watched many of Tim's Curmudgeon in the Cellar videos I believe he would have raged out if Bob II posted this while he was alive.

Tim was pro diversity-in-gaming. He went as far as criticizing some of TSR's positions on diversity. He believed a lot of stuff that went on there in the early days was a product of it's time and would not be acceptable today. And Tim made very little effort to be "tactful and careful of his image". He was not afraid to be outspoken against things he saw as discrimination. He happily played the role of the angry old guy - a literal curmudgeon. Tim was also very anti-NuTSR, and openly ranted about his dislike for the hate they espoused. I cannot believe he would support the stuff Bob Bledsaw II supported.

That being said, Tim had long history with Judges Guild. Part of Tim's job at TSR was reviewing JG's material as a licensed product. Tim was a huge fan of City of the Invincible Overlord. I believe he may have called it his favorite module once or twice. I don't doubt that he had personal relationships with many people over there, including Bob II. But that doesn't mean he supported any of JG's more recent nonsense in any way. And using anyone's death to push an agenda like this is terrible.

 

[Distracted DM]

And using anyone's death to push an agenda like this is terrible.

Yeah that was the greatest source of disgust.

 

[Mannahnin]

Just to back this up, having watched many of Tim's Curmudgeon in the Cellar videos I believe he would have raged out if Bob II posted this while he was alive.

Tim was pro diversity-in-gaming. He went as far as criticizing some of TSR's positions on diversity. He believed a lot of stuff that went on there in the early days was a product of it's time and would not be acceptable today. And Tim made very little effort to be "tactful and careful of his image". He was not afraid to be outspoken against things he saw as discrimination. He happily played the role of the angry old guy - a literal curmudgeon. Tim was also very anti-NuTSR, and openly ranted about his dislike for the hate they espoused. I cannot believe he would support the stuff Bob Bledsaw II supported.

That being said, Tim had long history with Judges Guild. Part of Tim's job at TSR was reviewing JG's material as a licensed product. Tim was a huge fan of City of the Invincible Overlord. I believe he may have called it his favorite module once or twice. I don't doubt that he had personal relationships with many people over there, including Bob II. But that doesn't mean he supported any of JG's more recent nonsense in any way. And using anyone's death to push an agenda like this is terrible.

Echoing all of this.

He was an early voice against NuTSR's nonsense, in part because he was one of the people they deceitfully claimed was part of their team (for fake OG credibility), but also simply because he was a tolerant and inclusive dude. Not that this is (sadly) any guarantee, but he also has a multiracial family and posted proud pictures of it on his FB.

That's not to say he was always up to date on a given issue, but (for example), when he put a foot wrong by offering a "for the ladies/wargaming widows" RPG event at a con a few years ago and got the tone wrong (coming off a bit condescending/not recognizing that women at gaming cons nowadays are hardcore gamers themselves or already have plans how to keep themselves entertained) he apologized and owned his error.

From everything I saw from him since I first met and played with him at a con ~15 years ago, and through about 10 years of ongoing social media friendship, he would NEVER have countenanced the outright Nazi nonsense Bledsaw Jr. spews.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Just to back this up, having watched many of Tim's Curmudgeon in the Cellar videos I believe he would have raged out if Bob II posted this while he was alive.

Tim was pro diversity-in-gaming. He went as far as criticizing some of TSR's positions on diversity. He believed a lot of stuff that went on there in the early days was a product of it's time and would not be acceptable today. And Tim made very little effort to be "tactful and careful of his image". He was not afraid to be outspoken against things he saw as discrimination. He happily played the role of the angry old guy - a literal curmudgeon. Tim was also very anti-NuTSR, and openly ranted about his dislike for the hate they espoused. I cannot believe he would support the stuff Bob Bledsaw II supported.

That being said, Tim had long history with Judges Guild. Part of Tim's job at TSR was reviewing JG's material as a licensed product. Tim was a huge fan of City of the Invincible Overlord. I believe he may have called it his favorite module once or twice. I don't doubt that he had personal relationships with many people over there, including Bob II. But that doesn't mean he supported any of JG's more recent nonsense in any way. And using anyone's death to push an agenda like this is terrible.

From what I know of Tim Kask, yeah, he would've been the first to have words about Bledsaw II's post. If he gave a warning, it was likely a "knock it off and clean up your act" message to Bledsaw II, not any sort of endorsement, as Bledsaw II implies.

 

[CleverNickName]

Stay classy, Bob. (eyeroll)

 

[Sacrosanct]

All that post by Bob shows is that he is in fact lying about any relationship or communication with Tim. How do I know that? Because you didn't even need to have had conversations with Tim to know where he stood on issues. He was extremely outspoken about it on his FB page. And it was very clear where Tim stood, and it's on the opposite aisle of Bob. The fact that Bob doesn't even seem to know this about Tim just proves that he's lying about the whole thing.

Disgusting, but what else is new.

 

[Morrus]

Ugh.View attachment 426222

Disgusting.

 

[Drake2000]

Using an industry luminary's passing to attack people who spoke out against you for being a turbo bigot is disgusting, Bob. Get bent.

And this is the company Goodman was so eager to keep.

 

[jdrakeh]

And this is the company Goodman was so eager to keep.

I'm aware. I will never buy any Goodman Games product in the future. This whole ugly mess, especially after a condition of their Dark Tower work was allegedly having no future business with Judges Guild is. Well, it's awful. In a multitude of ways.