Judges Guild Makes Statement About Goodman Controversy [Updated]

Judges Guild--the company which owns the City State of the Invincible Overlord property which Goodman Games has controversially licensed for an upcoming crowdfunding campaign--has put out a statement covering the situation, amongst other things.

Much of the lengthy statement by JG owner Bob Bledsaw II is a political monologue about keeping politics out of games while simultaneously speaking at length about Bledsaw's own political views and positions, and his criticisms of opposing viewpoints. It's not entirely clear why everybody else is expected to keep politics out of gaming while Bledsaw himself won't stop talking about them, but for those who wish to read it in full, it can be found here. [edit—the post seems to have been deleted now, but you can read it at the end of this article]

However, the update does raise some interesting facts:

• Joseph Goodman originally asked to make City State of the Invincible Overlord in 2010, but it was not until 2022 (two years after the 2020 outbursts which caused Goodman Games to cut ties with Judges Guild) that Bledsaw agreed to it.
• Goodman Games will be producing 5 years of the Dungeoneer fanzine, after which Judges Guild will take it over.
• Judges Guild has plans for a range of products over the coming years.
• The charitable donations on sales of JG products on GG's website being made after the 2020 outbursts were ended in 2022 because JG and GG agreed it was time for the Guild to make some cash.

This information, if true, stands in contradiction to Goodman Games' own statements. In February 2020, Goodman Games said:

• Goodman Games has stopped selling our previous Judges Guild products through all distribution channels.
• Judges Guild will no longer receive income from Goodman Games products now that sales of their titles have ceased.
• We have one remaining product to release, which is a collector’s edition focused on the works of Jennell Jaquays.
• After this final volume, we have no plans to release future Judges Guild titles.

It's not clear how all these statements line up, given that some contradict others. Judges Guild products are currently available on Goodman Games' website.

I did reach out to Goodman Games, but was just referred to their public statements on the subject.

---

Bob Bledsaw II (Judges Guild)'s statement in full:

Hello Friends and Guild Family,
As the Guild's 50th Anniversary approaches, I wished to let you all know about plans we have set for the coming few years. Some are thru licensees and some through our own internal processes. We have good things in the works for 2026, and beyond.
Let me remind you all that I am no liar. Keep that in mind. I have always been honest with others in this industry, and my record will show my candor, generosity, and good-will toward all. Like my father, I encourage other game publishers, welcome joint ventures, and leave politics out of my business life. I consider that a part of being an American. I do not expect others to conform to my way of thinking, but the weaponization of politics to harm people, or the competition in our industry, is becoming more and more common. I find it hypocritical that persons who would cancel, or effect a boycott, against an individual would themselves support laws that would criminalize the boycott of certain countries. But there you have it; laws for thee, none for me. It will ruin our industry, as it has others.
Dave Arneson foresaw all this, and we spoke in 2008 of what would happen as more liberal johnny-come-latelies pushed into our industry. Regardless of what the woke may wish, it was an industry created largely by White, Christian, stragegists; most very active in their respective churches. Sadly, the current trends would attack or change the achievements of others; burn an industry down, rather than create their own. It is always easier to destroy something than to create it. I created the company logo at age 13, but only with my father's instigation, but I challenge you to find a more bad-ass company logo anywhere in the world.
Dave believed that once the game industry made more money than the movie industry, they would come in a wave like it was the California Gold Rush... producing small private game companies, likely producing a lot of bad games, and moving them thru their own small game stores, while touting them thru media outlets. He said it would be no different than the way they pushed poor films thru their own small theaters for decades. They would flood the market with so many distractions that honest publishers would not stand a chance against their profit margins. And, as for the big players, "they do not care about what we created, they are fine with destroying it."
Dave knew that what Gygax had done was all sold, and he advised me to never allow the Wilderlands, or the Guild IP as a whole, to be sold away to "the heartless beast," as he called it. He understood that the Guild represented what was left at the heart of it all. It created the game-module, it created the stand-up, it proved the market to TSR. But 50 years later, TSR is no more, and the industry pioneers are dying away from us, and D&D suffered a dismal 50th; due largely to leftist posturing, and everyone wishing for more of this or less of that.
The founders were all good men, family men, and people who understood humor without pearl-clutching, yet we work to include everyone at our game-table, even today. We are not out to promote a way of thinking, or an agenda. We try hard to make good products at a fair price, but the Guild must compete against publishers who use cheap Chinese labor houses. Once, Joseph Goodman came to me, having found paper like our original maps had been printed on, but I said no to it, because the paper came from China. He knows what people want, so I trust he will always make top-notch products. We just could not find it in America.
That is not always easy here. Our policy from the beginning was to produce ALL AMERICAN products, and we always have. We were literally founded on July 4th 1976, on the nation's bicentennial. I remember the day well, and watched the fireworks over the lake from Bill Owen's hilltop home. Joseph Goodman recently commented on how much he loved my father's work, and I do not doubt that sincerity, but it set wrong with me, maybe it is my age talking, but I was there! It was my work also; from the company logo, to the first map, and Tac Cards on... It was MY work also. Many of the covers, much of the layout; I was a part of the Guild Family, and that included everyone working with us. There were Whites, Blacks, Muslims, Jews, Gays, Catholics, Native Americans, South Africans, City Intellectuals, and Country Farmers, all working under the Guild banner, in-house, and in all those years, never an argument over politics or religion. THAT IS AMERICA, a mutual respect for diversity! Not at all what overshadows our industry today, and I see all that for what it is; a self-righteous power-grab.
Nevertheless we work on, and the Overlord is Invincible. As it is currently planned with Goodman Games, City State of the Invincible Overlord, our flagship, will see revisions in 5th Edition, and Dungeon Crawl Classics. Now, the Goodman folks jumped ahead of us; we were to have a planned rollout in July of this year. The Guild version, in Bob Bledsaw's JG Universal format will include materials Bob wrote but has never been used. The page count has doubled, and will likely come in 2 Volumes. We know this will make for a great product, because the same process of applying Bob's draft content to The Thieves of Badabaskor resulted in many great reviews and happy letters.
It is true that Joseph Goodman has long wished to do CSIO, and asked about it as far back as 2010, but I was always opposed to that as D&D was becoming more magic-heavy with each new rule-set, and my father's original Wilderlands was magic-light. I did not think it was a good fit. But by 2022, after having seen the successes of his DCC system, and always assuming that our own version would come, I agreed, because it would allow a whole new generation to see the City State with the lenses of their choosing. He told me it was bound to be grand, shipped internationally, and for the first time, printed in 5 languages! That is great guns! Joseph has a great team and he will always be considered a dear friend.
Now back in 2020, I had no problem with giving the Guild's royalties to the ADL, as it seemed the right thing to do after my irrational posts, but we agreed it was time for the Guild to make some cash, and so it was set down in 2022, but I allowed Joseph to pick his own timing, because he had more important projects, after having acquired Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia. I assumed Jennell Jaquays would be working with Goodman over the next several years; so I provided her with copies of her many Guild letters from our files to help stir some creativity. I also hoped to gain her help on another project I will mention later, after having given her the freedom to produce a revision of Night of the Walking Wet. Sadly, Jennell passed away, and it made me all the more glad for that hug at our last parting. I always respected the talented artist she was.
Also, speaking of unpublished material, our Imperial Pegasus magazine will see revival, as a periodical, but with a likely format change. It will certainly not be a 94 page monster, but will allow us to produce all manner of content, crawls, Wilderlands expansions, sci-fi material, industry comment, and reviews. As planned, Goodman Games will produce 5 years of Dungeoneer, whereupon JG will take over production of the classic fanzine, and this will allow us to use all the Jennell Jaquays material and art that was unpublished. You may wait a bit longer than that, but the Jaquays influence will live on in the coming Dungeoneers; her original dream. As a fellow artist, I think it is fitting that those works see use in this way. I still have some of her original paintings that would make lovely prints or future covers.
Other products are here being readied for release before our Anniversary: Village Books I & II, Book of Rumors I, Amulets & Talismans, Island Book II, Washbears of the Wilderlands, Citadel of the Lion, and a first ever fantasy novel set in the Wilderlands. The Book of Rumors will be a series, providing detailed lore for each of the Wilderlands Maps areas. Island Book II, will host islands, less Mediterranean, but with a Coral Sea flavor. My fiance of 3 years, her father a provincial healer of Bukidnon, has provided much rare folklore from the Islands of the Philippines, translated from Bisayan and Mountainyard languages. And although the 2014 Maps cannot be completed, a friend from my college years has just this month found us very similar paper, made in America, that will be test printed in the coming days. Over the coming months of 2025, we hope to make use of our YouTube Channel, and provide more support for our product line, in the form of free downloads. I hope news brings many smiles. We are happy to be working with good-hearted partners, and we do thank you for supporting us all.
Sincerely, Bob Bledsaw II

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UPDATE! Goodman Games Says Bledsaw Is Not Correct!

Wobblerocket reached out to Goodman Games and got a response from Joseph Goodman who said that Goodman Games is NOT going to be producing the Dungeoneer fanzine. In Bledsaw's statement (above), Judges Guild said "As planned, Goodman Games will produce 5 years of Dungeoneer, whereupon JG will take over production of the classic fanzine". Joseph Goodman says "I think it’s best if Goodman Games speaks for what Goodman Games is doing. And Goodman Games is definitely not doing Dungeoneer."

He only refutes Bledsaw’s claim that Goodman Games will be producing Dungeoneer. He does not respond to the questions about the timing of the Invincible Overlord agreement, and was not asked about the redirection of the charity donations back to Judges Guild.

Wobblerocket: In a post on Facebook yesterday, Judges Guild stated that they agreed to allow Goodman Games to publish City State of the Invincible Overlord in 2022, two years after Goodman Games stated they were no longer going to be publishing Judges Guild projects.

Judges Guild also stated that Goodman Games is planning to publish Dungeoneers, but you have stated in your videos that you aren’t publishing any more Judges Guild projects after CSIO. I couldn’t find any information about this on your website.

Could you clarify for me if this information is correct?

Joseph Goodman: Hi — in short, this information is not correct.

Wobblerocket: Thank you.

What are the plans for the Dungeoneer magazine? Is that an IP that Goodman Games licensed from Judges Guild?

Joseph Goodman: Hi – to make a long story short, Goodman Games has or had rights to quite a few Judges Guild titles, and we have no plans to release any except CSIO.

The contracts have confidentiality clauses so I’m quite limited in what I can say. But in short…the information you emailed about is incorrect. I think it’s best if Goodman Games speaks for what Goodman Games is doing. And Goodman Games is definitely not doing Dungeoneer.

 

[BryTheOld]

we do not know that they did… from what we know they could walk away, they simply aren’t

I guess another question is, why in this day and age does anyone not have a termination clause to protect themselves.

 

[The Firebird]

As a company revealing your politics is extraordinarily stupid in this day and age. Its much better to just shut up, make money, and leave the politics out of it. When you mention politics you'll always lose part of the customer base, and unless your business relies on a political position its best to keep that private nobody needs to know.

Yeah. I don't think Qanon is the right example because that and Bledsaw are so far beyond the pale.

But I wonder how it looks from Goodman's perspective. They've taken inclusive stances in the past which I know for a fact have lost them customers. These support valuable causes and help broaden the appeal of the game. As was discussed, the goal of a business is not just to make money, and these goals are part of their mission -- not just preservation, but introducing these works to a new audience. I think it's nice they're willing to lose some customers to accomplish that.

But, then, it doesn't seem to have bought them much goodwill or charity, or an assumption that they are acting in good faith even if they are making a poor judgement call. Given how brittle support can be, and how easy it is to lose customers, I can see why someone would not want to engage at all. Even if the conclusion is just "we need a full time PR person to manage this stuff"...employees are expensive. That's not a small cost.

 

[Staffan]

Yeah. I don't think Qanon is the right example because that and Bledsaw are so far beyond the pale.

But I wonder how it looks from Goodman's perspective. They've taken inclusive stances in the past which I know for a fact have lost them customers. These support valuable causes and help broaden the appeal of the game. As was discussed, the goal of a business is not just to make money, and these goals are part of their mission -- not just preservation, but introducing these works to a new audience. I think it's nice they're willing to lose some customers to accomplish that.

But, then, it doesn't seem to have bought them much goodwill or charity, or an assumption that they are acting in good faith even if they are making a poor judgement call. Given how brittle support can be, and how easy it is to lose customers, I can see why someone would not want to engage at all. Even if the conclusion is just "we need a full time PR person to manage this stuff"...employees are expensive. That's not a small cost.

There's a classic joke that's around in a couple of different versions. One is told here by Paul McCartney.

There’s this guy who gets lost in Ireland and it’s the middle of the night. So he’s looking for some sign of life and he sees up on the hill, he sees a little house with lights on. So he follows this long fence up to the top of the hill and he realises it’s a pub, goes into the pub. It’s completely empty except for the barman. So he goes up to the bar and he says ‘Pint of Guinness, please’.
The barman says ‘Certainly, sir. Pint of Guinness.’
As he’s pulling it, he says ‘Did you notice that fence as you came up?’
He says ‘Yeah, I did. Nice. I followed it up, actually. Nice, straight fence’.
He said ‘I made that fence myself. So do they call me Jones The Fence-maker? No!’
So he gets his drinks and he starts drinking his Guinness and the guy says ‘Do you like this bar? It’s mahogany, I made that myself.’
‘It’s a very nice bar actually. You made that yourself? Fantastic.’
He says, ‘And do they call me Jones The Bar-maker? No! What do you think of that Guinness, do you think I’ve pulled it well?’
‘It’s a very well pulled pint, yes I love that.’
‘But do they call me Jones The Guinness-puller? No! But you (bleep) one goat!’

Getting into business with nazis is much like bleeping goats. Do it once, and it will overshadow all your other accomplishments. And in this case, Goodman can't even plead ignorance. Bledsaw revealed himself for all the world to see a long time ago, and at the time Goodman did the right thing and cut business ties to the extent he could. But now, for some reason, he has chosen to again do business with Judges Guild. And why? To produce a new version of a mediocre city setting with some mild historical interest?

Back in 2020, Goodman stated:

We have one remaining product to release, which is a collector’s edition focused on the works of Jennell Jaquays. Jennell’s story is one quite different from the views espoused by Bob Bledsaw Jr. Judges Guild and Bob Bledsaw Jr. have agreed to receive no royalties of any kind from this title. To say it bluntly: Bob Bledsaw Jr. and Judges Guild will not profit from the Judges Guild Deluxe Collector’s Edition Vol. 2 focused on the works of Jennell Jaquays. Goodman Games will match 20% of the proceeds of this title with donations: 10% to the Anti Defamation League and 10% to GLAAD. The funds that would have been used for a Judges Guild licensing fee will be included in this donation, as requested by Bob Bledsaw Jr.

After this final volume, we have no plans to release future Judges Guild titles.

And now they're doing CSIO. Bledsaw states that this was an agreement they made in 2022. I see a couple of possibilities here:

1. Bledsaw is lying, and the agreement to do CSIO goes back farther than that. This seems to be what Goodman is saying, in which case he lied in 2020 when he said they didn't have any plans for more JG stuff.
2. Bledsaw is telling the truth, at least on this specific point, in which case Goodman for one reason or another decided in 2022 that doing business with JG wasn't that bad after all.

There is some possible nuance here. The best possible interpretation I can come up with is that there were contracts dating back to pre-2020, but that for whatever reason Bledsaw had some form of hold on the approval and lifted that hold in 2022. In that case, Goodman could have been speaking the truth in 2020 about not having any more plans for JG stuff and still have contractual obligations today dating back to before the original controversy. But that seems like a very tortured interpretation of various statements.

 

[mamba]

But, then, it doesn't seem to have bought them much goodwill or charity, or an assumption that they are acting in good faith even if they are making a poor judgement call.

I believe that this is how most people see it, acting in good faith / to preserve CSIO but with that priority being absolutely misguided. The problem is what they have to do for this, goodwill only gets you so far.

You can have been a good neighbor for years, if one day you suddenly beat me up, that won’t count for much

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I believe that this is how most people see it, acting in good faith / to preserve CSIO but with that priority being absolutely misguided. The problem is what they have to do for this, goodwill only gets you so far.

You can have been a good neighbor for years, if one day you suddenly beat me up, that won’t count for much

Yeah, I feel like most people in this thread have reached a point where, regardless of whether Bledsaw Jr is telling the truth or not, Joseph Goodman is still not cutting and running from their planned CSIO project.

There may be financial considerations at play, but financial considerations or not, Goodman is still choosing to work with a bad actor and people will (quite rightfully) judge him accordingly for that.

Either the financial considerations are significant for Goodman Games or Joseph Goodman is seemingly happy to sink any goodwill he had over republishing a very old RPG product.

I can’t say I’d have made the same choice given the options, but it is one Joseph Goodman appears to have made nevertheless.

 

[The Firebird]

Getting into business with nazis is much like bleeping goats. Do it once, and it will overshadow all your other accomplishments.

Well, I think this analogy illustrates the problem I see--its flattening out the situation into "doing business with nazis", calling to mind actions like Bayer's during WWII. And I think that is unfair to GG.

I agree that there are certain "one strike" sort of offenses, like your goat example, or like Bledsaw's posts. In these cases I don't need to see any more. But I think applying those too liberally risks becoming judgemental and uncharitable, which is what I see happening here.

We know GG has a commitment to inclusivity, and that Joe Goodman has a personal stake in it. He's spoken about this. And we know he's gone out of his way to make sure Bledsaw doesn't profit and to use the royalties for a good cause.

So, the comparisons being made--you use the goat whisperer example to emphasize the magnitude of the crime--seem not to be taking into account this context. And I'd worry that this approach will end up alienating people with views like that of Joe Goodman, who are on the side of inclusivity but also see the product as ok.

Perhaps another way to phrase it--this guy has shown his commitment to inclusivity for years, he's bared his personal life to the crowd, he's shown why it matters, and he still gets compared to a goat lover or Nazi collaborator. That seems overzealous.

And now they're doing CSIO. Bledsaw states that this was an agreement they made in 2022. I see a couple of possibilities here:

1. Bledsaw is lying, and the agreement to do CSIO goes back farther than that. This seems to be what Goodman is saying, in which case he lied in 2020 when he said they didn't have any plans for more JG stuff.
2. Bledsaw is telling the truth, at least on this specific point, in which case Goodman for one reason or another decided in 2022 that doing business with JG wasn't that bad after all.

There is some possible nuance here. The best possible interpretation I can come up with is that there were contracts dating back to pre-2020, but that for whatever reason Bledsaw had some form of hold on the approval and lifted that hold in 2022. In that case, Goodman could have been speaking the truth in 2020 about not having any more plans for JG stuff and still have contractual obligations today dating back to before the original controversy. But that seems like a very tortured interpretation of various statements.

The simplest interpretation imo is that Goodman had no plans to do more JG stuff in 2020. They later hit on the refund idea and decided that made it ok, in their view. Perhaps this was 2022? Then they waited until they had finished other projects to be able to proceed. It seems pretty straightforward and in line with GG statements.

I believe that this is how most people see it, acting in good faith / to preserve CSIO but with that priority being absolutely misguided. The problem is what they have to do for this, goodwill only gets you so far.

You can have been a good neighbor for years, if one day you suddenly beat me up, that won’t count for much

Like the above, the comparison to someone beating you up seems overwrought, imo.

I can’t say I’d have made the same choice given the options, but it is one Joseph Goodman appears to have made nevertheless.

And just to be clear, I'm not saying anyone should support his choice. I think it's quite reasonable for your opinion of him to decline a bit, to swear off the project and to not back it. But statements like "Joe Goodman has no problem working with Nazis" seem unfair. (Am I mischaracterizing what's been said? I don't think so, but happy to be corrected if I've pushed it too far).

 

[bedir than]

to preserve CSIO

Goodman says this and others repeat. mamba is merely the most recent I've seen.

But CSIO doesn't need to be preserved and Goodman isn't a library or museum. They're a business.
Preservation can be done without working with Judge's Guild.
Preservation doesn't require a company to sell the product.

Goodman wants to sell the book. That's not a noble cause. That's merely business.

They want to preserve it? Make a one off run to put into a museum and library.

 

[Staffan]

Well, I think this analogy illustrates the problem I see--its flattening out the situation into "doing business with nazis", calling to mind actions like Bayer's during WWII. And I think that is unfair to GG.

I agree that there are certain "one strike" sort of offenses, like your goat example, or like Bledsaw's posts. In these cases I don't need to see any more. But I think applying those too liberally risks becoming judgemental and uncharitable, which is what I see happening here.

We know GG has a commitment to inclusivity, and that Joe Goodman has a personal stake in it. He's spoken about this. And we know he's gone out of his way to make sure Bledsaw doesn't profit and to use the royalties for a good cause.

So, the comparisons being made--you use the goat whisperer example to emphasize the magnitude of the crime--seem not to be taking into account this context. And I'd worry that this approach will end up alienating people with views like that of Joe Goodman, who are on the side of inclusivity but also see the product as ok.

Perhaps another way to phrase it--this guy has shown his commitment to inclusivity for years, he's bared his personal life to the crowd, he's shown why it matters, and he still gets compared to a goat lover or Nazi collaborator. That seems overzealous.

Thing is, back in 2020 he clearly thought the statements of Bledsaw were enough to cut business ties over. For one reason or another, he has decided that publishing CSIO and using JG's portion of the money from that to bail them out from their Kickstarter commitments (even if it's not a debt to the backers in the legal sense, it is still a moral debt) is more important than staying away from anti-semites. I disagree, but I'm not Goodman's target audience in the first place.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Goodman says this and others repeat. mamba is merely the most recent I've seen.

But CSIO doesn't need to be preserved and Goodman isn't a library or museum. They're a business.
Preservation can be done without working with Judge's Guild.
Preservation doesn't require a company to sell the product.

Goodman wants to sell the book. That's not a noble cause. That's merely business.

They want to preserve it? Make a one off run to put into a museum and library.

Yes and no. Goodman Games is a business, but from their beginning in the 3E era, it's been one laser-focused on keeping a certain style of gaming -- basically TSR 1978 through 1982 -- alive.

That's been manifested in their 3E Dungeon Crawl Classics modules, which absolutely nailed the early 1E D&D tone, and the later Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG line.

The OAR books are a product, but they are very clearly mostly aimed at an audience of one: Joseph Goodman. Prior this past month, 99% of the complaints about them were "you got peanut butter in my chocolate/you got chocolate in my peanut butter" when the people who wanted 5E adaptations of Isle of Dread discovered there was a giant history book about the module taking up the first third of the book and vice versa. I don't know how many people were demanding oversized books going into laborious detail about the origins of Keep on the Borderlands, combined with a big 5E adaptation and expansion of it, but Goodman did it.

I think it's highly likely the OAR books would have sold much better than they did -- and they seem to have all been big sellers -- if they had been normal sized, on less heavy duty paper and didn't come with a built in history book. And, conversely, I don't think a history book version of each adventure would have sold very well if it wasn't attached to a big 5E revamp. We already have Shannon Applecline's very nice histories of most of this stuff over on DriveThruRPG for free, for instance.

The extremely idiosyncratic nature of the line is because it's what Goodman seems to think is necessary to get these histories out into the world for others to enjoy. It's not a product most of us would create, even within the TTRPG space, but it's very clearly one he feels strongly about.

I'm also not sure there is a museum or academic who would be interested in compiling and archiving this material if Goodman wasn't doing it. (Especially in the current moment, when I suspect a lot of the more idiosyncratic collections at colleges and universities are going to either be cut by the budget axe or make administrators nervous about sudden unwelcome attention from Washington, DC.)

Until this most recent project came to light, the OAR line was the harmless eccentricity of a small business owner. Business owners, broadly speaking, are entitled to pursue their pet projects when no one else is getting hurt.

But is it worth what he's doing to get this next one out? The broad consensus seems to be "good lord, no." Bledsaw II certainly seems to think he's benefitting from this project. And when an unrepentant racist, sexist, homophobe, etc. is celebrating something, it's almost certainly hurting those people he hates.

In Goodman's mind, this isn't just business. But that's unfortunately true in a way that he doesn't seem to have intended. He seems to have deeply, deeply lost his way on the CSIO OAR.

 

[Doctor Depravo]

But statements like "Joe Goodman has no problem working with Nazis" seem unfair.

Is your entire stance predicated on semantics?

Does saying “Joe Goodman seemingly has no problem working with Christian-nationalistic, trans- / homophobic, white-supremacist bigots (even after he said years ago he wouldn’t)…. but at least they’re not Nazis!” fix it?

Seems like you’re repeatedly contorting to make all this palatable.