I gotta be honest, I’m getting kinda tired of writing about this whole City State of the Invincible Overlord 5e/DCC mess that Goodman Games has gotten themselves into, but new information keeps coming out.
To get caught up on the background of this whole kerfluffle, read the following posts in order:
- UPDATED – Goodman Games Saddles Up With Racist, Anti-Semitic Publisher…and Their Reasons Make No Sense
- Goodman Games Addresses City State Controversy – Take Two
- Goodman Games Opens Door For Bigoted Publisher To Regain Crowdfunding Access
Yesterday, Bob Bledsaw II, owner of Judges Guild and proud bigot, took to Facebook to lament that people can’t leave politics out of gaming, and in the same long-winded breath, complains that “liberal johnny-come-latelies” are out to “burn an industry down” created by “White Christian stragegists” [sic]
The industry, of course, is not burning down, but is absolutely booming, with more TTRPG sales than at any point in history — there’s just a lot more people active in the industry that Bob doesn’t like.
What interesting about Bledsaw’s post is not the whiny bitching, but the information he reveals about upcoming Judges Guild products from licensees and from Judges Guild itself — many of these products involve Goodman Games, and they raise some questions about the timing of arrangements between Judges Guild and Goodman Games.
The post has since been deleted.
Screenshots of Judges Guild’s Now Deleted Facebook Post
As they say, though, the Internet is forever. Thanks to Ishmael of Project Blue Beam, we’ve got a screenshot of the post before it was deleted.
Judges Guild’s deleted Facebook post – text version
Here’s a text version of the post. I’ve added line breaks to make the wall of text a little more readable.
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
Goodman Games Says Bledsaw’s Claims Aren’t True
I reached out to Goodman Games to ask for clarification about the timing of the City State of the Invincible Overlord license and to ask about a possible upcoming Dungoneer project.
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.
I assume there was a phone call last night to get Bledsaw to take down his post.
Some background on Dungeoneer magazine
The first six issues of Dungeoneer were published by Jennell Jaquays between 1976 and 1978 through her college gaming group, the Fantastic Dungeoning Society.
In a post by Jennell (published under her pre-transition name,) she describes how she sold the magazine to Chuck Anshell of Anshell Miniatures after the sixth issue, which later went to Judges Guild (with issue #9) when he began working for them.
Jaquays continued contributing to the magazine for a few years, often in the form of artwork.
Judges Guild continued publishing the magazine up to issue 19 in 1980, after which it was merged with another Judges Guild periodical, The Judges Guild Journal.
The newly merged publication, The Dungeoneer’s Journal continued for another year or so, ending with issue #25.
Goodman Games did have a plan for Dungeoneer years ago
Way back in 2017, Goodman Games announced that they were picking up Dungeoneer magazine. It’s a pretty short announcement with not a lot of details:
Goodman Games had many fun announcements at Gen Con, and here is yet another one. At the “What’s New With Goodman Games” seminar, Joseph Goodman was joined by Bob Bledsaw, Jr. of Judges Guild. There they revealed that the legendary Judges Guild publication The Dungeoneer will return!
The Dungeoneer will pick up at issue #26, where the last series left off. This iteration of The Dungeoneer will be primarily focused on the 5E rules set, and will ship with the Friendly Local Game Box previously announced by Goodman Games. Look for more information in the months to come!
Here’s a video of the 2017 Gencon seminar. At 18:34, Bob Bledsaw II joins Joseph Goodman at the table to discuss the deal to reprint old Dungeoneer issues through Goodman Games. Bledsaw mentions a lot of info about the early years of the magazine, but there’s not much info about the upcoming plans for the project — just that it would take some time to scan and restore the old magazines.
It appears to have been something Goodman Games planned to include in their Friendly Local Game Box subscription box, but I’m actually not sure if that subscription box ever got off the ground or if the product was scrapped. The link to the FLGB announcement is dead, and a search for “Friendly Local Game Box” on Google only turns up this announcement post and a very brief ENWorld forum post about it with zero comments.
A search of the Goodman Games PDF store shows no results for “Dungeoneer,” so I’m assuming they never got around to publishing the magazine despite their 2017 announcement.
With Goodman’s statement that “Goodman Games is definitely not doing Dungeoneer,” that project appears to be dead in the water.
This lends a little confidence that when they say they’re done with Judges Guild after this new City State project, it’s for realsies this time. Time will tell.
Judges Guild says they have new products in the works
In the rest of the post, Bob Bledsaw talks excitedly about upcoming projects from Judges Guild, such as reprints of old Judges Guild IPs, a novel in the Wilderlands setting, etc.
The timing, along with the statement “but we agreed it was time for the Guild to make some cash” seems to lend support to my theory that getting Goodman Games to refund the backers that Judges Guild defrauded in 2014 is about getting access back to Kickstarter.
It’s not immediately clear who “we” refers to in that quote. Bledsaw could mean internal Judges Guild staff, but the preceding statement is about the agreement with Goodman Games to donate royalties to the Anti-Defamation League, which was ended in 2022.
Will Goodman Games cut City State loose? Doubtful.
Yesterday’s post from Bledsaw is just one more headache on the pile for Goodman Games about this big smelly project.
I’ve said before that I think this project is a profoundly terrible business idea — City State just isn’t a valuable enough product to justify alienating a substantial portion of your customer base.
I still think Goodman Games has time to scrap it before their Backerkit campaign kicks off, but I doubt they will.
I guess we’ll see what happens when the campaign drops.
