Much ink spilled in the defense of bigots
Goodman Games wants to “build bridges instead of walls,” but at what cost?
Last week, Goodman Games stepped on a series of rakes in their attempt to explain why the tabletop publisher was once more doing business with third-party design outfit Judges Guild. What began as the announcement of a crowdfunding campaign to reprint City State of the Invincible Overlord quickly devolved into dousing fires with successive statements from owner Joseph Goodman. He assured the public that the company had a plan for keeping money out of the hands of bigots who were, until very recently, personas non grata.
Let’s back up a bit. In February 2020, Goodman Games confirmed that it was ending its relationship with Judges Guild following evidence that current owners Bob Bledsaw, Jr. — son of RPG designer and Judges Guild co-founder Robert Eugene Bledsaw — consistently espoused a breadth of bigotry on his then-public social media. Several designers and publishers, including DriveThruRPG and Goodman Games, immediately cut ties. “We are disgusted and disheartened by the antisemitism, bigotry, racism, homophobia, and transphobia exhibited by the current owners of Judges Guild,” reads Goodman Game’s statement. “Judges Guild will no longer receive income from Goodman Games products now that sales of their titles have ceased… We have no plans to release future Judges Guild titles.”
The matter seemed resolved until May 7, when Goodman Games announced their revival efforts for City State of the Invincible Overlord, arguably the most popular entry in Judges Guild’s catalogue of Dungeons & Dragons-compatible work. The city-wide campaign setting became Judges Guild’s leading product through the late 1970s and effectively launched Judges Guild as a successful business. The page makes no mention of Judges Guild, Bob Bledsaw, Jr., or their previous termination of business relationships. Goodman vaguely alluded to the situation in an accompanying video, clearly aware that the project would raise obvious questions.
“My personal opinion is I like to build bridges rather than walls,” he said. “I think there's been a lot of experiences in the last couple years in America of people building walls amongst each other. I'd rather encourage dialogue, encourage conversation, get people talking, and have people converge on what I hope is a unified perspective for how we can all go forward together in a collaborative way.”
