City State of the Invincible Overlord was a 1976 game setting from Judges Guild–indeed, it was the first game setting for D&D, albeit from a third party. It features a dwarven stronghold called Thunderhold, which operates as a base of operations for D&D campaigns.
Judges Guild, founded by Bob Bledsaw and Bill Owen, sold City State until it was licensed to Mayfair Games in the 1980s, before returning to Judges Guild with a new printing in 1999, and collectors editions via a partnership with Necromancer Games in the early 2000s. All in all there have been over a half-dozen editions of the setting, ranging from small booklets to boxed sets to 300-page hardcovers.
Fast forward to 2020, when Judges Guild owner Bob Bledsaw II (the son of the co-founder, Bob Bledsaw) posted a variety of racist and anti-semitic statement online. Various game publishers, including Bat in the Attic, and Frog God Games, cut ties with Judges Guild, and DriveThruRPG stopped selling the company’s products, saying “DriveThruRPG has severed ties. “The Judges Guild publisher account has been closed and they are no longer available on DriveThruRPG.”
Rob Conley of Bat in the Attic stated at the time that the company would no longer do business with Judges Guild, or its properties. “Sunday evening, I called Robert Bledsaw II and discussed the issue. I notified him that I will no longer be doing future Judges’ Guild projects and will only continue to sell what I have currently listed. I stated that I will be calling the other Judges Guild licensee and inform them of the situation and of my decision.”
Frog God Games, which had been working with Judges Guild for nearly 20 years at the time, followed suit. “Recently the owner of Judges Guild made a series of racist and anti-semitic posts on Facebook. We will not reproduce them here; they are shown on Rob Conley’s Bat in the Attic blog, and we are convinced of their authenticity. Rob wrote his post because, as a licensee of Judges Guild property, he felt he needed to state clearly that he would not be doing business with Judges Guild in the future. We have also licensed property from Judges Guild in the past, and we are seconding Rob’s example by cutting off all future business with Judges Guild. The posts made on Facebook were completely unacceptable.”
Amongst those cutting ties with Judges Guild, notably, was Goodman Games, who made a statement in February 2020:
Following up on our recent video, this statement is to confirm the following points regarding Goodman Games and our former relationship with Judges Guild.
To start with, we are disgusted and disheartened by the antisemitism, bigotry, racism, homophobia, and transphobia exhibited by the current owners of Judges Guild.
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. 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.
We are deeply saddened and frankly horrified by the views espoused by Bob Bledsaw Jr.
A few years ago, Judges Guild ran a Kickstarter to bring back City State of the Invincible Overlord, with nearly a thousand backers raising $85K. The Kickstarter has not yet been fulfilled. The latest update was in October 2019.
Goodman Games this week announced a new version of City State of the Invincible Overlord, coming to crowdfunding soon, for 5E and its own in-house DCC RPG. The property is still owned by Judges Guild, and is being licensed from them by Goodman Games.
We have reached out to Goodman Games for comment and will update you if we hear anything further.
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