Judges Guild
Judges Guild is a small game publisher in the business of creating and selling role-playing game supplements, periodicals and related material, most notable as one of the leading publishers in the late 1970s and early 1980s of Dungeons & Dragons-related materials. Its flagship product was City State of the Invincible Overlord, the first published RPG city supplement; there were numerous ancillary cities, maps and other supplements.
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[edit] History
Judges Guild was started July 4, 1976, utilizing concepts developed in Bob Bledsaw's local D&D campaign. The founders, Bob Bledsaw & Bill Owen, the traveled to the headquarters of TSR - the publishers of D&D - on July 17, 1976 to ask them to publish Owen's American Civil War rules. There they met with D&D co-creator Dave Arneson, who gave Bledsaw and Owen verbal approval to produce some play aids for D&D. At that time, TSR's only published play aids for D&D were the poorly received Dungeon Geomorphs. Judge's Guild was granted a license to produce AD&D and D&D materials, which had to be reviewed for continuity within the game systems.[1]
After an initial investment of $400 to pay for printing the first City-State maps, the partners took them to Gen Con 1976. After selling dozens of subscriptions (of which the maps were the initial installment, lettered "I") and passing out fliers that got them many more, they had broken even in a matter of weeks.[citation needed] TSR's David Megarry called Owen to negotiate a formal license from September 4-November 22, 1976. This agreement required Judges Guild to pay a royalty to TSR for the right to place text on the cover of most products saying "Approved for use with Dungeons & Dragons".[2]
Owen subsequently left the partnership, and Judges Guild was incorporated in 1978. The company rapidly gained popularity amongst D&D fans for their prolific product line and then-unprecedented detail, at a time when such sources were rare. At its peak in the early 1980s, the firm employed 42 people and had over 250 products in print.
Even by that point, however, the company's fortunes were declining. Its production values were stagnant as the roleplaying games industry moved to professional typesetting, full color art and slick and hardcovered material, elements Judges Guild was slow to adopt. Further, the Judges Guild fantasy RPG products - their biggest sellers - remained in their 1970s dungeoneering paradigm, replete with puns, dungeon gauntlets, and isolated cities in howling wildernesses, even as newer companies published more integrated products favoring the growing realism movement. Its license to publish Advanced Dungeons & Dragons materials lapsed in 1982. Judges Guild's last significant product was City-State of Tarantis, published in 1983 to little notice, and the firm was out of business by 1985.
Subsequently, Gamescience published reprints of some of the Judges Guild adventures, while Mayfair Games obtained publishing rights to the City-State of the Invincible Overlord, which they repackaged in 1987 with many ill-received changes.
[edit] Historical products
The most popular products was the original City-State maps & book, Tegel Manor and Judges Shield, a foldout three-page heavy stock compilation of monsters and rules (that were, at the time, scattered across numerous TSR rulebooks) for quick reference; the term became standard for all subsequent similar products industry-wide. The company also produced licensed products for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Traveller, Chivalry & Sorcery, DragonQuest, Empire of the Petal Throne, Tunnels and Trolls, RuneQuest, Superhero 2044 and Villains and Vigilantes. They also produced some generic supplements, as well as two RPG magazines, The Dungeoneer and Pegasus.
[edit] Return
Judges Guild returned in 1999, selling revised copies of the City State of the Invincible Overlord, a reintroduction of Pegasus magazine that lasted two issues (#14 & #15), the Revised Treasury of Archaic Names, and an edited version of Dark Tower, in addition to classic original products; the company also produced products for the d20 system.
In 2002, Necromancer Games, under license and in cooperation with Bledsaw and other original Judges Guild writers published revised editions of the City State of the Invincible Overlord, the Player's Guide to the Wilderlands, the Wilderlands of High Fantasy compilation boxed set and a revised edition of Caverns of Thracia, all for use with the d20 System.
In 2006, Judges Guild announced that it licensed the Wilderlands of High Fantasy setting to Adventure Games Publishing, which would publish a variant campaign setting, the Wilderlands of High Adventure, as well as Wilderlands products compatible with the Necromancer Games edition, using the Castles & Crusades rules rather than the generic d20 System rules.
Also in 2006 Judges Guild licensed Goodman Games and Eostros Games to publish revised editions of Thieves' Fortress of Badabaskor, Citadel of Fire and Dark Tower, updated for the d20 system. They were all released in 2007.
[edit] References
- ^ Sacco, Ciro Alessandro. "The Ultimate Interview with Gary Gygax". thekyngdoms.com. http://www.thekyngdoms.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=37. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
- ^ Owen, Bill (2011). Judges Guild's Bob & Bill. Top right of page: Lulu.com. pp. 39. http://www.g-design.us/jg.
[edit] External links
- JudgesGuild.org Official Judges Guild website
- JudgesGuild.net Bob Bledsaw's obituary
- JudgesGuild.com for Necromancer's licensed Judges Guild products
- Adventure Games Publishing Official Adventure Games Publishing website
- Judges' Guild Codex version info and collectors value for older Judges Guild publications
- Judges Guild Product list by type with cover pictures.
