Zenopus wrote:Great work! Perhaps mention the titles Caverns of Thracia and Dark Tower? As they are perennial JG favorites. You mention PJ as being the best JG writer, but not what he wrote.
FormCritic wrote:The descriptions are limited to OD&D publications....with AD&D excluded.
faro wrote:aside: 1975 date quote for JG from http://necromancergames.yuku.com/topic/8212 is incorrect, of course, if that was the source...> The originality of the Judges Guild approach can also be seen in its central character, the City State of the Invincible Overlord. This city began as a map drawn by Bledsaw for his home-brew Dungeons and Dragons campaign, set in Tolkien's Middle Earth. (The first known copy of the map even has notes in the margin describing it as an unidentified city in Middle Earth.) I'm unsure how to word this best, but that's potentially confusing given the not-entirely-clear history?Bob's home campaign started in Middle Earth but CSIO (or at least the big map version of that, if there's a few months still to account for?) was not actually positioned "in" Middle Earth for their gameplay (before the big map was drawn?) but through the "gate", as far as is known. Marc Summerlott's input would've been useful on that...According to Bill, he never played a single game in the City State because he was too busy with the business of Judges Guild which makes that December 1975- early 1976 timeframe a bit confusing, sorry, vs. http://www.acaeum.com/jg/HistoryJudgesGuild.html which appears to state that he did and Marc didn't.
FormCritic wrote:The notes in the original map margin tend to indicate that Bob created it for his Middle Earth campaign and then changed it into the City State of the Invicible Overlord.The 1975 date assumes that the start of the company was a discussion among friends in December of that year, as cited by the Acaeum Judges Guild History.
FormCritic wrote:Thank you for responding, Bill.One area that I think lacks detail is the licensing agreement between Judges Guild and TSR:1) What/when did Judges Guild pay TSR?2) What were the provisions and restrictions?3) Did you have to go through certain procedures with TSR? (Prior comments and stray information seems to indicate there was an approval procedure you had to go through with TSR.)4) Do you know anything about the end of the license? Other than financial, what reasons might TSR have had for ending the license?This write-up is limited in scope. What I am trying to do is not so much tell the entire story as summarize Judges Guild's place in RPG publishing history. The license was a big part of that.
Bill Owen wrote:Perhaps some of the minutia of sales rates for various products and my recommendations might be of interest to collectors now.I also found the royalty contract for Treasury of Archaic Names (my last product) signed by Bob 7/30/81 which was later than I remembered.
FormCritic wrote:Writers like Rudy Kraft, Dave Arneson and Dave Petrowsky went on to work with other companies and projects. Other writers, such as Marc Summerlot, Scott Fulton, Geoff O'Dale and Paul Elkhorne were active in recreating the Judges Guild magic with new editions of Judges Guild products in the D20 Open Gaming Licencse boom of 2001 to 2008.
FormCritic wrote:As of this writing, Judges Guild remains active under the direction of Bledsaw's son, Bob Jr. Although new print projects for Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition have been proposed and announced, none of them have actually gone to press.
leadjunkie wrote:Geoffrey O. Dale is the pseudonym of Paul Elkmann (note spelling).
FormCritic wrote:I knew Elkhorne had to be wrong, but that does solve the mystery of who Geoffrey O'Dale is.I have seen both versions of the name in use: O. Dale and O'Dale. The first is the version that appears on old Judges Guild projects.
FormCritic wrote:Tegel Manor was proposed as a 4th Edition project...not by Bob Jr. That was before the 4th Edition license was even announced.