Joseph Goodman: Owner, Michael Curtis: Director of Product Development for DCC, Chris Doyle: Director of Product Development for 5E, Jennifer Brinkman: Operations Manager, Aeryn "Blackdirge" Rudel: Staff Writer, Harley Stroh: Staff Writer, Doug Kovacs: Artist
Goodman Games is an American game publisher best known for the Dungeon Crawl Classics series of adventure modules and role-playing game, its science fiction offshoot Mutant Crawl Classics, and Original Adventures Reincarnated, a line of updated, annotated, and expanded republications of classic RPG adventures and supplements, mostly from TSR, Inc.'s Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Additionally, Goodman Games produces RPGs using versions of the DCC rules for Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar and Jack Vance's Dying Earth settings, under license. The company has also produced licensed adventures for Wicked Fantasy Factory, Judges Guild, Xcrawl, Iron Heroes, Castles and Crusades, and Death Dealer.
Joseph Goodman started Goodman Games in 2001 and took advantage of the new d20 System license by publishing his first RPG, Broncosaurus Rex.[1]:386 Goodman Games released a series of Complete Guides beginning with Complete Guide to Drow (2002), and another 10 books after that, several of which focused on unusual races that were not being covered by other publishers, such as Complete Guide to Doppelgangers (2002), Complete Guide to Rakshasas (2003), Complete Guide to Treants (2003), and Complete Guide to Wererats (2003).[1]:386–387 Despite success with Broncosaurus Rex and then moving to fantasy dungeon crawls, Goodman did not hire any in-house game designers and continued to work with freelance creators.[1]:387 With the Dungeon Crawl Classics label, Goodman intended to publish intelligent dungeon crawl adventures and to serve the growing demographic of older gamers.[1]:387 Goodman Games expanded into a wide range of fantasy and science fictionrole playing game (RPG) supplements, mostly for the d20 license; which meant adventures compatible with the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons ruleset.
Their card games include Geek Wars, World Championship Dodge Ball, and Scavenger Hunt.
In 2010, Goodman Games published Amethyst RPG, a science-fiction setting for 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons.
In 2018, Goodman Games released Mutant Crawl Classics, a post-apocalyptic role playing game compatible with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game ruleset.
In 2019, Goodman Games released Dungeon Crawl Classics: Lankhmar, a setting-specific game using DCC mechanics taking place in Fritz Leiber's fantasy world of Nehwon, home to his sword-and-sorcery duo of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.[2]
Leaked documents from Wizard of the Coast in January 2023 suggested that Wizards planned to change the Open Game License (OGL), developed for its Dungeons & Dragons products, to be more restrictive and potentially harm third-party content creators.[3][4] Goodman Games stated that "WotC's proposed changes to the OGL would have no impact on their lines".[5] In response to the OGL leak, Paizo announced plans to develop a new license called the Open RPG Creative License (ORC) – this would be an open, perpetual, and irrevocable system-agnostic license stewarded by a nonprofit.[6][7] This license will be open to publishers besides Paizo; Goodman Games joined the ORC License Alliance on January 13, 2023.[8][9]Polygon reported that "in the weeks that Hasbro spent publicly flailing, customers spent an extraordinary amount of money investing in its competition".[10] Goodman Games stated that January 2023[10] was "the best sales month in its two-decade history. Sales through the Goodman Games online store reached an all-time high, exceeding even prior Black Friday and holiday special events, while other channels saw similar growth. Dungeon Crawl Classics core rulebooks moved at a brisk pace throughout the month, as several accessories and adventure modules sold out, and the DCC core rulebook accelerated toward the end of its current print run".[11]
In April of 2023, Goodman Games released another game in the DCC family, this time based on the Dying Earth stories of Jack Vance. Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth uses core DCC mechanics with setting-specific additions to better capture the feel of Vance's stories, and was launched with a Boxed Set core game and nine all-new adventure modules set in Vance's world.[12]
A forthcoming title in the DCC line of products is Xcrawl Classics -- a new edition of Xcrawl using DCC mechanics. Xcrawl Classics offers arena-style dungeon crawling in an alternate reality setting in which adventurers are star athletes competing for fame and fortune in deadly engineered dungeons. XCC was the subject of a successful Kickstarter in August of 2023. [13]
Games
Amethyst campaign setting
Amethyst is a campaign setting released for both the 3rd edition via the Open Gaming License and the D&D 4th edition via the Game System License. It is published by Dias Ex Machina, featuring the artwork of Nick Greenwood and Jaime Jones. Some of the rules are adapted to the setting to include things like vehicles and guns, making magic less powerful and additionally, it changes many of the ‘core’ classes by opening up new paths of advancement via the class focus system. Additionally the game shares its combat rules with other future supplements of the same publisher and it is meant to be compatible with standard GSL rules.[14] The setting makes fey playable. Amethyst was originally published under 3.5 rules and recognized with an Honorable Mention for Best Setting in the 2008 Gen Con ENnie Awards.[15]Amethyst: Foundations by Chris Dias was previewed at the Free RPG Day of 2009, and then published in 2010 by Goodman Games as a science fantasy setting for 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons under the Game System License from Wizards of the Coast.[1]:390[16]
In May 2012, Goodman Games released an original OGL-based role-playing game named after their earlier series of D&D-compatible adventures called Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game (DCC RPG). The design intention was "to create a modern RPG that reflects D&D’s origin-point concepts with decades-later rules editions."[17]
Community activity
In July 2009, Goodman Games held a contest to award a Game Store with the award of "America's Favorite Game Store". The award went to Yottaquest.[18][19]
Since 2007, Goodman Games has participated in the annual Free RPG Day,[20] often creating new adventures and supplements in their popular DCC and MCC lines intended to be distributed for free to fans who visit their local Friendly Local Gaming Store on the day.[21]
Goodman Games organizes and sponsors a DCC Day event once a year as a way of encouraging fans to visit their local game stores and play public games of DCC, MCC, and other Goodman Games. Beginning in 2020,[22]DCC Day features exclusive products that are available at participating stores.
Reception
Goodman Games won the 2006 Gold Ennie Award for "The Grognard Award".[23]
Goodman Games won the 2013 Silver Ennie Award for "Fans’ Choice for Favorite Publisher".[24]
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TSR). It has been published by Wizards of the Coast, later a subsidiary of Hasbro, since 1997. The game was derived from miniature wargames, with a variation of the 1971 game Chainmail serving as the initial rule system. D&D's publication is commonly recognized as the beginning of modern role-playing games and the role-playing game industry, and also deeply influenced video games, especially the role-playing video game genre.
Dungeon was one of the two official magazines targeting consumers of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products; Dragon was the other.
Wizards of the Coast LLC or Wizards) is an American publisher of games, most of which are based on fantasy and science-fiction themes, and formerly an operator of games retail stores. In 1999, toy manufacturer Hasbro acquired the company and currently operates it as a subsidiary. During a February 2021 reorganization of Hasbro, WotC became the lead part of a new division called "Wizards & Digital".
Open gaming is a movement within the tabletop role-playing game (RPG) industry with superficial similarities to the open source software movement. The key aspect is that copyright holders license their works under public copyright licenses that permit others to make copies or create derivative works of the game.
The Open Game License (OGL) is a public copyright license by Wizards of the Coast that may be used by tabletop role-playing game developers to grant permission to modify, copy, and redistribute some of the content designed for their games, notably game mechanics. However, they must share-alike copies and derivative works.
Lankhmar is a fictional city in the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories by Fritz Leiber. It is situated on the world of Nehwon, just west of the Great Salt Marsh and east of the River Hlal, and serves as the home of Leiber's two antiheroes.
An owlbear is a fictional creature originally created for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. An owlbear is depicted as a cross between a bear and an owl, which "hugs" like a bear and attacks with its beak. Inspired by a plastic toy made in Hong Kong, Gary Gygax created the owlbear and introduced the creature to the game in the 1975 Greyhawk supplement; the creature has since appeared in every subsequent edition of the game. Owlbears, or similar beasts, also appear in several other fantasy role-playing games, video games and other media.
Paizo Inc. is an American role-playing game publishing company based in Redmond, Washington, best known for the tabletop role-playing games Pathfinder and Starfinder. The company's name is derived from the Greek word παίζωpaizō, which means 'I play' or 'to play'. Paizo also runs an online retail store selling role-playing games board games, comic books, toys, clothing, accessories and other products, as well as an Internet forum community.
Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game is a role-playing game published by Goodman Games using the Open Game License (OGL) and System Reference Document (SRD) version 3.5 to provide legal compatibility with the revised third edition of Dungeons & Dragons.
Pathfinder is a line of roleplaying game supplements published by Paizo Publishing since 2007. Originally designed for use with the revised 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons, they transitioned to the first edition of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game in 2009, then to the second edition of Pathfinder in 2019.
The Game System License is a license that allows third-party publishers to create products compatible with and using the intellectual property from the 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). It was released to the public by Wizards of the Coast (WotC) on June 17, 2008.
The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is a fantasy role-playing game (RPG) that was published in 2009 by Paizo Publishing. The first edition extends and modifies the System Reference Document (SRD) based on the revised 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) published by Wizards of the Coast under the Open Game License (OGL) and is intended to be backward-compatible with that edition.
Robert J. Schwalb is a writer in the role-playing game industry, and has worked as a game designer and developer for such games as Dungeons & Dragons, A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and many other RPG supplements.
Owen K.C. Stephens is a game designer who has worked on a number of products for the Starfinder, Pathfinder and Star Wars Roleplaying Game and other games.
Dark Tower is an adventure module published by Judges Guild in 1980 for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.
Free RPG Day is an annual promotional event by the Tabletop role-playing game industry. The event rules are fairly simple: participating publishers provide special free copies of games to participating game stores; the game store agrees to provide one free game to any person who requests a free game on Free RPG Day.
Eldritch Role-Playing System is a role-playing game published by Goodman Games in 2008.
Kobold Press, also known as Open Design, is an American game company that produces role-playing games and game supplements.
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