From the Overlord

Greetings to all my gaming friends who hoped for this moment. We are back and I'm sure everyone is anxious to know what we intend to publish. I wish to fill the needs of all our loyal customers but have very real limits primarily due to financial constraints. The demand for our products this long after we stopped producing them is evidence of the viability for our return.

To those in the industry that view us as competitors, I wish to say relax. Judges Guild has always supported the whole gaming hobby and we intend to continue this policy. The best days are yet to come. Publishing tools multiply and computers enhance our horizons.

The first step was to locate genuine gaming talent with the needed skills to turn ideas into products. I was fortunate to find Greg Geilman and Jean McGuire felt the same passion for Judges Guild as old guildmembers. Indeed, the both were and Greg had designed In Search of Kelandors Gold long ago (Product Design Manager!). Jean has extensive credentials in three main areas, Gaming (a roleplaying enthusiast for over 20 years), Publishing (she is a columnist for a newspaper out east) and Programmer (she owns a small software company and website design service). So, Jean became the new Editor in Chief.

We received messages of praise and hope from Dave Arneson, Gary Gygax, Ken St. Andre, and other notables upon our website going up. Orders began to flow and the moneys raised permitted us to begin the following projects: City State of the Invincible Overlord, Inferno, Pegasus Magazine, Inferno, and the Land of a Thousand Doors. I wanted the Wilderlands products back in print (it was the world's largest wargame map ever published, beating the Europa series by a few inches in one direction) and I wanted to support the new technologies coming down the pike with ever better PCs sitting on gaming tables. We decided to produce a CD of all the Wilderlands series ... Judges and Players maps, the manuals for each, and supporting software.

All is still in a flux as I type this ... we are drained of funds, feverish of brow, headaches aplenty ... once more into the fray! I pray that all comes together at GenCon ... then to send out the Guildmember subscriptions and upload the magazine to the protected area of the website for our favorite people to access ... the best judges in the world ... our Guildmembers.

Due to recent rulings by the government, we dare not accept volunteer help ... and we have had many volunteers come forward. Two offers of financial help have been received. Our hopes are unlimited but our reach is short in resources available.

The guestbook is my main way to determine what the fans want at this time. I hope I have chosen wisely so the sales will produce income sufficient to provide for real growth.

Join me in this hope at least, Judges Guild will return some of the excitement of the early days. The simple pleasures of a well supported campaign are legendary but whole generations of gamers have not felt that thrill. In 1976 when my campaign was in bringing in spectators to watch and learn how to roleplay ... my group would rant, shout, jump, and howl after midnight. We were often flush with excitement or laughter ... a time to remember and still talked about by many.

Return those Halcyon days ... become less serious, shorten the rules, stretch your imaginations, and create much because it costs the same as being mediocre. We will carry the banner to the top (yes I'm a little nuts ... crazy about role playing campaigns and the gamers that bring them to life) ... bring on your dragons and let the stuffed shirts pile up. Forward to Victory or at least to GenCon ... (shake my hand ... pat my back ... I need help and another soda) ... hope to see you there.