Old-School from the Start: Goodman Games marks 25 years with art and history books

Independent roleplaying game publisher Goodman Games is preparing a crowdfunding campaign to celebrate its 25th anniversary. The project centres on two large hardcover retrospective books, a new adventure module, and custom tabletop accessories that chart the company’s journey from early d20 supplements to a fixture of the old-school gaming scene.

Founded by Joseph Goodman, the studio began at trade shows in 2002 before establishing its own sword-and-sorcery rules system, Dungeon Crawl Classics. The anniversary retrospective focuses on two decades of internal history, community playtests, and fantasy illustration.

A timeline forged across convention floors

The retrospective draws directly on a 25-year timeline documented across convention booths, warehouse loading docks, and local games days.

• 2002: Official debut at GAMA Expo featuring Rhonda the Rhinoceratops, followed by the company’s first consumer appearance at Origins.
• 2004: Playtesting DragonMech and third-edition d20 modules in home setups dubbed “The Pluto Pad”.
• 2006: Veteran TSR artist Erol Otus signs autographs at the DunDraCon booth in California.
• 2008: An aggressive commercial rollout for fourth-edition D&D at Gen Con, an investment the team openly acknowledges as a strategic misstep.
• 2009–2010: The D&D Experience convention sparks an explicit focus on Appendix N pulp fantasy. By Gary Con II in 2010, Joseph Goodman began running nine-player sessions of an unnamed prototype ruleset.
• 2011–2012: Gary Con III hosted early runs under the official DCC RPG banner. Printer proofs cleared in March 2012 ahead of a worldwide store rollout for Free RPG Day that June.
• 2013: The community culture solidifies at Gen Con with the arrival of Hugh Heftblade, Gongfarmer badges, and the first informal Doug Con gathering.
• 2017: Goodman Games expands its footprint at Gary Con by partnering with Wizards of the Coast for the Original Adventures Reincarnated line, alongside the launch of DCC Lankhmar.
• 2020–2022: The studio navigated physical event disruptions through online Cyclops Con gatherings before introducing its custom touring Wizard Van at Gen Con 2022.

Two hardcovers anchor the anniversary

The crowdfunding initiative’s flagship publication is Old-School From the Start: 25 Years of Goodman Games, written by games historian Stu Horvath. The book details the publisher’s survival across changing industry editions and its deliberate turn toward classic sword-and-sorcery gaming.

Complementing the written history is The Fantastic Art of Goodman Games, curated by author and game designer Philip Reed. Both hardcovers include multiple cover options created by core artists who defined the game line’s look, including Doug Kovacs, Brad McDevitt, Peter Mullen, and Stefan Poag.

The project also includes a standalone adventure module, Taste the Blood of Sezrekan, penned by longtime module author Harley Stroh.

Unusual dice and crowdfunding plans

In keeping with the publisher’s penchant for non-standard polyhedrals, the campaign includes a custom 25-sided glitter die created by Impact! Miniatures. The die is housed in a carved wooden presentation box stamped with the studio’s anniversary emblem. Backers will be asked to pitch community stretch goals tied directly to the d25.

Goodman Games has launched a pre-launch landing page on BackerKit to gather follower registrations ahead of the live launch. Pre-launch pages often let studios calculate initial production runs and shipping requirements before final pledge tiers go live.

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