Announcing the 2012 Gen Con EN World RPG Awards Nominees!

Morrus · Jul 13, 2012

Congratulations to the 2012 ENnie Awards nominees! Feel free to get to know the products below by clicking links. Voting begins on Friday, July 20 and runs to Sunday, July 29. The ceremony itself will be on Friday, August 17, in the Union Station Grand Hall at 8pm with the cocktail reception beginning at 6:30pm.

The Gen Con EN World RPG Awards (the “ENnies”) are an annual fan-based celebration of excellence in tabletop roleplaying gaming. The ENnies give game designers, writers and artists the recognition they deserve. It is a peoples’ choice award, and the final winners are voted upon online by the gaming public.

The ENnies were created in 2001 as an annual award ceremony, hosted by EN World in partnership with Eric Noah’s Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News. With award categories recognizing the components that make a game great to the types of products fans have come to love, categories for fan-based websites and much more, the ENnies are the best way for fans to acknowledge outstanding effort from and to say “thank you” to the publishers, designers and artists who make this hobby great.

Best Adventure

Dead Rock Seven (Pelgrane Press)
Invasive Procedures (Pelgrane Press)
Madness at Gardmore Abbey (Wizards of the Coast)
Streets of Zobeck (Open Design)
The Rending Box (Pelgrane Press)

Best Aid/Accessory

DungeonMorph Cards (Inkwell Ideas, Inc.)
GameMastery Chase Cards (Paizo Publishing)
Masks: 1,000 Memorable NPCs for Any RPG (Engine Publishing)
Mutants and Masterminds GM’s Kit (Green Ronin)
Shadowrun Runner’s Toolkit (Catalyst Game Labs)

Best Art, Cover

Black Crusade: Core Rulebook (Fantasy Flight Games)
Cthulhu by Gaslight (Chaosium Inc.)
Mutants and Masterminds Gamemaster’s Guide (Green Ronin)
Neverwinter Campaign Setting (Wizards of the Coast)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beginner Box (Paizo)

Best Art, Interior

Book of Drakes (Open Design)
Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple (Evil Hat Productions)
Dragon Age: Set 2 (Green Ronin)
Legend of the Five Rings, Fourth Edition: The Great Clans (Alderac Entertainment Group)
The One Ring: Adventures Over the Edge of the Wild (Cubicle 7)

Best Blog

Best Cartography

Harker Asylum - Virtual Boxed Set (0One Games)
Madness at Gardmore Abbey (Wizards of the Coast)
Mass Transit III (Maps of Mastery)
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Jade Regent Map Foli o (Paizo)
The Shadowlands Conversion Guide (BlackStar Studios)

Best Electronic Book

Advanced Encounters: Terrain Toolbox (Sneak Attack Press)
Cthulhu Apocalypse: The Apocalypse Machine (Graham Walmsley & Pelgrane Press)
GURPS Social Engineering (Steve Jackson Games)
Spookybeans: The Gothic Comics RPG (Chapter 13 Press)
Way of the Wicked Book One: Knot of Thorns (Fire Mountain Games)

Best Free Product

Black Crusade: Broken Chains (Fantasy Flight Games)
Dragon Age Quickstart Guide (Green Ronin)
The One Ring: Words of the Wise (Cubicle 7)
The Shadowlands Conversion Guide (BlackStar Studios)
Pathfinder Module: We Be Goblins! (Paizo)

Best Game

Cosmic Patrol Core Rulebook (Catalyst Game Labs)
Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple (Evil Hat Productions)
Hollowpoint (VSCA Publishing)
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game (Margaret Weis Productions)
Savage Worlds Deluxe (Pinnacle Entertainment Group)

Best Miniatures Product

Dungeons and Dragons Dragon Collector’s Set (Wizards of the Coast)
Monster Medallions Set 1: Deadly Encounter Groups (Fiery Dragon Productions)
Pathfinder Battles: Heroes and Monsters (Paizo)
Serene Fist Set Four: Katana Schoolgirls vs. Zombie Furries (Okumarts Games)
Steam Tower (Mayhem in Paper)

Best Monster/Adversary

DC Adventures: Heroes & Villains, Vol. 1 (Green Ronin)
Deathwatch: Mark of the Xenos (Fantasy Flight Games)
Hacklopedia of Beasts (Kenzer and Co.)
Hunter Sheets Issue Two—An SLA Industries Supplement (Nightfall Games)
Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Podcast

Best Production Values

Hacklopedia of Beasts (Kenzer & Co.)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beginner Box (Paizo)
Smallville High School Yearbook (Margaret Weis Productions)
The One Ring: Adventures Over the Edge of the Wild (Cubicle 7)
Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition (CCP Games/White Wolf Publishing)

Best RPG Related Product

Carnival Arcane (Midnight Syndicate Soundtracks)
Complete Kobold Guide to Game Design (Open Design)
Cthulhu Wrapping Paper (Gaming Paper)
Lords of Waterdeep (Wizards of the Coast)
Tales of the Far West (Adamant Entertainment)

Best Rules

Bulldogs! (Galileo Games)
Hollowpoint (VSCA Publishing)
Lorefinder—The Pathfinder / GUMSHOE Mashup (Pelgrane Press)
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game (Margaret Weis Productions)
Spellbound Kingdoms (T. Shield Studios)

Best Setting

Ashen Stars (Pelgrane Press)
Cthulhu Apocalypse: The Apocalypse Machine (Graham Walmsley & Pelgrane Press)
Cthulhu Britannica: Shadows Over Scotland (Cubicle 7)
The Investigator’s Guide to Occult London (Pelgrane Press)
Unhallowed Metropolis, Revised (Atomic Overmind Press)

Best Supplement

Agents of Oblivion (Reality Blurs)
Cthulhu by Gaslight (Chaosium Inc.)
Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Options: Heroes of the Feywild (Wizards of the Coast)
GURPS Horror, Fourth Edition (Steve Jackson Games)
Star Hero (Hero Games)

Best Website

Best Writing

GURPS Horror, Fourth Edition (Steve Jackson Games)
Panopticon (Posthuman Studios)
Stealing Cthulhu (Graham Walmsley)
The Investigator’s Guide to Occult London (Pelgrane Press)
Your Whispering Homonculous (Open Design)

Product of the Year

Cthulhu Britannica: Shadows Over Scotland (Cubicle 7)
GURPS Horror, Fourth Edition (Steve Jackson Games)
Hacklopedia of Beasts (Kenzer and Co.)
Hollowpoint (VSCA Publishing)
Madness at Gardmore Abbey (Wizards of the Coast)
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game (Margaret Weis Productions)
Masks: 1,000 Memorable NPCs for Any RPG (Engine Publishing)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beginner Box (Paizo)
Star Hero (Hero Games)
Stealing Cthulhu (Graham Walmsley)

Judge’s Spotlight Award

Matthew Muth – ?
Kennon Bauman – ?
Kat Boulware – ?
Jody Kline – ?
Kurt Wiegel – ?
You’ll find out at the ceremony!

If you are a publisher, click the image below to download a bigger version of the badge to proudly display on your website.

If you’re a fan, feel free to download and print out this flyer for posting in your FLGS.

halfjack · Jul 13, 2012

I am thrilled -- and blown away -- to see our own Hollowpoint in here not once but three times! This is a really unexpected list, full of great titles by smart people. Going to be a very difficult voting period.

Thanks, ENnie team!

Aberzanzorax · Jul 13, 2012

Sorta surprised no "best adventure" by Paizo (historically they do well there) but one by WotC.

That's actually kinda nice to see...that WotC is stepping up their adventure quality.

Congrats to em!

justinhalliday · Jul 13, 2012

In the effort to make a point, I succeeded in only douching up the place. So I shall try to make that right. Here's what I should have written:

Congratulations to all of the ENnie nominees! It's great to see a huge range of systems represented. Let the voting begin.

On a personal note, it's disappointing to see that the Free Products nominees are either ads for paid products (in the case of Dragon Age) or require you to buy the same company's paid product to work.

If you want to see me at my douchiest, here's what I originally posted:

Those Best Free Product nominations are appalling! Let's take a quick look at these 'free' products:

An adventure that was available free for one day of the year:
Black Crusade: Broken Chains

A demo of a real paid RPG (Dragon Age):
Dragon Age: Quickstart Rules

A short adventure released as a promo for a real paid RPG:
The One Ring: Words of the Wise

A conversion guide from Pathfinder to Shadowlands?:
Shadowlands Conversion Guide

Another short adventure released as a promo for a real paid RPG (Pathfinder):
Pathfinder Module: We Be Goblins!

What about nominating an actual free product?

EDIT: The Black Crusade PDF is available free on the net, but it's damned hard to find!

Mod Edit: Watch your language please. ~Umbran

GrayLinnorm · Jul 13, 2012

Kind of disappointed that Pathfinder Bestiary 3 wasn't nominated for best monster book.

Aberzanzorax · Jul 13, 2012

justinhalliday said:
<Snipped after the fact.

Interesting points, and I agree with some of em. I don't think quickstart rules or conversion guides belong as a "best free product". In a sense, I don't really think of them as "products" in their own right.

However, I don't think you're being fair to Black Crusade: Broken Chains, The One Ring: Words of the Wise, or We Be Goblins.

All three of those products are indeed full RPG products, not ads, not promos, not conversions, etc. They are adventures. Also, all three are still available, at this very moment, for free in PDF.

Maybe you wanted a full free RPG? It'd be nice if they had "best free RPG" as a category. There are some awesome free RPGs at http://www.1km1kt.net/

EDIT: Didn't realize you had a product for that category. Sour grapes are never pretty. You may want to redact your comment. I'm deleting the quote in my post.

Ycore Rixle · Jul 13, 2012

Fantastic!

All the people here at T. Shield Studios - that would be me - are very happy and gratified to see Spellbound Kingdoms on the list.

Congrats to all the other nominees, thanks to the judges, and most of all thanks to all the fans for supporting the game.

InkwellIdeas · Jul 13, 2012

Wow! Those of us behind the DungeonMorphs products (Cards & Dice) couldn't be happier! Thanks to the judges, to everyone who backed the project on Kickstarter, people who have picked them up afterward on the DungeonMoprhs website, the manufacturers & of course my collaborators on the project:

Tim Ballew Risus Monkey
M. S. Jackson . .lapsus calumni. .
Shane Knysh fictitious entry - making roleplaying better one post at a time
Dyson Logos Dyson's Dodecahedron
David Millar Dave's Mapper | RPG Map Generator
Brutus Motor This is Dice Country
AJ Stone Stonewerks's Blog

MatthewJHanson · Jul 13, 2012

We at Sneak Attack Press are excited to receive our first nomination for Advanced Encounters: Terrain Toobox.

In fact we're so excited we're putting it on sale for just ONE DOLLAR!

Congratulations to all the other nominees, and thanks to everybody at the ENnies!

MatthewJHanson · Jul 13, 2012

justinhalliday said:
Those Best Free Product nominations are nonsense! Let's take a quick look at these 'free' products:

...

What about nominating an actual free product?

I'm sorry that your book was not nominated, but I'd urge you to take a moment to relax and think before you post.

The "sour grapes" attitude comes across as unprofessional and probably does not do much to ingratiate yourself to the judges (some of whom may be judging your products again next year).