Why doesn't Fantasy Flight Games get more Love

I have to admit when the ENnie nominations for best d20 Company came out - I was surprised the Fantasy Flight was not on there - especially when compared to some of the others nominated.

I find that they are one of the two companies (Green Ronin being the other) that I will always pick up their offerings and at least read them - and ended up owning most of the Legends and Lairs collections.

So, is it really the case that they are second tier d20 publishing company - or they simply got squesed out this year (and last..)

Finally, does anyone know when Citycraft is due to hit the shelves????

I can't find the ENnies winners list, but didn't they win a bunch of awards for Midnight?

My guess is that they were squeezed out by a slew of good companies this year. While I've found most of the Legends & Lairs series to be spotty in quality, Midnight and Traps and Treachery I and II are great books. If nothing else, I find that, with the possible exception of Green Ronin, FFG has some of the most consistently excellent art in D20 publishing.

They did win for Midnight - which makes them not even getting nominated as a company somewhat surprising

I think I saw Citycraft on the shelves at GenCon (that's no indication that it's in stores, but if not it should be very soon).

This is a surprising post. Check out the "gritty" thread, in which someone complains that Midnight fans come out of the woodwork at any dropping of the name. I'd say Dragonstar got pretty good press too and the "Path of ..." books have often been described as "what the WotC splatbooks should have been." I'd say FFG is one of the more consistently popular gaming companies around here.

Me, I'm stewing in my anticipation of Sorcery & Steam -- I've been looking forward to that book more than anything else on the release schedule for months. Any word, BTW?

Too many people confuse them with a company just two letters away?

J

Too many people confuse them with a company just two letters away?

Click to expand...

I was going to say the same thing, but decided it was too mean. ;-) I'm glad you did it for me.

Utrecht said:

So, is it really the case that they are second tier d20 publishing company - or they simply got squesed out this year (and last..)

Click to expand...

As one of the ENnies judges, but speaking just for myself as a judge, I want to clearly state that not getting nominated in any given category absolutely does not mean something is of "second tier" status.

This is one of the things that makes judging everyone and everything that enters the ENnies tough. Most categories had a lot of entries that had to be gone through. In many cases, there were potential nominees who almost made the cut as an actual nominee, but were edged out.

How is this so? Well, the judges were certainly not of one mind on everything, and we often had to resort to voting amongst ourselves to finalize nominee lists. That means there were several companies and products that were on one or more judges' list, but did not get a nomination. Most of those potential nominees were well-respected by all the judges, but it simply came down to the fact we had to have a list of five nominees for each category.

As you can probably guess, this means that just because something didn't get nominated doesn't mean it sucks or is second tier. I can say with all truthfulness there really wasn't anything I would call crap entered in the ENnies this year. That's what made the selection process even harder than last year. Some products and companies, had they been entered another year against different competition, would have easily made the nominee lists. The competition was really tight.

I personally think they're awesome. Their Legends & Lairs series has been stellar, and their Path books, though certainly less impressive overall are still chock-full of great ideas that are definitely "out of the box".

Maybe it has to do with the fact that we're coming to expect consistently good stuff from them, while a product like "Monsternomicon" that comes out of relative nowhere completely blew our socks off and put Privateer's name on everyone's lips?

I'll be honest, I didn't know jack about FFG until Midnight came out.

A few people started mentioning it on the boards and it got my attention. Turns out, it was the best campaign setting I've ever bought and I've been in love ever since.