Wanna be an ENnies judge this year? Do ya, do ya? Not much time left!

Wanna be an ENnies judge this year? Do ya, do ya?

It's that time of year where I begin to set the wheels in motion for the slow process of preparing for this year's ENnies ceremony at Gen Con, Indy. As usual, we'll be holding an election to determine who the five judges will be.

If you are interested in becoming an ENnies judge this year, please post your election campaign presentation in this thread - in other words, announce that you intend to run for election, and tell everyone who you are and why they should vote for you.

As previous judges will tell you, this is not as easy a gig as it sounds. You have to read through a big, big pile of books and choose nominees for a number of categories. That's a lot of reading, and it can get very tiring. You'll need a lot of free time to dedicate to the task. On the plus side, you get a whole load of free RPG books, which can't be bad, plus a free ticket and hotel room at Gen Con (you still have to cover your own travel expenses, though).

There are, of course, some brief rules:





The Brief Rules

• It is important that one judge be located in the USA and be responsbile for coordination and distribution of ENnies materials. If you are in the USA, you must be prepared to accept this responsibility; I will pay for the shipping ahead of time, but you will be responsible for receiving the entries and mailing them all out to the other four judges. If none of the winning judges are located in the USA, the 5th place winner will be bumped and the top-voted USA based judge will win in his/her place.
• Because of the above, please ensure that you indicate your location in your "campaign speech". For the moment, we only need to know which country you're in.
• Incumbents are welcome to run again.
• You should be planning on attending Gen Con. This is not a requirement, but I would ask voters to give weight to whether or not an aspiring judge will actually be at the ceremony.
• If you are, or have worked for a publisher in any capacity during the last 12 months, you are not eligible to be a judge.

If you have any questions, please post them in another thread. I'm sure that previous judges will also be happy to share their experiences and describe the process to you.

Please keep this thread free of commentary or questions. You can post those elsewhere. I (and the moderators) will be deleting anything in this thread other than "campaign manifestos", of which you are permitted one post each.





I'll be allowing one week for people to post in this thread. I'll be closing the thread on Monday 16th Feb at 2pm GMT. Voting will take place immediately after that.

Good luck!

Woohoo! Vote for me!

Played my first game in '79 (skipping late 2nd edition), and rejoined with 3E. That's a lot of dice rolling!

I've experienced everything from vorpal kittys, to orc and pie. I saw the dawn of Greyhawk, and the crafting of the Forgotten Realms. I witnessed the birth of Dungeon Magazine, and its demise into the depths of Paizo Publishing. I was there when Gygax was wanting his +1 mace (on Futurama). So, vote for me!

I have the ability to review quickly and thoroughly. In the past I've proofread papers from professors. And, yes, it is very satisfying to put red ink on them!

Visit and browse my FLGS every week. Along with regular communication with the store owner, I feel very well informed and up to date on most new products.

I'm 5 minutes from my local post office, and FEDEX (in the USA).

And for those in the Chicago area, I look forward to giving away many prizes at the first EN World Chicago Gameday following GenCon!

So, I hope you'll vote for me. Somebody who is ready to help you find the best of the best of the d20 products coming to a game store near you!

--------

I have a mental debate going on now -- to run, or not to run? Oh well, I'll toss my hat in and see what happens...

I'm Charles Greathouse, as some may know already. I'm a former ENnie judge. I've been a follower of EN World for as long as it's been around, and a follower of Eric's site since the dark days of red-on-black color schemes and the mailbag site. For the shipping: I live in the Eastern US, as in my profile.

I think that an important issue in the judging is balance: there should be a wide variety of viewpoints and qualifications among the judges. If the election goes like past years, I suspect there will be many judges qualified to judge the artwork and text of the books. This doesn't mean they have to be professional art critics or technical editors, but having the basic skill set correct is good.

For balance, there should be at least one judge -- I'd prefer two -- who are really good with the rules. Being able to find the mechanical problems with new product is a major issue for judging how well it will play -- how long it will remain a viable product, how fondly people will remember it, and so forth.

I submit that I fulfill these qualities. There are other people who have the same skills I have in this respect. Of these, I feel I am the best suited, of course -- but even if you don't vote for me, consider voting for at least one judge who can spot holes in the rules.

What else can I do? I'm an avid reader, and burn through my D&D books looking for useful prose to 'borrow' for my homebrew world. This should help me in judging text-heavy, rules-light material. I use my rules knowledge to put together support material -- dragon and character generators (etc.), a nice Excel staff price/stat generator, etc. Hopefully I'll finish my 3.5 updates soon!

I'd like to submit my name for consideration also. I'm located in the Eastern US in North Carolina. Currently, I'm a graduate student in English, which means I've been trained to read large quantities of material for detail in a short amount of time. I'm also young, meaning that there's damn close to 24 usable hours in my day. My recent experience with RPGs has been just about solely with d20 (I returned to the hobby about 2.5 years ago), and I feel that I have a solid grasp on what's been produced by d20 publishers over that time. Although I'm not a rules expert by any stretch, I'm very familiar with the core rules and feel comfortable reading products for balance issues. If I should be elected, I will make every effort to be at GenCon (even if I have to steal a tricycle to get there).

Best,
Nick/tKL

As a past Judge I'd love to be able to do it again. It is a lot of hard work, but as areviewer I'm used to reading books and judging them. I live in Columbus Ohio and getting to Gen Con this year will be no problem.

I've been gaming for over 20 years with many systems coming and going along the way. I'm know the d20 rules pretty darn well after playing and DMing the system since it came out. I've been inviolved in the planning of the first two Ohio Gamedays and will be running a game in the third one coming up.

I'll throw my hat into the ring as well. While I am not a expert on the rules like some people are, I do like to think that I have the capacity to judge if something is unbalanced or not. I've been involved in the d20 System since I picked up the D&D 3.0 PHB in August of 2000. I currently reside in the United States of America (Oswego, NY to be specific). At this moment I don't have any plans on attending GenCon.

I'm a former Judge as well (in fact I have been a judge in every ENnie Awards that has taken place thus far). Look at my title to the left: I'm the ENnie Judge template (Thanks PC)

I would dearly love to do it again as I think that I've done a good, fair job (with my fellow judges) at getting the right products into the running.

I usually take 10 days to two weeks off work to really apply myself to the required reading...and to other people contemplating applying to be judges, I have to stress that this is a lot of reading. Even with two weeks off--reading 8-9 hours a day-- it was a close thing last year...it's a lot of fun, but don't think for a second that it's not a lot of work.

I have a degree in English and a Certificate in Technical Writing, both of which have really helped in the past judgings of prose, organization, rulesets and proofreading.

Anyway, I will close with my pitch from last year : "I've done the job before and I didn't screw anything up"

I live in Canada

I will be at Gen Con.



Thank you and goodnight!

I would love a chance at judging for the ennies.

This is my 20th year of gaming, and I have played almost any system, arriving at D20 when it showed up.

As most of you know I am from the netherlands. And as last year, I am planning on attending gencon again.

Hi I'm jester47 and I would like to judge this year. While I may not voice it in the reviews section, I have an opinion on almost everything published. Most of you have probably encountered my opinions on the message boards.

I am very picky when it comes to rules and books that I think are well written and well done. I used to help my mom (an english prof) grade essays, so judging writing is not a big deal for me. Also, I have a bacground in tech writing, maybe not as much as Billy there, but it helps when you are looking down the barrel of a statblock. And like billy says, I can put in the time and the effort.

I think I am very fair. I can acknowledge quality even if I don't like what the setting is about or the way somthing is named or whatever. I belong to the school of gaming thought that more rolls don't necessarily make for a better game and I look at that when I am evaluating rules and products. Not only do I look for utility or an interesting adventure, I look for elegance and ease of use.

For the years that the ennies have been running I have pretty much called the winners with about 90% accuracy. I am working on going to Library School, and I like Irish Oatmeal (who doesn't?!).

That's why I would be a great ennie judge. Especially the bit about the oatmeal!

Aaron.

edit: Oh yeah, I live in the US, in Renton WA, down the street from WotC. And I suspect close to Monte Cook. And I will be at Gen Con Indy this year... finally!

edit: The number of times I have edited this post after posting it should be an indicator that I got editor in the blood...

edit: oh, and I can't spell...

A chance to be an Ennies judge? Well, I have to get in on this...

I'm located on Southern New Mexico (usually Socorro, but Las Cruces on occasion). I'm currently hoping to attend GenCon, but can't say for sure, since money is tight here at college. I think that one thing I would contribute to the judging process is a fresh view point. I am, compared to many on these boards, new to gaming, having only began playing with the release of 3rd Edition. I think that my viewpoint, unbiased by previous editions, but still very experienced with the current ruleset, would represent a growing number of newer gamers.

I also have a keen literary eye, with a 5 on the AP English test and a perfect SAT Verbal score to my credit. I help out as a Sci-Fi/Fantasy newshound here at ENWorld. I have experience with many different gaming styles, from the role-play heavy campaign I run, to the roleplay/rules balanced game that BardStephenFox runs (and I thouroughly enjoy), to a game that I play in that boils down to the DM and players having a great time trying to outsmart each other. This diversity in my gaming habits gives me a wide-open view of what makes a good book.

Perhaps the best thing I can say for my judging capability is that I love to read. I devour books on a daily basis, going through books like some people go through toilet paper ( not that I read pasively, i actually get quite involved, I just read ALOT). I have a job that provides me with 3+ hours daily of uninterupted reading time, and my evenings usually consist of laying down with good music and a good book for a few... okay, more then a few... hours.

As a judge, I look for a good balance of rules and roleplay in every book. I love to see new ideas, but if thee rules don't fit, the ideas are harder to fit into a game. I always like to see 'DM Advice' sections, since these sections are almost always either extremelly good or totally useless. I also like to see good writing. A well written book can make an otherwise mundane topic and turn it into something I am excited to see.

I hope that this is enough, I'm not totally sure what stuff I should include here. Basically, I love to read, have a new viewpoint, and hope that I can get a chance to be an Ennie judge to give back to the EN World community. Thanks, and I hope to see you guys at GenCon.

Edit:Formatting