Congratulations to the 2015 ENnies Award Winners!

Tonight in the Union Station Grand Hall, Indianapolis, the 2015 Gen Con EN World RPG Awards ceremony took place - and the winners were announced! Hosted by Mike Selinker, with guest presenters including Amanda Valentine, John Adamus, Kevin Kulp, and Matt McElroy, the ENnies this year were sponsored by DriveThruRPG and Campaign Coins.

[video=youtube;jLomBapB8PE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLomBapB8PE[/video]
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Best Adventure
Silver: A Red & Pleasant Land (Lamentations of the Flame Princess)
Gold: Horror on the Orient Express (Chaosium)

Best Aid/Accessory
Silver: Black Green Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition RPG Dice Set (Q-Workshop)
Gold: Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters Screen (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Cover Art
Silver: Achtung! Cthulhu: Terrors of the Secret War (Modiphius Entertainment Ltd)
Gold: Rise of Tiamat (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Interior Art
Silver: The Strange (Monte Cook Games, LLC)
Gold: Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Blog
Silver: Gnome Stew
Gold: ConTessa Tabletop Gaming by Women for Everyone

Best Cartography
Silver: The Guide to Glorantha (Moon Design Publications)
Gold: Ninth World Guidebook (Monte Cook Games, LLC)

Best Electronic Book
Silver: Ken Writes About Stuff Volume 2 (Pelgrane Press)
Gold: Basic Rules for Dungeons & Dragons (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Family Game
Silver: Atomic Robo The Roleplaying Game (Evil Hat Productions)
Gold: Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Free Product
Silver: 13th Age The Archmages Orrery (Pelgrane Press)
Gold: Basic Rules for Dungeons & Dragons (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Game
Silver: The Strange (Monte Cook Games, LLC)
Gold: Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Miniatures Product
Silver: Pathfinder Pawns Inner Sea Pawn Box (Paizo Inc.)
Gold: Dungeons & Dragons Icons of the Realms Elemental Evil Boosters (WizKids)

Best Monster/Adversary
Silver: Achtung! Cthulhu: Terrors of the Secret War (Modiphius Entertainment Ltd)
Gold: Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Podcast
Silver: Miskatonic University Podcast
Gold: Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

Best Production Values
Silver: Horror on the Orient Express (Chaosium)
Gold: Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set (Wizards of the Coast)

Best RPG Related Product
Silver: Temple of Elemental Evil (WizKids)
Gold: Designers & Dragons: A History of the Roleplaying Game Industry (Evil Hat Productions)

Best Rules
Silver: MUTANT Year Zero The Roleplaying Game (Modiphius Entertainment Ltd)
Gold: Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Setting
Silver: The Strange (Monte Cook Games, LLC)
Gold: A Red & Pleasant Land (Lamentations of the Flame Princess)

Best Software
Silver: HeroLab (Lone Wolf Development)
Gold: Roll20 (Roll 20)

Best Supplement
Silver: Pathfinder RPG: Pathfinder Unchained (Paizo Inc.)
Gold: Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Website
Silver: Tabletop Audio
Gold: The Escapist

Best Writing
Silver: D&D Player’s Handbook by Jeremy Crawford, James Wyatt, Robert J. Schwalb, Bruce R. Cordell (Wizards of the Coast)
Gold: A Red & Pleasant Land by Zak S (Lamentations of the Flame Princess)

Fan's Choice for Best Publisher
Silver: Paizo Inc
Gold: Wizards of the Coast.

Product Of The Year
Silver: A Red & Pleasant Land (Lamentations of the Flame Princess)
Gold: Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook (Wizards of the Coast)

2016 ENnies Judges
Jakub Nowosad
Kayra KeriKupcu
Kiel Cheiner
Kurt Wiegel
Stacy Muth

 

[Nikosandros]

Congratulations to all the winners!

The thing is, if you are voting for the ENNIES and you come to a category you only have one thing in it, or have only seen one thing in it. You'll vote for it. The Starter Set was very popular and it's all over the place, so yeah. Vote for what you know. So any fan voted awards are pretty much coming down to who sold the most, exceptions aside. Websites, podcasts and to a lesser extent free stuff.

Exactly. People will only vote for products that they know and the Starter Set has sold a lot of copiers, while a guess that HotE has sold much less and so it has had less exposure.

For another example, I didn't vote for A Red and Pleasant Land in any category, because I hadn't even heard of it until it come up as an option in the voting booth. OTOH, its nominations made me curious and I subsequently bought it and loved it.

 

[JeffB]

Glad to see I am not the only one. I LOVE my Starter Set too, but it's like comparing the wood grain D&D box and the pathfinder beginner box in production values and giving the nod to the lbbs.

I did not realize the ENNies are essentially a popularity contest. I figured over time there was some sort of mechanism implemented in the voting to balance out products that sell by the tens of thousands to products that sell in the several hundreds.

 

[Nikosandros]

Glad to see I am not the only one. I LOVE my Starter Set too, but it's like comparing the wood grain D&D box and the pathfinder beginner box in production values and giving the nod to the lbbs.

I did not realize the ENNies are essentially a popularity contest. I figured over time there was some sort of mechanism implemented in the voting to balance out products that sell by the tens of thousands to products that sell in the several hundreds.

How could you implement such a mechanism? After the nomination process, the awards are entirely decided by the "popular" vote, so there's no avoiding this issue. BTW, I agree that while the Starter Set is a fantastic product, production-wise there's no competition with HTOE.

 

[JeffB]

How could you implement such a mechanism? After the nomination process, the awards are entirely decided by the "popular" vote, so there's no avoiding this issue. BTW, I agree that while the Starter Set is a fantastic product, production-wise there's no competition with HTOE.

No clue. I have not been running an industry awards ceremony for 15 years or whatever and have no experience in the matter. I certainly would be looking to find a way in order to avoid ridiculous situations like this, though. IMO, it speaks poorly of credibility of the awards. And frankly, If I were someone working on the D&D team at WOTC, and truly concerned with giving credit where credit is due to my industry peers, I would be embarrassed to accept the award, in this case.

I am not nerdraging and fuming about it, I don't get bent about gaming stuff I have a family and I care for an Alzheimers patient for a living...gaming is just stupid kids stuff in the grand scheme of my life. . But this particular situation is pretty absurd on it's own level.

 

[delericho]

Congratulations to all the winners!

In some respects, I feel sorry to anyone releasing a product up against a new edition of 5e. It's like one of those years where one movie just sweeps the board at the Oscars - sure, that film's a worthy winner, but it must suck to be the guys who come second in every category. (And don't get me wrong - 5e is most definitely a worthy winner.)

The thing is, if you are voting for the ENNIES and you come to a category you only have one thing in it, or have only seen one thing in it. You'll vote for it.

Any award labelled as "Best X" really shouldn't come down to a popular vote, especially in an industry where one company/product is very clearly top dog, there's a very clear second, and then there's the rest. For exactly the reason you give.

See also: Blackadder.

 

[CapnZapp]

I am not nerdraging and fuming about it

Then why are you crapping all over the congratulations, again and again?

Not classy.

You have said your piece. Now take your bile elsewhere and show a little respect for the winners, goddammit.

 

[JeffB]

Then why are you crapping all over the congratulations, again and again?

Not classy.

You have said your piece. Now take your bile elsewhere and show a little respect for the winners, goddammit.

If this thread is only for backslapping, then where should one go to discuss?

 

[delericho]

And frankly, If I were someone working on the D&D team at WOTC, and truly concerned with giving credit where credit is due to my industry peers, I would be embarrassed to accept the award, in this case.

For quite a few years there, WotC deliberately didn't put their products for nomination. Naturally, they were criticised for that too.

It's really not their problem if people like their products.

 

[trystero]

...frankly, If I were someone working on the D&D team at WOTC, and truly concerned with giving credit where credit is due to my industry peers, I would be embarrassed to accept the award, in this case.

I think you're likely to avoid this particular embarrassment.

If this thread is only for backslapping, then where should one go to discuss?

I haven't seen anyone saying that you shouldn't have posted your reaction here.

For myself, I voted for the D&D releases and was glad to see them honoured: I also voted for Horror on the Orient Express and The Guide to Glorantha and Designers & Dragons and was glad to see them on the winners list. Congratulations to all the nominees and winners.

 

[JeffB]

For quite a few years there, WotC deliberately didn't put their products for nomination. Naturally, they were criticised for that too.

It's really not their problem if people like their products.

Im not really concerned about who won what. Its not a Chaosium vs. WOTC thing for me. In this case there is a clear winner based on the product category, and it was trumped by another well done product that also clearly does not share the same quality as regards the criteria it Is being judged for. It won because more people bought it, apparently. Im not sure how to fix, and maybe Russ ,et.al don't care and just accept it, or don't know how to fix it either. And maybe its been brought up a million times, but this one stood out to me because I own one product and have spent a fair amount of time with the other.