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

 

[DaveMage]

I think the D&D team deserves the praise for the game they made - 5E is a good game with good core products.

Besides, as needs to be said every year, simply being nominated is a pretty high honor.

Oh - and high praise for the judges! It's a lot of work!!!

 

[TerraDave]

It does have a voting mechanism, and 5E is great and deserves the votes.

But Red and Pleasent and Horror On got gold, and silver. They kicked ass. Hopefully more people will check them out know.

 

[delericho]

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.

If it's any consolation, now you know how Kanye West felt in 2009.

 

[redrick]

For putting out a new edition of D&D and nailing it, Wizards absolutely deserved the sweep.

As for Best Production Values in particular, I can see how that could be frustrating. I didn't buy the Chaosium box, but I can imagine it would have some pretty sweet and amazing production values deserving of recognition. What I will say, in defense of the D&D box, is that, while it's very utilitarian in what it contains (dice, 1 rulebook, 1 adventure book, pre-gen character sheets), it feels very polished, especially for a product that I bought for less than $20. Some unique artwork on the covers would have been nice, but the booklets are otherwise great, with some good art inside of them. The pre-gen sheets are printed on a nice thick cardstock. It's not a set that screams PRODUCTION VALUES, but it is a set that screams professional, and is a cheap and accessible product. A lot of people were very, very satisfied with that little box.

Personally, I would have rather it not qualify for the nomination in "best family game," just because, while the box is marked "ages 12+", it's not really marketed as a FAMILY game. It's just a game. I'd rather see the products specifically geared towards families and kids get the recognition for that category. But, whatever. Maybe it's worth highlighting for people that, hey, D&D 5e really is accessible to your kids.

 

[PezlerPolychromatic]

No, I didn't post what I actually thought. That was the sugar coated version.

Still tastes pretty bitter to me

 

[Waller]

HOTOE losing out to the Starter set for production values kind of sets the tone for the multiple facepalms ..not surprising.

'Imma let you finish' was a classy move! - said by nobody, ever. Give 'em a day or two to enjoy it before bagging on it, eh? Jeez!

 

[Dracones]

I personally think WoTC hit a home run with 5E, so grats to them on winning a lot of awards. But awards systems are pretty hard to run well. Ennie looks like there are judges that gate the product categories and past that it's a popularity contest. So if a popular and well known product makes it past the judges it's probably a shoe in to win. In this case I think just being nominated is a pretty good kudos.

But on the other hand I personally hate how judge only award systems can turn very elitist and end up disconnecting from what your normal average Joe finds entertaining.

 

[JeffB]

'Imma let you finish' was a classy move! - said by nobody, ever. Give 'em a day or two to enjoy it before bagging on it, eh? Jeez!

Until delericho posted this reference a page back I would have no clue wtf you were talking about. But I'm not sure this is the same thing. This is a discussion forum post about the awards, not the awards themselves. Russ can feel free to delete my posts if he feels I am being out of line or move to the appropriate forum/thread. At any rate, as mentioned I have said what I need to, and the rest can go back to the positive only discussion preferred when discussing the ENnies in this thread.

 

[Redthistle]

Congratulations to all the winners!


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.

I already love D&D 5e, but a big THANK YOU to the comments extolling the quality of Horror on the Orient Express and A Red and Pleasant Land for bringing those games to my attention. I'm going to have to check them out.

 

[EthanSental]

Out of curiosity since I had never heard of HTOE before until the ennies, I checked out their webpage on the Chaosium site as well as their kickstarter campaign for it. How much of the 200K kickstarter funder pledge goals made it into the actual boxed set I can buy from store? All of them? Or was all that add on stuff just for the kickstarter people?
Good looking product if all the pledge goals are included. On the down side, if someone glanced at their site and all you see is the front and back cover of the box, those 2 pictures in and of itself won't win over people if all they can see are the front cover to the D&D boxed set to vote off of for their perceived production values (unless you like the train cover compared to the Dragon cover).
Thanks for the replies in advance for the HoTE stuff included in the store bought boxed set.

Edit - ouch just caught the $120 for the HoTE boxed set on the site. So its possible the majority of the voters for this product were the kickstarters which would be 1374 that funded it and also knew to vote compared to the more widely sold D&D Boxed set. I can see why it it came in second with that price tag, not a lot of people have it to knew the production value of it to vote for it. I was thinking of picking it up, but choosing not to for the $120 price range.