Being a collector of RPG's, I like to keep up with the publishers' goings on, and I spotted this article on the Sanguine Productions website. For those who aren't familiar with Sanguine, they publish Ironclaw and Jadeclaw (furry-type fantasy RPG's) with their own system.
http://www.d20zines.com/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=246
I find it interesting that the Academy is willing to carve out an exception in the criteria for Best Roleplaying Game just for d20 games when there already exists a category that they can compete in: Best Roleplaying Supplement.
In summary, to qualify for Best Roleplaying Game, an entry must be playable on its own and not dependent on another book. The example the Academy gives is that Vampire: the Dark Ages (which has its own setting chapter) would qualify as a standalone, while Delta Green (which requires the Call of Cthulhu main book) is a supplement.
d20-logo games, under this rule, don't qualify for Best Roleplaying Game. They, like Delta Green, have lots of new rules and stuff, but are still dependent on the WotC core books. There are exceptions, of course (Spycraft, for example), and OGL games (like Mutants & Masterminds) clearly qualify.
So I guess I'm coming down in support of Sanguine here. There are a lot of fine d20 products out there. But none of 'em qualify as standalone RPG's - they're d20 supplements. The only difference between, say, Dragonstar and and Delta Green is that in the case of the d20 book, it's published by a different publisher than the core game. And I don't see why that matters.
http://www.d20zines.com/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=246
I find it interesting that the Academy is willing to carve out an exception in the criteria for Best Roleplaying Game just for d20 games when there already exists a category that they can compete in: Best Roleplaying Supplement.
In summary, to qualify for Best Roleplaying Game, an entry must be playable on its own and not dependent on another book. The example the Academy gives is that Vampire: the Dark Ages (which has its own setting chapter) would qualify as a standalone, while Delta Green (which requires the Call of Cthulhu main book) is a supplement.
d20-logo games, under this rule, don't qualify for Best Roleplaying Game. They, like Delta Green, have lots of new rules and stuff, but are still dependent on the WotC core books. There are exceptions, of course (Spycraft, for example), and OGL games (like Mutants & Masterminds) clearly qualify.
So I guess I'm coming down in support of Sanguine here. There are a lot of fine d20 products out there. But none of 'em qualify as standalone RPG's - they're d20 supplements. The only difference between, say, Dragonstar and and Delta Green is that in the case of the d20 book, it's published by a different publisher than the core game. And I don't see why that matters.
