2005 GenCon ENnies

[Pramas]

I agree with the comments on best monster supplement being redundant...

See, one of the things I always liked about the ENnies was the way it broke things like monster books out into their own categories. The Origins Awards has had one category for all RPG sourcebooks (and it seems likely this year that adventures will get dumped into that category as well) and many times you are trying to compare apples to oranges.

I'm also in favor of keeping the various art/cartography/graphic design awards for similar reasons (and because the folks that make the books look good rarely get much recognition in awards, which are invariably organized by publishers and game designers).

 

[Red Spire Press]

See, one of the things I always liked about the ENnies was the way it broke things like monster books out into their own categories. The Origins Awards has had one category for all RPG sourcebooks (and it seems likely this year that adventures will get dumped into that category as well) and many times you are trying to compare apples to oranges.

To clarify, I think it would be fine to retain a best monster book award if there was, as you say, one award category for each type of sourcebook. It just seemed to stick out in the above list as it was the only specific category, alongside the very general campaign setting and rules supplement awards.

Edit: just noticed best adventure.

 

[Klaus]

But there is.

We already have Best Monster Book, Best Adventure, Best Rules Supplement, Best Campaign Setting/Setting Supplement.

If anything I'd like to add Best Editing to the mix, to show a little love for those often-underappreciated professionals that make books actually readable.

 

[Pramas]

If anything I'd like to add Best Editing to the mix, to show a little love for those often-underappreciated professionals that make books actually readable.

Yeah, the trouble is there's no way for the public to judge that. Unless you've seen the raw draft from the author and then the final edit, you can never really know how much work the editor did (or the developer for that matter). Editors and developers are some of the unsung heroes of our business, but the amount and quality of their work is hard to judge based on the finished product. Some authors turn over very clean manuscripts, others...don't.

 

[Vigilance]

Some authors turn over very clean manuscripts, others...don't.

*Gasp*

That is a scurrlious accusation if ever I heard one

Chuck

 

[Mouseferatu]

I have to say, as an author, that I don't want an award for "Best Author" or anything like that. Frankly, it's not sustainable.

Most RPG books have multiple authors. Are you going to ask the publisher to break down who wrote which part of each book nominated? That's an awful lot of extra work, and doesn't take into account development, editing, or the fact that many co-writers trade ideas (and even small sections of text) back and forth. Are you only going to judge books with a single writer? That unfairly eliminates the vast majority of the field. Are you going to judge based on which writer is on the most books that people nominated? That's biased against writers who don't/can't do this full time, or are simply less prolific or work for less-well-known companies.

Honestly, it just isn't a feasible award in any way I can imagine it. Whether that means you also shouldn't do individual artist awards or not, I leave in the hands of others. I just wanted to chime in with my opinions on trying to single out authors for awards. I'd love for us to get more acclaim that we do, both as a profession and individually. But this isn't the way to do it.

 

[Dextra]

Thanks, everyone!

Thanks everyone for taking the time to come back to the topic. There's a lot of talk going on backstage right now, and I'm trying to gauge the temperature a little before jumping in with a big splash. I've received some great ideas from publishers, ENWorlders, and judges, and am trying to take them all into consideration.

Here's my latest idea:

I would like to establish a core set of awards and their definitions that would be consistent from year to year. That way winning "Best Publisher" in 2005 would mean the same as winning it in 2002.

I think that the newly-elected judges should be able to modify the criteria for other categories, and possibly create new ones should they so choose, but the core categories should remain sacrosanct. In any case, (not including the Peer and Fan awards) I think we should really aim to keep below 20 awards. Anyhow, here's how I envision a breakdown...

CORE AWARDS
Best Art (Cover)
Best Art (Interior)
Best Cartography
Best Graphic Design & Layout
Best Cream
Best Crunch
Best Electronic Product
Best d20 Game
Best Game
Best Publisher

Personally, I like the idea of breaking down the individual components of what it takes to put together a book (I'd like to be able to award editing as well, but as it's been pointed out, it's very difficult to judge). That's why I want to keep the individual art/esthetic categories, and am suggesting the addition of best "cream" and "crunch"- ie. rewarding excellence in prose and game mechanics. We wouldn't award individual authors or artists, but the product in which their work appeared.

Maybe it's just because I've been acting as an art director for awhile, but I really think that the different factors that make a product great should be rewarded. They're certainly not going to be acknlowledged elsewhere!

BTW, the reason I think we should include best Electronic and d20 as separate categories is a nod to the history of the ENnies beginnings.

MUTABLE AWARDS
These ones depend upon what was released in the previous year, the whims of the judges, etc.
Best Licensed Product
Best Aid or Accessory
Best Adventure
Best Campaign Setting
Best Setting Supplement
Best Rules Supplement
Best Monster Supplement
Best N00B (newcomer publisher/game/author/artist/site)
Best Fan Site
Best Free Product or Web Enhancement

 

[Dextra]

Congrats on the head-honchoness, Dextra!

Thanks, Claudio!

Could you please email me denise@ambient.ca, btw?

 

[Dextra]

As for the old posts, just do a search for 2005 ENnies. That's what I did.

To increase awareness, I'd like to focus upon
-higher profile at GenCon (better looking booth, flyers/pamphlets, an award ceremony that'd attract more gamers)
-presence with retailers (most likely via stickers and other point of sale advertising for nominees and winners, work with distributors, etc)
-more publisher involvement (via a selection of ads for their sites & sigs)
-more awareness by gamers (mostly online advertising, but some work in gamer-related magazines)
(now I've shown you mine, you show me yours!)

This year's ENnies are open to all pen & paper RPGs (and their accessories/aids).

Winners would have the option of buying a trophy. That's already in place from last year's awards.

We probably can't sell anything at our booth. We may set up some auctions on e-bay and at the GenCon game auction, but I won't count upon that money. As for the shipping directly to the judges, that's something we're still working on: But either the publishers ship to the judges (meaning they get their products seen earlier, giving the judges more time to evaluate them and reducing stress levels, but an increased PITA factor for the publishers) or they'll have to pay an entrance fee to cover the shipping from one central location to all the other judges (less PITA factor for the publishers, but more for the judges as they get swamped with hundreds of products to evaluate all in two months).

One of the options considered was that the judges would have to pay for their own shipping, which would come out to around $150-$250 each. However, I would prefer it if affluence was not a determining factor for candidacy as a judge. I'd hate to see a judge only be able to afford to participate if, say, they accepted a contribution from a gaming company. I don't want to see bribery as part of the judge selection process.

I don't know exactly how it'll turn out (heck, we may offer publishers the choice of direct shipping OR central shipping + fee), but it is my final stance that it shall not be the burden of the ENnies to pay for the costs of publishers submitting product for consideration.

If we drastically reduce the trophy cost and eliminate the product shipping charges, then the ENnies can actually spend a little money on promotion and trying to address publishers' other concerns. No matter what, the ENnies have to pay for themselves from now on. They've come of age, and it's time to move out of the basement and into the limelight- and Big Daddy Morrus isn't going to bankroll this bastard child any more (other than publicizing it, and providing the voting mechanism and server space).

We're not going to have a separate fan's choice and judge's choice for each category. Too much PITA. More likely we'll have a Peer's Choice Award which is voted upon by publishers, judges, and select industry professionals, and a Fan's Choice "write-in" award for best game.

May I suggest providing links to those posts? I would do this myself, but EN World's site crawls for me. My questions/ideas:

-What do you plan on doing to increase public awareness? I have a lot of ideas, but I'm curious to know what your take is.

-Is this years Ennies open to all RPGs?

-Have you chosen the PR people? If not, are you taking resumes?

-I think a physical award should still be able to be purchased by any winner. I'd mark it up to ofset costs.

-Publishers shipping the products is going to raise some ire. To cut down on this, I would maybe suggest selling all of the products at the booth with a cut of the proceeds raised going to EN World. Might work, might not. I'm just tossing ideas.

-How do you plan on handling the Gold and Silver awards? I am of the firm opinion that there should be a People's Choice and a Judges Choice Award, but that is just me.

That's all for now.

Keep the suggestions coming, people, please. I probably won't comment upon them, but rest assured they're being read and considered. Also, feel free to email me your concerns at denise@ambient.ca by the end of the month.

 

[Jaws]

This year's ENnies are open to all pen & paper RPGs (and their accessories/aids).

Good luck on keeping this fair since this is still EN World - Morrus' D&D / d20 News & Reviews Site.