From a long and eclectic collection of nominees, the committee of the Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming selected five finalists that it believes best exemplified “excellence” in the field of gaming for its 2024 award. They are:
ADEPTICON
A miniatures games convention in the Midwest
Since 2003, Adepticon has grown from a 110-person event to over 8,000 attendees, making it the largest and most energized wargaming convention in the world. It offers tournaments and events for dozens of game systems and concentrates on attendee interaction, from basic painting lessons to full sculpting classes and everything in between. It shares tables and terrain with several other events throughout the year, adding to its efforts to support multiple charitable causes, some created in honor of past attendees. Games Workshop moved their premier painting competition (Golden Demon) there, attracting more people from around the world, and the convention’s upcoming move to the Baird Center (previous home to GenCon) in 2025 should cement its status.
Visit the Adepticon.org website.
AMI BAIO
A game designer and owner of Pink Tiger Games
Since 2018, when Ami designed her first game,
You Think You Know Me, she has been on a mission to share compassion and empathy through tabletop games. Her game mechanics are simple and straightforward, allowing players to focus on each other’s stories. Games like
Flatter Me, You Think You Know Me, and
Cloud Nine all encourage players to not only bring kindness to the table but to share parts of their lives and personalities in a manner rarely seen in tabletop gaming. Players, even when they are strangers, are often brought to tears of joy or nostalgia through her carefully crafted card games. In our current world, Ami’s games are more important and necessary than ever.
See Ami’s work at Pink Tiger Games.
FASTAVAL
An RPG and board game convention in Denmark
Fastaval is a roleplaying and board gaming festival that takes place yearly in Jutland, Denmark, and has developed an ever-evolving history of design innovation, playful spirit, and community-commitment. It features premiere, cutting-edge roleplaying and board games and provides a deep, novel, and supported experience to its game designers. A distinctive genre of one-shot-scenario roleplaying games — Danish Freeform — was birthed here, and these games have had a growing influence on European and North American design and play. It is 100% volunteer driven, and everyone who attends volunteers to make it happen. An event like no other, It has a delightfully eccentric culture and a pervasively joyful culture of play.
Learn more at Fastaval.dk
TTRPGS FOR TRANS RIGHTS IN FLORIDA
A charity bundle organized by Rue Dickey
Under the leadership of creator Rue Dickey, 254 tabletop roleplaying game creators banded together on itchi.io to offer over 500 different items — worth more than an aggregated $2,000 — for a suggested donation of only $5. Altogether, the bundle raised over $280,000 for the bundle’s charity partners: the Zebra Group (which provides services to LGBTQ+ youth, ages 13–24) and the Transinclusive Group (which advocates for equality for LGBTQ+ people in South Florida). This was another monumental show of force from our industry spaces — following on from 2022’s TTRPGs for Trans Rights in Texas — directed by strong leadership and displaying passion and love for the trans community.
See the campaign on Itch.io
UNITED PAIZO WORKERS
A workers’ union
As a union of workers at Paizo, Inc. (publisher of the Pathfinder and Starfinder roleplaying games), United Paizo Workers is the first of its kind in the tabletop roleplaying game industry. Organized as part of the Communication Workers of America’s CODE-CWA project to support workers in the tech and game industries who are organizing for change, United Paizo Workers was voluntarily recognized by Paizo management and ratified their first union contract with Paizo in 2023. In addition to achieving raises, expanded benefits, and enhanced protections for workers at Paizo, the union provides a voice for Paizo’s workers to communicate their needs to upper management and speak out about issues that matter to the union’s members.
Read the union’s statement at UnitedPaizoWorkers.org
