Congratulations to the 2020 ENnies Winners!

In an online ceremony hosted by Robin D. Laws, Misha Bushyager, Kenneth Hite, Chris Spivey, and Mike Pondsmith, the RPG awards for 2020 were announced last night, with the gold award for Product of the Year going to MÖRK BORG by Free League Publishing (who also took home the gold for Best Game with their Alien RG).

Best Family Game / Product
Silver – Kids on Bikes: Strange Adventures Volume 2 (Renegade Games)
Gold – Jim Henson’s Labyrinth (River Horse)

Best Aid or Accessory
Silver – The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats (Loke Battlemats)
Gold – Deck of Many Animated Spells (Hit Point Press)

Best Online Content
Silver – RPG Writers Workshop (Scribemind)
Gold – The Monsters Know What They’re Doing (Saga Press)

Best Podcast
Silver – Red Moon Roleplaying
Gold – Asians Represent!

Best Monster/Adversary
Silver – Big Bad Booklet 1-6 (Hit Point Press
Gold – Mordenkainen’s Fiendish Folio, Volume 1: Monsters Malevolent and Benign (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Cover Art
Silver – The Ultraviolet Grasslands (Exalted Funeral Press)
Gold – Call of Cthulhu – Berlin the Wicked City (Chaosium)

Best Interior Art
Silver – Strata (Rowan, Rook and Decard)
Gold – The Ultraviolet Grasslands (Exalted Funeral Press)

Best Organized Play
Silver – Where Can She Be? (Robbie Pleasant)
Gold – Stygia Untamed (Greasy Snitches and Paul Gabat)

Best Free Game/Product
Silver – Tunnel Goons (Highland Paranormal Society)
Gold – TTRPG Safety Toolkit (Smooching Knife)

Best RPG Related Product
Silver – Session Zero (John C. Byram)
Gold – Absinthe in Carcosa (Pelgrane Press)

Best Electronic Book
Silver – Uncaged Volume III (Scribemind)
Gold – New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley 2nd Ed (Stygian Fox)

Best Layout and Design
Silver – A Pound of Flesh (Tuesday Knight Games)
Gold – MÖRK BORG (Free League Publishing)

Best Cartography
Silver – Jim Henson’s Labyrinth (River Horse)
Gold – Trilemma Adventures Compendium Vol 1 (Trilemma Adventures)

Best Rules
Silver – Zombie World (Magpie Games)
Gold – Thousand Year Old Vampire (Petit Guignol)

Best Writing
Silver – The Monsters Know What They Are Doing (Saga Press)
Gold – MÖRK BORG (Free League Publishing)

Best Adventure
Silver – Trilemma Adventures Compendium Vol 1 (Trilemma Adventures)
Gold – A Pound of Flesh (Tuesday Knight Games)

Best Setting
Silver – Arkadia – The Greek Setting for 5e (Arcana Games)
Gold – Call of Cthulhu: Berlin the Wicked City (Chaosium)

Best Supplement
Silver – Ironsworn Delve (Shawn Tomkin)
Gold – Delta Green: The Labyrinth (Arc Dream Publishing)

Best Production Values
Silver – Humblewood Box Set (Hit Point Press)
Gold – Thousand Year Old Vampire (Petit Guignol)

Fans’ Choice for Best Publisher
Gold – Free League Publishing

Best Game
Silver – MÖRK BORG (Free League Publishing)
Gold – ALIEN the Roleplaying Game (Free League Publishing)

Product of the Year
Silver – Thousand Year Old Vampire (Petit Guignol)
Gold – MÖRK BORG (Free League Publishing)

Judges’ Spotlight Awards
Sleepaway (Jay Dragon)
Glitter Hearts (Greg Leatherman)
Refractions in Glasston (Taylor University PWR Press, Sam Guinsatao, Carson Jacobs, T.R. Knight, Joy Lemont, Elijah Oates, Rayce Patterson, Emily Pawlowski, J. Tucker White)
Knarls Candy Compendium (Makenzie De Armas, Levi Phipps)
Hit the Streets, Defend the Block (Rich Rogers)

 

[volanin]

Monsters Know What They're Doing is $14 (52% off) on Amazon today.
It's a steal for this 560-page book.

Non-affiliate link:
The Monsters Know What They're Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters (1): Ammann, Keith: 9781982122669: Amazon.com: Books


Also, Thousand Year Old Vampire has free community copies available on the Author's website.
Although it'd be really awesome if you could afford the $15 asking price for the PDFs.

Author's site link:
Thousand Year Old Vampire by timhutchings


These are the two that interested me the most.
(And Trilemma Adventures... just check out those maps... it's amazing!)

 

[Espadadelaaurora]

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees, really great stuff in there!

Really happy for Free League and the Alien Rpg, absolutely love that game!.

 

[imagineGod]

Should gold not be listed above silver if we follow the sporting standards like in the Olympic games?
Because, when I ran a quick search for Alien I saw it below Mork Borg and panicked (so Alien) then saw the silver and gold tagging.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I have been DMing for decades, and The Monsters Know What They're Doing has been invaluable for me, especially when dealing with veteran players who are definitely going to wreck the monsters otherwise. The description of tactics and the culture and personality they imply are great.

 

[imagineGod]

I have been DMing for decades, and The Monsters Know What They're Doing has been invaluable for me, especially when dealing with veteran players who are definitely going to wreck the monsters otherwise. The description of tactics and the culture and personality they imply are great.

I was tempted to pick that up, then thought it was an old OSR type product and skipped it. Now, will look into it again.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

No, it's all built on the 5E monster books. The website is free and definitely worth reading.

 

[jaycrockett]

Can’t believe I didn’t know about Zombie World. That’s like my dream game come true, rules wise.

 

[Rygar]

I've never heard of or seen almost all of these products. Should I be delving more into these obscure RPGs?

Almost no one has, which is what makes this so incredibly bizarre. The number of RPG players who could name anything on this list is probably vanishingly small.

I have to wonder what the point of Ennies is if their nominees and winners are so disconnected from the market? They can't even make the claim that they're "Introducing titles to the RPG masses" because they're so disconnected from the RPG masses that there's pretty much a 0% chance the average RPGer is going to think the Ennies are anything they should bother watching/reading.

Looking over their page, it's worse than I thought. Not only all of the above, but their judges are a list of people no one knows and no real reason why they should, and their hosts are a list of people who aren't going to generate any excitement.

Just seems like a top to bottom mess.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Almost no one has, which is what makes this so incredibly bizarre. The number of RPG players who could name anything on this list is probably vanishingly small.

I don't think you should extrapolate your own experience out to cover all of gamerdom like that.

I don't consider myself an especially hardcore gamer and I knew the following products:

• Kids on Bikes
• Labyrinth
• Deck of Many Animated Spells
• RPG Writers Workshop
• The Monsters Know What They're Doing
• Mordenkainen's Fiendish Folio
• Ultraviolet Grasslands
• Uncaged
• Mork Borg
• Trilemma
• Arkadia
• Humblewood
• Alien RPG

If you read the front page of EN World even once a week you would know almost all of those, and if you supplemented that by checking DMs Guild and Drive Thru RPG every few weeks to see what's new and hot, you would know all of them.

Most of these have been the focus of their own threads on ENWorld or RPG.net or both as well.

Based on write-ups at EN World, I now own Kids on Brooms (the magical school spin-off of Kids on Bikes) and have pre-ordered the Alien RPG starter set. I also am participating in the RPG Writers Workshop and routinely use the Monsters Know What They're Doing. I also threw a few bones to the indie publishers who came out with Mordenkainen's Fiendish Folio last year.

 

[ruemere]

Almost no one has, which is what makes this so incredibly bizarre. The number of RPG players who could name anything on this list is probably vanishingly small.

I have to wonder what the point of Ennies is if their nominees and winners are so disconnected from the market? They can't even make the claim that they're "Introducing titles to the RPG masses" because they're so disconnected from the RPG masses that there's pretty much a 0% chance the average RPGer is going to think the Ennies are anything they should bother watching/reading.

Looking over their page, it's worse than I thought. Not only all of the above, but their judges are a list of people no one knows and no real reason why they should, and their hosts are a list of people who aren't going to generate any excitement.

Just seems like a top to bottom mess.

In that case this is a golden opportunity for you to broaden your perspective, and also to share something of your likes for this year.

Note: I already own most of the stuff on this year's list.