Monte Cook Presents the Year's best D20

[mearls]

I'm curious how he's going to fit the World's Largest Dungeon in that book...

Very, very small print.

More seriously, as the guidelines point out anyone who submits should highlight the areas of a book they feel are most interesting and noteworthy. This isn't "The Year's Best Books", it's more a selection of noteworthy and interesting mechanics and bits. It might be as little as a few feats from a book, or a couple spells. It won't be mass reprints of entire books.

Up front, Monte is not claiming that he is going to labor extensively over every book. The guidelines make it clear that publishers should help him out by highlighting the specific bits they want to put up for consideration. He also has four months to look over all the entrants, and he doesn't have to debate with four other people on which products should make the final cut. If people submit stuff early, he has even more time to look things over.

If you don't think this is fair, you can always choose not to enter. If I still wore my freelancer shoes, I'd see this as a good opportunity to make an impression not just with Monte, but with the many professional people who value his opinion. You can bet that people at WotC, Paizo. S&S, and so forth are going to take a look at this book. It's going to attract a fair amount of interest, and hopefully we'll do a good job of highlighting interesting, fun stuff.

 

[Monte At Home]

The amount of time needed to go over everything properly and evaluate it all fairly and accurately is certainly the aspect of the book that worries me the most. Having been assured time and again that the ENnies judges had no trouble doing basically the same thing in a month has helped convince me that I can get it all done. But just to be on the safe side, because I've had my concerns, I've given myself even more time. Who knows? Maybe I won't even need it. That would be cool.

I guess I'll just give it a shot. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I should think The Complete Book of Eldritch Might might take the cake!

 

[SemperJase]

I guess I'll just give it a shot. I'll let you know how it goes.

Cool. Monte's integrity is questioned and instead of flying off the handle like most people would, he answers calmly.

That's why he is an RPG professional.

 

[Umbran]

Cool. Monte's integrity is questioned and instead of flying off the handle like most people would, he answers calmly.

Well, I don't question that Monte is a professional. I am not sure his integrity was questioned, though. TB saw what seemed like a conflict of logic. There are a number of ways to resolve that conflict that have nothing at all to do with integrity.

And I can see why TB brought it up (it is implied in how he presented possibilities) - because it has revealed that Monte has been convinced that the Ennies judges can do the job. Showing that an industry leader who had questions can be convinced that such awards can be reasonable is a good thing for the Ennies

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

Just wanted to point out that all the "Year's Best" collections I know of are essentially the choices of one or two people -- Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, for example, could be titled "Year's Best According To Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling".

The decision to use a recognized name is a marketing decision alone. The stories in "Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine" were never chosen by Isaac, for example; he just wanted to see another SF magazine enter the market, and was convinced that by the magazine's marketing staff that putting his name on the cover would help establish the magazine.

In this case, I think the right marketing decision was made: Monte's name recognition ought to help a d20 Year's Best succeed, which is something I believe is good for the industry as a whole. His need not be the only one; SF publishing, which in many ways resembles a more-mature gaming industry, has at times supported three or four different collections of Year's Best's.

 

[Akrasia]

This whole endeavour reeks of both arrogance and self-promotion IMO. One person has set himself up as the judge of the 'best' in d20 for a given year. Sheesh. :\

 

[Crothian]

This whole endeavour reeks of both arrogance and self-promotion IMO. One person has set himself up as the judge of the 'best' in d20 for a given year. Sheesh. :\

Unless someone else comes out and does it better who's to say he's wrong? WE make best of lists here and EN World all tyhe time, this is just on a bigger scale with more complete imformation and a way to get it out to more people.

 

[Akrasia]

Unless someone else comes out and does it better who's to say he's wrong? WE make best of lists here and EN World all tyhe time, this is just on a bigger scale with more complete imformation and a way to get it out to more people.

The ENNies are based on the collective views of the various reviewers here.

In contrast, Monte Cook is one person, has his own company, and clearly has a well established name in the business. To set himself up as a judge of what is 'best' in the market can only help his own business, force others to curry favour with him, and reinforce his position as the 'authority' on d20.

It is a clever move on his part. But it reeks of arrogance and self-promotion nonetheless.

 

[Crothian]

He's not including anything from his own company, so there is no self promotion......