On being an ENnies judge

[Rasyr]

Well, IIRC, ICE sent in about 10 submissions for the different categories. If others submitted an equivalent number of entries, then I would hazard that they likely received a royal butt-load...

 

[Morrus]

Heh... putting out the praise thread BEFORE the nominations are announced and everyone decides you are a poopyhead for not nominating their (favorite) product. Clever.

Oh yes. That's to come! You know you love it!

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

I missed the JGK discussions - can someone point me in the right direction to catch me up to speed on what happened?

TIA

 

[BiggusGeekus]

without craning my neck or leaving me seat I can count over 80 products lying around.

So, 80+ times six ...

 

[Rasyr]

And that does not count the submissions that they received as PDFs....

 

[Piratecat]

I count about 118 paper products, about fifteen non-paper products, and several dozen pdfs - all of which we read and take notes on. I can't believe how much time it takes, and it kills me when I have nine really good products to fit into five slots! I'm looking forward to seeing the work come to fruition.

 

[Crothian]

I think I heard 54 publishers entering being bandied about this year. But I could be wrong!

final count is 56 publishers

 

[Crothian]

The submissions coordinator got six copies of every submitted item. I would then find five boxes, divvy up as much stuff as would fit, tape the boxes up and label them, and haul them to the local Mailboxes Etc. store and ship them to the other five recipients. I must have sent out four or five big waves of shipments over about a month's time.

So not only was I storing the submissions themselves, I was also storing empty boxes and packing materials, pre-printed labels, etc. And no, it didn't actually fill the entire room floor to ceiling.

I devoted my spare bedroom to this task and it was full fast. My mailwoman now refuses to say hi to me because of all the packages I got. I had my neibhors talking wondering what the heck all these boxes were doing coming to my house. My Fed Ex guy was non to happy when he had to deleiver 5 big boxes of books from White Wolf. I'll go into it all more later.

 

[Teflon Billy]

I'm glad the judging is over and that I can now get back to my regularly scheduled life

That said, this years overall level of quality was easily the equal of last years (and last year was considered by several of the Judges to be the beginning of a "Golden Age") so, though the workload was heavy, it was certianly not a "painful slog through mediocre work" or anything like it.

The sheer variety of stuff that got entered this year was refreshing (many, many non-D20 companies chose to submit their work) and, in much the same fashion as least year was "the Year of the Monster Supplement", this year could easily be called "The Year of the Setting"...which is fine, as settings are where my tastes lie anyways

I'm donating the balance of my review stuff to Piratecat (who intends to distribute it to the EN World volunteers), but I will likely hold a contest or two, as well as see that local Gaming Conventions recieve some of it as prizes.

Certain items you'll have to pry from my cold, dead fingers

Anyway, big thanks to my fellow judges...

Crothian: Who this year blossomed into an organizational demigod.I kid you not, the guy not only managed the mailout better than I have ever seen it done, but took it upon himself to monitor what still needed to be voted on in every category--and keep his fellow judges informed--until it was finished. All while maintaining a reading schedule that almost flattened, well, me

Piratecat: Who, in the face of near constant personal tragedy (it 's been a terrible year for you Kevin) managed to not only get his reading done, but contribute meaningfully to the discussions. It sounds like I am just recounting the job description, but given what else he had going on in his real life, anyone would've forgiven him had he dropped the ball.

He didn't

AlsiH2o: Not only was brought in as a replacemtn for Joe G Kushner on short noticve, Not only recieved his products late (cutting deep into his reading time) due to an inter-state change of residence, but managed to keep his sense of humour and get the job done when told "Tough Crap/Get to Work" when we were informed about his difficulties.

Cthulu's Librarian: I think that Rich was the only one for whom there was no outside crisis or "other than Judging" duties to throw him off the course (that we knew of anyways). He was, (like Charles Greathouse before him) the "rock" by which I steered my ship (i'm not going to call you a "Star" buddy). If Rich was not panicking, then there was no need to panic. If Rich thought the job was getting done in good time, then I could believe it was.

So yeah. To anyone reading this, I'll say : Start thinking of Haikus that have to do with Roeplaying.

I'm leaning towards that as my "Product Disposal" contest again this year.

 

[The Sigil]

Heh... putting out the praise thread BEFORE the nominations are announced and everyone decides you are a poopyhead for not nominating their (favorite) product. Clever.

All you guys are poopyheads for not nominating my favorite product... becuase HoHF: Dwarves wasn't eligible this year.

Seriously, thanks for all the hard work, gents. I am looking forward to the nominations list so I can start filling out my "stuff to put on my birthday/Christmas list"

--The Sigil