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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The_Universe" data-source="post: 3026237" data-attributes="member: 8944">I'm sorry, Dextra, but I still have to disagree. What about Mutants and Masterminds, then - the operative example from this last year? Although classified as a "D20" game for the 2006 Ennies, it is a complete game in and of itself, with character creation rules, etc., just as you mention. I don't think we should pretend that it "stole" any of the categories it was in - it's a really good game, and earned its accolades with that quality, even though it uses D20. Further, even if character creation and XP-equivalent tables were not present in the book, I think it's silly to deny that any of the wonderful D20 products out there aren't games - they are, and the license-demanded absence of a couple of tables does not change that status. Additionally, despite your implications to the contrary, its not really as if people writing for other game systems, with a few exceptions (like Dread) are writing their own systems from scratch, either. The guys working on Shadowrun 4E, for instance, were working from Shadowrun 3E, simply refining and expanding an existing ruleset. I can agree that D20 publishers (except companies like Malhavoc and the Game Mechanics, who have staff who DID originate the rules) didn't originate D20. But did the all the guys working on Promethean for White Wolf originate the WoD ruleset? Of course not! If D20 publishers are to be penalized for working with a pre-existing set of rules, ought we not also penalize the guys working on every other game based on pre-existing brands?  If you've really already decided to deny D20 products access to the Best Game Category (and it sounds like you have), I'd add my voice to the chorus of people asking that the category names be changed to reflect this fact. Just make it Best D20 and Best Non-D20, and then, theoretically, they can fight it out in "Best Product" for ultimate fun supremacy. All that said, I still don't think allowing D20 products to compete in the Best Game category does anything to diminish the award's prestige. If it is the best game, it ought to be treated as such, no matter what dice (or Jenga tiles, or playing cards, or whatever) it uses as a core mechanic. However, preventing D20 products from competing in the category could very well do just that. I think we need to face the fact that telling competitors and consumers that any game using the core D20 mechanic simply cannot be the best amounts to the pre-judged dismissal of an entire class of games. I think we're best off letting the judges and the voters make these decisions, rather than telling them what can and cannot be "the best" beforehand. Surely, thousands of players can better make that decision than a few of us?I know if I were writing Shadowrun, or WoD, or Artesia, or Mutants and Masterminds, etc., I'd want to win because (or in spite of the fact that) I'd been judged against other RPG's, not because I'd been declared champion of a category set aside because of a technicality based on task-resolution mechanics.Apart from that, though, as mentioned in my initial post here, I think most of your other innovations are just dandy! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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