Pages

The World of Georic 1989-Present

Thursday, April 23, 2015

2015 Origins Awards Nominees Announced

Yesterday, the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design announced the nominees for this year's Origins Awards.

Here's the list of nominees and, if I had a vote, who I would vote for:

Best Board Game
Abyss-Asmodee,
The Battle of Five Armies-Ares Games
Cash n Guns 2nd Edition
Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game
Sheriff of Nottingham
Sheriff looks nice, but I'll go with Cash n Guns 2nd Edition

Best Card Game
Among the Stars-Stronghold Games
Linko!-Ravensburger
Star Realms
Sushi Go!-Gamewright
Haven't heard of any of these, therefore I abstain.

Best Children’s, Family, & Party Game
Archer: The Danger Zone! Board Game- Cryptozoic Entertainment,
Gravwell: Escape from the 9th Dimension-Renegade Game Studios
The Hare and the Tortoise-Iello
Abstain again.

Best Collectible Card Game
Magic: the Gathering Khans of Tarkir- Wizards of the Coast
Pokemon XY Phantom Forces-The Pokemon Company Intl
Siege: Heart of Darkness-AEG
The Spoils-The Spoils USA
Khans is a pretty solid set...

Best Game Accessory
Battletech Lance Pack: Assault Lance- Catalyst Game Labs
Counter Ring-Crit Success LLC.
Pathfinder Battles: Reign of Winter Standard Booster 8 Ct. Brick-WizKids Games
Wings of Glory Mat-Ares Games
The resurgence of Lance sets in Battletech trumps  rings, mats, and pre-prainted minis.

Best Historical Board Game
Armada Invincible-Zvezda LLC
Heroes of Normandie-Iello
Last Chance for Victory-Multi-Man Publishing
1066, Tears to Many Mothers-Tristan Hall
Abstain

Best Historical Miniature Figure/Line
D-Day Firefight-Osprey Games/Warlord
Early Crusade & Outremer-Gripping Beast
Rorke’s Drift-Warlord Games
Sails of Glory Series 2-Ares Games
101st Airborne-Collectors Battlefield
The Rorke's Drift stuff is beautiful and all-encompassing for what it is.

Best Historical Miniature Rules
Across A Deadly Field: Regimental Rules for Civic War Battles- Osprey Publishing
The Crescent & The Cross- Studio Tomahawk/Gripping Beast
Lion Rampant: Medieval Wargaming Rules- Osprey Publishing
On the Seven Seas: Wargaming Rules for the Age of Piracy and Adventures c. 1500-1730-Osprey
Sails of Glory-Ares Games
From the plethora of gaming rule Osprey is publishing now, Lion Rampant another winner.

Best Historical Miniature Rules Supplements
Battleground Europe- Osprey Publishing/Warlord
Battlegroup Barbarossa-Ironfist Publishing
D-Day: Battle of Carentan-Collectors Battlefield
Flames of War: Barbarossa- Battlefront Miniatures
Bolt Action: Tank War- Osprey Publishing
I got nothing here.  Abstain.

Best Miniature Figure Line
Archangel Raphael-Dark Age
Dungeons & Dragons: Attack Wing-WizKids Games
Imperial Knight-Games Workshop
Kukulkani Cabrakan-Dark Age
Nagash-Games Workshop
Attack Wing wins simply by not being overdone.

Best Miniature Figure Rules
Battletech: Alpha Strike Companion-Catalyst Game Labs
A Fistful of Kung Fu- Osprey Publishing
Golem Arcana-Harebrained Schemes
Marvel HeroClix: Guardians of the Galaxy Starter Set- WizKids Games
Warhammer 40,000- Games Workshop
A Fistful of Kung Fu wins because I refuse to vote for another HeroClix retread, a highway robbery overprice GW retread, or the new Battletech rules that I've seen no one use.

Best Role Playing Game
Atomic Robo: The Role playing Game- Evil Hat Productions, LLC
Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook-Wizards of the Coast
Firefly Role-playing Game-Margaret Weiss Productions
ICONS: Superpowered Roleplaying: The Assembled Edition-Green Ronin
The Strange-Monte Cook Games LLC
I don't like 5e too much, but the Player's Handbook should win both fan favorite and peer awards.

Best Role Playing Supplement
D&D Monster Manual-Wizards of the Coast
Emerald City: Mutants & Masterminds- Green Ronin
Hobbit Tales: From The Green Dragon Inn-Cubicle 7
Mummy The Curse: Book of the Deceived-Onyx Path
The One Ring: Darkening of Mirkwood-Cubicle 7
The Strange: Bestiary-Monte Cook Games, LLC
As much as I was impressed by the PHB, the MM left me wanting more.  I haven't seen any of these books at cons or FLGS, so I will abstain.

While they took away the straight democratic voting of gamerdom years ago, they have left voting for the masses with a fan favorite award for each category.  The rest are voted on by the Academy of Adventure Gaming, so it's a peer based award that doesn't always award the big and ridiculously trendy games.

Of course, the whiners have already descended upon the news, claiming bias and decrying the omission of products.  Since I was informed yesterday that the "pay to play" rule (a company must submit product to the Academy to even be considered for a nomination) have been rescinded for awhile now, it's completely the ineptness of the Academy not knowing their own "industry" if something is missing.

If these are their choices, I liked it better when it was pay to play.

No comments:

Post a Comment