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Thursday, July 6, 2017

2017 Ennies Nominees Announced

If the Origins Awards kick off the Summer convention season, the Ennies, presented at GenCon, close them out.  Each are wildly subjective for their nominees and winners, despite pleas to the contrary.

Actual voting will take place from July 11th through the 21st.
(Edit: Voting is now open:  www.ennie-awards.com/vote/2017 )

I've been way out of the classic Gamer demographic for 20+ years, but my choices are marked.

Judges’ Spotlight Winners
Rippers Resurrected (Pinnacle Entertainment Group)– Stacy Muth
The Ninja Crusade 2e (Third Eye Games)– Jakub Nowosad
Tales from the Yawning Portal (Wizards of the Coast)– Kayra Keri Küpçü
Coriolis - The Third Horizon (Free League Publishing)– Kurt Wiegel
Broodmother Skyfortress (Lamentations of the Flame Princess)- Reece Carter
Yawning Portal could be used to describe my countenance from reviewing the Spotlight Winners. Slick packaging and one trick ponies weren't my thing in the last century, much less now.

Best Adventure
Dragon's Hoard (Green Ronin)
Doors to Darkness (Chaosium)
The Edom Files (Pelgrane Press)**
The Things We Leave Behind (Stygian Fox Publishing)
Blood in the Chocolate (Lamentations of the Flame Princess)

Best Aid/Accessory

13th Age Icon Tokens (Campaign Coins)
Kobold Guide to Plots & Campaigns (Kobold Press)**
Zombies!!! Official Board Game Soundtack(Midnight Syndicate)
Call of Cthulhu - Keeper's Screen Pack(Chaosium)
Pirate Coins (Norse Foundry, LLC)

Best Art, Cover

7th Sea: Pirate Nations (John Wick Presents)
Call of Cthulhu - Investigator Handbook(Chaosium)
Rifts®: Savage Foes of North America (PEG)**
Blue Rose: The AGE RPG of Romantic Fantasy(Green Ronin)
Torment: Tides of Numenera -- The Explorer's Guide (Monte Cook Games)
I barely give me vote to the Savage Rifts cover because a)it's so tiny on the cover it might as well be some Palladium interior stock art and b) none of those covers would make me want to pick them up off the shelf at an FLGS, or even click a link on a webstore.  

Best Art, Interior
Baby Bestiary Handbook Vol 2 (Metal Weave Games)**
Tales from the Loop - Roleplaying in the '80s That Never Was (Free League Publishing)
S. Petersen's Field Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors (Chaosium)
Gods of the Fall (Monte Cook Games)
Polaris RPG - Core Rulebooks 1 & 2 Deluxe Edition (Black Book Editions)

Best Blog
Loot the Room
Age of Ravens
Gnome Stew: The Gaming Blog
Cyclopedia
dicegeeks
Despite sharing Gnome in the title, I've grown unamused by the varying writers and topics.  Age of Ravens pleasantly shocked me by it's clean format and well-structured posts, even if I didn't have an initial interest in the topic.

Best Cartography
7th Sea: Map of Théah (John Wick Presents)
Rifts®: North America + Castle Refuge Poster Map (Pinnacle Entertainment Group)
Torment: Tides of Numenera -- The Explorer's Guide (Monte Cook Games)
Call of Cthulhu - Keeper's Screen Pack(Chaosium)
The Cursed Chateau (Lamentations of the Flame Princess)
Thanks, but no thanks

Best Electronic Book
The Things We Leave Behind (Stygian Fox Publishing)
Spirit of 77 -- A Very Special Episode: Masterpiece 77 (Monkeyfun)**
The Cthulhu Hack: The Haunter of the Dark (All Rolled Up)
Hubris: A World of Visceral Adventure (DIY RPG Productions)
Fragment (Imaginary Empire)

Best Family Game
Bubblegumshoe (Evil Hat)**
Masks: A New Generation (Magpie Games)
Epyllion: A Dragon Epic (Magpie Games)
Space Pirates the Musical (Orcs Unlimited)
Little Heroes (Mystical Throne Entertainment)

Best Free Product
7th Sea: Basic Rules (John Wick Presents)
City of Mist - Free PDF Starter Set (Son of Oak Game Studio)
Santa is Dead(In Search of Games)
Free RPG Day Flipbook - Swords Against the Dead and The Van Helsing Letter (Pelgrane Press)
Rockerboys & Vending Machines (Encoded Designs)**
I'll give 7th Sea some props for exactly what people want for a free Basic Rules pdf, clean and simple.  However, Rockerboys & Vending Machines is the greatest free RPG I've seen since Risus... and everything you probably ever need is on two whole pages.  

Best Game
Tales from the Loop - Roleplaying in the '80s That Never Was (Free League Publishing)**
7th Sea: Core Rulebook (John Wick Presents)
Timewatch (Pelgrane Press)
Bubblegumshoe (Evil Hat)
Sins of the Father (Third Eye Games)

Best Miniature Product
D&D Icons of the Realms: Adventurers' Campsite Premium Set (WizKids)
Achtung! Cthulhu Skirmish: Servitors of Nyarlathotep (Modiphius Entertainment)
Gen Con Legends Miniature Series - Ranger(Games & Gears)
Pathfinder Pawns: Villain Codex Box (Paizo Publishing)
Dungeons & Dragons: Molzur's Marvelous Miniatures (WizKids)
Here's the perfect example of the judge's only being to nominate what was submitted for review. There's a reason I usually buy historicals from small publishers at half the cost of these.

Best Monster/Adversary
Atlas of Earth-Prime (Green Ronin)
Eclipse Phase: X-Risks (Posthumans Studio)
S. Petersen's Field Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors (Chaosium)**
Veins of the Earth (Lamentations of the Flame Princess)
Fantasy AGE Bestiary (Green Ronin)

Best Podcast
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff**
RPG Academy
Ken and Robin are the Gold Standard of gaming podcasts, although I will now venture further forward once more into +1 Forward's backlog.

Best Production Values
Faith: A Garden in Hell - Starter Set (Burning Games)
Call of Cthulhu - 7th Edition Slipcase Set(Chaosium)
Polaris RPG - Core Rulebooks 1 & 2 Deluxe Edition (Black Book Editions)
Unknown Armies Deluxe Set (Atlas Games)
Baby Bestiary, Collector's Edition (Metal Weave Games)
This category is like "Largest Explosion in a Transformers Movie."  Unnecessary category.  I'll pass.

Best RPG Related Product
Call of Cthulhu: The Coloring Book (Chaosium)**
The ABCs of RPGs (Hunter Books)
Cinema + Sorcery (Green Ronin)
Dark Deeds (Games & Gears)
Kaiju Incorporated Card Game (Evil Hat)

Best Rules
7th Sea: Core Rulebook (John Wick Presents)
Rifts®: Game Master Handbook (Pinnacle Entertainment Group)
Adventures in Middle-Earth Player's Guide(Cubicle 7 Entertainment)
Veins of the Earth (Lamentations of the Flame Princess)
Bubblegumshoe (Evil Hat)**

Best Setting
Tales from the Loop - Roleplaying in the '80s That Never Was (Free League Publishing)**
Torment: Tides of Numenera -- The Explorer's Guide (Monte Cook Games)
Atlas of Earth-Prime (Green Ronin)
The Dark Eye: Aventuria Almanac (Ulisses North America)
Polaris RPG - Core Rulebooks 1 & 2 Deluxe Edition (Black Book Editions)

Best Supplement
The One Ring - Horse-Lords of Rohan(Cubicle 7 Entertainment)
Pulp Cthulhu (Chaosium)
Symbaroum - Advanced Player's Guide(Järnringen)
Cosmic Handbook (Green Ronin)
7th Sea: Pirate Nations (John Wick Presents)
No horse in this race for me.

Best Website
Tribality
Tabletop Audio
Elven Tower, RPG articles and cartography website
Dungeon Channel
Not voting here.  I already have a huge backlog of useful stuff from websites from five years ago, some of which are no longer active.

Best Writing
The Book of Changing Years (Pelgrane Press)
Tales from the Loop - Roleplaying in the '80s That Never Was (Free League Publishing)**
Unknown Armies Deluxe Set (Atlas Games)
Veins of the Earth (Lamentations of the Flame Princess)
The One Ring - Horse-Lords of Rohan (Cubicle 7 Entertainment)

Product of the Year
Tales from the Loop - Roleplaying in the '80s That Never Was (Free League Publishing)**
Veins of the Earth (Lamentations of the Flame Princess)
Bubblegumshoe (Evil Hat)
Polaris RPG - Core Rulebooks 1 & 2 Deluxe Edition (Black Book Editions)
7th Sea: Core Rulebook (John Wick Presents)
Rifts®: Game Master Handbook (Pinnacle Entertainment Group)
Doors to Darkness (Chaosium)
Torment: Tides of Numenera -- The Explorer's Guide (Monte Cook Games)
Timewatch (Pelgrane Press)
Atlas of Earth-Prime (Green Ronin)

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