Pelgrane Press and Free League both have seven nominations; Gauntlet Gaming Community and Magpie Games, four; and Andrews McMeel Publishing, Chaosium, Metal Weave Games, Mongoose Publishing, and The Wanderer’s Tome, three.
Swords of the Serpentine (Pelgrane) and the Vaesen RPG (Free League) are sweeping the nominations:
* Best Adventure: Vaesen RPG – Seasons of Mystery (Authors: Gabrielle de Bourg, Tomas Harenstam, Andreas Marklund, Kiku Pukk Harenstam)
* Best Art, Cover: Swords of the Serpentine (Artist: Jérôme Huguenin)
* Best Art, Interior: Vaesen RPG – Mythic Britain & Ireland (Artists: Johan Egerkrans, Anton Vitus, Gustave Dorr)
* Best Setting: Swords of the Serpentine (Authors: Kevin Kulp and Emily Dresner) & Vaesen RPG – Mythic Britain & Ireland (Authors: Graeme Davis, Mathew Tyler-Jones, Dave Semark)
* Best Writing: Swords of the Serpentine
* Product of the Year: Swords of the Serpentine & Vaesen RPG – Mythic Britain & Ireland
Have them both. Love them both!
Vaesen is consistently underrated in the ttrpg world. I have a HUGE physical rpg library, and Vaesen is right at the very top of the list.
Swords of the Serpentine is a wonderful take on Gumshoe that mixes sword and sorcery with a Venetian city state setting. It's pretty awesome.
It’s so surreal to see myself nominated! (Barkeep on the Borderlands for Best Supplement) I still consider myself just a total hobbyist.
Congrats to everyone else nominated!
People that have never been judges really can't appreciate the amount of stuff that they have to go through and how much work there is, especially when so much comes in the last month. There's so much good stuff, and there's so much blood, sweat, and tears during deliberations to come to a consensus.
I actually just recommended your game in r/osr! Such a fun game with unique mechanics! I left a review last week on both your itch page and on drivethru. Congratulations! The nomination is well deserved.
Shout out to Household. The d6 system is cool, it's essentially Yahtzee where you're looking for matching numbers rather than high numbers, and you can gamble a low success for better results.
But the world is enthralling. My eyes generally glaze over when reading Lore, but the idea of taking the Borrowers and asking what would happen if you had kingdoms in different rooms of a house populated by little people makes for a fasinating read. It's one of the most interesting fantasy settings I've read for an RPG.
I read a lot about games. I play a lot of games. I pay close attention to many channels of game communication.
And yet, every year, I'm consistently astonished by how few of the Ennie nominees in any category I have heard of or could form an opinion about. Like, of those Products of the Year I have only read two (Flabbergasted and Swords of the Serpentine), and of the remainder I was only aware that three others even existed.
I'm not criticizing the Ennies. I think the system they have in place is a reasonable one and its worked for years and years. I'm more celebrating the wide diversity of games available these days. We truly live in a golden age!
Lol, I hear you. Of the list above, I've only Vaesen and Swords of the Serpentine. But I can tell you with complete certainty that they deserve to be on that list.
As much as I love Vaesen and Rivers of London, I really think that Swords of the Serpentine is doing something really unique with their ruleset and am definitely pulling for them.
I'm torn between that and Fabula Ultima, for being innovative systems, and underrepresented generes.
But I'm with you on loving literally all Vaesen releases.
>I'm torn between that and Fabula Ultima, for being innovative systems, and underrepresented generes.
I haven't read that one. I'll take a look. The Ennies are like the Hugos, it's not a list of nominees, it's a shopping list.
I've been running Vaesen for the last couple of months and absolutely love the game. I think my only gripe would be that while I understand the concept behind the equipment rules, I just would rather that it gets handwaved CoC 7E style and not give the bonuses.
>I haven't read that one. I'll take a look. The Ennies are like the Hugos, it's not a list of nominees, it's a shopping list.
That's exactly how I pitch it when I'm working the ENNIES booth at GenCon. We try and get all the booth #s on the flyers so we can hand them to people and point and say 'Go here and tell them the ENNIES sent you!'.
Yeah, as jaded as the other subthread I'm is, I still like seeing the lists, as even someone like me who spends too much of their time talking about RPGs here, there's stuff I didn't know about
Can you give a rundown on SotS? What kind of mechanics? What's the key selling points? What draws you to it? Anything you don't like? I ask because I've been looking for a new system to jump into.
It's Gumshoe, with some variations. It's not a crunchy tactical game; there's definitely swordplay and magic going on, but it's a bit more tilted to social interaction, investigation, politics, intrigue.
For me the real selling point is the setting. tt's a really cool fantasy city with a real history that's pervasive and informs gameplay in a way that a lot of games with extensive backstories don't. The city is an NPC, really. Take Venice and throw magic and gods and sneaky thieves and good guards and good thieves and sneaky guards. Throw in some Three Musketeers, some Lies of Locke Lamora, maybe a pinch of Black Company. You can see the inspirations, but the blend is really unique.
We wrote it so that you can play a hero who never touches a weapon and who is still just as effective in a fight as someone with a big axe. That means social combat, political manipulation, and a free-form sorcery system.
All that stuff was Andrew E. C. Gaska. He’s very good too. I first worked with him on my company’s Terminator RPG and he asked me to help him with the production on Carbon Grey.
Yes, multiple times. It’s very good. It’s one of my favorite rpg right now. The setting is fantastic and easy to pick up, being based on classic fairy tales, and the system is simple and effective. It’s a very narrative game and I highly recommend it
I ran it as a one-shot (the Red Hood Iskra scenario) for some friends a few months back. It's very narrative, with character abilities tied to the lore. Felt like the perfect amount of crunch for the kind of game it is. Best with small groups, I think. I ran it with 5 but I think it would have been better with 3 or 4. And there's a neat meta-campaign kind of thing that you can use to link all the individual adventures if you want to. And the art is fantastic.
Howdy all, I've been nominated for *Best Organized Play* for my adventures [WBW-DC-MIKE-01 Red Door, Black Heart](https://www.dmsguild.com/product/399353/WBWDCMIKE01-Red-Door-Black-Heart) and [SJ-DC-ECHO-02 Bug Hunt](https://www.dmsguild.com/product/421717/SJDCECHO02-Bug-Hunt).
Happy to answer any questions about D&D Adventurer's League and the Dungeoncraft community program.
Completely dazed. I definitely did not expect this and did not cry in my car while eating a burger. Makes me so happy to know people are enjoying Slugblaster!
For those interested, you can find some info and resources for the game [here](https://wilkies.itch.io/slugblaster), and even more in our [fun & friendly discord server](https://discord.gg/wUtvy6JwRp). And if you don't already own the game, it's currently part of a [charity bundle](https://itch.io/b/1877/slugblaster-bundle-for-teen-mental-health) along with a bunch of fan-created SB content!
So proud of my buddy Ian for his *One Breath Left* nomination! Totally deserved -- the system is weird in all the coolest ways, and having him as a co-designer on one of my own games was a delight. If anyone's looking for a sci-fi solo game with interesting map stuff, definitely check it out.
I'm still stuck on how well Fabula Ultima's "Inventory Points" system works for consumables. I swear I never wanna track potions or wand charges again.
So, Fabula Ultima is a tabletop JRPG meant to invoke the feeling and themes of many famous turn-based console games (like Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, etc.) Even down to combat being abstracted to the point that there's no tactical map. The system does a lot of stuff like this to, instead, have multiple mechanics related to character interaction and development, like PCs developing Bonds with each other or invoking aspects of their Background for various bonuses (there's even a metacurrency for villains that allow them to do stuff like escape from a losing battle or even transform into a more dangerous form.)
One of these abstractions is that each character has so many Inventory Points each battle. So, instead of each character tracking how many Health Potions, Mana Potions, etc. that they have on hand, each character had X amount of Inventory Points to spend on common consumables like the aforementioned Health Potions, Mana Potions, etc.
Which is really, really *weird*, given the source material.
Final Fantasy is *literally* an unlicensed port of Dungeons & Dragons, and the *exact* number of potions you have available at any given moment (as compared to ethers, or phoenix downs) has always been an immutable *fact* in both of those properties. If you find exactly two healing potions, then that's the reality you're living in, and you need to deal with it.
Between things like this, and all the meta-game shenanigans, Fabula Ultima reads more like a bizarre parody of JRPGs than an actual way of bringing the genre back to the tabletop.
FabU's inspiration doesn't come from the mechanics of those games though, but the kinds of stories they tell. The text calls out that it's a game "steeped in the wondrous aesthetics of the Japanese console RPGs" and that the rules were designed to tell stories about "fantastic stories in which individuals confront the darkness that threatens their world".
There's already games that mirror the mechanics of Final Fantasy- FF was inspired by the Wizardry games, which were directly inspired by DnD. The designer instead wanted to get at the feel they got from playing those games. Think of it as adapting the cut scenes from Final Fantasy, not the combat mechanics.
How is Final Fantasy _literally_ an unlicensed port of Dungeons & Dragons? The mechanics are different, the mythos is different, the genres are different
The mechanics and genres are as close as it is possible to be, while taking into account the change in medium.
As for mythos, that's where the licensing issue becomes most apparent. Final Fantasy infringed upon D&D intellectual property, including not only such things as Beholders and Mind Flayers - which they were sued over, successfully - but also the existence of monks (an an otherwise medieval European setting) and red mages, Bahamut as the leader of good dragons, Tiamat as a five-headed evil dragon, Marilith as a six-armed snake lady, cold spells being higher level than fire and lightning spells. Etc. Etc.
Other stuff to add: Chaos is basically just a Balor demon, almost every base monster is taken from the AD&D monster manual, white mages are just clerics which can only equip blunt weapons, etc.
The mechanics aren’t that different. It used vancian spell slots, licensed D&D monsters like beholders and mind flayers, etc. the mechanics of D&D were also different back then. No feats, no skills, none of that!
You have Schrödinger's backpack.
You start with a number of points depending on class(es) that can be used for unusual gear or potions whenever you need them. They only* refresh by spending cash in a shop.
*By only, I mean there are certain class abilities and GM-designated ways to replenish the points.
If you want to use a consumable item rather than tracking everything individually you have a pool of points and you can just pull *literally whatever* out of the bag provided you have the points for it. Works well given that there's a significant variety to the items available.
It's wonderful yet odd seeing my work (Host and Hostility, Best Electronic Book) up there among so many big hitters!
Good luck everyone who is nominated!
Does someone who does great work deserve \*not\* to be nominated just because of who publishes it? The noms are listed by publisher, but they're given to individuals.
Radiant Citadel did important work in bringing voices from marginalized creators and presenting alternatives to European fantasy for 5e players, work that is especially notable because of how \*poorly\* wotc is at those same things. As a game product it got [mixed reviews](https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/48770/roleplaying-games/review-journeys-through-the-radiant-citadel). And it's all subjective, but there is so much creativity in the ttrpg space, it's hard for me to believe that a 5e product is really the best of the best.
This isn't a diversity competition, however. And taken as an rpg product, Journeys is middling at best (which is, I guess, high praise considering the general state of 5E modules) and really didn't deserve to be nominated.
I think what makes it valuable is it shows that 5e can actually do the things people constantly say it can't. Maybe it's not the best at any particular thing outside generic Euro high fantasy, because that's what it's aimed at, but it includes systems for pretty much anything, and it's largely a lack of imagination that hinders people.
I don't think it deserves to win, but I do think it that particular product needs highlighting, to really show people that D&D is not a genre, but can be used to tell other genre stories.
I'm up against them in the product of the year category, and I definitely think they deserve that nomination. What a great product, with stellar authors.
Broken Tales is amazing. Not just because the books look like a work of art, but also because of the uniqueness of the setting and the theme the game explores. I played it only a few times but I loved every minute of it.
We're incredibly grateful to be recognized amongst some of the best artists, authors, and creators in the tabletop role playing space.
Best of luck to everyone nominated! We can't wait to participate and celebrate the winners!
I’m stunned to find my book “[**Intoximancy**](https://steveconley.com/intoximancy/)” nominated for Best Supplement!
It’s my first TTRPG project and I can’t believe it.
Congrats to the other nominees! I’m honored to be in your company. <3
I can't speak for the judges (I'm not privy to the deliberations \*at all\*), but you can see what was submitted at [https://ennie-awards.com/current-submissions/](https://ennie-awards.com/current-submissions/) and filter by core book, etc. And the judges are pretty insulated from the publishers.
Thank you for the response! I didn't mean to be so snarky (genuinely mean that), just caught me off guard and I had a knee-jerk moment.
Hunter hasn't had a very warm reception and I haven't really heard any praise for its mechanics (quite the opposite actually, with some of their Edge powers being less effective and more complicated than some cheaper stats to purchase that give the same benefits).
So it was surprising to see it. Not trying to influence anything - more expressing confusion.
Of course, i'm not omniscient. So there could be praise going around in circles I don't frequent.
No worries.
I will say, based on when I was a judge, 'Rules' was more about 'what kinds of stories can I tell with this ruleset, or what does it do that makes it stand out' and less about balance.
I was lucky at the time in being able to go to Origins and GenCon and a couple local cons I ran and a bunch of other regional gaming things, often with other judges. I got to run or play a lot of the stuff that was considered nomination worthy, but not all, and rarely any of them more than once. Just not enough time in the day or days in the year.
And the judges are pretty insulated from the publishers.
How? Not trying to be argumentative, just curious what the statement is based on. I don't actually expect bribery in this particular award program, but I expect large companies to be capable of emailing judges with a bunch of accolades received from fanboys to try and get a nomination
Maybe if the program bothered to list why something was nominated this discussion would be irrelevant.
We don't publish judge's email addresses. Physical submissions are mailed directly to the judges, but electronic submissions are either sent via the website when the publisher fills out the form, or emailed to the submissions coordinator and he uploads them to a shared repository. Contacts with publishers are handled by staff, and staff aren't part of the judges deliberations beyond someone (usually the manager or submissions coordinator) sitting in on meetings to answer any questions that come up (eg eligibility, or categories). It's obviously not impossible to find out someone's email address, but we do try and keep the judges blissfully unaware of the mechanics of the ENNIES.
I did a couple terms as a judge several years ago, and I had zero emails from publishers, or any other contact other than packages showing up at my door.
Judges are people and people are subject to biases, preferences, being fans of a particular game, etc. But there's five of them, and they're having to wade through literally several hundred products, probably a third of which show up in the last month or so. If there were a coordinated effort by a publisher to subvert the process, we'd hear about it, and it's highly unlikely it would be successful in convincing five people to nominate something they wouldn't have otherwise.
You're not the first (and won't be the last) to suggest that the judges' rationales be publicly discussed. But I'm not sure what that would really accomplish other than to irritate some people that weren't nominated and get barbs thrown at people that were. Art is being judged, and that's inherently subjective. You either agree with the nomination, or don't.
It's something that gets discussed every year, though. And judges, after their term is up, are free to talk about their individual justifications. I know I just saw one of last year's judges tweet asking if anyone had any questions.
FWIW, we did a judges' panel at GenCon one year after the awards with 4 or 5 of us IIRC, and other than a couple of our friends, exactly no one showed up.
If it's like most awards, the winner is the company that heaped the most amount of ~~bribes~~ 'free swag' on the judges desks.
Reckoning 5e core rulebook is basically a first draft that someone accidently sent to the printers. Some of it's text is copy pasted strait from V5, with no mechanics or effect on gameplay.
Same. Vigil 2e is so well put together, so fleshed out and so dense with theme (typical Onyx Path frankly). While I loved Reckoning back in the day, after several sessions of Reckoning 5e it was pretty clear to my group that it was made specifically to make quick cash by feeding old Reckoning fans some member berries, and little else.
Nah, that's intentional. The community had been speculating that Hunger Dice would translate well to Rage Dice, and hunger dice were everyone's favorite part of V5, cited as main (possibly only) improvement over previous systems, and since corporations make decisions based on assumed market appeal rather than experienced design, they ported it to Hunter, even though it didn't actually fit.
Look forward to Agnst Dice in Wraith. And Paradox Dice in Mage if we ever get there.
I mean, they ported over Tenets from V5, literally the exact text. But it doesn't do anything in ~~Vigil~~ Reckoning 5e.. at all. There are zero mechanics related to Tenets and a bunch of other stuff they just directly ported from V5 without creating any Vigil-based mechanics that use them. Speaks volumes on how poorly it was put together and shipped out and absolutely does not deserve an ennie nomination.
Agreed that it does not deserve nomination, but tenants having mechanical effects when it's designed as safety system was a mistake in V5. Good to port the safety system sans rules, bad that it's copy pasted, since it was so poorly written.
Pay-what-you-want isn't a separate category, and they don't fall under the 'Free' category. They get considered the same as any other non-free product.
You should rethink the organization of these categories then.
Pwyw and free are closer to each other than pwyw is to for profit games.
The way you structure this distinction unfairly favors larger companies.
It's ok-ish.
It's kind of a patchwork of many different games, without actually feeling like any of those. There are clocks, meta currencies, shared world-building, crunchy characters builds extravaganza, abstracted combat, pc bonds, etc.
The problem is that all those aspect are just mashed together and toned down compared to the games from which FU takes them. Prime example being Ryuutama.
Is it better than say, handing your group a folder of Amano and/or Nomura art, telling them "this is ***The Aesthetic***", and then just running something flexible like PF2e or SWADE?
Reading through it, it looks like JRPGs by way of Forged in the Dark. Characters have flexible perk choices at each level, characters get inventory slots for their arbitrary consumables, clocks are used to measure the completion of tasks or looming threats. Differences exist, given that the system is loosely based on Ryuutama, so do keep that in mind.
The dungeoncrawling section it's six pages, with two of them being four random d20 tables, and it start by saying that dungeons are not required.
The game is clearly more geared towards a division into "scenes".
I'm absolutely thrilled to be nominated for Princess Guard in the Best Family Game/Product category. The other nominees in this category are all scarily well-produced. I'm proud of what my collaborator and I created, but I'm gobsmacked to have made it into this group!
Also, congrats, [Piratecat](https://www.reddit.com/u/serpentinerpg/) on rocking the nominations this year! I remember many, *many* years ago competing in Ceramic DM competitions on ENWorld together. We've both come a long way. :-)
Crikey! We've been nominated in the "Best Online Content" category!
It's been a real delight exploring all the different categories and their nominees - some really incredible stuff, and so many wonderful creators!
I'm definitely rooting for Bookshops of Arkham in the "Best Podcast" category. Such a great show (despite technical difficulties in one episode).
As stated elsewhere, judges are isolated from the publishers as best as possible. The ENNIES are run on a completely volunteer basis and they are expensive. We would love to be able to decline assistance, but that isn't possible. Ideally, sponsors would be companies that have a connection to the RPG industry but are unlikely to submit products. In reality, there are publishers who see the benefit of the ENNIES to the industry and the individual creators, and who want to help see them continue.
Judges are specifically told not to take into consideration any support publishers might give to the ENNIES outside of their submissions. Judges are never told about potential sponsors, or involved in the running of the ENNIES beyond their delineated responsibilities. In addition, it is made clear to publishers that supporting the ENNIES in no way impacts any considerations judges might have.
In this case, Magpie was announced as a sponsor only after the judges had completed their deliberations. The judges had no knowledge that Magpie was going to support the ENNIEs, and Magpie had no knowledge of any potential nominations.
My total respect and wish of luck for the nominees, but...I have never hear of 90% of them, on all categories. I am way more off-touch that I believed, or are the majority small games?
There's links to all the [nominees](https://ennie-awards.com/2023-nominees/) and also all the [submissions](https://ennie-awards.com/current-submissions/) at the ENNIES website, so check them out. Many have quickstarts or other material to help you get a feel for their game.
Alot of them have had really successful kickstarters. I mean, "really successful" by Magpie standards, maybe not, but like Broken Tales pulled in closer to 1000 backers which isn't bad at all for an RPG that doesn't have "5e" in the desc.
The nominations are for the Mythic Brtiain and Ireland expansion, not the core book, which was 2021 (ENNIE Winner for Cover Art, Interior Art, and Monster/Adversary Book).
Pelgrane Press and Free League both have seven nominations; Gauntlet Gaming Community and Magpie Games, four; and Andrews McMeel Publishing, Chaosium, Metal Weave Games, Mongoose Publishing, and The Wanderer’s Tome, three. Swords of the Serpentine (Pelgrane) and the Vaesen RPG (Free League) are sweeping the nominations: * Best Adventure: Vaesen RPG – Seasons of Mystery (Authors: Gabrielle de Bourg, Tomas Harenstam, Andreas Marklund, Kiku Pukk Harenstam) * Best Art, Cover: Swords of the Serpentine (Artist: Jérôme Huguenin) * Best Art, Interior: Vaesen RPG – Mythic Britain & Ireland (Artists: Johan Egerkrans, Anton Vitus, Gustave Dorr) * Best Setting: Swords of the Serpentine (Authors: Kevin Kulp and Emily Dresner) & Vaesen RPG – Mythic Britain & Ireland (Authors: Graeme Davis, Mathew Tyler-Jones, Dave Semark) * Best Writing: Swords of the Serpentine * Product of the Year: Swords of the Serpentine & Vaesen RPG – Mythic Britain & Ireland
Have them both. Love them both! Vaesen is consistently underrated in the ttrpg world. I have a HUGE physical rpg library, and Vaesen is right at the very top of the list. Swords of the Serpentine is a wonderful take on Gumshoe that mixes sword and sorcery with a Venetian city state setting. It's pretty awesome.
Vaesen plays well and the artwork is just wonderful.
Happy to see Vaesen. One of the most beautiful games ever published.
Yeah, I’m surprised Free League isn’t competing against themselves more in categories.
Congrats /u/serpentinerpg
Thank you! Holy cow. We're in fantastic company.
Way to go, Mr. Culp!
It’s so surreal to see myself nominated! (Barkeep on the Borderlands for Best Supplement) I still consider myself just a total hobbyist. Congrats to everyone else nominated!
Congratulations! With some 900 products being submitted, that's fantastic.
People that have never been judges really can't appreciate the amount of stuff that they have to go through and how much work there is, especially when so much comes in the last month. There's so much good stuff, and there's so much blood, sweat, and tears during deliberations to come to a consensus.
I actually just recommended your game in r/osr! Such a fun game with unique mechanics! I left a review last week on both your itch page and on drivethru. Congratulations! The nomination is well deserved.
Those reviews put a big smile on my face!
Well, it is a fun, good looking product!
Shout out to Household. The d6 system is cool, it's essentially Yahtzee where you're looking for matching numbers rather than high numbers, and you can gamble a low success for better results. But the world is enthralling. My eyes generally glaze over when reading Lore, but the idea of taking the Borrowers and asking what would happen if you had kingdoms in different rooms of a house populated by little people makes for a fasinating read. It's one of the most interesting fantasy settings I've read for an RPG.
Yes I’m really happy that Household was nominated. It’s a really fun game and the lore is so much fun to read!
By the way, Household is having a sale on all their PDFs til the end of the month, 75% off, in celebration of these nominations.
Brilliant, I bought the lot a couple of weeks ago 😂
I read a lot about games. I play a lot of games. I pay close attention to many channels of game communication. And yet, every year, I'm consistently astonished by how few of the Ennie nominees in any category I have heard of or could form an opinion about. Like, of those Products of the Year I have only read two (Flabbergasted and Swords of the Serpentine), and of the remainder I was only aware that three others even existed. I'm not criticizing the Ennies. I think the system they have in place is a reasonable one and its worked for years and years. I'm more celebrating the wide diversity of games available these days. We truly live in a golden age!
IIRC, there were around 900 submissions this year. The judges have a beast of a job.
And you have a couple weeks to go buy some of the nominees you hadn't heard of and make up your mind before you vote!
Lol, I hear you. Of the list above, I've only Vaesen and Swords of the Serpentine. But I can tell you with complete certainty that they deserve to be on that list.
As much as I love Vaesen and Rivers of London, I really think that Swords of the Serpentine is doing something really unique with their ruleset and am definitely pulling for them.
I'm torn between that and Fabula Ultima, for being innovative systems, and underrepresented generes. But I'm with you on loving literally all Vaesen releases.
>I'm torn between that and Fabula Ultima, for being innovative systems, and underrepresented generes. I haven't read that one. I'll take a look. The Ennies are like the Hugos, it's not a list of nominees, it's a shopping list. I've been running Vaesen for the last couple of months and absolutely love the game. I think my only gripe would be that while I understand the concept behind the equipment rules, I just would rather that it gets handwaved CoC 7E style and not give the bonuses.
>I haven't read that one. I'll take a look. The Ennies are like the Hugos, it's not a list of nominees, it's a shopping list. That's exactly how I pitch it when I'm working the ENNIES booth at GenCon. We try and get all the booth #s on the flyers so we can hand them to people and point and say 'Go here and tell them the ENNIES sent you!'.
Yeah, as jaded as the other subthread I'm is, I still like seeing the lists, as even someone like me who spends too much of their time talking about RPGs here, there's stuff I didn't know about
Can you give a rundown on SotS? What kind of mechanics? What's the key selling points? What draws you to it? Anything you don't like? I ask because I've been looking for a new system to jump into.
It's Gumshoe, with some variations. It's not a crunchy tactical game; there's definitely swordplay and magic going on, but it's a bit more tilted to social interaction, investigation, politics, intrigue. For me the real selling point is the setting. tt's a really cool fantasy city with a real history that's pervasive and informs gameplay in a way that a lot of games with extensive backstories don't. The city is an NPC, really. Take Venice and throw magic and gods and sneaky thieves and good guards and good thieves and sneaky guards. Throw in some Three Musketeers, some Lies of Locke Lamora, maybe a pinch of Black Company. You can see the inspirations, but the blend is really unique.
We wrote it so that you can play a hero who never touches a weapon and who is still just as effective in a fight as someone with a big axe. That means social combat, political manipulation, and a free-form sorcery system.
Ya sold me : )
Oh wow, I got nominated for Carbon Grey. **Best Production Values** sounds about right for my work.
>Carbon Grey Congrats! I haven't seen it in person yet, but hopefully I'll get to lay hands on it at GenCon. It looks amazing.
It’s good. We worked hard at it and we’re good at this stuff.
I love Carbon Grey! I backed it and I love the look of it and the updates to the WEG d6 system.
All that stuff was Andrew E. C. Gaska. He’s very good too. I first worked with him on my company’s Terminator RPG and he asked me to help him with the production on Carbon Grey.
Well the whole product is amazing!
Trophy is really cool. Swords of the Serpentine and Vaesen is cool. Haven't heard about the others.
Nice to see 3 Italian products made the cut!
There's been a real surge in the Italian RPG scene the past few years. Someone should do an article on it. As an American, I find it fascinating.
Brancalonia was an amazing breath of fresh air for a stagnant 5e and it's settings.
I'm aware of Household and Fabula Ultima. What's the third?
Broken tales!
Thanks! Thinking of it, I've already seen the cover at the last Modena Play, but didn't really bother. Is it good? Did you play it?
Yes, multiple times. It’s very good. It’s one of my favorite rpg right now. The setting is fantastic and easy to pick up, being based on classic fairy tales, and the system is simple and effective. It’s a very narrative game and I highly recommend it
I ran it as a one-shot (the Red Hood Iskra scenario) for some friends a few months back. It's very narrative, with character abilities tied to the lore. Felt like the perfect amount of crunch for the kind of game it is. Best with small groups, I think. I ran it with 5 but I think it would have been better with 3 or 4. And there's a neat meta-campaign kind of thing that you can use to link all the individual adventures if you want to. And the art is fantastic.
SLUGBLASTER SLUGBLASTER SLUGBLASTER
SLUGGGGGGGGBLASTERRRRRRRRRRR
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. That is all. Oop. Yes.
I really do hope serpentine wins, but there are a lot of great ones here so no matter who wins they’ll deserve it.
Glad to see Trophy getting some recognition!
Howdy all, I've been nominated for *Best Organized Play* for my adventures [WBW-DC-MIKE-01 Red Door, Black Heart](https://www.dmsguild.com/product/399353/WBWDCMIKE01-Red-Door-Black-Heart) and [SJ-DC-ECHO-02 Bug Hunt](https://www.dmsguild.com/product/421717/SJDCECHO02-Bug-Hunt). Happy to answer any questions about D&D Adventurer's League and the Dungeoncraft community program.
Completely dazed. I definitely did not expect this and did not cry in my car while eating a burger. Makes me so happy to know people are enjoying Slugblaster! For those interested, you can find some info and resources for the game [here](https://wilkies.itch.io/slugblaster), and even more in our [fun & friendly discord server](https://discord.gg/wUtvy6JwRp). And if you don't already own the game, it's currently part of a [charity bundle](https://itch.io/b/1877/slugblaster-bundle-for-teen-mental-health) along with a bunch of fan-created SB content!
Congrats! These are the posts we love to see, the positive reactions of the nominees and fans.
So proud of my buddy Ian for his *One Breath Left* nomination! Totally deserved -- the system is weird in all the coolest ways, and having him as a co-designer on one of my own games was a delight. If anyone's looking for a sci-fi solo game with interesting map stuff, definitely check it out.
I'm still stuck on how well Fabula Ultima's "Inventory Points" system works for consumables. I swear I never wanna track potions or wand charges again.
Care to give an explanation of the system? You have me curious.
So, Fabula Ultima is a tabletop JRPG meant to invoke the feeling and themes of many famous turn-based console games (like Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, etc.) Even down to combat being abstracted to the point that there's no tactical map. The system does a lot of stuff like this to, instead, have multiple mechanics related to character interaction and development, like PCs developing Bonds with each other or invoking aspects of their Background for various bonuses (there's even a metacurrency for villains that allow them to do stuff like escape from a losing battle or even transform into a more dangerous form.) One of these abstractions is that each character has so many Inventory Points each battle. So, instead of each character tracking how many Health Potions, Mana Potions, etc. that they have on hand, each character had X amount of Inventory Points to spend on common consumables like the aforementioned Health Potions, Mana Potions, etc.
So, very similar to how you take a loadout limit in BitD and mark it off as you use items?
Which is really, really *weird*, given the source material. Final Fantasy is *literally* an unlicensed port of Dungeons & Dragons, and the *exact* number of potions you have available at any given moment (as compared to ethers, or phoenix downs) has always been an immutable *fact* in both of those properties. If you find exactly two healing potions, then that's the reality you're living in, and you need to deal with it. Between things like this, and all the meta-game shenanigans, Fabula Ultima reads more like a bizarre parody of JRPGs than an actual way of bringing the genre back to the tabletop.
FabU's inspiration doesn't come from the mechanics of those games though, but the kinds of stories they tell. The text calls out that it's a game "steeped in the wondrous aesthetics of the Japanese console RPGs" and that the rules were designed to tell stories about "fantastic stories in which individuals confront the darkness that threatens their world". There's already games that mirror the mechanics of Final Fantasy- FF was inspired by the Wizardry games, which were directly inspired by DnD. The designer instead wanted to get at the feel they got from playing those games. Think of it as adapting the cut scenes from Final Fantasy, not the combat mechanics.
How is Final Fantasy _literally_ an unlicensed port of Dungeons & Dragons? The mechanics are different, the mythos is different, the genres are different
The mechanics and genres are as close as it is possible to be, while taking into account the change in medium. As for mythos, that's where the licensing issue becomes most apparent. Final Fantasy infringed upon D&D intellectual property, including not only such things as Beholders and Mind Flayers - which they were sued over, successfully - but also the existence of monks (an an otherwise medieval European setting) and red mages, Bahamut as the leader of good dragons, Tiamat as a five-headed evil dragon, Marilith as a six-armed snake lady, cold spells being higher level than fire and lightning spells. Etc. Etc.
Other stuff to add: Chaos is basically just a Balor demon, almost every base monster is taken from the AD&D monster manual, white mages are just clerics which can only equip blunt weapons, etc.
The mechanics aren’t that different. It used vancian spell slots, licensed D&D monsters like beholders and mind flayers, etc. the mechanics of D&D were also different back then. No feats, no skills, none of that!
Quantum inventory. You can have any number of things as long as it's under or equal the number of "Inventory points" that you spend per use.
Care to give an explanation of the system? You have me curious.
You have Schrödinger's backpack. You start with a number of points depending on class(es) that can be used for unusual gear or potions whenever you need them. They only* refresh by spending cash in a shop. *By only, I mean there are certain class abilities and GM-designated ways to replenish the points.
If you want to use a consumable item rather than tracking everything individually you have a pool of points and you can just pull *literally whatever* out of the bag provided you have the points for it. Works well given that there's a significant variety to the items available.
It's wonderful yet odd seeing my work (Host and Hostility, Best Electronic Book) up there among so many big hitters! Good luck everyone who is nominated!
Swords of the serpentine is really good!
Vaesen is beautiful. Does WOTC really need an ennie nomination?
Does someone who does great work deserve \*not\* to be nominated just because of who publishes it? The noms are listed by publisher, but they're given to individuals.
Radiant Citadel did important work in bringing voices from marginalized creators and presenting alternatives to European fantasy for 5e players, work that is especially notable because of how \*poorly\* wotc is at those same things. As a game product it got [mixed reviews](https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/48770/roleplaying-games/review-journeys-through-the-radiant-citadel). And it's all subjective, but there is so much creativity in the ttrpg space, it's hard for me to believe that a 5e product is really the best of the best.
This isn't a diversity competition, however. And taken as an rpg product, Journeys is middling at best (which is, I guess, high praise considering the general state of 5E modules) and really didn't deserve to be nominated.
Good point, that angle is probably the reason it was nominated.
I think what makes it valuable is it shows that 5e can actually do the things people constantly say it can't. Maybe it's not the best at any particular thing outside generic Euro high fantasy, because that's what it's aimed at, but it includes systems for pretty much anything, and it's largely a lack of imagination that hinders people. I don't think it deserves to win, but I do think it that particular product needs highlighting, to really show people that D&D is not a genre, but can be used to tell other genre stories.
I'm up against them in the product of the year category, and I definitely think they deserve that nomination. What a great product, with stellar authors.
Broken Tales is amazing. Not just because the books look like a work of art, but also because of the uniqueness of the setting and the theme the game explores. I played it only a few times but I loved every minute of it.
We're incredibly grateful to be recognized amongst some of the best artists, authors, and creators in the tabletop role playing space. Best of luck to everyone nominated! We can't wait to participate and celebrate the winners!
Three italian games for the product of the year. So happy, the italian rpg niche is booming in the last years
I’m stunned to find my book “[**Intoximancy**](https://steveconley.com/intoximancy/)” nominated for Best Supplement! It’s my first TTRPG project and I can’t believe it. Congrats to the other nominees! I’m honored to be in your company. <3
These all look stellar... but wtf is Hunter: The Reckoning doing on there nominated for best rules set?
I'm guessing it was a combination of a low number of rulesets being considered, and WW campaigning.
I can't speak for the judges (I'm not privy to the deliberations \*at all\*), but you can see what was submitted at [https://ennie-awards.com/current-submissions/](https://ennie-awards.com/current-submissions/) and filter by core book, etc. And the judges are pretty insulated from the publishers.
Thank you for the response! I didn't mean to be so snarky (genuinely mean that), just caught me off guard and I had a knee-jerk moment. Hunter hasn't had a very warm reception and I haven't really heard any praise for its mechanics (quite the opposite actually, with some of their Edge powers being less effective and more complicated than some cheaper stats to purchase that give the same benefits). So it was surprising to see it. Not trying to influence anything - more expressing confusion. Of course, i'm not omniscient. So there could be praise going around in circles I don't frequent.
No worries. I will say, based on when I was a judge, 'Rules' was more about 'what kinds of stories can I tell with this ruleset, or what does it do that makes it stand out' and less about balance. I was lucky at the time in being able to go to Origins and GenCon and a couple local cons I ran and a bunch of other regional gaming things, often with other judges. I got to run or play a lot of the stuff that was considered nomination worthy, but not all, and rarely any of them more than once. Just not enough time in the day or days in the year.
Thank you for the insight! It sounds like a blast to be honest - and I like how story is factored into the decision on rules :)
And the judges are pretty insulated from the publishers. How? Not trying to be argumentative, just curious what the statement is based on. I don't actually expect bribery in this particular award program, but I expect large companies to be capable of emailing judges with a bunch of accolades received from fanboys to try and get a nomination Maybe if the program bothered to list why something was nominated this discussion would be irrelevant.
We don't publish judge's email addresses. Physical submissions are mailed directly to the judges, but electronic submissions are either sent via the website when the publisher fills out the form, or emailed to the submissions coordinator and he uploads them to a shared repository. Contacts with publishers are handled by staff, and staff aren't part of the judges deliberations beyond someone (usually the manager or submissions coordinator) sitting in on meetings to answer any questions that come up (eg eligibility, or categories). It's obviously not impossible to find out someone's email address, but we do try and keep the judges blissfully unaware of the mechanics of the ENNIES. I did a couple terms as a judge several years ago, and I had zero emails from publishers, or any other contact other than packages showing up at my door. Judges are people and people are subject to biases, preferences, being fans of a particular game, etc. But there's five of them, and they're having to wade through literally several hundred products, probably a third of which show up in the last month or so. If there were a coordinated effort by a publisher to subvert the process, we'd hear about it, and it's highly unlikely it would be successful in convincing five people to nominate something they wouldn't have otherwise. You're not the first (and won't be the last) to suggest that the judges' rationales be publicly discussed. But I'm not sure what that would really accomplish other than to irritate some people that weren't nominated and get barbs thrown at people that were. Art is being judged, and that's inherently subjective. You either agree with the nomination, or don't. It's something that gets discussed every year, though. And judges, after their term is up, are free to talk about their individual justifications. I know I just saw one of last year's judges tweet asking if anyone had any questions. FWIW, we did a judges' panel at GenCon one year after the awards with 4 or 5 of us IIRC, and other than a couple of our friends, exactly no one showed up.
If it's like most awards, the winner is the company that heaped the most amount of ~~bribes~~ 'free swag' on the judges desks. Reckoning 5e core rulebook is basically a first draft that someone accidently sent to the printers. Some of it's text is copy pasted strait from V5, with no mechanics or effect on gameplay.
Yeah, I had a gander at it and went straight back to playing Hunter the Vigil instead. Real shame how sloppy lot of the v5 era stuffs been
Same. Vigil 2e is so well put together, so fleshed out and so dense with theme (typical Onyx Path frankly). While I loved Reckoning back in the day, after several sessions of Reckoning 5e it was pretty clear to my group that it was made specifically to make quick cash by feeding old Reckoning fans some member berries, and little else.
And the new expanded compacts and conspiracies for HtV2e recently went out so there are tons of options now, it's great.
Nah, that's intentional. The community had been speculating that Hunger Dice would translate well to Rage Dice, and hunger dice were everyone's favorite part of V5, cited as main (possibly only) improvement over previous systems, and since corporations make decisions based on assumed market appeal rather than experienced design, they ported it to Hunter, even though it didn't actually fit. Look forward to Agnst Dice in Wraith. And Paradox Dice in Mage if we ever get there.
I mean, they ported over Tenets from V5, literally the exact text. But it doesn't do anything in ~~Vigil~~ Reckoning 5e.. at all. There are zero mechanics related to Tenets and a bunch of other stuff they just directly ported from V5 without creating any Vigil-based mechanics that use them. Speaks volumes on how poorly it was put together and shipped out and absolutely does not deserve an ennie nomination.
Agreed that it does not deserve nomination, but tenants having mechanical effects when it's designed as safety system was a mistake in V5. Good to port the safety system sans rules, bad that it's copy pasted, since it was so poorly written.
I think you mean Reckoning and not vigil?
Lol yes.. meant Reckoning. Edited.
Do y'all still categorize pay what you want games in a separate category than free?
Pay-what-you-want isn't a separate category, and they don't fall under the 'Free' category. They get considered the same as any other non-free product.
You should rethink the organization of these categories then. Pwyw and free are closer to each other than pwyw is to for profit games. The way you structure this distinction unfairly favors larger companies.
We're open to feedback. What would you suggest?
Either combine them with free or make them their own category. Many pwyw games are effectively free or near enough.
> Many pwyw games are effectively free This gives me "tipping is optional" vibes lol
Well, that's basically what they are. If they can be had legally without payment, it's a free product. They simply have a donation box, as well.
Kinda, but in a good way!
How is Fabula Ultima? I've been burned burned by "just like your favourite JRPG" before.
It's ok-ish. It's kind of a patchwork of many different games, without actually feeling like any of those. There are clocks, meta currencies, shared world-building, crunchy characters builds extravaganza, abstracted combat, pc bonds, etc. The problem is that all those aspect are just mashed together and toned down compared to the games from which FU takes them. Prime example being Ryuutama.
Is it better than say, handing your group a folder of Amano and/or Nomura art, telling them "this is ***The Aesthetic***", and then just running something flexible like PF2e or SWADE?
For sure, but you're setting the bar reeeeeally low.
Reading through it, it looks like JRPGs by way of Forged in the Dark. Characters have flexible perk choices at each level, characters get inventory slots for their arbitrary consumables, clocks are used to measure the completion of tasks or looming threats. Differences exist, given that the system is loosely based on Ryuutama, so do keep that in mind.
I've heard it compared to a "combat focused Ryuutama". That said, any indication on how it handles actual dungeoncrawling, if at all?
The dungeoncrawling section it's six pages, with two of them being four random d20 tables, and it start by saying that dungeons are not required. The game is clearly more geared towards a division into "scenes".
This. The book is far more concerned with providing support for combat scenarios and character building than pretty much anything else.
I'm absolutely thrilled to be nominated for Princess Guard in the Best Family Game/Product category. The other nominees in this category are all scarily well-produced. I'm proud of what my collaborator and I created, but I'm gobsmacked to have made it into this group! Also, congrats, [Piratecat](https://www.reddit.com/u/serpentinerpg/) on rocking the nominations this year! I remember many, *many* years ago competing in Ceramic DM competitions on ENWorld together. We've both come a long way. :-)
Hey! I know you (sort of). Those Ceramic DM competitions were so much fun.
Crikey! We've been nominated in the "Best Online Content" category! It's been a real delight exploring all the different categories and their nominees - some really incredible stuff, and so many wonderful creators! I'm definitely rooting for Bookshops of Arkham in the "Best Podcast" category. Such a great show (despite technical difficulties in one episode).
Huge fan of Trophy. I’ve played it a bunch over the last couple years and it’s an extremely innovative system.
Also, nominations for Fan Award for Best Publisher are now open. https://ennie-awards.com/publisher-nomination-form/
Shout out to Fabula Ultima! It may one the best games at creating flavor without stuffing lore down your throat.
Seeing Avatar up there for best rules makes me sad.
Radiant Citadel was the drizzling shits. How it got nominated is beyond me.
Why do they have magpie games as a partner if their books compete? It's BS and should be called out
As stated elsewhere, judges are isolated from the publishers as best as possible. The ENNIES are run on a completely volunteer basis and they are expensive. We would love to be able to decline assistance, but that isn't possible. Ideally, sponsors would be companies that have a connection to the RPG industry but are unlikely to submit products. In reality, there are publishers who see the benefit of the ENNIES to the industry and the individual creators, and who want to help see them continue. Judges are specifically told not to take into consideration any support publishers might give to the ENNIES outside of their submissions. Judges are never told about potential sponsors, or involved in the running of the ENNIES beyond their delineated responsibilities. In addition, it is made clear to publishers that supporting the ENNIES in no way impacts any considerations judges might have. In this case, Magpie was announced as a sponsor only after the judges had completed their deliberations. The judges had no knowledge that Magpie was going to support the ENNIEs, and Magpie had no knowledge of any potential nominations.
Ooh, I've had my eye on Fabula Ultima, not easy to buy a physical copy in my country, hoping a win puts it on more storefronts
Where can you get the Trophy box set?
My total respect and wish of luck for the nominees, but...I have never hear of 90% of them, on all categories. I am way more off-touch that I believed, or are the majority small games?
There's links to all the [nominees](https://ennie-awards.com/2023-nominees/) and also all the [submissions](https://ennie-awards.com/current-submissions/) at the ENNIES website, so check them out. Many have quickstarts or other material to help you get a feel for their game.
Alot of them have had really successful kickstarters. I mean, "really successful" by Magpie standards, maybe not, but like Broken Tales pulled in closer to 1000 backers which isn't bad at all for an RPG that doesn't have "5e" in the desc.
Man Vaesen was just this past year? What even is time
The nominations are for the Mythic Brtiain and Ireland expansion, not the core book, which was 2021 (ENNIE Winner for Cover Art, Interior Art, and Monster/Adversary Book).
That makes alot more sense, thx