The Forge Archives

Hi All!

As you may or may not be aware, the ENnies (The 2005 Annual Gen Con EN World RPG Awards) are rapidly approaching, and are the current de facto (mainstream) RPG awards.  Usually for the ENnies, publishers send their product to a panel of judges who then select their top five picks.  These nominees are voted upon by the online public (you don't need to be an ENWorld member to participate).  

Even though we haven't been a d20-only award for a few years now, we're still fighting this perception.  Thus, assuming the good graces of the mods here, I'd like to open up this thread (as well as threads on a few other boards) for nominations for the Fan's Choice Award for Best Publisher.  As a former Indie RPG Award winner (Kids Colouring Book) and small-time press publisher, I personally value the opinions of those here.  I hope you'll participate in this process- in nominating, and voting- and voting not just for the Fan's Choice, but for the other ENnie Awards as well.  Let your voice be heard!

Here's the rules:
-One voice, one vote. This means you can either nominate or second a publisher once per board. Pick wisely. If a publisher gets nominated once on The Forge and once on another board, then I'll consider it seconded- unless it's obvious that it was the same person posting the nominations.
-Any publisher who released product during the eligibility period (June 2004-May 2005) is eligible to be nominated whether they entered the ENnies or not.
-At 11h59 EST Sunday, July 24th, I will close the thread and compile its contents with those of the other designated threads to create the nominee list.
-Monday, July 25th, voting will begin on ENWorld to determine the fan's choice. Just as with the other ENnie categories, you don't have to be an ENWorld member to vote- votes are tracked by IP. The voting period will last 3 weeks.  I will post the link for the voting booth here as soon as it's open.
-Upon closing of the polls, the top five publishers will be notified and be asked to make plans for attending the Award Ceremony.
-The winner will be announced live at the ENnies ceremony Friday, August 19th at Gen Con Indy.

When selecting Best Publisher, try and take into consideration not only the quality of product, but also involvement in the roleplaying gaming community at large and customer support. Feel free to explain why you have chosen a particular publisher for nomination. Feel free to nominate someone else if you're a publisher.

For more information about the ENnies, please visit http://www.enworld.org/ .  Please don't forget to vote for the other ENnies: the polls open Monday, July 18th for three weeks.  In any case, see you at Indy!

Denise Robinson,
Business Manager, 2005 ENnies

Hi Denise- Andy from the Indie RPG Awards here.  Nice to see you around!

Good luck with the ENnies, when I heard they went off of d20 only to "every game gets a shot", I was really impressed.

Anyway, my nomination is Luke Crane of Burning Wheel.

In fact, I don't think that there's a single member of this board that wouldn't be satisfied to see him walk away with such an award.

Thanks for getting the ball rolling, Andy!

Now all we need is a second, and Burning Wheel will be a contender for Fan's Choice of Best Publisher!

BTW, I'm tracking the nominations from all the boards in the original ENWorld thread here in case anyone wants to watch the progress.

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=140184

C'mon guys, drag your noses out of the Harry Potter book and speak up!  Tell a friend!

I'll second that. Luke is one of the best publishers I've ever seen.

As of Monday morning, July 18th, here is the compiled list of nominations (bold indicates they have been seconded)

• Adamant Entertainment
  
• Atlas Games
  
• Bastion Press
  
• Burning Wheel
  
• Columbia Games
  
• Fantasy Flight Games
  
• Flying Mice
  
• Goodman Games
  
• Green Ronin
  
• Guardians of Order
  
• Hero Games
  
• Iron Crown Enterpirses
  
• KenzerCo.
  
• Malhavoc Press
  
• Mongoose Publishing
  
• Morrigan Press
  
• Necromancer Games
  
• Paradigm Concepts
  
• Paizo Publishing
  
• Privateer Press
  
• Ronin Arts
  
• RPGObjects
  
• SkeletonKey Games
  
• Steve Jackson Games
  
• Troll Lord Games
  
• Wizards of the Coast
  

Please note that a publisher will not be considered unless their nomination has been seconded.  Nomination period ends 11h59EST July 24th.

Great White Games (also known as Pinnacle Entertainment Group)... you know, Deadlands, Savage Worlds, Fields of Honor. ;)

To make it easier on tracking, here are the nominations as of July 19th from ENWorld, The Forge, Gen Con, and RPGnet.  (Entries in bold have been seconded):

[*]Adamant Entertainment
[*]Atlas Games
[*]Bad Axe Games
[*]Bastion Press
[*]Black Industries
[*]Burning Wheel
[*]Columbia Games
[*]Fantasy Flight Games
[*]Flying Mice
[*]Goodman Games
[*]Great White Games / Pinnacle Entertainment Group
[*]Green Ronin
[*]Guardians of Order
[*]Hero Games
[*]Iron Crown Enterpirses
[*]Issaries
[*]Living Room Games
[*]KenzerCo.
[*]Malhavoc Press
[*]Mongoose Publishing
[*]Morrigan Press
[*]Necromancer Games
[*]Paradigm Concepts
[*]Paizo Publishing
[*]Privateer Press
[*]Red Spire Press
[*]Ronin Arts
[*]RPGObjects
[*]SkeletonKey Games
[*]Steve Jackson Games
[*]Troll Lord Games
[*]White Wolf
[*]Wizards of the Coast
[*]WorldWorks Games
[/list]
[/I]

Quote from: Andy Kitkowski on July 17, 2005, 12:51:53 PM
Anyway, my nomination is Luke Crane of Burning Wheel.

In fact, I don't think that there's a single member of this board that wouldn't be satisfied to see him walk away with such an award.

Did you notice that Luke also got one of the coveted judge nominations for
- Best Rules
- Best Adversary / Monster product

as well as getting the honourable mention for
- Best Game

Pretty darn cool.

I met Luke at Origins this year, and never have I met a more excited and... well.. excited gentleman.

:)

By the way, voting has begun on the main ENnie Awards at: http://www.enworld.org/ennies/index.php?do=vote  Voting will take place until the 8th of August.

We are still collecting nominations for Fan's Choice for Best Publisher.  Nominations will be collected in this thread until the 24th of July.  Voting will take place for three weeks starting the 25th of July.
To make it easier on tracking, here are the nominations as of Wednesday, July 20th from ENWorld, The Forge, Gen Con, and RPGnet.  (Entries in bold have been seconded):

• Adamant Entertainment
• Atlas Games
• Bad Axe Games
• Bastion Press
• Black Industries
• Blue Devil Games
• Burning Wheel
• Columbia Games
• Contested Ground Studios
• Fantasy Flight Games
• Flying Mice
• Goodman Games
• Great White Games / Pinnacle Entertainment Group
• Green Ronin
• Guardians of Order
• Hero Games
• Hinterwelt Enterprises
• Iron Crown Enterpirses
• Issaries
• Living Room Games
• KenzerCo.
• Malhavoc Press
• Mongoose Publishing
• Morrigan Press
• Necromancer Games
• Paradigm Concepts
• Paizo Publishing
• Privateer Press
• Red Spire Press
• Ronin Arts
• RPGObjects
• SkeletonKey Games
• Steve Jackson Games
• Troll Lord Games
• White Wolf
• Wizards of the Coast
• WorldWorks Games

Hi Denise,

This has become an announcement/update thread, not a discussion. We have the link to the site, as you've provided, so anyone who wants can go to check out the awards are going. Don't post further to this thread about it.

Thanks,
Ron

In the interests of keeping this thread more in lines with a discussion rather than announcement mode, I thought I'd bring up a little on how the process has worked thus far with the Awards, and invite (constructive) comment, questions, etc.

For the Fan's Choice, you can see the process.  I pester boards (The Forge, RPGnet, Gen Con, and ENWorld- any other suggestions?) to ask for their nominations for best publisher.  I compile them into a big list, and on July 25th, we'll open up a voting booth on ENWorld listing them all, and you get to make your pick(s).

For the Peer's Choice, we contact industry professionals and ask for their vote for the best product released of 2004-2005.  Monte Cook (who is replacing Mike Mearls this year) and I are still working on this one.

For the "regular" ENnies:

• Five judges are chosen at ENWorld.
• A publisher sends in six copies of their product and a registration form.  They have the choice of shipping directly to the judges which saved us a lot of time and money, or shipping to the Submissions Coordinator (a judge), who then verified the submission, took their money (there was a $10 fee, which I tell you didn't come CLOSE to covering our shipping costs) and sent out a copy to each of the other judges. 
• The judges read and/or used each and every product submitted and chose their top five products to which a point each was accorded, and two runners up to which a half point was accorded.  Points were tallied, selections made.  In the event of a tie, an extra vote was held.
• The nominated companies/sites are notified a day or two before the official nomination announcement in order to let them get their ducks in a row, and given details of the process.
• The nominations are announced, and the voting booths open.  There's been some criticism that we didn't allow people enough time to familiarize themselves with the majority of the product, but in our defence, we were also criticized in past years for not letting the voting happen long enough, so we figure three weeks is a decent time in which people can educated themselves and vote.  We also hooked up a deal with DriveThruRPG.com whereby they don't take a cut of the sales for ENnie nominated products during the voting period to give people a chance to not only support the nominated publishers (because some publishers have bitched about awards being useless to them), but to pick up some awesome product at a cheaper price.  Many of the publishers have dropped their prices even more in the hopes of generating more sales and goodwill equity, and I applaud them for it.
• Votes are tabulated by the Instant Runoff system this year, rather than a grading or Borda method.  This helps reduce the harm in strategic voting, and makes for a very interesting race to watch unfold!
• The winners are announced at a live ceremony at Gen Con Indy.  We try to keep it mercifully short, but still have some fun.  This year we're encouraging everyone attending to dress for the occasion, but not to cramp their celebration-wear either.  I've had offers of kilts, tuxedos, and brand new punk t-shirts.  I'm looking forward to shopping for a new dress, myself!
• Afterwards, we plan on running a lot of publicity about the winners through various distribution companies and trade magazines in the hopes of not only increasing awareness of the Awards themselves, but primarily to increase the benefit to the publishers.  With any luck, there will be a bunch of magazines coming out just in time for Christmas shopping touting the best of the years' products!

That's it from me for now.  ttyl!

So, no takers on a discussion of voting or nomination mechanics?  Comparison on how the Indie RPG, Origins, and ENnies Awards run?  Alrighty.  I tried.

This thread was my attempt to include The Forge, ie. the strong independant gaming voice, into the ENnies Awards process, and I'd like to thank those of you who have spoken up thus far.  Tomorrow night at 11h59 EST I will stop taking nominations for Fans' Choice for Best Publisher for the 2005 ENnie Awards, so this is your last chance.  Voting for the Fans' Choice will begin the 25th and take place for 2-3 weeks.  Voting is already taking place at http://www.enworld.org/ennies/index.php?do=vote for the main ENnies, I hope you all will take the chance to make your voice heard.

To make it easier on tracking, here are the nominations thus far from ENWorld, The Forge, Gen Con, and RPGnet for the Fans' Choice. (Entries in bold have been seconded):
Adamant Entertainment, Atlas Games, Bad Axe Games, Bastion Press, Black Industries, Blue Devil Games, Burning Wheel, Columbia Games, Contested Ground Studios, Fantasy Flight Games, Flying Mice, Goodman Games, Great White Games / Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Green Ronin, Guardians of Order, Hero Games, Hinterwelt Enterprises, Iron Crown Enterpirses, Issaries, Living Room Games, KenzerCo., Malhavoc Press, Mongoose Publishing, Morrigan Press, Necromancer Games, Paradigm Concepts, Paizo Publishing, Privateer Press, Red Spire Press, Ronin Arts, RPGObjects, SkeletonKey Games, Steve Jackson Games, Troll Lord Games, White Wolf, Wizards of the Coast, WorldWorks Games

I hope you'll all take part in the voting process.  I look forward to meeting some of you at your booth at Gen Con.  I hope those of you attending Gen Con Indy will also consider attending the Awards ceremony Friday, August 19th (9pm).  Heck- we're even auctioning off seats at game designers' & publishers' tables (we don't have a big game association backing us, and have to come up with some way to pay for it), so you could bid on hanging with Tony...

See you at Indy!