ENnies Judge Nominee Q&A

[C.W.Richeson]

Here's a question for y'all:  I'm interested in your responsibility, maturity, and even-handedness.  Have you ever publicly mocked or insulted a game or game designer?  If so, who and why? 

My responsibility is found in the number of publishers who have given me comped products and receive timely reviews.

Here's an example of mild review criticism and my responses: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=306739

Feel free to dig through my other reviews for similar responses.  Reign of the Exarchs resulted in some unhappiness as well, but I try to keep a positive, upbeat attitude even when I didn't care for a product.  My online reputation is extremely important to me, and necessary to be a successful reviewer.

[Doug Ruff]

Here's a question for y'all:  I'm interested in your responsibility, maturity, and even-handedness.  Have you ever publicly mocked or insulted a game or game designer?  If so, who and why? 

I was going to say a categorical "no" to this question, but I have a suspicion that I may once have said something disparaging about FATAL on RPG.net. (I couldn't find anything, otherwise I'd have provided a link.) Does that count?

Generally I try to avoid being rude to (or about) people; the few times I have done it, I've felt very bad about it afterwards. And it's an absolute no-no in a professional environment. Oh, I get frustrated: but if I find that happening at work, or in my personal life, or on an online forum, then it's time to step away for a while, and get it out of my system without hurting anyone else.

Regards,

Doug

[Tim C Koppang]

Here's a few:

1. How long have you been roleplaying? Have you ever stopped roleplaying altogether for any significant period of time? If so, why?

2. (Independent of No. 1) What keeps you coming back to the roleplaying hobby?

3. Using your best guess, what roleplaying game have you played the most? What about that game has kept your interest over the years? Are you still playing that game?

[fusangite]

Here's a question for y'all:  I'm interested in your responsibility, maturity, and even-handedness.  Have you ever publicly mocked or insulted a game or game designer?  If so, who and why?

I have never publicly mocked a game.

In all likelihood, I have publicly mocked and insulted a game designer. Why? I am a member of Circvs Maximvs, a board whose social contract values exchanges based on aggressive, free-wheeling argument. And I make no apology for that. I probably did so while attacking Bush's foreign policy. As you know from Ron's theories, what matters is coming up with a social contract that everybody buys into and participates in by mutual consent. There are not, and should not be universal standards for public discourse; there should be local standards that arise from specific social contracts amongst participants in conversations. I think that maturity in discourse is about interacting with people in the way that they want to interact.

[Graham W]

A couple more questions...

1. What do you think of White Wolf's decision to reboot the World of Darkness?
2. How do you feel about Mongoose Publishing's habit of rewriting and relaunching old games (Paranoia, Rune Quest and so on)?

Graham

[Clyde L. Rhoer]

1.  Many creator owned (Indy) game designers have a hard time affording anything but a bit of art. Part of your requirement is to judge a games presentation. This seems to limit the ability of many Indy designers to compete on a level scale with large game companies. Do you feel it's fair to judge a game on it's presentation?

2. Many creator owned game designers have a difficult time being able to afford the cost of giving away free books to enter a competition like the Ennies. They aren't able to use the same markets of scale to justify the cost. Giving away PDF's can potentially bite into the profits of a small creators book sales, if those PDF's aren't guarded with care. If a creator owned game were supplied to you as a neatly arrayed text only file how would you judge it? Do you think that's not a good question, because someone should feel safe putting their potential profits in your hands, or do you think that eating the costs of free books is part of the game for entering the Ennies?

3. What do you think should factor higher when judging a game; randomization (or lack of randomization) mechanics, setting, presentation and art, theme, addressing specific styles of play, or a grabby situation?

There's no animus behind these questions. I just wanted to throw out some hard ones to get better ideas of where people are coming from and how they see things.

[Mark Causey]

I know that I am a latecomer, but at the behest of a friend of mine I have entered my hat in the ring. I know that I don't show up on the list of nominees yet, but I am eligible and do have a second and hope to have that updated soon. I will post my bio that I submitted and try to answer the backlog of questions.

Hi! My name is Mark Causey. I've been roleplaying for about 11 years
now. I've bounced between traditional games (Marvel FASERIP, D&D (1st
Edition - 3.5), Vampire) to 'indie' games (Primetime Adventures, The
Shadow of Yesterday, Shab-al-Hiri Roach). I'm also into Japanese RPGs
(Tenra Bansho Zero, Alshard ff, Double X Cross).

I feel that I can provide a fresh mindset to the Awards. I will
honestly play any kind of RPG once I know what kind of fun the authors
want to provide (which is hard to ascertain, sometimes). I believe
that any game book or supplement, if written from the point of view of
the fun that occurred from actual play, can be a good purchase. My
philosophy on gaming is based on getting my group excited and having
fun, using the best system for the concept we want to play. I think I
can help award those authors and companies for their efforts based on
that philosophy.

[Mark Causey]

I believe that my bio includes my philosophy on System having a meaning in actual play and thus, I believe it does Matter.

* Is a game without supplementation "dead" and if so, what does that mean for your opinion of the game?

* If a given game approaches a basic task of role-playing (task resolution, advancement, combat, GMing, session pacing) in a totally different way than prior role-playing games, are you inclined to see that as positive or negative?  Why?

* How much do production values (art, layout, etc.) matter in your assessment of games?

* How many different role-playing systems have you played this year?

1. A game would be dead to me if I and my gaming groups weren't having any fun with it, whether it has supplements or not. I play a lot of games without supplements and enjoy them. My opinion of a game comes from what it does at the table.

2. Innovation is always a fun hook for me, I like to explore that which I haven't before. It doesn't automatically grant a game or supplement any extra value in my mind, but it always catches my eye.

3. I wish I could say that art didn't matter to me and that every title has an equal playing ground in this respect, but it's not true. I tend to look at books on a shelf or inspect games online based on cover art or the art that is presented with the game. It does help me get an idea of what a game or supplement is about. I have, however, bought games that I didn't like the art in but it took me longer to come to that decision.

4. I'd have to say about a dozen, some of which were con games.

[Mark Causey]

Here's a question for y'all:  I'm interested in your responsibility, maturity, and even-handedness.  Have you ever publicly mocked or insulted a game or game designer?  If so, who and why? 

I made sarcastic remarks toward Burning Wheel while speaking to Luke Crane at a convention, but that's as close as I've come to that. Whenever I present my opinions on gameplay, I always temper things with what I did enjoy and the circumstances that led to my discontent.

[Mark Causey]

1. How long have you been roleplaying? Have you ever stopped roleplaying altogether for any significant period of time? If so, why?

2. (Independent of No. 1) What keeps you coming back to the roleplaying hobby?

3. Using your best guess, what roleplaying game have you played the most? What about that game has kept your interest over the years? Are you still playing that game?

1. 11 years or so, since late 1995. I stopped playing a while for two periods. One was a situation where all of my roleplaying friends ended up moving or stopped coming around. The second was when I called it to a halt, feeling discontent over what I expected and what the group expected in play. This is when I came to the Forge.

2. Roleplaying is the one hobby where I consistently have more fun than any other hobby I've tried. Telling cool stories with my friends or sometimes with strangers is an awesome rush.

3. I definitely played more D&D than anything else (4 years, I larped World of Darkness for about two years for comparison of the next largest chunk). I can play D&D whenever I find a group excited about it. I don't tend to suggest it, though, because there are other games that stoke me more easily.

[Mark Causey]

1. What do you think of White Wolf's decision to reboot the World of Darkness?
2. How do you feel about Mongoose Publishing's habit of rewriting and relaunching old games (Paranoia, Rune Quest and so on)?

1. I've never gotten to play the new WoD. I think it was an easy decision to make. Their previous 'metaplot' was a huge beast to deal with.

2. I like how the SciFi channel redid Battlestar Galactica. If Mongoose (or anyone else) republishes something old and does it well, then I'm all for it. Fun can be found in many ways.

[Mark Causey]

1.  Many creator owned (Indy) game designers have a hard time affording anything but a bit of art. Part of your requirement is to judge a games presentation. This seems to limit the ability of many Indy designers to compete on a level scale with large game companies. Do you feel it's fair to judge a game on it's presentation?

2. Many creator owned game designers have a difficult time being able to afford the cost of giving away free books to enter a competition like the Ennies. They aren't able to use the same markets of scale to justify the cost. Giving away PDF's can potentially bite into the profits of a small creators book sales, if those PDF's aren't guarded with care. If a creator owned game were supplied to you as a neatly arrayed text only file how would you judge it? Do you think that's not a good question, because someone should feel safe putting their potential profits in your hands, or do you think that eating the costs of free books is part of the game for entering the Ennies?

3. What do you think should factor higher when judging a game; randomization (or lack of randomization) mechanics, setting, presentation and art, theme, addressing specific styles of play, or a grabby situation?

1. I have answered some of this already, but I feel I have to judge a book by what's between its covers. Good layout can do just as well as art in some instances.

2. Wow, I'd never considered this to be an issue before. If a publisher couldn't provide a book or PDF and had to submit something without art or layout, I obviously couldn't vote on it for anything associated with those qualities. I would do my best to keep it included in other parts of the competition based on writing or mechanics. The difference being that I'm not *buying* the product, I'm reviewing it for a competition. Luckily, I'm not walking down a game store isle to pick and choose for the competition.

3. God, you can't have a good game without most of those elements. I can dig almost any theme, so long as the game explains how to play it out. So that would be at the bottom of the list. I think that, to get the most fun out of it for me, it would have to get the Addressing Specific Styles of Play, so that it could explain what kind of mindset I need to have fun with the game.

[Doug Ruff]

How long have you been roleplaying? Have you ever stopped roleplaying altogether for any significant period of time? If so, why?

Twenty-five years. I stopped for three years while I was at university, mainly because there were many, many new things to get involved with there and I wanted to check them all out. Plus, there were surprisingly few other roleplayers, or I failed to meet most of them.

What keeps you coming back to the roleplaying hobby?

It's fun! Plus, I feel that engages my mind in a way that other hobbies don't always manage.

Using your best guess, what roleplaying game have you played the most? What about that game has kept your interest over the years? Are you still playing that game?

Various iterations and re-hashings of Dungeons and Dragons – I got the red box Basic set when I was 10 and the largest potion of my gaming has been with level/class/roll D20 to hit fantasy gaming.

I think that part of the appeal (beyond familiarity with the game, my own and other people's) is that the rules seem to be very friendly towards would-be customisers. Virtually every game of (A)D&D I have played has been with "houserules" of some sort of another. It's where I got my game design fix before discovering sites like this one.

So I'm still playing "that game", but it's not the same game as when I started playing it.


What do you think of White Wolf's decision to reboot the World of Darkness?

How do you feel about Mongoose Publishing's habit of rewriting and relaunching old games (Paranoia, Rune Quest and so on)?

I'm going to answer these two questions together.  Firstly, I don't think the fact that a product is a re-write should count against it for the purpose of judging the ENnies. 

However, as a consumer, if a game is going to be re-released, I'd prefer to see it either substantially revised or kept exactly the same. I think that generally Mongoose have done a better job of refreshing other people's licences than White Wolf have done with their own. I feel that the transition from oWoD to nWoD is more akin to the change from D&D 3.0 to 3.5, rather than the more substantial overhaul D&D undertook between 2nd and 3rd editions. I'm also thinking about the vast number of supplements White Wolf put out for their games, and I would like to see them spending more of their time on genuinely new material like Promethean and less time rebooting their major product lines – remember that Exalted is getting the same treatment.

Many creator owned (Indy) game designers have a hard time affording anything but a bit of art. Part of your requirement is to judge a games presentation. This seems to limit the ability of many Indy designers to compete on a level scale with large game companies. Do you feel it's fair to judge a game on it's presentation?

One small point: presentation is not the same as art. Good layout is also important and does not require a large financial outlay. As for judging, I think it is fair to judge a game on presentation (including art) – if the game's art manages to capture the intended "feel" of the game, and inspires the reader (thereby enhancing actual play), it would be wrong not to take it into account.

Also, I don't feel that "indie" games need special consideration because of their small-press status. Indie games are good enough to stand on their own without any positive discrimination from the judges.

Many creator owned game designers have a difficult time being able to afford the cost of giving away free books to enter a competition like the Ennies. They aren't able to use the same markets of scale to justify the cost. Giving away PDF's can potentially bite into the profits of a small creators book sales, if those PDF's aren't guarded with care. If a creator owned game were supplied to you as a neatly arrayed text only file how would you judge it? Do you think that's not a good question, because someone should feel safe putting their potential profits in your hands, or do you think that eating the costs of free books is part of the game for entering the Ennies?

I would expect to see the actual product that's entered. If the retail version is print-only, I would not want to review a PDF, let alone a text file. If a game is already available to the public in PDF, giving a PDF to judges doesn't constitute any further risk (not that it should constitute a risk anyway.)

And yes, eating the cost of free books is part of the game. If you enter the ENnies, you are weighing the cost of providing review copies, against the value of getting an award, nomination or honourable mention. If a publisher doesn't believe that is worth the risk, then they probably shouldn't enter. Sorry if this sounds harsh - but if your financial situation is parlous enough that you cannot afford to send review copies and you do not believe that your product is competitive enough, then entering awards should be very low on your "to do" list.

What do you think should factor higher when judging a game; randomization (or lack of randomization) mechanics, setting, presentation and art, theme, addressing specific styles of play, or a grabby situation?

Addressing (as in supporting) a specific style of play comes the highest for me, and whether or not a game contains randomisation shouldn't factor at all. The rest are all important but aren't my top priority.

Regards,

Doug

[Xath]

Here's a few:

1. How long have you been roleplaying? Have you ever stopped roleplaying altogether for any significant period of time? If so, why?

I've been gaming for 7 years and I've never stopped. 

2. (Independent of No. 1) What keeps you coming back to the roleplaying hobby?

It's fun!  It's a great way to hang out with friends and work together to develop great stories. 

3. Using your best guess, what roleplaying game have you played the most? What about that game has kept your interest over the years? Are you still playing that game?

I've definitely played D&D the most.  It's the game that the most people (that I've found) are familiar with, and so there are more games going on.  D&D is the classic fantasy system (not that there aren't other good ones) and it keeps getting bigger, so it doesn't get stale.  I'm still playing with the current incarnation. 

[C.W.Richeson]

Here's a few:

1. How long have you been roleplaying? Have you ever stopped roleplaying altogether for any significant period of time? If so, why?

10 years.  I've stopped for occasional breaks, around 1-3 months, sometimes due to one game ending, moves, and other such circumstances.

2. (Independent of No. 1) What keeps you coming back to the roleplaying hobby?

The social dynamic it provides is just great.  Get some friends, have some laughs, exchange cool ideas - I love it.

3. Using your best guess, what roleplaying game have you played the most? What about that game has kept your interest over the years? Are you still playing that game?

I've probably played D&D 3.0/3.5 more than any other single game, largely due to the strong interest in d20 only roleplaying and difficulty finding folk for other games.  I'd say that sheer market penetration was the biggest factor for keeping my interest.  It's easy to drum up a game of D&D, somewhat less so for less well known games.  I've not played 3.5 for about a year.