Congratulations to all the pulishers, great and small!

www.ennieawards.com

Voting goes live July 21st-August 3rd, so there's plenty of time for gamers to get to know the nominated products.

If you're nominated and have a booth at Gen Con that I didn't mention in the flyer, please let me know.  I'm encouraging gamers around the world to print out the poster at http://www.ennieawards.com/08/storeflyer.pdf and bring it in to their FLGS, and hope y'all will do so.

Also, just a note for publishers attending Gen Con Indy, you can save on shipping hassles by dropping off any product for consideration for next year's Awards at the ENnies' booth (#1504). 

Hope to see a lot of you there!

Not a single nomination for a publisher from The Forge.  Disappointing.
Well, here's another attempt at getting y'all more involved with The ENnies- helping choose the judging panel for next year's Awards.  Each candidate will need to answer ten questions in order to help voters familiarize themselves with their options before they vote.  The questions as they stand are as follows:

1. When did you join the RPG hobby and what inspired you to become involved and stay with it?
2. Since you joined the hobby, what roles have you played (e.g. vending, professional writing and publishing, reviewing, convention organizing, homebrewing, playing, GMing, etc.)?
3. The ENnies require a major commitment of time and mental energy. What resources do you bring that will help you discharge these responsibilities? Will your gaming group or other individuals be assisting you?
4. What interests, experience and skills do you bring from outside the hobby that you think will make you a more effective judge?
5. What styles and genres of RPGs do you enjoy most? Are there any styles or genres that you do not enjoy? Which games best exemplify what you like?
6. What system do you think is best designed? Is it the one you play most?
7. What games have you played in the past year?  List up to 10 RPGs you have played the most.
8. Briefly summarize the criteria you will use for judging products in the different categories. How will you deal with comparing products of vastly disparate lengths, medium (PDF vs. print), or mechanics to prose ratios? Will innovation and originality play a major role?
9. How will you judge supplements or adventures for game systems whose core rules you are unfamiliar with or you believe are badly designed? What about for systems that are out of print?
10. How would you like to see the ENnies change (categories, policies, etc)?  What should remain inviolate?
BONUS: (optional) If you were an RPG, what would it be, and would you play it?

So- are any of these questions totally irrelevant to you?  Is there something that we missed?  What is important for you to know about the candidate for the judge panel before you vote for them?

Huh, I don't recognize most of those titles that got nominated at all. Such a large world we have. I'll definitely have to finally get Trail of Cthulhu at Gencon, though - I've been putting it off for months just because I wouldn't have time to appreciate it, anyway.

I think those questions are pretty good - I find nothing to complain about in them. As for what'd be important for me in a candidate... I don't know, I honestly don't care enough to really have an opinion. I'd probably give my vote to anybody who felt like name-dropping some games I like. If I were serious I'd probably look for capability in cultural analysis instead of simple taste in games, but I'd need to think on it a bit to say for real.

I'm almost tempted to submit my new zombie game to ENnies at Gencon as a token of amity, even if getting anywhere in the competition would be rather unlikely. I appreciate Denise keeping us posted on the annual awards schedule, it's kinda interesting to check out the results and stuff now and then.

I think we did our nominating over at Story Games. Lumpley Games is on there, which is good.

The questions look fine. The big problem I've found, in previous years, has been the requirement that judges have no involvement with a publisher. Is that in place this year? It makes it almost impossible for anyone involved in indie games to stand: we're almost all either publishers or involved with a publisher.

Graham

Hi guys, and thanks for responding!

In our continuing efforts to make it easier for publishers to submit their product (especially to save postage time and money), we'll be accepting submissions for product that was released after May 1, 2008, at Gen Con Indy.  The ENnies booth is #1504.  Just be sure to bring the requisite six copies (one for each judge, one for admin) and a submission form (new forms will be going up on the site shortly) by the end of the day Saturday so we can get it ready for the judges to pick up Sunday morning before heading home.  Submitting early also offers the advantage of giving the judges plenty of time to really dig into your product.

Also, I was thinking it would be cool to set up a "Lot of Indie Games" as one of the lots for the Silent Auction at the ENnies ceremony.  If anybody would like to donate product (books, accessories, CDs), merch (T-shirt, buttons), a gift certificate for the Forge's, IPR, or Ashcan Front's or anybody else's booth, or some other product or service (dinner with Ron Edwards, or whack Darcy Burgess with a whifflebat, for example) to put together a big package, that'd be awesome.  It helps raise visibility of the products, and is a small buy-in to show support for the ENnies for those publishers who may not have submitted their product for this year's awards (I'm looking at you, Luke Crane), but still want to show support of the ENnies.

To answer the question about judge candidate eligibility, I think we're reaching the point now where we will let the fandom voters decide whether they think someone's involvement with a publisher constitutes a conflict of interest.  Obviously, the owner of a publishing company, big or small, or active freelancers can't participate, especially if their product is submitted.  But a peripheral freelancer or a playtester wants to throw in their hat, I'll decide if their involvement warrants outright elimination, or if we simply have them declare their involvement on their nomination form (question 2) and let the voters choose.

Nomination package and details are up at the ENnies page on the Voting section.
Or you can just use this:
http://www.ennieawards.com/08/09JudgeNoms.pdf
Voting runs August 4-10th.

Not a single nomination for a publisher from The Forge.  Disappointing.

Actually, Greg, I was referring to the fact that nobody on The Forge chose to nominate a publisher for the Fans' Choice for Best Publisher.  That was what was disappointing.

I was very happy to see Warp World get the nod- always nice to see familiar faces get a nomination!

Yeah, that is disappointing, but most independents (myself included) have such a low volume of production in any given year that a "best publisher" nomination is more of a "lifetime achievement" award rather than a "2008" award. A "best indy publisher" award would be another matter entirely (worth considering?), but "best publisher", especially as a Fan's Choice, perhaps should go to a company that has managed to cough up more than 1-2 titles in the past year.

This year, as in most years, there are some really great pieces of work coming out from indy names who have been around a while, or who are just now making a name for themselves. I may be disappointed that some individual titles I thought worthy didn't make the shortlist, but I didn't nominate any of the responsible companies as "best publisher" for the year.

Greg
BTRC

Denise, some Forge members were nominated on Story-Games. I see the fact that people made the nominations there and not here trivial.

Looks like the ENnie voting booth is now up and running:

http://www.ennieawards.com/voting.html

I'll encourage all 6246 folks with Forge accounts to go out and vote (blatant plug: especially for WarpWorld as best setting!). And then convince their gaming friends to go vote. While the nominees were selected by a panel of judges, the winners are determined by gamers as a whole, so let your voices be counted.

Go vote!

Greg Porter
BTRC

Heh, I did submit a ballot, but it was completely empty except for the publisher avard - I simply haven't even seen one of those products, not to speak of reading or playing them. Having an option for a write-in candidate would clearly be in order with the hobby as fragmented as it is.

Eero, I wasn't too different, except I hunted down the book-covers to be able to vote there.
Denise, a possible suggestion for future years, next to the "Cover" category, link to the covers :)