This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling.(September 2021) |
ENNIES | |
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Awarded for | Best role-playing games of previous year |
Country | United Kingdom & United States |
Presented by | Gen Con |
First awarded | 2001 |
Website | ennie-awards |
The ENNIE Awards (previously stylized as ENnie Awards) [1] [2] is an awards ceremony devoted to role-playing game (RPG) products (including game-related accessories, publications and art) and their creators. The awards were created in 2001 by Russ Morrissey, of EN World, in partnership with Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D Third Edition News. [3] Since 2002, the ceremony has been hosted at Gen Con in Indianapolis. [2] Since 2018, EN World is no longer associated with the awards.
The ENNIES comprise two rounds. In the first round, publishers submit their products for nomination. Entries are judged by five democratically elected judges. The nominated products are voted on by the public in the second round. Winners of the annual awards are then announced at a ceremony at Gen Con.
The award ceremony initially focused on the d20 System products and publishers. It has come to include "all games, supplements, and peripheral enterprises". [4] Since 2002, the awards have been announced at a live ceremony at Gen Con. It is now considered a "signature part" of the convention. [4] Author George R. R. Martin referred to the ENNIE Awards as "the most prestigious honors in role-playing" in 2010. [5]
The nominees are chosen by a panel of judges, and the winners are voted on by the public, and presented at an awards show done in collaboration between Gen Con and EN World. [6]
In 2007, the ENNIES were sponsored by a corporation, Your Games Now. In 2008, they were sponsored by Avatar Art. In 2010, 2011, and 2012, they were sponsored by both Indie Press Revolution and DriveThruRPG. From 2013–2016, they were sponsored by DriveThruRPG alone. In 2015, Campaign Coins made the medals as a sponsorship. In 2017, Lone Wolf Development became a sponsor. The awards were run and owned by Morrissey until 2019. [7]
In 2015, the awards had to disqualify the unofficially licensed Mass Effect RPG for copyright violations. [8]
In 2020, Massif Press withdrew its RPG Lancer from the competition over a 2017 controversy. [9] [10] Charlie Hall, for Polygon in 2020, commented: [11]
The Ennies are unique among gaming awards. Judges are volunteers, who follow a strict set of ethical guidelines. Chief among them is the vow not to have any professional relationship with any RPG publisher in the lead up to the awards. They help ensure that the Ennies aren’t just a popularity contest by winnowing down the dozens upon dozens of submissions to only the very best. Once the short list has been created, voting on the final winners is open to all.
The Categories change yearly, dependent upon nominations.
Category | Gold | Silver |
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Best Adventure | OSE: Halls of the Blood King (Exalted Funeral Press) | ALIEN RPG Destroyer of Worlds (Free League Publishing) |
Best Aid/Accessory – Non-Digital | City of Mist Character Folio Pack (Son of Oak Game Studio) | The Game Master's Fantasy Toolkit (Roll & Play Press) |
Best Aid/Accessory – Digital | Michael Ghelfi – RPG Ambiences & Music (Michael Ghelfi) | DNGNGEN (Stockholm Kartell & Ockult Örtmästare Games) |
Best Art, Cover | Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying (Free League Publishing) | Heart: The City Beneath (Rowan, Rook and Decard) |
Best Art, Interior | Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying (Free League Publishing) | Heart: The City Beneath (Rowan, Rook and Decard) |
Best Cartography | OSE: Halls of the Blood King (Exalted Funeral Press) | ALIEN RPG Destroyer of Worlds (Free League Publishing) |
Best Electronic Book | Brancalonia Spaghetti Fantasy Setting Book (Acheron Games) | Ancestry & Culture: An Alternative to Race in 5e (Arcanist Press) |
Best Family Game / Product | Mausritter: Boxed Set (Games Omnivorous, Losing Games) | Tales of Xadia: The Dragon Prince Roleplaying Game – Rules Primer (Fandom Inc.) |
Best Free Game / Product | Humblewood: The Wakewyrm's Fury (Hit Point Press) | Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Wrath & Glory The Graveyard Shift (Cubicle 7) |
Best Game | Alice is Missing (Renegade Game Studios) | Heart: The City Beneath (Rowan, Rook and Decard) |
Best Layout and Design | Heart: The City Beneath (Rowan, Rook and Decard) | The Stygian Library (SoulMuppet Publishing) |
Best Monster/Adversary | Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying (Free League Publishing) | Heart: The City Beneath (Rowan, Rook and Decard) |
Best Online Content | DNGNGEN (Stockholm Kartell & Ockult Örtmästare Games) | dScryb – Finely Crafted Boxed (dScryb) |
Best Organized Play | A Rough Guide to Glamour (Jonstown Compendium) | Hand of Glory (Miskatonic Repository) |
Best Podcast | Asians Represent! | The Letters Page – The Sentinel Comics Podcast |
Best Production Values | ALIEN RPG Destroyer of Worlds (Free League Publishing) | Broken Compass: Adventure Journal (Two Little Mice) |
Best RPG Related Product | Worldbuilder's Notebook (Swordfish Islands) | Adventurers Tarot: The Empress Deck (Weird Works) |
Best Rules | Alice is Missing (Renegade Game Studios) | Cortex Prime Game Handbook (Fandom) |
Best Setting | Heart: The City Beneath (Rowan, Rook and Decard) | Brancalonia Spaghetti Fantasy Setting Book (Acheron Games) |
Best Supplement | MÖRK BORG CULT: Feretory (Free League Publishing) | Ancestry & Culture: An Alternative to Race in 5e (Arcanist Press) |
Best Writing | Heart: The City Beneath (Rowan, Rook and Decard) | Brancalonia Spaghetti Fantasy Setting Book (Acheron Games) |
Product of the Year | Alice Is Missing (Renegade Game Studios) | Brancalonia Spaghetti Fantasy Setting Book (Acheron Games) |
Call of Cthulhu is a horror fiction role-playing game based on H. P. Lovecraft's story of the same name and the associated Cthulhu Mythos. The game, often abbreviated as CoC, is published by Chaosium; it was first released in 1981 and is in its seventh edition, with licensed foreign language editions available as well. Its game system is based on Chaosium's Basic Role-Playing (BRP) with additions for the horror genre. These include special rules for sanity and luck.
Chaosium Inc. is a publisher of tabletop role-playing games established by Greg Stafford in 1975. Chaosium's major titles include Call of Cthulhu, based on the horror fiction stories of H. P. Lovecraft, RuneQuest Glorantha, Pendragon, based on Thomas Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur, and 7th Sea, "swashbuckling and sorcery" set in a fantasy 17th century Europe.
Delta Green is a contemporary era setting for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game created by Adam Scott Glancy, Dennis Detwiller, and John Scott Tynes, a.k.a. the Delta Green Partnership, of the Seattle gaming house Pagan Publishing. The setting first appeared in a 1992 RPG scenario and revolves around a secretive organization tasked with protecting the United States from paranormal and alien threats. Delta Green combines the classic 1920s Cthulhu Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft with modern conspiracy fiction.
Fate is a generic role-playing game system based on the Fudge gaming system. It has no fixed setting, traits, or genre and is customizable. It is designed to offer minimal obstruction to role-playing by assuming players want to make fewer dice rolls.
Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd. is a games publisher located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, United States and founded in 2004 after Margaret Weis and Don Perrin, the two founders of Sovereign Press, Inc divorced.
James Daniel Lowder is an American author and editor, working regularly within the fantasy, dark fantasy, and horror genres, and on tabletop role-playing games and critical works exploring popular culture.
EN World, also known as Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG News, is a British-owned tabletop role-playing game news and reviews website founded in 2000, which grew from the earlier "Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News" site. The site is owned and operated by Russ Morrissey.
Lawrence G. DiTillio was an American film, TV series, and tabletop role-playing game writer. His creations include He-Man and She-Ra: Secret of the Sword and the award-winning Masks of Nyarlathotep.
Arc Dream Publishing is a small role-playing game publishing company founded in 2002 by Pagan Publishing veteran Dennis Detwiller and editor Shane Ivey after their first roleplaying game Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 was published by Hobgoblynn Press.
Pelgrane Press Ltd is a British role-playing game publishing company based in London and founded in 1999. It is co-owned by Simon J Rogers and Cat Tobin. It currently produces GUMSHOE System RPGs, 13th Age, the Diana Jones award-winning Hillfolk RPG, The Dying Earth Roleplaying Game, and other related products. It publishes fiction under the Stone Skin Press imprint.
Evil Hat Productions is a company that produces role-playing games. Chief among them is the free indie RPG, Fate, which has won numerous awards. In 2005, the company began producing a series of commercial role-playing games using an updated version of the Fate system, each focusing on a different genre. These include the 1920s pulp adventure Spirit of the Century and the hard sci-fi Diaspora. In 2010 they released The Dresden Files RPG, based on the Dresden Files series of novels by author Jim Butcher. The FATE system has also been licensed to Cubicle 7 Entertainment who used it for Starblazer Adventures, based on the British Starblazer comic.
The following is a timeline of tabletop role-playing games. For computer role-playing games see here.
Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd is an Irish games company that creates and publishes tabletop games. Best known for its Doctor Who and Lord of the Rings games, Cubicle 7 offers titles covering a range of licensed and self-developed properties.
The One Ring Roleplaying Game is a tabletop role-playing game set in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, in the time between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Designed by Francesco Nepitello and Marco Maggi, the first edition of the game was published by Cubicle 7 from 2011 to 2019. Nepitello and Maggi are currently working on the second edition, which is planned to be published by Free League Publishing under the same title, The One Ring Roleplaying Game.
Cam Banks is a game designer known for his work on the Cortex System line of roleplaying games as lead designer for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, and the Big Damn Heroes Handbook supplement to the Serenity Role Playing Game, among other titles. He is the Cortex Creative Director for Fandom Tabletop, the publishers of Cortex Prime.
Modiphius Entertainment is an RPG and tabletop game publisher based in Fulham, London. Modiphius was founded in 2012 by husband-wife team Rita and Chris Birch to publish their first game Achtung! Cthulhu. The company have since published a number of product lines based on independent licenses and established brands.
Masks of Nyarlathotep, subtitled Perilous Adventures to Thwart the Dark God, is an adventure campaign first published by Chaosium in 1984 for the second edition of the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. A number of revised editions have subsequently been published. Masks of Nyarlathotep is a series of several sequential adventures set in the 1920s that take the player characters from New York, to London, Cairo, Nairobi, and Shanghai as they deal with the threat of the god Nyarlathotep. Screenwriter Larry DiTillio wrote the adventure with game designer Lynn Willis during a writer's strike. It received positive reviews in game periodicals including Casus Belli, The Space Gamer, White Dwarf, Different Worlds, and Dragon, and is considered to be one of the best roleplaying adventures of all time.
The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep is an adventure campaign published by Chaosium in 1996 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu; it is the third edition of the adventure campaign Masks of Nyarlathotep originally published in 1984. It is a series of several sequential adventures set in the 1920s that take the player characters from New York, to London, Cairo, Nairobi, and Shanghai as they deal with the threat of the god Nyarlathotep. The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep is a revised and expanded version of the original adventure scenario with additional material by new authors. It won an Origins Award and received positive reviews in game periodicals including Arcane and Dragon.
Miskatonic U. Graduate Kit is an accessory published in 1987 by Chaosium for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu.
Russ Morrissey, also known as Morrus, is a British reporter, game designer, podcaster, author and owner of EN World. Morrissey, founded the ENnie Awards in 2001, which he ran until 2018. He also founded the book publisher EN Publishing, and the tabletop gaming news website EN World, both of which he runs currently.
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