ENnies Award Nominations & Winners

Voros

Voros

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So I know it is de rigueur to gripe about the Ennies but I figure we should have a thread here to do it in one place and maybe even discuss the nominees we do like.

2021 Nominees and Winners – ENNIE Awards

ennie-awards.com ennie-awards.com

Honestly, all awards for books, films and games are always silly but for a fan-driven award the Ennies are usually surprisingly decent when it comes to winners. Probably due to the niche of a niche nature of the voting base I guess.

This year includes a lot of mid-tier publishers like Free League, Handiwork and the folks behind Heart.

I suspect Free League, with both their excellent Alien game and Vaesen (the latter of which I've yet to check out although it is on my list), to clean up a lot of these awards.

vaesen-nordic-horror-roleplaying-core-book-vaesen-free-league-publishing-772053.jpg

Great to see Jeremy and Brendan's Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades, Jon Hodgson's Beowulf and Cam Banks and company's Cortex Prime get nominated. Taylor and Howitt's Heart is a terrific, imaginative game I really want to run so glad to see it getting love.
 
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Endless Flight

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I don’t own it but I bet Sentinel Comics does really well. Also, Vaesen is well done and has good art so it should win that category.
 
redlemonginger

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Endless Flight said:
I don’t own it but I bet Sentinel Comics does really well. Also, Vaesen is well done and has good art so it should win that category.
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I don't know if it will. I don't hear it talked about very much.

I think it'll be heart and vaesen that win the most and cortex prime will do well.

I haven't bought anything in the best rules list haha. I usually have at least read one of the games on it. Really behind this year :p

I think the pandemic makes it really hard to try new games. You need the character sheets on VTTs to make them work well and new games never have the support. Tangent, but I find house ruling games incredibly hard online, which makes me not really want to try new stuff.
 
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hawkeyefan

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Some very cool games on the list. Congrats to all. I like seeing the variety.

Free League is definitely impressive. Alien is excellent and Vaesen seems so too; I haven’t yet played it.

Heart gets a lot of love, which is good. I’m about to start a campaign of Rowan, Rook, & Decard’s previous game, Spire, and their work is just very impressive. I haven’t picked up Heart yet, but I expect I will.
 
Stan

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I hadn't heard of Stygian Library but I saw it was by Emmy Allen and Dying Stylishly who did the Gardens of Ynn so I picked it up. Like Ynn, it's semi-random delving, things getting tougher as you go deeper. Both are full of interesting ideas and well designed random tables.
 
Fenris-77

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I think it would be better done on a yearly basis. Take nominations (which I submit should be called Nomnoms) and then a series of nice polls, maybe one or categories a week.
 
Caesar Slaad

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Endless Flight said:
I don’t own it but I bet Sentinel Comics does really well. Also, Vaesen is well done and has good art so it should win that category.
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redlemonginger said:
I don't know if it will. I don't hear it talked about very much.
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Sentinel Comics? It had a few dedicated threads here and got dropped in a few others (most Supers related threads mention it, and I drop a lot of characters for it in the character-a-day thread). Over on TBP, there was a white hot thread that was going for a long time, and a few fans did some really cool threads where they created heroes, villains, and environments.

But as has been repeatedly demonstrated, such things aren't necessarily a barometer for the popularity contest that is the final Ennies voting.
 
Skywalker

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Interesting list. Highlights for me:

- Best Adventure - Alien RPG: Destroyer of Worlds - This is an excellent deluxe Aliens module. It could easily have been a rip off of the movie but manages to maintain all the flavor whilst making it feel like a fresh take. Happily give it Best Maps and Product Values as well
- Best Art - Vaesen - Egerkrans art is beautiful and very much inspired the wonderful presentation in this RPG. I would have given this Best Game and Rules as well, but Best Bestiary would a cool way to allow for more winnerscool too.
- Best Game - Alice is Missing - An odd selection for this category as not much jumps out. I would give it to Alice is Missing due to sheer novelty and the experience it creates.
- Best Setting - Brancalonia - Yeah, Brancalonia is very cool and adds some spice to my D&D5e games which I like a lot. Happy to see it get Best Setting.
- Best Supplement - MORK BORG Feretory - Another lightweight selection, which I would give to Feretory mostly as it packs so much punch into such low page count and feels very much like a perfect follow on to Mork Borg.
 
Ralph Dula

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Trippy said:
Would it be inappropriate of me to say that the entire list does nothing for me?
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No, no it would not.

I’m kind of lost as I look at everything, as I only recognize four things, and the only one I have personal experience with confuses me as to its presence.
 
hawkeyefan

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I’m glad Alice is Missing was nominated. I’m sure it’s a game that makes many scratch their heads….but when a game comes along that offers something different from everything else, it should be recognized.
 
Ralph Dula

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Brock Savage said:
Apparently Planet Apocalypse is a $60 5e supplement as well. I am kinda wary of Sandy Petersen's 5e stuff, has anyone checked it out?
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Not yet, though I’m on their mailing list and it’s been hyped a lot since its release. Given the cut and paste repetition found in the one adventure path I subscribed to from them I haven't been wiling to pull the trigger on it.
 
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johnmarron

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Skywalker said:
Interesting list. Highlights for me:

- Best Adventure - Alien RPG: Destroyer of Worlds - This is an excellent deluxe Aliens module. It could easily have been a rip off of the movie but manages to maintain all the flavor whilst making it feel like a fresh take. Happily give it Best Maps and Product Values as well
- Best Art - Vaesen - Egerkrans art is beautiful and very much inspired the wonderful presentation in this RPG. I would have given this Best Game and Rules as well, but Best Bestiary would a cool way to allow for more winnerscool too.
- Best Game - Alice is Missing - An odd selection for this category as not much jumps out. I would give it to Alice is Missing due to sheer novelty and the experience it creates.
- Best Setting - Brancalonia - Yeah, Brancalonia is very cool and adds some spice to my D&D5e games which I like a lot. Happy to see it get Best Setting.
- Best Supplement - MORK BORG Feretory - Another lightweight selection, which I would give to Feretory mostly as it packs so much punch into such low page count and feels very much like a perfect follow on to Mork Borg.
Click to expand...
Unsurprisingly, your highlights and mine are pretty much identical :smile: With the addition of Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades.

John
 
Voros

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hawkeyefan said:
I’m glad Alice is Missing was nominated. I’m sure it’s a game that makes many scratch their heads….but when a game comes along that offers something different from everything else, it should be recognized.
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I ordered a copy of Alice is Missing and Neverland because I saw them on the nominee list. A one man rebuttal of the 'Ennies don't effect sales' claims!
 
CRKrueger

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I’ll have to thank the Ennies for making me aware of Epic Encounters. Snake Folk and the Serpent God boxes are going to be fun to paint and spring on my players. :devil:
 
hawkeyefan

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Voros said:
I ordered a copy of Alice is Missing and Neverland because I saw them on the nominee list. A one man rebuttal of the 'Ennies don't effect sales' claims!
Click to expand...

I usually try and pick up a couple, myself. I’m almost certain to get Rowan, Rook, and Decard’s Heart because I’m currently prepping a Spire campaign and digging their work on that game.

Vaesen was also already on my list, so I expect to be picking that up before long. Cortex Prime also seems worthwhile. I’m generally nota fan of generic systems all that much, but I keep hearing good things.

I have to admit I didn’t give Neverland much thought, but after you mentioned it, I looked at the video linked from the Ennies page and it actually looks really good. I have no idea what system it uses, but it has a cool hex crawl aesthetic going on. And the book itself looks like it belongs on the shelf next to other classics. I may have to grab that, too.

Although I also think I may be at max capacity on games for a bit. Planning on running Spire, followed by Mothership and then The Between. That’ll be the next 6 months or so of gaming, if not more.
 
Voros

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hawkeyefan said:
I usually try and pick up a couple, myself. I’m almost certain to get Rowan, Rook, and Decard’s Heart because I’m currently prepping a Spire campaign and digging their work on that game.

Vaesen was also already on my list, so I expect to be picking that up before long. Cortex Prime also seems worthwhile. I’m generally nota fan of generic systems all that much, but I keep hearing good things.

I have to admit I didn’t give Neverland much thought, but after you mentioned it, I looked at the video linked from the Ennies page and it actually looks really good. I have no idea what system it uses, but it has a cool hex crawl aesthetic going on. And the book itself looks like it belongs on the shelf next to other classics. I may have to grab that, too.

Although I also think I may be at max capacity on games for a bit. Planning on running Spire, followed by Mothership and then The Between. That’ll be the next 6 months or so of gaming, if not more.
Click to expand...

Neverland is 5e but looks to be easy to port to any version of D&D.
 
Lychee of the Exchequer

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Bunch said:
Makes me think we need a Pubbies Award. Not limited by year necessarily because there's a lot of previously missed or new players who would benefit from seeing it.
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Yeah, Pubbies Award would rock !
Just wanted to say that (and I mean it, too ).
 
Voros

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The winners are being announced!

 
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