Nominations are done

Well, the judges' meeting is over, and we have our final list of nominations. One way or another these will be out on Monday.

In the mean time, tomorrow starts the fan part of the nomination process, the Best Publisher award. This will be using a whole new system this year that should make tracking much better.

As for the nomination process itself... It was more painful than I expected. The list is good. Really, really good. As always however I didn't get everything I wanted. That sort of goes with the territory. The hardest part was the loss of a new category I advocated which I thought was pretty much a done deal.

Final List of categories:

Best Cover

Best Interior Art

Best Cartography

Best Writing

Best Production Values

Best Rules

Best Adventure

Best Monster/Adversary

Best Setting

Best Supplement

Best Aid/Accessory

Best Miniature Product

Best Game

Best Regalia

Best Electronic Book

Best Free Product

Best Podcast

Best Website

Product of the Year

19 categories.

Last time we did it via message boards. This year we did it by chat. Both have their strengths. Chat feels more confrontational, less wheeling and dealing, more 'getting it done.' This is good because it make a three day process three hours. It's bad because it can make someone with a temper like me unreasonably hot.

Still, it felt right, and these guys did a really great job. Everything on those lists absolutely belongs there, and when you get five people with such divergent tastes, that's hard to do.

My hat is off to those other judges, who did an outstanding job, and even managed to put up with me even when I got pushy. Can't wait to see everyone at GenCon.