Let's talk nominations

Sorry I didn't get this out sooner, as promised, I went out to eat with my wife and kids, and stayed later than intended.

So, here we go:

Best Fan Site
Dragonlance Nexus
Liber Fanatica
Modus Operandi
Plane Walker
Treasure Tables
HM: Flames Rising

Best Podcast
Fear the Boot
Have Games, Will Travel
Godzilla Gaming
Sons of Kryos
Yog Sothoth Radio
HM: Pulp Gamer

Best Cover Art
Dawning Star: Helios Rising, Blue Devil Games
Hollow Earth Expedition, Exile Games
Faery's Tale, Firefly Games
Lacuna Part 1, Memento Mori
Five Fingers: Port of Deceit, Privateer Press
HM: Mutants & Masterminds: Ultimate Power, Green Ronin

Best Interior Art
Qin, 7ème Cercle
Warlords of the Accordlands series, AEG
Children of the Horned Rat, Black Industries
Burning Empires, Burning Wheel
Mutants & Masterminds: Ultimate Power, Green Ronin
HM: Hollow Earth Expedition, Exile Game Studio

Best Cartography
Warlords of the Accordlands: Monsters & Lairs, AEG
Warhammer Fantasy RolePlay: Game Master's Toolkit, Black Industries
DCC 35: Gazetteer of the Known Realms, Goodman Games
Ptolus- City by the Spire, Malhavoc Press/White Wolf Publishing
Five Fingers: Port of Deceit, Privateer Press
HM: Campaign Cartographer 3, ProFantasy Software

Best Production Values
Qin, 7ème Cercle
Burning Empires, Burning Wheel
Mutants & Masterminds: Ultimate Power, Green Ronin Publishing
Ptolus: Malhavoc Press/White Wolf Publishing
Tales of the Caliphate Nights, Paradigm Concepts
HM: Knightly Orders of Ansalon

Best Writing
Qin, 7ème Cercle
Children of the Horned Rat, Black Industries
Hollow Earth Expedition, Exile Game Studio
Dictionary of Mu, Paka's Thread Games
Five Fingers: Port of Deceit, Privateer Press
HM: Scion: Hero, White Wolf Publishing

Best Rules
Qin, 7ème Cercle
Spirit of the Century, Evil Hat Games
Faery's Tale, Firefly Games
Mutants & Masterminds: Ultimate Power, Green Ronin Publishing
Esoterrorists, Pelgrane Press
HM: Warhammer Fantasy RolePlay: Companion

Best Supplement
Warhammer Fantasy RolePlay: Companion, Black Industries
Street Magic, FanPro
Etherscope: Upload: Etherpunk, Goodman Games
Mutants & Masterminds: Ultimate Power, Green Ronin Publishing
Thrilling Places, Hero Games
HM: Tome of Corruption, Black Industries

Best Setting
Warlords of the Accordlands series, AEG
Dawning Star: Helios Rising, Blue Devil Games
DCC 35: Gazetteer of the Known Realms, Goodman Games
Ptolus- City by the Spire, Malhavoc Press/White Wolf Publishing
Five Fingers: Port of Deceit, Privateer Press
HM: Thrilling Places, Hero Games

Best Adventure
Warhammer Fantasy RolePlay: Lure of the Liche Lord, Black Industries
DCC 34: Cage of Delrium, Goodman Games w. Midnight Syndicate
Xcrawl: Coney Island Crawl, Goodman Games
Time of Vengeance, Green Ronin
Thrilling Places, Hero Games
Dungeon Magazine: Age of Worms Ad. Path, Paizo Publishing

Best Miniature Product
The Deluxe Galleon, Dragonfire Laser Crafts
Modern Floorplans: All Saints Church, Fabled Environments
E-Z Dungeons, Fat Dragon Games
Conflict Chips
Game Mastery: Flip-mat Tavern, Paizo Publishing
HM: Hordes Line's Lord of the Feast, Privateer Press

Best Regalia
Liber Chaotica, Black Industries
Witch Hunter's Handbook, Black Industries
Classic Battletech Total Warfare, FanPro
Order of the Stick: No Cure for the Paladin Blues, Giant in the Playground
Art of Dragon Magazine, Paizo Publishing
HM: Astounding Hero Tales, Hero Games

Best Aid/Accessory
Deck of Many Things, Green Ronin Publishing
Hero Lab, Lone Wolf Development
GameMastery Combat Pad, Open Mind Games/Paizo Publishing
Game Mastery: Critical Hit Deck, Paizo Publishing
Promethean: Storyteller Screen, White Wolf Publishing
HM: Campaign Cartographer 3, ProFantasy Software

Best Electronic Book
Frontier Towns: Fort Griffin #3, Dog House Rules
Magical Medieval Society: European Warfare, Expeditious Retreat Press
Nevermore Gazetteer, Expeditious Retreat Press
Classic Battletech Free Package, FanPro
Castle Shadowcrag, Open Design
HM: Kitsunemori, Dog Soul Publishing

Best Free Product
Black Industries Web Site, Black Industries
Six-Guns: Lawmen- Earps and Mastersons, Dog House Rules
Nevermore Gazetteer, Expeditious Retreat Press
Classic Battletech Free Package, FanPro
Savage Tide Player's Guide, Paizo Publishing
HM: Scion: Hero- Of Shadows Yet to Come, White Wolf Publishing

Best d20/OGL
Warlords of the Accordlands series, AEG
Dawning Star: Helios Rising, Blue Devil Games
Etherscope-Upload: Etherpunk, Goodman Games
Mutants & Masterminds: Ultimate Power, Green Ronin Publishing
Five Fingers: Port of Deceit, Privateer Press
HM: Ptolus- City by the Spire, Malhavoc Press/White Wolf Publishing

Best Game
Qin, 7ème Cercle
Conspiracy X 2E, Eden Studios
Hollow Earth Expedition, Exile Game Studio
Faery's Tale, Firefly Games
Scion: Hero, White Wolf Publishing
HM: Esoterrorists, Pelgrane Press & Spirit of the Century, Evil Hat Games

Fan's Choice: Best Publisher
Arc Dream
Atlas Games
Atomic Sock Monkey Press
Avenger Enterprises
Black Industries
BTRC
Burning Wheel
Chris Gonnerman
Contested Ground Studios
Creative Mountain Games
Dark Omen Games
Dog Soul
Dragonwing Games
Dreamscarred Press
Evil Hat Productions
Exile Game Studio
Expeditious Retreat Press
Fat Dragon Games
Fiery Dragon Productions
Goodman Games
Green Ronin Publishing
Hero Games
Ironwood Omnimedia Company LLC
Kenzer Co.
Malhavoc Press
Margaret Weis Productions/Sovereign Press
Paizo Publishing
Palladium Books
Paradigm Concepts
Pinnacle Entertainment Group/Great White Games
Precis Intermidia Games
RPG Objects
Ronin Arts
Tabletop Adventures
Troll Lord Games
White Wolf
Wizards of the Coast

Product of the Year
Qin, 7ème Cercle
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Children of the Horned Rat
Dawning Star: Helios Rising, Blue Devil Games
The Deluxe Galleon, Dragonfire Laser Crafts
Hollow Earth Expedition, Exile Game Studio
Mutants & Masterminds: Ultimate Power, Green Ronin Publishing
Thrilling Places, Hero Games
Ptolus- City by the Spire, Malhavoc Press/White Wolf Publishing
Dictionary of Mu, Paka's Thread Games
Five Fingers: Port of Deceit, Privateer Press
HM: Conspiracy X 2E, Eden Studios and Tales of the Caliphate Nights, Paradigm Concepts.

What's happening

So, for those who have been waiting all day, here's what's going on:

Basically Denise is going through the entries and trying to make sense of all the last-minute posts that were made. After that, the list will be posted. Probably within the next hour or so.

That'd make it like 7-7:30 Central time.

Tomorrow's the big day

So, if I'm correct, and everything goes according to plan, tomorrow is the day our lists will be announced. I doubt much of what is on there is a surprise, though I'm sure everyone will have some question about our choices.

If you have any questions about the process, nominees, or my thoughts on the matter, please feel free to post them. I'll be on a lot tomorrow to respond as soon as possible. If you have any questions now, please post them as comments here and I'll answer them in my Q&A posts that I'll be doing over the next few days.

Congratulations to the Origin's Awards winners

So, I blatantly stole this from the guys at OgreCave.com, and promptly splattered it across the front of ENWorld, so I thought I may as well comment on it here too. As far as I could tell they were simply the only people who seemed to have jumped right on this. If you ever needed another reason to believe that they were the place to go for gaming news and commentary, here it is.

Fiction Publication of the Year
WINNER: Dungeon Magazine (Paizo Publishing)

Non-Fiction Publication of the Year
WINNER: Dragon Magazine (Paizo Publishing)

Roleplaying Game of the Year
WINNER: Burning Empires (Burning Wheel)

Roleplaying Game Supplement of the Year
WINNER: Deadlands Reloaded (Pinnacle/Great White Games)

That's a heck of a list, and all deserving entries. We didn't get Deadlands Reloaded, so I'm not terribly familiar with it, but I've heard enough to believe it really earned its place, and I'm a big fan of the other three.

There are other winners as well, of course, but you'll have to go check out OgreCave if you want them. I focus mostly on RPGs (as does the ENnie Awards), so I have no real way to comment on the other winners.

Anywho, congratulations to the winners. I wish I could have been there.

A day of rest

The first day post ENnies has been very nice. I spent the whole day with my kids just resting and trying to make up for disappearing over the last couple days.

All in all I give it a 5 out of 5.

I did spend more time online than I should have though, mostly just doing the basking in the afterglow thing. There were a couple more discussions and a little last minute shuffling, but for the most part it's just been pats on the back all the way around.

For some reason the other judges have been exceptionally complimentary to me, for which I am grateful. I know I'm a bit of an outsider, but they really brought me in and made me feel like an essential part of the process, which was extremely cool.

Honestly I don't really deserve it, so if you see them talking about me organizing things at the last minute or anything, just understand that it's ther polite way of saying I was starting to get pushy :)

We were all there together at the end, I just tidied things up a bit while everyone was sleeping because I simply had the time to do it.

Speaking of which, I do own the judges an apology. I know I got pretty obnoxious, especially today. I'm just ready to be done with it for now. Kevin commented that he was surprised at how much of his mental landscape this had taken up, and that's about as perfect a description as I can think of. Stuart even commented that he wouldn't run again next year, which is a real loss to the process.

All in all I think we're just drained. It was a good run, and now it's time to rest and recuperate.

So, sorry guys if I got a little snappish or pushy. I hope I didn't overstep. It was absolutely fantastic working with you.

Okay, now I'm off. I likely won't be back until the nominations are announced, which I think is Monday the 9th. I'm taking the weekend off. My group and I are going to play one of the games that was entered, and after that I don't intend to think about gaming until the complaints start pouring in over the choices we made.

Have a good weekend all, especially you lucky bastards at Origins. Oh, and good luck to the nominees for an Origins award. There were a number of very worthy contenders on the lists this year.

One final thought. I posted this in the judges' forum, but I think it bears repeating here:

I think we can all agree that everything that's on the list belongs there, even if we can't agree that everything that belongs there is on the list.

I hope you guys feel the same after the nominees come out. See you Monday.

...and I'm spent.

That's it. Depending on your timezone we either finished on time, or we didn't. Here we were 33 minutes late, but luckily it's the internet, and I can pretend I'm in Pacific or Mountain. Heck, I could just ignore Daylight Savings Time. Yeah, that's it...

Ok, so I've been working on this for nearly 24 hours now. Cut me a little slack.

We're done.

Technically that's not true. We need one judge to break a tie for Best Supplement, but then we're done. That's it. Every other category is posted.

Look for the nominations to be announced very soon. I want to say Friday, but don't hold me to it.

I'm going to maintain this blog a little longer, as I said before, so don't go away just yet. I'll discuss the nominations once they're announced, and answer any questions anyone might have.

Let me say this: I am happy with every nomination.

That doesn't mean that all of my personal picks made it. In fact, I'm a little depressed that two of my top 5 didn't make it into a single category, but everything that's on those lists deserves their spot. There just wasn't room for everything.

I seriously need to thank some people. First, Denise, Russ, and Rich did a fantastic job making these awards happen. There wouldn't be any awards without them. Of course the people who took a chance and voted me as judge need to be thanked as well, it was an awesome experience. Thanks also to the publishers and writers who submitted products. I loved so much of what I read this year, and it really did change the way I think about gaming.

I also need to thank the other judges. I can't believe you pulled it out like that at the last minute. It was completely amazing, and I am in awe. Oh, and I can't forget the podcasters who came together and helped me to create a whole new category. If I list you all this will be a long post indeed, but let me give a special thanks to Daniel Perez of the Gamer Traveler, who I know got the word out for me far better than I could have done alone. Oh, and Paul Tevis of Have Games, Will Travel. Believe it or not your thorough reviews helped me to first understand, then love, one of my favorite entries. Not to mention a story I have to tell you some time about how you made me get to work a half hour late, and then leave again, after listening to your show.

Finally, I need to thank my commenters,the people who stuck with this disjointed blog the whole way through, and the guys from the forums who helped me out. I don't know everyone, but Fred (Hicks?), Dave (Chapman?), and Jeff Combos, if you get a free second at GenCon, let me buy you a drink. In an industry full of cool people you guys really stand out.

Ok, enough. Exhaustion is setting in, and my wife and kids haven't seen me in three days. I'm off to convince the little ones that their dad still loves them before slipping into the blissful darkness of sleep.

Besides, this has dragged on far too long already.

All-nighter

Well, I've been working on the lists for the last 14 hours or so, and they're just about done. I did take about a two hour break in there, but darn it feels like a long time.

The judges have reached consensus on two categories, and we are very close in several more. The late night finally got the best of us, but I have confidence that we'll get it worked out in the morning.

There's little choice. We have an official hard deadline of noon today. After that we're down to just voting. The good news is that Stuart came up with a brilliant voting system that takes our tastes into account much better than a simple majority. If it comes down to it we're much better off, but I think once everyone wakes up in the morning we'll be able to finish it off in no time.

Everyone really came through today. I was the last one up, but I work nights, so that's no big deal. Stuart, Kevin, and Jeff all worked as late as they could, and in many cases much later than they should have, and really picked up the slack when I started getting too slow with the lists to keep up with all the conversation.

This is it. Seven hours or so to go.

A quick update

Well, I just finished my top 10 for Product of the Year, which means I'm basically done until the other judges wake up and have time to put their final lists up and start the final round of narrowing down the selections.

That means I get to go home and sleep, and hopefully stop thinking about this for a while.

Almost finished

Well, I just posted my final selections for every category except Product of the Year.

As soon as everyone else finishes their posting we'll narrow down to a list we can all agree on (hopefully). If we can't, there will be a final vote by secret ballot on Wednesday the 4th, so that the nominations can be announced on time.

The reason I haven't finished Product of the Year is two-fold. First, it's a difficult category. Everything fits into it, so you have to weigh completely different kinds of products against one another. Second, I screwed up. I thought it was a top 5 like the other categories, and didn't realize it was a top 10. That means I have to go back through everything and make five more picks.

That, however, will hold until tomorrow. I've been going at this for seven hours straight, and I'm done with it for today. My hands are exhausted from typing. If you want to know how much the judges discuss the products that are entered, consider this: My post count climbed by more than 100 today alone.

I'm a classic lurker. In the four and a half years I've been a member at ENWorld I had about 200 posts before becoming a judge. Right now I have 655. That's not even counting IM conversations or emails.

Silence and the big day

I know I've been quiet lately. Things are moving pretty fast right now, and it's been hard to keep up. Picks are being finalized, frantic last minute discussions are going on, and general chaos rules.

Ok, it's not quite that bad, but you get the picture. It's very busy, and the judges are working hard to come up with a list we can all agree on, without having to resort to voting.