Best Free Product commentary, part I

I'll admit that I'm a little hesitant to jump right into this, but I think it's an important discussion, so I'm going to hope that it's best to start the dialog right away.

The biggest source of controversy with the ENnie awards comes from the disconnect between what people want/expect them to be and what they are. This year's debate over the appropriateness of allowing quick-start products into the category next to full RPGs is a perfect example.

You see, it's not a matter of allowing quick-start's to compete in the other RPGs' category, but rather allowing other RPGs into the category that was specifically made to cover things like quick-starts that is the problem.

Yeah, the full title of the award is Best Free Product or Web Enhancement.

Until this year it has always been a category designed to acknowledge all the extra stuff companies give away for their game lines. Of course quick-starts are done for promotion and advertisement, but they're still a service to their fans, and still products worth acknowledging. In addition to usually including a quicker, easier version of the rules, most include a sample adventure and some characters so people can get started playing right away. All in all they're generally a pretty neat package of gaming goodness.

So, to illustrate this I thought I'd do a little research. Here are last year's Free Product nominees:

Changeling Quickstart, White Wolf Publishing *Silver Winner*

Fire and Brimstone!, SammichCon Creations

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Alpha, Paizo *Gold Winner*

Shadowrun Quick-Start Rules, Catalyst Game Labs

Signs & Portents, Mongoose Publishing

Honorable Mention: Bits of Magicka, Tabletop Adventures

Two quick-starts and a playtest document.

2007:

Black Industries Web Site, Black Industries

6Guns: Lawmen- Earps and Mastersons, Dog House Rules

Nevermore Gazetteer, Expeditious Retreat Press

Classic Battletech Free Package, FanPro *Silver Winner*

Savage Tide Player's Guide, Paizo Publishing *Gold Winner*

Honorable Mention: Scion: Hero- Of Shadows Yet to Come, White Wolf

Two quick-starts and a player's guide for an adventure path.

2006:

Age of Worms Overload (Paizo Publishing) *Gold Winner*

Gates of Hell (Dicefreaks)

Mage the Awakening Demo (White Wolf Publishing) *Silver Winner*

Return to the Tomb of Five Corners (White Wolf Publishing)

Six-Guns: The James-Younger Gang (Dog House Rules)

Honourable mention: Temple Quarter: Ceremonies and Rituals (The Game Mechanics)

A quick-start, an adventure path intro, and an introductory adventure.

This isn't to say that those who want to see complete products have their own place don't have a point or a right to complain, but I just wanted point out that it's a little misplaced. The mixing of this category was the result of an attempt to include these products that wouldn't have had a category of their own at all, not an effort to compare a product used as an advertisement against those produced just to share with the community.

Most years these sorts of products fit into the Best Fan Product category (which could use some renaming given the shifting way and reasons these products are being produced), and so there is less of an issue. This year however there simply weren't enough products to allow for a category of their own. This is hugely unfortunate, and I'm not a fan of the decision, but according to the rules as they have always been presented there wasn't much choice. The judges had to find a home for the eight qualifying products that would have normally gone in the Fan category, and we chose to include them here. It's not ideal, but I don't see what other option there was left to us.

Hopefuly future judges and staff members can find a way to encourage enough free, complete products that this won't have to happen again. Maybe a partnership with programs like Game Chef and the like could be encouraged.

I don't know, and I don't have a great answer right now, but I hope people can see that this unfortunate circumstance was just the result of trying to be more inclusive, not any effort to push corperate products against those which are independant.

I took a couple days off

Sorry I haven't been around, I know there have been several questions asked, especially in light of the nominations being posted, and I feel bad about not responding sooner, but the last week or so of finallizing ENnies stuff was extremely time consuming, and I decided to take a little break. I tried to stop and offer congratulations whenever I thought about it, but for the most part I haven't been keeping up well with the discusions.

It's late, and I don't have a huge amount of time right now, but I wanted to at least drop in, appologize, and let everyone know that I'll begin my post-nomination commentary and product reviews afte I get some sleep. I'll also try to catch up on what discussions I have missed (and my twitter feed) and answer the questions I've been asked here.

Thanks for the patience, sorry about the delay. Bear with me a bit longer and I'll do what I can.

2009 ENnies Nominations

Best Cover

3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars

Scion: Ragnorak

Howl of the Carrion King

Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide

CthluhuTech

Best Interior Art

CthluhuTech

Mouse Guard

Dark Heresy RPG

Hellas

M&M: Wild Cards

Best Cartography

Pathfinder Map Folio

Sellswords of Punjar

The Saltshacks

Modern Floorplans: Victorian Mansion

SW Saga: Scum & Villainy

Best Writing

Don't Lose Your Mind

Hot War

Hunter Horror Recognition Guide

Baron Munchhausen

Kobold Quarterly

Best Production Values

Mouse Guard

CthulhuTech

Anima RPG

Dark Heresy Core

Hellas

Best Rules

D&D 4e PHB

Dark Heresy RPG

Song of Ice and Fire

Starblazer Adventures

Hunter: The Vigil

Best Adventure

King of the Trollhaunt Warrens

The Rose Bride's Plight

Howl of the Carrion King

Land of Darkness: The Barrow Grounds

Purge of the Unclean

Best Monster/Adversary

Witch Hunter: Grand Tome of Adversaries

Night Horrors Grim Fears

Dark Heresy Creature Anathema

D&D 4e MM

Freedom's Most Wanted

Best Setting

Pathfinder Campaign Setting

Hot War

Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies

Candlewick

Slipstream

Best Supplement

Hunter: The Vigil

CthuluTech Vade Mechum

Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Scion: Ragnorak

Best Aid/Accessory

D&D Insider

Dwarven Sweatshop Dice Box

Hunter Horror Recognition Guide

Kobold Quarterly

M&M Deluxe GM Screen

Best Miniature Product

Alea Tools Neo Markers

Star Wars Clone Wars Starter Set

Fat Dragon: Cliffs and Mountains

Halls of the Giant Kings Dungeon Tiles

Paizo Game Mastery Flip-Mat: Waterfront Tavern

Best Game

D&D 4e

Starblazer Adventures

Song of Ice and Fire

Cthluhutech

Dark Heresy

Best Regalia

Worlds of Dungeons & Dragons, Vol 2.

Art of Exalted

Planet Stories: Infernal Sorceress

Battletech: The Corps

Hunter Board Game

Best Electronic Book

Hard Boiled Armies

The Death Mother

Tales of Zobek

Collection of Horrors: Razor Kids - CCP

Blood of the Gorgon

Best Free Product

Battlerun

Hunter Quickstart: The Hunt

SoIaF Quickstart

Sword & Wizardry

Trial and Terror: SVU

Best Podcast

All Games Considered

Order 66

Return to Northmoor

Brilliant Gameologists

Voice of the Revolution

Best Website

Dungeon-A-Day

Critical Hits

Kobold Quarterly

Mad Brew Labs

Obsidian Portal

Product of the Year

D&D 4e PHB

Mouse Guard

Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies

Song of Ice and Fire

Hunter the Vigil

Dark Heresy Disciples of the Dark Gods

Don't Lose Your Mind

Star Wars Clone Wars

Scion: Ragnorak

Starblazer Adventures

Best Publisher nominations are open

Fan nominations for Best Publisher are now open. Just go to: http://tinyurl.com/mf9oya and fill out a very simple form.

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.

By the way

The list of entires is now final. Everything that was reviewed should now be on there.

http://enniejudge.blogspot.com/2009/05/updated-list.html

Today is the day

Today should be the final day for my role with this year's awards. In a little over eight hours the judges are getting together on IM to finalize the nominations.

As of right now the judges have each picked five products for each category. Tonight we'll sort through those, discuss the ones we like the best, and argue over the rest.

Actually, looking at the list I'm pretty surprised by the amount of consensus there is. There will be disagreements, and I’m sure we each have a few things we worried won’t make it, but overall the lists are reasonably similar.

This means that the nominations should be forthcoming. Our timetable calls for the announcement to be made Monday, and thus far we’re right on schedule.

Once that happens I’ll be free to talk about the nominations or other products that didn’t make the list, so if you have any questions please just let me know.

You can tell crunch time is coming

Picking the final products in each category is undoubtedly the hardest part of judging.  You're never quite satisfied, there's always something else you wish had made the list.

 

It's also the fun part though, or at least the days leading up to it is.  Today has been one of those days.  I've seen more discussion among the judges today than at any other point this year.  Even though it's little stuff it's great.

 

As a judge you kind of long to talk about some of the stuff you've read or seen, to discuss the stuff you really love, and to have some input on the choices you've made.  The problem is that there's no good way to do it until the announcements come out, and then you spend so much time defending the decisions you make that it loses some of its enjoyment.

 

Days like today, however, are nice because you get to talk a little bit without any kind of pressure.  It gets better as you get closer and stsart talking about why you like things, but for now it's just nice to make you feelings about some products known.

Finalized the list of Entries

Ok, I just went through every book I have. This list should be correct now.

I added the following:

This Favored Land - Arc Dreams

Hellfrost Player's Guide - Triple Ace Games

Slipstream - Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Starblazer Adventures - Cubicle Seven

Wraith Recon - Mongoose

Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen - Magnum Opus Press

Cartoon Action Hour Season 2 - Spectrum Games

Slasher Flick - Spectrum Games

Halls of the Giant Kings Dungeon Tiles - WotC

Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide - WotC

King of the Trollhaunt Warrens - WotC

Player's Handbook 2 - WotC

Adventurers' Vault - WotC

Dungeon Delve - WotC

Animalcast Podcast - Episodes 46, 58, 60, 71, 84

Making selections

I know I've been quiet lately. With the end of submissions I've really buckled down a lot in the last couple weeks. Primary reading is done, even on the newest arivals, and I can't imagine anything else coming in at this point, so now I'm in the "narrowing down" phase.

Everyone does this differently. Me, I take a lot of notes when I first go through the books, add sticky tabs to anything that catches my eye, and seperate entries into piles. After all that's done I print out the list of every product that has been entered uring the year, and go through them all, entry by entry, highlighting the list so I know that I've checked everything.

As I look at each entry I decide which categories I might be interested in nominationg it for. There's no real attempt to narrow down the lists at this point. I just organize it a bit, and add anything I think might have a real chance for my nomination. Each category gets a piece of paper, anything that might fit gets it's name added to the list.

It's during this stage that I go back and re-read anything that I don't comfortably remember, and make an effort to go through every product page by page. Other than initial reading this is the most time-consuming part of the process, and it's what I'm working on right now.

After this I'll go through the lists for each category and narrow them down to five products in each. I have a couple more weeks before I have to be done with this part, but when I do finish it'll be time to compare my lists to the other judges'.