Sharing My Ballot | ENNIES pt.2

I'm running for judge this year. If you like my content, enjoy what I say, and share my values, I'm counting on you to get me a seat. My pitch is in part 1 of this series. Otherwise, you can rank me #1 at the link below.

The Challenge with The ENnies

The ENnies are divided into categories, and the judges narrow each category to five candidates. The public then votes for the winners by ranking those five nominees.

The problem is that most people know only one or two nominees, so making educated choices is nearly impossible. Ranking the choices only makes it harder. Ironically, the judges are best suited to make the final vote—but that wouldn't make the ENnies a people's choice award.

You might ask, "Why are you telling me this?" The answer is, "So you'll forgive my ignorance." Below are some of my favorite nominees for this year's ENnies. The rest are mostly unknown. If I don't like a nominee, I'll tell you.

Adventure - Long Form

My Pick: The Bloom. Amazing writers, editors, and graphic designers working together, hand-in-hand, on a Liminal Horror adventure. For those who don't know, Liminal Horror is a system by Goblin Archives that—almost by design—forces wholly original adventures out of familiar conceits.

Adventure - Short Form

My Pick: One Shot Wonders. The shorter the adventures, the more crucial its structure and visual design matters. I think One Shot Wonders, compared to some of the others, is doing more interesting things for people who are looking for a short one-, two-, or three-shot scenario.

I'm intrigued by Losing Face's player onboarding, and I think the Well of All Fear has a great premise, but I don't know enough about these nominees to vote for them. On the other hand, Eat the Reich is an adventure I'm familiar with. I wouldn't describe it as "short." It's focused.

Aid - Non-Digital

My Pick: Hexcrawl Toolkit. Games Omnivorous' production quality is undeniable, but what I like about this nominee is how versatile and transformative it makes play in a non-prescriptive way. Most non-digital aids are one-time props or toys that lead to immense waste. For that reason, I need the aid to be reusable, versatile, and grease the wheels of play for games with immense friction.

Art - Cover

My Pick: Eat the Reich. I wrote an article on what makes a cover good or bad. Most of these nominees are cool but not notable. To earn an award, the cover needs more than illustrations that look like video game concept art and WotC's patented "just slap the title up top" approach.

Koriko is a close second. The typography, color palette, and composition convey a unique tone and style. I expect nothing less from Jack Harrison. However, in this matchup, Eat the Reich edges out with its bombastic opener of a cover. The art and design of the title, in particular, is both clever (look at those fangs), colorful, and intense. It feels heavy, like it's holding this metal sarcophagus closed.

Art - Interior

My Pick: Ultraviolet Grasslands 2E. Art should do a lot of things. It should convey tone, build up the setting, create a mood, and—in some cases—be usable. UVG 2E does all of that with the inking of just one talented artist and designer.

Side note: I find it strange art books can compete in this category. Sure, the art book is for a roleplaying game, but its purpose is so entirely different and divorced from gaming that it doesn't have to play by the same rules and limitations.

Cartography

My Pick: Border Riding. This game is a work of love. It's not just a map. It's a mapmaking game. In addition to being visually beautiful, there's a lot of detail and research in this game's construction, including the form factor, which mimics real-life hiking maps found in Scotland. The other nominees are great, but Border Riding provides something wholly new in the category that I haven't seen much of.

Design & Layout

My Pick: CBR+PNK: Augmented. This category was a toss-up between Break! and my pick, CBR+PNK. These nominees do something new in the category that either transforms gameplay or helps potential players pick it up. Break! refines the "control panel layout" to an all-new extreme with wayfinding and information design that's hard to find outside technical manuals. However, what makes CBR+PNK special is its ability to do something similar in a very difficult format (pamphlets!) with an art direction that positively buzzes with character. Of all the nominees, CBR+PNK captures the feeling of its setting while delivering pragmatic results. That's a difficult feat worthy of praise.

Online Content

My Pick: Skeleton Code Machine. It's not a contest. If the ENnies are meant to represent excellence in gaming, its nominees in this category shouldn't be afraid to venture outside of D&D 5E. The sheer breadth, utility, and quality of Skeleton Code Machine—as a fellow blogger—scares me.

Side note: The number of submissions to this category makes the inclusion of The Alexandrian, a blog that has already won a silver ENnie, strange. I don't believe The Alexandrian's output in the last calendar year is especially award-worthy. The posts are getting longer and less focused, and the videos are good but not great.

If Justin Alexander is to be voted on, let it be for his nomination in "RPG Related" for So You Want to be a Game Master. That book is, in effect, a compilation of his blog's prodigious output.

Streaming Content

My Pick: Dice Exploder Podcast. This is a tough category. Actual plays, advice shows, radio plays, and critiques are bundled into one. Personally, I prefer the critique and advice shows over actual plays, which I think are so huge, varied, and influential that they deserve their own category or award show.

Full disclosure: I've been on Dice Exploder. So, if I were a judge, I'd have to excuse myself in this category. But here's what I'll say since I don't have that platform: I think it deserves the award. The conversations are deep. Subjects like theory, psychology, and history are regular subjects of conversation. The variety of guests are also incredibly refreshing. We get big-time designers, LARPers, showrunners, and guests of all faiths, backgrounds, and lived experiences. In 2024, I think a variety show should be able to platform a representative slice of our hobby—and that slice is gay, trans, black, young, old, and everything in between.

BONUS: Fan's Favorite Publisher

My Pick: Space Penguin Ink. As a professional lurker on countless discords, forums, and Reddits—it's a miracle I haven't heard anything disappointing about Space Penguin Ink. This feat is made all the more impressive when you look at what they've managed to produce. Give them a look at their fresh website.

How do I vote?

Go to the ENnies voting page and rank me #1 for judge. If you have any questions about my tastes, interests, or opinions on award shows in general (the answers might surprise you!), catch me on social.

Thanks again. Until next time, never stop exploring!