Tenkar's Tavern: Eannie, Meanie, ENnies - It's Like the All-Star Game for RPGs

Friday, July 20, 2012

Eannie, Meanie, ENnies - It's Like the All-Star Game for RPGs

'Tis ENnie time. Time for blogs and RPGs and publishers that have made the cut to shill and plead and cajole their readers, customers and fans to vote for them in the ENnie balloting. Just like the MLB All-Star Game, ballot box stuffing is encouraged.

Which is why it is mostly the larger companies with a larger following that scoff up the awards.

It's a popularity contest, not a quality contest.

I'd like to see awards or recognition for gaming products from the writers and creators of games. What THEY think are the top products, the ones that push the creative envelope, the stuff that they are playing when they aren't playing their own creations.

I'm sure the two lists would be very different. I'd personally find the second list more valuable.

5 comments:

Mark GedakJuly 21, 2012 at 12:40 AM
Do you have a list of your best products for the last year?

Who should have made the list that didn't?
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KiltedyaksmanJuly 21, 2012 at 7:24 AM
I found the rules so off putting that I didn't bother.
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Erik TenkarJuly 21, 2012 at 9:53 AM
@Mark - I'd have to make sure I had a list that covered the ENnies time frame, but the fact you have to enter your products in dead tree if possible and pay a fee if its in PDF weeds out the smaller publishers.

In many ways, it's self selecting.

@Kiltedyaksman - I'd like to see nominations made by those in the industry - recommending the works of others - not folks saying "vote for me and my friends" because that doesn't tell us why something is good, but it does explain the votes
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Mark GedakJuly 21, 2012 at 9:59 AM
Last year we didn't select ourselves in this year we gave it a shot but were shut out of the three categories we tried for.
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Erik TenkarJuly 21, 2012 at 10:04 AM
@Mark Gedak - in a way it's like playing the lottery, but the only guaranteed winners are the ENNie reviewers and their piles of swag.

There is a problem with the whole process. I may post more thoughts on it later, but the idea that to win a prize that supposedly means you and your products are the best of the best requires you to opt in AND shell out products and or cash for the privilege to be considered is wrong.

As for those running to be judges, I suspect most are in it for the swag...
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Why "Swords & Wizardry?"

Believe me when I say I have them all in dead tree format. I have OSRIC in full size, trade paperback and the Player's Guide. I have LL and the AEC (and somewhere OEC, but I can't find it at the moment). Obviously I have Basic Fantasy RPG. Actually, I have the whole available line in print. Way too much Castles & Crusades. We all know my love for the DCC RPG. I even have Dark Dungeons in print, the Delving Deeper boxed set, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. BOTH editions of LotFP's Weird Fantasy and some dead tree copies of the Greyhawk Grognards Adventures Dark & Deep

I am so deep in the OSR when I come up for breath it's for the OSR's cousin, Tunnels & Trolls

So, out of all that, why Swords & Wizardry? Why, when I have been running a AD&D 1e / OSRIC campaign in Rappan Athuk am I using Swords & Wizardry and it's variant, Crypts & Things, for the second campaign? (Actually, now running a S&W Complete campaign, soon to be with multiple groups)

Because the shit works.

It's easy for lapsed gamers to pick up and feel like they haven't lost a step. I can house rule it and it doesn't break. It plays so close to the AD&D of my youth and college years (S&W Complete especially) that it continually surprises me. Just much less rules hopping than I remember. (my God but I can run it nearly without the book)

I grab and pick and steal from just about all OSR and Original resources. They seem to fit into S&W with little fuss. It may be the same with LL and the rest, but for me the ease of use fit's my expectations with S&W.

Even the single saving throw. That took me longer to adjust to, but even that seems like a natural to me now. Don't ask me why, it just does. Maybe it's the simplicity of it. At 45 52, simplicity and flexibility while remaining true to the feel of the original is an OSR hat trick for me ;)

Swords & Wizardry Light - Forum

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Friday, July 20, 2012

Eannie, Meanie, ENnies - It's Like the All-Star Game for RPGs

5 comments:

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