The ENnies were announced last night at Gen Con, and here’s the winners! When I compare my picks to the results, I wonder… What’s all this love for Changeling? It looks OK, but “Best” in interior art and production values just isn’t supportable over the other entries – if I open Changeling and Alpha & Omega and just look at them, there’s no compare… In fact, Solomon Kane and Changeling were my picks for weakest entries in that field, and they’re the winners? Odd. Here, look at the A&O PDF preview. Can you honestly pop them open side by side and say that Changeling or Kane are anywhere in that league in production values? No, of course not. I support Changeling winning for writing and Kane for rules, but that’s just strange.
Here, let’s start by me giving you a medal summary, Olympics style!
- Paizo Publishing – 7 gold, 1 silver
- Wizards of the Coast – 5 gold, 5 silver
- White Wolf – 4 gold, 5 silver
- Green Ronin – 2 gold, 2 silver
- Malhavoc Press – 1 gold
- Pelgrane Press – 2 silver
- And then Pinnacle, Goodman, Fat Dragon, Kenzer, Lone Wolf, and Exile with one silver each.
Super congrats to big winner Paizo! It’s well deserved. I hear they already sold out of all of their Pathfinder RPG Beta stock at Gen Con in nine hours! Here’s the detailed list of awards, straight from EN World.
Best Fan Product
Gold: DungeonMastering.com
Silver: FlamesRising.com
Best Art, Cover
Gold: Pathfinder #1: Burnt Offerings, Paizo Publishing
Silver: Scion: God, White Wolf Publishing
Best Art, Interior
Gold: Changeling: The Lost, White Wolf Publishing
Silver: Pathfinder #1: Burnt Offerings, Paizo Publishing
Best Cartography
Gold: Pirate’s Guide to Freeport, Green Ronin Publishing
Silver: DCC #51: Castle Whiterock, Goodman Games
Best Production Values
Gold: Changeling: The Lost, White Wolf Publishing
Silver: The Savage World of Solomon Kane, Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Best Writing
Gold: Changeling: The Lost, White Wolf Publishing
Silver: Trail of Cthulhu, Pelgrane Press
Best Rules presented by Mike Selinker:
Gold: Star Wars Roleplaying Game Saga Edition, Wizards of the Coast
Silver: Trail of Cthulhu, Pelgrane Press
Best Adventure
Gold: Pathfinder #1: Burnt Offerings, Paizo Publishing
Silver: Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk, Wizards of the Coast
Best Setting
Gold: Pathfinder Chronicles Gazetteer, Paizo Publishing
Silver: Pirate’s Guide to Freeport, Green Ronin Publishing
Best Adversary/Monster Product
Gold: Pathfinder Chronicles: Classic Monsters Revisited, Paizo Publishing
Silver: Elder Evils, Wizards of the Coast
Best Supplement
Gold: True20 Companion, Green Ronin Publishing
Silver: Hollow Earth Expedition: Secrets of the Surface World, Exile Games Studio
Best Miniature Product
Gold: D&D Icons: Legend of Drizzt Scenario Pack, Wizards of the Coast
Silver: Dragon Tiles: Forest Adventures, Fat Dragon Games
Best Regalia
Gold: Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress: A Girls Guide to Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards of the Coast
Silver: Hobby Games: The 100 Best, Green Ronin Publishing
Best Aid or Accessory
Gold: Pathfinder Chronicles: Harrow Deck, Paizo Publishing
Silver: Hero Lab, Lone Wolf Development
Best Free Product or Web Enhancement presented by 2008 ENnies sponsor, AvatarArt:
Gold: Pathfinder RPG Alpha, Paizo Publishing
Silver: Changeling Quickstart, White Wolf Publishing
Best Electronic Book
Gold: Book of Experimental Might 2, Malhavoc Press
Silver: Changeling: Fearmaker’s Promise, White Wolf Publishing
Best d20/OGL Product
Gold: Star Wars Roleplaying Game Saga Edition, Wizards of the Coast
Silver: Monte Cook’s World of Darkness, White Wolf Publishing
Best Game presented by Peter Adkison:
Gold: Star Wars Roleplaying Game Saga Edition, Wizards of the Coast
Silver: Aces and Eights, Kenzer & Company
Product of the Year presented by Peter Adkison:
Gold: Changeling: The Lost, White Wolf Publishing
Silver: Star Wars Roleplaying Game Saga Edition, Wizards of the Coast
Fan Choice Best Publisher presented by Peter Adkison:
The Gold winner is…Paizo Publishing
And the Silver winner is…White Wolf Publishing
My biggest concern is that the results smell like “popularity contest.” WotC and White Wolf took away a lot more awards than they should have from the relative merits of the products entered. Besides Star Wars Saga, which was good all the D&D stuff released (and there wasn’t much) were poor, lame-duck products. Neither Elder Evils nor Ruins of Greyhawk deserved anything (and I’m a huge Greyhawk fan, and like all the authors on that one, but that doesn’t change the product’s quality). And choosing Elder Evils over the Book of Unremitting Horror for best monster-book means there’s something pretty wrong with the process somewhere.
I wonder if they try to “spread around” the awards. You know, “Well, we want to give Solomon Kane something, but not best product or rules, so we’ll give it production values.” Because some of the winners are strong games that were really good, but in an area way far away from what they got the award in. Solomon Kane is great, and I love the Savage Worlds rules, but its production values are pure middle of the road for a hardback RPG.
Congratulations to all the winners, especially my personal favorites Paizo, Green Ronin, and Kenzer & Co!
Geek Related 
Thank you for the mention. We appear to have been listed twice as winning both two then one award. I really would have liked Dave and Ade to get a nod for Unremitting Horror, but we were up against the big guns.
RE: Smells like a “Popularity Contests”
The Ennies are nominated by a panel of judges then voted on by the fans. So it’s pretty much just a popularity contest which very little value can be placed on.
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