www.summer-revolution.com

Vote for 2010 ENnie Awards

ryan — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 02:46:46 +0000

Hey, all! The ENnie Awards are open, and the Summer Revolution is back. Many sweet, small press, off beat games have been nominated for the ENnies. While we’re happy for all the games and publishers nominated, we entreat you to vote for the underdog. Shake things up. Give some unsung games the recognition that they deserve. The Summer Revolution provides a ballot of suggested and recommended titles for your consideration when voting for the ENnies. Keep it close by when you’re voting and use it for inspiration. If we all pull together, we keep this revolution going.

Here’s the indie-focused ballot for the 2010 ENnies:

Best Cover Art
Trail of Cthulhu: Rough Magicks, Pelgrane Press

Best Interior Art
Escape from Tentacle City, Willow Palecek

Best Writing
How We Came to Live Here, Galileo Games
Kerberos Club, Cubicle 7/Arc Dream Publishing

Best Rules
Atomic Highway, Radioactive Ape Designs/Khapera Publishing
BASH Ultiamte Edition, Basic Action Games
Diaspora, VSCA
Wild Talents 2nd Edition, Cubicle 7/Arc Dream Publishing

Best Adventure
The Grinding Gear, Lamentations of the Flame Princess
Trail of Cthulhu: The Armitage Files, Pelgrane Press

Best Monster of Adversary
Hellfront Bestiary, Cubicle 7

Best Setting
Day After Ragnarok, Atomic Overmind Press
Kerveros Club, Cubicle 7/Arc Dream Publishing
Rome: Life and Death of a Republic, Cubicle 7

Best Supplement
Lucha Libra Hero, Hero Games

Best Regalia
Cthulhu 101, Atomic Overmind Press

Best Electronic Book
Shambles, A Terrible Idea

Best Free Product
Lady Blackbird, one.seven Design

Best Blog
One Geek to Another, Jess Hartley

Best Game
Wild Talents 2nd Edition, Cubicle 7/Arc Dream Publishing

Product of the Year
Doctor Who, Cubicle 7
Kerberos Club, Cubicle 7/Arc Dream Publishing
Rome: Life and Death of a Republic, Cubicle 7
Wild Talents 2nd Edition, Cubicle 7/Arc Dream Publishing

- Ryan

The Voting Begins

Fred — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:36:56 +0000

You can vote on the Ennies here: http://www.ennie-awards.com/voting/voting.asp

Do you have a voice that needs to be heard? Post your voting picks on your blog, and comment here to let us know about it — and so others can see!

Call to Action

Fred — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:40:32 +0000

Once again, the Summer Revolution has come. Many sweet, small press, off beat games have been nominated for the ENnies. While all the nominated games are great, we entreat you to vote for the underdog. Shake up the order of things. Give some unsung games the recognition that they deserve. The Summer Revolution provides a ballot of suggested and recommended titles for your consideration when voting for the ENnies. Keep it close by when you’re voting and use it for inspiration. If we all pull together, we can start a revolution.

2009 Ennies Nominations Announced!

Fred — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:44:36 +0000

Here’s the “indie-focused” ballot for 2009:

Best Cover Art
3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars, Box Ninja

Best Interior Art
Mouse Guard, Kunoichi/Archaia
or
HELLAS: Worlds of Sun and Stone, Khepera Publishing/Aethereal Forge

Best Production Values
Mouse Guard, Kunoichi/Archaia
or
HELLAS: Worlds of Sun and Stone, Khepera Publishing/Aethereal Forge

Best Writing
Hot War, Contested Ground Studio
or
Don’t Lose Your Mind, Evil Hat Productions

Best Rules
Starblazer Adventures, Cubicle 7 Entertainment

Best Setting
Hot War, Contested Ground Studio
or
Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies, Atomic Sock
or
The Dreadful Secrets of Candlewick Manor, Arc Dream

Best Electronic Book
The Death Mother, One Bad Egg
or
Hard Boiled Armies, One Bad Egg

Best Aid or Accessory
Kobold Quarterly, Open Design

Best Website
Kobold Quarterly, Open Design

Best Free Product
Trial and Terror: SVU, The Imagination Sweatshop

Best Podcast
The Voice of the Revolution

Best Game
Starblazer Adventures, Cubicle 7 Entertainment

Product of the Year
Mouse Guard, Kunoichi/Archaia
or
Don’t Lose Your Mind, Evil Hat Productions
or
Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies, Atomic Sock Monkey / Evil Hat
or
Starblazer Adventures, Cubicle 7 Entertainment

This feels familiar.

Fred — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:28:04 +0000

Those of you who voted in the Ennies last year may remember that they started late (like this year) and then after a day or two of voting had gone past, something went south and it had to get restarted, with everyone who voted early needing to cast their votes again.

Guess what else happened this year?

If you cast your vote already, please drop by their site and see if it recognizes you as having voted before. If it hasn’t, you’ll need to vote again!

http://www.ennieawards.com/voting/index.phtml

Your support as always is appreciated!

Rock the Vote!

Fred — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:17:51 +0000

Ennies voting is live:

http://www.ennieawards.com/voting.html

In order for indie and small/micro press games to have a chance and a voice at the Ennies, we need every single one of you reading this to get on over there and vote. Please participate! Earlier is better, of course, but you have a week. And please don’t try to vote multiple times. We’d rather have your honest support!

Here’s the “indie-focused” ballot, as I posted earlier on the Summer Revolution:

http://summer-revolution.com/?p=12

On a personal note, as the publisher of Spirit of the Season, I’d especially appreciate your vote this year!

For Your Consideration…

Fred — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:06:55 +0000

So, the Ennies Voting is supposed to be live today, according to their voting page.

It’s not, yet, but I’ll try to be patient.

In the meantime, let’s look at the ballot, and how I might vote in support of the “indie” games out there. Note, I’m voting this way because I like what I’m supporting and I have a bit of an indie-support agenda besides, but I’m pretty impressed with a lot of the products in these categories, indie or not, so please take all of this with the necessary grains of salt!

Best Fan Product: I’m going to go with Flames Rising here. They’ve been a strong supporter of horror games both indie and not, and I’ve personally had nothing but positive interactions with their staff. It’s a pity podcasts got lumped into this category, but that’s on the podcasters — they didn’t provide enough submissions to support the two categories separately.

Best Art, Cover: The indie vote here is Thousand Suns, from Rogue Games. If you’re going non-indie this time around, there’s a lot to love here. The Scion covers have been gorgeous, and I pretty much love everything I see at Green Ronin’s booth whenever I drop by — Pirate’s Guide to Freeport being no exception.

Best Art, Interior: Alpha Omega from Mindstorm Labs is our closest indie fit here (they’re with IPR), and boy, they’re entirely spot on about the art on this one. Check out some interior peeks (scroll down to see them) over at IPR’s site. Outside the indie track, I know I drooled openly at Solomon Kane, and Changeling was pretty evocative.

Best Cartography: At present, indie doesn’t really compete here. In a pinch, I’d throw Green Ronin some love, but I have to admit that I’m not yet well versed in most of these guys.

Best Production Values: What a kooky category! I think I’ve said most of what’s to be said about the stuff here, already. Alpha Omega may well deserve your love.

Best Writing: I’m terribly biased here. For me, it’s a fistfight of the indie kind between Monsters and Other Childish Things and Trail of Cthulhu, with Two-Fisted Tales swinging in with a surprise left cross. I won’t tell you which one I’ll pick above the others, but I have much love for the work and words of Ben Baugh and Ken Hite (both of whom have done/are doing work for Evil Hat, so yes, I’ll fess up to being a little biased).

Best Rules: Trail of Cthulhu’s here again as an IPR-sold contender. Alas, I have little knowledge of the other entrants, so Trail gets a firm and enthusiastic first place vote from me, here.

Best Adventure: Indie doesn’t do adventures that often, so I’m not too shocked this one’s devoid of things I’ve seen!

Best Monster/Adversary: Oh my (elder) gods, The Book of Unremitting Horror is full of exactly what this category’s about.

Best Setting: Another fairly unfamiliar category here, though Warp World is from BTRC, a frequent member of the Forge Booth.

Best Supplement: Why, Ennies? Why must you stack Evil Hat up against Exile Studios (let alone Green Ronin) again? You can guess I’ll be casting my vote for Spirit of the Season, while looking fondly upon Exile’s Secrets of the Surface World. Those curious about Spirit of the Season can check out the special Ennies 40-page extended preview available for free on DriveThruRPG.

Best Accessory: I have never seen a sturdier nor more impressive GM screen than the one available from Exile Studios. For me, at least, it wins by a mile, and that’s in a category full of worthies.

Best Miniature Product: If we didn’t sell Disposable Heroes paper minis over at IPR, I’d still be a fan. What’s particularly smart about this PDF product set is that each one contains three versions of the minis art, so you can print out ones according to your preference — flat “chit” style, “teepee” style, or “prism” style. Badass.

Best Regalia: Hobby Games: The 100 Best from Green Ronin would have my vote even if they didn’t include Amber Diceless and My Life With Master on their list. A fantastic book from a bunch of people I really respect.

Best Electronic Book: No indie contenders here per se, though I look upon the efforts of Open Design with a fair amount of enthusiasm.

Best Free Product: How did I not end up with all of this schwag? I stink.

Best d20/d20 OGL Product: Blue Devil Games didn’t field a contender this year, for which I weep.

Best Game: I adore Monsters & Other Childish Things and would encourage folks to give it support in this category. Any game that’s like Calvin & Hobbes where Hobbes is an eldritch horror from beyond the stars deserves some love. (Og: Unearthed is no slouch either — and recently spawned a variant in my head built around zombies instead of cavemen.)

Product of the Year: Did I mention Monsters & Other Childish Things has completely captured my imagination? There’s a reason I knew Benjamin Baugh was the right man to write Don’t Lose Your Mind!

Fan’s Choice: Best Publisher: So much to love here. I’m from Evil Hat, and if you like us, we really appreciate your vote. Other worthies from the indie and IPR scenes include Arc Dream, Cubicle 7, Exile Games Studio, Lumpley Games, Mind Storm Labs, Pelgrane Press, Precis Intermedia, and Schrodinger’s Cat Press. Which isn’t to say I don’t have some love for the folks I’m NOT listing!

Thanks for tuning in, folks. That’s as close as we’ll get to a “ballot” this year. I’ll put up a notice when it crosses my radar that Ennies voting is actually afoot!

Publisher Love

Fred — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:17:33 +0000

There’s only one day left for folks to nominate and/or second their favorite publisher for the Ennies. On the personal interest angle, Evil Hat’s already covered; here’s the list of publishers looking for “seconds”:

Looking for a second:
0One Games
Arc Dream
Expeditious Retreat Press
Fiery Dragon
Goodman Games
Kenzer & Company
Mind Storm Labs
Wildfire

Of the list, I’d strongly encourage support of Arc Dream, who put out the excellent Monsters & Other Childish Things this year, but honestly they’re in good company here. If you haven’t yet nominated a company, give some love!

Mind Storm Labs is the other one on there that particularly hits my recognition filte; their game, Alpha Omega, was recently listed on IPR, and is chock full of eye candy.

The 2008 Ennie Nominations Are In!

Fred — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:02:12 +0000

Still processing, but here’s some stuff to pay attention to from an indie/IPR perspective. Forgive me for listing Evil Hat’s category first!

Best Supplement:
Spirit of the Season (Evil Hat)
Hollow Earth Expedition: Secrets of the Surface World (Exile Studios)

Best Game
Monsters & Other Childish Things (Arc Dream)
Og (Firefly Games)

Best Writing
Trail of Cthulhu (Pelgrane)
Monsters & Other Childish Things (Arc Dream)
Two-Fisted Tails (PIG)

Best Cover Art
Thousand Suns (Rogue Games)

Best Interior Art
Alpha Omega (Mindstorm Labs)

Best Production Values
Alpha Omega (Mindstorm Labs)

Best Adversary/Monster Product:
The Book of Unremitting Horror (Pelgrane Press) – They have this listed as “Unrelenting Horror” on the site, but it’s wrong.

Best Aid or Accessory
Hollow Earth Expedition GM Screen (Exile)

Best Miniature Product
Disposable Heroes (PIG)

Best Regalia
The 100 Best Hobby Games (Green Ronin) — Lists My Life With Master!

Best Fan Product
Flames Rising Website — Strong in their support of indie horror games!

Fan’s Choice: Best Publisher
(Nominations still underway, but I know that Evil Hat and Arc Dream have gotten nominated.)

Beyond the nod for Spirit of the Season, I’m jazzed in particular about Monsters & Other Childish Things — easily one of my favorite new games of the year.

Fred — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 18:11:27 +0000

Judge voting for the ENnies is on!

http://www.enworld.org/judgevoting/

This is the most important step in terms of shaping next year’s Ennie Awards. Folks whose profiles (last I checked) strongly interested me are:

- Jeramy Ware (his ennies judge blog at http://enniejudge.blogspot.com/ is stellar)
- Chris Gath
- Zachary Houghton

… but there may be more (I intend to look over their profiles again and look for signs of small press or indie friendliness in their gaming experiences). I also think the women deserve a boost in the voting; I’d like to see the panel as diverse as possible on that front, so rounding that out with Elizabeth and Gertie may be the way to go. Five judges, total, get in — so certainly rank as fits your conscience, even offering up #6 and so forth choices if you see a lot of folks you like — but please consider keeping the above names in your top five!

Does anyone have some favorite judges they’ve got an eye on? Let’s share our discoveries. There’s a lot to read in the profiles, and I believe it’s only this week that votes can be cast.