Fred Votes for the Revolution!
Greetings, heroes!
I’ve been looking into how the Ennies voting is done, and here’s the quick skinny: they do it in an “instant run-off” style, where you rank the ones you’d like to see win, and in what order, so if your first choice isn’t tied for the win, it’ll go to your second, your third, etc…
So with that in mind, I’m going to share my ballot with you here, complete with voting rankings for each of the awards. Regardless of how you decide to vote personally, you’d be doing the indie scene a great service by giving each of the nominees I’m listing here some “backing” as you rank your votes in each category.
Last year at least the Ennies gave out both a silver and a gold ennie in an umber of categories. This means that second place choices matter! And when it comes to indie games, they succeed or fail on the strength of their word of mouth. Help give indie games a voice by including them in your vote.
But enough of that rah-rah campaigning — here’s my ballot.
| Award | Ballot Ranking |
|---|---|
| Best Cover Art | 1: Lacuna Part 1 2: Dawning Star 3: Faery’s Tale |
| This is the only one that Lacuna is up for, and the game is certainly a work of art, so we’re recommending that it be ranked first. The other two have garnered multiple noms elsewhere, so while we don’t rank them first, we believe they still deserve your support. | |
| Best Interior Art | 1: Burning Empires |
| This is a gorgeous book, and really set the bar for what an “indie” game could be in 2006. Plus, it’s the only indie title in this category. | |
| Best Production Values | 1: Burning Empires |
| Burning Empires’ other category is just as deserved. The book is an artifact built to take full plasma blasts and point blank range, and can kill a man at 300 feet. A triumph of design and production. Also another case of “only indie game in category”. | |
| Best Writing | 1: Dictionary of Mu 2: Hollow Earth Expedition |
| HEX is undeniably a monster in terms of garnering noms, and they’ve been great friends to Spirit of the Century, cross-promoting that game as well as their own. They may not have a strong “indie” tag on them, but they’re a great bunch of folks with a groovy small press vibe, so I say give them rank two on this list. That said, Son of Kryos and indie gaming dude Judd Karlman wrote a deeply badass book that will crawl inside your skull and own you from the moment you turn the first page — Dictionary of Mu is like Conan meets John Carter of Mars in a blender turned up to eleven, with demon sauce swirled in. Above all Judd really nails the voice of his narrator like nobody’s business — Mu is an ancient document scrawled by a madman dying out in the red wastes of Mars, and you can taste the dust and betrayal on the wind as you read it. | |
| Best Rules | 1: Spirit of the Century 2: Faery’s Tale |
| I’d love to play the Classy Fred card here and list some other product instead of Evil Hat’s, but when it comes down to it, I just really, really want this one. This is the only “big award” nomination Spirit of the Century is going to see, and I’d be honored to get your support in a bid for the win. Not to mention “Best Rules” is a pretty tantalizing fruit for us as designers. But all that said, let’s see Faery’s Tale, the other indie game to get a nod in this category, get some love too! The competition is especially stiff in this category, so voting is vital. | |
| Best Setting | 1: Dawning Star: Helios Rising |
| Don’t let the d20 label fool you. The guys at Blue Devil Games are indie through and through, and put out some very exciting stuff. Dawning Star is a monster of a sci fi book, lavishly detailed at over 500 pages. Let’s throw our weight behind this one — Blue Devil’s up against some pretty serious competition here! | |
| Best d20/OGL | 1: Dawning Star: Helios Rising |
| See the above. Indie types don’t make much of an inroad to the d20 side of things, but Blue Devil’s at the vanguard of those efforts. Seeing as ENWorld started out as a d20 fan site, it would be particularly symbolic of the new face of gaming if Dawning Star garnered a win in this category. | |
| Best Game | 1: Hollow Earth Expedition 2: Faery’s Tale |
| You could reverse the order of these ranks with no skin off my nose. Both are excellent products. Faery’s Tale brings a bright, friendly setting and easy rules together with a strong mission focused on getting kids into gaming. Hollow Earth Expedition has been a huge friend to Spirit of the Century, and lots of folks are fans of suggesting that the two are two tastes that taste great together — I agree. Personally, I give HEX the edge because their setting and production values on the book are flat out incredible — not to mention their vibe of feeding nazis to dinosaurs deserves a place right up alongside gorillas flying biplanes. | |
| Product of the Year | 1: Dictionary of Mu 2: Hollow Earth Expedition 3: Dawning Star: Helios Rising |
| Bluntly, I just really, really want Dictionary of Mu to win this one. Mu is probably my favorite product of the last year and my favorite setting of the last three, easily (I arrived at those numbers nonscientifically!). I’ve already gushed about Mu above, though. Hollow Earth gets my number two slot because it, like Dictionary of Mu, is a huge brain-eater once you’re exposed to it — that, and pulp being close to my heart. Dawning Star also deserves to be on this list — if folks skip right past the first two and grab for the d20 products, DS should definitely get your support for that race. But since DS has a total of four nominations overall, I figure it can afford to stand in line a little on this one. But as with any of the multi-item ones I’ve listed here and above, you can (and should) change the order of these items to fit what best suits your perspective on the games. | |
| Best Podcast | Have Games, Will Travel Sons of Kryos Godzilla Gaming |
| I’m in love with both of these podcasts especially for their heavy endorsement and promotion of awareness of small press games. For the time being, since Son of Kryos Judd Karlman is up for several other Ennies in the form of Dictionary of Mu, I’m ranking Sons of Kryos second here, with Have Games Will Travel first, but really, this is a category full of deserving folks, so if you did that in the reverse order you’d be speaking with my heart too. And ultimately all the podcasts in this category are fantastic (Fear the Boot and Yog Radio being the others) — these ones just happen to most closely reflect my listening habits. | |
| Best Publisher | Burning Wheel Evil Hat Productions Atomic Sock Monkey Press Contested Ground Studios |
| I present these here without ranks. All listed (and more!) definitely deserve your vote. Obviously, I’d be biased towards Evil Hat Productions, but if any one of these guys walked away with it I sure wouldn’t weep. If none of these ring your bell, consider alternates Exile Game Studio and Ronin Arts. | |