I’ve been away from Gen Con for a few years so it was refreshing to see that the ENnies are now in an air conditioned hall complete with multiple view screens. The audio worked great, the slides appeared in sync with the presenters, and with a few minor hiccups (Margaret Weiss complained about Angry Birds because the app was appearing on the iPad that all the speakers read their notes from) the presenters were on point. The room wasn’t all that crowded however – it seemed to consist mostly of the entrants and their respective fans. I look forward to the day when folks just come to the ENnies to learn who wins, although I suspect that’s a tall order given the number of competing events that happen at the same time.
There was a cocktail reception prior and an intermission which both served alcohol and an opportunity to bid on an auction. I missed the reception, but the intermission seemed to be more of a chance for the teams who didn’t win to slip out the door. We lost some steam after that intermission.
The underdog that did really well in the ENnies was The Dresden Files RPG, which won a silver ENnie for Best Production Values and four gold ENnies for Best Game, Best New Game, Best Writing, and Product of the Year.
Pathfinder dominated the ENnies. Adventure Path #43: The Haunting of Harrowstone won a gold ENnie for Best Adventure, The Inner Sea World Guide won a Best Interior Art gold ENnie, the Inner Sea Poster Map Folio won a Best Cartography gold ENnie, the Bestiary 2 won a gold ENnie for Best Monster/Adversary and Best Production Values, the Inner Sea World Guide won a Best Setting gold ENnie, the Advanced Player’s Guide won gold ENnies for Best Supplement and Product of the Year, and of course Paizo Publishing won Fan’s Choice for Best Publisher.
Wizards did poorly in comparison to previous years: D&D Essentials: Dungeon Tiles Master Set – The Dungeon won a silver for Best Aid/Accessory, Monster Vault won a silver for Best Monster/Adversary, the D&D Rules Companion won a silver for Best Rules (I used it earlier that day in a Living Forgotten Realms session), The Dark Sun Campaign Setting won a silver for Best Setting, and the only gold Wizards walked away with was for Castle Ravenloft’s Best RPG-Related Product ENnie. Wizards placed silver for Fans’ Choice for Best Publisher.
Call of Cthulhu did very well in a surprising surge of interest this year. Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity won silver ENnies for Best Adventure and Best Writing, Bookhounds of London won a silver ENnie for Best Cartography, The Laundry won a silver for Best New Game, and Yog-Sothoth won a gold for Best Podcast. Since my current d20 Modern campaign steals rules and ideas from all these books I was particularly pleased the publishers finally received the attention they deserved. Congrats guys!
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