The ENnies seem to get better every year. The games picked, the games awarded, the speeches at the ceremony, everything seems to tick up at least a notch every year I’ve been, and this year was probably a few notches better than the rest I’ve attended.
For those of you who are not familiar with them, the ENnies are fan-voted awards for the best and most notable in the world of table-top RPGs. They’re awarded at a ceremony held at GenCon every year. And where other industries might see such awards dominated by their biggest heavy-hitters, that’s not the case with the ENnies. While Paizo was nominated in many categories, it only took home a single Silver for the cartography in Starfinder Pact Worlds. WotC wasn’t nominated for anything, though they did take the Gold for Favorite Publisher.
The result is an award that draws attention to lesser-known gems that you might have otherwise overlooked. 2018’s ENnies were that in spades.
A big winner was Delta Green, an RPG about kinda-sorta government agents taking on the dangers of the Cthulhu mythos to keep the world safe. They took home five ENnies, including a Silver for Best Adventure and a Gold for Best Electronic Book (A Night at the Opera), A Silver for Best Game and Product of the Year, and a Gold for Best Production Values with the core rules. If you’re looking for an RPG that goes where the X Files only teased, you should definitely investigate Delta Green.
Another big winner was Lamentations of the Flame Princess and Zak S. with their new book, Frostbitten and Mutilated. This book about witches and amazons in a frozen wasteland of death and adventure took home a Silver for Best Interior Art, a Gold for Best Monster/Adversary, and Silvers for Best Setting and Best Writing. Continuing with the Old School vibe was the Zweihänder Grim & Perilous RPG which took home Gold medals in both Best RPG and Product of the Year. The Zweihänder book is a monster of a tome promising to bring a dark, gritty realism to your gaming of the sort typified by The Witcher and Black Company novels. Finally, the Texas team behind Hot Springs Island took home the Gold medal for Best Adventure. If you haven’t seen it yet, you absolutely need to check out both the GM’s adventure construction set that is The Dark of Hot Springs Island as well as the notebook of clues and hints the players get to use during the adventure.
But by far the biggest winner of the evening, in terms of both awards and exposure, was Harlem Unbound. This game crossing the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s with the Cthulhu mythos took home three Golds for Best Cover Art, Best Setting, and Best Writing. Haven’t heard about it before? You’re hardly unique there, but now that you have, you need to check it out. Of course, the RPG experts at your local Dragon’s Lair Comics and Fantasy® can help you get your hands on all the winners from this year’s ENnie Awards. If you’re looking for something new that exemplifies the cutting edge of RPG design, the ENnies once again point the way.
