ENnie Award

The polls are open for the 2009 ENnie Awards. This years nominees for Best Rules -- and isn't that really what makes an RPG a game? -- include A Song of Ice and Fire, Starblazer Adventures, and the juggernaut that is D&D 4th. Normally I'd be inclined to vote for Starblazer Adventures as the only SFRPG, but I don't care for the FATE game mechanics. So I may give it to Green Ronin just for being plucky indie game publishers.

As you might have noticed by that logo in the upper corner of the blog, there's some controversy over the Best Free Product category. It turns out that most of the entries are nothing more than demo versions of commercial games, including two of the nominees for Best Rules. The only entries that really are free games are Swords and Wizardry, a"retro-clone" of the 1974 original Dungeons & Dragons, and Trial and Terror: SVU, a supernatural play on the popular "Law and Order" TV show. So if it matters to you it might be something to keep in mind when you vote.

The biggest problem with the awards are that as usual I haven't even laid eyes on the majority of the entries. I might be familiar with a few of the nominees, but the most of them are a mystery to me. That means I either don't pick a second or third choice, or I just vote by the item's reputation, which is hardly fair. I guess I'll just play it by ear as usual.