1KM1KT Free RPG Community

The Ennies have listed their for this year's awards. And I'm a bit annoyed. Three of the five nominations are either supplements or Quick Start versions of commercial games. Although beautiful, I don't think Quick Starts should be included in this list as they are just using the category for free advertising. It's filth. There are plenty of excellent free games that deserve awards.

I have to second that sentiment, then add some additional grievances. While its the culmination of a lot of effort, Swords & Wizardry is a deliberate attempt to recreate another previous game. It may be a commentary on an unusual retro trend in the community, but I'm not sure if its really an original work to be recognized like this. Hunter Quick Start has been out for a while, so it really doesn't count as a new free game.

"Trial and Terror SVU" is the most original of the lot. More interestingly, the forward points out it was a quick production (one week) by a fairly small company. It looks to be a good game, and of what is present, I certainly hope it wins.

Frankly, many of our single day contest entries would be a strong contender for this prize, and better than what is there now.

Of course we aren't necessarily designing games for the recognition. I do it for fun, creativity, and because I'm a narcissistic megalomaniac. Now bow before your beautiful master pathetic minions.

I remember comments on this last year. It's really two entirely separate categories stuck together. It's like having an award for best commercial or student film.

Part of the problem is that big companies (in rpg terms) have staff and software to put out high production values. That affects perception of the product. I think the known companies also get recognition votes from fans regardless of quality - if someone is voting on 5 things that they've never seen/read, they are going to go with the one that is most familiar that they have positive affect for.

Hi all,

Thought I'd pop in and try and speak up on behalf of the ENnies here. Hi, I'm the business manager and have been since 2005, and it's my job to ensure the continued success of the Awards. I take all reasonable suggestions into consideration, and welcome your input. I love the grassroots campaign appeal to the VoteFree, though need to insist that the use of the ENnies logo cease immediately.

I'd also like to point out that we don't distinguish between sizes of companies- there's no "kiddie table" at the ENnie Awards gala ceremony. So sure, smaller companies will compete against the larger ones. Usually the advantage is to the larger company since they have bigger budgets and deeper market penetration, but smaller companies do have the benefit of being able to take bigger risks in producing innovative product faster. And a nomination to a smaller company tends to have more tangible value.

Next up, I need to remind everyone that if a product isn't submitted, we don't evaluate it. Apparently there was surprisingly little free stuff submitted for consideration this year. In the past the free product category was the Webhancement/Free Product category, and was a way of thanking the publishers for giving us free stuff. Sure it's usually a marketing ploy, but hey, if companies giving away free stuff are their way of increasing their equity with gamers, I'm all for it and certainly don't want to discourage it!

So what to do? Keep up the efforts and get people mobilized to vote (but stop using my logo!). Contact me directly (denise@ennieawards.com) with your constructive criticisms, suggestions, accolades. If you're not a publisher or industry pro, consider running for ENnies judge for next year. And if you are a publisher, submit your stuff next year!

Denise,
Many thanks for stopping by. It's good to be able to talk about this to the Ennies directly. We'll leave the logo issue aside, I will be making a new one but only to avoid derailing the topic at hand - not because of the law.

I don't really care what the size of the company is that makes the free RPG. R Talisorian created the Fuzion ruleset and that would be fine to have in there because it's a complete game. The three Quick Start rules you have included in the category are nowehere near complete games, they are at best advertisements.

The Ennies, it appears, is a way of awarding truly superb products - the best in the industry decided by peer and public. It performs this function by a mix of expert knowledge and public vote. The nomination method works well for paid products: the judges don't have to pay anything to get the games and you weed out those publishers who aren't very keen.

If you are trying to award truly superb Free RPGs - the best out there, you have failed. Your category is weighed down with marketing material. I would argue that for Free RPGs, your nomination system is utterly broken. It is quite alright to have more than one nomination system in your award process. If I was able to nominate Free RPGs that deserve an award, I could come up with about 20 off the top of my head. You have a Free Category, as well you should seeing as there are more than , I would prefer to see it made better use of.

I can and have played complete games with the quickstart rules out there. Thus by that definition, they are indeed complete games, no?

Welcome chgowiz, it's superb to have you onboard!

I agree that we could mobilise the publishers but I don't think we should have to. Some of the great Free RPGs are really difficult to motivate the writers to submit to competitions. Modesty is often a biproduct of philanthropy. Of course, egomanics like Chainsaw Aardvark and I have no problem with touting ourselves. I still think these authors should get recognised, if not the games too. For online content, I think there should be a different sort of nomination method because it is broken.

@Dyson, they aren't complete games. You play them because you fill in the gaps but they are not complete games like Dark Dungeon or Dominion.

@Dyson, there are also authors who don't have the time to do the promotional work or are confused by nomination legalese that applies more to commercial products than free ones. Also, some great games were written years ago and their authors should still get recognition.