Laughable

So I got the Origins Awards listing from GAMA today...what a flippin' joke! Here's the roleplaying list:

* Army of Darkness by Eden Studios
* Artesia by Archia Studios Press
* Deryni Adventure Game by Grey Ghost Press Inc.
* Serenity by Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd.
* World of Warcraft by Sword and Sorcery Studios

Let's look over at this set of winners:

* FIVE licensed games and not a single original property. CORRECTION: The imitable Matt Forbeck has pointed out that Artesia RPG was created at roughly the same time as the RPG, and so is not in fact licensed. My apologies. -- Ed.
* 2 properties were licensed not because they were necessarily good or intended to be original, but in a more cynical grab at the almighty dollar (Serenity, WoW). Note I'm not including AoD because Eden's done excellent things with Buffy and Angel in the past.
* Only ONE d20 product, despite a year where many fantastic games were released in the OGL/D20 brand.
* NO Warhammer FRP, Iron Heroes, Mutants and Masterminds 2nd edition, Spycraft 2.0, Shadowrun 4th edition, Weapons of the Gods or Dogs in the Vineyard - all very successful, high-quality, cutting edge products that could actually BENEFIT from recognition.

At least FUDGE gets some recognition (Deryni). It really saddens me that the Academy, which made such a big deal about "restructuring" and looking at the way products were judged post the Indy Heroclix sweep a few years back, still is obviously under some level of thrall to somebody else and afraid to recognize the many steps forward in what many retailers look at in the "retail poison" d20 system or the little guys who are really trying hard to do something new and cool. Apparently they're not afraid of reinforcing their own insignificance, though :roll:

Supplements are better:

* Exalted Autochthonians by Whitewolf
* GURPS Infinite Worlds by Steve Jackson Games
* Mage by RPG Whitewolf
* Midnight 2nd ed. RPG by Fantasy Flight
* Shackled City by Paizo Publishing, LLC.

2 d20 offerings here, both of which are not bad (there's been better than Midnight 2e, IMO - and wasn't that released in 2004?). I've heard good things about Shackled City and Autochtonians. GURPS Infinite Worlds is pretty damn cool, as many GURPS books tend to be. Mage: the Awakening still turns my stomach, but I recognize it as a high quality treatment of the setting and that my reaction could be colored as an ardent fan of Mage: the Ascension :P However, still no 2nd+ editions here that really were awesome - WHFRP, Spycraft 2.0, M&M, or Shadowrun. Sheesh.

I can't say I'm terribly surprised or disappointed that 2.0 has been shut out yet again, though; it's happened every time we've *almost* won something (see our 2002 ENnies loss to Call of Cthulhu d20 - shudder), plus with the shifting of Spycraft over to Crafty's hands it probably cast some doubts onto the future of the brand. It's still a damn shame that we seem unable to break the glass ceiling that has now come down on non-licensed d20 games in general, particularly those not put out by non-WotC companies.

In the end, though, it's not about the awards (though they would be nice) but about the fan recognition. I'm not saying Spycraft 2.0 is setting fire to the gaming world - it's been a year of rain for our industry - but the word on the street is good. We're converting many of the non-rabid d20 Modern adherents, receiving critical praise from our peers (most notably Ken Hite and Mike Mearls), seeing an wave of new third party applicants for Powered by Spycraft licenses, and getting good fan reviews like this one. I like where I see this game going with the fans, and I like what I see Crafty Games being able to do with it. Once we get these kinks worked out, we should have an exciting year lined up for you Spycraft fans :)

EDIT: Sounds like Mike Mearls is of the same mind I am - only more eloquent.