when in doubt, I turn to the maestro

artists deploy this technique in fiction outside of games, too—a very famous example is the Russian dude from Sopranos s3e11, "Pine Barrens," who escapes into the winter woods after being badly wounded, and then is never heard from again. we never find out if he lived or died! it goes unresolved!

also, while we're here, can we talk about this guy?? who has the same name and a very nearly identical look?

not mentioning the Met in the top-level tweet 😤😤😤 (it's in the main body of the post)

if you vote for a publisher that’s run a Kickstarter for more than $500,000 in the past year I’m legally allowed to roundhouse kick your head clean off

BEST WRITING another one I’d really love to read the reasoning behind. I think it’s a tossup between Pirouette and StoryBake. I’m probably going to lean StoryBake since Dan is just a real sweetie

BEST SOLO GAME SPINE! “what if we actually used the book as a toy” is compelling in a way the others aren’t. Song of the Scryptwyrm is my runner up, mostly on the back of its tutorialization

BEST RULES holy moly again what a sweeping category. I would really really love to read the judges’ thoughts about all categories, but I double especially want to read them here. it’s A Land Once Magic, though, followed by Thieves of the Tome. the other three are generic, blurry, and vague

BEST ONLINE CONTENT again, very weird that this is a category. but these all seem actually somewhat reasonable if you’re into the broader hobby of RPGs. I vote for Explorer’s Design followed by Molten Sulfur, with the remaining as dealer’s choices

that said it’s an easy vote here for Deadline, with a clear runner-up with Midnight Muscadines. Berserkr is splashy but hard to actually read, Voidheart is fine but unoriginal. Warhammer is a deranged choice and I don’t understand how the judges chose it

BEST LAYOUT it’s very weird to me that none of the Historica Arcanums got nominated for this category??? they all have some very slick cool vector graphics integrated into their designs in a way that none of these ones did

BEST GAME what a category name. I’m not in love with any of these, but it’s easily Thieves of the Tome on the sole basis of doing something actually unique and original. the rest you can leave

BEST COMMUNITY CONTENT Triangle Agency Fan Zine! so excited to see that Haunted Table’s scene is producing their own stuff. it’s cute and weird and varied and fun. runner up goes to Green’s Bride of Pendle, again

BEST CARTOGRAPHY Dolmenwood as an easy first place, for making both clarity and style work together. second I’d say is either Tomb again or Pendragon, depending on if you prefer function or form, respectively. The other two are mainly illustrations, not proper cartography

BEST INTERIOR ILLUSTRATION personally I’d just say to hell with it and give a blatantly illegal second ENnie to Oddsbod for Mythic Bastionland again, since none of these clear Alec’s work. but given that the awards committee hasn’t listed that, I’d say Legend in the Mist followed by Floral Dragons

BEST COVER ILLUSTRATION it’s an easy dub for the Historica Arcanum, and an easy runner-up for Totem. like look at this shit man, it’s raw as hell. The other three are all WOTCcore bright-and-shiny plastic fantasy. also, all the Historica PDFs are free!! extremely cool of Metis to do

BEST DIGITAL ACCESSORY ridiculous category. I don’t care. I’d say Pocket Bard since I have friends working for them, but they’ve got enough money and clout as-is. baffling that this is a real thing I'm supposed to care about

SHORTFORM ADVENTURE: Tragedy at Zaya’s Theatre! evocative, mysterious, and original, with very tight and clean writing and editing. good stuff all around

LONGFORM ADVENTURE: Tomb of a Thousand Doors! megadungeons remain under-appreciated and immensely runnable. It’s content, baybee, juicy juicy content, stuff that’s ready to run! Tomb, no question

ENNIES VOTING THREAD unsure of your opinions? need reassurance that your takes are correct? discord in need of an emergency discourse injection? here's who I'm voting for and why #ThotLeader

book club! book club! book club! we're reading GRADIENT DESCENT, the Mothership megadungeon by the Bald Man of England! a week from today, Thursday the 16th at 7:00 p.m.! come discuss with us!

in level design classes, one thing you learn about is "weenies" (a term from Disneyland imagineers), the exciting odd things you see on the horizon that grab your attention and direct your focus. these are everywhere in videogames, esp open-world videogames, and they work pretty well

NYC TTRPG Book Club!! this Thursday at @boshis.place! we're reading and discussing John Harper & Sean Nittner's AGON, a game that, fun fact, Sharang Biswas once tried and failed to assign me to play for an RPG class (I'd already played it). see you there!

me after I transcend

I struggle to explain it but very often I look at Erling Haaland and see an ork. this man should be hanging off the side of a battlewagon swinging an axe made from a space marine's shoulder plate

hello! on Saturday, June 27th, some friends and I are running SUPER-DIPLOMACY, a megagame version of Diplomacy for 35 players, at @boshis.place! doors open at 5, orientation at 5:30, game starts 6, running for about four hours. tickets are $20. come play! tix here: pools.events/event/tyo08I...

NYC TTRPG book club! this Thursday evening, the 18th! we're reading Chance Dudinack's THE BLACK WYRM OF BRANDONSFORD! come discuss with us!

NYC TTRPG Book Club! a week from today at @boshis.place! we're reading Snow's SONGBIRDS (3e revised, the most current one on itch)! come discuss with us!