"Origins Awards and Wargaming" Topic

I've just seen the results of the Origins Awards and some of the results in the wargaming area are, I think, more than a bit surprising. They certainly don't seem to represent what is happening on TMP which is the biggest wargaming community on the web.

That got me thinking, we used to have awards here which we voted on annually. They seemed far more a reflection of what me and my friends were playing. Should we reinstate them? Or should there be new awards for miniature wargaming rather than have them tacked on to what is a very general gaming show.

Where did you see them please?

I have no idea, but my favorites would be:

Best Miniature Figure Rules
Battletech Alpha Strike – Catalyst Game Labs

Best Historical Miniature Figure/Line
Fife & Drum: Revolutionary War -– Fife & Drum

Best Historical Board Game
Not A Clue

Best Historical Miniature Rules Supplements
Force on Force: Classified – Osprey Publishing

Best Historical Miniature Rules
Chain of Command –Too Fat Lardies

Best Miniature Figure Line
Don't like any of them I'm afraid

Best Game Related Publication
Dork Tower – Editor: John Kovalic

The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design Announces 40th Annual Origins Awards Winners

COLUMBUS, OH (June 14, 2014) The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design is proud to announce the winners for the 40th Annual Origins Awards.

The Origins Awards are presented annually by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design to recognize outstanding achievement in design and production of games and game-related products.

The winners were voted on by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design. The Fan Favorite Awards were voted on by attendees at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, OH on June 11-15th. The winners were announced and the coveted Calliope statues were presented at the Origins Awards Ceremony on the evening of Saturday, June 14th.

The Academy would like to extend its heartfelt thanks to the jury members, GAMA staff, and everyone who submitted a product to the 40th annual Origins Awards.

Best Role Playing Game

Numenera – Monte Cook Games, designed by: Monte Cook

Fan Favorite: Shadowrun: Core Rulebook – Catalyst Game Labs, designed by: Jason Hardy, Aaron Pavao, Adam Large, Mark Dynna, Steven "Bull" Ratkovich, Peter M. Andrew Jr., Michael Wich

Best Role Playing Supplement

Night's Watch – Green Ronin Publishing, designed by: Joseph Carriker, Lee Hammock, Brett Rebischke-Smith, Ian Ireland, Michelle Lyons, John Hay

Fan Favorite: DC Adventures Universe – Green Ronin Publishing, designed by: Darren Bulmer, Seth Johnson, Steve Kenson, Jon Leitheusser, John Polojac, Aaron Sullivan

Best Board Game

Trains- Alderac Entertainment Group, designed by: Hisashi Hayashi

Fan Favorite: Trains – Alderac Entertainment Group, designed by: Hisashi Hayashi

Best Traditional Card Game

Love Letter– AEG, designed by: Seiji Kanai

Fan Favorite: DC Comics – Cryptozoic Entertainment, designed by: Matt Hyra, Ben Stoll

Best Family, Party, or Children's Game

Three Little Pigs – Iello, designed by: Laurent Pouchain

Fan Favorite: Walk the Plank – Mayday Games, designed by: Shane Steely, Jared Tinney

Best Miniatures Figure or Line

Malifaux: The Guild's Judgement – Wyrd Miniatures, designed by: Wyrd Miniatures

Fan Favorite: HeroClix Wolverine and the X-men – WizKids Games, designed by: WizKids Games

Best Miniatures Rules or Expansion

Marvel HeroClix: Avengers Vs X-men Starters – WizKids Games, designed by: WizKids Games

Fan Favorite: Marvel HeroClix: Avengers Vs X-men Starters – WizKids Games, designed by: WizKids Games

Best Collectable Card Game or Expansion

Pokemon Black & White Legendary Treasures The Pokemon Company, Intl., designed by: The Pokemon Company

Fan Favorite: Pokemon Black & White Legendary Treasures – The Pokemon Company, Intl., designed by: The Pokemon Company

Best Game Accessory

Space Gaming Mat – HC+D Supplies, designed by: Andre Garcia

Fan Favorite: Pathfinder Battles: Skull and Shackles – WizKids Games, designed by: WizKids Games
Best Game-Related Publication

TableTop – Wil Wheaton, Felicia Day

Fan Favorite: Tabletop – Wil Wheaton, Felicia Day

Best Historical Board Game

1775:Rebellion – Academy Games, designed by: Beau Beckett, Jeph Stahl

Fan Favorite: 1775:Rebellion – Academy Games, designed by: Beau Beckett, Jeph Stahl

Best Historical Miniatures Rules or Expansion

Fields of Fire – Proving Ground Games, designed by: Larry Yeager, Chris Brutsche, Mark Brown

Fan Favorite: Fire and Sword – Wargamer, designed by: Konrad Sosinski, Rafal

Best Historical Miniatures Figure or Line

Malifaux: The Guild's Judgement – Wyrd Miniatures, designed by: Wyrd Miniatures

Fan Favorite: HeroClix Wolverine and the X-men – WizKids Games, designed by: WizKids Games
Congratulations to all of the winners!

How is Malifaux and/or Heroclix "Historical"?

You have to remember some things when considering the Origins Awards;

If you don't send in an entry, you are not in the running.

The convention attendees are the ones that vote.

So, for example, if no historicals are entered…

Good to see that "By Fire and Sword" at least won as the fans favorite.

Also, for a Historical game to win…. They have to be present.

There was a very nice "Battle of the Alamo" setup, a few tables for Aerodrome (not sure if they were playing Wings of Glory, or Wings of War or both), I saw a single table with Sails of Glory, and then the SailPower setup (they are local to the convention, so generally have a big push there)… But the main historical game I signed up for, pulled a no-show, it was a Napoleonic game (hope whoever it was is okay, and nothing too bad kept them away)… There was also a big table for a Desert Storm game, and a floor section for an armoured game (I think it was WW2)… But unless I missed something[s], the above was close to everything there was for historicals…. Which is a pretty sad showing for historicals on a 5 day convention.

Edit – I almost forgot, I did see a WW2 naval game at one point as well. I'm likely forgetting something else I saw, and as I was not omni-present for the entire run, I might have missed others.

The historical part of that list is incorrect. These were the nominees in the historical minis categories.

Best Historical Miniature Figure/Line
Fife & Drum: Revolutionary War -– Fife & Drum
Highlander Force – North Star Military Figures
Fate of a Nation: Arab Israeli Wars – Battlefront Miniatures
Red Army: 28mm Russian Infantry – Wargames Factory
Devil Dogs and Dragons – Empress Miniatures

Best Historical Miniature Rules Supplements
SAGA: Varjazi & Basileus – Gripping Beast
Flames of War: Fate of a Nation – Battlefront Miniatures
Force on Force: Classified – Osprey Publishing

Best Historical Miniature Rules
Fields of Fire 2nd Edition – Proving Ground Games
Fire and Sword – Wargamer
Chain of Command –Too Fat Lardies

I saw on Twitter Fate of Nation won at least one of those. GAMA should publish an official list shortly.

GreatLakesWeasel

That's not quite right. Our Chain of Command rules were nominated despite the fact that we did not submit the rules or send in any entry. The first we knew was when one of the other companies who had been nominated mentioned it several weeks after it had been announced.

We had no contact with the organisers of the event. We were not contacted by them to see if we would like a presence at the show. When we emailed them to ask about attending we received no response.

We were naturally very flattered to see a set of our rules considered, but frankly I have been surprised at the absolute lack of communication from the people running the Convention. It is very difficult to support your product if nobody will talk to you!

And now you all understand how the HMGS came about.

At an Origins many years ago, historical gamers were outraged that a board game was voted best Historical Miniatures rules system.

My experience was identical to Rich's. I've been nominated three times, yet have never sent them anything, nor ever had any contact with them. In each case, a friend told me, "Hey, did you see that you got a nomination..?"

In each case, any attempt to contact them met with total silence.

It's all very mysterious, just a big shrug.

By the way, the first time I was nominated, my game lost to a GW codex that contained no actual rules: just pictures and army lists. In other words, the winner of "Best Historical Miniatures Rules" that year, was not a set of miniatures rules.

The way the awards work, there are committees who put together the lists of nominees by category. So there's a historical committee, a RPG committee, and so on. In theory companies are supposed to submit copies of their products to be evaluated by the committee. For some categories, this works well. The RPG committee, for example, gets plenty of submissions. The historical category, however, does not. In that case, the committees can nominate products they think were worthy even though they were not submitted. Hence stuff like Chain of Command getting nominated this year.