The 2006 Origins Awards nominees were “announced” a few days ago, and the Origins Awards seem less relevant than ever.
In light of that, and because it sounds like a fun idea in its own right, should there be Treasure Tables GMing awards?
By way of John Kim’s link roundup, I’ve read some biting (and excellent) commentary on the Origins Awards, which I’d like to share here.
Gaming Report pointed out that the awards were “announced” on a handout at GTS 2006, with no fanfare whatsoever. Ken Hite blasted the 2005 awards in an Out of the Box column. Mike Mearls pointed out a host of flaws with the voting system (among other things). Bruce Baugh took issue with the list of nominees. And Malcolm Sheppard shared several gripes about the awards.
I have my own concerns about the relevancy of RPG awards in general, which I wrote up in Which RPG Awards are Relevant to You as a GM?
Despite all that, I had an idea this morning that really grabbed me: GMing awards.
Not GMing awards in the sense of recognizing GMs for their efforts at the gaming table — that would be great, but I don’t see how it’d be possible (does everyone who votes have to play with the GMs who are nominated?).
What I’m thinking of are GMing awards that recognize the books, PDFs, accessories, websites and other things that make GMing easier and more fun. (“GMing awards” doesn’t sound quite right — it’s pretty bad shorthand for what I’m thinking of, actually — but I can’t come up with anything more appropriate at the moment.)
Off the top of my head, here are some of my thoughts, questions and concerns about this idea:
They need to be independent. This is what makes the ENnies meaningful to the RPG community, and what, unfortunately, seems to have made the Origins Awards increasingly less relevant.
Keep ’em small. They’ll be small the first year because they won’t be well known, but I mean small in the sense that there aren’t too many categories. Offhand: Best GMing Section in an RPG Book, Best Accessory for GMs, Best PDF for GMs, Best Free GMing Aid.
There needs to be community involvement. I see the value in privately-judged awards like the Diana Jones Award, but I’m all about involving as many gamers as possible in this process.
This one’s a bit mundane, but they need graphics. Sadly, I can’t supply these.
What should they be called? The first thing that jumped to mind was “the GMmies,” but that’s a bit too close to the “ENnies” to make them stand out.
How would voting be handled? Voting over the web sounds ideal to me, but I don’t have the technical knowledge to pull this off (prevent ballot stuffing, etc.). (I can provide the web space, write the rules and so forth, though.)
How should they work? The most important question of all. What’s the timeframe? Are they pure fan awards, like the Pen & Paper Fan Awards? Or a mix of fan voting and private judging, like the ENnies? Or something else entirely? This is a very open question.
I realize that that’s a big list of reservations and tough questions, but I really do like this idea. This is a very smart community, and I believe we can come up with a small, meaningful, fun and appealing set of GMing awards.
So how about it — are you interested in this idea? How would you address the concerns I’ve outlined above? And most importantly, do you have any ideas about the process, the nuts and bolts or any other aspect of these (currently hypothetical) awards?
I will suggest the following name:
The MAGMA Awards (Magnificient Achievement in Game Master Aids)
That being said, keep it small, and have a panel of experts select the nominees from among a list submitted by fans. Then allow the fans (and experts included) to vote for their favorite. That way you get input from fans, the benefit of expert opinion and democracy for all. All in all, I think the whole concept is a bang-up idea and I look forward to it. I’d certainly look closer at purchasing a product if the fans had deemed it worthy of special acclaim.
Einan
That’s a neat twist on the ENnies approach (the ENnies have judges pick the nominees, and then fans vote for the winners) — it’s basically the Oscars with a fan voting step before the nominations.
How would you handle the initial fan voting?
Well, for the submissions, start a thread on ENWorld or RPGNet. Give people the parameters and let them post their picks. For the final round of voting, I am not technosavvy, but I’m sure someone could cobble together a voting page.
I think you’d be able to read a wide variety of fans with a thread on ENWorld and I think ENWorld would be happy to help.
Einan
I don’t think the Origins Awards are irrelevant. But in covering the breadth of the entire hobby game industry — from wargames to miniatures to RPGs — they can only give so much for people who’re only fans of a specific type of game. The ENnies serve roleplayers better, Spiel de Jahr serves boardgamers better, etc.
I like Einan’s idea of getting the initial list from fans, then letting experts trim that list to the nominees. I think the initial fan nomination gathering could be done on any forum. That’s just to get a list, so you wouldn’t really count votes at that point.
As for a trusted voting system (for the final fan vote), that will be harder to find. But, I think it would be a good way to do it.
Oh, you also mentioned awards for GMs themselves. It would be something great to have, but how to run something like that would be hard.
How about something like American Idol for GMs? Bring your dice, layout out your thread/encounter/description, resolve combat and NPC interactions, allow a panel of PCs to comment on your style, and have fans vote weekly to kick one of the GMs off the show… 🙂
Hmmm, that probably doesn’t have much of a shot.
GMerican Idol?
Heh. That’d be a pretty interesting show. Much like American Idol I’m sure the off-camera social politics would be much more interesting than the on-camera stuff.
Einan
Einan: I’m leery of just starting a thread for nominations, although I’m not entirely sure why. If I give this a shot, I’m all about maximum fan involvement — that’s not why I’m leery of this approach.
Would the idea be that any game/aid/thing mentioned in the thread would get considered by the jury? If so, what are the upsides of that approach vs. the one used for the ENnies (publishers enter on their own)?
Jeff: That’s an interesting point — the OAs really are the only large, all-encompassing RPG awards out there.
That said, though, I don’t think my perception of them is influenced by their breadth — it more comes down to their mismanagement, opacity, peculiar nominee choices and the sense that insider-ism (not a word, I know) plays a role in what makes the cut.
(I knew you read TT, but I think this is the first time you’ve commented — it’s good to see you here, Jeff! :))
Pedro: American Idol (or GMerican Idol, if you prefer — nice name, Einan ;)) for GMs sounds a bit like the various GMing contests on EN World — Ceramic DM, and so forth. I’m not sure I have the budget to do it justice, though… 😉
Hey, you can just do it as a podcast. Actually, that would probably work better. Have GMs send in videos of their session. That way you get more of a feel for a real session (rather than ceramic). You can splice them together into a podcast and let viewers vote for their favorites. As you go through the rounds, you could give them themes for their sessions.
Sounds fun, but it would be a lot of work…
And, I don’t think you should be leery about doing award nominations over a thread. I think it would work fine.