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31st Annual Origins Award Winners Announced
Gamingreport.com has the list of this year's Origins Awards winners. Best RPG went to Ars Magica: 5th Edition by Atlas, Best RPG Supplement went to The Eberron Campaign Setting by WotC, and Best Board Game went to Ticket To Ride by Days of Wonder.
Looks like the awards commitee for the Origins might be finally gaining some competitence. They have been a laughing stock in the board game community for years. This years selection of T2R is an improvement. But there are still problems with the selections of the games with publishers having to submit their games themselves. The SdJ awards review all games released that year and are much better thought of.
That's bullshit! Gendolen's Guide to Farsical Fairyland and Forest Fauna is SO much better than The Eberron Campaign Setting And Cardboard Heroes Castles taking home Best Game Accessory? Who paid off these judges!
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On an unrelated note (and combining two obligs in one)... slowest. first post. ever.
The laws of probability forbid it!
Just a quick plug:
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Their second game (August 05) will be based on the Honor Harrington series. The Saganami Island Tactical Simulator will use the same system and be supported by a line of miniatures.
All the physics geeks and all the space combat geeks need to check this stuff out. Their What's New page has daily updates of real space travel news.
Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1992-1951
I used to love Ars Magica, but it is a very hard game to get played in the way it was written for, that is, troupe style. The players take turns being the story teller, while their own player character mage is off doing research (or whatever). However, since there is no one person who knows all the secrets, it is kinda hard to do a long term story. And believe me, I have tried to make Ars Magica work this way multiple times.
It still is a great game! And the background for the game was some of the inspiration for the original white wolf games (especially mage and vampire) many years ago. Also, the original designer (Jonathan Tweet) later worked as the lead designer for 3rd edition D&D. And I could definitely see many aspects of Ars Magica in 3rd edition, like the way all stats are +/- in a progressive manner.
White Wolf and Atlas games had their little statues out on their tables. I didn't many more out. The awards aren't that great, they're just an ugly like grey stature. :D
I'm disappointed that Ebberon won. new Vampire is much better. I can't fault Ars Magica for beating nWoD though. It's pretty decent, except that ugly splash page of those monsters dancing in the introduction.