The ENnies are annual awards which celebrate and reward the year’s best roleplaying game releases. They are run by ENworld – a huge and popular forum devoted primarily to roleplaying games. Each year at Gen Con they host a ceremony which acknowledges and rewards that year’s roleplaying game highlights. As with many awards the recipients get more excited about them than the customers who buy the products. But we are recipients, and this article is about our excitement!
First the judges examine all the entries to select the nominees, then it goes to a popular vote. As a small publisher whose products punch above their market weight critically, it’s always been about the nominations. We do not have the sheer numbers of potential votes of likes of Paizo, Monte Cook, Fantasy Flight and Wizards of the Coast.
But this year, something was different. Some of it, as always, is circumstance; many of the bigger publishers didn’t have anything out this year. But, that can’t be the sole explanation for what happened: Pelgrane Press won 11 awards out of 10 nominations.
The 2016 ENnies featured battling vampires, a gradually more inarticulate Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, and a triumphant Cat Tobin clutching more awards than she could reasonably carry. It also featured an epic battle between newcomer Strahd and ancient rival Dracula. Or is it the other way round?
Dracula Dossier – Director’s Handbook gained a silver for Best Adventure, to The Curse of Strahd’s gold. In Product of the Year, the positions were reversed. The Director’s Handbook also grabbed the gold Best Writing, while Strahd snatched the top honour for Best Cover. All is even! But then, Dracula Dossier: Hawkins Papers grabbed gold Best Supplement. Strahd called foul – that was a separate product – and then returned to his tower to brood and emote. The Dracula Dossier All Rolled Up from our friends at the Black Archive gained a gold for Best Aid/ Accessory just above the 13th Age GM Screen and Resource Book‘s silver.
13th Age also featured in Race to Starport by ASH LAW for the Best Free Product. To get your copy, login to or create a bookshelf, tick the Organised Play box, and grab it and many others. All of them are of the same high quality as Race to Starport.
Our multiply nominated Page XX snagged a silver for Best Website. If you are reading this, you may well have voted for us – so thank you! Page XX is a time-consuming labour of love, but this award has played its part in our continuation of the webzine.
Long-time Pelgrane Press writer Adam Gauntlett, together with artists Pat Loboyko and Eric Quigley achieved silver for the Trail of Cthulhu adventure The Long Con – to describe it is to spoiler it – all I can say is it’s full of surprises and well worth playing.
Ken Hite, adding to his share of the Dracula hoard, gained a gold for Ken Writes About Stuff volume 3.
Finally and most proudly, we won the silver ENnie for Fan’s Choice for Best Publisher. This is an award where all entrants are considered for the vote – so we don’t count this as a nomination. But what this meant was our relatively small and plucky band of fans must have voted en masse for us. This award is yours – thank you so much!
Just for fun, here is a breakdown of the ENnies we’ve been nominated for and won over the years.
Product | Year | Award | Category |
Esoterrorists | 2007 | Nomination | Best Rules |
Esoterrorists | 2007 | Honourable Mention | Best Game |
Trail of Cthulhu | 2008 | Silver | Best Writing |
Trail of Cthulhu | 2008 | Silver | Best Rules |
The Book of Unremitting Horror | 2008 | Nomination | Best Monster / Adversary |
Trail of Cthulhu | 2008 | Honourable Mention | Product of the Year |
Armitage Files | 2010 | Silver | Best Adventure |
Shadows Over Filmland | 2010 | Honourable Mention | Best Adventure |
Rough Magicks | 2010 | Nomination | Best Art, Cover |
The Dance in the Blood | 2011 | Honourable Mention | Best Adventure |
Bookhounds of London | 2011 | Silver | Best Cartography |
Bookhounds of London | 2011 | Honourable Mention | Best Setting |
The Dance in the Blood | 2011 | Nomination | Best Writing |
Dead Rock Seven | 2012 | Nomination | Best Adventure |
Invasive Procedures | 2012 | Nomination | Best Adventure |
The Rending Box | 2012 | Nomination | Best Adventure |
Cthulhu Apocalypse: The Apocalypse Machine | 2012 | Gold | Best Electronic Book |
Lorefinder | 2012 | Silver | Best Rules |
Cthulhu Apocalypse: The Apocalypse Machine | 2012 | Nomination | Best Setting |
Ashen Stars | 2012 | Silver | Best Setting |
The Investigator’s Guide to Occult London | 2012 | Nomination | Best Setting |
See Page XX | 2012 | Nomination | Best Website |
Investigator’s Guide to Occult London | 2012 | Gold | Best Writing |
Night’s Black Agents | 2013 | Silver | Best Game |
Night’s Black Agents | 2013 | Silver | Best Writing |
Eternal Lies | 2014 | Gold | Best Adventure |
Hillfolk | 2014 | Nomination | Best Game |
Eternal Lies | 2014 | Silver | Best Production Values |
Dust and Mirrors: Music for Night’s Black Agents | 2014 | Nomination | Best RPG Related Product |
Complete Eternal Lies Suite | 2014 | Nomination | Best RPG Related Product |
13th Age | 2014 | Silver | Best Rules |
Hillfolk | 2014 | Nomination | Best Rules |
Blood on the Snow | 2014 | Nomination | Best Supplement |
Owl Hoot Trail | 2014 | Nomination | Best Writing |
See Page XX | 2014 | Nomination | Best Website |
Hillfolk | 2014 | Nomination | Product of the Year |
Eternal Lies | 2014 | Nomination | Product of the Year |
13th Age | 2014 | Nomination | Product of the Year |
Dreamhounds | 2015 | Nomination | Best Art, Interior |
Ken Writes About Stuff Volume 2 | 2015 | Silver | Best Electronic Book |
13th Age: The Archmage’s Orrery | 2015 | Silver | Best Free Product |
13th Age Bestiary | 2015 | Nomination | Best Monster / Adversary |
Dreamhounds | 2015 | Nomination | Best Setting |
Ken Writes About Stuff Volume 2 | 2015 | Nomination | Best Writing |
Dracula Dossier Director’s Handbook | 2016 | Silver | Best Adventure |
13th Age Screen and Resource Book | 2016 | Silver | Best Aid/ Accessory |
The Long Con | 2016 | Silver | Best Electronic Book |
Race to Starport | 2016 | Silver | Best Free Product |
Ken Writes About Stuff Volume 3 | 2016 | Gold | Best RPG Related Product |
The Dracula Dossier: Hawkins Papers | 2016 | Gold | Best Supplement |
See Page XX | 2016 | Silver | Best Website |
Dracula Dossier Director’s Handbook | 2016 | Gold | Best Writing |
Dracula Dossier Director’s Handbook | 2016 | Gold | Product of the Year |
Pelgrane Press | 2016 | Silver | Fan’s Choice for Best Publisher |