Greetings!
Voting is currently open for the ENNIE Awards, the most prominent awards in the world of tabletop RPGs. Several games I contributed to have been nominated. If you like these games, I’d appreciate your votes! You can vote here until voting closes on July 23rd.
I am nominated by name as one of the contributors to Ninth Level’s 2022 Level 1 anthology. The anthology is nominated for Best Free Game/Product. You can download the anthology here (for free, of course!). Congrats to all of my fellow contributing designers.
My contribution to the 2022 anthology was “To Wield the Blade of Ages.” This was a comedic swords-and-sorcery game about heroes bickering over spoils at the end of an arduous quest. Each player believes they are the only one worthy of the Blade of Ages. The facilitator, as the Swordkeeper, stokes this dissension as they question the players about the just-concluded quest. The game is heavily inspired by Jeff Stormer’s wonderful Mission: Accomplished!
A number of other games I worked on are nominated for ENNIEs.
Avatar Legends, by Magpie Games, is nominated for Best Rules, and its associated starter set is nominated for Best Family Game. I wrote two playbooks for this game: The Adamant in the corebook, and The Destined in the expansion (Wan Shi Tong's Adventure Guide). It was a huge pleasure to contribute to this game. I love the source material and I’m very glad Magpie brought me on to design for them here. The Adamant draws inspiration from characters like Jet and Mai, and The Destined from Princess Yue and Jinora.
Trophy, by Gauntlet Publishing, is nominated for Best Game, Best Rules, and Product of the Year. Trophy is a dark fantasy game—really multiple games: Trophy Dark for one-shot stories of doomed treasure-hunters, and Trophy Gold for series-length stories where treasure-hunters are more likely to survive (though the Forest is sure to twist them plenty along the way).
I wrote the Scoundrel’s Quarter campaign framework, for weaving together sessions (Incursions) of Dark into a campaign of Gold. This framework is found in the Trophy Dark book. I liked creating a home district for the treasure-hunters, then putting it in danger of Ruin from the Forest. When your neighborhood Ruin creeps up, you run a Dark Incursion and sacrifice some treasure-hunters to sate the Forest’s appetite.
I also contributed an Incursion to the Trophy Gold book, The Rime Palace. This adventure involves treasure-hunters sailing in an interdimensional ship to raid the icy stronghold of a sinister fae court. Fun fact: The Rime Palace originated as the lair of antagonists in a campaign of Masks I ran! I enjoyed reworking it into a dark and decadent piece of the setting of Trophy.
Brindlewood Bay, also by Gauntlet Publishing, is nominated for Best Electronic Book. This is a game about elderly women solving murders in a quaint New England town—and eventually uncovering an occult conspiracy.
My contribution is a Mystery in the expansion for Brindlewood Bay, Nephews in Peril. My Mystery is “A Throng of Vice and Liars,” in which the player characters must find out who killed the fantasy author Herb L. L. Paxton, and perhaps also discover what’s become of the manuscript for his long-anticipated next installment (“The Augurs of Autumn”) in his fantasy series. It was great to play around with the quirks of fantasy fandom and a particular well-known series as I put the Mystery together.
Those are the games I’m connected to. Please vote before July 23rd, and, if you would, rank the games above high in their respective categories. Finally, congrats to all the nominees! It’s an honor to be nominated among this strong slate of games and designers.
Till next time, may you claim great prizes, be adamant as necessary, avoid ruin, and solve mysteries!
Gamefully yours,
Alexi