#awards eligibility

[merelyroleplayers]

Nominate Merely Roleplayers in the CRIT Awards 2024

The Creator Recognition in Tabletop RPG Awards are open for nominations until the end of May, and lots of our stuff from the past year is eligible!

You all got us to the final ballot in 2 categories last year – thank you again, it was incredible to hear the words "Merely Roleplayers" read out alongside so many luminaries of roleplaying and storytelling!

Could we make it 3 this year?

Could we even make it to a win??

At this nomination stage, you're free to nominate whoever and whatever you like in each category. It's free choice, not multiple choice. Then people/things with enough nominations get put on the final ballot for everyone to check out and vote on.

Most of the categories ask for a link or social media handle to help the CRIT team vet nominations. Plus, I know from filling out my own nominations how hard it can sometimes be to work out what actually falls within the eligibility period (which this year is 1 Jan 2023–29 Feb 2024 – RPG vendors please put the publication date on the game's page!!).

So here's a handy list of what we've done that came out in that period, the categories you could nominate them in, and the relevant links and handles:

Best of Actual Plays

Best Series

Vigil: The Great Fire https://foggyoutline.com/roleplayers-episodes/category/The+Great+Fire

Vigil: Chief/Exec https://foggyoutline.com/roleplayers-episodes/category/Chief%2FExec

Vigil: Fear Itself https://foggyoutline.com/roleplayers-episodes/category/Fear+Itself

(and in the Studio...)

Falling Cadence https://foggyoutline.com/roleplayers-episodes/category/Falling+Cadence

The Queen's Dead https://foggyoutline.com/roleplayers-episodes/category/The+Queen%27s+Dead

The Office Party https://foggyoutline.com/roleplayers-episodes/category/Office+Party

Best NPC

Any and all NPCs from the above 6 productions, including 2023 nominee Ernest Bering, Agent of DoOm...

It's up to you to decide, based on his actions in Vigil: Fear Itself, whether oor Ernie belongs in this category or in:

Best Villain

Any and all villains from the above 6 productions, including Ada Lovelace (Great Fire), Max Dashwood (Chief/Exec), Morrigan the War Chieftain (Chief/Exec), the Harlequin (Fear Itself) and (possibly, as above) Ernest Bering, Agent of DoOm.

Best of their Games

Best Game Master | Indie

Matt Boothman https://www.instagram.com/merelymatt/

Josh Yard https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

Best Player | Indie

Ellie Pitkin https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Persephone 'Percy' Byron in Great Fire and Camilla Parnell in Falling Cadence)

Dave https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Mick Mason in Great Fire and Josh in Office Party)

Strat https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Brier in Great Fire and Jerome Picklepants in Office Party)

Chris MacLennan https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Kincaid in Great Fire)

Natalie Winter https://www.instagram.com/winternatters/

(plays Gwynned in Chief/Exec and Bess in Office Party)

Marta Da Silva https://www.instagram.com/nanaluvren/

(plays Harper in Chief/Exec)

Josh Yard https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Jinny Greenteeth in Chief/Exec)

Vikki https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Renko in Chief/Exec and Cadence Fairchild in Falling Cadence)

Alexander Pankhurst https://www.instagram.com/apankhurst/

(plays Graham in Fear Itself and Reginald 'Skinsy' Skinner in Falling Cadence)

Chris Starkey https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Cameron Jarvis in Fear Itself and Neville Flounder, aka the Living Shadow, aka Night Gannet in Office Party)

Ellen Gould https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Jess Butterworth in Fear Itself)

Helen Stratton https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Stella Sylvester in Falling Cadence)

Fiona KT Howat https://www.instagram.com/unspeakablyfiona/

(plays the Skeletal Duchy in The Queen's Dead)

Naomi Clarke https://www.instagram.com/naomithinksit/

(plays the Draugr Earldom in The Queen's Dead)

Best of Podcasts

Best Podcast

Merely Roleplayers https://www.merelyroleplayers.com

Best Podcast Host

Matt Boothman https://www.instagram.com/merelymatt/

Thank you! Can't wait to see who gets nominated this year!

[isabelcanasauthor]

Nebulas Eligibility Post!

I hate doing these, but in the spirit of the hustle, here we are!

Novel

For your consideration, I offer The Hacienda, a “gothic tale of doomed love and vengeful spirits” (The Washington Post) for fans of Mexican Gothic and Rebecca, set in the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence, about a remote house, a sinister haunting, and the woman pulled into their clutches…

“A thing of uncanny, chilling beauty. Hauntings, exorcisms, incantations, forbidden love—The Hacienda transports one to a world where love triumphs over demons.” —The New York Times

An NPR and Publisher's Weekly Best Book of 2022

An Amazon Best Books of the Year in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

A Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Horror and Best Debut Novel

A Barnes & Noble Best Books of the Year So Far Pick

Novelette

In March 2022, GigaNotoSaurus published "The Law of Take" (8,300 words), a space fantasy retelling of the medieval Persian romance Vis & Ramin.

“The law of take, though, isn’t something that can be fol­lowed halfway, and the story does a great job of following Vis through the ambition, drama, and action that follows in the wake of not conceding the things that matter most [...] a rollercoaster ride of a tale that does not disappoint.” —Locus Magazine

Short Story

Of my 2022 short story publications, I would be honored if you read "Six Goats," a published in Fireside Magazine's final issue (1,100 words). An anti-colonial high fantasy, sweeping and sapphic and small enough to nestle in the palm of your hand.

“Cañas doesn’t shy away from the violence and chaos of colonization or revolution, but also centers the power of memory and storytelling in the face of historical erasure and genocide.” —Locus Magazine

[tryslora]

It's my first year getting to do an awards eligibility page, and I've got a whole three stories on it. 

[deehollowaywrites]

It's that time

It's awards eligibility season! For those of you who don't spend your time with your nose to the various lit-world grindstones, here's a handy explainer on awards eligibility from SFWA.

For me, it's been a modest year... but also a significant one! If you're only going to have a few paid pieces of work out, it's cool if they're your debut long-form book and a much-beloved and highly satisfying piece of short work. Since I don't anticipate any more paid work appearing before the new year, I'm using this spot both as a review of 2023's overall published work and a note of the awards-eligible work I had out.

As a reminder, the easiest spot to find links to both free and fee’d work is Chill Subs! (Chill Subs is also a fantastic spot for writers in general, featuring a submissions tracker, a huge database of publications to search, a social media hang-out, and a library of users’ work to read)

If you've read anything I've written, this year or any year, I appreciate it more than I can say. Happy reading, whatever you've got on deck, and happy writing too!

“Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom” (Ancillary Review of Books, April 2023)

“Monica Robinson Journeys to Death and Back in to rule the desert” (DIS/MEMBER, May 2023)

“Capital Punishment” parts 1 & 2 (Invisible Oranges, June 2023)

“Dead Leaves: Summer Reading” (DIS/MEMBER, June 2023)

Something in the Water (DIY, June 2023)

Little Nothing (Queen of Swords Press, July 2023; novella)*

“On the Trail of Bigfoot: Land of the Missing Aims to Conjure Instant Dread” (DIS/MEMBER, August 2023)

“The Catamount” (Lamplit Underground, September 2023; short fiction)*

“A Haunting in Venice Relishes Old Hollywood Thrills” (DIS/MEMBER, October 2023)

“Suzan Palumbo Interrogates the Truly Monstrous with Skin Thief” (DIS/MEMBER, October 2023)

“Dead Leaves: A Becky Cloonan Primer” (DIS/MEMBER, October 2023)

hallowzine vol. 2: an upstate gothic (DIY, October 2023)

“Exospective: The Exorcist (2016-17) Revisited” (DIS/MEMBER, November 2023-ongoing)

*suggested awards for Little Nothing: Lambda, Hugo, Sidewise, Locus, Florida Book

*suggested awards for "The Catamount": Shirley Jackson, Eugie, Bram Stoker

[hollylynwalrath]

Awards Eligibility Post

It’s awards eligibility season so here is everything I published in 2022!

Wow, I really can’t believe this year is almost over. This year, I am very glad to have published in some outstanding anthologies and pro markets. I want to thank all the editors and publishers who continue to support my writing — I would not be here without you! And thank you to all the readers, writers, and friends who have read my writing. Particular thanks to Alex Tonelli of Kipple Press for translating my book The Smallest of Bones (first published by Clash Books) into Italian!

My short stories “Twelve Babies” and “The Asylum” are eligible for the HWA Bram Stoker Award. My poems are eligible for the SFPA Rhysling Award. If you would like a PDF of any of these works, please email me!

List of Works Published by Holly Lyn Walrath in 2022:

Fiction (Short Stories)

“Twelve Babies” —Flash Fiction, A Woman Unbecoming Anthology, Crone Girls Press (October 2022)

“Trinity’s Dragon” — The Sunday Morning Transport (October 16, 2022)

“The Asylum” — Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology (July 2022)

Poetry

“Water Drawn from a Stone” — Not One of Us, Issue #71, July 2022

“Literature for Ukraine” published in Houston Arts Journal

​March 10, 2022

“You Crave Poison” — HWA Poetry Showcase V. IX, October 2022

Books

Il più piccolo tra le ossa — The Smallest of Bones, translated into Italian by Kipple Press, February 2022

Books Edited

The Gravity of Existence by Christina Sng (Poetry, Interstellar Flight Press, December 5, 2022)

The Future Second by Second by Meridel Newton (Fiction Novella, Interstellar Flight Press, May 2, 2022)

Escaping the Body by Chloe N. Clark (Poetry, Interstellar Flight Press, March 7, 2022)

Interstellar Flight Magazine (A Project of Interstellar Flight Press, First started in 2019, Publishing Nonfiction — probably eligible for Fanzine or related project?)

About the Author

Holly Lyn Walrath is a writer, editor, and publisher. Her poetry and short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Fireside Fiction, Analog, and Flash Fiction Online. She is the author of several books of poetry including Glimmerglass Girl (2018), Numinose Lapidi (2020), and The Smallest of Bones (2021). She holds a B.A. in English from The University of Texas and a Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Denver.

[rsagarcia]

2023 Eligibility for Awards

Happy New Year everyone! Glad to be with you again in 2024. I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and that the new year brings you health, wealth and prosperity! I should have done this ages ago, but I was ill over the holiday season, so this is my very late post about my eligibility for speculative fiction awards this year. I had a banner year in 2023 re my work for 2022, and I was so…

[victorianations-writer]

Stories and Poetry 2022

It has been a fabulous year of writing.

“Scabrous” is a story about how pain and violence linger like ghosts. It appeared in A QUAINT AND CURIOUS VOLUME OF GOTHIC TALES, edited by Alex Woodroe, from Brigids Gate Press (January 2022).

“Cleaning Out Her House, As If She’ll Ever Be Gone” is a poem about the horror of exploring a mother’s dreams and madness after she is gone. It closes out MOTHER: TALES OF LOVE AND TERROR, edited by Willow Dawn Becker and Christi Nogle, from Weird Little Worlds (October 2022).

“Bury Me Under Fallen Stars” is a poem about the beautiful decay of Autumn, in the Autumnal Equinox: Harvest issue of Magpie Messenger Literary Magazine, from Curious Corvid Publishing (September 2022).

“An Empty Seat” is a poem about an unexpected clown, in the Halloween: Circus issue of Magpie Messenger Literary Magazine, from Curious Corvid Publishing (October 2022).

“Reasons Why You Can’t Go Out To Play Alone” is a poem about the horrors of grief and vengeance, in HWA POETRY SHOWCASE VOLUME IX, edited by Angela Yuriko Smith, from the Horror Writers Association (October 2022).

Thank you to my publishers and editors for including my work in their amazing publications. And thank you all for your support this year.

[geekcalligraphy]

It’s a Wednesday blog post!

Several announcements are contained herein, much of them pertaining to shipping and its costs.

Consider this our end of year wrap up, and we’ll see you in 2023!

[scraped image is a photo of the Tuileries Gardens at sunset]

[acooksbooks]

Baby's First Awards Eligibility Post!

In which the author gleefully shares her first awards eligibility post.

As an actual published writer with multiple publications out in the world this year, I feel confident enough to put together my very first awards eligibility post! I have no expectation of even being nominated for anything, but as one of my favorite gay pirates on HBOMax’s “Our Flag Means Death” said just this past summer: “Actually, I think I’m just so-so, but I’ve decided to carry myself like…

[aengelren]

the final day and last time ever that Aot is eligible for awards, cast your final vote ♡

lets give back to the producers, staff and author

vote here

[merelyroleplayers]

The CRIT Awards: for your consideration

The Creator Recognition in TTRPG (CRIT) Awards are open to nominations until 1 June!

Things released between 1 Jan 2022 and 31 Jan 2023 are eligible. In the case of Merely Roleplayers, that means:

Main House productions: Vigil: Quarry

(Vigil: All Aboard is also on the borderline, the final story act came out on 7 Feb 2023)

Studio productions: Monumental Exit & The Feed (series 1)

(The Lost Andromeda Ward Christmas Special is also on the borderline, it kicked off on 14 December 2021 but extended into the eligibility period)

See our Past Productions page for more about all those productions.

Here's the CRIT Awards nomination form.

It would mean the world to us if you considered nominating Merely Roleplayers in some or all of these categories:

Best TTRPGs, Supplements, APs, and Channels of this year

Best storyline | In a AP: Vigil: Quarry (Merely Roleplayers)

Best Series: Vigil (Merely Roleplayers) https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCMIHyd_TMSpZ_HMrmThX2HcM_zP2yR5-

Best NPC: Ernie Bering, agent of DoOm (Merely Roleplayers: Vigil)

Best Villain: The Stranger (Merely Roleplayers: Vigil)

Best in their TTRPG Category

Best Game Master | Indie: Matt Boothman

Best Player | Indie: choose your fighter—

Natalie Winter (for either Gwynned in Vigil: All Aboard or Sue Sherpa in Monumental Exit)

Alexander Pankhurst (for Mike Sherpa in Monumental Exit)

Marta Da Silva (for Harper in Vigil: All Aboard)

(also eligible are Ellen Gould and Josh Yard for The Feed, and Helen, Strat, Vikki and Chris Starkey for Vigil: Quarry – but Nat, Alex and Marta are professional actors and a nomination could make a real difference to them!)

Best Podcast: Merely Roleplayers

Best Audio and Sound Design | Podcast: Merely Roleplayers

Artist Categories

Best Instrumental of the year by a musician in TTRPG: Vigil theme by Alexander Pankhurst https://youtu.be/KRsdcFLK0F4?t=104

Enter your nominations in the CRIT Awards form or find out more about the awards

And if you don't fancy nominating us for all these categories, hopefully you'll shower some nomination love on other podcasts in the community who are doing incredible work, like @realmspod, Interstitial AP by @revryebread, @monsterhourpod, @legendlarkpod and @campaignskyjacks. We can't nominate ourselves so we'll be putting all of these luvvies and more forward instead!

[heart-eyes-motheracker]

The little thing that broke my heart in pieces

[goldennika]

TXT’s Minisode 3: Tomorrow already looks so pretty and the concepts (Ethereal, Romantic, Promise, and Light) sound so dreamy 🥹

Love how the albums really look like fairytale books!! 🥺🥹

[my-coven-is-claudia]

what do you mean iwtv season 2 doesn’t qualify for the emmys this year

[zishuge]

[crowns-of-violets-and-roses]

Hugo Award nominating stats are now out.

R.F. Kuang's Babel actually did have the votes to qualify but was declared not eligible?!?