#ttrpg awards

[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!

[queerpg]

2024 RAINBOW ROLL FEST WINNERS!!!

Last weekend was this year's Rainbow Roll Fest. We submitted a 45 min piece from episodes 6-7 of Wildmoore High and we won a bunch of stuff!!!

Highly recommend checking out the other winners and participants to add to your to watch/listen to lists!

[dungeonmalcontent]

Guess who totally forgot about the crit awards? Me!

And no.inations are still open (I think). So that.

The Crit Awards 2024

I just learned about these today! I'm eligible for some homebrew awards. It'd be nice to be nominated for Best Homebrew and Best Supplement, and I have a few things that could qualify (more on that later).

More than my own nominations, however, I just really want people to look at the categories and just think about who you could nominate. Everyone only gets 1 nomination per category and there are restrictions on what's eligible (public work, not big company like crit role or dropout, no AI, shared between last jan and this feb, etc.). And I know there's a lot of good categories and candidates for them.

You can find the categories for this years awards here: Crit Awards Categories.

Please, if you see a category and think of an eligible contender fill out the nomination form. It's pretty quick and you can skip categories you can't think of anyone for.

(personally I like Crest Saga for the Indie TTRPG and multiplayer TTRG categories, but don't tell anyone I said that)

My own eligibility below the cut.

As for my own works in the homebrew categories, the following are eligible:

Re:Alignment (for homebrew supplement/3rd party content)

Routine Passives (for homebrew supplement/3rd party content)

Psionics: Spellcasting & Specialties (This one could honestly go either way, it has subclasses, spells, and variant feature rules. It's an all in one supplement. This is the one I'd prefer to be nominated in this category or both.)

Grimdark Puzzles (for supplement, sadly Grimdark & Dangerous itself is not eligible)

Druid: Circle of the Glade (for supplement, technically?)

Encounter With: The Pale Widow (for monster)

Figher: Blade Drifter (for supplement)

Sorcerer: Vampiric Bloodline (for supplement)

Barbarian: Path of Possession (For supplement)

Druid: Circle of Bones (for supplement)

Artificer: Necrocrafter (for supplement)

Bard: College of Partying (for supplement)

Mancatcher (for best homebrew spell, monster, or item)

Restless Hunger (for homebrew spell, monster, or item)

Wax Wings (for homebrew spell, monster, or item)

Suspender of Disbelief (for homebrew spell, monster, or item—this is the standalone item I am most proud of if I'm being honest)

There is more, but it's more niche and behind a minimal paywall (granted some of the above is also behind a paywall). You can find these by following this link and sorting by date.

[emmavoid]

Yeldplay! got nominated for a CRIT Award!!!!

aaaaaaa? aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!! <33333333333333333333

[gigantic-spider]

The Awards winners' livestream on Friday November 15 @ 7pm EST

The Awards is finally back to reveal the 20 winners of this third annual indie TTRPG awards show, joining our illustrious honorees from 2022 and 2023. Join me and (most of) this year's judging panel as we reveal, in no particular order, the 20 submissions that were deemed the best TTRPG stuff of the year.

This year we are honored to be hosted by @darlingdemoneclipse on her Twitch channel, on Friday November 15 @ 7pm EST (UTC-5). Tune in to see some of the coolest, weirdest, most TTRPG-est stuff you can possibly imagine!

[lizardcatcreations]

Restless Specter

a special chonk i made in collaboration with the upcoming CRIT Awards 💙 i'm so in love with this design and couldn't not share all of my fav pictures, and i hope whoever ends up with it loves it as much as i do.

don't forget to nominate your fav indie TTRPG and gaming creators by june 1st!

[rollforfelicity]

Nominations for The CRiT Awards opened today! For those who aren't familiar, The CRiT Awards are a peer-driven TTRPG awards show where creators can nominate each other to be recognized for their work in the TTRPG space.

For those of you deciding who you’d like to nominate for each category, I hope you’ll consider nominating me for the category of Best Game Master | Indie.

During the eligible period I GM’d two seasons of Monsterhearts: Freshman Year for Girls Run These Worlds and 6 indie one-shots on my own channel. I also facilitated 7 GMless indie games and Shall We? a Wanderhome limited series. (GMing and Facilitating are very much not the same thing, but I want to highlight the number of indie TTRPG shows I've produced/facilitated as well as GM'd.)

In 2023, I started the Incredibly Indie series on RollForFelicity, which is a series specifically intended to get more eyes on games with few (if any) examples of play. I consider myself a huge supporter of indie TTRPGs.

Not only do I increase the visibility of indie TTRPGs, but I’m also very good at running them. I get to the heart of the mechanics and lean into the stories and moments each game is hoping to achieve. When I run a game, I try to run it as the quintessential example of what THAT game can be.

I have a deep love for indie TTRPGs, but more than that, I think I’m really fucking good at running them. So if you’ve enjoyed any of the series or one-shots I’ve GM’d, I hope you’ll consider nominating me for Best Game Master | Indie.

[corsairesix]

The Crit Awards have opened their nominations! Their mission is to celebrate and recognize the contributions and achievements of the TTRPG community, so nominations and votes are community-driven.

If you enjoyed the work of anyone in the TTRPG community, from game designers to artists to actual play performers, a great way you can support them is by nominating them!

[vintagerpg]

Breaking news! Experience Points: The Lost Chapters from Monsters, Aliens, & Holes in the Ground has been nominated for an Ennie Award in the Best RPG Related Product category!

Big thanks to Exalted Funeral for submitting the zine, and a heaping pile of congratulations to my co-conspirators Ed Coleman (author of the Paranoia essay), Kyle Patterson (illustrator), Derek Kinsman (designer), Jamie Springer (copy editor), Orrin Grey (line editor) and Joe DeSimone (fact checker), who can all officially append "Ennie-Nominated" to their list of qualifications for all time.

It would be swell if you voted for them! They worked super hard on both this and the main book, on a shockingly tight turn-around, and made an amazing reality out of my rambling thoughts. I'm forever in their debt, really. The Ennies are a community award, so you, my community, please go and vote!

[danielnelsen]

suffered through that whole fight with the forge monster thing and then got an achievement for killing it without using the forge 😭😭😭 i wasn’t trying to make the fight harder, i just forget you can do interesting things in this game

[ratwavegamehouse]

The Rascal community-sourced announcements have details on the new Webstore I've just opened for Rat Wave Game House.

"At launch the store features six titles, three of which are currently exclusively available through the Rat Wave webstore. First there's To Embrace a Swamp Creature, a Belonging outside Belonging game about mentally ill swamp things, reminiscent of Night in the Woods as well as films like Shiva Baby and Appropriate Behaviour. Then there's An Illustrator's Guide to the Dreamtlands, a solo journaling and sketching game using the artwork of Wassily Kandinsky. The final exclusive is The Story of a Story, another solo game this time with the player assuming the role of a story told round the camp fire as they evolve. Beyond these initial exclusive readers can also buy copies of Transgender Deathmatch Legend, The Infinite Dancefloor and Follow Me in the Night direct from the source."

I reckon after fulfilment it's probs the main place Ritual Magic for Besties will be available. I'm also thinking of experimenting with running pre-orders for a future new release (Godslingers)

Anyway, feel free to give me money anytime you want

[merelyroleplayers]

Who is Ernie Bering?

Our Ernie is a finalist in the Best NPC category in this year's CRIT Awards, so let's have a quick rundown of who the man is.

If you already know, you can cast your vote for Ernie (and for Merely Roleplayers for Best Storyline!) at the CRIT Awards site:

Ernest 'Ernie' Bering is a craggy, barrel-chested man usually seen in a nondescript grey suit, cut to conceal a shoulder holster. In a visual medium, he would be played by Tommy Lee Jones, but voiced by Ray Winstone.

In our show, he's voiced by Matt Boothman. Matt and Chris Starkey came up with the character and Ellie Pitkin came up with his name.

Ernie is a career field agent of the Department of Omissions (DoOm), tasked with minimising the disruption the supernatural world causes to ordinary British citizens. He's a man shaped by life in the shadows.

Ernie was the point man for a disastrous DoOm scheme to release ghouls into the English countryside as bait for the Hunt, which legends say would scour England of evil. The Hunt didn't show but the ghouls massacred a family on a camping trip.

The only survivor was the youngest child, Cameron Jarvis (played by Chris Starkey). Ernie kept an eye on Cam as he moved through the foster system, mainly out of guilt, but also because Cam had fought off a ghoul, so he might be useful to Ernie in the future.

Completely off DoOm's books, Ernie trained Cam to deal with ghouls and other otherworldly threats. He's been both a handler and something of a surrogate father to Cam.

Years after the tragic experiment with the ghouls, the Hunt finally arrived in England and invited Ernie to join their ranks – via a ghoul being used as a combination errand boy and hunting hound. Ernie declined and took a nasty stab wound from the ghoul.

After Ernie tried and failed to keep Cam out of things, the truth finally came out and Cam put the injured Ernie on notice: if Ernie ever shows his face to Cam again, he'll find himself on the receiving end of his own deadly training.

And that's where we left Ernie at the end of Vigil: Quarry. He will return later this year in Vigil: Fear Itself...

In the meantime, show your appreciation for our favourite highly competent moral vacuum in the Best NPC category at the CRIT Awards!

[guccigarantine]

technoir doesn’t have a b plot system and yet ali still managed to make it happen in the counter/weight prequel

[hemcreekprod]

Transplanar RPG: The Chaos Protocol has been nominated for five CRIT Awards!

We have some exciting news from one of the shows we work on. @transplanarrpg's The Chaos Protocol has been nominated for five CRIT Awards, an award dedicated to recognizing excellence in the TTRPG and Actual Play communities. The show is in the running for:

Best Series

Best Game Master- Indie (Connie Chang)

Best Player- Indie (Valiant Dorian as Seir)

Best Player- Indie (Cai Kagawa as Xainan)

Best Costume (Cai Kagawa as Xainan)

The CRIT awards are decided by public vote, and you can see the full list of nominees and vote through the CRIT Awards Website. We would appreciate your support!

Haven't listened to or heard of Transplanar RPG: The Chaos Protocol? The Show follows three troubled agents of the Transplanar Reification and Nourishment Syndicate (TRANS) as they answer distress calls across the multiverse, untangle an ominous planes-spanning mystery, and confront their own demons. Transplanar RPG is an all-transgender, people of color-led dark fantasy TTRPG channel telling poetic stories about flawed characters in an original noncolonial, antiorientalist multiverse.

You can watch the Chaos live on Twitch, or on demand through YouTube, as well as an edited podcast version wherever you listen to podcasts.

[emmavoid]

CRIT Awards Ceremony!

The CRIT Awards are tonight, 6pm PST/9pm EST! Come watch cool folks give out well-deserved awards to awesome ttrpg folks!

[gigantic-spider]

The Awards 2024 judge reveal pt. 1

With two days to go til the livestream, let me reveal some of our incredible judges (with the rest to come tomorrow)!

First up is Côme Martin (comemartin.itch.io), a White French TTRPG creator and one of The Awards 2023 winners with "Meanwhile In the Subway."

Next up: Dice Bob! They are a Hawaii-based Filipino-American TTRPG maker with the blog dicebob.com

When they applied to be a judge, he wanted to find answers to the question: "What is a game?" Tune in to the livestream to find out at least some of those answers!

Hélène Lupa is a White female TTRPG designer based on the US East Coast. She co-edits Alien Baby Mag, currently open for submissions (https://alienbaby.itch.io/alien-baby-call-for-submissions-issue-1), and got into the hobby via a collection of vintage '80s games inherited from her father.

John M. Null is a host of @realplaygamespodcast and a longtime player of games, volunteer-er at cons, and manager of official organized play groups. His major turn towards indie games began during the pandemic; he now has literal boxes of zines and is looking to spread the word about them

The final judge to reveal today is Luke Boniecki, a game enthusiast/aficionado from Poland with an eye for clever systems and OSR procedures, two decades of play experience, and several games designed as well (appendix-g.itch.io)

That's it for today's judge reveal! The other half will come tomorrow, and then the livestream the day after that!

Friday! 11/15! 7 pm EST (UTC-5)!

Be there!