Origins Nominees

The least relevant award in gaming has announced their 2013 nominations, as chosen by the board and then narrowed down by retailers who attended GAMA.  The actual decision-makers are the attendees of Origins.

ICV2 has the complete list here.

Here are a few of my thoughts:

Best Roleplaying Game
There are actually some good games in there this year.  Marvel Heroic is quite good.  Monsterhearts uses the Apocalypse World engine, and is also good.  I'd be okay if either of these win.

In fact, my money is on Marvel Heroic for the win.

Best Roleplaying Supplement
I like The Mythos Dossiers, but Marvel Heroic is probably going to take this one, too.

Best Board Game
This category has ... um ... a bunch of games I don't know or don't like.  And Lords of Waterdeep, which is good.  But I don't know how it'll hold up against some of the others - because, as I said, I just don't know them.

This, by the way, tells me that there are some serious omissions from the list. Seasons. Libertalia. Just for starters.

Best Collectible Card Game
I don't care about this category, because I am done with collectible gaming.  That said, however, it's odd not seeing Magic: the Gathering or Pokemon on the list, because those two and Yu-Gi-Oh are what seems to bring in the most money for the game store I frequent.

Best Traditional Card Game
Another category that I should care about, but I just ... I didn't like this year's nominees that much.  I've read the rulebooks for most of them and have watched other folks at Game Night give them a spin, but none of them seemed to hit that 'fun' button for me.

Best Family, Party, or Children's Game
Hasn't Catan Junior been out forever?  Did they refresh/restart it?

Once Upon A Time is a good game, and it deserves to win.

And Quarriors! should be up for best board game - it's not light enough to be a party game. But it'll probably win because the folks who vote go to Origins, which isn't aimed at the party game audience.

Best Gaming Accessory
Also known as the "We want to recognize [product] for something, but it doesn't fit into any of the other categories!"  I never know what's going to win this.

This year, there's Castle Panic: The Wizard's Tower, which is an expansion, not an accessory. But there's no board game expansion category (even though expansions have really become more and more typical).
The category also contains two different dice sets (both from Q Workshop), a set of collectible miniatures, and a set of dungeon tiles.

And then there are a bunch of categories I don't care about because I'm not a miniatures gamer these days, so I don't know any of the miniatures figures, rules, lines, etc, other than by name.  Well, other than the Trontek 29ers Corporation Team, which is one of the teams included in the base game.

Best Game-Related Publication
I do care about this category, because there have been some really good products through here in the past. Like last year, when The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design and Designers & Dragons were both up for the prize.  But this year ... Never Unprepared is good and deserving of attention.  I don't know any of the others first-hand (I know about the Battletech book, but have never read it).

... and that's it.  Altogether another mediocre year with a few bright spots on their list.