Friday, July 8, 2011

Vornheim Gets Boned - cue bad porn music

The Ennie Awards are coming up at GenCon in early August and the nominations have been posted at EN World. This is something that has been going on yearly now for some time. It is a good thing since it is fan based and not an industry blown horn, however this year I can say I honestly feel a bit confused by where one producted ended up in the nominations, and I'm not alone in that thinking.

Jeff Rient's mentioned this on his blog earlier today and I feel it is only right to point and say . . .

It's okay Jeff, you aren't the only person of the opinion that Vornheim should have had better than an Honorable mention in the Ennie's category it was participating in.

Best Aid/Accessory
Each of the products has its value and fanbase, but let's face it, Vornheim has a greater re-usability value for any fantasy setting than the Gaming Paper Adventure Maps. In fact if you consider that it isn't shoe-horned into a single system or only a few systems and/or editions, it beats every entry on the list.

For those that don't know, Vornheim is the brain-child of Zak S. of the blog Playing D&D With Porn Stars (warning: occasional adult content because yes, he and his players are in the adult entertainment industry).

Having seen some of Zak's creative genius on his blog and having read a number of positive reviews, I bought a copy of the book and I'm glad I did. It is a work of art, brilliant in how useful it is.

Ok, so it looks a bit odd and might be confusing if you don't take the time to read how to use it while trying to do so, but once you do you will GET IT. With grokking this book comes the understanding of how incredibly useful and nearly indispensible it will become as part of your DMing arsenal.

Don't get me wrong, a tip of the hat goes to everyone nominated in the category because they are good products, just nowhere near as innovative as Vornheim.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Couldn't agree more. Vornheim is something you could use in pretty much any game that includes fantasy and weirdness. (Why would you play a game devoid of those...?)

Looks like the ENnies are basically a prize for a certain circle of gamer's favorites. The judges are just ENworld posters... maybe good guys, but who knows. I guess it's harmelss, except I'd rather see NOTHING from the DIY/OSR world "mentioned" if it creates the false impression they are even looking seriously at some of the great stuff there. Knowing someo f the products submitted for consideration and seeing the largely blase nominees...well, there's no accounting for taste, and it is a shame to see these held up as "industry" awards when they represent such a narrow slice of the "market"...

OSRbaron said...

Mike,
Thanks for checking out the blog.

The cool thing about the Ennie Awards is that it is fan based and not industry. The judges are voted on by the users at EN World, and once they pick the nominees from among the product sent in for consideration, then the users vote on the gold and silver awards.

Usually something like Vornheim does very well because the judges are typically looking for invovative approaches and excellent tools for DMs/GMs.

Something went awry this time. Like you said, no accounting for taste.

Have fun and I hope you enjoy the blog.