Today voting opens for the 2018 ENnies, awards given to designers and companies in the TTRPG industry to celebrate the work they’ve done in the past year. You can see the entire list of nominees  and then cast your votes if you are so inclined.

And I’m hoping you are, because for the very first time I’ve put my name in the running to become an ENnies judge. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but due to my work with one game company or another I wasn’t eligible. But as of this year I have enough distance from my work with any one company to qualify as a nominee, and so I’m in the running to be a judge for 2019. I’d love for you to vote for me, so let’s talk a bit about why I want to be a judge.

I love tabletop role-playing games. I’ve been in the hobby pretty much non-stop since I was ten years old (that will be 39 years, for anyone keeping score at home), and I have loved every minute of it. I have a passion for finding and devouring new gaming material, which is great because the TTRPG industry has kept that passion fed.  I’ve been lucky to be on hand for some pretty major cultural shifts within the hobby, and even though there are still issues to deal with our hobby has tended to trend toward inclusion.

Let’s look closer at the, “…still issues to deal with…” part of my statement. There is no question we still have some very specific problems to overcome around inclusion and accessibility. While I was excited to see DOTS putting out a really solid set of braille dice this past year, one of the first things I thought was, “Wait, no one had done that already?” Asking that question led to me to wonder about audio versions of TTRPG books for the visually impaired, and whether someone could make an ASL manual for common TTRPG terms. And those are two very basic questions, but the answers would open the hobby up to so many new players, game masters, and designers. Making our hobby more accessible takes nothing away from the gamers who don’t require it, but gives everything to the gamers who do.

And inclusion? We’re moving in the right direction, overall, and I think the rise of streaming has definitely had a positive influence in that regard. But we can do better, and all levels of our hobby must work to that end. We need to include more people at the table, but to encourage them to sit down they need to see themselves in the stories and books in the hobby. And for that to happen, the industry needs to welcome more creators from traditionally marginalized groups into our hobby. At the same time, we need to pay more attention to the independent creators already putting out excellent work in our hobby.

That’s where I see my role as an ENnies judge coming in to play. As a judge I intend to encourage previously marginalized creators to submit their work to the ENnies for judging. I can’t make anyone do it, of course, but I can make them aware of the process and encourage them. And once submitted, I’ll judge the work on its merits and champion the ones I think deserve to move forward.

In hand with that, I’ll be looking at all the material that comes my way through the two lenses of inclusivity and accessibility. Obviously all the other criteria by which I would judge a game also apply, not least of which is, is it fun? But also things like, does it explore something new, something we haven’t seen in TTRPGs before? If I’m presented with Retroclone RPG, you’re going to have a hard hill to climb to convince me it’s worthy of an award.

So that’s how I’m coming at ENnies judging. I’ve been in this hobby long enough, and I’ve read and played the myriad ways folks that look like me approach the hobby. I want to hear from folks who are not me, because I think that is how our hobby grows and gets stronger. I want more diverse ENnies judges, and I’ll be vocal about that whether I succeed in my bid this year or not. I recognize that part of challenge of that is simply that being a non-cis white male on the internet is harder than I can know, and becoming a judge would give one more avenue of access to the more toxic elements of our hobby. I hope I can help effect some changes to make that an easier prospect.

All of that is to say, please go to the ENnies voting page and vote. Vote for the games you’d like to celebrate, and if you are so inclined, please vote for me as a 2019 ENnies judges. I’m hoping to do good things with it, but I need your help to get the chance. And spread the word to your friends and encourage them to vote as well.

And thank-you. Whether I get the job or not, I’m looking forward to another year of gaming, and I’ll still be writing about everything I talked about above.