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Hi,
this years winners of the Origins Award have just been announced. Here a list of all nominees, with the winners in orange:

The awards are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design to companies for outstanding games in the industry. For the 39th annual award cycle, the Awards had fifteen categories: Best Roleplaying Game, Best Roleplaying Supplement, Best Board Game, Best Traditional Card Game, Best Family, Party or Children’s Game, Best Gaming Accessory, Best Miniatures Rules, Best Miniature Figure, Best Historical Board Game, Best Historical Miniature Figure, Best Historical Miniature Game Supplement, Best Historical Miniature Rules, and Best Game-Related Publication, and Best Collectible Card Game.

The winner of each category will be voted on by attendees at the Origins Game Fair. The winners will be announced and presented at the Origins Awards Ceremony on Saturday June 15th of the event.

Best Roleplaying Game
Iron Kingdoms Full Metal Fantasy RPG Core Rules – Privateer Press
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Games – Margaret Weis Productions
Monsterhearts – Buried Without Ceremony
Nights of the Crusades – Aetheric Dreams
Primeval RPG – Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd.

Best Roleplaying Supplement
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Civil War Essentials Edition Event Book – Margaret Weis Productions
Menzoberranzan: City of Intrigue – Wizards of the Coast
Mutants & Masterminds: Threat Report – Green Ronin
Rimward: The Outer System – Posthuman Studios
The Mythos Dossiers – Cubicle 7 Entertainment

Best Board Game
Hot Rod Creeps – Cryptozoic
Kingdom Builder – Queen Games
Lords of Waterdeep – Wizards of the Coast
Mage Knight – WizKids
Mage Wars – Arcane Wonder

Best Collectible Card Games
Card Fight! Vanguard Breaker of Limits – Bushiroad
Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters – Wizards of the Coast
Legend of the 5 Rings: Embers of War – AEG
World of Warcraft: War of the Ancients – Cryptozoic
Yu-Gi-Oh! Battlepacks – Konami

Best Traditional Card Game
Doctor Who the Card Game – Cubicle 7 Entertainment/Treefrog Games
Legendary – Upper Deck
Locke & Key – Cryptozoic
Penny Arcade: Rumble in R’lyeh – Cryptozoic
Smash Up – AEG

Best Family, Party or Children's Game
Catan Junior – Mayfair Games
Escape: The Curse of the Temple – Queen Games
Love Letter – AEG
Once Upon A Time 3rd Edition – Atlas Games
Quarriors! Dice Building Game – WizKids Games

Best Gaming Accessory
Castle Panic: The Wizard’s Tower – Fireside Games
Dungeon Tiles: Castle Grimstead – Wizards of the Coast
Metal Steampunk Dice Set – Q Workshop
Pathfinder Battles Miniatures: Rise of the Runelords – WizKids games
Pathfinder Serpent’s Skull Dice Set – Q Workshop

Best Miniatures Rules
Dungeon Command: Curse of Undeath – Wizards of the Coast
Heavy Gear Blitz! Perfect Storm: The NuCoal Field Guide – Dream Pod 9
The Battlefield: Miniature Modern Warfare – Bombshell Games/Brent Spivey
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Campaign Starter Set – WizKids Games
WARMACHINE: Colossus – Privateer Press

Best Historical Miniature Figure/Line
Ancient Greeks - Victrix Ltd
Austrian Napoleonic Infantry – Perry Miniatures
Early Imperial Romans – Aventine Miniatures
Early War Polish WWII – Forged In Battle
German BP44 Armored Train – Battlefront Miniatures

Best Historical Board Game
1812: The Invasion of Canada – Academy Games
Andean Abyss – GMT
Clash of Wills – Mayfair Games
Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943 Village and Defensive Line Map Expansion – Collins Epic War Games
Samurai Battles – Zvezda

Best Historical Miniature Rules Supplement
Bolt Action: Armies of Germany – Osprey Publishing/Warlord Games
Clash of Empires: Age of Ravens – Great Escape Games
Flames of War: Nuts – Battlefront Miniatures
Hail Caesar Army Lists: Late Antiquity to Early Medieval – Warlord Games
SAGA: Raven’s Shadow – Gripping Beast/Studio Tomahawk

Best Historical Miniature Rules
Brink of Battle: Skirmish Gaming Through the Ages – Strategic Elite
Bolt Action: WWII Wargaming Rules – Osprey Publishing/Warlord Games
Deus Vult – Fireforge Games
Flames of War: Open Fire! – Battlefront Miniatures
Mad Dogs With Guns – Pulp Action Library

Best Miniature Figure Line
The Aberration (Carnevale: The Miniature Game) – Vesper-On Games
Marvel HeroClix: Galactic Guardians – WizKids Games
Mountain King (Trollbloods Gargantuan) – Privateer Press
Radru-Rashaar (Carnevale: The Miniature Game) – Vesper-On Games
Trontek 29ers Corporation Team – Mantic Games

Best Game-Related Publication
Death’s Heretic – Paizo Publishing, LLC
Battletech: Weapons Free – Catalyst Game Labs
Time Traveled Tales – GAMA
Eighth Day Genesis: A World Building Codex – Alliteration Ink
Never Unprepared: The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Session Prep – Engine Publishing

Hall of Fame Game Inductees
Munchkin – Steve Jackson Games
Dominion – Rio Grande Games

Hall of Fame Inductees
Lisa Stevens, Paizo Publishing
Loren Coleman, Catalyst Game Labs

First reaction from another thread.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Marvel Heroic Roleplay wins the awards... and they no longer have the license. Good work there...

Dominion into the hall of fame... man, no matter how much I try to like that game, I just find other similar ones better. Puzzle Strike, which I just discovered via Wehrkind, is amazingly fun! And Quarriors, too (although it has drawbacks similar to Dominion).

Nice list, though, thanks for sharing

I can help but read that list and think the origins awards mean next to nothing.

Heroclix wins a best of miniatures award....

 cincydooley wrote:
I can help but read that list and think the origins awards mean next to nothing.

Heroclix wins a best of miniatures award....

I was just posting the same thing - A heroclix beats the extremely awesome Mountain King? Who was judging this contest?

These:


Are better than this: (apparently)

Kind of surprised at Munchkin making the hall of fame this year. Figured that would have happened years ago.

To echo HBMC, so a cancelled game won best RPG?

AWKWARD!

And not a single nomination for GW, this is great news!

I'm assuming the nominees are limited to games/products that have come out this year, correct?

I own 3 of the 5 board games. I think Mage knight is much better board game from a technical/depth standpoint, but Lords of waterdeep is a better family board game maybe why it won.

GG

 Absolutionis wrote:
I'm assuming the nominees are limited to games/products that have come out this year, correct?

And have submitted the requisite number of samples to the judges.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

And not a single nomination for GW, this is great news!

Even funnier that it was Wizkids's version of The Hobbit that won, when GW's wasn't even nominated.

Games are only nominated if they submit the requisite number of samples to Origins.

Origins doesn't go out of its way to look for the best gaming products of the year.

LOL, Heroclix figures are in the McDonalds Happy Meal category not the miniatures category.

Of course someone chimed in with the GW hater cliche, "This is Great News." That was funny for a week several months ago, now it just is nothing but a stupid cliche. Time for people to move on from that.

Quarriors! Dice Building Game – WizKids Games


i really enjoy this game.

 kronk wrote:
Quarriors! Dice Building Game – WizKids Games


i really enjoy this game.

Of all the games on this list, this one looked semi interesting.

Yeah, Quarriors is fun but pricey if you want to get the expansions (like Dominion can be pricey). I just got the latest expansion (released earlier this month) but haven't tried it yet... will update if it's worth it. Odd that their base game could be up for that award, though, since it wasn't released this year.

Also:

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
Even funnier that it was Wizkids's version of The Hobbit that won, when GW's wasn't even nominated.

Yes, apparently these awards aren't too well vetted, as Cyporiean points out.

Yeah Munckin Hall of Fame!

Nomination might require samles, but voting is done by Origins attendees. So blame them for bad taste

Clix over the Mountain King? What the hell?

This coming from a guy who loves his big purple Master Mold.

They aren't even close in comparable quality. Sad.

I blame all attendees as they rightfully deserve it.

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:
Clix over the Mountain King? What the hell?

This coming from a guy who loves his big purple Master Mold.

They aren't even close in comparable quality. Sad.

I blame all attendees as they rightfully deserve it.

Could also be because Wizkids had a presence at Origins, whereas PP didn't (Due to scheduling issues, I believe). That can make a lot of difference for these things.

Yeah, I noticed a number of Wizkids products won. Still, just means it was even more like an echo chamber there, and makes the awards pretty irrelevant outside of the event itself.

 RiTides wrote:
Yeah, Quarriors is fun but pricey if you want to get the expansions (like Dominion can be pricey).

True, but I like the base game just fine. I doubt I'll get any expansions.

Added the missing info:
Winners of "Best Game-Related Publication" and "Hall of Fame Inductees"

BTW here last years winners:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/23052.html

 cincydooley wrote:
I can help but read that list and think the origins awards mean next to nothing.

Heroclix wins a best of miniatures award....

I personally dont think pre-paints should be in the same category, but they are pretty damn good for what they are. If you strip the paint, there are some rather solid sculpts under the thick paint.

The voting for the origins awards isn't just done by fans, they actually have to bribe people with a $2 generic token to get them to vote.

Origins is a blast, and I go every year, but it is no longer an "important" convention.

 kronk wrote:

 RiTides wrote:
Yeah, Quarriors is fun but pricey if you want to get the expansions (like Dominion can be pricey).

True, but I like the base game just fine. I doubt I'll get any expansions.

Agreed with ONE exception. Using the suggested "advanced" rule of, if you want to score glory for a die, you must cull only the die that scored. If you do not cull that particular die, you can keep it, but you score no glory for it. They introduced this with the Quarmageddon expansion, but you don't need the expansion to use it- it's just one line in the rulebook and applies to all versions.

Makes it a lot more fun, imo!

The guy that taught me how to play it used that rule! (Score and lose the die back to the pool). I really like that rule.

Quarriors is a lot of fun, especially when you leave the portal dice out and throw in corruption dice instead.

 kronk wrote:
The guy that taught me how to play it used that rule! (Score and lose the die back to the pool). I really like that rule.

Nice

BrookM- I just got the "rise of the daemons" expansion, so I'll try out the corrupted die. I didn't realize it had to be instead of the portal die, though.

The only problem with the rule kronk and I were discussing above, is that the makers of the game have some dice (particularly from the expansions, I think?) that no longer make much sense to buy in-game with that rule. I.e, their effect would basically get negated by having to cull that die to score it (assuming you want to score, and you usually do!). Other than that beef, though, I like the game a lot

I've never played Waterdeep, it looks fun though.

 RiTides wrote:

 kronk wrote:
The guy that taught me how to play it used that rule! (Score and lose the die back to the pool). I really like that rule.

Nice

BrookM- I just got the "rise of the daemons" expansion, so I'll try out the corrupted die. I didn't realize it had to be instead of the portal die, though.

Leaving Portals out is completely optional, but makes the game IMHO a lot better.