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Designers & Dragons was nominated for the Diana Jones Award last month. That was a big deal. Designers & Dragons is a 4-book history of the roleplaying industry that represented 10 years of my (free-time) work. It was my biggest & most important contribution ever to an industry that I've enjoyed being a part of since I first played D&D in the '80s.
Earning that nomination (or being placed on the shortlist, as they phrase it) really made me understand the clichéd phrase, "It was an honor just being nominated". Because, it was. In fact I find that nominations are the most honorable part of most awards. That's because most awards have judged or juried nominations, then throw the actual awards out for mass voting, turning them into popularity contests. So, for example, I'm really honored that Desigers & Dragons was also nominated for a few different ENnies this year, but I have no illusions about winning the gold ENnie awards: they're all going to the Dungeons & Dragons game, which saw a new edition this year. (The possible exception is the RPG-related category, but it seems most likely that The Temple of Elemental Evil board game will win that Gold.)
But the Diana Jones Award isn't like that. It's still an honor to be nominated, because the nominating committee is made up of some of the most forward-looking and most knowledgeable folks in the industry, but it would really, really have been an honor to win, because those same people make that final decision.
Sadly, Designers & Dragons did not win the DJA. Instead, that honor went to Moon Design's Guide to Glorantha.
And, though I would have liked to win — though it would have meant a lot for people to say the writing I've been doing is important and meaningful — if I had to pick another winner, it absolutely went have been the Guide to Glorantha.
The Guide is a huge coffee-table style book describing Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha, put together by Rick Meints and Jeff Richards at Moon Design. It's a very impressive tome, and my instinctive feeling once I read over the Diana Jones short list was that if Designers & Dragons didn't win the DJA, then Guide would ... which it did.
I saw someone on Twitter say that they thought the Guide shouldn't win because it wasn't really a game book. And, they're right about the game book part. The hefty tome, full of dense essays on the world of Glorantha, isn't the sort of thing you're going to pass around the gaming table. I mean, you wouldn't want Cheetos-stained fingers touching those glorious, glossy pages, but beyond that, it's not the material you're going to need when your Sartarites get in a fight with a roaming band of Lunar oppressors. (All Hail the Reaching Moon!) But, that's not the point. Or perhaps it's the opposite of the point. Moon Design's Guide to Glorantha shows how the world of Glorantha has transcended the world of gaming, how it's become a secondary world of fantasy that's larger than any RPG, bigger than any tabletop, and more expansive than any publisher. Ironically, that's exactly what Greg set out to create 49 years ago, before roleplaying games even existed. (For more of which, see Chaosium in Designers & Dragons: The '70s).
My congratulations go out to Greg, who is one of my favorite people in gaming, and was my first choice for writing the intro to Designers & Dragons: The '70s. (He did.) And to Rick, who was kind enough to put me up in the outskirts of London when I went there in 1996 ... for a Glorantha convention. (We are all Orlanthi.) And to Jeff, who as far as I can tell is the main force beyond the massive and impressive books that Moon Design has been putting out for the last several years. (He's the only one of the crew I don't really know.) It's well-deserved, friends. Very well-deserved.
There certainly is sadness over having the biggest and most notable project I've ever written passed over for the industry's top award. And, there's definitely a feeling that I won't ever create anything as notable as Designers & Dragons again. But Designers & Dragons first appeared as an inkling of an idea in the aftermath of Gen Con exactly 10 years ago. Who knows what I'll be doing 10 years from now. (And, I'm still very grateful for appearing on that shortlist!)
I was struck by two ironies:
1.) I actually wrote material for the precursor to the Guide to Glorantha, which was called "World of Glorantha". I wrote a section on Gloranthan elves, my previous writing obsession before I started in on Designers & Dragons ten years ago. Unfortunately the writing was done for Issaries, Greg Stafford's old Glorantha publishing company, which closed up shop around the time that I actually wrote that article, in October 2006. That means that my article got lost somewhere down the road, between changing companies and changing priorities. I'd lay odds that Rick and Jeff never saw it. Maybe my article would have ended up in the Guide if I'd been paying more attention, but my focus was elsewhere. However, I can easily imagine a world where I had material in two of the top contenders for this year's DJA. That would have been cool.
(Also ironic: Greg, one of just two two-time winners of the DJA, did have material in two DJA nominees this year, since he wrote that intro to Designers & Dragons: The '70s.)
2.) The biggest problem with the Guide to Glorantha is its cost, which is $150. It's totally fair for the glossy, hardcover, small-press release, but it was more than I could afford with my tight budget, because it would have been several weeks of my "recreational" money. However, I finally was able to buy a copy of the Guide earlier this year ... thanks to money I earned from Designers & Dragons.
Thanks again to the Diana Jones folks for the nomination, and congrats on selecting a very deserving winner for 2015.
Earning that nomination (or being placed on the shortlist, as they phrase it) really made me understand the clichéd phrase, "It was an honor just being nominated". Because, it was. In fact I find that nominations are the most honorable part of most awards. That's because most awards have judged or juried nominations, then throw the actual awards out for mass voting, turning them into popularity contests. So, for example, I'm really honored that Desigers & Dragons was also nominated for a few different ENnies this year, but I have no illusions about winning the gold ENnie awards: they're all going to the Dungeons & Dragons game, which saw a new edition this year. (The possible exception is the RPG-related category, but it seems most likely that The Temple of Elemental Evil board game will win that Gold.)
But the Diana Jones Award isn't like that. It's still an honor to be nominated, because the nominating committee is made up of some of the most forward-looking and most knowledgeable folks in the industry, but it would really, really have been an honor to win, because those same people make that final decision.
Sadly, Designers & Dragons did not win the DJA. Instead, that honor went to Moon Design's Guide to Glorantha.
And, though I would have liked to win — though it would have meant a lot for people to say the writing I've been doing is important and meaningful — if I had to pick another winner, it absolutely went have been the Guide to Glorantha.
The Guide is a huge coffee-table style book describing Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha, put together by Rick Meints and Jeff Richards at Moon Design. It's a very impressive tome, and my instinctive feeling once I read over the Diana Jones short list was that if Designers & Dragons didn't win the DJA, then Guide would ... which it did.
I saw someone on Twitter say that they thought the Guide shouldn't win because it wasn't really a game book. And, they're right about the game book part. The hefty tome, full of dense essays on the world of Glorantha, isn't the sort of thing you're going to pass around the gaming table. I mean, you wouldn't want Cheetos-stained fingers touching those glorious, glossy pages, but beyond that, it's not the material you're going to need when your Sartarites get in a fight with a roaming band of Lunar oppressors. (All Hail the Reaching Moon!) But, that's not the point. Or perhaps it's the opposite of the point. Moon Design's Guide to Glorantha shows how the world of Glorantha has transcended the world of gaming, how it's become a secondary world of fantasy that's larger than any RPG, bigger than any tabletop, and more expansive than any publisher. Ironically, that's exactly what Greg set out to create 49 years ago, before roleplaying games even existed. (For more of which, see Chaosium in Designers & Dragons: The '70s).
My congratulations go out to Greg, who is one of my favorite people in gaming, and was my first choice for writing the intro to Designers & Dragons: The '70s. (He did.) And to Rick, who was kind enough to put me up in the outskirts of London when I went there in 1996 ... for a Glorantha convention. (We are all Orlanthi.) And to Jeff, who as far as I can tell is the main force beyond the massive and impressive books that Moon Design has been putting out for the last several years. (He's the only one of the crew I don't really know.) It's well-deserved, friends. Very well-deserved.
There certainly is sadness over having the biggest and most notable project I've ever written passed over for the industry's top award. And, there's definitely a feeling that I won't ever create anything as notable as Designers & Dragons again. But Designers & Dragons first appeared as an inkling of an idea in the aftermath of Gen Con exactly 10 years ago. Who knows what I'll be doing 10 years from now. (And, I'm still very grateful for appearing on that shortlist!)
I was struck by two ironies:
1.) I actually wrote material for the precursor to the Guide to Glorantha, which was called "World of Glorantha". I wrote a section on Gloranthan elves, my previous writing obsession before I started in on Designers & Dragons ten years ago. Unfortunately the writing was done for Issaries, Greg Stafford's old Glorantha publishing company, which closed up shop around the time that I actually wrote that article, in October 2006. That means that my article got lost somewhere down the road, between changing companies and changing priorities. I'd lay odds that Rick and Jeff never saw it. Maybe my article would have ended up in the Guide if I'd been paying more attention, but my focus was elsewhere. However, I can easily imagine a world where I had material in two of the top contenders for this year's DJA. That would have been cool.
(Also ironic: Greg, one of just two two-time winners of the DJA, did have material in two DJA nominees this year, since he wrote that intro to Designers & Dragons: The '70s.)
2.) The biggest problem with the Guide to Glorantha is its cost, which is $150. It's totally fair for the glossy, hardcover, small-press release, but it was more than I could afford with my tight budget, because it would have been several weeks of my "recreational" money. However, I finally was able to buy a copy of the Guide earlier this year ... thanks to money I earned from Designers & Dragons.
Thanks again to the Diana Jones folks for the nomination, and congrats on selecting a very deserving winner for 2015.