Cattlepunk! And Origins!

My favorite Knights of the Dinner Table comics were always the ones where they played their fictional Wild West game, Cattlepunk. Here’s an example. Well, it looks like I may be able to do the same soon, because I was just looking at the Origins awards from this year and the RPG winner was Aces & Eights, a “straight” western game (in other words no supernatural elements) from KenzerCo!

Note to game companies. The first guys that combined supernatural horror and the Wild West were cooking with gas. (Deadlands!) Doing it again (for about the twentieth time now) is not so cool. Quit it.

Here’s the nominees and winners from Origins for best RPG and best RPG supplement. What about the other categories – minis, board games, card games? Who cares, I don’t play any of that crap! Real men play RPGs! (Sadly, it sounds like board games are on the rise and RPGs are going out in the marketplace – companies like Atlas Games are pretty much only living on board/card game sales nowadays. Sad.)

[Thanks to ENWorld for the cut and paste…]

Roleplaying Game Supplement of the Year
Presented by Dr. Michelle Nephew

Legend of the Five Rings: Emerald Empire
Published by Alderac Entertainment Group
Written by Shawn Carman, Richard Farrese, Douglas Sun and Brian Yoon

Pirate’s Guide to Freeport
Published by Green Ronin
Written by Chris Pramas, Robert J. Schwalb, and Patrick O’Duffy
[My opinion: Excellent!]

Delta Green: Eyes Only
Published by Pagan Publishing
Written by Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy and Shane Ivey
[I didn’t see this product but Delta Green was always great.]

Pathfinder: Rise of the Runelords
Published by Paizo Publishing
Edited by James Jacobs, Art by Wayne Reynolds
[My opinion: The best RPG product in about 10 years.]

Ruins of the Wild: Dungeon Tiles 4
Published by Wizards of the Coast
Written by Bruce R. Cordell
[Tiles? Please.]

Codex Arcanis
Published by Paradigm Concepts
Written by Team Paradigm

WINNER: Codex Arcanis

[Hmmm, if it beat out Runelords and Freeport it had better kick some severe ass. I’ll check it out! I really haven’t heard much about Arcanis. I knew there was a “Living Arcanis” RPGA campaign, which seemed odd to me, but there’s no rpg.net reviews of any of the products except a mildly incoherent one of what must be an earlier Codex Arcanis version from 2001. And their Web site sucks – why do people have a Web site that’s just an online store? Tell me what the hell your game line’s about! ]

Roleplaying Game of the Year
Presented by Erik Mona

Grimm
Published by Fantasy Flight Games
Written by Robert Vaughn and Christian T. Petersen

The Savage World of Solomon Kane
Published by Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Written by Paul “Wiggy” Wade-Williams (with Shane Lacy Hensley)
[Yay for Savage Worlds and Robert E. Howard!]

CthulhuTech
Published by Mongoose Publishing
Written by Matthew Grau and Fraser McKay
[I like Cthulhu but am not so sure about this one.]

Battlestar Galactica
Published by Margaret Weis Productions
Written by Jamie Chambers
[Very well produced, and BSG rules.]

Faery’s Tale Deluxe
Published by Firefly Games
Written by Patrick Sweeney, Sandy Antunes, Christina Stiles, and Robin D. Laws
[This and Grimm are both fairy tale – what’s up with that this year? Too many people reading that comic series whatever-it’s-called that reimagines all the fairy tales I bet.]

Aces & Eights
Published by Kenzer & Co.
Written by Jolly R. Blackburn, Brian Jelke, Steve Johansson, Dave Kenzer, Jennifer Kenzer and Mark Plemmons

WINNER: Aces & Eights

[I’ll be checking it out ASAP! Cattlepunk, here we come. Hmmm, it was released a full year ago and I’ve never heard of it – strange. There’s only one rpg.net review. Anyway, congratulations to all the nominees and victors!]