This past year was a huge one productively for me. Being part of (several!) teams of creatives & game producers has borne amazing fruit: 9 award nominations for games I designed, published or contributed to.
Romance Trilogy (published by Black & Green Games)
Award Nomination: Diana Jones Award - Excellence in Gaming
From the DJA Committee: Though a staple element of the stories we base our narratives on, romantic interaction was neglected in roleplaying practice—until Emily Care Boss trained her sights on this longstanding gap. Starting in 2005, her indie-format games Breaking the Ice,Shooting the Moon and Under the Skin earned acclaim, built a dedicated play community and blazed a trail for other designers. 2016’s publication of the gorgeous, much expanded valedictory collection, The Romance Trilogy, acts as both a mission statement and a platform to further explore the implications of the original three games. Its publication gives the committee the opportunity to recognize Emily’s enormous contribution to tabletop roleplaying.
Completed in summer of 2016, the Romance Trilogy, this is a compendium of my three romance themed analog role playing games along with commentary, indices and over 30 hacks and modifications of the games (including several stand-alone "Companion Games" inspired the original trio). Producing the Romance Trilogy was made possible supporters of my Patreon campaign. So many thanks to them!
The first game Breaking the Ice debuted at GenCon in 2005. I was just a wee nub of a game designer then, this was my first game. This 2-person dating rom-com game was received well, 1st runner up to Polaris as the Indie RPG Most Innovative Game of the Year. The 2- or 3-player love triangle game Shooting the Moon came out in 2006. Then the final game in the trio: my first larp, the Jeepform inspired Under My Skin in 2008. Under my Skin received the audience choice Otto award at the Danish convention, Fastaval.
Bubblegumshoe (published by Evil Hat Productions)
Bubblegumshoe
Award Nominations:
ENnie Awards: Best Family Game, Best Game, Best Rules, Product of the Year
Getting to work on Bubblegumshoe with Kenneth Hite and Lisa Steele was a dream team. With layout by Tiara Lynn Agreste, art direction by Jessica Banks and Tiara, Editing by Ken and Amanda Valentine, production management by Sean Nittner, Fred Hicks and many more talented contributors. In addition we were able to tap the fantastic writing talents of James Mendez Hodes, Kat Jones, Shoshana Kessock, Kevin Kulp, Kira Magrann, and Brie Sheldon.
This game, using Robin D. Laws' GUMSHOE SYSTEM, has teen sleuths work together to solve mysteries confronting their peers with a little help from their friends (and mentors!). Since the game was meant to lean on social interactions and relationship--reducing the need and emphasis on violence in this teen milieu--that was a reason I was invited on the team. It was a pleasure to be part of making this sweet, thoughtful game come into being, and I'm proud of the work we did on making it include broad representation in terms of gender, race and class.
The Book of Changing Years (Published by Pelgrane Press)
Award Nominations:
ENnie Awards: Best Writing
This supplement to Timewatch by Kevin Kulp is an intertwined timeline of crimes, misdemeanors and mysteries that intrepid time travelers (and their GMs) can use to unwind the tracks of what has been changed for (most likely) nefarious reasons.
I was one of a team of 11 contributors who created these timeline jumpstarts for campaigns. It was fun to hear about the other periods & perils, and to interlace our works with pieces from each others' works. A delight and a pleasure to have been part of as with everything Pelgrane.
And last but far from least, a work that really broke ground and reduced barriers. This collection, hopefully the first of many such that bring together a diverse team to create games that address and highlight issues in such an entertaining and at times hard-hitting way:
#Feminism: A Nano-Game Anthology (originally published by Fëa Livia and now to be published by Pelgrane Press)
Indie Groundbreaker Awards: Best Art, Most Innovative, Game of the Year
This work was lead by Lizzie Stark, Anna Westerling, Misha Bushyager, and Shuo Meng. They edited the anthology, which included 34 short role playing games that address, play with, poke fun at and cry over issues of inequalities, social roles, gender and all that feminism implies. The games have been played in classes, by gamers and non-gamers. The anthology was showcased at IndieCade 2016. Read more about it at the #Feminism entry on the Nordic Larp Wiki.
Thank you to all the judges, committee members and community members who supported these works. Even being classed with these fellow games, creators and events is absolutely amazing.
I wish all the nominees bon chance!