=============================================================== Indie Game of the Year 51 Spirit of the Century * SotC is an all-around great system and concept that really catches the interest of gamers. * A fantastic game that really makes you feel like you're inside a pulp novel. The best version of the FATE system to date. * A book that takes solid rules to a wider audience, capturing the Zeitgeist along the way. * Their penetration into web forum awareness is impressive. People know this game - which will increase its sales - wich will increase its actual play. * FATE's power revealed! * Spirit of the Century is fast, fun, and innovative in its approach. It embraces the Pulp spirit and never lets go. If you are interested in playing a solid pulp game, this is the game for you. It is also a great game for beginners. * Evolving one of the best free systems ever? Sign me up for more of that. 44 Burning Empires * A glorious triumph of games design and production. The book is beautiful, features well written and edited text, and is robust to play. * Also has cracked the awaremess of people on line. * A masterpiece of physical production, rules expansion, and dedication to the conflict at the heart of the story. Another home run for Luke Crane. * Almost too professional in quality to be indie, this game sets the bar very high for future entrants into the market. * Burning Empires has shown us all what the small press scene can do. Luke set a new bar; bring on the hernias as we attempt to hurdle it! * The is the book all independent publishers should be shooting to create. Sound, well play-tested rules, quality editing, tight layout, and a fuck load of beautiful art make it the finest game published in 2006. * Burning Empires siezes on the promise of space opera--You can make a difference!--and produces it through play. All the while dramatizing just how difficult and heart-wrenching choosing the greater good can be. * Burning Empires pushed the boundaries of how games are set up and structured, and did so in combination with a whole host of mechanics that help structure and control the competitive play that it sets up. I want to see more games follow this example and help players set up their games as a group, and do so in a way that is more than just vague advice. Burning Empires takes the emphasis off pointers and puts it onto rules that construct play in a magnificent way, and deserves acknowledgment for that accomplishment. 43 The Zorcerer of Zo * Full of whimsey and imagination, this game really brings the PDQ to fruition. * As usual, an unusual and interesting game from Chad. * A wonderful attempt at fairy tale-style gaming. The self-analysis format doesn't always work out, but it's still a really good game. * A wonderful how-to book of campaign play in a fantastical and rich setting. * Genuinely delightful and mechanically sound; the immense amount of in-depth Actual Play is unprecedented and well done. * Zorcerer ... man, Chad stuck a big book-shaped syringe into his brain's joy gland and extracted it for this one. It's been a blast to see the PDQ system finally "arrive". * Simply amazing. * Fantastic, fun, and done with a love, pride, and heart that is rare, Zo really shines. The fact that this book contains a complete write up from an AP campaign as well as explicit and specific listings of the authors inspirations and how they were turned into game material, also sets it above, because it shows in a direct and fantastic way the love and energy of the game, as well as giving a clear idea of how the designer runs the game and envisions play. * There needs to be more close-up looks at how to put together and run a campaign. 23 Lacuna Part I. The Creation of the Mystery and the Girl from Blue City (second attempt) * This is what you get when a good designer hits his stride. * A mystery wrapped in a pancake, or something. Lacuna is a wonderful Rorschach test for the entire group; its ambiguity requires the GM to sharpen up and stay focused, and lets the group read several different potential stories from the same session. 18 Don't Rest Your Head * This game keeps me awake at night. Again with the tight focus, coupled with some really fun dice mechanics and a killer setting. * DRYH has both of the things I look for in an RPG: innovative mechanics and a creative, original setting. It should be in every indie gamer's library. * Surrealism with mechanics that deliver. * A wonderfully focused, disturbing game whose mechanics do exactly what they're supposed to. 14 A Thousand and One Nights * This is an elegant storytelling game that brings everyone to the table with simple but effective and evocative rules. * A great storytelling game that neatly handles rotating GM duties as a part of the fiction. * Ground breaking, accessible and dripping with luscious setting, 1001 Nights is the best short game going. * Light-hearted games are easily overlooked - to paraphrase Hugh Grant: "Everyone knows that while a drama takes hard creative work to make, a comedy is just something you jot down in half an hour". * A simply-constructed, yet richly-evocative game that coaxes players into unleashing their own creativity. 12 Shock: Social Science Fiction * Shock: is the first game that lets us talk actually write stories that push our ideas about science fiction forward, instead of retreading ideas that were once cutting edge. A great collaborative game. * Gets better each time I play it. 10 Faery's Tale * An artful, well-balanced product, encompassing system design, layout and art, and setting details. A tour de force. * A great game that parents can play with their children, as a more intelligent alternative to board games that do not engage a child's imagination or intellect. * Good Work. 10 The Shab-al-Hiri Roach * I work at a university. I couldn't not give this game some points. * Mechanically tricky, both socially and numerically, but it pulls it off in spectacular style. The best Lovecraftian game in a decade. * An inspired concept for a structured game of descent into madness. * Well researched and steeped in setting, the Roach provides cutting commentary and is devilishly fun to play. * Possibly the dirtiest fun you can have around a gaming table. 10 In Harm's Way: A Napoleonic Naval Roleplaying Game * This is a great game powered by Flying Mice's well-established StarCluster 2.0 mechanic. It successfully covers a specific historical era. It is very focused on Naval roleplaying and because of that it delivers at the game table. 9 Agon * TONIGHT WE DINE IN HELL! Anything mythic and greek does it for me, but when the game is this much fun I'm bowled over and keep coming back for more. 9 Cold City * The premise is laser focused and very, very cool. Nazi zombies in a ruined Berlin? Yes please! * Minimalist mechanics that directly support the game's core themes. * When you play Cold City, right away you are there in Berlin 1950. The snow is falling on the ruins and the monsters are creeping around in the shadows, who can you trust? 8 EABAlite 8 Mortal Coil * An easy but interesting mechanic tied into simply the best character and world generation rules I've met. This game always gets the creative juices flowing. 7 Hearts & Souls * A game that gets to the heart (pun intended) of super-heroes, what drives them. * A terrific new way to look at supers, from the heart out. 6 Roanoke * a beautiful looking game which reminds me of the blair witch project for some reason. The period and genre are not well represented in prior RPGs and this is attractive. It feels (from the ad copy) like a scenario rather than a full blown rpg. Had I the money I would try it for sure. :) 5 Covenant: A Story Game of Failing Conspiracies 5 six gun assassins * a fast and fun miniature based game that elicits the spagetti western genre. With rules such as yella and mechanics aimed at making small gangs and posses. An excellent first effort from a new publisher. Well supported with its own miniature line, but no real advertising or expansions - pity. =============================================================== Indie Supplement of the Year 110 Dictionary of Mu * I don't think a mere supplement has a right to be this good. * I'm a sucker for a fancy cover. The concepts of eth book and monsters are interesting as well. * The only one in this category that I've got! But these points aren't undeserved, it's a seriously engaging book, almost fiction, that provides great background for Sorceror. * This disturbing and detailed dictionary paints a demonic world waiting to be explored. It put Sorcerer back at the forefront of players minds again, and rightly so. * Great writing, great feel. I'm a sucker for the format. * It's like the perfect storm: Luke Crane on design, Jennifer Rodgers at the easel, and Judd Karlman on the keys, creating what has been, for me, the most evocative setting in RPGs of the past ten years. * Judd's world of Marr'd gives a world of horrific wonders in which to delight anew in Sorcerer. * This is what you get when a talented writer is mentored by a talented and experienced game designer. They join forces to abuse an artist and create a masterpiece together. * Oghma, son of Oghma, slaughters the old paradigm of setting-book-as-atlas and performs a demonic ritual with its corpse. Judd gives us Mu like he's dumping his toybox on the table. We can pick up and play with what we want to, how we want to. * Fun, pulpy, and full of ideas ready to explode off the page without a single one mandating its use. MU is a really interesting setting that allows players to do what they would with it, rather than having to abase themselves before it. * One of the best Sorcerer supplements to come out in a long, long time. The concept just begs for it to be picked up and run. 52 Push, Volume 1 * I love the concept and would like to examine it more closely. critical anaylsis of our hobby is not as extensive as it could be. Green Ronin has a similar product about to be released, and it would interesting to compare the two. I don't recognize any of the writers and that in itself both attracts and repels me. Not sure why no 'names' are associated with the book as even a hack like I would be able to contribue something if asked and I'm sure other established authors woudl as well. * Valuable insights pretty much throughout; maintains a commendable breadth of view while not being self-indulgent. * Push is a supplement? Well, I suppose so -- it supplements every game. I love all of the articles in this, its design factor with the sidebar commentary, everything about it. A great book, and a great read whether you're a designer or just a gamer. * Highly inspiring, and at some points frustrating; impossible not to be engaged by this collection of articles. * PUSH does something important: it takes the development of RPG theory and ideation seriously enough to move it off the net and into an academic style journal. It also manages to do so with humor, verve, and passion rather than the usual dose of pretension. * I haven't read a journal this good in a long, long time. 28 Steampunk Musha * Samurai plus steampunk plus the wild west? Oh boy! And when it builds on top of the already great Iron Gauntlets system, I think this is a winner. * very nice looking book and a nice combination of genres. priced a little high but you can't have everything. * A fun mishmash of a setting, brilliantly realized 20 The Wushu Guide to Wyrd-Fu 17 Stuff! 11 Kwaidan * An excellent addition to The Mountain Witch, this presentation of Lafcadio Hearn's tales will have you on further quests than solely that to kill O-Yanma. * Gorgeous design; Lafcadio Hearn's prose and poetry; what more could you want? * I wish the publisher showed enough concern to make the effort to keep the print versions of Mountain Witch and Kwaidan in stock, but I can't deny the haunting beauty of this product and admire the drive to present fiction as game supplement. 6 Monster Mash 5 ------------ =============================================================== Best Free Game 49 JAGS Revised * another old school favourite. * A good system cleaned, burnished, and polished into a great system. * A game that has been around and talked about, deservedly, for some time is given an enjoyable reworking. * Jags-Revised is an extremely thorough book. While it packs a punch with plenty of crunch, at its core the Jags system is a very simple and adaptable system. The fact that it is a free product is amazing. It boasts substance and detail that many "established" industry books lack. 34 EABAlite * No flies on Greg Porter. 33 Mexican Standoff * A competitive and fun game for friends. Low buy-in, big pay-off. * Makes me want to run around shouting "bang!" randomly at people to see if I can walk away with some money. * Is there anything better than putting real money on the table and putting a gun to your fellow-player's heads? John Woo step aside, Mexican Standoff is the rpg world's best party game. * This game is just too much fun not to be considered the best free game of 2006. * Role-play, gun-fingers, and real money! 30 ------------ 30 Unistat * been around for ages. * This would be a great, fun game even if Andrew wasn't running roughly a thousand sessions of it per convention. But he does, and that just magnifies the awesome. * Clean and simple, Unistat lets us see that the stories are in us, not in the game. * A surprisingly clever game that balances creative input around the table and allows that group's traditional RPG muscles to flex. * A very interesting mechanical concept. 22 Simple20 * D20 done right. close but it does provide adn alternative. 18 Beat the Clock 13 Inntil vi synker * Already a classic of Nordic game design. The apparent lightness of the rules, written as suggestions rather than encapsulated in mechanics, hide the subtleties of the game. * This is basically a very good LARP scenario. 10 Chimaera * Fred Hicks' take on Adam Dray's character sheet is an enjoyable game of altered states and big monster fights. What's not to love about it? 7 Kazekami Kyoko Kills Kublai Khan * One of the better ideas for a two-player "RPG" that I've seen. 6 Battleaxe RPG: Reforged Edition =============================================================== Best Support 52 Burning Empires * Active forums, actual play reports, demos and support material all make this the best supported Indie RPG. * Luke Crane is a support windmill. * Hands down. Wiki, web site, cool supplements. Everyone knows. * With the forms, wiki, and forums at your disposal, you never need to run BE alone. * A wiki, a well run and active forum, and a generally helpful and active web presence make this game an easy one to find out information, find help, and get extensions for. 46 Spirit of the Century * A fantastic and enthusiastic online presence, along with a wealth of support material gives SotC an incredibly high level of support. * The rulebook alone would guarantee SOTC a nod in this category, but Evil Hat has been a constant, positive presence all over the Net. I've also seen real non-designer humans discuss it in meatspace; always a plus. * Fred Hicks, Rob Donahue, and Leonar Balsera provide more gamer feedback than I previously thought imaginable. 19 The Zorcerer of Zo * Chad provides more support than should be possible for one man. 17 JAGS Revised * Nobody touches the JAGS team for support. * In terms of support this free game has enough material and advice to keep you sustained for a long time to come, and it is continually added to in volume and quality. More than Just Another Gaming System. * The supplements that are offered on the Jags website are as thorough as the Jags Revised book.Wonderland, Have Not, C-13, and many other supplemental books make Jags Revised a wonderfully supported system with any number of often innovative settings to satisfy your gaming needs. 15 ------------ 14 Hollow Earth Expedition 13 Wild Talents: Superhero Roleplaying in a World Gone Mad * not only does it have a number of high pprofile designers associated with it but the website has 4 free downloads, all very good stuff. Based on godlike, a fun supers system by greg stolze. * Lots of good stuff out there for WT and for the ORE engine in general, from the creators and from fans. 13 Cold City * The Contested Grounds website is a hive of cool resources and nifty ideas, and Malcolm provides a treasure trove of nasty historical facts and nuggets ripe for mining. 8 Faery's Tale * respectable established company with two pdf scenarios out for the game. ads all over the place. :) 8 Agon * John Harper's endless energy for creating or helping others with hacks, rules questions, and new material for Agon is inspiring. His sense of friendliness, openness, and good spirit is something more publishers should try to emulate. 6 Don't Rest Your Head 6 EABAlite 6 Dictionary of Mu 5 The Shab-al-Hiri Roach * The folks at Bully Pulpit Games run a tight ship. They set the bar for professionalism. 5 Lacuna Part I. The Creation of the Mystery and the Girl from Blue City (second attempt) 5 Covenant: A Story Game of Failing Conspiracies * Matt's Realms-zine and the Covenant wiki are already providing great support for this oft-neglected game. 5 Stuff! =============================================================== Best Production 100 Burning Empires * My jaw is still on the floor. Not only raises the bar - it nukes the bar from orbit. * Beyond the simply stunning visuals of the book you will find an incredibly polished games text. One that has been edited thoroughly and properly, laid out with care and produced to the very highest standard. * Is there any doubt? * No contest. * A league of its own. * "The Brick" raises the bar of what a small-press project can be. * Excellent use of art work, space, and the dimensions of the book to create space and flow. Plus the book did a wonderful job of using visual cues to link it to and reinforce the tone of its licensed source material. * Beautiful. 29 Spirit of the Century * A bit of pulp dash, good use of fonts, and a clean layout make this book both attractive, usable, and just a little bit stylish. * Spirit of the Century boasts a crisp, clean, functional layout. There are very few typos. The book is well editted. There are a number of decent illustrations to add to the book's overall flavour. 24 Dictionary of Mu * This takes the concept of book as physical artefact usable in the game and drop kicks it to the next level. * Page after page of stunning imagery and prose, pregnant with possibilities. * I vote third on Mu only because there have been visual extravaganzas like Burning Empires and HEX this year. (I'd love to give a couple points to Mortal Coil as well, for that matter.) Jennifer's art... dear god, Jennifer's art. * Holding Dictionary of Mu is holding a piece of Marr'd. The book captures mad Oghma's blood, sweat and tears. * Evocative design and beautiful illustrations help the reader slip into the mindset of Marr'd. 14 Lacuna Part I. The Creation of the Mystery and the Girl from Blue City (second attempt) 14 Hollow Earth Expedition * HEX, the second prettiest indie RPG of the year. 13 Agon * The whole greek thing is worked throughout and the presentation has the kind of clarity that is rare in roleplaying games, perhaps only equalled by Nobilis. A design classic. 13 Wild Talents: Superhero Roleplaying in a World Gone Mad * very slick very evocative, downloadable samples make all the difference when looking at a purchase. * Hard covers and full color aren't absolutely necessary in this category, but they sure don't hurt. And Chris Shy art seals the deal. * Pretty, solid, and with moody, evocative art that places it well apart from Four Color Supers games, Wild Talents is a beautiful work. 11 The Zorcerer of Zo 10 ------------ 8 untitled * A bold and artistic piece of games production. From the disturbing commentary on the enclosed CD to the physical quality of the game itself. Top notch. * A hand-built labor of love. Takes "verisimilitude" and cranks it up to eleven! 7 Mortal Coil * Incredible artwork of the highest quality for an indie game with well laid out rules, good recaps and great typography. I'm not sure why this isn't first but it can't be by much. 6 Panty Explosion: a psychic schoolgirls adventure game * I love the artwork. Jake richmond is very good at simulatig the manga style of brooding cute gothic coolness. 5 A Thousand and One Nights * Simple and elegant. The artwork supports the text and it all makes for a delighful package. This just says Arabian Nights to me. =============================================================== Most Innovative Game 38 Lacuna Part I. The Creation of the Mystery and the Girl from Blue City (second attempt) * Sorensen still leads the way. * Jared is always on the bleeding edge. 30 Don't Rest Your Head * Those dice mechanics are not only fun but really damned cool. I bet we'll be seeing more games inspired by DRYH for years to come. * Fully embodies drama through destruction. Fearless. 26 A Thousand and One Nights * A storytelling game about storytelling - two levels of abstraction that mesh well and influence each other. It's all new to me, and what's more it works. * This game takes your ideas about what role playing is, turns them on their head then cuts it off. What group storytelling is really about. * A game to play with non-gamers! Draws on the power of the five senses to conjure the players' imaginations. 22 Shock: Social Science Fiction * Shock gets to the essence of good SF by matching up a modern issue with future tech in a way that forces you to confront the issues. That is its triumph. * One of the few Science Fiction games that has really gotten at the heart of Social Science Fiction as a genre, the combination of shocks and social issues and the combination of minutiae with player controls over different areas makes Shock a game worth noting. It shows, if not always clearly, how a game can be used to address issues from the serious to the silly in ways that are intimately human. * Too bad it isn't as playable out of the box as it should be. But very interesting stuff. 20 Agon * Competitive play, strong in tone and direction, makes Agon an innovative breath of fresh air to Indie Gaming. Soon we will all be holding dice in both hands. * A real advance in competitive RPGs, a comparatively neglected field. Plus, solid design throughout. 15 Mortal Coil * Takes zero-prep gaming to new levels. * Mortal Coil has an interesting mechanic but where it really brings innovation is in the way the game is set up at the start. The author really has covered the bases and the group can't seem to help but come up with an engaging game for everyone involved. 13 The Shab-al-Hiri Roach * The Roach has spawned many instances of wild play with its innovative cards and episodic story. It shows us that gaming doesn't just have to be done in a traditional way. Murub! 11 The Zorcerer of Zo 10 Spirit of the Century * The mechanical core of Spirit of the Century is not innovative but its approach to gaming in general is. Spirit of the Century is designed to be a very flexible game, one that experienced and inexperienced gamers can pickup, play, and enjoy. It's approach to "pick up and play" gaming and one-shots for the shake of one-shots is refreshing. 10 Shooting the Moon * Romance and sex are some of the most under designed and represented aspects of story and humanity in RPGs, and Shooting the Moon cuts right into the heart of both. Unique for its combination of cooperation and competition, it is a game that pushes a lot of ideas about what gaming can be farther forward than any other game this year. 10 ------------ 10 Burning Empires * It may not work for everyone, but the sheer audacity and scale of BE's infection mechanics and firefight mechanics are a sight to behold. * Breaking down a whole campaign into phases with distinct rules, movements, and goals for both players and GMs is a strong idea for RPGs. Some games in the past had toyed about with those ideas, but Burning Empires brought them to the forefront and focused on campaign structure as the basis for a game in a way that hadn't been done before. It also put strong emphasis on healthy competition in games, something that has often been overlooked. 7 Faery's Tale * A game actually designed for kids, and actually suited for them. Plus, the Boon mechanic is exceptional. 6 Panty Explosion: a psychic schoolgirls adventure game * hentai rpg - nuff said. 6 Hero's Banner: The Fury of Free Will * Generational play boldly and explicitly driven by the game system and text. A strong step beyond the cosseted worlds of single player characters that never die. * Takes one idea--you must choose between the things you hold most dear--and focuses on it with laser-like precision. The generational play system provides depth for play that could otherwise be too short and intense. 5 Simple20 * not to beat a dead horse but beer and pretzels, fun style miniatures games just are not as prevelent in the market as they should be. Zombies from Eden Games is similar in feel to this game in my opinion. 5 untitled * This is not a game meant to be bought or sold. It is a game meant to be found, on a park bench or a metro seat, read, and then burned ... in the hopes that it's only you who will be driven mad by it. 5 In Harm's Way: A Napoleonic Naval Roleplaying Game * While the mechanic itself is not innovative, the fact that it tackles a historical setting in its purest sense is innovative. The setting is kept in line with history as fiercely as possible. It is obvious that real hard research went into this game, and, when dealing with history, this is something that puts it head and shoulders above other era-specific RPG products. 5 Perfect * Perfect elegantly demonstrates that simply by shifting the focus of what your system cares about, the story of your game changes profoundly. A creepily intimate game. While not for everyone, and not for large groups, Perfect excels at creating a dystopic otherworld where transgressions are automatic, but oppression is forever. 5 Covenant: A Story Game of Failing Conspiracies 5 Noumenon ===============================================================