In the post-Gen Con madness, I never got around to posting this, so you may already know, but for those yet to hear:

The 2007 Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming has been given to The Great Pendragon Campaign, a role-playing game campaign book by Greg Stafford, published by White Wolf.

The winner was announced at a ceremony packed with games industry professionals, from designers to publishers and distributors, held in Indianapolis at 9 PM Wednesday, August 16, the day before the opening of the Gen Con game convention. Many thanks to our sponsors: Adept Press, Atlas Games, Fantasy Flight Games, FlamesRising.com, Matt Forbeck, GAMA, Gen Con, Hidden City Games, Pelgrane Press, ProFantasy Software, Janice Sellers, Stonehouse Miniatures, Paul Tevis, and Upper Deck Entertainment.

In terms of sheer scope, Greg Stafford’s Great Pendragon Campaign breaks new ground, presenting almost a century’s worth of continuous story with gemlike clarity; in almost fractal fashion, any given year can become its own campaign. Its greatest structural successes are those of Stafford’s Pendragon: a superbly compact yet never sketchy adventure format, seamless hard-wiring of characters into setting and continuity, and unprecedented emphasis on epic, generational storytelling. Thematically, it is a triumph of Arthurian art , the roleplaying form’s equivalent of Tennyson’s The Idylls of the King or Wagner’s Parsifal—a brilliant personal engagement with one of the foundation myths of Western fantasy.

Greg Stafford has worked in the hobby-games industry since 1975, when he founded the publishing company Chaosium. His seminal game RuneQuest was released in 1978, and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential and inspirational designers in the history of the RPG field.

Also shortlisted for the Diana Jones Award this year were the pirate-based coin game Pieces of Eight designed by Jeff Tidball and published by Atlas Games; and Stefan Pokorny, the creator, sculptor and painter of the Master Maze line of miniature terrain from Dwarven Forge.

The Diana Jones Award is given annually to whatever in the opinion of its mostly-anonymous committee shows or exemplifies gaming at its best. Anyone and anything within the games industry and hobby is eligible to win the Diana Jones Award, including individuals, products, publications, publishers, distributors, retailers, clubs, organisations, conventions, events, trends, innovations and concepts. Previous winners include Peter Adkison and Jordan Weisman, the RPGs Nobilis, Sorcerer, and My Life with Master, and the boardgame Ticket to Ride.

For more information please contact James Wallis: james
Contact the Diana Jones Award committee: committee
More information on the award: http://www.dianajonesaward.org.