Forbeck.com

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.

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Two of the books I’m looking forward to most at Gen Con are Hobby Games: The 100 Best and 40 Years of Gen Con. I had a tiny hand in each of them, just enough that I don’t have to pay for copies, but I’d be happy to hand over my cash for either.

For the first, Jim Lowder collected a who’s who of game designers and asked them to each write an essay about their favorite game. On the product’s page, be sure to scroll down and click on the “Author List” link for a breathtaking array of talent.

For the second, Robin Laws interviewed dozens of people about their Gen Con experiences, from Gary Gygax right down to yours truly. This makes for a gorgeous coffee-table book that would do any con-going gamer proud. Robin has also provided online the DVD-extras equivalent of interview-snippet MP3s. This includes James Wallis’s account of the origins of the Diana Jones Award, for instance. The best of the lot, though, has to be Peter Adkison’s rousing tale of the creating of the theme song for Wizards of the Coast.

The Diana Jones Award committee is proud to announce this year’s shortlist for the award. Congratulations to all those people and products that made the shortlist!

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The Diana Jones Award site got updated today. As usual, I didn’t arrange ahead of time for any photos to be taken. If anyone out there has any they’d like to share, I’d love to see them. Thanks!

I’m just back from Gen Con and will report on it as soon as I recover. In the meantime, here’s the official press release about this year’s Diana Jones Award winner.
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Speaking of Gen Con, if you’re an industry professional and have yet to receive a notice about the Diana Jones Award ceremony at Gen Con, drop me an e-mail for the details. For the moment, just reserve some time late on Wednesday, August 9, to join your compadres in celebrating some of the best games of the year.

Our able webmaster Peter Gifford of Universal Head just updated the Diana Jones Award website. The site now describes the 2006 shortlist in detail.

By the way, if anyone in the gaming industry would care to co-sponsor the annual Diana Jones Award party and awards ceremony at Gen Con Indy this summer, be sure to ping me. If you’re an industry professional who plans to be at the convention, be sure to set aside Wednesday night for the event.

The Diana Jones Award committee just announced the shortlist for this year’s awards. You can read the full release after the cut.
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The Diana Jones Award website has a spiffy new makeover. Drool over it for a while, anticipating the eventual release of the sixth annual shortlist.

Who knew this would last so long? No matter how much longer it goes, it’s already been a great ride.

I’ve been trying to get to this for days, and I realized I just need to take a flying dive at it right now rather than wait for the right moment to tackle it. So, here goes.
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As you may have already heard, Ticket to Ride won this year’s Diana Jones Award. I had a great time at the DJA party on August 17, the evening before Gen Con officially began. As one of the few known members of the DJA committee, I had the honor of presenting the award to Mark Kaufman, co-founder of Days of Wonder, the publishers of Alan Moon’s masterpiece.

Of those of us who’ve outed themselves, only Peter Adkison was at the show. As the man who owns Gen Con, he was a wee bit busy.

The DJA committee handed out the first award to Peter at a birthday party I threw for myself at Gen Con four years ago. It was my 20th Gen Con in a row (I’ve been going since I was a kid), and my 33rd birthday fell on Gen Con Saturday. I just couldn’t ignore that many great things coming together at once. I bought beer and pretzels for everyone who showed up, and we had such a great time that the DJA committee decided to make it a tradition. We’ve run it five years in a row now. Let’s hope it continues for fifty more.

If you are involved in the adventure gaming industry in a professional capacity, you are invited to attend the Diana Jones Award ceremony (and party) on the evening of August 17, 2005, in Indianapolis, Indiana. The invitations just went out last night. If you haven’t gotten one yet and qualify for one, drop me a line, and I’ll send you all the details.

I’ll be at Gen Con Indy next week, from Wednesday through Sunday. I’m not tied to a single booth this year, but I do have some appearances scheduled. Here’s where and when you should be able to track me down:

Wednesday, 9 PM: The Diana Jones Award ceremony, held at a secret location. (If you’re a professional in the adventure gaming industry, you’re cordially invited. Drop me an e-mail for details.)

Thursday, 4 PM: Secrets of Eberron seminar, Embassy Suites: Consulate room.

Friday, 10 AM: Marked for Death (Eberron) novel signing, Exhibit Hall: Wizards of the Coast booth. I get to join Keith Baker and Don Bassingthwaite for this one.

Saturday, 10 AM: Blood Bowl novel signing, Exhibit Hall: Sabertooth Games booth.
Sunday, 10 AM: Blood Bowl novel signing, Exhibit Hall: Sabertooth Games booth.

I’ll also be helping out with the Gamer Olympics (along with Ken Hite), as needed, and wandering about the hall in a game-induced daze.

London, 2nd August — After much debate, the shortlist for the fifth annual Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming has been announced.

The award is given to whatever the Diana Jones Award Committee believes has best demonstrated ‘excellence in gaming’ in the previous year. This year the committee has shortlisted three items. In alphabetical order, they are:
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