Blog posts
-
, by Eden Miller This Weekend at GG: 6/12-6/14
-
, by Eden Miller Featured Hotness: Compile
-
, by Eden Miller June L2P Fest Is This Saturday!
Origins Awards Nominees Have Landed
- , by Eden Miller
- 8 min reading time
This year's Origins Awards nominees have been announced, and we are stoked about this year's finalists. Ten nominees were selected for the 12 award categories. The full list of nominees is available on BoardGameWire, but here are some of our favorites from each category.
Cooperative/Solo Game of the Year
Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship takes up to 5 adventurers on a quest to protect Frodo and destroy the One Ring. Each player takes on the role of two members of the Fellowship in service of this mission, battling with enemies and evading the Nazgûl along the way. Rated an 8.3/10 on Board Game Geek, this game is sure to become precious to you and your game night group.
Vantage brings a whole world to your table. Explore the Vantage's uncharted planet alone or with up to 5 other people, discovering new information about the world and sharing it with your companions from a distance. With only your current location known to you, an intergalactic adventure to a vast planet with undiscovered mysteries awaits.
Gateway Board Game of the Year
A Place for All My Books is your opportunity to expand your book collection! Gather, sort, and organize your books in your apartment to gain rewards and earn Victory Points! A place for All My Books is a super cozy puzzle game for any book lover.
Pergola is the perfect gardening game. Over the course of 15 rounds, you're looking to arrange your plants beautifully in your garden and use your four gardening tools to assist you. Every garden is unique and scores accordingly!
Party Board Game of the Year
In 23 Knives, players are Roman citizens with one of three objectives: protect Julius Caesar, kill Julius Caesar, or bide your time. Who will you sway to your cause? If you're a history buff or just looking for a neat new social deduction and diplomacy game, you'll find allies in Rome with 23 Knives.
Red Letter, Yellow Letter. is a game about words. Cards on the table will indicate restrictions and requirements for a word, and whoever comes up with the word first wins! It's a deceptively simple game that'll have you and your friends tongue tied. If you're wordy and perhaps a little nerdy, Red Letter, Yellow Letter. is sure to please.
Heavy Strategy Board Game of the Year
Galactic Cruise is here to take you on an outer space vacation. Build ships, keep your guests happy, and complete company goals to earn the most Victory Points and become the CEO of Galactic Cruise.
In Luthier, players embody a musical instrument craftsman at the height of classical music in Western Europe as they construct the finest instruments for musicians and composers. Players will find many paths to victory on their journey to becoming the finest luthier in Europe.
Light Strategy Board Game of the Year
Enter a world steeped in culture and history with Tea Garden. Your objective is to become the finest tea seller in the Chinese Yunnan region, harvesting and fermenting your leaves to sell. Build tea gardens and study at the university to master your craft, gaining points to secure your victory along the way. We were excited to welcome Capstone Games to demo the new Tea Garden: Puerh Expansion at L2P Fest in April, so we're thrilled to see Tea Garden on the list of nominees!
Immerse yourself in an iconic battle from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in the miniature wargame Star Wars: Battle of Hoth. Each turn, use command cards to activate units, move, and attack across 17 different game scenarios. Endless replayability in one box.
Constructible Fixed Product of the Year
The Gudnak Core Set is the perfect way to get started with Gudnak, one of our new favorite games. In the game, you'll move across a gridded board, playing cards to attempt to siege your opponent's Stronghold. Gudnak is a truly unique game featuring square cards where everything you need to play is already in the core box. You can add to your experience with various expansions or even draft your deck using boosters.
In Compile, you and your opponent are artificial intelligences attempting to understand the world around you. You test three protocols, and whoever Compiles all three protocols first wins. Compile Main 2 introduces 12 new protocols for use on their own or in addition to Main 1.
Constructible Randomized Product of the Year
The Gudnak Means War Booster Box is how you draft in Gudnak. Even though everything you need to play is already in the core box, that's not the only way to play. Crack open some packs with your friends and draft your deck, then add any alternate arts you pull to your core set or expansion decks. The booster box contains no unique cards, just variant printings of existing cards to enhance your deck.
Harness the power of the gods in Rush of Ikorr. This game has some very unique and interesting gameplay options, including 1v1, 2v2, and 3v3 modes. Collect 15 Ikorr before your opponent to win. Lean into mythology and explore why Rush of Ikorr is immersive and easy to learn.
Miniature Game of the Year
Cyberpunk Edgerunners: Combat Zone gives players the opportunity to immerse themselves in the neon world of Cyberpunk Edgerunners. Take your favorite characters to the battlefield and get started battling with ease. Cyberpunk Edgerunners: Combat Zone is also compatible with Cyberpunk RED: Combat Zone, giving players the freedom to customize their games.
Fight Nurgle's forces of plague and pestilence in Warhammer Quest: Darkwater. Enter the world of Age of Sigmar in an immersive dungeon-crawler chock full of beautiful miniatures and endless replayability. Jump into a quick skirmish game or commit to a full campaign to stop the corruption of the Jade Abbey.
Paint/Hobby Accessory of the Year
The Army Painter Speedpainter Marker: Starter Set gives you the freedom to paint on the go. This starter set provides 10 Speedpaint Markers, including nine acrylic colors and one metallic color. Tackling your pile of shame has never been easier.
The Heroscape: Age of Annihilation Paint Set is a great value to get your miniatures painted just right. The set includes a paint brush and 20 colors to start off or add to your collection. The colors are perfect for both Heroscape fans looking to get their Age of Annihilation miniatures battlefield ready and other model fans ready to give their minis an upgrade.
Miniature of the Year
General Grievous' TSMEU-6 Wheel Bike is a dynamic new miniature for Star Wars: Legion riding onto battlefields and into the meta. Highly mobile and primed for destruction, this model is the perfect new Commander unit for your Separatist Alliance army.
Wield the power of the Daemon Primarch of Slaanesh with Fulgrim of Warhammer 40K's Emperor's Children army. This unit is resilient, versatile, and mobile, with a form equal parts daunting for the battlefield and enticing to paint.
Roleplaying Game of the Year
The Daggerheart Core Set contains everything you need to enter the rich fantasy world of Daggerheart. Determine your character's journey with Hope and Fear, using Hope to power your abilities and Fear to give power to the game master to enrich storytelling and shift the game.
Get started in the world of Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere series with the Cosmere RPG Stormlight Starter Set. Enter the Stormlight campaign setting to tell your own story in the Shattered Plains, encountering new and familiar characters along the way.
Roleplaying Supplement of the Year
The ALIEN RPG: Rapture Protocol supplement introduces a new standalone adventure for ALIEN The Roleplaying Game Evolved Edition. This supplement kicks off a new trilogy, the Jeremiah Saga. Players follow the storyline of a small starfreighter on a resupply run to an industrial colony as they face threats and dangers along the way.
The Pendragon: Gamemaster's Handbook offers a guide for game masters to lead a campaign in Pendragon, a tabletop roleplaying game set in the world of Arthurian legend. Learn more about telling stories in this rich world and get familiar with both mechanics and in-world customs.
