This year’s nominees for the Origin’s Awards have been announced. Origins Awards are handed out in thirteen categories, and L5R produces (one CCG, one RPG) have been nominated. The Origins Awards nominees are determined by the retailers who attend that year’s GAMA trade show, and the winners are determined by vote of the attendees at the Origins convention, which is held every year in Columbus, Ohio (the date of the show was moved up this year to the end of May/start of June, instead of its usual Fourth of July time).
L5R’s two nominations are in the CCG/expansion category, for Second City, and in the RPG supplement category, for The Great Clans (you can see all the nominations for all the awards here).
The Origins Awards are not exactly . . . universally respected in the gaming community (for example, I do not know why the 2012 nominees for Board Game and Family/Party/Children’s Game include two games released in 2009 and one released in 2007). And the awards are, at best, quirky, with three(!) different awards for Historical Miniatures Games, in addition to the two for generic miniatures games (the lack of something as basic as a “Board or Card Game Expansion” category probably explains why a Munchkin expansion is nominated in the “Accessory” category).
But, if you happen to be going to Origins this year (which I would totally do, if I still lived in Columbus), I’d recommend taking the time to vote for Great Clans (the D&D4E Monster Vault was a good product for a mediocre game, but Great Clans was better) and The Second City (I like the flavor of Innistrad, but I can’t get behind gimmicky double-faced cards).