http://www.onebadegg.com/egg/2009/09/the-egg-goes-dark/

So, the 2009 Ennie Award Nominations are out this morning:

http://www.ennie-awards.com/nominations/nominees.asp

As someone on Twitter said, my fingerprints are all over 'em. This is good, because I like the Ennies, and it's really great when the Ennies like me back. I'm already a proud papa lately, but this magnifies the feeling, and for my other 'babies' to boot. :)

Evil Hat's Nominations

• Best Writing - Don't Lose Your Mind
  
• Best Setting - Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies
  
• Product of the Year - Don't Lose Your Mind
  
• Product of the Year - Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies

One Bad Egg's Nominations

• Best Electronic Book - The Death Mother
  
• Best Electronic Book - Hard Boiled Armies

I declare TRIUMPH with chadu at this point, since we went back and forth on the presentation of the Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies' setting so much, and lo and behold a BEST SETTING nomination. Yes, I'm jazzed as all hell for having two entries on Product of the Year (out of 10), but the setting nod is the real marker there as ultimate validation of the goal we had in producing S7S.

And Ben Baugh getting BEST WRITING for his work on Don't Lose Your Mind? Well, yeah. He did such wonderful things with language and vignettes and all that in DLYM, I would have been sorely disappointed if that hadn't gotten a specific nod, too.

The One Bad Egg stuff is a happy thing, finally, as that's the place where I actually wrote some stuff this year instead of doing higher-level production and layout stuff. I'm a little startled that Armies and Mother beat out Cultures (Cultures has been a consistent strong seller) for nomination, but they're both results from me working at the top of my game at OBE, so I'm pretty tickled.

It doesn't stop there, though, as I look towards the question of "What non-Fred IPR-carried products got the nod?"

IPR Nominations

• Best Cover Art - 3:16 (BoxNinja)
  
• Best Interior Art - HELLAS (Khepera)
  
• Best Interior Art - Mouse Guard (Archaia)
  
• Best Writing - Hot War (Contested Ground)
  
• Best Production Values - Mouse Guard (Archaia)
  
• Best Production Values - HELLAS (Khepera)
  
• Best Rules - Starblazer Adventures (Cubicle 7)
  
• Best Setting - Dreadful Secrets of Candlewick Manor (Arc Dream)
  
• Best Setting - Hot War (Contested Ground)
  
• Best Podcast - Voice of the Revolution (IPR!)
  
• Best Game - Starblazer Adventures (Cubicle 7)
  
• Product of the Year - Mouse Guard (Archaia)
  
• Product of the Year - Starblazer Adventures (Cubicle 7)

I'm mixed, of course, in my feelings about Mouse Guard. Mouse Guard is a fine work, worth the nods it has gotten (and more that it curiously didn't). But Luke and I are on the outs (something I don't really want to talk about, but also don't want to pretend isn't true) after he decided that it was more important to spit in my face than accept an apology for a big goof-up I made earlier this year. As such, I am doubtful that I'll be continuing The Summer Revolution past this year, and am on the fence as to whether I'll use that promotional site this year at all, since it was based on a partnership with Luke, and Luke's temper makes him a poor partner for me. I might be giving Mouse Guard some vote love, but that love's all for Archaia at this point.

Anyway, enough of that drama.

Overall, that's a pretty good spread. It's a great spread from the Evil Hat perspective, too, given that Starblazer Adventures is based on the Spirit of the Century SRD, but I'm also intrigued that IPR's catalog includes three of the five Best Setting nods, given that I think there's a sort of general perception out there that "indie means setting light". I'm sad that Master Plan isn't on the Podcast list, but Ryan's influence is still strongly felt, as he's been doing the audio production on Voice of the Revolution, which has improved the show's quality in all sorts of subtle-but-palpable ways. Don't Lose Your Mind author Ben Baugh is getting some love for Candlewick, too, which is good & just; he's probably one of my top five setting authors these days anyway, and it's *hard* to get me to love setting writing.

In the end sum, it's important to realize that in one very big way, the Ennies are already done for us (speaking in the smaller EHP/OBE sense, and in the larger IPR sense). Nominations are hard-won and carefully considered by the judges each year, but the voting is in the hands of the general public. It's particularly hard getting actual wins from that everyone-in-the-world vote; our catalogs do their best work not in quantity, but in quality, so to some extent creating the product familiarity necessary to garner a vote is the biggest obstacle of all.

So when you hear folks on the above list say things like, "It's an honor just to be nominated" -- and it is! -- listen a little closer. That nomination they're talking about is a win all by itself.

Edit: Chad's post: http://chadu.livejournal.com/743514.html

Second Edit: Somehow I failed to mention I did the layout on Starblazer Adventures, so I have an actually-palpable connection to that product beyond contributing to the SRD on which it's based.

Poisoncraft: The Codex Venenorum

The Codex Venenorum — a venomous tome of poisoncraft from the quill of master poisoncrafter Nylson Veld — has long been sought by those who wish to work their subtle and deadly arts upon the unsuspecting. It is an outlaw tome, penned by a pragmatic poisoner whose decades of experience have yielded a lethal harvest.

Bringing the principles of poisoncraft to Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, the Codex contains detailed poison creation rules and over eighty sample poisons for use at any level, from the vile hopemelter to the subtle blue deception. Whether practicing mortal politics in the halls of power, or wielding an assassin's blade on the battlefield, the Codex is your poisoned path to victory.

Purchasing options at http://www.onebadegg.com/egg/store/#OBE2101

The Codex Venenorum -- a venomous tome of poisoncraft from the quill of master poisoncrafter Nylson Veld -- comes for you on Monday. Containing detailed poison creation rules and over eighty sample poisons for use at any level (from the vile hopemelter to the subtle blue deception), the Codex is a necessity for anyone looking to deal a hated enemy a poisonous blow.

But don't ask us about the Codex... Ask one of the recipients of our draughts what he thinks about that.



... Oh, dearie me. The cat quite seems to have his tongue. You'll have to take our word for it after all.

(One Bad Egg Bookshelf users may wish to drop on by to get their draughts of Poisoncraft early ... avoid the rush, and get there before your rivals do. It's the prudent thing.)

Quoth WotC:

This month, we kick off a new rollout of exclusive material for the Dungeons & Dragons game that you can only get as a D&D Insider subscriber. This exclusive material won't appear in any core rulebooks or supplements, but it will be totally official and ready to use if you're a D&D Insider subscriber. We start out with the revenant, a new player character race that I predict is going to be all the rage. The revenant is an undead creature who could have been of any other race in life but returns after death as a revenant with a new life and a new purpose. With a connection to the Raven Queen, vague memories of past lives, and some cool undead powers, the revenant provides great opportunities for roleplaying and new approaches to character death — because for the revenant, death is only the beginning! Look for the revenant player character race on June 15, exclusively available to D&D Insiders.

Where have I seen that idea before? Hmmm...

Up until June 15th, you can get the Half-Dead PC race from One Bad Egg at RPGNow for only 99 cents (but you'll have to follow this super-duper secret link):

http://www.rpgnow.com/index.php?discount=29630

May featured yet more of me having no time for One Bad Egg, due to the advent of a higher-paying contract job (art direction & layout for Hero Games), Dresden Files RPG priority items, and the impending birth of my daughter (due date: June 14th).

Can't exactly feel bad about that. :)

Apelord: 178 (up 2 this month)
Unbroken: 112 (up 5 this month)
Half-Dead: 131 (up 4 this month)
Death-Mother: 92 (up 1 this month)
Gods: 111 (up 9 this month)
Shroudborn: 75 (up 0 this month)
Cultures: 253 (up 16 this month)
Syrallax: 63 (up 4 this month)
Purifiers: 44 (up 1 this month)
Witch Doctor: 90 (up 4 this month)
Armies: 215 (up 39 this month)

If I get a chance, we'll have a new, really large, product out sometime this coming month (I'm not talking about the baby). Will I get that chance? Can't say.

So how does a One Bad Egg month go when we don't release anything that month?

Not half bad, it turns out.

April's summary (lifetime sales and sales for the month):

Apelord: 176 (up 5 this month)
Unbroken: 107 (up 6 this month)
Half-Dead: 127 (up 6 this month)
Death-Mother: 91 (up 8 this month)
Gods: 102 (up 12 this month)
Shroudborn: 75 (up 5 this month)
Cultures: 237 (up 34 this month)
Syrallax: 59 (up 5 this month)
Purifiers: 43 (up 3 this month)
Witch Doctor: 86 (up 18 this month)
Armies: 176 (up 88 this month)

Strength had to do with Armies releasing late in March (it did the same amount of sales in April as it did in March), the bundling of Gods with Reality Deviant's Scarrport, and the "Everything Must Stay!" 10% off everything sales event following WOTC's questionable move on PDFs.