2002 Introduction

How Voting Worked

INDIE GAME OF THE YEAR, 2002

Best Indie RPG Supplement

Best Free Game

Best Use of the d20 License

Best Production

Best Support

Best Synergy of Game and Rules

Most Innovative Game

Indie RPG "Human of the Year"

Indie RPG Zine of the Year

Andy's Choice Award

 

2002 Registration

Registered Games (A-D)

Registered Games (E-N)

Registered Games (O-Z)

Registered Supplements

Registered Zines

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Andy's Choice Award

The Nod

There are no runners-up for this award, just one winner. However, since the choice was so excruciating (2002 was definitely a good year for indie games), I could not help but to first give a nod to Clinton Nixon's Paladin: This game explores very deep issues like living up to a moral code, controlling light and dark energy (think "The Force"), and doing what you know to be right in the face of bending or breaking that moral code- A very mature game. The character generation and action mechanics are simple, but the rules regarding the ebb and flow of a character's Animus, the "life force" that the PCs use to affect the world around them, are very detailed. It reminds me of the old Star Wars game pulled inside-out: Instead of having "The Force" tacked on to the end of your skills and stats, your character is fundamentally seeped in and bound by The Force, and stats and skills flow from that source. Good stuff.

Andy's Choice for 2002:

Charnel Gods by Scott Knipe

This game blew my socks off. Charnel Gods is essentially a supplement - in this case kind of alike to a "mod" or "total conversion" for a PC game - for the RPG Sorcerer (and tweaked to also make use of the Sorcerer supplement for running Pulp Fantasy style games, Sorcerer and Sword) by Ron Edwards. I was intrigued by it enough to buy it on a whim when I heard about its release, and was ceaselessly surprised at the turn of every page (after I printed it out, that is: Charnel Gods is a PDF). Here are just a few of its many virtues:

  • The game's setting is completely open to the GM's creative impulses, yet still provides three complete and different campaign settings for use.
  • It features sentient weapons ala Stormbringer ("fell Weapons"), and keeps them at the heart of the story. They're not just "+x damage" weapons, but rather each has its own personality, needs and even its own "character sheet".
  • Clearly lays out, in point by point manner, the way the game is meant to be run and the kinds of issues it was meant to evoke and address. It does this to help the GM come up with story ideas, and ends up being one of the best-written setting introductions to any game or supplement I've ever seen.
  • Character generation is easy, but very detailed. It really holds your hand as it shows you how the various elements relate to each other, and how they all relate to developing your character's story.
  • There is basically a stat on your character sheet that, when it goes to "zero" for any character (it starts at around 4-6), heralds the end of the world! How cool is that! Also, handling the end of the world (and what comes afterwards) as a GM/player is also discussed, with several tips.
  • Excellent art that's very evocative of the game and its setting. Great maps, too!
  • In the stats section, each Old God, "Fell Weapon", fantasy race and monster is loaded with story ideas and plot hooks.

In short, the game is very well written, and what's more, you can flip open to any page in this PDF, point randomly at any part of the page, and I guarantee you that within a 5cm radius of your fingertip are no fewer than three pregnant story ideas or plot hooks.

Scott Knipe's Charnel Gods is an excellent work that deserves to be on the bookshelf (in a binder, mind you) of any fan of dark fantasy literature or games.