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MOST INNOVATIVE GAME, 2010
This Sub-Award is awarded to the game that stretches the RPG experience in new ways. It may be a particular innovative mechanic that has never been used in other games (or never been used as well as previous games), or it changes the dynamics of a regular game group (the standard 3-6 players and one gamemaster). Or, it might even turn the concept of "RPG" on its ear. Innovation and exploration is what this Sub-Award honors.
THE Most Innovative Game FOR 2010 IS...
Apocalypse World by D. Vincent Baker / with 37 points
Really solid game which shows you how to GM.
The moves and GM instructions are brilliant stuff. The character play books are a revelation of form and function.
Apocalypse World shows you some things you knew and many you didn't, and it shows them in new ways and with a clarity that is both refreshing and stimulating.
THE RUNNERS UP:
Freemarket by Luke Crane and Jared Sorensen / with 33 points
A solid departure from Fantasy into the SF of the future.
Freemarket turns convention on its head in so many ways. I'm not sure it always hits the mark but it's on the bleeding edge.
Luke and Jared's designs are reliably innovative; this game, a game about (among other things) innovative social engineering, is even moreso.
Freemarket by a mile. Among its many innovations - a thorough and effective erosion of the wall between in-game and out-of-game terminology. In Freemarket there is no distinction; you can talk about Flow on either level seamlessly.
Happy Birthday, Robot! by Daniel Solis / with 30 points
It's a sad commentary that "make an RPG kids can play" is still innovative, but it still is.
Twenty-Four Game Poems by Marc Majcher / with 21 points
Such variety and ways of being playful, a joy.
Marc Majcher is just killing it with these bite-sized games, each of which does one thing really well. Some are gentle and funny, some are absolutely blood-freezing. All are well designed and represent a new direction in roleplaying games.
A reminder that we've only scratched the surface of what rpg can mean & do. A synthesis of many different forms of the hobby. Keep us pushing the envelope!
Dread House: A game for kids and brave adults by Emily Care Boss and Epidiah Ravachol / with 12 points
Mars Colony by Tim C Koppang / with 11 points
Distilled down to its absolute core, Mars Colony is a welcome antidote to the bloated, sprawling mess of systems past. Sweet, short and to the point.
Games with social/political rulesets should also not still be innovative 35 years into the art form, but they still are.