The Indie RPG Awards

This is the highest honor of the Indie RPG Awards. It is awarded to the best overall Independently produced RPG of the year, as chosen by peers and members the gaming community. It is given to the RPG and the designer who made it. Everything which makes a game good; from game elements of story, setting, rules, innovation, and overall game design; to physical qualities like graphical design and layout, are taken into account for the awarding of this honor.

THE Indie Game of the Year FOR 2015 IS... A TIE!!

Night Witches by Jason Morningstar / with 32 points

Night Witches is simply the most compelling game I've ever seen. It captures an incredible historical topic with stunning art and respectful, compassionate rules and writing.

The interplay of missions and downtime interactions really drives touching stories of war and relationships among the Night Witches.

Such a very playable game that gets you in the gut every time.

Illuminates an oft-overlooked aspect of history

War, love, planes -- this game has it all.

The World Wide Wrestling Roleplaying Game by Nathan D. Paoletta / with 32 points

Hand me a steel chair, this is just a great game that oozes a deep and affectionate love for the genre. It even makes pro-wrestling fun for people who don't usually like wrestling.

World Wide Wrestling is a brilliant evocation of genre that thoughtfully presents itself in a way that makes rasslin' approachable and fun, even for someone who has no idea what it is about. This is layered atop what might be the most elegant implementation of the Apocalypse World engine yet.

Generates heat like a furnace

 

THE RUNNERS UP:

Fall of Magic by Ross Cowman / with 27 points

Fall of Magic is a breath of fresh air - its scroll format goes beyond gimmick to support an amazing narrative experience.

A beautiful game with a wonderful presentation. The entry cost ($74+) is steep which might affect buy in of players but it looks worth it.

Evocative prompt-based design is difficult to pull off, and Fall of Magic does it beautifully.

Just a gorgeous piece of work!

The Warren by Marshall Miller / with 20 points

The Warren combines the magic of animal literature with post-apocalyptic themes, capturing both rabbits themselves and the stories we tell about them.

The Warren shows that darkest fantasy worlds are the ones right around us, the corpses on the sides of our highways that we drive by every day.

Expands into an under-served genre

Urban Shadows by Andrew Medeiros and Mark Diaz Truman / with 20 points

Possibly the best PbtA based game to date, and one that drove strong towards a vision that it delivered. Strong rules, strong presentation, easy concept to get across to new players, and excellent GM advice make this game the total package.

Downfall by Caroline Hobbs / with 16 points

It's surprising how deep the culture created at the beginning of each game of Downfall is, given the quickness of the process. That's laser sharp design.

Capes, Cowls and Villains Foul by Barak Blackburn / with 11 points

classic superhero adventures, with the characters being driven by the story. Spiderman needs non conductive boots of course he has them, iron man needs roller skates already built in. Nice to be able to concentrate on the story not the player inventory.

Sign by Hakan Seyalioglu, Kathryn Hymes / with 10 points

A powerful, innovative game that really changes how many players feel about the world and their relation to it. Getting people to think deeply about language while having fun isn't easy, but this game delivers.

The Necklace by clash bowley / with 8 points

FAITH: the Sci-Fi RPG by Carlos Gomez, Mauricio Gomez, Helio de Grado / with 6 points

I can't say enough about what a great form factor and color that this game has. Superb.