From Kickstarter to the ENNIE Awards: Celebrating This Year’s Winning Creators

Every year, the ENNIE Awards celebrate some of the best work in tabletop roleplaying games, recognizing the designers, writers, artists, publishers, and creators pushing the medium forward.

At this year’s awards, held during Gen Con, projects brought to life with the help of the Kickstarter community took home honors across categories ranging from art and game design to cartography, supplements, accessories, and Product of the Year.

For the creators behind those projects, an ENNIE is more than a medal. It’s recognition of what can happen when an ambitious idea finds the community that believes in it.

A huge night for Avantris Entertainment

Few creators had a bigger night than Avantris Entertainment. The Crooked Moon, the folk-horror tabletop RPG that began as Avantris’s first crowdfunding campaign, earned Gold ENNIEs for Best Aid/Accessory – Digital, Best Aid/Accessory – Non-Digital, Best Art, Cover, and Best Production Values. The Crooked Moon Ultimate Edition also took home the night’s biggest honor: Gold for Product of the Year.

Avantris Entertainment was additionally named Fan Favorite Publisher for the first time.

The recognition marks another milestone in an extraordinary journey for the team. When Avantris launched The Crooked Moon on Kickstarter in 2023, more than 21,000 backers pledged over $4 million to bring it to life.

Since then, the creators have returned to Kickstarter with Neon Odyssey, which raised more than $16 million from 49,000+ backers and became the most-funded tabletop roleplaying game in crowdfunding history.

What started with a community willing to take a chance on Avantris’s first game has grown into one of tabletop’s biggest creator success stories.

Six wins for Legend in the Mist

Son of Oak Game Studio also had plenty to celebrate. Legend in the Mist earned six awards from seven nominations, including Gold for Best Art, Interior, and Best Supplement for Legend in the Mist–Action Grimoire. The game also earned Silver awards for Best Game, Best Rules, and Best Production Values for the Ravenhome Slipcase.

Creator Amit Moshe and the Son of Oak team have built a long history with the Kickstarter community, using crowdfunding to bring ambitious tabletop worlds directly to players.

Their showing at this year’s ENNIEs demonstrates what can happen long after a campaign ends: a community-backed project can go on to earn recognition from players and peers across the industry.

Kickstarter creators won across the ballot

And they were far from alone. Kickstarter-funded projects appeared throughout this year’s winners, including:

• Vaesen – City of My Nightmares from Free League Publishing, which won Gold for Best Adventure – Long Form
• Dolmenwood from Exalted Funeral Press, which earned Gold awards for Best Cartography, Best Setting, and Best RPG-Related Product, along with Silver for Best Monster/Adversary
• Monsters of Drakkenheim from Ghostfire Gaming, which won Gold for Best Monster/Adversary
• The Field Guide to Floral Dragons Box Set from Hit Point Press, which earned Silver for Best Art, Interior
• Ryoko’s Guide to the Yokai Realms from Loot Tavern Publishing, which earned Silver for Best Setting, while Handouts – Ryoko’s Lost Notes earned Silver for Best Aid/Accessory – Non-Digital
• The Bonsai Diary from Sticky Doodler, which earned Silver for Best Solo Game
• Berserkr from Slightly Reckless Games, which earned Silver for Best Layout & Design
• The Painted Wastelands Player’s Guide from Agamemnon Press, which earned Silver for Best Supplement
• Historica Arcanum: Echoes of Renaissance from Metic Creative took home Best Art, Cover Silver
• Dragon Town and the Darkness Below by Author JP Coovert won Silver for Best Family Game/Product
• Menagerie of Unbearable Things earned Silver for Best RPG-Related Product

Together, the winners span established publishers, independent studios, artists, writers, actual-play creators, and online creators who have turned audiences into communities capable of bringing entirely new games and worlds into existence.

From an audience to a community

This year’s awards also reflect a larger shift in tabletop games. Some of the night’s biggest winners have built audiences through streaming, YouTube, actual-play shows, and other online communities. Darrington Press’s Daggerheart, developed by the team behind Critical Role, was another major winner, taking home four Gold ENNIEs and a Silver for Product of the Year.

But creators don’t necessarily need a traditional path to publishing to make something players love.

Crowdfunding gives creators a way to invite their communities into the process: testing demand for an idea, funding its production, and building an audience before the finished game ever reaches a shelf.

And sometimes, that project eventually ends up on an awards stage.

Congratulations to all of this year’s ENNIE Award winners and nominees—and to the backers who helped bring so many of these worlds to life.