Things I learned as a judge....

My time as ENnies judge has taught me many things.

1) 50,000 pages is a lot of stuff to read... A lot.

Not saying it wasn't fun, as it was all fun. Cause it totally was. But think about it. 50,000 pages. It is a lot. If I wasn't on bed rest for a month I may not have gotten everything done. I went into early labor reading the Bestiary 2 for Pathfinder. I brought books with me to the hospital when we went into active labor. I was reading pretty much all the way to the point where we needed to get the nomination list together. And I read it all. Just a note to all those thinking about running: May and June, you may not see your family. Also, there are good and bad products. Not everything will be excellent.

2) It is tough to read a product with a lot of stuff going on in the background.

My husband is a graphic designer and I have gotten a little picky with the design layouts for my books. If your text is in black and white and so is the artwork around it, it really REALLY detracts from the word on your page if your margin is close to the artwork.

3) 172 hours of podcasts will at times feel like homework, and other times it is a ton of fun.

For the record "Um" and "Like" are not really great on a recording.

4) You have to give a little to get a little.

As you have to work with four other individuals to come up with a nomination list. Somewhere there is going to be a give and take.

5) Never judge a book by its cover.

This last one is the most important. You see, my judges award was not a fancy 1,000 page book. It was a book that arrived in a simple Manila envelope from a very indy company in my home state of Massachusetts. So independent, in fact that they couldn't even make enough money to stay in business and they are currently taking a break. (Hopefully not for long.) I opened it and out it came. Twenty eight pages or so and a simple card stock cover with a hand drawn picture on it. It was called "Eat and Run". I was 7 0r 8 months pregnant at the time, so eating and running had a different meaning to me. I put it on my shelf thinking it would be a good book to bring to a doctor's appointment. But one night after finishing Skullduggery (another awesome game), I was looking for something else to read. It needed to be short, because I liked to read the books in one sitting if I could and bedtime was fast approaching. I pulled it from the shelf. I thought, "fine, this will have to do" and proceeded to laugh my ass off for over the hour I read this book. I even re-read sections to my husband, and the baby was kicking away. This clearly had the approval of all three of us.

Later when I had to choose my Judge's Award it was down to this one and a well known heist game that fans really liked. The company for the heist book was well known and I knew the book was selling well. To me the clear decision rested on which one kept me entertained the whole time, was a good bang for your buck, and the company needed the exposure. From cover to cover "Eat and Run" was the clear winner. I knew the system as I had run a "Kobolds ate my Baby" game set in Disney World, but the system just clicked with zombies too. Not only that, I read it and knew I could run it right then. But the idea that this small company would be AT GenCon and would get the award to display on top of the fact that the game was tons of fun in a small package made it irresistible to me. I chose it.

Unfortunately, they never made it to GenCon and it was only after I got home from GenCon I learned of their financial misfortune and their "break" from publishing.

Someday I will run my "Eat and Run" game. I want to set a game at a convention. You are Zombies and you are in Boston at the Boston Convention Center.... It just so happens there is a bunch of people there at some sort of convention with dice... GO!

6) No matter what, someone is going to be upset with your decision.

Now, I thought our list last year was a really good list with some amazing products. (You should check out our nominations here. ) Still people were saying that x product should have been nominated and we were blind not to see it. (One of the products that was mentioned actually fell apart in my hands. I had to put the pages in order to read it. ) There is no chance AT ALL that everyone will be happy with your nominations.

I am such a Twit!

Yes you heard that right.

I have a twitter account. So if you want to see what I am reading for the ENnies, writing for games, eating for dinner or watching on tv follow me. Or you can tweet me questions or just say hi!

I am @NachoPKB.

Evaluation of a product...

Every product that we have for the ENnies goes through a thorough evaluation. Every judge does things differently, but I am here to explain how I intend to evaluate every product on my own.

I sit with a notebook when I read with the name and publisher of a product on the top of the page. Then there are two columns: Pro and Con. These are things I loved and did not love about the product. It could be broad, i.e. the class section is incredibly well written and easily understandable. Or it could be more focused: "The font in the second paragraph of _________ chapter is way off from the rest of the book." (Yes, I am that nit-picky. It comes from being married to a graphic designer.)

After I read the book, I put a star at the top and write "will or may" play test if I choose to do so, find an empty space (usually the back) I write a one or two line review of what I thought of the book from a read through. I will do the same thing for the play test, only this time I will take the feedback of my players and put it on the list too.

Why do I do this? Because everyone is going to have their own opinion when we discuss this. But we may not get to discuss this book until February, between now and then I could have read another hundred books. So I can look at my list and say "I liked this and didn't care for this."

It will make my job easier in the long run. (Also some of those reviews will end up here.)

Lazy Sunday

Boston is getting some much needed rain today, and it has been lovely to be stuck indoors. My loving, wonderful, amazing husband constructed my IKEA ENnies shelf so the submissions would not be lying around in a box. They look so pretty sitting there just waiting to be read and played.

Speaking of reading... I finished the Dresden Files 1st volume on Thursday (really gorgeous, reads easy, and looks like it will be a blast to play. Full review coming soon) and have been under the weather ever since. However it did give me a chance to look over some of my "READ ME" pile, and get a good grip on what I have ahead of me to read.

I decided to postpone reading volume 2 for a week so I could let volume one settle into my brain.

I figured I would make this week a Superhero Themed week. Superhero games are one of my favorite genres to play and run. It is really where I feel in my element. I read ICONS as a PDF well before I became an ENnies judge and re-read it as soon as I got the book, so that one is all read. This week's reading is the Smallville RPG (based on the TV Show) and Champions Universe. Champions is a game my husband is really excited for me to run, he is curious to see how the rules have changed since he last played.

As much as I can go on and on... these books won't read themselves.

Besides, I certainly wouldn't want them to.