I stayed up late the other night to watch the ENNIES live stream at Gen Con. I hadn’t really planned to, but I got home from drinks with friends around 1:30am and the ceremony started at 2am my time, so I figured why not stick it on while I got ready for bed?
It was surprisingly fun to watch, and genuinely inspiring to see so many innovative and impressive-looking projects honoured at the awards.
Prompted by the ceremony, I actually went online and bought Tacklebox which was a Judges’ Spotlight winner about two friends fishing that looks very different to any other game I own (I’d already seen it reviewed on Quinn’s Quest so seeing it recommended again was that little nudge I needed to press purchase).
Looking forward to playing this!
One flaw of the ENNIE awards is that, while the nominations are declared by the six expert judges, who review all the products entered into the competition, the final Gold and Silver ENNIE winners are decided by a public vote. I suspect that 95% of the voters are only familiar with the product they vote for, or perhaps not even that – they might be just fans of the publishers in general. In other words, after the nominations are declared, the ENNIES turns into a popularity contest.
Good luck then if you were nominated in a category where the likes of Darrington Press (Daggerheart) or Legends of Avantris (Crooked Moon) have been nominated! While I have no doubt these publishing houses and their teams were worthy winners in the various categories they picked up awards in, I think there comes a point when publishers of a certain size probably shouldn’t put themselves forward for these accolades. If you already have an army of superfans, and the products you are submitting have already raised millions from a Kickstarter (Crooked Moon raised 4 million for example), do you really need the endorsement of an ENNIE? Your project is already a financial success beyond most studios’ dreams, while your legions of fans create an unfair competition with other deserving products – projects which might only turn profitable on the back of an ENNIE!
Luckily I was not competing with either of these two juggernauts: however my book The Creative GM’s Guide to Extraordinary Locations was up against a well established game in the form of Legends in the Mist (and their Action Grimoire), who I was confident would grab gold. So when one of the live stream hosts declared an intermission around 4am I was sorely tempted to go to bed rather than see it out.
But I found myself sucked in by the excitement of the awards, and the acceptance speeches of those who won them. And so I decided to stay up even later, clinging on to the outside chance of perhaps winning silver, and seeing my pre-recorded thank you reel aired at Gen Con in front of an increasingly boisterous crowd (there was a free bar during the intermission). At some unholy hour in the morning, however, the Silver ENNIE for Best Supplement went to The Painted Wasteland Player’s Guide by Agamemnon Press instead.
Congratulations to the winners of both silver and gold: your products look great. And hell, since I just bemoaned the fact that public voting can feel a little unfair, let me big up my fellow non-winning nominees for Best Supplement as they also look excellent and equally deserving of recognition: they were Mystified! by the Wanderer’s Tome, and also No Place Like Homebrew by Hitpoint Press.
My 3 seconds of fame!
Anyway, overall, just getting the ENNIE nomination felt like a huge win for me in 2026, and even a little bit surprising given that my entry is a fairly “mainstream” book of locations designed to be dropped into classic D&D / fantasy settings: whereas the ENNIES tend to reward the more edgy, weird or wonderful offerings. Hopefully it’s a testament to the book’s quality that it got nominated at all!
Full list of ENNIES nominees and winners here. You should find something interesting here!
The “New Dawn of D&D”
I don’t normally take the time to comment on industry / WOTC news, but a LOT of interesting stuff came out of the D&D Vision Keynote presentation at this year’s Gen Con, where Dan Ayoub (the current head of the franchise) heralded a “New Dawn of D&D”.
I think that was a clever strapline for a company that seems to have had its head buried in the sand these last few years about what fans of D&D actually want, and, having watched the entire presentation, it appears that some valuable lessons have been taken on board by those in charge.
I thought it might fun to share my thoughts on some of the main developments…
Dark Sun Is Back!
The big news of course is that Dark Sun is coming back! I must confess I didn’t own the original products or ever play in the setting back in the day, but the distinctive artwork – all by the same artist, Gerald Brom – made me really curious about this brutal dystopian world. As young teenagers in the 90s we always played in homebrew worlds that resembled classic medieval or Tolkien-esque fantasy… so I was probably intimidated by this weird setting that I didn’t truly understand.
Cover art of the 1991 Dark Sun boxed set…
Not to mention the fact that I was much too poor to pick up more than the occasional official product from my local gaming store!
Now that I am an adult, with a little bit more pocket money to burn, I am really excited to see the return of Dark Sun and I will almost certainly pick up the main setting book when it comes out. The new art looks stunning, even if it doesn’t quite replicate that dusty Mad Max vibe of the original works.
Dark Sun 2027 cover art
A sample of some mind-bending Dark Sun interior art, shown at Gen Con
D&D Icons To Work On Greyhawk, Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms
More nostalgia-bait emerged from the keynote with the news that Luke Gygax, Tracey Hickman and R.A. Salvatore are being brought back into the D&D fold to work on Greyhawk, Dragonlance, and Drizzt Do’Urden (Forgotten Realms) material respectively.
I think that’s pretty exciting too!
It seems like each of these three icons will have a mandate to develop both setting and adventure materials and “shape the future” of D&D. So hopefully that means ongoing support for each of those settings, and a sign that D&D might be looking to get out of the cycle of hyping up one thing, launching it, then dropping it from the conversation.
One thing I personally value about D&D, that other fantasy RPGs can’t really offer, is the shared experience of reading and playing the same materials as part of a large widespread community.
During the “golden era of 5e” it felt like there was a shared excitement when storylines like Curse of Strahd, Tomb of Annihilation and Waterdeep: Dragon Heist dropped, which also extended to fan-creators publishing stuff on the DMs Guild related to those official releases. While I was rarely on the ball enough to take serious advantage of these hype trains, I did manage to publish my Waterdeep: Background Hooks at a time when many folks were playing Dragon Heist and it became one of my best-selling products.
I’d love for that shared hype and experience to become a thing again, and I’d love it even more if playing communities around each storyline / setting lasted longer and that WOTC actively engaged those communities and kept them alive, so that folks can jump into a campaign years after publication and still feel part of “the event”.
Hopefully having these three icons dedicated to these settings means more sustained conversation around D&D releases, in each ecosphere. While you have to think the quality control should also be improved.
A New Greyhawk Campaign… featuring Tasha
Luke Gygax joining D&D aside, it seems that a new Greyhawk adventure Crown of the Witch Queen is already scheduled for publication in 2027. Apparently “the adventure follows Drelnza’s attempt to become Greyhawk’s newest Witch Queen” which seems like a weird pitch, as it’s not clear how this involves the players – but I assume the PCs will be tasked with preventing this from happening. We will find out in due course, I guess.
While the cover art doesn’t really push my buttons, I’m tentatively putting this announcement in the good news box. As hinted at already, I’m of the opinion that D&D need to get back to publishing epic storylines to galvanise the community around a product. I may be wrong but I am not sure they have published any major storylines since 5.5e came out in 2024? While I feel like the last release that succeeded in generating a buzz was Wild Beyond The Witchlight, which came out in 2021.
This announcement also features some nostalgia bait in that the Drelnza is the vampire daughter of Iggwilv the Witch Queen, aka Tasha.
New Ravenloft, Eberron & Realms Books… By 3rd Party Publishers!
Harking back to my gripe about D&D ignoring most of their IP most of the time, executive producer Greg Bilsland addressed that very issue during the keynote presentations when he said that “fans shouldn’t have to wait decades” before WOTC goes back to their favourite setting.
He then announced that WOTC have partnered with Ghostfire Gaming, Visionary Productions and Kobold Press to publish new books on Ravenloft, Eberron and Forgotten Realms respectively. (He didn’t really give any concrete details on the books however, although it seems the Eberron one will be an adventure…).
I, for one, am really happy to see WOTC adopt this approach which also will no doubt lead to some healthy cash injections into those third party studios. Perhaps I should send them my CV!
Improvements to DnD Beyond
I don’t really use DnD Beyond at the moment, but there were some cool sounding developments forthcoming, including tools to help you find both in person and online play groups. More people experimenting with TTRPG’s gateway drug is all good as far as I’m concerned!
There’s Gonna Be D&D Star Wars Now…
Ok maybe this is actually bigger new than the Dark Sun announcement, but from 2027 it’s going to be possible to play D&D in the world of Star Wars. Or I guess play Star Wars using official D&D rules (again concrete product details were light on the ground).
This union of behemoths is part of the “Universes Beyond” initiative that is going to see D&D incorporate multiple of the world’s most popular fantasy brands, starting with World of Warcraft at the end of 2026, and then going to a galaxy far far away in 2027.
While this is objectively “big news”, I’m pretty “meh” over this development. The old West End Games RPG of Star Wars is one of the best roleplaying games I’ve ever played, and I’d much rather try and dig that out of my parent’s attic (hopefully they haven’t thrown it away!), than play a Star Wars game contorted to fit into 5.5e’s very specific system.
I’ll stick to the definitive Star Wars RPG in my life…
Part of the joy of playing games in another genre or universe is playing a new system, one built from the ground up to support play in that universe, with signature mechanics that reflect that world’s realities. Trying to do Star Wars with d20s, HP and spell slots feels like eating sushi with a knife and fork. Possible maybe, but just the wrong tools for the job.
The World of Warcraft announcement makes more sense… although having never played WoW, I will no doubt pass on that one.
Overall, if Universes Beyond means more people get into RPGs, or have a chance to play D&D in their favourite setting, I guess this is a positive development. But personally I’d rather D&D stuck to developing more materials for their own settings, of which there are PLENTY already, and let other publishers develop RPGs of any major IPs that are currently lacking them. The Dnd-ification of every major fantasy and sci-fi setting doesn’t particularly appeal to me.
Links To The Official Presentation etc…
Anyway, if you’re curious about the “New Dawn of D&D” here’s a link to the full keynote as delivered at Gen Con.
While head of D&D, Dan Ayoub, also penned a round up post on DnD Beyond.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on these developments as well…
Patchwork Paladin
Congratulations on your nomination!
duncan
Thanks Elizabeth!
Been enjoying your recent posts by the way, especially the one on the “Destined Heroes” style of play. It hadn’t occurred to me that this popular style doesn’t (or I should say “didn’t”!) have a “manifesto” of its own.
I probably play something in between Destined Heroes, classic and OSR, which I might label “Mildly Favoured Heroes”.
Cheers!
Mira
Really enjoyed this write-up, especially the balance between excitement and skepticism. The ENNIES section felt fair: nominations can spotlight genuinely interesting work, but once the final stage becomes a public vote, bigger publishers and fanbases inevitably change the shape of the contest.
I’m with you on the hope that settings like Dark Sun, Greyhawk, Ravenloft, and Eberron get sustained support rather than a single burst of launch attention. The shared community excitement around a setting or campaign is one of the things D&D can still do better than almost anyone else. And the Star Wars point made me smile — sometimes the fun of a different universe really is learning the system built for that universe, not forcing everything through the same rules chassis.