ENnies 2016 - Vote for The Other Side

Voting is now open for the ENnies Award and I am up again for Best Blog.

Is this just a popularity contest? Sure. But so are the Oscars, the Presidental Election, and Miss America.  Since I am not up for any of those, I'll focus my efforts here.
But in truth it is also an honor to be nominated. My peers think that my work here is good.
Voting for me also sends that message. It means something to me. It means you like what I do.

So if you can, please give me a vote. It is really appreciated by me.



Click the link, choose “1” from the drop-down menu under my blog’s name and click Vote.

Since I live in Chicago, vote early and vote often! ;)

I will have some of my own picks later this week.

2016 ENnie Nominations are In!

The 2016 ENniesAward Nominations are in!

And it is my pleasure and honor to report that The Other Side is once again nominated for Best Blog!
http://www.ennie-awards.com/blog/2016-ennie-award-nominees-and-spotlight-winners/

I am so excited by this. Really. A chance to be voted on by my peers is a great opportunity.

I am really looking forward to the next month and will do my best to provide content worthy of this.

2,000,000 Page views! And Ennies.

Sometime around dinner time yesterday I hit 2,000,000 page views.

I took me about 5 years to reach 1,000,000 and less than half that to reach the next million.
Pretty humbling really.  That after all this time you all are still interested in what I have to day.   I want to thank you all.

Nothing really special planned this time, except a special themed edition of "Friday Night Videos".

Don't forget the voting is now live for the ENnies.
http://www.ennie-awards.com/vote/2015/

I did not self-nominate my self this year mostly because I didn't feel like I posted anything above and beyond what I had done last year.  Maybe next year.

For support I am throwing my votes at +Lowell Francis' and his Age of Ravens, http://ageofravens.blogspot.com/ for best website (though it should really be nominated for best blog).

I am also showing my support for +Zak Smith's "Red and Pleasant Land".  We need more strange and weird in our hobby and it is nice that something that is nominally part of our little subset of the hobby get a nod.

My Ubiquity post will be later today.

Why Should You Vote for the Other Side?

The Other Side is up for an ENnie Award for "Best Blog" this year and I could not be more thrilled.
You can see the list of nominees here: http://www.ennie-awards.com/blog/2014-ennie-awards-nominees/ and can vote here: http://www.ennie-awards.com/vote/

As you can see I am in some really great company.  But there are some reasons I think that my blog deserves this award.

- I am going to be at Gen Con this year with my kids.  I like to take my kids to Gen Con. They love it and they have been talking about it for WEEKS now.  What would really be nice is to see their dad win an award for all the hard work he has been doing.

- Where else can you go to get the variety of games I talk about?  D&D, Unisystem, Chill, d20, Old-school, new-school, Call of Cthulhu and many more.

- My week long dips into various games.  I know from my stats that you have enjoyed it when I take a game and cover it all week long, whether it was Adventures Dark & Deep or Super Babes!

- Features. I give you features on either a weekly basis like Zatannurday or White Dwarf Wednesday. Or my semi-regular features Plays Well With Others or The Best Blog You Are Not Reading or Kickstart Your Weekend.  I may not have the most up to date news or know what is going on in every corner of the Internet, but I like to think I am posting things that people want to read.

- Reviews. Along with the features I have posted my reviews of various game products here.  So far I have written 676 reviews.  Not too shabby really.

- Community.  I try to bring other blogs and bloggers into our orbit.  Either they have something really interesting to say or to help expand our hobby.  I believe than in a strong community more ideas will flow and ultimately that will be better for our hobby.  Both for ourselves and people outside of it.  While I am not the one to sit around the camp fire and sing songs about getting along, I am the guy that will say we should chill out and just roll some dice.

- Gnome Stew is a great blog, but while they have a team (nine authors) I am just one guy.  They have 2,000,000 visitors and I have 1,500,000+. They have written 2500+ articles since 2009, while I have written 2300+ since 2009.   Plus they have won every year, so maybe it is time to give someone new a chance!

- I respect the ENnies as a peoples choice award. Does ENWorld have problems? Sure. But the truth is that gamers and fans of games vote for these products and sites.  It is a way of the community saying "yeah Tim, you are OK" and I appreciate that.  So yeah, I would love to have one.

- You know who else likes awards? My Mom!
No seriously, she does. This would make her day.

- The ENnies do open up doors for writers. This would help me out a lot in getting more material written and out to you all.

My fellow nominees all have fine blogs, but I hope you will vote for me and The Other Side.
http://www.ennie-awards.com/vote/

Voting is now open for the 2014 ENnie Awards!

Voting is now open for the 2014 ENnie Awards!

Please consider voting for my blog The Other Side for best blog!
http://www.ennie-awards.com/vote/

The Other Side Nominated for an ENnie Award!

The Other Side has been nominated for "Best Blog" at this year's ENnie Awards!

http://www.ennie-awards.com/blog/2014-ennie-awards-nominees/

I have to say I am quite excited  by this and even a little humbled.
I am not the biggest blog on the list of nominees. Nor even am I the best looking.  But I post what I like to post and it seems to click because people keep coming back.

I have some pretty serious competition, to be honest.  Gnome Stew is a blog I vote for every year (but NOT this year!) and has been one of my favorite reads for a while.  But I like to think I offer something a little unique, a little different, and a whole lot of entertaining.  So I hope you will consider me when voting begins next week.

To my fellow nominees, I am looking forward to being at Gen Con this year and wish you all the best.

Ennies Award voting is now live

The ENnie Award voting is now live.

http://ennie-awards.com/vote/

There are some great games in this batch so support your favorites!

2013 Ennies

The nominations for the 2013 Ennies awards are now up.
http://www.ennie-awards.com/blog/2013-ennie-awards-nominees/

Here are some random thoughts.

Best Adventure
Achtung! Cthulhu – Three Kings (Chronicle City/Modiphius Entertainment)
Deadlands Reloaded: The Last Sons (Pinnacle Entertainment)
Enemy Within (Fantasy Flight Games)
Pathfinder: Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition (Paizo Publishing)
The Zalozhniy Quartet (Pelgrane Press)

Outside of Rise of the Runeloards I don't have any of these.

Best Aid/Accessory
All We Have Forgotten—Music for Ashen Stars (Pelgrane Press)
Night’s Watch (Green Ronin)
The One Ring Loremaster’s Screen & Lake-town Sourcebook (Cubicle 7)
Protodimension Magazine Issue 13 (Kinstaff Media LLC)
The Unspeakable Oath (Arc Dream Publishing)

Nothing here either.

Best Art, Cover
Champions Complete (Hero Games)
Iron Kingdoms (Privateer Press)
The Magnificent Joop van Ooms (Lamentations of the Flame Princess)
NPC Codex (Paizo Publishing)
The Whole Hole Volume 01: Keister Island (Mutha Oith Creations)

The OSR is represented in Raggi's adventure-not-an-adventure in Joop van Ooms.

Best Art, Interior
Ed Greenwood Presents Elminster’s Forgotten Realms (Wizards of the Coast)
Night’s Black Agents (Pelgrane Press)
Night’s Watch (Green Ronin)
Shadows of Esteren Book 1 (Agate Editions)
The Whole Hole Volume 01: Keister Island (Mutha Oith Creations)

First of only 2 products from WotC this year.

Best Blog
Gnome Stew
The Illuminerdy
Nerd Trek
Triumph and Despair
The Rogue Warden

Gnome stew is doing quite well this year!

Best Cartography
Ancient Temple Interior (DramaScape)
Deep Blues: Nautilus (0One Games)
Drake Starship Map (Blackwyrm Games)
The Lands of Ice and Fire (Random House)
Sprawl Sites: High Society and Low Life (Catalyst Game Labs)

Best Electronic Book
Curse the Darkness (Growling Door Games, Inc.)
Deadlands Reloaded: The Last Sons (Pinnacle Entertainment)
The Deadly Seven (paNik productions)
Experimental Paradigm of Cinematic Horror (EPOCH) (Imaginary Empire)
Hobomancer (Hex Games)

Best Family Game
Doctor Who: Adventures in Time & Space—11th Doctor Edition (Cubicle 7)
Hero Kids—Fantasy RPG (Hero Forge Games)
Mermaid Adventures (Third Eye Games)
Project Ninja Panda Taco (Jennisodes)
Wandering Monsters High School (Bold Pueblo Games)

I have all of these, all are great..

Best Free Game
Mazes and Perils RPG (WG Productions)
Phantasm (2010) (End Transmission Games LLC)
Nights of the Crusades (Aetheric Dreams)
Silent Memories (Morning Skye Studio)
Throwigames Simple Roleplaying System (Throwigames)

M&P is up for the OSR.  The 3rd Ed is an improvement over the 1st ed.

Best Free Product
Battletech: A Time of War Quick-Start Rules/Shadowrun Quick-Start Rules (Catalyst Game Labs)
EPOCH: Road Trip (Imaginary Empire)
Fools Rush In (Privateer Press)
Night in the Seyvoth Manor (Darklight Interactive)
Wayfinder #8 (Paizo Fans United)

The Shadowrun Quick start is my favorite of this list.

Best Game
Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea (North Wind Adventures, LLC)
Broken Rooms (Greymalkin Designs, LLC)
Champions Complete (Hero Games)
Iron Kingdoms (Privateer Press)
Night’s Black Agents (Pelgrane Press)

Best Miniature
Dungeon Command: Blood of Gruumsh (Wizards of the Coast)
Freeblades: Black Rose Bandits (DGS Games)
Pathfinder Battles: Shattered Star Gargantuan Blue Dragon (WizKid Games/NECA)
Pathfinder Bestiary Box (Paizo Publishing)
Spot of Bother Set One: Royal Highland Guards (Okumart Games)

I rather enjoyed both the Dungeon Command game (played at Gen Con) and the Pathfinder Bestiary Box.

Best Monster/Adversary
Champions Villains Vol. 3: Solo Villains (Hero Games)
DC Adventures Heroes & Villains Vol. 2 (Green Ronin)
Inner Sea Bestiary (Paizo Publishing)
Mutants and Masterminds Threat Report (Green Ronin)
NPC Codex (Paizo Publishing)

All of these are good.

Best Podcast
Atomic Array
Indie Talks
Haste: The Official Obsidian Portal Podcast
TableTop: Dragon Age
Transmissions from the Ninth World

I am only familiar with Atomic Array.

Best Production Values
Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea (North Wind Adventures, LLC)
Doctor Who: Adventures in Time & Space—11th Doctor Edition (Cubicle 7)
Iron Kingdoms (Privateer Press)
Rimward (Posthuman Studios)
Shadows of Esteren Book 1 (Agate Editions)

AS&SH another OSR book. And a great looking one at that.  Doctor Who though is just fantastic.

Best RPG Related Product
Edition Wars (Gamer Nations Studios)
Eighth Day Genesis: A Worldbuilding Codex for Writers and Creatives (Alliteration Ink)
The Express Diaries (Innsmouth House Press)
Kobold Guide to Wordbuilding (Kobold Press)
The Lands of Ice and Fire (Random House)

Best Rules
Champions Complete (Hero Games)
Dungeon World (Sage Kobold Productions)
Experimental Paradigm of Cinematic Horror (EPOCH) (Imaginary Empire)
Iron Kingdoms (Privateer Press)
Night’s Black Agents (Pelgrane Press)

Another set of good choices.  I didn't play any of these though.

Best Setting
Broken Rooms (Greymalkin Designs, LLC)
Magnimar: City of Monuments (Paizo Publishing)
Menzoberranzen: City of Intrigue (Wizards of the Coast)
Midgard Campaign Setting (Kobold Press)
Mythic Iceland (BRP/Chaosium)

Make that 3 noms for WotC.  The Mythic Iceland book is fantastic.

Best Software
The Crawler’s Companion (Purple Sorcerer Games)
Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia (E-book Edition) (Arc Dream Publishing)
Dice & Dragons – 3D Dice Roller (simpleFun)
PCGen (PCGen)
Roll20 (The Orr Group, LLC)

I didn't use any CharacterGEn or gaming software all year.

Best Supplement
Dark Roads & Golden Hells (Kobold Press)
Doctor Who: The Time Traveler’s Companion (Cubicle 7)
Night’s Watch (Green Ronin)
Menzoberranzen: City of Intrigue (Wizards of the Coast)
Shadowrun 2050 (Catalyst Game Labs)

The Time Traveler's companion is very good.

Best Website
Adventure-A-Week
The Escapist
Gnome Stew
Modus Operandi
See Page XX

Not sure what separates something from being the Best Blog or Best Website (other than the obvious) but Gnome Stew made both lists.

Best Writing
Doctor Who: The Time Traveler’s Companion (Cubicle 7)
Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding (Kobold Press)
Never Unprepared: Guide to Session Prep (Engine Publishing)
Night’s Black Agents (Pelgrane Press)
Wolsung Steam Pulp Fantasy (Kuźnia Gier/Studio 2 Publishing)

Product of the Year
Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea (North Wind Adventures, LLC)
Broken Rooms (Greymalkin Designs, LLC)
Champions Complete (Hero Games)
Doctor Who: The Time Traveler’s Companion (Cubicle 7)
Experimental Paradigm of Cinematic Horror (EPOCH) (Imaginary Empire)
Iron Kingdoms (Privateer Press)
Menzoberranzen: City of Intrigue (Wizards of the Coast)
Night’s Black Agents (Pelgrane Press)
NPC Codex (Paizo Publishing)
Shadows of Esteren Book 1 (Agate Editions)

This one is always a hard call.  Nice to see AS&SH there.

Judges’ Spotlight Winners
Hooper - Leviathans (Catalyst Game Labs)
Matthew Muth - School Daze (Sand & Steam Productions)
Jakud Nowosad – Deniable Asset (Random Encounters)
Megan Robertson - Killshot: Director’s Cut (Broken Ruler Games)
Kurt Wiegel – Eldritch Skies (Battlefield Press, Inc.)

Nice to see Eldritch Skies get a nod.  I read through the drafts of it for Cine Unisystem content.

Another Award

I got another award this past week from K. D. Storm of "A Coffee Driven & Adventure Bound Life".

Here is the award:

To accept I have to answer 10 questions about me, 10 Random facts about me and pick 7 other bloggers to get this award.

Since I am all about building a community online I think it is a great idea.

The Ten Questions

1. What is your fave song? So many.  I love Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven".  Whenever Kansas' "Carry On Wayward Son" comes on I have to blast it.
2. Favorite Dessert? I am not a big dessert guy. But I love lemon flavored things.
3. What ticks you off? So much....but mostly People that waste my time.
4. When you're upset what do you do? I talk to my wife.  She is a great person to talk to and bring me back to reality.
5. What is your favorite pet? I am deathly allergic to animals. So no pets.
6. Which do you prefer black or white? Black. 
7. What is your biggest fear? Anything happening to my kids..
8. What is your attitude? Generally optimistic. 
9. What is perfection? An interesting concept, but nothing is ever perfect. 
10. What is your guilty pleasure? Playing 80s music in my car turned up to 11.

Ten Random Facts

1. My wife and I met out first week of college and were friends all throughout college.  We did not start dating till she moved 300 miles away.
2. In high school I hated writing. Now look at me.
3. And I was editor of my highschool news paper.
4. I am afraid of heights.  I am not too fond of rats either.
5. When I was younger I would sleep with my eyes open.
6. I learned the alphabet frontwards and backwards when I was 3, I can still recite it backwards as fast as frontwards.
7. Cottage Cheese makes me gag and I will throw up if I get too close to it.
8. I am in a Metalica video.
9. I am no longer allowed to play Star Wars Trivial Pursuit. 
10. I knew at a very early age I wanted to be a father, now I am and it is great!

Now Seven bloggers.  The trouble with this one is there are so many good ones out there.  I wanted to choose ones that were good, that I thought would appreciate this award and would in turn send it out to others.  Also I want to pick out blogs that I felt could use some extra exposure.  Plus they are an ecletic bunch.

*Pixies Don't Have Wings - Writer Buffy Armstrong's site.  It has been a great resource in looking at fae creatures a different way.

The Groovy Age of Horror - Horror movies and comics from a funkier time.  I love the overall feel of this blog and I come here for inspiration on my own horror themed games.

Space 1970 - A great site dedicated to SciFi of the 70s (well till 1983 with Return of the Jedi).  I grew up in the 70s and this site is a constant trip down Memory Lane-if Memory Lane was really a Hyperspace wormhole thing.

Propnomicon - pictures and posts on the creepiest props you will ever see.  Focused on the Lovecraft mythos, everything is here.

Precious Monsters - there are a lot of Paranormal/Urban Horror review sites out there, but I like this one the best.  Very edgy and has stuff the other sites don't.

Vibrant Oxymoron - A great Doctor Who and Star Trek site focusing on the classic series.  Awesome blog.

Cedar Valley Sustainable Farm - Ever wonder where your food comes from?  Not the folks at CVSF, they grow it, raise it and eat it all on their own.  Follow the story of what happens when two suburban professionals leave the Chicago suburbs to go live off the land.  I could not do what they do, but I do find it all very interesting.

There they are!  Please enjoy!

Awards

Back when the Other Side was just a website and not a blog, I used to get a lot of awards.

Sure they were really just means of getting someone to link back to your site, but I still treated them all like they  were special.  After-all, someone took the time to read through my site and thought it was good enough for an award or a least a link back.  I also had an award of my own I gave out (no, you can't sign up for it anymore).

Today's blog awards are not much different really, and that is fine.
But I did get this one and in a twist I am supposed to also give it to 15 other bloggers.  So in a way it is like an award chain letter.  I opted to go ahead and give it out, but with a twist of my own.  I wanted sites that were appealing to me either for their content, their design or some combination of the two.  I also was going to focus on blogs outside of the OSR/Gamin sphere since, well to be blunt, we all link to each other anyway.

I chose a lot of sites from writers of Paranormal Fiction or Young Adult Fiction.  I feel that these authors have the most to offer me in my own game-related writing.  I don't pretend to be, nor do I aspire to be, a novelist.  I write games.  I am a game designer.  But these sites help me think about how my games can be viewed from the character's perspective, and thus the player's.

So here is the One Lovely Blog Award.  Given to me by S. L. Hennessy at Pensuasion (BTW she got it from here, who got it from here, who got it from here...you get the idea.)

Here are the rules.  I'll give it 15 more people who in turn will link back to me and give to 15 others. Please post a comment in the person's blog to let them know they got the award, just as I am doing with you.

I am not sure why I got a "Lovely" award; the aesthetics of my site tend more towards pragmatic rather than attractive.  But hey. I am not complaining.  These sites do look nice, or at lease they appeal to me.

1. Bobert the Hoosier expatriate - Bob is a long time friend and YA author. 
2. Space 1970 - one of the most awesome sites on the net.  Love the late 70s and SciFi? Then go here, now.
3. Propnomicon - Lovecraft inspired props. Creepycool!
4. Stargazer's World - A great looking RPG site.  The author has spent a lot of time to make it look good.
5. Rather Gamey - quirky game site with some great art and commentary. 
6. Unedited by Jennifer Daiker - Author and Blogger with a lot to say.  Love how her site looks.
7. Creepy Query Girl - Mother, Author and creepy stalker?  Maybe not yet, but a cool blog about getting your books published.
8. A Writer's Journey - Melissa Cunningham is an author and book reviewer.  
9. Ciara Knight - is another author with a great looking site. Plenty of guest posters keep the blog fresh.
10. Susan Fields - Great writer, but don't touch her coffee.
11. Nicki Elson - Interviews, review and author commentary.
12. Bang out the Prose - Suz Korb is newer to the writing scene but she is working getting her rough draft done.
13. Who can Turn the World off With Her Smile - one of my favorite names for a blog. Great movie love here. 
14. That's All She Wrote! - Julie is a new writer working on her first book.  She is also a high school classmate of mine so I want to give her encouragement to keep on writing!
15. The Last Witch series - Elizabeth Kolodziej's blog dedicated to her books in the Last Witch series. 

There they are!  Please visit them and have a look at what they have to say.