These Are the TTRPGs Up For ‘Best Rules’ at the 2023 ENnies
Voting is still open for the 2023 ENnies. And today we’re looking at the five nominees for Best Rules at the 2023 ENnies.
The ENnies recognize tabletop games across a wide variety of categories. But one of the places where some of the best design work gets showcased is in the Best Rules category. This looks at how a game plays and what it brings to the table, mechanically.
And for the 2023 ENnies, the nominees for Best Rules really stand out among the crowd. There are five nominees all in all, and we’re going to take a brief look at each of them.
Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game
Avatar Legends: The RPG is one of our favorites here at BoLS. This ambitious title tackles the expansive world of the Four Nations as outlined in Avatar: the Last Airbender and Avatar: the Legend of Korra and their expanded universe.
Avatar Legends puts the familiar rules of the Powered by the Apocalypse framework through the paces with some innovative new takes on how to handle Elemental Bending and the different ways combat plays out. But more impressive are the ways that the system tackles the internal conflicts of characters – a character pulled between two different aims/emotions, is tricky to design for, but they’ve done it.
Traveller‘s High Guard Update 2022
High Guard Update 2022 is a massive expansion to a classic RPG, Traveller. This update includes all sorts of rules for the modern Traveller game, including much-looked-for rules for designing, building, and operating your own starship. It’s not often you see a rules system that handles everything from starfighters through military capital ships and even massive megafreighters.
With a detailed system of traits that can be engineered out to all sorts of ships, this is both flexible and crunchy enough to satisfy. Fans of the original Traveller will really love the dogfighting and capital ship engagement rules.
Hunter: the Reckoning 5th Edition Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
Hunter: the Reckoning is a game about bringing a little bit of light to the World of Darkness. But it also straddles a very difficult line, because it’s the game where you play as just plain humans in a world populated with Vampires and Werewolves and worse lurking in the shadows.
It’s not easy to represent frail mortals who have a fighting chance against the undead, but that’s what Hunter tries to tackle with its latest expansion. It fits into the 5th Edition World of Darkness Storytelling system quite well, with some much-needed updates for a fan-favorite sourcebook.
Rivers of London: The Roleplaying Game
Rivers of London is an amazing series, and the RPG takes you completely into the setting. Players take on the role of members of the London Metropolitan Police’s magical division, known best as “the Folly” and are charged with solving magical mysteries and crimes in a secret London. You know the drill.
These rules are designed to take on mysteries and investigations, while also taking on the “Newtonian” magic system outlined in the novels. RoL takes the d100 system familiar to players of Call of Cthulhu and riffs on it in some exciting new directions.
Trophy RPG Box Set
Finally the Trophy RPG Box Set. Trophy is a dark fantasy horror game that takes a lot of inspiration from Cthulhu Dark to tell a tale of “dark forests, doomed treasure-hunters, and a world woven on a loom of rumor, history, and myth.” Which mostly translates to a fast-to-play but surprisingly deep mechanic that spirals into mounting horror and dread.
The forest reclaims its own, and this is a game where characters die and it’s not unexpected. But it’s also a game of sacrifice and sabotage. The mechanics for falling into ruin and staving off your own personal demise by sacrificing to the forest really plays into the theme of the game, to make a horror game that actually feels a bit scary.
Don’t forget to vote in the ENnies
Which of these have YOU played? What did you think of their rules?
