Announcing the Tabletop Awards, a new celebration of the year’s best board games, RPGs and the people who make them
Have your say by voting for our first People’s Choice award!
Dicebreaker is excited to announce a brand new event: the Tabletop Awards!
The Tabletop Awards are a new set of annual awards aimed at celebrating the very best that the tabletop industry has to offer, from the greatest games of the year to the individuals and teams responsible for bringing them to life.
In keeping with Dicebreaker’s championing of groundbreaking games and creators both big and small, the Tabletop Awards will recognise both established and emerging talent in the industry, as well as games across a number of categories. In future years, we hope to introduce further categories to shine a spotlight on even more of the industry and the often unsung creators who work on every game.
Leading the Tabletop Awards 2022 categories are Best Board Game and Best Roleplaying Game, which will recognise the best standalone board game release and tabletop RPG release - whether a core rulebook or supplement - of the last 12 months.
A separate award will recognise Best Ongoing Card Game, open to core sets and expansions for card games that see continued periodic releases, such as trading card games, collectible card games, living card games and other expandable card games. Self-contained card games that include everything in one box, such as deckbuilding games, will be eligible for the Best Board Game category.
Nominations for the Tabletop Awards 2022 will be open until midnight on November 14th 2022. Publishers can find out more and submit their game for nomination via the Tabletop Awards website. Nominations are open to any game released during 2022. (For crowdfunded games, this means fulfilled to backers - basically, if players could actually get their hands on the game and play it this year, it counts!)
As well as celebrating the best board games and tabletop RPGs of the year, the Tabletop Awards will also look to recognise the people behind the games. The Designer of the Year category will celebrate a game designer from the industry who champions excellence and innovation in their designs, while Publisher of the Year will award the team behind one or more of the year’s standout titles. These categories will be open to designers and publishers who have released at least three published titles during their lifetime.
Up-and-coming creators already making a mark on the tabletop industry will be separately recognised in two Rising Star awards for Rising Star: Designer and Rising Star: Publisher. Nominees will be eligible for the Rising Star categories if they have released fewer than three published titles to date.
Designers and publishers can nominate themselves or their peers for the designer and publisher awards via the Tabletop Awards website.
The Tabletop Awards will be judged by a jury of industry experts made up of journalists and other influencers (including the Dicebreaker team), designers, publishers and other members of the tabletop industry, including artists, developers and more. Like the awards, the jury aims to reflect the width and depth of the tabletop industry, spanning both established creators and indie trailblazers alongside those who critically analyse and cover their games. The jury is committed to including voices from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences to reflect the modern face of tabletop gaming. If you are a member of the tabletop industry interested in being a part of the Tabletop Awards jury, please email awards@dicebreaker.com.
It won’t all be down to our panel of experts, however. The Tabletop Awards will include a People’s Choice award, voted for by the public. Voting is open now and will run until November 29th. Voters can vote for their favourite tabletop game of the year via the Tabletop Awards website - or using the form below! - with the overall winner announced during the Tabletop Awards 2022 ceremony.
The Tabletop Awards 2022 winners will be revealed on the Main Theater stage of PAX Unplugged at 12.30pm ET on Friday December 2nd. The ceremony during the board game convention will directly follow this year’s opening Storytime Keynote by the McElroy brothers Travis and Griffin, stars of hit RPG actual play series The Adventure Zone.
Following the on-stage announcement, the full list of Tabletop Awards 2022 winners will be posted to tabletopawards.com.