Teatime Adventures studio introduces awards for nonbinary representation in RPGs and board games
"We hope that this program gives more folks in the industry the recognition that they deserve, because there is so much amazing work in tabletop that is going underappreciated right now."
A new tabletop hobby award will spotlight board games and RPGs that uplift nonbinary identities and push advocacy for this gender identity forward. The Nonbinary Tabletop Awards has opened its submissions and will accept nominations through November 17th.
The Nonbinary Tabletop Awards was created by Snowbright Studio, the queer design outfit responsible for cosy biccies-and-dice RPG Teatime Adventures, and 2023 will mark its inaugural year. The goal is to find recent titles that “[uplift] nonbinary gender representation and advocacy in tabletop games” and spread some well-deserved praise amongst those selected in five awards categories.
““This program is a big step for us toward fulfilling our studio’s vision of being a place that does more than create heartwarming games. We’re here to be an advocate and uplift others,” said Grace Collins, Snowbright’s CEO, in a press release. “We hope that this program gives more folks in the industry the recognition that they deserve, because there is so much amazing work in tabletop that is going underappreciated right now.”
Nominations opened on October 6th via Snowbright Studio’s website, and they will be accepting submissions through November 17th - studios can self-nominate their own creations, if desired. Titles that put their name in the ring will be evaluated according to their “representation, support and/or impact on the nonbinary community” and must have been published between October 2022 and October 2023. The team or artists involved don’t necessarily have to identify as nonbinary if their work furthers representation or support in any way.
The five categories where tabletop titles may be nominated are Advocacy, Art, Content Creation, Game Design and Writing. The judges will pull three submissions from the crowd of nominees to shortlist for each award. Winners will be featured in Snowbright’s Cozy Companion magazine along with earning a cash prize (no amount was listed in the press release).
While the tabletop industry boasts plenty of awards and honours that highlight quality of design, presentation, art and ingenuity (Dicebreaker’s own Tabletop Awards has returned for 2023), bestowing laurels on titles that consciously move the needle on queer representation helps create space in a hobby that - at its worst - can be an antagonistic or outright hostile space to nonwhite, nonmale-presenting people. More information about the Nonbinary Tabletop Awards, including the submission link, can be found on Snowbright Studio’s website.