The 2007 Diana Jones Award winner was announced at the annual industry-only award gathering, and White Wolf’s The Great Pendragon Campaign by Greg Stafford is this year’s big winner. From the press release:
“In terms of sheer scope alone, Greg Stafford’s Great Pendragon Campaign breaks new ground, presenting almost a century’s worth of continuous story with gemlike clarity; in almost fractal fashion, any given year can become its own campaign.”
Other nominees were Atlas Games’ Pieces of Eight by Jeff Tidball, and Stefan Pokorny, master sculptor and painter behind the Master Maze miniature dungeons from Dwarven Forge.
Diana Jones press release follows:
2007 Diana Jones Award goes to ‘Great Pendragon Campaign’
Industry Legend Wins Award ‘For Excellence in Gaming’
16th August 2007, Indianapolis:
The 2007 Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming has been given to The Great Pendragon Campaign, a RPG campaign book by Greg Stafford, published by White Wolf.
The winner was announced at a ceremony packed with games industry professionals, from designers to publishers and distributors, held at Jillian’s in Indianapolis at 9pm on Wednesday 15th August, the day before the opening of the games convention Gen Con Indianapolis.
In terms of sheer scope alone, Greg Stafford’s Great Pendragon Campaign breaks new ground, presenting almost a century’s worth of continuous story with gemlike clarity; in almost fractal fashion, any given year can become its own campaign. Its greatest structural successes are those of Stafford’s Pendragon: a superbly compact yet never sketchy adventure format, seamless hard-wiring of characters into setting and continuity, and unprecedented emphasis on epic, generational storytelling. Thematically, it is a triumph of Arthurian art, the roleplaying form’s equivalent of Tennyson’s “The Idylls of the King” or Wagner’s “Parsifal”—a brilliant personal engagement with one of the foundation myths of Western fantasy.
Greg Stafford has worked in the hobby-games industry since 1975, when he founded the publishing company Chaosium. His seminal game RuneQuest was released in 1978, and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential and inspirational designers in the history of the RPG field.
Also shortlisted for the Diana Jones Award this year were the pirate-based coin-game Pieces of Eight designed by Jeff Tidball and published by Atlas Games; and Stefan Pokorny, the creator, sculptor and painter of the Master Maze line of miniature terrain from Dwarven Forge.
The Diana Jones Award is given annually to whatever in the opinion of its mostly-anonymous committee shows or exemplifies gaming at its best. Anyone and anything within the games industry and hobby is eligible to win the Diana Jones Award, including individuals, products, publications, publishers, distributors, retailers, clubs, organisations, conventions, events, trends, innovations and concepts. Previous winners include Peter Adkison and Jordan Weisman, the RPGs Nobilis, Sorcerer and My Life with Master, and the boardgame Ticket to Ride.
For more information please contact James Wallis:
james@erstwhile.demon.co.uk
Contact the Diana Jones Award committee: committee@dianajonesaward.org
More information on the award: http://www.dianajonesaward.org