I was going to be all smooth and post the Origins Awards results live as they happened from the ballroom, but you can't get signal in the ballroom... I'd have to sit in the hallway to be online. Well, OK.

Game Aid/Accessory: Gamemastering Secrets, Gray Ghost Press
Play-By-Mail: Button Men Web Page, Cheapass Games
Periodical: Dork Tower
Game Fiction (Short): "Enemy Healer," Mage Knight Collectors Guide
Game Fiction (Long): Ghost War (MW Dark Age)
Game Fiction (Graphic): Dork Tower #19, "Understanding Gamers"
Vanguard Award: Diceland, Cheapass Games
Historical Mini Series: Crusader Range, Griffin
Historical Mini: Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, Noble
Historical Mini Rules: Kampfgruppe Commander, Sovereign Games
SciFi/Fantasy Mini Series: MechWarrior: Dark Age, WizKids
SciFi/Fantasy Mini: Marvel HeroClix Sentinel, WizKids
SciFi/Fantasy Mini Rules: LotR The Two Towers, Games Workshop
Hall of Fame: Warhammer
Vanguard Award: Warchon, Z-Man Games
Card Game Supplement: Munchkin 2, SJG
CCG: Game of Thrones, Fantasy Flight
Traditional Card: Star Munchkin, SJG
Historical Board: Sid Meier's Civilization, Eagle
SciFi/Fantasy Board: Marvel HeroClix, WizKids
Board Game Expansion: HeroClix Clobberin Time, WizKids
Abstract Board: Kingdoms, Fantasy Flight
Hall of Fame: John Kovalic
Graphic Presentation, Board: MK Dungeons, WizKids
Graphic Presentation, Book Format: Nobilis, 2nd Edition
Graphic Presentation, Card: Chez Greek
Illustration: MK Dark Age Starter Box Covers, WizKids
Hall of Fame: David "Zeb" Cook
Roleplaying Supplement: Celtic Age, Avalanche Press
Roleplaying Adventure: City of the Spider Queen, WotC
Roleplaying Game: Lord of the Rings, Decipher
Game of the Year: MechWarrior Dark Age, WizKids


For further details on presenters, acceptance speeches, and outfits, click Read More.

(All uncredited quotations are James Ernest's.)

James Ernest and Carrie Dobro (of B5 Crusade) co-host. They are making a joke of reading really bad scripted cohost banter. Now they are improvising, or at least not acting like bad actors, and it is still nearly as unfunny. Wait, maybe James isn't cohosting after all, Carrie just dismissed him.

Game Aid: big cheer for Bag O Zombies. Bigger cheer for MK artifacts.

OMG, Nicole Lindroos and a child of unknown origin are Vanna-ing the trophies! [update: as I should have surmised, that was Nicole's daughter Kate, but Pramas seemed to be amused by "child of unknown origin" so I'll leave it.]

Carrie is mispronouncing stuff a lot and openly professing not to get any of the jokes.

John K got choked up. That's sweet.

Now Ernest is taking over again. Anthony Gallela is MC'ing a little enthusiastically. He's got the voice though.

Big cheer for everything WizKids. It may just be a sweep.

"Graphic fiction. It's like words... and pictures."

Vanguard Award, created when Button Men, which has no board, won Best Abstract Board Game. It honors great games that bust categories. This year is the first time the Academy decided to award it; there are two of them this year.

"Anthony tried to keep this [knowledge of the Vanguard Award] from me, because he likes surprises. I found out anyway, because I hate surprises. So let this be a lesson to Anthony: hate will always win."

Andy Chambers presenting historical miniatures?!?!?

A videotaped eulogy for the late industry stalwart Chris Bledsoe.

Did Chambers just say, "the winner is, appallingly enough, MechWarrior Dark Age"?? Not sure I heard him correctly.

Yeah, now I'm pretty sure I did. "And I'm astoundingly happy to announce that the winner is... *sigh* Marvel HeroClix Sentinel." Chambers' conflict of interest presenting these guys is a joke already, so it's classically British to bring it to the fore. Of course, Ernest has been doing it for years, but he doesn't have the accent.

Tim Lee of Z-Man Games [update: actually Z-Man president Zev Shlasinger, and the designer's name is Tony Lee anyway]: "I'm thrilled to receive this award for Warchon. I'd be even more thrilled to be receiving orders for Warchon."

Ernest, impersonating Chambers accepting the Hall of Fame award:
"The GW person who really deserves this award gave me a message to give you: 'Sod off, Yanks.' " A Calliope is then thrown at Ernest from offstage.

From Gallela's script for the CCG award: "A brain, a deck, and a friend: one out of three is enough."

Carrie Dobro: "HeroClix, or, as someone tried to get me to say it, her-OH-clix..."

Mike Selinker of WotC eulogizes legendary game designer/collector Sid Sackson and former WotC brand manager/nascent designer Paul Randles.

Lots of crowd support for Twilight Creations. Hmm.

Granted, I'm assuming Gallela wrote the scripts from the comments of others, but he's now making fun of himself in his own announcements of presenters.

Mike Stackpole on John Kovalic: "Notable in the industry for continuing to work with Steve Jackson even though the rest of us refuse."

John K: "I want to tell all of you how much joy your creations have brought, to me and so many other socially awkward dorks."

Standing O for Zeb Cook as he... does not approach the stage, someone's taking his place. But, standing O.

Gallela claims to be naked behind the announcer's curtain. Oy vey.

That's all, folks. G'night.