Cheers of joy were certainly mixed with groans of “brains!” when the Judge’s Choice Ennie awards were given out at Gen Con 2011. A Judge’s Choice award is given when the judges can’t agree on a top product, forcing each judge to give an individual award to his personal favorite among the hundreds of submissions. In this case Judge Wil Upchurch (of influential Star Wars: The Role Playing Game fame) gave his award to Outbreak: Undead, the very first product by start up company Hunters Books and Apparel.

On August 9, 2011, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) announced the official winners of the Neverwinter Mass Adventure at Gen Con 2011 to be the drow (dark elf, right side of the photo) mercenaries of the Bregan D’aerthe faction.

The competition was held between three factions: The warrior (center) faction of New Neverwinter was a close second place, while the evil wizards of Thay were a distant last place. I’m glad to hear only a small minority of people want to be power-hungry wizards willing to sacrifice any number of innocents for personal gain, although 18% is still a bit high for my taste.

Perhaps the most glaring omission from 4e Dungeons and Dragons (4e D&D) was a popular game location. Third edition D&D had Eberron, and older editions had the City of Greyhawk and Skullport, but nothing published so far has really resonated with the fans of 4e D&D, to set it apart from being just a generic fantasy game.

Taking cue from complaints (and from Dungeons and Dragons), Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) is re-releasing Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay as a 3 volume set: the Creature Guide , the Player’s Guide and the Game Master’s Guide . Player’s Vault and Creature Vault contain all the cards and tokens and sheets that were in the original game, for those that don’t want to write everything down by hand.

Perhaps the biggest news from Gen Con was Wizard of the Coast’s (WotC’s) planned changes to 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons, turning it into Dungeons and Dragons Essentials, a simpler and more streamlined version of the game.

The most easily seen change in the new version is more straightforward character development, making it easier for players to advance their characters as they level. There are many other differences as well including new magic item rarities (no longer can all items be easily be made by players) and new rules and guidelines for monsters.

The story about Christians Children’s Fund refusual to accept a charitable donation from Gen Con because of Gen Con’s relationship to Dungeons & Dragons has resulted in some bad publicity for CCF. Gen Con has decided to clear up this issue once and for all.

Jeannette LeGault, the Director of Event Planning for Gen Con wrote a lengthy statement on the Gen Con forums explaining that CCF did not refuse the donation. Gen Con simply chose another charity after some confusion arose. Here’s the breakdown of the incident…