2015 BAMFSIES AWARDS ANNOUNCED

Gamers Choice Award  - Worlds in Peril
With a whopping 31% of the vote, Worlds in Peril is the 2015 Bamfsie Gamer's Choice pick.

Best "I Have to Play This" Game - Worlds in Peril

Chris Helton says: Worlds In Peril is the game that opened up my eyes to the potential of the Apocalypse Engine rules. Well written, and with great production values, this game sucked me in and made me want to play it.

Best "Bad Is Better Than Good" Product - Necessary Evil 2:Breakout

Sean Patrick Fannon says: A prequel for the fascinating story of villains forced to fight overpowering aliens for the sake of the Earth, this one calls back to great sources like "Escape from New York" and the Batman storyline, No Man's Land.

Best Continuity/Sequel Product - AMP: Year Two

Tommy Brownell says: The follow-up to AMP: Year One, Year Two advanced the timeline past the world-altering events of Year One, and set up an almost Days of Future Past-like situation in which AMPs were hunted by militarized police forces and enslaved AMPs who tracked them in the streets. New factions rose up, and the setting continued to fill with secrets. Hints of mysticism even appeared in the timeline of this one. A worthy continuation of Year One, the world of Year Two seems more gameable than Year One does, as the factions jockey for position. Normal humans (Saps) also became playable for the first time, and the Kickstarter unlocked the first factions books, which provide additional world details and powers.

Sean Patrick Fannon says: Some games do work well with a metaplot, and the AMP series from Third Eye is one of them. The ongoing continuity is used to introduce new developments - including powers, factions, and stories - for a supers campaign that examines what happens when folks first start getting paranormal abilities.

Best "Return to My Childhood" Products - Cartoon Action Hour, Series 3

Sean Patrick Fannon says: With new products like FLAG Force, Galactic Heroes, Wasteland, and Hexslinger, Spectrum continues to line up multiple cereal-binge worthy games that make every action hero a superhero. Can't want to see someone link them all together into one Super Saturday Spectacular Event ... thing!

Best "History Is Fun!" Product - Larger Than Life, BlackWyrm Games

Sean Patrick Fannon says: No one loves supers more than Michael Surbrook, and he delivered a powerful product that faithfully recreates some of the greatest myths and legends of American folklore for multiple supers games.

Best Callback to Old School Supers  - G-Core Line

Sean Patrick Fannon says: There are a lot of retroclones for FASERIP out there, but Dilly Green's been putting out a lot of good, solid, new material for the Old School Game that so many still adore.

Most Anticipated/Well-Delivered Supers Product -Mutants and Masterminds Cosmic Handbook

Steve Trustrum says: I've always been a fan of Green Lantern, Nova, and Rom, so a book that covers super-hero adventures in space already has a thumbs up from me. Inside is an extended measurement table for covering cosmic scales, as well as new rules for cosmic / godly beings, as well as notes for bring other powers onto the cosmic stage. As much as I appreciate these aspects, it is the book's crunch -- suggestions on running cosmic games, the problems characters face while doing so, and how to run a cosmic series -- that really make it stand out.

Sean Patrick Fannon says: Gorgeous, as all of their books for Mutants & Masterminds are, and this one delivers on something that fans have been waiting for over a fairly long period of time.

Coolest Idea for Source Material - Ad Infinitum's ICONS A to Z line

Steve Trustrum says: A line of products covering subjects alphabetically, I've found each release to push the overall usability of ICONS that much more forward. "H" covers headquarters, for example, and "T" brings up new content for super-teams. Each fleshes out questions left by the core rules or covers areas begging to be built upon, combining to make this already-spectacular game line that much more interesting and fun. I consider the product line essential for anyone playing ICONS.

Sean Patrick Fannon says: Seriously, a new product, in constant flow, and each one expands on the core ICONS game experience. Clever idea, excellent execution.

Best Constant Source of Super Stuff - TIED: Rogue Genius Games and Vigilance Press

Sean Patrick Fannon says: Both are constantly putting out villains and other source material for systems like ICONS and M&M, with new products at least every month, and sometimes weekly.

2015 Hall of Fame Pick: Necessary Evil

Tommy Brownell says: The original Necessary Evil campaign for Savage Worlds proved to be the single greatest campaign I have ran. Now, part of that is obviously going to require the right players for the game, but the story of villains realizing they are the only hope the world has in the face of alien enslavement was fantastic. The Super Powers system is actually my preferred powers system for Savage Worlds, and the campaign was robust enough that we played it extensively, while still being loose enough that I could insert several of my own adventures (including a trip to Russia, and a throwdown with an Atlantean God). 

We laughed, we cried, we became very attached to our characters (I don't often see players burning through their bennies to help an NPC repeatedly reroll a Vigor roll to keep from dying, but I saw it in this game...and the player in question wound up having to fight his archnemesis without powers or bennies right after). Like I said, my favorite campaign that I have ran, and one of my favorite purchases of all time and truly, in my opinion, worthy of a Hall of Fame selection.