Blood Rage, Scythe and Star Wars: Rebellion lead Origins Awards nominees

The Origins Awards are among the most prestigious accolades in gaming, held yearly since 1975 at the titular fair and recognising some of the best design work that the tabletop has to offer.

Past winners include now established classics Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, Settlers of Catan, Risk, Magic: The Gathering, Cosmic Encounter and both the fantasy and sci-fi incarnations of Warhammer, to name just a few, meaning that the nominees and winners alike are worth paying attention to – you might just be seeing the next wave of all-time favourites.

The award categories have expanded drastically since they first appeared, now celebrating genres such as family titles, collectible card games, board games, RPGs and even tabletop accessories separately.

This year’s hopefuls include some of the last year’s most acclaimed games, including Eric Lang’s Blood Rage, Scythe, Terraforming Mars, the second edition of Mansions of Madness, Uwe Rosenberg’s A Feast for Odin and Star Wars spin-off Rebellion in the board game shortlist alone.

Star Wars also has a strong showing in the Best Roleplaying Game line-up, with both The Force Awakens and Edge of the Empire RPGs from Fantasy Flight making the cut.

The winners of the seven categories are decided by the members of the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design, with an additional category voted for by the public at Origins to decide their fan favourite.

The awards ceremony will be held and winners announced on June 17th.