Ramanan Sivaranjan Awards for Excellence in Gaming 2026

I just got back from Ottawa for work. I fly out to Victoria tomorrow to enjoy the sights of the West Coast. The summer is rushing by and I have been quite busy. How is it already GenCon?

I feel particularly disconnected from the Ennies this year. I recognized so few games and people in the list of nominations. Maybe that’s how you felt too, why you are reading this post. I am an old man now: the Teen Choice Awards of the RPG industry just aren’t for me.

My job remains more than a little bit unrelenting. As in years past, this business and stress translates into rampant consumerism. Who can resist the joy of buying something to make yourself feel good? Certainly not me! The long list for the awards was the longest it’s been since these awards began. Pruning that down to a short list, and then to the books you see below proved to be an agonizing battle. There are books that almost certainly could have earned a top spot had they arrived at a different point in time. That’s often how it goes sometimes.

As always, there is only one rule when it comes to these awards: the books in contention must have arrived at my doorstep, or digitally in my inbox, during 2025. Let’s fucking go!

Best Grotty British Nonsense: Swyvers by Luke Gearing and David Hoskins

There is something weirdly captivating about Swyvers, Luke Gearing’s game about crap-sack fantasy London. David Hoskins’s illustrations bring this weird world to life. I can’t imagine the book illustrated by anyone else. It’s amazing when you have such a great pairing of words and art. Swyvers is a weird messy game. One day I’ll write more about it. Till then this is me letting you know just how much I enjoyed it.

Best Wargame: Trench Crusade by Mike Franchina, James Sherriff, and Tuomas Pirinen

These awards started their life focused on RPGs, but as the years have passed I spend more and more time playing wargames. In that space, Trench Crusade is a revelation. Mike Franchina’s dark vision of a demon infested First World War is weirdly captivating. His art is incredible. The games rulebook is beautiful. The care and attention that has gone into producing the game is visible for all to see. And most important of all, the game itself is fun! Pirinen has done it again.

The Ramanan Sivaranjan Excellence in Gaming Best God Damn Books of 2025: Mythic Bastionland by Chris McDowall, illustrated by Alec Sorensen

If you have paying attention no doubt you could have seen this coming. Mythic Bastionland is seemingly everywhere, its success visible for all to see. I have been a fan of Chris’s games for many years now, but this game feels special, the culmination of a decades long journey. I ran several sessions of Mythic Bastionland for my friends and it was such a joy to play. The campaign was only torpedoed by my terrible work schedule. Mythic Bastionland lives up to all its hype. As always, Alec Sorensen’s artwork elevates the whole affair. What a wonderful game.

Honourable Mentions

I’m sure I’ll look back years from now and wonder why the Cairn 2e Boxed Set by Yochai Gal didn’t win an award.¹ He jammed the OSR in a box for us all to enjoy. I also loved Crown of Salt by Tania Herrero, MAC Attack by Chris McDowall and Amanda Lee Franck, Nirvana on Fire by David Kenny and Jérôme Berthier, The Perilous Void by Jason Lutes, Prismatic Wisdom by W. F. Smith, Space Gits by Mike Hutchinson, Stay Frosty Remastered by Casey Garske, and Tiny Fables by Josiah Moore. There are so many treasures here.