July 22, 2010: Diana Jones Nominations

The nominations for the Diana Jones Awards have been announced. In addition to Chaos in the Old World, Kagematsu, and Montsegur 1244, a website is on the short list: BoardGameGeek.

(For those not familiar with Diana Jones, it's an award for excellence in hobby gaming, and the trophy has an awesome origin story.)

BoardGameGeek sees a good deal of use here in the office, as our conversations often veer into the realm of barely remembered games and mechanics. BGG is a great resource for finding that long-out-of-print rulesheet, getting strategy advice for the newest release, and just discovering others in your area with similar gaming tastes.Recently they've duplicated their infrastructure to cover RPGs (rpg.geekdo.com) and are now working on a video game version.

While I'm not as familiar with the other nominees as I'd like to be, I can without hesitation recommend BGG to any gamer. It is an invaluable resource for any hobby gamer, from the "I've only played Monopoly" to the grognards who hang around here.

-- Paul Chapman