Dicebreaker’s Tabletop Awards have completed their second edition with the 2023 event held at PAX Unplugged distinguishing publishers, designers, and artists. Importantly, this now-annual event has paid close attention to categories that have been often overlooked in other similar formats, using the Tabletop Awards 2023 to distinguish companies and individuals who play a significant role in popularizing the hobby.
Find the Names of the Winners for the Tabletop Awards 2023
The event featured 9 categories, dozens of nominees, and many expected and unexpected winners. Going from top to bottom, the awards distinguished Hot Banana Games in the Rising Star: Publisher category with the company going up against the likes of Hegemonic Project Games, Birdwood Games, The Wanderer’s Tome, and others.
Hot Banana Games was distinguished for its Steam Up: A Feast of Dim Sum title. Rising Star: Designer was secured by Cassi Mothwin for her work on Clean Spirit and The Sticker Game. She went up against Seb Pines, DeAngelo Murillo, Fleit Detrik, and other distinguished designers from space.
Publisher of the Year went to Restoration Games, for their work on excellent games, including Return to Dark Tower, Unmatched, and some of the best racing games, to wit Downforce and Thunder Road: Vendetta.
Designer of the Year was not too surprisingly awarded to a pair of military guys, with David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin winning for their War Chest, Undaunted and General Orders: World War II series.
Thompson and Benjamin have been surprisingly successful in designing clever war games that appeal to all players and come in varying levels of difficulty, but always on point when it comes down to strategic depth.
The pair edged out Vangelis Bagiartakis, Will Jobst, Birgitte Winter, and John D. Clair. The Best Art accolade went to Eli Baum and Viv Tanner for their work on Sefirot published by Causa Creations.
One of the entries we found to be rather undeservingly praised, despite its merits, was Disney Lorcana: The First Chapter which won in Best Ongoing Card Game and went up against the usual suspects, Magic: The Gathering – The Lord of the Rings Tales of Middle-earth, Flesh, and Blood: Bright Lights, and so on.
To us, Magic: The Gathering was the better contender, albeit Disney Lorcana does have a clear merit as a brand-new system if finding the cards have become something of a nightmare due to scalpers. In Best Roleplaying Game, Women Are Werewolves by C.A.S. Taylor and Yeonsoo Julian Kim win the distinction. Suffice it to say that this was one of the most heavily contested fields.
Then came the long-anticipated category – Best Board Game in which designer Luc Rémond and publisher Scorpion Masqué grabbed the distinction for Sky Team, edging out Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory and Queen by Midnight.
All three are fantastic games indeed, but we rooted for Hegemony. Then came the most exciting category, the People’s Choice, which was determined by the audiences and players themselves. The distinction went to Fabula Ultimata, an RPG by Need Games, a great milestone winning the hearts and minds of players.