The Diana Jones Award is an annual award for "excellence in gaming". The original award was made from a burned book encased in lucite.[1] The award is unusual in two ways: first, it is not an award for a specific class of thing, but can be awarded to a person, product, publication, company, organization, event or trend – anything related to gaming; second, it does not count popularity or commercial success as a sign of "excellence".[2] The award was first presented in 2001.[3]
Nominees are circulated during the year to the committee, which is mostly anonymous but which is known to include Peter Adkison, Matt Forbeck, John Kovalic and James Wallis.[4] The committee is anonymous to protect the voting process from interference, but individual judges are free to reveal themselves.[2] The committee releases a shortlist of three to seven nominees[2] in spring, and the award is presented to the winner at Gen Con in Indianapolis in August.
History
The Diana Jones trophy was originally created as a keepsake in the UK offices of TSR in the mid 1980s to commemorate the ending of their license to publish The Adventures of Indiana Jones Role-Playing Game.[5] The trophy itself was a lucite pyramid containing the burnt remains of the last unsold copy of the game; all that was legible of the title was "diana Jones".[5] (There is no relation of the award with fantasy author Diana Wynne Jones.) The trophy was "liberated" and eventually ended up with the Diana Jones committee.[6] The destruction of "one of the least-loved and critically savaged games of all time" was seen an appropriate symbol for an award for excellence in gaming.[2][7] The trophy also contains a counter that reads "Nazi™" from the game.[8] While the trademark claim was present at Lucasfilm's insistence, it led to rumors that TSR had tried to trademark the term.[8]
In October 2021, it was announced that the physical award had been lost in transit. A committee member stated "Perhaps it now sits in a box inside a warehouse somewhere, as forgotten and unappreciated as the Ark of the Covenant at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark." A new physical award was debuted in 2022, and the committee announced the launch of a new award, the Diana Jones Emerging Designer Program.[9][10]
The Diana Jones Committee became a 501(c)(3) registered charity in 2023.[11]
2017: Gen Con, the game convention where the Diana Jones Award is presented
2018: Actual Play, the "movement within hobby games in which people record and broadcast their game sessions — particularly campaigns of tabletop roleplaying games — over the internet"[17]
2020: Black Excellence in Gaming, awarded to more than two dozen black professionals including Omari Akil, Maurice Broaddus, Allie Bustion, Tanya DePass, Brandon Dixon, Julia B. Ellingboe, Jerry Grayson, Shareef Jackson, Cliff “CJ” Jones, Eric Lang, Eloy Lasanta, Rich Lescouflair, Brandon O’Brien, Cody Pondsmith, Mike Pondsmith, Marcus Ross and Cara Michele Ryan, Laura Simpson, Chris Spivey, Bryan Tillman, Allen Turner, Aaron Trammell, Jabari Weathers, Travis Williams, and Camdon Wright.[19][20]
2021: NIBCARD Games, "A strong and original voice in publishing, creating a community of new makers and players across Africa and setting an example to the rest of the world of how to use games to make a difference."[21]
2022: Ajit George, for his activism in advocating for a more representative and diverse hobby games industry.[22]
2023: The Coyote & Crow roleplaying game, created by designer Connor Alexander of Coyote & Crow games.[23]
2024:United Paizo Workers, a union of workers at Paizo.[24]
Emerging Designer Program winners
The Diana Jones Emerging Designer Program is awarded to "rising and impactful talent in the analog tabletop/hobby games industry" and aims to amplify "the voices of up-and-coming designers with a focus on creators from marginalized communities".[25] It was launched in 2021.[25] Since 2023, the program was awarded to four winners.[26]
^ ab"JAMES WALLIS: ...Eventually the Lucasfilm license expires and is not renewed. The word comes down from TSR head office to TSR UK that all unsold copies are to be destroyed, as per the terms of the license. The guys at TSR UK... got the final unsold copy and they destroyed it.... in strategic ways, by singeing bits of it. They took the singed remains, which included the logo, from which they'd burned the first two letters, to turn it from 'Indiana Jones' to 'Diana Jones,' and they encased these remains in a Perspex pyramid." (Laws 2007, p 139)
^"JAMES WALLIS: ... let's just say it was liberated from TSR UK by persons unnamed, and made its ways into the hands of the committee...." (Laws 2007, p 137)
^"JAMES WALLIS: ... a trophy that symbolizes the destruction of one of the least-loved and critically savaged games of all time would make suitable symbol for an award that celebrated excellence in gaming." (Laws 2007, p 137)
^ ab"MATT FORBECK:...the last copy of the Indiana Jones roleplaying games.... It actually has one of the legendary counters in it that reads 'Nazi™.' Which apparently was not TSR's idea, but Lucasfilm insisted that everything that appeared in the game have a "TM" next to it." (Laws 2007, p 139)
