The Goodie Awards: our annual Thank You to the community!
Last night’s Goodie Awards were a star-studded affair featuring the best and brightest of the Goodman Games community! Each year we like to say ‘thank you’ to those individuals that go above and beyond to show their love for Goodman Games with the Goodie Awards — and you can still catch last night’s show over at the Official Goodman Games Twitch Channel.
You’ll want to check out the original show for all the details and interviews with this year’s recipients, but we’ve also provided a complete list of the winners below with some information about all the amazing work they do, across every facet of development, gaming, and community building — dedicated folks like this are truly at the heart of what we do, and to all of them we say both ‘congratulations’ and ‘thank you.’
2022 Goodie Award Recipients
Brian Escobar. Brian is a new addition to our Gen Con tournament judging pool who distinguished himself by being one of the most deadly judges in the tournament. In his games at Gen Con 2022, the ratio of fatalities to the total number of PCs was 1.71. This means, on average, that player characters died almost two times each – even if they were revived after their first death, 71% of them died again! Brian was new to Gen Con this year and will likely be a force to be reckoned with in years to come.
Chase Reinhart and Stefan Flickinger: Completely on their own initiative, Chase and Stefan took Harley’s vision from the online versions of Slave Pits of Lost Agharta and turned it into something unbelievable: a gorgeous, tactile, physical model of the ziggurat, complete with an entire set of painted miniatures that could be used to run Slave Pits of Lost Agharta live at Gen Con (below). Then they gifted the entire setup to Harley and Goodman Games! It is an incredible act of fan love for the game and we are very grateful (as are all the fans who got to play with these props at Gen Con).
Chuck Whelon. Chuck has illustrated a prodigious amount of art this year, including an incredible volume of contributions to DCC Dying Earth. He’s also well known for the many cartoons he illustrated in the original DCC RPG core rulebook. He loves drawing maps in the illuminated DCC style.
Cory Welch. A Road Crew judge with a huge smile and an even huger heart, Cory created the Jerry Stefek Crawl for the Cure which benefits the American Cancer Society. In the last two years his Crawl for the Cure has raised more than $5,000 to “Help smite cancer with your mighty deeds!” You can learn more about his work (and support it directly) at crawlforthecure.net.
David Baity. Multiple fans wrote in to nominate Dave for a Goodie for his charitable work, community support, great judging, and third-party products. As one fan put it, “The man runs into burning buildings for a living and recruits the DCC community to save orphaned kittens in his spare time.” Dave has given so much of himself to the community and is a tireless advocate for DCC RPG, and an outstanding judge as well as game creator. His product line Weird Frontiers has further spread enthusiasm for DCC RPG throughout the community.
David Gallico. David has been a tireless Road Crew judge with a huge presence in his native UK gaming community. Fans say he is a real community booster and the players who game with him consistently praise his skills as a judge.
Diogo Nogueria. Diogo has been an evangelist of DCC RPG in Brazil for years, and quite possibly influenced an entire country’s path to adopting the game. As one nominator put it, “If Joseph is the Dark Master, then Diogo is the High Evangelist.” Diogo has tirelessly advocated for DCC RPG in Brazil, and spread his enthusiasm and passion throughout the country.
Ed Stanek. Ed is a third-party publisher with a non-stop drive, who continues to amaze us with new products every quarter from his imprint Raorgan Games, while also running numerous games at a number of conventions.
Eric Young. Eric has been a huge supporter and volunteer for the Gongfarmers Almanac. He single-handedly finished up the latest edition of the almanac and drove copies to Gamehole Con so they would be available for fans attending the con.
Hector Cruz. Hector has been a great supporter of the community in so many ways. He continues to provide support to three of the podcasts in the DCC/MCC space. He has run a number of online and in-person games at cons over the last year, and his events routinely sell out quickly because of his reputation as a great judge. He has had many contributions to the Road Crew, including winning entries in our poster and bumper sticker design contests. Plus he has a tattoo designed by Doug Kovacs!
James Pozenel. James has been a devoted contributor to the DCC community over the last several years, with a hand in virtually every aspect of the community. He ran a DCC tournament at Gen Con as well as a multi-publisher shared universe event. He has contributed to multiple third-party publications while also running his own publishing company, Horse Shark Games, which has released numerous titles and run several Kickstarters. He has contributed to Goodman Games publications, including writing for DCC Dying Earth and the upcoming Dungeon Denizens project; appeared on several Twitch shows; contributed to the Gongfarmers Almanac; and even run games for the Road Crew. It’s fair to say that James’ impact has been felt by virtually all of us across the DCC community over the years.
James Walls. James has supported DCC RPG in so many ways over the years, including his Living 4 Crits show, raising his children on DCC RPG, running games at Gen Con (and other cons), running tournament games, running games for judges at Gen Con when they have player no-shows, and entertaining us all with his ESPN-style commentary. But the thing we’d really like to recognize him for with this year’s Goodies is the fact that he has logged all the DCC/MCC adventures he has run and has now run more than 100 of them, with They Served Brandolyn Red being the 100th adventure he ran earlier this year!
Jim Kitchen. For dedicating time and energy to host three charity auctions that brought in more than $12,000 for the Franklin Food Bank and more than $30,000 to help the family of our sick friend and colleague Aaron Koelman.
Jim Skach. There are some names that have become synonymous with the DCC RPG community, and our next winner is one of them: Jim Skach. It would be safe to say that Jim deserves a Goodie solely for the financial support he’s given DCC since the beginning, but that’s not why he’s being given one tonight. Jim has been contributing to the DCC community since the beginning in ways that don’t add to his vast collection of game books. Jim has been a regular tournament judge, having this year clocked an impressive fatalities-to-player ratio of 1.75. He ran six tournament games at Gen Con 2022, barely having enough time to come and buy stuff at the Goodman Games booth! Jim has opened his condo to the tournament team or the GFA crew every year to allow pre-con preparation and run practice games. He is also the leading proponent of the SIGPUP movement (Society to Increase the Gamer Populating Using Procreation) in the DCC community, being the proud father of Haley Skach, another lethal judge and familiar face in the DCC fan base. This award for Jim is long deserved and equally long-delayed, and we’re glad we can fix that.
Joey Royale. Joey Royale is the enthusiastic host of his show Pizza Party, which has more amazing energy than any other show on the Goodman Games Twitch Channel. He encourages fans to get involved with his “Stat It Up” feature, and gives out wholesome life advice at the same time. His show has quickly become a favorite of all of us here at Goodman Games. Alongside his show, he continues to publish his own third-party products through Get Haunted Industries.
Julian Bernick. Whether it’s running games at one of the several conventions he attends each year, putting tournament teams through their paces at Gen Con, or discussing the finer (and not so-finer) points of DCC and Appendix N with his fellow ‘Judges J’ on the Spellburn Podcast, Julian Bernick’s name is familiar to anyone who has spent any time in the DCC community. Although Julian would be deserving of a Goodie for any of these reasons, we’re honoring him now for different reasons. Julian stepped up and ran seven games at Gen Con, which is a staggering number. Julian has become one of most enthusiastic advocates for DCC Dying Earth, not only having contributed to the writing of it, but running a massive amount of DCC Dying Earth on the road, allowing people to get a taste of it before it hits the shelves. To round things out, Julian is an amazing judge, whatever he happens to be running, making him truly worthy of a Goodie.
Martin Buinicki. Martin has been a DCC fan for years, including playing on the winning team in our 2018 team tournament. He’s also an English professor at Valparaiso University and this year created a new class, English 280: Writing for RPGs. His class uses DCC RPG Frozen in Time and How to Write Adventure Modules that Don’t Suck as part of the required reading. Thanks, Martin for bringing DCC to a new generation of gamers – and writers.
Matt Sanders. The real heroes deserving recognition are the ones out there, day in and day out, spreading the joy of DCC for sheer love of the game, and Matt is such a judge. Matt started a DCC game night in his hometown and has welcomed new players with open arms. He’s developed a reputation for not only being a fantastic judge, but being patient with players unfamiliar with DCC and doing a great job explaining the rules of the game. His love for DCC is infectious and it’s clear that Matt does what he does because it brings him joy and helps others feel the same way about DCC. His games have been a great way for his players to put aside the real-world problems that afflict us and help shine a little bright light in an otherwise dreary week.
Rick Maffei. A long overdue acknowledgment of his many contributions to the Goodman Games Twitch community, acting as the co-host of Talking TSR for 39 episodes from 2020-2022. This has been a labor of love that has required him to give up many Sunday nights and spend countless hours preparing for the show, while also writing for many of our 5E projects at the same time.
Stefan Poag. Stefan has illustrated Goodman Games products for decades. He’s recognized not only for his incredible artwork – in both linework, grayscale and full-color paintings, including the illuminated maps that DCC is so famous work – but also for his flexibility and versatility in delivering new and fresh expressions for how he illustrates the works we publish.
Tim Deschene. Tim is one of the best-known judges in the DCC space, with a well-deserved reputation for being an amazing GM. He ran six events at Gen Con, and was a staple of the tournament team. Multiple players told us that their games with Tim were among their most memorable games in all of Gen Con.
Tim Wadzinski. A long overdue acknowledgment of his many contributions to editing Goodman Games 5E products, specifically the Original Adventures Reincarnated line, Fifth Edition Fantasy line, and most recently, Crypt of the Devil Lich. He didn’t just edit the words; he considered the encounters and ways to improve them. His eagle eye found mistakes on classic TSR maps that have been out of print for decades. He has been very active on Goodman Games social media, and always willing to help out at a con or jump on a Twitch show.
Wayne Snyder. Wayne has helped define the way fans interact with Goodman Games at Gen Con by designing and physically constructing our ceiling banners, the Gong of Doom, the Obelisks of Doom, our Ziggurat, and the Wizard Van! He’s had a profound impact on how fans interact with Goodman Games in person and people literally run games out of the van he helped rebuild. Wayne has created a “life-sized DCC playset” with the many structures he’s created for our Gen Con experience.
Will McAusland. Will has been working on Goodman Games products for nearly twenty years, starting with Dinosaurs That Never Were many years ago. He makes our life easier here at Goodman Games with his incredible versatility. He can draw maps (both black and white and color), as well as ink work, pencil work, graphite work, and paintings. Lately, he has even been working with a pointillist style. He works both indoors and outdoors, and has done many Goodman Games illustrations while camping!
Congratulations to all the winners and nominees for this year’s Goodie Awards! We appreciate everything you do.
