Mícheál O’Reilly

Introduction

As a “late bloomer” when it comes to TTRPGs I only discovered the hobby around six years ago. My first game was Alien RPG and from there I’ve amassed a huge and varied collection. I think my experience both running and playing games as well as my experience with solo gaming make me a good fit for the role.

Why do you play/run RPGs?

I play and run RPGs as I love the experience of discovery and mostly SELF discovery that comes from the hobby, the benefits of the hobby to mental health are immense.

The ENNIES requires a major commitment of time and energy. What resources do you have that will help you discharge these responsibilities? Will your gaming group or other individuals be assisting you? Does your family support you?

My family is extremely supportive in my interests and will assist with childcare to help me out. Since I already enjoy reading TTRPG materials that will help with some of the mental load of the task as well.

Judging requires a great deal of critical thinking skills, communication with other judges, deadline management, organization, and storage space for the product received. What interests, experience, and skills do you bring that will make you a more effective judge?

I have plenty of experience when it comes to project management and organisation, my day to day job relies heavily on meeting deadlines and working with cross-functional teams throughout the organisation to get projects over the line.

What styles and genres of RPGs do you enjoy most? Are there any styles or genres that you do not enjoy? Which games best exemplify what you like? Do you consider yourself a fan of a particular system, publisher, or genre??

These days I enjoy a various genres, I originally started with Free League products as that’s what I discovered first but over the years I’ve branched out heavily and my shelves are full of various publishers as well as a sizable amount of indie products.

List (up to 5) games you’ve played in the last 2 years. What drew you to playing them? Which did you like best and why?

The One Ring as I’m a huge fan of Tolkien’s work, what I like about it is how it captures the vibe of Middle Earth with the Shadow and Hope mechanics.

Pirate Borg is another game I enjoy very much, it’s so easy to bring first time gamers into it and have them roll up a character in minutes and dive into the action.

Dead Air RPG is another fantastic game, Fiona really created a fantastic solo game which captures the horror of a post apocalyptic world and injects a heavy dose of Scottish humour into it.

Have you been a game master in the past 2 years? If yes, what games have you run? What made you decide to run those games?

I ran Pirate Borg and The One Ring for the reasons stated in the previous question.

I also ran multiple Alien RPG scenarios, Alien does a great job of showcasing the fear and tension of the original Alien movie and is always a fun game to run.

Summarize the criteria you would use to determine if a game deserves to be nominated for Best Game.

I would try to evaluate based on the following:
Rules design
Writing and Layout
Playability
Innovation
Overall play experience

How will you judge supplements or adventures for game systems whose core rules you are unfamiliar with or you believe are badly designed?

I would watch a short video on the rules if I’m unfamiliar with them but mostly I would focus on the adventure or supplement and judge it based on ease of use. how it plays as well as the criteria I mentioned previously:

Writing and Layout
Playability
Innovation
Overall play experience

How would you like to see the ENNIEs change? What should remain inviolate?

I would like to see a standardised methodology of scoring, also perhaps a larger panel of judges with categories split across fewer judges so there’s less pressure on an individual and they have more scope to give each product the more time it deserves.