Seraphina Garcia Ramirez

Online Nickname: @seraphimseraphina.bsky.social

Introduction 

Hello! I’m Seraphina Garcia Ramirez, and I’m a trans woman of color who is lucky enough to be a writer, editor, and lover of TTRPGs. I was a judge for the 2025 Indie Groundbreaker Awards and am currently serving as a judge for The Awards 2026. For the past couple of years I’ve volunteered with the Finger Lakes Area Gaming Convention as part of their leadership team, and I’m on the steering committee for my local Community Game Night. I write essays and analysis of games on my blog, and co-moderate the Dice Exploder community server- some folks might have read my piece on safety and risk in gaming with Rascal News, or heard me on a few episodes of the Dice Exploder podcast talking about mechanics I adore.

It’s always been important to me that my relationship with this artform is both deeply personal and engaging broadly. I have learned so much from conversations with fellow designers and writers from vastly different play cultures across the space, but I’ve learned just as much by actually tabling games locally and with friends. I believe engaging with a wide spectrum of play is the best way to challenge assumptions about what games are supposed to look like, and I’ve done my best to put that belief into practice.

I know our space benefits most from a wide range of perspectives and experiences, and that these games deserve judges who will bring that range of experience and who are capable of engaging with the amazing variety in the space. I know games are before anything else works of art, and that these awards need judges who recognize them as such. If selected as a judge, I’ll do my best to bring that spirit with me, and do right by the space.

Why do you play/run RPGs?

I play these games because I love the people I get to share these pieces of art with. I find connection and community through expressing the vulnerability of a collaborative artistic experience, opening myself up and making choices that are personal even if I’m making them for a character. Games inspire me to be creative, and they push me to do so for an audience. There’s something amazing about how role-playing games ask us to inhabit a different mental space while also staying present with the people around us. Our skills in communication, collaboration, and creation are tested as we are simultaneously treated to experiencing something that the designer has spent time and energy creating to offer to us.

I think that’s really special.

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?

Without my wonderful husband, I would never have the life that allows me the time and space for a task like this. He deserves at least half the credit for any of my accomplishments, and when I’ll need to talk to someone about anything other than games, I know he’ll be there for me.

I also have a wide community of designers and friends who I love to bounce ideas off of, and who have helped me test my assumptions about game design. My online community gives me energy and excitement even when life tries to drain it away, and my in-person community is wonderful enough to trust me when I ask to table new and different games week after week and month after month.

And frankly, I’m already reading and playing so many games every year- this commitment is also going to be a gift to me, and the opportunity to engage even more broadly and deeply is already giving me energy just writing this.

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?

My recent experience judging game awards has taught me a lot about how to organize such an endeavor. I feel incredibly fortunate and deeply grateful to both the Indie Game Developers Network and The Awards for giving me those opportunities. Separately, my personal experience writing critique and engaging in developmental editing has given me practice in engaging with games critically and evaluating them on their own merits. That experience is informed by wisdom gathered from being in community with so many incredible hobbyists and designers who have spent years earning that experience themselves. The best way to appreciate the work that goes into these games is by sharing time and energy with the people who do that work.

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?

I’ve played and enjoyed a ton of different games. I cut my teeth on Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder, before moving towards less traditional styles like PbtA campaigns and NSR capsule games. I’ve played dungeon crawlers and sitcoms, I’ve done wargames and parlor larps- I’m fortunate enough to generally feel comfortable adapting my prelusory goals to whatever game I’m playing. I find myself most excited by games that clearly understand where the core of their experience lies, and that know how to be ambitious and bold in pursuing that vision. Triangle Agency, The Far Roofs, Under Hollow Hills are various games which I hold up as exemplars of the form, while simultaneously having offered me some of the most delightful play experiences I’ve been lucky enough to share with others.

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?

As a brief sample of considerably more than five games, I’ve played FIST, Koriko: A Magical Year, Girl Frame, Going For Broke, and The Zone. These games drew me in by distinguishing themselves- engaging with mechanics in novel ways, focusing on genres and themes that are often overlooked, and embracing a specific style and artistic voice. Several of them I sought out because they weren’t my normal fare- the past couple of years I’ve specifically been interested in trying more games outside of my wheelhouse.

I had a great time with the energy and pacing of FIST. An abundance of traits that never slow you down combined with clever rules for combat and danger meant there was never a dull moment, and finding clever ways to play inside of the fruitful voids it created was exhilarating

Koriko was a beautiful experience that had me writing so much but never left me at a loss for words. Excellent layout and thoughtful structure made it a wonderful solo experience that had me laughing and crying, sometimes simultaneously.

Girl Frame was a game I was lucky to playtest. The game is unafraid of thorny and dangerous ideas, but pushes beyond the abundant appeal of the risque to articulate a clear understanding of the emotional core it wants to drag you into through some of the best move writing I’ve seen.

Going for Broke does so much for the tiny package it comes in. A few character cards and a coin flip or two are all it needs to frame a hilarious and personal session. In an incredibly economical set of guidelines and procedures, Avery Alder performed the not-so-minor miracle of making us all feel funny!

The Zone haunts me. In a dark room and a few hours, time after time I have been left filled with grief and terror. Beyond being a deeply compelling horror game, it also gives the group some remarkable tools to collaboratively facilitate the experience, and I’ll always recommend it for any group that wants to develop those skills.

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?

In the past five years I’ve facilitated an abundance of games, although many of those were GMless experiences, or games with a facilitator who doesn’t fit the usual understanding of a “game master.” Within the realm of games that more explicitly asked me to be a GM of sorts, some notable ones I’ll mention from the past two years have been Triangle Agency, Apocalypse Keys, Blades in the Dark, and starting very recently Stonetop. These games variously promised me in various ways the ability to table something exciting that valued collaboration at the table over prepped truths, while containing a deep and rich system which could motivate and sustain play.

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

Reading any game, I try to listen to the text and understand what goals and vision it articulates. To me, identifying what deserves a nomination for “Best Game” is about recognizing how effectively the various parts of the work (writing, design, layout, art) come together to achieve those goals. They may not be goals that I share, but I have read many games which I didn’t personally align with but which clearly demonstrated a mastery of the form.

In addition, I think there’s some value here to innovation and novelty. I don’t believe that the new and the different are always better. At the same time, work which doesn’t simply rest on what came before but which takes the risks of pushing the boundaries of the medium and rises to that challenge deserves that recognition just as much as work which refines and perfects approaches we have seen before.

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

Content supplementary to the main text is, in my perspective, arguing that there are ways to build on top of the work the core system did, either in elaborating on aspects of it or articulating manifestations of its vision. Even when I am not familiar with the core rules of a work, seeing where a supplement or adventure is recognizing the needs of its intended play culture and audience and meeting those needs can be very informative as to its quality outside of the core system.

In addition, I think supplements and scenarios have many aspects which can be evaluated on their own merit, as works which deserve recognition on the same level as systems. The same factors I look at for “Best Game” often apply here- graphic design, art direction, writing and game design- these can exist within a system neutral adventure as much as they can in a bespoke game.

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

Role-playing games as a medium are more exciting than they’ve ever been. There are so many new or up-and-coming designers, artists, and creative communities who are opening the space up to a growing audience. The idea that only a select number of these games meet the threshold of deserving recognition fails to see the sheer quality of work that exists out in the space. While recognizing every single game that deserves these awards is impossible, I believe there is space to increase the number of games recognized- both by the judges selecting nominees and the fans voting for winners. More nominees, more than one silver winner, adding bronze winners- the ENNIES can never give awards to every game in a year that deserves it, but I believe there’s value in understanding that this doesn’t mean only one or two games deserve that recognition either.

I don’t believe any aspect of a system can be treated as inviolate. The world will keep changing, and it will always be in the best interest of the ENNIES to evaluate whether any aspect of their structure is still serving them. However, I do believe there’s value in the fan-centric focus of these awards. While I might argue for elevating the significance of nominees by relabeling them as “Judge’s Selections”, or for opening up the judging process to industry experts who are most qualified to evaluate submissions, I am glad the process invites community focus and participation. In past years, that voting process meant I took a closer look at games I never would have heard of otherwise. Community voting generates interest and excitement, and it gets eyes on games that might never otherwise have a chance at that kind of publicity, even as it favors the games that already have that publicity to actually win.